Hello this is HelloDenmark. I have been told that this chapter needs a warning so here it goes. I don't really know if it's because of a death or because there is a moderately sexual scene in the middle (no lemon). Nevertheless beware and be warned.

"Legolas?" Faneth asked behind him making him withdraw from his thoughts and look behind him. She had sat down with her back to the trunk, a pillow behind her. His mother's book was in her hands and another pillow lay beside her. She looked at him with an expression of concern. "You don't have to do this if you don't want to."

Legolas shook his head and reached down to pick up the pillow lying beside her. Slowly he lay down on the ground, his head lying with the pillow underneath on her lap. She took a few moments to bend down and kiss him while brushing his hair away from his forehead and then she began reading from the book. Her gentle voice echoed softly through the cavern, as the words she spun seemed to come to life.

Legolas soon lost his thoughts completely and zoomed in and out between listening to Faneth's voice and visiting past memories.

Legolas sighed softly and gazed into the rocky opening in the roof of the cavern. He could see the stars that were glinting far above the halls of Mirkwood.

He thought about how things had changed the years after his mother's passing. It was like she had been dam that kept the water from overflowing and as soon as she had gone everything had demolished. He had tried to fill her place, he had tried to be the dam that she had been, but he had only managed to provide small shelter for Hithel and Kirion.

Legolas stood before the coffin wearing nothing but black clothes. All sound about him had been swollen by the void and he completely forgot where he was and in whose company as he looked down on the pale and beautiful face of his mother… Still no matter how beautiful she looked it would not be able to mask the fact that her chest was not rising and falling with intakes of air and her spirit could no longer be felt around her. Her spirit had vanished and the sense of calm he had always had when he was around her was gone.

Legolas listened to Faneth reading. I reminded him strongly of his mother, but even as he continued to wish that his mind would bring forth happy and welcome memories it seemed that by now his mind had become so tainted that he could only remember things he had no interest in. It only hurt more.

With a conscious jerk he seemed to remember where he was and the sound of the funeral finally started to reach his ears once more. They were all waiting in relative silence for him to say his final goodbye so they could pay their respects. Legolas realized that two tears had leaked from his eyes, but made no effort to brush them away.

Legolas bent down and kissed his mother's forehead. "I will take care of them." He vowed softly, "Always." Then he straightened out and walked over to the side thereby allowing the next to come up.

One of the stars in the sky faltered and shot from its position and across the sky before disappearing. The other stars continued to glow though, none of them taking any notice of the lost one. It was after all just one out of many. Faneth's voice had lulled down to a constant voice in the background as the wondrous story took the backseat to his dark thoughts.

Legolas stood still by the side of the clearing. The funeral was over, but still the amount of elves coming to him to give their condolences was never-ending, by this time he already knew the answers to all questions in his head and just answered the elves automatically.

'Thank you. I appreciate your presence, I am sure the queen would have been honored.'

'Yes, my father will be all right. He is well seen to in this time of grief. Right now he just needs some time to overcome this.'

'Yes she was a wonderful queen and mother.'

He was putting on a nice and calm façade, but he knew that it was false. He couldn't break down now. It was first when a different question was asked that Legolas managed to bring himself out of his stupor and really take notice of whom he was talking to at the moment. Lord Elrond was standing before him with an expression of sadness and concern.

"Are you all right Legolas?" He asked.

"Lord Elrond." Legolas inclined his head, "Thank you for taking the time to come to the funeral."

The concern in Elrond's eyes only grew and he took a moment to catch Celebrian's eyes. She nodded and immediately began talking to the elves that were still waiting to offer their condolences to Legolas. Elrond put his arm around Legolas' shoulders and steered him away from the clearing.

"I can't leave." Legolas protested halfheartedly.

"Trust me." Elrond said, "All the elves standing there have nothing else to say than what you have already heard. Celebrian will take care of it and accept their condolences on your behalf."

Elrond smiled when he saw the relief in Legolas' eyes and continued, "Let's forget formalities for now Legolas. Do not be afraid of telling the truth because I am Lord of Rivendell. Tell everything to me as a person. Now I believe I asked you a question that you've still failed to answer. Are you all right?"

Legolas shrugged, not even knowing himself. He knew that he was not all right, but he didn't know what he was and he didn't know what to do about it, nor what good it would do to tell Elrond anything regarding how he was feeling.

