Prompt: Please?
"But Ada!" A little blond elf child pleaded with his father. "Please?"
"What did I just tell you Thranduil?" Oropher said sternly, but not in an unkind way. His arms were crossed as he watched his son's flushed face scrunch up in irritation.
"Please! I don't want to let him go back alone! You even tell me it is not a safe world out there and you never want me to go off alone! Why should I just send this creature on his way?"
"Because ion-nin, you cannot keep an elk as a pet."
"Why not?!"
"Why not?" Oropher questioned back. "Why would you want an elk as a pet? Do you have any idea how big they get?"
Thranduil looked sadly to the spotted elk fawn that stood beside him, chewing on a yellow buttercup flower. He did not think about the animal growing up. Right now he was so small, even to an elven child.
When Thranduil did not answer his father, the elf king continued. "And what will you do with him?"
"I..." Thranduil dug through his thoughts to find something useful for the creature to do. "... I can teach him to carry me!"
"Ride an elk?" Oropher said with more mirth than he intended. "Thranduil, child, one does not ride an elk. You will have a noble steed one day that will carry you. I will not have my son, and prince of Greenwood the Great, prance around on an elk. What kind of nonsense is that?" the elf king placed his large gentle hand on his son's disappointed stooped shoulders. "The palace is no place for an elk. Take him back where you found him. There is time yet, he may be able to meet up with his herd."
"But the mother was killed by orcs."
"Then he is now a child of the forest and belongs with his dear mother earth. Is that understood?"
"... Yes sir..." Thranduil mumbled and his head hung, letting his blond hair slip into his face, hiding the look that belied his submission to his father and king.
This was a massive forest. There were plenty of places to hide an elk, even when he grew up.
