Unspoken ( A Legolas Love Story )

2.3: The First Niphredil

Legolas rode back to New Fornost with Wren between his arms. She was pressed up against him and he could feel the warmth from her small frame. It filled him with a sense of contentment that had long evaded him. As Legolas looked at her, his path ahead was clear, although his thoughts were clouded with regret and sadness at his father's rejection of his own choices.

He had previously been making his way, on foot, back to New Fornost when his sharp ears had pricked at a horse's whinny in the distance. A horse that he was almost certain was Osgiliath. His suspicions raised, he had turned back and left the path in order to locate the source of the whinny. He had found Osgiliath some distance off the path in the underbrush, harnessed loosely to a tree, growing gradually more impatient, as his rider did not return. And Legolas knew then, for certain, that Wren was nearby. Adverse as he was to any further conversation with his Father, his need to locate Wren surpassed any reluctance in this regard, so he retraced his steps. He had found Wren walking slowly, dejected and forlorn, as the elven party departed in the distance. Legolas did not spare them a second glance as he reached for the person he now treasured above all else.

No words passed between them, since he had first lifted her into the horse. He watched as she fiddled, almost anxiously with Osgiliath's mane, he could sense her unease. After some time, Legolas gently broke the silence. "I presume this is the sort of misunderstanding we should probably discuss together, perhaps to avoid the almost fatal consequences of our prior miscommunication..."

Wren audibly exhaled and shifted her position and her shoulders tensed.

"Why did you not tell me of your intentions?" Legolas continued softly, trying to free his voice from accusation.

"The opportunity did not present itself. You left before we could discuss it." Her voice was subdued. "I am the cause of the rift between you and your father, I had to try and mend it."

"You are not the cause. The rift has been there for an age and has been steadily growing wider over the years." Legolas said, his voice assertive. He more than anyone, had witnessed the depths of despair to which is father had plummeted to after his mother's death. Thranduil had barely held on to his own life, as he grieved her loss. All hope inside him was strangled and suffocated. Consequently, he knew that his Father had little capacity left for compassion or compromise.

"Well then, I have made it that rift all the more impassable." She sighed.

Legolas was eager to move on, memories of the past always caused him pain. "My Father likes to make an impression." He said with a lightness, he did not feel.

She summoned a strained laugh. "Well he certainly is formidable and unforgettable."

"I am sure you were more than a match for him."

"I doubt it, I felt like a small matter of inconsequence crushed beneath his fingertips and discarded."

She sounded defeated and broken. A fierce tenderness filled him and swelling protectiveness rose within, as he realized his Father had wounded her spirit. The spirit that was now so precious to him. He wrapped his arms tighter around her, the desire to keep her from all harm, was overwhelming.

"You realize that my original intention in leaving you behind, was to spare you pain from my father and his often caustic and callous views." He said quietly, as he calmed the rising storm within.

"I know that now..."

"Thranduil has made most his choices based on privilege and resentment, and there is little peace or happiness to be found in them." His sympathy for his Father was dwindling rapidly.

"Will he ever change his mind?"

"Perhaps over time." Legolas was not particularly hopeful. He had seen the longevity of his Father's bitterness and brooding over the centuries.