Angelica Headstrong pulled Perregrin Took up against her slowly and pressed her mouth to his. After a moment of this heated contact, Pippin let fall all the plants he had gathered, even the mushrooms, to put his arms around Angelica. She took a few steps backwards to lean against a nearby tree, dragging him with her. Keeping one arm around him, Angelica feathered one hand through his curly hair. Finally he drew back from her mouth, panting.

“I think I need another!” he said urgently.

“Then have another. Have as many as you like!” Angelica laughed. Pippin kissed her again. His hands wandered over her breasts, stroking them through the top of her thin dress. She sighed with the pleasure of it. It was like an all new experience, being with him alone, without Merry.

But she didn’t want to think about Merry...or Sam, or Frodo, or even Gimli... It was Pippin. Only Pippin, the succulent little Hobbit.

“Make love to me, Pip,” she whispered. “I want you.”

“Angelica... you delightful, shiny girl,” Pippin sighed. His hands stayed on her breasts. She began unbuttoning his shirt eagerly and soon had it off and was rubbing her fingers over his chest.

Pippin pulled eagerly at her dress. “Please...take it off... I don’t want to rip it.”

“Thank you. I only have one.”

“One’s enough, usually, but right now its too many. Quickly...please!”

“So eager?” she grinned at him. There was a flush in his cheeks and his eyes were wide.

“I don’t want them to come looking for us...they’d only join in.”

She laughed and pulled off the dress. Pippin cast his shirt down on top of the fallen mushrooms and she helped him out of his pants. They lay down on the ground on top of their clothing, Angelica beneath Pippin, and fit together smoothly. It felt so good. She looked deep into his eyes and found him looking back at her.

“You’re a beautiful Hobbit, Pippin,” Angelica said.

“And you’re a gem, Angelica. A real diamond.”

***

Merry and Gimli sat together on the seat of the Hobbit cart. Gimli had the reins, and was pretending to be doing everyone a favor by driving. Merry knew that Haldir had absolutely refused to have Gimli on the back of his horse again, and Legolas had ducked him to ride ahead with Ciendriel.

Frodo and Sam were sitting in the back, talking quietly, but Angelica and Pippin were asleep, wrapped up in each others arms. Merry didn’t know how they could possibly sleep on such a bumpy road. He could guess what had happened when they went out to look for pipe weed, especially since both of them had plant life in their hair. He wasn’t sure why it hadn’t occurred to him at the time when he had suggested Angelica go with Pip, but he did know that he wished he’d gone, too.

That’s it, I’m jealous, he thought. He hated it, hated being jealous. He knew that this didn’t change anything, but he couldn’t help feeling left out. He glanced over his shoulder at them again. Gimli was droning on and on about something, but Merry had tuned him out several minutes ago, until he heard Angelica’s name.

“What?” he said.

“What, what?”

“Did you say something about Angelica?”

“I just said that she’s a marvelous girl. Are all Hobbit lasses like her?”

“No,” Merry said.

“A heart of gold, she has. And I’ll tell you something,” Gimli said, lowering his voice and leaning close to Merry, “I think she likes me.”

Merry nearly fell off of the cart. “What?”

“You know, before Angelica, I never was with a woman without a beard. Quite a new experience! Refreshing, though one does miss that special scratchy--”

“Okay! Okay! Please, I don’t want to hear about Dwarf women!”

“Someday I’ll take you to my homeland, and introduce you to some nice girls. Who knows, you might even settle down with one of them!”

The thought of being with a hairy, bearded, Dwarf woman made Merry feel all the more depressed.

“How much longer until we get to Lothlorien?”

“Still a week and some, laddie. We’ve only been on the road a day and a half. Let me tell you, you are far better company than Haldir. He didn’t listen to a word I had to say, and you’d think he never had a Dwarf on the back of his horse. Then again, he probably never has had a Dwarf on the back of his horse before. No, there aren’t many Elves like Legolas. Not many I’d care to have as my friends, either.”

Merry made a non-committal sound, glanced over his shoulder again into the cart, where nothing had changed. He looked further back, and saw Haldir plodding along behind the cart, sitting stiffly on his horse, his expression as blank and unfriendly as ever. Behind him rode his two brothers, who were laughing and chattering back and forth in Elvish. Their closeness reminded him of how he and Pippin usually were, and this saddened him further. Merry sighed.

Why did this bother him so much? It wasn’t as if Pippin and Angelica had gotten married, or as if they would never include him again.

Best not to think about it.

***

They came to a small meadow, a clearing in the trees, and Ciendriel raced her horse, Keval, urging him forward at breakneck speed. It felt so good to let him fly, even if she was going to have to stop and wait when she crossed the field.

“Legolas! Keep up!” she cried.

She was counting her good luck that Legolas had forgiven her for the trick she had pulled on Haldir which had backfired onto him. She was irritated at Haldir for having tricked Legolas in turn, knowing she would blame herself, and she did. She also couldn’t stop thinking of how much he had set her aflame when he kissed her by the stream. How he had accused her of wanting him.

Was he right?

No, absolutely not. How could she feel lust for an arrogant braggart like Haldir, when she felt the world move beneath her every time Legolas cast his blue eyes in her direction? She looked back over her shoulder and saw he was bearing down on her, his horse quickly catching up to hers. She turned the horse and circled back around behind him, then passing him again. Too soon the other side of the meadow loomed and they cantered to a halt, side by side at the edge of a stream which wound from the meadow into the woods.

“We should water the horses, and wait for the Hobbits to catch up,” Legolas said.

“Very well.”

