~*~ Chapter 5 ~*~

Aragorn gulped, what just happened? The knife slipped up a ways up starting to cut into his skin. His brother was unaware at what just happened and lay there on the ground, trying not to laugh… still.

"E-Elrohir…" the Ranger's voice faltered.

"Shut up human," the elf whispered fiercely, and then repeated his question, "what were you trying to do to him?" He nodded down towards the elf that stiffened at his brother's voice and the other elf's. He didn't dare move, in case something happened. Shaking his head he thought for a moment then slowly turned around to see the elf holding his brother.

"Raenan?" At this the elf with the knife froze and looked towards the voice.

"Legolas? Are you all right? I've been looking everywhere for you when I found this thing harassing this elf." He nodded towards Elrohir.

"Um, actually he wasn't harassing me," Elrohir almost laughed, "I tripped… sort of."

"You tripped?" Elladan asked, smiling cruelly, "don't think I'll forget this."

Legolas laughed, "Okay, that's enough. Raenan put the human down."

At that, Raenan dropped Aragorn and sheathed his blade, never taking his eyes off the human that now crouched down next to the elf on the ground.

Aragorn took hold of Elrohir's hand and started pulling him up… which was a bad idea because as soon as he did, the elf pulled down and brought the human to the ground next to him. In the next second Elrohir was on his feet, laughing at the human on the ground.

"Now who's eating dirt," he asked, grinning wickedly.

Elladan helped his brother off the ground as Legolas explained what had happened to the new elf.

"So you're heading towards the palace to talk to King Thranduil?" Raenan asked.

"Yes, we have to explain all this to him," Elladan broke in.

"Okay then, let us be going," the small elf answered. He turned and began walking through the forest towards the palace. They all followed him quickly.

"So, why were you captured in the first place?" Raenan asked.

"To tell you the truth I don't know," the young human answered.

"Oh," the short elf just gazed ahead of him.

In an hour, they had all reached the palace and quickly entered. Legolas led the way to the main room and walked in.

"Father, there are some here who wish to speak with you," he said matter-of-factly.

"Ah, well, show them in."

Legolas quickly brought in the two elves and the human. King Thranduil was not incredibly pleased to see the human but listened to the two elves.

"So you see, sire, that the human was adopted by my father, Elrond and he was sent to take care of a few orcs that had managed to escape our realm alive," Elladan finished after a few moments.

The king sighed and slowly nodded, "Very well, the human may go."

"Thank you sire," Elrohir said.

"I will have my son escort you out of the forest," he replied, then stood and walked towards his room.

Legolas nodded at them and smiled, "Okay, let's go then."

The rest nodded and followed him out to the forest edge. Before they left, they made sure they had enough food and then marched out into the forest. Legolas still did not completely trust the human; at least he no longer felt threatened by him.

Once they were in the forest, Legolas could tell the human was used to being out in areas such as these. He was able to pick his way through the trees and over hills and streams almost as easy as if he were an elf. He'd never noticed before, what with himself or the human trying to escape each other all the time.

Aragorn had been able to keep up with the swift-moving elves… though it was not easy. When they finally settled down for the night, the Ranger was quite relieved. Almost as soon as he lied down, he had fallen asleep. A couple minutes after he had fallen asleep, Elladan was next to him, cleaning up his small wounds and stitching up the gash over his right eye. He put a bandage around his head carefully and tied it tightly on the side so that it covered the stitching. Elrohir was next to him and held his head up gently as they did this and then helped finishing with the small cuts and scrapes. Legolas smiled, despite the fact that it was a human; the twins cared for him like a brother. He thought it was quite amazing that an elf could take to a human that way.

- That human has an awful lot of names, - he laughed slightly, - well, he had three at least. -

"Sut ro?" he asked quietly in elvish. //How is he? //

"Ro tereva, ro anta esta, ro ha n'uma en'bela" Elrohir laughed. // He is fine, he needs rest, he has (I think, not sure ^) no energy, //

"Ro uma quel," Legolas answered. //He did well, //

Elladan smiled at the young man by his side. It is true, Estel does much better than most humans would, it was probably the Ranger in him. Though growing up with elves probably helped him a lot.

"We should take turns watching tonight," Elladan suggested, "just in case."

"That's a good idea," his younger twin answered, Legolas nodded.

~*~*~*~*~*~

The night was uneventful and when Estel woke up, he found it was still early and all but the watcher were sleeping. It was Legolas' turn and he stared straight out into the woods, not appearing to do much but was listening intently to his surroundings. The elf smiled when the human woke up.

-Awake already? - he thought, -even Elladan and Elrohir aren't up yet. -

The human watched the elf for a moment. Legolas had his bow in his hand and his quiver within easy reach if needed. Aragorn glanced over to where his own bow lay. He had become good at fletching arrows but even though he had a good bow and good arrows, he wasn't very good at archery.

