We, Beasts

Chapter 3

The final part of the journey the next day was blessedly short as it was the most awkward experience that Harry could ever remember. Legolas was not inclined to talk, Harry was sure that his face, ears ,and neck blushed red the entire trip, and Gimli's questions went unanswered. Harry almost face planted in his haste to get off the horse when they finally arrived at Edoras. He was only saved by a hand on his shoulder by Fenrir, who gave him and the elf a wicked smirk before carrying on. People swarmed around them, taking horses to shelter, and escorting guests to quarters to rest.

"Um, we should talk later," Harry offered the elf, but he trailed off at the end since Legolas walked away.

"Ha, trouble in paradise?" Gimli said good-naturedly with a pat on his back. "Don't worry, elves are quite well known for their temper tantrums. My father told me a story about Legolas' father, Thranduil. See, they had stumbled their way through the Mirkwood on a quest, completely lost..." Gimli went on to regale Harry with a story about how the dwarves were imprisoned and escaped using wine barrels. It was quite the tale and had Harry smiling again. "Maybe later, I can tell you about the dragon, Smaug."

Harry agreed and they were separated, Gimli to a war meeting, and Harry was shown to a room, it was filled with beds and was obviously a barracks of sorts, empty for now of people but their stuff was left behind, claiming their spots. Not wanting to just sit around restlessly, Harry had his guide show him to the bathing facilities, and a bath later, Harry searched out the kitchens to eat. Noticing they were short-staffed, he stuck around to lend a hand. By the time the head cook kicked him out to take a break, it was dark and Harry smelled of fresh baked bread and cakes. He spent a moment on the ramparts, staring into the sky, trying to find his favorite constellations. Alas, the night sky was foreign and not a comforting familiarity could be offered by it.

He spent a few minutes meditating and clearing his mind of all the turbulent thoughts. When he was done, more time must have passed than he had intended and he was no longer alone. Legolas stood out by the battlement wall, looking out into the darkness. His eyes shone with a magic unknown to Harry, but must have allowed him to see better and further than any man.

Harry flamed red again at the thought. "I'm sorry you had to see that," Harry offered in apology.

"I'm not," Legolas said, still not looking at Harry. "You are even more beautiful in your moment of passion and I desire to have you for myself even more. I know I could be a better lover than your beast."

Harry was taken aback. It seems he had misread the situation completely. "I'm not sure I understand."

"My emotions are at war and I am unsure what I think," Legolas continued. "I knew you were not telling the whole truth, you were keeping information back, but now that I know the truth I feel...betrayed. You are a wolf playing a sheep."

Harry laughed thinking that Legolas had mixed up what Fenrir was with him. "I'm not the wolf, what are you talking about?"

"These ears are more than adornments. I can hear better than any man," the elf said, turning finally to face Harry fully. The intensity in his eyes took Harry by surprise. He was being regarded as if he were a Class XXXXX dangerous beast. "I heard what he said to you that night. About you. You are no school teacher. You are a wizard!"

"Ah, well, to be fair, I am a teacher at a school for wizards," Harry explained, " They are much more common from where we are from, thousands of them."

"I can't help feeling betrayed, thinking that you needed protection when you could be the very thing needed to take down the Dark lord Sauron," Legolas whispered, eyes still burning in their regard on Harry. Harry considered this new angle of the elf's ire.

"Is that what you want?" Harry asked, magic pulling around him. The wind picked up and swirled around them and the smell of lightning filled the air. "For me to magically solve all of your problems? Problems that your ancestors and the rest of this world have let fester for centuries not bothering to take care of it until the last moment when it has gathered enough power to change your way of life?" The sky darkened and the wind howled in a vortex around the two. Harry continued, "You want an outsider to do the work you yourselves could do. You want me to unleash my power upon your enemies, not mine mind you. I have no grudge in this battle, this war. But you want to tap into the unknown, let me slay down a monster," Harry's eyes had been glowing, but a sudden increase in the magical surge around them and they turned red, "without knowing the consequences and maybe even leaving a worst beast in its place. A beast no one could defeat because I know no pain or suffering too great to put me down?" Legolas could not stand the vortex of magic anymore, and fell to his knees, crying out in pain.