Ciendriel swung off of her horse to the ground, and Legolas followed suit. The horses went immediately to the water. She looked at him. The sun shined on his golden hair, and he smiled at her earnestly. She cursed herself now for putting that herb in Haldir’s lembas.

“What are you thinking?” he asked, causing her to flush.

“I was...just...”

“Do you know what I was thinking?”

“No.”

“I was thinking,” he said, moving closer to her, “That I would like to kiss you.”

“Then, you should.”

“All right.”

Legolas, put his arms around her waist and pressed his mouth to hers. Ciendriel put her hands on his back. She gave herself entirely to the kiss. His tongue slid warmly against her lips. She felt a small explosion inside herself. Legolas moaned against her mouth. She ran her hand down his side, then across the front of his leggings.

“The drug works well,” Legolas whispered miserably.

“I’m sorry.”

“No...” he said firmly. “Don’t be sorry.”

Slowly he pulled her down with him into the grass. He kissed her again, repeatedly, until she could hardly think. His hands slid beneath her tunic to her breasts. She cried out, thrashing beneath him. Then he allowed one of his hands to slip into her leggings, finding the core of her heat, teasing with his fingers until she shuddered and throbbed in ecstasy. She cried out his name.

He pulled back his hand and licked his fingers, then smiled at her.

“This is just a taste of what is to come, between us. We have all the time in the world. I do not mind the delay.”

“That is the Mortamoris talking,” she said aggrievedly.

Legolas laughed.

One of the horses whinnied loudly. Legolas looked up in the direction of his horse, then leapt to his feet, hauling Ciendriel up with him. He took a deep, unsteady breath.

“Can you hear that? Can you smell it?”

“It’s the Hobbit cart...” She looked to the far side of the meadow, where the cart was just emerging from the woods, followed by Haldir and his brothers, but she also breathed deeply and then she knew that wasn’t what he meant. “Orcs!”

The Orc hoard poured out of the forest in a screeching, stinking mass. Legolas whistled to the horses as he sprinted across the meadow towards the cart, Ciendriel running after them.

Haldir, Orophin, and Rúmil had their bows out, and arrows ready.

“Stay in the cart!” Haldir barked to the Hobbits. They had all pulled out assorted swords, except for Angelica. The other Hobbits surrounded her, keeping her in the middle of them for safety. Gimli had jumped off of the cart and had his axe out.

“No!” said Legolas. “They should get under the cart!”

“Don’t argue with me now, Legolas. Get ready to fire!”

Legolas cursed at him in Elvish but did as he was told. Ciendriel had her bow aimed and ready as well. The Orcs came into range and she began shooting, nearly every arrow striking a target. Haldir, Orophin, and Rúmil fired from their horses, above her and Legolas. There were about twenty-five of them, rabid and blood hungry.

“Why didn’t you warn us?” Haldir snapped at Ciendriel. “I thought you were supposed to be scouting ahead.”

“On the ground, surround the cart,” Legolas cried. The other three Elves dismounted as they all abandoned bows for swords. Gimli let out a battle cry and ran forward to chop the first of the Orcs in the crotch with his battle axe.

“Too busy fooling around, I see, my grass-stained Princess,” Haldir hissed. “You see what good your herbs are.”

“Shut up and kill some Orc!”

There was no more time to talk as she began slicing at the attacking creatures. They had taken out quite a few of them with their arrows, but the hoard seemed endless. What were they even doing here? Ciendriel didn’t have time to think about it as she hacked and slashed.

One of the Orcs let fly a blow to the horse pulling the Hobbit cart. It reared up, screaming, then bolted with the Hobbits still in the back, running over several more Orcs on the way. Ciendriel saw Legolas jump up on his horse and go after it, followed by at least four Orcs. The rest of them were vulnerable so they moved in back to back with each other. The Orcs began to circle them, cackling wickedly.

“Fresh meat...”

“Five of us, eight of them. I could do this is my sleep,” Haldir said.

“I could do this blindfolded, in my sleep,” said Gimli.

An Orc lunged at Ciendriel and Haldir chopped it in half. She didn’t have time to feel grateful as another one grabbed at her ankle, pulling her down into the grass. She lost her grip on the sword as the Orc began to run across the field, dragging her. She tried to scream but got a mouthful of dirt. She twisted onto her back in time to see an arrow pierce the Orc. It fell on top of her. A moment later, Haldir pushed it off.

“Are you all right?” he knelt beside her.

“I’m fine. Thank you! Are they all--”

“TAKE HIM!”

The three remaining Orcs seized Haldir and began to drag him into the woods. Ciendriel leapt to her feet, but her weapons were gone. She looked around. She saw the Hobbit cart turned on one side at the far end of the field. Several dead Orcs lay around it, and Legolas was pulling each of the Hobbits out from under it. Gimli, Orophin, and Rúmil were finishing off the last of the Orcs. As she watched, the last three bodies fell to the ground. The last three except for those who had taken Haldir.

She screamed out in Elvish to his brothers and they came running. Gimli followed, and they all headed into the woods in the direction the Orcs had taken, but there seemed to be no sign of them.

“Haldir! Haldir!”

They all called out for him, but there was no sign of which path the Orcs had taken, or where they had gone. Ciendriel felt a cold horror run through her blood. While it was true that she hated the arrogant Marchwarden (didn’t she?) she certainly didn’t want him to be killed.

“We’re going ahead. Get Legolas and the Hobbits and follow,” Orophin told her. “We’ll take the Dwarf with us. He is well skilled with that axe.”

Ciendriel nodded, then translated for Gimli. She wondered if the Dwarf would protest, but he followed Haldir’s brothers without comment.

Ciendriel nodded and tried to hold back the tears suddenly burning her eyes and she sprinted back towards the meadow to Legolas.