Under Fire

Summary: Even the greatest lords need a helping hand from time to time. Lord Glorfindel is no exception. In need of help, it doesn't matter if the savior is small or wise. In this story, little Estel proves more help than any other elf in Middle-Earth. Fluff along with a sense of humor and the love of a family.

Disclaimer: I do now own anything, besides possible OC's. The genius J.R.R Tolkien created Middle-Earth and the characters. I won't gain any profit of it; This is only meant for entertainment proposes.

The sun begun to rise in the safe haven of Imladris. The eyes of the elves returned to their bright colors with every second. Within a few hours, everyone was busy with their lives and work.

In one particular room, one little edain boy awoke. His eyes opened, taking in his surroundings.

The room had vivid colors, blinding him instantly by waking up. The room was an open space. White, tall windows welcomed the sunlight in. Outside of the room, one balcony viewed over the valley. In the room stood one crafted wooden desk, made by his own brothers Elladan and Elrohir. His bed had blue sheets and faced outside. At the right side of him was a wardrobe and a door connected to the bathroom. Behind him was an old, white wooden door leading to the hallway of the family quarters.

All together, the boy had decided upon seeing the room that he had it good. The first time he viewed the room was after his journey to Imladris. His mother Gilraen had separated them from the unfamiliar elves and introduced him to his new home. Estel had been puzzled at the age of two, not understanding why they were there. At the age of nine, several things were still a mystery to him. But in all these years in the Last Homely House, he had come to terms with it. His ada had promised him after all that he would hear the full story when he would be older. Ada always tried to keep his promises, so the boy was satisfied. He couldn't help it either that those strange elves had interrupted their day off at the lake.

With a happy smile upon his face, Estel leaped out of his bed. Today would have another adventure for him! He walked over to his wardrobe and choose with an excited expression a composited green outfit. 'Dan and 'Ro had told him he looked like a wood elf in those clothes! Which was in the boy's opinion a good thing, since they also told him Mirkwood had the best archers. Although he preferred his sword, controlling another fighting skill was always handy. Aye, green clothes it would be! The boy pulled the clothes of the hanger and dressed himself. Overall, he did a good job! Besides getting stuck those few times in those evil sleeves, of course. He swore they had a mind of their own!

After he had gladden all the folds in his clothes, he left his room and made his way over to the dinning hall. When he entered, several of the elves in the palace were already present. This included his ada Lord Elrond, his mother Gilraen, Lord Glorfindel – secretly known as uncle Glorfy – Lord Erestor (who still held a grudge against him for saying his name wrong all those years when he recently learned to speak), Lindir and strangely enough, Elrohir without his twin Elladan.

"Morning!" He creaked while climbing on the high, royal chair made for him. Immediately several heads shot up towards the owner of the voice. Erestor, as the advisor he was, covered his ears against the high sound. His ada Elrond shot him an apologizing look before sharing a look with the other elders. The ones who Estel wasn't very familiar with were all very irritated while Lord Glorfindel wore a smug look. Why, he never knew. It was Glorfindel, after all.

His mother wore a neutral expression as Elrohir. Lindir had a very badly hidden smile on his face, sympathy in his eyes. It was another normal day in the Last Homely House.

Breakfast was interrupted by one of the servants in the house, alerting the Lord Glorfindel of a situation which needed 'immediately attention'. What that meant, Estel didn't knew. What he did knew whatsoever, was that the elf took Glorfly away! With a pout, he devoured the rest of the thick porridge prepared by one of cook's assistants.

When he had gulped away the last bit of porridge, his mother granted him permission to leave the table. Before she could change her decision, Estel took off.

The rest of the day until it was almost dinner time, he spend his time playing with the bunnies. His brothers 'Dan and 'Ro had managed to capture several of them on one of their trips. He had been overjoyed at the surprise. But now some time later, he began to doubt the reason why. That time before, he had questioned their trips more often. Oh, he probably was imagining too much. Surely his brothers wouldn't use the bunnies to mislead him? No, Estel was sure of it. What could've happen in the first place anyway? Bunnies might bite, but they couldn't get hurt in any other way, could they?

