Single Wish
Tauriel had been forced to leave Mirkwood with the cries of her and her lord's daughter echoing in her ears even as she was escorted past the boundary of the woods that had been her home for most of her life. "Tinu…" she whispered to herself as she was not sure why the king had wanted to keep the child since he had spoke of imprisoning the child just for being born, something that tore at Tauriel as she remained near the border of Mirkwood for several weeks as she physically recovered from the birth and she fought with herself internally with how she wished more than anything that she could go back into Mirkwood and take her child and then go find her lord who had gone to the north after the battle at Erabor. That was when it occurred to her. She was banished, but her lord was still the heir to the king, and would be welcomed back with open arms and would be able to retake their child from his father. So once she was recovered enough, Tauriel had set out for the north, hoping that she would find Legolas.
And she did find him, but at the same time, it was another matter with convincing him to believe her. For she had found him in a year's time due to how he was traveling around with a man of the north. One who had slightly grown out black hair and eyes that could look cold yet caring all at the same time. She knew from the way the other carried himself and how he was familiar with the land that he was a Ranger. At finding the pair, Tauriel approached her lord but he was not interested in hearing what she had to say due to how she had hurt him once before.
"But my lord!" Tauriel pleaded as Legolas walked away from her while his friend, who went by Strider, stayed to the side watching as the female elf chased his friend in a near wide circle due to Legolas avoiding the red headed elf. "Why will you not hear me out?" she asked as she finally got in front of him and cut her off but his blue eyes were cold when they looked into her green ones.
"Because there is nothing to listen to from you. You fell in love with another despite how you once promised that your heart would be mine." He said in a low tone as his eyes that once gleamed when they beheld her were now like ice.
"I could not help it if my heart cried out for him!" Tauriel ground out as she just hoped she could get through to the one standing before you. "But there is a lasting fragment of our short union-" She said but Legolas turned his back on her.
"I do not wish to hear it!" he said in a low tone walking back toward Strider as they headed off into the woods but Tauriel was not about to give up. She viewed it as that her lord deserved to know that he had a small child back in Mirkwood who had just past her first birthday.
/
For the next four years, Tauriel continued to follow Legolas everywhere trying to gently break the news to him, as even Strider started hinting for his friend to listen since the female elf was obviously not going to let them out of her sight until she spoke her peace. Something that was proven because even when Legolas and Strider tried to lose her, Tauriel always found them. Though one night while Legolas was up in a tree avoiding Tauriel, yet again, she sat down beside the campfire with Strider who was busying himself with placing tobacco into his long wooden pipe before using a stick from the fire to light it as he inhaled deeply.
He had tried to stay out of the whole affair since it was obvious that something had once happened that he did not know about and yet at the same time, he was curious as to what could have happened to upset Legolas to this point. Though as he finished inhaling and held his breath, his dark eyes on Tauriel, he thought about what he was able to pick up over the last three years since the female had shown up. She had once been in a relationship with his friend, and yet for some reason things did not work out. So she had hurt him by her heart being with another. 'This is very delicate and complicated.' He thought before he heard a faint sound and looked up as he exhaled allowing the smoke to escape his lips while he noticed Legolas had left to go on his own for a moment. Closing his eyes for a brief moment, Strider rested the pipe up near his lips as he looked toward the fire deciding to use the chance to hear the female elf out.
"Why are you so insistent on speaking with Legolas despite him having absolutely no interest in speaking with you?" Strider asked as he soon moved the pipe into his mouth inhaling a little finding that the taste of the tobacco seemed a little off. 'Maybe due to how I am thinking too much on something that does not concern me.' He thought but he could not help it. This was getting to the point that he felt there was no other choice but to find out what had happened.
Tauriel had been staring at the fire only for her to lift her green eyes to look toward Strider as she closed her eyes slightly in thought before she allowed herself to answer him. "It is because there is something that I must tell him, even if he does not accept it, he has a right to know what his father has done now." She said as her face and even her body was tense from anger toward her former king.
"You speak of King Thranduil?" Strider asked since he knew of how Legolas was the son to the king of Mirkwood and that something had happened and he had gone into all but self-appointed exile.
"Yes." Tauriel said in a low tone, her green eyes focused on the fire.
"What did he do?" Strider asked as he was curious on the king could have done that would have made Tauriel so determined to follow him and Legolas for the last few years despite Legolas making all but a point to remind her that he did not wish for her to be around him. "And what is your history with my friend?" he asked wondering if there was a good reason besides a broken heart that Legolas did not wish to be anywhere near Tauriel since Strider got the feeling that she was not a bad elf, but that she had some darkness in her past, but then again everyone did.
Tauriel thought for a moment on Strider's two questions as she looked up at him. "Before I can say what the king did, you first should know what all transpired between Lord Legolas and myself." She said since she figured that would at least help Strider to understand and maybe he would be able to help her figure out a way to get her lord to listen to her. When she saw Strider incline his head in a way gesturing for her to tell it as she wished, Tauriel took a deep breath as she looked back into the small fire between them, almost as though she were seeing the images of four years ago.
