Disclaimer ; The same thing. Tolkien's and Legolas are not mine!!!!
Thank u a million times!!!!!! You are all very nice. I'm glad you are enjoying this story!
@Wanderer : This story took place before LOTR. Legolas was around 2,5000 years old.
@Fairylady : No character death, I assure you!
They were passing the entrance to the throne hall, when Arulin paused. "I've always imagined myself on the throne, my lord. May I?" Pivoting on her heels, Arulin walked swiftly into the hall towards the beautiful ornate king's seat.
"Stop her!" Thranduil ordered. The guards rushed in to do his biddings when suddenly Arulin whirled around. "You think you can stop me?" She raised her slender hand and pointed. "Behold behind you!"
The Mirkwood elves turned and found themselves surrounded by the deformed looking faces of the elves from Garmadris. Their skin was turning into sickening yellow, wrinkling like prune. Their eyes now glowed bright red.
"Valar…" Thranduil gasped in horror. "What devilry is this?" He swiveled and stared hard at Arulin. "Who are you, really? What is it that you want?"
Arulin sneered. She still looked beautiful but in a very evil way. "Remember Tamascus, Thranduil? Do you still remember your great-uncle?"
Keldarion glanced at the king. His father had obviously flinched when he heard that name. "I do remember my great-uncle. How could I forget? He betrayed the kingdom to the dark forces during the Great War. It had caused the death of my father and my brothers."
"A pity you survived! Or Mirkwood had already fall into Tamascus's hand millenniums ago!" Arulin cried out at the top of her screeching voice. Keldarion couldn't help but winced at the sound. Valar, I nearly married this female!
"But who the hell are you?!!" Thranduil yelled, his hand gripping the dagger at his waist.
"After your grandfather banished him from the entire elven realm, Tamascus gradually turned into an orc, so defeated and broken he was. He then met Galasta, the witch from the Misty Mountain. Can't still figure out who I am?"
Thranduil pointed a trembling finger at her. "You…you are his spawn!"
Arulin laughed again, long and hard. "You are smart for a king that wrongly punished his own son!"
"Why, you…!!" Thranduil advanced forward to grab her neck but was immediately detained by the zombie elves from Garmadris. They twisted his arms behind his back, holding him at sword point by the neck.
The same treatment had also befallen onto Keldarion and the palace guards, even though they put up great struggle to overpower the enemies. But they were too many. Suddenly the palace was swarmed by the lots of them. They came from nowhere, which was strange considering only little number of them came from Garmadris. Shouts and exclamations came from outside the hall, indicating that the entire Mirkwood palace was already under seized.
Keldarion looked at the zombies in distaste. "What happened to them? How did they become like this?"
Arulin came near to him and smiled wickedly. "My dear crown prince." She touched his cheek and kissed him. Keldarion struggled to evade her kiss but she grabbed hold of his face and held on tight. With his arms twisted behind him, Keldarion could not escape. She giggled. "You hate me now when only last night you stared at me with great desire."
She indicated the Garmadris elves. "Actually, they are all dead. Only my powerful force kept them moving about, doing what I asked them to do. A little trick I learnt from my mother."
"What happened to them? Your parents. Where are they now? Or let me guess, you killed them, didn't you?" Thranduil asked through gritted teeth.
Arulin rushed to him and squeezed the king's throat. "I'm not so pathetic like you, Thranduil! I would never hurt my own blood, no matter how they hurt me in return!" She released him and walked towards the throne seat. Sitting down, she continued, "My parents are dead, killed by the Garmadris own warriors. The Garmadris lord felt so guilty when I was left an orphan at such young age that they took me in as their adopted daughter."
"And not long after, you took control over them all." Thranduil shook his head. "Such evil you bring. Wasn't it enough?"
"Not until you yield to me." Arulin stared at them, long and hard. "Do you yield, King Thranduil?"
Thranduil's fury was now like molten lava. "Never!" he spat.
