The next morning, Tauriel slowly opened her eyes to the sun shining through the trees above. The pain in her hand was reawakened and she hissed as she sat up in the grass beside the fire pit from the night before. Looking down at her hands and feet, she saw the tightly knotted ropes about them. Attempting to pull the bondages apart, she searched the area for Legolas, calling his name. "Legolas!? Cin hi? Legolas?" There was no answer. "Legolas!" She shouted and soon she heard something coming from the northernside of the forest. The beating of her heart grew in speed and she waited to see whom approached.
"We may begin our journey and not rest unless necessary." Legolas returned with his horse, Rocinante, causing Tauriel to sigh with relief at his sight.
"'We?'" The bound Elf repeated with question.
"Aye! 'We.'" When the king made his way beside her, he stopped the horse, throwing his saddle back onto the brown steed with little effort.
"Where is it that 'we' go, Your Majesty?" Mocking his rank once again, Tauriel smirked, secretly enjoying calling him that. "I trust it was you who tied these while I slept?"
"Where we go, I will not tell. Yet I will tell that yes, 'twas I who kept you from running free had you awakened before I." Smiling to himself, he added, "I'd almost forgotten that you always slept more than I would take a liking to."
"We Silvan Elves require more time to the dream realm than you Sindarin folk." She could not recall the amount of times she and his father had needed to remind Legolas of that while she grew up in the Palace. "Alas! have you forgotten so quickly what I spoke last night?" She looked up at him as he watched down on her. "I do not remember the last time sleep visited me ere the piercing of your bow through my hand."
"I have not forgotten." Reaching into the sack on his hip, he pulled out another garment of clothing. He used his strength to rip a long strand of the cloth from it and placed the full shirt back inside his pouch.
"If you want to tend to my wound, you'll have to untie my hands." The she-Elf said with a smile as she held her bound hands up to him. To her surprise, Legolas ignored her wrists completely and stepped around her, kneeling behind her and placing the cloth over her eyes, leaving her blind of only the things her eyes would see. "Amman na- hi?"
"I do not want you to know where we are headed. Not now." He responded, his mouth eerily close to her ear. Lifting her up, he set her upon his horse and set out while the sun still stood.
Legolas walked beside Rocinante as he carried Tauriel through the forest that was once dark and infested with spiders. After the War of the Ring and the defeat of the darkness, the spiders fled, exposed to too much sunlight in the newly brightened wood. Cobwebs still stuck atop the trees high above, marking the old homes of the arachnids. The stream beside them moved with ease as Legolas loosely held the reins, steering his horse this way and that.
"May I ask-"
"You may leave us in peace." Legolas interrupted her, though she did not obey.
"Where have you been all this time?"
Sighing with irritation, he responded with a huff. "I've travelled far through almost every realm of Middle-earth. I followed Aragorn son of Arathorn, now known as King Elessar of Gondor, to the counsel of Elrond and joined the Fellowship to-"
"You were a member of THE Fellowship? Responsible for the destroying of the one Ring to rule them all?" She bit her lower lip, fighting the sharp pain in her wounded palm.
"Aye."
A smile grew upon the she-Elf's face. "I have only heard a few small morsels of the story from families over the mountains. Would you tell me the true tale, Legolas?"
"Not today, Dark One."
Her smile faded when he called her by that name. "Please? It could distract from my wound and the truth that I am blindfolded." A sharp chuckle came from her.
"No, Tauriel." Legolas did not smile. They went on in silence for a while before a small laugh was heard. "Why do you laugh?" The king wondered.
"I feel this moment is as absurd as when your father thought you were once courting me." She referred to riding blindfolded as he guided his horse, comparing it to when Thranduil told her of his beliefs toward Legolas' fondness of her. "To this day, I wonder why he had thought such a thing." Unable to see, Tauriel was unaware of Legolas' expression. His eyes were a bit widened and his cheeks were inverted as he fought the urge to bite them. Had he been a Man, he would've blushed.
"Perhaps my father thought it strange that I would be so great a friend to a she-Elf. And one so young." He looked down to his feet as they continued on. Little did he know, a wider smile drew across Tauriel's face.
"Lo! he forbade us a happy life had it been true through either you or I. A lowly Silvan Elf and a high Sindarin prince? Ridiculous." She added.
