Author's Note: This is my first ever fan fiction so give me reviews. I repeat: GIVE ME REVIEWS. I am the sort of girl who has another world in my head and now I can finally live in it by writing all these down. It's basically romance but action is not amiss! My friends all complain I don't know anything about romance and I am too cynical about love and they predict I am going to die a lonely old hag but. oh well, this is proof I do have a prince charming in my head. Please enjoy! =)

Chapter One: Legolas Returns to Mirk Wood

The horns sounded and Ethelia felt her heart pound once, then twice then proceed to pummel her chest with wild crazy jumps.

The horns, the horns have finally sounded. After what seemed like forever..

Ethelia stopped her work of craving a melon into a phoenix and ran to the window of the palace kitchens, tripping over a sack of flour in her rush.

" My child! Must you always be so clumsy?" Maladiel, the chief cook of the palace kitchen and a mother figure among the rest of the she-elves, scolded her with a knowing smile.

" I am sorry Mala!" Ethelia cried in alarm at the mess of scattered elf flour on the clean marble floor. She craned her neck one more time and looked out the stone window. Nope, those darn trees are still blocking her view of the steep slope up to the palace gates.

Biting her lip to keep herself from vocalizing her excitement, Ethelia took the broom and dust pan and swept the snow-like flour off the floor, taking in the sweet sharp scent that only Elf-flour has.

Maladiel arced one perfect dark eyebrow and gave Ethelia a playfully suspicious look. " So, Prince Legolas has finally returned to our little man cub and the castle."

Ethelia blushed aflame at the mention of that precious name and the other kitchen elves giggled. Ethelia has developed very pale and delicate skin due to her stay with the elves, but it meant that whenever blood rushed up her face, she looked like a flaming goose with strawberries for ears.

" Oh Mala, must you tease me? Let me remind you, and all of you giggling she-elves here for that matter, that you also cried and mourned for his leave on the quest to defeat Sauron. Now he returns worthy of being King, and after fourteen months of absence, I do get tired of dusting empty rooms and tending to empty gardens you know." Ethelia said.

One of the cooks by the name of Isaberth who was taking the cakes from the oven laughed and looked at Ethelia with merry eyes.

" You are but seventeen man-cub, less then the age of a elf in the womb! If there is any one who can determine if our little man-cub had foolishly given too much love to our fair prince, it surely is we thousand year old she-elves!" Isaberth teased.

"Oh, you old hags! I see not how you can reap so much joy from teasing me about Prince Legolas, he is.. He is an elf-prince for pity's sake. As if I will ever, ever, play any significance in his love matters." Ethelia shot back with good nature.

"Oh the vulgarities of man! Hags she call us! Hags! Well!" Isaberth threw up her long pale hands in mock despair amidst general laughter from the rest. " You better escape with that center piece intact before these hags have half a mind to make you the center piece!"

Ethelia laughed and carefully placed her finished phoenix in the middle of the plate of sweet meats and herbs. Then carefully she carried the plate over to Maladiel watching her steps. Maladiel inspected the phoenix and smile with satisfaction. " Your hands are graceful enough not to disappoint a master elf chef my girl."

Ethelia gave a mock curtsy. " Aye, but my feet and legs refuse grace to me still."

Maladiel chuckled and leaned forward, whispered the light spell of warmth and lasting taste over the plate of food and Ethelia pivoted and bore the plate to the dining hall.

It was a long walk down the vast corridors from the kitchen to the dining hall but Maladiel's warming spells kept the dishes from cooling. Ethelia walked down the hall, marveling once again at the beauty she had lived in all her life. Elves are crazy about architecture and nature; every corner, every stone of the palace is a masterpiece made from smooth ivory marble and decorated with natural minerals and crystals. The gardeners made the gardens in such a way that every room seemed to be a garden; with blossoms and leafs trailing everywhere, all fully intact with no blemish. The fragrance in the air spread through breezes of clean air that circulated the entire castle so that no corner ever became musty smelling and the sounds of birds, running springs and swaying branches never ends except when times of darkness falls.

It was in this cocoon of beauty and art that Ethelia had grown up in, the only human in the entire Mirk Wood. Her parents had both been rangers, very skilled in their time and famous for the use of bows and sword, even among elves. When the shadow descended upon Mirk Wood, her parents had joined the elves in battle. Another attempt by the human King to appease the elves and re- engage the allies whom men had betrayed in the first Dark War. By then, Murose, Ethelia's mother, had already become pregnant.

