What the hell just happened? Kiah wondered as she made her way down the hall to her room. I can’t put that off on anyone but myself. That was pitiful, K, simply pitiful. You just showed your ass, like you had no home training. You are thirty-six years old with a teenaged daughter, but who could tell after this morning? she berated herself.  

One minute she and Legolas were almost cool, and the next-it was almost Armageddon. Why? So what if Frodo chose to do it? As long as somebody did so we can get the job done, right? Kiah knew she shouldn't be so flippant about it. She saw how much the Ring situation had affected the hobbit at the Council; hell, he’d almost died because of it. His eyes were a mixture of fear, weariness, and pain, feelings she knew all too well. To her, he was fragile and breakable. Maybe her mother’s instinct was misplaced, but she felt this pulling force to keep Frodo from more harm. Someone else should’ve stepped up, not him.  

When she finally reached her room, Kiah didn’t have to wait long before the assigned servants came and prepared her bath. Once they had left and her body was relaxing in the water’s heat, her mind re-centered on her latest fight.  

That was awful. Mother’s instinct or not, I have never overreacted like that in my life. Even if I was justified, Legolas wasn’t the one I should’ve unloaded on. Gandalf and Elrond should’ve said something, raised a flag and call a time-out. Hell, I should’ve just kept my ass in that meeting; I might have talked some sense into that boy, man, hobbit…or whatever.  

Legolas…what is it about him that just…just…gets under my skin? I can’t still be mad about the arrow and danger incident; as far as his late night insult went, people have said a lot worse. He’s offered to put his neck on the line for me when he doesn’t have to, just like Riddick. I didn’t have a hard time getting along with “Big Evil”, so why do I have this “diva complex” for the elf?  

Kiah thought about it, dissected it, and put it back together several times before coming to a conclusion: she didn’t trust Legolas, not in the slightest. With her silver-eyed friend, that concept wasn’t an issue, for they were both wanted by the Company-she for her gift, he for his past. They relationship was like the “honor among thieves” code; if he had thought of ratting her out-which he never did-she would’ve done the same. Kiah and Riddick had that understanding and commonality.  

Kiah and Legolas, however, didn’t. They had nothing in common, other than breathing air. He had tried to find something they shared back in Mirkwood, but her defenses around him were so thick and high that his efforts couldn’t get through. She didn’t feel that way around Cadrieldur; the thought never even entered her mind. He is neither Cad nor Riddick, K, so you’d better find a way to trust him for who he is, she thought. Otherwise, you might not be leaving this place.  

********** 

For the rest of the day, Legolas had asked himself similar questions. He knew there was a reason for Kiah’s dislike of him, and he had reached the same conclusion as she, that it was a matter of trust. And just like her, he wondered why, and why it bothered him. It wasn’t long before he reasoned that his behavior towards her stemmed, in part, from this being the first time a human distrusted him. It wasn’t the same intensity as orcs, or even dwarves, but it was intense all the same.  

There is no logic or reason behind it, he had thought before dinner that evening. It is not in the elves’ nature to inspire such an emotion and reaction in others. Did she not hear Elrond recount the last Alliance? Our races have been peaceful to one another, for the most part. If Kiah chooses not to trust me, then perhaps the reason is that she herself is not trustworthy. The silent vow he’d made to Cadrieldur to protect the woman floated towards the front of his mind. Never had Legolas broken his word, and he was not about to end that streak right now, not even for her.  

When he arrived he saw that Kiah was already there, surrounding at the far end of the table by the hobbits-Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pip. All five were engaged in a conversation that paused when Pip began to choke on his pint of ale, the fit of laughter overtaking him before he could swallow. The cause of his response sat nonplussed, sipping on water. “What? What did I say?” Legolas heard from her. He knew exactly what Kiah said, for it was very much unladylike…humorous, but unladylike. As he took his seat on Aragorn’s right side, he saw two of the Halflings struggle to contain their laughter. Frodo merely looked on, a small grin on his face.  

“The Hobbits have taken to her rather quickly, especially Pip,” the exiled king noted. “I think Kiah would only have to blink in his direction, and it would tickle him senseless.”  

 

Legolas waited for the servant to pour his wine before asking, “How long since they arrived?”  

 

“I assume they were the first; they were here when I came.” Aragorn smirked, “The hobbits’ love for food is quite an amusing thing.”  

