Legolas awoke panting and sweating from the nightmare that had just torn through his defenses. Only half aware he heard a voice whispering and felt arms tightening around him.

"Shh… My love. Everything's all right… Go back to sleep…" Someone reached up to brush his sweaty hair from his forehead, "…Go back to sleep." The voice whispered again and Legolas did just that, feeling safe in the person's presence.

The next time he woke he was warm and comfortable. After the first nightmare there had not been another one and he had slept like a rock through the rest of the night. He gazed tenderly down at the sleeping Faneth in his arms. Her golden eyes were unfocussed in sleep and her breathing was steady; he had not disturbed her.

For a long time he just laid there enjoying the silence and peace and warmth, but he soon noticed what time it was and remembered the meeting his father had set up. Ever so carefully Legolas moved away from Faneth. He had perfected this move after doing it countless of times in the past with Hithel, Kirion and her. She was still sleeping peacefully when he stood beside the bed, although her hands had reached out for him.

Legolas smiled and tucked a fallen lock of hair behind her ear before walking to the closet and finding some clothes. He then took them and moved into his sitting room and further on into his bathroom. He needed to take a bath to wash of the remains of the violent nightmare and to wake up fully. He would need his head in the proper place for this meeting he was sure of it.

When he stepped into his sitting room again after finishing Legolas smiled. There on the couch sat Kirion. He looked as though he had been waiting for him to finish, but had fallen asleep. His head was resting on the bent arm he had placed on the armrest.

Legolas walked over to him and carefully lifted him into his arms. It didn't work this time. Kirion's green eyes focused and he looked up at Legolas. When he saw his brother and smile appeared on Kirion's lips.

"Why are you up so early?" Legolas chuckled softly as he walked towards his bedroom.

"…I just woke up." Kirion yawned.

"Well I think you're entitled to some more sleep, don't you?" Legolas asked with a smile, "I'm going to get dragged to a very boring meeting in not so long so I was thinking that you perhaps wanted to keep Faneth company while I am contemplating successful ways of killing every counselor in the room without anyone suspecting me. I think last time I bordered on something about a picnic, which unfortunately happened to be in the middle of a spider nest…" Legolas finished thoughtfully. Kirion raised an eyebrow at him with a barely contained smile playing on his lips.

Legolas pushed open the door to his bedroom and walked inside. He gestured for Kirion to be quiet and cautiously laid Kirion down beside Faneth. He pulled the covers up over his little brother and kissed his forehead.

"Sleep some more..." Legolas whispered, "I'll see you later."

Kirion nodded and shifted his position so he was more comfortable. Legolas watched as his eyes slowly unfocussed.

After one last kiss to Kirion's forehead Legolas walked out of the room.

He made a pit stop at his father's office to get his papers before walking to the dinning hall. The lasting wounded had been moved to the healing ward and therefore the dining hall was open once more. He reckoned that there would be a few elves, but not many since it was still early, and he was right. When Legolas stepped into the dining hall there were only three other elves present. He greeted them all warmly before walking towards the head of the table where he would have the space to scatter the notes and papers as he pleased.

One of the maids came over to him with a plate of food and he started to make a fan of papers surrounding it, sometimes taking a bite of something between reading and studying them. He knew that the three elves were watching him amused and bewildered, but he didn't spare them a glance as he immersed himself in the work.

In the middle of the papers he had placed a map of Mirkwood and he now used this to draw in new routes for the patrols based on the information he found in countless of other reports and letters. Once this was done he moved to the case on the ford and started writing notes and ideas about this down on a piece of paper with a pen he had taken from his father's desk.

Once he had climbed onto the table to reach one of the far out papers, but that had only resulted in an exasperated exclamation from the head of the household about only being able to endure so much and climbing on furniture was not a part of it. Legolas had given up on the paper of course …at least until he had turned his back.

He constantly drew lines between the papers to link them together and often rearranged them as he began to separate the important from the trivial.

"So this is where my pen is."

