AN: This story is now classified under the Lord of the Rings after communicating with one of my readers. Tauriel's name will not appear in the filter anymore, so if you're a guest and looking for it, I apologize in advance for the sudden switch.

The Lady Galadriel sent us away with our packs full and new, Lorien cloaks that camouflaged into our surroundings. The Fellowship boarded the boats and I cast a final, longing glance at the elven home of Lorien. Despite the painful memories that lingered there, I still loved the elvish touches that Lorien had. I twisted Tauriel's bracelet on my wrist. I had gained the habit of fiddling with it when I was nervous.

"Legolas?" Aragorn asked. "You seem sad, my friend." I shrugged. I fingered the braid. It was still flawlessly entwined, without any signs of fraying or falling apart. Tauriel's enchantments had endured much.

"It may seem that way." I replied absentmindedly. Aragorn frowned at me. I gazed out over the smooth waters of the river and sighed. He obviously hadn't noticed my depression over Tauriel yet. I guessed that he knew that Tauriel was missing, but I was't sure where he thought she was.

"What is on your mind, Legolas?" Aragorn prodded. "I know something is bothering you. I would have thought you would have enjoyed visiting your kin." I nodded. I mulled my answer over slowly before I spoke a few, well chosen words.

"I was just thinking of Tauriel." I answered. Aragorn's eyebrows raised.

"I thought you might be." he said. "You haven't spoken very much, and I know she is your best friend." I fingered the delicate handles of one of my knives and swallowed. She is my best friend. But now I wasn't sure if she was still alive or not. I wasn't even sure if she would forgive me for murdering her horse.

"I'm worried about her." I told him truthfully. "I'm not sure where she is or what she's doing. I don't even know if she's still alive."

"Where is she, Legolas? Perhaps you could somehow send a message to her and see if she's alright." Aragorn said. "I'm sure she'd reply to you as soon as she could." I shook my head. I continued rowing and sighed.

"Tauriel is somewhere dangerous and somewhere where she could be killed, Aragorn. That is why I am nervous for her." I said, my words catching in my throat. "She has been gone for quite some time now, and I'm beginning to wonder if she has been killed."

Aragorn's eyes widened in sudden understanding.

"She is missing." he said, his voice filled with regret. "Why have I not seen this before? Why have you kept this from me, Legolas? I thought you trusted me." I didn't know what to say after that. I did trust him. I just didn't want to burden him with the knowledge that I was pining for my lost friend.

"I do trust you, Aragorn. My relationship with Tauriel is very special to me. It felt too private to announce." I said finally. "She is like my sister." That was a lie. I wanted Tauriel to be my pledged, instead of lying to myself and pretending that we were nothing more than friends. I loved her. She was loyal, intelligent, and talented. She understood me like no one else. She would oppose me when she thought it was right to oppose me.

"I am sorry, my friend." Aragorn said, his head bent. I swallowed, looking out over the water once more. The river rippled as our boat cut through it, making a chain reaction of beautiful imperfections in the smooth, glass-like substance.

"Do you think she is alive?" I asked him, voicing one of my greatest fears.

"What does your heart tell you, Legolas?" Aragorn responded. I raised my chin to the sky and considered my answer.

"It tells me that she is not dead." I replied. "But it is not certain." Aragorn nodded.

We arrived on shore and I began to unload the boats. It felt nice to be back on solid ground after a two-hour boat trip down the river, and I had never been too comfortable with water. Elves prefer the soft, luscious ground under our feet and the trees above, not an endless chasm of water ready to cave in over our heads and drown us. The others (mainly the dwarf, Gimli) staggered around like drunken fools when they got out of the boats. I found their sense of balance entertaining. We settled down and I sat upon a log, once again twisting Tauriel's gift around my wrist. I investigated the clasp that she had chosen to tie it with.

Tauriel had always worn a flower necklace around her neck. At times it was hidden by her corset or soft velvet shirts, but the chain was always there, ever present. Once I asked her what it was, and she told me that her parents had given it to her when she was a young elf before they died. It was made of beautiful silver, with a delicate flower set in between a twig design. The flower had appeared to be made of the white starlight gems. And it was now mine. Suddenly I understood the gravity of this gift. Tauriel was trusting me with her parent's love and care, and she was also trusting me to take care of a treasure of her own- her hair. She knew I admired it and she never let anyone touch it, and she only cut it when it became too long to handle.

