Lee Pace Imagines

Saving King Thranduil

| IMAGINE |

You carry a load of laundry down the hall, making a note of the rooms down this hall to clean next. You slow to a stop when you hear voices coming out of a room you just passed. You frown, your eyebrows furrowing deeply. No one is ever down this hall. Nobody lives down this hall. It's kept empty for the rare appearance of guests. You are the one tasked with making sure they're always kept clean, and you've never seen, let alone heard, anyone down this hall before.

     You press yourself up against the wall and inch closer to the cracked open door, your suspicion growing by the minute.

     "So what do you suppose we do then? It cannot happen in broad daylight." One voice says.

     "No, no, no, of course not. We cannot be fools. We must strike when the moment is right." Another voice replies.

     "Calanon, we do not have much time." The first voice whispers.

     Calanon lets out a low laugh. "Have we not, Nithron? The king is thousands of years old. He will live to be a thousand more if we do not do something about it. We essentially have all of the time in the world. I just cannot bear to stand hundreds of more years with him as my king. So the sooner the better." He says menacingly. You bite your lip so hard to keep from crying out in horror as your eyes go big, your blood running cold.

     "So then when do we do it?" Nithron asks impatiently.

     "Within the next couple of weeks. We need to plan it out so the blame falls on pure accident. We cannot have the whole kingdom in an uproar that there is a traitor in the midst, especially with Legolas taking over as king once Thranduil is dead."

     "So how do we make it seem like it is an accident? We cannot even get close to the king. We are soldiers in the guard, barely that."

     "I was thinking poison. We can find some rare, poisonous herb near the ruins of Dol Guldur, and sneak it into his food."

     At this point, your heart is barely beating as you latch onto every word that is being said, dread filling your stomach, threatening to choke the life out of you.

     Nithron scoffs. "Surely not. Surely it cannot be that easy. The king gets his food tasted before eating it."

     "Oh, but he does not." You can hear the smile in Calanon's voice. "There are no traitors in the Woodland Realm. There hasn't been since Oropher was king. Not since before the First Age. The king will never see it coming. Nobody will." You take a step back and your elbow bumps into the wall, making a noise.

     Shh, what is that?" Nithron asks.

     "We have lingered here too long. Meet me here ‪tomorrow night‬ and we will finish devising the plan." Calanon says. You don't hear anything else as you take off running down the hall, straight for the throne room.

You skid to a halt in front of the guards, the pile of laundry still in your arms. "I seek an audience with the king." You pant out.

     The guards look at each other and then down at you. "Why?" One asks. You look over their shoulder and see Thranduil on the throne, and it makes your heart pound faster at the idea of him not sitting up there anymore.

     "I overheard there is to be an assassination attempt on the king." You spit out. The guards pause and glance at each other again, unsure. "You have to believe me!" You exclaim desperately.

       "There has never been an assassination attempt on the king for thousands of years. Nobody can get in the Woodland Realm without the consent of the king." The one guard says calmly.