"Of course you're not all right." Elrond sighed, "You have lost much, more than I believe I know of yet. Legolas why are you handling this alone? Where is Thranduil?"

"He…" Legolas started raspy and then cleared his throat, "He is not handling it well. I have left him in his room with a healer."

"I feared he would not." Elrond said sadly, "Would you allow me to examine him?"

"If I know my father right, he would not approve of anyone seeing him in the state he is in now." Legolas answered slowly, "The healers say that his condition had nothing to do with ailments of the body, but of the mind. They say that there is nothing to be done…"

"I will not do anything you are not comfortable with." Elrond said, "I will ask the healers about his condition and based on their explanation I will see if there is anything I can do. …What about your siblings?"

"Faneth, one of out female healers, is looking after the baby." Legolas answered, "Hithel broke down at the mere mention of funeral, so I was forced to give her a sleeping drought. It would have been too much for her."

The hopelessness of Legolas' situation suddenly became clear to Elrond. Legolas had absolutely no one to lean on and after just losing his mother he would have to both take care of his family and the kingdom of Mirkwood.

He swallowed thickly and asked, "What are you going to do Legolas?"

Legolas let out a choked back sob and moved his hands up to cover his face, Elrond was afraid for a moment that Legolas would break down and he was more than ready to embrace him tightly, but Legolas drew in breath deeply some times and then looked up once more.

The strength that he knew Legolas for had returned to his eyes and he said, "I will manage." He said, "My father is looked after constantly by the healers and the baby is with Faneth during the day, so I can shift between work and taking care of Hithel."

Elrond looked wide-eyed and disbelievingly at Legolas. "You will wear yourself to the ground Legolas." He responded slowly, "This plan includes you taking care of the baby at night as well and some of the day is not enough time to take care of all the work Mirkwood demands of its ruler."

Legolas' eyes were both despairing and determined. "I know, but there is nothing else I can do." He answered, "I have passed the less important work out to the members of the counsel, but I do not trust them with the important. I also cannot ask Faneth to take care of the baby constantly; he is my brother just as Hithel is my sister. I have managed to do this for the past week."

"How many nights have you slept?"

Legolas didn't answer but instead repeated, "There is nothing else I can do."

He didn't notice as Faneth stopped reading and instead looked at him. She had watched sadly as his eyes had become saddened and he no longer seemed aware of what was happening around him as a memory had pulled him under.

Legolas continued to rock his baby brother as he stopped crying, but as soon as he tried to lay him down in his crib he started crying once more. Legolas sighed and kept the baby safely on his arm as he sat down by the desk and started going through some paperwork.

The baby's breathing deepened before long as he fell asleep, but Legolas waited until some time had passed and he was sure that he was sleeping deeply before lying him down in the crib. This time he remained still.

Legolas had just sat down behind his desk and picked up his quill as another sound of crying filtered through the walls and he got up instantly. Legolas vision darkened and he grabbed the desk to keep from falling to the floor. Some minutes went by before the dizziness passed, but as soon as it did Legolas walked from his room and further up the hall to Hithel's. He stepped inside and saw her curled up on the bed crying.

He hurried over to her and gathered her in his arms soothingly rocking her back and forth as she continued to cry heartbreakingly into his tunic. He ran his hand continually through her hair while he muttered comforting things.

A long time went by before Hithel had finally cried herself to exhaustion and fell asleep in his arms. He gently repositioned her on the bed and tucked the covers in around her. Then he walked back to his room and sat down behind the desk and started on the paperwork once more. He managed to go on for hours before falling asleep with his head resting on his arms on the desk.

When Faneth came into the room an hour later and touched his shoulder he flew up looking around disorientated. His eyes finally come to rest on Faneth and he relaxed slightly, "What time is it?"

"Eight." Faneth answered.

Legolas rubbed his eyes and gathered his paperwork. He thanked her and wished her a good day before hurrying off towards his father's old office.

"Legolas?" Faneth asked softly. Legolas slowly turned dark eyes to hers. She placed her hand on his cheek, "What are you thinking about?"

Legolas looked pleadingly at her and he whispered, "Make me forget… Just for tonight…"

Faneth suppressed a sob and bent down to capture his lips with her own. He intensified the kiss hungrily, wishing to forget himself in it and let it take him away. Slowly he sat up without once releasing her lips and drew his arms around her pulling her first into his lap and then lowered them both down on the ground.

