****Content Warning: Contains Love Scene****

----

"Do you have everything you need?" said the king to Feren.

We stood in the courtyard, discussing a great feast for the wedding of our honored Servant and the Captain of the Guard.

"Some of it, but we are short a few things. Might we travel to the port city?" Feren asked.

"Yes, we will bring a party. It is no longer safe to travel with only a few. I will come along, as well."

"Yes, thank you, My Lord."

"Shall I come? I would like to," I said.

"If you desire it, Sweet One. But you shall not go off on your own this time," said Thranduil, narrowing his eyes meaningfully. After the instance with the drunken mortals when last we visited, I knew he would be on high alert now. "Though it begs saying... the mortals are to be reacquainted with the Elvenqueen, and you must show them your strength."

"And how shall I do that?"

"Your very presence must command it," he said. "And you must fight as a queen fights, if needed. There will be no drunken mortal dares cross your path who does not show respect. Where are my swords...Feren? We have not practiced in a while."

Feren went to fetch some swords and I frowned.

"I wear a dress," I complained. "You would fight me in a dress?"

"Oh, I am sorry, My Love," he raised an eyebrow. "It slipped my mind that your enemy should wait for you to change into fighting clothes prior to attack."

"Thranduil..."

"Laewyn..."

I pouted a second longer, then, "Oh, all right."

"I have been too easy on you in recent days."

"That is because I was captured by orcs, and we haven't left our chamber for two days," I said, blushing at my own words.

The king, however, smirked very deeply. "Indeed."

Feren returned with weapons and gave one to each of us.

Then Thranduil flipped his impressively and said, "A queen must know her full strength, for her people depend upon it. I need you to remember yourself. You will hold your head high, and when necessary, you must show no mercy. Now, more than ever, you must be a warrior of the Woodland realm."

Then he took a swipe at me, but I was ready and I blocked him. He nodded his approval, then he lunged forward once more.

Again I blocked him.

He did not respond in words, only tilted his head subtly, smiling. "Have you been practicing behind my back?"

"I have not. But perhaps I've recalled a bit of my former self."

"Hmh."

There was a devious look in his eyes, and then he came at me with a force, more fully than ever he had before. If I doubted that he held back in the past, it was confirmed for me now.

I was shocked at the ferocity of it, but did everything I could to meet his barrage, though he nearly knocked me from my feet more than once, and I'd have been terrified if my heart wasn't pounding out of my chest with excitement, and if his look of enjoyment wasn't effecting me in a way I hadn't anticipated.

Exhilerated and wild-haired, I growled and lept forward, managing to feign a mark to his neck with my sword.

He did not let this stand, but whirled his blade and knocked mine away, and then threw his own to the side.

He looked at me with narrowed eyes.

"Feren," he began, panting, "you are to guard the courtyard door. No one is to enter until I have left."

Feren nodded with a "Yes,My Lord," and left us.

"A queen must be powerful," he said, approaching as an animal stalks its prey. Then he pulled me against him and kissed me with all the strength of a warrior king.

Moaning, I lost all sense of myself, grasping at the front of his robe to steel myself from the onslaught of such a kiss. Then he murmered, "Do you feel powerful, My Love?"

"I...I feel entirely weak," I squeeked.

He grinned broadly and said, "Unacceptable. Follow me," and as I did, he led me past the wild growing gardens, and past the leafy alcoves, till we reached the pond of fountains.

"Sit down, Leowyn."

Upon the edge of the pond I sat, but instead of joining me, the king said, "Sit back further." And so I did, wondering at his direction.

Thranduil stood high above me, then he dropped to his knees in front of me, and I watched, hypnotized, as he took hold of the bottom of my gown and began rolling it upwards. "Behold how mighty you are," he said, spreading my legs apart. He placed a kiss upon the inside of my thigh. "You bring a king to his knees."

"What...what are you doing..." I said, but my toes were curling just the same.

"You do not remember?" He smiled to himself. "You will."

Then he leaned in and placed his mouth upon me in the most unexpected of ways, and my jaw dropped.

"Oh," I said in wonder. "Ooh," I said again, but in pleasure this time, and I felt him chuckle against me.

It was a glorious sensation, one carried out with such thorough deliberation that I had to hold his hair in one hand and lean the other against the fountain to steady myself.

With the manner of sounds I made...if any elf had been present I could not have shown my face in Mirkwood again. But the more I cried out and whimpered, the more incited My King became, and then, in no time at all, he'd rendered me shaking and overcome at the fountain side.

He did not stop until I calmed, then he rose up and took me in a passionate kiss, moving me, away from the fountain without breaking the embrace.

