Hi all!! Well, got little time, so I'm going to right ahead with the responses, kay? :D

SilvanLegolas: Having fun plotting, are we? ;) Yeah, I must admit with Edren, Thranduil and Mornaeg around, it's a wonder 'mystery' isn't in this thing's genre instead of 'drama'. ;)

Szhismine: LOL! Well, here's the more you wanted. ;) Darth Legolas? *shivers* oh joy. ;)

Lady of the Forest: *looks uncertainly at Legolas plushie* hm. Gee, thanks. I- uh -dunno what to say. *pats plushie on the head* good Greenleaf. :P Yeah, well, I must admit, I was rather looking forward to dunking Mornaeg out the window myself. :D what fun!

Maranwe: You've probably been one of the brightest guessers, Maranwe, keep on guessing! I can't answer you, as you know, but I can tell you this: You've gotten uncannily close several times now. ;)

Elven ice Angel: Oh, don't worry about reviewing Erfier if you haven't got the time. I understand, I'm just glad you had the time to read it! :D Ah yes, I love POTC. *chants* Spar-ROW! Spar-ROW! Spar-ROW! ;)

Witchmaster: AH yes, I've heard that song! That's one of my favorite Michelle Branch ones, but I don't listen to her a lot. That works uncannily well! :)

Lina: *blinks* umn…*is at a loss of response* okay, Lina! *stares blankly at Estel* erm…nice to see you alive again. *nod* Estel: Oh, well, hannon le. Lina: I TOLD YOU! I TOLD YOU! I TOLD YOU HE'S NOT DEAD! See the grilled cheese sandwich? I told you! HAHAH! Eomer: *sigh* There'll be no living with her after this… Estel: You're telling me. Legolas: What's with the Rohirrim eating grilled cheese. Me: Never you mind, Greenleaf. Now go and despair or whatever it is you elves do. Legolas: *un-amused look* Me: *grin* Estel: *confused blink* Lina: *giggles* Eomer: *sigh* WE RIDE SOUTH, I SAID!! ;)

Oh, and as for Michael W. Smith, "In My Arms Again" is off his album Live the Life (my favorite album of his) and "All You're Missing is a Heartache" is off of Eye to Eye. These are the ones of his I own, in order of which ones I like the best:

Live the Life

This is Your Time

Freedom (all music)

I'll Lead You Home

The Big Picture

Go West Young Man

Eye to Eye

Project

2 (yes, that's the title alright ;)

Believe it or not, I don't actually own either of his Worship albums, but I've heard a lot off of them, and they sound great! :D

Ashley: LOL!! So great to see you! Sorry, I guess my email didn't reach you. Several of them came back undelivered, and I couldn't get them to send. :( But the important things is YOU'RE HERE!! :D Don't worry about being behind, just go ahead and read to catch up, you don't have to review every step of the way either. :) Just so long as you have the time to read! :D

Firnsarnien: So many questions, so little time- so much for answers though, I'm afraid I can only give veiled ones. ;) Oooh, you don't think he's DEAD? Why ever not? *grin* That seems to be the general consensus all right, but I'm not sure if you want to go with that, though you're welcome to. I mean-and this is something that's baffled me as well-how could he possibly still be alive?

Ithildin: I'm glad you're reading and enjoying my stories, Ithildin, but I don't want swear-words in my reviews, please. I'm highly against swearing, and that may annoy you, but that's the truth, and I would very much appreciate it if you wouldn't swear, ESPECIALLY the "f" word. Even with a couple *** in it, it's clear what the word is, and I'd rather not have that in there, please. Thank you very much! Oh, and as for the email, I sent you one, but it came back undelivered, and I couldn't get it to send after that. I guess my mailer's been having more trouble than I thought. *sigh* anyway, at least you're hear now! :D Enjoy the chapter! :)

Okay, people, here we go!

*****

Chapter 6

Meltha

"We should inform my father of Mornaeg's death," Legolas murmured quietly as he and Edren journeyed back down the dark staircase. Legolas didn't even stop at his door, but moved quickly down the hall, and up a familiar flight of stairs. Turning abruptly, he marched to his father's door. Not even pausing, or waiting for Edren, he lifted his fist to the oak door, and rapt it quickly.

