Snow day!

[sylvanguard]

Winter had come to the forests of Mirkwood and everywhere the trees that were not ever greens were bare. A cold wind blew down from the north, bring snow and ice with it so that the whole forest lay covered in a blanket of white. Overhead icicles dangled from tree branches, glistening brightly in the morning light. For all it's cold severity, there was a certain beauty to the forests, one that Tauriel was eager to take delight in as she stepped out from the gate to the King's halls.

Others of the guard appeared indifferent to the beauty of the day around them, so she paid them no mind. They were all older and more jaded towards the world than she was. Hope soared the moment she spotted Legolas about to come out on a patrol with them. Of all the elves who made up their company, he remained her closest in years and therefore still had some child-like youth in his views to the world.

"Does it not seem lovely today mellon nin?"

Comments

[arrowpoint]

Legolas walks up beside her, and nods once at the question. He crosses his arms and looks out into the white landscape.

"Snow brings more light to the wood, in some way. I welcome it."

Then, he steps off to the side, and gestures for the patrol unit behind him to pass over the bridge.

"It is a shame we must attend to our duties."

[sylvanguard]

"Most dangers lurking about the woods slumber now that winter is here. I think our patrol will be light now that Rhîw is here. The spiders will not dare travel north with food so scarce."

It was a bold statement, but one based off experience. Although she was a captain of the guard and of the borders, she knew Legolas held higher rank than her, and so she waited for him to signal that they should follow the patrol. She knew her place, even if she did not always accept it.

[arrowpoint]

"They might not, yet the king commands that precautions are taken. It will do us no harm to walk in the light for a while."

He waits for the last of the guard to pass, before gesturing for Tauriel to join him behind the other Elves.

[sylvanguard]

She is quick to follow suit, eager to be out form the King's hall and among the forest once more. Her steps are light, even for an elf so she scarcely makes any tracks as she flits across the snow. "I'm glad to be out and away. Even in winter time, the forest calls to me."

As they move further away from the main gates, sh gradually begins to lag back behind the patrol until there is a small, but still sizable distance between them and the other border guards.

"Do you wish to race? The first one to the old oak wins?"

[arrowpoint]

Legolas can't help but smile, but he hesitates, unsure at first... but what harm could it do, really? This patrol was really more of a formality than any real threat, and even if some errant spider strayed too far north for it's own good, it would be easily taken down. They were more dangerous in numbers.

"Only if you do not mind losing the game."

He readies himself for a sprint.

[sylvanguard]

"I think you will find me an equal match!" She grinned quickly to him as she readied herself for the run. The fastest route was arboreal so she was already picking out the tree she would climb to gain an advantage.

"Ready? And go!" With that she takes off at furious sprint, leaping upon a tree and clambering from branch to branch as she climbed up before starting to run along the branches and leaping from tree to tree.

[arrowpoint]

The prince is on the move a split second after Tauriel gives the word. Of course, he also takes to the trees, stepping so lightly over the snow on the branches that they barely sent any white flakes down below.

He glanced down to see the row of guardsmen looking a touch bewildered, then continued on to overtake Tauriel's lead.

As he flies passed her, he pulls on a branch and releases it, sending snow flying her way to slow her down.

[sylvanguard]

Hopefully guards were used to seeing them both behave in a silly way from time to time, as they were young. However her momentary glance down to the guards as well almost causes her to miss the snow being flung in her path and she is forced to veer off leaping before she was ready. To compensate, she grabs a branch and swings off it, using it to propel herself forwards so she and Legolas are equally matched once more.

"Do not think you would be rid of me so easily!"

[arrowpoint]

The branches were thicker now, which forced him to slow down a touch. Now side by side with Tauriel, he flashes her a grin before dropping below. Guardsmen scurry to get out of the way as Legolas sprinted ahead.

[sylvanguard]

[Tauriel was quick to follow suit, though it placed her behind him, She grinned wickedly as she gathered up some snow in passing and then when he looked to make a jump threw a snowball at him. It was a small one, meant only for distraction than anything else.]

[arrowpoint]

Legolas was not anticipating any sort of attack from Tauriel, and had only been focused on outrunning her - so the snowball takes him by surprise and hits the back of his neck. It only delays him briefly as he wipes away the slush. He continues to move, but looks up slightly to shout to her.

"I did not think the Captain of the Guard one to cheat!"

[sylvanguard]

"Who said I was cheating? You threw snow at me first!" Laughing, she jumped down from her current position, unable to keep going from the trees and instead starts weaving through the trunks looking for a place to clamber up quickly once more. Although the ground is not heavily snowed upon here in the thick of the forest, the ground is still treacherous with slippery patches of ice midst the leaves.

[arrowpoint]

"Did you not know? The king has allowed me right to cheat in any game that I wish, as long as I am not facing him in contest."

This was, of course, entirely a lie, and Legolas knew that Tauriel could tell. Who ever heard of his father issuing any edicts about children's games?

He continues forward, looking ahead to see if he could find another tree worth climbing up.

[sylvanguard]

She scoffed, knowing full well that such an edict had never been passed by the King. But she won't call him on his lie just yet. She was too focused on scaling a tree to once more take an arboreal path once more, which put her slightly ahead of him. They were now roughly half way to the specified oak tree and the way was becoming trickier with the thickening of the trees. thankfully as most of the leave had fallen, there were more paths to chose from than when the forest was in bloom.

[arrowpoint]

Legolas quickly grabs a nearby branch to ascend a tree parallel to Tauriel's, though it was a bit tougher to get a hold on. It slows him down slightly, but he quickly has a view of her back.

