Here you go, lovely peeps, a new chapter after a long while. I hope you till enjoy this one. There's a return of a "loveable" character and we'll see how they'll play out. In this chapter, we see more of the bond and how it effects Legolas and Isil.

The bond Galadriel made Legolas recall is one where he can tap into Isil's soul without her knowing. Like I said, it's like an umbilical cord that can be retied if one searches for it hard enough. The bond feeds Legolas memories associated to an object he touches. This could be a theme of a subject or actual skin on skin contact. You'll see the various methods Legolas taps in on Isil's hidden emotions. The next chapter will explain what have set off Legolas's last severe reaction to this one sided bond – so patience!

We also see a sheer logic to the illogic(!) of Legolas fathering a child……you'll see once again. But I can say a clue has come into play and whilst it may baffle you and some of you brighter people, wonder how on earth all this comes into play…..it will in the most shocking yet understandable of ways. The end is drawing nearer and I'm inviting you to join me and for your patience to ride it out….thank you!

Don't owe anything to do with Tolkien or LOTR


Warrior Code – Suffering in itself, has its own answers and deliverance.


The birds were tweeting and the early rays of the sun were poking through the canopy of leaves when Legolas came around. He laid in bed for a long while, pondering how he was in bed then assumed that after he blacked out, he was carried to a flet where he was to stay on his visit to Lothlorien. He sat up to see someone dressed him in a loose pair of pants and shirt and he looked round for that someone but he was alone. Gingerly rising to his feet, if expecting some sudden rush of pain he stood upright comfortably then padded around his large flet, letting the renewed day re-vive him.

He should have known no such peace would have lasted long enough for two voices were arguing at the foot of the tree he inhabited and he looked out the window to see two elleths, one he knew was Isil who was shouting at an elleth clad in a red dress with long golden locks, who this was he was stumped.

"Sana! I need to see him!" Isil snapped.

"But he was placed in my care and I'm not allowing it." Sana rebuked her tone just as venomous as Isil's own.

Legolas blanched, so it was Sana who undressed him and put him to bed. Now, come to think of it….the talan was filled with feminine processions, such as necklaces draped over the bed posts, a bathing robe in the palest pink, jars of cosmetics upon a lady like dresser.

As quick as the realisation dawned on him, he threw off his clothes and was half dressed when Isil followed by Sana stumbled into the talan. Whilst Isil had the grace to avert her eyes to something of remote interest whilst he fumbled with his shirt, Sana stared at him like a bird to its prey with no hint of shyness at all.

"What am I doing here?" Legolas asked, once decently dressed.

"The Lady Galadriel asked me to care for you as you were struck down with some illness last night." Sana replied, her haughty voice told Legolas that little have changed with her despite the years.

"She didn't mean take him to your own bed! You had half the healers in a frenzy as they were looking for him! I was called off my duty to sort this mess out!" Isil angrily informed, though by looking at her, no one really needed to ask what she had been doing.

Wearing the garbs of a high ranked Estolian, with muddy boots that's a testament to one journeying far into muddy territory. Matched with wind-swept hair and an irate behaviour, Isil played the role of a soldier well, something Legolas was struggling to come to terms with.

Not listening to Sana's excuses, whatever they were, Isil frowned and turned to Legolas whose head jerked from one face to the other. "Get your things; I'll take you to your true place of rest unless you wish to remain here."

His answer was clear enough as he grabbed his robe, hopped from one foot to the other whilst trying to place his boots on and went down the ladder all in a short space of seconds.

Isil followed him down where at the bottom stood a group of bored looking Estolians, waiting around for their leader to command them back to their duties that were interrupted before. With a curt nod of the head, Isil ordered them away as she took off down another path towards the heart of the city where the trees were denser. Waiting until they were alone, she tuned on her heel, causing Legolas to walk into her at her sudden stop.

"Now I have something of a problem with you. What are you doing seeing my parents and playing messenger boy?" she snapped, her controlled demeanour crumbled in an instant to leave solid anger she been concealing for a good while.

"They are legal charges of my kingdom and I am allowed to see anyone. Don't you forget Isil that although you may be a powerful elleth now, you'll never command me. It'll do you good to remember that." Legolas replied, his voice taunt with frustration at the stupid elleth, the elleth he loved was making it impossible for him.

"You know what? Forget showing me to my quarters, I hate to exert your time." Legolas pushed past her and walked on alone, he had a rough idea where he may be staying and he rather get lost without asking for the help of Isil.

