Silverpath: The Calling

Author's Chapter Notes:
This takes place in Mirkwood, just a few weeks before the Council of Elrond occurs. And this is not a Legomance! Please review.


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Lekrisa stared outside the window, watching as the little yellow-blue birds fleeted among the branches, chirping their lovely songs. The sun was starting to set, turning the sky blood red. How peaceful, the elleth thought, slowly closing her eyes. A quiet rustle nearby made her perk her ears, her eyes still closed.
“You were never good at keeping silent,” she suddenly spoke in a teasing tone.
“You always had such good hearing.” A man muttered and Lekrisa listened as he pulled himself up onto the balcony. Her lips turned up into a slight smile.
“What are you doing here anyway, Legolas?” She opened her eyes and gazed at the figure standing nearby. “Isn’t there a feast tonight where your presence is necessary?”
“Why weren’t you there?” The elf asked, his azure colored eyes sparkling as he neared her.
“Father will kill you if he knew you were here. He would think it unsafe for a man to be alone with his daughter in her room.” She stood from the foot of her bed and walked over to her large oval mirror that hung near her table. The young woman watched her friend in the mirror, making sure her face was expressionless.
“Your father told me that you were working in the gardens, and my father excused your absence. But I checked and instead I find you here.” Legolas stood by her, staring at her reflection. “Why weren’t you there? Is something troubling you?”
As she watched him closely, Lekrisa noticed that a stray leaf had been caught in his neatly plaited hair. It took all of her effort not to chuckle. “You’re leaving,” she said quietly, knowing that what she said was true.
Her companion paused before answering. “Yes, but only for a short while.”
“You don’t know how long it will be.”
“No, I don’t. It’s only Rivendell.”
Lekrisa placed her hands on the edge of the stone table. “You’re leaving tomorrow, in the morning.”
“Yes.” Legolas swallowed. “But we can do something before we leave. I’ve been feeling up to some target practice. Would you care to join me?”
Lekrisa sighed. “You’re actually trying to spend some of your time with me, Lord Prince.” She smirked as she saw him groan at hearing his ‘royal address’. “I remember when we were young, you always spent every single waking minute with me,” she paused. “But as we grew older and started maturing, we found it hard to spend anymore time together. Now you have your duties to do in the court and I have to help my father around the house.”
Silence suddenly filled the room. The sun had already set, engulfing everything in darkness. “Lekrisa, we’ve gotten older and I…” Legolas’ hands trembled a little. “I was wondering if you would be my partner-”
“Well of course I’ll be your partner!” She turned to him with amusement in her eyes. “Who else would be practicing at this time?”
“That’s not what I mean,” he said under his breath as she grabbed her bow.
“Curse it all!” Lekrisa grumbled as she looked at her empty quiver, “I’ve run out of arrows!”
“You can use mine. I’ve left my bow in my room so I’ll meet you there.” He disappeared as quickly as he came.
Lekrisa frowned at his quick departure. She had noticed that his voice had quivered a little as he spoke his leaving words and she slightly wondered about it. Has he been frightened by something? After a while, she decided to shrug her question away. She grabbed her quiver and left.

