Chapter Text
Prologue
Thwack. An arrow hit the target. Thwack. Thwack. Lighteningly fast, twin arrows embedded deeply in the target alongside the first one, forming a perfect line. Legolas took a deep breath and aimed three arrows at once. It was a tricky shot, he attempted. Breath in. Breath out. In. Out. In. Out. The world narrowed down only to him and the target. Suddenly, he smirked and let the arrows loose. They hit the target simultaneously with loud thwacks and split the previous ones in half.
It was calming, this exercise. No older siblings poking their noses into things they weren’t supposed to (like his life for example). No strict ada breathing down his neck. No gossiping court looking over his shoulder and pointing out any mistakes he made. Just his bow and arrows. And the target, of course. The clapping coming from the right side interrupted his concentration. Legolas rolled his eyes and put down his bow. “Tauriel.”
“Great shot, my prince. You are really the best archer in the realm.” Tauriel praised him. “Did you give a thought to my offer about joining the patrols?”
Legolas didn’t seem to hear her. He cocked his head thoughtfully and stared out into the woods. The darkness was creeping through the trees, slowly surrounding the heart of the elven realm and trying to suffocate all the life in the vicinity. “Maybe. It depends…” He trailed off. Something was niggling at his mind. Like he was forgetting something.
Tauriel hit his shoulder playfully. “Yes, or no. It’s not that hard to answer.”
“For an ordinary elf that is not a prince, perhaps. But for me…” Legolas sighed and expounded. “The king is still refusing to grant my request to withdraw from the court and join the guard. Ada is about one more spider away from completely forbidding me to leave the palace grounds. And I’ve asked. Several times. All of my older siblings served in the guard for a time before returning to their duties in the court, but for some reason, the king is refusing my attempts at the same. I’m half-of-the-mind to take up ambassadorial duties and leave for Imladris or Lothlórien”
“Ah.” Tauriel backpedalled. She wasn’t going to get in the middle of that if she could help it. The relationship between the king and his youngest son was always fragile. And the death of the prince’s mother, when he was only a little elfling, didn’t help the matters. The king clearly didn’t know how to care for his youngest child without his wife. His other children were already adults, married and comfortably settled into their own lives when Legolas was born unexpectedly – one of the last elflings born in this Age. The large age gap ensured he was coddled by them, but not understood, as he often complained to her. It had to be suffocating at times to be the youngest scion of the royal family.
Suddenly, Legolas stiffened, tightening the hold on his bow, and unerringly turned his face to the east. Something was happening. Right now. In Erebor. A malevolent wind whistled through the trees, hitting him forcefully in the face. The ancient trees guarding the borders of their realm bowed under the pressure. Legolas hissed. A great evil was making its presence known to them.
Izgilê. It’s time for you to awaken. A sweet and somewhat familiar female voice whispered inside his mind. Wake up, sentinel. The world has a need for your talents again. Wake up, Izgilê, and do your duty.
Something inside him listened to the female and broke open, shattering the barriers he wasn’t even aware he possessed. Legolas bared his teeth in a feral snarl when he recognized the threat. It was a dragon and he was rapidly approaching the dwarf mountain. Uncomfortably close to their forest. He had to stop it. Now.
The world around them whitened and blue seeped around the edges of his vision. The air tinted blue and a male wolf stalked out of the psionic plane. He cocked his head and looked the elf prince up and down, measuring his worth. You’ll do. A growl invaded his thoughts unapologetically and in the same instant, the spirit animal weaved itself in his soul.
Eirik, the wolf’s name flashed through his mind. Legolas collapsed on the ground with a silent scream, as all of his senses spiked at the same time and easily overwhelmed the unprepared elf.
Control, sentinel. The wolf grumbled. Get control of your senses. Now. Come on. You are better than that.
“Legolas? What’s happening?” Tauriel kneeled, interrupting the wolf giving Legolas the advice, and took the shaking elf prince’s hands in hers.
The newly-awakened sentinel keened highly in pain and thrashed, trying to get away from the elleth. The additional input, he was getting from her, was too grating on his currently overwhelmed psyche.
The wolf materialized between the prince and Tauriel to warn her off. The elleth immediately backed off from the predator radiating that much of a standoffish attitude. She glanced at the prince, then at the wolf and back at the prince. And a preposterous idea bloomed in her mind. The wolf belonged to Legolas. To the new sentinel.
