The Light in the Darkness

Chapter 2: Beginnings

Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter!

Just a quick note, Adar means Father.

Disclaimer: I sadly do not own The Lord of the Rings franchise. I only own the story, Lin and Neera who tells the story.

"Finrod!" I shouted from my position, my bow in my hand to my side. Moments ago an arrow of light had been released towards my opponent. "I dhôl gîn lost!"

[Your head is empty!]

The man in question lay on the ground in utter embarrassment, almost shaking. Serves him right, I would say.

Finrod, one of my father's finest new recruits, had challenged me to a duel. The reason? The upstart believed that he was more capable and skilled of being my father's second in command than myself. While many did tell him to back off from his challenge, he refused. Knowing what would happen if my father found out, I kept it hidden from as many people as I could. I wanted to at least spare the man his dignity. If my father found out, it would be less than a pleasant experience for him.

People often challenged me because they knew I could handle their all. Because I was the daughter of the crown prince, they knew that I was the closest they would ever get to a difficult opponent. My father never liked fighting in ranks, so he left the challengers to me.

Because I was second in command to my father.

I often told them that while we were in combat to not think of me as their princess. I asked them to merely think of me as one of their own. Death is the one constant thing in life that takes what it wants regardless of one's status or other forms of identity. It would never treat me any differently just because I was the Crown Prince's daughter, and neither should they. As such, when we were in the ring, I offered them to not hold back with me.

It didn't matter though. I always ended up winning all of the challenges, no matter how good of a fight they put up. Unfortunately, only my father would ever be the person to win against me.

I was Shasta's descendant and the daughter of the son of the king. As such, I was a formidable opponent for anyone. I was the second strongest warrior in the Woodland Realm. With my mother's bow, my father's training, and my legacy as the descendant of Shasta, it was not an easy feat to take me down. Anyone who wanted to challenge me needed to do so out of respect and desire to better themselves.

A lesson this boy learned in the worst way possible.

Now, he was on the ground in a sorry state. A crater next to his head that had been left there by an arrow of light. I never used arrows of light during these battles out of respect for my opponent. But as this boy needed to be taught a lesson in humility, I brought them out.

"You were just appointed to my father's side and this is how you repay him? Now I accept any challenger into this arena, that is true. But showing up with such arrogance and utter disregard for your leader and his daughter? Now, that is just shameful. If my father knew about this, you would be immediately dismissed."

The boy looked at the ground in embarrassment.

I told him after he was done making an utter fool of himself that I wouldn't tell my father about this. He should consider himself to be fortunate.

And thus, Finrod left the arena with his head bowed in shame.

"You let him off too easily," a voice said.

I looked to my right. Lin, my identical twin sister who was leaning up against one of the nearby trees. After Lin was done with her daily activities and warding off men's proposals, she would come here to guide me home.

"Perhaps, but it was still the right thing to do," I responded, putting all of my weapons away and walking towards her. "He no knows that he can never act like that ever again. If he challenged Father, it would be far worse."

"You must not get too soft, sister," Lin scolded.

I laughed at that.

"I released an arrow of light towards his head and you're calling me too soft? Ci pechannas!" [You're an idiot.]

I never usually talked back to my sister, but this was one of those rare moments where I felt as though I had to. This was my area of expertise. She had no right to question my motives in matters like this.

"You know how I feel about you fighting here with Father's warriors," she said sternly. "You know that…"

I sighed inwardly. "I know. One of them could potentially be my destined one and that I should be careful. But Lin. If one of them was, I would have known it by now. Each time I look at one of them, I feel absolutely nothing. You have nothing to worry about. I am prepared to act whenever it is necessary."

Lin sighed. "Alright. Just be cautious."

Just to prove my point, I took three arrows from my quiver without warning and shot them at the targets. A perfect strike on each one. I laughed. "With you by my side, thêl, I find it hard not to be."

We had a good laugh over that as we exited the fighting area.

