Chapter 2 – New Arrivals And Old Friends
The undergrounds halls of the Mirkwood king were a flurry of last minute preparations. Everywhere, Elves were running around making sure everything was perfect for the elves of Imladris. The royal family was no acceptation, especially the king and queen who were in a flurry of panic and jostled hurry.
Oroweth, Astaler, Nuryávië and little Calensil seemed to be perfect, as always, Calensil loving every square inch of the special treatment that she was being given. Thellind, Nilwethion and Legolas however, were quite the opposite. Somehow they didn't seem to be doing anything right; 'accidentally' tripping up and ripping new, perfect clothes, not being able to find the hairbrush, loosing everything they needed and generally making a mess of everything. This was nothing new, however, but it still made the stress that their poor parents were under increase dramatically.
"How are we going to survive?" moaned Legolas, after eventually finding his hairbrush in the obvious place, on his dressing table by the mirror. He began to drag it through his golden hair, ripping out fine strands in the process. He glowered at the reflection in the mirror. Thellind shrugged, preoccupied by trying to find a shoe.
"Maybe if we are lucky we won't," came the reply from Nilwethion, half submerged under the bed.
"What are you doing?" Legolas took just enough time out from tugging the brush roughly through his hair to see his brother emerging, victorious, from under the bed, his hair looking as though he had been dragged through a bush backwards, kicking and screaming. Nilwethion held up an ancient wooden box, badly carved from oak wood which looked as though it would fall apart as soon as it was looked at. It had obviously been through a lot, and had not been made by a professional.
"Found it!" he grinned, holding his prise with great care "Come here. Where are the others?"
"I do not know. They have been ready for ages, unlike lucky old us . . . hey! I know that box!"
Legolas and Thellind scrambled over from where they had been rushing to prepare themselves for the guests and teetered on the edge of the bed, looking at the old box with wide eyes.
"I wondered where he went." Whispered Thellind, as Legolas just stared with his mouth hanging open slightly. "How could you just stuff him under your bed like that?"
"I needed to hide him quickly. What would the servants and the guards think of us if they knew we still kept him?" came Nilwethion's reply, "Halallindë was coming in and I needed to hide him. She dragged me off because adar was angry with me again and I forgot to get him back out."
They carefully opened the ancient box, revealing an equally ancient and battered teddy bear, showing all the signs of years of love and care. One of the large, bright blue glass eyes had fallen out, and was replaced by a small red button, half the size of the other eye. The thread it was attached with seemed to be a dull shade of mossy green. One ear hung limply by a single stitch, and the pink leather that was once so new and perfect was now scraggy, half ripped and half glued on to the ears and paws by sticky tree sap. The brown fur was all worn away, only appearing here and there in balding tufts, gone lumpy with age and hugs. The rest of the toy was worn so thin in places that the stuffing showed and was trying to make its way through. The little black nose was long gone, replaced by an empty nutshell, and the string making the shape of the mouth was fluffy and shrivelled.
Legolas carefully picked up the battered toy with the love and respect of a parent picking up a newborn child, and held it up to see it more easily in the flickering lamplight, grinning widely.
"Lin!" he breathed, "I thought you had left us!"
"Little Greenleaf, what is that you have?"
The three princes whipped around, startled. Legolas flung the dilapidated bear behind his back, only to see it that it was just Nuryävié standing there with Calensil in front of him. The three breathed a collective sigh of relief, and Legolas brought the ancient mascot back in to view.
"Look who Nilwethion found," he grinned, holding up Lin carefully. The brother and sister gasped.
Calensil tore across the room and plucked Lin out of her brothers' hands and began to cradle it. She stopped suddenly and turned to Legolas, a tear glistening in her eye.
"Where is his ear, Legolas?" she whimpered. The ear, which had only moments ago been hanging on by a single stitch, was gone. The four brothers turned as pale as the new snow in winter, and started looking around for it desperately, flinging aside everything to find it. The small triangle of forlorn fabric had fallen off when Legolas had tried to hide the bear, the thread not able to take any more. Thellind picked it up and held it to the light.
"Oh no," he moaned, "Poor Lin! His ear!"
"I shall sew it back on as soon as I get a moment," said Legolas, his voice shaking slightly, "We had better put him back in the box before he gets hurt any more."
