Lord Of The Rings Fan Fiction ❯ Soulmates ❯ What Have I Done? ( Chapter 14 )

"Frodo! There you are! We'd given up hope!" Bilbo laughed, embracing the nine-fingered Hobbit.

"Good to see you again, Uncle," Frodo laughed.

"Where have you been?"

"Exploring the forests. I found a lovely hot spring that is the perfect temperature for bathing."

"Could you find it again?"

"I know exactly where it is."

"You must show it to me then!"

Bilbo smiled and looked over his nephew's shoulder into the dark, almost creepy forest. He saw a tall shadow standing there.

"Frodo…who's that?"

"An old friend."

"Well, invite him over," Elrond said as he came over with Thranduil.

Frodo waved at the figure, which started to walk over. He wore a green and silver cloak with a deep hood. He paused behind Frodo, who smiled up at him.

"You should introduce us, Frodo," Bilbo chided, shocked by his nephew's lack of propriety.

"But you already know me, Ring-bearer," Legolas said as he pulled his hood down.

"Legolas!" Thranduil gasped then embraced him, kissing his face.

"Yes, yes, Thranduil, you are happy to see me," Legolas said distastefully.

The Elf king pulled back, staring in confusion at the Moon Elf. "Thranduil? You never call me Thranduil."

"That is your name, is it not?"

"Yes, but I am your ada."

"Just because you pulled me out of a basket in the river, that doesn't make you my ada."

Thranduil froze, and so did his sons, and Elrond and his children, too.

"Legolas…I…I was going to tell you, but…but how was I to bring it up?"

"You had no trouble lying to me about how old I was, or how trees don't talk, or how my hair was silver as a babe. You had no problems lying to my face. So I suppose I can see how telling the truth about where I came from would be difficult."

Legolas had succeeded in shaming the Elf he had called his father for so many years. He stood there, staring hard at the golden-haired Sun Elf.

"Wait…Legolas had silver hair as a babe?" Elrond asked, his eyes hardening.

"Yes, Elrond. I am a Moon Elf," Legolas said as he crossed his arms. "And there's nothing to be done about it unless you're going to kill me."

Elrond glared at him. "No. I don't suppose that would be practical."

"Moon Elves don't exist, right?" Arwen asked.

"Of course we do," Legolas said. "But there are very few of us. Your father's just pissy that there are some left."

The Elves and Bilbo cringed at the language.

"He adopted you and raised you as his own. You are in his debt," Elrohir said importantly. Elladan gave him a dark look, rolling his eyes.

"Yes, he forced me to go against what I am. 'Don't drink sap! Don't talk to trees! Don't stand in the moonlight! Rise with the sun! Go to bed early! Don't talk of dreams of other Moon Elves! Don't trust those stupid, asinine, ridiculous Dwarves!' I could go on, but the list is rather long and we would stand here until the stars say hello and dance in greeting and the moon rises for her people."

The Sun Elves, plus Bilbo, stared at him at the strange phrase. Thranduil stared at him harder than the others.

"I love you, Legolas," he finally said. "It was very wrong of me to treat you like that. I did not truly realize what you were. Your hair changed colors so fast that I didn't even think of a Moon Elf. When you were in the basket, your hair was silver, but I picked you up and your hair was golden. I don't know why, but it was."

"My father's final spell was that I would look like the first Sun Elf who touched me so I would be accepted as their son. If Elrond had picked me up, I would be dark-haired, like Elladan, Elrohir, and Arwen. I can change the colors willingly now, though, so it doesn't matter."

"May I see it?"

Legolas studied him. "You really mean it," he finally said, sounding incredibly surprised. "You're not disgusted or hateful now that you know I'm a Moon Elf?"

"Why would I be?"

Legolas let out a harsh, barking laugh. "Sun Elves hate us so much that there's a curse on my race. Erestor and Elladan are the first two Moon Elves in over five thousand years that have lived in the Undying Lands. Galadriel's father put a damned curse on us so that we wouldn't be able to live with Sun Elves. Our spirits are trapped here when we die, which is why Elrond didn't see Elros there, and the ones that were there already were sent back."

Thranduil looked taken aback. "Why?"

"I'm not telling the story right now," Legolas growled. "Not with Elrond glaring at me like that."

Thranduil turned his own glare to the dark-haired Elf. "Stop that. He is my son."

