Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters or places featured in this story
Author's notes: Please read and review. Constructive criticism is gladly accepted, please tell me about mistakes so that I can correct them and know not to make the same mistake again.
A new day dawned on the beautiful and peaceful elven realm of Imladris. At least, it used to be peaceful, but that was before the twins. It was the middle of winter, so the sun shone on clean white snow, which covered the house and gardens in a thick layer.
Elrond sat in his study, enjoying the quiet that would only exist until his sons woke up. He leant back in his chair and stretched out his legs, sipping a cup of warm tea. "Ahh," he sighed, "peace and qu…" but was then cut off in mid sentence by a dreadful noise, loud enough to wake the dead.
"Elladan!" Elrohir bellowed, racing down the corridor after his brother, long dark hair flying about his face. "Give me back my toy!"
Skidding round a corner, Elladan yelled back "You'll have to catch me first!" Unfortunately, he neglected to pay attention to where he was going, and collided with Erestor, one of Elrond's chief advisors.
It was a very disgruntled Erestor who minutes later deposited the twins in Elrond's study (where, by all rights, he believed they should be locked up) "Lord Elrond," he frowned "your son just ran into me in the corridor. I believe it would be wise for you to explain the dangers of running in the house." With that, Erestor turned on his heel and walked out, ready to take his bad temper out on anyone and everyone who crossed his path.
"Elladan," Elrond sighed, causing one twin to look at the floor guiltily, a slight flush of red beginning to appear at the tips of his ears. "Elrohir," now it was the other elfling's turn to drop his gaze. "I would have thought you'd have known better by now than to be running around the corridors." He looked down at them both stonily. "I don't expect either of you to do that again, do you understand?" They nodded mutely, and Elrond let his glare soften slightly. "Well, off you go then, and do try to play quietly please,"
A sombre pair of elflings walked out of the study, rather upset that their father was so displeased with them. "Here," Elladan held out the toy that was still in his hand, "I'm sorry I took it from you, it was my fault we got in trouble," he hung his head, not willing to look at his brother, who he was sure would be mad at him.
"No, of course it wasn't" Elrohir replied, "I never really wanted the toy back that much. I shouldn't have chased you. Besides, it wasn't really that bad was it? Did you see the look on Erestor's face when you ran into him? He looked like he was going to explode! It was so funny-he went all red and everything!"
Elladan risked a grin, and soon both twins were laughing almost as loud as they had been shouting earlier. So it was in a much lighter mood that they wandered into the garden. "Ooh…" Elrohir breathed as he saw the snow that covered everything "It's so beautiful," and Elladan had to agree. The first snow of the season always had a magical feel to it, and when it was fresh it made the world seem untouched. The twins loved to be outside before anyone else so they could make the first footprints in the crisp whiteness. Of course, the awed feeling was quickly replaced by pure excited energy, and any footprint making activities rapidly degenerated into snowball fights.
Erestor was having a bad day. When he woke up in the morning it had shown every promise of being a good day, but things had rapidly gone downhill as soon as he got out of bed. First, he had remembered the big pile of paperwork on his desk. Then he had stubbed his toe on a chair. To add insult to injury, Glorfindel had witnessed this unusually clumsy incident, and Erestor was sure he could see the glint of amusement in the golden-haired warrior's eyes. Next, Elladan had nearly knocked him over in the corridor. He had tried to ignore it, but like all bad days, it refused to be ignored. He had tried to be optimistic and cheerful, but looking back he rather felt he had been setting himself up for a fall (almost literally true because of Elladan)
"Oh well," he sighed "things can't possibly get much worse," and he stepped outside.
"Erestor!" Elrohir pointed at the elf as he walked into the garden, and within moments the advisor was hit by several large snowballs. Erestor stood still, then counted to ten. Once he had done that, he gave up trying to calm down, and instead focussed his mind on a potentially stress relieving activity. "Elflings!" He roared, and bent to pick up a handful of snow. The twins squealed and ran off, pursued closely by a very annoyed elf (who, by his own admission, should know better) tossing snowballs.
The chase snaked through the gardens, between trees, round the pond, and ended up in front of the house. Finally getting a proper aim, Erestor chucked his snowball at Elladan, who ducked, and hit Lord Elrond square in the middle of his chest. Erestor squeaked in terror and stood still, trembling in fear and embarrassment. He opened his mouth to speak as Elrond walked forwards, but no words escaped.
