In the Clearing Chapter 3
Tauriel looked in the mirror, finishing off her braid, before collecting her sword that lay on the table besides her dresser and snatching up her bow and quiver from where she had hung them. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror as she left the room. She was no longer the young elfling who had to focus hard on aiming her bow or the positioning of her blow with her sword or daggers. She was fast becoming a fierce warrior, something that she hoped her parents would have been proud of. And she was not the only one. Her closest friend Legolas was also developing into a fine warrior and although she would never admit it to his face, she knew he was the more skilled out of the two of them. She walked through the halls, in no particular hurry but at the same time eager to leave for her practice session with the Prince. When she reached the gate she smiled as he saw her waiting for him, dressed in his usual green attire, with the same weapons as her, bow, and daggers at his back and sword hanging from his waist. Neither usually made use of the sword, preferring to go with their twin daggers but they had felt like sparring and had agreed earlier they would duel with swords today.
They set out, nodding to the gaurds as they left, chatting amicably as they walked through the trees. Upon reaching the clearing, they dropped their quivers, daggers and bows on the ground at the centre tree and stood roughly two meters from each other. Their eyes met and they nodded, aknowledging the battle had begun.
Tauriel made the first move, as she usually did. She stepped right, lifting her sword but then quickly darted left, bringing her sword down. Legolas was ready and stepped backwards, manuevering his own sword underneath hers, and pushing so the swords were bought back up to meet in a vertical cross, the two elves face to face. Tauriel spun to free her sword from the vice and slashed at him, he blocked again, putting force into it so she was on the backfoot for a second. It was a mere second but he took advantage of it and he sliced the air in front of her, knowing she would jump out of the way. This she did and he surged forward, sword aiming at her throat. However, she had perfect balance so her jump backwards had actually helped her. She knocked his sword away from her throat with her own sword, continuing the movement so that her sword travelled in a circle and ended up at his throat. However she felt something prick at her stomach and when she glanced down she saw Legolas had his sword pressed to her stomach. They stood there for a second, swords pressed to throat and stomach, before smiling at each other and Tauriel let out a laugh. "A good duel," she commented. "But it seems neither of us won this day."
Legolas nodded. "You fought well, as usual it was a challenge," he complemented her. They both lowered their swords to their sides.
The two duelled throughout the afternoon, switching it up sometimes adding their daggers to the fight. By the end of the day it was ten wins to Tauriel and eleven to Legolas. Tauriel was itching to go one more round, but Legolas insisted they had to leave, or they would be late back. "You just don't want me to have a chance at evening the score." she told him, pouting as they left the clearing.
"Maybe." he said smiling, "Or maybe I simply know I would have won and didn't want to waste the energy." He stopped walking and turned around, as to face her, as she had been trailing slightly behind him as they left, only to find a sword pointed once more at his throat.
"I win the last round, eleven all." Tauriel declared.
"That's not exactly fair, we didn't start." Legolas told her but his eyes were sparkling, enjoying the joke.
Tauriel smirked, "I started," she replied, lowering her sword.
And so it was that when they met Thranduil as they returned to the Kingdom and he asked their final score the both replied "Eleven for both of us."
Stick with me guys :) I know at the moment its mostly friendship but very soon I'm going to be writing some romance in the clearing ;)
