Disclaimer: see ch1
A/N: So, we've got a new victim. Everyone get ready for the amazing, the one and only Glorfindel of Gondolin! Hope you enjoy, and please review.- Moriah (Secret Secretary, Wakabe Writing Firm)
"Estel!"
This was bad.
"Estel, come out!"
Really bad.
"Estel, come out! You win! Please!"
Lady Gilraen was going to kill him.
"Estel, please! The game is over!"
That is, if Glorfindel didn't die of a heart attack first. Not that he'd be the only one to die, seeing as he was far from the only elf to be the cause of Estel's current predicament- that is, lost.
Estel had been... behaving differently the last few days. Lessons were still done dutifully, even if they lacked the enthusiasm once so prominent in such an eager student. Dinners saw a fidgety and generally restless child that picked at his food instead of eating it with the gusto that had always accompanied his meal times.
And everyone had been at a loss as to what had happened. To their knowledge, he'd not been having any problems with his friends, his ada hadn't scolded him for misbehaving and the twins were back from their visit to Mirkwood. So when he'd gone to bed one night happy and woken the next with dull, puffy red eyes and no smile in sight, everyone was immediately on guard.
"Estel, please come out!"
And after a week of this behavior, they'd decided to see if they could entice a smile from him at the offer to play. The smile they'd received, shy and small as it was, had lifted all their hearts. But now, they had lost him.
"Glorfindel!" The blond elf snapped his head to where he saw the twins approaching fast, both childless and just as frantic as he was. "Have you found him?"
"No."
"We've not found a trace of him anywhere!" began Elladan.
"He could be anywhere!"
"The house is so big-"
"And he is so small!"
"But all our old hiding places-"
"Are empty, and eve when we backtracked-"
"We found nothing!"
"Even his favorite hiding spot-"
"Under Ada's bed is cold!"
The despair and anxiety upon their faces would have made Glorfindel laugh, if he himself were not so distressed over the missing boy. So instead, he schooled his face from the stressed look of worry into the stern look of teacher and captain.
"We don't have time for whining! We've got a little boy to find! If he's not in the house, then we search the gardens next. They're close to the woods, so if we grab a few more elves-"
"Grab a few elves for what, Glorfendel?"
All three elves froze before spinning to look at the unamused interrupter.
"Erestor! Good, you can help us!"
"With what, exactly? The last time I helped you-"
"It's Estel!" Elrohir burst out. "He's missing!"
Erestor's head snapped so quickly to the younger twin that Elrohir took a step back in surprise. "How long?"
"A little under an hour."
"He can't be far."
"Well wherever he is, he's not in the house," Elladan said as he entered the conversation. "We searched it top to bottom."
"Then we need to move quickly."
"Right," Glorfindel agreed. "Elladan, you search the rose garden, and move east. Elrohir, take the lantern night gardens and move south. Erestor-"
"I'm taking the southern gardens."
"Right. I'll take the east gardens. Move out!"
Erestor darted quickly through the shrubbery of the southern gardens. Having taken care of this garden in particular for many years, he bypassed many of the offshoots, instead focusing on the way the flowers here pulled their admirers in a certain path that brought them to all the corners of this particular garden.
As he flew threw, blind to the brilliance of the summer's blooms and beauty, his attention was caught by a small, mostly unused path, memories of a couple of years ago flashing before his eyes as he saw a winter past come to him, with little footprints in fresh snow guide him to a missing child. Before he could make a conscious decision to do so, his feet took him down the path, just as he'd done so many years ago.
And the sight that greeted him this time almost killed him.
There, up the same tree that Estel had been huddled under only a handful of years ago, was Estel, ten feet in the air, and getting ready to make it eleven.
"Estel!" Erestor's heart nearly stopped as it tried to launch itself from his throat as the little boy whipped his head around and nearly lost his grip on the branch. "What are you doing?!"
"Hiding!" And oh, how Erestor wanted to kill the twins and that stupid blond elf for not imposing rules about where he could and couldn't hide. "Glorfy and El won't find me here!"
"Well I did, so it's time to come down!" Estel was too high for Erestor to simply pluck him off the tree like he'd done when he was younger and liked to climb up bookshelves.
There was silence as Estel really looked down, and realized just how far up he was. And Erestor's heart broke just the smallest bit as he saw Estel swallow thickly and cling to the branch with fear.
"Oh, Estel." With nothing more to do, and knowing that it was cruel to make him climb down, Erestor hefted himself up until he was on the other branch next to Estel's, and reached over to him. "Come here, child."
It took a few moments for Estel to give up his death grip on the tree, but when he did, Erestor swept him up securely in his arms, and started down.
"Why on earth did you come all the way out here?" Erestor couldn't help but question as he made his way back.
"Cuz I like the tree," Estel said. "An' last time, only you found me."
"Is that so?"
"Uh huh."
"Well, I do hope that next time, you remember that when you play hide and seek with those idiots, you are not to go any further than the gardens."
"Awwwww! But Restor!"
"No buts, child. I have had to deal with enough of those for a lifetime." Estel giggled. "And that's only if those brothers of your and that warrior are ever allowed to play with you again."
"But Restor! They always play with me!"
"Well then maybe they shall be given timeouts so they can think about what it is they've done."
Estel giggled again, and the corners of Erestor's mouth twitched ever so slightly in his form of a smile.
"Now, let's go scold them so that they remember better next time."
So, what do you think? Shall Glorfindel be rejoining us? Or shall we move onto another?
Let me know!
Thanks
