Blood Thorns

Disclaimer: I own the giant, hideous mini-Koi, a possible spy, a toasted bagel while JRR owns the good stuff!!

A/N:
**This in mind speech**
‘’This is visions’’
“”This is thoughts “”
This is written words

To my Lovely Readers and Reviewers: THANK YOU!!

Ground Rules
Glorfindel snuggled deeper into his nice warm blankets, submerged in the Elvish dreamscape of reverie. He had been exceedingly pleased with the amount of progress he was making, with the small elleth locked securely in the gray room. The seneschal was impatient for dawn’s break; so he could gloat over the stunned expressions of Elrond and the twins, when he explained to them, quite thoroughly, what information he had ferreted out after only two visits and how this feat had been accomplished. Both the twins were going to be perturbed, that they had wasted so much of their valuable time interrogating the prisoner and had gotten absolutely no useful information out of the stubborn elleth.

Glorfindel now knew the prisoner’s name, that she could understand spoken Sindarin, and was able to read, the less used, Quenya as well. Getting her name, the seneschal knew, was a great stroke of blind luck on his part, but the warrior was not about to admit such a thing. The seneschal had figured that the stubborn elleth would balk and had been totally flabbergasted by the prisoner’s sudden compliance to his demand. She had stormed over to the paper and charcoal by the hearth, walked over to rudely slap the paper down hard on his back and scribbled her message furiously, before gracelessly throwing herself across the bed in a fit of defeat. The elleth’s mutinous behavior reminded him of a young elfling in a temper tantrum and it amused Glorfindel to no end that he was the cause of it.

Tossing restlessly in his slumber, even as the hour grew later and dawn was still a distant thought, Glorfindel felt a persistent, nagging thought trying, desperately, to break through to his active mind. Snippets of his earlier visits with the stubborn elleth tumbled through his agile mind. The seneschal knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he had missed a clue to something extremely important, but for the life of him, the warrior could not understand what it might be. It was another hour before realization hit the warrior with shocking suddenness. Scrambling out of his bed in wild disarray, Glorfindel barely remembered to grab a pair of light sleeping leggings before he bolted through his bedchamber’s door and into the hallway. Mumbling to himself as he made his way to Erestor’s chamber, the seneschal turned the unbelievable idea over and over in his head from as many angles as possible. As unlikely as his idea was, Glorfindel knew it would explain much about the elleth’s absolute stubborn refusal to talk to anyone.

Persistent, annoying banging finally drove a slumbering Erestor from his bed, to the bedchamber door and flung it open with a nasty growl, “What in Arda could be so damn important that it could not wait for dawn’s break??” The advisor nearly screeched when Glorfindel grabbed the advisor by the arm and proceeded to unceremoniously drag the barefooted, bleary eyed elf down the hall in nothing, but his light sleeping clothes with his hair in a wild tangled mess. If he found out that Glorfindel had embarrassed him this bad for some trifle reason, Erestor would commit violence! The normally pristine elf was more than a little worried by his best friend’s behavior and decided to humor Glorfindel’s very strange antics; until he found out the cause of such a commotion.
The advisor tried to concentrate on the babbling stream of words that kept spilling out from the seneschal’s lips, but most of it made absolutely no sense to the poor sleep deprived elf. Glorfindel was jumping back and forth from one topic to another, as if they were supposed to be interconnected. What Erestor could not figure out, was what charcoal, a book of Quenya poetry, sketching pads, insults in Sindarin and stubborn mules had in common. In his sleep befuddled imagination, the advisor tried to come up with plausible explanation that the things had in common, but the advisor truly did not think a completely rude and obnoxious, Sindarin speaking mule that drew charcoal pictures and wrote poetry in Quenya could be what Glorfindel had meant. Giving up trying to decipher his best friend’s words, Erestor turned his agile and sneaky mind to thoughts of revenge against this early morning attack. Erestor plotted how best to torture and maim the idiot warrior merrily dragging him down the hall in his sleepwear.

The two elves had finally reached their destination, the wooden door that led to the gray room, in one piece. They were met by mildly shocked looks and exceedingly puzzled shrugs, from the guards that stood rigidly outside the prisoner’s room in silent attendance. Still acting slightly off kilter, even for the seneschal, Glorfindel threw open the wooden door with a flourish and shoved a bewildered Erestor across the threshold. Slamming the door shut behind them, Glorfindel stalked over to the previously asleep elleth, with his hands planted firmly on his hips and an extremely smug smile of satisfaction on his handsome face. Taking in the completely startled and widely blinking eyes full of sleepy confusion, the tangled mop of dark hair and the petulant scowl that was beginning to form on her brow, Glorfindel could not repress the beginnings of a cheeky grin and the decidedly evil sniggering that slipped from his lips. The elleth looked like an elfling up past her bedtime. Glorfindel thought she looked absolutely adorable!

