Malthenpeg

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Author's Notes: I'm going to be taking some general liberties (and a few major ones) on LotR as this goes along. The characters, at least their appearances, are based more upon the movie than the books.

Hope you like it!

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Two

Legolas pulled free from Aragorn's grip with a wrenching twist. He stepped back a few paces to stare at his human friend, ignoring the sun full in his face. The ranger noticed for the first time that the elf's pupils closed to a sharp slits.
"Legolas... why?" Aragorn asked, this time softer. The elf turned his face away from him, focusing on a patch of grass near his foot. Aragorn's fingers grasping his face, his chin, forced him to look up, "Why would you do this to yourself?" Legolas wrested away again, turning his back on his friend. Aragorn's eyes trailed up and down his back, at first staring only at the pattern of marks spread across it, and then at the body they adorned. Lean muscles twitched beneath the spotted skin, and he wished he had taken a moment to savor the feel of that silky flesh beneath his fingertips, "Why?"
Slumping shoulders accompanied a heavy sigh. Legolas turned a little, a look of wildness in his eyes the likes of which Aragorn had never seen in a wood-elf. Not dangerous, just completely and totally wild.
"You would not understand..."
How could he hope to explain to Aragorn his actions? He could not even come to admit to and explain his breaking of the rule to any of his own kin.

He remembered reading about the Rite of Tad'ail in his studies of the Old Magic, spells known only to the Elves and the Istari. He read of it, and found it fascinating. A Rite, when evoked, that would endow one with the form of an animal. How wonderful, he thought, to take the form of a great bird of prey. He had always been fascinated with flight...
Going to Tiriel, his closest friend and mentor, with questions had proved a mistake. The older elf just stared at him as if he were daft, then dragged him before his father and bade him ask the same questions. He did, and the look on Thranduil's face was stormy; he dismissed Legolas' friend and asked his son to sit. The prince obeyed, curious as to what trouble his inquisitiveness had stirred up now.
"Legolas, why do you want to know about this ritual? What interest do you have in it?"
"Just curious, father." He was still young, barely out of his long childhood, and everything was of interest to him. The lord of Mirkwood acknowledged this, and tried to keep his annoyance to a minimum.
"It is forbidden to practice. That is all you need to know."
"Why?"
The single most dreaded word in Mirkwood since Legolas had learned to talk. His favorite word. The prince questioned everything, less now that he was of some age, but as an elfling, ah! Dodging the young prince had become a sport among the court scholars. This was a question that could not be avoided, the king knew this. Ignoring it could only lead to disaster. He sighed deeply and began to speak with the gravity of providence.
"The Rite of Tad'ail is a guarded secret in the knowledge of performing it. You should never have come across it. I shall speak to Tiriel about being more vigilant in his monitoring your studies in the library. And I shall reprimand you right now of searching where you should not. In order to discover the scroll containing that particular magic, you must have exerted considerable effort."
Legolas looked away from his father, knowing that the king knew his youngest son too well for him to even attempt to make an excuse. Indeed, the prince had carefully watched and waited until Tiriel's guard was down before slinking over to the room containing books and scroll cases he, as well as virtually all others, was forbidden to touch. He then proceeded to hunt for whatever deep secrets the room hid. He had been an idiot to run to Tiriel with the scroll, asking about it, when he was not supposed to be in the room in the first place, but such is the foolishness of excited youth.
"I'll have to have that room warded if you cannot learn to keep your prying fingers from where they don't belong. Until then, I warn you against thinking farther on the Rite. It has caused enough pain in this House."
Legolas burned to know what was meant by his father's statement, but chose wisely not to ask. The king had great love for his youngest, but waning patience. He'd been getting into trouble more and more often; nothing major except for one small skirmish with a single orc that scared the skin off the young elf, but enough to intensify the glare of the ancient lord upon his son.
He was dismissed, and Tiriel called before the king. Though he had been cautioned, and he knew whatever his father had to say to his friend and teacher would ensure the end of his snooping, he could not put the idea of becoming a bird and gaining the gift of flight from his mind....