New Beginnings

chapter 1

Thranduil awoke to the soft glimmer of light from the sun, the silken sheets of his bed cool under his skin. He blinked, his long dusty brown lashes fanning across his milky white skin. He grimaced at the ting of pain that stung him with his every move of his body. He sat up clenching his fist tightly in his hands. He hated this. He hated that his face, something he treasured so greatly was disfigured by the dragon. The dragon which also killed his wife.

It may be true that she was not his soul mate, hers having died centuries before they met. However, he loved her. With a pinched scowl, he sat up to stare at the monster in the mirror. The ghastly holes in the left side of his face had muscles so ruined by dark magic they could never be healed. That deep cut that ran up his face and the various burn scars on the upper left side of his body, pained him for years and years. The dark magic continued to eat at his flesh, never disappearing, never leaving him alone. This was a result of dragon fire.

His left eye was blind as well, murky blue and unseeing. It throbbed with a horrible ache, which greatly spoiled his mood. He rarely smiled these days. The pain reminded him during his every wakening moment of all his faults, his worries and his sorrow. Each day, he had to cast a glamour on himself to even dare to walk out of his room. Sometimes he would question the Valar, wondering what he had done in his previous life to have to suffer this fate. This fate of constantly bearing great pain, shouldering the lives of his people and being without a soul mark.

Every living creature that walked Middle Earth were blessed with another half, their soul mates. While men were known to not have a soul mark unlike the other races. Elves however, appear to glow to their other halves, it is how they find each other, as well as having each other's names tattooed on their skin. Not to mention, the soulmate of an elf would appeal to the elf beyond measure. This was how elves found their true love.

Elrond had been up for hours, this morning upon readying for the day found on his hip a mark etched into his skin as it turns out he would have to make a journey to green wood Thranduil and himself shared a soulmate.