Answers to Reviews:

Auguruj: Haha, and here I was going to offer you a part in the quest...guess that's not such a good idea after all lol. Yeah he has it hard, but that's the life of a healer unfortunately...and there are good sides to his job, like knowing that he's helped people survive who otherwise would have died without him etc. Umm, well...just read the chapter, and hold rather tightly to that hope! Ya I thought it would be a good thing, as Thranduil, though he's an ass at times, really isn't one to let grudges go to the grave with someone unless they're his mortal enemy...and Thorin did help take care of Fenna when she was in the mountain, half mad with gold lust though he may have been during most of it. Well, it's good to know that my characterization of background characters is as good as that of my main characters...means my job as a writer is being done far better than I thought it was lol. I'll definitely have to refer back to him when I'm stuck as to how to make background characters more likeable as he's had such a good reception :D

Unexpected17: Wahey well done! Hope they all went well! Yep, she wanted the story to go exactly as it should have done, even if that meant knowingly making it so that Fili, Kili and Thorin died when she easily had the power to make it so that they lived. That's the line she's got to tread unfortunately. Nah don't worry about Elbeth, she came to the battle but survived it. There are definitely others you should worry about though...muhahaha. I'll let you guys use your imaginations for that bit...didn't want to drag things out too much longer before getting to the real meat of this part of the story :P Ha, well, I actually have 2 other fanfics I'm writing at the moment, but they're nowhere near finished. I mean, I guess you could read them if you wanted - they're for the game Dishonored, and for the Marvel movies - but I don't know if they'd be to your tastes of not lol, and I've not posted them on here, so...yeah. My novel...eh, I've still not finished the first draft yet, but it's getting there. Slowly. Very slowly. But it's getting there. It's about a thief and her Guild uncovering something that they definitely should not have uncovered, and how they're slowly forced to try and stop it lest they and everyone and everything they know be destroyed...but getting involved may also be the end of them as well. Bad summary, but I'm bad at summaries, so no surprises there lmao. You're welcome to read the first chapter if you want...just let me know your email and I can send it over for you to have a read!

Potato-Faye: Yep, a whole world of pain is hopefully coming your way :D Here's another stage of grief for you to enjoy!

GaaraSandNiN: Most welcome! Yep, all good here apart from the fact that my muse is still very fleeting in its visits to me, but I can't have it all lol.

Silver Sugar Duchess: No stopping this train we're on. Have fun!

RyannaRiddle: Aww thank you so much! It's definitely hard when you're writing a mostly first person story to get that impact across, trying to maker it feel natural when you switch to another perspective without having it seem like a forced 'singing of praises' moment...but seems I've managed to avoid that pit fall thankfully! here's another chapter for you to...well, enjoy might be a bit strong of a word :P

a: Yessss, let the hate flow through you :)

Apfekiachel: Yep, much worse, and even when it looks like it's getting better...yeah it won't. Enjoy!

crimsonangel315: Nope, not coming to end for a good while yet, don't worry. Still got plenty left to write about ^^

minerrvas: Thank you! Glad you like my way of writing! I do struggle sometimes, wondering if I'm being too...over the top if that makes sense, but meh, this is fanfiction, I can do what I like. And yes, I am very, very devious...you'll see just how much in the coming chapters :D

veneciafm: Update is here!

Me: *Putting the last of the sandbags up* Ha, you guys ready for this? I sure am...well, I hope so. let's just say that the ride from here is gonna be hella wild, in both a good and a bad way.

Thranduil: *Tightening straps on his helmet* Are you quite sure this will keep me safe?

Me: Yep, it will don't worry! And even if it comes off, your head is still hard enough to stop most of the damage-*dodges a swipe from Thranduil's staff* hey! You told me to only tell you the truth!

Thranduil: Not truths that are of that nature...Get back here! You still have to help me survive these next few chapters! I can't man these battlements by myself!

Me: Yeah you can, byyyeeeeeee! *ducks for cover so the show can begin*

65: The Last Goodbye

"And so another battle becomes history…lives become one more tally upon a piece of parchment," Thranduil sighed, carefully placing his quill at the side of his inkwell and reading aloud the last line he'd written. It was three days since the fighting had ended, and yet here he was, reliving it again as he put ink to paper and recorded the events for all to read. It was something he'd always hated doing – memories ran far too closely alongside such writings – but as his father had always said, it was better to put thoughts into written words as soon as possible, lest they plague you no end…Ahh, and there is one of those memories, Thranduil thought with another sigh, shaking his head as he rose from his chair, leaving his words to dry.

It had been thousands of years since Oropher had passed, and yet sometimes Thranduil felt his father's absence near as keenly as the moment he'd found him lying in the mud and filth, his soul already fled to the Halls of Mandos. He hadn't been prepared for such loss then, and nor was he now-

No! he snapped at himself, fingers turning white as they clenched at his cloak and the invisible edges of his composure. No. She breathes yet, and will continue to do so. This will not be another battle where I lose someone…and yet, even as he berated himself, the Elvenking couldn't help the heavy weight that had been settled in his chest since that moment, since he'd found Fenna stricken upon Ravenhill and heard her voice fade away. It was true, she was still alive, and the healers had done their best to clean and tend her wounds…but still she lay in unconscious sleep, and still her injuries didn't heal. It was almost as if someone had paused her life at the very moment she'd fallen to a place where no voice could reach her; as if she hung on a fine piece of silk between life and death.

