Answers to Reviews:

Auguruj: Yup, she most certainly was a bad-ass XD She does have a bit of fire in her; this isn't the last time that these two have a falling out, trust me. And I wouldn't say poor Thrandy...he did kinda ask for it, what with going about and telling someone as powerful as Gandalf all he knew about Fenna. Kinda a jerk move tbh. And as for being bloody strong minded...well, you'll see in this chapter if he is or not XD Dw about Gandalf, he's a cool dude, and nowhere near as much of a douche as Thranduil is. And Damien..well, he's going to be playing a rather large part in the story, though whether it's for good or bad I'm not telling you muhahahahaha! And yeah, Thranduil's been working for many, many years...kinda makes me feel sorry for him...but he wouldn't let anyone else do it even if they begged. He likes to do things his own way XD

Savage Kill: Yeah, it did kind of shock him; no-one's stood up to him like that for a good thousand years or so, much less turned and walked away afterwards without caring that they've pissed him off. But then there's not been anyone like Fenna around XD And as for Damien...you'll have to wait and see XD

waistedyouth: Glad you like it! Here's another chapter for you ^^

Kaylala..BooksandCandy: Thank you very much! Here's another chapter fresh from my word document for you ^^ And I love your username btw, even though it was a pain to type out haha XD

Me: Hey guys, sorry for the kind of late update, but I've had a busy few weeks, so haven't been able to do much writing or updating recently.

Thranduil: Well, at least your busy few weeks are over now, and you can spend the rest of the day writing...Devicorn? *is staring at me as I've got a sheepish look on my face*

Me: Ahh, about that...I've kind of got a dressage test to go to in an hour...got to go and brush the horse until she shines and all that, sooo...*turns and sprints away, grabbing horse brushes and hoofpick as I go*

Thranduil:...Dressage? What in all of Middle-earth is that? And why is it more important than writing...DEVICORN GET BACK HERE! *runs off after me, curious little bugger that he is*

Me: Nooooo leave me aloooone!

26: Reconciliation Amongst Rumours

Gandalf and the Elves who had gathered to watch me clapped as Aeolus and I neatly sailed over the last of the makeshift jumps, which had been set up in a course for me and were all at least a metre high. My stallion tossed his head and whinnied loudly as he slowed to a trot and then a walk, and I couldn't help but smile smugly. It was the first time I'd jumped this high here in Middle-earth, without a bridle or a saddle to help me stay on or guide Aeolus, and it was a brilliant feeling to have done a clear round.

"Well, you certainly have a fine steed there. If I didn't know any better I would have said he was one of the Elven steeds, or even a Mearas," Gandalf said with a smile as I moved out of the fenced off area to allow some of the Elves to have a go on their steeds – they had taken to the idea of having jumping 'competitions' like ducks to water as soon as I'd told them about it.

"You hear that, Aeolus? That's a fine compliment there," I said with a smile, catching myself as I almost went to say 'coming from someone who'll ride Shadowfax.' Aeolus, neck and rump sweaty after the workout I had given him, nickered, nudged Gandalf's grey clad arm as we headed towards the stables after I'd walked him around to cool him down.

"Yes, he is indeed a fine steed, though that probably has something to do with the kindness and love with which you treat him."

"And the sugar lumps and carrots. They always help," I added, drawing a chuckle from the old looking wizard. Sliding from my stallion's back – I really was beginning to think of him as mine now that I had been his sole carer for over a year and a half – I then set about fetching a bucket of water, a sponge, some soap and some brushes so that I could clean him. Gandalf, seeming content to stay with me and watch as the Elves competed good naturedly upon their fleet footed steeds, perched on a nearby rock and pulled out his ever present pipe.

"At least I have something I'm perhaps better than Elves at," I mused aloud as I watched one of horses knock down a pole with her heels, much to the delight of the other riders.

"I do not doubt that there are a great number of things you are better than Elves at," Gandalf murmured, before making a noise of pleasure as whatever it was in his pipe caught light at his urging.