A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth when he heard his father's amused voice behind him. Legolas turned to him with an apologetic smile.

Thranduil shook his head in exasperation and stepped up beside him looking at what he had been doing that filled almost half of the royal end of the table. There were new notes from Legolas' flowing handwriting over all of the matters they were most likely to discuss in the counsel meeting. "Well you've certainly been …productive this morning." Thranduil muttered while shifting his eyes from the paper to the map in the middle. "You know if you keep writing on all the maps I have your going to exhaust my resources before you exhaust your need to destroy them."

"It's your fault for leaving them out in the open. How am I to resist the temptation?" Legolas chuckled. "I'll copy new ones if necessary. This one, at least, is by my hand."

Thranduil gazed down at the map with wonder, "You drew this?"

"Yes." Legolas answered as he reached over the table to grab a far out paper. A grimace passed over his expression as he unintentionally used his bad arm and stretched the wound more than what was comfortable. He snatched the paper and drew his arm back. "You fired our cartographer some years ago for talking back to you. After that I couldn't find anyone who would take the position so I began drawing them myself guessing that you didn't really care where they came from as long as they were there."

"Sorry." Thranduil muttered as he watched Legolas read the transgression and add his signature beside his own. "When were you up? Why aren't you doing this in your office?"

"I was up at about six, and I am not doing this in my office because there aren't many in the dining hall this early and I wanted to get some breakfast." He looked thoughtful for a second, "Actually I usually prepare in here. Moreover, I didn't want to wake Faneth and Kirion."

"Faneth and Kirion are in your room?" Thranduil asked as he left Legolas' side and sat down in his chair at the head of the table. A servant soon came over with a plate of food.

"Yes, Faneth slept in my room tonight." Legolas said as he went through another rapport. "Kirion came in when I woke up, so I put him beside Faneth and told him to sleep some more. He looked tired, and fell asleep while I was taking a bath. Have you slept well?"

"Excellently." Thranduil responded, "What about you?"

Legolas dragged the answer a bit but then said, "Like a rock."

"Legolas." Thranduil threatened. He knew from Legolas' tone that there was more.

"The last half of the night." Legolas added.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No."

Thranduil sighed, "What am I going to do with you?"

Legolas smirked.

Thranduil looked around the hall. There were several elves there eating breakfast peacefully even though it was seven o'clock. He noticed the elf that was head of the household stood to the side overviewing that hall; he didn't look exactly pleased when his eyes landed on Legolas and his scattering of papers.

"What did you do to gain his displeasure?" Thranduil asked hushed.

Legolas followed his gaze and his smile grew, "I may have climbed onto the table once or twice. I swear since he caught me the second time he's been watching me like a hawk."

Thranduil snorted with laughter, but quickly masked it by drinking from his goblet the household head looked at him curiously.

Legolas finally rolled the map together and started gathering his things. He placed the papers in a stack one by one except for those that were out of his reach. Pretending to be straightening the stack he repeatedly glanced at the head of the household. There! He looked away to talk to someone. Legolas jumped stealthily onto the table and quickly gathering the few papers before rushing back to his seat and just in time reverted his gaze to the papers with a disinterested expression on his face. If he looked up he would have been able to see the elf's baffled expression, but he did not fail to hear the stifled laughter in the hall.

When the elf looked away again Thranduil batted Legolas over the head.

Just then the door opened and a messenger stepped inside. He walked up to the head of the table and said, "My King they are assembled."

"Thank you." Thranduil said with a dismissive tone. The elf bowed and walked out of the hall again.

Legolas and Thranduil stood up and after gathering the map and papers, they headed towards the counsel room. They heard a heated discussion before they were even inside the room so they heaved a tortured sigh before walking inside. The counselors immediately quieted down when their king and prince came into the room, but the participants in the discussion were still glaring at each other. Urion and Sarnor were there as well; them and Lord Iôlon were the only ones who seemed truly happy to see them.

