Disclaimers: I do not own The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. J.R.R. Tolkien does.
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This Christmas fanfic is dedicated to my best friend, Eldhoron, who passed away recently. :( Enjoy. :)
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Mirkwood was alive with activity. It was early in the morning and Elros the Guard had enough on his plate already than to deal with Thranduil's affairs with the Lindon Elves, who were already heading for Mirkwood for the annual Yuletide feast. This was a momentous occasion and all the Wood Elves wanted this party to be perfect.
So, why wasn't Elros happy? Elros should be happy. The last thing the auburn-haired elf guard wanted was to be left alone to tend to the horses. He had work to do and he needed to do it with pride and with valor. Oh, by the Grace of the Valar, he wasn't going to waste time babysitting Legolas again.
Legolas was a grown elf with far too many responsibilities, responsibilities that only the elven princeling would know about. Elros didn't want to disappoint Legolas and Thranduil, but some part of him couldn't resist wanting to prank them both, if the elf guard would oblige to do so.
At last, Elros reached the door to Legolas' room and opened it. Elros raised an eyebrow. There was Legolas, asleep in a chair, not caring and not minding who came in. Elros sighed, turning to a hairbrush and a pair of shears.
A thought crossed the elven guard's mind. "Oh, don't panic, Legolas. This won't take long." Elros turned to Legolas, pulled out the shears, and with a few snips and a few styles, Elros was done. The elven guard sighed, nodding his approval. "Now, to work on the Elven-king's hair."
Elros darted out of the room before another word was spoken, or before the elven princeling woke up.
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Four Hours Later…
Legolas awoke, feeling airy. What was cold air doing inside his room, brushing up against the back of his neck? He opened his eyes, discovering the flames in his stone fireplace had dimmed. He yawned, stood up, and made his way over to the fireplace to re-ignite the flames. As he did this, one of his hands touched an antler.
No! There was an antler attached to his head! There were two antlers. Deer antlers sticking out on either side of his head. They weren't glued to his hair, fortunately. No, instead they were fashioned on his beautiful golden head in such a way that they wouldn't come out! Oh, come on! What was going on?
"NOOOO!" Legolas screamed, darting out of his bedroom in a hurry. He had to find his father before it was too late—
It was too late. Thranduil also spawned antlers on his head, but they were reindeer antlers. They made him look… dashing in a way.
Thranduil shook his head, admitting to him, "This is Elros' fault. There's no one else I know who could give us antlers and not glue them to our heads. Now, if he glued them to our heads, we'd be in bigger trouble."
Elros snickered. As he approached Thranduil and Legolas, he patted their shoulders, admitting freely, "Well, you simply cannot beat the best elf around. I'll see you later!" He darted off before another word was said.
Legolas wanted to go after Elros, but Thranduil stopped him. Did he miss something? Thranduil shook his head, hoping beyond hope that the party tonight turned out spectacular!
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After some tinkering, and with a helpful hand from Elros, Thranduil and Legolas were able to get the antlers out of their hair. Granted, their beautiful, perfect golden hair needed to get all its rats out first, too, before returning to being beautiful and perfect again. It was worth the wait getting the antlers out of their hair.
Legolas never felt so relieved when the last antler was out of his hair. Now, he could go back to normal things this time, instead of worrying what antlers or rats sprouted in his hair.
At last, the Lindon Elves arrived and the party started. It was a marvelous feast with much dancing and merrymaking. Legolas, in time, followed his father over to the balcony, where they observed Mirkwood's snowy landscape just outside their realm.
"Happy Yule, Ada," Legolas said to Thranduil, observing the glowing white lights surrounding the Woodland Realm.
"Happy Yule, son," Thranduil said with a warm-hearted smile.
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For Eldhoron, Elros the Guard was his staple movie canon character to write. Granted, there aren't many fanfics on Elros. So, it is nice to work on a fanfic with Elros in it in honor of Eldhoron.
Eldhoron was my best friend who impacted me, as much as I impacted him. Eldhoron loved my works and would defend my writing whenever flamers came on and attacked them. I'll never forget Eldhoron. It was always exciting whenever he was on, as I'm sure a lot of you on and Archive Of Our Own know this, too. He will be missed greatly. :(
Thanks for reading. I'm sure Eldhoron would have loved this fanfic, just as much as I loved writing it. :)
Aria Breuer