Raephen
- Portrayed by Diego Boneta
8. Memory
Legolas had called her 'nana' the moment he could speak, which was when he was one year old. It was difficult for him to understand the reason his nana had tried to correct him at the beginning by saying she was his 'muinthel o nana'. There was not a word to call his nana from 'muinthel o nana' and he did not want to call her 'Eda' like his adar did, so he insisted to call her nana instead. She eventually stopped correcting him when he was two years old.
It was not until he understood the theory of how begetting worked that he understood his nana had been trying to tell him she was not his true naneth. That was almost the same time he had heard hushed conversations from ellith that his true naneth had died giving birth to him.
He was embarrassed that he had been silly all along for thinking that his nana had been his true naneth. Maybe his nana did not even want to be his naneth but had no choice because he had insisted she was his nana from the beginning. Therefore, he had avoided spending time with his nana for two weeks until his adar thought he was being a spoilt adolescent and confronted him one day.
"Why are you avoiding your nana, Legolas?" asked his adar, straight to the matter as always.
"I-I am not," he replied, cursing inwardly that his stuttering had probably given him away.
"Do you think your adar mindless?" asked his adar, glaring at him.
"No, adar!" he replied hastily.
"Then do not patronize me. For whatever reason you are avoiding your nana, you have hurt her," said his adar softly. And for the first time, he saw his adar expressed sadness.
"I…" He could not find the words to respond to his adar.
"She truly loves you, Legolas. Regardless of what you have heard, you should know better than anyone that she loves you no matter what," continued his adar before he left him alone to think about his thoughtless actions for the past two weeks.
The next day when he was about to approach his nana alone in the private library where his adar had built for them, he discovered the depths of his nana's sorrow he had caused from his actions. She was sitting in a chair with a book opened in her hands, but her eyes were not focusing on it. They were faraway and held a sadness he had not seen before. He felt immediate guilt swarmed his heart as he watched her.
"Nana…" he called her softly but she heard him.
Her focus returned but she was not able to hide the sadness away. She turned to look at him at the doorway. She saw the look of anguish on his face and beckoned him to come to her without words. He took the opportunity and went into her arms willingly. She embraced him without hesitation and he felt the warmth of his nana's love just like it had always been there. He had been foolish.
It did not matter his nana was not his true naneth for she had been all he had since he was born. She had been there for him every step of his growing journey. And if the other hushed conversation he heard was true, then his nana had given up her position as the commander in the ranks of their guards to be his naneth. How could he be embarrassed that she was not his true naneth? It was not her choice. She had treated him as her own from the day he was born and that was what mattered.
When his adar had crowned his nana as Queen of Greenwood, he had accepted his nana as his naneth completely. His adar had tried to speak to him before he planned to propose to his nana during the feast of the harvest festival. He saved his adar from an awkward conversation by informing his adar he did not need to explain further. He would ask them when he was ready to know the story about his true naneth.
Third Age, Year 1050
No… Nana…
He was delirious from the effect of the poison from the arrow that had injured his shoulder. He could not imagined how it must have affected his nana as well for she took an arrow for him right through her abdomen. He felt worse thinking of it. His nana was with child!
He would never see his little brother or sister. In fact, he was not sure if he would ever see his nana again when she sent her off to Aiwendil. He was overwhelmed with the feeling of uselessness and anguish. His nana had proven again to him that she had loved him beyond the ties of flesh and blood. She had sacrificed herself and his unborn sibling to save him from an arrow that was meant to kill him.
Nana… Gi Melin… Nana… Tula dón a'amin!
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Alfirin heeded his queen's order to avoid any fights and chose to traverse through the branches of trees to reach his king. He heard the sound of battle before he reached the southern outpost. All their outposts were built on trees as requested by the queen when she was the commander of their guards. When he burst through the trees and landed on the outpost, the king and the commander who were watching the battle below turned to look at him.
"Alfirin? What are you doing here?" asked Raephen, the commander of their guards.
"Your highnesss, commander, our mountains are under attack! The queen sent Rhoben and Carandol to gather everyone to the passage of Forodren. She sent me here to inform you, your highness!" reported Alfirin hastily.
Thranduil's eyes widened at the guard's news. There was no point for him to reach her through the bond they shared. They were too far apart to communicate. Unlike Lady Galadriel, neither of them possess powers to be able to extend their mind link beyond a distance.
"Raephen, call the foot guards to retreat. Leave the patrols to scout on the trees. Kill any foul things that follow. Alfirin, follow me," ordered Thranduil as he leaped into the trees. Alfirin followed after the king and both of them headed back towards the mountains.
