Tauriel POV
The king had placed me in charge of the inter-palace search. Accompanied by two guards, we searched through all of the floors of the palace, starting from his chambers, and making way down into the dungeons. The guards searched every room, looked under every bed, in every dresser and washroom.
We searched every dungeon cell, under all of the known trap doors, and through all the hidden corridors.
With every area of the palace that we passed by, I lost hope more and more.
I wanted to save the kitchen for last, because I had kept all this information from Helena, my pregnancy, Legolas's disappearance. I mean, none of it was supposed to happen anyway.
As we approached the kitchens, I felt a distinct soreness in my legs, that had coexisted since we were searching the dining halls. The healers told me that I would become fatigued more often, and I had to take it easy, but I ignored the feeling until now, when it was becoming almost unbearable.
"General Tauriel, this is the last area we need to search before we have covered the entire palace." The guard notifies me, "Are you feeling alright, you look rather pallid,"
I hide my emotions, "I'm fine, we need to keep moving."
We entered the kitchens, and the guards commanded everyone to immediately move. I leaned against the countertops, my legs were cramping from walking. Somehow, I had a dreadful feeling he wouldn't be here. The frustration forced tears into my eyes, but I warded them off, coercing my mind to think of positive times.
One of my favorite mornings came to mind.
Flashback
I remembered all the amusing times that Legolas and I got to spend together. And the joy he filled my heart with before he left me, unspoken.
True, we were very similar, but it sometimes got out of hand. Like our competitiveness over the simplest, most superficial topics
I remembered one night that we had spent together, Legolas and I actually both needed sleep that night, even though we osculated plenty more on tireless nights.
But Legolas was exhausted from duties and training, and I was in the mood to rest more too. So instead, we actually went to bed. This happened after he had sworn his love, and I no longer felt sinful.
Anyway, I slept like a doll that night, still and sound. I awoke early, around dawn, and abnormally, Legolas was still asleep on his side, facing away from me
An amusing idea came to mind, and I acted swiftly to follow. I quickly twirled a strand of my long hair, and crept up silently behind him. I swept my strand onto his ear, making a circular motion as my hair entered his auricle.
He instinctively awoke and I pounced upon him, my fingers danced over his stomach like spiders as I tickled him. It was also a form of payback because Legolas and I were not on equal sparring terms. I was at the dagger point the last time we sparred, after a long, and brutal fight of clashing daggers and dodging kicks or slices.
He laughed heartily as I moved my hands down to his sides and continued their finesse movements, laughing with him.
Legolas eventually overcame the torture, and his hands struggled to grab that of my evading ones. He grasped my hand, one after the other, and immediately flipped over, so that I was under him.
"Say your sorry." He would return the torturous tickling as I burst aloud in laughter. Only Legolas's hands were stronger, and larger, thus more difficult and painful to resist.
"I'm- hahaha- sorry!" I squealed as he straddled my body on his bed, laughing with me now.
He chuckled, "That was inadequate. Apologize to your prince like you mean it." He smirks jokingly.
"I can't!" I would giggle uncontrollably.
He sighed "You must understand that you will never get away with anything that you do to me." He commands playfully, still pressing his fingers repeatedly into my belly. I tried to pry his hands off, to no success.
"Do you understand me?" He asks.
"I understand-" I laugh again, my stomach hurting from the amusement, " for now..."
He shook his head, grinning from ear to ear, and stopped, noting that I was close to tears of both torture and joy.
We sat up against his headrest, finally, and he pulled my body in towards his.
"You brought castigation upon yourself." He frowned, "I finished your game fairly."
"Well we weren't on even terms from the last time you and I had sparred, therefore I thought it was only adequate to attack you this morning." I pouted
"Life with you will always be challenging won't it?" He chuckled, now that we both had ceased our horseplay.
"If by challenging, you mean joyous, and never holding a victory for more than a day, then I would agree." I smirked and snuggled against his chest.
He squeezed me tighter, "That's exactly what I meant." I felt his lips brush my forehead, "I will spend an eternity of years with you, even if you're insane at times." He whispered in my ear kindly.
End flashback
I smiled at the memory, trying to focus on peaceful and happy thoughts, to keep my suspicious and dreadful thoughts out of my head. That was a splendid morning indeed. Another flashback popped into my head.
Flashback
I remember being ridiculously fatigued and sore from training camps with new and stubborn recruits for a voluntary opportunity that the king's had organized for new elves who wished to learn the art of sparring and archery.
I trained with 20 novices for 5 days and nights continuously, wanting them to understand and developed the accustom to fighting at night.
I thought it would be fine, but by the 4th night, the students were intent on defeating their teacher, and having some great story to boast about upon returning to their families. Therefore I had to fight all of them, countless times, one on one.
It was too risky to host a minute tournament, and have the students spar each other, as they didn't comprehend the difference between sparring, and stabbing or killing.
