The Insidious Ring - LOTR - {Legolas Love Story}

Chapter 17 - Awake and Alive

After talking with the Fellowship for what seemed like hours, we were interrupted by the two people I was most excited to see.

My Mother and Father came quietly into the room, wearing their usual brilliant white attire and two loving smiles.

"Mother! Father! Oh how good it it to see you!" I called to them happily. The Fellowship left us, and it seemed that they had already met my parents.

"It is good to see you too, little Fae." Father said, sitting beside me and placing a cool hand on my cheek. He looked happy, perhaps a little worn and much more wary, but happy all the same. Mother came around and sat in the chair beside my bed.

We talked for a while, about the forest, the local news, the weather. Then conversation led to more grim subjects. Aglaron, the old elf who used to be lookout along the Anduin, and who had taught me how to use a bow, had been killed by an Orc pack on the boundary of Lorien. Father told me how Orc packs were being found more regularly around the borders, and were wreaking havoc on the land. The most interesting was the fact that these Orcs had white hands painted on their faces, which was said to be the mark of Sauron.

Father soon left too, leaving me with his wish for my speedy recovery. I was left alone with my mother, who had been sitting silently beside me.

"Faervel, my dear Faervel, what have you done." She whispered, not unkindly. She looked upon me with pity, but there was pride there too.

"What do you mean?" I asked, balking at what she was about to say.

"You love the elf, do you not?" I didn't reply, but my blushing gave it away. "He does seem worthy of your love, but please, have you not seen him? Have you not seen his eyes? Did you forget so willingly about my vision?" My mother did not sound angry, nor annoyed, just understanding, and that infuriating pity that laced every word.

"I know, Mother, and I did not forget. I didn't come to my decision lightly, on a whim. I love him, Mother, but I am yet to know if he loves me. There is no need to worry yet. And even if he does break my heart, I do not care about that now, because a little bit of happiness, with him, is worth a lifetime of heartbreak."

She just looked at me, searching my gaze for a lie, but she didn't find one. Sighing, she stood up, and placed her hand on mine.

"If that is what you wish, I will support you until it's end." And with that she left me too.

***

I slept for a very long time, only woken by the healers coming to change my bandages, but even their appearances became less and less. Through noon, then night, then noon again I tossed and turned in my nightmare ridden sleep, until one morning I opened my eyes to something quite unusual. I could not feel any aching, nor throbbing, or any pain of the sort. I was almost too afraid to move, incase it all came crashing on me again, but after a few experimental wiggles of hands and feet, I tried to sit up. I felt a little lightheaded, but that soon passed.

My room was lit with the beautiful morning sunshine, and all I wanted to do was go outside and feel it on my face, to warm my skin and to bring life back into my body. I turned my body around so my feet rested on the floor, and stood up carefully. Nothing. My heart was soaring. After days and days of dealing with Gandalf's death in solitary, I could finally go outside and get back on my road to revenge. My anger had died down a little, but my mission was still valid.

I was about to step outside the door, when I noticed my appearance, and slowed myself down. Now was not the time to rush. I changed from my wrinkled bed dress into a red, airy gown that reached my shins and left my arms bare. The bandages had been taken off altogether and all that was left of my injuries were two purple lines where the cuts were, surrounded by a purple shade of old bruising. I brushed my hair out of my face and braided two small pieces to wrap around my head. I left the shoes that had been left where they were.