I don't bow to crowns LOTR/Legolas love story #Wattys2015

The only thing...

"We now have but one choice. We must face the long dark of Moria. Be on your guard. There are older and fouler thigns than Orcs, in the deep places of the world. Quietly now. It is a four-day journey to the other side. Let us hope that our presence may go unnoticed."

said Gandalf to the Fellowship as they started moving to the other side of Moria. Everybody's faces were filled with worry as the wizard's staff lit the cold darkness. They followed Gandalf because he was the only one who knew the way out. As they made their way deeper and deeper into the mines, the temperature drooped and, it it was even possible, it became darker, darker than a winter's night with no moon nor stars. But those didn't bother Nymerial too much, she rather was disturbed by the lack of sound. It was deadly silent and the ranger didn't enjoy it.

As time passed, the Fellowship had entered a huge cavern. The Hobbits were amazed by it, the men and Gandalf didn't pay much attention to it, Gimli was still mourning but one could still see a small trace of proudness in his face, but Legolas and Nymerial weren't comfortable there. Gandalf rested his hand on the stone wall with faint silvery lines in it. He said

"The wealth of Moria was not in gold...or jewels..."

He pointed his staff towards the edge of the cavern, revealing many old mining shafts with abandoned ladders everywhere.

"...but Mithril."

Merry attempted to get closer to the ledge but Pippin's hand stopped him.

As the Fellowship was trying to plan where would be the safest way out, Nymerial was pushing herself against the rock wall, humming a tune from her childhood in her head. Aragorn noticed it and asked, half joking half serious

"Since when are you scared of heights?"

Nymerial asked back

"Who said I was?"

Aragorn was puzzled by that answer and decided to drop it. But little did he know, Legolas was listening to their conversation and he started to worry a little bit about the girl. He wanted to ask something but as he approached her, she started to move. Apparently Gandalf had remembered the way and they started to climb up the huge steps in the stone wall. Soon they reached a crossroad with three doorways before them. Gandalf looked around, trying to find any familiar things, rocks, writings, anything. But then he said

"I have no memory of this place."

Everyone in the Fellowship sat down, sighing in the process.

But then a quiet click went off in Nymerial's head. There was a possibility that they would never get out of here. That made her start to freak out a bit. She started to hum the same tune as earlier but now it wasn't in her head. She hummed it out loud.

(Only the humming in the beginning of the video)

But it seemed that nobody heard it. Nobody except Legolas. The melody's silent frightened tone was breaking his heart.

He went over to Nymerial and sat next to her. Nymerial noticed him and immediately stopped humming but she didn't look up to meet his worried eyes. Instead she looked at her hands that were on the edge of shaking. Legolas didn't know what to do, he had never felt that way before. He looked over to Aragorn, only to see a look on his face that was saying 'What did I tell you.' 'Could it really be true? That I love her?' he thought. But he was pulled out of his voiceless debate when he saw from the corner of his eye that Nymerial was shaking. It wasn't noticeable to a Human's or Hobbit's eye, but to an Elf's eye it was possible to see. It was light but still it was there.

Legolas asked from her quietly

"Is everything alright with you?"

Nymerial looked up, her minty eyes almost glowing in the dim light from the magic crystal. She didn't want to answer but something made Legolas seem like a person one could trust. So she said

"Right now I am faced with my worst fear. Imagine if you would be 'alright' when you would be in a situation like this."

Legolas thought about it and then asked, trying to guess the scariest thing to Nymerial

"Heights? Being underground?"

But none of them were correct. Nymerial said

"Cage."

"Not to offend you but with your lifestyle, haven't you ever been imprisoned?"

"Yes, I have, but that is a prison not a cage. I can pick a lock in prison and escape. But a cage is, for me, a place you cannot escape. And I cannot lose my freedom because that is the only thing that really frightens me. And right now we might not get out of this prison and it might become a cage."

Legolas now understood when Nymerial had went into the mines last. She was trying to kill the watcher of the lake so they wouldn't have to go there. He never would have thought that something so deep, so complicated was going through her head. He thought that she hummed just to entertain herself but now he knew the real story, he knew that she was trying to block off the darkness of this stone mine.

Legolas was thinking on hugging her to comfort her but Frodo came near them and looked over the edge. It seemed that he saw something and said

"There is something down there."

Gandalf wasn't surprised by that and said back

"It is Gollum."

Nymerial added, not wanting to spill any more of her secrets to Legolas

"He has been following us for three days."

Frodo was shocked and said, more loudly

"He escaped the dungeons of Barad-Dur!"

But Nymerial asked from him

"Escaped? Or was set loose?"

Gandalf said to the little Hobbit

"And now the ring has drawn him here. He will never be rid of his need for it. He hates and loves the ring as he hates and loves himself. Sméagol's life is a sad story. Yes, Sméagol he was once called. Before the ring found him...before it drove him mad."

Frodo said silently

"It is a pity Bilbo didn't kill him while he had the chance!"

"Pity? It was pity that stayed Bilbo's hand. Many that live deserve death, and some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo?"

All Frodo could do was look down. Nymerial stood up and went over to Gandalf and the Ring-bearer. She said

"Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment. Even the very wise cannot see all ends. My heart tells me that Gollum has some part to play yet, for good or ill before this is over."

Frodo thought about it and sorrow filled his eyes. He said

"I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened."

But as always, Gandalf had some kind of an explanation for everything, even for this. Gandalf spoke

"So do all that live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world, Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the ring, in which case you also were meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought."

He then lifted his high and sniffled the air. Nymerial hoped that it was what she thought it was. And she was right because Gandalf said

"Oh! It is that way."

Merry stood up quickly and cheered

"He remembered!"

The rest of the Fellowship stood up as Gandalf put his hand onto Merry's shoulder and smiled

"No, but the air does not smell so foul down here. If in doubt, Meriadoc, always follow your nose."