Title: TH Elvenking's Visitors
Chapter 13: Found
Spoiler Alert: The Hobbit, LOTR (books, maps and movies)
Warnings: Language, Sexual Situations, Violence, Humor, AU (means not all canon), Angst
Pairing: Thranduil/OC
Summary: Ship - Thranduil lost his wife years ago to war. After the death of the dragon, there is a group of humans who are causing problems. One sparks Thranduil's interest.
A/N: I watched how Thranduil interrogated the Orc he beheaded and how he questioned Tauriel before writing this. Warning! Angst ahead, but don't worry because it will not last forever. No character death here, but how would you feel to know you were about to be responsible for everyone in Middle Earth's death?
Thranduil paused entering another juncture. The two guards were female, so he ignored them and continued.
Thranduil stalked down halls and corridors playing their words over and over in his mind. He thought of every interaction and word from the meeting now knowing what happened was vastly different from what he thought.
He had perceived she was playing some game trying to make him jealous even as he appeared to be a complete fool in front of Elrond and Celeborn. He had let his arrogance blind him into feeling that the things that made her special were an embarrassment.
He knew now that to Alyssa it must have seemed that he had used her emotions and seduced her to further his plans. He thought over the way she gave herself so freely when he asked. When he was vulnerable, she strengthened him and said yes she wanted him even with fear in her eyes. She was everything he needed, and he denounced her in front of others. "I betrayed her. At the first opportunity, I betrayed her."
Thranduil came to a stop and stared blankly into the distance at the darkness of the hall. He guessed it was like his future. Straight, empty and led only to darkness.
He leaned against a wall remembering when he vowed to her that he would not press her to know the identity of the ring bearer – the feeling from that moment was that she was delicate and rare. He thought of how it felt like their lives were entwining as their bodies moved together in rapture. He thought of how he had almost killed the healers. His jealousy at Legolas for paying attention to her and at Celeborn for mentioning her attractiveness that spurred his deranged lunatic rant. The silence of her heart as her face contorted in pain. His panic at the mention of her possible death. The way he needed her more than anything in existence.
Thranduil turned sharply at an intersection and cursed himself several times in Elvish within his own mind before he whispered. "I truly love her."
He strode on knowing that he had to plead his case to her. His mind glazed over again with a single determination. Alyssa.
A voice brought Alyssa back to consciousness. She couldn't understand what he was saying, but she reached up letting her hand rest on his heart. The rhythmic beating became her focus even as soft hair brushed over her hand and arm.
"I had a bad dream." A smile curved her lips. "You were angry at me, and I couldn't figure out why."
A whispered voice responded, "My Lady."
Alyssa became aware that strong arms held her, but her mind couldn't focus.
"You were given a calming potion. It will wear off soon." A masculine voice offered.
Alyssa patted his chest then ran her hand in his long hair. Her eyes opened, and she vaguely noticed something was wrong. The color was wrong, but she didn't care. "I love you."
Tauriel swiftly moved out of a side corridor she had ran down. She almost bumped into a member of her guard.
Tauriel looked down the long open hall to see the Elvenking of Mirkwood standing half way down it and knew he had heard everything that was said.
Thranduil started forward again – sword in hand extended to the side.
Tauriel spoke over her shoulder, "Get her in the room." At this point, she didn't see the guard living past the next few minutes. He was Denewen, her second in command's younger brother and Legolas's childhood friend.
Denewen had his back to the door that held the humans, and he stepped backward toward it. Another guard was already opening the door for him.
Alyssa glanced up seeing Thranduil moving closer. The calming potion was still active. "You're in two places at once." She giggled not understanding the peril of the situation.
Tauriel stood her ground and extended her empty arms out to the side knowing to Thranduil it appeared a man was happily carrying his woman off as she spoke of loving the other man. "My Lord. Please."
"You will not keep her from me." Thranduil advanced and the floor shook with his anger.
"He was protecting her." Tauriel heard the door close behind her and the guards that had been standing outside the door pressed themselves back against it. She knew none of them would raise a hand against their Elvenking and even if they fought he would dispatch them in moments. Only words stood a chance of saving Denewen's life.
Thranduil slowed when the Elves before him kneeled. "From what?"
She couldn't think of anything else. "You my Lord."
He stopped a few feet from her as his mind needed to know how Alyssa was being threatened. "Elaborate."
"My Lord your anger could bring the mountain down on us…her. Down on her."
He blinked at Tauriel then the door. The trembling of the mountain stopped.
Tauriel hoped she was getting through to him. She didn't think he would kill her, but because of the coldness of his glair she believed Denewen was still in danger. "You pledged yourself in a bond with her. Your anger could cause you to harm her my Lord."
Thranduil took a few deep breaths then moved around her. "Move or die."