I was surprised that the delicate little jewel could last so long, but I remembered, too, the charm she had put on it before I left her in Bree.

"He's gone!" Gimli exclaimed. I stood up, looking wildly around. Frodo was gone. I counted our number. Seven. Boromir had disappeared, too. The three other hobbits sprang to their feet and Aragorn looked nervous.

"We'll go after them." Aragorn announced. I drew my bow. There was something lurking around in the forest. I didn't want to enter that place. I was afraid that there was a monster of some dangerous sort in there, and I did not want to risk the other hobbits. Frodo was the most important of them all. I charged into the woods and began tracking Frodo's movements.

The hobbits ran on ahead and I followed Aragorn, who was studying Boromir and Frodo's tracks. It led to a ruin with a wide platform at the top. I could see no one there. Just as we were about to leave, an orc jumped on Aragorn's back and he jerked back. I quickly knocked an arrow and let it fly. The orc fell off Aragorn with a thump as he landed on the ground. I sensed movement behind me and wheeled around, just in time to meet an orc. I whirled and lashed out at the creatures.

It took quite some time to kill all the creatures that we were ambushed by. When there were only about ten orcs left, I heard a horn wildly blowing in the distance. Aragorn looked startled, and he seemed as though he recognized the sound.

"It's Boromir!" he shouted. I finished off the orc I had been fighting and sprinted off into the woods, trusting that Aragorn and Gimli would be close behind.

We soon were close to where Boromir was fighting too many orcs. We were just in time to see a third arrow embed itself in Borormir's chest. Aragorn let out a sound of surprise. I stood there for a minute, trying to comprehend what had happened. Then I heard Merry or Pippin's scream, and that sound jolted me back into action once again.

I arrived to a clearing, empty except for Boromir's blood body. There was no sign of the hobbits and none of the orcs that had taken them, either. While Aragorn tended to Boromir's wounds, I scanned the trees for any sign of an ambush. The forest was oddly quiet. No birds sang in the trees, and there were no animals to be seen. I didn't like how unnaturally quiet it seemed. I had never felt so uncomfortable with my surroundings, even in the Mines of Moria. Aragorn set Boromir's head onto a tree root and looked up at Gimli and I.

"He's dead." he said in a choked-up sounding voice. Something odd stirred in my heart and my mind immediately flew back to Tauriel. Would I ever pronounce her death, just as Aragorn had told us of Boromir's? Could I do it without screaming my pain to the world? Somehow, I didn't think I could. The thought of never seeing my redheaded friend was unbearable, and the grief would be too overwhelming to comprehend.

We laid Boromir's body in one of our boats. There was no sign of Sam or Frodo, and Merry and Pippin were gone. It was now only Aragorn, Gimli and I in the Fellowship. We were now the largest part of the original group of nine companions. I watched Boromir's body in silence. If Tauriel had died before now, would she have gotten a proper send of like Boromir? I thought that the orcs would probably maul her flesh until there was nothing left, and then throw the body into a fire and let her broken essence drift up to the elves of the past. It hurt a little less knowing that if she was dead, she would become a constellation in the sky, and she would be in the shimmering splendor that she deserved, instead of being in a pit of filth with the orcs.

"We must go after them." I heard myself say. "I will not abandon them unless they are dead." Would I really? I hardly knew Merry and Pippin. They were kind, caring hobbits that loved their adventure, but I knew almost nothing about them. Tauriel was my best friend and we had been partners in war for a very long time. And yet, I had left her to the brutality of the orcs without even putting it to debate. Why was I offering to chase two reckless hobbits to the ends of the earth if I hadn't even tried to save my best friend?

I then realized the answer. Tauriel would never forgive me if I let those two hobbits die, while saving her instead. She would rather have died than two innocent halflings killed in her place. I knew what she would have said.

"There has to be beauty in this world, Legolas, born of innocence and purity, not of war and ugliness."

Sorry for the delay! And here we are, at the end of the Fellowship movies. I realize that I breezed through the first book very quickly. The second book may drag a bit and stuff, because I'll have Eowyn thrown in there, too. Fellowship was just the exposition (scene setter) for the two next ones, which are the more plot-rich for Legolas and Tauriel.

If you want to see a picture of the clasp on Legolas's bracelet, Google 'Tauriel's necklace' and then press images. It's very beautiful and I can't do it justice in words.

I will post Two Towers in a separate story titled 'Whirlwind'.