"Good morning." Thranduil greeted as he sat down in his chair. Legolas sat down beside him and dumped his extensive pile of papers in front of him. It gave a resounding thump, and most of the counselors eyed it with horror, probably thinking they were going to discuss everything. Sarnor's eyes were widened as well, but Urion only smirked.

"Right so, first thing's first." Thranduil said and joined his hands in front of him, "Dol Guldur. What do we do about it? I told you about the threat yesterday and gave you time to think about what to do about it. Anyone have any ideas?"

"If the threat is as dangerous as you told us then what can we do about it?" One of the counselors asked disheartened.

"We can't just let them do what they want!" Sarnor exclaimed with youthful vigorousness.

Legolas smiled, this was why he had asked Sarnor to take Aewon's position. That eagerness and will to defend his home was what this counsel needed.

"We can't do anything until we know what's going on down there a least." Urion said reasonably, "We need to send someone down there to scout."

"It's too dangerous." One of the counselors said, "No one will make it down there, much less get any information."

Urion looked deeply into Legolas' eyes, he had been doing that since he had first spoken. "Legolas." He said softly, "Can you make it down there? You've made it down there before.

There was completely since the room for some minutes before Legolas answered quietly, "That depends on how much the situation down there has changed. It was hard enough to get down there fifty years ago."

"How long did it take?" Lord Iôlon asked. There was a crease between his eyebrows.

"It took a month the last time." Legolas said, "And that was without having to spy on anyone, because the fortress was seemingly empty. I was forced to give up quickly because a large band of orcs came at that moment. There was a foul presence in the air though."

Thranduil remembered that month. He had been worried sick about Legolas and had regretted countless times that he had sent him out. They had taken the decision that Legolas was to be sent out from the roles of king and prince, or king and commander. Legolas was without doubt the best scout they had and he was able to handle the dark trees down there. When Legolas had come home he had been exhausted, weak and affected by the evil he had experienced.

"Can you make it?" Urion asked again.

Legolas sighed, "I don't know, but I'll try."

Thranduil's eyes sharpened. "Are you sure about this? The situation down there has worsened since last you were there and you know what happened last time…"

Sarnor looked from side to side as silence erupted in the room, "What happened?"

Legolas directed his gaze to Sarnor and smiled ruefully to him. "Both Móre and I were affected by the darkness down there. To keep each other sane we stayed together in Móre's booth for a couple of days."

Thranduil arched an eyebrow at Legolas vagueness. He knew how hard those two days had been on Legolas. It was like the darkness had invaded his mind so deeply that some time had to pass before it let go again.

Thranduil walked slowly towards the stables. One of his hands held a bowl of soup and the other a flask of water for Legolas. It had been yesterday morning Legolas had arrived back after that arduous trip to Dol Guldur, and he was hopeful that this time he would get Legolas to eat something. He desperately needed the nutrition after barely eating the entire month.

Since he was young Legolas had always been perceptive and absorbing of the nature around him, but while this had given him a lot of good and less good experiences it had been absolutely dreadful on this trip. His body had sucked in the shadows and evil around him like a sponge and he had yet to let it drain out. Usually Legolas would have been able to block it out, but this had been too powerful.

Thranduil opened the door to the stables after nodding a greeting to the two guards who stood outside to make sure no one without permission got inside the stables. There was a warm glow inside the building from the lamps that had been set up. Legolas had made him promise that he would get two days before he had to see his mother and sister.

"Legolas?" Thranduil announced his presence as he stepped closer to Móre's booth.

The gate was open so he got a clear view of Legolas sitting with his back to the wall looking at him with dark eyes and Móre lying on the ground with his head placed upon Legolas' legs. Legolas was stroking his mane gently.

"Hey." Thranduil smiled and moved closer.

Móre blew air out of his nose and made to take his head off Legolas' legs, but Legolas pressed him down and continued to stroke his mane while murmuring reassuring things to him. When Móre was calm enough Legolas signaled that Thranduil could come closer.

