Author's Note: Thank you everyone who has reviewed so far! I came home and my mailbox had seven review alerts and I was so happy! I wanted to answer a few questions, though:
Alessia: Elleura was promoted so quickly because of the Spring Equinox celebration, and then number of guests attending. It's only a temporary promotion. I thought I mentioned that somewhere, but I will go back and check.
alora+legolas*forever: Elleura's origins will be explained in the future ^_~ Ahhh suspense.


Within the Heart
Chapter One
Intrusion of the Heart

The air of Rivendell had always seemed crisper than that of Mirkwood, but then again, that might have just been because he so far away from home. Regardless, he indulged in taking deep breaths as he stepped into the cool air of morning. Rivendell truly was Heaven on Earth.

The archery field, as always, called to him. Archery had always brought him a sense of content, since his youth, and having had more than a millennia's practice under his belt, every arrow he sent flying struck its mark. For nearly an hour he splayed arrow after arrow into various targets.

On the edge of the field, Legolas sensed some being's footfalls, and with an arrow ready to be released, he scanned the distant horizon. From far off a voice called out, "Legolas!"

A smile touched the archer's lips. "Here, Cassius!" his friend appeared, striding quickly towards him, a plump, dead rabbit grasped by the ears in his left hand. "Toss it into the air, Cassius, and I shall pluck it out."

As Cassius neared, he smirked, "Are you showing off for me, Legolas, or trying to impress some hidden Lady?"

"I'm getting rusty, and I need a moving target," Legolas grinned, almost boyishly, and aimed his arrow at Cassius's midsection, "Unless you'd like me to practice on you. In that case, my friend, you'd best start running."

With a hearty laugh Cassius threw the rabbit towards the sky, and Legolas smoothly followed it with his aim, releasing his arrow just as the hare began to fall, piercing it true and straight as if he was not free-falling at all. With satisfaction, Legolas smirked at Cassius as the moving target thudded to the grass, "Do you fetch, too? I've been looking for a good hunting dog."

Next to him now, Cassius slapped his friend on the back companionably, "Legolas, I'll admit that you are the best archer I know, but if you want me to start playing puppy for you, well, you'd better keep on dreaming."

The two elves gathered up the scattered arrows and the bunny corpse, and started towards the towering palace of Elrond. The flowers seemed to bloom around them, and the trees were green with healthiness. At the edge of an apple orchard, a woman's cursing could be heard. Quietly strolling around the trees, Legolas spotted Elleura tangled in the branches of one particularly cluttered tree.

"Shit," she reached for an apple at the end of one branch, but her fingers weren't quite long enough. Adjusting herself so that she could hang further out, she stretching her entire body towards the shinning red apple. Legolas and Cassius watched silently, speculating the scene. Just as her fingertips managed to grasp the apple, her balance tipped and she fell around, shrieking, to hang off of the branch, upside down. The elves had to stifle a laughter, but Elleura didn't seem to notice them, the entirety of her concentration dedicated to that one, shining, red piece of fruit. For a second she dangled on the branch, then timidly let go, with one hand, to reach for the apple. The branch groaned beneath her, and she cursed aloud. After pausing only a moment, she reached again. Her fingers just barely brushed the skin, and the branch cracked. With a scream, Elleura, the branch, and the apple all plummeted into one of the rose bushes. Her curses became more intense, and the elves couldn't help but pour out laughter.

She leaped up from the bushes and glared at them. "Oh, and you would just find that so funny, wouldn't you?" she snapped, unable to control her fury. The two elves struggled to silence their humor, and commenced to staring at the young, flushed servant girl. Her auburn hair was a ruffled and awry, floating in little tendrils around her face. Her azure eyes flickered with a mixture of annoyance and resentment in a threatening, almost deadly, glare. "Clumsy little servant girl, a class or two below us superior elves, she can't even get the apples out of the tree! She's not tall like us Elves!" The trouble causing apple had been clenched tightly in one fist, and her nails bit through the skin. Now she threw it angrily into the basket, which she had been using to collect her apples. "I bet you're thinking, that I should be better at this job because I'm a servant, and I've probably grown up a servant and done this my whole life, but let me tell you something, my lords," she dropped into a mocking curtsey, her words bitter and full of rage, "If you dare to think so, you're wrong! In fact, this is only my second day as a gardener! So if it pleases you to laugh at me, go right ahead, for surely I must do all I can to please my lords," she hissed, again, "But please do me the favor of doing so out of my presence!" And with that said, she picked up her basket and stalked off through the trees.

When she was out of ear shot, and for that matter, out of their Elvin sight, Cassius let out a howl. "That's a fox," he snickered. "Outgoing. Fierce, for a gardener."

"She's not just a gardener," Legolas reached easily for an apple and shined it against his sleeve, "she's my room attendant. I guess this explains why she was so surprised when I walked in my room, yesterday."

Raising an eyebrow, Cassius glanced at his friend, "She's your room attendant?"

