Your Hands Are Cold

Breakfast For Two

Faelwen woke me up the next morning and said that the king requested that I have breakfast with him. When she told me of the news, I immediately jumped off my bed and insisted that I need to get ready immediately. I bathed quicker, and Faelwen helped me with my braids. She said that I choose something simple for the day, and so I took two strands of hair from each side of my head, braided them, tied them so that they join one another, and then from that braid I created one single braid.

 For clothing, I chose a modest gown made of rose-colored fabrics. The color was very light, even nearing white. On the fabrics of the dress was a pattern of flowers made of white threads.

 Faelwen quickly rushed me to Thranduil’s breakfast parlor, where the king usually has his breakfast. Faelwen kindly knocked on the door for me, and soon I entered the king’s breakfast parlor in slow-moving steps, as my hands fidgeted around with the fabrics of my dress. I also noticed Thranduil was not present yet.

 “You resemble an elf of Rivendell,” I heard a voice say. Thranduil stood behind me, in his robes as usual. He gave me a small smile, and then told me to sit.

 “Where is Prince Legolas?”

 “I’m told he is reviewing the palace guards this morning. However I assure you, there are far better things to worry about than Legolas,”

 “And those things include?”

 “The wine the servants have selected for us today,” He chuckled.

 The breakfast parlor wasn’t as grand as the palace’s dining room. Instead, it was a small, circular room with large, high-rising windows surrounding the room to let the sunlight in. On the middle of the room was a wooden table, where our breakfast was served. Four chairs encircled the table. Near the windows, stood large vases of extravagant flowers, filling the atmosphere of the room with its pleasing aromas.

 “Why so many flowers?” I asked, before I started eating my meal.

 “The flowers give the room a much more merrier atmosphere,”

 I nodded, and started to dig into my plate of a salad of various vegetables, and also a piece of waybread. I sipped a small portion of the wine, and was so pleased by its taste that I almost wanted to ask Thranduil for more. After all, the king of the realm gets the best, and only the best.

 “Enjoying your meal, Maeneth?” Thranduil asked, and I simply nodded.

 “How many hours do you work?” he asked.

 “I can work a full day from morning until past midnight, but it depends. Why do you ask?”

 “You must grow weary of all the work,”

 “No, it’s fine, really,” I reassured him. “I’d rather be working here where I have friends than work back home as a lonely seamstress,”

 “Why are you so afraid of solitude?”

 “I have always thought that whatever company you have, you should treasure it. That is why I do not pick my friends or whom I speak to, for everyone is the same to me, whatever rank or position they possess,” I replied. “With the exception of you, my king,”

 “Can’t a seamstress and a king be friends, as if they were normal elves interacting with one another?”

 “It isn’t a matter of rank,” I said. “Well, it is a matter of rank. After all, I have to learn how to be more polite,” We both glanced at each other and smiled.

 “Being king is an arduous task for which you cannot imagine. I grow weary sitting on a throne and await for a sense of thrill,”

 “Alas, the king has finally unmasked another side of himself no one has ever seen,”

 “Well, if being a seamstress is difficult, isn’t being a king far more difficult?”

 “Yes,” I said. “But a king has the world on his feet. He does not take commands, but gives them, therefore he rules all, and don’t you agree?”

We spent the morning talking to each other. Our conversation flowed so quickly that I hadn’t noticed more than two hours has passed. We also spent the morning observing the king’s flowers, and I spoke to him of my family. A few laughs were exchanged here and there, and before I knew it, I had befriended the coldhearted king of the woodland realm.