A Rivendell Regatta, Mirkwood Style
Disclaimer: All recognizable people, places, events, and concepts are the property of the J.R.R. Tolkien Estate.
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Chapter 3 ~*~ Of Butlers in the Dead of Night
Everything was going just perfectly. King Thranduil slid into bed next to his wife, pressing his shoulders back into the pillows. Plenty of people had signed up to participate in the boat races, extra activities had been meticulously planned and scheduled, the children would have their little boat contest…
The children's boats!
"Thranduil?" Queen Thilómë pushed herself up on her elbows, surprised when her husband bolted out of bed just after lying down. She watched as he hurriedly pushed his arms into the sleeves of a night robe, "Thranduil, dear, is something wrong?"
"I forgot something," the Elvenking hastily tied the robe while shoving his feet into his bedroom slippers. He sprinted towards the door that exited their chambers, calling, "I will return in a moment!"
~*~
Galion would still be up. Galion was always still up at this hour. Thranduil hurried at a pace that was just faster than walking, but not too fast to give the guards in his halls undue concern. He rushed out of his family's private wing, down a short row of steps, through a few snaking hallways, and down a longer, slipping set of stairs that led to his butler's office, which was conveniently situated right next to the king's personal wine cellar.
"Galion!" Thranduil knocked twice on the door before pushing it open, not surprised to see his butler pouring over a few papers.
"King Thranduil!" Galion pushed out his chair to stand, but stayed where he was when waved down, "May I be of assistance in something, your majesty?"
"Yes," Thranduil answered, wondering in his tired and hurried state why Galion had to inquire after the obvious, "I need you to take care of something for me."
"Oh! Would you like me to bring up a bottle of the Dorwinion for you and the queen?" Galion began to get up again. The king rarely appeared at this hour of the night, and when he did it was usually to fetch something to share with his lady wife.
Thranduil let out an irritated sigh, "No."
"Of course not, I'm sorry. I'd forgotten that you took that extra bottle last time to stash under the bed, so that you wouldn't have to come down here at night again," Galion mused, now wondering why the king had come down to his office.
"I did?" Thranduil regarded his butler, waiting for an answer. Now reminded, he did recall the event, and that the bottle was probably still under the bed somewhere—nestled in a box with an ugly maroon tapestry given to him by someone entirely too obsessed with owls. He shook his head, remembering that he had come to the butler's office to take care of something, "There is something I want you to do for me."
~*~
Galion made his way to the dining halls, cursing the lack of good light in this part of his king's halls during the late night hours. If this mission was so terribly important to Thranduil, why hadn't he taken care of it himself? It was such a simple, little task.
The butler let out a long breath. It was a simple, little task, and therefore he really shouldn't mind doing it. He decided against further weighing the situation, trailing his elbow along the wall in the dark until he found the door he was looking for. He shoved it open with his shoulder, careful not to drop the heavy jar in his hands. A lamp in the room had been left to burn, thankfully, and Galion could make out the form of the sheet-shrouded table that he was looking for. He deposited the jar he was carrying onto the table, carefully unscrewing the lid – or attempting to. The metal refused to budge, digging into the butler's hands.
"Wretched thing," Galion muttered, grabbing the corner of the sheet that covered the table and placing it over the lid before continuing to work at it. Wretched lid, wretched dark room, wretched task…
"Of all the blasted, dratted things!" Galion exclaimed when the lid finally decided to give – quite liberally, effectively causing him to over judge the force needed to open it, unbalance himself, and trip to the floor – thus dragging the sheet with him and causing the items laid out on the table to go flying in all directions – including the newly opened jar. The butler moved on to other curses, wiping at the paint that had splattered out of the jar and onto his face and hair.
After letting out an irritated sigh, Galion glanced around. Some of the paint had splattered, but most of it had collected into a large red puddle on the floor. The boats the children had painted earlier in the day had fallen here and there around the room. Cringing, the butler plucked one small boat out of the paint. A moment ago it had been yellow, but now it was partially red. With growing dismay he realized that at least seven or eight of the tiny crafts had gotten splattered. He could already picture the resulting scene in his head: an overly-teary elfling proclaiming his boat absolutely ruined. The imagined child's voice was especially high-pitched and screechy, stinging the butler's ears.
He was supposed to come and re-paint one wretched little boat! Not a whole fleet!
He needed a drink.
~*~
"Can we get it now, Ada? Please?" Legolas rushed over to his father's chair, happily excused from the breakfast table.
Thranduil wiped at his fingers with his napkin, waiting until his son settled down. The elfling had been asking after his boat from the moment he'd woken up – and had probably dreamed about it all through the night. "I think that would be all right," the king got up from the table, taking the child's small hand in his own, "If you also fetch Arasil's and Cúran's, perhaps you may float them in the pond this afternoon." He raised an eyebrow at Legolas, rewarded with enthusiastic agreement from the elfling.
