Baptized in Blood and Flame

Chapter 3: Temptation of Fate

Third Age: 2472

Tauriel went to Dale first. She left early the second day of her journey, but already there were rumors spreading about the missing elf princess. She turned south, deciding it was best to avoid Erebor and the Iron Hills. Skirting the edge of the forest that was once her home, she reached the East Bight witching two weeks. There, at her camp, she threw out the map she had stolen, taking only her secret blade and stolen bow wherever her feet would take her. She wore a smile as bright as the moon when she turned her path to the expanses of Rhovanion.

Through new experience, her elven scimitar, once clumsy and unfamiliar in her hand, now sung with power and grace as she swung it through the air, feeling more like an extension of her own body than a piece of steel.

In Gondor, she achieved some note among the rangers for aiding them in a battle. In Rohan, the Beast Lords taught her the ways of horses. She had even dared to gaze over the remnants of Dagorlad, and the Dead Marshes where so many of her people had fallen to preserve the world from Sauron.

A shudder passed through her shoulders at the mere thought of the place.

She traveled the southern lands of Middle Earth for nearly seven years before she dared return to the Misty Mountains. Fortunate it was that she did, for north of Lothlorien she discovered a caravan set up for the night's rest. She sat, unseen, in a tree by the encampment, wondering who they were escorting. The guards bore the emblem of Rivendell on their banners, and Lorien, the home of Celebrian, the wife of Elrond, was close at hand. Perhaps one of their sons was traveling there, as they oft did.

Celebrian... Tauriel had heard tell before she left that she had been captured and grievously wounded by orcs. Elrond, a skilled magical healer, had saved her body, but she carried the scars on her fëa, her soul. Tauriel pushed away any thoughts of how similar the event was to her mother's death.

As her mind drifted in thought, the flap of the tent was drawn open. She looked up in time to see who stepped out, and her heart gave a great leap. Yet the graceful elleth who stepped from the tent looked miserable, and she had glimmering eyes when she walked into the mountain forest.

Tauriel followed her silently through the trees, and when the maiden stopped some ways from camp behind an outcropping of rock, she gracefully alighted, and spoke in a gentle voice.

"Dear cousin, my heart joys to see you, yet you mourn alone in these woods. Tell me, what pain has come to the hidden valley?"

Arwen looked up in surprise from the moon bathed grass. A temporary happiness passed over her beautiful features at the sight of Tauriel, and she ran to embrace her prodigal cousin. "Tauriel! I was grieved to hear that you had left your home. Why have you gone? How is it that I find you her? Or rather, you find me."

Tauriel pulled her cousin closer in her arms. "Arwen, I have longed to see you. You can see, no harm has become of me during my travels. I left to escape the tyranny by which my father ruled me, and I shall not return, not for many years!" She proclaimed happily. "I travel where I please now. I go in secrecy, for should my father discover me, then surely my freedom is doomed." She backed away, looking Arwen straight in the eye. "You must tell no one you have seen me here, Arwen, not even your brothers. Please, don't sentence me to be trapped again."

Arwen swore silence, and the two girls sat together in the moonlight. Finally, Tauriel spoke again: "Why are you here, Arwen? What sadness has plagued you throughout our reunion? I would ease your pain, if I but knew the cause."

Arwen hesitated a moment before replying, twirling a lock of dark hair between her fingers as her eyes glazed in thought. "You know of the capture of my mother, and the cost it took on her..." She had to swallow the lump in her throat that grew as memories of her last discussion with her mother rose in her mind. "She cannot be healed here. She has made the choice to sail to Aman."

The words hit Tauriel like a blow. Tears traced their way down Arwen's cheeks. Tauriel wrapped an arm around her, giving her comfort and warmth as everything spilled out. "I know I should be happy that she will be healed, but I will not see her again until I myself sail; and I cannot, for something keeps me here. I am certain there is a part I must play before I must go to Aman and see her again. Why-" Tears of frustration welled in her eyes, and when she spoke again, it was far softer. "Why would Eru allow this? She did no crime, I did no crime. Yet..." Emotions spent, she couldn't continue. But Tauriel understood what was said and unsaid. The grief of death was not something that elves often beheld, which deepened its blow when it did fall. And the grief for a mother is greatest.

"She will be healed. You will see her again, Arwen. When you sail, you will meet again." They sat in each other's embrace as the moon crept higher in the sky. Nothing else could be said, despite the fact that so much needed to be.

At long last, Arwen let out a sigh. "I must return to my camp. Tomorrow I will reach the land of my Mother's Mother." She stood, hesitates for a moment, then tentatively offered her hand. "Come with me," she offered. "No harm will come to you, you will be free and safe. Please... Don't let yourself be alone."

Tauriel stood, but lifted herself without the help of her companion, standing tall, proud, and alone in the night. She gently placed her hand on Arwen's shoulder. "It is not just that which drives me, Arwen. Nae, my fate does not lie within a walled city, or in any place that I might find safety. My time in the wild has steeled the compass of my heart, I can feel clearly where my fate lies." A giddy look came over her face as she gazed up at the stars, imagining what her fate could be leading her to.

Arwen sighed, and pulled her into another embrace, wondering if it could be their last.

"My Lady Arwen?" A voice called from the camp. Tauriel jumped like a startled cat at the sound.

With an urgency Tauriel had never seen before, Arwen gripped her shoulders. "Go!" She ordered. "Fate doesn't come often, and most don't recognize it. Don't waste yours worrying about me. Go!"

As she watched her cousin sprint into the darkness and heard a guard approach behind her, Arwen whispered to herself. "Return. Saes, Faerelon."

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Translations:

Nae - Alas

Saes - Please

A/N: So, this book is going to be laid out kind of weirdly. Basically, the even numbered chapters will follow the timeline for The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings; while the odds take place ~500 years before then. I'll continue this until the backstory plot is done, then continue it like a normal book. Also, I'm sorry for the long wait, my computer was down and it's harder to write on a phone. Thanks for reading so far! ~B