A few years passed since the day Thalia first met Thranduil and not a single night went by where she didn't go to Middle Earth. During her time in Mirkwood she had become good friends with Thranduil's son, Legolas, who was many years older than her but looked about sixteen. She had also started learning some of the Elvish language and was slowly getting it. She was now thirteen years old. In the eight years she had been through five foster families and two homes for children. She was never kept for longer than a year so the feeling of abandonment was becoming a normal thing for her. The only place where she felt like she was loved was in Mirkwood with Legolas and Thranduil.
It was night time in Mirkwood and Thalia was trying to go to sleep so she could go back to Earth but her tears were making that impossible. The door to her chambers slowly opened and Thranduil stepped him with worry in his eyes. "What troubles you, pen tithen?" He asked as he sat on the edge of her bed.
Thalia sat up and wiped the tears from her face. "I do not want to go back Thranduil. No one likes me there! I am a freak to them." She paused and took in a shaky breath. "They make fun of my pointy ears and my hair!"
Thranduil held his arms out to her and enveloped her in a strong hug. "You must not listen to their lies, Thalia Grace. You are an elf; you are supposed to have pointy ears." He poked one of her ears making her giggle. "Now, go to sleep, little one. I will see you when you return."
He started to get up but she stopped him. "Wait, Thranduil!" He looked at her. "Will you sing for me? I always like when you sing." He sighed but smiled as he sat back down on the edge of her bed. He took a deep breath and began to sing a song in Elvish. She tried her best to translate the words but her exhaustion wouldn't allow it. Her eyelids grew heavy as Thranduil sand and soon she was sleeping softly.
Thalia woke back in her room on Earth and sighed. She got out of her bed and cringed when she heard Helen, her foster mother, yell her name from down stairs. "Coming!" She yelled back and looked into her large mirror. As usual her almost white hair was hardly disheveled and her face glowed with beauty from her rest. She pulled on the first things she grabbed from her closet knowing she didn't have time to take a shower… she was already late for her appointment.
She quickly got dressed then ran out of her room and down the stairs where Helen was waiting with an annoyed look on her face. "Late. Again."
Thalia rolled her eyes. "I know, I know."
"Kevin is out in the car. You're lucky he's in a good mood today or else you would be in trouble, Thalia Grace." Thalia hated how this woman said her name. She walked out of the house and towards the car that Kevin, her foster dad, waited in.
She opened the passenger-side door and sat down. "Sorry." He only nodded and pulled out of the driveway. He was better than Helen but not by much. They were one of those couples that took in children for the money. Thalia knew it could have been worse for her but it still bothered her that they didn't really care about her.
"You know how this is, Thalia. By law we have to see that you get your weekly appointment with Dr. Harding. If not you get put back in the system and neither you or I want that." His words made her eyes roll.
"Please. You don't really care about me." She mumbled so low he wouldn't have heard her. She stared out the window and into the cold Earth. Winter was a bitch in Maryland. The whole way to their destination Kevin was nagging and Thalia was ignoring him. Finally they pulled into the small parking lot of the office building and Thalia exited the car without a word. She walked into the office she needed and smiled at the woman at the service desk. She gave Thalia a nod telling her to go ahead and enter Dr. Harding's office.
She entered the dim-lit room and the familiar man stood from his desk. "Thalia! So glad you could make it."
"Yeah, Dr. H, sorry I am late. Overslept." She grinned and he let out a defeated sigh. It was all too familiar. Thalia had been seeing this therapist for five years and it was very common for her to be late because of oversleeping.
"So you still have those dreams of…" He was searching for the words.
"Middle Earth?" He nodded. "Yes, of course."
"And what did you dream about last night?" He asked as she took a seat in her usual big leather chair.
He took out his notepad and a pen and looked to her, waiting for a reply. "Well when I woke up there the maid, Amira, told me that breakfast was waiting for me along with Thranduil and Legolas."
"Yes and Thranduil is the one like a brother to you yes?" He asked while jotting down notes on his pad of paper.
Thalia made a disgusted face at the scrawny man sitting across the room from her. "Oh Valar, no! Legolas is the one that is like a brother, not Thranduil!" He nodded and waited for her to go on. "Well when I got there Thranduil said he had a surprise for me." Thalia smiled as she recalled the events of the night before.
"Thalia, glad you could join us." Thranduil smiled at her and so did Legolas who was standing by his side. "Come outside with us, we have a surprise for you, pen tithen." She followed them out into the gardens and towards the practice arena. "Close your eyes." He told her and she did. "Hold out your hands."
