Gentle footsteps were the only sound as Tauriel pondered what she'd overheard. Legolas was handsome, any of her former colleagues could agree to that, but attracted to her? It had to be a rumor, and nothing more. He couldn't really have feelings for her that way, not after what happened. What would his father say?
Noticing a tree with a branch nearly two feet out of reach, she prepared to leap for it, but a soft footstep behind her stilled all movement. "Tauriel, may I speak to you?" The voice's tone betrayed who it was.
Joining him in the elven tongue, she replied, "My lord."
Legolas sighed. "I've wanted to ask you this for a long time. Would you like to be more than friends?"
She remembered their childhood together. Legolas had asked her the same question before, when he was around nine hundred years of age, before his mother was killed. Life had been so wonderful then, and so different, before Ayana had died, before Thranduil turned his back on everyone he loved, before her world had come crashing down around her. Even through all of that, Legolas had never made a promise to her that he had not kept.
Considering this, she realized he would not ask unless he meant it. Turning to face him, she replied, "Yes."
Tauriel swung through the trees with feline grace, shooting spiders out of the branches as she did. Fighting while trying to keep her presence a secret was hard. But as long as she stayed far enough away from the main group, no one noticed.
Running along a branch above the Sylvan Elves, she spotted Legolas's pale hair among the dark in the forest. He was standing on a branch directly below her. She ran back to the trunk and slid down to the branch he was on.
Gazing around her to see if anyone was watching, she stepped up behind Legolas and tapped him on the shoulder. He started and his bow hand tensed, the other reaching back for an arrow. "Hello," she whispered in his ear. He relaxed, smiling, and turned to face her.
"What brings you here?" he teased.
"You know the answer." She smiled back at him. "There's no one watching."
He nodded. "Yes. I'll see you tonight, starlight."
"You know how I like watching the stars with you, especially since I was, well, you know." Tauriel sighed. "I will see you then. But I had best go before someone sees something they should not." Legolas nodded. Then he raised his bow and fired an arrow over her shoulder. She turned. A dead spider fell out of the tree behind her. "Thanks."
He gave a curt nod, then swung away.
Tauriel fiddled with the clasp of her cloak. Trying to be quiet, she finally shut it and pulled the hood up over her head. Turning in front of the mirror, she made sure it would cover all her hair. She pushed the hood back down again. Her 'red as fire' hair spilled down her back.
She gently took a delicate gold clip from her pocket. Legolas had given it to her when they were children. It was set with emeralds and pearls and engraved with his family's seal. She remembered what he'd said about it. "I think you are pretty and deserve something as lovely as you." Tauriel smiled at the memory and bound her hair up on her head with the clip and pulled the hood of her cloak back up over her head. How I wish I did not have to keep my presence here a secret. she thought. It seems like millennia have passed since my childhood here. So happy.
Footsteps sounded outside. Tauriel pulled herself out the open window, pulling it shut with a clack. She grabbed the branch and swung down so she was hanging by one hand. There, hanging onto the branch, she listened.
A voice, whom she recognized as one of the Sylvan elves, one who had been rather mean to her in the past, said, "There was someone here, my lord. I saw them. Also, there have been many other strange occurrences. Arrows disappearing from the armory in the dead of night. Food going missing with no explanation. Spiders dropping dead where there was none to kill them."
"I know." Thranduil's voice.
The famed King of Greenwood. she thought in a sarcastic manner, not caring it would be counted as treason.
"But yet you have done nothing, my lord."
"I myself have often noticed my son disappearing on clear nights, and seeming, rather, detached and tired the next day. But no, I have not done nothing as you say. I have been waiting and watching for them to make a mistake. And my patience was rewarded." Tauriel shivered. How she dreaded hearing he knew. She would have to tell Legolas to be more careful.
"There are also reported sightings of a strange figure, hooded and cloaked. Someone who has great skill in trees and with weapons as well, specifically a bow. One of the elves saw the prince and whomever it is together, giving us reason to believe it is a woman. An elf woman."
