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“Welcome, friends, to Eryn Lasgalen.”
She couldn’t help the wide grin that crept over her face as they approached the palace gates. A tall figure stood awaiting them, his brilliant blonde hair adorned with a crown of small leaves. His form was decked out ornately, in the usual greens and browns of the Woodland Elves. Had it not been for the fact this his arms were opened wide in welcome, he would have looked rather intimidating.
But the travelers that dismounted from their horses before him were no strangers to the stately Elf Lord. One of them, his own hair as golden as the King’s, rushed forward immediately and threw himself into the open arms.
Thranduil laughed merrily, hugging his son close. “My dear little Leaf, it has only been three months. Surely you cannot have missed me that much.” His melodic voice was full of mirth as the blonde archer in his arms muttered a few choice words but still kept hugging. “Have you been pining after me all this time?”
“Only every day,” came a dramatic reply. Thranduil grinned at his new daughter-in-law as she hopped from her horse, followed by two identical, dark-haired, and grinning Elves.
“I feared as much,” Thranduil sighed, beckoning her closer. Legolas made an affronted noise into his father’s robe and stepped back, a mock-scowl adorning his fair features.
“Teasing already. What a fine welcome, indeed!”
His wife laughed, hurrying forward to embrace the King.
“Dear Lily, it is wonderful to see you again.”
She smiled up at him, blue eyes dancing. “You too, Ada.”
The twin sons of Elrond were next, bowing dramatically before the Greenwood King. The mischievous smiles never left their faces, which in itself spelled doom for any hapless residents of the forest. “My King, well met,” they toned simultaneously, sounding far too innocent and making Thranduil wonder what pranks they were already planning.
Rather then let them expound on their mischief-making, he once again beckoned to them. “Come, let us make for the castle so that you might rest before we dine tonight.” And leave my kingdom in one piece at least for a few minutes.
Several light-haired Elves came forward to tend to the horses, Legolas smiling and nodding his head at those he knew. The small group walked together towards the entrance to the palace. More Elves came out—seemingly from the trees, Lily wondered—to watch them go, calling out welcomes to the royal family.
“They’re welcoming you too, you know.”
Lily jumped at the quiet voice next to her ear. “Me?”
Legolas laughed brightly. “Well, you are the princess!”
As if she had forgotten—and perhaps she had indeed—Lily let her jaw drop slightly as she processed this stunning realization. The twins shot each other an amused look over her head.
“…And that hall down there leads to the kitchens.”
Lily bobbed her head to show that she understand, staring around with wide, interested eyes. Legolas smiled. When one was as fascinated as she, giving a tour of the palace wasn’t quite the annoying chore that it used to be.
“This place is fantastic,” she murmured, twining her fingers more closely around that of her husband’s as they walked.
They were soon joined by two figures quite laden with food.
Legolas looked at them incredulously. “Did you…raid the kitchens?”
Elladan assumed an expression of flawless innocence. “Where ever would you get that idea?” He took a grinning bite out of a pastry.
Lily rolled her eyes. “They’re learning from the Hobbits.”
Grinning, Elrohir pressed a messy kiss on her cheek, effectively covering it with sticky frosting. Her eyes went wide and she snatched a fork from his twin’s plate, proceeding to chase Elrohir threateningly down the halls with it. Several Elves sprang out of their path, looking bewildered and then laughing at the sight.
Legolas arched an eyebrow at the dark-haired Elf still peacefully eating his own pastry. “Shouldn’t you be helping him?”
Elladan shrugged. “He’s got to take responsibility for his actions…and learn to never mess with Lily.” He grinned as they disappeared around a corner far ahead. “She’s gotten faster.”
Legolas smiled fondly. “She has.” He paused. “That being said, we should probably help Ro before she does any permanent damage…”
The next three days passed uneventfully, save for a few minor pranks orchestrated by the twins. Thranduil did his best to adopt a stern expression, but everyone knew very well that the mischief of the twins had been missed in the Woodland kingdom.