"Húlben! Scout the border with your guards from the trees. Kill them if they follow the foot guards. Do not engage close combat. Retreat if you have to!" shouted Raephen to the captain of the southern border who was fighting below the outpost.
"Yes, commander!" replied Húlben.
"Those who are not under Húlben's command, retreat to the mountains! Now, quick!" ordered Raephen as he watched their guards retreat as soon as they killed their enemies. When most of them had retreated, he headed towards the mountains in hopes of aiding their comrades who were defending the passage.
When Thranduil and Alfirin reached the entrance of the mountains, it was quiet. Alfirin cringed at the sight of his comrades' corpses on the ground. Thranduil was infuriated with the audacity of the enemies for trespassing his kingdom and slaying his kin.
Eda? Eda!
The lack of response from Edarís made him anxious. Fear griped his heart as dread filled his gut thinking about the worst that had befallen his beloved wife. While he knew she was not dead for he would have felt it through their bond. His adar had explained to him how it felt when they lost his naneth. There was an emptiness that his adar felt in his soul for it was incomplete after losing his naneth.
He rushed to the passage of Forodren. The route to the passage was ingrained into his mind. Edarís had made sure of it. She was the one who discovered it and found it to be a strategic place to defend in case the mountains were overwhelmed. There was an emergency escape route if the guards could not hold off at the passage. He hoped they did not reached that phase.
Both Thranduil and Alfirin killed a few orcs they encountered on the way. There were not many of them. It would seemed they were retreating. When he could see the passage from the stone bridge across it, the guard that was assigned to follow Legolas around rushed out to him.
"Your highness! Have you come across the queen and the prince?" asked Haeredeth worriedly.
Thranduil felt fear grasped him as he froze with eyes wide at the question the guard had asked him. Haeredeth felt dread filled her seeing the king's reaction for it would mean he had not seen neither the queen nor the prince on his way here.
"Forgive me, your highness! The prince had sneaked away to find you not long after you left to defend the southern border…" said Haeredeth as she kneeled.
"And the queen?" asked Thranduil, feeling the dread worse than it was before.
"Sh-she left to find the prince, your highness," replied Haeredeth with her head down in guilt.
Thranduil resisted to raise his hand against Haeredeth. Edarís would not be pleased for him to hit their own guards because he was not able to control his own emotions. Nevertheless, Haeredeth would be punished for not being diligent with her duty to guard the prince. That would have to be later for it was more important to look for Edarís and Legolas first.
"Your highness! Radagast the Brown has the prince with him now at our gates!" shouted Raephen as he came running through the hallways.
Without a word, Thranduil took off and rushed out of their mountains to the gates. Raephen, Haeredeth and Alfirin followed behind him.
"Legolas!" called Thranduil.
He saw his son unconscious on Tálagor, Edarís' horse. He swore if not for his son's sake, he would have bolted out of the gates immediately to search for her.
"Your highness," greeted Aiwendil with a bow.
"Aiwendil, how did you find him?" asked Thranduil as he lifted his son off the horse before he ordered for someone to get Gwedh, their head healer.
"I did not find him, your highness. He came to me partly unconscious and strapped to this horse. I have only stopped the poison from spreading. Your healer would need to quickly remove the arrow and poison as soon as possible," replied Aiwendil.
Thranduil noticed the broken arrow protruded out from the shoulder on the right of Legolas.
"Legolas," called Thranduil, hoping his son would stir awake to tell him the whereabouts of his naneth. Unfortunately, Legolas remained unconscious.
"He would not be stirring anytime soon because of the magic I placed upon him to stop the poison. He was repeating the words nana and the Old Forest Road when I found him. I would assume that was where he was before," said Aiwendil.
"There is an abandoned post high up in the tree near the Old Forest Road. The queen had us built it when she was our commander. It was meant for an escape if any elves was overwhelmed by the enemies," said Raephen after hearing the words from Aiwendil.
Gwedh came rushing out from the mountains with some of her healers. Thranduil passed his son to Alfirin.
"Gwedh, look after my son," said Thranduil before turning his head to Raephen. "Take me there now!"
"Maenor, stay here with your guards. The rest follow us!" ordered Raephen as he led his king to the post near the Old Forest Road.
The sun had set when they reached the Old Forest Road where Legolas and Edarís had fought. There were corpses of orcs littered on the ground. Thranduil could not be bothered with them but he noticed a trail of blood that led off the road. Tears pooled in his eyes at the amount of blood. There was a chance she might have lost their child she was carrying.
They trailed the blood to a tree. The redwood tree stood tall in the forest. It was the tallest tree among other trees, which was the reason the queen had chosen to build a post on it for no enemies can reach it through other trees.