"No, he's not. Even he doesn't think he's your son. Stupid Moon Elves, thinking their better than us. Staying up all night, sleeping all day. Making strange foods and wines and clothing from moonbeams, while refusing to teach us how to wield sunrays like that."

"Maybe if you Sun Elves weren't so dense, you would have figured it out after ten thousand years," Elladan muttered, making Erestor bite his lip and Legolas laugh out loud; apparently Erestor had been teaching the boy the real history of the world.

Thranduil turned to scold the Elf, but Elrond was enraged, snagging his hair and yanking him forward. Poor Elladan looked terrified; he'd never seen his father this angry…

"What did you say?" Elrond hissed.

"I said…Sun Elves are m-much smarter than any stupid Moon Elf! And I'm very, very glad, and proud, to be a-a Sun Elf!" Elladan squeaked, looking terrified.

"Come now, Elrond. Let the poor lad go," Bilbo said, patting his hand.

Elrond scanned his son's face then nodded sharply once and released him. Elladan raced over to Erestor and hid behind him, trembling.

Legolas growled. "Touch my subject like that again, and you will know why I am king of the Moon Elves."

"Mormerilon is king, not you, stupid Moon Elf."

"He died with your brother, as did my mother."

Comprehension flooded his face as he stared at Legolas and he touched the sword at his hip.

"It was you he was going to see…"

"Yes."

The sword was drawn and Elrond lunged. Legolas spun away, making a beeline for the trees. When he got right inside the tree line, he stopped. Elrond looked as if he was going to run him through, and Thranduil and the others were racing for them to stop him. They weren't going to be fast enough. They didn't have to be. Roots and branches suddenly entangled the half-Elf, ripping the sword from his grip, and dropping it into Legolas' hands. They Elves and Hobbits stopped a couple feet away to watch.

"Well, well, well, look how the tables have turned. I come before you, weaponless and wanting peace, and all you want is to kill me for something I had no part in. I was a newborn babe. I couldn't control the Orcs that killed nearly my entire people!"

"Who cares?!" Elrond spat. "I lost my brother!"

"You selfish little bitch."

Elrond turned to see Erestor staring at him in disbelief. "What?"

"You really only think of Elros when you think of who was lost that day. I lost my emel, my ada, my baby neth. And emel was pregnant with another child. I lost my best friend, Qwelno. I lost my aunts and uncles, cousins and neighbors. I lost everything that day. When Elros didn't come back, I went after him. I found him. And my family. I have never been able to forget what I saw. I have nightmares about it. Could you see your little sister's head off her shoulders with her eyes gouged out, Elrond? Could you imagine being able to tell plainly that your father died protecting your mother, and that she was raped violently as his blood pooled on the ground and his breath was squeezing from his lungs? You act like you were the only one who lost someone. I lost more than you will ever understand, because even after all this time, you're so damned biased about Moon Elves all because you weren't one. You wanted to be so badly, but you're not. You're a Sun Elf. And you always will be. A stupid, insensitive Sun Elf. And you want to know something else? I quit."

Elrond had been lowered to the ground by the trees. He stared at Erestor for a full minute. They had a crowd of Elves around them now, and Elrond felt ashamed. He hadn't realized…

"Erestor, I'm—" he began.

"No you're not, ada," Elladan said harshly. "I'm sure that Erestor is going with Legolas, and now I am, too. You told us that it was a monster's fault that our uncle died. Legolas is no monster. You are."

Erestor took the Elf's hand and the two of them walked into the forest away from Elrond, who stared after them numbly.

"I…I didn't mean to hurt them."

"No," Legolas said lightly, ramming the sword into the ground. "You only meant to kill me." He looked at his Soulmate. "Come along, Frodo. We have several days of travel ahead of us, and Elladan will be eager to see his new home. Goodbye, Bilbo. Goodbye, Thranduil."

With that he turned and walked into the forest. Bilbo grabbed his nephew's hand. "You're not really going, are you?"

"He's my Soulmate, Uncle. I must."

"He's your what?" Bilbo gasped in surprise.

"You heard me quite well," Frodo said reproachfully. "Now, I must go. I don't want to have to rely on the trees to find my way home."

Frodo pulled from his uncle's grasp and strode into the forest, leaving the Sun Elves and the lone Hobbit staring after him.

Arwen and Elrohir knelt down beside their father, helping him to stand.

"What did I just do?" he asked blankly.

Nobody had an answer.