Tauriel pulled herself up farther so her head was level with the branch. She saw Thranduil walk to the window and gaze out into the dark forest. "I know who it is. Tauriel is here, despite her banishment. When you next see her, bring her to me, if you can. But whatever you do, try not to hurt her. I want her alive."
"Yes, my lord." At this, Tauriel dropped several dozen feet to the ground and ran
through the forest. She had to find Legolas, fast.
Running faster then she ever had, she almost missed the tree where he was waiting. "Tauriel!"
"Legolas!" She stopped herself and embraced him. "You look wonderful."
"You look flustered. What happened?" he asked, concerned.
She looked away. "I'll tell you once we're up." He leapt up onto a branch and extended a hand to her. She grasped it and pulled herself up.
High above the forest, Tauriel sat on a branch, gazing at the stars that stretched from horizon to horizon. "So," Legolas asked, seated next to her, "what happened?"
She sighed. "Your father knows I am here," she said simply. "He notices when you leave, and one of the elves saw us together. He is hunting me for that."
He scooted closer to her on the branch. "There is no need for worry, Tauriel. I have a plan to mend things with my father. But you must leave Greenwood for it to work."
"Leave? I cannot leave!" Tauriel looked at him in horror. "I could not bear being away from you. And where would I go?"
Tears welled in Legolas's eyes. "I could not either. But if it works, we could be together. Forever."
Tauriel pressed close to him and nodded. "What is your plan?"
"To get myself banished. And do not worry about where you will go. I have a place for you. I will take you there tonight. You will not see me for several nights, but I will be back."
"Will you promise?"
"On my honor as the prince of Greenwood, I will come back to you."
The rest of the night passed in silence between them, each enjoying the other's company.
Near the sunrise, when the stars began to fade in the morning light, Legolas stood and stretched. "Come. I will take you to where I promised. Do not leave it, and you will be safe."
Tauriel nodded. Her heart still ached at the thought of leaving him. He leapt down to a branch a few feet below and extended a hand to her. She took his hand and followed. She followed him deep into the forest to a small clearing, several leagues south of the halls. "Are we here?" she asked.
"Yes." He gestured at a small cottage near the edge of the clearing, surrounded by a wrought-iron fence, with the gate open. "What do you think?"
Tauriel gasped, tears coming to her eyes. It was beautiful. "It-it's wonderful, Legolas."
He hooked his arm around hers and lead her across the clearing and up the steps of the porch. "As long as you stay here, my father's men won't find you. But I will."
"You had better," Tauriel said, turning to face him and tucking her head against his chest. "I have only one thing to ask. Will you stay here for just a little longer? Please?"
"No, I cannot. But I will be back in five days' time. You must only wait that long. It will be worth it all."
"Just five more days. I can wait that long. After all, I waited most of my life for this, so what is five days when I have waited five centuries?" she said. It was true. When they were young, she and Legolas had been friends. Each the only friend of the other, if truth be told. She'd seen the way he used to look at her, even when she was only six and he eleven. But when his mother, Ayana, had died, they had been separated by his father, simply because she was a Sylvan elf and he Sindarin, which to her meant almost nothing. She was not like the other Sylvan Elves. She was different, somehow.
"Here." Legolas's voice startled her out of her reverie. He drew one of his arrows from his quiver and handed it to her. "Keep it, as a reminder. I will come back."
"Thank you." Tauriel said, tears coming to her eyes again. "Just, come back to me. There is nothing I want more. And, stay safe."
"I will." Legolas gently hugged her and then strode away into the forest, bow in hand.
Tauriel gazed after him into the early morning light, tears coursing down her cheeks.
When he was out of sight in the forest, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. This was her home now. She turned around and opened the door.
There was a row of hooks to her left, with some room in front of it for shoes, and a half-wall that opened into a cheery, and cluttered, kitchen. In front of her, a hall ran the length of the house. Several doors, some of them ajar, lined the corridor.
