Divided Hearts (a Legauriel novella) [COMPLETED]

Chapter 3: The Dúnedain

Tauriel couldn't move. Nor did she want to.

Aching. Stiffness. Tauriel had never hurt this way before. Why couldn't she just slip back into the darkness where nothing could touch her? Yet the harder she reached for unconsciousness, the faster it fled from her. Light spread across her vision, and other sensations brought her world back into focus.

Beneath her, she felt a silky smoothness. Grass? No, blankets. How? Above her, cold and refreshing air whisked across her face, tickling her with her loose locks. The cold didn't penetrate the rest of her body, telling Tauriel she was wrapped up. She strained her ears to hear who else might be with her, and she detected voices chattering some distance away. Her mind now fully awake, she opened her eyes. After her eyes adjusted, she saw the tent roofed peaked overhead with forest green canvas draped all around. To her right, the flaps over the doorway fluttered apart under a breeze. 

Suddenly, there was movement by her head. Tauriel stiffened and watched wide-eyed as someone stood up and walked to the center of the tent. The stranger lifted his hands and tossed some kindling into the lamp dangling from the ceiling. When he turned, his eyes locked with Tauriel's, and he froze. Tauriel recognized this figure, but her mind refused to make the connection. It couldn't be him, she reasoned. He's long gone from this side of the world. But he smiled wearily, a smile which her heart had known for centuries.

"How are you here?" she croaked before clearing her throat.

Legolas knelt beside her where she lay on the ground and picked up her hand, clasping it like they were comrades again. "Here I was brought by many adventures. More of which I will tell when you are stronger." He chuckled, looking very relieved. "By all that is good, Tauriel, I'm glad to see you again."

He indeed looked happy, but something about him looked different than she remembered. Then she realized he looked older than an elf normally would. Tauriel's eyes fearfully scanned the tent. "The Uruk-hai."

"They're gone," Legolas replied, scooting closer to her face. "Some we had to chase down, but we made sure to get them all."

Chasing. Tauriel forced her mind to recall the images from earlier. She'd been chasing - no, chased by the Uruk-hai because of-.

She sat bolt upright. "My box! Where's my-!" The whole world lurched, and the she-elf groaned, crumpling over to one side. 

Legolas embraced her with her head laid against his chest. "Steady now, steady," he murmured. His strong arms stabilized her world, and the dizziness subsided. He laid her down gently. "You can't get up that quickly."

"Legolas," she insisted, "I need to find that box."

Legolas shrugged helplessly. "It was handed over to the chief hours ago when we first found you."

"Chief of what?"

"The chief of the Dúnedain," he said in awe.

Tauriel gaped. She had never encountered the Dúnedain before, not in person and hardly ever in the history books. To think she was saved by some of the most secretive people in all of Middle Earth. She shook her head; she needed to focus on her mission. "Take me to him."

"Tauriel-."

The she-elf stubbornly propped herself onto her elbows, but had to bite her lip against a gasp. Her shoulders ached from hauling her weight up the cliff, but she knew to dispel the pain, she had to keep moving. 

Legolas sighed and supported her back until she was sitting. Tauriel threw back her blanket and surveyed her outfit. She wore a loose white shirt over brown pants tucked into leather boots. However, her right pant leg was rolled up to the knee, exposing a bandaged calf. Self-conscious, she pushed the pant leg down, acutely aware of Legolas's eyes on her.