The guards flung themselves to the side hoping they were out of the reach of his sword. The swishing sound of the sword let them know they were but just barely.
Alyssa blinked up at the Elf who was carrying her backwards. "Who are you?"
"Denewen my Lady." He crossed the large communal room and went straight to one of the bed chambers. He gently placed her on a bed knowing from the sounds that the other humans were asleep in their own rooms. For now anyway.
"What's happening?"
"You were ill, and I brought you here to rest."
"Ill? The wine then the potion. Yes, it's kind of foggy. Wait. Why do you look so worried?" She sat up feeling a throbbing in her head.
"Because my Lady, I am about to die." Denewen straightened and took a step back. "Tell Legolas – Namaarie."
"Farewell?" Alyssa turned at the sound at the door.
Thranduil strode forward sword in hand and never slowed his advance on Denewen.
Alyssa slid off the bed and extended her arm toward the Elf that was even now closing his eyes. "No!"
The silver sword halted a mere hair width from her forearm that blocked Denewen's neck. Her shuttering breath caused her body to flinch; her skin lightly touched the blade edge that was sharpened finer than a razor.
Alyssa gasped as her blood dripped down her perfectly smooth skin.
Thranduil jerked his wrist and arm back slinging the sword across the room to cut half way into the wall. Screams came from the common room, and he ignored it. He lunged forward grabbing her arm to inspect the wound only to see that it was already healed.
Alyssa let out a screech and tried to pull back. Her heart hammered in her chest causing her to gasp in air.
Thranduil scooped her up and set her back on the bed. "I harmed you."
The burning in her arm disappeared, and she focused on taking deep breaths. The fog in her mind was gone now. She remembered everything. The meeting. His painful words in Elvish. Her collapse. The Elf who was even now kneeled by her bed waiting for his death to come.
When her heart slowed, she found her voice. "Yes."
Thranduil saw on her face and in her eyes that she wasn't just talking about her arm.
He glanced down knowing his own shame, and his peripheral vision caught trace of Denewen. He tipped his head to see him more fully. His anger stirred again at the sight of seeing a man in her chamber.
"Don't hurt him."
Thranduil's eyes clouded over with a mixture of jealousy and anger. "You said you loved him and now you do not wish him hurt?"
"He helped me."
Thranduil stood and turned to the other Elf.
Alyssa closed her eyes and pressed a hand over her heart. She pictured the video she watched of Thranduil beheading the Orc; she trembled as the image shifted so that the kind Elf now took its place. Tears rolled down her face as she spoke. "I know I mean nothing to you, but please. Don't."
Alyssa waited. Dread filled her at knowing the slicing liquid sound of metal piercing flesh was coming. The end of a life.
Thranduil slid his sword into its scabbard and heard Alyssa jerk on the bed. The sound of her flinching at his movements was as a slice along his heart. She feared him and thought herself unimportant to her. He knew it was his own fault.
His voice whispered out. "Leave us."
Denewen kept his head lowered as he slowly made his way to the doorframe where Tauriel stood. She gripped his arm and pulled him from the room shoving him sideways toward Galadriel who was chanting a rune on the backside of the door.
Thranduil saw wide eyed humans gaping at him from the main chamber. His mind registered that they were important to her, so they should be important to him as well. "Remove everyone from this area. Send out hunters. See that the humans are unharmed and fed meat."
Tauriel closed the door and ushered the shocked humans out into the hall. She shut the outer door as well. She watched Galadriel chanting till small lights flickered over that door . "What does it do?"
Galadriel smiled. "They will not wish to open the doors or leave the room. It will also drain the sickness from him. When he recovers, his bond will stop taxing her emotions as strongly as it is now. For now, she will feel everything magnified, but the potion she was given will keep her alive while her body becomes stronger."
Tauriel hoped it would buy them some time to remove the male guards. "How long will till he is himself again?"
"Without the runes, Celeborn took a couple decades. It is what prompted me to create the rune. With the enchantment in place and undisturbed, Elrond calmed in a couple hours."
Tauriel pressed a hand to her stomach letting out the breath she was holding. "A couple hours. That is good." As they walked away, she thought of Legolas and the fact that the rune would never be used for them.
Galadriel glanced at her. "I would not be so sure if I were you."
Tauriel's face flushed. "I fear there is no hope."
"There was no hope, but there is now."
"What hope do I have my Lady? The Elvenking has already spoken about this matter."
Galadriel took her hand and wrapped their arms together as they walked. "Before today, did you think a human girl could cause the said Elvenking to almost kill his own men in a fit of jealousy?"
Tauriel scoffed still not believing it happened.
Galadriel laughed. "Maybe I am mistaken, but you gave a speech, and he took action against the Elvenking's wishes. Right?"
Tauriel thought of how Legolas came for her then helped her hunt the Orc.
