King Thranduil sighed as he listened to his scouts report that a patrol of wounded Mirkwood elves were coming. that's just what he needed, more problems for his already troubled kingdom. Ever since the orcs had came, more elves had been dying from wounds than from fading. most of the ones who were still alive were preparing to sail for the Grey Havens. Thranduil worried if he was a good king. When he was little, he had wanted to be just like his father, but Thranduil knew his father would have never let the spiders and orcs to be like this. Spiders had always plagued Mirkwood, but orcs had never been brave enough to challenge or even enter Mirkwood, until now. Did they doubt Thranduil's authority?! If his father was here, he would fix everything. But his Ada had died in the Battle of Dagorlad.
"The Battle of Dagorlad," thoght Thranduil out loud. That brought back so many memories of the War of the Last Alliance. That day was full of death. A third of the Mirkwood army had returned. Two-thirds had died. Two thirds that included his father who had never returned to the green forest he loved. Now, the forest was filled with the darkness of Sauron from which these spiders had come from. Even though Sauron had been defeated, his remaining army had sought out refuge in Mirkwood. It was all Thranduil could do to keep his borders safe, even though his goal was to take back the whole forest, so he could restore his land to what it had been before The Battle.
As Thranduil returned back to reality, he heard the captain of that patrol walk into his throne room followed by many wounded, tired elves. Thranduil wanted to cry out at their many wounds, but managed to restrain himself. "Tauriel, what were you thhinking? You know I've told you to never take on anything you couldn't handle. We can't afford to lose anymore elves!"
"My lord," she began,"we were falsely led into an ambush where-"
"Never mind that. Report to me after you have taken your patrol to the Chambers of Healing."
"As you wish my lord," Tauriel replied as she bowed to Thranduil.
The rest of the patrol walked out of the room led by two healers that had come into the throne room as soon as they heard about the patrol.
"Wait, Tauriel," Thranduil commanded as the throne room doors were shut leaving them alone.
My lor-" she began, but never got the chance to finish.
"How many?" Thranduil almost whispered.
"Fifteen. Eight fell trying to stop the orcs. Seven were wounded and didn't survive long enough to get here." She said feeling reponsible for their deaths becuase she had led them into an ambush.
"Go. Return tomorrow at the break of dawn after you have visited the Chambers of Healing. I do not wish for anymore to die, today."