Middle Earth || OS

63. Thranduil | Beneath My Wings II

Tumblr : averil-of-fairlea

Imagine Thranduil being transported to our world as an elfling & you're the one who has to take care of him. Many Middle-earth years later after he goes back to Middle-earth, you're part of the Company and get captured by the elves & when you're brought before Thranduil, he gets very emotional in front of everyone and draws you into a tight hug because he missed you so much

Setting: Real world and Middle Earth, ten years after the last event of Pt. 1

*

The last of the holiday-themed word searches made their way to your desk. Some students had expertly creased them into airplanes and flown them in, others balled them up and pretended to dunk them onto the oak surface like basketballs.

It was the end of the semester, just before winter break, and this was the one time you didn't insist on absolute neatness. These fourth graders were taking full advantage of it.

As the vice principal ran down a short list of afternoon announcements over the speakers, your young charges laughed, twirled, hummed a few bars of "Jingle Bells," and cleared out their desks, stuffing their book bags to the brim with graded papers, pouches and chewed pencils.

Having long given up on telling the excited students to settle down, you stood by your desk and watched them, a smile slipping up the right side of your face, then widening when the bell rang.

Before all 19 of them exited, they exchanged fast but enthusiastic goodbye waves with you and called out happy holiday wishes.

You had worked them pretty hard all semester, pushing them to do their best and to even go beyond what they thought was their best.

That's how young Thranduil was, when he was in your care. That's why he had to skip grades. He was not only brilliant, he never settled for mediocrity.

The memory of his personality; the photos you took with him during his two years with you; and the drawing you found on the desk in his forest-themed room after he was whisked back to Middle Earth were all you had left of him.

I would be nothing without you, Thranduil had written under a picture, impressively crafted in pen without one smudge. It was an image of you standing next to him, holding his hand and looking at him with a big smile.

Suddenly you shuddered, thinking of the lyric from his favorite song under the drawing, which you always kept in a pocket or in your purse. It was your most prized possession.

You hadn't sung "Wind Beneath My Wings" - nor had you any plans to ever sing it again - since the young Elfling's mystic departure back to his fictional home.

Following weeks of sobbing, you no longer felt privileged to be a member of The Select, the secret group assigned to look after fictional characters seeking refuge in the real world from the threats in their homelands.

You felt robbed.

But you went on with your life, graduating from college and becoming a teacher, noble work for which you were regularly recognized with local and national awards of excellence.

It was during these long seasonal breaks, though, that you realized how lost you were without your students and your work. After visiting your parents and friends, you didn't know what to do with your time.

That's when you missed Thranduil the most.

Sighing, you sat at your desk, hating the quiet of the classroom. You started to gather random papers into a pile just to have something to do.

Within seconds, you were engulfed in a cloud.

You were having your first vision in a decade.

The entire room became white, save for one far away image of something tall and spindly coming toward you. You sat rigid in your seat, breathing slow and low, unable to move until the vision ended.