Tauriel drew her bow, fired, and missed the target by a mile. She sighed and went to pick up her arrow. She was not particularly good at archery, but that was to be expected, as she had only arrived in Mirkwood a week prior. Her village was destroyed by orcs, and the memories haunted her every waking moment, and terrorized her dreams. She had seen every moment of her parent's deaths, and was only saved by her tree climbing skills. She could not forget her mother's screams as the orc blade pierced her heart, and her father's cry of anguish as he ran to her mother's dying body only to be pierced by an arrow and died only a few feet away from her. She could almost feel it, feel the sense of helplessness over and over again.
All in the village perished except for Tauriel, who had climbed a tree to the great height that only an elfling as young as her could reach, so high that the Guard patrol that had discovered the ruins of her village nearly did not find her. Fortunately for her, they did, and she had been taken to Mirkwood and placed with a foster family, and her new parents were both quite busy, as he held an important position in Court, and she was one of the head healers.
Tauriel wiped away tears as she bent to pick up the arrow. Contrary to what her classmates might believe, she was not crying that she had missed the target yet again, she was crying at the deaths of her parents. She hoped no one saw. The elflings of Mirkwood were much more skilled then her in many disciplines, and she often felt inferior to them. She tried twice more to hit the target, and only managed to clip the edge of the target on her second try. One of the instructors, she thought his name was Legolas, but she wasn't sure, she wasn't particularly good with names, came over to her. "
Stand like this." he said, modeling a stance, which she copied. "Now try and fire." he said. Tauriel fired, and the arrow went closer to the center, but there was only a slight difference. "Try again." Legolas, that was his name, she was right, commanded. She did as she was told, and each time she got a little better, not by much though.
Soon it was time to break for lunch, the most dreaded part of the day for Tauriel. She was not accepted here. The Mirkwood born elflings formed small cliques, and she was not included, but today she managed to snag a seat at a table with some other elflings, instead of sitting alone in a back corner.
"Why were you crying earlier? Is that because you're weak?" one of the elflings taunted her. Tauriel tried to not let it get to her, but she wanted to become a warrior, so to not feel so helpless again. She wanted to be strong, no, she needed to be strong. "No, I'm not, I just—" Tauriel's protests were cut off by another heart wrenching insult.
"You look and talk weird. Why is your hair such a funny color?" another elfling asked. Tauriel's shoulders slumped. Her hair color was from her mother, whose red tresses were floor length. Her mind was flooded with memories of her playing with her mother's hair as she sat on the floor as an infant, then as her mother's red blood mixed with her red hair as blood spurted from her mother's heart while her scream seemed to echo through out the village.
"You're so short. Was your father a dwarf?" another elfling said. Tauriel looked down at her food, suddenly finding herself not nearly as hungry as she once one was, and rose to leave, when one question made her bolt from the table.
"Do your parents even love you? They never come to walk you home or drop you off here, and they didn't come to the parent meeting last few days ago." This last question made Tauriel run, as far away from the lunchroom as she could. She ran outside, where she could be alone, away from the other elflings who tormented her, either by not acknowledging her existence or being mean to her.
She ran across the glade where they had been practicing, wanted to run forever, but she could not. She couldn't escape the nagging question: do your parents even love you? She knew her parents did, her real ones, but they were not here, they were in the stars with the Valar, but she could not see them, she could never see them again, not ever, they were gone, preserved in starlight, and she was here, stuck on earth. The only thing she could do was to climb, to get away from the earth and the other elflings, to try and reach the stars, but they were forever out of reach. Tauriel sat on the highest branch she could reach and sobbed. Her real parents were gone, she would never be able to see them again, and her foster parents were too busy and never had time for her. Dusk fell, and the first of the stars came out, and Tauriel was comforted. She sometimes felt like she could see her parents in the stars, feel them watching over her. Sometimes, she didn't even hear the screams when she looked at them.
As much as Tauriel wanted to fly like a bird, up to the heavens and soar into the night, she could not. She had to return, and face the consequences of running away, and to retrieve her bow. She grudgingly climbed down from the tree and returned to where they had been training. Only one elf remained. Legolas. She approached him from behind, in the hopes that she would be able to get her bow and leave without attracting attention. Unfortunately, this would not happen.
"Tauriel." he started firmly as he turned around to face her, holding her bow. "You should not have left training, no one knew where you were." his voice was almost angered, but the tear tracks on her face stopped him.
"I...I left...because..." Tauriel started to say, then stopped as her bottom lip started to quiver. Not even the starlight could comfort her, and the stars were indeed shining bright, for it was full on night by now.
"What happened?" Legolas asked gently.
"They...they asked if my parents even loved me..." Tauriel said, and gave into the tears. Legolas mulled this over for a moment then realized that this was the elfling whose parents who had been killed, and who had just arrived in Mirkwood barely a week past. He knew that some elflings could be quite cruel towards newcomers at times, and knew this to be one of them.
"I'm sure they do." he said as comfortingly as he could. "Besides, they are with the Valar, they will watch over you and keep you safe."
"I know my real parents did, but I am with a new family now. I do not know if they even care about me!" Tauriel said as a fresh wave of tears came over her.
"They do, they do." Legolas said in what he hoped was a comforting tone. He was not particularly good with children.
"If they do, then why do they not say so? Why do they never walk me to training, or to home after training? Why do they not tuck me in at night?" Tauriel said in between sobs."Those were things that my real parents did, but these never have! Why don't they just tell me that they love me, or hug me, or something! Why are they so distant!" Legolas had no answer for these questions. He merely bent down on one knee and hugged Tauriel. He let her cry into his shoulder until all the tears were gone, and she had fallen asleep. He picked her up and took her to her foster parent's house, and tucked her in. As he pulled the blanket over her, her eyes flickered open, and she mumbled something along the lines of "someone cares."
First off, I own nothing. Secondly, in this story, Tauriel is about 20, which in human terms is about 7. Yes, that is young to be handling a weapon, but elves develop much more quickly then humans. By their first year of life outside of the womb (Elves define life at beginning at conception, so by elf reasoning, 2), elves are able to run and even dance, and also this type of training would be not be with real arrows, as elves value their kids a ton and don't want them to get hurt, as elf don't have kids often. Ok. Nerd rant over. What do you think? Let me know by reviewing and favoriting! Starship T.A.R.D.I.S. out! Update 4/9/14: Since a couple people want another instalment, if you have ideas for what happens next, I will try to continue this! Leave them in a review or PM me!