Ergh. . .I just graduated yesterday, so any major angst in this chapter is because I'm a bit unsure of my feelings about that, so while I try to clarify. . .

Disclaimer: I do not own Lord of the Rings or any characters and/or places thereof.

Author's note: I know the Elflings are a bit nasty in this, and it's not very Elf-like, but they are only practically teens. Again, a large amount of the content in this chapter has been based on actual events.

Lady Eowyn: Yeah, that's where I get a lot of Elfling names. Oswald, for example, then there was that Anterrabae a while ago which is from 'I Never Promised You a Rose Garden'. . .

Leggylover03: Pretty much, yes. It actually only stings a little to get kicked in the face with a ball. The crotch is much more painful--I speak from experience!

Grumpy: Hi! My friend at school is called Gimli (it's a nickname) and I call him Grumpy when he's being. . .well. . .grumpy! Anyway. Thanks!

NaughtyNat: Thanks, you shall see, and yes. The entire story is a flashback; the first chapter is the present.

Trustingfriendship: It's awful, but then, do you know what an elementary and junior high school corridor is like? At my junior high school there was a program for advanced studies called IHP, and because the majority of the IHP was white (magnet doesn't accept many white kids, they're a majority), a white student could not walk into a classroom without being sworn at for being an "IHP b****". So yes, it is unfair, but it happens. It sounds as though we have had similar experiences.

StriderGrrl: Thanks.

*****

Legolas rode with Elrohir at the back of the small procession. Elladan led the group, which consisted of the nine Elflings and Estel. They had only just left Imladris, and so the seriousness of their task had yet to wear off, and for a while to go there would be no teasing, joking, or chattering among the students. Elrohir and Legolas, who had both many years of experience, kept quiet and maintained some solemnity, but were not mute, for they enjoyed their time together no matter the circumstances.

"You do not mind terribly, do you, that Elladan did not ask before volunteering you for this?" Elrohir asked.

"No, not at all," Legolas replied. In truth he had been a bit annoyed at first, but then he learned what he had been volunteered for, and knew he would have chosen to go, anyway, and that Elladan knew it. For a brief moment he was annoyed with Elladan for knowing him so well, but this thought was petty and transient. "I did come to Imladris because I needed a change of scenery, and so what if only a week has passed and I am no longer in Imladris? At least the scenery is changing!" The elves laughed quietly. "But no one has given me the details, Elrohir, would you?"

"What do you wish to know?" Elrohir asked, realizing that while this was a task arranged by the twins themselves, and that the information had been given to the Elfling group as thoroughly as possible, no one had thought to tell Legolas exactly what was going on.

"Where are we going, for one. I know only that there is some strife. . .somewhere. . .and we are hoping to end it."

"We are going to the land that was once Eregion," Elrohir stated calmly, noting the sharp intake of breath from his companion.

"Eregion! The wreckage of those fires has been long plundered and, by your people and mine, cleared as best as could be done. What business have we in Eregion? Let us leave the land in the deadly peace it has crafted for itself in aiding the Dark Lord in the creation of his Rings of corrupt and evil! Those rings represent and bring all that is evil, why do we aid the land that corrupts our own?"

"I suggest that you calm yourself," Elrohir said coolly. "I consider not my father to be evil. I consider not my mother's mother to be evil. Recall you not that they bear Vilya and Nenya? Or do you mean this great insult to my family?"

"No, Elrohir, no insult was meant, I only spoke without thought," Legolas replied. "Please, continue."

"All right. There is a colony of Elves in Eregion--though it is no longer Eregion, let us call it this for simplicity's sake--and a colony of Men. They are but three miles apart and totally incapable of peaceful coexistence."

"You mean. . .?"

"That's right. Sabotage, murder; nothing is below them."

"But, I do not understand, how did you come by this knowledge? The Elves of Mirkwood know nothing of such activity."

"And the Elves of Mirkwood have not a healer renowned as the greatest in all Middle-earth," Elrohir replied. "Ada does not like getting involved in these affairs, but with the injured coming in such great numbers, he could not look the other way, and believe that nine men were injured on a hunting trip, with such poisons. It was really the boy that turned his decision, though."

