This is a short, silly chapter, the point of which I'm not sure about, but it's cute.
Sky ducked below the edge of the bed, then bounced back up. "Boo!"
Legolas—who was much bigger than he'd been last summer—squealed with delight.
Sky slowly sank out of sight again.
"Ga ba?" Legolas wondered, scooting himself forward an inch in an attempt to figure out where his mother had gone.
"I'm down here," she told him, peeking over the edge of the mattress.
"Aaa!" Legolas announced triumphantly.
"That's right, you found me!" Sky agreed, clapping her hands. "Good job, Legolas!"
"Gah goo goob a ba ba!" That was a very complex sentence for him.
"I know, Ada is being awfully lazy this morning," Sky commented.
The king of Greenwood was still under the covers, sleepily watching his wife play with their baby. "It is much too early for you two to be up." The only reason they were all awake now was Legolas's cheerful greeting of "Ba ba BA ba BABA ba ba!" a few minutes before, at which Sky had eagerly bounced out of bed and Thranduil had groaned.
"Is not," Sky informed him. "Right, Legolas?"
"Plthb," said the elfling.
Sky gave her husband a superior look. "See?"
"That child needs his own room," Thranduil decided.
She stuck her tongue out at him. "Here, look at what I discovered yesterday." She lifted Legolas and set him down in a sitting position. The baby looked very excited to be there.
"He can sit up?!" Thranduil bolted upright as well, until Legolas began to tip over with a very confused expression on his face. "...oh."
"But just look at him," Sky said, sitting the baby upright again. Legolas grinned... and fell backward in slow motion.
Thranduil smirked. "Yes, Legolas, that is called gravity."
"Da?"
Sky repeated the demonstration.
Thranduil snorted. "This does not bode well for his balance in the future."
"Ha. Ready for breakfast, Legolas?"
"Ga ba ba," said Legolas, having no clue what she was saying, but figuring he'd better respond just in case.
"You want milk, you say? That's good, because that's all I have at the moment." She picked up Legolas, pausing to pat her husband's hand before wandering into the living room. "You can sleep in, but I'm not bringing you breakfast."
He sighed and fondly remembered a time when his (admittedly smaller) family's schedule did not lead to him being woken up early, or at strange times of the night. Had that ever really happened, or was it only a pleasant dream?
. . . . . .
"Be free, Legolas!" Storm placed his nephew down on the snow.
Legolas promptly seized a handful of leaves sticking up through the white stuff and shoved them in his mouth.
Storm knelt down, considering this, and then gently pushed down on Legolas's back. The elfling sunk half an inch into the snow. The adult elf smirked as the baby wriggled in confusion, then, grasping the concept of "this stuff is squishy", smacked the snow with a chubby little hand. "BA!"
"That's right, Legolas, get the snow!"
Someone yelped behind Storm, and Legolas was quickly swept up out of the frozen stuff. "You let him eat leaves?!" Said objects were quickly cleared from the elfling's mouth.
Storm remembered that his brother-in-law was a new parent. "It never hurt Sky."
"And you put him in the snow!" Thranduil frantically brushed the powdery substance off his son's slightly wet clothes.
"He's too old to get cold easily," Storm said rationally. "Now, if he was a human child—"
"Eithryn!" Thranduil called.
She appeared within moments. "What? What happened?"
Thranduil indicated the damp elfling. "Your brother let Legolas eat leaves and dumped him in the snow!" Legolas was currently struggling in an attempt to return to the fun new version of the ground, but his father didn't seem to notice.
"Storm!" Sky scolded, though she was less panicked than her husband (probably from helping to raise Kilvara's sisters, who had most certainly survived leaf-eating a few times).
"Okay, okay," Storm told the baby's parents, raising his hands in surrender. "No more snow, or leaves. Sorry, Legolas."
"Awawa," said Legolas sadly, reaching for the far-away snow. It wasn't quite worth the effort to throw a fit, but it was close.
"Oh, go find Silana or something," Sky told Storm. "Speaking of which, I haven't seen her around in a day or two. Are you two having a fight or something?"
