"What was her name?"

Legolas turned to his wife, surprise registering sharply in his eyes. It was the day that followed their arrival into The Greenwood. The couple were walking slowly together through the forest leading the horses, their children were taking a moment to stretch their legs and chase squirrels.

"In all the time I have known you elf-lord, you have never told me her name." Wren clarified with a raised eyebrow, as she took a bite of an apple.

Legolas paused before responding. "Tauriel." He said slowly. "Tauriel was her name."

He was surprised at the emotion he felt saying her name out loud for the first time in nearly three years, there was no lingering regret or remorse, almost a sensation of saying good-bye.

"It's a beautiful name... Will she be there?"

Legolas looked into his wife's big, brown eyes and realized that this particular issue must have been weighing on her mind for some time. He tried to reassure her.

"In all likelihood, she sailed for the undying lands after the battle at Ravenhill."

"Oh." Wren almost seemed disappointed. "I should have liked to meet her..."

"You know you have my whole heart, meleth e-guilen."

"I know." She said simply with a smile, her twinkle reappearing. Wren took another bite of her apple. "Do you think your father will regret his invitation?"

Legolas in all honesty could not be sure, after all his father was largely renowned for his unpredictable nature.

"Well I guess we will soon find out, it is almost a year since he wrote to us bidding us to come."

"I am not overly fond of being 'bid' to do anything."

"I am acutely aware of that!" Legolas grinned, as he ducked a half-chewed apple core. He continued, his eyes sparkling, "I think once we get past some of peripherals, you and my Father should get on well, he has a soft spot for feisty females!"

"By peripherals – you mean inconsequential things, like say, my mortal blood." His wife was unable to hide the edge of bitterness in her voice.

"Aletheîa, all I know is that my father was at least willing look beyond his original grievance, or we would not be here." Her anxiety about their reunion was growing, Legolas could tell.

Their conversation was cut short by the children's discovery of a very large caterpillar.

Later as they rode, the children once again on their laps, Legolas mulled over his wife's words as well as the condition of the western gate as they walked the forest road. The western borders of the forest were well beyond the tightly controlled range that Thranduil had so long imposed upon his people. But if not elves, then who could have come and restored the place?

The further into the Greenwood Legolas traveled, the more he began to wonder if perhaps it was not so impossible after all that his people could have been here. The entire forest had a different feel to it, an air that was both new and old to Legolas. The Greenwood had not felt this alive for so many years that Legolas almost couldn't recall. They had heard news that Sauron had been driven out of his lair in Dol Goldur at about the same point in time as the Battle of Five Armies. With the evil of Sauron gone, the entire forest seemed to have come back to life. It was still a wild place, with many twists, turns and wandering paths to beguile and mislead the unwary traveler. However Legolas knew this forest better than anyone and they made excellent time along the road.

With less than a league between them and the gates of the palace, Legolas stopped and they camped beneath the eves of an enormous oak tree, as the children were exhausted with the day's travel. Wren fell asleep by his side, their son on her lap and their daughter laid under Legolas's arm. Sitting with his back to the trunk of the oak he reached beneath his tunic and drew out his mother's ring. The silver band with its stone as white as starlight shone in the dusky air. Legolas seen the twin of this ring, always upon Thranduil's own hand. Never had either of his parents ever been without their ring. Briefly Legolas wondered if perhaps he ought to have buried it with the queen, so that it might be with her still.

Shaking his head silently, Legolas decided he had done well to bring the ring. He could speak of recovering his mother and retell the story in every detail to Thranduil, but there was something about seeing and feeling a thing with your own flesh that made it all the more real. Moreover, he felt sure that his mother would have wanted her beloved to have it.

The next morning the sun shone clean and bright through the treetops, casting a faintly orange glow over everything on the forest floor. Rousing himself from his reverie, Legolas rose early, while his wife and children were still reluctant to stir. He decided to have a brief meander through his own well-trodden territory and perhaps test whether the woodland guards were paying attention as they ought.

As he moved stealthily through the forest a short distance away from his family, a presence filled his senses in a way that he had not known for nearly three years now. He stood still, without reaching for his weapons.

"Not even going to draw your bow, ernil-nín? I might have been an orc." A voice came from behind him, not a dozen paces away.

"But you are not an orc." Legolas smiled as he turned around to face the owner of the voice . "It is good to see you again, Tauriel."

"And you, Legolas."

Tauriel looked quite different now from when Legolas had last seen her. No longer attired in her usual leather armor and green overdress, she instead wore something much closer to an elvish-human hybrid of clothing. It looked thoroughly custom made actually, and Legolas could have sworn he saw dwarvish designs stitched into the blue cuffs of the sleeves and collar.

Recalling the events preceding and immediately following the Battle of Five Armies, Legolas chose his words carefully. "Are you...here from Erebor?"

Tauriel nodded, her expression unreadable. "And from Dale. I serve your father now as Ambassador to both cities on behalf of the woodland realm." Turning her face slightly, her eyes flickered downwards. "I am returning now to give him my report." Before Legolas could ask anything else though, Tauriel squared her shoulders. "And what of yourself? Rumors abound..."

"Do they... There is much to tell, but perhaps that is a tale best saved for later. Is...is my father well? How fares the Woodland Realm?"