"How do we get up there?" asked Thranduil.
Raephen picked up the severed vines at the foot of the tree.
"We cannot. The vines tied to the top of this tree had been severed off. We usually pulled the vines up once we are up there. The queen must have severed it so the enemies could not reach her in time…" said Raephen.
It was that or she did not have enough energy to pull the vines up. Raephen did not want to think their queen was lying dead up in the post.
"What do you mean we cannot?" asked Thranduil agitated.
"Even if you climb through the other trees, you would only reach a certain height of it. You need the vines to get to the post. It was meant to protect whoever was up there," explained Raephen.
"Give me your daggers," commanded Thranduil.
Raephen removed the daggers strapped on the sides of his thighs and passed it to the king.
"Take these vines with you, your highness. It would allow you to come down later," said Raephen.
Thranduil removed his armors before circling the vines across his torso. As soon as he strapped Raephen's daggers onto the sides of his belt, he began climbing the tree next to the redwood. He leaped from branches to branches to reach the top. When there were no more sturdy branches to support him, he retrieved the daggers from his belt.
"I am so sorry, galadh," whispered Thranduil, feeling remorse for he would have to hurt the tree to get to the post.
He leaped from the branch and aimed both daggers at the redwood tree. The daggers pierced the tree successfully for Thranduil to hang onto them. He placed both his feet on the tree to stable himself before removing one dagger to stab it a level higher. He did the same on the other dagger and started to climb the tree.
The sky was breaching on evening when he reached underneath the post. Thranduil removed one dagger and strapped it underneath his belt before grabbing the platform with his right hand. Once he held onto the platform tightly, he removed the other dagger and swung himself up onto the platform. The amount of blood staining the platform horrified him. But there was no sign of Edarís. He was not senseless to believe their unborn child had survived with the amount of blood she had lost.
"No… nooooo!" screamed Thranduil into the forest, scaring some of the creatures off the trees nearby.
Tears fell from his eyes as he kneeled on the platform to mourn the loss. It was a moment before he tied the vines around the tree and let it fall to the bottom of the tree. When he reached the ground, the guards had lighted torches for the day had turned to night.
"Your higness, the queen?" asked Raephen when he did not see the king coming down with the body of the queen.
"No sign of her but her blood. Search the forest!" ordered Thranduil.
They never found the queen's body even as the search turned from days into weeks. The king mourned the loss of his queen and unborn child. Legolas had regained conscious two days after he was returned to the kingdom by Aiwendil. But he was never the same for he felt the weight of his naneth's loss on him. If he had not ventured out to follow his adar, he believed his naneth would have survived. When he asked to assist to search for his naneth, Thranduil had disallowed him from joining the search. Seeing the anguish in his adar's face, he reluctantly obeyed his adar's wishes and stayed in his chamber mostly.
"Your highness, this must stop. You will exhaust the guards and they will not be prepared for the next attack from the enemies. Our scouts have already returned with the reports that the Necromancer had established himself in Dol Guldur. We must move to the new dwellings soon as it is no longer safe in these mountains. Our guards have found some of the giant spiders coming into the mountains during the dark," said Aduialon, his advisor.
"We shall move then. Raephen, send the guards out to secure a path," said Thranduil without emotions in his voice.
"Yes, your highness," replied Raephen as he left the throne hall.
"Thranduil… as your friend, I bid you to talk to Legolas. He has been blaming himself for the loss of our queen," said Aduialon.
Thranduil merely nodded but did not say anything else. Aduialon sighed and left the throne hall.
The next few days the wood elves traversed the path secured by their guards to their new dwellings. The wood elves lived in the woods surrounding the fortress. The fortress is a great cave inside the eastern border of Greenwood and north bank of the Forest River. The cave has many passages and wide halls built similarly to the underground structure of King Thingol's fortress of Menegroth in Doriath. The wood elves called the fortress as the Halls of Thranduil. The entrance to the halls was built with huge stone doors that were secured by magic and were closed at all times.
As the wood elves closed themselves off from other realms, the races of men began to call Greenwood as Mirkwood for the darkness from Dol Guldur had tainted it. No men would venture into the forest for they were infested with giant spiders.
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After they had move to the new fortress, Thranduil had called off the search for their queen. The wood elves started to prepare the lament for those who had sacrificed in the recent attack from the enemies of Dol Guldur. But the king ordered that no lament should be done for their queen. The kingdom obeyed the king's order and only sang the lament for the others. During the lament for the fallens, Thranduil took the opportunity to talk to his son about the loss they felt for Edarís.
"Legolas, nana would not want you to blame yourself," said Thranduil as he watched their kin sing the lament.