Calensil gently returned Lin to the box and Thellind laid the little ear by the bear, and then they closed the creaking lid. A tear dribbled down her cheek. Legolas grabbed her in to a hug as more tears began to flow down her pretty face.
"Hey, shush little baby. Don't cry, Legolas is going to make Lin better. You have to stop crying now because the nice elves from Imladris are coming any minute and we have to go down to the great hall to meet them. You do not want to cry in front of them do you?"
The little princes shook her pretty head tearfully as Nilwethion used his sleeve as to mop up her tears. Nuryävié took her doll like hand and led her out of the room. As he was closing the door he turned to Thellind, Nilwethion and Legolas.
"For the sake of the Valar get ready and get down there before adar gets angry. He is already tense enough as it is!"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The sons of Elrond were quite definitely bored and tired. They may not have appeared to be from the outside, but they had just travelled through miles of unchanging darkness for what seemed like months and months, and they had not eaten since they had left the camp on the path in what had to pass as morning, and there was nothing to look at or do other than ride their horses and make mindless conversation. The halls of Mirkwood had come in to view, and they had been greeted by ten soldiers, led by a captain. He had a deep and recent gash across his left cheek, and unblinking eyes. The elf looked tired, as if he had only come away from a battle the day before, and he seemed to be cold, offering little in the way of conversation. Elladan turned to his brother.
"Wonderful," he whispered, as the captain and Elrond rode side by side, the captain answering Elrond's questions with short answers. None of the other troops had made any move to begin a conversation and seemed as bland as their leader.
"We have just ridden hundreds of leagues across mountains and through the darkest forest possible to be greeted by people who may as well be made of stone!" he continued "I do hope they are not all like this. If they are I am sure we shall go mad! I wish we had never made that promise about being on our 'best behaviour' to adar,"
His twin nodded in agreement, his eyes searching over the faces of the dark green and brown clad warriors, hoping for a spark of interest. Instead, the warriors all seemed to be weary, as if they had just been fighting, but Elrohir found that impossible to believe. After all, they were still in the middle of peace time, were they not?
"Adar said that we shall be spending a lot of time with the royal children. If they are like these guards, I do not know what I will do. Three whole months of boredom! Oh look, I think we are here."
They were, indeed, there. The twins dismounted with the rest of the Imladris party and were lead by the soldiers over a bridge as stable boys took their horses away silently, with a small bow to the Elves before whispering to the horses in tones too low for either Elladan or Elrohir to be able to hear the words.
"I do not like them taking away our horses," muttered Elrohir, "Who knows how they treat them?"
"They had better look after them well," growled Elladan, in low tones. One of the Rivendell party gently pushed the twins forewords until they were standing beside their parents Elladan suspected that it was Glorfindel. In front of them, the royal family was stood. The king looked tense, and three of the princes looked impassive, but the Queen and the princess were positively shinning with smiles – although there were stains on the princess's cheeks as if she had been crying – and the fourth prince just looked bored. He was staring at Elrond and Celebrian, but in his eyes there did not seem to be any great respect or wonder such as there had been when visitors first saw the lord and lady in Imladris.
"I thought there were seven of them," whispered Elladan.
"There are," replied Elrohir
"I meant seven brats . . . um, children,"
They counted again. Definitely only five children. The royal family bowed, or curtseyed, and the twins remembered to return the gesture only just in time. They tried to edge backwards out of the limelight, but found themselves being held in place by one of the elf lords. Glorfindel again, most likely.
"Lord Elrond, I am very glad you made it. You had a safe journey, I hope?" the king was the first to speak, and the captain who had been accompanying the Elves of Imladris was now standing just behind him. Elladan blinked. He had not noticed the Elf move.
"Very safe, and quite enjoyable, King Thranduil. Please meet my wife, Lady Celebrian and my children, Elladan and Elrohir," replied Elrond. His eyes flicked down the row of royal children, also noticing the two gaps.
"This is Queen Imlammthien, my wife, and my children Oroweth, Astaler, Nuryávië, Thellind and our daughter Calensil," the king was smiling, but the smile seemed strained somehow.
"I was under the impression you had two more sons, your majesties,"
"So were we my lady Celebrian," answered Imlammthien, making light of the situation. Her eyes flickered towards the entrance of their halls "It seems that two have gone missing. Thellind dear, do you have any idea where they are?"
