Author's note: Please check out the short story collection I have published as well? The link to Amazon is on my profile! c:
You stand at the embankment of a river, watching the water tumble over rocks, the movement a soothing sight to your eyes. The trees of Mirkwood are shedding the colors of summer for the warmth of fall, many of the leaves taking on the colors of gold, red, and orange. Pulling the light green hood of your cloak more tightly around your head, you emit the softest of sighs and continue to stare at the water, your thoughts lost in the river before you.
"I knew I could find you here, my lady." Legolas spoke in his native tongue, but you had been able to understand and speak elvish for a very long time. You don't turn your head, your hand instinctively tugging at your hood to make sure your face is properly covered.
"The sounds of nature are soothing to a weary heart," you reply, your hand slipping into Legolas's as he draws close. A scarf you wear around your face keeps the scars hidden, so you look up, eyes meeting Legolas.
"Your eyes remind me of starlight. I have come to you wondering: why is it that you do not show us your face? Elves are slow in their judgement." He runs his thumb across the back of your hand, a favorite touch of yours, and you look down at his feet, your heart beating wildly against your chest at the thought of taking off your scarf or your hood.
"My face is not one you wish to see, Legolas," you mumble, a tear pricking the corner of your eye. You wipe it away, angry of displaying such weakness in your mind.
"I wish to see it more than anything in the world." His finger slips under your chin, eyes grazing your hidden face. "But I will not rush you. You will show me, when you are ready." His lips graze your knuckles, and you sigh, pushing yourself into his waiting embrace.
"Come mellon," the elf sneered, mocking the word for friend like it was a word of disgust to him. Tears fall freely from your face this time, and you watch as three of the elves surround you. They have never liked you, seeing you as an outsider and untrustworthy, and they've been obsessed with revealing your face since you arrived in Thranduil's Halls many, many years ago. "Or are you really an orc under there?" His hand lashed out, grabbing your hood and thrusting it down. Another elf bolted forward, snatching the end of your scarf and pulling until it was ripped from your face.
You stare at the scarf as if it had been the one to betray you, the horror that the elves could now see your face webbing its way through your body like a numbness.
When you were a little girl, orcs had ambushed your home village. They had set fire to your home, and though you had been rescued by elves and walked away with your life, the right side of your face was badly burned, the left side baring a rather nasty scar from brow to chin from the knife of a uruk-hai.
"Get. Out." Legolas's sweet, sweet voice carried across the room, his voice laced with the power that came with being prince. You have never heard him so angry, and his eyes were nearly alight with blue fire as he points towards the door, his gaze turned towards the elf bullies. They are gone before Legolas can punish them then and there.
You are shaking by now, the tears cascading down your face as you struggle to stand on your feet. Legolas nearly floats over to you, taking you in his arms. "Did they hurt you, my lady?"
You shake your head, your eyes searching frantically for your scarf, but it appears as if your bullies have taken it. You settle for the hood, attempting to raise it over your face.
Instead, Legolas cups your chin and raises your face, so that he can press his lips first against the burn on your face, then your scar, and then finally on your lips. "You haven't the slightest idea how long I've wasted to taste the starlight of your lips." He whispers, pulling you closer. "Do not be ashamed of your scars, my love. They show strength, not weakness."
"You do not see my ugliness and fear me, like so many people have?" Your tears had ceased, but your face is no more than a whisper, and you catch his gaze, your eyes hopeful.
Legolas's smile was enormous on his face as he brought his lips down to kiss you again. "I have loved you since I first laid eyes on you. I will love you till the end of time. Your beautiful to me in every way possible. Do not ever forget that."