"Indeed." He slowly responded, a bit angry with his father at the moment.
"Taking me to the Lady Galadriel will not likely aid us in the coming war." She finally spoke the true words she had been thinking for some miles.
"What?" He stopped the horse, turning to look up at her smirk. "How have you know where we are headed?"
Her grin shown her teeth. "I have lived alone in these woods for some time. I recognize every turn. You are taking me to Galadhrim, are you not?" It was now that Legolas let his lips curl into a smile and he shook his head. Air was pushed through his nostrils as he fell staggered by her reconnaissance. The silence was a form of confirmation to Tauriel and she tilted her head with pride. "May I now have this blindfold removed?"
Legolas sighed once more and spoke with hesitation. "Lug dad." The Elf atop the steed leaned over a bit, giving Legolas access to the cloth around her eyes. He slowly unfastened the knot and pulled the garment from her face, revealing the dark of her eyes begin to turn back to amber green, as they were ere her curse. The king took notice and he stared back at her as she gazed into his grey-blue eyes. Slowly, the green hue within Tauriel's irises shifted back to the dark shade of charcoal. Legolas' stomach turned with apprehension and wonder. Tauriel's flipped with confusion and sudden adoration. She blinked, breaking the eye contact when they heard a sound nearby. Legolas turned his head, looking to the sonance.
Not long after, they were joined by a third party. A short, stout being with fiery red hair and a beard to his navel. Carrying his favorite axe, Gimli came forth. "Has she been giving you much trouble, Master Legolas?"
"Gimli, I told you I was to come alone." The white-haired Elf took a few small steps away from his horse, though he did not let go of the reins.
"Yes...Your Majesty." The Dwarf rested his axe on the grass ere leaning his right hand upon it. "Yet I did not have the heart nor the ear to obey."
With a grin, Legolas shifted his weight to one leg. "I've been waiting for you to show your presence since yestereve."
"You knew he was following us?" Tauriel spoke, straining her neck to see the newcomer behind her.
"Aye. I did." Gimli changed his posture in due to his disappointment of being found out when he reckoned he had done well to stay hidden from his best friend. "I am happy to have your loyalty, Gimli, yet I would be glad if you'd turn back to Mirkwood Castle."
"I respect that, but I will not, My Lord." Legolas sighed, turning a side eye to Tauriel atop Rocinante. She smirked back at him. "You will have me by your side even if you kill me. Even if she kills me."
"I will do no such thing." Tauriel replied. "Legolas, I see you've got a mighty servant here."
"Servant?!" Gimli exclaimed, raising his axe. "Who said I was a servant? If any a servant, Legolas be mine!"
Legolas laughed. "He is right." Tauriel looked back and forth between the two. "Gimli is no servant. He is my dearest friend."
A chortle escaped Tauriel's throat. "Legolas? Friend with a Dwarf? I say."
"You say what, brak?!" The dwarf's grip on his weapon tightened.
"I say...I'd never thought I'd see the day when the high Sindarin prince would be so much as kind to any of your kin." As Gimli scowled, Tauriel made herself clear. "Do not mind, dear dwarf. I have nothing against your kind. I was once in love with a dwarf." A weak grin was sent to the axe-holding warrior and he loosened his grip upon the handle.
"An Elf? In love with a dwarf? How preposterous!" The younger of the three almost shouted.
"'Tis the truth, dear Gimli." Legolas spoke. "Within those stories your father spoke...of Kili and Fili and King Thorin's deaths at the Battle of the Five Armies, he gave every detail save the ones involving Tauriel. She was the Captain of the Guard of Mirkwood."
"This pest...this THIEF...is the one that tried to save Master Kili?" With a sense of betrayal, Gimli held his axe close to his own chest.
"Aye." When Legolas noticed Gimli's angry eyes soften, he commanded him. "Put down thy axe, good friend. She is tied up. Nor would she hurt me if she weren't."
The dwarf indeed, lowered his weapon, though as he stepped forward, he kept a wary eye on the one atop the horse. "You sure about that?" He made his way beside Legolas, who smiled down at him.
"Nay. But I could handle her if she tried."
"I sure could." Gimli grinned up at his friend.
Tauriel rolled her eyes at the two, speaking of her as if she were not there. "Shall we set out to Galadhrim? Or remain here in speech?" She interrupted.
