1. The punishment

The battle of the five armies had ended, and everything seemed to be calm in Middle-earth. Thranduil lord of Mirkwood sent his only son Legolas Greenleaf in search for the one they call Strider, and had realized that love wasn't exclusive to the elven kind, thanks to this, he allowed Tauriel back into Mirkwood with her former rank. Alas, during the battle, when the time was ill, one of his commanders took upon him to help the dwarves when he saw the indecision of his king. Though wiser, Thranduil is a proud king, and even if he agreed somehow to fight side to side with the dwarves, he gave no direct order to help them.

The perpetrator; Aldúnil, a tall black-haired, blue-silver eyed elf; was sent to look after Legolas in his search for Strider, which for an elf whose life was about wandering or outmost discipline in the army and important tasks it was a punishment, one that Thranduil mercifully thought on.

"But you are sending me, my lord, to help Legolas in an easy errand. It would seem you do not trust your son enough. By this hour he is half way ahead of me, or maybe he already arrived there…" he said with anger in his tone, walking back and forth in front of Thranduil's throne.

"I trust my son, but I do not trust you Aldúnil, you helped those dwarves without my consent. Now you need to prove to me that as a Commander you can follow the lead of your King into battle, for I will not have disobedience among my ranks." the blonde proud elf said, without looking at Aldúnil, walking towards the stairs.

"Sir…!"

"Enough!" the king rose his voice for a second and then went back to his usual elegant and eloquent self. "You are a Commander of the Woodland Realm. It is the hour that you start behaving as one."

"Follow your king's command." Tauriel argued. She was present there as now she was an entrusted of King Thranduil. In her tone, there was authority, since she was of a higher rank than the commander, even more being of The Guard, but also some sort of plea to keep peace, since the punishment was not harsh. Thranduil was being very merciful, much unlike himself and he needed to go on that useless errand to pacify him, it was a bargain, considering the usual severity of the king and the level of the crime committed by the commander.

She knew Aldúnil from hundreds of years, and even when they never were specially friends they had enjoyed companionship and comradely in the army. Making jokes about the other or talking every now and then and the least she wanted was to see more tragedy after the battle. She had enough already…

"I would, Capitan Tauriel, but what he asks of me is, not something I can bow to do." The elf answered and then looked at the king. "Send me to the woods, my king. Let me serve you by eradicating the near threats of our lands, same that threatens our allies from the North."

In his voice there was something hiding and even when Tauriel seemed curious, Thranduil dismissed this for he was not interested in petty secrets. The ginger elf seemed to start getting upset. It was nothing more than a whine from a decorated Commander. She knew he was a lot like that in his common life and personality, except when it came to discipline in the army, why was it just now that he behaved like this at the light of a very small punishment in comparison for the crime he committed? She could not bear that he was arguing with a king just out of ego.

She pressed her fists on her sides. She knew she could not say much since she had not been the most obedient soldier as of late, but she had good reasons, this was a tantrum.

"These are not your lands." The king answered coldly and the commander seemed hurt inside, but he hid it instantly, only Tauriel that had been looking at him noticed. "Aldúnil, you swore an oath when I took you in without asking questions, when you became a soldier here; I am not going to argue as if you were my equal. You are off tomorrow by the first light, and that will be my say on the matter." Thranduil said before he left the room.

Tauriel looked at the black haired elf with some of a grin smirk; she was starting to like the idea of forcing the Commander to honor his pledge despite of his useless whining. Aldúnil sighed and sat on the steps of the king's throne, playing with a small dagger.

He would not be the king's son babysitter, he was Commander of the Mirkwood armies and he had lived far more adventures and battles than little miss red-haired with green eyes who had been forgiven after pointing an arrow to her king. However, he could not defy Thranduil's orders, in that she was right, he was the king. It was more of a punishment to see the grin on Tauriel's face than having to go see Legolas playing detective to find the son of Arathorn.

"So, you are off tomorrow?"

"You are so happy about that right? Me, gone for months."

"I would never say that," she got closer to him as she took out Kili's token from her pocket and started playing with it with her fingers "but I have to admit it will be nice to have some quiet time at last around here." suddenly her proud smile faded to a nostalgic look. Aldúnil stared at her. It was incredible how much she would change each time she took out that little rock that the dwarf gave her.

"I thought… that you left that thing with him."

"How could I? It is the only thing that I allowed myself to have from him to remind me that love is painful."

"Love does not have to be painful, Tauriel. But the most intense ones always leaves a permanent mark that stings sometimes…" now the gloomy look appeared in the dark haired elf, which triggered some sense of attention in Tauriel.

Before anything got any weirder, she left the Commander alone in the throne room as she thought of Kili and the words of Aldúnil "… it stings."

