Author's Note: Hey, once again, I'm terribly sorry for the long wait. And by the way Bitty, I was going to write the 15 page explanation, I really was, but then I thought that you and everyone else would probably rather I wrote another chapter. I'm really sorry I'm such a slow updater, and I really hate not being able to write as much as I would like to, but I have a lot of homework (most of it actually for P.E., I'm not kidding either! Crazy isn't it?), I gotta practice my clarinet, and piano. I'm not lying, but I promise to make it up to you, I'll really, really try to write more often, somehow, I'll figure it out, I promise. For the mean time, I posted another little story type thing; I had to do it for a homework assignment. I did it wrong, but I thought it was pretty good, so I posted it to see if you guys like it. It's really short and there will be no additional chapters to it, so please just read it and tell me what you think. I might make it into a longer story though, and probably tie it in with LotR too to make it more interesting. Wow, this note's long, well, on with the story then.

It was the morning of the last day before Legolas had to choose a maid to marry. It was the morning Legolas had been dreading for the whole week. He reluctantly got out of bed, out on whatever he found in his closet, and opened the door to his room. The castle seemed really quiet so he walked down the stairs to find Alinne. He made his way to the kitchen where she usually met him in the morning, but she wasn't there today. Usually if she went to the village before he got up, he would find breakfast made for him. He in a way hated that because it seemed like he was being like a prince and not like a friend and he didn't want Alinne to not feel comfortable around him.

Today she left no breakfast and in fact it seemed like she was in the middle of cooking when she left. The logs in the cooking chimney were wet as if she had almost carelessly thrown water on them to stop the fire right away. On the other side of the kitchen a pot had been dropped on the ground. Legolas picked it up and examined it. It was nothing out of the ordinary, it was the pot she had used many times to cook, her favorite pot in fact. It made Legolas concerned, because Alinne never left a mess after herself and this and the wet logs meant she left in a real hurry.

Legolas was pacing around the kitchen now. His worries overcame his thoughts and he couldn't concentrate on anything else. (Just to remind you, #s mean thoughts)

#What could be wrong? Why on earth would she leave so quickly? Ohh.Why did she not tell me if it was something important!? I am the prince after all! Whether I like it or not, that is my title and I wish that she would have told me. Oh wow, I am actually talking about my title when just yesterday I was considering passing it over to the next person I see.#

At that moment the huge doors of the castle were quickly but quietly opened and Alinne ran in. The kitchen was quite a way from the doors so Legolas didn't hear anything but was still pacing around the room and worrying.

Alinne was running as fast and as hard as she could. In the morning just as she was cooking breakfast Noitamni, one of Nithem's advisors from the village ran in and told her that she had to go talk to Nithem immediately.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*FLASHBACK*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Alinne had gotten up early in the morning. She was in the kitchen and was preparing to make breakfast. Thoughts of the choice Legolas would have to make tomorrow filled her mind.

#I wonder whom he will choose. I could help him choose a good one I suppose, but how could I sit there and pretend like I do not wish he would choose me? Well, of course I know it is against King Thranduil's wishes for him to marry me since I am the one to stay with him here this week, but I cannot ever forget.that kiss. Perhaps it did mean something, and if I had not been an idiot and ran away, we could be together even now.

But I had to.I had to run, I could not.. It was just happening too fast.. It was just too many memories, too many..memories.#

Tears were starting to come onto her face and she decided that she needed to get her mind off of that and she began thinking about what will happen when she has to go back to her work. Everyone in Mirkwood was supposed to work in some way, and she was a scout, or what they were called more often, a spy. Alinne hated the term "spy", she preferred to be called a scout, but it didn't matter that much so she tried not to make a nig deal about it.

She had left her post to stay here with Prince Legolas, but when she would come back she would have to start again. Her task was mainly to go out of the village borders and away from the magic protected gates to see if she can find anyone or anything that would give her a clue to what is happening in Middle Earth. This task was the most important, but the most dangerous. Alinne, along with 5 other brave elves (all female by the way) were the only ones who wanted the job.

The men were brave too, but they preferred the military jobs. There were many soldiers being trained every day at the "Training Grounds". Another reason no one wanted the scout job was because it was terribly dangerous, there were more than 20 scouts to begin with but the dangers of the outside consumed 12 of them, and some others chose to change to other jobs. Alinne was the best scout out of all. Everyone knew that, but no one knew why. Yes, she was very quiet, but it was something else that was helping her. Not one but Alinne, Nithem, and Legolas knew what. Alinne had told Nithem about her wizard powers from her grandfather, to get the job as a scout. She told Legolas after they came to Mirkwood Gates.

Alinne hadn't told anyone, but she had been practicing those wizardry powers for a while. Many times at night, she would not sleep, but go out into the yard and practice. She had gotten pretty good at them too, she was able to do things she didn't know she would ever be able to do. By now, she was able to move things with her mind. She could not move very heavy things, but it was a power Alinne never knew she would be able to use. She was practicing it now in fact.

Alinne was standing by the chimney having just lighted the fire. She stood up and looked for her favorite pot. She found it on top of the counter on the other side of the kitchen. The kitchen was very large so Alinne decided to try her powers. She straitened out her back and concentrated on the pot. Her arm moved up, and her hand majestically pointed to the pot as it started to float off the tabletop. With a slow and careful move of her hand, the pot moved even higher and began to slowly float over to her. At that moment however, Noitamni ran in and yelled,

"Alinne."

He sounded concerned about something and Alinne having been caught off guard let her arm fall and she turned around to see Noitamni. The pot fell onto the floor with a very loud 'Clang!!!'. Noitamni looked very confused by the pot, but he had other news.

"I trust you will explain what just happened later," he said.

Alinne nodded with a bit of fear of revealing her secret.

Noitamni had not time to be talking to her so he quickly told her what he was sent here to tell,

"Alinne, Nithem told me to get you. Something has happened and it is very important. She said you must go to her as quickly as you possibly can."

Alinne could tell Noitamni ran all the way to the castle because he was out of breath so she quickly grabbed a pot of water, poured it over the hot logs and ran after him. She was scared and confused at the same time but she kept running.

Author's Note: Hey, this one's kind of long isn't it? Hope that kind of begins to make up for me taking so long to update, but don't worry, I'll try not to take so long next time. I wanted to say that I appreciate your great reviews so much. Thank you for the encouragement, it keeps me going. Also, ievandie, I was actually trying to make it so that the people figured out the whole rape thing on their own, but then I just decided to tell it to make sure everyone would know what happened. I'm glad that you figured it out, but I'm happy that others didn't, because later when I decided to just tell it, I wanted to build it up to surprise. I hope I accomplished that for some people at least. Once again, thank you for all the great reviews and I'll try to update as soon as I can.