A/N: Hey everyone, so it took a while but I'm finally back with this story with loads of ideas…however I do need your help. I've decided I want to write a little about young Lalaith's life BEFORE she journeys with the Fellowship of the Ring. No matter what I am writing about her life before this…however I need your help with this: should this fanfic be retiled and just be about her life before…and then make a new one called 'Courage in the Smallest' about her journey with the Fellowship? HELP! Please!
Until I have opinion…here it is…finally…lol…
Disclaimer: I do NOT own any of the characters in here except for the ones that you do not recognize such as Lalaith, her parents, random elves or humans and the ranger in the next chapter. I am making NO money off of this…sadly…and I especially do NOT own Legolas, Aragorn, or the twins…-cries- I would love to own any of the four…however I do not…which may be a good thing. Based on the books/movies Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien and Peter Jackson
Summary: Lalaith was a four-year old mortal girl when Elrond's sons Elrohir and Elladan found her. They saved her from her own parents; of course they did not know this for her parents were killed by a group of orcs. They took her back to their father where she became their foster sister. The family had to teach Lalaith that she was not the bad girl her parents made her believe, but that she was a beautiful, smart and courageous, young girl who needed the chance to show everyone how sweet she could actually be. They have to help her step out into the world that she has been kept from for all these years. Finally when things are starting to look up for the mortal a group of elves begin to talk to her, telling her that the Lord of Rivendell does not really love her, that he and his family only kept her because they felt they had to. What happens when she begins to believe this? Will the Prince of Mirkwood and Aragorn be able to show her that everything they have told her is not true? Years later a council is called to decided the destiny of the One Ring. Will courage be found in the most unlikely group? Or will they fail?
Or: Lalaith is Lord Elrond's foster daughter. Dan and Ro found her in a village that had burnt down, what happens when they take her back to their father? What happens when she meets Prince Legolas and they become very good friends? Everything is going great for Lalaith, but when a group of elves begin teasing her and she realizes that she's in love what will happen when the elf she loves goes on a journey with a group that might not ever return? Then to mess things up ever worse Lady Galadriel tells Lord Elrond that he must let his mortal foster daughter go with on the journey with the Fellowship.
Rated R because of some talk of child abuse
Sorry the first chapter is so short...it just explains Lalaith's life before Rivendell...NOW on with the story…again!
OH! P.S. I need a beta…pwease? It would be greatly appreciated!
Prologue: Her Life
The village was busy as usual during the fall, trying to harvest their plants to survive the hard winter they knew was to come. Men, young and old, worked in the fields along with a few women spread among them. As the sun began to fade the work was pushed off until tomorrow as every journeyed home to clean up. Some of them were going home to be with their families, others going home only to leave again to go to the pub. This was the case of Garulf, a man in his late forties. He was often found at the pub until late at night, usually joined by his wife. His wife was a beautiful middle-aged woman known throughout the village for her sewing skills. No one would have guessed the couple hid a terrible secret. However many did wonder about the strange couple.
Most of the town felt sorry for them, orcs had attacked their family only a couple of years back while they had been traveling. Their three sons and daughter had been killed, leaving behind their youngest daughter near death. Although the couple seemed the same to everyone else in the village, life for the only daughter was not the same. They took their anger, confusion and frustration of that horrible night on her.
The girl had grown up loved and cared for until that horrible night. She was plagued with nightmares most night after night. Once she was old enough in the eyes of her parents, she began doing most of the housework. When she should have been outside playing with the other children her own age, she was inside cleaning up after her parents and caring for them when they came home drunk from the pub. All of this was too much for a four-year old…but no one noticed.
Late that evening after Garulf and his wife had gone to bed, they were awakened by a terrified scream coming from their daughter.
"Me sorry! Me…me w-wont do it again! Me promise!" The four-year old blonde haired girl told her mother and father, trying to show them she would wake them again. However, even at her young age, she knew it was useless. Try as she might to keep from waking them, she could never hold back her screams.
"Sorry? If it were not for you, your mother and I would still be asleep. Instead we have a good-for-nothing daughter who wakes us up screaming when the moon is high in the sky." Her father told her, his dark blue eyes staring into hers. "Did we learn nothing from the last time?" He took a step towards her.
The little girl whimpered as she backed up against the wall, scared of her own father. She glanced at her mother who was laying on the bed, glaring at her.
The little girl let out a cry as her father's hand met her face. "You'll never be more than a good-for-nothing child! You can't even clean right!" He slapped her once again before his foot met her tiny stomach. The girl fell to the floor, sobbing as she tried to curl into a ball to protect herself.
"Garulf, do not waist your time on her. She is worthless...come back to bed. In the morn we shall have her fetch some more ale for you, for I know that you have run out." His wife told him as she closed her eyes, ignoring her crying daughter.
Garulf did as he was told after giving the girl another hard kick, ignoring the sobs, and climbed back into the bed.
The little girl slowly and painfully stood up walking out of the room. She had once again woken up her parents because she had had yet another nightmare. For the last couple of years, she had had the same nightmare, sometimes every night, sometimes she went without it for months. Every time she tried to find comfort in her parents, it was the same...they beat her. Since she had grown older, she knew not to anger her parents after they had been drinking the towns' ale...for when she did...it ended badly. Usually it was only her fathers who hurt her, kicking her or slapping her, although her mother would sometimes pull her long hair or slap her whenever she felt her daughter had done something wrong.
For a couple years now the girl had learned to take care of her parents, and herself. She would clean her wounds after they were done with her, then cook, or clean the house, or even help her drunken father into bed. She tried her hardest never to make them angry, but somehow she always did. No matter what she did it never made them happy, they reminded her everyday how useless she was. When she had first been born they had loved her...but then orcs killed her older siblings and then her parents began drinking the ale. Early on she had leaned that the drink was bad, and she had even tried telling her parents what she thought...that was when her father began beating her. The town hardly ever saw the child, for her parents kept her in the house where no one would see her. Her room was the closet next to the back door that led to the horses. The town thought nothing of it, why would such a couple hurt their child?
They would never know how much her life was affected by the things her parents said or told her. They never stopped when they heard her cry out at night...they didn't care. So the little girl grew up too early, for she was only four and did everything around the house and the yard. She never spoke, never played with the other children, always thinking she deserved what she was getting...
The girl painfully made her way to the back door, and held a brown cloth to her lip where it had been split open. She took shallow breaths to stop the pain coming from her stomach, there would soon be a bruise there...in the shape of a footprint. "Me be good...me pramose. Me won't be bad no more." She told the star filled sky above her. She always promised she would be good and never understood why she was always told she was bad when she did as she was told...that would all end soon.
Closing her eyes, she wished for a family where she was cared for and loved…where she did things the way that they wanted them done. Unknown to her…she was about to get her wish.