Eirik huffed at her imperiously and nosed Legolas’s hand. The prince’s fingers unclenched and buried themselves in the wolf’s fur. The relief was immediate. Eirik buffered his sentinel from the worst, while simultaneously showing him the way to build some temporary shields. The creation of permanent ones would have to wait until he bonded with his guide.
Little-by-little Legolas wrangled his errant senses back into some semblance of control. The deafening noises, the harsh smells, the distracting sights – all of that became muted. Well… muted for his new circumstances as sentinel. Legolas used that as his new base and slowly turned up his hearing. The wolf was grounding him in lieu of his guide. Hopefully, it wouldn’t take long for the compatible guide to finding him.
Tauriel sighed in relief. The predator wasn’t hurting her prince. Obviously, he was helping him. Thinking about the things she observed, the elleth was certain about her conclusions. Legolas awakened, probably as a sentinel, for some reason. What that reason was, she couldn’t fathom but it didn’t bode well for the near future. Because most elven gifted sailed a long time ago, unable to cope with the darkness spreading through the lands without check, even though Sauron was defeated at the end of the last Age, and no new awakened since then. So, the question was… why now?
What took you so long? Eirik’s voice growled inside the sentinel’s mind impatiently.
I don’t understand what you mean. Legolas replied. He was aware of the changes he underwent, but couldn’t wrap his mind around the reason why him. Don’t the gifted awaken only when there is a danger?
The wolf sighed. He had his work cut out for him. Not quite, Legolas. I promise to explain later. Now is not the time for questions. The dwarrow of Erebor need your help with a dragon attacking their city, trying to get inside their mountain. If he isn’t killed, it won’t end well for anyone. And you should also consider this – your father’s halls are located in the highly flammable woods. So, chop, chop, Legolas. Get to work.
“My prince? Legolas?” Tauriel asked hesitantly. The elf didn’t look good, judging by his pale pallor. His attention was engaged somewhere else as if he was monitoring some threat to her senses invisible. Suddenly, his demeanour changed. He seemed to be determined about something.
The sentinel ignored her, intent on monitoring the dragon’s approach. There was still time to make it to the mountain in time. Perhaps, if he used that shortcut he discovered several weeks ago. The path was a bit overgrown but still usable. He whistled for his horse.
“Legolas. Where are you going?” Tauriel asked again, using the commanding tone of her voice to finally get the answer from the elf sentinel.
“Erebor.” The prince snapped out the short answer and hopped on the horse’s back. Looking over his shoulder, he asked. “Come, Tauriel. We have to hurry.”
“What for?” The elleth wanted to know, torn between following the prince and her own unease with the entire situation.
“A dragon is attacking. Dwarrow need help. So, are you going, or not?”
Tauriel paled.
Legolas frowned, as he took in the situation. It was bad. Worse than bad. They came too late. The dragon was already flying around, attacking the human city and cruelly starting fire randomly at the farms at the foot of the Mountain. Everything was up in flames. The smell of burnt meat hit him like a dwarf fist in the face. The heartbreaking sight of the dragon’s victims was seared into his mind. Probably for the rest of his life. The sentinel had a really hard time to quell the urge to run in the middle of pandemonium taking place down in the valley.
“Don’t,” Tauriel said sharply when she realized what foolishness her companion had in mind.
“They need our help.” Legolas objected while he tried to find a way to prevent the dragon from making more of the mess. A presence, followed by a feeling of disorientation tugged at his mind insistently and he turned his horse towards a rather large group of dwarrow that were fleeing their doomed city. The dragon was leaving them alone, for now, as he focused more on collecting the gold from the Dale and other near-by settlements, burning everything in his path.
Tauriel evaluated the situation and sighed. “No dragon-baiting Legolas. I mean it. We’ll help anyone fleeing the dragon’s wrath, be it human or dwarf, but no taking unnecessary risks. I don’t want to explain to your father and my king why his youngest child ended up burnt to a crisp if something goes wrong.”
“Fine with me.” Legolas snapped impatiently and galloped down to the nearest group of dwarrow in their hastily put together caravan. The first dwarf he met, gave off a peculiar feeling. Something that was equally strange and familiar. He was eyed with suspicion by the wounded young warrior, but for some reason, he was pointed towards their leader.
