Notes at the end! Enjoy!
"There you are, sellnin. How was your ride?"
"Elladan let me ride by myself!" Breigel said eagerly, climbing up next to her father. "He says I'm a natural."
"Did he?" Legolas said, feeling a mixture of pride and horror. He also noticed that she happened to be missing a shoe. "So I guess this means you are going to want riding lessons?"
"Can I, please?!" she said clasping her hands together under her chin as she begged. Legolas glanced up as Elladan entered the hall, listening to Saelhir chattering away about his sword fighting lessons.
"Tinwe?" Legolas asked, looking up at his wife, who was standing off to the side talking with Elrohir and Thorontur. She looked around at her name.
"Yes?" she said, glancing down at her daughter, repressing a sigh at the sight of her dirty dress and missing shoe.
"It appears Elladan let Breigel ride alone and now she would like lessons."
"Of course he did," she said, letting out her sigh and looking up at Elladan, who just smiled at her innocently. "Does Elladan also happen to know where her shoe is?"
"I have it here," he said, pulling the small brown shoe out of his pocket. He bent over and gently took Briegel's ankle in his hand, putting the shoe back on her foot. "And she is old enough to learn how to ride. Elrohir and I were younger than her when we started."
"Yes, but you will not be the one to deal with her. Though, I suppose it must have been worse for Lord Elrond, keeping track of both of you. I cannot imagine the torment he went through."
"We certainly kept him busy," Elrohir commented with a laugh. "You didn't happen to see Merilwen and Gelfaer when you came in did you?"
"They were still in the garden," Elladan said, taking his seat beside Breigel. "I will not be surprised if they miss lunch altogether."
"Good," Saelhir said grumpily.
"Ada?" Breigel asked, ignoring her friend's displeasure. "Will you take me hunting? I want to see you shoot, but not the targets."
"Certainly, sellnin," Legolas said, surprised but pleased. "Maybe later this week we can take a day and go out together." Legolas exchanged a look with Tinwe, who just shrugged not sure what had spurred the elfling to ask such a question.
"Can I bring my bow?" she asked enthusiastically. Legolas smiled, tucking a lock of loose hair behind Breigel's ear.
"Absolutely. We will see how much you've improved over the last few months."
"You are certainly your father's daughter," Elladan said, shaking his head.
"I am going to be the best archery in all of Arda," Breigel declared proudly.
"Even better than your father?"
"Yes," she said determinedly. "I'm going to be the best."'
"I look forward to seeing that contest," Elohir said with a grin. "Will you be proud or ashamed at being beat by your own offspring, Legolas?"
"I don't think I will be able to answer that question until it happens," Legolas admitted. "I may have to sabotage her somehow." The group laughed at the dark scowl that passed across Breigel's face.
"I'm going to be the best archer and I am going to travel all over Valinor, fighting evil like Nana."
"I think you will find that difficult, little one," Elrohir said, looking down at her. "The only evil in Valinor is that which you bring with you. You would be better off sticking to riding and hunting."
"Then I will," Breigel said confidently. "I will ride all across the continent and become an amazing hunter."
"I have no doubt that you will try, my dear," Tinwe said, taking her seat next to her husband as servants with food began appearing from the door to the kitchens. "But I ask you to at least refrain until you come of age. I do not fancy chancing you across the Undying Lands to keep you from tormenting others."
"But Nana, you got to travel all over Middle Earth, and that is much more dangerous."
"Yes, and I did not start until I was several hundred years old," Tinwe said matter-of-factly.
"No, you just stayed at home and tormented poor helpless elves in Mirkwood," Legolas said with a smirk.
"Not helping," Tinwe said sternly, glaring at her husband. Icaria laughed lightly, remembering the prince and princess meeting under the circumstances Legolas described. She had been the only witness to the first words that the couple exchanged, when she and Tinwe were not yet adults. Icaria had dragged her friend out to the middle of the forest, where the two of them had found the prince enjoying a swim in a secluded pool. Tinwe had still not quite gotten over her embarrassment at the event.
