It felt good to be home, to be safe, even to be in his own clothes. But the entire situation was bittersweet. The ordeal was over, yet the scars remained on his body and on his mind.
The last twenty four hours since his return had been exhausting. As the day dawned and Thranduil had announced that their prince had returned, it had been non-stop since. Legolas left like he'd been visited by every elf in the entirety of Woodland Realm.

It was a relief now to retire to his chamber, away from the questions and the prying eyes. 'How badly had he been injured?' 'How was he captured?' 'How did he escape?' 'What had happened to him?' 'What had happed to Tauriel?'

Legolas sighed. He had put a lot of thought into it, his mind turning over the past events; what had been done, what had been said. And he now realized that he forgave her. She had left to save Kili and he had followed, to blinded by his own feelings to see it and to narrow minded to even think about the possibility. Not to mention his overestimated faith in his own skill.

It hadn't really been entirely her fault, neither had it been his own. It was just….an unfortunate event. Yet it had happened, and they both had to live with the consequences.

Frowning, the prince rose and stepped over to a large standing mirror to study his own reflection. There were certainly consequences he had to live with….

Ever since he had left Radagasts care, the healing process of his wounds had slowed drastically. They had barely improved at all actually. With a slight grimace he pulled down the collar of his tunic, glimpsing the healing wounds on his neck. They were red and raw, painful to the touch, but bearable.

Raising a hand he touched the scar on his face. And then there was that, forever marring his appearance….seeing the sadness in his own eyes he turned away in shame. But as he did he noticed his father standing in the doorway. Startled slightly, he straightened himself out. "Adar, I did not notice you."

Thranduil's frowned sadly, pain clear in his eyes. "I know what you see in the mirror."

Legolas turned his gaze away from his father. "It's done. There is no changing it now." The reminder of what had happened would always be there, every time he saw his own reflection.

The elf king stepped further into the room and over to his son. Taking him gently by the shoulders he turned Legolas so they stood side by side looking into the mirror. "It does not have to be that way."

Legolas was about to pull away when his father shut his eyes, grimacing at what he was about to show his son. For a moment there was a shimmer as the illusion faded and slowly the horrible scars spread across his face, reaching all the way up to his eye and all the way down his neck, past the collar of his robe.

Legolas turned from the reflection to stare up in shock and horror at the elf kings face. What…..What was….

As the last of the illusion faded, Thranduil opened his eyes, one of them white and sightless, to meet his sons gaze. "Things are not always what they seem."

For the first time Legolas finally understood. His father knew. Thranduil's eyes shone with pain because he truly knew what it was like. To be so badly injured and come back from it. That he had never wanted it to be something that his son experienced.

For a moment the two regarded one another, Thranduil with love, concern and regret and Legolas with understanding and shock.

"It is but an illusion; one that I have perfected over many ages." Thranduil finally spoke, nodding towards the mirror again. "You see."

Brows furrowed, Legolas turned to the reflection once more to find only one reflection scarred. With a tiny breath he raised his hand to his forehead running it over the smooth and unmarred skin. He could still feel the pain of the healing injury at the touch, but to his fingers there was no wound. Still staring at his now perfect reflection in shock, he barely turned when he felt his father's hand stroke his hair.

After a moment Thranduil then turned and stepped over to the door way only to be stopped by the soft voice of his son.

"Adar…"

As he turned Legolas could see no remnant of the horrible scar on his father's face. But now that he knew it was there he would never forget it.

"Thank you."

A tiny smile flickered over the king's lips before he nodded slightly and disappeared around the corner.

...

It had been a day; an entire day and the shock still hadn't left her. As Tauriel helped pack up the few belongings of the small camp had she wondered if she would see any more soldiers. Would Legolas call them off? Perhaps he would….if only to protect Fili's life.

A ruckus drew her suddenly from her thoughts as all the dwarves in the small company shouldered all of their belongings. Now that Fili had returned, the four had decided to set off towards the mountain to join the rest of their companions. Uncertain as to what to say or do about Tauriel they had decided to invite her along with them. After the attack the night before they knew she couldn't return home. They also knew that this was brought on by her assisting them. It was the least they could do….

Glancing up at the unexpected elf in their party, Kili gave Tauriel a big smile. This was not only because she looked so sad, as she had for the past day, but because he was unsure what would happen. What would Thorin's reaction be? Their uncle's hatred for elves would surely be even worse now after the fiasco in the elf kings prison.

He only hoped that Thorin would not shoot first and ask questions later.

"Shall we be goin'? Bofur questioned them. It had taken them longer to break camp than expected and it was already late in the day.

