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3. Hope

Third Age 2941

After the events of the Battle of the Five Armies

Legolas slowed his horse as he neared a summit that provided an overlook of the growing mountainous terrain surrounding Imladris. He dismounted his steed and let his four-legged companion rest. He too needed rest but he cared not to do so. He had been riding with little rest for several days and was quite content to be in motion. For if he was in motion, life seemed to have limitless possibilities and his heart became open and unfettered from the encumbrances of his past.

Stopping allowed him time to think about the state of his life, and that was something he didn't wish to dwell on. While his horse, Callon, munched on grass, Legolas, stretched his tall, lithe body and breathed in the cool mountain air. From this vantage to the east, he could see the Anduin River slip like a tiny thread through the land.

Glancing west, Legolas could see the valley in which Imladris lay tucked away within the Misty Mountains. Though it was still a great distance away, he felt a welling up of warmth come over him.

He smiled to himself as he thought, never before had he set foot in another elven land and soon he would be in the great land of Lord Elrond. Long had he heard tales of Imladris and its beauty. It had been many years since Legolas had been in the presence of the elf lord and his beloved and gracious wife, Lady Celebrían.

His heart ached with grief that Lady Celebrían would not be there to welcome him. If ever there was a lady that Legolas imagined to be like his mother, it was Lady Celebrían. Being close to his father, she and Lord Elrond made many trips to the woodland realm during his childhood and long into his adulthood. She had taken a personal interest in him after his naneth had died and for that, he was ever grateful to her and forever there would be a special place in his heart for the Lady Celebrían.

Legolas closed his eyes as memories of her flooded his thoughts. When he was small, she would sing to him in the evenings as he lay nestled in her lap. He could remember like it was yesterday, the feeling of her assuring fingers running softly from his brow and then tenderly down through his hair; her gentle feminine voice calming his fëa.

It was Celebrían that taught him the name of all the trees and flowers in his father's gardens as they strolled leisurely hand in hand. She also enjoyed telling him amusing stories about his father and Lord Elrond - making him promise never to tell either of them.

Legolas' face softened into a smile as he thought of how the beautiful Celebrían would smile down upon him and give him a wink that those stories were their little secret.

The memory of his father receiving the news of her abduction by orcs flashed through his mind. Lord Elrond's own sons had rescued her and brought her home. Though she survived, her fëa had been irreparably wounded and she could no longer reclaim her effervescence and thus she chose to sail west to Valinor in search of healing and peace. He recalled how his father was grieved beyond words at the news of her departure to the Undying Lands. For an entire season after, his father had lily of the valley, her favorite flower, placed in arrangements around the palace.

Legolas grieved for Lord Elrond knowing he adored his wife. How unfair life could be when precious lives were so viciously taken from the innocent...and for what?

Sitting upon the ground in a soft patch of grass, Legolas watched the sun set over the mountains surrounding Imladris. The sky was aglow with soft pinks, blues and smoky purples as beams of light glinted upon the vista. He marveled at the ethereal beauty before him. It was as if he could taste freedom upon the landscape that summoned a liberation from within.

A slow indulgent sigh escaped him as he ran his fingers along the earth. The grass tickled at his palms as he observed the sun cast its final warm glow over the land while to the East, over his homeland, it had been shrouded in darkness of the coming night.