Legolas bowed when he recognized the dwarf, much too young to bear the responsibility for his people. “Prince Thorin.”
“Prince Legolas.” The youngling politely returned the gesture with his own but staring down the elf in distrust. He was tense like he was waiting for Legolas to attack him.
Poor child. Eirik whispered in his mind, as he shuffled towards a little bedraggled cat shuddering beside the dwarf prince. To come into his gifts so young and in such a traumatic way. It won’t be easy for him.
Adolescent sentinel. Legolas realized and sighed. That complicated things. From what he could remember from his teachings, it was highly unusual for a tween to awaken. Their mood swings made them highly unpredictable and therefore very dangerous if handled incorrectly.
Careful, Legolas. Eirik warned him. His instincts are on high alert. And he has something to protect.
The elf finally noticed two other children peeking from behind the young dwarf. His younger siblings, judging by their unmistakable resemblance. It was not good. But still, he attempted to reason with the young dwarf. “I offer your people and you the shelter in our lands. I give you my word, as a scion of the ruling family, to take you under my protection until the time you decide it’s no longer needed.”
Thorin relaxed slightly when the truthfulness of the elf’s words resonated through him. However, he was still hesitating to take the elf’s promise of the shelter seriously. His sister elbowed him none too gently to make him speak. “I accept.” The dwarf choked out.
Tauriel sighed. The king wouldn’t like it. Not a little bit. It was an open secret amongst the elves that he detested the dwarrow. Legolas was shrewd to offer them the shelter under old laws. The king couldn’t turn them away without losing his face, considering most of the refugees were adolescents and young adults. She nodded and waved towards the forest. “Follow me. I’ll show you the shortest way to our lands. Legolas, please, be careful.”
The wagons moved under Tauriel’s direction to the elven lands. Legolas kept one eye on the proceedings and another on human’s attempts to kill off the flying beast. “Hurry up.” He shouted at Tauriel. The dragon finally noticed his most hated prey was fleeing to safety.
Legolas grabbed his bow and arrows and took an aim on the dragon, whispering a quick blessing on his arrow. The wording just appeared in his mind out of nowhere but it felt right. It was probably a sign of Eirik’s silent support and encouragement. The sentinel felt prepared to match himself against the winged beast.
“What are you doing? Are you out of your mind?” A fairly young redhead dwarf snarled. He was one of the stragglers. “You’ll call the dragon on our heads.”
“Hush, dwarf. Let me concentrate.” Legolas murmured and took a shot.
He didn’t miss. The arrow struck its target high on the dragon’s chest, loosening a scale. Legolas cursed. The shot needed a little more force to incapacitate the dragon. And his stunt grabbed the dragon’s attention. The elf nudged the redhead dwarf to follow his kin into the woods and faced the rapidly approaching beast.
“Sentinel.” The dragon snarled, recognizing the scent of power the foolish elf was drenched in. “Back off. This is my land, now.”
Legolas just knocked another arrow, preparing himself to fire again, and made his demands. “Let the dwarrow leave in peace. They asked for a sanctuary in my territory, therefore they are under my protection. Do you want to tangle with me?” The sentinel asked coldly, banking on the fact the dragon had no way of knowing, he was a newly awakened, and only one remaining amongst Mirkwood elves.
“Not particularly.” The dragon snorted, remembering a way ancient sentinels rose against his kin and managed to destroy them. He wasn’t about to attack the elf, especially if he didn’t know if there were more of his kind around. It would be foolish to attack without further information. In a few decades, he would be strong enough to kill even a cadre of elf sentinels. Smaug beat his wings and took off, crying out. “You stay out of Erebor, and I won’t raze your forest to the ground.”
The wolf snarled threateningly. “Hush, Eirik,” Legolas said. They were at the stalemate. The situation wasn’t ideal but if the dragon stayed in the mountain for the foreseeable future, his people wouldn’t be put in danger. The dwarrow would be able to find another underground place to occupy quite easily. After all, there were a lot of unclaimed mountains in the Arda.
But staring at the dragon rapidly moving towards Erebor, and sensing a restlessness in his wolf, Legolas knew the situation would come to a head one day. He just hoped it wouldn’t end blowing in his face.