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It was yet another perfectly sunny, perfectly breezy spring morning in Quel'thalas. The streams babbled languidly, splashing the stones that jutted into the open air as tiny, glimmering fish darted along beneath the surface like ribbons of gleaming gold and copper. The trees rose like great pillars of marble, blushing fire gold above sun-dappled hills the color of emerald.
The lack of birdsong was the only thing that felt off to the ranger as he crouched among the lower branches of an ancient tree. From where he sat, the pale elf could neither see nor hear the telltale flutter of the webbed, thinly-feathered wings of wild dragonhawks, which preyed primarily on birds and tree-dwelling rodents when they weren't robbing orchards. This all but eliminated the possibility that the birds had gone silent due to any natural threat; if they had spotted any lynxes or hawkstriders about, every bird within a mile of the predators would have already begun sounding piercingly loud warning calls.
Brown eyes scanned his surroundings for any movement, shape, color, or shadow that might be even infinitesimally out of place; long, sensitive ears twitched as he listened for anything that didn't quite blend in with the occasional breeze or the rustling of the grass and leaves around him. His very breath became shallow and quiet as his body fell almost deathly still. Yes, something--or someone--was close, very close... but where?
He felt something tickle the back of his neck just as a quiet, teasing voice asked him, "Did you see something, Lor'themar?"
Lor'themar rolled his eyes and turned his head just enough to see Halduron hanging upside-down behind him, grinning brightly as his golden-blond hair spilled down past his ears. The younger ranger's legs were hooked around a branch just a yard or two above Lor'themar's; his hands remained free, allowing the showoff to cross his arms almost casually against his chest.
"No," Lor'themar told him, turning away again before he could start grinning as well. "I only sensed someone fooling around like a lynx cub on its first hunting lesson."
Halduron chuckled, and the branch overhead dropped a handful of leaves on Lor'themar's head as the younger elf righted himself again and said, "Well, that's perfect. I thought I sensed someone being far too serious and came to investigate."
Lor'themar was slowly losing his battle to remain straightfaced; the corners of his mouth twitched precariously for a moment as he said, "Shockingly enough, some of us are busy trying to keep the kingdom under guard. I know that might be a bit of a foreign concept to you, but it is in fact part of our job."
"That sounds disturbingly like work." Lor'themar had to bite down hard on the inside of his cheek to keep from grinning openly, though his lips twisted into a grimacing smile all the same as Halduron continued, "And here I could have sworn all we rangers were meant to do was talk the local wildlife out of trying the raid the smaller towns and villages for easy food."
Lor'themar shook his head and finally allowed himself to grin so he could tell his friend, "In that case, you really have been fooling around on duty, Halduron. Fairbreeze Village has yet to experience any reprieve from thieving dragonhawks."
"It isn't my fault they have stubborn fruit thieves," Halduron said dismissively. "I'd steal some myself, if the only alternative were hairy little squirrels and birds that make enough racket to wake the dead."
"There are fruit-bearing trees and shrubs that grow outside the orchards," Lor'themar countered with a laugh.
"But those are spread farther apart than plants in an orchard," Halduron argued. "And their fruit tends to be smaller and less sweet." The branch above Lor'themar shifted again as Halduron stretched out his legs and leaned back against the trunk, crossing his hands causally behind his head. "Face it, my friend, we make it all too tempting for our scaly, feathered friends. It's the same as waving a fish in front of a cat--you can only hold it off so long before it starts ignoring you."
Lor'themar snorted, but found he really couldn't argue with that. Unless the magical talismans and wards used in the larger orchards became more widely available, the dragonhawks would remain an even greater aggravation for the growers of Quel'thalas than ravens and mice.
The two sat in companionable silence for a time after that, their eyes flitting almost casually about as the birds finally began to chirp again. A low breeze stirred the leaves around them and tugged gently at Lor'themar's hair, almost like fingers being drawn gently through his loose, low-tied horsetail...
"Your hair is incredibly thick, my friend," Halduron murmured, running his fingers through the cornsilk-colored strands again. "How do you put up with it? I can barely stand to do more than run a brush and comb through it each morning."
"That's about the extent of the effort I put into mine," Lor'themar admitted, closing his eyes and letting himself enjoy the other man's ministrations for a moment. "The horsetail is just an added step--something you should look into, by the way," he added, glancing back and up at Halduron, who now lay stomach-down across his branch so he could reach down to play in Lor'themar's hair.
"Why?" Halduron laughed, idly twirling a strand of hair around two fingers. "Mine isn't nearly as long or as thick as yours. All I need is a headband, if that."
"Not that you ever wear a headband anyway," Lor'themar said.
"I haven't needed to." Halduron tugged gently on the strand he was twirling. "I keep my bangs cut so they stay out of my eyes, and it's only a matter of seconds to tie my hair back if I ever really need to."
Lor'themar snorted and said, "Yes, I'm sure any troll will respect your need to pull your hair back before you leap into battle with them. Clearly they hold good hair care in very high esteem."
"It certainly seems that way," Halduron replied. "It must take a great deal of love for one's hair to be quite as dedicated as they are to allowing it to stand on end and become riddled with leaves and twigs and fur."
Lor'themar laughed at that, and the sound startled the birds nesting in their tree into noisy flight, shattering the quiet morning.
"Now we'll have to move," Halduron sighed, slapping Lor'themar gently on the back of his head. "And after I'd just gotten comfortable, too."
"If you hadn't come along and started playing around--" Lor'themar stopped short; just as he turned to raise an eyebrow up at his friend, Halduron flipped upside-down on his branch again and swung forward just enough to plant a quick, teasing kiss on the tip of Lor'themar's nose. In the next second, while the older ranger sat blinking stupidly at him, Halduron leapt nimbly down from the tree, landing silently on the grass below.
"Come on," he called up to Lor'themar. "Let's get going. Or are you stuck to that branch, ranger?"
Scowling, Lor'themar leapt down after the blond, inwardly promising all manner of retribution as Halduron darted off with a quiet chuckle. "Keep up, or I'll leave you behind, old man!" the younger ranger called over his shoulder.
"Old m--" Lor'themar growled and chased after the great blond streak of aggravation. Their footsteps barely left any marks in the grass as the two headed off, already beginning to race each other by the time they crossed the narrow stream just south of their initial hiding spot. By the time they had vanished into the forest roughly a mile later, the two rangers were actively trying to shove each other into the trees, all thoughts of silence and observation forgotten as they allowed themselves just a moment to behave like a pair of rowdy children.
They would likely catch trouble for their dereliction of duty if they were found out, but that really didn't matter much to either elf at the moment. Quel'thalas wouldn't crumble in the hour--or several--that two rangers spent at play rather than watching shadows and listening to rustling leaves. Their duty could wait.