"Sooner or later, you will," she said, and then she smiled widely when she saw the commotion at the hall entrance. "Ah…I see it will be sooner."
Thranduil and Keldarion looked around and felt the blood drained off their faces. The unconscious Legolas was being dragged into the hall, his body was limp and his eyes closed. Blood was running down the side of his face from the injury on his head. "Legolas!"
They dropped him to the floor at Arulin's feet. She picked up a vase of flowers from a pedestal. Throwing away the flowers, she poured the water content onto Legolas's upturned face. He woke up sputtering and started to move in agitation. Arulin's soldiers grabbed his hair and pulled him up to a kneeling position, twisting his arms painfully behind his back. Putting a finger under Legolas's chin, she tipped up his face. "Welcome, Prince Legolas. Join the party."
Legolas could only glared at her. He then turned to look at his father and brother helplessly. I'm too late! She has taken over the palace!
Arulin grabbed his chin hard and forced him to look at her directly in the eye. "But I still want to know how you find out about me. Care to tell?"
Legolas stubbornly stay mute, his silver eyes blazing in great fury.
She turned to Thranduil instead. "What power he possess that enabled him to know my intention?" The king of Mirkwood only stared at her in disdain, not responding. She was getting angrier by now. She detested being challenged by others; especially if they have any kind of force or power she didn't know about.
Then Arulin's eyes rested on Legolas head wound and she remembered. "Of course, your healing ability. Your magical touch. You knew who I am the moment you touched my ankle, didn't you?" She grabbed Legolas's chin again. "You're a healer. A manyan. Just like your mother." She looked at Thranduil with malice in her eyes. "If I guessed correctly, he also has the Manya stone at the back of his neck!"
Thranduil's eyes widened. "No! Arulin, don't…"
"Don't what, Thranduil? Take the stone out? Why shouldn't I when the stone of vigor would be in the way of my plan of destruction? He'll only heal everything back and all my efforts will only go to waste!" Grabbing Thranduil's dagger that her soldier had confiscated from the Mirkwood king, she ordered, "Hold him down!"
"No!" Keldarion yelled, feeling great fear for his brother. Legolas was born a manyan when their mother died, passing the gift to her last child. If the stone were taken out of him, he'll be a manyan no more. Legolas will be the absolute last in the line of the manyans. The crown prince was struggling earnestly and Arulin's followers hit him back to subdue him.
Ignoring Keldarion's desperate struggle and Thranduil's plead of mercy for his son, Arulin knelt down near Legolas prone body. The prince was lying face down on the floor, his arms still twisted behind him, his legs pinned by the strong zombies. No matter how hard he wiggled and struggled, he couldn't free himself. His eyes never left Arulin's face though, following her every move.
She swiped away the golden tresses, wrapping the silken strands around her fist, exposing Legolas's elegant neck. Legolas couldn't help trembling when she probed him, searching for the stone. She smiled in triumph when she found it. With the dagger in her steady hand, she started to cut the prince open.
Legolas bit his lips to prevent himself from crying out in pain. The agony was excruciating but he will not give her the satisfaction of hearing him scream. He felt her cutting him with his own father's sharp blade and digging her fingers deeper, reaching for the magical stone.
Legolas could hear his brother's cry of enrage and sense his father's horrified gaze. Then he felt Arulin made the final tug. "Ah, at last!" She cried out in triumph, holding up the glowing stone for everyone else to see. The stone was round in shape, at the size of a pearl but shining brightly like blue diamond. It was so beautiful that to those who didn't know, the Manya stone might be taken up as jewel.
Arulin kissed the stone, which was still dripping with Legolas's fresh blood. "Hmm, your blood taste so sweet, Prince Legolas," she crooned near Legolas's ear. "A pity, for you are going to shed more in the future." She straightened. "Throw them into the dungeon! King Thranduil of Mirkwood is no more! For now, this realm has a queen!"
TBC…