Another room opened up to her left. It held a neat fireplace, the only neat thing in sight, and a yellow loveseat. There was a window above the loveseat with white curtains. Tauriel smiled. She liked white curtains. Gently setting things out of her way, she walked to the window and drew the curtains back. The view of a plowed garden plot and a few climbing trees met her. Tauriel tied the curtains back and opened the window. She laughed as the breeze tousled her hair.
Turning away from the window, Tauriel walked back through the room and went down the hallway. Opening the first door she came to, she found a pantry. She opened the tall narrow window on the far end. The second and third yielded empty rooms that Legolas had evidently not finished, but she opened the windows. The fourth disclosed a stairway, which she made a mental not to explore someday. The fifth door she tried opened to reveal a neat bedroom.
There was a bed with pale yellow bedding in the far corner with a cedar headboard carved to resemble intertwined vines. A hand carved armoire with six drawers stood opposite it. Stepping into the center of the room, she saw a stack of finished and some unfinished arrows on top of a chest with hooks above. A backup bow and quiver hung from them. A folded note lay on the pillow of the bed. Tauriel sat gently on the edge of the bed and picked it up. Her name was written on the front in Legolas's delicate, flowing handwriting. She opened it.
My dear Tauriel,
I set this room up for you, but have not had the time to finish the entire house. I hope you enjoy it. There are few elves who come this way, so you will be quite safe. I apologize for the mess. There was not time to clean it before it was needed. But I know you are very capable of cleaning it to your satisfaction.
The arrows, quiver and bow in the corner are for you. But if you prefer the one you made, I understand. If you run out of arrows, there are some arrowheads, shafts and fletching in the chest so you can make more.
I hope you like the room at the end of the hall. I put much of my time into it.
Yours always,
Legolas
Tauriel smiled and tucked the letter into her pocket. How sweet of him. She rose and left the room. But the last two sentences piqued her curiosity. What was he talking about?
The last door confronted her at the end of the hall. She unlatched it and pushed it open.
A large room opened up in front of her. The walls were a deep green, the shade of the forest in summer. A four poster bed with lace curtains was against the far wall. Two tall windows with cream colored curtains were on either side of it. A delicate mirror with a wrought silver frame hung on the lefthand wall with a silver vanity and stool beneath it. A desk stood opposite the vanity, with a stack of paper and a quill on top of it. Then she saw the ceiling.
It was made entirely of birchwood and maple planks, set so close to one another they appeared to be one solid piece. The whole ceiling was covered in carvings of intertwined vines and trees carved out of the solid wood. It was all hand carved. Every single leaf and tendril. Legolas had to have fitted those planks, one by one, into their place and then carved the whole thing. So this was what he had been talking about. This was the crowning glory of the house he'd built by himself. "Birch is so rare here." Tauriel whispered to herself. "He must have gone so far to find it. And the maple wood, too."
Finally pulling herself away, Tauriel went back to her room. She then saw a piece of pale yellow fabric hanging out of the second drawer from the top of the armoire. She opened the drawer and pulled out a pale yellow, a bit darker shade than the walls, ankle-length dress. It had an empire waist and a fluffy, modest neckline. The fabric was soft to her fingers. Tauriel stripped off her tunic and leggings and tried it on. She smiled and twirled, then laughed. Legolas thought of everything.
Noticing a mirror on the back of her door, she gazed at her reflection and twirled again. My hair doesn't look quite right. she thought.
Heading back to the larger bedroom, she found two gold hairpins on top of the vanity. Then she looked closer. The hairpins were shaped like daggers, but would function as hairpins. How clever. A weapon, hidden in her fiery-red locks. She set one down and twisted her hair up on her head. Twirling her new dagger hairpins round her hands, Tauriel stuck them smartly in her hair and checked her reflection. Quite satisfactory.
A knock sounded from the front of the house. Worried, Tauriel snuck as quietly as she could to the door. She opened the door carefully, then stopped.
A young man, cloaked and masked, watching her with hooded amber eyes. A wisp of dark hair had escaped from its binding and hung across his face.
"Who are you, and how did you know this was here?"
His tone was clipped and short. "I am Weland."