Everlong

13

"So you will be married to your job." Thranduil deduced, tilting his head to the side as his blue eyes flicked around the woodland.

"It is no different than you being married to our kingdom when you are king." Liruliniel said turning to him, now with narrowed eyes. "I don't mean to offend, but our kingdom will come first above anything else. Wife or not, married into our family is different than being born into it."

"I get the feeling you do not like Vanadessë." Thranduil said, deducing once again here.

"I do not know her." Liruliniel hadn't said two words to the elf-Princess.

"Maybe you should get to know her."

"Do not tell me what to do."

Thranduil narrowed his eyes, getting the feeling that the time apart really had changed them both. There was like this rift between them that he couldn't quite conquer or begin to understand. There was something distinctly different about Liruliniel, she seemed jaded, quick to shoot down words and counter them bitterly. "Quite the contrary again, little bird. As a royal guard, I can tell you what to do." This just made her eyes narrow more at him, Thranduil was annoying her and he could very well see that. "Are you jealous?" He just came out with it, because this was what it felt like.

Liruliniel shook her head slowly, "I am not jealous of you and your newfound love." Her voice was blank sounding as she just stared ahead of them at nothing in particular.

"Then what is wrong, Liruliniel? Because you are acting differently to what I remember."

"That's because it's been years. When we arrived here, I was still a child. I'm not anymore, and nor are you. People grow up, and they change. You remember a child, Thranduil. I'm not that anymore. Nor am I that elf anymore."

"Only because you wear armour, does not mean your disposition changes." Thranduil didn't wholly understand what she was trying to say, and it caused a small amount of worry to appear. Perhaps his thoughts of her and loneliness was right and this was too late. Many things could turn their kin into something of a shadow of their former selves. He wished this wasn't the case here. Perhaps she was right, maybe she had just grown up and grown out of any childish phases she was going through.

Liruliniel simply turned her head to look at him. "Maybe you are right. Maybe. But I look around myself every day and I see constant change, like our home and the seasons. I have grown up, I have reached my goal, but inside...something has changed there, and I do not like it."

"You're speaking in riddles, Liruliniel." Thranduil didn't like how she flitted and contradicted herself. It didn't sit well with him, and he didn't understand.

Liruliniel opened her mouth and shut it slowly. Looking at her hands in her lap, she licked her bottom lip and looked at him. "I have dreams, Thranduil. And they are terrible."

"This again."

Liruliniel double took, "Sorry, am I a hindrance?"

Thranduil rolled his eyes, "No, never. But the last time you felt something terrible, we all moved." He never did hold back making it plain they moved because of her. "And now you're coming out with this?"

Liruliniel just looked away from him. "You're meant to be my friend. I am confiding to you that I cannot sleep because of horrific dreams, and you make it sound like a chore to listen, or to advise."

The lack of sleep would definitely explain her flitting dispositions, Thranduil sighed heavily. "What do you see?" Somehow, he didn't want to entertain her because he feared of what she may come out with. Yet, her intuition wasn't wrong before and look what happened there. She had a habit of pointing out the obvious or the truth and Thranduil did not want to know. He wasn't one for sticking his head in the sand and ignoring all, but if she saw some terrible outcome and told his father, Thranduil didn't know what would happen. Where else could they move to? They couldn't keep skipping and hopping all over the land because of what a single elf happened to see or feel.