The sentences written in italic are actually the review of Jaya Avendel for the last chapter. I loved her words and she was kind enough to allow me to hand them to Elrond :)
When Legolas woke, he felt rested and warm. A soft smile was already on his lips when his gaze sharpened, slipping out of the foggy figures of elvish dreams and revisiting reality. He was warm, a blanket tugged tightly around him, only a hand outside of the cosy envelope his blanket had created around him. Yawning, the youngest Thranduillion sat up, pushing the duvet aside. Sitting in his bed, he took the time to look around, his mind still slow from sleep. He had dreamt well this night. There had been a song interwoven with his dreams, a deep, familiar song he could no longer remember. But he had felt save with it.
Legolas rubbed his face to wake himself up and brushed over his messed-up hair. Swinging his legs over the edge, the young elf warrior stood. He had been emotionally drained before he went to bed and had not even bothered to change. Sighing, he lifted the noldorian shirt over his head and felt oddly relieved to be able to chuck it away. He knew he was being ungrateful: The Noldor had given him everything he needed. Not even the clothes on his back were his own, despite Glorfindel's constant reassurances.
He went to take a quick shower and get ready for the day.
Chucking the shirt and his remaining clothing into the bin for the washing, Legolas proceeded to take his own rugged woodland clothing out from the large wardrobe. He quickly slipped back into the bathroom to take off the towel and put on his clothes. It felt heavenly to have the rough material hugging his torso, his legs and arms. The fabric was slightly thicker and sturdier than the noldorian cloth and the silver thread of the royal stitching around the neckline was comfortingly familiar. The clothes even smelled like home.
When he got out of the bathroom, he threw a cursory glance around the room but saw his siblings still sleeping. The door to the adjoined healing room was closed, so apparently his father still had not woken either. Slightly worried, Legolas contemplated knocking to ask Feras how his Ada was, but he decided against it. Instead, he headed towards the back of the room. His eyes trailed over the familiar surroundings. The beautiful drawings pinned against the walls above their respective beds, the large maps over the table in the right-hand corner of the room, the dark ink faded from the light of the setting sun streaming inside through large doors. Orderly stacked papers on the far away side of the table, another large map spread on the smooth table top, several empty parchments and papers to the other side together with ink, quills and coal pens. Several empty mugs had been placed on the table as well.
Lost in thought, the young archer slipped onto the bench. He pulled some papers towards himself, reading the one on top. Lady Selan was asking for resources for the hospitals in the southern villages. Taking a quill and ink, Legolas could not help but smile as he signed the document with his name and title before he placed it on the 'done' pile.
Getting up once more, he ignored the comfortable seating area in favour for the balcony doors which he swiftly opened and stepped through. He felt a soft wind glance through his uneven hair. The air smelt fresh like the rain on young leaves, carrying the earthy note of Mirkwood with it that was so unmistakable.
Instantly, he felt the tree's happiness. Branches were reaching over the balustrade and Legolas could almost smell the tree's joy. Smiling, he reached out and immediately a small twig war wrapping around his wrist, caressing his skin. The contact only enhanced the emotions, so much Legolas teared up.
Suddenly, the tree rippled. Attempted to hide its happiness.
"What is wrong?" Legolas asked, at once worried.
"The King wants us to stay quiet," the tree replied in hushed tones.
"The King? Why? Is he outside?"
"Yes. He wants us to rely messages to the elves heading south to drive the border further away. He says our happiness is contagious and it drives them to do stupid things and kill themselves. We don't want that. I mustn't be happy. Or your elves will die."
Legolas cussed loudly and abruptly turned. With two long strides, he was back in the large room. The closest bed was Eyaenne's and he quickly leaned down by her bedside, grabbing her and Methelion's shoulder and giving them a rough shake.
"Wake up!" The young Prince demanded at the same time, yelling the words across the healing ward. Methelion and Eyaenne woke abruptly but by the time they had flinched out of their tight embrace, Legolas had already hurried on, waking Arahen, Daeros and Falin.
"What's up, tithen-las?" Eyaenne demanded to know sleepily, putting her head back down on Methelion's shoulder.
"Our Captains are riding south to push the border back! Ada is outside to try and stop them. We need to help him. The Darkness is too thick." That brief explanation got all of them out of their beds within seconds.
