A Tale of the Woods || Legolas

From A Tale of the Bard series

The pastel blue sky outstretched above you as the light wind brushed past your hair. The last bits of snow lay on the ground. Soft whisper of the water flowing nearby reached your ears. You were wrapping your forearm with the white bandage while listening to the sounds in the background. The wound wasn’t deep but it bled too much to leave it unattended. You weren’t sure when you hurt yourself and even if you remembered, it wouldn’t change a thing.

“Let me do that.” you heard Legolas’ soft voice as he took the bandage roll away from you. It made you wonder if you were that bad at it or if he just wanted to focus on something else than unpleasant thoughts. The badly wrapped material around your wrist was the best answer.

A short nod of a head was the only sign you agreed to his offer. You halted for a moment so your wound could be taken care of. It lasted only a short moment and you spent it in a complete silence.
“Thank you.” were the first words you said in a rather long time. A small smile appeared on his face before he left your side.

As you were alone again, you looked around and spotted Aragorn who was gazing at the landscape on the horizon. Your legs moved on their own and soon you found yourself next to him.  Your eyes met for a second before shifting towards the sea of green that lay past the mountains.

Your hand tightened its grip on your wounded forearm.



Soft green grass felt like silk under your feet. So much time passed since you walked on something different than hard and moist surface of the stones. A change of the surroundings was refreshing both for your body and soul.

You halted in your movement as the first trees appeared before you. Your eyes gazed up, to the green crown touching the sky above. The leaves whispered while they were moved by the wind and your eyes closed for a moment so you could just listen. There were things that would never stop fascinating you.

When you descended deeper into the woods, you took out your book and started scribbling inside. There was so much to write about and you finally felt like if it was a good time to continue from where you stopped. As you were fully absorbed in your work, you decided to keep close to Legolas As he was and Elf your mind whispered to you that there was a low possibility to get lost with him around.

"Stay close, young Hobbits! They say that a great sorceress lives in these woods, an Elf-witch, of terrible power. All who look upon her, fall under her spell…" you heard a croaky voice in the background. You raised your head for a moment to look at Gimli. It was certainly a really interesting thing to write about. You left a page or two clean, so you could come back to it later and write about what happened in Moria. The Dwarf’s legend needed your attention.

As a small smile appeared on your lips, you begun to wonder if what your beardy companion was saying was true. You tried to catch Aragorn’s or Legolas’ gaze and ask them, but they were too occupied with trying to spot if there was an enemy near.

"…and are never seen again."

“Is this even true?” you asked still looking at the blank paper in your hands.
“Would ya ever accuse me of lying, lass?” he asked.

“No, never.” a sigh left your lips as you cut the conversation even before it fully started. You didn’t even want to correct him about your gender, again. There was no use of asking him from where he knew that tale. You shook your head and concentrated on your writing.

Small branches and leaves lay where they had fallen from the trees. They bent, and then finally cracked in half under the Fellowship’s boots. The sounds of woods were soft and seemed to reach the group from far, far away. Green crowns made of pure green covered the whole sky, keeping the group hidden from the world outside.

But they weren’t perfectly safe, no. The deep voice of the Dwarf warrior was heard as he retold the story about the powerful witch living among the green leaves. She was a beautiful maiden that easily captured young men hearts only to pull them out from their chest and feed with them.
Hobbits shivered as they begun to look nervously around them. Everything went silent, their breaths were the only sound that filled the air.

"Well, here is one Dwarf she won't ensnare so easily. I have the eyes of a hawk and the ears of a fox!" you barely registered Gimli’s voice resounding in the background as you were too absorbed with your work.

</i>“…  And then a sound of bows drawing and armor plates hitting broke the silence. It was a sign for the companions to…”</i>

Armor? Bows? There was something wrong, you thought.

You raised your head looking for an answer of the sudden commotion. And you found it immediately, as your eyes locked with the ones that had a color of the morning sky at summer. They belong to a very handsome Elf that you never saw before. Your lips parted slightly as you watched him. His appearance took your breath away as he was one of the most beautiful creatures your gaze ever landed on. His features were delicate and beautiful and even if perhaps it was  characteristic all of the Elves held you couldn’t peal your eyes away from him. There was something in that male, something that drew you towards him and you didn’t know how to fight with that.