[sylvanguard]

Half frozen from the cold and starving for lack of prey, an evil malice lay in the path ahead waiting. It blended in almost perfectly with the bole it was clinging to. By chance when the tree was struck by a strong wind, it moved, skittering slightly further up the tree.

It lay directly in the elves path, and by chance Tauriel was the first to see it. She cried out a warning to Legolas, even as she drew her bow. Behind them, the rest of the patrol was too far back to prove any use.

[arrowpoint]

Hearing Tauriel's warning, Legolas comes to a stop after the next few branches. There was only one, and sluggish one at that. He gives her the order to go ahead, confident that Tauriel could handle it on her own, but he would watch from his current position, his own bow drawn... just in case.

[sylvanguard]

Tauriel drew a handful of arrows to have them at the ready and nocked an arrow to the bow. Taking aim, she fired it at the spider, hitting it dead center in it's head. The wound was enough to send it plummeting from the tree, but she fired another in rapid succession once again aiming for the head to be certain the creature was dead.

Turning, she grinned towards Legolas, figuring they were no longer in harms way, when a sudden skittering could be heard elsewhere. Half masked by the wind from the north, it was hard to pinpoint. but it seemed several shadows were moving towards them now, driven by the sight of fresh prey.

[arrowpoint]

Sensing the danger, Legolas listens, trying to track down where the spiders were coming from. In a flash he's whirled around, sticking in arrow on the underside of a rearing spider, wounding it. He expected it to fall, but it was able to cling to the icy branch.

Just as the archer was about to make the kill, another spider from a branch far above slipped, and collided with the first spider. Legolas tried to jump away, but he was tangled in spider limbs and an icy branch of his own. He slips, but manages to catch a lower branch with one hand.

The second spider was had already regained it's grip, and hung threateningly just above the prince. He'd dropped his bow, but with his free hand he pulls out one of his daggers and slashes at the creature's legs.

[sylvanguard]

"Legolas!" She gasps seeing him coming under the attack of two spiders and shoots again in rapid succession two arrows at the one that looms above him, hoping to buy the prince time to pull himself up as the looming spider falls away.

Just then a spider clambered up her tree, rearing up as it tried to drive her back off the branch, using her bow to fend off the attack, Tauriel grabbed for a dagger and sliced at one of the legs flailing at her before managing to stab the spider in the eye with the same dagger.

Any further combat from her was halted as the branch she was on gave an ominous creak. Without thinking she leapt away, jumping for another branch further down, just as the one she had been on snapped and gave way, falling spider and all towards the ground.

[arrowpoint]

When the spiders fell away, Legolas manages to get a better hold of the branch and swing himself back up onto it in a sitting position. Hearing the creaking branch however, he quickly turns to it, wide eyed, fearing for Tauriel's safety. When he sees her lands at the branch further down, he lets out a small breath in relief.

In the distance sounds the twang of bowstrings could be heard, and more skittering of spiders, but they were much farther away. The guard appeared to be taking care of them.

Legolas takes that moment to hop down a few branches to land beside Tauriel. "Are you hurt?"

[sylvanguard]

"The spider did not harm me, but I am more concerned for you Legolas. Are you alright? The king would not like for me to return to him with a broken son."

Really, she could do without the king's wrath should Legolas have been hurt. Her worry and concern are evident as she looks her friend over for any injury. Even knowing that Legolas was highly unlikely to have been injured, it had been a cause to alarm seeing him dangling from the branch.

[arrowpoint]

He's glad to hear that she's unharmed, and gives her a smile to reassure her that he was relatively the same. Just in case, he rolls his shoulder of the arm that had been holding him up, checking it for signs of injury.

"I fear I will be sore for the remainder of the day, but that is nothing the king needs to be troubled with."

Legolas looks around to spot his bow, then retrieves it. By the lack of sound, it's clear the other guardsmen had finished their work. He turns back to her.

"...Thank you, mellon-nin."

[sylvanguard]

"Then all is well between us, though I fear our race has ended. If I win now, you will say you were handicapped by your arm and if I loose you will state I went easy on you!" She grinned at him pleased at his thanks. The pleasure soon turned to worry however as she glanced down past him towards the dead spiders upon the ground. There had been a lot of them. Many of them looked unaffected by the cold which meant that there must be a nest nearby.

"I fear our play has ended anyway. We've work ahead of us to hunt down that nest in order to be certain that it is gone. I've never seen spiders range this far north before. It is an ill omen."

[arrowpoint]

He's also looking over at the spider corpses and frowning. This really had been unexpected, or he'd have never agreed to engage in the race to begin with. Legolas is quiet a long while.

"The air is thick, and even of winter birds I hear no song... Our wood continues to suffer. It makes me uneasy."

After a brief pause, he's heading back in the direction of the patrol.

"Find the nest and clear it. I must return and report directly to the king."

[sylvanguard]

She glances up at him and then begins to look around, searching for signs of where the spiders had come from. "If the King would only allow us to fight them at their source..." She muttered under her breath as she sheathed her weapons and slid the remaining arrows back into the quiver.

"I'll be quick in finding them. Worry not Mellon I will see these woods cleansed, you've my word on that. Perhaps you can ask your father for permission to take the fight to them. Maybe he will listen to his son where the words of his captain fail."

[arrowpoint]

"The King listens to who chooses, even if that person is only himself... It is his right."

The words were spoken out of loyalty, but there was a certain sadness in the way they were said.

"I do not think he will allow it."

[sylvanguard]

"Very well then. by your leave, I'll begin the hunt for the nest now." She flashed him a smile that conveyed no happiness, but instead a weary understanding of his father before she jumped down from the branch and moved from branch to branch tot he ground to be with the patrol in order to begin the search for the nest.