As soon as Legolas left, he had a strange yet familiar feeling in the pit of his stomach. He knew Elenor. At least he thought he did. The way her hair flowed like water as she jumped and summersaulted whilst her dark blue eyes sparkled like sapphires as she battled an orc to save him was stunning as it was mesmerising. But he parted that from his mind as he galloped across the bridge to the shore. And, as was expected, at the waters edge was a horse, pouring his hooves against the sand but not entering the water out of fear. Legolas slowed his own stallion to hush the poor beast.
"Shh melon," he whispered in his own language "your lady is safe, go, she is waiting for you,"
The horse, who's wild eyes and fast temper seemed to match Legolas' saviours, whinnied then bolted off along the bridge. Then the elf continued his journey, following the wargs heavy prints in the sand.
Elfreda hauled the last of the Orc corpses into the river, the already horrific stench of the water would mask the creatures decaying smell. At last she heaved herself against a post, her body still pumping with adrenaline from the fight. At last she had time to think about what she had just gotten herself into. Elfreda both thanked and hated the gods above for making Legolas forget who she was; she dreaded to think that if he had, all those thousands of years of separation would result in a family feud between prince an king. Elfreda shivered as she remembered when Thranduil had banished her soon after the War of the Ring.
"My son is dead!" the king yelled. Elfreda seemed so tiny in the shadow of the raging elf, her eyes dry and sore from the endless tears that she had cried in her room when the news of Legolas' death was brought to her.
"I could of saved him," she whispered "it should of been my death, not his,"
"You're too right it is your fault, why did you not go?" demanded Thranduil. Elfreda whimpered, clutching her fine black mourning dress.
"He wanted to protect me," she shuddered "he wanted to stay so he would not lose his friend."
"But Sauron is your father! It would have been fitting for your lineage to end. Father and daughter enters the realms of hell together."
Elfreda fell to her knees, her fair hands clasping her face, she could not hold in her crying.
"I have made my decision," said Thranduil "you are to leave my kingdom, forever. You are never to return. Live your sad immortal life as the last of your kind somewhere else,"
Yet Legolas was not dead and neither was her disowned father. The war that had cost so many people their lives was for little more than peace for a few, short lived years. Rage consumed her, how dare the king lie to her! Elfreda grunted, slamming her grimey hands onto the floor. It was not worth looking at the past, that could not help her. She must look forward, that was the only way she could go.
Soft treads of horse hooves clipped along behind her.
"Kasper?" Elfreda called out. There was a gentle neigh in return as her stallion came out of hiding and brushed his soft snout along her arm. Oh how she had missed the silent presence of her four legged friend.
No more screams came from Bards house as Elfreda tied Kasper to the post, for his own protection- she did not trust anyone to not steal a fine, well bred stallion in this town. She left him with a bag of cheap hay with some sliced carrots to feed on and walked up the stairs to the house.
Kili lay on the table asleep. Everyone else however either sat on a chair or walked around the room. Elfreda was surprised to see that the elf she had met in Mirkwood was also there. The elf seemed almost as surprised to see her there as well as she reached for a kitchen knife.
"Woah," exclaimed Elfreda "I'm their friend, let me see them," She walked up to Kili, putting her hand on his shoulder, he opened his eyes a little to glimpse at her.
"How are you feeling?" she asked.
"Better than before," he whispered and Elfreda chuckled. She left him to rest and sat with the rest of the dwarves, giving them a small smile of reassurance.
"Where did you go?" inquired Bofur "you said you'd be right behind me,"
Tilda, Bard's youngest, came up and hugged her, Elfreda picked her up, placed her on her knee and said to the dwarves,
"Lets just say I gave the orcs what was coming to them,"
It was silent for a two minutes when Bain crashed through the door.
"Dad's been arrested," he explained "he said that Elfreda would look after us, until he got back,"
Everyone looked at her, the children eyed her with hope whilst the dwarves just looked as if waiting for an answer.
"Of course I will," she said, bouncing Tilda on her knee "Tauriel and I can do that, can't we?"
Tauriel, who had been busy washing bandages in the sink, put down her scrub and looked at them all "yes I shall, if your father is not here," but there was something in her voice that sounded otherwise.
Tilda hopped down to greet her brother. Fili grabbed her arm.
"What about the company? You can't just abandon the quest,"
"I'm not abandoning you, Fili. These children need someone to guide them. You're old enough to look after yourself," she replied hastily.
Elfreda walked up to Tauriel who was continuing with the washing "you didn't plan on staying, I'm sorry," she whispered "if you wanted to leave," but Tauriel cut her off
"You met more than orcs out there, I know who you are Elfreda Durnhelm, King Thranduil told me everything, but I'm glad you were there,"
Elfreda did not know what to think. So she just huffed and turned away again.
Then a roar rippled through the house. It was followed by screams and the whinny of Kasper.
"What was that?" asked Fili to Elfreda. She clenched her hands and grabbed her weapons from the table.
"That dear Fili, was Smaug."
Hey guys!
Sorry it's been like ages. My final exams are taking up everything so I have literally had no time. Anyway, I've been working on this for a while and it's not great but its a stepping stone right?