Fan Fiction ❯ Wild Blue Yonder ❯ Settling in at Rivendell ( Chapter 8 )

**REVISIED**

Disclaimer: As I have been so duly ordered I do not own, not will I ever own Tolkein's work or Lord of the Rings. (sneaking a quick peek around the computer, man I hope that they haven't bugged my computer.)

Wild Blue Yonder

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Chapter 8 - Settling in at Rivendell

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She stared in wonder at the dark haired elf sitting next to her bed. 'This is Lord Elrond.' she thought, stunned that he would be addressing her directly. She had figured that when she had been captured she was going to be thrown into a cell or something, not into this beautiful room. Nor had she expected to wake up and find Lord Elrond himself watching over her. Reality suddenly came crashing down on her.

"Wait a minute, how do you know my name?" she asked suspiciously, remembering that he had called her by her full name when she had awoken. Struggling to sit up better, she was startled when she felt his arms come around her and adjusted the pillows behind her before laying her back against them. Looking up into his gray eyes, she saw that they were filled with concern about her.

"I am sorry about the way my guards treated you." he said as he lifted his hand to brush away the hair from her forehead to examine the bruise at her temple. "Unfortunately, your sudden appearance startled them and most of the guards are wary of humans."

He laid his fingers along the bruised area and closed his eyes. She felt an unexpected warmth radiate from his fingers as he smoothed them over the aching area. The pain slowly faded, as the warmth seemed to travel throughout her body. When he opened his eyes and removed his hand, her hand came up to touch her head. The bump that had been there before was gone and the ache in her head with it. Startled by the sudden lack of pain, her eyes flew up to meet his gaze.

"How did you do that?" she asked curious.

"My family has always had the power to heal those who needed it." Elrond responded, sitting back and taking in her disheveled appearance.

"I will send for a handmaiden to help you bathe and bring you some food. I will leave you now, but I invite you to join me for dinner." He said as he stood and turned to leave.

"Sir," she called. "Have you seen Legolas and the others? They were behind me before I was brought here."

Elrond turned his head back to her, "They arrived just a short while ago. I will let them know that you are here and have asked for them. You can see them at dinner tonight. Until then, please accept my hospitality." With that he swiftly left her alone in the large room.

"Damn, I still don't know how he knows my name." she murmured to herself. Hearing a snort, she looked away from the door to the other side of the bed to find Nanook peering over the edge of the bed, his eyes looking mournfully at her.

"Oh, Bup-pup, come here." she said as the big dog jumped up onto the bed and into her arms. Sighing she cradled the large head against her chest as she softly petted his nose. "What have we gotten ourselves into, Bup-pup?"

Hearing a light knock on the door, she waved Nanook off of the bed and pulled the covers up snuggly around her waist. "Come in" she called. The door opened to reveal a young elf maiden, with long brown hair, streaked with gold.

"My Lady Rain." she said as she glided gracefully into the room. "Lord Elrond requested that I assist you while you stay with us. My name is Elenna." She stopped just short of the bed and curtsied charmingly.

"Thank you Elenna, I would appreciate your assistance and please call me Rain." she said as she threw back the covers of the bed to get out. To her dismay, she found that they had put her into bed fully clothed with her boots still on, the dirt and mud that had been caked on them now in the bedding.

"Oh my, I wish they had at least taken my boot off, it is a shame to dirty such a beautiful bed." Rain said, looking at the dirty sheets.

"Don't worry my lady, while you are bathing I will take care of them." Elenna said as she moved across the room to the closet and pulled out a long light green bathrobe. "Here, if you will change into this I will see about having your clothing cleaned."

Rain had just reached up and began unbuttoning the buttons on the front of her outer blouse, when the doors to her room suddenly burst open and in stumbled a disheveled blond haired elf, panting lightly. He was almost thrown to the ground as two other elves, both with dark hair tried to stop directly behind where he stood in the doorway. Rain chose to ignore the jump in her heart and the quickening of her pulse as the mere sight of him.

"Rain, are you all right?" Legolas asked with a note of worry in his voice.

"Don't mind him Rain, we tried to tell him that nothing would happen to you, but he wouldn't believe us." Elrohir said right behind him, pulling himself up from were he had landed on the floor after colliding with Legolas and the doorway.

"Legolas, I'm all right, but what happened to you? You look like you fell into a briar patch." she chuckled as she noticed the dirt and scratch marks on his face and hands, one of his braids falling apart and several twigs stuck in his hair.

Glaring over his shoulder at Elladan as he answered, "Elladan decided that he wanted to wrestle and we rolled into the bushes." She noticed also that Elladan was covered in scratches also, but much worse than Legolas. She deduced who the winner had been.

"Hmpf, I don't know why you dragged me up here anyway. I'm going to my room." Elladan snorted as he stomped out of the room and disappeared into the hallway.

"I take it that he is still sore about the incident last night." Rain grinned, making sure not to divulge the details with Elenna in the room.

"Yes, quite." Elrohir said as he grinned cheekily back at her. "But I see we are interrupting you, please forgive us my lady, but Legolas insisted on checking on you." He winked at Rain over Legolas's shoulder as his gray eyes twinkled merrily.

"Thank you Lord Elrohir. Legolas, I promise I'm all right." she said as she turned back to look at him. He quickly strode across the room to stand over her, looking down into her forest green eyes.

"Are you sure?" he murmured, "We heard that you had a confrontation with two of the border guards." He quickly scanned her face for any sign of pain or injury, concerned that they may have hurt her.