"What do you mean?" Legolas asked. "What boy?"

"About six weeks ago, Estel was helping out in the Hall of Healing. It had been a relatively quiet week, when there was a great commotion, and a woman entered with a child, a boy. He had burns all over the left side of his body. The woman was hysterical. Ada just treated the wounds, trying to ignore the woman, not even seeing the boy as anything but an injury. After about fifteen minutes the boy was dead; on the long journey his wounds had become infected and had bled terribly. Nothing could have saved him. Later on, as Ada was cleaning up, he noticed the boy's face: grey-blue eyes set in tan skin, ruddy, sort of, and thin black hair. He looked alive, Ada says, not in pain but so happy. He looked like Estel. When Ada asked the woman what happened, she said the boy had been playing in an abandoned house that caught fire."

"Because the boy reminded him of Estel?" Legolas asked, referring to Elrond's motivations, looking at the young mortal ahead of them.

"Yes, and because the burns were too intense to have been cause by a house catching fire, and because of the way they reacted to certain additions. . .it had been some sort of explosion, we know that, caused by fusion of certain. . .I do not honestly understand it."

"One thing yet confuses me; how came these people to find your secret valley?"

"By my father's scouts they came, for many were the bodies abandoned by roadside of they that sought healing and found it not. This is how news of the fighting came first to him; he knew of such promiscuous killing and sought reason behind it."

"Ah." For many hours the procession continued in silence, with the occasional speech between Elrohir and Legolas. When the sobriety had worn from the group, they began to chatter, first quietly, hushed, as though afraid they would be in trouble for their speech, then, as their confidence grew, louder. Estel spoke, quite rarely, when some fact was being discussed and it was incorrect. After being hushed by the group, he would turn to Elladan, who would either nod or shake his head slightly, meaning that Estel's facts were either correct or not. Usually Estel was right.

"Telperion had leaves of silver beneath and dark green above," Estel said at one point, as someone made a statement to the contrary.

"Of course, Estel, you just know everything!" Alkarinque said. "Or at least you ought to, with the amount of hours you spend taking remedial courses with Glorfindel." This name was said with a sneer.

"They aren't remedial classes, and Glorfindel never did anything to you!" Estel replied, his face turning quickly a rather bright shade of pink.

"If it is untrue, why do you blush?" asked Alkarinque.

"Because it is insulting."

"Because it is true!"

"It must be, if it embarrasses you," Elemiire said. Estel did not reply, but fixed his eyes dead ahead. He knew he was right, and that was as much as mattered at the moment.

At the end of a very long day of riding, as the light from the sun was disappearing below the trees, Elladan called a halt. "Luinil and Karnil, you two are to find wood for a fire," he said, and at once the two scurried off to fetch what ever they could that would burn. "Muriel, Wilwarindi, and Elemiire, scout, -quickly-. See that we are not bothering any large animals--any bears, coyotes, wolves--and be back as soon as possible. Do not stray too far from camp. Minyadur and Naarie, you are in charge of the housekeeping aspects, do you remember what that means? Good. Lysander, Estel, Alkarinque, see to the horses."

Within moments the place was buzzing with activity. "Here, let's divide this up evenly," said Lysander to the others, who nodded. "I will see to the horses down that end, Alkarinque these here, and Estel there. That makes four each for us, and Estel will take five, all right?" It showed very much in his eyes that he would have taken five himself, but around Alkarinque his reputation was at stake.

"Yes," chorused the others, and set about to their work. Still quite uncertain of his skill, Estel went slowly. Luckily the horses had been tethered already. Estel slowly untacked the first, lying the pack it carried by a tree and the saddle over a nearby log. Then he checked and cleaned the horses' hooves and brushed off his coat. Four times more he did this, then went to draw water from a stream close by. This was the worst part of looking after the horses. Mostly it was enjoyable; being around them, cleaning them, and such. Lugging five buckets of water about was not an enjoyable task.

