Chapter 14, everyone!

Thank you so much for all of your support! Your reviews are always interesting to read and very encouraging (thank you, neebieone, for sharing your thoughts about Tauriel and the thief!). Also a big 'thank you' to all of you who have followed this story and added it as a favourite - all of you really make my day when I get a new e-mail regarding this story!

I do not own any characters (except a couple of OCs) or places; J.R.R. Tolkien or Peter Jackson & Co do.

The italics in the beginning and the end of a chapter come from either one of the Lord of the Rings movies/books or from one of the Hobbit movies/book. All of them will have some connection to the Elves, so I don't own them as well!

Enjoy!

Chapter 14: Beauty

"I have seen the world fall away…."

Far too often had Legolas felt that time simply ceased to exist, never moved forwards. As an immortal being, time did not mean the same to him as it would one from the race of Men. When Tauriel announced that they were close to the Mountains, it was as if time stood still, frozen.

"My Prince?" A brief pause. "Legolas?"

"Come", he said and strode past her with hurried steps. "We must go."

It was as if the Mountains were calling to him, guiding him to them. His heart throbbed eagerly against his ribs and the blood in his veins rushed expectantly at what he would find in the caves.

He could hear Tauriel behind him. She was fast and quick, almost one with the forest. Had he not come to learn about her during their journey, he would not have noticed her following him. She was pushed back in his mind as they approached the Mountains.

The Mountains stretched above the treetops. The old stone had endured much during the years; it wore marks of harsh weather and an ancient age not even an Elf had lived. Legolas looked around and saw that it continued far away on both sides, out of his sight. He knew that the Mountains of Greenwood were small compared to the gigantic Misty Mountains. But standing before them now, they suddenly seemed as if they would go on forever.

"Where do we go now?"

Legolas startled. He had not heard Tauriel approach. She regarded him expectantly. His blue eyes were calculating as he swept his gaze up the mountainside. Since neither of them knew of an entrance, they would simply have to look around.

"We will split up", Legolas decided. "You take the west side and I the east side. Should any of us find anything, use this signal." He formed his lips and let out a whistle, the melody resembling that of a bird and a common tune they used whenever out on patrols at the castle. "The wind in the trees will carry it to the other."

Tauriel mimicked his actions. The sound she made was perfect, almost as if she had known it by heart already. It lured out a smile from Legolas before they parted ways.

The sky was turning darker, but still glowed in the colors of the evening. It soothed Legolas, as the light was neither too dark nor too bright. He walked further alongside the mountainside and did not stop until he was many steps away from where he and Tauriel had gone separate ways. He knelt down on one knee and touched the ground with one hand. There was not unusual for Elves to have a connection with all living things that grew. If one was to concentrate, open the mind and senses to nature, it would respond. The degree of skill varied and Legolas was not one of the best. His training had been in the arts of warfare and ruling the kingdom. Healing and the power of communicate with nature had come very much in second place. Therefore, he was only aware of the spirit of the trees, of the grass and the streaks of water near the Mountains. The forest did not speak with him, only made him sense that it was alive. The stones and rocks of the Mountains were silent as the grave and did not offer him a clue as to where he could find an opening into the Mountains. He was not surprised – the Elves who could speak with stone were rare, since stone and rock was the forte of Dwarves – but disappointed all the same.

Legolas straightened up. He watched the Mountains in front of him and felt his heart sink. He searched the mountainside for any signs of that something was amiss, a shadow that could lead to something else. His muscles tensed, prepared for climbing or for failure.

The sound of a sharp whistle cutting through the air snapped him out of his brooding. His blond head turned in the direction of the sound and he felt something aching to joy as he hurried back to Tauriel.

Tauriel had not needed to walk a long distance. Legolas found her almost where they had parted ways. In the shadow of the Mountains, she looked like a mysterious creature of the forest. She was standing at the foot of the Mountain, waving at him to come closer.

"I found something", she said as he came closer. "It is not much, but…."

The opening was narrow, hardly big enough for one of them to get through. Legolas put his hand to the stone, but it did not speak to him the way the trees sometimes did. He turned to Tauriel. She was watching him, waiting.

"How is it that you always seem to find what I am looking for?"