"Well, if swearing and pissing off people of great importance in the place you live count, then yes, there are," I said with a slight laugh, referring to my little confrontation with Thranduil three days ago. Since then, I'd not see hide nor tail of him, not that I minded overly much, as I doubted we'd have many nice things to say to each other if our paths did cross. However I'd found out from Legolas, and several unfortunate guards, that what I'd said had put the Elvenking in one of the worst moods they'd seen him in for a long time. He remained dangerously quiet for the most part, but his eyes were filled with a flashing storm of anger, and his voice when he spoke was colder than The Helcaraxë. If anyone disturbed him or said something that contradicted anything that he'd said, no matter how small, a stormy look would work its way through his mask, and he'd snap at them even when they'd done nothing wrong, making it very difficult to broach any delicate topics with him.

"Yes, I don't believe that there are many, if any at all, amongst the Eldar who would have dared to speak to King Thranduil in such a way," Gandalf said between puffs of his pipe as I slathered Aeolus with soapy water.

Another reason I didn't mind not seeing Thranduil as I usually would do at numerous points during the day was because of the fact that Gandalf took up most of that time at the moment, having taken an interest in me. Since he had, a little while after I had stormed from Thranduil's rooms, come to me and told me that Damien, if it was he who had been dragged into Middle-earth by the ancient song of Melkor, was indeed deep within Dol Guldur, I had found myself in his company by 'the purest of chances' as he had smilingly put it. Of course, he had had questions about where I had come from but, he hadn't once asked me to tell him what lay ahead for this world. When I'd questioned him as to why this was, he'd replied, "The future is best left to become the present,"; a way of thinking that had brought a smile to my lips. My love of him as a character had only grown now I'd met him in person.

Glancing over my shoulder at Gandalf, I found him puffing out little smoke rings into the warm afternoon air, sending them through each other. Catching my eye, he winked, before somehow changing the colour of the next few smoke rings he blew out and setting them chasing around and around his head before stacking them on the point of his hat, which rested on the floor beside him. The next puffs of smoke he let escape his lips swirled a moment before taking on the shape of a horse. It, at Gandalf's bidding, cantered through the air silently, gliding towards me and looping around me before exploding with a puff as a curious Aeolus nosed at it. He squealed, jerking his head back and snorting, and I felt myself begin to giggle with childish delight as yet more shapes were formed by the ancient wizard. Ships on rolling waves of smoke, birds with wispy wings and many other creatures he created, all of them as complex as and as interesting as the last, and I found it hard to concentrate on Aeolus as they danced about me.

"That is quite the skill you have there, Gandalf," I chuckled as a smoky rabbit bounced along Aeolus's back before dissipating.

"I find it helps to calm my mind when too many thoughts of strange goings on try to crowd it," he murmured around his pipe, eyes distant and expression edged with an almost unnoticeable edge of grimness as he created a school of fish that swam lazily through the air.

"Playing the violin, or being with Aeolus, does the same for me," I replied, thoughts drifting back to what I had said to Thranduil. Perhaps I'd been a bit unkind when I had said that he only cared about his kingdom, and no-one else's, and perhaps I'd gone slightly too far with the language I'd used when addressing him. Maybe slightly further than that, if I'm honest.

"What of the rumours of the spiders getting unusually close to the borders?" I questioned of Bainor, who was sat close beside me beneath the boughs of a birch tree. Gandalf had, sadly, departed yesterday after spending the past five days in Thranduil's halls, stating that he had fulfilled his purpose here, and that he had business elsewhere to attend to, and so I was spending my more than usual free time with Bainor whenever he too was free.

"They are becoming more frequent, I am afraid. The border guards cannot understand what is making them bolder than before," Bainor sighed, one leg bent and the other stretched out along the lushly grassed ground. We were outside of Thranduil's halls, enjoying the warmth of the summer sun in the guarded area surrounding the caves, where about half of Thranduil's nearly six thousand subjects dwelt and celebrated the feasts if they could not fit into the halls.

"Could it be the Necromancer stirring in Dol Guldur?" I questioned, though my heart was telling me that this wouldn't be the only reason for the spider sightings growing more numerous, along with the reports that Orcs had been seen skulking about here and there under the evil darkness near Dol Guldur.

"I certainly hope not," Bainor said with a shiver, lips tilting downwards in a small frown. Moments later, though, it turned into his usual smile as he continued, "Let us not talk of such evil things when the day is warm and bright, and my company is as pleasant as yours."

"At least you seem to think so," I smiled, arms resting across my bent knees as I gazed up at the green canopy above the two of us. "How is that irascible King of yours, anyway?"

