Summary : The friendship between Legolas and Aragorn was on the rock. What had caused it? Can they repair the situation before it affected the quest to destroy The Ring?

Hello everyone! Yes, I'm back! He! He! Love it when you guys left tons of messages in my mailbox, threatening to kill me if I do not return to the board!! Okay, now I'm back. So enjoy this one, the manyan prince in the period of LOTR!!!!

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"What is that creature?" The two elflings stared wide-eyed at the small and stoop figure huddling at the base of the big tree, a length of chain wound around his right wrist with the end tied to the tree roots.

                Prince Legolas, the crown prince of Mirkwood, smiled in amusement at their obvious excitement. "That, children, is the creature Gollum."

                "Gollum?!" Cash and Dash, grandchildren of Lord Cayel, cried out. One of them stepped forward to get a better look at the ugly beast that stared back at them beseechingly.

"This is the creature of the swamp?" Dash voiced out in awe. "Wow! He stinks!"

"Yes, he smells just like your old favorite pillow!" Cash said next, causing his cousin to glare back at him.

The prince chuckled. These two are something! Always at each other's throat but cannot live without the other. If no one was the wiser, one might think they're twins! Legolas chuckled again as his thought flew to his best friends, the twins from Rivendell and their human brother, Aragorn. How he missed them after a couple months of seeing them last. At least, Aragorn had make a brief stop here in Mirkwood yesterday to put Gollum under Legolas's care until the ranger returned.

"Something has come up," Aragorn had said before he departed on the same afternoon he arrived. "After we found Gollum near the Dead Valley, we met Gandalf but he seemed very distracted about something, so interrogating Gollum is put on hold." The human ranger looked very tired but his mission was not finished.

"Gandalf has to rush to the village of Hobbiton for some unknown reasons. He'd instructed Ell and Ro to send his urgent missive to Lothlorien, and I was ordered to be in the town of Bree to wait for the wizard and his 'small friend'." Seeing Legolas's raised eyebrows, Aragorn immediately put up his hand. "Don't ask. I'm also at a loss. But I have the inclination to believe that it has something to do with a hobbit…and the One Ring."

Legolas frowned. "The One Ring?" Valar! He was right! The dark forces had already risen once again. The restless nights he was having for the past several weeks began to make sense to him. He could feel the uneasiness that bit him from within increasing. "What about the ring?"

"Beats me." Aragorn sighed deeply. "But I'm not surprised if somebody tells me that the lost ring has been found. Mount Doom is blazing fire these days they say."

The two friends knew what that meant. They gazed back at each other in silence, knowing that things were never going to be the same again.

"So!" Aragorn clasped Legolas's shoulder. "I had better leave now. As I surely can't bring Gollum along with me, I put him under your custody until I come back for him."

Legolas had been perplexed. "Now? You're leaving now? But you've just arrived! Can't you spend the night here and leave in the morrow?"

"Can't have the pleasure, my brother. This matter is very urgent. I never saw Gandalf so distraught before." Aragorn began to walk to his mount. "Send my regards to your father for me. And one more thing."

"What?"

"Gollum might look so docile to you but he can be vicious at times, so don't ever free him of his chains. He might hurt anyone before running away. He's quite strong too, believe me." Wincing, Aragorn massaged his left shoulder; it had obviously received a painful blow from the said creature. He had been dragging Gollum for hundreds of leagues for days, and he had become terribly exhausted. What's more, he had started to get very angry at the creature for his incessant wails and complains and the man wished he could kill him then and there.

"Are you sure you can ride in this condition? You don't look good," Legolas said, concerned at the dark circles under Aragorn's eyes. He realized his friend had had little sleep.

"I'll live," Aragorn replied. "Until next time, Legolas." Then the ranger was gone, heading off towards his next mission. Legolas could only watch the man's departure in apprehension, wishing he could be there with his friend to watch his back. But Aragorn was a great warrior, more than capable to look after himself. Still, the prince couldn't stop feeling a little worried.