Actually there wasn't, but to undeveloped trainees, I wanted them to survive dodging stabs with full certainty, and wasn't willing to risk any casualties with training. There was a difference between a laceration wound and a puncture wound.
Thus, I worked with them for 2 days and two nights nonstop, seemingly to be the only one who actually needed a break from nonstop archery challenging and sparring requests towards the end.
By the time I finished and returned to my chambers I was so exhausted, I could practically sleep on command wherever.
I quickly bathed and changed into a loose gown. This event occurred prior to my engagement.
But when I exited, Legolas was in my chambers, lighting a couple candles, and wielding a single lilac.
I blushed, "What are you doing Legolas?" I smiled at the quick preparation he had done.
He handed me the fleur "Don't be angry with me, but I found out about your new training assignment of 20 new recruits through my father, even though you told me you would be busy with duties throughout the next week."
"And?" I smiled, curious to find out where he was going with this conversation.
"I figured, you must be exhausted, and wanted to offer you my service for tonight if you needed anything." He bowed with gesticulation.
"The prince offered his service to me?!" I mock him in shock.
He smiled sweetly, "As a prince, I too, must serve my people Tauriel. Especially that of my loved ones."
"Hmm." I smirked, " I'm super exhausted and could use some rest, but I suppose I could never turn down an authentic massage from the prince... Could I?"
He smiled, "Of course not."
I proceeded to laying face down on my bed, the prince swiftly followed up, propping half of his weight over, whilst his other foot balanced him on the floor. So essentially he was half sitting on my rear end.
His strong hands massaged my shoulder muscles, and migrated slowly down my back, "How did training and sparring go by the way?" He asked smoothly.
"They don't know the difference between stab and spar." I joke, "So I refused to let them spar each other, and instead put myself on the spot."
"They didn't stab you did they?" He asked playfully, with an audible bit of seriousness.
I laughed, "Of course they did, I'm just a little faster than they expected."
"That's my girl." He chuckled
I smiled, accepting the compliment, "You know Legolas, if one day you were not the prince anymore. For some bizarre scarce reason, I think you could become a massager." All my achy muscles felt more pain as he irritated the area with the massage, but even the temporal aftermath felt heavenly and relaxing,
"Is that so?" He laughed, "Well you better watch out, because I'm good with my hands."
"So I have seen." I chuckle.
He counters, flipping me over, and swiftly rolling over so we were both on our sides. "You would be dead if I tried stabbing techniques."
"Well stars help me if that's true." I smiled, "But I really don't think you should do that. " I warned
"And why is that?" He casually flipped out a dagger from behind his back, twirling it adeptly between his fingers, placing it closer to my face. The most eccentric thing was, neither of us were ever fazed by weapons unless it was in contact with our skin, or deeper.
I gently take my hands and stroke his chest slowly. Leaning up to leave a trail of kisses from his neck and upward. He responds passionately. Setting the dagger aside adjacent to my hand.
I immediately jerk out of the stance, and wield the dagger in my fingertips now.
"Because you wouldn't like it if I was your enemy." I sheathed the dagger back into its scabbard on Legolas's back.
"I'll take your word for it." He grinned, the crease by his ancient eyes folding the tiniest bit to show amusement. "You're rather important in my life now anyway."
I smiled as he brushed his lips gently onto mine for a brief second, before pulling away, "Back to your massage my lady." He gestured
End flashback
"General." The guards reported to me, and I squeezed my eyes tight, trying to cling onto the warmth I felt in that memory. "There are no traces of the prince, we searched everywhere. The guards have already ridden out in search of the prince in the woods, what should we do?"
Now, tears streamed down my face in frustration, as I recalled the memory. That was one of the best days and moments of my entire life, and I thought I would have that for eternity. I had heard their words, and I shook my head, mimicking the same motion with my hand
We had searched every inch of this palace, and the guards had ridden out to search the forests for the lost prince.
"Report to the king for me." I say, "Tell the king I am fatigued from many nights of stress and need some rest." I fought the urge to cry. Perhaps this was my hormones, stress, or both.
The guards nodded, "Yes general." And I heard their footsteps leave.
When their noises were inaudible, I opened my eyes, crouching down to sit against the cupboards. My eyes welled up with tears, and I let them out freely, my resistance to cry resulted in random sobbing outbursts.
"Legolas..." I whispered in agony and pain, glancing down at my betrothal ring, and twisting it around my finger repeatedly. "Where are you?"
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I'm sorry I ended on a rather depressing note, but I am working to update as soon as possible. I'm super excited for you all to read what I have in store... Prepare for some plot twists.
In these next few chapters, I will be writing many encorporated one shots between Tauriel and Legolas like the ones above, feel free to comment any suggestions so I can consider implementing them as flashbacks with your permission!
Thank you so much for all your supporting/suggestive reviews! I appreciate each and every one of you. Be prepared for some sharp turns and plot twists coming soon! And like always, please review!
