Serpentine (Legolas x OC)

ii.

Havu shivered. It was cold out. Now that the Nazgûl had left for the present, the camp was lonely. She couldn't risk a fire with only herself for protection; it was too risky. She was an assassin, not a head-on warrior. She preferred to kill someone in the dark, when they were alone, with a quick and painless method of killing. Not to attack up-front without backup. That was for the dwarves and less intelligent elves. She recalled the time when Sauron told her of Fëanor and his fruitless quest and ts disastrous consequences.

Havu smiled a little bit. Being human, she had none of the extreme emotions of elves, but still had immortality; thus escaping the usual fate of her race. But the drawbacks were there. She was much more susceptible to injury, and that was proved by the amount of times Sauron had healed her in her beginning days as the apple of his eye.

Was she really the apple of his eye? He'd said she was, but Havu didn't believe him at all. Why should she, anyway? Sauron had been horribly cruel to her as well as kind, by turns her saviour and destruction. But there were times when he almost seemed. . . Human. But were those real instances? Had it all been a fleeting dream, where what she wanted was portrayed instead of harsh reality?

Havu didn't know. So there was one option left her. Ignore every feeling she had and do what she was told to.

It was the only way she got through her life, living the motions. Feeling empty inside, with a gnawing feeling in her heart. She was starved for love and affection. Really, truly, starved. She sometimes wondered what it would have been like if her mother had not died in that terrible place Sauron saved her from. Her memories of it were hazy, like a long-ago bad dream, but before that, she had memories of bedtime frolics and meaningful cuddles.

It would have been nice if that didn't go away. But it had. It was meant to be, Sauron had told her, time after time. But it never stuck in her head. It wasn't believable.

Sauron himself was becoming less and less believable. Havu wished she could die.

Havu shivered again as a particularly cold blast of wind hit her. She pulled her cloak closer to her body, trying to find some warmth there. Because that was the only thing that offered her comfort. A cold, lifeless object that didn't judge.

«●»

Legolas rode into Rivendell with the usual feeling of awe. This haven of peace housed so many arts; music and song, literature... the list went on for a long time. The buildings all reflected nature at its utmost, with beautiful carvings all over the stone pillars, featuring birds and flowers making up a forest. A stone forest that covered the whole of the Elven valley.

Legolas took a deep breath in as he registered these surroundings, and wondered for the hundredth time why his father insisted on Mirkwood's more simple décor. It was a very noticeable difference between the two communities.

He sighed, looking across the splendor of Imladris, to the forest beyond the great waterfalls. He already longed for the more open spaces of his home, with the sunshine filtered by the trees and the smell of the earth in his nose.

He saw the raven-haired twin lords of Rivendell coming to meet him. "Good afternoon, Elladan, Elrohir."

"Greetings," they said simultaneously, with mock bows. They both grinned evilly.

"You are both not allowed to get any nearer," Legolas stated nervously. The two were very unpredictable in their encounters with him. Once Elrohir had thrown a frog at his head, which landed in his hair along with a little slimy mound of frogspawn. Another time they'd both taken his hand and made a run for it, dragging him with them.

"No nearer?" said one, probably Elladan. "What a pity."

"What a pity indeed," echoed the other, whom Legolas presumed to be Elrohir. "We could have had such fun..."