Wanderlust (Legolas LOTR)

The Coming Storm

Chapter Six: The Coming Storm

Legolas spent the whole night in the tree outside his window, but instead of waking up feeling achy or sore, the prince felt surprisingly refreshed. A breeze wafted up from the fields below, cool and sweet, and Legolas could see the wagon wheel ruts in the dewy grass where the Rivendell elves must have left early before dawn. They were wise to get an early start on their journey, for dark thunderclouds wreathed the western sky. Storm weather.

Legolas' mind still lingered on the events from the previous night, but his resolve had strengthened. He really needed to have a conversation, an honest one, with his father for starters, and although he loathed to do so, Legolas knew he needed to leave the vineyard and return back to his father's halls.

The sound of a door swinging open, followed by a shriek from within the manor, quickly broke the prince's quiet musings, and he quickly swung down from the top branches to lower himself back into his bedroom. Standing before him, in his doorway, still in her nightgown, was Thaliniel, her face drawn and worried.

"Locien," she said, her voice trembling, "I cannot find Narylfiel. Anywhere! And I have looked everywhere. Her bed has not been slept in, and she is not in any of her usual hiding places."

Legolas instantly joined her at the door, wrapping his arm around her shoulders to steady her. "What about the stables or the grounds?" he asked, concern edging his voice.

"Our overseer just left to look right now," she said pitifully and looked at him with anxious eyes. "Aunt Maeben left last night, and with Father gone, I don't know what to do."

"Of course, I will help you in any way I can," Legolas assured her. "Has Narylfiel ever done anything like this before? Run away, I mean?"

"No, but she was pretty upset with me last night when I made her go to bed," Thaliniel confessed as she and Legolas left his room to walk back through the house to the younger girl's room. The bed was, as Thaliniel had observed, perfectly unslept in with nary a wrinkle in sight. Narylfiel's nightdress still lay folded on the bed next to a rather worn stuffed rabbit.

"I saw her on my own way back to the house," Legolas remembered out loud, looking around the room for any possible clues. "She did complain about her bed time and not getting to do, in her words, 'anything.'"

Thaliniel sank onto the bed and drew her sister's faded bunny into her lap. Unshed tears gleamed in her eyes, and she swallowed hard.

In the next second, Legolas was in front of her, taking her hands. "Thaliniel, we will find her. I promise you. In the mean time, let us come up with some sort of plan of action."

She looked up at him, with liquid brown eyes. "You are right, enough feeling sorry for myself," she said. "Aunt Maeben left me in charge. I have to fix this."

"We will fix it together," Legolas assured her, giving her a hand up from the bed. They quickly left the room and spent the next hour combing the grounds and outbuildings, but to no avail. Finally, Thaliniel, Legolas, and the vineyard foreman met at the front of the house.

"She is not on the grounds...she cannot be," Thaliniel said despairingly.

"Then we go and look for her," Legolas answered. "The morning is still young, and if we go on horseback, we may be able to catch up with her. She cannot have traveled very far on foot."

"Only, Locien," Thaliniel's eyes widened as a dreadful thought occurred to her-"what if she is not on foot? What if she left with the Rivendell elves?"

"As in kidnapped?" guessed the foreman.

"More likely stowed away," guessed Legolas. "She could have hid herself in their wagon. It would have offered the perfect place to hide." His eyes met Thaliniel's, and she nodded in agreement.

"We should leave as soon as possible then," Thaliniel said flatly, the enormity of the situation dawning on her. She had no experience out in the wild, not even the beginnings of a clue of what to do-and however much she may have longed for travel and adventure, this was far from her ideal situation. Her eyes drifted to Legolas for reassurance.

Much later Legolas would recall this moment and wonder what would have happened if perhaps he had answered differently, but at the time, there was absolutely no hesitation, no wavering. He immediately reached for her hand and laced her fingers with his own, and Thaliniel marveled at the strength in his grip for one with an accounting job.

His eyes were a stormy blue mirror of determination and will, so much so, that she caught her breath at their intensity.

"I promised to help you, Thaliniel, and I will, in any way that I can," Legolas assured her.

The next ten minutes blurred together as Legolas and Thaliniel rushed to their rooms to gather a few items and then raided the kitchen for some provisions. Thaliniel changed quickly from her night gown, which in all of her worry, she had completely forgotten about, to a very sensible long tunic, vest, and dark leggings, which would be much more suitable for riding. Before she left, Thaliniel propped a note to her aunt on the mantle piece, explaining what had happened, with assurances that Locien had gone with her to help.

The foreman met them out front with their mounts ready to go, and the two elves were off, out the main gate and down the road, where they could easily mark the fresh wheel tracks from earlier this morning.

"I still cannot believe that Narylfiel dared to run away like this!" Thaliniel exclaimed as they rode. "Whenever I find her, remind me to strangle her."

Legolas shifted his gaze from the tracks on the road to study Thaliniel, who although she easily kept pace beside him on her horse, looked unspeakably fragile. He knew she hardly meant her hard words, for she was still visibly upset, and the prince could sympathize with all of her worry for her younger sister.

"Let us just focus on finding her right now," Legolas advised. "These lands near your father's estate are relatively safe but grow increasingly wild in the next few miles."

Thaliniel nodded at him from the back of her horse, a gray dappled mare. "At least, well, I hope, that she is not alone. The Rivendell elves will protect her, will they not?"

"I believe they would, Thaliniel, but I also have a feeling that their little trading venture may not have been as innocent as Elfindel made it out to be." Legolas said, keeping his eye trained on the tracks before them.

Thaliniel took his words to heart but did not comment upon them. If he were correct, then her sister might be truly in peril. Even though she was very angry with Narylfiel, Thaliniel wanted her back home, safe. The two riders continued on down the road, carefully following the wagon tracks on the dirt road. They stopped only briefly for lunch to let the horses drink and graze, and then the pair were off again. Before long the narrow, winding dirt path converged with another much busier main road, both of which led to Dale, a thriving city of men in the shadow of the Lonely Mountain.

"Draw up your hood on your cloak," Legolas advised her and did likewise, "for we do not wish to draw unnecessary attention to ourselves." Moreover, those dark clouds, which Legolas had spied earlier in the morning, now stretched across the sky, a disagreeable gnarl of gray, and just as Thaliniel supposed things could not get any worse, rain began to fall-first, in small spits, then steady sprinkles. In less than ten minutes, the sky opened up to an all out deluge, soaking both the travelers and completely obscuring the road before them.

Their journey had just become immeasurably more complicated...