NEW LEAF (Legolas FF) | ✔️

Chapter 24: Runaway

ELROHIR

Try as I might, I could not will myself to forget that kiss.

I pace outside my father's private council room, aware of the pair of eyes that have been following me since I got here. I stopped and turned to look at him. He was sitting lazily on one of the wooden chairs, draped across it was a soft fur cloth. His leg was crossed over the other and he leaned slightly to the left. What irked me most was the smirk on his face he had not even bothered to hide. My eyes narrow, "what?" I asked, although I knew what he was thinking about. Everyone in Imladris are probably thinking the same thing.

"You kissed her," he says and his smile broadens almost instantly as I turn to look away.

"We were both under a spell," I try to argue. Which was technically true, in a way. I had no control whatsoever of what had happened then. I just felt the sudden, strong urge to kiss her. To hold her close like she was being taken away from me and I tried my best to not let her go, even though it felt inevitable. My heart drops at the thought. Yes, it did feel like it was something I could not stop from happening. It was horrible. I felt trapped and desperate. I fumble with the ties below the collar of my shirt, frustrated at how they seem to just get tighter around my throat.

"Are you telling me you did not like it one bit?" He asked and I turn around to scold him. For thinking of such things in the middle of what could be a warning of an attack. Just then, the door opens and she comes out, her face ashen and tired like she had just been told that she would have to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders. A cloak, my cloak, was draped over her and she held it even tighter around her as Ari stepped out. She, too, looked pale.

Laralen does not look at me.

They both pass me and my brother quietly but I could hear the drumming in her chest and the way the air feels heavy around her. I watch her go not long before Elladan stands and nudges me on the shoulder. His teasing face was gone and had been replaced with something more serious as we enter our fathers study. Standing with our father was Haldir and a messenger of Mirkwood. An opened letter was on the table, the seal of the prince broken in the middle. We remain quiet for a moment before our father spoke.

"We will leave as soon as possible but I must send you," he gestures to the messenger, "ahead to ask if the queen may be moved out of the forest. Calaer, her home, is the nearest to that border. She must be brought there," he informs him to which the messenger nods to quietly. He turns to Haldir, who, from the looks of it, already knows what he is going to ask of him.

"You must send word back to Lady Galadriel and Lord Celeborn," he says quietly, although the worry in his voice was not something he could hide. He never could hide it. Haldir nods to this before departing, probably to leave immediately or to tell Lady Ari of what he was ordered to do. I watch him go moments before the messenger follows, off to prepare another 3-5 days of travelling.

"You two," he starts but does not continue as he turns away from us, his eyes outside. I knew where he was looking at. I knew he always looked at the spot in the whole realm when he felt sad or something close to hopeless. Outside, behind the thin long trees and silver arches was a statue of our mother. I felt a pang of pain at the memory of her but relieved she was in a safe place now. Just waiting. I watch my father, how much has he endured? He sighs and turns towards us again. "I want the two of you to go to Mirkwood, find the root of the problem. Something goes ill with Thranduil," his hand flicks over to the letter and Elladan takes it, reading it aloud.

Dearest Lord Elrond,

This may come as quite a shock to you for I have never written letters this urgent, nor sent my own horse to carry a messenger so that he may bring the letter to you as fast as possible. There is a dark malice lingering in our kingdom and it is affecting the people, especially Matheneniel. Thranduil, my father, seems to be unresponsive to the threats on his own wife's life. He is stubborn and detached, something stirs in the air. It refuses to be seen but shows itself when it wants to. Mantheniel has been confined in bed for the past few weeks. She is gravely ill.