As he walked to the thickest of the trees which grew closer together, their leaves offering a more concealed form of confidentiality from passer-by, Legolas remembered various sights from his last visit which was with the fellowship.

Library to the right with its fountains and peaceful gardens.

Bathing pools to the left down a long track to the river.

Ahead was the gallery which lead onto the great hall…..the gallery!

His mind froze in his mental list; a plan came into action as he walked to the gallery. A long corridor leading from the important habitation wing, where resided elves of high importance including him to the hall where they would sup and dine. This was called the gallery, filled of pictures and objects of curiosities, but it wasn't curiosities that drew him, it was the paintings. The fact that Laurin and Hassel said that the painting of Isil now resided here was an intense pull.

Walking through the quiet courtyard, he opened the wooden door and stepped into the long gallery, where any sound would echo down the long chasm, as if to the centre of the earth itself. The windows gave light to the prince as he began his solo, unauthorised tour, his eyes scanning the walls as he walked by. His lips quirked with humour at a small painting of Gimli and himself upon Arod, clearly painted from the painter's memory as their simple clothes were replaced by richly decorated armour not suited for the labours of war.

He walked on, his eyes widened slightly at faces he recognised, Aragorn…Faramir…..Gandalf……Frodo with the ring round his neck.

He slowed when he came to a painting halfway down the corridor, of his grandfather Orophin.

Next to it was his son, Legolas's father Thranduil.

By his side was his wife, Legolas's deceased mother, Hilona.

A young, celestial beauty which was inherited by their only child Legolas.

There too was a painting of him, painted when his hair was shorter and when he just passed for captain of the guards, as he recalled the day he sat there in his new garbs with pride.

Next to his painting was one of a small girl, someone Legolas knew no name to. But what was next to her was the face he been searching for. Isil, staring back at him with her long golden hair halfway down her back. More chillingly, she was clad in the white dress he remembered from his vision and as a somewhat mocking gesture; the artist painted the knife that was to be used to severe her hair upon a table next to Isil.

For a long time he looked and then his mind clicked. If he remembered well enough, from a talk with Celeborn who was guiding him down this very corridor upon his last visit. The painting of the girl wasn't here. And if he recalled more accurately, paintings were grouped together either by bloodlines, families or where's there's a connection between two or more subjects. Like the clustered group of the fellowship, or the collection of paintings of dwarves.

Something was clicking in Legolas's mind as he turned his eye back to the girl, what was she doing in his family collection?

What was Isil doing?

A sickly lurch echoed in his stomach when the notion that Isil have mothered a child of Thranduilion blood.

His child.

But the more he thought about it, the more he realised he was wrong, he been away for three years before returning home. The girl in the painting looks to be twelve years old, elven children do grow up faster than their mortal counterparts but an elven baby growing up to look twelve in three years?

Impossible.

So this girl wasn't Isil's or his daughter but he knew to ask Isil anyway to be certain.

But what could be the connection? He noticed a small plaque on the frame of the girl and reached out to clear the film of dust from it to read "Amilo."

Who?

As if to answer, his mind swam with the bond as it recalled something Isil been through in his absence.

His ears were greeted by hysterical sobs as his eyes adjusted to bright lights and shadows that danced on the walls. Whoever this was, things were happening about them in a fast and furious pace. A boom of a voice that Legolas's ears picked up made him turn to see his own father pointing at two beings who were wrenched apart by the hands of the palace guards, one of these small beings cried, and screamed "Mother!"

In response came a shrill cry of the small girl's mother, "Amilo!"

But there was another being, one he recognised with her flaming white hair and beauty as she ran and tried to stop this terrible split from happening, she was pushed aside as Legolas watched the guards pull the girl to Thranduil who looked down on her with venom, then looked at the two women who were the source of this terrible chaos.

"I will get you for this Thranduil!" the woman screamed as Legolas turned to see her but she was pulled away, leaving Thranduil with the weeping child and Isil upon the floor where she'd fallen from her fall.

The threat hung in the air and Isil reacted to it, "You exercise your power without limits King, and remember that when you see the wrath of those you scorned turn against you." She spat at him then walked up to Thranduil and took the child by her small hand and exited the hall, leaving the king to stare after the door both women left by, his face was smoothed over by the calmness of fear, only his eyes betrayed his true emotions as the dawn of all things he done passed over him as he rose one shaking hand and cast off his crown as if it burned him.

