Chapter Twelve--- Ding Dong the Dragon's Dead!
"Thranduil," I said, bowing before the Elven king.
I was right, it was an army. Mirkwood's army.
"Nae saian luume'," he replied. It has been too long.
I heard a shuffling of feet behind him, and Legolas's beautiful face appeared behind him. A huge smile appeared on his face when his eyes meant mine, and my face had a look that mirrored his exactly.
"Where do you plan to go now?" Thranduil asked me, in the common tongue this time.
"There is only one place my heart lies, and it is right here," I told him, my eyes never breaking contact with Legolas's.
"We march for the mountain tomorrow, if you would care to join us."
I bowed to him, "I would be honoured."
"How good are you with a bow?"
I smiled even bigger, "You're talking to Rivendell's finest, and that's Elrond's opinion, not mine."
A bit of a stretched truth there, but oh well.
"My Lord, if we are the march on the mountain, do you know of Smaug's where abouts?"
"I do," a new voice popped up. I turned, to see Bard the Bowman staring me in the face. "The dragon fell to my arrow only a few nights ago."
It all made sense now.
I nodded, "Of course, I should have known."
I bowed to Thranduil one more time, before nodding to Legolas, and following him out of the huge crowd.
"What are you doing here?" He asked as soon as we were out of earshot of everyone else.
"I volunteered to 'scout' what was going on up here. Really I figured what was happening and came up to see you."
He smiled at me, and took my hands in his. "Amin mella lle," he whispered.
His lips were almost touching mine.
"I love you too."
Then, his lips did touch mine. It wasn't quick this time, long and sweet. And I loved it, of course I did. I kissed him back.
After about ten seconds, he pulled back, and stared into my eyes. His eyes raised ever so slightly, so that he could see what was slung over my shoulder. His eyes grew into oranges when he saw it.
"Where did you get that?"
I smiled triumphantly, "The gold bow? In Erebor. One of the dwarfs found it for me."
He shook his head at me, "How you mange to always I have the best weapons I do not understand."
I laughed, "You're not supposed to."
"Legolas," a voice called to him. "The king wishes to see you."
He nodded to me, and I followed him down to where Thranduil was waiting for us.
"We march for the mountain tonight, ready yourselves for battle."
"Who do you plan on fighting?" I asked him.
"Whoever we meat."
The dwarfs. I knew he mean the dwarfs.
And I knew I couldn't let that happen.
~~**~~
"Are you sure we have to walk all that way?" I asked Legolas as we sat on the roof of one of the buildings in Lake-town.
"No, there are a few horses we can take. But I believe there's only four."
"Make sure to reserve one for me, ok? I just ran that whole way, I don't feel like doing it again."
He shoo his head at me, "Why did you run the whole way here?"
I smiled, "Because I wanted to see you silly!"
He smiled at me, and opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by someone in the street yelling to us.
"We ride for the mountain when the sun has fully risen," they called. We both nodded, and hopped off the building. Legolas led me to where they were keeping the four horses, and made sure that I got one. When everyone was all ready to go, Thranduil, Legolas, Bard, and I rode out to the front of the group.
It was a beautiful sight, seeing the armies of Lake-town and Mirkwood combine. At least to me it was, to any orc it probably looked like their worst nightmare.
"Today," Thranduil started, "my fellow people of Middle-Earth. We ride for the mountain. We ride for freedom, and justice. We ride so that the friendship of the elves of Mirkwood, and the men of Lake-town, may be preserved as long as both our homes still survive!"
A cheer went up from the army, and a smile formed on my face.
Short, but to the point.
Way to go Thrandy. Can I call him that? Thrandy? Which makes Legolas Leggy.
This is happening.
He took off, and we all followed after him.
But the rest of the army was marching.
I had a feeling that would be a long ride.
~~**~~
"Please tell me you're not joking," I begged Legolas.
He shook his head, "We're finally at our final campsite."
I started jumping up and down I was so happy. That ride was hell.
