It took three and a half years, from the time of the Battle of the Five Armies for Bard, the bowman and dragon-slayer, to be crowned King Bard I of Dale. Many things grew and changed for the better during those years, Tauriel included herself in their number: The snowy ruins of Dale were restore to their former pre-Smaug glory. The scruffy, hungry refugees that walked from the smoldering ruins of Esgaroth were clean and well fed. They had homes and incomes to support themselves.
Dale bustled with shops, catering to the survivors of Esgaroth as well as an influx of new residents from other lands who wanted to make a fresh start.
The streets rang with the laughter of children.
On Coronation Day, the main courtyard of the Royal Palace was packed to the walls with people awaiting their King. Tauriel stood off to the side with Bain, Tilda and Sigrid, surveying the assembled sea of faces with pride and a sense of tremendous accomplishment.
Bard offered her a title, as she suspected he would for her years of service to the future and his family, and lands as well. Tauriel's estate was more of a large cottage at the center of a beautiful valley near Dorwinion, the land bursting with grapevines. The previous owners were all dead, with no living descendants to pass the estate on to. The vines were tended by volunteers from surrounding vineyards, so the town could continue to meet the demand for new vintages.
After the Coronation, there was a great feast, followed by much wine and dancing.
Bard convinced Tauriel to dance more than just the first dance with him, and that was the reason she didn't see King Thranduil, until he tapped the new King on the shoulder during their third and final dance of the night.
"Would you mind if I cut in and dance with my Elf, King Bard?" Thranduil asked the newly crowned Bard.
Bard's eyes lit up and a smile formed on his lips as he stepped back, "Not at all, King Thranduil. Though, I would like to debate you sometime soon with regard to just who Tauriel belongs to."
Tauriel narrowed her eyes at the two Kings. "I belong to myself, as you are both well aware."
The wood-elf allowed Thranduil to lead her in the steps of a complicated dance the Men seemed to favor. It took her and Bard, with the help of all three children, weeks of practice to master it.
The King's hands were warm at her waist and where their fingers were intertwined. Once the other dancers began to move, he leaned over to whisper in her ear. "Who do you call your Lord, little Tauriel? I would very much like to know."
To this, Tauriel smiled mischievously, "I am surrounded by Kings, my Lord, but the one to whom my loyalty runs deepest is not a King at all, but a mere Prince."
His fingers in hers tightened, just a little. "A Prince? I can think of at least two of those as well." His lips brushed the shell of her ear, "I have a letter addressed to you from one of them in my possession. You are welcome to follow me to my room with me and fetch it."
Once, not so long ago, King Thranduil's flirting words and distracting touches would have brought a small thrilling shiver to her spine, but it seemed tonight Tauriel was immune to his charms and pretty face. "Could you have it delivered to my room? I am loathe to leave the dancing. I find I like it very much."
"As do I. When you are ready, we can go to my rooms together. Stay here and dance as long as you want. I will await your convenience."
Tauriel's eyebrows raised, but she wasn't taking the bait this time. "Four years away from the Woodlands, and I seem to have grown wise to your ways, my Lord. I find your flattery and flirting have lost their effect on me entirely."
"Is that so, little bird?"
Tauriel confessed, "Maybe it is because when I look at your handsome face tonight I find myself trying to pick out the traits which remind me of Legolas."
The King missed a step in the pattern of the dance, and Tauriel laughed, delighted to have caused such a lapse in his normally perfect, graceful movements. "I must concede a small victory to you, Tauriel. It would appear my fledging is fully grown, and no so easily distracted from her soaring."
"I still have another year to fly," Tauriel added, but it wasn't the punishment it had been after the battle, she was glad of more time to be the master of her own fate.
Thranduil's arms came around her in a hug as the dance ended, his lips against her neck he whispered, "As long as you do know where your true home is."
"I know exactly where my home is, my Lord. Do not fear."
(The next morning...)
"I do not believe this!"
The King looked up from the cup of Tauriel's special herbal tea he was nursing to help with his hang-over. "What is it? Is that the letter from Prince Legolas his father was trying to seduce you with last night?"
Tauriel gave him a dangerous, wild look. "I do not understand males! They make no sense sometimes, but King Thranduil and Prince Legolas are the worst. It is as if they speak in another language entirely which I cannot hope to comprehend."
