Hey folks! I hope you didn't miss the update of Someone Said Goodbye, but if you did, well... it's updated! *shameless plug*
Also, this episode is riddled with OC's! Character guide will be at the end, but don't worry; if they crop up anywhere else, I'll explain them there!
Note: Slight spoilers for Long, Long Journey. And there is sadness.
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11. Memory
by Caelhir
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Year 2064 Third Age of Middle Earth
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Thranduil walked through the gallery where the paintings of generations before him hung. The paintings and portraits of past nobles and kings, battles and peaceful sights, all hung next to each other, lining the walls of the dark hallway. Thranduil paused at the second one. It depicted a sight that was familiar to his heart.
He himself stood behind a dark-haired elven woman, who sat next to a standing elf boy. His serious blue eyes gazed out at Thranduil as he looked upon his son's smiling face. Thranduil sighed as he thought of how little Thoronsul smiled anymore.
The shadow in Mirkwood, for it had been renamed, was growing more and more, and now that Legolas had left for Elrond's haven to report the creature Gollum's escape, Thoronsul was overwhelmed by his duties, both as commander and prince. Thranduil looked back at the picture.
His beautiful, late wife Lauredhiel, was holding on her lap another small elfling boy. The boy was staring mutinously at the viewer. Thranduil remembered well the one day on which Legolas refused to smile. The painter had nearly been in tears as he had coaxed and prodded the boy to grin even just a little bit, but Legolas had steadfastly refused. Thranduil and Lauredhiel had pleaded with their youngest son to smile, but the child had refused.
Why?
All because Legolas hadn't wanted to wear his formal outfit. He had changed himself out of it twice and into his play clothes before his father had threatened him with no play time for a month if he didn't wear them. Legolas had simply gone to play in his formal clothes. Unfortunately, Legolas' play time included mud puddles, and Lauredhiel had returned inside with Legolas, looking exasperated. Legolas had a furious look on his face, and had thus refused to smile for the desperate painter, not to mention his parents.
Thranduil chuckled as he moved along the line of paintings. He passed a picture of himself without so much as a second look, and lingered on a picture of his beloved wife before walking directly to another picture, one that had been occupying much of his thoughts recently.
The painting depicted six people. One was Thranduil, the other Lauredhiel, who sat in a chair in the center of the painting smiling benignly. Legolas stood on her right side, looking up at her with a mirror image of her own grey-green eyes. He was the size of perhaps a six year old human, but Thranduil had forgotten his exact age at that time. Thoronsul stood to his mother's left, not quite as tall as his mother's shoulder when she sat holding his younger brother. Thoronsul's ice-blue eyes were looking at Legolas with brotherly affection. Yet it was the fifth and sixth people in the picture who drew Thranduil's attention.
A taller elf stood by his own side, nearly a full-grown adult. His proud blue-green eyes looked out at the viewer with something akin to arrogance. The elf's light blond hair fell about his shoulders and his strong jaw and lifted brows gave him a stern yet friendly appearance. A young elf woman standing to this elf's right side drew Thranduil's eyes as well. She was quite beautiful, her dark hair and green eyes giving her an ethereal quality. She looked to be the same age than the first elf he had regarded, though she was not as tall as the other. She was nearly a mirror image of Lauredhiel, just as the first elf was nearly a perfect reflection of Thranduil. He gazed at the picture for another moment before turning to look at the picture that hung across from it.
The same elves were depicted, yet now they was alone, and the painting was of their heads and torsos only. Thranduil looked with sadness at the last picture that had ever been done of his eldest son, Talagan, and his daughter Laurinar. Ever had Talagan been peaceful, though a skilled fighter. Despite his somewhat forbidding appearance, he had harbored a great love of music and the arts, and had always been the first to volunteer a piece for festivals and feasts. His sister Laurinar sat next to him, head resting on his shoulder. She had been the warrior of the twins, Thranduil thought. Laurinar had always volunteered for patrols and companies more readily than her twin, Talagan. Yet she had also held a secret love for acting, and had been pulled into a performance at last notice when an actor had broken her leg unexpectedly. Laurinar had shone like a star in her role as the wolf queen. The play had been a re0enactment of a legend told by the wood-elves, one that involved an elven king hunting a wolf-queen only to find that the wolf queen was actually a cursed female elf. Thranduil and Lauredhiel had been so proud of their daughter on that day.
It had been those patrols that Laurinar had enjoyed so much that had led to the death of the twins, Thranduil thought darkly, sliding to the ground across from the painting of the entire family, before its sundering. His beautiful daughter had volunteered for a long patrol, at least two months away. The patrols had plans to travel into the world of men to discover more about the Second-born.
It had been a plan doomed to failure, Thranduil thought. News had flown back to the Wood elves barely two weeks after their departure that the eighteen elves who had left, including Laurinar, had found their deaths in Rohan, killed by suspicious men in their sleep.
The entire wood had fallen into mourning, for the bright and beautiful crown Princess had been deeply loved by her people. But none had been affected as much as Talagan.
He had stayed in the wood for two yeas after her death, yet the sounds of his harp and voice never again filled the wood. No longer were there songs of trees and rivers. There were no more ridiculous bouts of making up outrageous songs with his sister. Those had been two long years. Finally, he had gone to Thranduil had asking to sail to the Undying Lands. He hoped to be united with Laurinar, and Thranduil and Lauredhiel had agreed sadly.
Nearly two thousand years had passed since then, and much had happened in that time. Shadow in Greenwood, now known to the world as Mirkwood, a name that the wood-elves abhorred, was growing, despite the fact that Gandalf the Grey had just departed from them after having freed the forest from Sauron's grip. It seemed that the world truly was changing, just as Galadriel had predicted.
His remaining children, sons Legolas and Thoronsul had grown up under the influence of the Necromancer in the south, though both had been centuries old when the hated creature had come to their home. Thranduil hated that he was powerless to protect the forest any more than the already-vigilant patrols that went out at regular intervals. Mirkwood's ruler, after all, possessed no magic Ring to make his realm into an insulated safe haven.
Thranduil left the gallery after some time. He wandered through the halls aimlessly. There were no councils scheduled for today, since it was the wood-elves' Mid-Winter Feasting Day. Few were the days on which the wood-elves were able to give into their playful and partying nature. Today and night would be filled with drinking and laughter, food and games. Yet Thranduil could not help think that perhaps if things had been different, Talagan would be singing and Laurinar would be acting at this festival.
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Characters:
Thranduil: King of Greenwood.
Lauredhiel: Queen of Lauredhiel, wife of Thranduil. Killed in 165 T.A by a fall from her horse.
Laurinar: Eldest daughter of Thranduil and Lauredhiel, twin sister to Talagan. Killed by Rohirric men in 148 T.A.
Talagan: eldest son of Thranduil, twin brother of Laurinar. Sailed to Valinor in 150 T.A. after the passing of Laurinar
Thoronsul:Second son of Thranduil.
Legolas: duuuuuuuuuhhhhhh...
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That made me sad :( Review please! Get ready for another chapter of either One by One or Someone Said Goodbye. Which would you like to see first? Let me know!