"If the two of you are not opposed," Elladan interjected, "I would be more than happy to take her out for riding lessons while I am here. It will give me something enjoyable to do with my time."
"I think it would be far worse for us if we said no," Legolas commented, noticing the big green eyes of his daughter shining eagerly. "Tinwe?"
"As long as you do not take her too far away from Taurost," Tinwe cautioned. "If you lose our daughter, there will be nowhere in Valinor that you will be able to hide."
"I know better than to antagonize you, Tinwe," Elladan said with a wolfish grin. "Between you and your husband, I have no doubts that I would be skinned and filleted before I made it back to Idhrenodol."
"You would be lucky to make it past our borders," Legolas said evenly, not looking up from his plate. Everyone knew he meant it.
"Such hostility! You wood elves have such violent tendencies," Elrohir said with a laugh. The table tried to stay light-hearted, but they all knew why Legolas and Tinwe were so protective of their daughter. Tinwe had faced decades of grief after blaming herself for the death of their first child. They were not going to lose another child out of carelessness.
"So I can take lessons?" Breigel asked excitedly, unaware of the troubles of her parents. "I promise to be good."
"Alright dear," Tinwe said, looking around her husband at the elfling. "But one word of you misbehaving or disobeying Elladan and your lessons will be over."
"Are you ready, sellnin?"
Breigel looked up from where she was lying on the grounds in the garden, watching a caterpillar crawl across a twig that Saelhir suspended between them. Upon catching sight of her father dressed in a simple tunic, his bow and quiver on his back and her own smaller versions in his hand, she quickly pushed herself off the ground and gleefully darted towards him in excitement.
"We can go?!" she asked enthusiastically, holding her arms out wide so he could drape her quiver over her shoulder. He just smiled down at the elfling with amusement and adoration.
"Yes, your grandfather has consented to let me have a day off so we can go hunting. Just the two of us."
"What about me?" Saelhir said, scowling up at them from where he still lay on the ground, still holding the stick that the forgotten caterpillar had decided to vacate as soon as it was lowered to the ground. "What am I supposed to do now?"
"I am sorry, Saelhir," Legolas said, feeling truly sorry for the young elf. "I promised Breigel that I would take her hunting alone. Why don't you find your father or Gelfaer and practice your swordplay?"
"Ada and Faelon and Erynion are doing guard stuff today," he grumbled unhappily. "And Gelfaer is with her." The corner of Legolas's mouth twitched at the angry yet amusing face Saelhir made in reference to Merilwen. She had been nothing but kind to the young elf, but that didn't matter when it meant he lost his brother's attention whenever she was around.
"I happen to know that Tinwe is going to have some free time this afternoon," Legolas said gently, eyes following Breigel as she disappeared around the corner of the palace, too eager to get started hunting to worry about her friend being left behind. "Why don't you go find her in her study? I am sure she would be happy to give you a lesson. And you won't have to sit in your mother's sewing room collecting pins."
"Fine," Saelhir said, rising in a huff. Throwing the stick angrily into a bush, he shuffled off back into the palace. Knowing that his wife would find something to entertain the young elf, Legolas turned and strode quickly after his offspring, finding her sitting on the gate of his horse's stall, talking animatedly to the horse about their upcoming trip.
"And I will use my bow to shoot a stag and Nana will be so pleased she will not make me wear a dress for the next hundred years!"
"I like the enthusiasm, sellnin," Legolas said with a chuckle. "But let's not get ahead of ourselves. First we have to find something to hunt. And I wouldn't get your hopes up for a stag. We are more likely to find a rabbit or quail."
"I'm going to get all of them," Breigel said proudly, holding onto the gate carefully as Legolas opened it to start putting his tack on his white stallion, Girithron. "We will have so much meat that no one else will need to hunt all summer. I'll get enough that I could feed a hundred dwarves!"
