The horn of the lookout on the hill sounded; two long notes. It signaled that an ally approached the village. Standing near Strider's cabin, were Legolas and Aletheîa, together, as was so often the case in the last two weeks. They turned in unison to see the visitor approaching rapidly on horseback. It was an elf, dressed in clothing of a Mirkwood soldier.

Legolas let go of Aletheîa's hand and strode rapidly towards the elf.

"Mae govannen, gwador nín. What news of the King?" he called.

The elf was clearly startled by the sight of Legolas. He immediately leapt off his horse and bowed low, and spoke in Elvish.

"My Lord Legolas, it is with great gladness that I have found you alive. We received a raven, not two weeks ago, warning us of your impending death. I ride in advance of the King, who set out directly following the news. He is less than an hour from here, with a small elven company."

Strider, who too had approached the rider at the sound of the horn, and upon hearing the exchange, moved to address the soldier, whilst glancing at Legolas.

"Mellon nín, it was I who sent the message. But I then sent a second raven, the following day, to inform the King, that Legolas had recovered."

"I am afraid that the second message was not received, Hîr nín. The King believes that he is coming to retrieve his son's body."

"May I have use of your horse mellon-nín? I will ride to meet him," Legolas said, already swinging his leg over the horse. Aletheîa was at his side, her brown eyes engaging his.

"Do not worry, my beloved...I have to do this on my own. I have much to tell my father. Much of which, he will not receive lightly."

Aletheîa nodded apprehensively, as Legolas lent to kiss her lightly on her forehead, his hand briefly touching her cheek.

If he had paused but a moment longer, Legolas would have read Wren's next intention in her eyes. But instead he turned and galloped in the direction of his father, the King of the Greenwood, Thranduil.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Mae govannen gwador nín ~ Welcome my sworn brother

Mellon nín ~ My friend

Hîr nín ~ My Lord

Ahh yes, did I forget to mention Thranduil ... O.O

So, Part II begins officially next week, I have to warn you that the updates are probably going slow down, to about once a week, from here on in... largely because I still have to WRITE them!!! I have been sailing along quite nicely up till now, because all of the previous chapters were written, before I published the first one to Wattpad - so I used the time between updates to work on them and refine them! 

Part II is fairly well planned in my head but is going to take a bit of work and energy and encouragement to materialise! I don't think readers sometimes realize the impact their encourgament can have on an author and a story! If you are somewhere out there reading my story, please let me know somehow (vote/comment/pm) you are doing so!!! It means the world to me, and helps me keep going when I am running low on inspiration. Also, if you want to do the ultimate favor, go back and retrospectively vote for any chapters you really love! 

So, enough rambling!!! Thank you again for reading, voting and commenting on my story, your support has meant so much and I hope you enjoy the rest of the journey!

p.s. I am going to be doing a brief spell/grammar check and dedication shout-out on all the previous chapters, in case you wonder why you see a gazillion updates!

Thranduil Artwork: kindly used with permission from the very talented 'the wise snail', please see her other beautiful work on https://wisesnailart.deviantart.com/