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

Grumpy: Wow. . .thank you. . .

Lady Laughing Owl: Yeah, I'm pretty mean to him, aren't I? And again, it's fine. All right, in truth I was pretty annoyed, but hey, it's not the path, it's what you do at the end of it. Or something like that. Um, could you please clarify what I am trying to say here?

Maranwe: Well, it wasn't exactly written yet. But thanks. And, in spite of my no spoilers rule, I will say that "poor Aragorn" is quite accurate for this story!

Leggylover03: Woah, breathe! I'm only human here!

*****

The absence of Minyadur had very little affect on the group, but the absence of Alkarinque brought a rather more noticeable change. There was an air of suspense about them, every one wondering what would happen, expecting something huge. As they followed Elladan's orders to pack up camp and move out, each boy looked to the next, as if mentally prodding him into motion.

"Right," Elladan began, not at all bothered by the apprehensive air. "As we are getting farther and farther from Imladris, the danger we are in is increasing. Every one will be assigned a partner, you will stay with the person you are assigned to. Look out for your partner. There is to be no swapping of partners!" The meaning of this last part was clear as day: often, they were partnered up, and always people passed around the same two children, until at last Estel and Muriel were stuck together yet again. Elladan meant not to allow that, this time. "Wilwarindi and Muriel are partners; Naarie and Elemiire; Luinil and Karnil; Lysander and Estel. Those are your partners, now let's get moving!"

The group jostled about for a while, each child trying to catch up to or fall back to their partner. Lysander and Estel rode first, directly behind Elladan, and followed by Luinil and Karnil, who snickered, pleased to be paired together and planning mischief. Wilwarindi and Muriel came next, quite silent. Lastly of the students was Naarie and Elemiire, a pair Elladan wondered about in particular. Elrohir and Legolas rode at the end of the line, keeping certain no one got left behind.

"Lysander. . ." Estel ventured. Many hours had passed; the sun was high in the sky and birds sang merrily. "When every one is in a group, together, why do you never stick up for me? Why do you let them do what they do? We were friends, once."

"Estel, I thought you understood," Lysander replied, giving him an anguished look.

"Well, I clearly do not."

Lysander took a deep breath. This was not something he truly wanted to admit: neither to himself, nor to Estel. "When every one else is watching, I cannot be known as a friend to you because they would shun me then as they do you now."

"Really?" asked Estel sarcastically. "You are the most popular boy of this lot. If you told them to hold back, do you truly think they would not hold back?"

Lysander shook his head. "It has gone on too long, Estel, too long for that. Now teasing you is practically a pastime for them. What would you have me do?"

"Lysander," Estel replied calmly, "you know full well that it is more than teasing. I have seen you standing by, watching, though you try not to, hiding in the shadows and doing nothing as I suffer their angers. You lurk in the shadows unseen and watch their crimes committed, and even after you do not report it, nor do you help me when I cannot manage to so much as stand. You have seen me crawl like a beast away from them. You have seen my defiance and my breaking. All of this you have seen, and done nothing to stop."

"Do you think it easy to bear these memories?" Lysander hissed.

"You bear the memories as I bear the pain and scars, Lysander," Estel replied through clenched teeth, his anger barely contained. How could Lysander even begin to believe that he had suffered simply because he had seen?

"I do not mean to say that I have suffered more than you. What I mean to say is that I only watched because--well, because I knew. I had to see it for myself, so I would not be fooled, and believe their lies. You see, Estel, after that one time I. . ." he lowered his voice. "Remember that time, seven years ago, when I. . ."

"When you beat me up?" asked Estel of course he remembered: Lysander had been huge, at least, it seemed so, to eight-year-old Estel.

Lysander seemed ashamed of it. "Yes. Clearly you remember. After that I. . .the reason I did that to you, Estel, was that I had defended you the day before, and they had laughed at me and called me an edan-lover. If I had not hurt you, I would have been ostracized. I knew it was wrong but-- but I had to do it."

"So you let them corner me, allowed Luinil and Karnil to hold my arms, and punched me until I could no longer hold myself up?" asked Estel, remembering all too clearly.

"I. . ."

"Then you stopped, right, you stopped when they had to literally hold me to keep me from falling down, and you told them to drop me--and then, when I thought it was over, it was enough that I was bleeding, retching, and covered in mud, you kicked me, hard, and set an example. . ."

"I could not stop them!" Lysander quickly interrupted.

"Nor could I," replied Estel darkly.

"How did you stand it?" Lysander asked, no longer defensive but in awe.

"When ever I was not around the others, I learned to forget about them. In lessons with Glorfindel, I learned history and philosophy such as I have always enjoyed. To add to that, I was a healthy boy with two brothers and a father, all of whom loved me very much, as I loved them. There was nothing wrong with my life." Estel had to blink back tears as he realized the terrible truth: he had a horribly pathetic existence. Lysander was looking at him with curious, pitying eyes. "I never realized before quite how terrible things really were for me."

"That's some optimism," Lysander replied, not sure what else to say. He was yet unready to admit the truth, again: that he is sorry.

Meanwhile, Karnil and Luinil were getting rather bored. The sun was near to setting and soon they would be stopping. The two were sore in their saddles, muscles stiffening and tiring. "I spy with my eye, something that is. . ." Karnil looked about. "This is a dumb game," he said.

"It was your idea," Luinil replied.