Legolas was sucked out of this memory as he woozily found himself kneeling on the corridor, the feeling wasn't as intense as it was before, and instead of blackening out, he rose to his feet and leaned against the cool wall by Isil's painting.

"You've found her." Galadriel spoke, her sudden appearance made Legolas jump as he swayed uneasily on his feet, fighting the nauseous traces of the bond hat lingered over him.

"Whoever she is." He spoke uneasily, as he blinked and reached out a hand to steady himself.

"Let's get you outside." Galadriel took his arm and lead him down the corridor and out into the sweet light of day, where the very sun light warmed him. She made him sit down by the fountain in the sunny courtyard as she waved a guard over and told him some quiet instructions to which he obeyed and disappeared before Legolas could blink.

"The bond is something you're going to have to master yet Legolas, you still let it take you by surprise. Try calling out for it next time, the bond works well when you're more receptive." Galadriel smiled down at him as he wearily lay down on his back, letting the cool stone seep through his taunt muscles and the fine spray of the fountain collect on his feverish skin.

Rarely have he ever felt so ill, but right now he felt the worst.

At least the last time he experienced a bond connection, he had the mercy of blackening out. He closed his eyes against the spiralling sun that danced around him and was aware of someone arriving in the courtyard and quietly talking to the lady of light. He felt her wonderful presence slip away to be greeted by an aura he was very much apart of.

"Legolas?" Isil's concerned voice called, he opened his eyes to see in place of Galadriel was Isil with her face of concern as she gently stroked his head, the gentle massage soothing away some of the illness that assailed him. He tried to move but found his limbs wouldn't work.

"Rest now, let me take you somewhere to rest." Isil spoke as she placed a refraining hand on his shoulder to prevent him from trying to get back up. Whatever ever happened next he didn't know but falling ill twice in one day couldn't be good for he awoke to find Isil nursing him as one would attend a dying one.


He opened his eyes to see he was lying in a large comfortable bed, curtains drawn which darkened the room from the dying sunlight outside and a fire was burning in the hearth of the room, casting the room in its orange glow.

He winced from the pain he suffered in his head as he tried to sit up but decided against it for it made his head worst. Staring up at the ceiling, he closed his eyes for a while and let his mind wander, his ears picking up sounds of someone nearby.

He opened his eyes again to see a chair with Isil's armour and weapons piled high, clearly in a state of abandonment. His eyes looked at a book case and from his bed, his eyes managed to read off a list of title, his lips quirked with amusement at the variety of texts Isil have chosen.

"Mirage of Poems, Weapons of Men, Plants and their uses, A Siren's voice – a thousand songs, Dressage of Armies, True Love's Path, Creatures of Forests." Stable diet of knowledge mixed with the eclectic combination of Isil's own personality.

He looked at Isil's bedside table where sat several fat candles with their dried dribbles of wax, testament to previous uses. A few more books sat nearby, all marked with scraps of fabric from where Isil last read and his small smile of humour turned to one similar to somebody who discovered something rather saucy about another. For these books weren't for the timid.

'The Way of the Reed and Rain' was a well known sex guide in the elven world, translated in the many elven languages there are and many with various drawings and erotic stories.

'A Lady's Diary' if he recalled well, caused a scandal in many elven kingdoms for a well known elleth of high rank wrote about her sexual affairs in a rather open manner for all to freely read, he recalled reading some of the explicit chapters before being caught by his father who burned his book.

'The Valar's Voice', another book of sexual aid, this time with more pictures than text, with beautiful drawings of elves in various positions such as Fish Leap, Bouncing Hobbit, The Roaring Dragon, The King's Throne, which left much to be desired.

Ignoring the pain that assailed him, Legolas rolled over on his side and picked up another book, a collection of stories collaborated by the author of various sexual adventures by various races of beings, from dwarves to men. He began reading one of a dwarf when he heard a sound that made him shut the book and placed it back on its pile as quickly as he could.

It came from outside the talan, a disturbance in the air as he looked around him, then a large falcon flew in through the doorway and flew in one swift motion to a perch by the curtained window.

Legolas heard the bells jingle on its foot and saw a small piece of paper attached to the beautiful bird that sat upon his seat and looked at him with a regal eye.

He noticed hanging on the wall behind the bird was a collection of falconry items, such as a leather gauntlet, several lures and a satchel for which it held bait. From the evidence alone, Legolas worked out that this bird was welcomed to Isil's talan.