Slowly, Thranduil loosened his hold on his robes, instead busying them and his pained thoughts with the jewel he'd taken to keeping in a pocket at his side – the one Fenna had given him upon her return to him.

Perhaps I could have it fashioned into the centrepiece of a circlet for her? Though no doubt she would refuse even the idea of that, and tell me that this jewel is mine…perhaps I will do it anyway, at least to keep her from stealing my crowns again, he mused, holding the stone up to the wintery light trailing through a window in his stone room. In their time of need – need for a place of safety, a place where healing could be done and rest could be taken away from the fields of slaughter – the people of the lake and the remaining Dwarves had offered up Dale…or what little remained of it. Thranduil had been too pre-occupied to argue for a place away from somewhere so rank with the smell of dragonfire, as was he still, and so the broken town once more hummed with activity-

The Elvenking froze, head tilting to one side as he listened as hard as he could. Nothing unusual was to be heard between the near silent paces of the Elves in this area of Dale, and the distant calls and rumbles of the men and Dwarves. Nothing…apart from one set of footsteps drawing nearer and nearer, loud and urgently edged and coming from where Thranduil knew a healing wing had been set up.

Pass by, pass by, pass this place by, was the mantra suddenly running through Thranduil's mind. The jewel in his hand winked and flashed a rainbow across the walls as he turned it, cradling it like an egg that could be crushed by a moment's inattention. Pass by, pass by…

The steps turned along another hall, and another, each with fewer and fewer paths ahead, yet still with a chance of sending the footsteps elsewhere.

Pass by…do not come here…pass by. Fingers flexed, pressed.

Closer and closer the steps came. Now they were in a corridor with only four ways. Now one with three. Now one with only two…

Pass by! For the love of Eru pass BY!

…And now they turned into the corridor where Thranduil's room lay, the only other way for them to go being back the way they'd come and never returning, never returning to plague Thranduil again. But even a Mallorn's leaves must fall at the end of its life. Even a once undisturbed, peaceful stream must bend and twist in violent ways if it is dammed in half.

There was a knock at the door, swift and sharp and oh so like the one from months ago that for a moment Thranduil was back in his rooms in his home, the phantasm of a scream ringing in his ears and worry blooming in his heart. What was that worry, though, compared to the dread of knowing?

"Come in," he murmured, not daring to raise his voice any further. It was harder to break things when they were soft. The door opened with a creak, revealing a young Elf in healer's clothing. Thranduil dared not turn to look at him. What he couldn't see couldn't hurt him…was that how Fenna had put it?

"What is it?"

"King Thranduil, I…" There was a pause, and Thranduil could sense the young ellon trying to find the right words. Finally, he sighed and gave up. "She is fading."

The last glitters of the gemstone vanished as fingers clenched hard around it.

"I will be there in but a moment," was the softest of sighs the Elvenking managed after a second of weighted silence. The door creaked again as, with a nod and bow of his head the Elf retreated, unseeing of the way Thranduil drew the gem close to his chest, or the trembles he tried to hide in doing so. He couldn't let himself fall. Not yet.

It was frighteningly close to the room she'd been placed in before Thranduil could hear the heartbeat of his mortal friend. Faint and fluttering, it was still there…but with every passing moment it seemed to get just that little bit weaker…or was he imagining things? Was he taking away from the time he would have with her, just so there would be less to feel? No, that was a silly notion…because what difference would a shorter time make, other than to make it worse? What good would it do other than to deepen the pain in his heart?

"Leave us," the Elvenking murmured to the guards he'd stationed outside Fenna's door, unseeing of the empathy that turned their lips down and darkened their eyes as he, taking a deep breath, pushed open the door and stepped inside. All the hopes he'd had, all those tiny notions that maybe, just maybe, the healers had been wrong, that Fenna was simply drifting further into unconsciousness and so her heart was slowing in response, were forced to stay outside as the door clicked shut, and as Thranduil's eyes landed upon her sheet covered form.

Silently, steps slow and not wanting to be taken, he made his way to the chair on one side of the bed, folding quietly into it and for a moment just staring, watching the tiny pulse of movement at her neck. If he closed his mind and just watched, he could almost imagine that she was simply sleeping, drifting her way through her strange dreams, no wound lying hidden beneath sheets she was almost as pale as. But not even the great Elvenking could fool himself for very long.

"Did you know, I contemplated throwing you from my halls, or taking you back to your own kind and leaving you there, on many occasions in your first year here?" he said after a moment, voice small, afraid of breaking the last, fragile hold on everything that lay behind it.

