Save Us

Gold

Tauriel ran over river boulders and came upon a sad sight. The remains of a dead deer littered the ground. The poor thing had been ripped apart and eaten raw. Pulling out the orc arrow that was in the flank of the deer, she stared sadly at the scene before departing once more.

Following the orc tracks, she climbed stealthily up a rock, until she arrived at the top of an hill, and overlooked the long lake. Smoke rose from chimneys in Laketown, the place where she had followed Queen Mäetharanel to. A sudden sound beind her made her freeze. Spinning around she pointed her bow, ready to fire, only to stare at Legolas' own bow, aimed right at her.

"Ingannen le Orch*", spoke the red head, still bent down.

"Ci orch im, dangen le*", answered the Prince, with a serious expression, "Tauriel, you cannot hunt thirty Orcs on your own", he put his bow down and frowned in her way.

"But I am not on my own", smiled the elleth.

"You knew I would come", said the blonde, while moving closer to her, "The King is angry, Tauriel. For six hundred years my father has protected you, favoured you", everyone knew how difficult it was for Thranduil to trust, much more to favor, "you defied his orders, you have betrayed his trust", and she knew this, "Dandolo na nin... le gohenatha*."

"Ú-ohenathon*", Tauriel looked at the cold waters of the long lake, "Ci dadwenithon, úohenathon im*", her quiet voice reached him quite well, and Legolas looked taken aback, "The King has never let Orc filth roam our lands, yet he would let this Orc-pack cross our borders and kill our prisoners."

"It is not our fight", no matter how much the prince understood what she felt, he would not acknowledge it, not to her.

"It is our fight. It will not end here", his friend faced him completely, and spoke while looking in his eyes, "With every victory this evil will grow. If your Father has his way, we will do nothing", images of his aunt telling him the same overcame his mind, "We will hide within our walls. We will live our lives away from the light and let the darkness descend", their eyes did not leave each other, "Are we not part of this world? Tell me, mellon ... when did we let Evil become stronger than us?", but the prince had no answer to give her.

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Bard ran through the Laketown, stall after stall, until he reached the one he meant to go to. Looking around, he began pulling down blankets and woven rugs, searching for something. The stallkeeper looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"'Allo Bard. What you after?", he did not look up to meet her eyes.

"There was a tapestry - an old one", he kept on looking around and touching things, "Where's it gone?"

"What tapestry you talkin' about?", she had so many, but apparently he had forgotten about it.

That's when Bard found it. Hanging on the back wall, a large, woven heraldic tapestry that showed the extense line of Durin, the Deathless. Soon, murmurs of excitement began bulding, and running throught he marketplace.

"They were Dwarves I tell you, appeared out of nowhere!", a lady that sold herbs, Hilda Bianca, spoke to a small group hiddled near them, "Full-beards and fierce eyes. I've never seen the like", said the woman with a misterious tone of voice.

"What would Dwarves be doing in these parts?", a man, Netmender spoke surprised.

"It's the Prophecy...", a fisherman, old enough to have heard it times and times over, spoke.

"Prophecy?", asked the other man, and all turned to look at the older man.

"The Prophecy of Durin's Folk", he clarified, seated on a bot mending nets.