Chapter 1:

Mist swirled around their boat, so thick you could slice it with a sword. Lassalanta looked out, sighing. "I wish my beloved had come…" she whispered in the Common Tongue. She loved the language, its difficulty, for it was always something new, something different! Something different than Elvish. True, her native tongue was beautiful, graceful, and powerful; but she was tired of it, and loved to experience the strange difference of the Common Tongue.

A sigh escaped her once more, one that attracted one of the Halflings that came with her and her companions on this journey to the wonderful Gray Havens. "What is the matter, m'lady?"

"Hmmmm…?" she turned to face him. It was Frodo Baggins, that famous Hobbit who saved Middle-Earth and killed Sauron and all that. His talking to her did not flatter her; more like, she was disgusted. She never liked him very much, for he was always boastful, and was hardly ever modest.

"What is wrong?" He smiled at her, but she ignored it.

"Nothing." She wasn't about to spill her secrets, especially not with someone like him.

He winked at her. "Come now, you can tell me…" and he seemed to put emphasis on the last word. Not at all egotistical, more like…confident.

She rolled her eyes. (Now, I must to take time out to comment: Tolkien made seem that Elves were so much wiser, and purer, than Men and Dwarves and Hobbits and such. But that was because he was a Man, and was always awed by what was to him our power and grace. Truthfully, we aren't all that well mannered, and Lassalanta here is even more so disrespectful. She likes to treat all races equal. Sorry about that: back to the story!) She sighed, as if to say, Get away from me, I need to be alone, but she remained silent. Frodo did not take the hint.

"Well?"

"Nothing. I need to be alone."

Now the Hobbit nodded knowingly, and winked once more, before leaving her. She shot a glare in his direction, and then went back to her depression.

Why had her beloved refused? He loved her, so that was not the question. He felt as though the world still needed him, and she agreed. But now I need you too! She thought now, although she knew he was more useful back at Middle-Earth. Also, there was the slight manner of her curse…

She thought back to when she first met him...

She was being a messenger from Lothlorien, needing to tell the King of the Mirkwood Realm something important. Lady Galadriel herself sent her.

She met both the King, and his son. But after she delivered the message, the son, by the name of Legolas Greenleaf, showed her around the place. It was lovely, although not as so as Lorien, but she did not tell him that. She was invited to stay in Mirkwood for some weeks, to which she happily obliged.

After about a month or so, she returned to her home in Lothlorien. But she soon found she could not stay away from the Woodland Realm, especially not a certain Elf. He had, she admitted, stolen her heart behind her back. Her thoughts returned endlessly to him, until she found she could no longer stand it. She left Lorien to visit Mirkwood for a long time, prepared not to even return to Lorien ever again. She rode back on her mare, StarMyst, whose haste and speed were especially what Lassalanta desired.

On the way, she met a strange old man. He begged some food, and she gave it to him. He then asked her where she was going, and she told him, speaking passionately about Legolas. The old man smiled, but it was not a happy smile. Lassalanta did not notice its cold malice, too much lost in thoughts of Mirkwood.

She left him to wander, and continued on. When she arrived finally in the Woodland Realm, the first Elf to greet her was none other than Legolas Greenleaf. She managed to stay calm when she saw him, enough to return StarMyst to the stables.

King Thranduil welcomed her happily, and was more than obliged to have her stay for quite some time. Legolas had been watching her smilingly the entire time. When she approached him afterward, he stood there, silent but smiling.

"What is it?" she'd asked.

His smile grew broader. "I missed you," he said, and took her into his arms lovingly.

Then, one night, the spiders attacked.

It was so unexpected! She was enjoying dinner with Legolas and the other Elves. Suddenly, however, an Elf stumbled into the great hall, gasping for breath and grievously wounded. "Spiders," he whispered, and collapsed in unconsciousness.

The reaction was immediate. Nearly every Elf leaped up, seizing various weapons, and went out to meet the attack. Legolas was among them. Lassalanta had watched him go, praying that he wouldn't get hurt.

Then, she heard a voice in her mind. She didn't find this at all strange at the time: she sometimes claimed she had multiple personalities. 'Fine way to treat a guest,' the nasty little voice said. 'Wonderful, wouldn't you agree, that their spiders happened to attack when you are here?'

She took it angrily, glaring at King Thranduil.  "Am I not protected by the law of Lady Galadriel, and Lothlorien? Is this how you treat a guest? Releasing your pet spiders? If this be it, then never mind! I shall return home," she had said heatedly.