Nothing.

Legolas didn't bother knocking again. "Father? Father, it is Legolas!"

Nothing. Of course.

Legolas sighed, and as if in frustration, kicked at the doorpost beside the locked door. Edren thought at first that the prince had broken it, but then he realized the piece of wood that fell away from the doorpost was a perfect rectangle.

Legolas automatically stooped down, and pulled from the hole the broken piece had left, a small, silver key. Standing up again, he shoved it into the lock, turned it easily, and then put it back into the hollow post. As he was placing the wooden piece into it's place again, he glanced up at his friend. "Oh…" he murmured, as though he'd only just noticed Edren standing there. "Uh…you…didn't see that."

Edren nodded. "Understood," he grinned.

Legolas smiled briefly, and then turned the unlocked doorknob, and swiftly walked inside. "Stay here, Edren, please."

"Of course." Edren nodded, knowing how conversations between Legolas and his father could get.

**********

"Father?" Legolas closed the door quietly behind him, and widened his eyes in the darkness, trying hard to see through the gloom. A loud crash startled him, and it took him a few moments to realize that he had been the one to cause it. Righting the side table he'd walked into, he kept walking through the dark room.

Finally, he realized his father's great bed was before him, at knee level. "Father?" Legolas repeated, squinting down at the blankets, trying to see if his father lay there. But looking up, he finally saw that Thranduil was standing at the window, looking through the heavy curtains.

"Father, I must speak with you."

"What is it," came a soft reply, that sounded quite unlike Thranduil.

"I need to tell you about-"

"What *is* it?!"

"Edren and I were-"

"What is it, and where has it gone?!"

"Where is- what is *what*?!" Legolas knelt on the bed, looking intently at his father, fear piercing his heart. These strange comments that so often fell from the elfking's lips were beginning to frighten him.

"The feeling. I don't understand it, I don't know where it is! I want it back, find it Legolas, bring it back!"

"I- Father, I do not know of what you speak! I cannot help you, unless you talk sense."

Thranduil didn't answer, he only turned back to the window. "Then you are no use to me. Leave."

Legolas sighed. "Listen, Father. Mornaeg is dead."

"What? How?!" The elfking demanded, whirling about.

Legolas paused only a moment. "He jumped out of the window in his tower room. Soon after he came in Aragorn's bedroom before…Aragorn went."

Tranduil looked out the window again, shaking. The room had been silent before, but now, the silence was so deafening and purposeful, it hurt Legolas' ears. Thanduil was shaking, but not with tears. As he turned, Legolas could see anger etched on his face.

"So…you weren't satisfied with killing Minaeg, you had to kill his brother as well!"

Replies like: "That's not true!" or "You're wrong!" or "What are you talking about?!" came like a flood through Legolas' mind, but none seemed to express the utter confusion and rage he felt boiling in him, so he kept silent, as his face vaguely portrayed what he was feeling.

Thranduil seemed to take his silence as assent, as he crossed away from the window, and approached his bed, where Legolas knelt. "Why must you destroy everything I love?! What will you leave me with?!"

Legolas still couldn't speak. His mouth had gone dry in fear. Slowly, he began to crawl backwards off the bed, but Thranduil lurched forward, grabbing his son by the forearm, jerking it angrily. "I am speaking to you!" Legolas' arm flew out from under him, and he fell sideways out of his crawling position.

His head contacted hard with something glass. Looking around as best he could, with his father still holding his arm and whispering incoherently, he found himself face-to-face with a glass tankard. Turning his head to the other side, he realized that there was an empty and broken casket sitting beside the bed.

Cold fear took hold of him as he looked up at his father once more. As the king muttered on, Legolas caught a trace of wine on his father's breath. "Father?" he asked quietly, trying to ignore the growing pain in his captive arm. "Father, why have you been drinking? It is still spring…you save the wine you have opened till fall, to celebrate the Hunting that begins then."

The king just looked blankly down at him. "What are you saying. That a king cannot drink his own *wine* now?!"

