Tauriel's stitches were crooked again. The little elleth glared down at it with a frown, letting out a very un-lady like growl of frustration. For once she actually tried and her fingers were already aching badly from clutching a needle all day long and yet that wasn't enough.

"Tauriel!" The annoyingly familiar voice rose above the chatters. She tore her eyes away from the piece of cloth in her hands to look at her tutor who sat among the other elleths. "How many times have I told you not to do that?" She reprimanded, her piercing eyes digging into hers, sending shivers down her spine.

Tauriel bowed her head low as if her feet had become the most interesting thing in middle-earth. Her cheeks flared red with embarrassment. "I'm sorry," she mumbled, straining to make her voice sound neutral.

"And how many times have I told you not to mutter your words?" She continued, as if the little girl hasn't been embarrassed enough. The other she-elves around mockingly and leaned to one another to whisper something.

This time, the fiery-haired elf found it hard to restrain her anger. "I'm' sorry," she spoke up, her free hand clenching tightly around the folds of her skirt.

"Good," the tutor nodded curtly at her and fixed her with one last harsh glance before turning away to check on the other girls.

Tauriel blew a strand of hair away from her face as she fumed. She hated stitching. She hated having to do all these things just because she was an elleth. She snuck a fleeting look at the others, letting the needle fall from her grasp and disappear into the gaps of the floor boards. They were all regarding her with contempt and resentment, some even laughing at her. They all turned away when she tried to meet their gazes, though Tauriel couldn't blame them, she was always the outcast. Not only did she act differently from the others but she also despised everything they do. In fact she didn't act like a maiden at all.

Most of her tutors have already given up on trying to turn her into a decent lady. Tauriel was much too different from the she-elves. She was verbose and out-spoken, at times even over-active. She preferred to stray out into the woods and play, only to return hours after covered in mud and she seems more fascinated with swords rather than the intricate needle-patterns they were teaching her.

Furtively, the girl glanced at the other elves again, enviously eyeing the laced patterns they have created. Its not like she enjoyed stitching but she just wanted to prove she was good at something, anything. Maybe she could be good at…?

Her eyes lit up as she gently pushed back her chair and trotted over to lean out of the open window. There was a magnificent view of the courtyard only a floor below them where the songs of steel rang melodiously as the male elves fought. She tilted her head curiously, watching their movements with pure awe. If only she was allowed out there. She sighed, her face falling back into a frown albeit it soon vanished completely into a grin the moment her eyes found Legolas, who was standing underneath the shade of a bare tree, watching the others spar. She waved at him enthusiastically. The flicker of motion from above caught his attention. He lifted his head up to give her a kind smile. Admittedly, he was the only friend she's got. Somehow they had become close friends. She never met her mother, she had died birthing her. Three years after, her father had been lost to Orcs so she was sent to live in the palace and Thranduil promised to care for her on her father's behalf. That time she didn't quite understand what was happening and thought everyone had deserted her. She follows her care-taker all day, clutching at her leg as she cried. Through the turmoil, Legolas had stood as a brotherly figure and helped cheer her up.

Legolas was a couple years older than she was. He was an adolescent while she was only a mere child to a human's eye. Things weren't like they were before, their duties were already separating them and they barely had time to play around anymore. She loved to watch him fight; he seemed to be as good with a blade as he was with his bow. She wished she could be like him too.

Placing her hands on the window sill, she propped her head up with her forearms and continued to doze off. If only she could be free like him.

It was until the strict tutor pulled her back to her thoughts and she turned around, only to find the other girls glaring at her once more. This was going to be a long day…

Tauriel was tired after she spent four hours confined in that small room sewing together a dress and another two hours practicing on playing the harp, two of the things she thought were completely useless since there were so much other maidens around to do them. By the time her tutor finally let her out of that accursed room for a walk in the park, Tauriel's legs were badly sore from sitting still all day, but she saw her chance to escape, even though she was most likely going to get another scolding for running off again, she couldn't take another minute of those lessons.

Silently she slunk into the shadows of the bushes that led into the courtyard. She spread her long skirts across the forest floor and settled behind the concealing ivy. Swatting away the tangled branches, she pokes her head out to peer. Much to her disappointment there was no one left in the courtyard. She had come too late!

Her brows creased angrily, twisting her expression into a glower. She crossed her arms and sat there for a moment. As she was sulking, she failed to head the silent footsteps approaching behind her.

"And what are you doing here?" A voice drifted through the silence, causing her to shriek in surprise. She whirled around immediately. The long spindles of the branches caught the lace at the end of her dress, tearing a large slit through its side.

"Calm yourself, its just me."