The sun had set by the time Estel made his way back to camp, going slowly so as not to slosh the water about and lose any. He did not fancy another trip to the river and back; his muscles ached already. He set the water before the horses, and was just going to join the others around the fire when he noticed that Alkarinque had not gotten any water for his horses. "Alkarinque," Estel said, standing outside of the circle around the warm fire, well aware of the cold the others could not feel. A silence fell, and everyone turned to Estel, waiting. "Alkarinque, you--er--you forgot to fetch water from the stream. Er, for the horses."

"That could not be, I went down three times," Alkarinque replied. "Elemiire saw me."

"But--" Estel did not bother. He knew that Alkarinque had done no such thing, and that this was only a cruel joke. Nevertheless, he nodded. "It must have been my mistake, I will go and fix that right now."

"You do that," Alkarinque said with a nod. Estel turned from the fire and gathered two of the buckets Alkarinque should have filled, heading again for the river. He could hear them laughing at him, and he wanted to cry, but would not, blinking and clenching his teeth to keep back the tears. He would not let them win.

There was a second fire at camp, around which three grown Elves sat. "They seem to be enjoying themselves," Elrohir commented.

"Yes," Legolas agreed at a burst of laughter from the young group.

Elladan, the only one seated in a way that he could see them, said, "'Ro, tell me we were not like that as children."

"What, happy?" Elrohir asked. "We were often happy, and loud, as well."

"And cruel?" Elladan asked.

"Wha--oh, I should have known!" Elrohir exclaimed. "What have they done to him?"

"Nothing terrible, he is letting them," Elladan said, and Elrohir relaxed.

"I do not understand you two," Legolas said. "You call him your brother, yet you allow the Elven children to treat him this way!" A part of him was angry at this injustice, for though he hardly knew Estel and trusted Men little, he realized that they had feelings as well and should not be thusly abused.

"If we intervene, they will simply find him alone and beat him up," Elrohir replied in a logical tone. "They will say he can do nothing for himself, and stereotype against the race of Men."

"Lord Elrond--"

"Does not know and is not to be told," Elladan cut in sharply. "Estel alone holds the right to make that decision; you, I, and Elrohir do not. He wants to sort this out, of live it through, on his own, and he will be allowed to do so. There is no alternative, Legolas. We give him the support that will neither repress him nor teach him to rely on us. We have no other choice."

"If he told you," Legolas asked carefully, "what would you do?"

"We would tell them, as a whole, how wrong it is to hurt someone like that."

"Elrohir's ideas and mine differ," Elladan added. "I had an exercise in mind. . .it basically goes that I would yell at someone for no decent reason and see how he felt, it would probably have to be Lysander or Naarie, and then the class would realize what they have done. And if I saw them outside of class, beating up Estel, I think you know what I would do."

Legolas nodded. "I know that you would hurt them very badly, Elladan. But why Naarie? He is the nicest boy in the lot!"

"So everyone cares about him."

"You favor Estel unfairly," Legolas observed.

"I would do the same for Arwen or Elrohir," Elladan replied. "Estel is family."

Estel carried the water back to camp. On a hunch, he checked the horses once more, and found that one was missing a shoe. How could that be? He had been very thorough and careful the first time through, and now. . .oh. Of course. Now either he would not report it, in doing so hurt the horse and be in even more trouble when the missing shoe was discovered the next day, or tell Elladan and be sent back to Imladris with the horse. With a heavy heart he trudged past the laugher and warmth of the fire, feeling very lonely and cold, over to Elladan, Elrohir, and Legolas.

"Here comes your chance," Legolas said, as Estel approached.

"What is it, Estel?" Elladan asked.

"One of the horses is missing a shoes," Estel said in a dull voice. Elladan nodded.

"Right." Then he called out, "Alkarinque, Minyadur!" The two Elves in question answered the summons swiftly, casting Estel dirty looks. "One of the horses has lost a shoe, you two will escort it back to Imladris in the morning." With replies of compliance, the three youths headed back to the first fire. Elladan turned to the others. "I would like to see Elemiire without Alkarinque around," he said. "And Minyadur punches the hardest."