A Silver Lining (Lord of the Rings) [Legolas]

III. Many Meetings

III. Many Meetings

            For the few days following me waking up in the Houses of Healing, I was to stay there, in my room. Day by day, I went through the same routine: I would rise early, head off to bathe, dress, and come back into my room to find breakfast waiting on my bed for me. Personally, I thought the breakfast-in-bed idea was a very sweet gesture but not entirely necessary.

            Following breakfast, I would roam around what territory I could without overexerting myself, then that would most of the time lead to lunch where Arwen would stay with me and talk. During our talks, she tried to worm my past out of me. Eventually, she gave up—I was sure she knew that I caught on to her tactics.

            Following lunch was a nap, then supper, and then a healer or two would strike a conversation with me before it was time for me to rest for the night. Even though the rut should have been boring after a few days, it was not. I enjoyed the company, the baths, the rest, the food, the housing, everything.

            I was almost at the one week mark of staying in Minas Tirith since I woke up in the Houses of Healing. Instead of heading to bathe like I normally did, I decided to take a morning stroll in the area. A cool breeze welcomed me as I stepped outside, ruffling my nightwear that never seemed to be the same every night.

            As I basked in nature’s beauty, my thoughts strayed to my home. Had it changed much since I was last there? I knew it had been well over hundreds of years since I had last been at home. Thinking of home made me think about my escort. He had to be an Elf, like me, because I was sure no other race would travel to Lórien unless they were extremely curious or horribly lost.

            It would be nice, to be amongst my own kind again, without them around me. I was sure they were still searching for me, trying to pick up a trail. Hopefully, I had lost them. I knew they did not give up so easily. Their spirits were angry but persistent. They were hunters, relentless.

            My brain tried to replay a memory for me that involved them, but I quickly shoved it away. I did not want bad recollections to come to me now, I was not ready to embrace the fact that they really happened, that I was in their hands for years, constantly travelling with them with very little chance of escaping.

            I was troubled by their ways. What if I had not been the only one snatched by them? I knew the group I had been amongst was not the only one in Middle-earth, there had to be many more of them floating around. I saw them all as the same: evil, murderers, beings who thought that they could take whatever they wanted when they wanted it.

            “Nimalia?”

            I whipped my head around to see Arwen coming to me. I smiled at her, trying to hide the fact that they had begun to consume my thoughts this morning.

            “What are you doing out early, Arwen?” I asked.

            “I sometimes rise early. I can see you do as well,” she noted.

            “I have always loved waking up early. I see things most do not because they are still sleeping. Have you come to tell me something?”

            “Yes. I was thinking that maybe today is the day you move into the castle.”

            She believed I was healthy enough to leave the Houses of Healing? I guess that sounded about right. I was well-fed now; I had no more dizzy spells. I was in the best shape I had ever been in for a while.