Her father, Archer, had protected the injured Legolas fearlessly till the twentieth orc arrow buried into him and he fell. Ethelia, who came to Legolas and Archer, protected them both but was so injured in the process she only willed herself to live to the birth of her child, which she did not name nor see.

The elves named her Ethelia, the legendary goddess of man who sprang from a cold womb and commanded the stars. And took guardianship over her for rangers did not belong to any country or town that would claim her theirs.

The horns ended in song suddenly and Ethelia knew that the prince was now in the dining hall, sitting and chatting with the Queen and King, the elf ladies and the nobles.

With a sigh, Ethelia pushed open the heavy doors to the hall with one free hand and then walked to the table, scanning the top table for Legolas.

What she saw took her breath away. Could it be because of his long absence that his beauty had diminished in her memories? For Prince Legolas was much, much more beautiful than before. His skin was slightly blemished from the hard journey but already healing back to that perfect ivory tone and texture. His golden-white hair fell like liquid gold upon his sturdy shoulders as his piercing greenish blue eyes surveyed the people in the hall with that same irreplaceable look of wisdom, humility, concern and gentleness.

"Breath Ethelia! Breath! One.. Two." Ethelia gave herself a mental kick and continued her way to the table. Unknowingly, she started to walk in the direction of Legolas instead of the center of the table as she totally lost herself in his presence.

Legolas. Beautiful. Gallant. Brave. Charming. Gentle. Caring. True. Wise.

And so it was that Ethelia tripped on a chair leg and managed to fall------- - right in front of Legolas himself. The masterpiece of two hours work slipped from her grasp as her mouth opened in pure horror.

As if looking in slow motion, a hand with long graceful fingers that looked lean but strong appeared in her field of vision and with one smooth move, held the plate's rim and prevented its fall.

Ethelia looked up, jaws hanging, right into those gentle inquisitive greenish blue eyes. Those eyes were smiling at her, crinkled ever so slightly at the corners.

" Watch out. I see you have not yet mastered grace in these fourteen months, Ethelia. What would Maladiel say if her dish was spoiled?" Legolas asked with a playful arch of an eyebrow.

"The usual, Master Elf. Skin me alive and feed me to the Orcs." Ethelia replied with a shaky grin. A minute ago, watching from afar, she can be captured by the elf's beauty. Now, in close range and under his friendly smile, Ethelia felt normal again. Legolas was a dream. But he was also her tutor and her friend.

Legolas smile became wider. He seldom laughed but his smile outshone all laughter. " Ah, how I missed your simple humor during my journey. But now we meet and you have little changed. Have you been practicing archery and sword or have you been slacking and stealing food from the kitchens?" Legolas asked, a faint smile playing on his lips.

" Both." Ethelia smiled cheekily and Legolas pinched her cheek. A cold and polite cough shattered their minute of happy reunion.

" Ethelia, I believe they need help in. the kitchen?" Lady Liana looked down pointedly from her taller height, hands in a graceful clasp below her chest, exquisite in her grown and with her silver hair flowing down her back like a river. She was smiling but her grayish blue eyes were cold and dull.

Ethelia realized with a start she was blocking Lady Liana from getting to her seat beside Legolas. She bowed her head immediately to hide her flush and prepared to leave, saying, "I beg your forgiveness milady."

As she turned, she heard Legolas's clear tenor voice bidding her. " And so we meet tomorrow morn with the exam."

Ethelia looked back with dismay. " You didn't say there would be an exam."

Legolas laughed, a rare sight indeed. " Sometimes even teachers need some entertainment in a student's folly."

" I much expected this strangely sadistic side of you, Master Elf. Believe me, I have practiced hard, this time I will not be shooting arrows backwards!" Ethelia replied.

Legolas laughed again.

"Ahem" That was Lady Liana.

Ethelia turned and ran, thinking that morning will never come. She still had to neaten up and join the other kitchen elves in the dining hall. This was a night for rejoicing.

Lady Liana followed the running figure with disapproval in her eyes. Turning to Legolas she put on a charming smile and said, " Me Prince, you concern yourself too much with that girl. I have seen you often in her company before you left and now upon your return she has forgotten to call you 'your highness'. Master Elf indeed! She is but a servant."

Legolas frowned slightly. " Servant is her position's title Lady Liana, but to me, she is both my student and my helper. I have vowed to protect her and nurture her to one day become the same greatness her parents were, for I ow them my life."

Lady Liana pouted but that pout when unnoticed by Legolas for the King and Queen and the rest of the court were eager to drill him about the tales of his adventure.