So Comes Snow After Fire

21.i Set Me to the Stile

Tauriel pushed open the door to the royal library and stepped through. She had always liked this room, with the sunlight slanting down through high windows upon the dark walnut shelves and the plush, mossy green velvet chairs. As a child, she had always felt it a treat to come hide in here and read for the odd afternoon.

Midway across the room, she realized she was not alone. In an alcove to her left someone stood reading, his face hidden as he leaned down over a book. The flaxen hair falling over his shoulders, however, was unmistakable. Tauriel froze, wondering briefly if she might yet retreat without being seen. The last time she had faced her king, he had looked at her with such sorrow and pity in his face that she had wanted to run from him. Then in the next moment, the figure turned, and she saw it was not the king but his son.

"Tauriel!" Legolas regarded her with surprise that swiftly became pleasure.

"I came to return a book I borrowed of you some years back," she said as soon as her breath returned. "I found it on my shelf last night and supposed it was high time I read or returned it. I did stay up half the night with it."

She held up the book as she neared him, and the light glinted off gold letters on blue leather binding: The Lay of Leithian, the tale of an elven princess and her mortal lover.

"Did you enjoy it?" Legolas asked.

"Yes, although I think perhaps the poet did not understand all that Tinúviel gained in the end." In truth, Tauriel had wanted to shake that ancient writer by the shoulders and tell him he was quite the fool if he did not understand why a woman might readily trade an eternity in a walled wood for one mortal lifetime to know the world beyond, at the side of the man she loved.

"Maybe he wrote as he did because he was losing her, too," Legolas said with a knowing smile.

Was he talking about her now? Whatever he had felt for her, surely it must have seemed he was losing her when she abandoned her place in the guard to follow after Kíli. Yet she thought Legolas knew, now, that the love he had wanted then had not truly been hers, but his father's. Not knowing what to say, she turned aside to place the book on a shelf.

"I promised to bring Lord Elrond a few histories from our archives," Legolas said behind her. "He wishes to compare them with his own records."

Turning round again, she said, "Legolas, after the battle, you asked me to come with you to Imladris. Does your invitation still stand?"

"Of course, Tauriel! You are one of my dearest and most trusted companions. Why should it not?"

She disregarded his question, not wanting to say, Because I chose him.

Instead, she went on, "I very much want to see the lands to the west of our forest, the Misty Mountains rising in their splendor, the sun shining down into Imladris' mist-filled vale and turning the air to gold." Kíli had described that last scene once to her, and she had longed for the place ever since. "And I would rather make the journey with a friend than alone." Alone, it would be impossible to forget who was not with her.

Legolas stepped forward and placed his hands on her upper arms. "I promise, you need not fear to find yourself alone," he said warmly.

Tauriel closed her eyes momentarily and sighed. "Thank you for not thinking I am looking for a way to die. I'm seeking a way to live."

His look was sympathetic, but not pitying. "I know how it is to be unable to stay in the places you once knew. Or among the people..." He regarded her for a few more moments, then added. "But know I am very glad to have you join me now." He let go of her then.

"I very much need a friend, Legolas," she said.

His manner changed from solemn to fondly encouraging as he said, "Eriador is quite wild, fully a match for the young captain who was never content to leave dangers unchallenged. I know Father never let you act to your full potential. I assure you such will not be the case among the Dúnedain."

"Dúnedain?"

"The remnants of the kingdom of Arnor in the north. Elrond's sons ride with them, patrolling the borderlands beyond the dwellings of men and other free folk."

Tauriel nodded, feeling the excitement of the adventure call to her already. "I see you will have much to tell me on our journey! And when do you leave?"

"I plan to go in a fortnight, by the time this moon has faded to the new," he said.

The last new moon of Autumn. The signal of Durin's Day, and the dwarves' new year. The time she had met Kíli and first left her forest, two years past, and now, a time so fitting to leave and begin a new journey.

"I will be ready."