"Ada." Legolas greeted softly and smiled, though it did not reach his eyes. "What are you doing here?"

Thranduil held up the bowl and flask, "I brought you dinner."

Legolas eyes the food like it was a poisonous snake, but nevertheless held out his hand to take it. Thranduil gave it to him and watched as Legolas took a few cautious sips of it. He hadn't eaten more than a forth of the portion when he handed it back with a shake of his head.

"Please. Just a few more sips." Thranduil pleaded, willing to do anything to get his son to eat.

Legolas' bottom lip lowered slightly and an almost childish expression of apprehension settled on his face. Nevertheless he brought the bowel to his mouth again and took a few more sips. When he handed it back this time Thranduil took it with a smile knowing that he shouldn't push his luck.

"We need to get your horse some food as well." Thranduil said thoughtfully, "I don't reckon the grass around Dol Guldur is any good."

Legolas' expression darkened at the sound of the name and Móre finally escaped from Legolas' hold and started trotting agitated around the booth. Legolas looked at him and sighed, but didn't get up from his position. He looked tired to the bones.

Later that evening as Thranduil sat by a window in the stable and gazed at the stars a tortured scream came from the booth where Legolas was currently sleeping. Thranduil paled and rushed to the booth. The two guards standing outside came into the stables and all of them stood by the gate to the booth watching as Legolas thrashed about on the floor screaming as his mind forced him to watch images that must have been grotesque.

Móre was rearing and trotting distressed around the booth blocking their path to Legolas. Thranduil had tried to run to his son, but Móre had reared and would have hit him in the head if one of the guards hadn't pulled him back.

The more Legolas screamed the more distressed and agitated Móre became, and therefore they could do nothing more than watch as the situation slowly spun out of control.

With a choked cry Legolas finally bolted awake. His eyes were wide with horror and his body shuddering with gasping breaths. Without warning he twisted himself halfway around and threw up in the empty bucket by his side.

It was at this point Thranduil couldn't just stand there anymore. Dodging hooves he bolted into the booth despite the guards' exclamations and attempts to stop him, and skidded to his knees beside Legolas. He reached out and drew Legolas hair away from his face, as he continued to empty the contents of his stomach. Luckily it didn't take long because he had barely had anything inside him.

Once he was done Thranduil pushed the bucket away and embraced his shaking son. Legolas clung to his ropes like he had when he was a child and buried his face in his shoulder as he continued to gulp down air. Thranduil caught the guards' eyes and indicated for them to go back to the entrance. They nodded and left silently.

"Shh…" Thranduil breathed and tightened his hold on Legolas. "You're all right… You're home. It was just a dream …just a dream. You're all right I've got you. Breathe slowly for me Legolas, please."

As Thranduil keep murmuring soothing things Legolas gradually calmed down in his arms. He slumped more heavily against him, completely surrendering to his support. Móre was still pacing about, but seemed less distressed now.

"I've got you." Thranduil exhaled, and kissed Legolas' hair.

"I'll try to reach Dol Guldur, but it will have to wait until the party from Rivendell leaves again." Legolas said.

Thranduil's eyes pierced his son, "What about Faneth?"

Legolas' will wavered when he remembered that he would be married by that time.

Thranduil sighed, "Regardless. If you do this, then it will first be done a year from now. I am not sending you out there in anything but your best condition." With that the discussion had ended. Thranduil changed the subject, "What about the patrols?"

Legolas smirked and got the map he had rolled together. He straightened it on the table and put weights on the corners to keep it from rolling together once more.

By the end of the meeting they had given Urion charge of the rebuilding of the outpost by the ford, Legolas and Sarnor had been put in charge of getting the patrols up and running and the rest had gotten various political duties.

O

Elladan and Elrohir walked through the halls in the middle of the afternoon. They hadn't seen Legolas all day so they were headed towards his rooms. Hopefully he wasn't overworking himself.