"Come along, Neera. We have to go wait around for Grandfather."

"Why? You know he's going to be late, per usual."

Despite Lin's overprotective nature, she was my very best friend. In fact, due to her stubbornness, she was my only friend. She often said that since we born into this world to die, there was no point in making such relations. From the time we came into this world, we were practically inseparable. We did everything together. When we were younger, we even traded places several times to see if Father would ever notice the difference. Most of the time, we were not successful in fooling him. As we grew older, it was easier to do so. Even though Lin and I had gone in different paths in terms of our skills, we nevertheless knew that we would always be at the other's side. We came into this world together and we planned to keep it that way.

That being said, Lin's paranoiac behavior was irrational at this point in our lives. We both knew what was at stake here. I knew Lin meant well, but her overprotective nature could be quite overbearing at moments like this. I knew everyone here in Mirkwood and yet each time I met someone new, I felt no feelings of warmth or comfort. It became clear that Lin's plan of isolation in Mirkwood was working just fine. Neither of us ever felt any temptation of any kind in that regard. We both tended to keep to ourselves. Despite many men coming forward to ask Lin for her hand, she always refused. No men ever approached me, so it all worked out just fine. We were constantly alone or with each other. We had no choice, she said. For our entire life, I had just made do with listening to my sister. I was so desperate to protect my father that I just had Lin make all the decisions. This isolation in Mirkwood was for our own safety. I knew all of that.

But something inside of me always told me that this wasn't really living. We used to travel all the time when we were younger. I missed those days terribly. There was a new adventure every day and I missed the feeling I always got when we traveled. I yearned for adventure again. I yearned for the outside world. I had grown so accustomed to the world of Mirkwood that I had grown unbearably tired of it.

Today, Lin and I were waiting at the beginning of Mirkwood for the arrival of our Grandfather, whom we hadn't seen in several months. While I longed to hear about the world I would never be allowed to see, I did miss Grandfather and his old wisdom.

While Lin exceeded with her magic lessons with him, I could listen to Grandfather for hours talking about his adventures in far-off places. He had a very ancient and unique way of telling stories. As if he turned back time and took you there with him at the exact moment it happened. The details of his adventures were always so vivid, I could see them almost as well as he could. Not that my father didn't sometimes go outside of Mirkwood. But honestly, Father was horrible at storytelling and he knew it well. Lin really couldn't care less about the outside world, unless it was a description of how to better utilize her magic training.

I had learned so many life lessons from the age-old history that he would tell us. While Lin couldn't care less, I honestly could never get tired of hearing Grandfather's voice and his many stories. When he came, it was honestly like I could forget my troubles for a couple hours, forget about everything. Forget that I had a very overbearing sister (even though I loved her) and a deadly and despair filled curse upon me.

That one day I would suffer the same fate as my mother.

I shoved those thoughts quickly from my mind as I heard an old man singing in the distance.

Lin looked up as well and we looked at each other with a big smile of excitement and we both stood up.

"Race you there?" I asked.

"Already got you beaten!" Lin said teasingly, running ahead. I smirked and ran after her.

We ran with eagerness. It had been too long since we last saw Grandfather. We had missed him terribly. I had missed him so much. Our bond with him was unlike any other bond we had.

At the time, I was unaware that he was going to give me the opportunity of a lifetime that would lead me to meet the love of my life.

Now begins our story.

The story of how I met my true love begins here.

It began with Grandfather.

Lin and I always looked forward to his visits to Mirkwood. We would learn so much from him in the way of magic, language and the world that we had yet to see.

Lin always scolded Grandfather for telling me stories of his travels around Middle Earth. Grandfather got the name of the Wandering Wizard for this reason. As I said before, after we learned of our tragic fate, Lin and I shut ourselves away from the world outside of Mirkwood. Lin, a girl who used to enjoy adventure and surprises, turned her back on the world and her interest to explore. As a child, she loved both of those things with all of her heart The smile on her face was always a sight to witness. But now, she shut those things out of her life. Lin had lost the desire to leave Mirkwood. But I didn't.