At the two elflings' sudden shriek, Legolas was snapped back to the present. Cash and Dash were daring at each other to touch the creature. Gollum was looking back at them, licking his lips.

"See! I told you I dared to touch him!" Cash was boasting. "I bet you're a chicken!"

"I'm not!" Dash responded, stepping forward to accept the challenge.

Legolas knew he had to interfere before things got out of hand. "That's enough, boys." The elflings halted and blinked back at him, clearly disappointed that their fun had been cut short. The prince continued, "I brought you here out of the study room not to taunt the creature. It's the archery, remember? Or do you want to return inside and read more about the ancient Silvan philosophy?"

The two young elves groaned. Legolas's lips twitched in amusement. "I guess not. So come along now. Let's get to the field. The servants should have prepared everything for us."

The children detested being cooped up in the study, especially when the activity involved reading and dictating. At first, they were eager to learn some new things from the thousands of books that filled the royal study from floor to ceiling, especially when they had the beloved crown prince as their tutor. But after an hour, being energetic elflings, Cash and Dash began to fidget. Then they started to nudge each other, scratching their head or sighing heavily to show their restlessness, and sending pleading looks to Legolas, begging the prince to quickly end the tutoring session.

Legolas had to laugh at that. At least they managed to last for an hour. When father was tutoring me, I was lucky to last for ten minutes!

The two boys had sighed in relief when Legolas finally took pity on them and suggested the archery lesson for the next hour. They jumped out of their seat and raced each other out the door towards the training field…and stopped short when they saw Gollum tied to the big tree at the back of the palace garden.

Legolas refused to place Gollum in the Mirkwood dungeon for he thought the creature had not done any crime to receive such treatment. He had ordered Gollum to be tied to the tree, fully guarded and well fed. The prince was also a little uneasy to see the chain binding the creature's thin wrist. It had evoked a lot of painful memories for him. Legolas knew how uncomfortable the chain was; he had had first hand experience. But there was truth in Aragorn's words of caution. The creature could be dangerous to others, especially the young elflings.

Legolas smiled as he watched his wards walk away with heavy and reluctant steps. For once they were not so excited for their archery training like they usually were. Ever since the boys came under his care, Legolas's heart no longer felt so empty, especially after his elder brother, Keldarion, had sailed to the Undying Lands over a year ago.

It all started two months earlier when, hell-bent on revenge, the boys' grandfather had taken Mirkwood under his siege, attempting to murder the king and the crown prince along the way. The two royalties nearly died, but thanks to the heroic rescue of Commander Linden, they survived.

Sadly though, Linden had lost his life in the process. Legolas still mourned him, while at the same time frequently imagining his hands wrapped around Cayel's throat and squeezing the life out of the traitor for giving them such agony and despair. True, Aragorn and the twins were there to assist Legolas to get Mirkwood back from Cayel. But it was Linden who had sacrificed the most by putting himself directly in the line of fire for the sake of Thranduil and Legolas's life.

Instead of killing him like he wanted to, Legolas had sentenced Cayel to be held in the dungeon forever, receiving no visitors and with no chance of sailing over the sea. The prince even severed the blood ties that Cayel had with his sons and grandchildren, much to Cayel's absolute dismay and horror. Cash and Dash were pronounced the prince's wards from then on. He vowed to make good and honorable elves from out of them, the total opposite of Cayel.

King Thranduil respected his son's wishes, as he knew the horrible experience that Legolas had gone through under Cayel's cruel hands. If it were up to him, Thranduil would love to cut open Cayel's chest and take out his black heart to feed to the dogs before stringing up the traitor's body up in a tree for everyone to see. But Legolas's orders were as good as the king's, and Thranduil was incredibly proud of his son's growing wisdom and thoughtfulness. Throwing a last glance at Gollum who stared back at him with his big blue eyes, Legolas proceeded to follow the children. He could feel the creature's unflinching gaze stabbing his back the whole time, chilling him to the bone.

TBC….

P/s : To our friends from the US, Happy Independence Day!!!!