Winterlights by Elleth

Wrappings

For prompt #21: Gift wrapping. Although Tauriel's visitor must depart, there is no parting them yet.

Arms over her head, Baraneth spins around and around again to unravel the gold silk wound about her body into pooling on the floor of the baths. She lifts a brown foot and steps out of it with a dancer’s poise, to Tauriel’s side in the water, with a sigh.

"We are departing tomorrow. News of unrest in Rhûn came upriver, and the Queen’s summons to all traders, merchants and travellers." Baraneth tips her head back, setting her shock of black hair floating. "She wants to see her wealth and people safe lest trade routes grow impassable."

"And you must obey. I understand," says Tauriel, disappointed even knowing Baraneth’s days in the forest were numbered.

"Yes. But give me a gift to remember you by," Baraneth bids, climbing from the water to open a towel wide for Tauriel to spin into - and pin her arms tight in the wrappings.

A token laughing protest, that she is not a gift to be wrapped so, is only that – a token. Come the next morning, Tauriel gains Thranduil’s permission to depart as the Dorwinion merchants’ guard, and wraps a shawl over face and hair to keep the surprise a little longer.