Ghosts in Mirkwood
By Tari
Darkness settled over the forest of Mirkwood. It was not the cold haunting shadow that was always there, but the calm darkness of night. In the palace, the King of Mirkwood was having dinner with his young son.
"Then Ada, I climbed the BIG tree and when I reached the top I saw the mountains!" Legolas said thrilled with his success. Thranduil smiled and returned to his soup but he did not miss his son trying to hide a yawn.
"Bedtime Ion?" the King smiled. The elfling shook his head.
"No! I want to stay up!" he said yawning wide. Thranduil grinned and picked up the elfling who began to shout and struggle trying desperately to get out of his father's grip. The elves reached Legolas's room, and Thranduil dropped the elfling on his soft bed, tickling him until there were tears running down the young prince's face.
"'night" the king kissed his son on the forehead.
"'night Ada!" Legolas snuggled into his dark green sheets and fell asleep almost instantly. Thranduil smiled and walked down the dark hall to his own room. He climbed into his own bed and closed his eyes for a moment. All seemed peaceful. No shadow was creeping and taking over his home, he was not pressured by being the king, and he was going to have a good night's sleep. For this moment he was just an elf with a son whom he loved very much and everything was perfect. The elven king fell asleep with a small smile on his face.
Legolas bolted up in bed clutching his sheets tightly, his eyes wide in terror and he looked around for what had awakened him. He saw the colorful glass on the floor and rose slowly from his warm bed. He walked carefully across the wooden floor, his bare feet making no noise. He looked first at the shattered candle holder, then narrowing his eyes he looked around the room. What could have made the candle holder fall? Then suddenly he heard a thud and his head whipped around and, his eyes widened with fear, he stared at the wooden boat that had fallen from his tall dresser. 'A ghost!' the young prince instantly thought of the stories the older children had told to scare the young ones. He sped out of his room as quickly as he could.
The elfling raced down the pitch black hall into his father's room and leapt on his bed crawling across in record time and shook him awake.
"Ada! Ada! There's something in my room!" the terrified prince said quickly. Thranduil mumbled something and sat up. He took one look at his son and realized he was truly scared.
"What?" the elf lord wasn't angry but he hadn't had a good night's sleep in weeks.
"A ghost!" Legolas whispered. The king moaned and had barely risen from bed when his son grabbed his hand and almost dragged him to his room.
"See Ada! The ghost knocked down the candle holder and my boat!" Thranduil was not really listening, he was just trying not to fall asleep where he stood. Suddenly there was a thud where Legolas's dresser stood with a drawer halfway open. The prince whimpered and clung to his father's hand.
"Can you catch it Ada? Can you make it go away?" Thranduil walked slowly over to the dresser and put his hand on the leaf shaped handle, pulling it open all the way. A brown blur shot past the elf making Legolas let out a squeak of terror, jumping backwards about three feet. The "ghost" let out a twitter and Thranduil started to laugh.
"Is this your ghost Legolas?" he let the brown blur sit on his wrist. He kneeled down to let Legolas see the small sparrow. The prince was speechless. This wasn't a ghost! This was a little bird.
"But it's a bird!" Thranduil laughed as he walked over to the window and let the bird fly out. He turned to smile at his son.
"Shall we go see if cook has some of that cake left over?" The bird was instantly forgotten at the mention of cake, and the prince shot out of the room running to the kitchens happily. The grinning king followed closely behind. He had to write to Lord Elrond and tell him about this!
Author's Note:
Thanks to my Beta-readers Jenolas and Chloe Amethyst! You both have helped me a lot!