Bright, eager eyes awaited me when I entered my chambers. "I think not!" I declared, and sent them away.

A few hours later, when the sun had begun to set as it was meant to before they arrived, they returned, cautiously entering, worry in their eyes that they would be punished for their eagerness by having the story put off for another night.

When I smiled they visibly relaxed, all three of them stretching out on my bed, elbow to elbow, each pair of hands propping up one of the three heads. Silvery light covered one and a half heads, the coppery warmth of the fire the remaining head and a half.

"Well you know of the great wars I know, for I have heard Gandalf and Legolas tell you…"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Gollum entered the control of Mirkwood, since Aragorn and Gandalf had captured him, and together they had decided Mirkwood would be a good place in which to imprison the creature. They both specifically requested Salan look after him in part, but she was so disturbed by the hollow hunger and longing she could see combined with the much more pitiful aspects of him that not even Legolas's request could get her to comply. The King of course did not force her, for she had worn the same look as she had when Legolas was fading after her initial meeting with the creature.

Still, she offered advice on his care, but her wariness wore off on Legolas, ultimately saving his life, for the guards who had let Gollum climb a tree were slain as he escaped. Knowing only that Gandalf's request in the matter meant it to be important, and having felt the evil within Gollum, residual evil that clung to him like the smell of rotten fish, Legolas felt it his duty to inform the wizard of his escape, a duty Thranduil did not deny.

Salan met him in his room before he was ready to leave for Imladris, bringing with her several wafers of way bread for his journey, more for habit than thinking he would need it, for she knew some had already been packed. He smiled faintly, for the loss of the guards along with the creature they had sworn to watch over rested heavily upon him. She sighed and touched his cheek, making him look at her.

"You were lucky. You could not have known it was to happen. It was merely my distrust of the creature turning you from that path, not anything you saw but failed to see which could have saved them."

"How can you be so sure about that?" he asked, thinking again of the large, hollow eyes.

She smiled faintly. "Because once I refused your request you began avoiding him. Not only when he was allowed out into the forest."

After a moment he nodded, accepting the truth of what she said even if he still felt the sorrow for the death of those he had known. "Thank you, little one," he murmured, kissing her forehead before moving to strap his quiver and knives to his back. He froze when she paused him, attaching something to his belt at the small of his back.

She smiled softly when he turned to look at her in question. "A throwing dagger," she explained. "You may not find it worth carrying, but please do."

He frowned, touching her cheek. "Why are you so worried for a message being delivered?"

"Something stirs, evil draws closer even now." She looked to the side, as if she could see through the stone to the world beyond Mirkwood. "Things do not always go according to plan." Running a finger over the silver leaf pattern on his bow, she caught him with her eyes. "Anything, when in the right hands, can be a single star in a sea of darkness." Her finger paused on the small blot of silver in the middle of a leaf. "You must greet Estel for me."

"Assuming he has traveled to Imladris."

Her eyes were filled, in that moment, with all the wisdom of all the elves. She could have been compared for that single instant to Elrond, and he would not have known who to call wiser. But she said nothing, merely touched his cheek in a farewell, and left the room.

He did not see her again before he left, for she was kept quite busy, and Lemarha clung to him, asking him to tell him all about Imladris when he returned. In annoyance he mounted his horse before she could detain him longer, setting out briskly, ignoring the look on her face when he failed to kiss her goodbye.

They rode quickly, arriving not long after several others.

"Legolas!" a voice called.

He turned and was welcomed enthusiastically by Aragorn. He started to open his mouth, when the man interrupted.

"How is Salan?"

"She bid me send you her greetings."

Aragorn shook his head, his eyes clouding. "That elf has never ceased to amaze me."

Legolas studied the aging face and eyes. "Then something has happened, which threatens all of Middle-Earth."

Aragorn nodded briefly, but they were cut off by a joyful, laughing reunion. Aragorn chuckled. "Hobbits," he murmured in explanation. "Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippen, and the eldest is Bilbo."

Legolas's brow rose. "Bilbo Baggins, perchance?" he asked softly.

Aragorn looked at him in surprise, but nodded. "One and the same."

Legolas chuckled softly. "Then I must meet the hobbit."

Aragorn lifted a brow but led him over, the hobbits looking up in surprise, a grin coming to their small faces for Aragorn. "Hello Strider," Sam said.

"Good day, Samwise," Aragorn returned.

Bilbo looked at Legolas in confusion when Legolas crouched down so he could look at the hobbit eye-to-eye. Legolas smiled slightly. "Salan will be delighted to hear you not only live, but do so in Imladris."

Bilbo blinked in surprise, frowning at once.

Legolas chuckled softly. "I am a great friend of hers, one she has long since had a hard time hiding anything from. She and I alone know, though."