She did and something rather large was placed in her hands. When she opened her she almost cried out with joy. In her hands was a new bow made of elvish silver. It was finely detailed with vines and leaves. Legolas then handed her the matching quiver. "A new bow!" She screamed while jumping up and down making both Thranduil and Legolas laugh.
"A bow?" Dr. Harding asked while looking at her through his thick glasses. Thalia nodded. "I thought you said you already had a bow." Again she nodded.
"My first bow was getting too small for me… after all it was made for a six year old." She paused and smiled at the memory of her new bow. "This one… this one is big enough that it will last me many years, at least that is what Thranduil told me. For the rest of the day Legolas and I practiced in the arena while Thranduil tended to his duties as king."
He took more notes then looked at Thalia as if searching for another question. "Just who is this… Thranduil to you, Thalia?"
She smiled. "My best friend… my guardian. I don't really know what to call him." She looked away and pondered the thought.
"So he is not a father figure to you?" He was answered with a laugh and a shake of her head.
"Like I said, Dr. H, he is a friend there… that's it." She looked back to him and watched as he wrote something down.
He then closed the notepad and set it on his desk before opening one of the drawers and pulling out a small white paper bag. "Kevin and Helen have already signed off for these. It is a prescription that you are to take once in the morning and once at night every day."
He held the bag out to her and she hesitantly took it from him. "What is it for?" She questioned while opening it up and looking inside to see a pill bottle but quickly looked back to him with suspicion in her eyes. "Are these going to stop me from going to Middle Earth?"
Dr. Harding shook his head reassuringly. "No, no, Thalia. We are only trying things right now. I believe you to have a mild form of ADHD. These will help." She raised a dark brow at him. "By next week I want to see half of that bottle gone, understood?" He asked.
"Whatever you say, Doc." She didn't sound too convinced.
"Well it was a short session but maybe next week you will be on time." She laughed as if it was unlikely. She stood from the chair and walked towards the door. "See you then Thalia." He told her. She gave him a quick nod before leaving the room and walking out of the office and into the chilly air. She got into the car where Kevin had been waiting and once again looked out the window as the car moved.
That night she took her second dosage of the medicine for the day and prepared herself for bed. She buried herself in her thick comforter and closed her eyes, ready to be back in Mirkwood with her friends.
Thranduil thought it was strange to not hear Thalia at this time of day. It was near noon and there was still no sign of her. He decided he would go check on her. He stepped down from his thrown and quickly made his way to her chambers only to see that Legolas had beat him to it. His son looked distraught. "Ada… she is not here."
"What do you mean she isn't here, my son?" Thranduil asked with concern on his face.
"I looked everywhere. She is not here. It's like she just vanished." Legolas was playing no game, Thranduil could see that. He suddenly felt panicked. What if she had been taken? What if something had happened to her? His Thalia could have been in danger.
He stormed out of the room and grabbed the first elf he saw. "Find Gandalf the Grey and bring him to me at once!" He roared his command and the elf nodded, looking at his king in fear. "Surely the wizard will know what has happened to her." He said to himself as the elf rushed off.
Thalia opened her eyes with a smile on her face but the smile quickly vanished when she saw that she was still in her room on Earth. "What?" She questioned as she sat up quickly. "Thranduil? Legolas?" Nothing. She was home… on Earth… not in Middle Earth… just Earth. "No, no, no, no, no, no. No!" She realized what this meant… Dr. Harding had lied to her. Tears streamed down her face as she thought about how Thranduil must have taken her not being there. "It's okay." She coaxed herself. "I'll just stop taking them… that should help… right?" She nodded. "Yeah… It'll work, Thalia… no need to get worried." But her gut told her otherwise.
So Thalia stopped taking the pills. She never took another instead she flushed her daily doses down the toilet but still after months… she was not returning to Middle Earth.
"You lied to me." She said as she walked into Dr. Harding's office for one of her appointments. He looked confused and she threw the bottle of pills at him. "You said they wouldn't make the dreams stop! You lied! I took one day's worth! One day! And now… now when I sleep there is nothing but darkness… There is no Middle Earth. There is no Mirkwood. No elves. No Legolas… And no Thranduil. I am just a child and you lied to me!" She was crying, making her lavender eyes more piercing. She glared at him then turned and walked out of the room before he could say a word.
Sorry if the translations aren't exactly right. :/ I really wanted to have the Elvish language in here but it was a pain trying to find these translations.
Pen tithen – little one
Ada - Dad/ father