Before the little boy could think more about it and possible discover his brothers' orc hunting trips, his stomach rumbled with hunger. Time for a snack! Dinner was far away, wasn't it? Estel grinned and sprinted off to the kitchen.

In the kitchen, Estel managed to avoid all the workers and servants so far. Well, that was what he thought. The real reason why not one of them captured the child was because no one had the courage to interrupt the adorable boy in his way crawling through the room. Whole Imladris simply had become smitten by their lord's foster son, if they wanted it or not. Because of this, Estel easily make his way towards the pastries and the fruit and could collect one bag full. 'Adventures took a lot of energy', he stated. Although he still was obvious to all the looks, he had said it aloud. One of the many habits of him. Most often used to convince himself that it wasn't a bad thing.

With his bag of food, Estel went outside again. In the other hand, which wasn't occupied by the sack, he held one beautiful, red apple. With a satisfied smile, the child took a bite. Mmmh! The boy murmured. Life was good, as always.

The day grew darker with each hour. In that time, Estel had made his way far away from his house.

Some time earlier, miles away.

After the call of need and the scared, rushed explanation from the servant Lord Glorfindel had rushed over with a sudden pulled together patrol of Imladris elves. The patrol had been so set upon reaching the people in need, that they ignored several important clues. Only when it was too late, Lord Glorfindel and several others realized their mistake: They had walked straight into an ambush.

From all sides the group was attacked, by men and orcs. How they had managed their way so close to the safe heaven was beyond them. That was the last problem they should worry about, because the patrol had been closed in in only a few seconds. Time suddenly went very slow. Elf for elf fell down, an arrow struck in their bodies. More and more fell, leaving the Lord Glorfindel helpless. Without thinking clear, he ran over to the back of the group. There he saw that there still stood several warriors straight, armed as best as they could. Oh, how Glorfindel cursed himself for the lack of reacting skills training! If they would survive this, he would make sure that this would be hammered into their foolish minds.

The thinking had a dire result for the captain. Before he had taken notice, several orcs and men pulled the balrog slayer away from his patrol. He attempted to yell out a warning to the warriors, but was immediately silenced by a sharp sword to his throat. Glorfindel gave up and let his captures pull his body weight away from the scene, looking like a rag doll. Dignity was not something to worry about in situations like this.

Estel, who only had stopped for short rests, had come closer to the patrol than anyone else. Not that anyone would think of going near there, since most of Imladris knew of the fighting going on. The only thing that he knew and mattered was the fact that Glorfly was there. And Glorfy wouldn't do dangerous things, would he? It was completely safe for him to go there. In Estel's mind.

While Estel kept walking, Gilraen and several others in the house became puzzled over his whereabouts. He wasn't in his room as far as they knew, or in any other spot they had searched so far. Perhaps he played hide and seek alone again?

Another two hours later Estel finally reached Glorfindel, who had been pulled a far end away from his patrol. When the boy had neared, swords clashing had been heard. He had thought that maybe, Elladan had been training with Glorfly. With those thoughts in his mind, he excitedly skipped over to the danger.

"Glorfindel? Glorfly? Where are you?" Estel asked in a singing voice.

He entered the space and saw said warrior slashing his sword through the throat of the last orc. Estel, as innocent as he was, thought nothing of it. Glorfindel had been covered in dark, sticky orc blood and had mud and grass stains on his tunic. He was breathing deep and heavy, as if he had run a few miles. This the boy did notice.

"Why didn't you take me along, Glorfly? I also loved to run!" The boy yelled.

The captain's head sharply turned over to the new voice, bloodied sword in hand. Estel looked interested at the strange substance. He opened his mouth to question the looking dark jam's color, but never got the chance. Within seconds, the legendary lord crumpled to the ground as a tower under attack. His head hit the stump of the old tree behind him loudly, his eyes nearly rolling in the back of his head. Soon enough, his eyes shut down. Something that even Estel knew, was unlikely for an elf to happen unless said elf was heavily injured. With a cry of despair, he ran over to the tall warrior.

The next moments consisted of a child's cries and pleas containing the words 'Don't go, Glorfly' and 'I love you.' But even with the efforts, the golden haired ellon didn't move a millimeter. Estel became even more panicked.