"I'll check on my recruits and see how they can help," Falin said, struggling to get the blanket away from where it was entangled between his legs.
"I'll help Ada with the strategy," Daeros quipped in and Arahen volunteered to take care of the division responsible for healing supplies and healers, something which normally Alcanor would have done.
"Oh, and Eyaenne, are you and Methelion together?" Daeros quickly asked with polite interest.
"Depends: Why are you asking?" Eyaenne stopped in collecting her weapons to suspiciously look at her younger brother who usually did his best not to cross her. And that was the only reason why she did not snap at him in a teasing fashion, for he often did not understand that she was not truly angry. Of all of them, Daeros probably was the most distant. While he always wore an amicable smile, he often hid behind his politeness to avoid arguments or conversations altogether. He had always spent most of his time with Arahen. The two brothers did not only look alike, they appeared to be twins in many other ways as well. But they did not usually talk much. Only Iarith had ever been able to draw Daeros out sometimes and he doted on Legolas.
"Well, if he is, I am happy to give him some of my paperwork now that he is officially a part of the family," Daeros smiled softly, indicating he was happy for Eyaenne in an oddly roundabout way.
"Jerk," Eyaenne replied, though she did not put much conviction behind the word and instead smiled to her brother, somewhat positively surprised that he was the one to approach the topic, for he used to avoid her altogether, afraid of getting into fights.
The female warrior took Methelion's hand, who had quickly donned his weapons and did not quite know what to do with himself. He was, after all, in the same room with four of his Princes who happened to be the brothers of the she-elf he had fallen in love with and whom with he had slept in the same bed for all of them to see. Eyaenne pulled him with her as she left the Healing Ward.
Legolas felt a sense of loss than he could not pick up his own weapons and armour because they were not here. He remembered Eyaenne had said something about his daggers being in their father's possession but he did know nothing about his precious bow and quiver.
"May I borrow your daggers?", he asked Daeros who started to get changed now that Eyaenne had left the room. Next to his twin daggers, Daeros also possessed twin long knives, similar to those of Thranduil, and so the elder elf just smiled and nodded, quickly handing a belt with the daggers towards his brother.
Armed, Legolas quickly left the room and headed outside. He broke into a light jog after only a few meters, feeling too tense to take the time to walk the entire distance.
Crossing the bridge, he did not have to look around to find his destination. Along the tree line, dozens of elves had sat up a temporary camp. Tables were standing around, silvans standing next to trees or settling in their boughs. Meanwhile, the Sindar elves who did not have a similar connection to the trees had grouped around the maps and parchments on the table, organising the information they received and giving orders for the Silvans to pass on through the trees to specific Captains.
Legolas could see the white-blond hair of his father who was leaning against a tree to keep up the physical contact he needed for directly talk to them while at the same time he looked down on the map spread on the table standing on front of him.
The moment the elves noticed him, a whisper went through their ranks. They stopped their work to turn and stare at him. His name was spoken with disbelief.
Thranduil looked up once he heard his advisors speak his son's name. Tears threatened the young elf when he saw the cold mask fall aside to reveal his father fondly smiling at him, relief in his eyes. Then Thranduil pushed away from the tree and stepped toward him, wrapping both arms around his shoulders to draw him into a highly unexpected hug. Instantly, the archer wrapped his own arms around his Ada's middle, feeling at peace and choked up with emotion about his father's unusual gesture.
"I love you, ion-nin. Never doubt that. I love you more than life itself," Thranduil whispered into his ear and hearing the conformation once again, Legolas felt confident that all would turn out well eventually. Soon, Legolas was given free again and he quickly followed his father's lead to straighten his shoulders and go to work. He was pulled into random hugs from one or two of the advisors more familiar with him and he felt several hands touching his shoulders as if some of the elves just needed to make sure he was not a delusion. But his focus caused everyone to not get too distracted either.
By the time their orders had finally been confirmed and they had not only reigned in the disobeying Captains but also set up several temporary hospital stations along the former border and sent healers south who would begin arriving within the next few hours, night had come and passed. The soldiers had been ordered to fortify the current border and not push further south for now. The night had cost many lives and Thranduil wanted to avoid a similar event occurring during the hours of daylight and during the night-time when the orcs would once again be unhindered by the green-coloured rays of sun bursting through the dark foliage.