The light starts dimming out, as memories flourished inside the elf's mind… He was sitting on the bar of the Prancing Pony, although his vestments were not those of a soldier, or those of royalty, not even those of an elf. He was dressed in a large dark cloak, underneath that his mail and clothes were badly treated and old, the only thing shiny and of value was his sword.

He grabbed his pint and took the last zip of it just before asking for another. After the bartender had put in front of him another pint, he heard a highly pitched laugh, he was perceptive as any other elf but that laugh could not have passed unnoticed, even by dwarves. He looked to where the laugh came from and saw a group of three young farmer girls that most likely escaped their fathers that night to go experiment a bit of the world outside their daily lives. All of them pretty, but one caught his eye, a ginger girl with green eyes who was smiling directly at him. He answered with a cocky smile and then got back to his pint. He heard the girls go loud again.

Aldúnil scratched his beard a little. He was an elf, but also a man. From histories before the current ages he knew this and even though he never knew his father and grew with his mother, he knew very well that he was unique aside from those of the lineage of Beren and Lúthien. Yet he rarely revealed it, and if so, just barely.

"Silver! It's nice to see you around" said a man passing by.

He raised his cup and smiled at the man.

There, he was known as Silver. He passed as a man, he left his bear grow to distinguish himself from elves, his arms were a bit hairy and his lack of hygiene made him look like a man. His pointy ears were easily hidden below his hair or hood, and if, by any chance, someone saw them they weren't as prominent as those of a normal elf so he could just shrug and say he inherited them form his father -which was not a lie.

The girls laughed again and he saw them. The ginger and her friends were looking at him. He took a deep breath and decided to walk towards them.

"Hello, ladies." he said as he took a seat in their table without asking "May I ask, what are three lovely creatures such as you in this place at this late hour?"

"Oh, sir, we just like to go out without permission every now and then to have fun." one answered.

"The farm life gets boring very easily." another finished.

"I would not know." Silver answered.

"Of course not," the ginger said getting close to him "you look like a man that lives in danger, which goes on for adventure."

"Cannot deny that" he answered "but you being here, means that you like adventure too."

"Well, yes" answered the ginger again getting closer until her hand reached his thigh "but maybe our kind of adventure is not the same as yours… sir."

Silver looked down to the hand of the girl crawling up his thigh and smiled, then looks at the other two girls that seem excited too.

"There, my lady, you are wrong." he replied. "I think we are looking for the exact same kind of adventure right now."

He took two of the girls to his room, one stayed behind out of shyness; she was the newest to that adventure apparently. The ginger and the dark haired girl went with him. He lost no time and stripped them out of their clothes revealing their proportionate bodies; he soon lost his cloak, left his weapon near him and placed a knife under the pillow. When he lost every fabric, the girls looked at him with lust.

"I love passing rangers." said the black haired girl while the ginger bit her lips lustfully. He threw himself at them and caressed them at first on every inch of their bodies. Then proceeded to have sex with both at the same time, while they also gave pleasure one to the other.

Elves tended to be very introverted when it came to sex, until then he only found a few that would lay with him without any compromise about love or such, they were prettier than humans usually, but harder without a question so he loved to go to this kind of settlements to satisfy his needs. Humans were very lusty by nature, and women tried to behave, but when the right opportunity presented they surrendered to him without a fair fight. On these days, when he found two or three young very well looking girls already willing to go the extra mile it was as if his entire day was worth it because he enjoyed it like a beast. He had the perception and skills of an elf for battle, but he also used them for this, pleasuring women as if it was his only task. Maybe it wasn't his only task, although he didn't truly know by then, but definitely his favorite hobby.

Unlike his kin, he had a fascination for flesh. He grew up as the secretly fairy elven boy raised as a human in a human town, becoming the fascination of young girls. He found the fun in pleasure as none other than he knew of elven blood, this letting the girls taste an experience like never before and never forgetting him, always carving more.

He leaned in as his waist moved on the ginger's pelvis back and forth and his right hand was masterfully used to please the other one. His attention was heavily focused on the ginger girl, he had a weakness for women with fiery hair, but the girls never noticed this focus, since in both of them he was doing a great work.

The ginger took her hand from his back to his black hair and pressed him against her lips, when she stopped and let out a moan, she picked up Silver's hair and put it behind his ear, feeling the pointy end and then looking at it.

"What is this?" the ginger said between moans, fascinated.

"Are you an elf?" the other girl asked with a big smile.

"I shall not answer that." he replied, lowering his rhythm.

"Oh, you are an elf, aren't you?" the ginger tried to pull his beard out as if trying to reveal a fake one but to no avail.

"Not exactly" he said starting to go up in speed again, making both of them arch their backs in pleasure to then retire from the ginger and start with the black haired girl which was fascinated so she said nothing more, but the ginger one was very curious and she started caressing his ears.