~()~

The bowstring stung her fingers as she pulled it back. By the torchlight, she focused her eyes on the center of the target. She finally loosened her fingers, but the arrow, to her disappointment, landed in the closest ring. At the exact moment that the shaft met the target, there was a quick whistling sound and Legolas’ arrow dug itself into the center.
“You must be fooling, Lekrisa!” He said with shock as he pulled the shafts out.
“I’m not.” Lekrisa replied, “You’re just getting better than me. That’s really hard to believe.”
“I know, especially after you just missed the last five shots.” The elf grabbed some items out of the supplies. He tossed a wooden blade at her feet. “Let’s see if you’re still good at this.”
Not hesitating, she quickly grabbed the sword and swung at him. As she expected, he warded off the attack, striking a blow at her, which missed. As the two dodged and swung, neither of them brought harm to their opponent. The two were equal, and if both of them had been enemies, they would have fought for many days without anyone losing.
“You haven’t changed much since the last time I challenged you.” Legolas remarked, pressing his blade against hers.
“I never change!” Lekrisa gritted her teeth and pushed him hard. She quickly walked back, her sword ready to strike.
Suddenly, her mind filled with darkness, causing her to drop the blade. She didn’t hear it fall to the ground and she didn’t feel herself fall. All she could hear were these long, dark howls joined by many screams of fear and death. A cold shiver crept up her spine and her arm burned with unbearable pain. Then, there was a quick flash and a faint image entered her sight. She couldn’t tell what it was, but what she felt at seeing it made her not want to know. Fear crawled through her mind as she heard the dark screams again, and she fought to escape them.
Lekrisa? All of a sudden, a familiar voice echoed in her mind and she quickly opened her eyes. Legolas was staring down at her with worry etched on his face.
“Are you alright?” he asked her softly.
Lekrisa blinked, trying to find the words. “I’m fine,” she spoke her lie quietly. “Just took a small fall, that’s all.” She couldn’t tell him about it, and she wouldn’t cause him to also be troubled with her.
“Are you sure?” He asked again with uncertainty.
“Yes, I’m certain.” The floor underneath her was making her pain from the fall worsen. She met her friend’s gaze and forced a smile. “Did I lose?” She questioned him with fake eagerness. Legolas did not answer, but instead, just continued to stare down at her. Something about the way he looked at her made her feel uneasy. “You know, I think I sh-”
Before she could pull herself up into a sitting position, the elf leaned down and kissed her. Alarm filled her as she unexpectedly felt his lips against hers, and she quickly pulled away from him. Standing up, she looked away with her slender hand against her mouth with surprise. Lekrisa did not know what filled her at this moment, for too many emotions were running through her mind. In the end, she decided not to say anything and sat against the base of a statue in the far corner of the room.
She stared down at her hands, her lush blonde hair falling down her face, acting like a shield against him. After a few moments, she heard Legolas get up and walk over to her. He sat next to her and Lekrisa pretended to continue staring at her hands as if she found something interesting in them. She felt his gaze on her, and to her shame, she could not bring herself to look at him.
Legolas sighed, seeing that she would not face him. “Lekrisa, I-”
“I’m sorry I reacted so badly.” Lekrisa told him slowly, her face still lowered. “It’s just that…”
She paused, taking a breath of air. “It’s just that,” she continued, “I never thought you thought of me that way.”
“Lekrisa, I thought you knew that I loved you since-”
She turned to him angrily. “Then why do you choose to tell me now?” she asked, “Do you expect me to run after you tomorrow, saying that you shouldn’t go because I love you and am in need of you to stay? What if you-” Her voice faltered and she lowered her eyes with anger. Not at him, but at herself. Why did she yell at him when all he did was kiss her? She stole a glance at him and saw that he was quietly sitting next to her, his head lowered in his hands.
It took a while for her to regain her thoughts. Unknowing to her, Lekrisa felt herself take off the necklace she was wearing. She stared deep into the moonstone amulet that hung from the silver chain. Quietly, she placed it around Legolas’ neck, quickly turning away. Legolas gazed at her with confusion, holding the amulet gently in his fingers.
“This is your mother’s. It means everything to you.” He told her with a question in his voice. “Why?”
“It will protect you on your journey; I feel that the road to Rivendell is no longer safe as it used to be. You’ll need it more than me.” Lekrisa stared up at the starlit sky. She didn’t mention anything about her somehow knowing that he wouldn’t be back for a long time.
“Thank you.” He tucked it underneath his tunic. The two gazed up at the sky, each filled with different thoughts.
“What time are you leaving?” Lekrisa finally asked.
“At sunrise,” he replied slowly.
“Aren’t you supposed to be going home now?” she said, turning to him.
“No, I’m staying right here.” Legolas avoided her eyes as he spoke with a slight challenge in his tone. He probably expected her to leave, but she decided to stay.
Father will be mad at me once he finds out I lied to him, she told herself. But maybe he would understand.
“Is Arodras coming with you?” She said, placing her head on his shoulder.
He chuckled. “Even if my father told him to stay, he would still come. It’s not everyday that he gets a chance to visit Rivendell,” he answered. “And won’t they all dread his coming.”
Lekrisa laughed. Very few people were fond of the talkative elf prince. “I wonder how Lord Elrond will react when he finds out that he’s coming,” she commented, smiling at the thought.
“He’ll probably lock him in a room to keep him from disturbing the council,” Legolas said, his eyes sparkling with amusement. The elves continued to laugh softly until the torch ran out. Lekrisa shivered and Legolas carefully wrapped his cloak around her, making her feel warm again.
“This seems very familiar,” Legolas spoke after a while. “Do you remember when we always snuck out of our lessons?”
She did remember. They had been young then and had approached the age of lessons. Both of them had skipped their classes once a week, meeting in a secret place that only they knew of. The two hung out there for many hours, talking and eating the food that Legolas had stolen from the kitchens. But this scheme of theirs did not last very long, due to Arodras who had cleverly followed them once and told Thranduil of it right away. Both of them were punished, told off by their parents that skipping their lessons was bad and shameful.
“We spent all of our free time working in the kitchens,” Legolas added.
“I hated washing those dishes!” Lekrisa scowled, “I was trying to encourage you to protest with me, but you wouldn’t.”
“What could I do? They told me that if I did something bad again, I wouldn’t be allowed to go on the hunting party!”
“Well, you still didn’t. If I knew you were just going to stay with me that day, I would have added you into that food fight!”
Legolas wrapped his arm around her and she placed her head at his chest, their brief argument a while ago completely forgotten. “Lekrisa, you were always a troublemaker,” he whispered in her ear. “I wonder why you changed.”
“I had to grow up, and besides, I got sick and tired of being a bad person.”
After a while, drowsiness finally entered her and Lekrisa’s eyes began to close. “I’m going to miss you,” she muttered.
“Me too.” Legolas replied and smiled when he realized that she had fallen asleep. “Lekrisa,” he whispered softly, closing his eyes, willing for sleep to come over him.

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Chapter End Notes:
This first chapter is a little shabby. Trust me, this is all the romance I have in this story. The next few chapters will be more exciting and appetizing. Please review, and thank you for reading!