Tauriel was slow to respond, "In a manner of speaking, your father is well, Legolas. But he has missed you, terribly so." She paused as she examined the prince of her people. "Although with the purging of Dol Goldur, he has re-expanded our borders. Our people now once again control the entirety of the northern Greenwood."

The news brought a smile to Legolas's face, and he could not help but show how pleased he was at this turn of events. "I had thought perhaps it was the case. I passed through the old forest gate on my way here, and it looked better than I have ever seen it."

Tauriel nodded but then as she carefully chose her words, her face colored. "I understood you to be in something of a family way..."

Legolas laughed without hesitation. "Yes, that would be one way of describing it!"

Tauriel looked almost confused, more so at his demeanor, rather than his words.

"They are over yonder; would you like to meet them?" He smiled warmly.

Tauriel nodded in surprised at the request, although clearly unsure of what to expect.

"I believe that I have you to thank for this opportunity reconcile with my father, he wrote to me last year and mentioned his change of heart following your advice." Legolas said, by way of conversation.

"I think the opportunity largely arose due to the original letter he received, from your then expectant wife."

It was Legolas's turn to be surprised, before shaking his head and muttering to himself, "I should have known..."

As Legolas and Tauriel approached the tree where he left the children and his wife, they where nowhere to be found; although two horses were still tethered there, waiting patiently. Legolas spun around, disconcerted at their absence and immediately called out.

In response, a child's voice yelled down from a nearby tree, "Adaaaaaa!"

Legolas moved swiftly towards the tree and lifted up his arms, whereby a small curly dark-haired child leapt out of the branches and into this father's arms.

Tauriel smiled in surprise, seeing the silver-haired prince so at ease with a small child. But her surprise turned to astonishment when he lowered the child to the floor and he reached up for a second child.

She was unable to help herself exclaiming, "There are two of them?!"

At that moment a petite dark-haired figure dropped from same branch and landed lightly on the forest floor beside Legolas. A single arrow was in her hand drawn alongside her bow.

"A bit of forewarning would suffice next time you abandon us in this forest, meleth nín!"

Legolas responded to the complaint by grinning and promptly kissing the woman on the lips.

Tauriel watched the unfolding scene aghast, her mouth slightly ajar.

Legolas then turned to the Silvan, proudly announcing with a sweeping gesture, "This is my family."

Wren warily eyed up the red-haired elf, before approaching her with a half-smile, "You must be Tauriel. Legolas has spoken very highly of you."

Legolas felt the color rise to his cheeks. Tauriel stammered her greeting, seemingly disarmed by Wren's demeanor.

"Your hair is a funny color." Announced a small child, standing at Tauriel's feet eyeing her intently.

Tauriel leant down low to speak to the child, "Is that so... would you prefer if it was... green?"

The child could not suppress a giggle.

"There are not many red-heads in the North." Legolas smiled, as he shrugged his shoulders.

Wren spoke again "I assume you are on your way to the palace Tauriel, would you like to accompany us, I am sure you and Legolas have much to catch up on?"

Tauriel graciously acquiesced to the request. They set off and for a while as they talked together, Legolas was pleasantly surprised with the apparent ease with which both women conversed. Gradually, however, Wren fell a few paces behind with the children as they lingered to look at flowers and butterflies along the way.

As Tauriel and Legolas led the horses, the two of them spoke at length as they followed the elven road. Legolas told her in brief of his time among the Dúnedain and Tauriel in turn retold how she had been reassigned to life among the men and dwarves of the Lonely Mountain. Bard had recently assigned her duties for training new recruits, a role she cherished but found challenging due to the general ineptitude of men. They talked like old friends re-acquainted, and Legolas found himself laughing more than once at Tauriel's descriptions of the habits and customs of dwarves.

Just before they came into sight of the bridge, Tauriel paused and looked at Legolas strangely. Turning back to her, Legolas shook his head enquiringly.

"What is it, Tauriel?"

"You."

"I beg your pardon?"

Tauriel smiled slightly. "You have changed a great deal since last I saw you, mellon-nín. You smile often now, and even laugh." The red-haired ambassador turned to glance as his wife and children followed, "Your family becomes you. It is good to see you so happy."

"It is good to be so." Legolas answered, his eyes shining.

"I take my leave of you now, I will delay my visit with the King until later in the day, after he has met with you."

Legolas nodded, grateful for to be spared onlookers for what would undoubtedly be a complicated and difficult meeting.

He smiled as he bid Tauriel a brief, if temporary farewell. Then, as his family caught up with him, he lifted his daughter into his arms and with his hand in his wife's, together they crossed the bridge and passed through the gates into the palace of the Woodland Realm.    

-0-0-0-0-0-

*meleth e-guilen ~ love of my life

*ernil-nín ~ my lord

*meleth nín ~ my love

Yes so Wren is the guilty party responsible for the letter to Thranduil... Legolas and her are clearly still working on their communication! I hope you enjoyed the nice/complicated little reunion with Tauriel! Onward to see the King...

I would love to receive your comments and please VOTE on this chapter if you enjoyed it. Your votes/comments are the only way I have of finding out who is on this journey with me and are such a great encouragement to keep writing! I really appreciate them!