Lessien woke to a long cry of an unidentified bird in the sky. It glided across the orange and the morning air was fresh and inviting.
Sitting up, Lessien was surprised to find she was the only one awake with everyone still asleep around her. Sam's face was streaked with tears and Lessien resisted hugging him while he still slept. Her hair was slightly disheveled but was easily smoothed back and her waves she decided to let down for the day, all except for the constant little braids that hung in her hair.
The book from the night before laid a few feet away but Lessien didn't pick it up because she knew it had been pointless anyway. Some simple things she did not have courage for.
After gathering her baggage together and putting it on the pack pony Bill, she sat down and started the fire up again. She started cooking sausages on Sam's cookware.
Legolas was the first to wake up, and he looked as if he had never been sleeping. "How was your sleep, elf-maiden?"
"Not very restful, if you must know," Lessien replied gruffly.
"What bothered you so?" Legolas politely continued.
"Many things troubled my mind," she said uncomfortably. "Not that it's any of your business."
"I found this, it seems you dropped it," offered Legolas as he held up the leather-bound book.
"Oh, is it really mine?" Lessien acted as if she had not seen it, for she didn't really want to face the cowardice of her reluctance to read the book.
Legolas proceeded to hand it to her and looked at her expectantly.
"Are you going to read it?" he inquired after a few moments of awkward silence.
"It has something on the inside, really? How would you know, anyways?" she continued her clueless stance.
"Well, I did read it. I didn't know it was yours. And I didn't read much, I was just trying to figure out whose it was," he stuttered out. His effortless confidence that seemed always present failed when he spoke to Lessien. "But I feel you should really read it for yourself as soon as possible."
Lessien did not open the book and stared at the elf-prince as he pryed further, in a quiet rage. She wondered what else he could say to feed her anger. Let's see how stupid he really can be.
"It has urgent business in it. Your mother herself told me to make sure you read it," Legolas finished.
"Who the hell do you think you are Legolas Greenleaf? You have no business in my family affairs. By the Valar, I always remember how nosy you were when we first met. But now here you are reading private books with private messages that were not for you. You think I would act calmly on you reading this? Huh? Arwen asked you to make sure I read it, not for you to read it and then encourage me to do the same. And I must let you know that I owe her nothing. What in the world, Legolas? I swear, each day that passes the more I come to absolutely despise you."
"I think you are blowing things out of proportion."
Lessien gawked at him and now stood, looking down on him. How could the elf be so outrageous?
He was close to follow suit, wanting a level playing field.
"Now I'm the one who is blowing things out of proportion? You're the one who is holding onto a little affair from half a century ago! I forgot about you and somehow you kept fawning over me, even from afar. Must I remind you that you were the one who left, not me!"
"You act as though you are so unbothered, Lessien, but I think the contempt you hold for me is a clear indication that I am not as dismissable to you as you would like me to think," Legolas snapped.
Lessien scrambled to come up with some snarky response. The hesitation gave her up a little but she still mustered up a comeback. "Have you ever considered that you are just unlikeable, Legolas? Maybe now I can see that as I am older and wiser and less gullible, have you ever thought of that? Huh? Look at you, picking childish fights."
"Me? Me? You were the one who started this, Ranger."
"You were the one who read through the notebook, weren't you? Sorry that I don't just let go of the rude things you do all the time, Little Prince." Lessien now mocked Legolas easily, throwing the way he derisively called her a Ranger back in his face.
Neither of the two noticed how very close their faces got to each other as they argued. They had grown closer and closer and Lessien's almost equal height to him had kept them engaged for the whole quarrel. They stood with the fire at their left, its flames inflicting an uncomfortable heat that contributed to the unsufferable sultriness that accompanied such arguments. Lessien now stood but a couple feet away from him with her arms crossed over her chest and her brow furrowed.
He faced her with his hands clenched in fists at either side of him.
"I resent you," Lessien finished.
"By the Valar, Lessien-"
But whatever Legolas was going to say next would stay unheard because, to Lessien and Legolas's absolute mortification, they saw that the other eight members of their company were awake and gawking.
Lessien had no idea how long they had been listening but both her and Legolas hoped it wasn't for long.
The smell of burning sausages filled the air.