Protect & Serve LotR-Lord of the Rings Fanfiction - Fan Fiction -WattyAwards2012

Chapter 11: A Few Moments More

It had been over a week spent in peace and comfort in Lothlórien. Most nights I even slept nearly through the night. The physical exhaustion of sparring with Haldir did wonders to ensure I slept with very few interrupting nightmares. Still, it didn't stop them all, and on nights I couldn't sleep, I wandered about or even sat and stargazed.

We learned to read the stars in the Marines. They were handy for navigating if you had to go low-tech for some reason and didn't even have a map or couldn't rely on one. The stars here, they looked—similar to the constellations of my own world. A little different—just enough so that I couldn't decide if I was in some different world or merely transported back in time.

Maybe it was like those stories and movies where this was an alternate dimension to my own world.

I could never decide. However, looking at those stars, I knew the particular answer didn't really matter. I was here and that was what mattered. Looking at the vast canvas of space, I knew that the whys of the universe would always escape me. The consequences were the only things that I could deal with.

Looking at the stars and smoking a cigarillo always made me feel philosophical. Something about feeling so small somehow gave a person the power to ponder the universe.

I heard elvish thoughts coming closer, and I was surprised when I realized I recognized the feel of the thoughts. Even in a city of elves, I could pick out this particular elf's thoughts. Hearing a soft rustle of leaves, I looked to my right from where I was reclining between the great roots of a mallorn tree. Legolas stood in profile to me, gazing at the same stars I was enjoying. The view really was spectacular. It was a ways from our tents, but one of the few places the trees thinned enough to afford a view of the sky and stars.

Legolas stood silently gazing at those twinkling lights, and I took the opportunity to observe him unnoticed. He had foregone his normal fully dressed manner, wearing his leggings, boots, and only a loose shirt, untucked, and only partially buttoned. He crossed his arms, and leaned against the edge of the mallorn I was reclining against, although a good dozen feet separated us.

The wind shifted and carried the smoke hanging in the air around me towards the elf. His head immediately turned towards me in surprise as he smelled it.

"Evening," I commented.

"Good evening."

"Care to join me?" I asked, patting the ground beside me.

He looked indecisive and glanced back the way he'd come.

"I promise not to bite," I laughed.

He only looked confused for a second, and then he laughed and walked over to settle beside me.

"I've hardly seen you since we got here," I casually commented, continuing to smoke.

"You have been busy," he returned, glancing at my cigarillo.

I pulled it away from my lips. "Sorry. The smoke probably bothers you." I crushed the end on my boot heel and set it aside, sliding my cigarillo case and lighter into the top of my tall boot. Haldir had explained that elves had heightened and sensitive senses.

"Nay, it is not bothersome. It is a natural smell, not unlike wood smoke, and far sweeter in smell than the pipe smoke of Estel's."

I shrugged. I'd been down to smoking the butt anyway, and no sense lighting another since I was trying to stretch them out and save them.

The silence lapsed again.

"You've been busy, too," I finally told him in answer to his last comment.