The bird let out a shrill cry, alerting the occupant of the talan that it had arrived, for Isil appeared a few moments later with a bowl of water in her hand, she looked up from her careful task of nursing to see Legolas was awake and on his side watching the bird with caution.

"You're awake." She smiled a smile that Legolas couldn't tell if it was genuine or polite.

"Just woken." Legolas laid his head back down on the pillow as the pain made its return to his body.

"How do you feel?" Isil asked as she carefully lowered the bowl of water on the bedside table and pushed aside the books, not catching Legolas's guilty glance.

"Bad." Was his simple evasive reply for he didn't know if Isil knew he had formed a secret bond to her with the aide of Galadriel.

"Galadriel told me that you were feeling ill after she shown you her mirror, said that you would feel severe after effects from it. She also told me to look after you." Isil sigh, as she produced a small towel from her pocket in her breeches and placed it by the bowl. Nursing temporarily forgotten, she turned to the falcon and stroked its proud, feathery chest as she detangled the message sent to her from an unknown source.

"Well done Kes." Isil smiled and gave the bird a small piece of meat from the satchel as it's treat, Legolas remembered that this wasn't the first time he met Kes, the falcon have too carried a message to Glorfindel bearing the news Lady Nerwen and Elrond' sons needed their help.

Funny how that day when he returned home for the first time in years felt like forever ago.

Pocketing the message, Isil turned back to Legolas to place a cool hand upon his forehead as she checked his temperature then dampened the towel to place it against his head. She made him drink a foul potion of medicine of the vilest sort and then had the afterthought to tell him it might make him sick or tired.

He felt the latter as his eyes threatened to close and the pain that racketed his body soothed away as he felt his limbs relax and grow heavy and his breathing grew shallower and calmer. He was asleep before he realised he was tired and awoke some time later to Isil sorting out her clothes that were left upon a chair. This time she didn't notice he was awake and it gave him the opportunity to watch her in her natural environment. From the way she brushed her hair out of her face to how she reached up to place her armour on its hook. She turned to the bed and he pressed his eyes closed, feigning sleep for he wasn't in the mood to talk.

He felt the covers being pulled back and her nimble fingers undid his shirt, his mind going crazy as to why she was doing such a thing. Then he felt the cool damp cloth against his skin and realised she was bathing him to keep cool when his mind was on fire but not with illness.

For a few moments her nursing continued but then she halted, he couldn't see what she was doing for his eyes were closed but he felt her fingers explore his body, marking out the silver threads of scars from many battle he been in, his bare torso exposed to her touch as he laid there trying hard to breath normally.

Her fingers brushed over his nipples as she shifted, there was a slight delay where she gain confidence to touch his sleeping face, her fingers touching his cheek then traced his lips. And out of nowhere, her lips brushed his where a sigh came from her, like one who exhaled after holding their sweet breath for so long.

As she went to pull back, Legolas threw aside all pretence and kissed her, bring up his hand to bring her closer but what he got was another memory from the ill-saken bond.

He heard a bloodcurdling scream and realised it was his own as his head flashed with memories of pain and war, all seen from Isil's perspective.

"Legolas!" Isil's voice shouted, the only sound that penetrated his mind enough for him to realised he was clutching his head as he ran blindly somewhere, anywhere enough to put some distance between Isil and her memories that tormented him.

Somewhere wood broke and he could feel the cool air around him and someone grabbing him.

"Legolas! Please!" Isil screamed and Legolas ceased his frantic movements to be free of the bond to realised, he was balancing on the very edge of the wooden walkway surrounding the talan where his body weight broken the handrail, his toes were slipping and he was already a good right angle to the talan, almost hanging in midair.

Isil clutched his shirt, the only thing that would prevent his fall and she strained to bring him back on the platform, her arm jerking him back to solid ground where he collapsed to his knees. He felt her aura move closer to him, as his senses worked in overdrive.

"Don't touch me!" Legolas snapped, fearing another bout of the terrible bond which he still struggled to get over.

He groaned a mournful groan as he fought to calm his breathing which was still hitched in his chest. Those sounds, such awful sounds and the smells of those dark creatures in the dark woods. The slash of pain as he tried to run but no matter how fast he ran, there was no escape.

And to think the elleth he loved been through the terrible ordeal he only momentarily experienced.

The orcs that caused her pain, may they rot in hell.

What was she doing in those woods?

His father knew to chop firewood in the dark trees of Mirkwood was certain death!