"I guess it all started some time ago, when Lord Legolas and I started to have feeling for one another, though we both knew that his father would never allow his only son to be with a lowly elf like myself. Though I was indebted to the king because he took me in and cared for me when I had nowhere else to go, so I did my best to keep from allowing my emotions to form into something more since that would be the worst thing for me to do when I was aiming to try and repay the king for his kindness." She said as her expression shifted to one full of sadness. "But four years ago, while we were out working on taking out spiders that had found their way back closer to the palace and had formed a new nest despite us having taken care of the last ones not even a fortnight before, we found that a company of dwarves had the misfortune of running into the spiders." She trailed off.
"We took them to the palace, and while they were being locked up until the king decided what to do with them past that point, I felt drawn to one of the younger dwarves, in a way that was not acceptable since elves and dwarves do not mix. I forced that away as that night after completing my watch, my lord came to my room and…" she trailed off knowing that implying it was surely enough as she glanced to Strider to see that he understood it. "It was not the first time either, he had taken to visiting me in private at each chance he could. So for me to have developed feelings for a dwarf greatly hurt him." She said in a sad tone.
"But during the battle that followed the dwarves escape and the death of the dragon Smaug, the dwarf I had fallen in love with died. I once again hurt my lord by crying over the fallen dwarf and he left." She said in a sad tone.
"So basically you had feelings for him first but then something about the dwarf drew you in?" Strider asked as Tauriel nodded. He could see why his friend was hurt, if he had intimate relations with Tauriel only for her heart to abruptly go to another.
"Yes." She admitted. "However, within a few months of my lord leaving, I went about things as I had before, but something had changed." She said in a nervous tone as she brought up her right hand and rested it over her stomach. "There was a new life growing inside of me." She said with a faint smile on her face. "I knew it was the child of my lord, but that it would be proof of how we had been intimate before he left, so I did all I could to conceal it. Where I had planned to leave for a scouting on my own with plans to flee to Erabor and beg the dwarves to help me deliver the child as I knew I was getting closer and closer to giving birth." She said as her expression held nothing but sadness.
"Though before I could leave, I went into labor and my worst fears were realized, all due to how one of the other elves I had worked with at times had gone to the king and reported that I was pregnant." She said only to hear a soft sound behind her as she turned abruptly only to see that it had been Legolas. He was standing not too far from her, his face paler than usual as his blue eyes were wide showing disbelief.
"You…you were pregnant?" he asked in a low tone as Tauriel stood and faced him fully only to nod at him.
"Yes, with your child." She said in a soft voice. "Your daughter. Tinu." She said. "Who is currently a prisoner of your father back in Mirkwood."
/
Deep in Mirkwood, lay the palace of the elven king of the realm. He kept to himself within his own borders except for one time that ended up costing him his only son, and now he kept to his own borders to safe guard a secret. The fact that his son had impregnated a female elf that he had exiled. So sitting upon his throne with no one around besides a few guards that were far enough away that they were far from the thoughts of the king. He knew all too well that if the child escaped it would spell trouble for him and his kingdom, so for the past five years he had kept her locked away as nothing more than a prisoner, where she did not even know that she was of his blood. 'It is better that way, that child was never meant to exist.' He thought to himself as he stared out at the vast open space that was before his throne. 'It will never come to pass, so long as she is kept locked away for eternity.' He thought since elves were immortal unless they were slain.
/
Within the palace, in the area that none dared to tread, there was a long corridor that was lit very sparingly by a few torches but most of it was cast in lasting darkness since there were no windows to allow any kind of light to pass into the cold corridor. At the end of the long passage was a large heavy wooden door with iron on it to hold it in place as the handle and where a key could be placed was made of iron as this was a place the elven king kept his one prisoner he would never allow to see light of day.
Only those appointed by the king to be caretakers of the child were allowed to pass past the door or even had keys to the room beyond. For within the room resided the king's grandchild, a child of only five. She was only a small child, who was beyond pale in skin tone due to how she had never once seen actual sunlight, only light in the hearth of the room she was always locked in. So now she sat by the fire alone wearing a tattered grey dress that hung down to her ankles but it was obvious that it was too big for the small child due to how she was so small even in stature, only skin and bones. She sat before the fire on a tattered rug with her small knees drawn up as she wrapped her pale arms around her legs holding them to her chest. Her silver blonde hair fell to her waist but it was not smooth and beautiful like the elves that took care of her, instead it was tangled and a mess behind her, but her pointed ears could be seen sticking out on the sides of her head through her tangled hair.
'What did I ever do wrong…' she thought to herself as she slowly opened her eyes to reveal she had deep shinning green eyes that seemed to sparkle with a light that seemed to make others cringe away from her when she looked at them. Though unknown to her, today was her fifth birthday as she spent it alone as she did almost every day of her life. A single tear rolled down her face as she stared into the dancing flames. 'I wish someone would rescue me from this prison…and allow me to know a family's love…' she thought to herself as she shifted only to soon be curled up on the tattered rug before the dancing fire.
"The love of…a family…" she whispered to herself not noticing that she was being watched, but the small creature that had been watching left leaving the small child alone in with only the warmth of the fire to comfort her.
A/N: The first full chapter of the story. I was going to go more into detail with Legolas finding out that he has a daughter but decided to just cover the main bit where he overheard Tauriel telling Strider. I already have the next chapter planned and it should be up soon. Though as a note to any who also follow my other active story, Blood Oath: Destiny things have been real crazy for me with up and down health again and things being busy. I have not abandoned the story, I am also working on the next chapter for it and I hope to have it up soon. Though I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter.