They stopped at the door that led to Legolas' sitting room and knocked on the wooden surface. After a second they heard Legolas' voice from the inside telling them that they could go in. As they stepped inside they noticed that he wasn't alone. Legolas was sitting on the couch with Sarnor and Urion was sitting across from them in one of the armchairs. There were maps and papers filling the entire table between them, but at the moment their eyes were directed at them. Legolas was sitting in his usual couch-position, extremely non-princely.

"Good afternoon." Elrohir smiled.

"What are you doing?" Elladan asked intrigued.

Elladan sat down in the spare armchair and Elrohir sat down on the floor beside the table. Both of them scanned the rapports, maps, papers and lists of names on the table.

Legolas chuckled, "Duty rosters and construction plans. Care to join us? We could use the entertainment."

"We've already joined you, so I guess there is no escaping it now." Elladan said, "Where is the rest of your family?"

"Kirion is with Faneth, her mother and your mother. I think they're currently making wedding arrangements." Legolas answered as he picked up one of the rosters Sarnor had just finished and looked over it. "Hithel and Gwaur are in the gardens. Ada is in his office. Your father is in the healing ward with Ecphen." Legolas held the roster up to Sarnor and pointed on one of the names of it. "He's wounded, and will continue to be out of service for the next month so you have to take another archer."

Sarnor sighed and started looking through the lists again.

"You know where everybody is?" Elrohir asked incredulously.

Legolas looked down at him shrugging, "I'm just used to keeping track of everyone, I guess it's one of my habits."

Enforced habits. Elrohir sighed inwardly.

"There are none." Sarnor exclaimed after some time, "Why can't this group just have one less archer?"

"Because they need the archer." Legolas answered calmly and motioned for Sarnor to hand him the papers. "Fifteen elves in each group. One scout, five archers, nine swordsmen. They will be too vulnerable to spider and orc attacks if you take even one elf off." After looking over the papers he sighed, "There really are too few archers…"

Elladan looked over Legolas' shoulder at the list and was horrified to see all the small symbols after the names that signified a death. It was rare that someone died on duty in Rivendell; in fact it was almost unheard of. Cause of death was right beside the symbols, written in Legolas handwriting. There was spider venom, orc attacks, enchanted river, shadowed trees and many more causes. As he looked to the top of the list he saw Aewon's name …there wasn't any symbol behind it.

Before Elladan had even had the time to think it through Aewon's name rolled off his tongue.

Legolas looked back at him and after checking where his gaze was directed paled slightly. He hesitantly put the list down on the table and slowly dipped his pen in ink, before making the symbol and writing 'orc attack' with a slightly shaking hand.

Elladan swallowed thickly and longed to pull Legolas into his arms. He wondered how many times Legolas had written that for someone he had had a relationship with, then it became clear to him why Legolas rarely opened completely up to anyone in Mirkwood.

"Put Ilynor in." Legolas said, and Elladan blinked to get his thoughts back to the conversation.

"Ilynor? He's already in, and he's a swordsmen." Sarnor said with an arched eyebrow.

"He's an apt archer as well, and he doesn't have a family."

"Are you saying that I doesn't matter if he dies?" Sarnor exclaimed with a hint of anger and disbelief in his voice.

Legolas eyes grew steely and also held suppressed anger. "If I didn't care about each and every one of these lives I wouldn't use so much time making these patrols so equal in strength and with so many numbers." His voice was like a whip, "I am saying this because it means he doesn't have to take care of anyone and therefore has the time to go on double patrol for the remainder of the month until Hassel is ready again."

Sarnor looked embarrassed and remorseful. "I'm sorry Legolas. Please forgive me."

Legolas exhaled slowly and his posture relaxed. He rested his chin on his bent arm, and gave Sarnor a small smile to show that he was forgiven.

Urion held out a paper for Legolas. He had been drawing on it the entire time. "Here Legolas, take a look at this."

Legolas took it and his expression slowly changed to a perplexed one. "What am I looking at Urion?"

"It's an outcast to the new building by the ford." Urion answered as a matter-of-factly.

