"YOU DID WHAT?"
Angeli flinched. "That's right. I tried to kill Legolas and Tauriel," she told him boldly.
"How could you? I...don't know how you sleep at night!" Bard burst out. "And how could you two let her stay at my house without telling me she is a murderer?!"
"Now now," Tauriel soothed, "she never murdered anyone."
"She tried to!"
"She did not mean to," Legolas spoke up.
"How can one not mean to kill another?" Bard demanded coolly. "How do you know she will not try to kill one of the children?"
"I would never do that!" Angeli spat before anyone could speak.
"I don't know if that is true after all the secrets you kept from me," Bard whispered.
"Look, she won't have to live with you for much longer if my plan works," Tauriel quickly cut in.
"Anything to get this murderer out of my house!" Bard muttered. "What's the plan?"
"First things first, we need Angeli to ripe off a piece of her dress."
"Why-"
"Upupup. Just trust us," Tauriel cut the princess off.
Angeli hesitated for a few more moments, then nodded, wordlessly ripping off a part of her sleeve.
"Now what?" she asked, handing the fabric to Tauriel.
"We need a few strands of your hair."
Angeli opened her mouth to argue, then closed it, and did what she was told.
"Can I ask what this stuff has to do with King Tranduil thinking Angeli is dead?" Bard asked.
"I thought you didn't care," Legolas responded.
Bard stared at Legolas for sometime, then looked at the floor.
"Just what I thought," the prince muttered.
"And you need not worry about the King; we will take care of it," Tauriel added.
"Are you sure he won't find me?" Angeli fretted.
"Positive," the two replied at the same time.
Angeli looked uncertain, but then she nodded. "Okay, but I'm trusting you, Tauriel."
0o0
King Thranduil sat at his throne, racking his brain trying to figure out where Angeli was.
"She wouldn't return to Rivendell...no, that would be too risky. Would she go to the Shire? No.." he kept muttering to himself for quite some time, until he finally thought he had a good idea of where the princess of Elrond was. "Beorn! Tauriel must have persuaded him to take Angeli in!" he burst out, proud of himself.
"My lord?" A soft voice sounded.
The King looked up in surprise to see Tauriel right in front of him. The poor elleth was in tears.
"Tauriel? What has happened?" Thranduil asked, alarmed.
"Angeli..." Tauriel sobbed, "she...she's..." the chief stopped, unable to finish her sentence.
"Angeli is dead," Legolas stated sadly, coming up beside Tauriel.
"What? How did this happen?" Thranduil demanded, standing up.
"Alas, my lord, we do not know," Tauriel responded, composing herself once again.
"Ada, we have a few confessions to make," Legolas added.
"Go on."
"We...we were going to take Angeli to Beorn, so he could help her get back to Rivendell. The night she escaped, we helped her and led her to the old forest road, then she was to make camp there, and we would fetch her today and take her to Beorn," Legolas explained.
"However, when we got there today, we found drops of blood and pieces of fur and hair around the same part of the forest where we left Angeli. We think the creatures that attacked her, and ate her as well. All that was left of her...is this." The prince held out a piece of fabric that had pieces of blonde hair in it, and also a few blood stains.
The King took it and examined it carefully. It was defiantly Angeli's dress all right, the same one she had on the night she escaped. The hair was blonde, and longer then Legolas', so that had to be Angeli's as well. Finally, he studied the blood. An orc's blood was black, whereas an elf's was red, and this blood was indeed red. It couldn't have been an orc's, or creature. It had to be Angeli's.
"I-I cannot believe we went to all this trouble, just to have her killed by a pack of unknown creatures of evil!" Tauriel burst out, loosing control again.
"She was going to die anyway," Thranduil muttered.
Tauriel shot him a look that would have made Sauruman himself stop in his tracks.
"Look, what's done is done," he added more nicely.
"I'm glad you won't have to break your back by taking care of Angeli and killing her," Tauriel spat at him, turning around swiftly and leaving the room.
"I'm sorry, ada, she's not taking it too well," Legolas apologized, following Tauriel out.
0o0
The two made their way to Tauriel's room.
"Well, do you think he bought it?" Tauriel asked with a smile.
"Are you kidding me? If I hadn't known any better, I would have believed it," Legolas murmured. "How did you get the blood anyway? You never told me."
Tauriel looked down.
"Tauriel?" Legolas walked over to her and lifted up one of her sleeves. There, a few inches above Tauriel's wrist, was a small cut and there was a small trail of dried blood.
"Tauriel, why did you do this to yourself?" Legolas whispered in shock.
"I had too, otherwise he wouldn't have believed it. Besides, it doesn't matter now, my hand will heal," Tauriel responded, jerking her hand away.
"The important thing is, Angeli is safe."
0o0
Sorry these are such short chapters, but I like to keep the suspense going. And in case anyone's wondering, I got the idea of Tauriel cutting herself to save Angeli from an episode of Doctor Who "Angels take Manhattan". Those who watch Doctor Who should know what I'm talking about. Until next time- Mallowbloom