Returning Home: A Hobbit Fanfiction

Chapter 30 - The Water Slide of Middle Earth

~~ Elena ~~

"I can hear your heartbeat, you know. There's no need to be quite so nervous. She'd have my head if she came back and found her adopted daughter had died from fright. And you didn't look quite so frightened the first time we met."

"Yeah, well, then I didn't know that you were married to my mother, thus creating a very strange relationship between us that I'm not willing to acknowledge quite yet. Or that your healers would drug me. You just did it to get me to keep quiet, didn't you? So that I wouldn't blab about everything we'd talked about."

An innocent look. "I don't know what you're talking about. You were given the standard tonic for all who become victims to the spiders because of your severe reaction. That it is also a sedative is merely a side effect, and was administered without my direct orders. I fully trusted you not to reveal that I was, in fact, planning on aiding you in escaping my dungeons."

A disbelieving stare, arms crossed stubbornly. "Uh-huh. I'm telling Mom that you drugged me when she gets here. And that you locked up my friends for no reason and wouldn't let us leave."

The individual seated on the throne sighed and rested his forehead on his hand, closing his eyes wearily as they once again rehashed this conversation. "I already told you why I couldn't just let you leave. The Feast of Starlight will commence on the morrow, and thus set up a feasible opportunity for you to escape without raising questions that should not yet be answered. I have already made plans that will allow you and your... hidden friend... a chance to retrieve your weapons when you do so. I trust you still do not plan on revealing who he is, quite yet?"

Elena smirked at the irritated look on Thranduil's face when he mentioned her hidden friend. "Not a chance. He could still come in handy later on. In fact, for all I know, he could be listening in on this conversation, and neither of us would know. So don't say anything you don't want him knowing," she teased.

Thranduil's face became a disapproving glare. "Do not test me, Lady Elena. Being a randir, and the mell hên of my wife may grant you many liberties I would not allow others, but I will not tolerate a potential threat to my people, not matter how safe you might deem them to be."

Elena threw her hands up in the air in surrender immediately, backing off as the temperature in the room dropped a few degrees. "All right, all right. Sheesh. I highly doubt that he'd be listening in on your conversations or anything, anyways. He's just looking for a way out. And the only threat he could possibly pose would most likely be either if you threatened me, or to your kitchens."

Thranduil suddenly smirked, his icy demeanor quickly fading. "Yes, I have received reports of small amounts of food vanishing from the kitchen, although it has since been attributed to someone wandering through. I trust you and your friends have been eating enough as well?"

Elena nodded, sitting cross-legged on the floor and leaning back on her hands. "They were a bit skeptical at first, wondering if it was poisoned, or something like that, but they ate it. They may be the stubbornest dwarves to walk this planet, but they eat like them, too. And before you ask, my symptoms are completely gone. Which is a relief."

Thranduil nodded. "That is... a relief to hear." He saw the surprised look on her face and chuckled. "Did you think that I would not care that you were recovering? Aside from the matter that you are our prisoner, and so under our care, you are a randir, sent by the Valar to aid us. I will not bring their wrath upon me by failing to aid you. Further, Queen Aredhel has taken you to be her kin. I would face a far worse fate by her hands should she find out I treated you unkindly." He smirked. "And besides. I rather enjoy your quick wit and lack of prejudice. It's quite refreshing."

"You know, everyone's always just accepted the fact that we're randir incredibly quickly," Elena mused. "Why is that? You'd think people would be more skeptical about people claiming to be from another world, and claiming to know the future."