Eäwen waited until midnight, as Legolas had told her. A guard had brought her dinner and then left to the party. There had been no-one in the dungeons since then.

She was nervous, of course. If something went wrong, the King would certainly be mad, and he had already told her what he would do.

Trying to keep these thoughts away from her mind, Eäwen waited patiently, daydreaming of the forest and the trees. She missed those simple days when nothing mattered, and food and water where her only worries.

But it had been a long time since those days had ended. Eäwen had been escaping for the last couple years. She didn't even know exactly what it was she was escaping from. Orcs, spiders, trolls, wolves ... even men and elves. The world was getting darker, as if a shadow was spreading all over it, and one couldn't trust anybody now.

She daydreamed of sleeping under the stars, bathing her face in their light. But now the stars were shining way above her, and she could not see them from the depths of the cave.

Eäwen waited and waited, imagining how her life would be once she was free again. She also thought of her ring, the one she had always carried with herself, and remembered her dream.

For some reason she didn't understand, that ring had always felt like home for her. She didn't really remember, but she believed it had belonged to her family, the one she never knew. She wanted to see it again, to see its light shine bright like the stars.

Why had the orcs taken it? She had no idea. It had only been a few days since they had attacked and tried to kidnap her. She had managed to kill a few of them and to free herself, but in the fight someone had slided it from her finger. She never saw who took it - they were so many, all she could do was to climb a tree and escape.

"They will probably just melt the silver" she thought.

As these images crossed her mind, time kept passing by, and Eäwen suddenly realised how late it was. It had been too many hours since the guard had brought her dinner. It had to be way past midnight already.

She started getting anxious. Perhaps Legolas was just fooling her.

"How stupid I was" she thought. "I knew I shouldn't have trusted him. I swore myself I would never trust a stranger. I am smarter than that... Or at least I thought I was".

She was really disappointed. She had been naive once again, and yet Legolas had seemed honest to her... But he was obviously just playing around. He was just a boy, she could see that in his fair face. He had probably just wanted to see the prisoner to tell his friends about her. She imagined Legolas laughing with a group of elves as he told them how she had bought his story.

Frustrated, Eäwen kicked the floor. She couldn't even do anything. That was it. Legolas was her only hope. But now she was alone.

Eäwen woke up the morning after with her eyes red and swollen; she had cried herself to sleep. She looked around and saw a tray in the floor - at least someone had brought her some breakfast.

She sat and started eating slowly; she wasn't hungry anymore. It felt worse, though. Now that her basic needs where covered, her lack of freedom hurt her even more. Anger came back to her after remembering Legolas' lie.

The sound of the opening door filled the dungeon, followed by some hurried footsteps. Eäwen looked in their direction and saw the king. He looked even angrier than the last time.

Eäwen stood up - she was starting to get tired of these visits. She curtsied when the ring reached her cell.

"Enough of that! I know what you have done..." the king was glaring at her. Well, at least he wasn't annoyingly calm now, Eäwen thought. "Trying to get my son to help you escape... Did you really believe you were going to succeed?!"

"My lord, I..."

"Don't even try to lie to me! I found him with the keys to your cell last night, trying to escape the party... How idiotic of you to think I wouldn't realise!"

Eäwen looked away from his eyes. Legolas had actually tried to help her...? Well, it didn't matter now. The king was probably going to slay her. She tried to form an answer.

"I am so sorry, my lord, but I wasn't aware of this, I swear" she lied, trying to look as innocent as she could.

The king looked her in the eyes for a while and stepped towards her.

"Liar" he said the word as if it had a bad taste in his mouth.

Then he turned his back at her and started talking camly again, trying to disguise his anger, Eäwen thought.

"You see... Legolas is a good lad, but sometimes he can get carried away... specially by the ladies" with this, he looked at Eäwen over his shoulder. "I know he has brought you breakfast yesterday and spoke to you, so don't even try to deceive me. You should be thankful I am still keeping you alive" and without expeting an answer, he left.

The following week passed by very slowly to Eäwen. It had been six days until she received another visit (except for the occasional guard bringing her food and water).

"Legolas!" she smiled when she saw him walking to her cell, almost as if he were a close friend of her. She blushed a little when she realised this. Too much time alone, she thought.

Legolas smiled back at her, surprised by her reaction.

"Glad to see you're still alive" he grinned. "I am so sorry for what happened... My father discovered me and sent me away for a while. I was so scared of waht would happen to you. He seemed really furious" he said worriedly.

"It's fine, really, he didn't do anything to me, suprisingly. And thank you for trying anyway" she tried to smile at him.

Legolas sat on the floor in font of Eäwen's cell.

"Are you alright, then?" he asked.

"I am alive, as you said. Why do you worry so much? I can take care of myself" she said now stubbornly as she sat too. Legolas' concern about her was nice, but it bothered her a little. She didn't need his help.

Legolas just shrugged and looked down.

They remained silent for a while. Eäwen regretted her words. After all, having company felt nice after sitting in the darkness by her own for so long.

"Legolas..." she broke the silence, trying to change the subject of her own thoughts.

"Yes?"

"Do you know what is happening in the south of the forest? I... Well, I escaped from there barely alive, and your father seemed really upset when I mentioned the place" she let out, remembering how the king had called her a threaten after that.

Legolas' face changed suddenly. It wasn't worry what showed now in his eyes, but actual grief and fear.

"I'm sorry, I didn't... you don't have to answer if you don't want to".

"Oh no, don't worry" he said, trying to change his look. "I actually don't know what is happening. It's been like that for the last couple years. It's my father... something happened to him. I don't know what" he stopped for a moment and then sighed. "You see, he left once. Nobody knows why. He had gone hunting and suddenly disappeared. None of the elves who travelled with him could tell what happened. We looked for him, for about six months, but we didn't find anything. For that time I..." he stopped again and looked to his side, wiping his eyes. "I thought I had lost him" he almost whispered as his voice cracked.

Eäwen look down. Poor boy. She wished she could comfort him somehow. "Why do I even care about him?" she thought.

"But he came back" Legolas continued after taking a deep breath. "After seven months. We were losing our hopes, when he just came from the forest. And he... he looked different. Not hurt, he was fine, but he wouldn't speak to anybody, not even to me. He never explained what had happened to him, but with time everything went back to normal. It's like people don't even remember anymore. But my father has changed, Eäwen. He never leaves now. He looks so calm, but I know something's happened to him. I'm afraid that might be the reason why he thinks you are threaten. I think he is scared".

Eäwen thought about this fow a while.

"So you think whatever's happened to him has something to do with what's going on in the south?" she asked him.

"Well, yes, I can't think of anything else."

NOTES: first of all thank you so much for following, comenting or favouriting this story! And I promise Eäwen won't stay in the dungeons much more, I'll try to add more action to the next one!