LOTR: Shire Dragons - Pippin Took FF

Chapter 18

"What's wrong Samwise?" she asked quietly. Out of embarrassment, Sam began to stutter, 

"I-I, well.. You just seemed a little different, y'know, since the whole dragon incident? and.. I just wanted to know if you were okay that was all.." He blushed a little, before walking up beside Lothiri. The elf looked down to her side, and chuckled to herself. "Are you okay?" Sam continued. Lothiri's laughter was killed by a moment of silence, as her thoughts began to wonder. 

"Physically, I am fine Samwise. But I fear that my past may be beginning to get the better of me." she added, holding a piece of the broken cot in her hand. Sam frowned a little, causing Lothiri to explain a little further. "Tonight has been a firm reminder of why dragons are hated and feared.. Why they are not welcomed in this world.. " The elf's words made no sense whatsoever to Sam, so he simply reminded himself of why he'd actually wanted to speak to the elf. 

"Speaking of dragons, Lothiri, What did Aiwendil say to the Glasin? Y'know, it that funny speak." He asked, looking up at her. His deep brown eyes met her glinting green ones, and with a sharp turn, the elf looked back toward the door of the great hall. 

"It was elvish Samwise.." she said bluntly, going to walk back inside. However, Sam caught hold of her cloak, and pulled her to a gentle but abrupt halt. 

"But that wasn't elvish, Lothiri. Aiwendil's been teaching me a bit of elvish, and not a single word I understood. Glasin understood it, and he di'nt look too please that he did." the hobbit said stubbornly. With one last sigh, Lothiri turned to face Sam, and simply smiled down at his facial expression.

"I will tell you if you wish Samwise, but I must insist.. You cannot tell anyone."

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Pippin and Merry hurried after Aiwendil, into the great silver Chamber which the hobbits had been given to rest in. The elf lay the hobbit down on the bed, before Pippin rushed to his side and quickly tucked her under the bed sheet. Merry stood back down at the foot of the bed, concern filling his face. 

"She's going to be okay.. isn't she?" Pippin turned to his best friend, who weakly smiled before responding. 

"You heard Lothiri, Pip. She's just fainted. She'll be fine." Merry reassured him, casting a glance up at Aiwendil. To both the hobbit's surprise, Aiwendil then crouched down beside Mallyra and swept a strand of her light brown, waved hair from her face. Up to this moment in their time together on the adventure, the male elf had shown little or no compassion toward them, so this display of affection seemed a little odd. The words which followed this moment of confused the hobbits even further,

"She's fighting well, you'd never have guessed that she'd never left prior to this occasion." Aiwendil said, a slight chuckle in his last words, which brought life to his unnaturally deep voice. However, Pippin didn't see the funny side of what he was saying,

"Occasion? This isn't an occasion. This is a quest, and a dangerous one at that. She's sacrificing so much for this quest, and so much is resting on her success. You may not understand what that amount of pressure can do to someone, but I can see she's struggling. And I'm going to do all I can to help her through this safely." He said proudly, glaring across at the golden haired elf. Aiwendil slowly stood up and walked over to the hobbits,

"You're right, Peregrin. Please excuse my inappropriate tone. I'm still becoming accustomed to my emotions.." Aiwendil admitted, before continuing out the door and back into the courtyard.

"What d'you suppose he meant by that?" Merry asked, peering after the elf. However, Pippin wasn't listening. He was already crouched beside Mallyra's bed, watching over her carefully. Merry sighed a little, told Pip he'd be back in a short while, and then followed Aiwendil's trail out of the door. Pippin checked over his shoulder, and then smiled back down at Mallyra. 

"You know, you really scared me there. When that dragon attacked, I thought I'd lost you! Mallyra you really should be more careful," Pippin chuckled to himself, watching as her eyelids fluttered slightly. "But in all seriousness, can you not go doing that again? I don't know what i'd do if I lost you now. You matter a lot to me you see, and in all honesty I don't know why I haven't told you this yet. I probably should. Along with telling you how beautiful you are... yeah I should do that too. Because maybe then you'd realise how I felt about you. Personally, I'm not entirely sure myself, but I do know I love everything about you. I mean, right now I feel like an idiot because you can't even hear me and I'm telling you all this. Haha, nice one Pippin. Maybe one day you'll feel the same? I hope you do." Pippin stopped for a moment, reached out and held Mallyra's hand in his,

"because that'd make everything better. We could get you through this together, hand in hand. Plus I'd really really like to kiss you. I think that'd make everything perfect, y'know, just kissing you once. I don't even think kissing an elven princess would come close to that."

An hour passed, before there was a slight knock at the door. Lothiri poked her head around the door,

"I came to keep watch over Mall-" she was met by the sight of Pippin with his head on the bed, fast asleep. Mallyra was sat up a little, looking down at him, until she saw Lothiri standing in the doorway,

"How long have you been conscious Mallyra?" Lothiri smiled, walking in and standing at the foot of the bed. The hobbit smiled weakly up at her,

"a while, I think.." she chuckled. "I woke up just before Pip fell asleep, but I pretended to be asleep, i could see he was tired." Mallyra admitted. Lothiri frowned a little,

"He was so concerned, you could have comforted him, why didn't you" she asked. Mallyra ruffled Pippin's hair lightly, before a single tear rolled down her cheek,

"He said the most beautiful things to me when he thought I was asleep.."