I was having a plot bunny when visiting the theatre (by now a few weeks ago). I went to a ballet performance and it was called De Notenkraker, better known in English as The Nutcracker. I was thinking about ballet and that it was performed by very delicate, lenient and balanced people. That made me think about elves and one in particular: a little elfling called Legolas, performing on a stage, with little elfling girls in tutus.

It's just a little one shot story and is not really an attempt of creating something serious, but I just had to write it down.

Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of the Rings, nor anything else from Tolkien.

Mirkwood's Autumn Festival

It was one of the last summer days in September. The last rays of warm sunshine were illuminating the forest of Mirkwood and some of the younger elflings were rehearsing for their ballet performance. There was going to be a festival at the beginning of the autumn which was in a week's time.

The group consisted out of girls, all in beautiful dresses and on their heads crowns made of flowers. There was still some work to do, because on occasion the girls would forget that they were there for dancing instead of gossiping and giggling.

At the end of the practice hour one of the girls came up to her dancing teacher Innion.

"Innion, when will the boy come to the rehearsal. I would be nice to be able to practice with someone."

Innion smiled. "I know Elisian, I have been asking some boys, but most of them do not want to be in a ballet performance."

Elisian had the leading role in the ballet performance and she was expected to dance with a boy, but finding a boy that wanted to perform before all of Mirkwood was not as easy as they had expected. Innion was out of options and the performance was in seven days.

"Elisian, don't you know anyone who might want to join our group."

"Well, I asked my brother, but he refused to dance with 'girls in way to pink tutus.' Well that was the way he described it. But I doubt whether any of his friends think differently on the matter."

Innion laughed and replied, "It just because ballet is girly and most boys would like the be tough warriors and not sweet little elflings."

"Actually, they would be a warrior if they took the time to understand were the performance is about. I mean however will play the part is heroic, because it is all about saving character I play."

"Yes, that's true. I'll keep on looking for a dancing partner for you. See you later, Elisian."

Innion went back to the palace where she lived and had a job. Teaching the children about ballet was something she loved to do in her spare time, but as a job she was a servant in the palace.

She walked into her room and out onto the balcony. She took up a book and settled in one of the chairs. She wanted to relax, because in a couple of hours she was supposed to work.

From her seat on the balcony she could see the practice range. Through the trees she saw two elves. One of them was still a child. He had blonde hair and was caring a somewhat smaller sword. The other was one of the instructors and seemed to show the younger elf some moves to defend himself.

Innion did not pay attention to her book anymore. The child had grabbed her attention. He moved so gracious while trying to defend himself when fighting with his instructor. Swiftly moving around and still keeping his balance.

If Innion would be able to persuade him to join the ballet group. He would be perfect. She kept watching for some time. Thinking that there was something familiar about this elfling. When the kid turned around again, facing towards her, it was then that she recognized him. It was Thandruil's son, Legolas.

Almost immediately Innion felt her spirits drop. How in the world could she ask Thandruil if he would let his son participate in their ballet performance. Even if Legolas would want to join. He was a prince after all and would not want to be humiliated in front of his people.

Later on that day Innion was working. She was walking with a tray of food which had to be brought to the dining hall. Unfortunately, Innion wasn't paying too much attention to her surroundings and when turning the corner she bumped into another elf.

For a moment she had forgotten what happened, but when she saw the plates and all the food on the floor she immediately remembered. When she looked up to apologise, Thandruil was facing her. "I am . . . I am so sorry, my Lord," she stammered.

Thandruil, to her surprise, smiled. "Lost in thought?"

"Yes my Lord, I was thinking about the autumn festival."

"What about it? Do you not have enough time to prepare the dance with the elflings? Because in that case I do not mind if you take some extra time off."

"Well . . ." Could she really ask King Thandruil if his son might want to perform at the autumn festival? "Well . . . we still haven't found a boy to dance with Elisian and it is only a week until the festival." It was now or never. "This afternoon I saw a boy at the training fields and he was so quick in reacting and at the same time graceful. He would have been perfect."