His friend nodded slowly in agreement, while his eyes were trained on the quintet. He watched Kiah lean over to Frodo and whisper something that lifted the veil of burden from his eyes, just a little bit. She straightened up and tucked her braid-free hair behind her ears before turning back to Pip. She has concern for him like a mother to a child, Legolas observed, but then realized something else. Her mistrust has nothing to do with our different races, it has to do with me personally.  

Perhaps he had taken it for granted, that his lineage and status as an elven prince were all that most people needed to believe and have confidence in him. Apparently, it was insufficient for this particular human. Offensiveness resettled in Legolas, the curiosity in his eyes shifting to quiet anger, but not for long. Just then Kiah looked up and in his direction. Her eyes fell on his and quickly looked away, the smile on her lips faltering.  

She…fears me. I see it in her eyes. Kiah distrusts me because she fears me. But for what reason? This revelation was not what the elf expected, but there was no mistake that in the midst of wariness and guilt, he saw her fear. Legolas turned his head forward, feeling Aragorn’s eyes on him.  

“Earning Kiah’s trust and respect will be difficult, my friend. Not impossible, but certainly difficult,” he stated softly.  

Legolas thought on it for a moment, looking at his old friend once and then shifting his gaze back to the telekinetic and her hobbit friends.  

 

********** 

Several hours and jokes later, Kiah found herself wandering around one of Elrond’s private gardens. She now understood what he meant when he said not to underestimate the halflings: the moment she met them, she could tell they were made of strong character and heart. Their good-natured, down-to-Middle-Earth spirit put her own at some ease, until she saw Legolas looking straight at her. She didn’t know when he had arrived, and she didn’t know when he’d left. She pretty much avoided looking in his direction the rest of the evening, disliking the guilt she still felt.  

The night sky was clear and the moon was new, as Kiah made her way to a bench tucked between two huge trees. She wrapped her cloak around her shirt and leggings-declining to wear one of the gowns offered to her-and sat down, watching the fireflies dance and call to one another. Lanterns illuminated three curving paths that intersected ten feet in front of her, their light partially revealing some of autumn’s leaves on the ground. At that time she thought on many things, Asalie among them, as always. Kiah prayed that her time theory was right, and that she was really gone for twelve minutes and not days.  

High above, on one of the wider branches, Legolas had perched himself to think and reflect, as well. He had left the dinner right after the dessert course, bidding Aragorn and Gandalf goodnight. He knew that Kiah did not look in his direction on purpose, even when someone near him addressed her. He was there for maybe an hour when he saw her walk below, sitting on the bench between his favorite trees. When he was a young elf and visiting with his brothers, Legolas would climb one or the other and be perfectly content to sit and watch and hear all around him.  

He looked down and watched the human wrap herself in her cloak, her hair falling forward and partially shielding her face from view. As silently as he climbed up, Legolas climbed down the ancient tree and stood behind her. He could sense her power’s energy as always, whenever he was near her. It had enveloped him that morning when they fought, but now it felt at rest. Purposely, the elf prince snapped a twig under his foot, to make her aware of his presence.  

“This was my favorite place to be when I was young. My brothers would bring me with them on errands, and I would come here, climbing up one of these trees,” he said, his tone gentle and meant to put her at ease.  

Kiah started at his voice and got up. “I--I’m sorry, I didn’t know. I’ll leave,” she said and began to walk away, not wanting to engage in another argument with him.  

“Why are you afraid?”  

 

She turned a confused look in his direction. “What?”  

Legolas looked up at the sky. “Your distrust of me is based on fear…why?” His gaze fell to earth and centered on her. “I am not the people who hurt you so deeply, Kiah. I gave my word to protect you. I will not break it, as he did.”  

 

Kiah knew exactly which “he” the elf was referring to: the one she chose against her family’s wishes; the one who’d made the vows of love, honor, obedience, cherish, and respect; the one who had given her a beautiful child, only to steal her away for six years. She now knew that Gandalf had told her about the man whom she loved and hated at one time; what she didn’t know was just how much the wizard had shared.  

Just as during dinner, she averted her eyes and turned around, leaving the elf prince beneath the new moon. She paused in her step when Legolas repeated loud enough for her, “I will not break it, Kiah.”  

 

That was the second time he had called her by her name; if her level of trust in Legolas were better, the telekinetic would have thought it sounded beautiful. God, help me to believe in him. Kiah kept her present course and re-entered Elrond’s home, feeling a pair of ancient eyes follow her every step.