"Oh…" Legolas said thoughtfully and squinted, "I thought it was a horse…" Urion spluttered indignantly. Legolas looked up with amusement in his eyes, "Did anyone ever tell you that you have no talent for drawing?"

The twins and Sarnor broke out laughing and after a second of looking affronted Urion joined in.

Legolas smiled and took a blank piece of paper, a large book and a pen. He put the book in his lap and placed the paper on top of it. "Tell me what you were thinking that clearly didn't make it from your brain to your hand and I'll see if I can make something."

The next half hour went with Urion describing the building and Legolas drawing it. The end result was astonishingly accurate.

"You can draw!" Urion exclaimed happily as he held the end result in his hands.

"I usually copy maps, so I've had some practice." Legolas said, "Show that to my father and get the final permission before looking into supplies and workers."

Urion nodded and got up from his seat. He inclined his head to Legolas and walked out of the room with the drawing in his hand.

Legolas and Sarnor spent the next hour going over the duty rosters and drawing routes on a clean map to hang up in the barracks.

"Legolas, the patrol going closet to Dol Guldur?" Sarnor asked uneasily, "We can't just send anyone down there."

"That's why the patrol is made out of elves from my old team." Legolas said with a rueful grin. "I trained them myself, the poor buggers."

"Your old team?" Sarnor's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "I haven't seen them for a while."

"They have been on a long term patrols in the eastern lands." Legolas said still with the disconcerting smile on his lips. "I got news during the counsel meeting that they had returned."

"You what?" Sarnor asked confused, "There was no messenger."

"You didn't see it?" Legolas asked mysteriously, he could almost see the thoughts spinning around in Sarnor's mind.

Legolas sat desperately striving not to yawn as Thranduil and the counselors started talking politics. This was why he didn't want to be king. This was why they had made the agreement that he would take care of all the tactical decisions and military, while his father would take care of all of the politics and trades. The only thing that could gain him even the smallest amount of entertainment now was directing his gaze to Sarnor who seemed to have fallen asleep during the dull discussion.

Suddenly Legolas heard a faint whistle followed by something flying through the air. He reacted by instinct as he snapped his hand up to catch the rock that came flying towards him. A smirk lit up on his lips when he saw the drawing of a spider on it.

He took a pen and some ink and wrote a number beside the symbol. When it had dried a little Legolas hurled the stone in the direction from which it had come and was rewarded with a curse followed closely by an exclamation. His smirk grew and he turned to the other elves around the table that were watching him with bewildered faces and gave them an explanation.

He took pity on the baffled expression on Sarnor's face after a minute. "One of them threw a rock through the open window, with our symbol on it."

"So that's where you get the symbols from." Sarnor said as if everything just made sense for him now.

"I'll rally them myself. In fact I already gave them a time." Legolas said.

"You want me to come with you?"

Legolas grimaced, "It's better if you don't. They looked to Aewon as their second in command and I'm not sure what they think about you taking his spot. I need to make sure they aren't going to kill you first."

Sarnor laughed, but as Legolas continued to look seriously at him the laughter slowly died in his throat and he settled for a more horrified expression.

"You're in for it mate!" Elladan exclaimed laughing, "I've tried getting trained by Legolas in archery for a week and I thought I was going to die at the end. Just imagine what these guys have been through!"

"Was my training session with you taxing?" Legolas asked with an innocently questioning look on his face. Elladan spluttered.

Elrohir laughed, "He referred to it as training week of hell. I was personally glad that I had been on patrol for that period of time."

Legolas turned a mock surprised expression to Elladan, "You never said anything. It wasn't like you were complaining a lot. Just once a day… every hour …every two seconds." He dodged a swipe from Elladan chuckling, but them he sobered. "To get back on point. They will be able to make the patrol there and back. I think I'll train some others as well."

"Will you train me?" Sarnor asked seriously.

Legolas looked him deeply into the eyes for some minutes, but then smiled suspiciously, "Just remember, you asked for it yourself."