Thorns & Roses (Legolas Love Story)

10. Friendship

When on a mission of revenge, one must maintain total control–over risks, emotions and one’s enemies. But the single greatest threat to success is the failure to recognize your allies.

And when at a crossroads, my father was fond of saying, “Go with your gut.” “Intuition,” he said, “…always has our best interests at heart.” It is a voice that can tell us who is friend and who is foe, which ones to hold at arms length… and which ones to keep close.

***

[Legolas POV]

I stood by the garden of Rivendell, surrounded by a myriad of glowing flowers of many colors under the moonlight. I focused my elven eyes to the way the flowers swayed collectively by the soft blowing wind.

My ears caught the soft sound of the small night creatures crawling with their little feet. Flightless bugs, along with the ones that was gifted with wings–all of them came to life among the flowers of the night, creating a symphony that only an elven ears could pick up.

The soft noises and the serenity of the garden at night always seemed to calm me.

All except tonight.

Hours ago, Lord Elrond had graciously held a dinner feast for the Fellowship before sending us off to our perilous journey to Mordor. Everyone appeared to be eating and drinking happily, though I could see that behind all the merriment, lay a shadow behind their minds.

The fear of the unknown.

I noticed Frodo, the ring bearer, had picked on his food, not nearly interested enough to eat–unlike the rest of the hobbits. Surely the burden placed on his tiny shoulders had started to weigh him down, for it was not a mere trinket he carried.

Just as I continued watching the dark haired hobbit pretending to listen to the loud conversation before him, I noticed Anastasia sneakily dropped a bunch of bacons and eggs to Frodo’s plate.

By the time the hobbit looked at his plate and confusedly noticed the mysterious food appeared on top of it, Anastasia leaned in towards him. She spoke in a voice way too soft for other humans to hear, but I could hear her clearly.

“Eat as much as you can. You need your strength,” she whispered, “On the way we will barely have time for second breakfast, or elevenses, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner, or supper,” she listed all kinds of hobbits’ proper meal with humor in her tone, “So you better seize the moment, Frodo. Eat,” she urged him with an almost motherly tone to her voice.

Then to my and Frodo’s surprise, her lips pulled into the kindest, beautiful smile that reached to her eyes.

Then she winked.

The poor hobbit blushed furiously at that, his sapphire blue eyes widened for a moment before he nodded and started eating more heartily.

Anastasia’s encouraging smile turned into one that seemed like she was pleased to see that the hobbit listened to her and started eating again. Satisfied, she looked away to continue listening to the conversation before her in silence.

As time grew late and more ale were requested, the crowd seemed to be showing less and less formality regardless their status and what was deemed proper.

The conversation began to turn into merry laughter, singing, crass jokes and friendly competitions.

“I’d wager ten pence that none of you lads around here can hold your liquor like dwarves do!” boomed an annoying voice that was hurting my ears. I glared at the loud dwarf as he guffawed around the dining room. Even Lord Elrond himself seemed to cringe a bit at the loudness of the insolent dwarf, but was more than gracious to let it pass.