I'm baaack! :)))) So now I'm on holidays and I'll have more time to write :D I know, I'm excited too! Thanks again for your review rubberduckybugati :) WARNING: Part of this chapter was written on a school bus at like 7.30 am while I was trying not to fall asleep. Flashbacks are in italics (not to be confused with elvish. Anyway, I'll shut up so you can read. Enjoy...
This went on for weeks. Tauriel would sit in the Healing Wing alone, refusing to tell anyone about her feelings. Everyday Legolas saw her, he thought she looked even paler and thinner than the day before. Every few days, he might find her asleep, but her sleep never lasted more than two hours. he stayed by her side whenever she slept but after she woke up she just wanted to be alone. She was often on the edge of tears, her eyes hardly ever dry.
That's why it surprised him when one day, about a month after Groveren and Menel had been brought back poisoned, that he saw her eyes dry. They hardly seemed to be seeing and he feared the worst. But when he got closer, he could feel her breathing. Her skin was paler than ever and she was holding her mother's hand. As he got closer and closer, he could see her body shaking. "I don't know what happened! They were alright a minute ago!" she murmured.
It was in that way that Legolas learnt what had happened. He gathered his friend's shaking body in his arms and held her tight. He expected her to cry, but he felt no tears fell on his tunic nor did he hear any sobs. He squeezed her in his embrace. He decided to tell his father about her parents later.
The funeral was the next day. Tauriel stood between Legolas and Thranduil, holding Legolas' hand. They feared that she might faint, but she stood on her feet for as long as it lasted. Legolas squeezed her hand, as if to tell her that everything would be alright, but how could it be alright? She was alone, an orphan, and who knew what she would do now. Where would she go? Who would take her in? Would they treat her well? How could they know?
His friend spilled no tears. It was as if her tears had gotten into Legolas' eyes. He cried the whole time, standing straight so that maybe she wouldn't notice. But she noticed. She leaned her head on his shoulder and allowed him to stroke her hair, just like her father used to do.
After the funeral, the two elflings sat down under a tree. Tauriel said nothing. Most of the time staring at the sky. Legolas believed that she was searching for her parents' spirits, drifting off to go to Valinor. At some point she whispered 'Farewell', looked down and closed her eyes.
Thranduil came to find them soon after. "You will come to the Palace and live with me and Legolas." he told her "They wished it to be so." Tauriel simply nodded. He put an arm around her shoulders and whispered to her in Sindarin, so softly that Legolas couldn't hear what he said.
He helped his friend pack her things and slowly they left the house. She took her time leaving, as if she wanted to say goodbye to every piece of furniture, every plant that they owned. She stopped in front of the picture of her cousin and stroked it. Then, they left.
She hardly ate anything all day, and shed no tears, to Legolas' surprise. He sometimes expected her to break down and cry like a little elfling, but she never did. Only some times she stood still as if memories had come to her. She didn't sleep that night, she stayed awake, still so she wouldn't wake Legolas who was lying on the bed next to her. She didn't want to worry him. She went nowhere further than her friend's bedroom the next day and said nothing.
Legolas saw her suffer and hated it. He hated seeing her like that. He hated being shut out. He longed for the times she would tell him everything, when they would lie down on the grass and talk for hours. She would tell him about her problems and he would tell her about his. The, they would help each other. He longed to hear her sweet voice, which echoed so beautifully in his ears. He longed for the sparkle in her eyes. But most of all, he longed for her smile. That heart warming smile of hers. Whenever she smiled, he couldn't help but smile as well.
Many times he tied to talk to her, but she didn't speak a single word. Not aloud. In her mind, she couldn't stop talking. She talked to Legolas, to the Valar, to her Ada and Nanna. She said many things. Sometimes she didn't even know why she said them.
The next day, when Legolas returned from archery, he went to his room and found her sitting on the bed, looking outside the window. "What are you looking at?" he asked and then remembered that she didn't want to talk. He started putting away his bow and quiver.
"I'm sorry." he then heard a soft voice. Had he not turned around to see her speaking the last word, he would have never guessed that Tauriel had said it. It sounded nothing like the voice he remembered.
"About what?" he asked.
"Shutting you out and not telling you about how I feel!" she replied.
"Don't worry," he said "You needed some time alone."
Tauriel shrugged her shoulders.
"Will you tell me now?" he asked and regretted it the moment the words left his lips.
"No." she answered "I'll tell you when I'm ready. I don't feel ready now!"
Legolas couldn't really see the sense of that, but on the other hand, he had never had to discuss the death of his parents. He decided to give her as much time as she needed and then maybe, when she did talk to him, he will be able to help her. He wanted to help her even before her parents had died, but she hadn't let him. Perhaps now she would tell him what was troubling her.
Two little red-haired elflings were running around, playing. The younger one, an elleth, was chasing the other, an ellon, trying to catch him. They were both laughing, having fun. "Meldon you're running too fast!" she said in between giggles "I can't reach you!" Meldon stopped running and turned around. "Oh I'm terribly sorry Tauriel!" he said smiling. They sat down looking at the sky for a while.
"What will we play now?" Tauriel asked.
"Hmm, I don't know!" Meldon replied with a cheeky smile. Tauriel looked at him.
"You're going to do something, aren't you?" she said.
"I don't know, maybe." her cousin answered lying down and placing his ams behind his head.
