Disclaimer: I own nothing of Lord of the Rings. The only people who are mine is Avnean.
The Tale of Avnean Twin of Legolas-Chap1-The Beginning-
"Naneth?" Avnean tugged on the long hem of mother's skirt. She ignored the chatting Elven voices above her that signaled that her mother was in a conversation, which meant that it was a very bad time to try and talk to her, but it was important.
"Hush, hush, my child in a moment," her mother replied absently to the repeated tugging on her skirt while she talked.
"Naneth," Avnean persisted pulling on the green skirt again, harder this time. She continued to ignore the talking voices above her, as her mother conversed with the other Elves of the dinner feast. "Naneth!"
"Avnean," her mother sighed, dropping down to her child's height so she could look her straight in the eye. "Naneth's busy right now. What's wrong?"
"Um," Avnean put a finger to her lips and looked at her mother with her green-brown eyes. Now that she slightly thought about it perhaps it wasn't a good idea to tell her Naneth this. Legolas was being bad though. "Naneth, Legolas's being bad. He's going to scare the Lady."
"The Lady of Lothlorien?" her mother asked, now completely interested. She was looking at Avnean intently.
"Uh-huh," Avnean nodded enthusiastically. "I know." She tapped her forehead. "Legolas is being bad. Really bad."
"Thank you my Avnean," her mother smiled. "I'll go warn the Lady and punish your brother."
"Not hard Naneth," Avnean pleaded. "I hurt too." She tapped her forehead again and smiled, lifting her arms. "Up!"
Her mother lifted Avnean up into her arms, without a word of rebuke. "Now where's your brother?"
"Um. . ." Avnean thought hard. "The flet!"
"Then let's go to the flet and stop that brother of yours," she laughed. Carefully her mother picked her way across the crowded hall, offering smiles and hello's for those that she passed. When they came to the end of the Great Hall they both saw that Thranduil was standing at the door, as if waiting for them.
"Where are you two going?" Thranduil asked, raising a suspicious eyebrow. He was wearing his autumn crown and in the flickering torchlight his blue eyes looked like fire.
"Legolas is being bad," Avnean answered, sounding proud of herself.
"He's planning on scaring the Lord and Lady," Avnean's mother explained in further detail.
Thranduil raised a delicate eyebrow again. "Is he then? Well then my lady's please stop him."
"Yes Father," Avnean saluted him with a smile. "We're going to stop him!"
"Hurry along then," Thranduil rushed them into the hall.
The two girls traveled silently down the empty hallways, filled only with the flickering torchlight, until they came to the Lord and Lady's flet in the beech trees.
As they came towards their flet Avnean began to notice that the birds were singing and the smell of winter to come was playing on the wind. The gentle touch of it all around her was making Avnean itchy to go and play and forget that her brother was in trouble.
"Later," her mother insisted, as she noticed Avnean's mind drifting. "First we find your brother. Where is he?"
"Um. . ." Avnean tapped her forehead once more, using the connection she felt in the back of her mind that linked her to her twin. "Behind the door at the top. Up!"
Her mother lifted the hem of her feast skirt, to make the ascent easier and started to the mount the stairs, Avnean still in her mother's arms.
"Legolas!" Avnean called up through the branches as they climbed. "Legolas you're in trouble! Big trouble! I told Naneth you were being bad!" There was silence for a little while as they climbed higher.
/Avnean/ a small voice complained in her head, suddenly. /Hush! Please/ her twin sounded hurt and upset.
"He's mad at me Naneth," Avnean whispered, in a worried voice.
"It's all right," her mother assured her gently.
Avnean smiled warmly at her mother, reassured by the loving tone. "Up," she encouraged her mother. "Up, he's up. He told me to be quiet." She peered up at the beech leaves then added. "Shh," pushing a finger to her lips. "Shh."
"Up it is," she smiled and shifted Avnean's weight in her arms. She took hold of the wooden rail and continued to climb the stairs. During the climb, Avnean every once in a while heard Legolas's voice in her mind telling her to be quiet, as the girls mounted the spiraling stairs.
At the top of the stairs the two of them came upon a very startled sight. Legolas, dressed for the feast sat slumped on the top stair. His head was down, propped up by his hands, while the elbows rested on his knees. His golden hair hung messily across his face. Avnean could hear him sniffling, but already knew that she had made a mistake telling in tell her Naneth
"Naneth, let's go. Legolas can scare them," she tugged on her mother's sleeve. "Go!"
Her mother very tuned to their relationship of the twins'minds set Avnean down gently. "It's too late now Avnean. Come sit down and we'll surprise the Lord and Lady in another way."
"I wanted to scare them though," Legolas sniffed looking up. He brushed a hand across his eyes.
Feeling acutely aware that her twin was depressed, Avnean pattered to his side and sat down. "I'm sorry," she whispered, feeling guilty that she had told their Naneth. Avnean put her arms around Legolas and held him in a tight hug. A moment later Legolas put his own arms around Avnean. Their minds bond together comforting them more thoroughly then the hug could ever do.
"We'll scare them in a different way," her mother suggested, using her earlier words that the twins had forgotten she had said. "We'll scare them by surprise."
"Surprise?" both asked at once, startled out of their tranquil hug. "How?"
"Sit and be patient my children," she hushed them. "Come sit here and I will sing really quiet so that they won't hear us, when they come up the steps."
Avnean and Legolas looked at each other, silently conversing through their feelings and then smiled. They scrambled to each of their mother's sides and let her cradle them gently in her arms and rock them back and forth as she quietly sang to them.
Later that night, around midnight, when both twins had fallen asleep in their mother's arms, waiting for the Lord and Lady to arrive from the feast, Galadriel and Celeborn joined the Queen of Mirkwood on the steps. They looked at the sleeping twins smiling warmly.
"We heard about it," Galadriel said softly coming forward. "Do you need any help carrying them back to their room?"
"No, you go to bed, you've had a long day," the Queen answered in a low whisper. "I'll manage by myself."
"Galadriel why don't you go inside? I'll help the Lady," Celeborn issued his wife into the room, after his low words that the Queen did no catch.
After a slight withering glance at her husband Galadriel slipped through the door of the flet, knowing that there was more that Celeborn had not said. When she left Celeborn looked down at the sleeping twins, still cradled in their mother's arms.
He sighed inwardly; both Galadriel and him knew that Avnean and Legolas were supposed to be identical twins, not fraternal twins. He couldn't understand what had happened during the birth to make them look so different.
While Avnean's hair was golden brown and her eyes were a warm green-brown, Legolas had the golden hair and the bright blue eyes of his father. Other than that startling change they were similar in all aspects, so that anyone would just assume that they were relatives, or brother and sister instead of actually twins. Identical twins, Celeborn reminded himself. In his minds eye could clearly remember the vision that had been given to him before their birth. He had been shown that they would be identical twins, the only difference that was supposed to be between them was that one was to be a girl and the other a boy. Visions never lied so how did it come to them looking so different? Was it do with their fate in life that being different would protect them from horrible fates that could not be avoided were they to be shown identical?
Shaking himself from his brooding thoughts, Celeborn lifted the sleeping weight of Avnean in his arms. The young Elven child, shifted and muttered something in her sleep. Legolas, sleeping his mother's arms did similar when she lifted him up. Looking across to the Queen he smiled at her warmly. "My lady you have very special children, guard them well in life for they have a great road of destiny ahead of them." He turned, leaving his mysterious words to hang and descended the stairs towards the twins' room.