And So the Adventure Begins

Chapter Two

“So, others call you Strider," the elf said pleasantly. "And what do you call yourself?”

The ranger was a bit taken aback by the question. He started to answer, but he was reluctant to tell a stranger the name his family had given him as a young child. “Strider will do,” he replied with a grin. “And what do you call yourself?”

“The same as everyone else calls me. My name is Legolas.”

The elf’s humor struck the ranger favorably, and despite their slightly tense beginning, he was starting to like this elf. Strider waited to see what Legolas would do next. This was his camp after all.

Legolas regarded Strider for a moment, turning his inner intuition on the man, trying to discern if he should invite him to share his camp for the night.

The ranger waited patiently. He was pleased when the elf said, “You are welcome to stay at my camp, Strider.”

Resisting the urge to rub his hands together at the prospect of food that was already cooked and a fire that was already built, he simply said, “Thank you, Legolas. I believe I will.”

“Do you have a plate in your pack? I have only one.” The man had no such pack with him, but Legolas knew that as a traveler and most certainly as a ranger, Strider would have supplies on his horse.

“I’ll be right back.” Strider hurried off and returned shortly with his horse following behind.

Opening the pack he had just untied from his saddle, Strider pulled out a plate and handed it to the elf.

“Take care of your horse, Strider, and I will fill your plate,” the elf stated, as he stirred the contents of the small pot suspended over the crackling fire.

“I’ll put him with yours.” Where is he?” Strider had not seen the elven horse anywhere near the camp, but he didn’t believe the elf was on foot.

“By the river.” The elf nodded to his left, though he was sure the man knew exactly where the river lay. Even a human could hear the swift-flowing river from here.

When Strider returned, he had a pack on each shoulder and his saddle in his hands. He set them all down on the ground and walked over to Legolas. “That’s a fine stallion you have there.“

Legolas smiled with pride. “Thank you. My father gave him to me, when he was just a colt.”

Strider wanted to laugh and ask if it was the horse or the elf‘s father who had been a colt. It would have been totally made in jest, but he wasn‘t sure how this elf would feel about such a remark aimed at his father. Not everyone liked having their relatives the subject of a humorous play on words.

When Legolas held the plate out to the man, Strider’s eyes went wide. The metal disk was heaped so high with food that there was barely a space left to hold the rim of it. He couldn’t help but ask, “Do I look that starved?”

At first, Legolas didn’t understand what the man meant by that statement. “Are you not hungry?”

“Very,” Strider replied, “but I could never eat all of that. It’s enough for three men my size.”

Legolas looked almost sheepish. “I have heard that men have big appetites, but I do not know how much food it might take to end one’s hunger. I did not want to insult you by giving you too small an amount, making you think I did not wish to share what I have with you. But I have insulted you anyway.”

“Not at all. You didn’t know.”

After Legolas scraped half of the plate’s contents back in the pot, handed it back to the ranger and then took up his own plate, Strider commented, “You did not give yourself near as much.”

“We elves do not need a lot of food to sustain us, though we are quite capable of eating a great deal, when we are inclined.”

“How well I know,” Strider laughed.

Legolas furrowed his brow slightly. “You know elves well?” Before the man could answer, he added, “I suppose as a ranger you have met all kinds of people, including elves.”

“Yes, that’s certainly true. However, my remark was in reference to my brothers. They are both elves, and they both love food.”

Now it was Legolas’s eyes that widened. “Your brothers are elves?” This was going to be an interesting story, he was sure. It turned out to be just that.



The two, elven prince and human ranger, ended up staying awake most of the night, telling each other about themselves. Still virtually strangers, they each held back many personal details, including the one that Legolas was a prince, and concentrated mostly on their lives as warrior and ranger.

Legolas never imagined that he would be so comfortable with a human, much less find himself eager to hear whatever the man had to tell him.

He was so fascinated that he didn’t notice, at first, when the ranger lapsed into elvish midway through the evening. Strider didn’t seem to be aware of it, either, until much later.

Finally, when Legolas saw that clouds had moved over the moon and a deep darkness had settled over the little camp, he said, “I think that you had better try and get some sleep. It will be dawn in a few hours. I will take the watch for what remains of the night.”

Strider frowned. He was sure that the elf felt some suspicion still, so he would not feel totally comfortable sleeping in the human’s presence. Yet Strider still felt the need to offer to share in keeping guard. “I’ll take half of it.”

“No need. I do not require the sleep that humans do.” The statement could have been condescending, but it was obvious by his tone that Legolas didn’t mean it that way. It was simply a fact.