"Well, if you do, I'll be faster and realise!" Tauriel said trying to sound like a responsible old elf.
Meldon laughed. "How can you be so sure?" he asked her.
The next second, he was on top of her, tickling her. Tauriel was laughing so hard, she was getting teary. But Meldon kept tickling, refusing to stop. "Meldon daro seas!" she said through laughter. Meldon though was continuing to tickle her and showed no intention of stopping.
Suddenly, he did. His ears twitched. Tauriel caught her breath and realised that something wasn't right. Her cousin was frowning, he hardly ever frowned. "Mani naa ta Meldon?" she asked him. Meldon took his time to answer. Then, with a look of fear drew his knives. He always carried his weapons with him. "Orcs!" he said. Then he looked down at his little cousin. If they found her they would kill her. And his family? All the others? Who would warn them?
"Tauriel," he said "Go find your Ada and Nanna. Tell them to warn the others that orcs are coming this way! I will delay them for as long as I can!" Tauriel wanted to listen to him, but she couldn't leave Meldon, he was like a brother to her. "Tauriel, go!" he yelled as he ran near the edge of the forest.
Just then, orcs started coming out of the trees. They held many weapons. They frightened Tauriel, but she didn't know what to do. It was as if she couldn't move. "Rima!" he screamed again. But only seconds later, he met with the orcs. He killed two but then he was surrounded. Tauriel saw one lift his weapon and then her cousin fell. She screamed, not wanting to accept what had just happened.
The orcs turned around, they had seen her. One said something in a horrid tongue and they ran towards her. She didn't think of anything else, she just ran as tears fell from her eyes. When she reached her destination, she looked for her parents. She knew that the orcs weren't far behind, so she raised her voice so that all the other elves would hear her. "Rima! Orcs are coming!" she said.
It wasn't long before the orcs got there. They killed whoever they found. Tauriel's parents ran towards her. "Tauriel manke naa Meldon?" Menel asked her. Tauriel broke down in tears. "They killed him!" she said in between sobs. Groveren and Menel stared at her, shocked. Her uncle Bundraeg, his wife Eirien, Meldon's parents, and their two other children ran towards them. The only ones to make it were the twins. Their parents were killed on the way. Groveren, Menel, Tauriel and her cousins started running, to save their lives as more elves fell behind them and their homeland was burning.
"No!" Tauriel screamed as she woke from her nightmare. Legolas woke up instantly hearing his best friend scream. She was sitting on the bed next to him. When she saw him awake she hugged him, tears streaming down her face.
"It's alright!" he said to her softly and stroked her hair "It was just a dream!"
"No," Tauriel said in between sobs "It wasn't!"
"What did you see?" Legolas asked her. She didn't answer. "Telling someone about it will help you! I promise!" he said. That's what his dad always told him when he was younger and had bad dreams.
"My cousin." Tauriel finally said. Her tears only increased though. "I was 800 years old when..." she stopped not wanting to go any further "He died." she finally said. She started telling Legolas about her dream. "It wasn't a dream Legolas! It... it really happened! The exact same way as I saw it! We... we were playing, he was many years older than me, he was 1700. But he was like my older brother. And... we were having so much fun when hey came. Those filthy creatures! He wanted to... to protect me. He tried to fight them on his own! I saw... I saw them kill him! He died be... because he wanted to save me! I got back to late to w... warn the others. His parents were a... also killed but his little brother and sister survived but th... they were never the same! We left as fast as we c... could. Then I... I saw him. He was pale and his eyes saw nothing and there was blood everywhere and I... I fainted, I couldn't handle it! Wh... when I woke up we were far away and I knew that I'd n... never see him again! There were only four... four hundred of us, the rest were d... dead! And I thought that we were going to be h... happy again when we came here, but then the... the spiders... I hate them! I hate orcs and spiders!"
Legolas pulled her into a tight embrace. Her sweat and tears were making his nightshirt wet, but he didn't care. All he wanted to do was to protect her from anything that wanted to harm her. First the orcs had taken her cousin who meant so much to her, and now the spiders had taken her Ada and Nanna. She had suffered so much already.
"Penneth how much have you been through! First your cousin then this!" he said trying to keep his own tears from falling. "I don't know what to say. I've never experienced something like this before."
"I became a warrior so that I could kill them!" Tauriel whispered. Legolas pulled her into an even tighter embrace, if it was possible. He cared for her so much! How could he have hated her? If he still did, who would she have gone to after Groveren and Menel's deaths? She would fade! He hated to think of it! He felt the tears leave his own eyes and fall onto her hair. "It's alight!" he whispered to her and kissed the top of her head "It's alright!"
He started humming the lullaby he had leant the day he had learnt about the death of his mother, stroking her hair. He felt the trembling body in his arms relax slowly and soon her eyes were shut and tears had stopped falling. "I'm here for you penneth! You'll always have me!" he whispered as he lay her down on the bed again, tucked her in and wiped away his own tears. "I love you!"
Elvish
Daro seas=Stop please
Mani naa ta Meldon?=What is it Meldon?
Rima!=Run!
Manke naa Meldon?=Where is Meldon?
Penneth=young one
Don't hate me for killing Tauriel's parents, I had too! (hides behind a sofa) I fixed it up with that fluffy bit at the end. The flashback and after was written on the bus as I told you ;) Reviews are always welcome.