Bilbo let out a sigh of relief. "That is good to know. I would hate to have gotten her in trouble."

"She manages quite well on her own," Legolas agreed.

Aragorn was chuckling softly by then. "Another one who has met Salan, and found it impossible to forget her, I see." He frowned at Legolas. "I must say, I do not understand why you let that lady cling to you when you have such a she-elf as a friend."

"Father wishes me to marry, has since I was a thousand years old. Allowing her to cling keeps me free of such ensnarement."

Aragorn's eyes clouded, thinking of Arwen. "Do you not hurt her, Legolas?" he asked, having switched his tongue back to elvish before speaking to Legolas about Salan.

"She wishes to be a princess." There was no true love between them, despite the long years he had spent dancing with her.

Not long after that they were called to the council. One of the dwarf names sounded familiar to Legolas, and a moment later he had it placed as one of those Salan had told him was traveling with Bilbo. Or the other way around. Still, a dwarf was a dwarf, and the slight glare the short, clunky beings sent him was enough for Legolas to withdraw into the aloof shell so many mortals have accused elves of having.

Still, he burst free to come to Aragorn's defense, the man quietly asking him to sit down, and so release the matter. After a while he did, but he had no love for the man, that Boromir of Gondor who looked at Aragorn, his rightful king, as if he had crawled out from under a slime covered rock.

When it was decided a group would go to Mordor, he recalled Salan's words as she touched his bow, and was offering it before he rightly knew what he was doing. He never regretted it though, despite the many trials he faced after that.

As the only elf, it would have been more trying except for having already known Aragorn and Gandalf, and his connection, however indirect to Bilbo, which quickly had endeared him to the hobbits. The remaining two members of the fellowship he could have just as gladly gone without.

All through Moria he thought of the stars, of stories his nana had told him, of the way Salan's eyes had widened when she saw the spider behind him. That one didn't help much, keeping him hyper alert, even for an elf. How he hated caves! So dark, foul, and in this case, orc infested. Grimness settled into him as he missed the light, but he continued on.

The only time he wavered was when the realization of Gandalf's death sunk in as they stood outside of Moria. He had tried, over and over again through the years, to grasp death, but it is not in the nature of elves to know death with the simple acceptance mortals attribute to the passing of their family and friends.

In Lothlorien, his temper from his early youth got the better of him for a moment, but Aragorn's voice reminded him not only of his age, but the elf who had helped snap him away from being a true spoiled brat, and he suffered himself to be blindfolded alongside the dwarf until word came that they could be unbound.

The beauty around him made him wish Harlyn and Salan were beside him, for he could never find adequate words to describe it to them. He could speak for years and still come up short. Speaking of short, the dwarf was having a hard time keeping his jaw off the ground, especially when they came into the presence of the Lady of the Golden Woods.

When her eyes searched his, he was reminded of Salan, of the intense gaze she turned on all those she came into contact with. The difference was Galadriel used it as a true connection, searching his mind, and then speaking to him, her voice a soft whisper overriding all his thoughts. Why do you search for that you have always had? The richest joy is found in the truest love, which is often so much a part of oneself it may go unnoticed.

A life mate I have found not, he replied in his mind.

You have the eyes of our people, Legolas of Thranduil, but you have failed to see what has always been before you. Her eyes turned away from his before he would have withdrawn, for Salan had built his ability to withstand such a probing glance, leaving him to wonder about not only Galadriel's words, but the quest now that Gandalf was gone.

Missing Salan and her way of knowing and sharing how to deal with she-elves and their words, he looked to Aragorn, but the man was drawn into his thoughts. The hobbits were still mostly silent for their loss, leaving Gimli or Boromir to comfort him by the mere presence of someone else.

Seeing a hint of the hunger in Boromir's eyes he had in Gollum's, the choice was not a hard one, and before long the dwarf was looking up to him all the time.

~*~ Soft laughter interrupted the story for a while, for the dwarf looked up to all elves once they were about seven years old, literally speaking, at least. ~*~

As they left Lothlorien with their gifts, Legolas noted the way bread with a faint smile, thinking about Salan's old habit of putting some in his quiver. So thinking, he laid his new quiver into the bottom of the boat, frowning to see a leaf there. Withdrawing it, his head snapped to the Lady who stood upon the shore, lifting her hand in a farewell. A faint smile was upon her face, shining in her eyes along with the wisdom none who saw her could deny she possessed. Her thoughts are with you as well, young prince.

He smiled slightly and went back to speaking with Gimli.

Worry grew in his mind as the quest continued, not because Boromir died, no, that loss was covered amply by the return of Mithrandir as a white wizard, but because something felt wrong…. Missing. Like something he had always had was slipping away. You might liken him to a man beginning to go deaf or blind. He knows something is not as it was, but he has not lost enough of it for him to be sure just what it was he was missing.