She raised her head to the source of the voice and found Legolas a distance away from her, leaning casually on an ancient oak tree; an amused smile decorated his face.

She picked herself off the floor clumsily, intending to bow, only to end up toppling back to the ground again.

It made the prince laugh, but unlike the others, his laugh was in a playful lilt, meaning to enlighten the heaviness around them. "A little stiff are we?" he remarked, the amused smile never leaving his face.

Tauriel shot him a baleful look, feigning to be offended, but the smile that tugged the corners of her lips betrayed her. "Of course I am stiff. I spent all day sitting in that stupid wooden chair!" Taking a hold of the trunks, she pulled herself to her feet and dusted her skirts.

"Your tutor isn't going to be happy about that." The Legolas pointed out, referring to the large slit that started from the laced edges up to the top of her knee.

The elleth rolled her eyes, "Oh, as if she's happy about anything I do." She took the torn ends of her dress and knotted them together to prevent the fabric from ripping apart further more. "As if everything I do is wrong and-"

"Hang on," he interjected. "Shouldn't you be attending to your lessons?"

Tauriel pulled to her full height then hung her head to avoid his fervid gaze. "She let us out to have a walk in the gardens…"

"And how did you end up here?" Legolas stepped away from to pace around the clearing, casting her a suspicious look.

The she-elf began to shuffle her feet, holding her hands on the sides of her skirt to prevent them from trembling. "I was escaping."

"To where exactly?" He inquired; his brows rose suspiciously "Greenwood is swarming with guards at this time of day, even you know that."

She opened her mouth to say something, but quickly closed it again, pursing her lips. "Okay fine," she sighed, letting her shoulders sag with renounce as she confessed. "I was coming to see you guys fight."

"You know you are not allowed to do that."

"But I want to learn how to use a sword," she added, looking at him pleadingly, hoping her would be willing to teach her.

"You know you are not allowed to do that either." The prince said with a chuckle. A smirk eventually shaped his face, deepening her scowl. "That is not your duty"

"But I do not like my duty!" she snapped, her cheeks puffing out crossly. The prince could only laugh.

Seeing his amusement, she had to fight the urge to reach out and hit him but it took a while for her to realize how childish her words seemed. Her eyes met the ground again. "But my duty is so boring and it's so unfair too!"

"Maybe you have to accept it," Legolas suggested with a simple shrug. "You are only tormenting yourself if you don't"

"Tauriel!" The muffled voice of her tutor rang, making her jump. She took a look at the sky. The sun was not set yet, which means she had about two more hours of her lessons before the day ended. She groaned miserably and collapsed back onto the ground and pressed herself against the bushes.

"What are you doing?" The elder elf questioned, moving over to sit beside her.

"I'm trying to hide, she never finds me here." She squinted through the gaps in the bushes, straining to see whether the shadow was approaching. "She normally just walks passed here."

"So you mean to say you have done this so many times before?"

The elleth nodded guiltily. The voice soon grew fainter until it fully disappeared into a distance. Tauriel poked her head to make sure it was safe to speak up. "I can't stand sitting around all day you know. What's the difference, she scolds me for everything."

"Indeed does look mad"

"You haven't met her yet, she yells at me for every demeanor I make and yet she only pats the others in the head and tells them not to do it again."

"Perhaps she tells you that before, you just keep doing it again."

"Aye….perhaps" she smiled sheepishly. "I just want to do things differently from the others but she scolds me for that…..why must they make us do things we don't want to do?"

Legolas' brows furrowed remembering how he once told his father he wanted to become a common soldier instead of a prince, although he already knew it wasn't likely to happen, especially when he is the crowned prince of Mirkwood and Thranduil's only son. "Because it is the path they believe is right for us." He answered her after a long moment's pause, placing a hand on her shoulder, making her lift her head to meet his gaze.

"But I don't want to follow that path…do we really have too?"

"Some of us are obliged to, but there are also some who are free to choose. Remember the elf maids in the songs we sing. They chose differently from the others and they become warriors as well,"

"Do you think I might be in songs some day?" The auburn-haired inquired openly, leaning forward to peer at his face, wondering what was going through his mind.

"Perhaps you will…" He mused thoughtfully, saying it more to himself rather than to Tauriel. He began to imagine what it would be like if Tauriel learned how to wield a sword. A brief image of the palace adorned with torn curtains that hung like vines and shredded carpets splayed across the halls came his mind and he couldn't stifle his smirk.

"What's so funny?"

Legolas shook his head, "nothing, I just thought of something."

"Let me see what is it!" Tauriel pleaded, standing on the tips of her toes as she struggled to see what he was hiding from her.