The wind and the darkness immediately dissipated. The stars seemed to shine brighter than before, and the air was easier to breathe. Legolas looked up to find Harry lounging against the wall, deep in thought but otherwise, looking no different than before. But now that his eyes had been opened, Legolas could see it all. The brilliance of his eyes, the way his messy hair seemed to defy gravity, an ethereal glow to his skin - Harry Potter was full to the brink with power. And he hid it to protect himself.

"Who has hurt you? Who has made you feel this way?" Legolas asked, moving closer and unafraid.

Moments passed in silence and Legolas thought that maybe he had gone too far. He wanted to take Harry up in his arms and protect him against the world, but he knew to Harry it should be the other way around, that Legolas should protect the world against Harry Potter.

Finally, Legolas' patience won out. Harry began, "I fought in a war. Ended a war really. At one point, it was essentially me against a whole army. Though I had friends that had my back, there was nearly nothing they could do. This battle was fated since before I was born, me against him and his army. And then I fought. And won. And when my battle was over, I fought all of his followers until nearly every last one was in jail or dead. And then I kept fighting the next person, no matter how far I had to go to find the next villain and the next until a friend, my dear Hermione, the smartest of her generation, was able to show me how wrong I was." Harry stepped away from the wall and moved over to the rampart, staring out into the inky blackness of the night, barely able to make out much with just the foreign stars to light the way. He continued at just a whisper that even Legolas had trouble hearing, "Life was going on while I was fighting. And while everyone around me got married, had kids, and aged, I was stuck, perpetually 17. And I was acting like I was in the war still, where every death was my fault. I was starting to disregard the lives I took. I treated it like balancing some cosmic equation of who deserves to live and who deserves to die and I didn't care what sort of magic I had to use to make sure they were dead. I was growing increasingly emotionless and out-of-tune with my loved ones. I was missing my godson growing up."

Harry turned now, away from the black void and leaned against the rampart, watching Legolas with those bright, piercing green eyes. "But I knew I had to be strong for him, like no one was for me, and so I broke the cycle. Separated myself as far away from temptation as I could. I've been at peace ever since. I can't imagine where I would be right now if I hadn't, what I would have missed of my friends and family. I can't imagine how I expected to go on: living forever fighting battles that weren't mine. Deciding fates that I am no longer capable of having myself. It was wrong of me."

For a while, the night was silent again except for the sound of the wind or the distant clang of metal as weapons were prepped for battle. Legolas' brow was knit together in deep thought, eyes seeing all of Harry and past him at the same time. Finally, he placed a warm hand on Harry's arm, "I was not there for your childhood and I cannot understand what you had to go through. It seems like you made the best decisions you could have."

Legolas' hand on his arm guided Harry away for the ramparts, and the dark void of night, and into the warm candle light of the room Legolas had been provided with. Briefly Harry noticed that it was much more lavish than the barrack-like room he had been provided with. Legolas laid him down on the bed. "The elves are eternal as well, but we can die if killed or if we fade," Legolas explained softly as he undressed. " We mostly excuse ourselves of the world of men, and ignore the plights of the mortals as well," he continued as he turned to help Harry out of his clothesl. Legolas was full of warmth and every space that he touched on Harry chased away the chill of the night, on his cheeks and brow at first and then his chest and sides as Legolas kissed him so sweetly and gently that Harry felt as if his soul would rise out of his chest to join with Legolas'. It was nearly painful, but in the best way, as if his heart missed a beat because it wanted to synchronize with Legolas' heartbeat and make them one. Legolas' hands took their warmth from his lower back, slid down his cleft, and found his opening, gently circling it to prep him for their coming union. Harry used a wave of his had to magically coat Legolas' fingers in lube to ease their entrance. Legolas raised a brow and smirked as he felt the magic on his fingers.

He pushed a finger in and Harry's entire body flooded with warm and he couldn't help but moan in pleasure. Legolas added another finger, then a third as he said, "But we are fighting an immortal now and that cannot be ignored. Nor can we ignore the army of dark creatures he has crafted." His voice was husky and his pupils blown wide.