"Finally! I can safely say those were the worst day of my life, which is saying something because I'm like, 2,000 years old or something crazy. I lost track a long time ago."
"Echo," he interrupted me.
"What?"
"You're ranting again."
I let out a deep breath and rolled my eyes, he was right. I was ranting.
Bad habit.
I jumped off my horse, and noticed all the men were pitching tents.
"Do I have to put up a tent too?"
Legolas chuckled, "Someone's awfully whiny today."
I glared at him, "What do you except? I've just been on a horse for who knows how many days? It was death."
He laughed at me, and went off somewhere to do something else.
Fine, be like that.
He was right though, I was being horribly grumpy.
But I had a good reason!
"Echo," Legolas called.
"What?"
"You're in charge while we go up to the mountain to greet the dwarfs."
"Why can't I go?"
"You know full well why."
Right, they couldn't know I was there.
But wait, he left me in charge.
That day couldn't get any better.
I jumped back on the horse, and started riding around the camp, inspecting the soldiers and admiring the valley. They all looked at least relatively well trained.
"Is there anything I can get for you my Lady?" A voice asked me.
I looked down, and saw a female elf staring up at me.
I smiled, "As a matter of fact there is. Can you get some archery targets? It's about time the people around here had some fun."
"What do you propose to do?"
A huge smile appeared on my face, "Archery tournament."
~~**~~
I pulled back the string on my bow, along with twenty other men and elves. Word had spread of my little competition like wildfire. Everyone wanted a chance to prove themselves, and have a little fun trying. We'd manged to scrape together twenty one targets, and you had to bring your own bow and arrows. Of course my golden bow was the life of the party, er, tournament.
"Fire!" A voice boomed. I realised my arrow, and watched it go flying toward the target. A smiled formed on my face when I saw where it hit, dead centre.
All the arrows were marked with numbers, and each archer who entered was assigned a number. I was number one of course, being as this was my idea. Each person would get three shots, then we would take the average of their shots, and see who came the closest to the dead centre of the target every time.
I knew I was going to win, I always won archery competitions.
I watched the other competitors carefully. The elves were my greatest competition, the men were ok, but you just can't beat elvish skill with a bow. It runs in our blood or something.
When my second turn came around, I already knew who was going to get first, second, and third. I was getting first, an elf named Langlas was going to get second, and another elf named Erynion was going to get third. Yep, I had it all figured out.
I took my second shot, and it split the arrow that was in the middle of the target down the middle. I smiled triumphantly at the shocked looks of all the men around me, they weren't used to seeing a female show them up. The men in Rivendell got used to it.
When I took my third shot, and the exact same thing happened, and I got the exact same reaction, I felt about ready to burst with pride. I was representing Rivendell, Imladris, my home. As much as I hated the place at times, it was still home and I was proud to represent it.
When everyone had fired their last shot, I let one of the men, who had decided not to participate, announce the winners. All the elves, except one scout, had decided to participate.
"In third, Erynion of Mirkwood." Yep. "In second, Langlas of Mirkwood." Double yep. "And coming in first place, Echo of Rivendell." Triple Yep.
Everyone cheered and congratulated all three of us. Even if they didn't win, I could tell everyone had a good time.
An elf rushed up to me, "They're coming back! They're coming back from the mountain."
I drew in a breath, I couldn't wait to hear what they got out of Thorin, probably nothing.
But what bothered me the most, was that they were in Dale, with an army, ready to attack.
The dwarfs didn't stand a chance if this huge army attacked them.
And that really, really scared me.
~~**~~
A/N: IT'S PROVEN. AND IT'S TESTED. AND IT WORKS. Just don't ask. I had some fun with this chapter, threw in some of my own stuff, had a little fun. I like it, I think. Tell me what you think! That's what I really want to know! But I can't wait to get to the huge battle. Die orc sum die. hahahahah. Now you're dead because you've got an arrow stuck in you. How do you feel now? I'm normal, right? RIGHT?
I'm so not normal it's not even funny.
Love,
Kateeeeeeeeee