Saving Middle Earth

To be the Best

Life continued on in Mirkwood and after a little over a year my parents came and joined us in Mirkwood. My mother was never really herself again she missed her home terribly. My father made the best of it and became Thranduil's closest adviser. He helped train his men and even took on the title of the king's private guard. Even though my father would have been considered the King of all elves of Middle Earth if he chooses to take his father's title, he never complained about being a part of the guard. He was thankful that Thranduil had taken a risk by protecting his family and he was forever grateful for that. He also loved Legolas, I think my dad missed his dear friend Legolas' mother greatly and being around him was like being near her in spirit.

My mother became bitter and distant and very rarely did she spend time with me anymore. This made me very sad, but I blamed myself for forcing her to leave my brother, her family and home. I did not think she wanted to see me as I reminded her of the painful choice she had to make, so I kept my distance too. My dad noticed and he tried to talk to us several times but we would always tell him nothing was wrong and he would drop the subject.

Legolas was very eager to become the best warrior he could be. He could not defend his mother when he was little and he really felt bad about missing the shot he took at Maliki's dad. My father was one of the best archers and Legolas would train with him most days for hours on end. Thranduil was a very experience swordsmen as was my father and between the two, they taught him everything they know. Over the years Legolas became as good as them if not better. One of the guards was an expert in short knives, when Legolas was given his grandfather's he also studied the skill till he had mastered the use of them. He became almost obsessed with training and I began to see less and less of him.

Legolas and the other guards were often gone for days at a time on missions and assignments, my dad would sometimes go too. I became very lonely and especially hated when Tauriel went with them. She hardly spoke to me for many years which was fine by me. I did really wish I had a friend though or that at least my mother would talk to me. I wasn't allowed out much unless I had guards, I found out they didn't really follow Legolas unless he was with me, but they were always there when I was out.

I had begun to feel that King Thranduil halls were my prison. I did love it here; I was just so lonely and longing to be part of something. On the rare occasion I did get out I would sneak deep into the forest and use my powers on the trees, ground, rocks, and creeks whatever I could find to let out some energy. You see every day my powers grew stronger and sometimes if I did not use them I began to get moody and antsy, like I had to let them out. One time in the middle of the summer I froze Thranduil's creek and made icicles hang off the trees, it was a beautiful winter wonderland. I was almost caught and had to run back but I forgot to turn everything back to normal. The next morning Thranduil called me to his throne room.

"Lily, do you know of any reason why my forest looks like a winter storm has blown threw it?"

I stood there in silence and shook my head. "Well then," he said. "I suggest you return it to normal before your parents see it. It was quite the surprise this morning though it did look rather beautiful."

Another time I was practicing making fire at will, I found this the hardest and was not that good yet. I accidentally lit a tree on fire and had to make it rain to put it out. My father noticed this on a rare occasion we were out. He looked at the tree, looked back at me and said he was just glad I didn't burn the whole forest down and to be more careful. I again said nothing, but after that incident it got harder and harder to sneak out. There were more guards watching my every move.

I realized somewhere along the way that I was in love with Legolas. At first I thought he felt the same, but as I seen him less and saw him more with Tauriel I realized he loved her. I was just a best friend or kid sister much like our parents were to each other. This made me even sadder, but I decided to keep quiet as I would rather have him as a friend then not at all.

As Legolas was learning to fight I also took some lessons with my dagger, bow and sword. I was getting pretty good, not quite as good as Legolas and Tauriel but still a pretty competent fighter. If not for my situation I would have been a strong member of the guard, but I was never allowed to prove myself and go on any missions. I was always told what if he finds you. It got to the point where I used to want to fight Maliki or meet him just so I could get it over with, but there was never any word from him or his father. They seemed to disappear even though the Mirkwood army searched many times for them. I said that perhaps they would never bother us again, but I was told that I was too naïve and would get myself killed with that thinking. So my life continued on like this for many years.

Legolas and I did spend some time together and those were the best days. I would be allowed to go into town or to the river. Now and then he would even ask me to spare with him and seemed genuinely impressed with my skill. I even began, after much pleading on his part, to show some of the things I could do with my powers. He never seemed scared or shocked by it. He would always just say how interesting I was to have as a friend. There was that word again friend. He made me feel normal and never like a side show. He always made me feel safe, not just because I trusted him to protect me, mostly because I could be myself.

Things became different between us though as I started to keep some of my feelings from him. I never told him how I felt about him, about how bad things were with my mother and how lonely I was. I would sometimes be quiet and distant when I was around him. I would find him staring at me searching my soul. I could never read his thoughts only when he let me, he was one of the few that could block me, and fortunately he couldn't read mine. He would ask me what was wrong but I would just tell him nothing. He would never asked any further questions which is good because I may have spilled my entire soul to him and then lose him when he learned how I felt.

Legolas POV
Something was wrong lately between Lily and me. It had started to change shortly after her birthday and got worse around the time her parents arrived. I loved her more than anything and thought of telling her many times. Whenever I came close she appeared so distance. Maybe she was just wrapped up in her own thoughts and scared for her future, or maybe she did not feel the same about me. I decided not to tell her how I felt about her because I could not risk not being around her anymore if she chose to end our friendship.

I had been so busy lately with training. I had to learn all I could. If she was ever in danger and I was close I would do all I could to save her. Even if it meant giving my life so she could breathe one more breath. I was also busy with assignments and trying to find Maliki so I could kill him before he got to her, but there was no sign of him of his father. You see what Lily didn't know was that Maliki was the grandson of Sauron. Once his father discovered who Lily really was we knew he would use her to get her powers. He wanted her to marry his son and join them to rule middle earth. With her power they could find the one ring and use her to get it and bring Sauron back to life. We knew Sauron was destroyed but if the ring could be found and Sauron returned to power, together they would rule middle earth and spread evil through all our lands.

I did not believe Lily would ever give in to this. She would fight till she had no life left. If she did this they would torture her and those closest to her till she gave in. I did not care about my own safety nor did any of us who knew her story and loved her, but I could not let be subjected to a lifetime of torture. She meant far too much to me.

We did not allow her to venture out much anymore as slowly our once beautiful forest was becoming sick. The trees were twisting and full of disease. Giant Spider now roomed our forest in number that were getting hard to control and lately more and more Orcs were seen in our lands just outside our borders. There has always been some but lately it was rarer to see none. I couldn't help but feel this had something to do with the darkness that was felt around Dol GulDur. Elves could feel danger there anytime we went near. Elves from other lands would sense it to when they would visit. Galadriel would often come and see how her daughter and granddaughter were doing without her knowing and she was most affected by whatever growing evil was there. Lily could never know about this evil, I had a strange suspicion she was practicing her powers in hopes of confronting Maliki one day soon. I would do my best to see that never happened.