"Besides, I believe the new Elvenqueen is a romantic, and she is developing a habit of saving those who anger him. I would venture she would have a sympathetic ear to your plight if you still wish to pursue Legolas and one day become Elvenqueen after her. Just something to think over for the next thousand years."
Tauriel nodded.
"We're back here again." Alyssa made it a statement. She told herself not to hope because last time she did her heart was ripped from her chest. It was still in pieces and seeing him pulled the parts farther away from each other.
"I have never been in this chamber." Thranduil spoke still listening to her heart expecting it to stop at any moment like he had heard before in the meeting room. He glanced at her face seeing it red and her neck blotchy with color.
"No. I'm back in bed looking like I have a fever. And you are pretending to care." She believed he had some ulterior motive, and felt like a fool because his nearness comforted her.
"Do you have a fever?" His mind cleared to some degree as he focused on her noticing for the first time that parts of her hair were lighter, but his concern pushed those thoughts away.
"Did I last time?"
"No."
"There's your answer Einstein." She shook her head trying to let go of her temper. "After everything you said…why are you here? What game are you playing now? If there is something you want from me, just ask. I'll tell you so you can leave the pitiful human alone."
He stood unmoving.
"No, nothing?" Alyssa thought of the Lord of the Rings and how Bilbo went to live in Rivendell when he was old. "Do you think that once you are done with me that Elrond will let live out my old age in Rivendell?" Her eyes glassed over at the thought that it would most likely be the best she could hope. "It should be safe there till they go to the Undying Lands. No, I'll be dead by then, so I don't have anything to worry about. Yes, can you ask him if he will send someone for me when I get old?"
Thranduil gave no outward reaction even as he felt her torment as his own. Each word from her mouth was as a hundred dagger strikes to his heart; it healed with each pause then began again with her next few words. He knew dragon fire was less painful than what he was currently enduring.
She continued. "But I may not live that long. Even now, you could make me answer questions about the ring. You could make the other humans talk too. Snap our arms in a few places and we would probably blurt it out. It would have been better if we never came here." She blinked and stared at the ceiling. "You see, I don't have the strength to kill my friends out there then to kill myself…not even to save the whole of Middle Earth. I truly wish the mutated wolf thing had killed me out by the river. It would have been less painful than this."
Thranduil's own heart had a problem beating when she casually spoke of committing suicide and how she was almost shredded to death by a Warg. Sacrificing herself for complete strangers some of which were his own people.
His vision failed momentarily as he pictured what he would have seen if he arrived later and she had managed to end her own life or if the Warg had gotten a hold of her. He saw the drip of blood on her arm take on a whole new life as a vivid image appeared, that was helped along by his own memories of his previous Elvenqueen's death. The horror in his mind resulted in the red ruin of Alyssa's body. Eyes open fixed in the distance, the metallic smell of blood in the air.
Alyssa pressed a hand to her mouth then wiped back tears. "I'm not strong like you are. The lives of the many outweigh the lives of the few. I can't do it, so eventually you will get your answer then the Dark Lord wins. Yes, Galadriel was right. Even the smallest person can change the course of the future. That phrase always brought me hope, but now…I guess that makes me the Destroyer of Worlds."
Her eyes widened with understanding that eventually she would tell him what he wanted and every person on every movie about Middle Earth would be dead at the hands of Mordor. She thought about the women and children at Helm's Deep. Her mind wandered over Rivendell and the Shire. She would be their death.
He kneeled beside the bed at seeing her eyes staring out like the dead. He leaned forward bracing himself with his arms. He saw the anguish on her face. She wasn't making even the slightest attempt to hide it. He was not use to such blatant honesty.
He opened his mouth to speak, but words didn't come out. He didn't know how to express his deep sorrow at his action and words toward her. Yes, he determined…he had harmed her…in every way possible. Physically, emotionally, mentally. He knew he had taken the joyful smiling girl he met not long ago and turned her into a sorrow filled wreck desolate of all hope.
Words failed him under the immensity of the emotion in that revelation. He gave up trying and laid his head down on the bed. His ragged breaths were the only sound in the room as tears fell from his closed eyes. A soft hand brushed at his hair, and he existed in that moment of kindness from the one he hurt so badly.
Thranduil fought the urge to pull away, but he also didn't want to leave the room. Her contact was something he needed, but her gentle care with him after his atrocities only added to his torment.
He peered up at her now vacant eyes knowing he had to find a way to fix things. "Forgive me."
"For being you? The Elvenking?" Her face remained frozen staring at the ceiling. "You're who you are. You don't need forgiveness. Just ask me who the ring bearer is so the world can end."
A/N: *glances back at warnings for this fic and pause to think how true they were* OK, I need a minute. Alright, time to make it better. Deep breath.