An Arrow or Two || Legolas/LotR

Prologue

Elrond would never forget the day Astella was brought back to Imaldris after the death of her parents. As long as he existed he would never forget the look on her face, the fear in her eyes, the whiteness of her skin as she shivered atop the horse against the body of his son, Elladan, clinging to his tunic like she didn't know how not to hold on. 

He'd sent out his twin sons after news of Orc movement the day after her parents had set out on a trip to Lórien, where her father was from, so the young Astella could see the home of her people for the first time. Fearing for their safety he sent his twin sons out as scouts; and upon their return the horrid truth of what had happened was revealed. The circumstances had been so similar to the one which had claimed his wife it was sickening. 

His sons had found her not too far from the site where the young elleth and her parents had gotten caught in the skirmish; she had been very young. Mostly unharmed, but very shaken. She had been young, but old enough to hold a heavy trauma on her heart for ever.

Elrond had known her parents; two beautiful Elves who dwelled in Rivendell, friends of his wife Celebrían. Her mother hailed from Rivendell, but her father from Lórien. He had left the beauty of the trees in Lórien to be with her, and so Rivendell was where Astella was born and raised. Astella had always been a shy little elleth, but her cheeks had always been rosy and her eyes had always been bright. For years after losing her parents she may have seemed a mere shadow of the bright young child, but Elrond discovered she still possessed unnameable amounts of lightness, kindness and hope. It did not take long for Elrond to take her into his house, adopting her and raising her with the same love as he gave his very own.

And then when she would ask him time and time again to recount to her long stories of old, even as she grew into adulthood, he felt she had great things ahead of her.

Darkness spread through Middle-earth, and he knew she would have a role to play in bringing back the sunlight.