Wulfred (wulfredhammer) wrote in untold_logs, @ 2007-12-25 00:41:00 |
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Entry tags: | elladan, elrohir, feorcwen, wulfred |
Three is a crowd.
Who: Elladan, Elrohir, Wulfred, Feorcwen.
What: The ride up the Pelennor into Minas Tirith! And it's snowing! Also, UST.
Where: The Pelennor!
When: Uh ... probably a few days after they left Rohan.
Snow fell softly over the city, blanketing white in white, as dusk turned to night, amplyfing the chill that could be felt to the bones. Yule would be a white one, and a cold one.
Elladan wrapped his cloak around him more fully, thankful he'd thought to bring his fur lined cloak and other chill weather things from Imladris, and especially thankful that Wulfred had thought to bring many extra blankets to keep them all warm. He turned, stopping the cart to look behind him. The snow had only just started, but he wanted to make sure both passengers - Feorcwen, who was fast asleep, and Elrohir - were warm. "We were always fond of the snow, up in the mountains. But cold is something we have yet to take a liking to." he said, only somewhat amused.
Feorcwen rolled over, snuggling into the blankets to get away from the cold. She let out a mewling yawn.
Wulfred sighed and pulled her cloak - and the extra blanket - more tightly around herself as well. "It is not pleasant, but I am used to it's occurence. It does make one appreciate warm rooms and fires more, though." She glanced back at Feorcwen, just to reassure herself that her friend was all right.
Elladan leaned backwards, tucking his own blanket around Elrohir and then belatedly wondering if he should have tucked it around Wulfred instead. Then he picked up the reins again, and the horse and cart once again began to ride, Hasufel and Elrohir's horse tethered to either side following behind. They were making good time through the Pelennor, and he hoped they'd be indoors soon, installing Elrohir into a healer's care and finding something warm to drink.
The jarring woke Cwen, who sat up and rubbed at her eyes sleepily, "Are we there yet?"
Wulfred smiled slightly. "Almost, min freond. Almost."
"Very near now." Elladan added, with a nod of his head. At least things had settled into something a bit less uncomfortable. He liked that. Uncomfortable made him want to light things on fire or otherwise cause chaos. "If you look up, you might see the lights in the windows."
She nodded, shifting up to the front of the cart. For the first time the entire journey, she did not insert herself between Wulf and Elladan! "Good. I want a warm fire and a warm bed." She frowned, "I hope we can afford a room.."
Wulfred smiled and wrapped an arm around Feorcwen. "Elladan has already made arrangements for us. It is most generous of him." And somehow that almost made her blush.
"He has?" She eyed him over Wulf's shoulder, suspiciously.
Elladan nodded his head, trying not to smile as much as he felt like smiling. He was, of course, glad to be of help, and this trip had brought out his more noble side. "I did not figure you to be the type to enjoy the cold and dreadfully boring Citadel, so I wrote ahead before we left and had them prepare some rooms in one of the inns."
"The inn is near the stables, and likes to smell of horses in the winter months," he added, with a bit of a smirk.
"Will you stay with us?" Cwen found herself asking. She blinked and closed her yapper. Ooh horses. DAMN HIM FOR BEING CONSIDERATE!
Wulfred blinked at her friend's question. That was...unexpected and she did flush a little this time. But yes, horses.
Elladan blinked, caught off guard by the question, then shook his head. "Ooh nay, I have decided to stay at the Citadel, for fear some Rohirric Maiden might come by and toss me off of the 6th tier in my sleep." he joked, putting his eyes back on the road ahead of him.
"Oh. You find us displeasing to be around?" Her tone indicated she was referring more to Wulfred. She'd seemed to have honed in on his attention to her friend, and alternatyl tried to dissuade him, help him, or try to probe him to know if he was 'worthy' of her.
"Bema," Wulfred muttered. Now she was the one in the middle and it was more uncomfortable than having Feorcwen between her and Elladan.