"Yes," Legolas replied, and there was a soft shushing crunch as he bit into the red fruit, "She might be yours, too."

At that, Cassius let out a humored snort, "Should be interesting. She's not half bad looking."

"When I entered the room," Legolas continued, paying no heed to his friend's comment, "She was wearing some sort of black smock, like the servants you see only on occasion, but later on that evening, I saw her again in an attendant's uniform. She must have only been assigned to the job yesterday."

"What's your point, Legolas?" Cassius began trudging back towards the palace, following the path that the servant girl had taken.

"It's curious," trailing behind, Legolas spoke more to himself than to Cassius, "I always thought that servants were born into the profession, and kept the same jobs their whole lives. It's that way in Mirkwood."

"Maybe it's not that way here," Cassius was growing impatient with his friend's interest in the working class. "It doesn't matter so much, does it?" but Legolas only shrugged, continuing to ponder in his own silence.

The celebration of Ehtele' mele didn't officially begin until sun down, but the palace itself was alive with festivity by the time they reached it. The sun was hardly above them in the sky, but already guests were roaming everywhere, greeting and chattering with each other. It wasn't long before Cassius and Legolas were washed into separate crowds, and all thoughts of Elleura were pushed from the prince's mind. A youthful girl approached Legolas and introduced herself as Thoerinn, and the "engaging" conversation that she led him into was mostly a game of twenty questions about the Fellowship. She enjoyed explaining how much she admired and respected him, and how he was so handsome, but he was effected little by her flattery. In fact, he was rather annoyed, for it was nothing that he hadn't heard before, over and over again when the tale of the Fellowship had become known. She was pretty, and she did have a nice smile, not to mention a soft laugh, and a wink from Cassius across the room told him to humor her, so he did.

When the sun bowed to embrace the horizon, the true merriment began. Elves that were normally scattered all over Middle Earth had were now gathered in the great banquet hall. Rumors went around the table with the appetizers, that the feast had been prepared for more than a day. The ceiling was high above them, but domed in such a way that any echoes chatter were bent and quieted. Under each long window stood an attendant, vibrant in their robes and dresses of deep wine burgundy, sapphire, ebony, or hunter green.

She was uncomfortable in the wide open room, with lights shining down on her as if it was still noon. Two days ago at this time, she might have been tormenting herself in the darkness of her chambers. Now, she tormented herself in the brightness of the dining hall. The dress she was wearing, long folds of crimson satin, was low cut in the front and made her feel very uncomfortable. Most of her new uniforms were that way, all modeled after the one another but in different colors, and she hated them, preferring her old, more comfortable robes of when she was a common servant. She was disappointed with herself for the way she had acted in the orchard, for as she later found out, the second elf was Sir Cassius or Mirkwood. Outbursts were an old habit that she needed to get over, and the tactic of holding grudges was even older.

There had been a time when she had to be able to zone in on a man up to a mile away. She used that tactic now, to focus on the Elvin prince and his friend as they laughed and dined at the table. To any of the elves or servants, it might have looked as if she was watching for any need of her service, though in reality she was taking them in: analyzing and categorizing them into the part of her memory that she had once used only for her profession. They held strength above her the highest, and she didn't doubt that their methods of combat were more honed and skilled than her own had ever been. It was one of the reasons that she had despised elves for most of her life, especially those of the male gender.


From the entrance of the room, the headmistress signaled for the attendants to serve the main courses of food. Elleura's body automatically slipped into motion, though her mind remained focused on the elves.

He thought that if Thoerinn continued her bantering for much longer, his ears might fall off. He had concluded, even before they had arrived in the great dining hall, that she knew more about the fellowship than he, himself, did. A temporary relief washed over him when the attendants brought the rest of the food out, for surely she would not continue her prattle as she chewed.


Elleura set a plate cluttered with food before Legolas and the scent wafted up to greet him. He allowed his eyes to follow her as she moved to Cassius. His friend smiled up at her, muttering some compliment or joke. She forced a smile in response, but Legolas could see the suspicious anger in her eyes. Had she truly been so upset about the incidence in the garden?


"Legolas, hello?" Thoerinn waved a hand in front of his face, switching into the Common speech for the first time since she had introduced herself to him. "Lle tyava quel? Anta yulna en alu?"

"No, I'm fine," he answered her query and refused the glass of water that she had held up to him. She flashed him that beautiful smile and lapsed back into another steady stream of complimentary Elvish. He had been wrong about her chewing techniques, and found himself disgusted and slightly sickened as he got a live lesson on how food was broken down by the teeth in one's jaw. A queer wistfulness in him regretted that she and Elleura had not reversed roles. He pushed the thought out of his mind only because it wasn't proper.

Legolas was thankful when dinner was over, and even more so when others began to retire to their rooms for the evening's rest. Thoerinn took in her hands his forearm and tugged him towards the door. "Would you care to walk me to my room, Prince Legolas?" she gave him that smile, and pleading eyes that made it difficult for him to even consider a refusal.