Despite what I knew what was at stake, I always had an urge to go outside and see the world. A desire that my sister had long left behind. Since Lin and I were always together, we never left home. I missed the warmth of the sun. The softness of the wind. And the look of the grass and the trees that were not of our forest. It had been so long. I knew it was for my own protection. But that didn't stop me from desiring to leave. Lin didn't want either of us to be tempted to fall in love by going anywhere different, so she insisted we stay home. While over the years I realized that Lin's determination was quite problematic, I didn't question her reasoning. I didn't want to be tempted at all by love to suffer the fate that the rest of our ancestors had suffered.

So in order to avoid that, we vowed to isolate ourselves inside Mirkwood for the rest of eternity. I wanted to mention to Lin that the same thing could happen here with the newcomers to the army, but I knew it would be futile to argue with Lin. My sister was the type of person who would continue to defend her decision nonstop, even if it was proven thoroughly that she was wrong.

It had been so long since we had seen Grandfather.

It was hard for him to keep the name "the Wandering Wizard" and not keep true to his name. Sadly, he would disappear and come and go whenever he pleased. It was very hard to tell when we would see him and for how long he would stay with us. There were several times where Lin and I didn't see him for over a year and a half. We were very worried that something terrible had happened to him. Thankfully, Grandfather was a very powerful wizard who was not to be underestimated. While we did understand that, it was still very unnerving to not see your family for over a year and a half.

But as we talked with him, it was as if time hadn't passed at all since his last visit. He showed us magic and the way of the sword, sang us songs, smoked his horrendous pipe with awful smells, and told us of the many places he had traveled to. This part enjoyed me to no end but only left Lin scolding Grandfather for filling my head with wild stories.

Sometimes I think that Lin acts more like a halfling than an actual elf with the way she feels about never leaving home.

After a while, there came the two dreaded questions: how long was Grandfather staying and how long would he be gone this time?

To which he answered:

"Sadly, I'll only be here the evening. In the morning, I have to set off again."

My heart sank at these words. I knew Lin felt sadness as well even though she was too proud to show it. It had been so long since we had seen him and now he was suddenly leaving. He had never been in this much of a rush to leave in any of his visits before. Who knew how long he'd be gone this time?

"How long will you be gone this time? Not over a year again?" I asked, worrying he'd be gone for a longer time than he had in the past.

Grandfather laughed. "Not for that long again, Neera. I'll only be going to a place called the Shire for a very old and dear friend's birthday party. He'll be a hundred and eleven years old!"

Lin and my eyes widened at this ridiculous number. No halfling could ever live that long. He had to have been joking.

"We are talking about the Hobbit species, yes?" Lin said, sarcastically.

"Indeed, Grandfather. Is this another one of your tricks? They're called halflings for a reason," I said, in complete disbelief.

It was unheard of for a halfling to live to be a hundred and eleven years old.

"You're quite right, my dear. To tell the truth, that's only part of the reason why I'm going to see my old friend. To find out exactly why he has managed to live so long. If it is what I feared, well..."

He began to trail off and Lin and I could both see that he was trying to hide something from us. He brushed it off and smiled, placing a hand on each of our shoulders.

"Well, regardless I shall be gone for a while I'm afraid. But I'll be here all tonight so please, allow us to make the most of the time that we have, hmmm?"

I tried to do as he said but failed terribly. As the rest of the day went on, I found it harder and harder to accept that Grandfather was leaving again so soon.

It also bothered me that he looked so troubled when talking about going back to the Shire. How could a halfling live to be a hundred and eleven years old. From what I had read about them, living to be that age was simply unheard of.

It made no sense to me and it bothered me to no end.

So during dinner when Grandfather was off talking to my father's father, I simply couldn't help but notice how worried and unnerved he was. The King seemed to be unmoved at these 'ravings' as I heard him say to my Grandfather. After dinner was over, it was time for Lin magic practice with Grandfather. As I watched, I just continued to be worried and unsettled in a way that I knew that Lin and the King were not.