The prince had his hands held behind his back calmly that it wasn't even obvious he was hiding something if it wasn't for the pointed tip that jutted out from his behind his shoulder. "It is something for you" he hinted, his blue eyes sparking with the same mirth she had.

"Is it a present? I love presents. Can't I see it now? Please" she stared at him with pleading eyes and was already beginning to jump up and down in a feeble attempt to get a better view.

"Aye" Legolas finally relented, shaking his head at her eagerness, "as long as you promise to keep quiet."

"Aye, I promise" she turned around, skittering towards the doorway to peek outside, checking if there were any guards passing by. Once she was sure the halls were emptied, she pulled the door shut behind her. "No one is there, it wouldn't matter anyway since the elder elves practically hear everything" When she turned around to face him again, he was already holding out the object in front of her.

"Yes, it would not matter anyway, your voice is shrill enough to be heard from Rivendell."

"A sword" she gasped in an awed breath, ignoring his gibe. She wanted to say more, but her words lodged in her throat. As she took a step closer, Legolas unsheathed the blade from its scabbard, holding it up into the light for her view.

The sword seemed to be shorter than what the guards used, though it was too long to be called a dagger as well. The hilt was elegant silver, the smooth surface fulgent with shimmers that reflected from the dancing flames in the hearth, making it seem like the steel was studded with ruby gems. The blade has a slight curce as it stretched out into a sharpened tip. It glistened in a sheenof icy blue mixed with a slight shade of white. As it was held into the air, the curve of the blade made it look like a ribbon pircing through the dimness of the room, showing resplendent like ethereal starlight.

Enthralled by the glow, Tauriel reached out instinctively to caress the blade only to have Legolas recoil, holding it out of her reach again, "this is not a toy Tauriel" he chided, giving the blade a little twist.

"I know it is not a toy" she protested.

"Was that before or after you tried to touch the sharpened end?" He asked with a raised brow, fighting the urge to smirk.

"Oh" was all the she-elf could say, her ears turning red with embarrassment. She'd seen so many blades before, but the one one she was ever allowed to touch were the blunt ones. It was hard to tell which side was sharp judging from it's gleam in the light.

"Just do not touch that yet," he turned the blade over so the hilt was facing her. "I am already in trouble for whisking this away from the armory and giving it to you, I will get into bigger trouble if you hack your fingers off while using it. Here take this side," he thrusted the hilt towards her.

"I know which side to use," the elf-maiden grumbled and locked her eyes back in the blade again. She released a breath she didn't know she's been holding, reaching her hand out to touch the sword.

As soon as her fingers met the cold metal, she gasped at how light it actually felt. Slowly wrapping her palms fully around the handle, she pulled it close to her chest, careful to direct the sharpened end away from her face.

"Test it out" Legolas suggested and she needn't to be told twice, slashing through the blank air carelessly. Her hands were trembling slightly, still getting used to grasping the hilt.

"Use the pointy end like a needle and pretend you are poking your tutor." Legolas adviced, retracting his steps to stand by the door, his arms crossed as he watched her swing the weapon around.

"That's so mean!"

"Do not pretend you haven't thought of doing that."

"Maybe...only a few times," Tauriel answered guiltily, biting her lip. Then they snuck a glance at each other from the corners of their eyes, pursing their lips before they finally broke into fits of laughter.

Her eyes were glittering now and she suddenly looked like she was about to cry. She traced the tips of her fingers over the surface fondly. The coldness of the blade sent chills riding through her veins. "Why did you give me this?"

"Because you are free to choose whatever path you wish. " Legolas strided forward to her and took her hands, adusting the angle of her oddly tilted blade. "And I know this is the path you will be choosing."

Now she was really crying, a single tear rode down her cheek. "Thank you Legolas...thank you..."

He grinned at her and placed his hand on her head to ruffle her hair, "you are welcome."

Tauriel swatted his hand away then ran to him for a hug. Legolas back away from her warily, until his back was against the door. He held up his hand to stop her, " put the blade down first."

"Whoops," she tittered nervously, the tips of her hears warming into a deeper shade of red. She set the blade down onto the floor before running into his embrace. "Most of the gifts are get are...needles" she said, burying her face in his shoulder. "Thank you"

The prince patted her back in reply. "You are to tell adar you will be working with a blade now."

"Sure. Oh and It will be a pleassure for me to tell the tutor myself."

I own nothing. Thank you so much for reading, reviews are also appreciated.

I was watching "Brave" while reading "A Game of Thrones" when this idea just came into mind. I was itching to write it, though writer's block chose just the perfect time to trike Q_Q sorry if it was horrible.