Chapter 28 - Water-coloured skies

                                    

                                          

"Hey Roheryn" Avadis spoke softly as she stroked the horse's nose. The barn smelt strongly of fresh hay and horse hair, but Avadis did not mind. A stable boy busied himself in the corner with another horse, glancing over his shoulder at her. Through the large open stable doors, Avadis squinted her eyes to the horizon in the direction that Gandalf and Pippin had taken the day before. 
"No orcs today, so no rides either." Roheryn brayed softly before nudging at the bag Avadis had brought with her. She laughed, "Yes, yes, I brought you food. How could I not, when you have been so patient with me?" She laughed and pulled out an apple, tossing it at the horse who caught it and walked into the corner to eat.
She had not lost her love for the animals. Being so close to them, she observed with great interest the smaller mannorisms they had, such as their ears that twitched at the sound of a bag being opened, or their tails that lazily brushed away the constant waves of flies that followed behind them like some kind of cloud. Usually, she would have resolved to draw them in her notebook, but today was not the case. 
"Come Roheryn, take a walk in the paddock" she took the reigns and opened her gate, leading her out into the sunlight. Avadis walked down the main street with Roheryn, nodding and smiling to those she walked past, until she ran into a face she recognised. "Hello Merry! How are you today?" she asked, looking down at the hobbit who was very red in the face. He had spoken little to anyone the previous day, obviously missing Pippin greatly. She was glad to see him out in the fresh air and sunshine.
"I'm late thats what I am!" he exclaimed, out of breath, leaning down to rest his hands on his knees. 
Avadis raised an eyebrow. "I surely hope there was not a meeting that I have forgotten to attend? Whatever are you late for?" 
"Gimli was to take me to be fitted for some armour" Merry answered, "for 'just in case' is what he said, although I hope it may be for battle. I would so love to be in a battle."
Avadis smiled. From the moment she had met the hobbit, she had seen how strong and loyal Merry's heart was. She admired the hobbit's bravery, going into a world he did not know with such spirit. "Well then I shall not keep you! That is an important event indeed." She smiled at the hobbit, "go on then!"
Merry huffed a goodbye before taking off up the hill further. Trust Gimli to care for him, Avadis smiled as she continued down the road to the nearest paddock.  A few people stopped and waved to her as she went by, which she returned to them warmly. 
At the paddocks, there was another of the horses grazing in a far corner, and Roheryn sped off to greet him. Closing the gate behind her, Avadis looked around for a comfortable place to sit. There was a small shelter to one side, holding a trough with deep brown water. The floor was covered with dust and dried grass, which Avadis did not particularly want to have trailed over her new riding gear, another gift from Eowyn. She scanned the area for comfortable spots until her eyes were drawn upwards to the roof of the hut, made from strong wooden beams. 
Glancing around quickly for people, she opened her wings and pushed herself from the ground, the dust around her feet flying up into the air. Her wings continued to beat, and she rose higher and higher until her feet gently rested down on the top of the shelter. She cautiously sat down and crossed her legs, happily surprised that the roof was strong enough to hold her. She had been careful not to fly too often while she was around the others, but she did miss having a higher vantage point to look out over the world. 
She had chosen Roheryn to be the model for a new painting. From her bag, she brought out a neatly carved wooden box, with circular holes filled with dried out disks of her paints. Many years ago she had discovered how incredibly frustrating it was to transport containers of paint by air, she had spoiled many nice clothes and bags with paint spills which Treebeard had spent a long while scrubbing. To solve this, she had found that leaving her paint out in the sun would set it into a hardened clay, which she could then transport and combine with water when she needed. Since then, she had been making and combining paints to create the most colourful pallete. 
The brush flew along the paper, capturing even the smallest details of her horse with each blob or line of paint. Her eyes followed the line of Roheryn's face, taking in the deepness of her eyes and the sharpness of her ears and copying this down with incredible accuracy. 
She set her paper beside her, letting the layers of paint dry for a moment under the sunshine. She looked back towards the town just in time to see Legolas walking down the path towards her. "Good afternoon!" she called down to him. He stopped and looked around a moment before his eyes eventually found her sitting up on the roof. 
"You walk around so much it is easy to forget that you can fly" he commented, opening the gate to the paddock looking up at her. She laughed and lent over the edge to look down at him, swinging her legs over the beam. 
"Easy to forget the giant wings on my back?" she teased him, " but I must admit it feels slightly unfair to do so when I am with others who cannot." 
"Ah but it was not your ability to walk which defeated Isengard though was it?" he asked with his eyebrows raising as Roheryn rode up next to him and nuzzled his shoulder with her nose. 
"I suppose not" she replied as she picked up her half finished painting, brushing a finger over it to ensure it was dry enough to continue. She dabbled the brush into the blue and swept it over the skies, creating spaces for the clouds to hang suspended in the air. Below her, Legolas spoke softly to the horses, rubbing Roheryn's nose and whispering to her in a language she did not understand. Both companions had grown to enjoy silence together, it was no longer awkward or in need of filling with mindless formal conversation, but rather a time for both to take a breath of quiet without feeling completely alone. 
As time slowly passed, she found that she was concentrating less on her painting and more listening to his words, trying to understand what he was saying. She had heard Elvish before many times, mostly words she had taken to be insults or threats, never as gentle and calming as his words. Each word was crafted to rise and fall with ease, rolling out like the clouds she had painted into her skies. 
"Legolas?" she interrupted him, "would you teach me some of your language?"
He finished the sentence he was saying to Roheryn, and she puffed out a breath of air and walked away, staring at Avadis from the corner of her eyes as if she was upset their conversation was over. 
"I can try, although I do not know if I am the best teacher for these things"
Avadis packed away her paint box and tucked her paper book into her bag which hung over her shoulder. She clicked her tongue, and at the other end of the paddock Roheryn spun her head around. Avadis stood up and jumped off the roof, her wings gliding her downwards so that she landed on Roheryn's back, who then rose onto her back two legs and sped towards the elf, pulling to a stop just infront of him. He did not flinch, only folded his arms across his chest and looked up at her in confusion. 
"You taught me to ride in a matter of weeks" she shrugged her shoulders, "I would argue that I am enough evidence that you are infact a wonderful teacher." She jumped off the side of her horse, and grabbed her reigns to walk her back towards the stables. Legolas laughed and opened the gate for her, and they walked side by side up the street. 
"So long as one day you share that painting with me, I suppose I might teach you. What first, let me think" he pondered to himself. They walked a little longer up the road in silence, Avadis listened to the clicking of Roheryn's hooves on the ground and watched the elf, who was obviously thinking. 
"Ego mibo orch" he said suddenly, looking over to her with a big grin. His eyes gleamed with a cheeky smile.  
Avadis frowned with suspicion. "What does it mean"
"Next time anyone calls you a 'Raug', which is a demon, tell them to 'ego mibo orch" he nudged her playfully in the side.
"Ego... mibo orch?" she copied him reluctantly, still confused and absolutely not trusting the elf in the slightest. 
He had a weirdly smug smile plastered over his face, and lent closer to whisper in her ear. "It means... go kiss an orc."