"Why did you not ask him?"

"Well, he was your son, Legolas."

A smile appeared on Thranduil's face. "It is not such a bad idea to let Legolas participate. He does not see many of the other elflings and this would be a nice opportunity for the Mirkwood people to see their princeling show his skills. I will see what I can do and let you know tomorrow. For now I will put on some other clothes." And with a small smile he walked back down the corridor.

"Thank you, my Lord"

Both a little ashamed for bumping into the King with a plate full of food and very pleased that she might have found a boy for the main role, Innion cleaned up the floor and walked back to the kitchen. She could already see the smiles on all the girls' faces. They would be so excited to dance with their prince. Figuratively and literally. For all the girls seemed to hold their breath when they saw Legolas.

Innion was very nervous, but also excited. Today was the day to tell the girls about the boy who would be the hero of the ballet performance and was going to dance with Elisian. Legolas was coming to her first, because Innion didn't think it wise to just let the prince walk in without any proper introduction.

A knock on her door, brought her out of her reverie. When she opened the door, she saw Legolas. "Hello Prince Legolas. Are you ready to meet the girls?"

A little shy, Legolas nodded and followed Innion down the hall. She was actually surprised to see that the prince was shy. She had thought he was a brave and wise boy, but as she very well knew: looks can be deceptive.

Before they entered the practise room, Innion asked Legolas whether he really wanted to do this, because she did not want to make him do something that he would regret. He replied by saying he would like to learn how to dance, because he liked some distraction from practising sword fights.

They walked into a room full of girls and it took them a few seconds to realise who was standing beside Innion. What was at first a few girls staring at Legolas resulted in whispers and finally an overwhelming noise of voices.

"GIRLS!" Innion shouted. "Show a little respect for our prince and new dancer, Legolas."

All the girls went back to staring and Innion continued. "He will have the main role and will dance with Elisian. He does not have any experience with dancing so it would be nice if you all be extra patient."

Innion said to Legolas that he could first watch the girls dance and after that he could join in and learn the different dances.

Legolas sat on the floor and watched as the girls took their positions. He tried to remember everything he saw. Ballet actually didn't look too difficult, he thought. But when Innion asked him to join in, it proved to be a lot harder than he had imagined.

A few times he almost tripped over his own feet and he had also bumped into Elisian. When he apologised she immediately responded that she did not mind and that it had happened to her as well. "After a few days it'll be easier. You'll see." Legolas smiled and hoped she was right, because at the moment he would have preferred to hold his sword.

At the end of practise the girls were reluctant to leave, because they all wanted to talk to the prince. But after a while Innion had managed to get everyone out of the room except for Legolas and Elisian.

"I wanted to ask you two, if you could practise tomorrow morning. It would give you a chance to rehearse the dance in private."

In unison the two elflings answered, "Sure, I'll be there."

All three laughed and Legolas left the room with Elisian. Elisian looked over her shoulder and winked to Innion. As if she wanted to say: you could not have chosen anyone better.

The following morning Innion, Elisian and Legolas were back at the practise room. Innion explained a few new things she had come up with to make the dance more exiting. Legolas was supposed to lift Elisian in the air.

The first time Legolas tried to lift Elisian, his knees gave way and they both fell. After the initial shock, they started laughing. "Okay, maybe Innion needs to help us" Legolas said, "because lifting Elisian up is not the problem, but balance is."

After some more instructions by Innion and some help with finding the right balance, Legolas managed to lift Elisian. Elisian smiled and was convinced the performance at the Mirkwood festival would be perfect.

The elflings and their instructor had a lot of fun that morning. There was no one that would laugh at the prince and Innion noticed that it helped the prince to be less worried about making mistakes. Innion figured he might always be expected to do the right thing and making mistakes was not one of those things. She knew Thranduil could be a little too demanding. But most of the time his wife would know when to act and tell her husband to back off. Together they were a good King and Queen. She never minded working in the palace for them, because they were always friendly and kind to her.

