AN: Information on the sequel at the end of the chapter!
Disclaimer: I don't own LOTR. I also don't own Caleniel, Cadunír, Rodwen, Thinedhel, Elvellaswen, Gaenír, or Aearoniell; they belong to Tador and Aearoniell, who have given me permission to use their characters for my own twisted ideas.
Lady Caleniel
By: Mika Saito
Chapter 16- Where it ends
Black.
Everything was black, and cold.
The inky blackness swirled around her, ever changing. The darkness was as cold hands caressing her skin.
Familiar and unfamiliar voices drifted around her, their words lost in the chilling darkness.
"Caleniel." A voice hissed in her ear. She swung around to see who it was.
The scene that appeared before her was surprisingly bright; she had to squint for a moment while she waited for her eyes to adjust to the sudden light.
What she saw when her eyes had adjusted to the light brought a horrified gasp from her lips.
She lay curled in Legolas's arms; her face buried in his neck as sobs wracked her body. Legolas comfortingly rubbed her back while speaking softly in her ear.
"It's alright Caleniel… Shhh… It's alright."
"No it's not." Came the muffled response from his neck.
"Tell me what happened." Legolas glanced around the trashed room. Blood was everywhere.
"Aearoniell." The voice faltered. "Aearoniell took the children."
Legolas arms tightened around the shivering figure as the scene faded to inky blackness again.
Caleniel wrapped her arms around herself, a silent tear sliding down her cheek.
Caleniel came to slowly, waking in small increments. She shifted into a more comfortable position, vaguely aware of the sharp pain that shot through her ribs.
A gentle hand squeezed her hand, a voice whispered softly in her ear.
The words were blurred together, yet there was an unmistakable familiarity and tenderness in the tone.
Another voice broke into her hazy thoughts, this one was just as familiar as the first, but there was an urgency in the tone that pulled at Caleniel.
Caleniel opened her eyes, blinking against the bright sunlight shinning in her face.
"You're awake!" The owner of the first voice leaned over her. The elf was familiar looking, but the name to go with the face remained absent until he gently stroked her cheek, his eyes shinning with worry, tenderness, and love.
"Legolas." She smiled at him. Her smile quickly disappeared though, as the memory of the chilling darkness and the bloody scene came to mind.
Legolas saw her smile slowly fade, and the frown take its place.
"Caleniel what's wrong." Legolas asked worriedly.
"Nothing." Caleniel shook off the feeling of dread that had settled over her heart and smiled up at Legolas.
"Something is wrong, you can't hide it" Cadunír told her quietly, making his presence known to his daughter.
"What happened to Gaenír?" Caleniel ignored her fathers' question as Legolas helped her sit up. It was then that she noticed everyone else in the room.
"Gaenír is dead." Elvellaswen answered from her chair near the door. Caleniel looked at Legolas with a question in her eye.
"Your arrow went straight through his heart." Legolas confirmed.
"Then it's over?" Caleniel sighed.
"Not quiet." Legolas said softly as he moved away from her side to stand by the window.
"Aearoniell disappeared before she could be caught. She took Gaenír's body with her." Cadunír explained, taking Legolas's place by the bed.
When Caleniel did not say anything, he continued.
"As soon as you're well enough we'll be heading back to Rivendell." He told her quietly.
"What!" Caleniel and Legolas exclaimed in unison.
"You and Legolas look good together, but since you obviously don't wish to marry him we'll return to Rivendell and start to chose someone else."
Caleniel could only hopelessly stare at him.
"Father…."
"I don't want to hear it Caleniel." Cadunír cut her off. "Whoever I chose is who you're going to marry, and that's final." Caleniel sighed shakily, closing her eyes to the tears that threatened to fall.
"Alright." She whispered. Cadunír gave her a curious look. She looked far to close to tears for someone who had just been told they were not going to marry the one they didn't want to marry. Cadunír turned and motioned everyone to leave the room.
"She needs her rest." He told them.
Legolas was the last one to leave. He turned in the door way, his eyes no longer showed the tenderness or love they had when she had woke up, they were now filled with sadness.
"I'm sorry Prince." She told him, trying to keep her spirits up, yet failing miserably at it. Tears began to stream down her cheeks as Legolas gave her one last long look and left the room, the door closing with a loud click.
Caleniel tried to stretch out her recovery as long as she possibly could. However, at the end of the first week her father declared that she was well enough to make the trip.
Therefore, it was with a heavy heart that she allowed Rodwen to help her get dressed on the morning of their departure.
"It won't be to bad." Rodwen told her gently. "I'm sure your father will chose someone perfect for you."
"How can he when has practically forbidden me from marry the one I love!" Caleniel whirled around to face her, her pale green dress billowing out around her. The dress looked almost exactly like the one she had been wearing on the trip to Mirkwood, only it was looser, to accommodate Caleniels' healing wounds.
Rodwen sighed tiredly. This was the fourth time they had gone through this.
"Why didn't you tell your father that?" Rodwen asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I tried to, but he wouldn't let me say anything." Caleniel replied.
"Try again." Rodwen gave her an exasperated look. "You're stubborn when you should be compliant, and compliant when you should be stubborn." Caleniel glared at Rodwen before deciding to ignore the comment.
A knock on the door interrupted the silence in the room.
"Lady Caleniel, Rodwen, are you ready to go?" It was Thinedhel.
"Yes," Rodwen answered. "Come on Caleniel, we need to leave now."