The Lord of Imladris saw no reason to talk either. He casually ran his hand over the wall, scooping up powder snow, then smushed it into Erestor's hair.
There was silence, finally broken by Elrond's snort of laughter as he and his sons ran off. Erestor stood for a moment, stunned, before he could move. "Elrond!" He yelled, picking up more snow, "Come back here!"
The snowball fight continued until lunchtime, when the elves reluctantly took a short break to replenish their energy, upon the insistence of Elrond's wife Celebrían. Once she had deemed that they had eaten and rested enough, the snowballing began again in earnest.
"Got you!" Erestor laughed, having finally succeeded in hitting the Lord of Imladris in the back. His laughter though, was cut short by Elladan and Elrohir, who snuck up on him and shook the snow off a tree branch right onto his head. "Aaggh!" He cried, as the melting snow trickled down the back of his neck.
In the three hours that followed, all elves took heavy losses (pride and dignity to name just two), the most significant of which being Elladan's gloves. No one quite knew how they had managed to end up in the pond, and none of them were prepared to stick their hands in the icy water to retrieve them.
"I think it's about time we went in," Elrond announced, looking at the twins, who were shivering slightly, and whose clothes were damp, if not completely soaked through. He ignored the protests that followed his statement and shook his head. "There's always tomorrow," he said "and we could do with a warm bath and some dry clothes." The twins agreed, but the disappointment was evident on their faces so Elrond continued. "And if you come in now," he smiled "then after your baths I'll make you some hot chocolate."
"Okay!" the twins chorused, and Erestor stepped forward grinning.
"Can I have some hot chocolate too?" He asked, and Elrond laughed.
"Only if you behave," he warned jokingly.
Celebrían found the four later, sitting enjoying the warmth of the fire and sipping at mugs of hot chocolate. She smiled serenely and sat down next to her husband, who kissed her, much to the disgust of their sons. "The evening meal will be ready soon," she said.
After they had all eaten, it was approaching the twins' bedtime. "Time for bed elflings," Celebrían told them, and was met by murmurs of discontent. "But I'm not tired," Elladan protested, trying unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn. However, protests about bedtime meant little to Celebrían and they knew it, so they reluctantly allowed themselves to be ushered to their room.
A short time later, both twins were in bed, but adamantly refusing to go to sleep until they had been read a story. At the same time, Glorfindel was on his way to the kitchens for a snack. He never made it that far.
"Glorfindel!" Elrohir cried, because he'd seen the blond haired elf pass the doorway. A little reluctantly, Glorfindel backed up and walked into the room.
"Tell us a story," Elladan pleaded, "Please…" he put on his best pleading face and stared up at him. Inwardly, Glorfindel groaned. "Not the puppy dog eyes," he thought, "anything but that…" Needless to say, he gave in, and the two elflings sat in awed silence as he told them the story of Galadh, a young elf who went hunting for trolls.
"Glorfindel?" Elrohir asked, "What's a troll?"
"Ah," Glorfindel replied, "it is a humongous creature with a hide as strong as stone and arms powerful enough to snap bones like twigs." He leant forward as they shrank back "and if it catches elflings by surprise, it takes them to its lair and eats them for its supper!"
Elladan and Elrohir gasped and looked at each other, identical expressions of shock on their faces. Of course, the story ended happily, with Galadh defeating the trolls and saving his village. "But still," Elladan thought, "I hope I don't ever meet a troll."
"Come elflings," Elrond smiled "it is time for you to go to sleep," he and Celebrían said goodnight and returned to their room, while Glorfindel finally got to head for the kitchen.
"G'night El," Elladan yawned, but his brother was already fast asleep. He turned onto his side and pulled the covers around himself to get comfortable. Within minutes he was sleeping as soundly as Elrohir.
Unfortunately, this didn't last. Soon, Elladan was tossing and turning, plagued by terrifying nightmares. "No…" he moaned, clawing at the air, eyes open but unseeing (yeah, I know elves sleep with their eyes open anyway) "not the troll…go 'way…"
With a gasp, he woke up and bolted upright, breathing heavily. He leant back against the headboard trying to calm down, and had almost succeeded when he heard something. A crash, followed by loud thuds, which seemed to be coming from inside the house. Immediately, his heart began to pound, as his mind replayed scenes from his nightmare, showing him visions of terrible creatures that might have made the noise.
It did occur to him that there could be a rational explanation, but the logical part of his brain couldn't compete with his overactive imagination, and scary visions won. Not really happy with the idea of sitting on his own waiting for the monster to get him, he decided to try and enlist help.