Perhaps I'm just overthinking things.

"You seem troubled, Mui -iel." a familiar voice said. [My daughter]

I turned around to see my father, Legolas, coming over and taking a seat next to me.

"Adar," I said, acknowledging his presence.

He greeted me with a small smile.

"I heard what you did to Finrod, Neera."

I didn't even react. I had a feeling that Father would find out eventually.

"It was the honorable thing for you to do. However, I do not believe you should have hidden such a disrespectful act from me as your commander and as your father."

I sighed. "He's young and impulsive. It was bound to happen sooner or later with him, Father."

"Regardless, I should call for him to be dismissed."

"Adar," I said firmly. "The reason I accepted the duel in the first place was to teach him a lesson. If I hadn't accepted his challenge, I would have broken my vow of equal challenging. Also, if I hadn't accepted, he would never have learned respect."

We were father and daughter, but when it came to events like this, we could speak to each candidly as equals.

Father was silent for several moments before speaking again.

"Very well. I will honor your request. But if he were to do it again…"

"I will let you handle it."

Father smiled softly again.

"Now what's troubling you?" he asked again.

"Is it that obvious?" I said, ashamed.

"I am your father. It's my obligation to know when you're troubled about something."

I smiled and looked down again.

A series of intense colors came into view of Lin learning another spell from Grandfather.

I grew jealous at the people who would witness his fireworks at the halfling's birthday party. I knew he wasn't the most powerful wizard in the world, but he certainly was one of the unique. He brought joy to people's hearts as he did to my family. After mother died, he was very sad and I imagine that like Father, he still is. But despite that, he's managed to put that behind him and continue to move forward. They both knew that Mother would have wanted that for them. I envied them for that. All I can feel is nothing but guilt for what happened to her. My existence is what killed her and even though Father told me that she wanted both of us, I still felt responsible.

Father always told me that like my mother, I was not very skilled in hiding how I truly felt. This was one of those times.

I sighed.

"It's just something he said," I said worriedly, my eyes still on the scene of color in front of me.

"What did he say?" Father said, obviously concerned.

"He said that he was leaving sooner than he expected..." I began.

"And that's unexpected to you?"

"And that he was leaving to see his halfling friend and go bring his magic and fireworks to his birthday party. But that wasn't all he said: he said that he was concerned at how this halfling had reached such an extreme age and then his face darkened. It was almost as something dark had traveled through his thoughts." I turned to face my father. "Almost as if something he feared was happening. Like something bad was going to happen."

Father showed a face of concern and then placed an arm around my shoulders.

"Your powers of deduction rival even my own. If you feel that something is wrong, you must be correct. If you feel this way, then you must speak to your Grandfather in private later this evening. I cannot tell you whether you are right or wrong. Only he can do that for you."

I nodded. Of course, as always, my father was right. Sitting here and worrying about this in the unknown was not going to get me any answers. I knew I couldn't let him leave going off into potential and dangerous situations. He wasn't leaving until he told me what is going on.

I walked amongst the magnificent trees to find Grandfather's carriage and gentle horse. No doubt he was properly preparing them both for the long journey that expected him in the morning. As the carriage came into view, I instantly saw the multiple and colorful different fireworks of his. I had no doubt that he was undoubtedly going to ceremoniously present to the halflings at tomorrow's amazing festivities. I almost envied them. It had been many years since we had seen his fireworks. The King was significantly old fashioned and cold about anything enjoyable. I know precisely he was naturally my true grandfather, but he certainly didn't act like one to me. He was cold and cruel towards my beloved father. Since Father married my mother, the King had done nothing but intentionally make Father's eternal life a living hell. Since Mother's death, he acted as though mine and my sister's existence was nothing more than a chief hindrance. If we had born boys, I highly doubt we would be treated like this. While Lin and Father often told me not to talk back to him, I did anyway. No one treats my father with such disrespect. Not even my own King. It was precisely why I merely called him the King instead of the title of Grandfather. He wasn't such a person to me.

