Queen of the Woodland Realm [Thranduil]

Chapter 4: Queen Baineth

Author's Note: Let's check back in with Anona and Thranduil, who have started spending time together...

Dedicated to @hollygal123, who has also supported my works :)

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The next few weeks were rather uneventful. I cooked and cleaned, spending my spare time with Melui…and Thranduil.

He always seemed to come in exactly as I was about to leave his room. Every evening, he would bring me a cookie from the royal kitchens, and we would chat on my way back to my quarters.

I learned much about the prince in those evenings. I learned that his favorite color was red, or perhaps silver, because it reminded him of the stars. I found out that he was an incredible swordsman; somehow, that didn’t surprise me.

I preferred archery to anything else. I owned a bow, which made it the easiest method of self-defense. The bow had been my mother’s, and Anya was hardly an elleth that needed to defend her; her husband was a guard, after all.

Ialon worked long, hard hours, and was almost never home. I told this to Thranduil, and he chuckled.

“Sounds like the Guard to me. Father keeps them busy.”

Perhaps it was my eyes deceiving me, but I noticed that his eyes always seemed to darken when King Oropher came up. It was just the beginning of my understanding of their relationship.

One night, he took me to the balcony again, so that we could watch the sunset. I had told him before that my favorite color was that of a sunset in the Woodland Realm. Nothing could be more beautiful.

“Thranduil,” I chided. “You know I can’t come up here. Madame Lucia will have my head.”

It wasn’t necessarily true; Madame Lucia hardly paid any attention to me since the ball. I figured she trusted me, and I really was not looking to aggravate that.

He stared at me in shock, his mouth slightly open.

“What?”

“You called me Thranduil.”

I gasped. I had become so familiar with the prince that I had forgotten formalities…

Too familiar, I thought.

“I’m so sorry, I—“

He waved my apology away. “Are you joking? I am so happy that you can finally call me that.”

I looked away, the corners of my mouth quirking upwards. “You’re all right with it?”

He had started calling me by my first name a long time ago. I had told him that I felt uncomfortable, being referred to formally.

“It’s about time.” He smiled at me.

The truth was, I never smiled at him, or returned any of his warm gestures. I was kind, and often teasing, but I never smiled. Not once. I felt a little ashamed of it, but my smile was the only thing I prided about myself. I wanted to wait until I trusted and knew him completely.

I never saw Thranduil as more than a friend. I did appreciate the time we spent together, and I was very grateful, but I harbored no secret feelings for him, as Raweru thought. She was constantly teasing me.

The sun began its descent, its bright orange light casting a warm glow over the kingdom, as if it were protecting it from harm.

“You seem nervous,” he commented.

“Slightly,” I admitted. “I’ve never been this high up, or close up. It feels more real here.”

He nodded. “My mother and I often come up here to watch the sunsets. She loves it. I think it reminds her of one of her favorite flowers.” I caught him smiling a little.