all_inclusive | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

It called to him now. Never before standing upon the decks of an ancient ship had the sea called to Legolas the way it called him now and there was little he could do but heed it. The armies of Gondor and Rohan camped now along the great field called Pelennor, preparing for a final stand against Sauron, and while his head should have been in strategy, instead it was lost at sea. This was madness.

Legolas understood now why the Elves had flocked from Middle Earth in droves. No longer were they tethered to this land and concerned with the perils of it. No longer did the matters of Men and Dwarves and Halflings cross their minds on a regular basis. Instead, it was Valinor and her white ships that called them and they answered it, marching without cease into the west.

Legolas knew there were many things left to be done before he could join them. He had made a pact with the company of the Ring and intended to keep it, intended to see Aragorn, son of Arathorn, installed as king of all Men. Sauron's grip in the east was too strong yet to give in to temptation and he tried to use that to guard his mind and serve as focus for the days to come. Still, as it had never been difficult before now, it was a strange shift in the way he thought and it almost seemed he was dreaming awake.

He pushed open the flap of his tent, intending to take in the night air on this eve of battle. Elves did not need to sleep in the traditional sense of Men and Dwarves and Legolas had already had his fill of rest this evening. Tonight, he sought the stars and their company and thought to commune with those long past. But as he stepped through the opening in the tent, a curious thing happened - there were no stars above him.

Instead, he was in a hall of some sort, closed in and carpeted without view of the night sky. There was a doorway there too, plain and unassuming, and Legolas wondered how this was possible. Was this some Elven magic or was it something older, something of wizards who trod the earth long before Elves came to prominence. Was this something of Numenor, now twisted to do Sauron's will? He knew not.

With a hand at the hilt of his knife, he turned his head a bit, listening for any signs of danger. Hearing nothing obvious, he pressed on, trying to make sense of this mad, new world.

[[Find an Elf wandering the halls at night!]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Legolas chose a chair and eased into it, allowing himself a moment's respite after the confusing events of the last several hours. It would not take long to acclimate, he did not think, but for the time being he was still a little out of sorts.

"I think you are more helpful than you believe yourself to be, Elsa. Truly."

She wishes she could only have been more helpful when it counted. When she hit Anna with ice. When her parents went on that journey. When they were alone.

But Elsa stays mum on those thoughts as she settles carefully into a seat.

"I know it can be hard, when you first show up."

"Experiencing a new place and new people is always difficult," Legolas agreed. "Especially when one prefers one's own company. I have never disliked being on my own."

It was difficult to be alone in Middle-Earth - the stars, the moon, even the trees and blades of grass were company in and of themselves.

"I grew up alone," Elsa replies, not thinking to stop herself. More than ever, she misses Anna for all that Elsa knows that it's safer like this, separated by worlds. She still expects to hear a knock at her door sometimes and a soft, lisping voice asking if she wants to build a snowman.

"You get used to it."

"Perhaps," Legolas said gently. "But perhaps we aren't meant to grow too used to it. Among Elves, while solitude is occasionally sought out, it isn't how one is meant to spend the entire span of his years. I am sorry you grew up alone, though. May I ask what happened? Forgive me if the question is rude. I mean no offense."

"An elf? I've never met an elf," Elsa's sadness draws back for a moment, outweighed by interest and curiosity.

Then he asks the question and she breathes out, uncertain. "I have...abilities with ice. It makes me dangerous."

"An Elf," Legolas confirmed, tapping one of his ears. It was pointed, subtly so, but enough that those in Middle Earth knew he was Sindarin and not human.

"My people were the first to walk Middle Earth and to speak to the forests and hear them back in return. How does ice make you dangerous? Ice is beautiful, especially when it coats the trees and rimes the glass."

"And it freezes the heart, makes people sick. Hurts them." Elsa can only think of the negative things she's done, forgetting entirely the moment that she'd believed she was free and able to let her power spiral free.

"But that is not all that it can be," Legolas said softly.

"I think it is a disservice to deny the beauty of something solely because it has some danger in it. Ice is elegant. Snow is beautiful and makes the whole wide world seem soft and clean. There is good in it, I think."

"You really think that?" Her voice is soft. Elsa has seen the beauty in ice, but has never known how to do anything good for others with her powers.

"I have never been happier than when experiencing the beauty of the world. Some of my happiest days were atop snow, white as far as the eye could see."

Legolas would not deny that it was harsh, at times, but ice could be stunningly beautiful. "The moon and stars glinting off a field of snow...it's beautiful."

When he calls the ice beautiful, Elsa leans for and presses her fingertips from the floor. Ice furls out from her touch, spirally up a few feet to create a sculpture of a reindeer in motion. It's perfectly clear, gleaming in the light while a few extra flurries clear through the air.

"Anything I've been able to imagine, I can make."

Legolas touched the ice lightly, tracing the curves of the sculpture. "This is true talent," he said, somewhat awed by the display.

"This is not something to hide away. Great skill and artistry went into this."

It had been a long time since Elsa had heard it called that. A talent. A gift.

"I just wish I knew how to make it stop when I needed to."

"That is a mystery I do not know the answer to," Legolas admitted easily.

"Sometimes the answers you seek will come to you in time with or without you pursuing them. I know this is not much of a comfort."

Elsa nods, uncertain again and wishing she had more to work with. "I was always taught to conceal it, try to pretend it wasn't there."

"So you suppressed it entirely?" he asked, curious as to how successful she'd been with that particular endeavor. It seemed foreign to him to try and suppress something that was a part of him but she was human. Perhaps that was normal among their kind.

"Yes. I didn't know what else to do."

And then it had all burst forth, creating that intense and unrelenting winter, even as she'd fought to keep herself from feeling.

"You shouldn't," Legolas decided. "You should share it with the world. If there is someone else who has these gifts, I am sure they can teach you how to hone the skill and keep it at bay in such a way that you can still enjoy it."

He's so hopeful, so fervent in his assumption that her powers are something good that Elsa has to smile a little.

"I just wish I had a teacher."

"Now that is something I do not know how to aid you with. I would give anything to have Mithrandir here once more."

If anyone knew how to channel the dangerous aspects of an element, it would be a wizard. The white wizard knew subtle arts that eluded even the wisest of the Elves, arts given to him by Eru himself.

It sounds like a name from a fairytale, but perhaps that isn't so surprising when she talking to an elf in a magical hotel. Not to mention the fact that she's apparently an ice witch herself.

"Who's Mithrandir? A teacher?"

"A wizard, I guess you would call him, though that seems like an inadequate term."

Mithrandir had many names and many roles, each unique to his audience. Legolas felt he had no peer in all of Middle Earth.

"All of it sounds like a fairytale," Elsa finally says aloud when Legolas refers to Mithrandir as a wizard. "What can he do?"

"Summon light and fire," Legolas said, trying to think over Mithrandir's many powers.

"Drive out evil. Mithrandir is...no Man or Elf has ever seen the likes of him before."

(no subject)

silverandcold - 2014-02-23 00:55 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

of_mirkwood - 2014-02-23 04:39 (UTC) - Expand

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only