"Yes Naneth."
The twins looked the prince up and down. This was the one who appeared bored and restless. The twins had wondered if the prince might possibly be a little bit interesting, but with such a short, strait, simple answer like that there was no hope for him. He was as snobbish and dull as the rest of them. The twins exchanged a quick glance, but Elrond intercepted it and glared warningly at them both. The twins quickly looked away; anywhere but at their father.
"Could you go and fetch them then please, dear? They ought to be here,"
The twins noticed a small grin flash across the princes' face. What was his name again? Thellind, or something similar, was it not? There could be a flicker of hope after all.
"It seems there is no need Naneth. They are here,"
He looked around, and the twins' suspected it was to hide a smirk as much as anything else. They followed his gaze and grinned widely. The two stray princes were running gracefully down the palace steps, hair flying behind them, and then they came to a grinding halt at the end of the line. The princess began giggling, the king went red and the queen let out a distressed sigh. She turned to Lady Celebrian.
"Well, my lady, these are my other two sons. This is Nilwethion, and this is Legolas." The two princes made a quick bow, and eyed the Imladris Elves carefully. Like their people, they were not overly trusting of strangers.
"Legolas, Nilwethion, where have you been?" The kings voice was strained, and the Mirkwood elves around the family were passing pained looks to each other. Elladan smiled to himself with relief. It would seem that the three months may not be so boring after all.
Legolas and Nilwethion looked at each other nervously.
"We were late, adar. We are very sorry." The slightly smaller one – Legolas – answered for both brothers. He looked at the ground.
"We know that my dears, but your adar is asking why you are late."
Lady Celebrian pitied the queen. She came across so calm and collected and sweet, but she must have been burning up with embarrassment. Especially with . . .
"We were just late, Naneth. We are very sorry. We tried very hard not to be,"
The queen shook her head at the princes and, as she turned, away her eyes locked with those of Celebrian. She gave a small, hopeless smile, as if to say 'I'm sorry'. Celebrian returned the smile. She understood the pain of the queen, having two sons who had a habit of turning up in a similar fashion, though she doubted that the two princes could cause as much trouble as Elladan and Elrohir. At least the princes had not tried to be late.
"I shall talk to you later about," began the king. The twins saw the small flinch the princes gave, "These are our guests. Lord Elrond, Lady Celebrian, Elladan and Elrohir and some members of their household,"
The bowed quickly, turning a pink colour. The king and queen turned back to the Elves from Imladris.
"My lords and ladies, allow our people to show you to the quarters prepared for you, please. We are sure you must be weary after such a long journey. If you would like to rest now, we have a feast prepared tonight in the forest,"
The Mirkwood elves ushered the Imladris elves in to the great halls of their king, letting the two late arriving princes step out of the spotlight as quickly as they could. The two elves turned to their brothers and sisters.
"Why were you late?" hissed Thellind, "Adar will have your necks as soon as we get some peace!" Legolas and Nilwethion shrugged.
"We were making sure Lin is safe, where nobody can see or find him. Oh, and Nilwethion's hair was in such a state after rummaging around under the bed. It took both of us with two brushes to get through the mess!"
Calensil giggled and stuck her arms up towards Nuryävié, indicating that she wanted to be carried NOW. Nuryávië, who, like his other brothers, always found himself obeying every wish and order his sister ever gave, picked her up. As he did so, he noticed the twins standing not far away from the group, watching every move the princes made, like eagles. He nodded at them respectfully. His siblings turned to see whom he was nodding at and instantly pulled themselves together, becoming tense. The twins grinned and stalked over, avoiding getting in the way of other Elves.
"We just had to say we loved you arrival," said one. Not one of the princes could tell which one had spoken.
"Such style," agreed the other. The royals kept their faces impassive, unsure as to whether the twins had given them a compliment or a sarcastic insult. There was a pause as the twins smirked.
"Was that sarcasm?" asked Legolas after a moment, "Or were you being sincere?"
"Oh we were being sincere." the first twin spoke again, "Very sincere, in fact. Why would we lie to you?"
"You all seemed to tighten up when you noticed us," said the other, looking over the impassive faces in front of them.