Orcs were known as heartless, selfish and disgusting. It did not matter to them if they hurt or killed a man, elf, hobbit, dwarf, warg or one of their own. Neither did it matter if they were a mere child, teen, adult or elder. A target was a target, no matter what or who they were. Even the heir of Isildur, although it was a mere boy sitting besides a warrior who could be dead by then.

The orc was alone, but still dangerous. He carried several weapons and held one sharp, dirty dagger in his right hand. Slowly, he sneaked upon the boy. Even when Estel didn't have any knowledge of actual real fighting or was familiar with orcs, he did recognize danger if it was near and could easily smell the orc. He remembered the stories of Elladan and Elrohir and recognized several features they had told them, although they had changed them to not scare him too much.

"They smell awful! Even Elrohir's socks smell better!" He remembered Elladan saying. He even smelled the other twin's socks to get a good idea what they smelled like. Estel was sure the smell near him came close to them. With alerted senses, Estel silently moved his hand towards Glorfly's big dagger and short sword around his belt. With one sudden movement, he unfastened them. He knew that he had little time and hurried getting comfortable with the weapons. His family had told to stay away from their weapons, but surely even ada and mother could see the need for them?

The attacker was still moving towards to the child. He had seen the boy's movements, but thought nothing of it. He probably held the elf's hand for comfort, was the reason for the movement in the orc's mind. With a devilish grin and thoughts of delicious human flesh, the orc made himself more clear. This would be an easy hunt.

Several moments later the orc made his hiding spot visible and leaped to the boy, who moved with one quick jump away from him. The orc left an irritated grunt and leaped after him again. This continued for a while, until Estel ran for it and hid behind a big elk. He gave the tree a comforting clasp as he had learned from his brothers, which they had learned from Legolas.

Estel tried as good as he could not to sigh in relief. Bless the green clothes and the intelligence of the wood elves! He thought to himself. If it hadn't been for the color of clothes, he could be death by now!

While Estel was silently celebrating his choose of clothes, the orc was cursing them. If he got that cursed boy! He wouldn't let one worthless edain child beat him! He searched every tree near until he got to the tree which hid his target. Before he had spotted him, Estel ran again for it.

The same ritual repeated itself until the time Estel jumped in a tree's branches. When the orc came near, he jumped on it's back and after several misjudged stabs, hit his dagger in the orc's liver. Said victim immediately screamed out in pain, alerting the remainders of his company. To the orc's dismay, not one of them showed. Estel grinned out in victory, for he had heard about orcs their senses. In Imladris's woods, they wouldn't find them. The woods were too overgrown for them to locate the scream or find any of the boy's tracks after he was done with their companion. After all those years in the Last Homely House, he had learned how to move as correctly as an elf. He would never succeed in being as silent moving as them, but at least he moved better than any man he knew. Hiding his tracks was as well learned as his movements; His foster family learned him how to themselves. The orc had no idea were he started with.

With one last stab, the orc was no more. The dagger had hit home in the vile orc's neck. Estel slided off the orc's back and clapped his hands in delight. His first orc! 'Dan and 'Ro would be proud of him! He eyed the dagger once again. It was Glorfly's dagger...The boy thought dismissing. How could he explain to the balrog slayer his dagger was covered in sticky substance in a foolish orc's neck? He needed to figure that out later. Estel turned his back to his now defeated enemy and followed the tracks back to Glorfindel, making sure no one else could follow them besides elves or well trained men.

Meanwhile it was a chaos in the house of Elrond. Elves were running around the house, in an attempt to find the human foster son of their lord. Elrond had finished his tasks of the day and looked forward to a lovely evening in the Hall of Fire, when he was ran over after he took a step out of his office. The servant he had run into immediately stood up, apologizing while doing so. Before the lord could ask or say anything, the elf had disappeared around the corner of the hallway. What was going on? Elrond asked himself before standing up and gladding his robes. Time to find an answer.

Gilraen had been commanding the whole staff when the lord of Imladris found the disordered wife of Arathorn. Her hair was a mess and tears were prickling in her eyes. Elrond frowned upon seeing her. The woman hadn't been crying like this for a while. Was something amiss with the Dúnedain or in her family? It took only a few seconds for him to connect one and one together. Estel!

