Hours passed in the silence and horrid metaphoric darkness of his bedroom and Eledrin heard nothing of his parents. Anything could have happened – she could be fine and healed, though that was unlikely. Just as likely was that she was already…

Cold sweat still lined the very top of his brow and he could do nothing to distract himself without turning his thoughts back to his dying mother and – although he hadn't openly admitted it yet – his strong, underlying guilt.

At one point, he plucked up the courage to walk slowly and hesitantly towards the healing houses to see what news he could discover (though in his heart, he knew not whether it was the truth he wanted to see). Occasionally, he would pass a soldier or two on the way and he would avert his eyes, for the last thing Eledrin wanted was conversation and they looked at him with solemn faces – rumours were undoubtedly spreading.

As he reached the entrance to where he knew his mother would be, he was half tempted to turn back – would his presence really be wanted? However, after much self-questioning, he walked down the long corridor, looking from side to side through the curtains and gaps to try and find his mother. None of the other healers seem to acknowledge or care about his being there – they were far too busy dealing with other patients, some not unlike Eledrin's mother. After a minute or so, he thought he may have perhaps come to the wrong place and maybe his mother wasn't there after all. An unexplainable silent wave of relief briefly rippled through him.

But this was not so. As he approached the very end of the healing corridor, he stopped in his tracks as he saw her. In fact, he couldn't see her very much as she was surrounded by people and a curtain, but he certainly saw his father standing by her side. He could not hear their speech, so he just stood there and watched. He knew in his heart that if he saw the wound or anything else gruesome, he would probably gag or make a noise (his stomach churned at the thought), but as he saw one of the doctor's bloody hands, he was torn between being terrified and ready to run at any moment, and being fixed to the spot and not wanted to leave his mother.

As it happened, he saw nothing of Anié's wound and eventually they moved Anié's bed to another room. Eledrin was confused – why were they taking her away? Where was she going? A room of her own where she could rest? An operation room? A mortuary? Was it a good thing or a very, very bad thing that they were moving her?

Eledrin had no time to have any of these questions, however, as he realised to his horror that Legolas was not staying with her and had started walking straight towards him. Praying he had not been seen, he sprinted straight out of the nursing corridor and darted back to his own room, shutting the door tightly and quickly behind him. He sat on the edge of his bed, trying to remain calm and to still the frantic beating of his heart to appear as though he had never left the room.

With his eyes fixed on the floor and his mind concentrating on his breathing, he expected his door to open at any moment and his father to walk in. It was terrifying, his head and his sanity were spinning wildly out of control. Reality had well and truly set in and he was on the verge of begging to change what had happened, for some sort of escape route of this horrible, dreadful situation.

It was only a matter of seconds before there was a noise at the door and Legolas appeared in the doorway. As Legolas entered and shut the door behind him, time and reality both stopped completely; all that existed then and there was Eledrin, Legolas and the knowledge that somewhere, his mother was under the doctor's care – that was all he knew.

The silence was deafening.

"I want you to tell me exactly what happened" Legolas said with a quietness and a stillness that terrified Eledrin as his father stood over him.

Eledrin told his tale of how he had heard that reinforcements were needed and he had taken his opportunity to help and serve on the battlefield; how he was fighting well until the troll creature arrived and how Anié had stepped in to defeat it when he could not (Eledrin did not fail at this point to compliment on his mother's fighting, which he was still stunned at); he described the sudden arrival of the mysterious rider, the spear and how Anié was injured by saving his life. Eledrin was still haunted and traumatised by what he had witnessed that day but he had to relive everything to his father, every detail. As he finished, all was once again silent and Eledrin did not dare lift his eyes to his father, who had not moved or spoken throughout the entire telling.

"How is she?" Eledrin braved to ask.

But Legolas did not give a response – instead, he opened the door, called one of the guards and ordered a scout party to go out immediately to search for a darkly-clothed rider on horseback. As soon as the guard left, Legolas shut the door again.

He remained motionless as he said: "Give me your blades".

Eledrin's eyes widened a little as he realised what was being asked of him, but nonetheless immediately brought his swords out from underneath his bed and handed them to his father. As Legolas took them, he pulled one gently half-way out of its scabbard and allowed what little light was in the room to shine and glint from the metal. He could see hints of blood left on the blade.

"I suppose I should congratulate you", he said abruptly in a tone of voice that Eledrin could not describe, "the men said you fought well today".

Given the circumstances and the simple fact that it seemed totally wrong to be complimenting him at that precise moment, Eledrin could not bring himself to say anything – certainly not of recognition or any words of agreement.

Upon hearing no response from the (semi-expected) silence, Legolas turned his head suddenly to the side to face his son:

"Well, you want to act like a soldier, so you should start being treated like one".

Eledrin wished his father would stop speaking so – every word he said crushed him inside. He had let everyone down – he was only been trying to do good, and by doing so he had ruined everything. Above all, he was simply desperate to know how Anié was, to know if she was even still alive; he did not know what he would do with himself (or what his father would do to him) if the worst had happened…

In a harsher tone (though refraining from shouting), he said: "How dare you disobey your orders. You were told to stay here where you were safe – you have betrayed both your mother and me".

Eledrin hung his head – he didn't dare face his father and he felt like he could burst into tears at any moment.

Legolas continued: "If any of our soldiers had done what you did today, they would have been immediately banished or executed".

A terrible fear ran through Eledrin's veins – if Legolas was trying to scare his son with possible punishments, he was certainly succeeding. Would his father do that to him? He was pretty sure Thranduil certainly would – despite the fact that he was his grandfather, Thranduil still secretly terrified the young Elf.

A culmination of strong emotions began to get the better of Legolas: "You risked both her life and your own – do you not realise that you could have been killed?! Would you put other people's lives on the line just for you?!"

Eledrin could have screamed but he could say naught. Legolas took both blades in one hand and stated clearly:

"You will not get these back until you have earned my trust and you have learnt to obey orders".

This saddened Eledrin greatly – his blades were very precious to him – but he accepted his punishment willingly, for he was certainly in no position to complain or protest. With that, after allowing the silence to fall, Legolas turned his back on his son and headed for the door.

In an act of desperation rather than bravery, Eledrin suddenly blurted out the question most deeply engraved in his mind and heart:

"May I see her?"

He was terrified of asking the question and terrified of what the answer and end result might be, but he had to know. Legolas stopped in his tracks, one hand still on the edge of the door, his face turned away from his son.

"Please" Eledrin begged exasperatedly, "do not hate me, Father. I have to know if she is alright".

In his mind, he knew his words were empty – of course his mother wasn't alright, far from it. The silence boomed in Eledrin's ears, his eyes almost piercing the back of his father's skull, desperate for an answer.

Some may have confused it for anger or some sort of revenge, but when Legolas did not give a response and simply left the door to shut itself behind him as he walked away, it was purely because Legolas did not know what to do. Legolas did not hate his son, but to allow or to forbid Eledrin from seeing his mother for the time being was not his choice to make.