the
Laurelin

It had been a while since the golden had walked so confidently abroad. For a month he had been gone, for months before that he’d slunk about with more skill than a rat. Never seen, never heard, only traces found. Yet now he was feeling quite different. Now he bore  his crown in power once more, and he forgot how its weight made him carry it higher.

Of course that didn’t mean he was suddenly reformed. There was much still the same about the Laurelin, especially his fondness for wandering where ever he could, and far from anything tainted with the word ‘duty’. So even though the snow covered the ground and the northern winds blew he dashed through it with a light heart and high step. Haldir, beside him, even threw in a buck or two as the journeyed looking for no one, and nothing.

There were however, some pressing details. He was still going the wrong direction. He was meant on this day to turn north and head up to the mountain peaks. The Lady of those wolves surely awaited him., and even he could not deny the primeval urges to go to her. So yes, he would travel there next, but in the calm of the day, with its soothing serenity and he had not yet altered course.

And that is how they came upon the little gathering. Well….not so little. Half of Helovia was circling a large pine. The scene these two were no stranger to. Thranduil snorted in derision, but Haldir’s face lit up. The gold hadn’t yet come down to a large gathering so publicly in quite some age, but it was about time, besides there were some very interesting objects on that tree. Haldir dashed on ahead through the crowd, taking moments to step and bellow to fellow companions he  knew, and avoiding those he wished not to meet even on lite ally. He caught the whispers of the task ahead, and as the gold wound his way through the crowd, brought it to the gold’s attention.

Something must be given? The Laurelin did not answer the first probe of his companion. He was not exactly a giving creature. But Haldir was persistent as they come, and for every dark of the gold, he was light. His heart still clung to innocent notions of giving, peace on earth, and goodwill. So he persisted, explaining what he heard as the gold came to a halt near the central group. Magic day? The gold looked up at the tree littered with a shell, trinkets, some feather, a skull? His ears fall back. Yeah….real magical. This was Helovia for gods sake, surely they could do better than that… (He may not be giving but he was as competitive and vain as they come).Then an idea formed in his mind.  

The gold wished to quickly forget it, it risked far too much. But Haldir had seen it through their bond and he latched onto it. There was no talking him out of it. The silent argument persisted, till the gold wished no more to risk a scene. ”Be quick so not many notice how it happens.” Was at last his consent. The stag leapt forward, and grabbed from the gold a black cloth, shimmering with potential. The stag did his work quickly, letting his own magic, the dark mists which could confounded those near roll, in hopes of screening his task. He darted around the base, wrapping the cloth around, and tucking it as high as he could. He spun as he let go of the last of it and stepped back just to see it shiver, and the base of the tree fall away like sand. The tree now seemed to hover above the earth, nothing visible holding it aloft. The gold watched with some smug satisfaction, now that was a show of magic.


"Talk."

thranduil

and

Haldir