Noira's POV

I turned my mind off and took step after step monotonically, with closed eyes. I was listening to the beautiful songs of birds above us, inhaling the smell of the thousands of flowers and trees, and just opened my eyes, when I felt something cold covering my feet. 'Look where you step!' said a guard angrily, and I stepped out of the small river, what was flowing across our way. Its mirror sparkled as a silver path, blinding us for a moment. I lifted my look at the sky and enjoyed our travel, ignoring the ellons, who were clearly annoyed from my presence. There was something in this woods, what plant a peaceful feeling in the souls. My previous worry slowly went to curiosity, as we neared to the palace, Fräynn was speaking about earlier.

'Based on the color of your hair, you are from the North,' he tore me out from my thoughts 'As I am.'

I looked at him, and was thinking, how long could he be staring at me. 'I doubt if our Norths were the same' I answered shortly.

'How many Norths would be on Middle Earth?' he asked jokingly.

'In the middle of what?' I responded before I could stop myself, and now he was looking down at me as I would have been completely idiot. So probably my question sounded like why was the grass green. Fräynn faced the sky, with eyes closed, and whispered something that sounded like a pray for feeble-mindeds. After that, we chose staying silent for the rest of the journey.

I found myself smiling from ear to ear. This part of the forest seemed much lovelier, than the other one, where the orcs attacked me. It was full of life. The sun was going down and the little nightlings started to appear. They had little white light and sent so soft relaxing music to all the visitors hearts, they'd never like to leave the forest anymore. Such a miracle.

What kind of ruler he or she can be? – I thought of the future finally. In front of my eyes appeared an old, short, quite plump man with a hint of kindness in his eyes. Like my father was. Or... The picture blurred and transformed to a high, proud form of an elleth, with long blond hair and white skin. No, too mainstream. It has no sense – was my conclusion, and I cleared my mind and focused on where I stepped, as it was told to me earlier, anyway.

Could it be possible, that maybe it was better being a prisoner in this world, then being free in mine? My glance landed on my tightly bounded hands.

I can understand them.

We soon reached the gates, what was hidden so perfectly, I could not notice it earlier. It opened as we neared, but there was not a single guard there, as I saw. The ellons guided me across a long bridge and we entered a huge, ornate door. At the next moment, I nearly fell in my feet.

'Oh for God's sake...' – I couldn't find my breath. In my entire life, I've never seen any place like this before. The sight just filled my eyes and made it blank. The palace was so monumental, I couldn't understand, how could I not see it from the far? I could describe it as a great forest inside of a bole, but I know, it had no much sense.

I-I can not even see where it ends... oh my – I thought and saw Fräynn smiling. I surely said it out loud, despite, my jaw was still on the ground.

Everything I've seen was made from wood. We were walking in a giant opened area with a million little roads, hundreds of tall stairs, more little silver lampions than stars on the night sky. The sight was incredible. My mouth stayed open from the admiration, while we were crossing the several corridors and stairs and was walking higher and higher. I didn't know if I had a slight fear of heights, or not, so I chose not looking down.

Finally, the guards stopped, and I came back to the 'here and now'. In front of me, there was a great oak door. Fräynn said something to the ellon, who was standing at the doorway, and that now entered the room, leaving us waiting outside. Well, I had a theory, who was found on the other side of the door. His plump-and-old majesty, for sure...

My daydreaming was interrupted, when a crying elleth came out and took a deep breath next to me. She had long, golden hair, blue eyes and poor clothes. This lady was the first female, I'd seen since my arrival. She was beautiful, but a little too skinny and her face seemed very tired. She realised my staring and suddenly turned toward me with a questioning look. I saw, the guards were speaking and not interested in her presence.

'Excuse me... Can I help you?' that surely sounded funny in my situation, I knew. How could I? 'What's your name?'

'Zella, my lady' she said with surprise in her voice.

'Oh, I am not a lady.' if you knew, how much not... 'What happened to you? What's there, inside?' I nodded to the door. She looked confused.

'So you have never been to the palace before, my lady?' Alright, then I'll be a lady - I thought. 'Never' was my short answer.

'Well, this great hall is the throne room of his highness, King Thranduil of Mirkwood.'

So, I will soon meet nobody else, but the king, personally. Inhale, exhale, Noira...

'Mirkwood...? Such a funny family name.'

