Within Dreams [A Legolas love story]

Green of Leaf

The first day, there was a clear sky, and after passing north and out of Ithilien, the sun warmed the land so that it smelt of spring and new grass. Though we rode horses, it still would take the better part of a week to arrive at the borders of Greenwood, so we did not tarry along the road.

Eärlin seemed to be unusually distracted along the way, ignoring every word I said to him, and finally I realized that he had an eye for Maldor's grey mare, who he kept nudging insistently every time she and Maldor walked alongside us.

"Eärlin, would you hold yourself together?" I hissed, as Maldor's mare irritably pushed him away for the hundredth time.

He snorted crossly.

Maldor laughed lightly and patted his horse affectionately.

Around noon, some bread was passed around, and some dried berries. I had completely forgotten that we needed to have provisions for the journey; luckily nobody else did-- the saddlebags of each horse were surprisingly full.

"Gianna, would you get out the honey wine?" Legolas asked, turning around in the saddle. We hadn't stopped walking and were just eating as we went.

"If I knew where it was," I said calmly.

"Seeing as it's in your saddlebags..." Faewyn raised an eyebrow, smiling.

"Is it?" I remarked, rummaging through them. Finally I found the skin of wine and tossed it to Legolas, who threw it to Gwithor. The elf gave a nod of thanks.

"I am taking a brief reprieve from social interactions as I find it prudent to identify the objects in my own saddlebags," I announced.

I saw Legolas smile, amused.

Faewyn turned to me from where she rode on my right and said, "Let me know if you find a small leather purse, it has my arrowheads from broken arrows."

"Given that they are your arrowheads, I would think you would know where they were," I teased.

"Given that I packed your saddlebags as well as mine, I doubt it should be a problem for you to carry them if they are indeed in yours," she shot back, a wicked gleam in her eyes.

Years of practice with me had made her the perfect partner with which to banter with; I couldn't help laughing rather than trying to come up with an equally biting response.

"Yes, they're here," I said a few minutes later, shaking a small bag full of clinking metal.

"Thank you," she said, sounding relieved. "I knew they would be, but all the same, it is good to have a confirmation."

"Is it difficult to make arrowheads?" I asked, considering the fact that forging anything usually took several hours.

"They are cast, Lady Gianna," said Gwithor from the front, turning to look at me. "Since they are of light metal, and are useful in their sharpness, not their strength, they can be cast from molten metal and then worked from there."

"I did not know that," I said, looking at him, "Thank you."

He nodded and turned back around, saying something to Legolas.

I turned to Faewyn again but she seemed as unaffected by this exchange as anyone else.

She pointed out things occasionally as we passed; one was the skeleton of a giant beast which jutted out of a small hill of dirt and sparse bushes.

"That," she said, looking impressed, "Is the remains of one of the Mûmakil-- Oliphaunts, I think they are called by some."

I looked on, fascinated, as the bleached bones stood out starkly in the landscape, like a weird growth. We passed further into the lands north of Ithilien, different vegetation cropping up as we went. Maldor, ever the opportunist, occasionally reached towards a certain tree or plant and carefully pinched off a few leaves to put in his herb pouches. At one point, he stuffed veritable handfuls of a tree's leaves into a sack, and I no longer could ignore it.