"Elrohir," Elladan whispered, wide-eyed in the darkness "are you awake?" The younger twin turned over in his sleep and muttered something unintelligible, leaving Elladan to realise he would have to face the…thing…on his own. "It's probably better this way," he thought finally. After all, he didn't want to put his brother in danger as well. No, he could handle it, whatever it was.
Taking a deep breath and getting out of bed, he brushed his long raven hair behind his ears. He was brave, he was ready, but if he really had to admit it, he was also terrified. His heart was thumping so loudly surely everyone in Imladris could hear. He was contemplating the possibility of going to find his father when he heard the noise again. It sounded to Elladan just like the thud of a troll's feet, and it was getting closer!
Elladan froze in fear, hovering in the doorway, one hand gripping the door handle so tightly his knuckles had gone white. All the time, the sound was getting louder, and louder…until a dim shadow could be seen just a few feet away. Fear struck hard at his heart, and a dozen nonsensical thoughts dashed through his mind, culminating in a single determined decision. "I cannot let it hurt Elrohir." His mind made up, he picked up the nearest object to hand and with a bloodcurdling war cry a dwarf would have been proud of, threw himself at the thing.
There was a moment of confusion, which began with Elladan leaping without concern for his own well-being, onto the shadowy figure's back, and ended with him sitting on top of whatever it was, hitting it repeatedly with the object he'd picked up.
A few doors down, Elrond and Celebrían both woke with a start when the heard the scream. "The twins!" They exclaimed together, and grabbed a candle as they ran out of the room, fearing the worst.
What they saw outside their sons' room did nothing to ease their worries. A figure was spread-eagled on the floor, while a smaller figure sat on its back, pounding it with a large object. Warily, they edged closer, and as the light from the candle illuminated the scene, their fears began to evaporate.
Glorfindel was the figure lying on the floor, and Elladan was sat on top of him, hitting him with a stuffed bunny rabbit. Elrond felt his right eyebrow arch skywards of its own accord, and was aware of his wife whispering in his ear. "Darling," she murmured, "You must learn to control your eyebrow,"
Now that Elladan could see properly, he paused, and the bunny fell from his hand, landing on Glorfindel's head. The elf made a muffled noise, and Elladan, realising just then where he was sitting, leapt up and began a hurried apology.
Elrond, who had given up trying to tame his wild eyebrow, grinned, and offered his friend a hand. After Glorfindel assured them there was no harm done, Celebrían was able to concentrate her full attention on her son, who was standing perfectly still, looking slightly shocked. "What happened Elladan? Why did you attack Glorfindel? Surely you didn't think he would harm you," she said gently.
"You know that your mother and I will let no harm come to you while you're here," Elrond added, and Celebrían crouched down, so she was at Elladan's level.
"I-I…" he began shakily "I heard scary noises, and I tried to tell Elrohir but he was asleep. I thought it was a troll, and it was getting closer, and I was afraid and then I saw a huge shadow outside the door, and, and…" he stuttered, and Celebrían saw that his eyes were beginning to fill with tears. She put her hand on his shoulder comfortingly; "Go on,"
"And" he continued "and I thought it as going to hurt Elrohir, so I jumped on it," he looked at the floor "I'm sorry," he sobbed, emotions finally getting the better of him.
"Oh Elladan," Celebrían sighed, hugging him tightly "you don't have to be sorry, I'm proud of you for trying to protect your brother,"
"You're not ad at me for hurting Glorfindel?" Elladan sniffed, and she smiled and ruffled his hair.
"Of course not," she assured "It wasn't your fault, though perhaps you should apologise to him for thinking he was a troll."
"I'm sorry Glorfindel," Elladan said over Celebrían's shoulder, while wiping his eyes.
"That's OK," the golden-haired warrior replied with a smile, before turning to face Elrond. "I can hear it now," he groaned "Glorfindel the balrog-slayer, great warrior, brought down by a mere elfling. I doubt I shall ever hear the end of it!"
Elrond merely grinned, clapping a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Perhaps that will teach you not to tell my children scary stories before they go to sleep," he commented, eyebrow finally having returned from its vacation halfway up his forehead. "Now," he announced, "I think it's about time we all went back to bed, don't you?"
And so it was that yet another day (and night) in Imladris failed to pass without incident.
Author's notes: Please review. Oh, and to anyone who wants to know, yes, I did name the character in Glorfindel's story "Tree".