“The dwarf breathes so loud, we could have shot him in the dark.” as the magnificent creature had spoken you finally came to your senses. You looked around only to see how unfortunate the situation you found yourself in was.

A low growl came from Gimli’s throat and you could only hope that there was some kind of solution to avoid the sudden meeting with Elvish party end with bloodshed.



The urge to look around was getting unbearable but you couldn’t bring yourself to move even a little bit. All those eyes that watched you made a cold shiver run down your spine. You had so much to write about but as you couldn’t take out your book you tried to remember most of it.

A foreign language reached your ears, making you place your gaze on the owners of the voices. Two male Elves and one Man. You could only understand the names that fell from their lips, or at least the words that you thought sounded like names. But any other than that- you didn’t know what they were talking about.

"So much for the legendary courtesy of the Elves! Speak words we can also understand!" you nodded your head at Gimli’s words. You could always ask Aragorn about the translation later, but who knew when that later would be?

"We have not had dealings with the Dwarves since the Dark Days." the handsome Elf, whose name you understood was Haldir, said while shifting his gaze from Aragorn towards your Dwarf companion.

"And you know what this Dwarf says to that? Ishkhaqwi ai durugnul!" you took a step backward. The tone of Gimli’s voice and Haldir reaction to his words were enough for you to seek a hiding place. Aragorn turned around and grabbed his short companion. He had enough of that unneeded discussion.

"That was not so courteous." left his lips as he tried so hard to keep himself calm.

In the same moment Haldir’s took a few steps to the left as his gaze landed on Frodo. The Elf’s eyes widen slightly and a sense of danger embraced his heart.

"You bring great evil with you." he started, his voice becoming colder and darker. Even if his words weren’t directed towards you, suddenly you felt very much unsettled. "You can go no further." he continued while once again looking at Aragorn before walking away.

The only thing you could do was to wait patiently, hoping that there was some way to persuade the Elves to help your cause.

You found a place for yourself near small lantern that gave a dim blue light. You noticed the words were a little bit blurred as you opened your thick book in an attempt to write something down. Noises from the background filled your ears, wind brushing past the leaves, quiet sounds of nature, Aragorn’s voice filled with anger... You didn’t even need translation to know what he was saying.

How much time passed as you sat there gazing at the white paper. Almost nothing came from under your hand other than small sketches of the images before your eyes. You never were good at drawing as you never really put your mind into it. Your parents tried to force into learning the ability as it was ‘required for a person with high social status to learn such things’. But as you never really understood their arguments, you paid no attention to their pleas.

You raised your head in search for a certain blonde haired Elf. He stood not so far from your position and after a moment you decided to join him. Only when you reached him you noticed where he was gazing to and your eyes followed.

Heavy atmosphere surrounded you, the one you couldn’t really understand. You watched your companions faces, hurt and fear hid in Hobbits’ eyes, the same one you felt but tried so hard to ignore. You raise your head to glance at Legolas whose gaze was already placed on your face.

"You will follow me." suddenly Haldir appeared, he looked less than pleased you had to add. But as long as he was willing to help you, his mood wasn’t really your concern.



Golden woods surrounded your party as you were guided by the Elves. Your mind was filled with all kind of thoughts as you gazed everywhere but at the road ahead what ended with you stumbling over roots, rock or thin air. The only positive aspect of it was that Legolas walked behind and was fast enough to grab your arm before you fell to the ground.

The group reached the clearing on the hill from where you could see the rest of the woods, and there, in the middle of everything a great glade of trees raised above any other plant. It seemed as their leaves could touch the darkening sky above. Your eyes widen as you look in awe at the magnificent view before you.

"Caras Galadhon… the heart of Elvendom on earth. Realm of the Lord Celeborn and of Galadriel, Lady of Light."

Suddenly you remembered Gimli’s tale from before. A glare was send towards him, not that he noticed. Even if you felt pretty much betrayed that it wasn’t real even in slights bits, there was no way you were going to change the story. Perhaps it could work as a plot twist.