His lips travelled from her lips and over her cheeks softly nibbling her ear before kissing her neck. One of his hands had buried itself in her hair, but he took it out and quickly discarded his own shirt before kissing her once more, he licked and nibbled her bottom lip before she opened her mouth. His hand slowly inched down to the curve of her breast.

O

Without warning Legolas gasped and flew into sitting position breathing heavily. He rested his face in his hands and his body trembled. Faneth having just woken as well quickly hugged him from behind. She ran her hand in soothing circles on his chest trying to calm his shaky breathing. His chest was slightly moist with perspiration.

"It was just a dream." She breathed soothing over and over.

When Legolas had calmed down somewhat she whispered sadly, "You have seen and experienced too much pain…"

Legolas breathed deeply and raised his head from his hands and looked at her, "Did I wake you?" He asked softly.

"Yes, but it doesn't matter Legolas." Faneth answered.

Legolas nodded and turned around so he could hug her tightly. She felt as though he was clinging desperately to her as if afraid she would disappear so she tightened her arms around him as well.

Slowly he seemed to relent and they lay down on the ground beside each other. He reached up and grabbed the two pillows so they could use them. Faneth moved closer to Legolas and rested her cheek against his shoulder.

"The woman who came at dinner." Legolas said slowly, "She was the mother of Rivorn who died at the fight at the crossing. He was young, but he had already seen many battles. I was there when he drew his last breath and she wanted to thank me for it… She wanted to thank me, for sitting beside him and talking with him while his spirit left for Mandos halls… She wasn't angry that I had led the battle, which got him killed, instead she wanted to thank me…"

"You are not at blame for his death Legolas." Faneth said.

"I could have left him behind with Gwonion and the healers because of his youth, but I didn't and now look at what happened." Legolas muttered.

"Hey." Faneth interrupted and propped up on her elbow and placed her hands on his cheeks. "Do not insult his deeds by doing this. He was proud of being a warrior and you let him be one right till the end."

Faneth kept looking into his eyes until he nodded then she lay down once more. This time Legolas encircled her with his arm and she rested her head on his chest.

Gradually both of them fell asleep and didn't wake up until the light shone in on them from above then they stood up and walked back to the royal wing. At the entrance to the cavern they met the guard who had followed them and waited there the entire night. At his tired look they offered him an apology, but he shook his head.

Legolas got ready first and while Faneth did the same he walked across the hall and woke up Kirion and got him dressed. Kirion had been thrilled to wake up to his brother's voice once more and was already more energetic than he had been the past few days.

After breakfast Legolas immediately visited every mourning family in Mirkwood. He visited all the families of those who had died at the crossing and at the ford and offered his condolences.

After lunch he then met with Damon in his office to tell him in short what had happened that night and afterwards. He didn't say everything, but he still felt that Damon deserved the information. He finished with making him swear never to tell it to anyone else which Damon had grudgingly done.

Almost immediately Legolas summoned Aewon to his office and they talked for hours about the attacks and the assassins, though neither of them seemed to end with more knowledge than they had had in the beginning.

Aewon had investigated who had been in the dungeons during the assassins stay to try and find out who had handed him the poison, but it seemed as though that day there had been countless people in and out of the prison. Either it was one of the elves on the list he had obtained or else the magnitude of people had made it possible to slip in unnoticed. He had visited some of the more shady elves on the list, but they had all had valid excuses. Besides the elves didn't fit the profile of the traitor.

Legolas looked over the list and came to the same conclusion, but also the conclusion that one of he elves must work under that traitor or be a part of the group. It could have been smuggled in with the food as well.

Aewon had also looked into who might have had access to both Legolas' and the king's wine carafe, but it seemed that only one elf had the job of refilling them and that elf was a young girl who looked like a bird would scare her. Aewon had asked her, but it had soon become clear that she had not done it.

Finally Legolas and Aewon sat in defeated silence both of them unsure on how to proceed from there. The clues they had weren't much and they had too many suspicions to be able to put that to good use.

"We'll just have to wait until they attack me once more." Legolas said slowly, "Stop attaching a guard to me and we'll see how long time passes before they try again."

"It's too dangerous Legolas." Aewon answered, "It is exactly what they want you to do. You'll make yourself too vulnerable to attack and kill. The enemy has seen that the latest attacks didn't work, they will they harder from now on."

Legolas sighed and ran his hand through his hair. "Do you think they're so stupid as to attack me as soon as I walk out the door?"

