Daughter of Starlight

Chapter Thirty Two: Gundabad

Another chapter in Legolas's and Tauriel's POVs! Finally! I'm sorry if it seems sucky. I wanted to get it posted as soon as possible for you guys. Enjoy! (:

Two elves carefully climbed the height of purple-black rock that dominated the landscape around Gundabad. The setting sun cast a ghastly orange glow across the sky. They were in a land teeming with the filth that orcs carried with them everywhere, the kind of filth that brought death and despair to the very land they tread upon. As they reached the summit of the hill, they had a clear view of what looked like gargantuan blades coated with rust protruding from the bruised stone. This was Gundabad, the orc stronghold that Legolas suspected Bolg and his vile kin had come from.

Legolas and Tauriel settled themselves in a crevice of rock where they could observe the stronghold from afar, a great gorge separating their craggy hill from the fortress.

"Gundabad," Tauriel murmured as she looked to Legolas. "What lies beyond?"

"An old enemy," Legolas told her, his grave blue gaze focused on the sight before them. "The ancient kingdom of Angmar. This fortress was once its stronghold. It is where they kept their armories, forged their weapons of war."

As Tauriel studied the fortress, she spotted a shadow crossing in front of the glow of light in a distant window

"A light," she said. "I saw movement." As she spoke, the luminescence faded, but Legolas had seen it as well.

"We wait for the cover of night," he said, then quieter, "It is a foul place, Tauriel. In another age our people waged war on those lands."

He suddenly looked saddened, as though something tragic plagued his mind. Tauriel caught his gaze, imploring him to share what troubled him, and he did.

"My mother died there," he told her. It had been the first time Tauriel heard any mention of Legolas's mother in decades. "My father does not speak of it. There is no grave. No memory. Nothing."

The two didn't speak for awhile. Tauriel merely studied the elven prince, wondering if she should confess what was on her mind. Legolas took notice looked to the Silvan she-elf. "What are you thinking?"

Tauriel took a moment before she decided on what she wanted to say. "I have noticed some . . . similarities, Legolas. A pattern, even."

"What do you mean?"

"You say the loss of your mother goes unacknowledged to this day. The disappearance of your sister was treated likewise," she said carefully. "It would seem your father saw much of your mother in her. Have you ever considered that he saw too much?"

"You believe her banishment was influenced by my mother?" he asked the she-elf.

"I believe it was influenced by his grief," Tauriel corrected him.

Legolas turned his gaze away from Tauriel. "Grief would not drive him to such an end as banishment for my sister."

"Those gems have always been of the utmost importance, Legolas," Tauriel said quietly. "To the kingdom, they have been the last remaining symbol of light in darkness. To Thranduil, they were much more."

Legolas didn't respond. It was a conversation he did not want to have, for in doing so he would be confronted with a cold reality he had been denying for a long while: his father had changed, and not for the better.

"Now is not the time to speak of this," he told her. "We have graver things to worry about."

Tauriel looked to him in confusion, and Legolas responded by turning his gaze to the stronghold, "Whatever is in that fortress is most likely headed for Erebor. We both have reasons to fear what will happen upon it's arrival."

Tauriel knew the reasons spoke of were in fact people, his sister and the dwarf she had fallen in love with. She cast her gaze to the bruised ground before finally looking again to the sky.

"If we are going in, we should move now," she said, seeing that the sky had darkened considerably. Before they could even consider rising from where they were crouched, an enormous flock of oversized bats flew above them, their screeching calls loud and piercing.

Once the bats had passed over them, the two elves stared at the mass of them hovering over the fortress.

"They are swarming," she said, looking upon the scene in trepidation.

"These bats are bred for one purpose," Legolas said lowly.

"What?" Tauriel asked him.

"For war," he said gravely.

They heard the loud cry of an orc and looked to see a tall orc who they recognized as Bolg on the opposite end of the gorge. In the next moment the blare of a battle horn sounded across the landscape, beckoning the gates of the fortress to open and allow thousands upon thousands of orcs to pour out from the inside. They were all loaded with crudely made armor and ruthless weaponry. Some walked, some ran, but all of them knew their purpose.

"We must warn the others!" Tauriel's frantic exclamation wasn't even finished by the time she and Legolas had stood and begun running.

"We may be too late," he said, just as anxious to get to Erbeor. "Hurry!"