"Sharp eyes", she replied. "They see what others easily overlook."

Legolas had not a hard time believing that. He stared down the opening, but was met only with darkness. It was almost impossible to see anything of the Mountains' insides.

"Will you come with me?" he asked her.

She nodded.

"I am your guide, after all", she said with a wry twitch of her lips. "I can hardly abandon you now."

Legolas nodded back, relieved. He gracefully managed to squeeze himself through the opening. The path was small and he could feel the stone cutting into his back and palms as he hurried through. It was as if the Mountain was trying to suffocate him.

When he came out on the other side, it was both quiet and dark. The ground beneath his feet was hard. He did not move, but waited for Tauriel while he looked around. He could glimpse the outlines of big boulders in the dark, smell the rather decayed scent of confinement. It was strange for him to be in such a place, a place without even the slightest of light. Though the castle he had lived in his whole life was partly underground, it still had sources of light that made it more warm and inviting. This darkness was unnerving, but it did nothing to change the feeling that had rooted itself inside Legolas now.

The thief must have his hideout here.

When Tauriel came to stand beside him, nearly touching, everything felt a little brighter. She picked out a tinderbox from her bag and lit a torch to light up their way. The golden light showed them a cave-like place with a narrow path engulfed by the dark. There was nothing else to do, but follow.

"This way", said Legolas and took the torch from Tauriel. "Stay sharp."

"Always are", she replied and he could hear a faint smile in her voice.

The two Elves followed the path. Legolas prided himself with having a good sense of direction, even in this foreign place. Therefore, he was quite certain that they would find their way out of the Mountains once they were done there. There would be no need for marking their way in an attempt of not getting lost.

Neither of them knew for how long they were walking. Without the sun, the moon or the stars to guide them, they were at a loss of what time had passed. It made a queasy feeling grow in the pit of Legolas' stomach.

They travelled deeper inside the Mountains. Once, they came across a large abyss, in which Legolas would have fallen, had Tauriel not reached out for him and pulled him closer so that he could feel her heart pound furiously in her chest. He smiled gratefully and took her hand in his as they carefully balanced at the narrow, stony edge, trying not to fall into the deep below. For every step they took, the Mountains seemed to mock them and Legolas vowed silently to never return to the Mountains of Greenwood once he had gotten what he came for.

They did not stop to rest, only passed the water between them. They did not speak, because their voices would be thrown against the solid walls and the Mountains would echo their words back and warn whatever might lurk around inside. Yet Legolas wished that he could have heard Tauriel's voice, if only for a moment. He imagined that it would sound even more wonderful in such a dark and gloomy place like this.

The torch had almost burned out as they made their way through the Mountains' labyrinth-like tunnels. In the last light, Legolas thought he saw something shine far away in the dark. It could also be a trick of the eye, but he doubted it. He stopped and exchanged a glance with Tauriel, pointing at the end of the tunnel. Tauriel's eyes widened at the sight of the faint, white light. Together they increased the speed of their steps and as the torch drew its last breath, they appeared at what looked to be an entrance to a cave. Suddenly the torch was not needed anymore. Beside him, he could hear Tauriel's sharp intake of breath.

The cave was vast, resembling the size of one of the greatest halls in the castle. But this was not a creation of golden wood and polished stones. This was a cave shimmering in white and silver, the color of dew when the first rays of sun fell upon them. Hundreds, if not thousands, of crystals were embedded within the stone walls and floor of the Mountains.

"It is as if we wandered into the world of the stars", Tauriel breathed and turned around in circles, as if not to miss a thing.

"Beautiful", Legolas agreed, though his eyes were fixed on Tauriel's face. To him, it shone more brightly and magical than the light from the crystals.

The red-haired Elf appeared not to hear him, caught up in the beautiful sight of the many crystals. A slight ache formed in Legolas' heart. She seemed so far away from him in that moment.

He tore his eyes away from Tauriel and scanned the cave. From the ground sprouted crystals that almost reached Legolas' waist. He searched behind every crystal, in every part of the cave. Except the way he and Tauriel had come, there were two other ways they could leave. He also found a small opening, in which there were blue crystals that shone sickly in the dark. But he found no evidence of that someone lived there, no sign of the thief or the stolen goods, and whatever high spirit he had had before; it disappeared and was replaced with something bitter.