Still, it troubled the prince greatly, though the times they were in allowed him to shove such thoughts from his mind most of the time.

Not all of the time, though, and he felt some of his maturity seep away once in a while, even as Aragorn grew ready to become king. Thinking he had merely been around mortals for too long, he welcomed Elrohir and Elladan when they came with the rangers, but he continued to feel off balance, though he regained enough to keep up at least the appearance of stability that was expected of all elves.

Though he had spoken to Gimli about bringing some of his people to Fangorn, he dared not do such a thing without knowing why he felt so odd. Perhaps, he decided as he began riding north after Aragorn was king and Arwen had been made his queen, perhaps he just needed to be home for a while. After all, it was the longest time he had ever been away.

His original idea, when he had first felt this feeling, was that it was merely the call of the ring, but the ring had been destroyed, taking Gollum and poor Frodo's finger and joyful hobbit spirit with it.

Now his heart ached, in part because Galadriel had been right about the sea, and he now wished to cross, but mostly for whatever he was missing so terribly. Aragorn had started to ask him to stay longer, but something in his eyes had paused the man for a moment. Aragorn instead sent him on his way the next morning with a fine horse, telling him to make haste.

So he traveled home, wanting to see his father, mother, brother, sister, niece and Salan, wanting to know they were all right, because if they were, he thought he would be well once more. Even as the paths of Mirkwood seemed almost to welcome him, his thoughts were of the elves he had left behind, and every step his horse took seemed intolerably slow, for every terrible thing that might had happened hounded his mind, clouding his thoughts even though he knew it was irrational.

What if there had been a spider on one of Alina and Salan's walks in the forest? Salan had fought a spider before, but Alina had nearly been killed by one, and would be too scared to be of any more help than he had been.

Or orcs. Because of the destruction of the darkness, they would have been moving without direction, without leadership and with the sole purpose to kill and destroy. How could a few elves stand against such unwarned?

At the back of his mind Legolas knew such concerns were late in coming, for anything going to happen because of the destruction of the ring had already happened. That knowledge did not still his heart from racing, nor his tongue from calling to his horse, urging more speed on their way.

He was welcomed at once, and many elves rode with him to the palace, assuring him his family was alright. He closed his eyes in relief at the words, but soon opened them again, needing to see for himself that those he loved were safe. He was taken immediately to the throne room, and for once he heard the servants whisper obviously about him without annoyance.

He didn't see what they did, or he would have been surprised. Legolas had faced the greatest evil the world had seen, but instead of being marred by the darkness, he shown ever brighter, his light sweeping forth from him in almost tangible waves, a flame in his eyes as he moved to see that his family was all right that none around him could bear to be pierced by. Legolas had returned as a warrior, but not a warrior prince. He was now truly a king in his own right, and there were even those who believed he surpassed Thranduil as he stalked into the hall.

Certainly the sight of him startled several even there, those who had seen the promise of great leadership within him, for it had been released, his eyes raking over them in rapid succession, pausing only when his gaze fell upon his sister. Then his eyes softened slightly, seeing she was well. His gaze passed then to his mother, his father, his empty chair, and his brother, beside whom sat his brother's wife and his niece, who was already racing forward, a broad smile upon her face as she reached up, touching his cheek.

He returned the touch with a smile, then gazed quickly around the room once more. Not seeing Salan, he looked back at his family, greeting them all warmly, seeing nothing wrong in their eyes, though the way they looked at him he knew he must have changed.

"Did you miss me?" a voice asked behind him.

He blinked in surprise when he turned, seeing Lemarha. She threw her arms around his neck, kissing him, but he was stiff, frowning slightly when she withdrew, surprise on her face at his complete lack of response.

"Legolas?" she asked.

He frowned at her, slowly shaking his head. He was only partly aware of the people around them, just enough so he drew her out into the hall. "It won't work, Lemarha."

"What won't?" she asked in a small voice.

"Us. You want nothing more from me than my title, and I want nothing from you."

She bit her lip and was about to offer a protest about loving him, but as she looked up into the stony face of the warrior before her, the brilliant flame of his eyes, she found a complete and total stranger, one who intimidated her, though he did not intend to. It was not long at all before she turned and fled, her dressy cape waving behind her.

A muscle twitched in Legolas's jaw as she ran away, feeling no regret but for not having done it sooner. To pretend had been wrong on both parts, and he was done with walking the line. He had changed. When he returned to the throne room, several eyes were scattered away, and finally all except family was dismissed, letting Legolas enjoy his family as he had wished for so many days and nights.

