Secrets - Bagginshield Week Day 2here is the deepest secret nobody knows They say Thranduil Elven-

Secrets - Bagginshield Week Day 2 here is the deepest secret nobody knows They say Thranduil Elven-king brought Thorin Oakenshield back from the brink of death through Elf-magic and sorcery.   And this time, the Elven-king asked for no reward or gift.  He would leave the Dwarves in peace and when he was asked, he offered the Dwarves of Erebor and the Men of Dale all the help the Elves of the Wood could give in rebuilding their homes and healing their land.  And once more, he asked for naught in return. *** Thranduil knew death far too intimately for one who was of the First-Born.  He remembered Doriath and its ruin.  He remembered the cries of grief and rage, the same ones he made himself when he held his dying father in his arms, in the useless battle fought by the Last Alliance.  He remembered how it all came to naught for the One Ring was simply lost, not destroyed, due to the greed of Mortal Men.  So he knew death and he knew its scent, its breath, its very touch.  The rank odors of blood and sweat and dirt assaulted him as soon as he stepped into the tent that held within a dying King Under the Mountain.  Already, with the sight of the Eldar, he could see the life slowly leeching away from the Dwarf-King, the skin white under the bruises and minor wounds.  A life that was slipping beyond even his skill to recall.  His footfalls made no sound as he came closer to the King and the Hobbit who was of his Company, exchanging words that to Thranduil were all too painfully familiar.  Broken apologies, regret for foolhardy actions, whispered love.  Thranduil was no longer meant to be here.  He was no longer needed.  And yet he stayed. He stayed for the memory of a young Dwarf-Prince, who, before years of bitterness and perceived betrayal had soured him, had once treated the Elven-king and his people with cautious kindness and regarded them with deep wonder.  He stayed for the cry of “Help us!” that the Elven-king would not admit sometimes lingered in his dreams.  A cry he would ignore, over and over again, for he was a King and he had a King’s choices to make.  No, he could not have stayed then for young Prince Thorin.  But he could stay for this.  Thorin Oakenshield, it seemed, had spoken his last words to his beloved Hobbit, for loved indeed was this tiny creature from the West, despite what Thranduil had witnessed at the Gates of Erebor.  The Elven-King meant to step forward, to offer comfort, for he was not so cruel or heartless as many had accused him.  But his words were swallowed back by his tongue when he saw the strange, fey light that filled the Hobbit’s eyes.  And his heartbeat quickened as the Hobbit spoke words in a tongue that he had no business knowing, in his voice and one other’s. “I won you from Death once, my love.  I will win you from Her again.” And the Hobbit raised his voice to Sing.  Those working in the healing tents and those on what remained of the battlefield would remember hearing that Song, weaving its way sweetly above the cries of dying and the grieving, soothing their pain.  None of them could recall the words of the Song, only that it spoke directly to their hearts, of remembered love and the deepest grief and the deepest joy that it could bring.  Of all those who were there and survived the infamous Battle of Five Armies, only two old men, one dressed in Grey and the other in Brown, who were working furiously to save the two young Heirs of Durin’s House, recognized the Song for what it was.  For it had only been sung when Numenor itself was not yet raised from the depths of the Sea and well they remembered She who had sung it, for her love of a Mortal Man.  Well they remembered how She made the Valar themselves weep from the beauty of it and how Death was made to unbend and return Him who had been taken from Her, too early, too soon.  And Thranduil Elven-king alone watched as color began to return to the Dwarf-King’s cheeks, as his skin flushed with new life and as his breathing began to deepen and to ease.  Thranduil Elven-king was the sole witness as Thorin opened his eyes, to see his Hobbit at his side and call him by a Name the Elven-king had remembered and had loved, as many of his Kin remembered and loved Her.  The joy on Bilbo Baggins’ face, as his King and beloved returned to him, gave him a beauty that once recalled one Other, one who had once danced in the starlight, under the trees.  *** They say that Thranduil Elven-king sang a magic song and brought Thorin, King Under the Mountain, back from Death Herself.  They say that the Elven-king asked for no reward, no gift in return.  He came to the wedding of the King Under the Mountain and his beloved Hobbit Burglar, bearing a gift - a circlet of jeweled flowers that recalled the blossoms of the Hobbit’s beloved Shire.  Unasked and unlooked for, the Consort gave to the Elven-king a necklace of white gems, with his characteristically shy, flustered explanation that it was “payment for unlooked for hospitality."  The Elven-king laughed and named Bilbo Elf-friend, much to his new husband’s humorous dismay. Of the true events in that tent, where Thorin Oakenshield was meant to die, of the Name that was given to Bilbo Baggins, a Name that belonged to One who no longer danced in starlight under the trees, Thranduil would never speak. Some beauty was meant to be kept hidden, kept safe, carried forever in one’s heart.  ** end ** Note: Yep, put me down for Alternate Universe Eleventy-One, please and thank you.  -- source link

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