With a secret mission to marry an elf, Wynne must join Legolas' and Elvenking Thranduil's new quest as a horsekeeper. She begins an adventurous journey, encountering orcs and monsters, friendly uruk-hai, a lady dwarf and many Fellowship heroes - but...
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~ The peace treaty gets signed but Wynne is more interested in getting a moment alone with Legolas. He has a suggestion. ~
32. A Tempting Suggestion
The following days Legolas steadily got better. The bandages were changed regularly and the bleeding slowly subsided until finally the healer said it was time to stitch his stomach up too. He still took seed of the poppy to ease the pain but in a much lesser amount that mostly made him sleepy, and soon he needed only willow bark tea, a much less potent painkiller.
His friends took turns sitting with him, singing, playing music or just talking, and every night Thranduil slept there in the other bed.
When they weren't keeping Legolas company, Wynne and the elves went outdoors as much as possible to hunt, bathe in the small pool and look after the horses who still roamed the heather moor.
Neither of them liked to be in the tunnels for long; it was somehow dark and sinister in there despite the painted walls, many oil lanterns and candles. Wynne could easily understand that Sidra and the babies had had to leave that place.
Every time she came out in the sunlight she felt relieved, like the heavy rock of the hill had been weighing her down, and she was very sorry for Legolas who had no choice but to stay. She longed for the day they could finally get out of there for good.
She slept fairly well in the store room despite being underground. It was admittedly a bit uncomfortable to share it with three males but they had arranged a shelf between them so she could have some privacy.
During the meals in the hall she usually sat with Sidra's family, still shy around the tall and dangerous looking uruk-hai. Galion, Nodir and Bronedir seemed to make many new friends, however, each day moving to a new table, while Thranduil for his part spent most of the time bickering with Goltur.
The peace treaty was at last coming to its completion, after Goltur and Thranduil had spent many long hours arguing about its contents. Thranduil had agreed to speak with the human kings, like he had said, and furthermore ask them to speak with the dwarves – a compromise they both could accept. As for other elven realms, he would ask Lord Celeborn in Lothlórien to spread the word to them since he had more connections than Thranduil.
Then there had been the question of the ents. The uruk-hai were wary about the tree-herders; many of them had narrowly escaped an army of moving trees from Fangorn after the defeat in Helm's Deep, but to ask ents to be friendly to orcs when that race had killed so many trees would be a hard task. Even the Elvenking, with his love of trees and knowledge of them, couldn't guarantee they would listen.
"We shall try, at least, on that you have my word. Lord Celeborn is powerful and might convince them."