Estel was currently tending to Glorfindel. Meaning that he fought and killed his first orc didn't make him less a child. He hovered over his mentor with his bag of pastries besides him and in one hand grapes and an apple and in the other hand several pastries from the kitchen.

"Glorfly? I've got you some delicates. Would you mind eating them with me?" Estel asked the still unconscious warrior. If he was unconscious or dead was still the question. The boy sighed in despair before throwing both sorts of food away in the bushes near them. He plopped with an imitation of Elrond's thinking faces on the cold, sandy forest floor in front of the elven lord. Still no response.

"Well, we can't stay here. If you like it or not, we're going to shelter somewhere else." He told the ellon in an over annoyed voice. With that said, the boy took the heavy weighing lord by his ankle and dragged him behind. Too bad if orcs found them. Estel thought. It is all Glorfindel's fault.

After a long walk through the forest with an unconscious, now even more dirty Glorfindel the two of them reached a hide-out shared by the rangers and elves in an old and camouflaged barn. Estel merely rolled his eyes; He should've know they would have one of those dramatically things in Imladris. He stole one quick glance through the dirty windows and saw one probably also unconscious warrior in Imladris's garb laying down on a bench attached to the wall. Why not? Ada said the more the merrier. I do doubt if it also applies now, but we'll see. He stubbornly pick locked the door and kicked it open. The other warrior startled slightly but continued doing whatever he was doing.

After Estel settled in, he took one look at the other consumer of the hide out. It didn't took long to identify the awfully looking warrior as his own twin brother Elladan. So there he went off to, leaving me alone with those boring elves! Estel thought with a grim look upon his face. The twin would pay, along with his brother if he knew.

Hours later, another Imladris warrior walked towards the normally rarely used hide out. He had been searching along the others to find the human boy, but had grown tired of Gilraen's commanding orders. He perfectly understood her despair, but he had enough. He might be of the so called superior race, but even they had their limits. Right now, he had reached one. With a groan, he also kicked in the door.

After several moments, he blinked and rubbed his eyes hard. It couldn't be...? But to his dismay, it was whom he thought it were. Lord Elrond's son Elladan, his foster son Estel and...

Lord Glorfindel?!

The warrior had the urge to walk away from the scene, but his instincts and pledge to the lord of the Last Homely House kept him from doing so. He sighed before walking to a clear arena, sounding the alarm that he found the edain boy.

In less than an hour, Lord Elrond was carrying Estel home. The elves who had accompanied their lord carried Lord Glorfindel and Lord Elladan home on self made stretchers. Behind them, the tired warrior followed them. Today certainly had been an adventure for whole Imladris.

The next morning, Elrond was seen by his son's bedside. Yesterday he was fearing for his life and here his son lay, sleeping peacefully. While he did so, Elrond thought. He thought of what've could happened and worried about the child's future. He also recalled childhood memories and their happiest moments. Estel definitely belonged to the House of Eärendil.

Besides thinking about Estel, the lord also thought about his son and long time friend Glorfindel. What had happened to the two of them? He did know Elladan had been longer in that barn that Glorfindel, since he saw the balrog slayer yesterday morning while his son had been missing quite a time before. Another thing that seemed out of place was Glorfindel's state; His ankle had been covered in someone's small nail prints and his back looked like he had been slurred over the forest floor. He didn't think the elf could recall it himself, but he could give it a try. After Estel had woken up, he should check up on him. But for now, he was only interested in watching his son sleep safely in their house.

Around the midday, said child finally woke up. He was greeted by his father when he opened his eyes. Lord Elrond smiled to the boy, clearly showing his affection and love. Ah, a perfect father and son moment. The lord thought. That feeling lasted a few seconds, until Estel grinned widely to his father and said:

"I killed an orc with Glorfly's dagger!"

Pretty much every elf avoided their lord and the lady Gilraen the following days and sympathized for the Lord Glorfindel, who had a black eye for a yet unknown reason and even he himself didn't know why. The elves had a good idea who gave the gold haired lord the black eye, but none dared to speak about it. After all, family affairs weren't theirs, were they?

Translations

Imladris: Elvish name for Rivendell.

Edain: Elvish for man.

Ada: Elvish name for dad.

Ellon: Male elf.