Roswehn of Mirkwood

Fathers

"You can not bear the heat, right?"

Thranduil's voice was far.
Slowly, Roswehn raised her eyelids, and felt a caress on her forehead. The King was gently wiping the sweat from her face with a handkerchief.

"Maybe you're right, you should sleep somewhere else, in a cooler room." she heard him saying.

Her eyes finally managed to focus. She had recovered from the momentary loss of consciousness, and her lover had, in the meantime, awakened from the heavy sleep of the elves. He had seen that she had fainted, and must have thought it was because of the nocturnal heat.

"There was someone here, last night." She whispered. "Some ... demon."
Immediately she saw in her mind the black orbits of that ghost made of air and moonlight. She looked at the King. "Oh Thranduil ... it was there, right there!"

The Elf did not understand. "What, what did you see?" He was sitting on the edge of the bed.

Roswehn tried to explain. "There...in the corner ... There was something watching us last night ... It was ... a ghost ... I do not know how to call it ... He stared at us and grinned, and then he said something to me."

Thranduil was beginning to feel nervous. Not for what the girl said, which was probably the description of a nocturnal delirium, but because Roswehn seemed convinced of her words.
A ghost in his bedroom? That was something a woman on the verge of exhaustion could have said.

"It was a nightmare." he said, trying to use the most reassuring tone. "... just a nightmare." He got up and went to the spot the young woman had indicated. He looked carefully at the corner and then turned to look at her. "There's nothing here, Roswehn."

"I told you it was some sort of entity, of course it did not leave any traces behind it, but it was there!" the girl answered, agitated. "... and I also know who he was."

The King looked at her, raising his eyebrows. "Really? Then tell me: who was the mysterious visitor?"

She disn't like that tone. The tone of the males, of any race, when they were forced to deal with a hysterical and unreasonable female.

"It was Morgoth." She answered, in a hiss. "He's back to torment me, he wants our son, he came back from his hell to take our creature away from us."

At that point the King got seriously angry. It was inevitable: although he tried to use patience in his relationship with the human, he could never keep calm for more than two minutes. He loved her, but he was also terribly annoyed by her obstinacy in always wanting to be right, even on the biggest of absurdities.

"It was hot yesterday night, you fainted for the heat. What you saw was just a dream, a very bad dream, but it was unreal. Our healer told me it's normal for you mortal women to feel sick during pregnancy. A little life is growing inside of you." he tried to explain. "And please, don't mention that spirit again. Not in my Palace." he said, referring to Morgoth.

"But he was here! Do not treat me like an idiot, please." Roswehn said, standing up and raising her voice. "I'm telling you that last night I saw something in this room, something evilish, something dangerous! Something that threatened me! You must believe me!"

Thranduil liked her temper: her fierce personality was one of the reasons why he had fallen in love with her...but he was also the King, and noone in the world could raise the voice in his presence.

"Enough!" he ordered. Roswehn fell silent and sat down on the bed, intimidated. Thranduil had never been so authoritarian with her. She had heard him scolding soldiers, and even Legolas sometimes, but never her.
"Now get dressed and reach your family; stay with them, before they get lost in my realm. I still have to talk to your father."