For the love of a Dragon (Thranduil fanfic)

Chapter 15

It's party time!!!!! :D:D:D:D:D:D:D 

I was in the forest on a lovely autumn morning, walking around and through the giant trees. I knew that Mirkwood is the last place to go for a leisurely stroll, but it was still beautiful to me. The gnarled, twisted trees and their befallen darkness were perhaps starkly different from the ones I had grown up around in these woods, but they had grown on me. I could see now; the beauty within the darkness. The way the light filtered through the plagued leaves. The dewy moss of the forest floor. If one looked beyond the initial frightening exterior, they could see the little wonders hidden within.

Suddenly, a hiss slithered its way to my ears from the trees, slicing the tranquil silence like a knife. Acting on instinct, I turned around and shot an arrow at a spider who was lurking in the shadows. I whipped my head around and ran in the direction of the nest. Where there was one spider, there were always bound to be more.

I physically recoiled as I reached the nest, the hub of spider activity. There were so many of them. The sheer scale of them was enough to put me off dinner for a month. Long, spindly legs crawled and scuttled through sticky, mesh-like webs that they used to trap their prey. The sound of hissing was deafening as I shook off my fears and charged into battle.

I shuddered in disgust as I shot an arrow at a lanky looking one that was about to pounce. Stowing my bow and pulling out my sword, I scaled a wide tree and scowled as my sword plunged into another's eye. I yanked it out as its corpse fell to the ground. Black blood splattered onto my sword and hands as I fought more.

I amputated another then turned to see a large one, readying to attack. I let out a battle cry and swung my sword at it, but it blocked it with its stinger. We kept fighting, parrying back and forth until I swung myself around on top of it with a nearby branch and stabbed it in the head. I nimbly jumped off before I fell with it and landed on a large branch. 

I was about to chase after one when I felt legs wrap around me from behind, squeezing me tightly like a vice. I wheezed and squirmed as I tried to get my arm free, but it wouldn't budge. 

Suddenly, without any warning, the spider screamed. I let out a yell of pain as my ears burned in the loud, high pitched squeal. The spider's grip loosened, and I took this chance to slice down from its head to the bottom of its abdomen. Nudging it with my elbow, I knocked it off the branch and into the abyss below.

I looked up to see Tauriel, the young red-haired guard, wielding two bronze daggers with wide eyes. The skill the young Elleth must have possessed to survive this long in a spider's nest... "Thank you," I panted, smiling slightly. This elleth I barely knew had saved my life. I owed her a life debt. 

She only turned around and slashed at another spider with those deadly blades. "Anytime," she grunted as she finished it off. 

We were both there for some time, slaughtering the spiders, saving each other's backs when needed. I spun my sword and licked my lips in anticipation for the next one - the next vermin who wished to be exterminated. One landed right in front of me, lunging for me. I simply sprung myself off my feet, spun in mid air and sliced down, splitting its hideous face open. Finally, I slit another one's throat and looked around to see that we had finished them.

"That was a lot of spiders," I puffed, wiping my sword and sheathing it. "Are there usually that many?" 

Tauriel shook her head. "U. Engain nar," she said. Cleaning ourselves up and doing a final check of the situation, we walked back to the Woodland Realm together. 

During our walk, I found out a little more about the mysterious and incredibly skilled warrior that was Tauriel. She told me that her parents were killed by Orcs when she was very young, and Thranduil had taken her in along with other refugees from her village. She had been trained to fight ever since.