A/N: I did a little time skip again because there is no way I can do justice to the death and fiery destruction of Laketown. Sorry if you were looking forward to that particular scene.
There is a mixture of several songs' lyrics in the dialogue below.
School Song from Matilda, Stay With Me from Into The Woods, Mother Knows Best from Tangled, and Strangers Like Me by Phil Collins.
Please continue to review! Leave your thoughts, opinions, and predictions for how this will all turn out. You can also leave ideas for future moments between characters. I have my own basic outline that I'm following, but I'd love to incorporate some of your ideas as well. Write them down below!
Daylight had finally broken, the sun's gleaming rays reaching out across the water, illuminating the charred, smoking remains of boards and bodies, all that was left of Laketown. Linnor stood on the far shoreline with the remaining survivors, including Bard, Bain, and even that slimy prick, Alfred. The Master, it would seem, had sunk to the weight of his greed in the fire.
After Alfred had done his best to schmooze into Bard's good graces, the girls had run desperately to their father and brother. They were among the lucky few, it would seem. Few families were still together after Smaug's horrific rampage. Linnor watched as mothers sobbed for dead husbands and sons, children screaming out for parents, the heartbreaking pleas and gasps of relief and shock as the numbness and fear finally wore off. In front of her, Fili, Kili, Oin and Bofur were trying to salvage a small craft to cut across the lake to the mountain.
"Linnor!"
She turned numbly, a little detached from herself as she came face to face with the same Man she had been observing only moments before.
"Bard. Thank Mahal you're alive." Linnor tried to smile, to look relieved, but she had a feeling it still looked like a grimace. Bard either understood or brushed it off as he kept talking.
"My daughters told me what you did for them. There is no reward great enough for the service you and yours have done for my family. Thank you, Linnor." Bard held her gaze intently, and Linnor gave a small nod.
"Linnor! Come on, now, we need to move and check on the others!" Oin yelled from his spot in the water.
"Others?" Bard's hand shot out and grabbed onto her wrist. "You don't think they're still alive up there, do you? Smaug will have smite them to ashes!"
"No." Linnor clenched the hand Bard gripped into a tight fist, her eyes steel. "They are alive. Durin's line will not be broken in a simple, valiant effort. They are alive. My uncle, the king, is alive and you will do kindly to let me go."
Slowly, with a hurt air, Bard released her and stepped away. He was silent for a long moment, allowing the noises of distraught town folk fill the void.
"So." Bard said, his voice cold. "You think you're able to survive this mess by being a prince…or a princess? Linnor, that is not how life works. There's no escaping tragedy. Just look at our town! Our homes…the entirety of Laketown is ash and bone. Even if we put in heaps of effort, we're wasting energy. Face it: life as we know it is ancient history. It's best if you go home, Linnor. Be safe. Or stay with us, out of danger."
"And abandon my family?" Linnor shook her head. "Enough. Let me make my decisions, Bard, whatever they be. I am not dumb. I know this will have changed everything. But let me be very clear: I am not asking your permission."
"I had a feeling you would say that." A new voice interrupted. Bard moved to the side and suddenly Linnor felt as if a remaining flame had leapt inside her veins and thawed the numbness.
"Legolas!" Linnor pushed past the Man and reached out to her love. Legolas met her embrace and held her close and tightly to his body. Linnor locked her arms around his neck, her face nuzzling into his armor clad chest, trying to rein her emotions in. She felt a soft pressure on the top of her head and pulled back as he raised his lips from her hair.
"You came back," she whispered, her eyes glistening with unshed happiness, a small smile playing on her lips.
"You stayed safe." Legolas gave a small, joking smile in return, but the relief in his eyes was as clear as glass. "Linnor, I know you have to go to your family. Your friends are nearly done with the boat and we do not have much time in any case. I cannot stay with you now."
Linnor's breath caught in her throat. He must have sensed her panic because, in a flash, she was tucked back into his chest.
"Be still, love. That is not what I meant. There is a…place I must travel to now. I am in pursuit of some of the orc-bred spawn from the other night. But I could not leave without seeing that you were safe."
"She will stay that way yet, Legolas."
Linnor's face hardened as she turned away from the comfort of her love's arms to face Ciranel, who stood suddenly above her with awkward nervousness.
"Ciranel-" she began, but Legolas stopped her.
"You have something you wish to discuss with Linnor." he nodded." Very well. I will go." He brought Linnor back to him gently.
"I will come back." His eyes gazed intently into hers, giving a promise Linnor hoped was possible to keep.
"I will stay safe." Linnor replied and very gently, very quickly, she leaned in to brush her lips against his before stepping away. A flash of sorrow came across the elf's face and then he turned and was gone.
Linnor sighed as she took her gaze from the spot he vanished from and rested it instead now on her mother.
"What is so important that you must disrupt me once again?" Linnor's voice held no emotion, of which she was proud seeing as, inside, she was a raging storm.
"Linnor…" Ciranel began to reach for her daughter, but seemed to think better of it. "I know you are angry with me, as you have every right to be. I've deceived you grievously, and you must have so many questions to demand of me. I cannot answer them now as you'd like, but when we return-"
"We?" Linnor gave a sharp laugh. "I am not going anywhere with you, Mother. You can go back to Rivendell, but that is no longer my home."
"So you choose to stay with strangers you barely know rather than with me."
"You are a stranger to me, too!" Linnor hissed. "I don't know you, Ciranel, at all. But they are strangers like me. I want to know. Can you show me? They are so familiar to me now, unlike you. Their world, my world, is somewhere I belong and I need to go with them. I want to go."
"You need to stay with me!" Ciranel exclaimed, but Linnor was surprised to see panic tinged with the sadness in her mother's eyes. "Don't you know what's out there in the world?"
"In case you've forgotten, we've been traveling for a few months-"
"Someone has to shield you. Look at you, still just a child. Stay with me."
"I can shield myself. I am not a child, Mother. Not anymore, and no thanks to you. I'm a Durin, a warrior and a survivor!" Linnor tried to interject but Ciranel did not heed.
"I know your feelings to Legolas. You've given your heart so readily." Linnor blushed deeply and looked away. "Princes wait there in the world, it's true. But there are wolves, wargs, orcs and humans too! Stay-"
"Why?" Linnor took a step back. "Why should I? I've met monsters and beasts, I've killed and changed and lost myself again and again. I am not that girl from Rivendell, Ciranel."
"I am your mother. Please, listen to me. It's a scary world out there. The world is dark and wild. Please…stay a child while you can be a child. Please, Linnor." Ciranel reached for her, but Linnor had had enough.
"You are not my mother, Faolan! It may be true by blood, but that does not mean we are family. They are my family. Legolas means more to me than you. You are a stranger. I am not a child. I haven't been for years. I know the world. I know how fearsome it is. But I am not running back to a lie! A prison!" Linnor paused then looked her former friend and newfound mother with a sad fury.
"I do have questions. I want to know the story. But I don't need it. Not now. I will find you if I need it. But not now. Now, I don't care where you go or what you do. But I am not staying."
Linnor turned abruptly and made her way to the water where the others waited with the boat. As she got in, Linnor settled down low on the boat and saw her mother standing almost in the water several feet away.
"Goodbye, Ciranel. Faolan….Mother. Whoever you are." Linnor whispered as Oin pushed them into the lake away from the shore.
