The King's Lady | Thranduil x OC

Chapter 58

Thranduil stared at Legolas for a long time without saying anything. The silence in the study was deafening but the prince did not break it, simply giving his father time to digest what it was he'd just said.

"You?" Thranduil eventually exclaimed, frowning deeply at his son.

Legolas had watched Thranduil carefully in the silence that had followed his offer of going to Rivendell to deliver the message of Gollum's escape to Lord Elrond. He had not expected Thranduil to accept it with no objections. He knew it would be something that his father did not wish to consider. 

"Yes," the prince said simply as he nodded in reply, his gaze locked with the king's own.

Thranduil was so shocked that he had completely, for the moment, forgotten the uncomfortable ache of his face. He stared at his son with a look that could not quite be deciphered because there was far too much in it. "That... is unnecessary." Thranduil said a moment later. "I will send Callon. Or Tauriel." He added after a moment. Let her do something of use, he thought.

Legolas took a step over to where his father was standing and he shook his head quickly. "No. Please." 

Thranduil blinked, surprised by the almost pleading quality of his son's voice. "You... Legolas, I... I cannot let you, I cannot lo-" Lose you. Not again. Thranduil looked away, not wanting his eyes to betray the thoughts in his head. 

Legolas' expression softened and he reached out a hand, placing it on his father's shoulder, watching Thranduil look up at him once more. "Please, father." Legolas said and suddenly he felt a slight vulnerability creep up on him. He hesitated, unsure whether or not he should really say anything close to the truth of the matter. "I... I need to go." He said, watching his father frown at the word he chose. "I am... I feel restless. I cannot.. sit still, I cannot..." Legolas lowered his gaze, unsure how to even put it into words. 

Thranduil watched him for a long moment before he spoke, already understanding what Legolas meant somehow. "After what happened." He murmured. "To Laurina."

Legolas lifted his eyes back to Thranduil's face and he nodded. "I need to do something, go somewhere." He said. He felt all cooped up here in these halls, he felt like his mind was trapped as much as his physical body. He could not sit still and let himself sit with the grief and the misery, stewing on the guilt and the very intense way that he missed her. He needed to do something, travel, even if just for a while. "Please. Let me do this. I feel like I am going mad."

Thranduil stared at him in silence for a few long, heavy moments before he sighed and seemed to relent. He could see in the younger elf's eyes that Legolas would not be swayed. He had already known that his taste of freedom after Erebor had done him some good, the time apart from both him and the realm as a whole. He knew, too, that Legolas' friendship with Laurina had become something that his son cherished and something that even helped Legolas untangle the confusion and uncertainty that had long sat in his mind. The friendship they'd both shared had been a large part of Legolas' newfound sense of peace, he knew that, as well as Thranduil finally telling him the truth about his mother.

His son was grieving. Everybody grieved in their own way, he reminded himself, and perhaps this was how his son needed to begin healing. "All right. Fine." The King muttered. "But you will take guards. You will be careful."

Legolas smiled, the relief evident in his eyes, and he let out a soft chuckle. "You are forgetting I have been to Rivendell before. I have travelled the lands between there and here."

Thranduil's expression remained the same as he looked back at the young prince. "The world is changing, Legolas." He said quietly, recalling the reason Gandalf the Grey had brought the creature Gollum to stay in their dungeons at all. The ring of power. Sauron. Something flickered in his eyes. "It is becoming more dangerous."