'Oh no, that is not that, it is because his majesty is from Mirkwood.' I gave her an uncomprehending look. 'Because, you know, you are in Mirkwood now. This whole land, you could see belongs to Mirkwood.' said Zella very slowly and I was sure, she thought me absolutely brainless at the moment. 'Well, our king's real name is Thranduil Oropherion. After his father.'

'So, the last king was King Oropherion. I see now...' I tried my best to understand.

'No, his highness was King Oropher.' I opened my mouth to ask why the hell uses then the plump-and-old king the name Oropherion, but stayed silent.

Stony elven logic.

After an uncomfortable pause, I negleted the topic. 'Have the king said something bad to you?'

The blond elleth made a sad smile. She looked at the guards, they were still speaking, didn't care about us. 'My brother was attacked about a moon ago. He was lucky, he survived it, my lady. I was worrying so much... He recognized the ellon, who tried to hurt him and told me the name.' she took a shaky breath before continued 'King Thranduil is the only person, who can punish and close him to the dungeons, so I was here to ask his majesty, however... His ears couldn't hear my ask. – she paused, then turned her angry face away from me  'That bastard is free and he can kill my brother if he desires, because he is still so weak...' her eyes went tearful again.

The image of the hint of kindness in his majesty's eyes started to fall apart.

'How is it possible, that the king doesn't care about it?' I said in disbelief, a little louder than I expected. The guards turned their heads toward us and Zella quickly bowed, and disappeared on a dark corridor. I was just staring at her now empty place. Well, maybe, kings are cruel. Wherever you are.

I had only a tiny little chance to win the king's help, that was sure.

I jumped when the door suddenly opened again, and found myself on the other side.

Third Person's POV

The throne room was as amazingly huge and enchanting, as all the other parts of the elven palace. Wood stairs and little white lights, as far as you can see. What made it so unbelievably royal, was the fact, it also didn't have walls. And maybe the presence of the king at the end of a last high stair, too.

The great elvenking was sitting on his oak throne proudly, with crossed legs, in fine silver robes and with an elegant flowery crown lying on his head. He leaned against one side of his seat, touching his forehead with one hand, holding papers with the other one. It seemed, he was lost in his work, when they arrived from the entrance. Noira could hardly see his face from that far, but looking up at him, she admitted, the plump-and-old king had a quite perfect posture, similar age, than hers and the most amazing long silver-blond hair, she had ever seen. The moon was shining through the room and his form was like a thousand little white gems. He was like an expensive jewel, what you can see, but cannot touch.

Not problem, she thought, she didn't even wanna touch him, after all. Mainly because the guards were holding her arms so tightly, they went blue for now.

'Your majesty!' Fräynn bowed deeply. Noira felt his elbow in her side, so she did the same, after a little hesitation of why should she do that. They were waiting for the king's response. After it didn't come, Fräynn took a deep breath, and stepped one forward.

'Your majesty, we destroyed some new nets, and a small group of spiders, that came to the near of the walls.' he paused, Thranduil was still reading, not even looking up. At least, it seemed so.

To be honest, the elvenking was deadly exhausted and wanted to end his duties for that day. He honestly hoped, if he didn't look at the group, maybe they just disappear somehow. He was also mad at that woman, who was there just before them. Why exactly couldn't she find a better time?! He didn't even understand what she wanted, while forcing himself not to fall asleep. Anyway... he asked his captain not to tell him those things, he could also write as a report. But now, he was here, telling him some things, he had already known about. He couldn't choose between getting angry or amused.

Suddenly, the light smell of a rose touched his nose.

Fine, I didn't have enough problem, now I go insane – he thought.

After a long minute of silence, he spoke on his silky, deep voice, as nice as he could 'Very well, captain, you are dismissed, if you don't have anything else to report' said with a tone, what meant: You better don't have.

'Your majesty...' Fräynn could touch the anger in the air, but didn't know what to do with this woman, for the Valar! She could not sleep in his bed. 'We... we've found a quite big group of orcs on our way back.'

'Then go back, maybe.' responded the king, before understood what he just heard.

'They were dead. Their bodies were still fresh.' Thranduil finally stopped reading, and was staring at something in the far. He knew very well, he hadn't sent a single soul there this morning. Nor yesterday.

Fräynn could read his thoughts, so continued- '...but we didn't find anybody in that area from our kin. Only her.' said the last word a little more emphatically, telling the king, that he meant what he thought he meant.

At that point, the king turned his head and looked at the small group in front of him. And in the middle, there was her.

Thranduil froze.