"There you are Caleniel!" Cadunír smiled at his daughter when they reached the stables. Caleniel glanced at him, her expression emotionless, before looking for Legolas.
Cadunír shook his head at the emotionless expression on her face before turning to face Thranduil again.
"I'm sorry that the match didn't work out as we had hoped." He said with a sigh.
"It went better than originally planned, it just didn't work out in the end, as far as we know." Thranduil said cryptically.
"As far as we know?" Cadunír noticed his friends' manner and smiled.
"I think there is more to things than is obvious." Thranduil replied.
"And so there is." Cadunír motioned towards his daughter, who was walking towards Legolas.
She found Legolas standing away from everyone else, observing the scene before him. She approached him cautiously. She knew she needed to talk to him, but she was reluctant to, knowing that he would probably be angry with her.
"Legolas." She spoke softly, standing next to him.
"What do you want Lady Caleniel?" He asked without turning to face her.
"We need to talk." She replied simply.
"About what?" He glanced at her, and was surprised to see the sadness in her eyes.
"Can we please just go somewhere a little more private?" She pleaded with him.
"Come on." Her grabbed her hand and led her farther away from the group. When they were far enough away from everyone, and out of site, Legolas turned towards Caleniel, her hand still held in his.
"What did you need to talk to me about?" He asked.
"About this whole thing." Legolas raised an eyebrow at her.
"What whole thing?" He asked coldly.
"My father choosing someone else for me to marry."
"What about it?"
"Could you please quit being so rude?" Caleniel growled.
"Why should I?"
"You're acting like a spoilt brat who didn't get what he wanted."
"So what if I am? I have a right to be." He told her.
"What right would that be?" She asked sarcastically.
"I didn't get what I wanted." It was Caleniel's turn to raise an eyebrow at him.
"And what would that be?"
"You." Caleniel's eyes widened at his blunt response. "I gave you my heart thinking that when this was over you might love me as I loved you. I had hoped we might be together when it was over."
"You got one thing you wanted." She offered him a small smile. "You have my heart Legolas, you've had it for a long time, almost from the beginning." Legolas smiled at her as he pulled her into his arms.
"But we can't be together."
"We can if I could just get my father to listen to me."
"Caleniel, I hate to interrupt your good-byes, but your father is looking for you, again." Elvellaswen interrupted.
"Alright, I'll be there in a moment." Elvellaswen nodded and headed back towards Cadunír.
"I'll try to talk to my father. I'll fight against whoever he chooses as much as I can if he doesn't listen." Caleniel leaned into Legolas's embrace.
"Alright." He released her and followed her back towards the group.
"Are you ready to go Caleniel?" Haldir asked when Caleniel and Legolas rejoined the group.
"No." Caleniel told him, her eyes on her father.
"Why not?" Cadunír asked, a slightly knowing smile on his lips.
"Because when you announced that I wouldn't be marrying the Prince of Mirkwood you wouldn't allow me to say anything." Rodwen sent her an approving look. "I won't leave until you hear what I have to say."
"What is it?"
"When I told you I didn't love, or want to marry Legolas, I was lying. The only reason I said I didn't was because of the plan Elvellaswen, and myself had going against Gaenír." She paused. "The truth is I love Legolas and I want nothing more right now than to marry him."
Cadunír thought for a moment on what his daughter had said. A wide smile replaced the thoughtful look as he glanced at Thranduil, who was shooting him a knowing smile.
"Mae pennen, pen dithen." He hugged her. "I was waiting for your stubbornness to show through."
Caleniel looked at her father curiously.
"You can marry the Prince if you so wish to." He told her softly. She threw her arms around her father and hugged him tight, whispering thank you repeatedly to him, tears running down her cheeks.
Cadunír pulled his daughter away from him so that he could look into her eyes.
"You should be with him, so go."
"Thank you father."
"Just go to him."
Legolas had chose not to watch his love leave, and so once Caleniel was standing with her father again he left. He had almost made it back to the palace when he heard Caleniel's voice calling him.
"Legolas!" He stopped and waited for her to catch up.
"What is it Caleniel?" He asked once she had caught up to him. She smiled at him and in response to his question she threw her arms around his neck and pulled his head down so that their lips met.
"Caleniel, what are you doing?" He asked when they had broken the kiss.
"I'm staying here, with you." She told him.
"What are you saying?" He did not trust what his mind was trying to tell him.
"I got my father to listen to me. He said I can marry you if I want to." She whispered softly.
"And do you want to?" He whispered back.
"More than anything in the world." He smiled at this and reclaimed her lips.
The wedding was small and simple. Thranduil had wanted a larger wedding, since it was the Prince getting married, but Legolas and Caleniel insisted on having a small wedding, inviting only the necessary people. The celebration afterwards could be large, but they wanted the ceremony to be small.
Cadunír and Thranduil watched them as they sat close together, talking, and every now and then kissing.
"I think we matched them up perfectly." Thranduil mused quietly.
"Yes. Happy together, yet they still argue over somethings, should be an interesting marriage." Cadunír laughed.
"It probably will be." Thranduil agreed.
-End-
AN: It's taken me longer than I thought to fully edit this, though that could be because I've been lazy... either way, it's finally finished - so now I can devote my time to the sequel (if I can ever get my brother away from the computer, lol)
As for the sequel, I have started it. The first 4 chapters are finished, as well as half of the 5th, I just need to find time to type them... I'm hoping to have the first chapter up before band camp this year, which is the first week in August, hopefully by that time I'll have most of it written out and ready to post...