Elladan sighed, getting slightly tired of the constant go-around with the one girl. "You know I do not, Lady. I find both of you most pleasing to be around, but I find that you do not find ME to be pleasing to be around, and therefore I thought to give you both time alone without the company of elves." he said, a bit more stern than he'd originally meant to sound.
She scowled, "I'm starting to like you....But maybe I won't if you're going to be like that. Hmmph!"
"Feorcwen!" Wulfred turned to her friend. "What else is he to think if you keep acting as if he has two heads? He is not being anyway but defensive. Leave him be..."
"I am trying to protect you!" She sounded exaspereted, and unconsciously rubbed at the brand on her thigh.
She reached out her hand, placing it on top of the hand Feorcwen was rubbing her thigh with. "Don't...don't rub it. You'll irritate it..."
Elladan stopped the cart, and let out a long sigh. He took a few moments to piece together what it was he wanted to say versust he correct way to say it without being killed, and finally opened his mouth. "Protect her from what?"
She shook her head, but stopped rubbing at it, and sort of stared at Wulf's hand on her thigh. She started, then said, "You. You like her. Like her."
Wulfred clenched her jaw and squeezed Feorcwen's hand. Hard. This conversation was not happening. "Feorcwen..." Her voice was low and there was a warning in it.
"I am trying very hard not to. Does that make you feel any better about it?" He asked, turning to Feorcwen and fixing her eyes with his own quite serious ones. "I know better than to try and steal her away ... from those who love her, in her country. But yes. I like her. And I am not the only one."
Feorcwen smiled,softer than usual to him, "You cannot steal what is willing." She shot Wulfred a knowing look.
Wulfred's nostrils flared as she stared very hard at her knees, her face and ears slowly nearing the color of her hair. She let go of Feorcwen's hand and clenched her hands on her kneed. She wanted to bolt, to jump down, untie Hasufel, and ride. Ride anywhere but in the middle of this, feeling like she was being talked about as though she wasn't there.
"Perhaps you should ask her, how she feels about your protection. How she feels about her country, her kinsmen, and her freonds. It is not as if she is not sitting right here, beside us." he said, looking at Wulfred, then shaking his head and picking up the reins once more. He was rather certain Wulfred's answer was going to be anything but the one he wanted to hear.
Cwen glanced at Wulfred, asking her that with her eyes, saying, "I am sorry. I just...what do you want, min freond?"
Wulfred swallowed hard and glanced at Feorcwen befored looking at her knees again. "I...do not know what I want. I love my home. I love my kinsmen. I love..." Her gaze flickered back to Feorcwen. "...min freonds. Do not ask more of me. My head is more muddled than if I were drunk from mead..."
"What about him?" She whispered, dying to know.
"I mean, you've been making mooney eyes at each other the whole trip!" She mimiced them.
The tips of Elladan's ears were beginning to turn pink, but he drove the cart onward, as if this conversation were not taking place beside him.
Wulfred shot her a sharp look. "He falls under the muddledness. As do..." She swallowed hard and took a deep breath trying to break the feeling of suffocating that she'd gotten. "...as do you..."
Cwen went very still, very silent, and very wide-eyed.
Elladan's ears went completely pink, his face focused foreward on the road and his body quite still, as well.
Wulfred bit her lip hard, willing herself not to cry. This wasn't something to cry over. Really it wasn't. "...I can ride Hasufel into the city if you would rather." She adressed neither of them directly, but left the statement there between them.
"What? Nyen!" She elbowed her friend in her side.
Which shoved Wulfred into Elladan.
Elladan's arm came out to catch her, without even his needing to look to see where she was. He held her there to steady her, against him, and shook his head. "You will stay here, warm in the cart, with your freonds that you love, so that we both do not worry for you unecessarily." he said, softly. Though it wasn't a command, more like a plea.
Wulfred stiffened slightly as he caught her. She took a deep breath and eased away from him, sitting as perfectly in the middle between them as she could manage without touching either. A ride would clear her head. She doubted the smiths of Gondor would let her, a stranger and a woman, into their forges, so that was out. And so she was left with the tension.