"You live in his halls, so he is your King as well, Fenna."

"Ahh, but this is technically not my true home, so he is technically not my King," I said, turning to look at Bainor and daring him to contradict me with a raise of my eyebrows. He snorted, shaking his head and murmuring something about there being no hope, before answering my question.

"He is still in that wrathful mood he's been in since your, ahh, confrontation with him."

"Does everyone known of what happened?" I groaned, raising my eyes to the heavens.

"It is not hard to guess that something happened between the two of you when his change of mood happened at the same time you stopped your regular writing and reading with him," Bainor said with a shrug, and I sighed.

"So he's still being grumpy…does it look like it will let up any time soon?"

"One can never tell with the Elvenking of Northern Mirkwood…but I highly doubt that his temper will calm any time soon, as he of all the Eldar is highly adept at holding something against someone."

"Well, in the absence of his friendship, at least I still have you, your brother, Curunas, Melanor, Elbeth, and the others that I have befriended here," I said with a grin, reaching out and lightly touching Bainor's closest hand with mine. I'd grown fond of him, perhaps more so than Melanor and Elbeth as he, though he was about six hundred, felt the closest to my age. He smiled that contented little smile at me, the one that sent a wave of happiness through me, and nudged my shoulder affectionately with his own.

Never going to get used to the beauty of Elves, I thought as I tried not to appear too captivated by the being beside me. Never want to, either.

We spent who knew how long out there, talking of simple things or playing and singing snatches of songs together – I had brought my violin out with me, and Bainor, like most of his kind, couldn't resist joining in with his more than beautiful voice. It was the kind of afternoon I knew I would always treasure, spent with a close friend, away from the dark cloud of irritation that I knew would fall upon me as soon as my thoughts turned back to Thranduil.

However, we had to return to the caves beneath the ground at some point, and so, when the sun was just beginning to dip below the treeline, we made our laughter filled way back through the great front doors, pausing to converse with the guards before continuing into the softly lit cavern, where numerous walkways spanned over the river far below and led to many different places.

"Oltho vae ne fuin hen, Fenna," Bainor said, enfolding me in a warm embrace as we came to a stop before my room, and it took a moment for me to translate the words to, "May you dream well tonight, Fenna."

"A lle, Bainor," I replied, hugging the Elf for a little longer before stepping back and, with a last smile in his direction, opening and closing my door behind me. I hummed happily to myself as I placed my violin on the end table at the foot of my bed and went about my pre-sleep routine, finding that, for the first time since the other person who was potentially Damien had arrived in the world that had become my home for now, I was almost completely happy and worry free. I really do like that Elf.

The next day, early in the morning, found me practicing my swordsmanship by myself, as both Thurindor and Bainor were unavailable to teach me, and many of those who trained here at the same time as me were busy with their own things. I didn't mind, though, as I had become capable enough to flow through attacks, defences and counter attacks with an imaginary enemy. My pace, though, was slow, almost dancelike; Thurindor had explained that this 'sword dance' as it was aptly named would greatly improve my control and precision, and as usual he was right.

I kept my eyes closed as I moved, trying to feel for the right way to move rather than seeing it, and relishing the calmness that flowed through me as I stretched and twisted.

If only life could continue like this, without arguments or interruptions from people who I have to stop from destroying this world, I sighed to myself as drew my blades in a close, sweeping arc along my side, almost effortlessly transitioning it into a slow, upwards swing with one of my blades as the other came across my torso in defence.

I would almost want to stay here, I continued as I then swept my defending short sword out, hooking away the enemies blade so that I could bring down my longer sword and-

My blade was stopped mid swing, meeting a resistance on the way down. Frowning, I pushed with my blade against this opposition, but quickly realised that it was the kind that would not yield to any strength I possessed. Opening my eyes, I found my blade blocked by another, finer one, engraved with runes along its top edge. Following the blade to the hand that held the hilt, I paused. Rings adorned three of the fingers, two embedded with emeralds and flawless diamonds, and the other a woven maze of silver that resembled the branches of a tree.

Thranduil, I guessed, being proven correct as I raised my gaze and found myself looking up into the pale face of the Elvenking. We stayed where we were for a moment, neither of us moving, before Thranduil withdrew his blade from beneath mine and allowed me to straighten.

