ʙᴀᴄᴋ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ʟɪɢʜᴛ [ᴀ ᴛʜʀᴀɴᴅᴜɪʟ x ᴏᴄ]

Chapter 11- The return

I was utterly surprised. Partly for the fact that elves didn't really do this sort of gesture and partly for the fact it was Thranduil. King Thranduil.
Never would I have thought that he would kiss me. Me. A dark elf. A loner.

"Araniel, " he said with a smirk at my stunned state. I didn't notice that I had simply been staring at him shocked for the past few moments.
I looked down and felt my cheeks redden.
"Should I have not down that?" He asked.
I still looked down a smile slowly spreading across my face but I was still not able to form any sort of response. I noticed Thranduil moving away from me and I looked up to see him heading for the door.
I still said nothing but I grabbed his hand pulling him back to me so I could kiss him. When I pulled away we both had smiles on our faces.
"So I should have done that?"
"Yes, definitely, " I smiled.
***
Thranduil and I spent more and more time together over the next few months. I also trained with Laeanna and Astra and got closer to them. For a while everything was perfect. I had friends. I had love. Things I never thought I would ever be able to have.
But then. I started seeing them again. The dark elves in the shadows. It was only when I was out killing the spiders that got too close to the borders of Mirkwood as first. But as time went by they seemed to grow bolder and came closer and closer.
That's when I started distancing myself once more. I couldn't risk them coming into Mirkwood. I couldn't risk then hurting the people I loved. So I decided I would have to leave the place I had come to call home. Leave the people I had grown to call friends and. Leave the man I had only just begun to call the one I love.

I had no choice I would have to leave and I would have to leave soon. I went along with everything as I normally would but I had begun to steal food and other supplies where I could so I would be able to survive when I leave. Thankfully no one had become suspicious of me so I wouldn't be questioned when I left. Writing those three letters seemed to be the hardest thing for me. Saying goodbye to the only three people who had ever cared about me and who I had ever cared about in just a few paragraphs.
My life without them would be one that I really wouldn't want to live but it was better than one where they were all dead and it was my fault.

I was already the reason why many innocents had died and I would not let that list grow any bigger. I had to stop the dark elves. I had to stop my father. Perhaps that would be my way in. I hoped that maybe I could convince him to let me join them and get close enough to him to kill him and then hopefully they would fall apart. When I had been a part of them before I could see why they needed a leader. They're all snide backstabbing people hell-bent on death and destruction. Even of each other. Without a leader to set down rules and keep the rest in line everything would fall apart and they would likely all turn on each other and forget about the potential threats outside their lands.

The time had come. Most things had quietened down by the time the pale moon was in the sky and I took that as my time to leave. I left the three envelopes neatly laid on my bed. I stared at them for a moment almost regretting what I was about to do. But I knew it was for the best. I couldn't risk the lives of the people of Mirkwood.

Stepping out of the gates of Mirkwood had been the hardest part of all. Knowing it was unlikely that I would ever be able to return here afterwards. I hope they would understand why I did what I did but I cannot be certain. I can't even be certain if I will be able to survive long enough to even consider returning.
With tears in my eyes, I ran through the forest not allowing myself to even glance back at where I was running from. I went back to where I first lived in the woods although it took me several days to get there. I never really stopped over those few days not wanting to stop and allow the dark elves to find me and kill me. But I also didn't want to sleep. I didn't want to dream of all that I had left behind. I worried that if I did I would not be able to take another step further away from all that was now lost to me.
***
I had gone back to where I had first been taken when I joined the dark elves but the place was abandoned. I had a hard time trying to find where they had gone to at first but once I found a village burnt to the ground with only a few survivors I was able to follow their trail of destruction to where they now lived.

I took a deep breath as I headed to the gates where I was immediately grabbed for it seemed the guards had still remembered what I had supposedly done all those years before.
They dragged me through the gates and through their small city to the King. My Father.
"Hello, my daughter. I was wondering when I would see you return. Though I did not think it would be this quickly. Tell me why is it that you have come back to us?" He questioned eyeing me.
"I finally saw the elves of Mirkwood for what they are. Weak. They are not the people I thought they were, " I said with disgust.
"What about those friends of yours, "
"I thought they were but they are not better than the people of the village I grew up in. They will never accept me for what I am, "
"And what are you?"
"An Elf of the darkness,"