A Rivendell Regatta, Mirkwood Style

Disclaimer: All recognizable people, places, events, and concepts are the property of the J.R.R. Tolkien Estate.

Chapter 4 ~*~ Sailing on the Glorious Forest River!

Legolas held his boat up, admiring the way that the gold paint caught the sunlight as he tilted the little craft from side to side. After drying overnight the paint was set, smooth and shiny.

"Look how perfect they are," Cúran set his own boat next to Arasil's on the grass. He glanced up at his dark-haired friend, grinning, "The king was right, Arasil. The paint did dry red."

"They are perfect," Arasil affirmed happily, picking up the Dragon to examine it. It looked brilliant, much better than he ever would have imagined before it dried. The ugly orange paint had turned a bright, almost glittering crimson, highlighted by the same touches of gold and white that Cúran and Legolas had painted onto their boats. He held the small boat in his hands, imagining what it might be like to ride on the Forest River in just such a craft. "We need people in them."

"People?" Legolas glanced from the Green Leaf to Arasil, "You mean like toy people?"

"Arasil, that is such a good idea!" Cúran scooped up his own blue boat into his hands, already excited at the idea, "I'm going to put Eärendil into mine, and this can be Vingilot!"

"Vingilot is white, not blue, and it has silver sails," Arasil commented, a regretful look on his face, "Yours doesn't have any sail at all."

The other elfling pressed his lips together, "Then this is the lifeboat."

~*~~*~~*~

Nimaron walked outside, wanting to take a good look at the Forest River from the banks before attempting to sail on it. Luckily the pitch had taken awhile to dry, and Aldandil and Meril had not been able to force him into the spackled boat during the morning hours.

"Hello, Nim!"

An Elfling's excited voice caught the healer's attention, and he turned to see Legolas and his young friends sailing their toy boats in one of the garden ponds.

"Hello, Legolas," Nimaron turned, smiling mildly and walking over to where the children were playing. Eldor's young Arasil was knee deep in the water, sailing his bright red boat through the air, while Cúran was sitting on the grass tying a long length of yellow knitting yarn to his.

"Look," Legolas lifted the Green Leaf up to the healer for inspection.

"This turned out very nice," Nimaron ran a finger over the white stripe Legolas has painted on the side of the boat, "I like the people in the boat."

"This is Aldan, and this is Meril," Legolas pointed to the toy figures, "And this one is you."

"Oh," the healer nodded, a little surprised, "It is nice of you to recognize us that way. The boat that your brother showed me is green too."

Legolas nodded, wading out into the water, "I know. I like green and Aldan likes green too." The elfling suddenly slipped on a rock on the pond bed, dropping his boat before regaining his balance, "Uh-oh. You all fell out."

Nimaron watched as the child fished around in the water for the wooden people, sincerely hoping that this was not a sign of something to come.

~*~~*~~*~

"Oh! Watch out, Aldan, there's somebody on the path. I can see their feet."

"Here, hold up the boat a bit more so that I can see. We should have a little window in the prow for when we have to carry this thing around."

"It would leak then, Aldandil. You would have to put in a bit of glass. Careful, now! You nearly made Lady Meril hit her head!"

"I did?" Aldandil stopped short, causing Nimaron and Meril to nearly trip behind him. With their uplifted hands the three carried their overturned boat over their heads, making their way to a sandy landing on the Forest River.

Meril ducked down to look at Aldandil from her place behind Nimaron, smiling sweetly, "I'm quite all right, Aldan. Just keep walking. If I hit my head today it will be on a rock, not on this boat." Laughter erupted at the comment, though from only two of the three people under the wooden craft.

 "You know that she's not serious, right Nim?" Aldandil glanced over his shoulder at the healer behind him, catching the Noldo with a furrowed brow.

"What? Yes, of course I know that she is not serious," Nimaron hastily answered, attempting to dismiss concerns over the fact that he had neglected to bring any emergency bandages with him, and calculations of just how far it was from the innocent looking landing to the bridge.