"What do you want?" I questioned in a none too polite way, taking note, as I did so, of the fact that he was wearing – for him, at least – fairly simple clothes, consisting of a flame red tunic, simple wood coloured leggings and calf height black boots. Even his summer crown was missing, replaced by a circlet similar in fashion to those of Lord Elrond, Lord Celeborn and Lady Galadriel, though his was a lot…sharper and more indicative of his status, much like his personality.

His nostrils flared at my less than civil tone, but he seemed to take a moment to calm himself before speaking, much to my surprise.

"To join you," he said simply. I raised my eyebrows at him in surprise, because I certainly wouldn't have wanted to spar with the person who'd spoken to him as I had. I tried to think of a reason for him not to as, though I had come to regret some of the words I had said, I was still in no particular mood to speak with Thranduil, but when I could think of no decent one I shrugged.

"Fine," I replied curtly before settling into a half crouch, wondering if this really was all that Thranduil had come here to do. Thranduil, after unsheathing the other of his two blades, did the same. Touching my blade to his to indicate I was starting, I began once more, though this time with the addition of royalty in the place of my imaginary opponent.

The Elvenking seemed happy enough to let me continue at the pace I had been before, following the path I dictated with my blades as we wove a slow, flowing dance.

I can see what Bainor meant about him being the best swordsman here, I thought as Thranduil, with absolutely perfect timing, parried a slow swing from my short sword even as he swept his second blade towards my waist, allowing me to stop the impeccably controlled strike with my long sword. Even at this snail's pace, for him at least, he was the epitome of grace and deadly precision, easily seeing the paths I was going to take with my blades even before I did and adjusting his stance accordingly. I shivered in sympathy for any enemies who had thought they could take him on.

Our quiet dance continued for a few minutes, an almost tangibly awkward tension hanging between us, before I grew tired of things. Suddenly amping up the pace to as fast as I could go, I completed the slow whirl I had been in the middle of and crashed my blades up and over into Thranduil's. Well, one of them, anyway.

By the time I realised that only one of Thranduil's two blades was beneath my own, and not the two that I had intended to be there after my surprise attack, I had already had a blade at my throat for a few seconds. I swallowed, slowly removing my blades from Thranduil's – reading my attempted surprise attack like a one line story, he'd allowed me to land that blow in order to exploit my weak defences – and straightening, my training stopped for the second time that morning by the techy ruler.

"You did not come here just to spar with me," I said in quiet Silvan, the tip of Thranduil's right blade still at my throat. He kept it there for a moment longer, expression and eyes as unreadable as they'd been before I'd started to befriend him, before lowering it to his side.

"No."

"Then I'll ask you again. What do you want?" I questioned bluntly, sheathing my blades and crossing my arms. Thranduil, too, returned his swords to their scabbards.

"To apologise."

"…I'm…I'm sorry, what?" I stuttered, utterly taken aback by the lyrical words that Thranduil had just said. He sighed quietly before repeating himself.

"I want to apologise to you for what I did a week ago. As you were correct in saying, I have no right to go 'bandying sensitive information around like it can do no harm', as you put it." I blinked. And blinked again, not believing my ears or eyes – Thranduil actually looked somewhat apologetic. Well, as much as he could, anyway.

"Did you decide to come and apologise of your own volition?" I asked as I shifted my weight to one hip, and Thranduil's frosty eyes narrowed slightly, as if asking me why I would question such a thing. I, however, continued to stare at him, waiting for an answer.

"…Legolas may have…encouraged me to do so," Thranduil murmured, his stiff tone telling me he wasn't happy to be admitting this

"I thought so. And no, you don't have any right," I agreed, before allowing my irked expression to drop and my voice to soften as I continued. "But I, too, had no right to say some of what I did – specifically what I said about you caring only about your kingdom, and no others, despite the fact that it's rather true."

"I take it that this is an apology?" the Elvenking asked, the frost of his eyes melting somewhat, and I couldn't help but let what little remaining annoyance I felt towards Thranduil disappear as I observed this. Despite his easily irritable nature, and the fact that he tended to be a bit up himself even at the best of times, I had actually grown to like him, especially as more of his kinder facets had been revealed to me.

"Yeah."

"So there is peace between us again?" the ancient Elf ventured, offering a ringed hand to me as I had done when the two of us had agreed to start again, all that time ago.