All around him were crystals, some reflecting his stunned face, and he felt for crushing all of them until they would be nothing more than dust, remnants of the underground's stars. He caught sight of something red and, still staring into the crystals, he met Tauriel's gaze in the reflection. His face had turned cold.

"You never thought we would find anything here?"

Tauriel's expression was sad, but her eyes as hard as the crystals surrounding them.

"No. I did not", she confessed softly. "But for your sake I hoped that we would."

"You did not think to inform me of this, share your thoughts?" Legolas's voice had become dark with emotions. "I would not have turned you away."

"I believed it to be for the best. Besides, thief or not, I think you needed this. You needed to see something else than the golden world that are yours and your father's."

Legolas shook his head and turned around to face Tauriel for real and not the askew picture in the crystals.

"Still. All this has been for nothing! The time it has taken us to get here has been wasted. I will have missed so much…." He trailed off, thinking of his father, of the thefts at the castle. He felt young and foolish. "I feel deceived. Many times have I doubted our journey, but you never said anything and lead me on…."

"Do not blame this on me!" Tauriel said hotly. "You could have turned back any time you wanted and I would have supported you. I think you wanted this as well, that you sometimes forgot about the thief." She lowered her gaze and said softly: "At least I hoped it was so."

Legolas sighed and clenched his hands into fists. Everything now seemed so pointless. The thief was not there and had probably never been. Everything had turned out more complicated than it was. Worst thing was not perhaps the lack of finding the thief, of wasting valuable time and only proving his father and the Council right, but the fact that somewhere deep inside, he knew Tauriel was right. He had enjoyed spending time with her and to travel where he had not been before, escaping the life at court. Whenever the thief had not been on his mind, he had felt a sort of peace and contentment he had not felt in a long time.

Tauriel came to stand close to him. She put a hand on his shoulder, hesitantly. He could not look at her, only not shake her off. She seemed to take that as an encouraging sign. Before he could register what was going on, Tauriel embraced him and with her touch and presence, the dark thoughts that had previously weighed so heavy in his mind eased.

He could not remember the last time he had been hugged, the last time someone had held him like they cared. Tauriel's touch was gentle and warm and it took all of his strength not to bury his face in her flaming hair. Instead he hesitantly put his arms around her waist and just let it all be. At that moment, there were no boundaries between them. He was not the Prince of Greenwood and she was not his guide, a lowly Silvan Elf. He was just Legolas and she was just Tauriel.

Both of them broke apart when they could hear a noise of someone coming at the end of one of the tunnels. It was for the best; otherwise they might have stood there forever.

It did not take many seconds for them to collect themselves. A new gleam had returned to Legolas' eyes. He gestured to Tauriel to follow him and with a few quick steps; they stood in front of the smaller cave that held the bluish-green sort of crystals. No words were needed as the two of them entered, having to squeeze together so that they might fit. They stood close together. Blue crystals cut into Legolas' back and sides. Tauriel was pressed against his chest and tilted her head backwards to look up at him. Her eyes appeared to be black and Legolas swallowed, focusing on something above Tauriel's head.

They heard something enter the caves. Large shadows appeared on the walls, but did not dim the light from the crystals. They waited, holding their breaths, breathing in nothing else but the scent of each other.

"Thought I heard something", muttered a raspy voice, barely nothing more than a growl.

"Might have been one of the Master's pets", another voice replied. "Come on, let's fetch those cursed stones and be done with it…."

The sound of pickaxes against stone echoed through the cave, followed by wheezy grunts. Both Elves froze. They were inches apart and Legolas could see himself be reflected in Tauriel's eyes, which were eerily blue in the light from the crystals. His face looked grim.

Goblins.

"….and the white light forever fill the air."

So, what did you think?

They have reached the hugging stage. This was a slightly new step in the romance direction, while the next chapter will contain more action. Anyone having a new theory about the thief?

I cannot promise when I'll have the next chapter up, but hopefully sometime in January (that will be in 2016, but a rather good way to begin the year, no?).

Thanks for reading and I wish you all a "Merry Christmas" or whatever kind of holiday you might be celebrating! :)