~*~~*~~*~

"Look how good they float," Legolas dunked his boat under the water in the pond, grinning when it popped back up to the surface. He pushed it under again, further, feeling a tingle of glee at seeing how wondrously fast it bumped up through the surface of the water once he let it go.

"Well, Legolas," Arasil corrected, "Look how well they float."

"I can stay 'good' if I want to," Legolas shrugged, stumbling out of the water to retrieve a long stick he had spotted near the little peach tree by the pond. He sat down on the grass using the stick to push his boat around in the water, diverting his attention to trying to lift a large lily pad instead, "I wonder how good they are going to do in the river race."

"Well," Arasil stressed the word, grinding his teeth together. If his nana wouldn't let him say 'good', then Legolas shouldn't be able to say 'good' either.

"I think that our boats will do excellent in the race," Cúran paused in walking around pond, pulling his boat out with the long yellow string he had tied to it.

"Oh!" Arasil suddenly exclaimed, as though a brilliant idea had suddenly blossomed inside his head. He looked at Legolas and Cúran, gripping his boat tightly, "We should test one on the River. Nobody else is trying their boats yet, and if we do, we'll find out just how fast they'll go."

Legolas drew the Green Leaf over with the long stick, "It would be neat to try one…" He pressed his lips together, wondering. Just how fast would a little boat go?

"Who's are we going to use?" Arasil looked pointedly at the other children, wiping the Dragon dry with his tunic. If only his nana had made it a bit longer…it was rather difficult to grab up enough cloth to dry the boat , while still wearing the garment.

There was a long moment of silence as Legolas and Cúran looked at each other, and then back at Arasil. If Arasil was not volunteering his own boat, there must be some sort of catch.

"We can use mine," Cúran finally said, still holding the Crescent protectively. Legolas breathed a sigh of relief, and Arasil hurried to his feet, "Well, let's go then! We can drop it from the bridge!"

~*~~*~~*~

"Look Nim, there are hardly any rapids here at all," Aldandil started pushing the boat down the sandy landing and into the Forest River.

Nimaron gazed out over the water, noting the steady current. It appeared to stretch on uninterrupted for quite a ways. Finally he nodded, picking up one of the paddles that Aldandil had discarded on the ground, "I suppose."

"Oh, good," Meril grinned, picking up her own paddle and getting into the boat while Aldandil held it steady, "I think it would be best if I steered, since if I paddled the boat might be unbalanced."

"Ah, yes, you're so much stronger than either of us," Aldandil teased her with grin, jostling the boat slightly.

Meril gasped in mock horror, pretending to jab him with the end of her paddle, "First you insult me, and now you try to trip me into the river." She sat down on the slat in the back of the boat, laying her paddle across her knees, "I really do want to steer though."

"I'll take the middle then," Aldandil waited for Nimaron to come and hold the boat, giving the healer an almost apologetic look, "That leaves you with the front."

~*~~*~~*~

Legolas stood on the stone bridge that led out of his father's palace, stretching on his tiptoes to see over the guardrails. Nearby Arasil was bouncing on the balls of his feet, looking impatiently at Cúran.

"How…how am I going to get it back, Arasil?" Cúran stared down at the dark water, hugging the Crescent to his chest.

Arasil shrugged, unworried, "It's a good boat. It will float to the landing nearby, and wash up there."

"Don't you think we could test a piece of wood or something instead?" Legolas asked, noticing that Cúran seemed awfully worried about his boat, "Or maybe a bottle? We have got lots of bottles; Galion has got a whole room of them! We could stick a message inside, and then even if it didn't come back, it might go all the way to Valinor or somewhere!" 

"It's going to come back," Arasil rolled his eyes, patting Cúran's arm, "Let's try it."

