Dragon Fire (Thranduil Fan-fiction) #Wattys2016

Chapter 45.1: Hopes and Beliefs

Falasdirs POV

The forest was beautiful. It almost seemed like it was glowing. I see the palace from afar and I walk towards it, not even bothering to look elsewhere. It was my home.

I reach the borders and stop on my tracks. By the trees, near a riverbed sat the queen. My sister.

"Adlanna?"

My voice is barely above a whisper as she looks up from her hands and her brown eyes find mine.

"Yes, Falasdir?" She says this like it was normal. Like she was real. Like there was no problem at all. Like she was not dead.

"What is wrong? You look absolutely mortified." She exclaims as a smile creeps up her lips. Her dark hair glowed under the sun as she motions for me to come closer. I do as I am told, as a younger brother and step forward towards her. She pats softly on the ground beside her and I take a seat, without looking away.

"What is it? Is there something on my face?" She asks and I shake my head at her.

"You... You're..." I could not even finish my sentence as she continued to look at me with warmth in her eyes. She lets out a sigh before her eyes marvel the scene before her. Just before us stood the palace, its walls shone like the majestic thing that it was. The forest was peaceful and the trees so alive.

"It is beautiful, is it not?"

I glance at her as she waits for my answer. Her eyes roam around the world that we were in and she closes her eyes and takes a breath.

"Where are we?" I find myself asking and she does not move from her spot or even opens her eyes.

"We are in Mirkwood." She suddenly says as her eyes open and look at me through the corners.

"Or how it is supposed to be." She finishes. I look around me once more, the river was flowing. Birds were singing and a peaceful harmony hung around us.

"It is beautiful." I agree and she gives me a nod.

"It is."

We stay silent for a while as a question burned itself on my mind. This was obviously a dream but why did it feel so real?

"Dreams are not too far from reality, little brother." She says as if reading my mind. I stare at her with disbelief but later on understood what this dream was. I was in the border of life and death.

"Adlanna."

She looks at me then, her nose wrinkling in a familiar way whenever I used to annoy her or disrupt her meditation.

"Why did you leave the palace?" The question leaves me and I am filled with sadness and longing. Sadness for the truth of the queens capture and longing for the answer she had never given the chance to tell me.

She looks sad for a moment her eyes looking at the palace before us. She straightens her skirt with her hands, a ring still on her finger.

"I could not live that way anymore." She starts and I listen intently.

"To be condemned to such place. I loved Thranduil, I really did but it was not the kind of love that could last an eternity. I soon found it quite suffocating to be queen. And I felt so scared every single day. For the kingdom, for my husband and for my son."

"I was a coward, Falasdir. I ran away because I could not take it anymore. Thranduil deserved someone much stronger."

"I will forever be sorry for what pain I had caused him. What pain I had caused you." She looks at me as she says the last words before she spoke again.