Thranduil sighed and called his advisors to take over from here. The Captains were back under control and would follow their orders once again, even if they came not directly from the King.
Legolas' siblings were fetched by servants and soon they all arrived at the front lawn. Methelion appeared to not have left Eyaenne's side and he arrived with the fierce female warrior.
"Breakfast is in three hours. In the Day Room. Don't be late. Until when, you may do as you please," Thranduil spoke softly. Nods followed and then the King's children headed back towards the castle.
"Captain Methelion! A word, please," the Sinda held the archer back. Eyaenne stopped at once, turning around, crossing her arms and glaring at her father.
"What do you want of him?" She demanded to know harshly, threatening dire consequences should her Ada say anything against the archer spending time with her.
"Just a word," Thranduil replied with a gentle smile, irritating his daughter who no longer felt as if she could glare at him even though she wanted to.
"Hir-nin," Methelion said and bowed deeply.
"Methelion. Unless you have other obligations or you wish to return to your family, I would like for you to join us at breakfast as well. Someone can show you the way. Should they refuse, tell them to take it to me."
Glorfindel woke abruptly when he heard someone open the door. Sitting up momentarily, he frowned. He could hear voices through the closed bedroom door. Not knowing what was going on, the balrog-slayer quickly slid out of bed and carefully pushed the door open. He was surprised to see Legolas sitting on the settee next to the Mirkwood twins, the Princes Arahen and Daeros and opposite of Prince Falin.
"What do you want at this time of the night?" The foreign elf asked incredulously.
"It is not …," Legolas started but then turned to look outside and realised the sun had not even fully risen yet, the land still enveloped in the misty greyness of an approaching morning. "Oh. I didn't realise it was still that early. Sorry. Didn't mean to wake you up."
"Sleeping does sound good though," Prince Falin stated and stretched on the settee he occupied on his own, closing his eyes.
"If you wanted to sleep, why are you even here, you idiot?" Legolas quickly shot back, the last few words anything but a true insult.
"You hurt my heart with your insensitive words, tithen-las. Why, of course I am not letting you out of my sight," Falin mumbled.
"While I would not dare to throw Mirkwood's precious Princes out of my sitting room now that they are gracing it with their presence, what are you doing here?"
One of the twins stood and approached him.
"Forgive me, my Lord. We have not yet been properly introduced: I am Daeros and these are my brothers Arahen and Falin. I hope you do not mind us barging in here but Legolas wished to see you. As I understand, he has grown close to you during the time he spent at Imladris. We could not bear the thought to let him out of our sight so soon again and therefore decided to join him. I had not taken into consideration that our invasion of your private space might be disrespectful." Daeros was thin, gaunt even, but he his amicable smile softened his hardened features.
"It is pleasure to meet you, Prince Daeros. And I have nothing against you laying siege to the sitting room. Indeed, you are welcome, though why are you all up this early?" Glorfindel spoke with twinkling eyes once he had stopped laughing.
"We've been up since yesterday afternoon. And I still had that sleeping draught in my system. I am exhausted."
"Breakfast is in three hours. You should try and get some sleep before then. I won't be leaving, I promise," Legolas spoke gently and after some careful consideration, Falin nodded. Almost instantly, his eyes glanced over with elvish sleep.
Daeros stepped back to the settee and took the stack of parchment only to divide it between himself and his brother. He when proceeded to ignore everything around him, giving Legolas the opportunity to stand and sheepishly approach his close friend.
"I will just get changed, then we can talk. Would you mind organising some strong tea?" Glorfindel sensed Legolas wish to talk and the younger elf nodded in relieved agreement. The balrog-slayer stepped back into his bedroom. He ignored his warm bed and stepped into the bathroom to take a quick cold bath to wake himself up before he got dressed.
When he returned into the sitting room of the suite provided to him, Glorfindel smiled softly as he watched the three brothers occupying the settees. However, he when turned to search for Legolas and saw his young friend's slim stature through the wide window doors leading outside. The balrog-slayer noiselessly joined the young elven Prince.
"I am sorry," he sighed after Legolas remained silent, his blue eyes gazing down into the gardens below them, the ground hidden behind the large trees which branches easily reached the height of the balcony and beyond.
Startled, Legolas turned, raising both brows. "Whatever for?"
Glorfindel pursed his lips, avoiding the blue eyes which – come to think about – had the same shade as Thranduil's eyes.