"Adar, I… I am so sorry. Na-nana… she sent me off. She was hurt… the second arrow struck her abdomen…" replied Legolas. Tears fell as he turned towards his adar.
"I know… we lost our unborn child… but she loves you, Legolas. You should not blame yourself for the sacrifice she made. You should cherish your life for she gave you a second chance to live," said Thranduil as he turned to watch the pain his son beared.
"Can you tell me more about nana?" asked Legolas.
"I believe you know she is not your true naneth?" asked Thranduil in return.
Legolas nodded.
"She was your true naneth's adopter sister. After your true naneth passed, their naneth told nana the truth of her lineage. She was the daughter of Minuion, son of Ingwë," said Thranduil.
Legolas was amazed that his nana was of royal Eldar blood. Every elves who read the history of the awakening of elves knew about Ingwë being the first twelves elves who awoke in Cuiviénen and became the King of the Vanyar and the High King of the Elves.
"Her adar was slain in the War of Wrath at the end of First Age. Maidhel, her naneth gave birth to her near the north border of Taur-Im-Duinath and passed due to her grief of losing her husband. It was there that nana's adopted adar and naneth found her and took her in as their daughter," continued Thranduil.
"Tinnuon and Míwil?" asked Legolas.
Thranduil nodded.
"I have met your nana first when she was an infant. Then I met her again a century later when she was hiding behind the bushes to watch me train," said Thranduil as he smiled at the memory.
"What about Ei-my true naneth?" asked Legolas, slightly embarrassed he was going to call his true naneth by name.
"Eilianel was born five hundred years after I caught your nana behind the bushes. I am sorry for telling you this but it was your nana that I fell in love with and not your true naneth… It was a foolish decision made by my adar to arrange a marriage between Eilianel and me," replied Thranduil.
Legolas was surprised at the revelation of the arrange marriage.
"I did not know we practiced such custom," said Legolas.
"We do not but my adar was desperate at the incoming war during the Second Age. I do not blame him anymore… neither does your nana. She was the one who had accepted my adar's decision from the beginning even at the cost of our love," explained Thranduil.
Legolas nodded for his adar to continue.
"Your nana said if I was to refuse to marry Eilianel, it would have put my adar's pride in a difficult place for he was the one who asked for Eilianel's hand on behalf of me. At the same time, it would put your nana's family to shame as well," continued Thranduil.
"And so you married my true naneth… did she agree?" asked Legolas.
"Your true naneth was very much in love with me… She was delighted until she discovered my heart had chosen someone else after the wedding ceremony. She did not know it was your nana, not even after she passed. Before the battle of Dagorlad, Eilianel suggested that we try begetting a child for I may perish in the war and there will be no lineage to continue if so," said Thranduil.
"I was…"
Thranduil did not let his son continue his thought.
"I love you even if you were born for the sake of continuing a linage. Please believe me…" said Thranduil, hoping his son would understand he wasn't conceived merely for the means of war.
"I believe you, adar. Someday I may see my true naneth when the time comes… but nana, I would really want to see nana now if I could," said Legolas.
"I wish to see her as well…" replied Thranduil solemnly.
They said no more as they stood quietly and continued to listen to the lament until it was finished. Edarís and Eilianel were never brought up again since that night. Thranduil had tried to be optimistic that until the day the queen's body was found, he would not believe she had passed. But as the years went by, his heart felt forlorn even though he did not feel the severed of the bond. Nightmares haunt him in his sleep. He began to feel hopeless and started to lock his emotions up.
Legolas watched his adar turned cold and ruthless. He told his adar he would not give up believing his nana had passed until her body was found. Thranduil told him her body would have been reborn if she had died and left the Halls of Mandos. There would be no body for them to find. Frustrated with his adar's coldness, he avoided his adar and would not talk to him unless necessary.
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Third Age, Year 2770
Thranduil had isolated the wood elves since the attack that caused him to lose his queen. When Smaug came from the mountains in the north to attack the Dwarven kingdom of the Lonely Mountain, he did not bother to offer to help even as he received the news from one of his guards.
That was the beginning of Smaugh's reign over the Lonely Mountain for two centuries. No one dared to enter the mountains to steal the treasures that the dwarves had hoarded. Dale had been burned to ruins and the surrounding lands of Erebor became a scarred wasteland. The men and dwarves called them the Desolation of Smaug.
TBC
Muinthel o nana – Sister of Mother
*Tula dón a'amin – Come back to me!
Galadh – Large tree
This chapter took longer for me to write because I am no good at trying to describe urgency and sadness or the lots of it. Anyway, I have adapted some of The Hobbit's movie plot to synchronize with parts of my story.