"No," Legolas murmured gently. Fond as he knew Thranduil was of wine, he also knew that the elfking seldom got drunk on the special drink, especially wine as strong as this, unless for celebration…or just the opposite, which was the reason Legolas suspected his father was drinking it now. To forget.

"Father…why are you drinking?"

Thranduil finally seemed to focus on his son, and his grip on the prince's arm relaxed a bit. "Because…because…I hate myself. Because it's all wrong. Because I cannot find Meltha!"

Legolas shuddered a the words. "You do not hate yourself. And we can make this right again. Please, let me talk to you." Legolas' silver eyes searched the matching ones above him. "Let me be your son. Please."

Thranduil was silent a long moment. Finally, "I d-don't want a son. I want Meltha! I want Meltha back, Legolas."

Legolas swallowed hard at the rejection as well as the latter comment. "Naneth isn't coming back, Father. You know that. Please…don't dwell on it."

The king's face was still resistant, but he seemed to relax just a bit more, and Legolas finally pulled his arm back, rubbing it ruefully.

"But you don't understand, Legolas. I have *seen* Meltha again."

Legolas shook his head in despair. "It is the wine, Father."

"You don't know what I know," Thranduil excused easily, and smiled a smile that was strange and eerie on his fair face. Sighing, as if in forgiveness of his son, he added, "What have you come to tell me, fion nin, I cannot remember."

Legolas bit his lip. "Mornaeg is dead."

Thranduil looked up at the prince suddenly, and something in him seemed to snap. Legolas caught it, and quickly made a duck off the bed, but wasn't quite quick enough. He had almost made it away from the mattress, when he felt sudden pain in his head, and was pulled backwards by his hair.

Landing on his back, sprawled on the bed once more, he found himself looking up at Thranduil again. "You've ruined everything!" the king shouted. "You've killed him!"

"I have not-"

"Ea diinen!" his father shouted furiously, lashing out with the hand that wasn't clutching his son's hair.

//be silent!//

Legolas' hand flew to his stinging cheek, and memories of that night when Aragorn had first been poisoned by Bengwiil came flooding into his mind…

Thranduil stepped out of the door at this. He looked only a moment at his son before his hand flew. Legolas flinched, and stood stunned, holding his stinging cheek. Thranduil looked frightened. Questioning why he had even struck his son. He stood staring as if lost for a long moment, and then turned away, the look of guilt on his face again.

There was no sign of this guilt anymore. Something in Thranduil had gone just too far. The king's breath shuddered. "You do not know what you have done."

Legolas felt a cold shiver run down his body. No, he couldn't listen to this again! The same words from his dream, long ago, it seemed, echoed in his head. Had that been a vision? Had his dream been a look into the future? But it was impossible…his father had known what words had been spoken in the dream…

"It was *you* father. You were dieing. I tried to speak to you, but I couldn't say anything. And then you began to sink into the bed below. You were so heavy, I couldn't hold you up. And you spoke, saying, 'you do-'"

"'You do not know what you have done.'"

It could *not* have been a vision. But- why was it in his dream? It all seemed…familiar…

Legolas stared up at the elfking, wondering, fearing what he may do. For a moment, he did nothing. Then, as if in a spasm, he hurled the prince forward, letting go of his hair midway, and allowing him land flat on the floor. Legolas pushed himself up, and tasted blood.

He stumbled to his feet, and whirled around in time to duck the tankard that was hurled at his head. "Father, stop!" he cried desperately, as he tried to get behind the king to catch his flailing arms, so he couldn't throw anything else.

Thranduil caught the maneuver too quickly, and swiveled around, hitting his son hard in the face with his elbow. Legolas was sent sprawling once more, this time, into another barrel. The scent of wine fill the empty air to the brim, and Legolas found himself thrashing in the sticky liquid, trying to pull out of it's overbearing odor.

Finally free of the crimson puddle, he dived over the bed, and grabbed his father's robes. The king tried to shove his son away again, but Legolas heaved backwards, dragging his father across the bed with him, and landing him hard on the huge mattress.

