Legolas never did tell his father about the night that Calaen came into his room. It remained a secret between them, one that was never mentioned again. But that became par for the course with the two brothers – something or other would happen, and only their eyes, when they met the next day, would speak of it.

Days turned into weeks; weeks turned into months; and months slowly turned into years. And as each day passed, Calaen's feelings towards Legolas increased. The dreams continued. Every night he would be haunted by images that he could not control: Findilan's death, his younger brother's part in it, a faceless human being, himself being ignored by the King and Crown Prince – and all the upset and anger that he felt the next morning would be directed at Legolas.

Some nights he would lie in bed, hoping and praying that sleep would evade him. But always it came, along with the dreams. And at times he wondered if he was the only one in the whole of Middle Earth who suffered in such a way, if he was the only one whose fate it was to live like this.

One would think that any fear he had felt at being unloved by Thranduil and Airëlus would all have vanished after the conversations he had had with them, the reassurances they had given. But that was not the case. In fact, it was far from it.

He became paranoid. If ever the King or Crown Prince should look at him in a way that he deemed to be anything other than love or kindness, his heart would skip beats, his mouth would run dry, and he would have to spend hours alone, working hard to convince himself that it was just paranoia, nothing more and nothing less.

And Legolas caused great problems for him. The child was a natural trouble maker, he did not doubt that. But Thranduil and Airëlus were often fooled by his act, and Calaen was filled with painful thoughts that they loved his brother more than he himself. And so he continued in the way that he had done for a long time – doing small things to land the Elfling into unavoidable trouble. It was petty. But it worked.

Even after Findilan had died, he had still felt some form of love for Legolas, even though he taunted and hurt him. But as time passed, it faded, until eventually it was overruled by hatred and jealousy. It fell to the bottom of his heart, the very depths of his soul, and only when he strained his memory was he able to recall what it felt like.

Calaen's story is a sad one. When his mother died, so did he. He tried to bring himself back to life, but his soul had already been stolen by jealousy. It was jealousy that made him do what he did, jealousy that made others pay for his own vicissitude. And the price that they would come to pay in the future, was one that no-one, not even Calaen himself, could ever guess.

It was once said that everything happens for a reason. One thing is gone purely because it is building up to something more. When Legolas spoke those words, he had no idea how much truth there was to them. There was more to come. Much more. But that… Well, that is another story.

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Yes, this was a very short chapter, but as it is the last one, I didn't want to make it too long, because otherwise it would be too drawn out, and it's also short because all that it's doing is setting the scene for the two sequels, which most of you have read anyway. I couldn't say too much in this chapter, because I'm aware that there are a few people who have not read the sequels, so don't know what happens.

Thank you to everyone who reviewed, I couldn't have done it without your help: Haldir's Heart and Soul, Lady Leeanne, Emandm, Jedi Gollum, Irish Anor, That Undomiel Chick, Vicki Turner, Elven Kitten, Coolio02, Warriormaid 3000, Jopru, Legolas-gurl88, Kathysidle, Kelsey, Jennifer, Rutu, Galadriel1010, Aranel of Mirkwood, October Sky, Eleanor Rigby, Deana, Elfobsession2931, Rachel13, Pippin the hobbit-elf, Melda Amarie, Elensar32, Lombadia Greenleaf, Arayelle Lynn, Halimanya, Wadeva, BitterLee, Arienis, Melony, Vanessa, Utsuri, Nautika, IwishChan, Little-Legolas-Lover, Kel, and On&onanon.

Right, now I'll answer some reviews!

Haldir's Heart and Soul: No, he didn't. After turning up in Mirkwood in the last chapter, or second to last chapter, he went with Calaen, and became one of his followers. He started off as just a random person who happened to be in league with Cal, but this story has developed him a lot more.

Legolas-gurl88: Yep, Christmas is over in a way, but we've still got so much food to get through, and the shops are still playing Christmas music, and the decorations are still up! I think it'll be this way for another week or so!

Halimanya: No, Zoe isn't pregnant. She's lying so that Dennis will stay with her. I think that's really unfair. And I think its unfair that Den knows about it, but he's keeping the truth from his own son. Mean!

Jedi Gollum: Hope you had fun watching ROTK EE! And did you get my e-mail? I sent you one yesterday.

Kelsey Estel: Thanks for pointing that out! Yeah, I can see the sense in that actually. I'll change that bit so that it reads something else. Thanks!

Well, this is it. There's no more Calaen and Airëlus. I've had so much fun writing both of them, and it's strange, because both of them mean a lot to me, more than any other characters I've made up. But then I worked out the other day that I've been writing them and this whole jealousy storyline for eleven months. So I guess that has something to do with it.

I have more stories planned, so I'm not stopping here. I started writing one on Boxing Day, and have decided to not put anything up here until February 1st, so that'll give me just over a whole month to get a lot of chapters written. It is an angsty one (of course!) and the main characters will be Legolas, Thranduil, Elrond, Elladan, Elrohir, and Glorfindel. And a few others. But that's all I'm saying about it.

So, I guess this is it for a month!

Bye bye!

Misto

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