In the Elvenking's throne room, Legolas turned over the page of a book on various plants. "Looks tasty!" He declared upon seeing the picture of the daffodil, a little drool coming out of his mouth. He turned the page over. "Ew! Disgusting!" he yelled at the next picture, sticking his tongue out. He continued to go through the book, alternatively declaring each plant "Yummy!" or "Gross!"

Thranduil watched the elfing in his lap, sweatdropping slightly. "Little leaf," he said gently, "Can't you think of any other way of describing them other than whether they look good to eat or not?"

Legolas blinked up at his ada before regarding the picture intensely. "Um...it looks expensive?"

There was a feeling of something suddenly dropping in Thranduil's stomach. He sighed. "I think you need a lesson on the values of plants then..."

Legolas's eyes widened. "No! No lessons!"

"Little leaf..."

"Lessons are boring! Don't want to sit doing boring stuff!" And the child had made these feelings obvious before; he had bit his tutor's hand again just last week.

"Calm down, ion nin. I'm not going to make you read more books. I'll take you out on a walk instead."

Legolas blinked. "Walk? Where?"

"Someplace special."

X

The Elvenking got onto his elk and helped his son on. He made sure that Legolas had a good grip on him, and had a servant bring him his sword (an unfortunate but necessary precaution these days) before riding out into the woods. The sight of the darkened wood always made him slightly melancholy...hopefully the shadow had not yet reached where he was going.

Luckily, it was still intact; a large clearing filled with flowers of all kinds. Legolas gasped loudly when he saw. "So many!"

Thranduil smiled as he dismounted and helped his son to the ground, who promptly ran off into the thickest patch. "Yes. One of the few places where flowers still grow in this wood. I made this place for your nana, when she was still with us."

Legolas's attention suddenly focused at the mention of his mother. "Did she like it?"

"Yes. Very much." He tried to keep his voice from breaking, and took his son's hand, leading him to a bunch of sunflowers. "These were her favorite."

"Tall!"

"They're very useful. Least of which as food." Thranduil rubbed a few seeds loose from a flower and dropped them into his son's hands, and popped one into his own mouth.

Legolas shoved the whole pile into his mouth, and chewed experimentally before swallowing. He stuck his tongue out. "Tasteless..."

"Perhaps you'll like them better roasted and flavored then." He turned back to the flower to harvest some more seeds for later...and looked back when he realized that he was hearing more chewing noises.

Legolas was now eating a random flower he had plucked out of the ground. Thranduil promptly pulled it from his mouth, examining the remains, and sighed in relief when he saw that it wasn't of a poisonous variety. "Legolas, you cannot put random things into your mouth."

"But it looked tasty." His son's lip was wibbling, and he had his best Big Sad Eyes look on.

Thranduil sighed. "If you really want to, at least ask me first so I can check whether you would get sick or not if you bit into it. For example, these," he led Legolas to a hemlock plant. "These would make it hard for you to breathe if you ate them. These also look like parsley, so you have to examine plants like these carefully if you're out gathering food. Hemlock tends to have red on its stems, and parsley has small hairs on its stalks..." He continued to lecture his son on the characteristics of the plants in the garden, and Legolas's eyes quickly became unfocused.

Thranduil was still lecturing when he felt something brush against his hand. He looked down and saw Legolas brushing it with a flower. "What are you doing?"

"Tickling you ada!"

Thranduil smirked. "That's not how you do it. This is!"

He leapt onto his son and started tickling his body. Legolas laughed and shrieked with delight. Thranduil also let Legolas get in some retaliatory tickles.

Eventually the tickle fight finished, and Thranduil had an idea. "Little leaf, sit here and close your eyes. I have a surprise for you."

Legolas did as he was told, and Thranduil got to work on his gift. Legolas squirmed impatiently, wanting to crack his eyes open. "Are you done yet?"

"Almost. No peeking."

Legolas huffed but tried to hold still. Then he felt something being placed onto his head. "Alright, you can open your eyes now." his ada said.

Legolas blinked, and felt his head, feeling something soft and smooth. He tried to look up, and saw a flower crown resting on his head. He broke out into a wide grin. "So pretty~! Show me ada! Show me how to get one!"

Thranduil chuckled, and he taught Legolas how to weave a flower crown, carefully guiding his son's hands through the steps. He bowed his head down so that Legolas could place the new flower crown on him.

"Hehe, ada looks even prettier now!" Legolas pointed, laughing.

"Thank you, ion nin," Thranduil kissed his son on the cheek.

And so the two spent more time in the garden together. Thranduil took a brief rest from the play, watching his son chase some butterflies flying around. He laid back among the flowers, but frowned when he saw some unusual black among all the color. Taking a closer look, he saw that it was some prematurely wilted flowers; already the darkness was slowly claiming this place. The garden would be gone eventually, and he didn't know whether he would have the time to keep it intact.

He looked up and saw Legolas now attempting to make a flower-angel, giggling loudly. At the sight he couldn't be possibly be somber. And it was best to enjoy things that did not last forever as much a possible.

The hour grew late, and now Legolas was starting to yawn. Good, for it was now unsafe to stay in the woods through the night. Thranduil carried his son across his shoulder back to his elk (which had been grazing lazily as the two elves played) and got on.

"Ada?" Legolas said sleepily.

"Yes ionneg?"

"Today was really fun. Can we come back here sometime?"

Thranduil adjusted the flower crown he was still wearing, smiling. "Of course, little leaf. Of course."