-Maybe he'd be willing to help me out, - he thought, -might as well ask… what have I got to lose? –

With that, the human got up and, grabbing his bow and arrows, walked over towards the elf.

"Mani uma ro irma sii'?" Legolas said aloud when the human sat a little ways away from him, not thinking that since he lived in Rivendell he would know elvish. //What does he want now? //

Aragorn put on his most hurt expression, and, trying not to laugh, said, "Quel amin nae noi' wanwai a' lit lle a' anta amin yassen amin cuari." // Well I was only (I think) going to ask (?) you to help me with my archery.
//

Legolas jumped and stared for a second, -well duh! He lives in Rivendell, - he mentally slapped himself, "how do you know I'm any good at archery?"

"Well," the human stated, "I for one wouldn't bring a weapon with me to guard if I wasn't good at using it."

"True," the elf nearly smiled at the human's sureness, "I suppose I could help you."

In an hour, the Ranger was able to shoot and hit small targets easily without any help. He had been okay at it before, which helped now and that combined with the fact that he was a fast learner, helped him be able to do so well in so little time. Even Legolas was impressed at how fast the human could learn. By the time the human's brothers were up, he could shoot an arrow as well as they could.

"How was that?" Aragorn grinned when he hit the target they had marked on a tree with ash from their fire dead on.

"Great!" Legolas was still surprised at how quickly the human could learn.

"How DID you manage that?" Elrohir asked after standing up in surprise when he saw his little brother shoot the target perfectly.

"What he said," Elladan smiled wickedly.

Aragorn gave his brother's a hurt look, "What? Did you not think me capable of it?"

Elrohir adopted his brother's wicked grin, "Actually no."

"I think it was a fluke and we just woke up at the right time," Elladan said cruelly.

At that, Aragorn turned and notched another arrow to his bow then drew, lined it up so that the arrow was pointed just above the target and released. He turned and made a face at his brothers as the arrow hit the target dead center.

"Now what was that you were saying?" the Ranger grinned.

The twins turned bemused glares at the Prince of Mirkwood who snickered at the two.

"What?" he asked, still trying to stifle his laughs, "it's not every day you get to see the twins of Elrond proven wrong."

"Yeah? Well if I… we…" Elrohir corrected himself, "have anything to do with it, you never will again."

"Come on you guys, let's go," Aragorn said laughing, trying to stop any further arguments, he normally would have found this great and would have usually joined in… but at the moment, he just wanted to get to the castle and get it over with.

Legolas shook his head and stifled a laugh, "He's right, we should get going."

Elrohir smiled, "We should get there in a couple hours if we hurry."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Aragorn smiled slightly, "Well, this is goodbye."

Legolas nodded. They had reached the edge of the forest and that was as far as he was going to go. He never thought he'd ever see any human as a friend, but that was the way he was beginning to see this one. Just beginning. He wasn't sure if he'd ever even see the human again.

"Well, we'd better get home before father sends out someone to find us," Elladan said, "let's go."

"Yes, goodbye," Elrohir said.

"Goodbye, my friends," Legolas said.

With that the three turned and walked off. Legolas waved until they were out of sight.

"Well that's it," he sighed. He shook his head and turned to go home.

- I can't help but wonder if I'll ever see them again, - he thought, then shook his head again and sighed, - probably not. -

"Legolas!" Raenan suddenly appeared from out of the trees, "King Thranduil sent me to get you."

Legolas looked at him, he was mounted on his charcoal gray horse and was holding Legolas' white Stallion. The prince smiled at the smaller elf and turned his horse around heading back into the trees silently.


The End





LalaithoftheBruinen- I'm gald ya' like it! Really!
Bunnies: *under bed*
Bunny #1: is she gone yet?
Bunny #2: *peeks out from under bed to get snagged by me* *squeaks* Nope!
EK: Hehehehe, my initials are E.K... hehe ek... *giggles and huggles
suffocating bunny* oops...
:)

Agent Of Darkness- I'll keep that in mind! Thanks 4 continuing to post 4 me! 'Tis greatly appreatiated! I'll slow it down... in like my 3rd book :) I'm on the 3rd ch. of the 3rd book already... been slowing down in my writting but I've picked it up again... :)

feanen- good, no more interesting????????? *eyes get big than bursts out laughing* It's good now tho!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :):):)

mascara freak- I'm glad it's great! I'm real glad ya' think it's well written! :)

Look out 4 sequel... I'm really bad at names but 4 now it's called 'Hello Again' will be posted soon!

...Poor grasshopper... wha? oh... enjoy!