Daughter of DEATH

Chapter 1 - to praise

Ugh. Tauriel stared blankly at the blackboard, covered with scribbles in a language she didn't understand.  Her mind was filled with thoughts of Captain Dilemas, her real instructor.

"A-hem", Tauriel was brought out of her daydream by a loud cough very close to her head. It was a fake cough, obviously meant to get her attention.

"Miss Tauriel?" She looked up at the voice of the teacher, Egleriion, a much older elf, who, despite the fabled beauty of the immortals, had a rather creased face, which Tauriel had decided had been worn down by hours of boring study in his younger days, however long ago thatwas. She had also decided that if everyone in this classroom kept listening to him the way they did, the same thing would happen to them. Good thing that she never listened to a word he said. It was usually, anyway. Right now she had the distinct impression that he had just asked her some dull question, but she had absolutely no idea what it was. In fact, she couldn't even remember a single thing that the teacher had said in the whole hour she'd been sat here.

"Yes sir?" she looked up at Egleriion with round green eyes.

"What is the answer to the question?" He sounded bored; they had been through this many times before, almost every time he asked her a question. Sighing, Tauriel played her part once again, "Could you repeat the question please?" It was Egleriion's turn to sigh, but he answered the question, just as he always did, "How do you say I wasn't listening to sir?" Tauriel half tried to remember, but didn't waste too much time trying to recall the correct answer.  She really didn't have a clue. "I wasn't listening to sir." She replied, blinking up at him in innocence. Some of the other elflings around her laughed, but all were silenced with a glare from Egleriion. He didn't seem to find it funny in the slightest. "Stay behind after class please." He glared at her once more before returning to his position at the front of the room.

The rest of the lesson dragged slowly by until he finally called for them to be dismissed. Tauriel jumped to her feet with the rest, and quietly slunk out of the door before the teacher could realise she was gone. He really should have realised that trick by now. Racing along the corridor, she ignored the familiar whispers that followed her, and almost crashed straight into Prince Legolas, leaning casually outside her door. Skidding to a halt in front of him, she caught her breath as he controlled his laughs at the young she-elf with bright red hair's rather reckless escape.

"What happened this time?" he asked when he could speak again.

"Nothing, just Egleriion wanted to keep me behind again."

Legolas pretended to be confused, "You aren't late though?"

Tauriel shrugged, playing along with her best friend's game, "I left before he could notice that I wasn't there."

Legolas raised his eyebrows in mock horror, "Young Lady, how disrespectful! You shouldn't go dodging your duties like that, how unladylike!" That was as much of his rebuke as he got to say, before they both burst out in hysterics.

"On a more serious note," the Prince continued, "It's going to be worse next time."

Tauriel shrugged, "I can handle it, but Egleriion really could be a little more forgiving."

"I know, for someone whose name means to praise, he isn't exactly flattering." Legolas agreed, before turning and strolling off, leaving Tauriel with just enough time to change and only be a few minutes late to Captain Dilemas' fighting lesson.

Running at full pelt down the corridors, Tauriel burst into the training room, where the Captain was already waiting. He looked up at her with a familiar cold glare, and she bowed her head in the silent apology he was waiting for.