What up everyone reading! Happy Labor Day! I forgot to apologize for not posting that last chapter sooner. I have made the decision that from now on I am strictly posting on weekends (we may slip a few weekdays in with that deal, and if anything changes I'll say something as not to confuse y'all). It is all just too much for me to post on weekdays with school and all that good stuff (today is like the only exception since it's Labor Day). I hope for all of you students that it has been a great year so far (mine has been) and that you're having a lot of fun (there's still fun AFTER summer, right?). We see quite a bit about Estaliel's mother in this chapter, and that is the same with Amithriel's back story. Well, enjoy this chapter!

A bunch is Tolkien's. A whole lot is mine. Estaliel's name is my friend's. Enjoy!

It was only the second day on this Eru-forsaken boat and already everybody was unhappy. That militia stank worse than ever and the mysterious elf was sulking as well.

Legolas wondered a lot about her. Why would she hide her face? Perhaps she had been running for a long time from a slave master and couldn't show her face for fear that the master would find her. Maybe it was an abusive husband looking for her. Or perhaps a group of hobgoblins put her head on the infamous Black Market. It had to have been that. But it could've been…him. From everything Elrond said, it sounded like she had planned to join the company sooner or later and she could've put her hood over her face for just this journey. Then Legolas had a battle of the thoughts.

Wait a minute…

What if it is her?

You mean that she elf from two life times ago?

Yes! The one that we loved. Could it be her?

Never! She was long gone by the time we returned for her. No, it couldn't be her.

But it could be her! What if it is her?

It couldn't possibly be her. She wasn't even in love with us.

We could test her.

We could.

She would know that we know who she doesn't want us to know.

True.

Let's do it. Test her, I mean.

Yes, yes, let's!

Legolas drew an arrow to his bow and stretched it out. He loved that familiar feel beneath his hands as he drew it. Elrond used to say that he was too familiar with it, but as long as it was the most natural thing to him in the whole world, it didn't matter how familiar he was with it, he was just always going to be able to defend himself. He aimed at her, but in the flash of a second, she had drawn her own bow and pointed it at him. She saw who it was and pointed it down.

"I thought you were an orc."

I told you it was her.

Legolas smirked. "Tell me, who are you really?"

"That is none of your concern. If it doesn't help you fight better, then it is of no importance to you."

"Then why do you wear the hood?"

An eyebrow shot up in the darkness of her hood. "So my identity can be protected from hobgoblins, orcs, goblins, and sneaky elves like you. Tell me, do you always inquire after women's personal lives?"

Legolas ignored the question. "Take the hood off."

Wow. That was blunt. No shame. "Why?"

"I want to see if you are indeed Tauriel of the Woodland Realm."

"If you are so brave, then why don't you come and take off the hood yourself."

Legolas raised his eyebrow, but curiosity got the better of him. He stepped up and onto the platform where she stood. She somehow stayed glued to her spot as he fingered the material of her hood. Slowly and carefully he lifted it off of her face. It was indeed Tauriel.

"Surprise," she whispered. Legolas laughed and embraced her. There was much laughing and joyous sounds as she embraced him back.

"Where did you go after the battle at Erebor? I thought that I'd never find you again!"

Tauriel laughed as she stepped back from the embrace. "Well, I traveled to Lothlorien and stayed there for a while in the shadows, but then I went to Rivendell. Elrond asked me to come but I had business to attend to in the North. I said that I would join you at Kempler, so here I am!"

Legolas laughed and shook his head. "Look at you! Last time I saw you, you were at the battle. You've changed much."

"So have you. It is so good to see you smile again. Last time I saw you, your eyes looked almost frozen. Much has changed, my dear friend, much has changed."

Estaliel heard the laughing from below the deck and hurried up the steps to see what the matter was. She saw Tauriel and gasped.

"Tauriel!" she shouted, and ran over to them, quickly embracing her.

"Estaliel, you have grown much since I last saw you! How have you been?"