"Legolas" she said, as she reached up to pluck several of the twigs from his hair. "I am fine. Now would you please go, I would like to take a bath. You obviously need to take one too." she said, and let her hand trail down from his hair to rest on the center of his chest, trying to reassure him.

His hand automatically came up to cover hers, gripping it lightly before releasing it. "I will then. See you in a little while." He stared down into her eyes for a few moments. Rain became lost in the depths of his brilliant blue gaze, before he turned to leave.

She watched as he turned and strode out of the room. Elrohir stood grinning in the doorway, as he waved to her and closed the door behind both of them. Rain blinked quickly, before she turned to Elenna and chuckled at the stunned expression on the young maid's face.

"Earth to Elenna." Rain said as she waved a hand in front of Elenna's eyes.

"Oh." she said, jerking suddenly out of her trance. "You know Prince Legolas?" she sighed breathlessly, her tone questioning and envious.

Rain's grin faded rapidly. "Prince?"

"Yes. He is the youngest son of Thranduil, King of the Elves of Mirkwood." Elenna's eyes sparkled with excitement. "Did you not know?"

"No." Rain's reply was distracted. She racked her brain, trying to remember any mention of Legolas' royalty in the books, but she couldn't recall any. Why had HE not told her he was a prince. As if Elenna could read her mind, she answered.

"Of course, Prince Legolas is only fourth in line for the throne. He doesn't like to be treated special. He prefers to earn respect through his bravery on quests."

Rain studied Elenna's dreamy expression and obvious devotion and thought, 'she's obviously a fan of his.' She bit her lip to hide her smile.

"And you know him?" Elenna sighed enviously, clearly not upset by Rain's distraction.

"Yes, we traveled here together." Rain said as she sat down on the edge of the bed and began unlacing her black combat boots. Kicking them off, she quickly striped out of the uniform, sighing at being rid of the dirty clothing. Slipping the robe on, she turned back to Elenna who had been gathering her clothes into a pile as she removed them.

"How long will it take to get them cleaned?" she asked, knowing that she didn't have anything else she could wear.

"They will be ready by tomorrow morning." Elenna said, seeing the dismayed look on her face. "I will bring you suitable clothing until yours are clean. There is a beautiful dress in the exact shade of your eyes that I know will fit you perfectly."

Rain winced at the thought of a dress. She normally wore blue jeans and tee shirts, the only time she ever wore a dress was at the Squadron Christmas party.

"I really would prefer trousers if at all possible." she said. Seeing Elenna's crestfallen expression, she relented, "All right, bring the dress. I can wear it for dinner. But, also bring me some pants and shirts for daily wear."

"Oh, thank you my lady. You bath is ready, just go through there." Elenna beamed, as she pointed towards a door on the opposite wall from the bed. "While you are bathing, I will prepare your clothes." she turned and scampered happily out of the room. Rain sighed as she watched the pretty elf maid skip happily out of the room, before turning to enter the bathroom. Stepping though the door she found a large bathing area, with the tub sunken into the floor. Wisps of steam circled invitingly from the water as she dropped her robed next to the steps. Sinking into the hot water, she sighed blissfully closing her eyes, aware of the water's warmth soaking into sore muscles.

Leaning back, Rain let her body relax and her mind wander. She realized with a start that she wasn't angry with Legolas for not telling her his full identity. Hadn't she done that on occasion before? A few times.

Stretching out her legs and luxuriating in the feel of the steaming water, Rain chuckled as she thought of the young prince being ambushed and handcuffed by a lowly commoner. A human female at that! She briefly wondered what Elenna's reaction would be to that if she told her, but decided it would be better to keep it secret.

She lounged in the steaming water for a short period before sitting forward and looking around. On a raised ledge near her head was a series of bottles and a small towel. Picking up the small towel, she took the first bottle off the ledge and opened it. The smell of lavender filled the air and she poured a small amount into her palm. It obviously was shampoo from the texture. Sighing happily, she dropped the washcloth into the tub and poured a liberal amount of shampoo into her hair. It was heavenly to be able to finally wash her hair.

Quickly shampooing and rinsing her long hair, she soaped up her washcloth and cleaned off her body. Noticing that the water in the tub was still hot and clear, she wondered if the tub self-circulated through a hot spring of some sort. She looked around and found several fluffy towels next to the step of the tub. Stepping out she quickly dried off and wrapped her wet hair up into a towel, before slipping her robe back on. Striding back into her room, she found Elenna puttering around, putting clothing away into the large closet.

"Oh, my lady, you're done. Here sit down and eat." she said as she shooed Rain over to a small table next to the balcony doors. A plate with fruit and a small glass was set on the table. Hungrily she ate the entire offering and sat back in the chair with a sigh, the glass cradled in her hand, as she looked out the open doors over the beautiful landscape. Yawning loudly, she jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Lady Rain, why don't you take a nap and I will come back later to get you ready for dinner. You have had a rough day and could probably use the rest." Elenna said as she smiled down at her.

"You're right, I could probably use the rest. Especially if I have to deal with the three musketeers later." Rain chuckled at the confused expression on Elenna's face. "It's just a saying from where I live."

"Oh, right. Well I will see you later this evening. Have a good rest my lady." Elenna said as she quietly left the room, closing the door softly behind her. Rain yawned again and put the glass back down on the table before crawling into the now clean bed. Nanook whined softly before he jumped up next to her and curled up against her, both of them falling fast asleep in moments.

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A/N: Well another chapter and we are closer to finding out about Rain's destiny. How does Lord Elrond know her name if the others had only just arrived at Rivendell? Only time will tell.

Let me know, what do you think? Are you enjoying it so far? Thanks for your reviews.