The two walked out of the small family dining hall and a few doors down to the larger hall where the children had painted their boats the day before. Thranduil held the door open for his son, halting when he looked into the room.
"What happened in here?" Thranduil stared at the splatters of red paint, the rumpled sheet, and the pots of paint and dirty brushes littering the floor. The children's tiny boats had been arranged into four or five meticulous lines nearby, and in the midst of all of this, Galion lay on his back, his arm over his eyes. Thranduil stood over his butler, "Galion?! What happened?"
"Maybe he wanted to paint his own boat, Ada," Legolas pulled at his father's robe, anxiously waiting to find out if he would still be allowed to gather up the three little boats belonging to Arasil, Cúran, and himself.
"Perhaps," Thranduil glanced down at his son, "Why don't you find your boats, and then see if Nimaron or Nana will walk you to Cúran's house so that you may show them to him before training?"
"Oh, yes!" Legolas rushed over the boats, "Thank you, Ada!"
Meanwhile, Galion had woken – and panicked. He had meant to clean up the room before going to bed, but…well…things had not ended up that way. He hastily rose from the floor, "Please understand, my lord, that jar…well, the lid would not give, and one thing led to another – I am sure I can think of something to do about the red spot on the floor," he lowered his voice to a whispering hiss when Thranduil gestured to Legolas, who was still happily searching through the toy boats, "Well, several of those tiny boats got splattered, and I thought I had better repaint them…" Galion let out a long, labored sigh, rubbing at his temples, "All those different shades of green, and then I couldn't find any silver…and I never did find that orange-y, pinkish, reddish boat you asked me to repaint. I searched and searched, and King Thranduil – I just could not find it. I am sorry."
"I found them, Ada!" Legolas scampered over, trying to hold all three little boats in his arms, "Can I go now?"
"You may go now," Thranduil nodded, then called his son back, "Just a moment, Legolas. May I see them once more?"
Legolas hurried back, handing his own and Cúran's boats to his father, "See, Ada – look how good they turned out. Cúran's has got glitters in the blue paint, and mine turned shiny! And look!" Legolas held Arasil's boat up to Thranduil, waving it about a little, "It turned red, just like you said! He's going to be so happy, Ada."
Thranduil took the little boat into his own hands, admiring the bright red paint. The golden and white highlights only served to make it more glorious, and he handed it back to Legolas with a smile, "I am sure Arasil will be very happy with it." The king watched as his son scurried out of the room, eager to show off the toys. Then he turned to Galion, who appeared to be waiting for whatever judgment he was going to dish out, "Did you see that little red boat?"
"Yes," Galion sighed. He wanted to find someone else to clean up the mess, and then immediately crawl into his bed for a few hours of undisturbed sleep. "It was a nice boat."
"That was the boat," Thranduil raised his eyebrows, again surveying the damage to his dining hall, "I suppose it did not need to be repainted after all."
Galion could have screamed.
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Responses to Reviewers
Goodness but it's been a long time since I updated this – I'm afraid Nim's been agonizing over testing that boat for a good few months now (…and he continues to). I hope you all are still enjoying this little attempt at humor – and thanks for your reviews so very long ago!
*daw the minstrel: I'm glad you enjoy seeing the wood elves as adventuresome – for some reason I see them taking much more advantage of what nature already has to offer, instead of trying to change it.
*kingmaker: Poor Nim – this just isn't his kind of thing. I'm glad you're enjoying the nature of Aldan and Meril's relationship – it's more fun that way.
*Starlit Hope: Well…if Nim got drenched, Aldan and Meril would be sopping wet as well – but you're right, they'd still be laughing.
*Dragon-of-the-north: I'm glad to hear you enjoyed Aldan & Meril's relationship, as well as the elflings and their boats. Arasil's predicament led from when we were painting a float bright red – and the hardware store kept giving us cans of reddish orange paint. Finally they dried some for us, and –tada!- it was a perfect red.
I'm also happy to hear again that you enjoy the friendship between Aldan and Nimaron, and now Meril as well – I'll have to be sure not to let Nim get too upset over the raging, wild river…
*Lutris: I'm sorry to hear that your "Little Mermaid" turned blue – I was an adoring fan of that show when I was little as well. Ceramics glazes can be strange…
I like the three foot falls as well – and the rapids with the good-sized, tossing waves.
*bratprincess: Nope – they were quite sure Legolas knew what he was talking about. Sillies.
*Dragon Confused: Poor Nim – so caught up in his job. He'd have everyone wearing padded helmets if he could.
And I'm glad you liked Thranduil's line on the paint – even if things were rather more complicated than that. *g*
*farflung: A BBQ would be much simpler…my kind of thing. The pies had to come in somewhere though – we've got to have pies.
LOL – You're right – Nim did not learn to stop Legolas from conveying messages! We'll see how he handles this whole wild boat race (hopefully, he'll keep his eyes open at least part of the time…).
And I'm glad you find Aldan & Meril kind of cute together.
