Elrond was sitting at the desk in his study and pondered something he had been thinking about for some time now. A few days back, when he was putting his youngest son to bed, he had discovered a large bruise on the child´s back, but as the little boy was constantly out and about, he didn´t pay much attention to it. But now Estel had some more of those bruises, and when Elrond asked him what had happened he just mumbled something about climbing trees.

Elrond had no exact idea what could´ve happened, but he was sure that Estel had not told the truth, and the matter worried him.

He thought about Finlen, a boy who had come to Rivendell just a few weeks ago, as his father, who had been wounded on the hunt, was staying in the healing warden and there was no one else to take care of the child. Finlen was four years older than Estel and tended to be rough on his playmate, something Elrond had noticed quite from the beginning.

He had just gotten up and was about to leave his study, when suddenly the door burst open and in flew Estel, his face strangely panicked, who stopped dead when he saw Elrond, panting heavily though. Elrond looked at him in surprise: "What happened?", he asked. Estel started to answer but then looked around as if expecting someone behind his back before finally saying: "We were... I was just...playing hide-and-seek." He flushed, but even without that Elrond would have known it to be untrue. He therefore knelt down in front of the boy and looked at him seriously: "Estel, I wish you would tell me what really is the matter, for you are obviously trying to hide from someone, but not as in hide-and-seek."

The little boy avoided his eyes, still panting and very red in the face.

"Estel", Elrond repeated softly and reached out for him in order to lift him up in his arms, but when he touched him, the boy suddenly gasped in pain. Without hesitating, Elrond unbuttoned the child´s shirt and found quite a large part of the skin reddened and slightly swollen.

"Who did this?", Elrond demanded at the appalling sight. This time, Estel didn´t get away with avoiding his father´s gaze: "I cannot tell."

And to his surprise, Elrond saw tears well up in the child´s eyes. "My little one", Elrond said softly, "I can see that you are afraid, but there is no reason for it. I will talk to the person and make sure that he does not do it again, ever." He could tell that Estel still was not reassured, so he sighed: "I think I can imagine who it is anyway." At this, Estel looked flabbergasted. Elrond subdued a smile: "It is Finlen, is it not?"

After a moment of hesitation, Estel nodded slowly: "Ada, he is ever so angry, even if nothing is wrong", he said. "And then he is being mean without any reason, and I never know what to do", he added.

This time, Elrond smiled at his youngest and stroked his hair: "You are a good boy, little one", he said. "Finlen is very unhappy because of his father, who takes such a long time to heal; he is afraid that he might lose him, too."

Estel thought about this: "But then why doesn´t he say so?" "Some people find it hard to talk about their problems", Elrond explained and looked at the sore spot again: "So what did he do?" "He kicked me.", Estel said reluctantly. Elrond shook his head and started to examine the spot tentatively. Estel tried not to show the pain, but Elrond finally looked up: "I think one of your ribs is slightly fractured." He got up and very cautiously picked up the little boy: "You will have to lie down, my little one", he said, "I will put some salve on it and then go and talk to Finlen, alright?"

Estel nodded and leaned his head against Elrond´s shoulder. He felt safe now.