"That would indeed be an impressive harvest," Legolas agreed, feeling a pang of sorrow but maintaining his calm smile as he listened to his daughter. He missed his friend, the dwarf Gimli. He had not lived long in Valinor, and had died shortly after their arrival. He had held out just long enough to see Lady Galadriel one last time, and had passed only a few weeks after her visit. He had been buried beside the hobbits Bilbo, Frodo, and Sam in Idhrenodol.
"Of course, I'll let you help," she said casually, still prattling on, oblivious to her father's momentary lapse into melancholy. "It wouldn't look good if you did not get anything on our hunt."
"How kind of you," Legolas said, leaving behind his sorrow to smile at his daughter. She would always be enough of a light to bring him out of any dark thoughts. "I don't think I would live it down if my daughter of only seven was a better archer than me."
"But when I am older, I may not be so generous," she said seriously, folding her arms across her chest as her eyes met her fathers. He just gave her his amused smile, leading Girithon halfway out of the stall. He held the gate steady, waiting for Breigel to climb into the saddle before shutting the stall and swinging up behind her.
"I can only hope you will grow pity for me when you get older," the prince said evenly, urging Girithon into a trot. "You wouldn't want to embarrass me too badly, would you?"
"Maybe," was Breigel's curt reply.
"Where is everything?" Breigel said, pouting as she looked around as if she expected a deer to dart across their path any second. "We've been out here for hours!"
"It has barely been over an hour, sellnin," Legolas said, kissing the top of her head. "And we haven't seen anything because you keep asking that question and scaring everything away. You'll never find anything if you cannot stay quiet for more than five minutes."
"I don't like it so quiet."
"That is obvious, limimaer," Legolas said with a soft laugh. "But if you are going to be Arda's greatest hunter, you're going to have to learn patience and quiet." Breigel let out an exasperated breath, but nodded in acceptance. Thinking that perhaps if she had something else to focus on she might be less antsy, Legolas quickly dismounted, reaching up to help her from the horse.
"Where are we going?"
"Hunting involves more than riding and shooting, Breigel," Legolas said patiently, saying a quick word to Girithon and then gesturing for her to follow him. "Tracking, stealth, endurance, and many other skills are important as well. You are like me. You can't stand sitting still for too long and do not learn well from books or lectures. So consider this your first lesson on survival. I am sure your mother will give you plenty more once you're older, but considering your tendency for mischief, I think perhaps the more you know now, the better."
Breigel was listening with rapt attention. As much as she adored Faelon and his lessons, he was not her father. Everyone knew of her father's skills and war stories, and the prince was the idol of many, many young elves, in Taurost and elsewhere. Despite her short years, she suddenly realized the value of the knowledge she was being given, and how lucky she was to have the parents she did.
"What do I do?" she asked softly, eyes wide and eager.
"Look here," Legolas said, stepping over a log and pointing at a gap between the trees. It looked like any other patch of forest to Breigel. "What do you see here?"
"Um," she said, concentrating hard on the spot. The undergrowth was thick, barring her from seeing much but the twisting green plants growing haphazardly from the hidden ground. "A lot of plants?"
"Yes," Legolas said patiently. "And what else?" Breigel stared at the bushes in front of her, trying to find something that her father had clearly picked up on some time before. After several long moments of observing the plant life, she did notice something.
"Some of the leaves are missing," she said in wonder. Then she noticed several other things all at once. "And some plants have been broken off, and there is a patch of fur caught in the brambles."
"Very good, sellnin," Legolas said, very pleased with his daughter's observations. "So what happened here?"
"A deer walked through here and ate some of the plants," Breigel said gleefully. "Which way did it go? How long ago?"
"What do you think?" A brief pause, and Briegel pointed to the southeast.
"That way," she said hesitantly. "A couple days ago."
"Why do you think that?"
"'Cause the fur is caught on this side of the briar," Briegel indicated, pointing at the tuft in question. "And the plants have grown brown and dried where they were broken off or chewed, so it wasn't recent."
