Thorns & Roses (Legolas Love Story)

4. Oath-bound

"Wakey wakey."

The sound abruptly pulled me away from my dream, and with a sleepy groan I responded. I buried my face deeper into the blanket, hoping I could continue dreaming.

"Wakey, wakey sweetheart. Do you know what time it is?" sang the male adult voice, gently shaking me from sleep again.

This time I grudgingly open my eyes and stared sleepily at my dad in distaste and sent him a pout, earning a hearty chuckle from him.

"Daaaad," I protested in my high pitched, child voice. "You interrupted my dreaaam. Now I can't go back to sleep."

My dad, his face bright with his usual ear to ear smile, looking youthful and healthy, this time raised his brow though still had that amused look on his face.

"Seriously? What did you dream about this time? Is it yet another dream about getting a ton of ice cream for your birthday?" he taunted playfully, his eyes glinted with mischief, "Or is it the dream...which you get tickled?!"

I shrieked with girly laughter as my dad started tickling my sides, making me curled my little body away from him in glee. After our laughter subsided, I finally shook my head.

"Nooo," I giggled, still breathless from the tickles, "It's, it was about a verrrry beautiful garden. There were shiny flowers that glow in the dark and then there's a pretty man with funny ears," I explained, putting both my index fingers on my ears to show him the shape of the ears the man in my dream had.

"Pretty man with funny ears?"

"Yeah! He had reindeer ears. He gave me a flower and he said it's special because it's a glowy lily!"

The face of my father turned into one of an amazement, his mouth formed an o and I grinned smugly at his reaction.

"Oh!" I shrieked again, eyes wide like saucer as I remembered something. "He had preeeeeety hair like a Barbie," I told my dad exaggeratingly, though I wasn't really. "I wanted to braid them," I reminisced, feeling somewhat sad that I didn't get the chance to ask it to the pretty man in my dream.

"That's a curious dream, Annie," commented my dad. I noticed that he hid something behind his back. "I'm sorry I woke you from a very nice dream," he apologized softly.

"That's okay, daddy. I forgive you," I mumbled, not wanting to make him feel bad.

My dad chuckled in amusement at my reply though I didn't understand what was so funny. "Well, thank you. If it is any consolation, maybe then you can start braiding your brand new doll's hair?" he said as he surprised me with a new, latest model doll he just bought for me.

Again, I shrieked in joy at the sight of the beautiful princess doll, the previous thought about the pretty man suddenly left me. I jumped on my bed up and down in mirth, feeling as if I was floating as I held the doll close to my chest.

"Thank you, daddy! Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!" I squealed happily and threw myself at him to give him a big hug, to which my dad responded with a cheerful, more deeper laughter of his own as he hugged me back. Then I shrieked again and continued bouncing up and down in the air.

"You're welcome, sweetheart-hey, stop jumping."

***

"Pretty man..." I heard myself saying as I held the petals of a rose that seemed to mirror the moonlight glow in the dark, "...Pretty man with funny ears."