"Yes, it's going to come back," Cúran agreed hesitantly, walking over to the guard rail and holding his little blue and white boat out over the water. In half a moment it dropped from his fingers, darting down to be swallowed up by the river with hardly a splash.

"Where is it?!" he stared down at the river. In the best scenario, he had imagined the little boat bouncing on top of the water, eventually making its way to the shallower banks near his house. The elfling frantically searched for the little boats with his eyes, "It's gone, Arasil!"

Legolas crossed his arms over his chest, "You lied."

"It wouldn't be gone if it were really Eärendil's lifeboat," Arasil huffed. He had really expected it to at least be visible for awhile – long enough to figure out where it would end up, anyway. He wanted to shout at Cúran that it was probably Voronwë's awful, stinking, sinking boat, but that was just mean. "Maybe there's a way to get it back."

"How?" Legolas challenged, peering out into the water again. Once, twice he saw a little hint of blue and white bobbing up.

Arasil knotted his fingers in his tunic, looking first at Legolas, who seemed awfully mad; and then at Cúran, who was wiping at his eyes and panting in little shuddery breaths. The idea that had seemed so brilliant, so workable despite its flaws, suddenly seemed extremely stupid. "I don't know."

~*~~*~~*~

It really wasn't so bad, the Forest River. Perhaps it was a little faster than the calmer stretches of the Bruinen, but there had been no sign of foamy water, large rocks, or falls yet. Nimaron slowly let himself relax, listening to Aldandil and Meril's stories about boating when they were much younger.

"What is that sound?" the healer suddenly straightened again, his hands gripping the boat paddle harder, "I know that sound."

"Oh, they're coming!" Meril exclaimed, her eyes bright with anticipation, "I hope they're good ones. These are the good ones, right Aldan?"

"Good and big," Aldandil smiled at her, then patted Nimaron's shoulder, "But no big rocks sticking out of the water. I chose these rapids especially for you."

"Indeed," Nimaron nodded numbly, "Thank you."

The river began to move faster, suddenly carrying the boat up and down over heaving, frothy waves. The boat jolted and tipped, jarred and splashed.

"Dig your paddle deeper, Nim!"

"We're going to hit something! I just know we're going to hit something! Did you see that rock?! There's a gigantic rock under the water! You said there weren't any rocks!"

"No rocks above the water, Nim!"

"What's that? Do you see that, Aldan?"

"See what, Meril? Duck!"

And with that a frothy wave carried the boat up, and then let it crash back down into the water with an excellent smack

~*~~*~~*~

Sorry for the long wait! School's still been keeping me awfully busy, and I don't expect that will change anytime soon. *g*

Responses to Reviews

*daw the minstrel: Who would want Galion's job? Not me!

*Dragon-of-the-north: The untidy elvenking indeed! *g* For some reason, I can see Thranduil being very particular about certain things (like his jewel room…), but something of a mess in other, more daily things…I feel sorry for anyone who tries to clean up after him (as I can imagine he'd be quite irritated if they misplaced anything in his organized chaos!).  

And poor Galion indeed…I think he's quite ready for that drink now, especially since that red paint does not want to come off of the floor.

*kingmaker: Galion has indeed suffered…and it isn't quite over yet – I think he'll be calculating that an entire bottle of something is quite well-deserved by the end.

I have a horrible time choosing paint. Perhaps that's why all my walls are still white.  

*Starlit Hope: Thanks for reading!

*Lutris: Children seem to go especially screechy when they're upset over little things! I've experienced it first-hand!

And I can most definitely picture that forgotten bottle under the bed…

*farflung: My parents used to have our living room decorated in owls…we even had an owl lamp! So when I tried to think of something for a tacky tapestry, owls came to mind first. *g*

*Dragon Confused: Poor Galion indeed…I was in a nasty mood. *g*

*Amlee: When will the royal family of Mirkwood visit Rivendell? Good question! Perhaps when Legolas is old enough not to ask "Are we there yet?" every seven and half minutes or so…