"Peace," I agreed, reaching out and almost taking his hand. However, just before I did, I paused, and said in a serious tone, "But don't do anything like that again."

Thranduil huffed faintly, but nodded all the same. We clasped hands and shook twice before breaking apart again, though the distance between us wasn't quite what it had been moments ago.

"Why did you say what you did to Gandalf, anyway, after all the times I've told you what could happen if someone learns too much?"

"…I must confess, I sometimes find it hard to believe that what you know could do great harm if it were told to someone such as Mithrandir," Thranduil said after a pause, and I felt an exasperated and annoyed sigh try to escape my lips. Instead of letting it, and words that would fly in the face of the peace we had just agreed to go back to, out, I instead decided to do something else.

"Would you like to know almost all of what I saw in the Mirror of Galadriel?" I questioned quietly. When Thranduil cocked his circlet-adorned head at me, I added, "It will help you understand what could happen if what I know is told in full to anyone, be they good or bad."

"Then please, tell me," the Elvenking said earnestly, curiosity lighting in the depths of his piercing eyes. Turning and heading for a more secluded spot in the training area, I then folded down to the ground, gathering my thoughts as Thranduil sat himself down across from me. He looks younger without all those fancy robes and those admittedly cool crowns of his. More like a prince than a king, though only if you ignore those blue eyes of his and the memories his voice holds each time he speaks, I mused with an inward smile, before speaking.

"I cannot tell you everything, as some of what I saw would reveal to you things I can't let you or anyone else know." Thranduil nodded once in understanding, and I hoped that, unlike the last time I'd told him this, he would actually stick to his understanding and not question me on anything I said.

"Well then…it starts with me deciding, sometime in the future, to tell you everything I know of this world, and all that will happen in it. I don't know why, but something made me decide to….and then the Mirror changed to a different scene." I shuddered at the memory, disliking having to recall it but knowing that Thranduil needed me to. And so I continued, describing what I had seen in as much detail as I could, trying to really make my words sink in. I left out the images of certain people – namely Aragorn, Gimli and the like – but told Thranduil that people who would play a big part in this worlds future were captured and killed, or worse, and all as a consequence of what I had said.

"And then I was shown what happened to me," I murmured softly, worrying at my nails and the hem of my shirt as I hunched over, staring past the ground my eyes were turned towards. "Sauron was holding me up by my neck…I was almost unrecognisable, covered in wounds and bruises and thinner than I've ever been or ever wanted to be. He thanked me for bringing him the knowledge I held, for bringing the world back to his feet, and then…then he…" I took a heavy breath before forcing the words out. "He snapped my neck like it was nothing, tossed my dead body aside as if I was a ragdoll…and laughed," I said in a shuddering voice, picking at the skin along the side of my nails and not caring just then that it hurt. The pain was good – it reminded me that this was real, and that the images flashing in my mind were nothing but that.

"But…he cannot come anywhere close to that power again," Thranduil murmured, and as he did so I clearly heard the words, without the One Ring, tagging along on the end. I lifted my head slightly and fixed him with a long, hard look from under my brows, waiting for him to understand what I was hinting at.

When he did, Thranduil's brilliantly blue eyes widened perceptibly. He opened his mouth, as if to say something, and then closed it again, swallowing visibly.

"Not very often anyone renders you speechless," I said with a half quirk of my lips, before sobering once again. "So now do you see why I don't want just anyone knowing what I have told you? Now do you understand what will happen if even the smallest word gets out, even to the right person?"

"Yes…yes I do," Thranduil answered, and his tone left me in no doubt that what I had said had really sunk in this time.

"Good…now, enough of that, because I don't really fancy talking about things as dark as that anymore," I said, standing swiftly and leaving all my bad thoughts where I had been sat. The Elvenking stayed where he was for a moment, apparently still somewhat stunned by my little revelation, before slowly getting to his feet.

"Thank you for telling me what you have…I now truly see the error of my judgement in telling Mithrandir what I knew without your permission," he said quietly, actually sounding contrite.

Reaching out, I lightly touched his arm. "You've apologised, so it's fine. Just don't do it again," I smiled, before stepping back from him and drawing my two blades. "Now, how about we continue sparring, as that is why you're so…underdressed…for you, anyway."