Bard smirked, "Says a female."
"Maybe you can help me. You make more sense than most males I know."
"I don't know whether to take that as a compliment or an insult," King Bard told her.
Tauriel offered the letter to him, "I require a translation into something a simple female can understand."
"I will try..." Bard assured her. His eyes scanned the letter and the humor left his expression.
The wood-elf started to pace his office, agitated and restless.
"Legolas is going to join the Rangers in the spring. It sounds like he plans to remain with them for several years, maybe longer."
Tauriel froze with her back to him, "I hoped I was reading his intentions wrong. It appears I am not."
"I'm sorry, Tauriel."
"I have one year left on my banishment. Thranduil confirmed it when we danced last night. Why would Legolas decide to join the Rangers, now?"
Bard stood up and went to her, gathering her into his arms and holding her from behind. "Men are idiots, at times. And it would appear Elf men can be idiots, too."
She turned in his arms, pulling back to look into his eyes, "I haven't seen Legolas since the battle, but it feels so much longer than a few years. I miss him," Tauriel whimpered into Bard's shoulder.
"Then you will have to go to him, if he will not come to you."
Her breath caught in a gasp, "Go to him? In Rivendell?"
"If you intend to make that trip, you better go before the snows start."
"What of my land? There is still much to do."
Bard let her go. "I knew when I gave you the vineyards, you only have one year left with us. I'll find a trustworthy person to act as caretaker for your valley. Nothing needs consideration until after the snows melt next spring."
"I do not know what to say."
"I owe you so much, Tauriel. Let me do this small thing for you."
Tauriel nodded, "Thank you."
"Why must you go, Tauriel?" Bain asked her. "Just because Father is King, now, doesn't mean he doesn't need you."
Tauriel looked up from her packing at the desperation in the young Prince's voice. She offered him a gentle smile. "We will see each other again, Bain, do not fear."
"Is it the Elvenking?" There was a note of disdain in the young Man's voice that gave Tauriel pause. "Is he making you leave?"
"No, Bain. My trip north has nothing to do with King Thranduil. A friend of mine is about to make a terrible mistake, and I need to find him and stop him."
"I don't understand. If it is not the King, is it the other silver haired Elf, the King's son?"
The Elf nodded, "You are very observant. That is a fine trait for a Prince to have." She walked over the him and fussed with the collar on his fine tunic, a habit of hers which he didn't seem to mind. "You aren't a child any long, mellon. You are taller than your sire, now, and nearly a Man grown. Soon, you will find a young woman who makes you feel alive, someone you would be willing to die for, and you will understand why I must go."
"You couldn't just love my father?"
"No. Love does not work in such a way. Your father, you and your sisters, are dear to me, but I miss Legolas. I long to share my days with him as I did when I was younger."
Bain made a face. "I heard you tell Father once Legolas was prohibited from marrying you because you are a different type of Elf and the King thinks you are inferior."
"I am a Silvan elf, and we are not from descended from the High Elven bloodlines of the Sindarin Elves. A High Elven King would naturally want a Noblewoman for his son's wife, someone who would make a good Princess, and someday a Queen."
Bain scowled, "If the Elvenking doesn't think you would make a good Queen, then he is a fool. You would make the best Queen, because you are kind and patient, and you would never bring an army of Elves to Dale to fight over some stupid treasure."
Tauriel cupped his cheek gently with her palm. "There is more to the story than what you have heard, Bain. You wear a chain around your neck, do you not?" Her finger went to the edge of the chain where it peeked up from under his collar.
"Yes."
"And it was given to you by your father, because it belonged to your mother?"
When he nodded, Tauriel explained, "Imagine if you gave your chain to someone and paid them to fix the clasp because it was broken, but when it came time to get it back, the shopkeeper claimed it was his and refused to give your payment or the chain back to you. How would you feel?"
"I would be angry," Bain stated.
"Because it was one of the few, precious treasures your mother left to you."
He nodded, emphatically. "Yes."
"The treasure which King Thranduil wants back from Erebor is a necklace which he had commissioned for our Queen before she died. I do not fault him for wanting it back. His army was perhaps a bit too large for such a task, but Thranduil is very dramatic when he gets angry, and we might all have died if the archers had not been at the gates of Erebor when the Orcs attacked."
