It was where it all began. The garden that Oropher once built was now the garden where they would ra

_{It was where it all began. The garden that Oropher once built was now the garden where they would raise the child that grew within Iestil. It was no doubt a daunting task, but also one that brought great joy to the Mirkwood couple as they passed their days in serenity patiently awaiting the day to welcome their child into the world. And it was underneath the pale leaves of spring, that they would often find themselves reminiscing of times past and how far they have come – together.}

_{“My only wish is to raise our child as my father once did with this garden — with all the love and care in all of Arda.”–Thranduil to Iestil}

_{She was the most radiant around flowers, he’d often recall her smile as they would stroll through their gardens at night, taking time to admire the bulbs that would eventually come into bloom. He had taken her to see his father’s gardens the first time they had met, and he could still remember the way her eyes lit up with awe as she looked around, admiring the scents and colors of the flora around her. It wasn’t until after Oropher’s death when he decided to close the gardens off, making them private.}

_{A wall was built cutting the inside off from the rest of the world. It was a place that his father had painstakingly created when they had first relocated from the treetops of Greenwood. To others, it could have been viewed as a tribute to the fallen king who found beauty in nature, but to him, it was much more than a simple tribute. It was a place that contained his father’s love, a father’s love which he would never feel again. And even though he knew it was selfish, he wanted to keep it to himself.}

_{The garden was a place where he’d find himself in silence, lost in an array of thoughts, a place he would come to escape the whispers and murmurs that filled his halls after his father’s passing. It was originally a place for him to seek refuge in, but it soon became a way for Thranduil to cope– for him to recover. It was a safe haven where he could be surrounded by nothing but nature, a place where the outside world couldn’t interfere with the internal war that brewed within him. A place where the nightmares of the past couldn’t reach him. It was a place that reminded him of his father’s love and the comfort of her smile.}

_{It was support, not pity, that she had shown him during that prolonged period of grief. It was something which, he realized after her passing, he had took too much for granted.}

_{While most of his advisers were trying to ask him questions relating to his new found kingship, she provided the much needed comfort of silence. He had felt lost and alone, struggling to find his own identity. Too long he had just been known as the son of Oropher. But at that moment in time, he was no longer a prince, but a king. And honestly, it frightened him. Was he worthy of the throne in which his father once ruled upon? Was he even fit to be a leader to his people? Or would he only lead them to the path of ruin and despair?}

_{But her constant presence quelled the nerves that shook him. And more often than not, he’d find her sitting by his side at night in silence as the two of them would look upon on the stars among the small blossoms of flowers that surrounded them– the only sound was the soft sound of rushing water by an adjacent stream reminding them both that time was still ticking away. It was moments like that which filled him with a warmth that he had not felt since the day he had left for war. Tranquility.}

_{And it was within those closed walls where he grew to love flowers as much as she had. And it was within those walls where he regained his composure and confidence, where he regained his mind back from the waves of self-doubt that once clouded over his mind. And as the weeks passed and turned into months, he had changed. Changed into someone who was no longer a prince standing in the shadows of his fallen father, but a king, someone who could rightfully rule upon the woodland throne as his father had once done—king, of the woodland realms. -Last Farewell, Ch. 8}