The King begged her to stay, tried to tell her that it was nothing but an accident. "At least stay until tomorrow morning!" he'd cried. But the voice had persuaded her to believe nothing he said. 'Would you stay, with their hospitality being what it is?'

"Why should I?" she demanded. "I've been here long enough!"

Thranduil sighed, looking forlorn. "You may leave then, and please send my regards to the Lady Galadriel and Lord Celeborn."  She was about to, and with haste, but then Legolas burst in with some news.

"We have defeated the spiders, and captured the ones responsible!" he had exclaimed. Lassalanta was still unconvinced and furious, and thus ignored it. "Forget them!" she had yelled, "Your welcome has lessened of late. I am leaving this place, never to return!"

Legolas had looked surprised, but she swept past him haughtily. She mounted her steed, StarMyst, and was about to gallop off when the voice of Legolas halted her. "Why must you go?" he had cried.

She stared at him for a moment, her anger subsiding for a moment. But then the image of the wounded Elf, the hissing of spiders that she could hear, even in the hall, and the nasty persuasion of her inner voice returned to her. "Because I am needed in my realm of Lothlorien," she lied.

"Stay," he had pleaded, but she ignored him.

"I had liked it here...but it seems it is dangerous and disturbing! Lothlorien is so much peaceful...and my Lady Galadriel wishes I make haste." Oh, how it had hurt her to lie to him!

"Lassalanta..." His voice was soft, beautiful to her ears, and she halted, about to turn back. She gazed at him, with his arms outstretched in silent plea. How she would have liked to leap down from her steed and rush to his arms, locked in his embrace forever, with nothing to worry about…

But she recollected her wits, and galloped off before he could finish. StarMyst ran at a speed she never knew before. Yet when Lassalanta looked back, she couldn't see Legolas. He'd disappeared for her vision—for the last time. She would never see him again.

Caught up in her daydream, she did not notice a whispered conversation around her. Then the words "One Ring" shook her out of her somewhat tainted memories, and so she listened.

Her Lady, Galadriel, was speaking. Her voice, lovely like the sun shining, had an edge to it that made the sun half-hidden by dark clouds. "He is, has always been, corrupted..."

A muffled voice answered. Lassalanta had to lean in close to hear. "It is not in our position to dispose of him..."

Someone else answered, heatedly. "It is not our choice to make! Sauron is gone, the One Ring never to return, but evil lives in Frodo. No one else knows; thus, who else is to take action?"

Lady Galadriel replied calmly. "The only way to rid him of such evil is to kill him."

There was silence from the three of them. Finally, the second, quieter voice said almost hesitantly, "I think very highly of him..."

The third, angrier voice countered. "Now, Gandalf! You cannot be blinded by your own opinion, which is based on lies and tricks. He is corrupted; he is quite capable of deceiving even you."

Neither Gandalf nor Galadriel spoke after that. At length, the latter said softly, "I looked into the Mirror before leaving..."

There was shuffling as Gandalf and the other turned to stare at her. She went on, her voice never wavering, never changing its gentle tone: "And I know we have all foreseen this. The question is not whether; it is how."

There was yet another moment in which all three said nothing. Lassalanta wondered what they were talking about, but she had formed her own idea in her mind. Little phrases jumped out at her: Frodo...corrupted...kill him...

She now heard movement, as the three began to break up their discussion. One walked past her briskly, and she saw it was Lord Elrond of Rivendell; the third voice.

She bit her lip as she thought about what she just heard. They're going to kill Frodo! She realized. I knew it...I should've known there was some reason behind that feeling I get...I never liked him.

She reached a decision quickly and made her way through the dense fog to where her Lady still stood, immersed in deep thoughts.

"Lady Galadriel?" Lassalanta spoke after a pause.

The Lady looked at her with a soft smile, that both calmed her nervousness and gave her confidence. "Yes?" her voice was like a song, beautiful to the Elf-maiden's ears.

"Were you talking about killing Frodo Baggins?" Lassalanta blurted.

Galadriel sighed, and Lassalanta saw for a brief instant her true age. Gray marked her pure golden hair; her face was old and wrinkled. Then the moment passed and she was the Lady of the Golden Wood again...only not in the Golden Wood. She was on a misty boat going across the Sea.

"We were...we being The Three: Mithrandir, Lord Elrond Half-elven, and I. For Frodo is corrupted...the Ring has ruined him to be like Gollum, lust-filled for something that no longer exists, which makes him all the more dangerous. He is treacherous; he has fooled everyone save us three."

"He never fooled me...not one bit!" Lassalanta declared, and her Lady smiled.

"Yes, he did, Lady Lassalanta...yes, he did."