She put her hands on his shoulders and pressed a kiss to his forehead. "Your father is a fine King, Bain. He knows what he is about, now. And when it is your time, you will be an even better King than Bard."
"Why?"
"Because you have a kind heart which has not been hardened by grief and worry. And you are an excellent listener and a hard worker. There are other Kings nearby for you to study and learn from. By watching them, and learning from their mistakes, you will know how to avoid such mistakes yourself. You would not march an army to Erebor if you want something from the Dwarf King, would you?"
Bain thought about it, "No. I would send a messenger and ask to trade the necklace for something I have which King Dain might want just as much. Or I would explain how much the necklace means to me."
"And if he was stubborn about it you could send your sheep to feed in my section of the newly planted forest and dig up my potato patches."
Bain laughed, "Dain would hate that. He would ride his War Pig over here and yell at me."
"Or he would throw a giant feast and eat all your sheep."
"He could have them. I hate mutton. I'd rather eat a War Pig."
Tauriel laughed, "I agree, mellon."
"What will you do when you find Prince Legolas?"
"I don't know. We have much to talk about, but I think I would very much like to kiss him."
The young Man winced. "One of the maids tried to kiss me last week. I didn't know what to do or say, so I just turned very red and hurried away."
"If you think she is pretty, tell her your father thinks you are too young for kissing, but you might like to kiss her when you are a bit older."
"If I find someone I love, I won't care if she is a Noblewoman or not," Bain told her. "I think I would love her more if she was poor like we were."
The wood-elf wanted to hug him for his words, but she settled for patting him on the shoulder. "Your father will let you marry for love, or you can write to me, and I will beat some sense into him with the blade of a practice sword."
Bain hugged her, and Tauriel ruffled his hair as she had when she first met him. "Help me pack, young Prince. I need to leave with the dawn."
Tauriel made her goodbyes with a minimum of tears shed by her or anyone else. She assured everyone she would return, and not stay away for too long.
Princess Sigrid was being courted by a handsome Man visiting from Gondor, so she understood Tauriel's need to follow her heart, more so than her siblings.
Young Tilda balanced on the cusp of womanhood, full of youthful energy and a strong sense of adventure, and Tauriel found her the hardest to let go of, but she promised to write often and give details on her adventures and travels.
Because she did not know exactly where she was going, Tauriel stopped in Lothlórien to purchase a horse and ask for advice on traveling north. Before she knew it, the wood-elf was ushered to the Talan to speak with the Lord and Lady. She soon found herself fussed over, much as she had been on her first visit years ago, and showered with gifts, including two of the most beautiful Chestnut colored horses Tauriel had ever laid eyes on.
Her simple plan to spend one or two nights in Caras Galadhon to ask directions became much more complicated with Lady Galadriel forcing Tauriel to accept an escort of half a dozen Galadrim Elves and saddle bags full of fine winter dresses and slippers, fur lined cloaks and glittering gemstone encrusted hair ornaments.
The Lady and her servants pampered and spoiled Tauriel thoroughly before finally letting her depart for Rivendell much later in the week than planned. Legolas told her once in a letter of Galadriel's stubbornness when it came to things like appearances and now Tauriel understood Legolas' frustration.
Tauriel thanked Lord and Lady profusely before she set out, with her protectors also doubling as guides for their journey to the hidden valley of Imladris, riding hard to arrive before Winter set in and made travel impossible. She had to admit she enjoyed the company on the journey. They regaled her with stories of many places, and she returned the favor with tales of her life as Captain in the Guard of King Thranduil.
When Tauriel was welcomed to Rivendell by Lord Elrond, and given a room in which to settle, rest and unpack, she found the Lady had included more than cold weather clothing, she'd also included, with great stealth, a fine, delicate lace dress of the sort a Lady would wear to be married in. The wood-elf was stunned, and wondering what such a gift meant from a High Elven Lady who had a magical bowl which showed her the future. Tauriel took special care of the special dress, placing it in the very back of the wardrobe in her room, just in case she might need it someday.
Lord Elrond informed her Legolas and the other Ranger, called Aragorn, would be returning soon from months on a long patrol, so she would have a few days to rest and plan before he arrived. Time for planning was good, and helped with the hurt and anger she still felt from his last letter.