"I have been just as well as I can be. And you! You have grown as well, mellon! Tell me, how did the road of life treat you? I saw you once or twice at Lothlorien but I never thought to greet you. My apologies."

"There is no need for apologies, Estaliel. The road of life has treated me fairly and it looks like it has done the same to you."

"Do you have any new dwarf friends?" Legolas asked, a hint of jealousy in his tone.

Estaliel glared at him and kicked him in the shins. He grimaced and glared back at her.

"I don't take to making friends with the dwarfs anymore." Legolas and Estaliel knew all too well of how the dwarf she liked had broken her heart when he died. Estaliel shivered in disgust whenever she heard about it, but she declined to say anything.

"Will you be with us to the end of the journey?" Estaliel asked.

"I think that I shall return to Middle Earth at the end of the journey. My time there is not over yet." Estaliel noticed as Legolas raised both of his eyebrows. She had to do something about the two of them for revenge on her and Amithriel.

At dinner that night, Tauriel was introduced to Merry, Gimli and Amithriel. Funny, she looked exactly like him. It was nothing, probably.

Merry liked this Tauriel very much. They had a sparring match after dinner and it was quite funny. She won (she was handier with a blade), but it was a close match.

It must've been ten o'clock at night, and Amithriel was up on the deck, enjoying the stars. Estaliel came out from her cabin and went onto the deck to get some cool fresh night air. He heard her walking toward him and turned around, leaning back on the railing.

"Hello, Amithriel," she said as she climbed up the little ladder to the platform on which he stood.

"Good evening, Estaliel. Would you care to join me?"

She nodded and leaned against the railing next to him, looking out over the sea. He turned around so he could do the same.

"I think that I do owe you an explanation about what happened to my mother."

"You don't have to tell me if it doesn't please you."

"It doesn't please me, but that is why I would like to tell someone. Please hear me out."

Amithriel nodded and settled in for the short story.

"My mother was named Aralias. She was the Lady Galadriel's second and last daughter. She had a free spirit and a will of her own. When she got a marriage proposal from Kind Thranduil (my father) of the Woodland Realm, my grandmother found out and tore it up, saying that Thranduil would only corrupt her free spirit and mind. Lord Elrond who had married my mother's sister Celebrian agreed with her. Thranduil was a horrible man from their stand points, and Aralias could not associate herself with him. My mother disagreed, so she left Lothlorien and went straight to Mirkwood and married Thranduil. He loved her more than anything else in the world, and they had three children: Aria, Legolas and myself.

"The Great War of Gundabad came, and my father and his army went off to war. My mother (being the queen) called the women to come and stand by their husbands as they fought and fight with them. She had to bring the three of us because there was no one left in Mirkwood to watch us.

"She went directly to the main camps and started to help with the wounded. She nursed many of them back to health and if they were strong enough then she would send them to fight, but if not then she would send them to a different part of the battle field which didn't require physical labor. The orcs had managed to maintain a dragon and its fire had somehow come into contact with Thranduil's face. My mother gained knowledge of this news and ran to his side. Little did she know that Legolas had run up right behind her.

"My mother ran through the halls in the large caves of Gundabad, searching of him. She heard a scream and she thought that it was him, but it was not. It was a monstrous hobgoblin named Obkhurg, the one that I fought on the path. He rode through the tunnels on his warg, and spotted a small child in his path. Aralias heard the screams as the orc charged the child. She ran and saw that baby Legolas was in the path, screaming and crying. She hurled herself on top of the child and the warg bit deep into her flesh. She cried out in pain as it flung her against the wall. Legolas ran from her side as she had instructed him to do, but not before he looked back.

"The warg picked her up again, but this time it shook her in its mouth as if it were a rag doll. Then, Obkhurg dismounted the hideous thing and took his sword and put her to an end."