"Fiilliii! Kiilliiii!" The unknown and distant voice suddenly made them all stop in their tracks. Tauriel perked up, her eyes immediately snapping to the source of the calling.

A small creature was making his way through the Lake Town camp and over to them. Frowning, she vaguely remembered him to be with the dwarven company as they fled, yet not with them as they were captured. Could it have been him that had orcastrated the escape?

"Bilbo!?" Oin called out, eyes finally falling on the hobbit as he ran into the now emptied camp site. "What are you doing here? Where is Thorin? What happened?"

They knew that the dwarves were holed up in Erebor with Bard's company of men at the gates, and that smaug lay dead in the lake, shot by Bards back arrow. But details of the past days had barely reached them.

Out of breath, Bilbo held up a finger to catch it before answering. "No time." He huffed another breath. "They're in trouble."

"Who? Who's in trouble?" It was Fili this time who asked the question.

"Everyone." For some reason the hobbits short and vague answer struck fear into both the dwarves and the elf who lingered behind her companions.

"Everyone?" Tauriel questioned the small creature.

Bilbo glanced at Tauriel about to answer before he did a double take. He frowned, eyes darting from one dwarf to another as to why there was an elf among them, particularly an elf he recognized as being one of their previous captors. Getting no answer, the hobbit signed and continued. "There are orcs amassing not a half a day's march from the mountain. An army of them. Thorin has called for help from the Iron Mountains but there are not enough men, or dwarves present to defeat that force." Bilbo looked from one shocked face to another. "So I came to find you."

Each member of the company was struck speechless. It was Fili who broke the silence, glancing up at Tauriel. "Gandalf said that an army marched out of Dol Guldur." Could this possibly be the same army?

The hobbit raised his brows in surprise at the mention of his friend. "Gandalf? Where's Gandalf?" But the inquiry was ignored.

"We must hurry to the mountain. Uncle needs all the help he can get." Kili let a heavy hand drop on Bilbo's shoulder as he passed him. "Let's go."

But as the small group rushed to leave one member did not move. It was the dwarf leading the march that realized this and turned. "Tauriel?" As the rest of the dwarves stopped to wait, Kili stepped towards her. "We have to move."

"You heard your friend." She spoke quietly. "There are not enough men or dwarves on the mountain to defeat that army. I do not doubt your strength and courage but only four of you will not make a difference."

"Five." Kili spoke cautiously. "You're coming with us…"

Tauriel shook her head which only struck fear in the young dwarf's heart. "You will need more than one elf to win this battle."

Catching on, Fili stepped up to join his brother. "But what about last night? What if they kill you!?"

"That is a risk I will take." She gave the two brothers a small smile. "You need to go. Be with your kin. If you hear the sound of horns you will know that I succeeded." As she turned the other direction to face Mirkwood, Kili's voice stopped her.

"But I don't want to leave without you."

Tauriel turned and sighed. "Oh Kili…" She smiled at him. "This is bigger than you or I. This is about doing what is right." Approaching him, she leaned down and kissed him softly on the forehead before standing and jogging away. She could only hope and pray that Thranduil would do what was right…

Watching the elf leave, Kili felt a crushing weight fall on his heart. He knew that she was right. But that didn't change the fact that he wanted her to stay. What if the elves didn't come and he never saw her again? What if they did come but he fell in battle? He didn't want to die without seeing her one last time.

With a loud sigh he tried to let go of his despair and focus on the trek ahead. They had to reach Erebor and they had to do it fast. Who knew when the orcs would strike.

...

AUTHORS NOTE:
It's a long time overdue, but here's chapter nine. It's taken me a couple of days, a lot of research, and a lot of thinking to finally manage to plot together some semblance of an end. And when I say end I mean an end to work up to, for events to happen towards, not one last chapter. So don't fret! This story has a lot of life in it yet, and *cough* death perhaps. We'll see.

Thank you for all of your suggestions for ways to end! Even if I don't use all of them, they really helped me to try and figure out where I was going with this. So cheers! Feedback really keeps me going, if only to guilt trip me into sitting and writing because I know how many people are waiting for chapters.

This chapter in particular was just kind of filler. Something to move things along to a point where action can happen again. I also just want to reinforce that things are happening VERY different from the book. so au much different wow

My only regret if that I can't update you guys on my thought process and when I'm writing a chapter. I wish I could do status reports to tell you guys where I'm at, but alas, FF doesn't allow it. So enjoy this chapter (even though its pretty short) and look forward to when the actual action starts.

Ps. Look up a fic on ff called 'A race to save' by the author RegulusBlackIsAHero. It follows a similar idea that my story did and it's super amazing! You'll probably all like it! Go go! :3