Having seen all of the palace, Lily had taken to walking outside with Legolas when she wasn’t meeting the seemingly endless stream of Wood Elves who were quite interested in meeting their new princess. It didn’t help that those that did meet her came back with quite remarkable descriptions that incited others to seek her out. The residents of Thranduil’s realm were known for having a strange sense of humor, and greatly appreciated Lily’s oddities.
Which amused her husband to no end, but only reinforced in her mind that she would never understand Elves. Especially Wood Elves.
“Is it true that you bested a Dwarf and full-grown Man at a drinking game?”
Lily went very still, then glared at Legolas, hoping to high heaven that he didn’t tell others about the events of the rest of that evening. The blonde Elf just laughed and the one that asked the question quirked an eyebrow with a smirk.
“It is, then?”
Lily folded her arms and grinned. “I’m just that good.”
The new Elf, who turned out to be an archer in the guard and a childhood friend of Legolas’, looked highly amused. “My dear Prince, you have certainly picked a wonderful one, I must say.”
The gardens were lovely, but there were only so many times you could walk through them. Legolas offered to show them around the forest a bit. Lily brightened and even the twins looked interested. It had been a long while since they had visited, and now that Sauron had been defeated, the forest was being cleansed of the evil that had pervaded it for so long. Especially around the Elven kingdom, the trees were much less dark, the threat of evil dissipating slowly. There was still danger in the woods, but the four of them weren’t planning on going that far from Thranduil’s halls.
“ ‘Planning’ being the key word,” Erestor would mutter. But the dark-haired advisor was hundreds of miles away in Rivendell, and Thranduil seemed to have forgotten the number of times his son had returned from ‘trips’ with the twins either half-dead himself or carrying one of his half-dead companions.
The preparation to leave early that afternoon on a short jaunt around the trees went off without a hitch.
That should have been their first hint.
Chapter Two
“What was that?”
For the sixth time, Elladan disguised a laugh with an unconvincing cough. It seemed that his stories about their previous adventures in Mirkwood had done nothing to ease Lily’s worry about dark things that could be waiting around every tree. In fact, they had made it worse. She was rather jumpy at the moment.
Legolas smiled patiently. “Nothing. Just the wind.” But then he stopped, tensing. There was something other than wind rustling through the forests.
It was a light sound, barely perceptible to his ears, so he had to wonder how Lily had heard it. The whispering sound, like water falling on leaves. Light pattering.
Of many feet.
Elladan and Elrohir had frozen in place, clearly hearing the noise as well as it grew steadily louder. Lily, almost instinctively, knew something was wrong.
“Let me guess? Spiders. Wargs. Orcs. Evil men…All of the above?”
“Spiders,” Legolas muttered, running a hand along his bow. His blue eyes darted about the area to weigh the options.
The trees were out—the huge arachnids could climb those easily. They would never be able to outrun the foul creatures, and they were headed right at them so evading them was out of the question. The only option left was to fight.
Four bows were drawn out almost simultaneously. Legolas nodded in the direction of the shuffling for Lily’s sake, and shifted a bit closer to her in order to keep his wife safe. They waited.
But not for long.
Lily had heard a lot about the infamous Mirkwood spiders. But those descriptions in no way prepared her for the colossal black shapes that burst from the trees and rushed at their small group.
The look on her face must have been pretty darn hilarious, because Elladan laughed loudly as he slew the first spider that attacked him. Shaking off her disgust, Lily pulled out her sword and proceeded to brain a nasty arachnid. The bows weren’t effective any longer since the spiders had come upon them so suddenly.
Had it been a fewer amount of the beasts, they would have been just fine. Legolas was well used to fighting the spiders, and Elladan and Elrohir were a force to be reckoned with. Even Lily found strength in battle in an oddly similar way to how she disposed of the spiders’ much smaller counterparts in her own world. But the numbers were just too many. It was as if all the remaining spiders in the forest had banded together, which was not entirely improbable.
To borrow from Lily’s vernacular…they were screwed.
It seemed like things would be just fine for a while, except for the fact that the spiders kept coming. But then, after gutting a particularly large one, Legolas happened to look up. Something was wrong.
There, perched about ten feet above Lily in a tree, was a spider ready to jump down and take out the human girl.
Time seemed to slow as the Prince realized what was about to happen. Without a second thought, he all but flew to his wife.