Looking back up to her, Legolas nodded once. "We go." With the hopes of receiving a laugh, he added. "Gimli, would you like to join the Lady on the horse?"
"Do not tease me, Legolas!" The dwarf, not very fond of horseback riding, sneered.
"Let us go then." The king replied after a chuckle and they began their journey once again.
They went on as long as Gimli's feet would allow. He once was able to travel for weeks with no halt, though in his age, his legs began to deceive him. They set up another fire ere dawn on their fifteenth night of travel. They were almost out of Mirkwood and closing in on Anduin, the Great River near Rhovanion, to cross it in the hopes of making it to Lorien within the next few days. It took no time for the dwarf to fall into a peaceful slumber while Tauriel fidgeted with the bandage upon her hand and Legolas lie awake, gazing up at the treetops, watching the wind rock them to and fro with ease.
"He reminds me of them all." The Dark One spoke gently, feeling the pain that had now trickled down to her wrist.
"He is Gloin's son." Legolas responded, resting his hands behind his head. The former red-head smiled down at the ground, remembering the thirteen friends they had locked up in Thranduil's dungeons once upon a time. Legolas looked to her and sat up leaning on his elbow. "Do not fall for this one, Tauriel."
"Do not make jokes, Legolas." She responded in their native tongue. They both sighed before he noticed her wince at her own touch of her palm.
The white-haired Elf received the ripped garment from his pack and shred a second cloth from it. He knelt beside Tauriel and took her tied hands in his. While he mended the wound, it was silent, save Gimli's snores. In the silence, they each found the time to think. She, of Kili and the Battle of the Five Armies...he, of what she had said days prior...of his father's assumption that he was fond of Tauriel and he had told her so. Legolas began to wonder when that time had first come. His keen memory flashed back to their younger days spent together and he smiled.
"Why do you smile so?" Tauriel wondered as she watched him tie the new cloth about her hand.
"I remember the first day I taught you the ways of the bow and arrow." He responded, still looking down upon her hand. Tauriel laughed. "You became so angry each time you failed to release the arrow properly."
"I wanted to be as great as you. Though nothing seemed to work in my favor." She giggled, thinking of the memory herself.
"You became great in other ways." He admitted, still proud of her for eventually becoming the Captain of the Guard.
"And I give you my gratitude for it would not have been, had you not trained me and loved me as your sister." She looked into the fire, missing the expression she received from Legolas beside her. It was silent for another moment. Then again, she laughed. "I behaved like a child that day." Remembering the small tantrum she threw when she failed, yet again, with her bow.
"You were a child, Tauriel."
Her eyes flickered as if her jaw would soon drop with insult. "I was 138." She couldn't hold back her smirk.
"Yes. And I was a bit over 2,350. Only 38 years out of your adolescence you were." He grinned, finding it hard to focus on her hand.
"Even so...I should not have grown so distressed or envious." Her head tilted to the right as she bit her bottom lip, feeling another sharp pain through her palm.
"Envious of whom? Not I?" He finally finished tying the knot of the new bandage.
"No. Of Burethor." She noticed the look of question in Legolas' eyes. "He was your prized student and I desired nothing more than to surpass him."
"Why was it so important to you?"
"I was always bringing you unhappiness then. There was not a day where you and I had not argued about my rebelliousness or reckless actions. Having the title of your foremost student in battle training was my way of hoping you could see that I was more responsible and grown up than your father believed I was."
"Tauriel...you may not believe so, but my father loved you as his own. It was not until the dwarves arrived that he truly questioned your honor. He would not have appointed you Captain of the Guard if I did not speak the truth. We both were proud of you." She turned to look into Legolas' eyes as he spoke. "To this day, I am proud of you still." Tauriel bit her lower lip once again, only this time it was not due to a pain in her hand. As Legolas looked at her, the pigment in her raven hair slowly morphed into the fiery orange it had been years ago. He blinked, unsure if the dark of the night or the bright of the fire deceived his own eyes. The she-Elf sighed and turned away from him with a sudden warmth in her stomach. Her long locks returned to black and Legolas suspected that his mind was going. Finally, they both found their respectable spots for sleep and did their best to enter the dream world.
In the morning, they set off to Anduin, crossing its waters and finally making their way into Lorien.