Gandalf was my true grandfather, even if we weren't related by blood.

"Plan on saying an early goodbye?" a familiar voice said earnestly.

I smiled gently. I knew I wasn't going to be able to keep my diplomatic cover for very long around him.

"I just had wanted to talk to you before you left in the morning."

He chuckled warmly and made a gesture to sit by the nearby tree, away from his carriage and his horse. I petted him affectionately before going to my grandfather. Needless to say, I was nervous. I will freely admit it. I was not recognized as the aggressive twin who always speaks her mind freely and gets furious if someone lies to her. Lin was known for her harsh hits to the face and her even harsher tongue. No, out of the two of us, I was the more passive twin with my mannerisms. Most certainly not in battle, but I was not one to accuse another person unless I deemed it necessary. I took after my father in that respect. Grandfather seemed unusually concerned when he mentioned his friend's long life and not to mention, it was unheard of to hear a mere halfling could live to be a hundred and eleven years old. To me, it seemed as though it was impossible unless he had something to preserve his body.

I was forced out of my thinking by Grandfather's voice.

"So, what could possibly be troubling my granddaughter that she leaves her chamber in the middle of the night?" he said, kindly.

"Well, a princess never really has the benefit of sleep, Grandfather and you know that," I said, sinking into my usual avoidance in conversation when I really just wanted to ask him what was really going on.

He chuckled again. "Now, I know my granddaughter didn't come all the way out here in the middle of the night to tell me about her sleeping habits, now did she?"

I sighed. At least this would now bring us more to the point.

"Alright, you caught me." I sighed again but forced myself to speak.

"I know my Grandfather wouldn't be going so soon after being gone for months on end unless it was something truly important and potentially dangerous."

I began losing my confidence in the words I was saying, so I looked at the floor as I continued speaking.

"A halfling living past his life expectancy? You and I both know that that's beyond unnormal. Unless..."I looked up."You think something not normal caused that not normal age limit, something dangerous that you need to find immediately."

He seemed both surprised and yet not surprised at all as I accused him of all these things. I stopped my speech and looked up at him seriously.

"Grandfather, we both know I'm not a fool. Please tell me what's going on, please. I can't stand it when you go off into terrible danger. Grandfather..."

"You never told me you were so concerned with my coming and going quite often. I do have a reputation of being the Wandering Wizard. I always assumed, but you're always so quiet, my dear..."

"Grandfather," I said, sternly, wanting to get back to the point.

He sighed and looked at me, with the same look and emotions that he had been trying so hard to hide when Lin and I were with him earlier. He knew I was not foolish enough to fall for that trick anymore. I think he knew it was time to stop stalling and tell me what was going on. He looked at me seriously.

"Neera, I hope that I am very wrong, but I'm afraid that there's great evil in the Shire might be a threat to the whole world, not just the Shire itself. Something that for so long we thought was hidden and forgotten." I stared at him and his look of worry returned. "I'm hoping I'm wrong, but I am concerned that the long life of my dear friend might've been due to the same thing that brought Isildur madness. The thing that took your mother away from you and your father."

My eyes widened and my heart stopped at the realization that the thing my Grandfather was referring to was the One Ring of power. The thing that bound the women and men of my line to the horrible curse of love, despair, madness and eventual death.

It had brought so much death and destruction to so many people but its power could give invisibility and long life to whoever its master was. That would explain why Grandfather's halfling friend had lived so long.

That was a symbol that the ring didn't belong to him.

My father once searched for years to find the Ring of Power and keep my mother alive. But as the Ring had been lost for thousands of years, he and my mother both knew he would never be able to accomplish this. If the Ring of Power was indeed in the Shire, my grandfather wouldn't be the only person in danger.