"I'm sorry," he began, laying a hand on hers and sliding her pale fingers off. "I've a matter of great importance that must be discussed with Cassius."

"Oh, then I can-"

"Confidentially," he interrupted firmly with a lie before she could persuade him to let her stay. I dark look of understanding and disappointment clouded her face as she nodded and stepped away. Legolas watched her as she walked briskly from the room, though she didn't neglect sending a long, sad-eyed look in his direction before stepping out.

With Thoerinn gone, he noticed for the first time that other elves were talking amongst themselves. He set a target across the room and began to walk forward, and several of those who recognized him nodded at him with approval or sympathy. But it wasn't Cassius he went to. Instead, he took a long drink of water, and sat down again at the table. Thankfully, no one approached him, and he enjoyed a peaceful, much-needed loneliness as the other guests dispersed and spread more evenly throughout the palace.

Only a few stragglers remained by they time he stood again, and he took note of the few attendants remaining to watch over their specified guests. Near a statue of the former Elvin princess, Arwen, Elleura waited with her shoulders squared and chin erect. Legolas approached her with vigilance, and he noticed her flinch when she realized where he was headed.

She met his eyes cautiously, as if testing water to see if it was too hot or cold. Setting her jaw, she decided to say nothing, and waited for him to speak. There was a tense moment and nothing, at first, was said. He admired the way she held her ground, her eyes narrowing at him guardedly. "What?" she finally snapped.

It shocked him, as if she had thrown some pebble at his face. He blinked once, twice, as his consciousness swam back to reality, and then he spoke, "I wanted..." his voice trailed off as he tried to figure out exactly what he wanted to say.

She interrupted for him. "Would you like a drink, prince Legolas, or perhaps you would like me to turn down your sheets and put a flower on your pillow, or for that matter, why not an apple?"

Her anger was evident, and he was nearly speechless. "I wanted to say," he began again, "I'm...sorry," he finished, his mind racing. "We didn't mean to laugh, and we didn't know that you were so recently promoted. I suppose you might have liked some congratulations, or something of that sort."

It was her turn to blink, and he noted some evident flicker of change behind the barrier she kept up. "In that case," her tone had dropped, softer and more apologetic, "I suppose I, too, owe you an apology, for my pathetic burst of anger. On that note, good prince, I bid you goodnight." She curtsied, stepped aside, and began her brick retreat.

"Wait," he called after her, softly, but she made no hesitation. He followed her into the hallway, gaining on her because of his long legs. "Elleura," he caught her attention and she turned.

"Your grace," she fought hard to keep her voice from wavering. "Is there something you need?" There was that look of fear, again, and he found his heart stabbed by the sword of guilt. He caught up to her, but his throat felt as if it had been swabbed by cotton. He hardly recognized his own hand when it rose and floated near her face. She took a long step back. "My lord, if there's nothing you need, I have other duties I must see to."

He wanted to come up with something to persuade her to stay, he wanted to know more about her, but nothing came to his mind. "I'm sorry to bother you, then, Goodnight."

She hurried away without glancing back. He watched her closely without moving a muscle, intrigued by her sudden changes of emotion. Just as he was about to take a step after her, she disappeared. There was no corner, and the dark hallway stretched a long way onward where she had not yet gone. He looked in every direction, but there was no door and no window. "She was right here," he muttered to himself, "And then she was gone."



Behind the locked door of her chambers, Elleura let herself sink to the floor, her breath heavy and ragged. She hadn't had the patience to wait for the Elven prince leave; she hadn't had time to wait for him to turn and walk a way. The urge to scream, "Leave me be!" had risen and her throat and had threatened to escape beyond the gate of her mouth. She was safe, now, safe behind the locked door of her dorm. It was dark, as it should be, and she took solace in the factor. Exhausted with fear, she collapsed on her bed, and let a tear slide out from beneath her eyelid. Sleep soon overtook her. The dream was not a restful one, and the clouded faces of men swirled around her.

She was drowning, drowning in her fear. It was dark in the closet, where was mommy? Why hadn't mommy hid inside with her? There was movement beyond the door, loud thuds and louder shouting. "Where is she? Where is the bastard child?" The voices were overwhelming. She started to cry, but curiosity pulled an eye down to the keyhole. Blood on the floor, men around mommy. What where they doing? Was she screaming in pain? One pushed her down, and then they surrounded her. Mommy was screaming, mommy was crying. Why was she denying them, whimpering for them to stop? The voices smeared together and mommy's sobs choked into one scream. She knew it was bad, but she couldn't control herself any longer. Out of the closet she ran.

Elleura woke with a scream.



Closure note:  I will accept (and enjoy) comments and suggestions, and I'll entertain any questions. I'm glad that so far you have enjoyed this fic, and I hope that the second chapter hasn't turned anyone away. What did you think of it? I've been trying hard to keep Legolas in character, am I too far off? Thanks again...