Daughter of Starlight

Chapter Five: the Woodland Realm

"Laerornien?" The voice of the Tauriel, my friend from childhood who also happened to be the she-elf who had first noticed my presence, drew me away from my brother.

"Tauriel." I greeted her with another embrace, she with one of her own.

"Where have you been?" she asked me, looking as if she could hardly believe that I was standing in front of her.

"What do you mean?" My tone was one of confusion.

"You have been missing for so long," Legolas said as some more Silvan guards approached.

I took a step back as they drew their bows, expecting to be shot, but they only put them to their chests in a display of loyalty, bowing their heads to me.

They were showing their joy and relief that I had returned . . . but why? Didn't they have orders to kill me if I crossed the borders of Mirkwood? I had been banished not sixty years ago.

What was going on?

Before I could say anything else, Legolas ordered the guards to take the company of the dwarves to the palace.

"What are they doing?" I asked my brother as the Silvan elves led the dwarves away, their hands bound as if they were criminals. "Why have you bound them?"

"They are trespassing in our lands, therefore they must be brought to the king," Legolas explained.

I gave him a bemused look. "Everyone is free to travel the elven road." At least, that's how it was the last time I was here.

Legolas shook his head. "Not anymore. Not since you disappeared."

Disappeared? What were he and Tauriel talking about? Didn't they know about my banishment?

Realization dawned on me as I looked at my brother, who I now knew was completely unaware as to why I had been "missing" for so long.

"Well, um," I stuttered, trying to act as if I wasn't banished from my home, the complete opposite of the story they'd been told. "I'm back now, so I don't think that law applies anymore."

"It was an official decree of the king," Tauriel explained to me.

Yes, well, so was my banishment, I thought.

"It will be upheld until he knows you have returned," Tauriel continued, and she looked to Legolas. Both of them had had some form of a smile on their faces since they realized that it was me whom they had found, the princess who had been gone for decades, wandering around in woods infested with spiders and dwarf intruders.

The thing that was causing me pain was that they did not know the truth. I knew they meant to return me to the palace and present me to my father, expecting him to be overjoyed at his daughter's return. I also knew they were about to find out the truth, the truth to the lie my father had fed them.

It was only a matter of deciding what to do now. Should I leave Mirkwood to stay alive, but in doing so abandon the company of dwarves to a lifetime in the Woodland Realm's dungeons, consequently losing any chance of ever returning home? Should I stay with the company and return to the Woodland Realm, allowing my brother and best friend to unknowingly deliver me to my death?

The thought occurred to me that the lack of knowledge of Legolas, Tauriel and even the Silvan guards must extend to the rest of the kingdom, as well. My father would not want it revealed that he had lied to every elf he ruled over and alienated their princess from her own kingdom.

Maybe going with Tauriel and Legolas wasn't the worst idea. There was the smallest chance that I would survive, so I could find a way to free the dwarves and leave with them to continue our quest.