"Why?" Aewon asked suspiciously.

"I was just thinking about going for a walk." Legolas said with a grin on his face. "Would you mind following unseen behind me?"

Aewon groaned exasperated, but stood up nevertheless. He hated it when Legolas got ideas, why couldn't he just lay low and not endanger himself constantly?

As they walked through the halls Legolas listened quietly to Aewon muttering. "If anything happens to him I am going to be skinned alive. Why does he have to get ideas like this? Why am I even saying yes to this? Why does he have to be so…?"

Legolas chuckled inwardly and then said, "Aewon I believe I said you should follow unseen behind me, that also involves unheard."

Aewon huffed, but nevertheless soon disappeared from Legolas' view and hearing. He was confident that Aewon was still close and it felt relieving.

Legolas walked through the halls and then out onto the ground. He walked intently towards the training grounds thinking that that was the most unsuspicious way he could be taking and the path toward it also ran alongside the forest. His senses were sharpened as he constantly searched for anything out of place.

The training grounds were the place farthest away from the halls and therefore he gave the potential assassin a long time to do something.

Suddenly Legolas heard the familiar sound of something cutting through the air, it had only been due to his constant vigilance that he had been able to hear it. With reflexes honed from being a warrior for so long Legolas threw himself to the ground immediately just in time to feel the air as the arrow rushed over him.

"Legolas!" Aewon shouted and started running towards him.

"Go!" Legolas shouted back already getting to his feet and bolting into the forest a second after the shot had nearly hit him, "After him!"

Legolas was some way in front of Aewon; he was already drawing his dagger from his belt as he dashed through the forest as quickly as possible in the direction the arrow had come from. He didn't have time to follow any tracks precisely but occasionally he would glance down to make sure he was on the right path. He stopped doing this though when he heard the running footsteps before him. They were light and Legolas was certain that they belonged to an elf.

He speed up, the trees rushed past him as he flew over the forest floor.

"Legolas!" He heard Aewon shout some way behind him. Aewon was worried about his safety and didn't want him to run right into the assassin alone. He wanted him to wait for him, but Legolas knew that if he wanted to catch this elf then that wouldn't be an option.

Suddenly Legolas could see the elf before him. He looked almost completely like the other one except for his figure, which was slightly leaner. It was quite clear that this one was an archer.

Legolas speed up and then leaped into the air, flinging himself into the attacker and knocking them both to the ground. In an instant he saw the desperation in the assassin's eyes when he realized that his chance of running away was destroyed.

Legolas and the assassin rolled a bit away from each other as they had hit the ground differently and before any of them could get up Aewon ran into the clearing and immediately flung himself onto the assassin effectively holding him down.

"So you thought you could get away did you now?" Aewon chuckled slightly out of breath.

The assassin just snarled and fought against Aewon's grip.

Aewon looked up at Legolas who had just gotten to his feet, "Are you all right?" He asked.

Legolas nodded, "I am fine. They were as stupid as we believed."

"Yes, but Legolas." Aewon sighed, "I would prefer it if your plans from now on don't involve running madly through forests."

"On the contrary I believe you should start practicing it Aewon. You were slow." Legolas said with a sincere tone.

"Blasted wood elf." Aewon mumbled under his breath, "Just because I am relatively normal."

The assassin used their bickering to try and escape from Aewon's grip, but Aewon simply tightened his grip and the slammed him down into the ground. "Stay still, will you?" He huffed with an exasperated sigh following in its course.

Aewon placed his arm around the assassin's neck and slowly stood up making him follow. "So where should we take him?" Aewon asked.

"The dungeons, but this time let's question him immediately." Legolas answered, "Last time it didn't go as planned." He stepped up to the assassin and looked at him with steely eyes. The assassin flinched and looked away, but Legolas grabbed his chin and lifted his head once more. "Whom do you work for?"

He got nothing more than a snarl as answer so he let go roughly. Legolas was just getting ready to leave when he heard the sound once more. With a curse he jumped to the side, but realized too late that the arrow wasn't intended for him and watched instead as it buried itself in the assassin's chest killing him instantly.

Legolas and Aewon only spared each other a glance before bolting once more into the forest. Legolas was soon running in front of Aewon slowly leaving him behind and somewhere deep inside the corner of Aewon's mind he admitted that maybe he did need practice if he was going to protect his prince.