Lily had just finished grappling with a rather smelly spider when she was suddenly knocked to the ground. She didn’t have time to form a question before a huge dark shape leapt towards her but was suddenly blocked.
By Legolas.
She watched in horror as the fangs sunk into the Elf’s arm.
Without so much as a flicker of pain crossing his face, Legolas thrust his sword into the spider’s head, killing it in seconds. He pulled the blade out.
Only then did he let himself drop to the forest floor.
“NO!” Lily cried out, picking herself up and rushing to his side.
Elladan saw what happened and paused for a split second. In that tiny moment, he was caught by one of the beasts and slammed against a tree with a resounding crack. Elrohir killed the last spider and then grabbed his brother and eased him down to the ground, his face terrible with worry.
“Legolas,” Lily whispered through her tears. “Why did you do that?”
Pained blue eyes cracked open and he smiled grimly. “What’s another spider bite?” He shifted so that he could prop his back against a tree. “How’s Elladan?”
Lily’s eyes went wide and her head snapped around to face the twins. Elrohir glanced up at her. “He’s got a concussion.”
She nodded, as if this was to be expected. “What is it with us and making even short walks life-threatening?”
With a little effort, the two uninjured managed to get to their feet while supporting the other two. Elrohir was all but carrying Legolas, who was still conscious and coherent but weak from the venom. Elladan came to shortly, and was able to walk with Lily’s help. Aside from some dizziness, he seemed to be fine.
“But if you’re hiding something from us, I will hurt you,” Lily muttered to her adopted brother as they walked slowly. Elladan chuckled but said nothing, seeing how her worried glance was continuously drawn to her husband.
“We need to find somewhere safe to at least patch them up before moving on,” Elrohir mused, his grey eyes scanning the forest.
Unfortunately, there was nothing of the sort in the direction of the palace, and they would never make that walk back until Legolas and Elladan could rest for at least a moment. They were forced to continue deeper into the forest in the hopes of finding somewhere to stop.
What they found was not very agreeable, at least to Legolas.
“Why does it always have to be a cave?” the blonde Elf groaned, flopping his head back. They laughed, but no one missed the pain in his voice.
“Is he going to be alright?” Lily asked softly, only audible to Elladan. The hand she was using to steady his arm over her shoulders was shaking ever so slightly.
He smiled. “He’ll be fine. We have some herbs that are good at neutralizing the venom, and it was a common spider type. I’m sure our dear princeling has been bitten by that particular breed many a time!” He allowed his voice to raise for the last sentence, and Legolas scowled at him over Elrohir’s shoulder.
The scowl turned to a wince when Elrohir stopped abruptly, and pained blue eyes fluttered close. Lily wondered at his frozen position until Elladan’s head snapped up, zeroing in on whatever his twin was looking at. She glanced forward and saw the looming shape of the rock wall and the dark opening of the cave entrance, but couldn’t tell why they were so tense.
Then there was movement, and a low growl.
She could have screamed. In frustration, not fear. Could anything else go wrong within the first few hours of this blasted trip?!
A large shape slinked out of the darkness of the cave, hackles raised and jaws already dripping with spittle. Elrohir was already in a protective stance—which actually looked quite awkward with Legolas in his arms—and Elladan took a wavering step forward to guard Lily from the warg.
The beast growled again, and readied to pounce. With one target barely conscious, the other disoriented, and only two to defend all of them, it should have been an easy kill.
Before either of the twins could react, and arrow rocketed between them from behind, catching the warg right between the eyes with a great amount of force. With a gurgle, it fell to the ground, dead.
Jaws hanging open, the two peredhil turned to see Lily with her bow out and eyes blazing. Not paying any attention to their shock, she led the way towards the cave. “Don’t fuck with me right now,” she growled, kicking the large, furry body as she walked past.
Elladan and Elrohir exchanged a surprised look, shrugged, and followed.
“I wonder if the people of Mirkwood know how truly fierce their princess is…”
Lily rolled her eyes at Elladan’s grinning expression. Legolas head was in her lap as she tried to pull the hair off his feverish forehead and monitor his pulse.