Kestrel was less then thrilled to have the strange warrior’s company, especially at this early of an hour! The elleth had finally gotten some decent sleep, without the night terrors that had been plaguing her slumber. Then the stupidly grinning idiot, standing so arrogantly before her, had the utter gall to come crashing through her door. The fact that the warrior also stood there laughing at her did not help the elleth keep, in any form, a mild disposition! The damn elf deserved to die a slow, pain filled death by her hands for this hideously rude interruption!! Frowning at him in extreme exasperation, Kestrel threw back her nice warm covers and marched up to the deranged warrior. Glaring up at the golden haired male with as violent an expression as she could project, the female showed her deep displeasure at being woken, by kicking Glorfindel in the shin with as much bruising force as she could muster. The surprise attack luckily worked in the disgruntled elleth’s favor, as the muffled thud and the warrior’s pain filled reaction told, the now very pleased female, that the simple minded elf would have a nicely colored bruise in an hour or so. Turning around swiftly, Kestrel quickly crawled back under her still toasty warm bedcovers and rolled over, with her back to the two males; rudely dismissing them with a truly evil smirk. The smug elleth believed that the warrior had only himself to blame for the nasty bruise he was going to be sporting later. Thinking her ploy to ignore and insult the golden haired ellon was working, made Kestrel over confident. She was completely unprepared for the iciness of the hard stone floor as the golden warrior grabbed her foot firmly and tugged the elleth off her bed with a resounding thunk.

Erestor leaned sleepily against the wall by the low burning fire, watching the bizarre scene being played out in front of him. He had to admit that the female had a point and Glorfindel truly did deserve the kick. If the overly annoyed advisor had thought quicker, he would have taken it upon himself to kick Glorfindel first; when the crazed babbling warrior had dragged him down the cold hall. The elleth was now livid and dangerous, in her quiet way! Erestor was in the mood to cheer her on, in any pursuit that she wished, if it including maiming the seneschal! The female on the floor was shocked, disheveled and frowning, yet the expected scream of outrage never came. She opened and closed her mouth several times like a landed fish, before she took to glaring daggers at the seneschal. The advisor did not know which was more amusing, Glorfindel’s face after the bodily attack, or the elleth’s fearless return to the bed. Erestor was almost positive that Glorfindel had never met an elleth who dared to treat him in such a manner, except maybe Arwen when she was much younger. Shaking his head at the warrior’s swift and childish retaliation, the advisor curiously wondered why the obstinate female had even thought, for even one fleeting moment, that she could get away with her actions towards the seneschal. Shrugging indifferently, Erestor waited patiently to see how the elleth would respond. She was rather intriguing in a violent sort of way, but then so was the seneschal when his ire was raised.

Kestrel had had quite enough of the barbaric elf!! The damn annoying warrior was a rabid warg and should be treated accordingly. Dragging herself up off the floor with all the dignity of a royal, Kestrel stalked purposely to within an inch of the golden warrior; who was now giving her a glare of fiery menace. Poking Glorfindel directly in the middle of his very, well muscled chest, the elleth glared back at him just as nastily. She motioned decisively with her hands by pointing to him and then the door in a forceful manner. The quirked eyebrow was truly not a smart move on Glorfindel’s part, as his foot found out; as she stomped on it with all her might. Muttered curses floated in the air, in more languages than one, as the riled combatants sent death glares at each other. Repeating her earlier actions, only this time accompanied by a stomp of her small foot, Kestrel again pointed to the door, then to both the warrior and the dark haired elf that had accompanied him. A slow evil smile crossed Glorfindel’s face as the warrior spoke softly to the elleth, “You wish us to leave, young one, then by all means just say so.”

Rolling her eyes at the ellon’s complete lack of intelligence, Kestrel pointed slowly to first the quiet dark haired elf, then to the overly dense warrior in front of her, then stamped her small, delicate foot as she pointed to the closed wooden door with a forcefulness that brooked no argument. The grin on the smug warrior’s face got slowly wider as he watched her, “I can not hear a word you are saying, sweet one. Would you like to repeat that request?” The horrified look that chased across the elleth’s features proved to Glorfindel, without a shadow of a doubt, that his theory was correct!! His stubborn elleth could not speak at all! “Is there a problem sweet on that you would like to explain, or should I just guess?”

Congratulating himself on his incredibly important discovery, Glorfindel was completely caught off guard when the young elleth just dropped her eyes from his face and walked over to the farthest corner of the darkened room. The seneschal was stunned by the embarrassment and abject misery that had flashed briefly in the honey brown depths and called himself more than a few nasty names, as he realized that his words had wounded the elleth’s feelings. Heaving a sigh of self disgust, the seneschal walked slowly over to the upset female who sat with her knees drawn up to her chest. Trying very hard not to make matters worse, Glorfindel hunkered down next to the curled up elleth and raised her chin so he could look directly into her eyes. “I have hurt you,” he said in a low, sad voice, “It was not my intention to do that and I am sorry. Will you forgive me my stupidity this eve?”

At first he received no answer, but then the elleth gave a barely perceptible nod in the affirmative. Relief washed over the seneschal at her small hesitant gesture. The warrior had never meant her any harm and the fact that he had actually done so, churned his stomach. Deciding to get confirmation of what he already knew in his heart, Glorfindel spoke again in the same low voice, “You can not speak at all can you?” A quick negative shake of her head confirmed the seneschal’s theory fully. Without any real thought of what he was doing, the warrior picked the small elleth up in his strong arms and carried the surprised female back to her bed. She watched him with wild wary eyes as the warrior tucked her in and smiled gently down at her.

Staring down into the now wary eyes of the elleth, Glorfindel smiled gently. Turning to Erestor who still had not bothered to say a word and had nearly drifted back off into blessed reverie, the seneschal spoke again softly, “Come Erestor this young one needs her sleep. We shall both return tomorrow Kestrel, at a more decent time,” looking back down into the swirling brown depths he continued, “Sleep well, sweet one, we will speak again on the morrow and this time I will bring paper and ink, so you may answer my questions.” With that Glorfindel motioned a sleepy advisor out the door, and with one quick look back, the seneschal joined Erestor in the hall.