"You were a strange creature," he continued, reaching out and gently taking hold of a hand that rested above the sheets and noting, with a tiny smile, the chewed edges of the nails, "far more vocal than any mortal I had known before, and as abrasive as the stone from which you sometimes seemed to be made. Our first meeting had me almost of the mind to take you back to where you had been found and leave you there – truly, if I had not seen the clothing you had been found in, and had not thought further upon it, you would likely either be long dead or taken into Dol Guldur by the creatures of that foul place.

"Even as I debated these things, though, I let you out of your cell, and gave you near free roam of my halls…and do you know why, mell pen? I was…curious. I wanted to know if what you explained to me was true, wanted to know more about this place you supposedly came from…and wanted to know more about you. You were like a fascinating new puzzle, one who would not give her secrets up lightly…one whom I wished to solve, or at least learn as much as I could from before I turned my back."

Thranduil paused, closing his eyes and trying to ease each breath's passing. No…words I must say before…time for it all later…you know this…

"And so I watched you, and listened as you told me of your world, as you tried to understand why it was that you were brought here, and I tried to figure out how best I could keep my kingdom safe whilst using what you were giving me to shift aside long hated shadows. I drew you nearer to me with each day, watching, waiting and trying to trick you into revealing more of what you knew…know of this world…and yet…and yet, when we fought for that first time, or rather, when you grew angry enough to finally snap at me, I felt…something. It was not much, but it was there, like the tiniest of pinpricks in a piece of fabric.

"I had grown used to having you at my side, Fenna; had grown used to hearing your clumsy steps and muttered curses. Without even knowing it, I was letting you come close…far closer than all but a few had been in many hundreds of years. Without even knowing it, you were turning into something I was accustomed to having near, or at least knowing was near at hand should I need or want you.

"Of course, we had our…disagreements, and of course there were times, as the months turned into a year, and the year turned into two, that I wondered why I had not thrown you back to where you had come from the moment I laid eyes on you…but it was not until Dagalion nearly managed to end your life that I realised I didn't want to, anymore. It wasn't until I was nearly forced to watch you…" Again, Thranduil paused, that oh so innocent word faltering on his lips, tasting heavy and cold as he swallowed it back down. He couldn't say it. He hadn't been able to say it then, and he couldn't say it now, when it was this time nearing its moment of truth.

"I did not wish to have you thrown out, or even have you leave for any reason…because you had become something dear to me, Fenna. You had somehow – and I wish I had asked you what it was that you have been doing all this time – managed to break through every wall I had put up over the years, sit yourself down in my heart and refuse to move like the stubborn creature you are…and all with me not minding in the slightest, or even noticing until it was too late to do much at all, even if I had wanted to.

"You always were cunning, even if you did not mean to be, mell pen," Thranduil said with a soft laugh, not noticing the shining trails now slowly staining his cheeks. "Well versed with the knowledge that all mortals must die at some point from old age, malady or injury am I, and yet here I am, sat at your bedside as you go where I cannot follow or see you again, and feeling as if the world could come undone, as if Morgoth Bauglir himself could break through the Door of Night and bring battle once more to this world, without my caring or feeling any worse than I do now. If this was said to me many years ago, I would have laughed and taken no heed of it…but now…."

Quiet once more claimed its place in the room, worming its way from the cracks in the stone and riding on the whisper of wind that curled through the open window, and in it, Thranduil realised he could barely hear Fenna's heartbeat. It was still there…but with every moment, every beat, it grew fainter, and the silence between each pulse grew longer. Time was growing short…and there was nothing the Elvenking could do.

"There is much I wish to say to you, mell Fenna…" No magic of his could preserve or heal his friend as it could a sickened forest.

"Many things I could have said. Many things I should have said…" No prayers of his, abandoned at the doorway with all his hope, could keep the only thing natural to humans from having its way.

"But time is cruel to those who wait just a moment too long, as I now realise I have. Now my words must remain unspoken, deeds undone, save for this…" No wondering as to the what ifs – if he had been more vigilant, if he had stayed by her side at all times and not made the same mistake as he had all those years ago, if he had realised what was happening and pushed her away before she gave hope and life to that broken thing in his chest – would keep Fenna lingering in the world.

"…I will sing you to sleep, mell pen…one last time."

And so, in the shadow of a mountain heavy with sorrows both old and new, in the broken embrace of a fire scorched city where life was just beginning to grow green and strong again, a great Elvenking, his hair like starlight beneath his mithril crown, his eyes two oceans beneath the clouded shutters of a storm and his words the cloak of twilight finally closing in, lifted his voice in song and listened as a last breath sighed into the air, as a heartbeat fluttered…faded…paused…and finally…stopped.

Translations:

Mell pen = Dear one

Mell = Dear

Me: ...And that's a wrap for this chapter. Now you guys have to wait another month for the next part...have fun with that!

Thranduil: *Peeking out over the sandbags* But...Devicorn, have you not-

Me: NOPE! *Clamps hand over Thranduil's mouth* Nope, I have most certainly not got a surprise in store for these guys. Nope, definitely, definitely not. Not at all. No sireee :D *tries to look innocent, fails miserably*