"Elrond told me your father left before you woke," the proud warrior admitted softly, turning his head to carefully watch Legolas' features.
The elf pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes slightly. "He should not have talked about it," Legolas scolded cautiously, turning back to face the crown of the tree before him. "If you do not want my father's ire to come down on Lord Elrond, you best not speak about what he revealed to you. Elrond had no right to do so and, quite frankly, I had expected more from a healer with his reputation." Irritation rang so clearly in the sharply spoken words, Glorfindel refrained from saying anything else to the matter. In hindsight, the elfling before him was right and his old friend should not have told him about the actions of his patient, even if the healer's words had been caused by worry for Legolas who had so clearly grown attached to Glorfindel.
Thranduil was the last to arrive for breakfast. He had taken the three hours of break to reluctantly lie down. Despite his nervously beating heart, anxious about not having Legolas within sight, he had fallen asleep almost immediately after he had lain down, his eyes glancing over, his heavy lids dropping to cover the bright, icy blue orbs.
The King had invited or rather requested for the Noldor currently residing in Mirkwood to join them for breakfast, even though he had done so reluctantly. He did not hold high esteem for the Lord of Imladris but he realised he would never be able to repay Elrond for what he had done: He had managed to save Legolas, to rescue him from certain death. And, for whatever reason, his children liked the Noldo healer.
"King Thranduil." Elrond's voice was chilly as he greeted him. A fact that did not go unnoticed by the other elves present, most of them familiar enough with the healer to realise this behaviour was unusual.
"Lord Elrond," Thranduil returned, his face blank and not showing the irritation he felt.
"My King!" Another voice added and Thranduil noticed Captain Methelion who bowed deeply, standing by Eyaenne's side.
"Sit to my right, Methelion," Thranduil spoke and signed towards the table. He hesitated slightly before he took what used to be Alcanor's seat so that Methelion could sit next to Eyaenne and therefore to his right side. Seeing as Elrond was a Lord from a visiting Realm, Thranduil could not help it but had to offer the seat to his left to the healer, with Glorfindel sitting at the healer's other side and next to Legolas. Across the table, Arahen and Daeros took a seat next to the twins, Falin choosing to sit next to Elladan.
Breakfast was tense. The King of Mirkwood focused on his meagre meal and was about to push the bowl away when a slender hand stopped him. Blue eyes narrowed at the interfering Noldo Lord. While Thranduil knew the other elf to be right, he highly disliked the fact the healer dared to treat him the way he did. In front of his children no less. He stared into the brown eyes of the healer which remained warm and strong, not backing down.
It was the balrog slayer who ended the battle of wills by placing a warning hand on Elrond's arm, causing the friend to lower his gaze and turn to Glorfindel in question. The blond-haired warrior shook his head in warning and Elrond pressed his lips together, before he nodded and finally let go of Thranduil's wrist. Looking across the table he realised that Thranduil's children were all solely focused on their meal. While undoubtedly, they had noticed the conflict between the two leaders, they now choose not to comment on it neither in words nor in gestures. Erestor sat with his long fingers massaging his forehead giving a resigned impression and as he felt Elrond's glance at him, he raised his head and interrogatively raised an eyebrow, confusion written in his features as to why his old friend would choose to act the way he had. Elladan and Elrohir were exchanging glances but kept silent as well.
Complete silence reigned the table during the remainder of the meal which only lasted a few minutes.
Once everyone was finished with their meals, Thranduil was the first to stand up.
"Falin, show our guests around. Legolas, on me," the King stated with ice cold voice that crept underneath the healer's skin and made him shudder.
Additionally, the Noldo Lord was appalled by Thranduil's behaviour. The other's ruler decision to walk out of the room where his children slept, finally at peace after long months of suffering, was once again reinstated with his sharp orders.
"Thranduil, Thranduil, your heart is cold. You should never have walked out on your children. Your love for them does not burn strong enough!", Elrond muttered saddened underneath his breath, the words not meant to actually reach the Sinda's ears.
Reach his ears they did, though. Thranduil whirled around, his cloak fluttering around him in a movement as elegant as a butterfly's wing beat.