A light icy wave ran along his spine, and his hands lost their grab on the papers, what now landed on the floor loudly. Before noticing, he unconsciously rose from his throne and was staring at her for some seconds. A strange feeling filled his soul, but he didn't have the slightest idea, what was that. As fast as it came, the enchantment ended, and his mind became crystal clear again. Being frightened from what just happened, he tore his gaze from her and inhaled deeply.

The elleth in front of him had a tall, very slim form, snow-white skin, nordic hair, long legs, but for the Valar, what kind of clothes was she wearing?

He slowly took his way down with light, noble steps, and clear authority in his every move, not taking his eyes off of them for even a moment.

Meanwhile at the other end of the stair, Noira made her best to find her breath again, and mentally told her knees a hundred times, everything will be alright. As he neared, she could feel the chill sensation running up and down in her whole body, and she could swear, even the air froze around the not-plump and not-old ellon.

When Thranduil stepped to them, the guards were bowed, not looking at him. She didn't. She was literally staring at him. Her eyes were almost black, cowered with a pretty white face... an elegant nose, a sharp cherry mouth, then a slim neck - the slimmest the king has ever seen. Her dark hair was lying on her shoulders and back. He wrinkled his forehead for a moment, but his face quickly went back to emotionless. Watching her raised a million questions in him.

Finally, he found himself standing there like an idiot.

After that minute of embarrassing silence, he turned his face away, and looked at his captain while speaking. 'What is her name? Where has she come from?' asked absolute coldly, what killed Noira's mood of speaking. Fräynn straightened. 'Unfortunately, she didn't answer our questions, my lord.' Thranduil looked back at her again. She was still and silent. There wasn't any fear in her eyes, what made the king a little frustrated.

'Such a pity.' with these words, he got his way back to the throne. 'Maybe she needs some nights in my dungeons to remember clearly.'

For this, Noira finally opened her mouth to say 'Your mother needs some nights there!', but there was no sound coming out. She didn't hope a comfortable double bed for tonight, but so much hoped, they set her free, at least. She just wanted to speak with somebody, ask somebody to help her... but this King of the Ice surely won't... She remembered Zella's sad story and felt the rage growing in her veins. Her problems were enough. Enough without this selfish, ice-cold king too.

'What shall we do with the lady's weapons, my lord?' asked a guard, showing him two blades, what were bigger than his arms. The king stucked his breath.

He raised a brow as looked at the lady. 'I will study them tomorrow. Now leave.'

Noira started to move against the guards, but they were like rocks, the only thing she caused was, they tightened their grab. Thranduil sat down and smiled. 'If she'll make any trouble, feel free to kill her.'

Feel free to... what?! - she thought, as was taken out of the room roughly.

°°

Even in a beautiful palace like this, the dungeons were dark, cold and unfriendly. Fräynn pushed her into a cell, but promised, he would give some food and water to her soon. With a last thin smile, he was gone. Noira was sitting on the ground with heavy heart, leaning her back to the cold stonewall, and slowly closed her tired eyes. A lot of thing happened that day, she didn't know where to start to think them through. Crying was an easy way, lightening the hurt soul, but her eyes stayed dry.

Maybe it has a daily limit - she thought jokingly.

She had to admit, the King of the Ice was anything but forgettable. When he rose from the throne, and went down on the stairs, she could notice how tall, how muscular he actually was. But somehow there was still something elegant in the way he moved. Probably, this is what called royal.

When he finally arrived to her, she could take a look at his face. His eyes were deadly. Yes, Noira admitted the fact too, she was lost in those sharp blue eyes for a moment. She almost smiled, while was thinking of those high cheekbones, cute nose and soft lips. Noira didn't understand, why was he staring at her without a word that long, but she was glad, when he finally went away and broke their gaze, because then she also could.

Beautiful body, ugly soul.

Going back to the 'sweet' reality, she felt again the cold of the dungeon, where she was waiting – God knows how long -, without other living things, her weapons and a warm bed.

'Nevermind' she thought 'I will fall asleep before Fräynn could come back.' And she did so.

Five floors above her, a nice, flowery crown was taken down to a nightstand, silver robes were landing on the floor and a tall figure collapsed to a huge sized, warm bed. He wanted to think some things through. The last hour was so bizarre, it made his originally sleepy mind even more cloudy. His eyelids closed and he evoked that strange floral smell, that was lingering in the air, before that inexplicable moment. He sighed.

I should have ordered Fräynn to reinforce the guards at the dungeons and close the gates, until I bring the light whats going on. I should do it before I sleep. – thought Thranduil just before drifted off.