Estaliel started to sob big, round, sobby tears. Amithriel didn't know what to say, so he did the only thing that he knew how to do at the moment; he wrapped her tightly in his arms. She reveled in the feel of his cotton shirt and the strength beneath it. She buried her face into the folds of his long scarf, breathing deeply in the scent of oak wood.

"Estaliel, I am beyond sorrow for you. I am at a loss for words, forgive me," he whispered.

"There is nothing to forgive, Amithriel. I just want to know one thing."

"Anything. Ask me anything."

"Why… why didn't you like to go on adventures when we were younger? I always thought that that was an elf's favorite thing to do."

Amithriel nodded. "In most cases, yes. Many elves savor the fact that they were born for adventure, but I am afraid that even though I was born an elf, I hated adventure for a very long time. My mother took me on a hunting trip when I was about sixty-one or sixty-two. We were going to kill the white stag, and my heart was absolutely set on getting it. We did find its nest, but it had a little one. An unruly student shot at the stag, and it scared our horses. They ran off in all sorts of directions and for days I was lost in that wood. I heard a whistle once, and I ran to it. It was a search party for all of us. They had found everyone but my mother. Ever since then, father had been cruel and conceited. He hit us if we ever mentioned her and sometimes he would hit us just to get pure pleasure out of the feeling that it brought to his fingers and palm. When I say us, I mean my older brother and I. We were best friends growing up. He always looked out for me, and when father began to beat us, he ran away. He always said that he would come back for me, but he never came. I understand and I hope that someday I find him."

Estaliel nodded. "So that is why you never wanted to go tramping around the woods with us when we were younger."

"Yes. It was very hard on me at first, but I managed somehow to get over it."

She nestled deeper into his embrace. "Why does it always seem like the world is coming to an end, but then it just keeps on going? I love living on Middle Earth, but why does everything have to be as hard as it really is?"

"That is a question that may never be answered, if there is ever a time to answer it." He peeled her away slightly from his embrace and looked into her jade green eyes. "But I think that all we need to do now is to embrace the time that is given us. Even if it means fighting our whole lives for the ones we love. That I would do with a willing heart. Look at your mother! She spent the last few minutes of her life protecting Legolas. And why? Because she loved him. She loved him more than her own life, Estaliel. Someone who loves other lives so much more than their own, now that there is the most wonderful person of all. I would give my life in an instant for you or Merry or Legolas or Tauriel or Elrond or even Gimli himself because I think that other lives are worth so much more than my own. My mother didn't die for valor; she died because of another's stupid mistake. But, I will admit that I'd have rather her die and me be able to see her in the Undying Lands than if she didn't die and I would never be able to see her. If she is still alive, then she is forever lost in a maze of trees and mire. No, your mother may've been the best person there was."

Estaliel brushed a tear away from her face. "Then Amithriel, you rank up in the same spot as my mother, if not higher."

Amithriel leaned down and brushed a loose tear on the edge of her face away. "And you, my Estaliel, you are ranked higher in my heart."

"Amithriel," she whispered.

He kissed her so fully and deeply that time that it made the first kiss just a little trifle for the occasion. Did her heart flutter? No. Her heart jumped past six beats at a rapid pace, and then it started to pound like a dwarf with a jack axe. Nothing good ever came out of a dwarf with a jack axe. His hands reached up to go around her neck like a choke collar and her arms went right around his waist. She had never thought that she would be the one that Amithriel kissed, that she would be the one to receive all of his best attentions. She liked him very much, and she had been brought onto the path where she wasn't afraid to admit it.

This was so different from the last kiss. For one, it wasn't as cautious. It was pretty sure of itself. For another, it seemed as if they (Estaliel and Amithriel) weren't afraid anymore. Estaliel's heart was a jumbled mess, but she wasn't scared. Amithriel's heart was in the same condition, but he wasn't afraid either.

He slowly broke the kiss and held her in his arms for a few more seconds before they parted ways. She went back to bed and he stayed up on the deck. Little did they know that the grimy captain of the filthy militia had been watching the whole time.