Disclaimer: I do not own any of The Lord of the Ring's characters.
The Wounds of the Past
by: firewingz
Chapter 4: Imladris
Legolas couldn't get his mother's death face out of his head. He ran out of the Mirkwood forest just as the sun touched the horizon. The woodland elf blinked a couple times in the dying sun as he realized where he was. He had ran all the way towards the Misty Mountains.
The young prince sighed. He wanted to go back to his father, to his people, but the already bruised cheeck again reminded him of why he had left. He desperately wanted to be in the embrace of his father after just seeing his mother. But Legolas would not return to a father who had so much pride that he would not accept aid even when his people needed it most. The elven prince wanted to just lay down here and sink into peaceful dreams, but he knew that was dangerous. He'd just managed to escape the Spider's nest and no doubt, orcs or other foul creatures would be roaming around.
Legolas whistled for his horse, in mere minutes, his strong stallion came by his side. The horse immediately sensed his master's troubled mind and gently nighed. The elven prince could not help but give a small smile to his companion. He quickly mounted his horse and rode away. Legolas didn't even know where he was going, his mind to preoccupied with recent events, entirely trusting his horse.
"Your Majesty!" King Thranduil's advisor addressed in urgency. "We cannot hold the spider's at our gates much longer."
The King glared at his advisor, though it was no fault of his. The King strided to the door of his hall and looked at his city's gate, indeed the advisor's message was true. Even the magical door could not hold much longer.
Suddenly, the king remembered what his son had advised him on, "Father, we can ill afford to turn down their aid now. We are a proud race. But our soldiers can barely defend this city. We have no choice."
King Thranduil now understood how grave his mistake was. 'But,' the King thought, 'Where is my son now?'
The Lord still barely knew what had happened almost 50 years ago. He went to his window and looked outside; in the distance was the Misty Mountains.
Suddenly, the Lord could barely see a moving figure coming closer to Rivendell. Although the Lord could not see who is was, he knew that whoever it was, was not evil.
As the figure came closer, the Lord almost gasped aloud. 'It was Prince Legolas! Perhaps the King of Mirkwood is asking for aid? But it is strange, why would the King send his only son out along this dangerous road alone?'
Lord Elrond set his questions aside and quickly went to the courtyard to greet the unexpected guest.
"Ada! It is Legolas!" Estel nearly shouted as he ran towards the courtyard, eagerly followed by the twins, Elrohir and Elladan. Lord Elrond had to smile. The twins and Estel hadn't seen Legolas in some time since that incident 50 years ago, and he's sure they were very excited to see each other again.
His thoughts went back to the elven prince when Legolas came inside. As he unmounted and bowed before him, Lord Elrond noticed that there was a bad bruise on his cheeck and his eyes weren't the spirited young elfing he'd last seen. Lord Elrond was even more surprised to see a little fear in them. Something happened.
"Lord Elrond, it is a pleasure to see you again," Prince Legolas politely addressed.
Lord Elrond smiled and quickly raised the young elfing whom he had learned to love as a son.
As Legolas got up, Estel and the twins nearly choked all the life out of him as they hugged their dearest friend.
"Allow Legolas sometime to catch his breath," Lord Elrond said.
The twins and the human child quickly let Legolas go and chuckled, the Prince of Mirkwood smiled slightly. Lord Elrond quickly led Legolas into the study chamber as he knew that there must be something wrong. Legolas' normally graceful steps were instead stumbling sometimes and had to hold onto the wall in order to steady himself. Elrond frowned, 'What is wrong?'
"Legolas," Elrond said aloud, "why don't you rest for now? Tell me everything when you awake."
Legolas shook his head, "No. I have to tell you."
Elrond complied this time, knowing that once Legolas set his mind to something, he'd never turn away from it. Estel and the twins were slightly worried as well. Legolas is a proud elf and rarely showed his weakness to anyone, even his own friends and family. But this display of stumbling was clearly worrying everyone.
As they finally made it to the study chamber, Elrond and his sons sat down to hear the story. Legolas, though he desperately wanted to rest, he knew he had to settle things now.
Prince Legolas knelt down on the ground, one knee up and the other on the ground. He looked up at the family of Elrond and spoke in a firm voice, "Lord Elrond, Mirkwood is deeply sorry for the blame that we've put on you in these 50 years. Please forgive us."
Elrond was taken aback but quickly composed himself. "You do so without your father's permission, am I correct?"
Legolas paushed just long enough to confirm his suspicions.
"Then why do you abologize on behalf of him when he knows not?" Elrond continued.
Again Legolas paused. He didn't think Elrond would know, apparently he was wrong.
"Legolas, you can't hide that bruise that I'm sure Thranduil did. Now please pray tell me, what is going on?"
Legolas sighed, he could not fool the Lord of Imladris, a person he knew since he was an elfing, playing with the twins and later Estel. He treated Elrond like a second father, he should have known Elrond would have figured it out.
"Elrond, my father thinks you are the cause of my mother's death for 50 years."
"How did Thranduil think that I had..."
"One of your own guards, before dying, said that you knew and died. Thranduil was grieved and blamed everything on you." Even saying this, Legolas felt ashamed, of his father and his actions against such a noble lord. Legolas should have argued more forcably with his father on the matter.
"Rise Legolas. You should not place any blame on yourself. I will send a messanger back to Thranduil to tell him you are here safely," Elrond smiled warmly, feeling the happy spirit return back to the young prince. "And I will find out what exactly happened that day. Thank you for telling me what happened."
Legolas smiled back and nodded. He knew that relations would be returned back to normal eventually, but Legolas still did not understand why a guard of Imaldris would betray his lord. Something did not add up. He pushed the thought to the side of his mind, Elrond will find out. He always does.
Suddenly, Legolas hoped that Mirkwood was okay. That Mirkwood hadn't encountered an attack with the spiders since his leave. He could only hope and pray.
As Legolas stood up, his suddenly sleep deprived and worried mind and body collapsed back on the ground as a black void swallowed him whole.
To be continued:
I'm sorry if anything was confusing in this chapter. Please tell me if there is and I can revise it. Thanks for all the reviews that I've received. And Thanks for the advices. I haven't read LOTR in a very long time and I didn't read The Hobbit, so if things are messed up, I'm really sorry and Please tell me.
For now, the horse's name is Arod. I'm sorry about that. I completely blanked as to when Legolas got it.
As for the scimiters instead of his long knives, I kind of liked Legolas with scimiters so I decided to try it out.
As for the human hatred in Thranduil's heart, there's a reason for it and I'll explian more in later chapters.
Thank you for making these things clear to me though. I really appreciate it. I hope you review!
