Weaving a Song

Chapter 81

"I just do."

*

Thranduil could not complain of boredom. Between making sure battle preparations were taking place, making sure his warriors were ready for battle at any time, and running the rest of the kingdom, free time was laughable. When the time came, he was expected to lead the army and he would do so, with or without sleep and food.

His chef had finally become exasperated, which Thranduil actually found amusing, and when meal times hit, Thranduil could now expect to be tracked down by one of the servants and practically force fed his meal. That, he had decided, was not as amusing.

In preparation for an attack, all Elves of his realm were called nearer to the Palace which was now housing the majority of their nation, and borders were now being built up. The River served well enough on one side, but they now spent extra time using the trees that surrounded their border and that still listened to them to build up a thick wall around their nation upon which scouts were patrolling day and night. The Elves had also placed many traps in the surrounding areas, served to cripple the enemy before it reached them. Ropes were tied in the tops of all the trees in the area, and they would serve as bridges as they would fight from tree top to tree top.

Thranduil himself was using more energy than the members of his Guard liked. He spent time reinforcing the spells placed around the Palace and the surrounding area. He found that even though in the past few years he had started doing this already, the Enemy's magic was stronger than he liked for the spells he had placed only a few years ago were already starting to fail. In any case between his Guard and his chef, he had a lot of people constantly trying to track him down.

When he was not doing all of that, he met with his War Council now on an almost hourly basis, if not officially, unofficially. Ortherion had been called back, with the Prince gone he was the only one to take his place that had experience as a commander. Everyone was pooling all the resources they had, all trying to come up with the best strategies.

"Spiders will be in the trees, Orcs and Wargs on the ground."

"Sauron is cunning, he will bring something to surprise us."

"What can he do?"

"What can he not do?"

"The better questions to be asking are 'what can we do?' and 'what can we not do?'"

"And the healers? Do we leave them here to be called for when needed, or do we bring them with us?"

"Gentlemen, we have been preparing for this for years now, you are repeating questions we have already answered."

"How many troops do we have for sure? If we are leaving the youngest here…"

"I think the number is somewhere around 9000. We have lost many over the centuries fighting what comes from Dol Guldur."

"Sauron will send more."

"Hmmm, but we have a slight advantage, he has to spread his forces between us, Lórien, Dale, and Erebor."

"Yes, but that just means he will invent something to cripple us with less troops."

"We shall have to think as creatively as he does then. Think of all the ways we could be brought down, and then we can think of ways to counter them."

"Well and good, but what if the trees are now turning on us?"

"Not yet, Sauron would have to use a lot of resources to do such. Not only that, but I think the majority of his power is now in Mordor. The first battles will only be his way of weakening us. We just have to hope our Prince succeeds."

"If he doesn't? What then?"

"If he regains his own, I think we will be fighting a lost cause. We will not give up, however, and we will cling to the fool's hope we have. Take heart, we will never surrender, even if we are the last left."

"I think we all have agreed on that. The real question is, are we going to do this practically?"

These kind of speeches came and went everyday, never really changing. They did have over 9000 warriors, but they forced themselves to prepare to be the smaller army. They had lost much once before, and Thranduil had no intention of losing that many of his people again. He wanted them to mourn the least possible.

He decided that, if it was possible, the battle would be drawn away from the Palace. He hated risking the lives of the innocents, and started drawing up plans that could potentially let the battle take place a little further South where they could push the Enemy back to Dol Guldur. Knowing that the Enemy would never expect him to hold him off, Thranduil found he was glad Sauron was so arrogant at least at the moment. We will see when he comes. Thranduil thought. But I will die before Mirkwood falls.

Which reminded him, he had sent word back to Legolas. He had probably already received it, and it had probably scared him half to death. Thranduil had thought about telling Legolas that his sister had actually only gone to Lórien and that Haldir was the one who had taken her, but unfortunately, the Elvenking knew better than that.

He knew Almiel would not stay in Lórien forever, and that when she left, she would probably leave Haldir behind. Thus, the Elvenking wanted to make sure Legolas would not be under any false delusions either. He could not lie to his own son, not even to keep him from hurting. He would not give Legolas hope, only for Almiel to die before he knew any different. He would not have wanted that to happen to him, and he knew Legolas was more like him than he wanted him to be, and so now Legolas was probably in despair. I only hope he is able to be angry with me for making him assume she was gone this soon. Thranduil thought. Otherwise, it will mean all our fears have come true.

*Have a good journey, I will always love you.