Soon, though, he grew slightly restless as Salan never entered. Thranduil looked at his son, saw the power released at last from the hold childhood had kept upon it, and took pity upon him. "Go prepare for dinner, Legolas."

Legolas smiled faintly and bowed his head, striding quickly down the halls, not bothering to stop at his room to be sure his weapons had been lain there. He knocked on the door he had made for, listening for the sounds of life within.

"Enter."

He smiled, closing his eyes at the pleasure of falling back into routine so easily, opening the door. He stopped after automatically closing the door, paused by the sight before him. Salan's hair, which had been nearly to the floor when he left, was now just to her waist, and she was brushing it with measured strokes, her eyes not focused on her task.

She looked up, a slight smile on her lips as she rose to greet him, laying her hand against his cheek. He closed his eyes once more, tilting his head into the touch. He opened his eyes and looked at her, saw her taking him in, gauging the changes in him much as his family had, but her eyes were not surprised as she did so. Her smile grew as they regarded each other in complete silence. The warning bell was sounded for dinner, giving him just enough time to change before the meal, so he slowly backed up, soaking up her smile and the welcome home he found in her eyes.

With lighter steps than he had managed in a while he returned to his room, changing quickly for the meal, releasing his hair from the braids he had kept it in for ease. He frowned slightly as elves seemed startled by the sight of him, for by now everyone knew he had returned, hadn't they?

Salan was already in the dining hall, along with all of his family except for Nalinalla. She frowned at the empty place where Lemarha had sat, then glanced at him, reading in his eyes that he had dismissed her. A frown touched her brow for an instant, but she said nothing, turning her attention to the dancers as the celebration began.

Legolas found himself watching her, for he felt he had not seen her before. When had she ceased to be the annoying little tag along who had kept her hair in braids? Long ago, he knew, but he had never truly seen the change, though he had been aware of it. Her hair shown coppery in the firelight, her eyes glowing even as they remained fathomless, the stars shimmering within them, reminding him of Galadriel, just as Galadriel had reminded him of her, he suddenly recalled.

The memory brought with it Galadriel's words.

Legolas sat back in his seat, trying to move his eyes from Salan, but finding he was always drawn back to her, usually realizing he had been staring before he realized he had let his eyes travel back to her once more. He had not thought of Lemarha once after Aragorn had brought her up. Salan he had thought about more often than some of his immediate family members. He had thought it utterly natural, because it was for him.

She had always been right in front of him, but he had never seen her. Not as she truly was. He had seen a friend, a seamstress, someone who could be counted on to give advice, to get him out of tight spots and provide a bright spot, a ray of light in an otherwise gray day. He had failed to see she was the bright spot, the single star in his night that shown above all others.

When she had nearly been taken to the grey havens, the world had ceased to make sense for those moments before it was resolved. How could they take her away? They couldn't, not without doing serious harm to him.

Legolas frowned at the wine goblet before him as the music continued, not knowing anything except the that the revelation and confusion vied within him for attention.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"NOOOOOOOO!!!!!"

"NANAAA!"

"Please continue," the eldest requested, hitting her siblings on the back of their heads even as she tried to sound like an adult. "Please?"

"Tomorrow shall be soon enough," I decided, enjoying their looks almost as much as I did telling the story. I needed time to consider how to word the next section, after all. "Now go on to bed, children."

They took that as reasonable remonstration and slowly slunk out of the room, though two of them had their arms folded crossly over their chests.

"That was cruel, nana," a familiar voice murmured. "How will they sleep tonight?" their mother asked, coming into the room from behind me.

"The same way you did when you were listening to my stories."

She laughed brightly, her hair glinting in the copper light of the struggling fire. "By forcing myself to remember night comes more quickly again if you sleep through the current one? You are cruel, nana," she repeated, bending to kiss first one, then the other cheek. "From their father," she explained. "With the wish your dreams wind to pleasant memories."

"They always do. I have too few unpleasant ones for it to be otherwise."

She laughed again, leaving the room as the fire gave up its fight, succumbing to let the silver light of the stars pour through the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, maybe that'll hold all of you for a while… ;} I actually survived the week, and got a fairly long chapter written! Now I just have to get it uploaded… I have the hardest time getting the site to take my commands without saying please try again in a few minutes… or cannot display page. That's the annoying one.

I don't think there will be a whole lot more—probably no more than three chapters… we're getting to the home stretch. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not… Anyway, hope you all enjoyed it and understand why I didn't want to rewrite the entire quest. It's not like you don't know what happens. ; } And if anyone really, really hates the movie, I'm sorry! But I've read the book once and seen the movie way too often.

Eventually you will know who the children's parents are, I promise.

To one and all: There's the great revelation for you… sort of, since he's still flaming confused! Tune in next time…