elf · middle-earth · warrior · grief · protective · independent · nature · fantasy · archer · loner
The view sweeps across the bleak, snow-clad spines of Ered Luin, a solitary figure stark against the endless white. Tauriel, a world away from the sun-dappled glades of Mirkwood, fights a relentless, bone-deep cold. The focus drops to her boots as one foot plunges into a concealed dip buried under powder. A sudden, graceless stumble shatters the mountain's silence; she cries out, pitching forward onto her hands and knees. The lens holds on her face, tight with pain, as she wrenches her leg from the snow's grip and crawls toward the meager refuge of a wind-bent pine. Beneath its laden boughs, she examines her swollen ankle, the fallen snow around her glittering like shattered crystal.