"Excellent, excellent!" Legolas said proudly. "Though I think it was almost a week ago, judging by the edges. Oh, come over here for a moment," he said, waving her over to the other side of the clearing. She pranced enthusiastically through the undergrowth to see what he was looking at. "This is athelas, also known as kingsfoil. It is a common weed to some, but it is also a very useful healing herb. King Aragorn often used this to heal the wounded during the War."
"Is that why you call it kingsfoil?"
"It was called kingsfoil long before Aragorn used it," Legolas said, gently stroking a leaf on the small plant. "It is supposed to be more powerful in the hands of the kings of Gondor. But that is because of their elven blood. So you and I can also use this to great effect. If you or someone you are traveling with gets injured, look for this plant first. It grows in many places across Aman, just as it did in Middle Earth. Not only does it help wounds but it is also effective at extracting poison. Speaking of which," he said, glancing up at a vine around a nearby tree. "Stay away from this type of ivy. See the leaf structure? Remember that. In late summer, berries grow on these vines, but they are highly toxic."
"Okay Ada," she said, staring at the leaf as she tried to memorize it.
"Now let's try tracking that deer that went through here. Maybe we can find a new path that we can follow."
Enormous grin on her face, Breigel pranced after her father, stifling a giggle with difficulty. She felt so alive and free in these woods, absorbing everything as her father quietly directed her in the basics of tracking.
"You had to teach her stealth and tracking."
"Protest all you like, melamin. I can tell you are as proud as I am about her progress."
"I do not deny it. But I think there are many elves who are far less thrilled than we are about it."
Legolas and Tinwe were enjoying a relatively calm afternoon outside. Relatively calm for them, anyway. They were sitting on a blanket together as they watched their offspring torment the palace staff.
Breigel had pompously taken it upon herself to teach Saelhir what she had learned from Legolas, and the two of them had conspired to sneak up on every elf that entered the gardens, whether it was a maid, lord, or palace guard. They took great pleasure in scaring the wits out of the maids, and to a lesser extent the lords, but they were not quite skilled enough to sneak up on any of the guards. Apparently word of their antics had spread, and any guards that passed through stared at whatever hiding place they had adopted, deterring further action from the elflings.
"This ought to be good," Tinwe muttered, eyes following Gelfaer and Merilwen as they walked arm in arm, oblivious to the danger around them. "Should we warn them?"
"And spoil the children's fun?" Legolas said, leaning against his wife's folded legs as he watched the approaching predators sneak towards the enamored couple.
Breigel and Saelhir were creeping along, eyes on the older youths as they watched from their hiding place behind a low hedge. The prince and princess could see a pair of emerald eyes and a pair of dark brown ones narrow mischievously before glancing at each other and disappearing quickly.
"Brace yourself," Tinwe muttered, knowing that there was soon to be a lot of noise in open garden.
Sure enough, moments later there was a screech and a shout from the couple as they were pelted with ripe berries, shot from a twin set of slingshots. Tinwe cringed as she watched a rather rotten tomato smack Gelfaer in the side of the head. She could smell the foul thing from her spot on the other side of the garden.
"SAELHIR!" Gelfaer roared, leaping over a low flowerbed to race after his younger brother and Breigel, who gleefully fled from his attack, racing around the gardens to find hiding places from the angry young elf. Neither Tinwe nor Legolas made any move to interfere. They just watched Gelfaer lunge to grab Breigel, who was closest, only to get shot with another berry by Saelhir. Breigel quickly disappeared into a tree as Gelfaer rounded on his brother, until he felt another berry hit his neck. Looking up angrily, he tried to catch sight of Breigel, but only managed to lose sight of Gelfaer as well, who had rolled under the nearby hedge.
"I suppose we should apologize for our child," Tinwe mused, unconcerned at Gelfaer about shouting as he looked around for the younger elves. "Poor Merilwen shouldn't have to suffer."
"You would think she'd be used to it by now," Legolas said, glancing over at the elleth that was wiping berries off her gown, glancing up anxiously at Gelfaer as he continued berating their attackers. Legolas was not particularly keen on moving, as he rarely had the opportunity to enjoy a relaxing afternoon with his wife, and was quite content to let her continue combing his hair with her fingers.