Thranduil's answer was to draw his own blades, his masterful poker face falling into place as we began our dance again. His eyes, however, had regained some of the warmth that I hadn't known I'd miss until the argument between the two of us had frozen it over.

Legolas lent against the entrance to the training area, surrounded by shadow as he watched in satisfaction as Fenna and his father began to spar again. Their body language was much less tense than it had been when Thranduil had first stopped Fenna's practice, and that could only mean that his father had actually apologised to her, miraculous as that seemed.

Legolas smiled in a pleased manner as he recalled his conversation with his father yesterday evening.

"Father?" Legolas questioned in quiet Sindarin after Thranduil had finished detailing tomorrows duties to his son. The Elvenking looked up, the storm in his eyes calmer than it had been but still there.

"Yes, ion nín?"

Legolas took a breath, steeling himself. What he was about to do was risky, especially considering the less than amicable mood his father was in, but it had to be done. He did not like seeing hostility between anyone.

"I think that you should apologize to Fenna for what has happened." Thranduil's eyes became ice like, though less so than they might have done had anyone else told him this.

"And what makes you think that it is I who should apologize for this, and not Fenna?"

"Because, if it had been Fenna who had truly been to blame for this, she would have come to say that she was sorry long before now," Legolas replied, meeting his father's narrow-eyed gaze without hesitancy. Thranduil was a formidable Elf to try and reason with, even when his anger was not as brightly burning as it was now, but Legolas could hold his own. He had, after all, been taught by the very person watching him in a considering manner at that moment.

After a few moments spent in a tense silence, Thranduil said quietly, "Goodnight, Legolas," before lowering his eyes back to the writing he had been doing. However, his tone was not as cold as it had been, and, if Legolas wasn't hearing things, there might have just been the slightest edge of consideration there. Perhaps.

I am glad that Ada decided to apologize to Fenna, the Prince thought as he, pushing away from the wall, turned and went to get on with his duties. She is good for him, even if neither of them realise it. She is drawing him from his self-imposed distance from his people, though I still do not know how she is doing so, and I believe that he finds her true lack of care that he is royalty, and her willingness to scold and treat him as she would anyone else, a breath of fresh air.

Next Time...

27: Revelations Aplenty

As June faded into a July heavy with heat, the spiders continued to grow ever bolder, straying closer and closer to Thranduil's borders. During this time I fretted and worried about what was happening to Damien, not out of true care for him but out of care for the world I now lived in and the people I had befriended. Thranduil, too, did not like how things were looking, but was content to wait and watch, to see what the enemy would do. However, that all began to change when, a week into July, Orcs were spotted for the first time outside of Dol Guldur. As soon as he heard the report his whole demeanour had changed, to my eyes, at least. He grew tenser, quieter, and the next day I was not surprised when he sent out double the normal guards he usually would have to replace those at his borders.

Things grew even worse, though, when reports that Orcs had been seen with a human, one who was not tied up and beaten like some of those that had been reportedly captured by the Orcs, but one who was clothed in blackened armour and actually, it seemed, leading a pack of the foul creatures.

"He couldn't have…" I breathed, heart missing a few beats as the news was grimly reported to Thranduil, who was sat in a deceptively lazy pose on his throne. I was stood to one side of the steps leading to the throne, a place that I had begun to claim as my own as I often decided to stay with the Elvenking during his time spent here. It was most definitely because of the fact that I had taken an interest in the workings of Thranduil's kingdom recently, and not because I was able to spend more time near Bainor. Oh no, most definitely not because of that.

Translations: A lle = And you

Me: Thranduil apologising? Is it a full moon or something? Must beuuuwaahhhhh I've got to go *ducks as Thranduil tries to grab me from behind a corner so he can interrogate me as to what dressage is* Byyyyeeeeeeee

Thranduil: Come back here and tell me what this dressage thing is! *sprints after me, wondering why he can't catch me even though he's an Elf going as fast as he can*

Legolas:...I really do wonder sometimes why father continues to try and pester Devicorn for things such as this...he knows what happens every time he catches her and tries to get it out of her- *is silenced as a loud BOOM echoes around the halls* And there she goes. I wonder which room she's ruined this ti-

Thranduil: *practically crying* MY WINE!

Legolas:...Ahh, I wondered when that would happen *hides a smile* XD