When Innion told them it was time to stop, because it was almost lunch time, Legolas was the first to say that he really enjoyed practise. Elisian agreed and the two of them promised to be there for the regular practise that evening. The two elflings left and Innion heard Legolas say, "I never thought ballet could be so much fun."

The following days went by quickly. Innion was happy that the girls had accepted Legolas as just another elfling and did no longer see him as their prince. It also turned out that Legolas seemed to have some talent in ballet and he learned the dances quickly.

The last day of summer were nice and bright. One day Innion even let the group practise outside, because it was quite hot that day. The girls loved to play tricks on Innion by hiding in and behind the trees and Legolas seemed to enjoy it just as much as the girls did.

Until disaster seemed to strike. A loud scream echoed through the forest. Everyone was looking to see what happened and Innion did not want to take a risk by leaving the elflings alone in the forest. She shouted that everyone was to gather around her so she could see if anyone was missing.

It only took a few second for her to realise only two people were missing. One of them being Legolas. "Go back to the palace and ask one of the guards to get help. The prince is missing."

While the girls ran back to the palace Innion went into the forest and started shouting Legolas's and Myrin's name. "Legolas!" Innion hoped nothing bad had happened. "Myrin!" What if the prince was injured. Thranduil would be mad at her. "Legolas!"

"We are here!"

Innion started running faster and found Legolas and Myrin in a small clearing. At first sight they looked fine. "Are you hurt, what happened?"

"We are fine. Myrin just saw a very big spider and that's why she screamed." Legolas rolled his eyes and continued, "Not that this spider was actually any larger that her hand palm. So I ran towards her and killed it."

Innion let out a sigh of relief. "I thought one of you was hurt." She let out another sigh. At that moment a guard entered the clearing. Innion said, "Don't worry, mystery solved. The girl was frightened of a spider and the prince came to her rescue."

The guard grinned and said, "Sounds like a fairy tale."

The four of them walked back to the palace. "Please, never do that again. You really scared me," Innion said.

When back at the palace, Thranduil was waiting for them. Innion had to explain everything again. He laughed at her and said that it would probably better if today's practise was over.

Finally the day of the Mirkwood Festival had arrived. During the day there were all sort of performance around the palace. Form dancing to music to plays. Everyone seemed to enjoy the day.

After a large picnic outside in the gardens. It was time for the performance of Innion's ballet group.

Backstage it seemed to be war zone. Everywhere clothes were laying on the floor, girls were giggling because of the nerves and there was so much noise that you could hardly understand what anyone was saying.

"I am nervous."

"So am I"

"Where is my ribbon to tie up my hair?"

"I've lost one of my shoes!"

"Here I found it, it was behind you."

Innion was running around trying to help everyone with getting their clothes on and making sure they looked perfect.

Finally she managed to get everyone ready. All they had to do was going on stage and give a beautiful performance.

"This is it. Nervous?" Elisian asked.

Legolas replied, "A little, but we'll just give it our best shot."

Elisian smiled back and disappeared onto the stage with the other girls. Legolas heard the audience applaud when the girls started dancing. Legolas did not have to dance in the first part and silently waited.

The music changed from cheery to somewhat dark and dangerous. This was the moment Legolas entered the stage. For a few seconds there was some whispering going through the audience, but then it died down.

A soon as Legolas had entered the stage, all the nerves left him. He enjoyed it and when he danced with Elisian he felt even better. The two seemed to move as one. Circling round each other and Legolas lifting Elisian. They moved with elegance and their arms and legs moved synchronized. It was perfect.

At the end the entire audience applauded. Everyone had loved the performance and the prince joining in the performance would be the talk for days. The Mirkwood Festival would continue long into the night, but for Legolas it might last way longer. For he would never forget that ballet performance. It had given him the grace and balance which later in his life he would be so well known for.

THE END