Nodding, Strider stood up and walked to where he had left his gear. He took his blanket out of one of his packs and shook it out on the other side of the fire from where Legolas had put his blanket. He had a pang of guilt that the elf would not be using it this night. ‘Ah well,’ the ranger thought, ‘It was his decision, not mine.’

“Thank you for sharing your stories with me, Strider. I had no idea that humans were so...adventuresome.”

“That’s a polite way of expressing the fact that some of us get into a lot of trouble from time to time.”

“I would say so, if you are an example of those you are referring to.”

“Unfortunately, I am. Peaceful watch, Legolas.”

Strider watched as the elf began to move stealthily through the trees. However, he fell into a sound sleep before Legolas made even one complete circuit around the perimeter of the camp.

After making sure the area was secure, Legolas climbed up into a tree directly above the sleeping ranger. He sighed, as he began to ponder. This was the first human he had spent any personal time with. All of the others he had met had been during formal occasions.

Perhaps not all humans were as disreputable as he’d been led to believe. This one’s eyes held no deceit or malicious intent. He was friendly and certainly more than a little entertaining. Too bad he wouldn’t get the chance to know him better.



When Strider woke up, the sun had already risen. He groaned and rolled over onto his back. The first thing he saw was Legolas squatting down beside the fire and feeding it several small sticks. The elf blew on the embers until he had coaxed the flames up to a respectable height. The man yawned.

“I thought that rangers would be up with the sunrise,” Legolas commented without looking up.

“Not when elves talk their ears off so that they don’t get to sleep until it’s almost time for the sun to rise,” Strider replied, not cracking the smile he felt inside.

“Ah yes. Blame the elf.”

“Of course.” The ranger had been blaming his brothers for one thing or another as long as he could remember, whether it was their fault or not. “It works for me.”

Legolas put a few more pieces of wood on the fire and then stood up. His unused blanket had already been put back in his pack. He looked to be ready to leave at a moment’s notice. “I have taken care of the horses, so we can share our morning meal together, and then we can each go our separate ways.”

The ranger sat up and looked at Legolas with a twinkle in his eyes. “Why don’t we travel together for a while?” he asked, amused to think that the idea would be the last thing the elf would be expecting.

As Strider expected, Legolas’s face took on a shocked expression. He stared at the man for several long moments before a smile finally broke out on his fair features.

Thinking of all the misadventures this man had told him about the night before, he said, “So you want company when you find yourself in trouble. Is that it?”

“No,” Strider said earnestly. “I want you to get me out of it.”

Shaking his head and rolling his eyes, Legolas remarked, “Well, how can I refuse an offer like that?”

Strider grinned and nodded. He really did like this elf and was glad that the two would be traveling companions for a time.

Once they had eaten, broken camp and mounted their horses, Legolas asked, “Do you have a destination in mind, or do you just intend on wandering around until trouble finds us?”

The ranger chose to ignore that impertinent question. “I was heading north in hopes of meeting up with other rangers to find out if there is anything going on that needs tending to up there.” He waited to see if Legolas was interested in sharing in that endeavor. He wasn’t sure if the elf would want to meet any more humans just yet.

It sounded to the elf like an idea that had potential. “I have never met any rangers, other than you. It should prove...interesting.” Cocking his head to the side, Legolas asked, “Do they also get into a lot of trouble?”

Strider just grinned mischievously and urged his horse forward. Legolas would just have to find out for himself.

“By the way,” the ranger said, as Legolas caught up to him, “my family calls me Estel.”



Over the next several weeks, the elf and the ranger went from being casual companions to being fast friends. The more they learned about each other, the more they came to respect and care for each other.

Legolas was impressed by the ranger’s knowledge and experience in the world, despite his young age, though for a human, he was clearly a mature adult. The elf never tired of hearing about his new friend’s adventures. They seemed endless.

It hadn’t taken Strider long to realize that while Legolas was well-educated and possessed a great deal of knowledge about the races and cultures of Middle-earth, he had grown up basically sheltered and had very little actual experience dealing with anyone outside of Mirkwood. Not wanting to insult the elven warrior nor make him feel inferior, if that was even possible when referring to an elf, the ranger was careful when he related the finer details of the other inhabitants of Arda.

The wood-elf was perceptive and knew exactly what Strider was doing, and though he didn’t express it, he was grateful.

The friendship that was to become legendary in the annals of Middle-earth had taken root, and neither Legolas nor Aragorn could know the adventure that would become their lives.

An elf had chosen to explore the world and had then chosen to share his campfire with a stranger. A human had chosen to approach an unknown camp in the forest and had then chosen to ask an elf to be his traveling companion.

How many times in its history has the course of Middle-earth’s future turned on such seemingly inconsequential choices?

The End, or perhaps I should say And So the Adventure Begins