Fading Light

Under Starlight

Tauriel crept quietly out of the palace and into the shadows of the forest. She carried two knives that she had "borrowed" from the armoury.

She had found them a few weeks after she had arrived in the palace, they had been dull and no one seemed to have missed them, so she saw nothing wrong with her using them.

Although she wasn't supposed to be using them, she was a healer and had no reason to be training or learning how to use a weapon.

Tauriel had her reasons though, and most of them revolved around her hatred for orcs.

Tauriel gripped her knives tighter as her thoughts drifted back to that one night.

The night her life changed forever....

She lay against the trunk of a tree, multiple cuts and bruises covered her arms and face.

She was cold, and continued to bleed from her wounds.
She was dying...

She was barely aware of a figure kneeling in front of her, calling out to her in a soft voice.

"Are you alright? Can you hear me?"
She couldn't answer, she was too weak.
"We are bringing you somewhere safe. You don't have to be afraid, what is your name?"

Her name....
She could barely remember anything....
What was her name?

It came to her slowly as she was lifted up gently by the elves of Mirkwood.

"Tauriel."
She whispered hoarsely.
"My name is Tauriel."

That had been all she remembered. Feren had been the one to assume that orcs had been responsible for her injuries and that was what Tauriel believed.

Why she couldn't remember anything remained a mystery. She remembered being attacked, and someone trying to help her, but that was it.

Tauriel had awoken in the forest alone and severly injured. It had been a miracle that she had been found by Feren and his guard.

Since no one had come searching for her Thranduil had allowed her to stay in the palace. She had shown a talent for healing and he had placed her under the care of Arianel.

Even though she was becoming an accomplished healer, she couldn't rest knowing that there was a chance that orcs had murdered her family.

I had to have had one....
A mother and a father, maybe even a brother or sister.

Had one of them been trying to save her from the orcs? Had they been killed trying?

With those thoughts constantly present in her mind Tauriel had harbored a deep hatred for all orcs. One that ran deeper than that of the other elves.

Once she had acquired her knives she began sneaking off into the forest to train with them. As soon as she was ready she would go off to hunt and kill any orc she came across.

That was what fueled her fire, her desire for revenge. Orcs had taken her away from a family she didn't even remember, a family who had probably loved her enough to give their lives for her.

I promise I will not let your deaths be for nothing.

Tauriel entered the clearing she came to every night and drew her knives. She had been watching the guards train for months and copied what she learned on her own.

She positioned herself in the way she had seen the guards do it and swung her knives through the air.

Spinning and twisting her body she practiced attacking and defending herself from any foes who would attack her.