Legolas arranged them so that Harry was on his back but his legs were thrown over Legolas' shoulders to make the right angle for their connection. Another wave of Harry's hand and Legolas' member was coated in the same slick lube. He pressed it against Harry's entrance but refused to move until Harry met his eyes. When Harry did, Legolas' first thrust was long and deep, making Harry groan out the elf's name. Harry whispered his admission in this moment of pause, "My blood boils for it, for such a battle. Sometimes, I hardly feel as if I am alive anymore. Just a hollow shell of what I once was."

Legolas began to thrust in earnest, his gaze a scorching heat as he looked at Harry as if he was so precious that Harry could barely stand the gaze. In the side of his mind, Harry noticed that Legolas had a hand out of sight and behind himself, but the elf's next thrust was right to his prostrate and Harry's thoughts flew out of his head. Legolas was relentless in his thrusting until Harry came quickly against their stomachs. Legolas paused for just long enough for Harry to regain his senses before starting a slow, deep rhythm that left Harry feeling completely full and claimed by the elf. By the time Legolas came inside of him, Harry was fully hard again and made a whining noise at it being over.

Legolas shushed him softly with a kiss, "It's not over, my Harry. Elves practice something called Mel -o tád," he explained, arranging them again. This time, he lowered Harry's legs gently to the bed and then put his knees on either side of Harry's hips. "In the mouth of Men," Legolas said, looking thoughtful for a moment as he searched for a good translation. Legolas lined up his own entrance to Harry's hard length and bared down. "Agh!" the elf moaned as he began to work himself up and down on top of Harry. At that point, Harry didn't think he needed a translation anymore. Harry pulled the elf down for a kiss and ravished the elf's mouth as he thrust up into the elf, slipping hand between to grab Legolas' length and increase his pleasure. With the extra stimulation, Legolas didn't last long and Harry followed quickly afterwards as Legolas' insides squeezed him tightly.

In the quiet of their afterglow, Harry sleepily confessed, "I yearn for the days that I knew no peace. I was carved from such places."

Legolas kissed his brow and responded, "I would love to see you set free upon the forces of evil. To see you fight as you have described to me. I feel as if I would forget the heroes of all the songs. I could hardly think of a more beautiful sight." Legolas tucked Harry more firmly into bed and Harry slept peacefully through the night.

The next morning, Harry was woken abruptly with a bucket of water poured over him.

"What the hell!" Harry shouted, trying to catch his bearings.

"You smell bad," Fenrir offered unapologetically, "I thought you could use a bath."

"Ugh!" Harry responded while the werewolf turned and left. Harry flopped back down to the sopping wet bed and put his arm over his face, groaning at the mess he had gotten himself into. Jealous lovers was the last thing he needed in this strange land but he hadn't thought of that the night before.

With no clue where Legolas was, Harry decided it was probably time to go and find something to occupy his time with and try to stay out of trouble for at least the day. Luckily, he knew a drying spell to take care of the mess in the room. The kitchen was fully staffed for the day so after grabbing a light meal from there, Harry sought out the infirmary, sure that he could do some good. Harry was not a mediwizard and he had no access to the usual potions, but he knew enough first aid spells because of being an auror and a school teacher to mend broken bones and speed healing.

Unfortunately, Harry's desire to stay out of trouble for the day was for naught. On top of the whispers of "wizard" that began to go around by the ones he healed with magic, Harry could hardly take a second of break or turn a corner without either Fenrir or Legolas grabbing him and trying the snog the life out of him. He had been pushed against some many walls and kissed so much in the duo's jealous one-upmanship, that Harry was ready to put his invisibility cloak on to disappear. The worst part was he kept forgetting to put an end to it the second he was in their embrace because, physically, it felt too good. The drama continued over dinner in the great hall with snarky comments and Harry had to shrug his shoulders at Gimli's and Galdalf's (the two who were more clued in on the situation than anyone else) curious glances. Harry took to entertaining the hobbits for the rest of the evening and even bunking with them for the night because their presence kept the other two at bay. Sadly, when Pippin foolishly looked into the orb and Gandalf had to flee with him directly to Gondor, Harry saw it as a golden opportunity to get some space to think. Harry didn't even mind confirming the rumors that had been flying around about being a wizard and transformed into his animagus form to join Gandalf and Pippin on their ride. And so, for the first time in his life, Harry happily ran away from his problems...for a little while.