In a moment, I felt something hard against my back--one of the mossy statues--and Thranduil's hand slid beneath the top of my dress, exposing a breast and taking it into his mouth.

He was in another place, now, rushed and frenzied, and when again he lifted my dress, he took hold of my leg and wrapped it around him.

His robe he yanked upward so desperately I thought it might rip, and then, with his forehead pressed to mine, he entered me, and groaned loudly with it.

The cool hardness of the statue behind me and the thick heat of the king inside of me was overwhelming.

"I would explode," he panted, "from wanting you."

"Yes, My Love," I urged.

He had wanted me to show power--it seemed an obsession for him. And so I would give him a gift. "Thranduil. You will hold nothing back. Your queen commands it."

My words had an affect, and his movements grew deeper and faster, illiciting low, repeated groans from the king. I thought that the sound of it might be the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard.

In the moment that he neared release, he gripped the statue behind me with both hands, pressing himself into me as fully as he could reach, and sounded his satisfaction into my kiss. I could only cry out with him, for his pleasure was my own.

After he was recovered, a lazy, blissful smile upon his face, he said, "Oh, Laewyn. You have me at your feet."

----

"My Lord, he is at the palace door."

"A Ranger?"

"Yes," answered Feren.

"Well, why did you not bring him to me?"

"Because he...he has something with him, My Lord."

"What do you mean by that?"

Feren made a sour face and said, "Perhaps it is best if you see it for yourself."

"Well, I wish to see," I said, curious now.

"Eh, My Lady," Feren began, "I do not think it wise..."

"If she wishes to come, she will come," warned Thranduil.

So we headed for the great palace door and when the king had opened it, we were greeted by a very tired and bedraggled looking Mortal Ranger in a dark, hooded cloak, and beside him...

"Oooh, do not leaves us with him...he would kills us! Elveses hate Gollums!" screeched a most hideous looking creature.

"Aragorn of Dunedain," Thranduil started, glaring down at the foul thing attached to the other end of the Ranger's rope. "What have you brought to my doorstep?"

"My Lord, I am in need of your dungeons. It is a prisoner...or rather I wish it to be, if you would agree to keep him."

Thranduil wore a look most perplexed. "And why would I do that?"

"Because he seeks the one ring, Lord Thranduil."

The king's expression turned more serious. "The ring..."

"Yes. You know what I speak of..."

"I do."

"Well he seeks it, as does Sauron, who would use him to track it, and the ring must be kept from them both. I come on behest of Gandalf the Grey."

Thranduil rolled his eyes. "Of course you do.

"Lord Thranduil...I have travelled many miles. Nine hundred, to be precise. I have dragged this wretched creature all the way from the Dead Marshes and crossed the Anduin twice. I beg of you..."

At this Thranduil sighed. "Feren, get the guards to take this...what is it, exactly?" he winced at the creature.

"It once was a hobbit, My Lord. What it has since become, I cannot say."

Thranduil said, "Then get the guards to take this... thing... to the dungeons."

"Thank you, Lord Thranduil," Aragorn said. "But be warned. He is wiley and he is fixated upon that ring. He will try to escape at every turn."

"I think we can manage it," Thranduil said. "Now, come inside and have some rest. You look half-dead."

"Thank you, Your Grace."

---

Indeed the Ranger must have been worn to the bone for he took some food and wine and then slept for two days straight.

"What does he mean about the ring?" I asked Thranduil, when at last we were alone in our chambers. "Does he mean one of the Elven rings?"

Thranduil sat down upon a chair and reached for me, pulling me into his lap. "He means the ring that Sauron kept for himself...that which controls all others."

"What will happen if he gets it?"

"He would rule the kingdoms of Middle Earth. That is his intent."

I stared at him wide-eyed. "Why do the mortals keep it then? Why not destroy it?"

"Only the fires that made it can destroy it."

"Mordor?"

"Yes. It would have to be taken there."

"But. That..."

"...is seemingly impossible, yes. Therefore they are reduced to hiding it. But if it has come to this, and Sauron is closer to finding it..."

"War," I said, darkly.

"Yes, My Love. War will inevitably come to Mirkwood. I can sense this to be true."

There was a great pit in my stomach, then, and the look upon my face must have been bleak indeed, for Thranduil wrapped his arms around me and kissed me softly, saying, "Do not be afraid, Nenluin, for I will keep us safe. I know, now, that I can...thanks to you."

Nuzzling my head into his neck, I lay in his arms and felt safe there, setting thoughts of battle and rings aside for the time being.