"Well, it was a dumb idea," Karnil shot back. They were silent, steaming, for a few moments. Then Karnil remembered something, and he kicked Luinil to get his attention. "I dare you to put this down Estel's shirt," Karnil whispered, pulling a dead worm from his pocket and handing it to Luinil.

Luinil laughed. "All right," he said, taking the worm and nudging his horse forward the smallest bit. This did not go unnoticed by the others, nor was it meant to. Naarie looked on, disapproving, as Elemiire watched eagerly. Muriel, also, had a malicious gleam in her eyes. Legolas also observed, looking torn: should he intervene? It seemed wrong to let such a thing happen. Luckily he was saved from making this decision by Lysander, who snapped around and grabbed Luinil's wrist.

"Let him be," Lysander commanded angrily. He could not believe he had done this, but felt dreadful with the knowledge of what he had done to Estel, and wanted to make up for it. This was all he could do, for now, but he would do more later, or so resolved Lysander, at least. Luinil backed down, looking angry.

The rest of the ride passed in hostility. No one spoke, and even the adult Elves could not ignore the thick air. It was a great relief to every one when Elladan called a halt. He dismounted, tied up his mount, and waited for the others to imitate. The conversations he overheard had rendered his throat dry and rather contracted, and so with great effort Elladan doled out duties for each of the students to perform, then sat, leaning against a thick tree, and rubbed his hands over his face.

"What is it, Elladan?" Elrohir asked. "Surely this is not all about the worm?"

"No," Elladan replied. "It is nothing. I was only thinking. . .do you suppose we should head back, Elrohir? Are they ready for this?"

"They do fool around quite a bit, but they know how to be serious, Elladan. You and I both know this. We have seen it. They are ready," Elrohir assured him.

"And if they are not?"

"Then they had better learn quick," was all he could think to say. Elladan smiled a crooked smile, his lip peeling back to reveal the teeth beneath it; a feral sort of smile. And then Elladan laughed, a full, out- and-out laugh. "It was not even terribly funny, Elladan!" Elrohir chided.

"Of course not," Elladan replied, making his face as innocent as possibly. After a moment his eyes darkened, and he drew Elrohir close, whispering in his brother's ear, "I hate this, Elrohir. You know that, do you not? I hate not being able to do anything for him."

"He can take care of himself, Elladan," Elrohir replied. He cared for Estel, of course, but knew and accepted the harder truth: the boy would grow, as he had already done very much, and he would be a king. He would have to hold his own, he would have to stand alone. It had been Elrohir who, for many years, held back Elladan, physically restraining him when necessary, that he would not interfere. Every time, Elrohir had hoped Estel would hold his own, and in some ways he had: he had run, he spat, he tried to fight back. A sicker part of Elrohir was even proud of Estel for not crying out, not giving them even that satisfaction. He wondered often, what would Estel do, given the chance to have his revenge? Would he take it, and if so, how far?

That night, when Elladan, Elrohir, Muriel, Wilwarindi, Naarie, and Elemiire were asleep, and the others believed themselves the only ones awake, Luinil, who was on watch at the time, knelt over Karnil and poked him. "What is it?" replied Karnil, keeping his voice low.

"Karnil. I want revenge."

"On who, Lysander?"

"And Estel; we owe him a trick for the worm."

"What do you propose we do about it, then?"

Luinil had mulled this over, and come to a conclusion. "Obvious the Idiot Twins are not going to let us get away with anything, not if they know about it, so we will need to be careful--"

"Luinil!"

"What?"

"Well, they--Elladan and Elrohir--are not only our instructors, they are the sons of Lord Elrond."

"So what?"

"So. . .Luinil, they are lords themselves, we should not--you should not disrespect them like that!"

"Karnil, that is completely beside the point, now listen. . ."

Not far off, Legolas frowned. He did not like hearing the twins spoken about in such a manner, and knew that Luinil was being disrespectful and arrogant simply because he could, or perhaps out of insecurity. Nevertheless, it was rude. He had not been such a malicious youth--had he? How did that boy--Estel, Legolas reminded himself, Estel--get by in such company? Always Legolas had thought lowly of edain, believing them to be weak and stupid, but meeting Estel made him wonder. No, he decided, Estel cannot help what he is any more than he can change it--he is a mortal, therefore he is stupid and weak. And Legolas took a deep breath, and hardened his heart.

Estel lay sprawled on top of his bedroll, slightly chilled by the night air, gazing at the stars. They were beautiful, so many of them, so bright and clear. A smile spread across his face. Watching them made him feel small and insignificant, and this certainly put things in perspective for him. "When ever I fail," he whispered to the wind, so quietly none could discern his words but the heavens above, "it matters, because those who care that I have failed matter to me. This is why I must succeed. Even if the other Elflings happen to hate me, at least it is not all of them-- Lysander is yet a friend, and Oswald. Oswald is sweet. . .I miss being on the same level as him, really, but what can be done about it?

"Stars. Right. I am focusing on the stars. They do make me feel quite good--they make me realize how little it all matters, and that is really a reassuring thought. When I used to be. . .well, when they were hitting me. . .I always thought of the stars, repeating constellations over in my head. I knew that if I could just keep the stars in sight, I would know that none of it truly mattered. Is this pathetic? I never supposed so, but perhaps from an outsider's perspective it is. So what? I am Estel, and no other.

"Yeah." Estel sighed and closed his eyes, letting the wind take him flying among the stars he so loved.

*****

TBC

Right, please review (but please don't flame)! I promise a real big event next chapter!