"Merilwen," Tinwe called, making the elleth look up at her with a pitiable expression on her face. "Come here for a moment, please." She approached quickly, curtsying respectfully as she tried to wipe the berries from her face.
"I am sorry for my appearance, Princess Tinwe, Prince Legolas," she said anxiously, biting her lip. "What did you wish to speak to me about?"
"We feel compelled to apologize for our errant offspring, and your resulting appearance," Legolas said, glancing over in time to see Breigel hang upside down from a branch and make a face at Gelfaer, who was yelling up the tree at her still. "I am afraid being in Valinor has done little to quell such behavior."
"No real harm done," Merilwen said, smiling nervously. "I had just forgotten to be wary of them due to our extended separation."
"I am sure you would miss those days terribly if it had not also meant your separation from Gelfaer," Tinwe said with a compassionate smile. "Again, we apologize for her antics. We should have warned you beforehand. She has been practicing stealth and we were unaware she was armed at the time. Gelfaer!" she called loudly, making the young elf look around, immediately ceasing his shouting. "Why don't you and Merilwen go inside to change? I will deal with the miscreants."
"Yes, my lady," he said automatically, walking quickly towards them and holding out his hand for Merilwen. They quickly departed to go rid themselves of the oozing fruit.
"Breigel, Saelhir," Tinwe called evenly. "Front and center."
Legolas always marveled at how much authority Tinwe could demonstrate when it came to the young elves. He would break down at one look from those big, sad eyes, but his wife seemed immune. She did not have to raise her voice or use harsh language to gain respect and compliance. She reminded him of King Thranduil when he had lead troops during raids south on Dol Guldur many centuries before. He instantly commanded respect and obedience from his soldiers, and Tinwe did the same with the children. Breigel and Saelhir quickly left their hiding places and came to stand in front of the royal couple, looking guilty but more than a little pleased with themselves all the same.
Tinwe was silent for a while, watching both youths standing with their heads bowed and hands behind their backs. She continued running her fingers through her husband's pale blonde hair. Legolas just closed his eyes and enjoyed the feeling of his wife's fingers in his hair, knowing that she would dispense justice and relieve him of any responsibility on the matter.
"Well?" she said finally. "Do you have anything to say for yourselves?"
"No my lady," Saelhir said softly.
"Breigel?"
"We are sorry, Nana," she said, eyes still on her shoes. "I was only practicing what Ada taught me."
"You were practicing just fine before you utilized the slingshots," Tinwe said, raising her eyebrow but otherwise maintaining her passive exterior. "There was no reason to attack them with fruit. Especially that tomato. The garden is going to smell for the next few days."
"We are sorry," the pair said together heavily.
"I expect you to express your apology to both Merilwen and Gelfaer when you see them. And you both will be confined to the sewing room for the next two days, helping Icaria as she sees fit." There was a chorus of groans before both elflings nodded in understanding, shuffling away as Tinwe waved them off.
"Icaria is going to be furious," Legolas said with a smile, not opening his eyes. Tinwe nodded, absentmindedly running a finger along her husband's pointed ear.
"Perhaps, but it is the best punishment I can give them. They hate being locked in there more than anything. Not that I can blame them," she admitted as Legolas sat up, allowing her to shift closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder. "It is a dreadfully boring place."
"I'm going to tell Icaria you said that," Legolas said, laughing as his wife slapped his stomach in payment for his cheek.
I feel compelled to apologize to those of you who wanted a lot of Breigel's childhood in this. I found myself naturally writing her older than I intended, so there are going to be some time jumps coming up. I don't relate to children well, so I am hoping I will do better writing her a little older. Perhaps I will write a couple oneshots about her adventures if there is interest later on. Those of you who are familiar with my writing know that I always write romance, so I have to get the point where that will be a main part of the story. I'll get there. Anyway, thanks for reading!