"I thought elves didn't have beards or hair on their bodies." she said to then kiss him.

After a while when they were quiet he started concentrating on the ginger again. She slowly caressed her own body up and back in pleasure.

"Men cannot do this at all." she said.

"Yeah, they last three minutes and only care about themselves." the other one answered "You can with both of us."

"Well, I'm unforgettable" he answered leaning in to kiss the body of the ginger and then the black hair one.

"You truly are, milord" the ginger said.

"I'm no lord" he denied.

"You must be special with your people, sir, you are…," she said nothing as she was interrupted by a heavy long moan while her legs trembled "...amazing. I deny thinking all elves are this good."

As he kissed them he answered pausedly, trying to put an end to this bothering conversation. He just wanted to enjoy the time.

"Elves tend to keep for themselves only for procreation, so no. Best case they do it regularly with their lifetime partner. Now, can we just… do this?"

"Sounds romantic… Oh yes, I could do this every day" answered the ginger while her friend was on ecstasy.

He directed them to put their knees and hands on the bed while he leaned in from behind with the ginger again, then the black haired girl and back many times taking turns. After some minutes and between a new set of moans from both women the red haired girl had spasms again but he did not stop, nor did she want him to. After that, she leaned back with her waist still bent towards him and kissed him to then ask:

"So, milord, why is it that you are like this and there is no fortunate life partner elven lady?"

As soon as she said this he stopped abruptly. Soon he had no mood. Soon a good day was gone by a mere silly and innocent question. But it burned in his chest. The great day in which two ladies decided to lay with him was absolutely crushed. He seated aside of the bed and the ginger seemed confused while the other girl went in with her lips towards his pelvis but he stopped her.

"Get out" he asked in a low voice.

"What? But we are having so much fun!" said the red haired girl.

"I need to be alone now, please…"

"But, don't we please you?"

"You do… you did… but you finished… we are finished here."

"Then let's keep…"

"I said get out!"

The girls seemed to understand now that his request was serious so they just stepped out of bed and started getting dressed as they were quiet. The black haired one got out first a bit confused and sad. Then the red haired one went to the door and looked at him.

"I'm sorry if I offended you, sir, it's just…"

"I know. It is not your guilt to bear, but mine."

"If you ever want to find us again we come here often, and next time I promise I will convince my other friend…"

Silver looked at her as if she was just stepping over the line now and she just got out of the room, closing the door behind her. There, naked and alone he reached for his belt and took out a dagger and started to play with it while he was thinking. Why does it still stings?

After some deep thinking and remembering, Aldúnil set off to his chambers to prepare for his journey, although he would not be joining Legolas to meet up Aragorn again. Before his babysitting duty, he would attend more important matters in his priority list and head to Lothlorien, to pay a visit to his sister, Sinnié. Although she was protected by Lady Galadriel —being the only person alive besides them that knew who she was— he worried about his sister, and many moons had passed since they last saw each other. They were twins, and something thicker than blood bonded them, something deeper than normal brotherly love. The battle for Erebor was over; now a dark presence was casting a shadow all over the land, he could sense it, and so should Sinnié. Lothlorien was a safe place thanks to its rare magic, but that didn't meant it was untouchable. He would disobey his king to make sure she was right.

The time when his sister and him got into different paths, was the day she became Galadriel protégé. The same day he departed to wander the world, much before being a soldier of Lasgalen. After that, he visited her from time to time, every few years or decades but when he became a soldier he took an oath and since then he was not allowed to make usual personal trips, not even to the close Lothlorien, even less when it was for unknown reasons that he would not reveal.

She had always been a shy, lonely woman, preferring her books and music lessons than exploring the world outside. Yet, she was very skilled in throwing knives; a very handy ability to put a stop on her brother when he was bothering her. Aldúnil smiled while remembering their childhood together, far away from elvish cities, in a quiet human town with their mother, up until she died, revealing an overwhelming truth about her children, changing their worlds completely.

Aldúnil took this truth harshly, since he always thought they were alone in the world as a family, even more so when he related the stories of the great healing elves to the sickness of his mother, thinking she could have been saved. But this just gave more meaning to his previous resolution. He wanted to explore the world, and even more, he wanted to earn a hero name for himself, far more than having it due to a lineage that he never knew while growing up.

However, Sinnié thought differently, deciding to visit the living relatives they had; in Doriath.

She was young and naïve by that time, now, a sense of overwhelming curiosity was flooding him about how did his sister should be by now. A warrior? A diplomat? married? Slowly he fell asleep with a smile on his face, imagining Sinnié as a married cranky elvish woman, married to some Lothlorien lord and how upset or happy could she be.

As soon as the first lights of day touched the crests of Mirkwood trees, Aldúnil headed to the gates to start his journey, without realizing —or deliberately ignoring— that Tauriel followed him.