Legolas scrambled for his father's hands until he gripped both wrists tightly. "Father!" He shouted down at the elfking. "Lasto beth nin! It is I, it is Legolas! It is your son! Hauta han!"

//listen to me!…stop this!//

Thranduil stared blankly up at the fair being above him, as if he stared down a stranger. "Why do you care…I have killed Aragorn with my Bengwiil, right? I have hurt you, right? I have been drunk and foolish. I have not been the father you wish me to be. I have not been Elrond to you, have I, Legolas? Have I!?"

Legolas swallowed back his tears. Had he not thought these very words before? He knew that he had been less than satisfied with his father. But no. No, he refused to let himself believe that. "I don't care what you've done."

"Yes you do," Thranduil whispered, seeing unconscious agreement in the prince's eyes. "Then be it so, I do not care. I will not be your father, then. And I have no son."

Legolas couldn't believe his ears. "Father, you do not know what you speak."

"I do know! I know that if you despise me as your father, I cannot be so! Nay, I *will* not be so. I want Meltha! I want Meltha to be back! I hate you, leave me!" With a sudden burst of energy, the king threw Legolas off him, and sent the prince soaring backwards away from the bed.

Legolas had a few second to think, before he felt his body slam against the wall, and slump to the floor. Everything was vague and forgotten for several moments. He suddenly felt himself being jerked upright. His father held him around the waist, just barely keeping him on his feet. As Legolas' throbbing head reeled back, Thranduil looked into his eyes, and demanded: "Where is Meltha?"

"I don't-" Legolas forced out.

"Don't tell me you don't know! Where is she, Legolas, what have we done to her?!"

"We haven't done a thing to her!" Legolas snapped back, feeling ire rise in his chest, giving him the strength he needed to respond. "She is gone, Father. It's nobody's fault, it's not our doing. She's just gone."

Thranduil was shaking his head already. "No, no, I've seen her. I've seen her, Legolas. She's coming back, she told me…we need her."

"Istón," Legolas whispered, pulling his feet back under him, and standing straight in his father's grip. "But she's go-"

"She is not gone! She is not gone! She is my Meltha! Beloved! I *need* her back!"

"Mother's not coming back!" Legolas shouted, pushing away from his father at last, anger burning silver in his eyes. "She's not coming back! Stop tormenting me, Father, I do *not* need someone else to miss! I've all ready lost Aragorn, I don't need to lose Naneth *again*." At last, his tone softened, and he saw the anger dissolve into all it was underneath. Hurt. "Hauta han," he sighed. "Ea us er nin."

//stop this. Just leave me alone.//

Thranduil sank to his bed, silent, as Legolas inched away from him. Neither knew what to do. Legolas wondered if he should turn and run, but he couldn't make his feet go any faster. He seemed mesmerized by his father's pain.

Slowly, Thranduil raised his head again, and fixed Legolas with a weary stare. "Don't you even miss her?" he begged, longing for sympathy.

"Of *course* I miss her," Legolas sighed, looking with bewilderment into his father's eyes. "But I'm not willing to let go of everything else, so I can miss her some more."

Silence touched the air once more, and Legolas finally finished what he'd come to start. "Mornaeg is in a tree outside his tower window. I suggest we cut him down, and burry him as soon as we can. But- you cannot ask *me* to, Father. I am sorry. I can't."

Thranduil said nothing. Silently, he leaned over his knees, covered his face with his shaking hands, and wept softly. Legolas could not bring himself to say anything. He could no longer understand his father. All he could hope to do is be there when the king became himself again.

Legolas, giving his father's shaking back a last glance, turned and left the dark room without a sound. When Thranduil looked up, there was no one there. "Fion- fion nin," he whispered, but there was no response. The tears rushed in afresh, when he realized what he'd done. "Legolas!" he cried. "Legolas, what did I say? What happened?! What did I s-" His throat seemed to seal itself, leaving only enough room to gasp through his tears.

He sat there a long time, trying to answer his question. But hard as he tried, the king couldn't recall the conversation he must have had. All he remembered was: "Mornaeg is dead." and Legolas' frightened face.

No… he thought miserably not again…did it happen again…?