He felt tears burn his vision as his clumsy hands tried to warm his chilled flesh, the evil grip of the bond still having its lasting fingers upon his mind as Isil shuffled closer carefully as to approach a scared, witless animal.

"What's happening to you." She asked, her fingers reached out to touch him but again he pleaded her not to touch him.

His mind screamed for Galadriel, to cease the terrible affliction upon him, cursing the valar as he groaned another pain filled groan.

And then, the pain was lifted as a sweet voice pierced the cloudiness of his mind and the haze of Isil's memories, he felt Galadriel smile and heard her words well.

"Seek out not her pain but her love. You'll see what drives her on."

He was left with a sense of calmness and his body slumped against the wooden floor of the talan. Gazing up at the heavens exposed in small patches between gaps in the tree foliage, he could see divine stars and their pure light and he knew she was right.

For what was a mystery was even though Isil been through so much, more than he could comprehend – why did she remain when she could have chosen to fade or to ride away and forget her pains?

Standing wearily to his feet, as if he been sitting there since the dawn of time and watched the rolling life wander past him, he looked at Isil where she could see his tears that still laid upon his cheek, and the pain of whatever passed echoed in his eyes.

"Why are you crying?" Isil asked, not sure of how to react to the sudden calmness that fallen upon Legolas after his rave of madness.

"I cry for you Isil." Legolas spoke, his voice calm and soothing as he closed his eyes and leaned against the wall of her talan, where the moon bathed his skin in its pale glow.

"I've shed my tears Legolas, no tears will be shed for me no more." Isil said, the tone of her voice told him it was a sensitive topic to discuss and instead, he reached out for her and pushed past through her cocoon of pain she wrapped herself up in, to pierce the very core of reason as to who she became after all this.

She was still Isil……the Isil he loved from the first day he set eyes upon, only wiser, more stronger….and yet more scared and troubled for she now had the fate of many upon her shoulders including the elusive Amilo.

And if anyone knew what it was like to have that awful responsibility, it was Legolas for the fate of his kind, Middle Earth and his fellow comrades in the legendary Fellowship have laid and still lie upon his soul to this day.

"Do you regret what we did?" he asked, the silence of the night played its scene about them as they regarded each other with guarded emotions, not eager to be hurt anymore.

"No." was Isil's reply, to which Legolas closed his eyes, even with the one sided bond he had connected to Isil's soul, he knew she was telling the truth.

"I know of your pain." Legolas spoke to which Isil regarded him with a confused stare.

"Open your mind." Legolas said and he reached out and touched her on her hand, the bare contact making the bond flow from his being to Isil as it confronted her all the pain, memories and events she tried to hide.

"No!" she sobbed as she fought against him, and Legolas swiftly channelled his thoughts to memories of more pleasanter times, the moments where only him and Isil existed where they laid in each others arms and spoke of the future. The way those memories fuelled him onwards in the hope to see she once more, to touch and love her.

Isil sank to her knees, a reversal of the routine Legolas have just been through, tears fell as surely as the rain as she knew he knew of all her pains. He didn't know why but he knew how and he knew what.

He knew what kept her going……and it was him.

"You can't deny it no more." Legolas softly spoke as he picked her up as if one held a child and carried her to her bed. He laid her upon the soft covers he slept in earlier and covered her in blankets that still held his scent.

"Legolas….." she spoke but he shushed her, he knew she was going to tell him that he didn't understand the whole situation that was under silence by his father but he knew she realised he was going to find out.

The answer was close and he couldn't ignore it now even if he chose to, and it was there Isil gave him a great clue that he would come to realise in mere days to come. Then hell will have no fury compared to Legolas scorned.

She reached round her neck and undid the clasp of the necklace he placed in her safekeeping that she worn despite dark times and loneliness, she wore this necklace of his mother in life, death and rebirth and the small emerald leaf of Mirkwood held it's answers.

Legolas's own blood held answers he was close to finding but Legolas wished to rest for one night and sleep a night of bliss denied to him since his long, toilsome journeys of the war he struggled through.

Where the absence of love and its tender touch was stained by the putrid smell of blood, and the horror of war and corruption that came so close to the end of all.

H lay next to Isil, close as an apple to its skin and he watched her watching him, then how her eyes glazed over in sleep. He watched the way the moon traced its path over Isil's fair face and the rise and fall of her breasts as she dreamed. The quiet before the storm, he mused as he placed an arm around Isil's waist and let sleep claim him.

For once in a long time, Legolas was at peace.