"How dare you, Elrond?" Thranduil hissed, all pretence of calm having vanished from his features. "How dare you have the audacity to come here and judge me? You don't know Mirkwood. You do not know the situation we are in, we have been in for hundreds of years. You enter my Realm, privileged as you are, coming into a country of war and you think you can tell me what is right and wrong? To claim you understand anything? You feel so high and mighty, coming from your peaceful valley with your peaceful ways, your kind words, but the truth is, you only come here, admire our landscape, raise your eyebrows about our culture, enjoy the thrill a little bit of sword play in the darkened woods gives you all the while you watch me and my family and pity us while you pat yourself on your shoulder being so much better than us and then you leave! As if though you were living properly and we were not. You shake your heads about the abysmal standards we hold ourselves to, shake your heads about my need to leave my children alone in their suffering. Do you truly believe I want to do that? Do you truly believe I do not wish for my children to be save and to be able to spend time with them instead of going out there!"
Thranduil had advanced, the finger pointed to Elrond's chest shaking and a deep agony stood in the fair features, tears pooling in bright blue eyes but not falling to wet the fair cheeks.
"Three hundred and thirteen! Three hundred and thirteen! That is how many lives Mirkwood has lost in the last night. While you wanted me to sit next to my children, my people fought and died, and you dare to stand here and criticise me! My elves are still out there! They are still fighting, even as we speak, fighting for their lives on the camp beds of improvised hospitals close to the lurking darkness of the South!"
Elrond stepped back without meaning to but Thranduil continued to advance. His cheeks felt cold, all blood drained from his face. The imposing Sinda, however, was not done talking yet and with each word, more pain poured into his voice. The more he talked, the more the words the King had held in for so long escaped.
"Yes, my children are important. But this is my Realm, and my people! You of all people should understand! And before you tell me: No, I cannot delegate these duties, for my people are more stubborn than I or any of my children could possibly be! I have tried, but if the orders are given by my advisors without my people knowing I stand behind them and watch their every step, the orders simply get refused! We are a wild people.
Legolas, Falin, Arahen, Daeros, Eyaenne, Roewen: All of them are in the Mirkwood Army Corps. And I can't force them to drop out of the fight. They are fighting for their home. All I can ensure is that the Army is as save a place as it could possibly be! That the elves fighting by their side fight as strongly as they can because they know I will stand by them, no matter the time, no matter the intensity of their pain! What would you have me do, Elrond? Could you truly do better, were you in my situation? I try, Elrond, I try as hard as I can to do the right thing but sometimes you just can't do the right thing and there are no right ways to handle a situation.
Don't you dare stand there and judge me! You cannot understand! Anything! Not until you have suffered the losses I have! Not until you see your beloved safe valley crumble underneath a Darkness you cannot stop! Not until you are Lord to a people so desperate they teach their children to bear arms! Not until your greatest wish is that your own beloved son was dead. Yes, Elrond, you heard correctly: I wish my son was dead!"
Please review!
Please, also check out my new One-Shot 'Fear No Thunder'. It is a story with little Legolas in it. I am pretty sure most people will like it :)
I will reply to the reviews of people with an account later on! I apologize, but I am too tired right now!
Guest#1:Thank you so very much for this awesome review! This is the first major thing I ever wrote in english, so it is true one can see the improvement of my writing throughout the chapters and thankfully, the writing gets better in later chapters :) Your english is fine, I absolutely understood what you were trying to say! I really hope to receive another review from you! Thank you once again for your kind words and your encouragement!
Esther: Yes, Legolas will meet Alcanor soon. I guess my cliffhanger gave away that the next chapter will be about Alcanor as well. And don't worry: I really did not write about Al in a long time, so it is only fair you ask what happened to him. I just had nothing for him to do besides sitting in his cell
Cassandra: You're welcome YOU'RE WELCOME YOU'RE WELCOME [...]
Oi: Espero que o tradutor do Google não destrua a história demais com traduções estranhas :) Muito obrigado pela sua mensagem e espero que continue a apreciar a história. E esse tradutor traduz isso aqui para que seja compreensível: P Faça um bom dia e agradeça novamente por seu comentário!
Guest#2: I hope so too! And Thranduil told Elrond what he thinks in this chapter so maybe Elrond will begin to understand it is not all as easy as he thinks it is
Antiruth: Thank you so very much! I will definitely finish it! I am very busy at the moment and spend my days working and studying but I hope to finde some more time around Christmas break to write down the rest of the story so I can update more reguarly as well