"You're certain?" I said, still in shock over everything he just explained to me.

"I am not certain, and I certainly hope I am dreadfully wrong. If Sauron knew of its whereabouts..."

I nodded, I knew what it meant. The whole world would fall to darkness.

"And that's why you need to go in the morning, why you need to go to the Shire..."

"Yes, I know I have burdened you with this information, and you can't tell this to anyone, not even your father."

There was no way that I was merely going to willingly allow one of the most important people in my life travel to the Shire alone under these dire circumstances. Where the evilest and malice creation ever brought into Middle Earth could have made its hiding place for however long that halfling may have had it.

I knew precisely I had no practical knowledge of how to live outside this forest, that I was young and impulsive, that my twin sister would never allow it. I instantly comprehended all of this. But I was not allowing my beloved grandfather to depart without someone to help keep him safe in case things became treacherous.

It is possible it was merely me being horribly scared, paranoid or even just impulsive. Nevertheless, this was the One Ring of Power.

If that was accurate, there would be savage and vicious people would stop at nothing to return it to Sauron. The Ring would desire that, too. It had been over three thousand years since Isildur betrayed Shasta. I knew that in the three thousand years since it passed out of knowledge, it yearned to return to Sauron's hand. Grandfather would be in danger.

Knowing all of these things, I said:

"I'm going with you."

"You'll do no such thing..."

"Please don't argue with me, Grandfather. I don't care what Lin says about the world, this is more serious than I expected it would be. The thing that curses Lin and I will cause war and with that, you will be in great danger. More danger than you have ever gone off to before. And I can't sit here while you say you're off to a mere birthday party when in reality, it's to see if the Ring has been found. If it has been found, then I must go see for myself. No. I'm going with you."

"Do you know what it is you're saying? To leave Mirkwood to a world that you have no experience with?" he said solemnly, calmly.

I knew that, but...I still couldn't back down.

"I'm not budging, Grandfather and I don't care how much Lin will yell and harshly criticize me...Well, I do, but that's not going stopping me. Please, Grandfather. Just this once and after the party is over, I will go back to Mirkwood and never talk about leaving again. I solemnly promise."

"You swear to me, granddaughter?"

"Absolutely."

"I have a feeling you're not being sincere."

"Grandfather, Elves are not known for their lack of emotional sincerity. I would have thought you knew me better."

There was a moment of tense silence as he considered what I was saying. We had these moments all the time when our conversation got too serious and then burst into us laughing. We both maintained our hard staring contest. We both tried extremely hard fighting back our laughter hidden behind our facades. He fought back his smile, and I did as well until we couldn't handle it anymore despite the seriousness of our conversation.

And with a smile, he said:

"Oh alright," he said, continuing to laugh with me. "I'll speak to your father, but you'll have to deal with the harder part of the bargain. Your enemy in this mission of yours has ne'er been your father or me."

I sighed while smiling. "You don't need to remind me."

I knew Lin was going being so hard to convince, but I didn't care. The day I had been waiting for my entire life had finally come. I knew Father would have to need some convincing and that it would take all the miracles in the world for Lin. Nevertheless, I was finally going to be rid of this place and see the world that Grandfather described. The world I had only seen a few times and I had envisioned only in my dreams. Now, I was going being able to see the world and all its little and beautiful wonders.

But what I didn't know was that the person I would meet would rival the world and its wonders. He would be far more beautiful and important than anything or anyone else.

Despite my pact never to fall in love...

Despite my knowledge that I would die if I ever did so...

Despite these fears, unbeknownst to me, I was going to meet Frodo Baggins. The love of my life.

When I did, nothing would ever again be as it was once.

That's it! I hope you enjoyed it!

I have always theorized that Gandalf has those moments of seriousness followed by laughter with many people. Not just Frodo. What better way to honor that than with his family?

Please review and favorite! I love feedback and knowing that I have supporters, which in turn give me the motivation to write more chapters!

Until next time!

Kagomehater4ever