Elladan swallowed a great deal of hurt threatening to well up in his chest, and let his hand fall to his lap. The rest of the drive was spent in this uncomfortable silence, until Minas Tirith loomed above them, the great gates large and imposing. "Here at last, and a warm room mere minutes away," he said, finally, his voice a bit hoarse.
Cwen frowned, feeling like she'd somehow done something wrong. She still was torn between playing spoiler, and helping. And Wulf's admission had...Bema, she didn't know how to react. Was that even an option?! "I'm sorry," She said, finally.
"...you are forgiven," Wulfred murmured. She couldn't not forgive her friend, but she wished Feorcwen could better learn when to hold her tongue. She wondered suddenly if Elladan had gotten two rooms for them or one and she couldn't remember if he'd said. She wanted to be alone for a little. Maybe she'd take a walk.
Elladan had hopped down, to confer with the guards, and when he returned he was in a better mood. "The inn is called the Horse's Head, and if you both wish to ride ahead, you may borrow Elrohir's horse and go there directly." his eyes grew a bit worried, and he glanced at his brother, "I must see him to the healing houses, but there is no reason to keep you both out in the cold."
"We'll stay with you to the houses," Cwen offered, glancing at Wulfred, and sighing. "Or not."
Wulfred took a deep breath and sighed. "We will go with you, if you allow me to ride Hasufel." The wagon was opressive now.
"You need not go with me," he said, adamantly, looking back and forth between the two of them. "Take your horse and go ahead. I will make sure you are both taken care of before I settle in." It was almost as if he could feel her tension.
Cwen frowned, and hopped down off the cart, "Horse's Head. I will meet you both there." And she walked off, into a city she didn't know. Greaaaat.
Wulfred hopped out of the wagon and untied Hasufel without a word. She swung herself up into the saddle and trotted the horse after Feorcwen. She brought him to a wlk beside her friend. "...if you want, you may ride with me..."
"Nyen, go back to your elf," Cwen said, shakily.
Elladan watched them for a time, jumping up into the back of the cart and tucking another blanket around Elrohir. His brother stirred a bit, moaning a combination of two names together, and Elladan felt that for the first time, he understood it. "Shh,we are nearly somewhere warm, and safe," he whispered, in sindarin, tucking him once more, just in case.
"He is not 'my elf'!" Her temper flaired and she yanked Hasufel around to face the gate they had entered. She clenched her teeth and closed her eyes. "Either drop that path of conversation or I will be out that gate to race the wind on the Pelennor."
Elrohir's eyes fluttered open, eventually finding Elladan's eyes and smiling a bit. "I hear ... a woman's voice, yelling ... have you gotten us.. into trouble again?"
Cwen gaped at her, "I'm just..nevermind." She shoved her arms inside her cloak, "Please do not ride away.."
"Promise me you won't mention any of this for the rest of the night. And don't goad him over it, for Bema's sake..." Wulfred turned a much perplexed Hasufel around. "So. To the inn?"
Elladan peeked his head out of the cart to glance at the two women. "I think at least one of us is in trouble, but I would not fear that it is you. You, at least, have been mostly silent and dashingly ill."
Elrohir tried to laugh at that, then winced heavily and curled back up against his pillow. "Mortality hurts," he muttered, softly, and Elladan tried not to laugh. "Yes ... yes, it does. Rest now, we are almost in the city." Elrohir nodded his head slightly, and Elladan jumped back down. "So. If you both have decided what you are and are NOT doing... is it safe for me to drive off?"
"To the inn." She mounted the horse behind her friend, wrapping her arms around her waist.
Wulfred nodded and urged Hasufel toward the inn, fightinf the intense urge to give into angry, frustrated tears.
Cwen? Felt like crap!
Elladan jumped back up onto the seat of the cart, and began the long drive up to the healing houses. He wouldn't rest that night, not until his brother was safe and warm in a bed, and he could be sure both women were both tucked safely in beds, as well. And he wondered, somewhere in the middle of that, when he'd grown up.