The Last One

Chapter 5

Ruive starred at the looking glass in front of her. She adorned her battle armour consisting of a dark blue tunic, brown leather corset, matching gloves, and her black boots. Her sword was slung around her hips along with her dagger, her twin blades were strapped to her back. Admittedly she had a lot of weapons for only one single combat, but if Legolas was as good as the rumours say then she would need all her tricks. Letting out a shaky breath that she didn't know she was holding, she took one last look at her reflection pausing to run her fingers along the braiding that held the left side of her golden hair back from her face. Her father had given her that braid the day she had returned from slaying her first dragon, the braid was one that symbolized when a boy becomes a man, as many would notice she was not, her father had given her that braid because he was proud of her and to him she had proven herself better than any man that he knew. A silver clasp held the braid in place and the rest of her hair came together in a loose braid which currently draped over her right shoulder.

Ruive turned upon hearing her father enter her room. He need not ask if she was ready, in fact not once had he asked her if she was ready for any of these fights for he knew his daughter well enough to know that she would go when she was ready. However today he noticed that she was slightly hesitant walking out to the training arena, today her steps were slower and more carefully placed as if one wrong step could lose her the fight before it even began. In truth Ruive was already having a battle within her. Part of her (which turned out to be her heart) hoped that Legolas would defeat her, but her being the head-strong fierce fighter she was wasn't overly keen on losing a battle any time soon. ' You've fought and slain dragons for Mahal's sake and now for some reason you're second guessing over some bloody prince!'  This seemed to be a reoccurring  though in Ruive's head.

Shaking these thoughts from her head Ruive raised her head and did everything she could to look as strong and fierce as she could hoping that if her first impression as the warrior she was would work in her favour. She stood at the edge of the circle where her father turned and place a firm hand on her shoulder and looked in her blue and green eyes. 

"Remember what I taught you Ruive, fight-"

"Fight your own battle, not theirs." Ruive cut her father off repeating the lesson her father had taught her when he first taught her how to wield a sword all those years ago.

Her father gave her a proud smile and told her in his dwarvish tongue how proud her was of her and good luck. Ruive gave her father a brief smile watching as he walked over to where her mother and sister were seated ready to watch. When she made eye contact with her mother, Vana gave her a gentle smile and nodded at her, Ruive returned the nod and glanced at her little sister. Tauriel smile and mouthed 'Good luck Ru.' Ruive smiled at the childhood nickname that Tauriel had given when she was a child as she could only ever pronounce Ru so it stuck. All heads turned to see Legolas and Thranduil walk into the arena. At this point Ruive tuned out everything outside the ring, she pictured every strategy and technique she had ever learnt imagining each of them executed perfectly. By now Legolas had stepped into the ring, although at this point he was thinking about how gorgeous Ruive looked in her battle armour, he thought she looked far more at home in this than she did when they first met. Right now Legolas was telling himself that if he wants to get to know Ruive better and see her more frequently then he needs to defeat her.

Tauren began to explain the rules to both of them even though both knew already and neither were listening. 

"Draw your weapons!"

Legolas drew his two long daggers twirling them expertly before positioning them and himself in a fighting stance. Ruive closed her eyes deciding on using her elvish sword first, she drew the blade from its sheath listening to the familiar ring. The blade was light and expertly balanced in her hand she twirled it around her body allowing her muscle to remember how the weapon feels and how it is part of her. She opened her eyes and set up her stance she exhaled. 'Come on. Fight your own battle not his.'

"Begin!" 

The two opponents circled each other like lions sizing each other up waiting for one to make the first move. Ruive grew tired of their stand off, she charged forward with a battle cry clashing metal with metal and thus the battle begun. The fight was like a dance, twirling attacking and blocking, waiting for one of them to trip up and make a mistake but none were made so far. Ruive decided to use one of her tricks, she blocked one of Legolas' attacks then stabbed her sword into the ground using it to lift her horizontal and land a double kick to Legolas' chin and chest making him stagger backwards. Legolas was quicker to recover than she expected, he made a slice at the hilt of her sword making her duck and roll abandoning the sword and wiping out her twin blades. With her new weapons Ruive's attacks became quicker and if possible more aggressive showing her dwarvish side, but kept the grace and fluency of her elvish blood. The dance continued leaving their families on the edge of their seats, any other opponent Ruive had ever faced would be on the ground wheezing a long time ago, it seemed that whatever Ruive threw at Legolas he somehow managed to throw back. With every strike, Ruive began to realize that Legolas is the best warrior she'd ever faced, if there was anyone she could rely on to defend her kingdom... it was Legolas. In her distraction Legolas had managed to disarm one of her blades grab her arm and kick her leg forcing her to kneel at his feet. Legolas had one of his blade to her neck the other held in the hand that held her arm, Ruive now with only one blade held it to his abdomen. Both breathing hard, the battle was a draw either could have been killed or mortally wounded to the point of death.

"Lle lava?" (do you yield) 

Ruive looked deeply into Legolas' eyes, either way Legolas was the best option for her kingdom's safety and she could not deny that her heart had hoped that he would win for she would never admit it she did feel something for the elf prince. Ruive dropped the firm grip she had on her blade closing her eyes and regaining her breath. 

"Amin lava."(I yield) She breathed. 

Silent gasps came from both families for neither were expecting the princess to yield but both were grateful that the battle was over and would hopefully end with a wedding.               

Whoo chapter done! heads up guys i'm trying to update in and around school stuff so i'm sorry if i don't update regularly. Anyway feedback is welcomed and feel free to give me ideas on what you would like to happen when I get to the start of the hobbit trilogy ie is she going to get hurt whilst running from the orcs before Rivendell  

(picture is her sword)