"I'm not giving you this lecture again," said Storm. "That's not a thing."
"Why, Coryn, fights are completely normal in romantic relationships," Thranduil replied, deliberately misinterpreting his meaning.
Storm couldn't roll his eyes obviously enough.
Sky was grinning. Despite Storm's attempts to hide it, Silana's bold but playful flirting, so unlike that of the previous she-elves who'd shyly indicated their interest, had definitely gotten his attention; when Storm realized early on that he was being messed with and told Sky he was going to take both the compliment and the joke and move on, Sky occasionally caught him sending thoughtful smirks at the younger she-elf when she wasn't looking. Whether he admitted it or not, Storm was intrigued—which Silana was very much aware of, thus her continued efforts.
. . . . . .
"Psst. Firith."
The elfling paused on his way to Thranduil and Sky's house to see his father. "Silana, why are you hiding up here?"
"Shh! I'm trying to ambush Storm. Can you help?"
"Why would I help you ambush Storm?"
Silana considered the possible ways to motivate the youngster—bribery? Teasing?—and decided on threat of torture. "Because he likes it, and it's good for him."
"He likes being ambushed?" Firith repeated with great skepticism.
"Yeah. He won't admit it, but he's stubborn like that. I'd explain, but it would involve love and such." She paused. "Should I explain?"
"How about I just keep walking and mind my own business?" Firith suggested dryly.
"It involves kissi—"
"Ack!" Firith held his hands up to shield himself from her choice of words. "Fine! What do you want from me?"
"Just make sure Storm's still with Sky and Thranduil. They're moving in this direction."
"Okay..." Firith shook his head in a very disapproving manner, but set off in the direction Silana pointed.
. . . . . .
A few minutes after Storm got in trouble, Sky and Thranduil were walking along (the latter holding Legolas well out of reach of grabbable leaves) when they heard a whap behind them followed by a yelp. Sky quickly bent down for a handful of snow when she saw Storm doing the same, but then dropped it upon realizing who was attacking him. "Hi, Silana! Nice ambush!" It took a good one to catch Storm off guard.
"I learned from the best!" the other she-elf called back from her tree, launching another snowball at Storm's face with wonderful aim. It looked like she had a stash up there.
Storm managed to avoid getting a second stinging red mark on his cheek, but only by diving into a roll; he came up in a run, charging at Silana's perch with snowball in hand. "I hope you don't think you're safe up there!"
"Go Silana!" Sky cheered.
Storm got smacked in the arm. "You're going to run out of snowballs eventually, Sindar," he announced as he tried to find a way to climb the tree without leaving himself open to attack.
"Not 'till you are black and blue," she returned, hooking her legs around a branch so she could throw with two hands. Another one hit Storm right in the eye, and he yelled. "Oops!" said Silana, pausing to make sure he was okay. "I'm sorr—"
His snowball caught her right in the nose, and she lost her grip on the branch and tumbled right to the ground, which, thankfully, was somewhat softer this time of year. She managed to deflect her momentum and land in a roll as all children were taught to do in Greenwood, but she still ended up lying facedown in the snow, unmoving.
Everyone froze, even Legolas. Surely she hadn't fallen far enough to...?
"Nice try," Storm said, trying to sound like he meant it. "You can stop now."
No response, except for a soft whimper.
"...Silana?" He raced over to her still form, praying...
Two seconds later, he was falling into the snow as a perfectly unharmed Silana swung her legs around, catching him in the knees. "Ack!"
"Oh, thank goodness," gasped Sky, who'd just been experiencing a vision of telling Lanthirel her youngest daughter was seriously injured.
Storm was in complete agreement. "Not funny!"
Silana stopped laughing and seemed to shrink. "You are right, I'm sorry..."
He stood up slowly and turned to walk away.
"Storm?" Silana looked ashamed. "Storm, I am sorry, I will not do it again..."
He half-turned back toward her, and she had just the blink of an eye to see his grin before a snowball hit her in the face from mere feet away. She was knocked onto her back.
"BAP!" Legolas shrieked in awe.
Storm winked at him. "Yes, Legolas, that's exactly how you pronounce 'revenge'."