Unexpectedly turned into a cat, Kat falls into Middle-earth with the mission to prevent a death. In a feline form she can only communicate with the elf Legolas - and that he is such an attractive specimen is certainly not helpful...
A humorous (but...
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"Ninety percent of true love is acute, ear-burning embarrassment."
― Terry Pratchett, Wyrd Sisters
50. Adanig Nín
Singing a song about the sea and seagulls, Legolas walked slowly along the Anduin. He would follow it soon, but first he had promised Aragorn to restore this forest to its former glory. If Legolas' father allowed it, he planned to bring saplings from his home, and perhaps some people to help him plant and raise them. But then he would sail.
After his long, wearisome journey; all the battles, fears and heartache, it would be cathartic to settle here for a while. To work with plants for a few years before leaving Middle-earth. He didn't regret joining the Fellowship, but he was so done with adventuring now.
A voice drifted through the forest; one of Elrond's sons: "I must have misheard," he said. "It sounded like you said you were a cat?"
Legolas stopped abruptly, his heart suddenly racing as he heard a heavily accented, female voice reply, one he knew well though he had never heard it with his ears before.
"No, you hears right," she said. "I was a cat. And now an human. It is hard to... what is the word... expe... expa... uh."
Following the sound of the voices, Legolas began to walk. Kat must have been sent back again. But how? And why? To stay – or to say goodbye? A glimmer of hope was ignited within him and he hurried his step until he was almost running across the uneven ground.
"Are you a shapeshifter?" asked one twin.
"A what?"
"Do not be ridiculous," his brother huffed. "Humans cannot shapeshift. We should bring her to Aragorn."
"Aragorn!" she exclaimed. "Please. Yes."
"But first she needs clothes."
Legolas saw the trio now. A dark, plump woman walked between the elves, wrapped in Elrohir's much too big cloak, its hem trailing behind her. Her face was achingly familiar, yet foreign. At the same time she was his best friend and a complete stranger.
He slowed down, feeling awkward. Was she nude under that cloak? He recalled Gandalf's tale of his resurrection, and how he had reappeared naked on the mountain before the eagle brought him to Lothlórien to be healed and clothed in white. The thought of the same happening to Kat brought back an unwelcome vision from the Mirror, a glimpse that had haunted his dreams ever since.
Stepping back under the trees, he watched them pass and then followed on silent feet.
Of all people, why must it be Elrond's twins whofound her in that state?
ʕll ಠ _ ಠ llʔ
Kat wouldn't stop shaking. Everything felt strange, different, wrong. The smells, the sounds. She had expected to feel at home in Middle-earth but it wasn't the same to be here in her old body.