Nilwethion was getting confused, and the confusion was aggravating him. He could not tell one twin from the other and he did not like it. He was unused to such confusion, and did not like to feel so pinned down in his own home.
"Well you are wrong, we did not. We are always like this. Why should we change our ways for you?"
Legolas thumped him in the back, not hard, but hard enough. Oroweth glared at his younger brother, and Astaler folded his arms and rolled his eyes.
"Nilwethion, shut up before you say something to anger adar." He said. Legolas noticed how toneless his voice was. He frowned inwardly. Perhaps it was not just he, Nilwethion and Thellind who were so worried and unhappy about the visit. Perhaps his elder brothers felt the same way, too.
"So you really are as arrogant as we expected you to be?" one grinned. Legolas could not tell for certain which it was, but he thought it was Elrohir.
"Arrogant? Us?" Legolas had to bite his tongue to stop himself from yelling it out loud in anger, instead of just hissing it, "You are the arrogant ones!"
"It looks as though we might not be in for such a boring three months at all, Elladan. We might be able to have some fun, after all." said one of the twins, proving Legolas incorrect in his guess. Without another word, the twins turned around and disappeared off through the bustle of Elves, out of sight. Oroweth tightened his lips.
"If any of them give you any hassle at all," he growled, "tell Astaler and I. Do not let adar hear about though. After all the preparation that has gone in to this meeting, I would hate to see him crushed at its failure because of his sons."
His younger brothers and Calensil nodded, their mood dampened. One by one they dispersed to the great halls in which they lived, thinking darkly about the twins.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
DOT ~~ Chaos. Yup, I think that about sums it up
ASH ~~ Glad you think it will be interesting. Personally, I'm dreading to see what they do next.
DAW THE MINSTREL ~~ None of them have any sense at all. Not a scrap of it between them.
GREENLEAFGRL ~~ Celebsil is cute, and she has them all wrapped nicely around her little finger.
ANALIA ~~ Pretty name. Glad you like it. It's only good depending on the point of view. Imagine it for Elrond or Thranduil. Then it would be VERY bad.
IMBEFANIEL ~~ Thanks for the review; I'm glad you liked it.
JUST A READER ~~ Like I said to Imbefaniel, thanks for the review and I'm glad you like it.
The undergrounds halls of the Mirkwood king were a flurry of last minute preparations. Everywhere, Elves were running around making sure everything was perfect for the elves of Imladris. The royal family was no acceptation, especially the king and queen who were in a flurry of panic and jostled hurry.
Oroweth, Astaler, Nuryávië and little Calensil seemed to be perfect, as always, Calensil loving every square inch of the special treatment that she was being given. Thellind, Nilwethion and Legolas however, were quite the opposite. Somehow they didn't seem to be doing anything right; 'accidentally' tripping up and ripping new, perfect clothes, not being able to find the hairbrush, loosing everything they needed and generally making a mess of everything. This was nothing new, however, but it still made the stress that their poor parents were under increase dramatically.
"How are we going to survive?" moaned Legolas, after eventually finding his hairbrush in the obvious place, on his dressing table by the mirror. He began to drag it through his golden hair, ripping out fine strands in the process. He glowered at the reflection in the mirror. Thellind shrugged, preoccupied by trying to find a shoe.
"Maybe if we are lucky we won't," came the reply from Nilwethion, half submerged under the bed.
"What are you doing?" Legolas took just enough time out from tugging the brush roughly through his hair to see his brother emerging, victorious, from under the bed, his hair looking as though he had been dragged through a bush backwards, kicking and screaming. Nilwethion held up an ancient wooden box, badly carved from oak wood which looked as though it would fall apart as soon as it was looked at. It had obviously been through a lot, and had not been made by a professional.
"Found it!" he grinned, holding his prise with great care "Come here. Where are the others?"
"I do not know. They have been ready for ages, unlike lucky old us . . . hey! I know that box!"
Legolas and Thellind scrambled over from where they had been rushing to prepare themselves for the guests and teetered on the edge of the bed, looking at the old box with wide eyes.
"I wondered where he went." Whispered Thellind, as Legolas just stared with his mouth hanging open slightly. "How could you just stuff him under your bed like that?"
"I needed to hide him quickly. What would the servants and the guards think of us if they knew we still kept him?" came Nilwethion's reply, "Halallindë was coming in and I needed to hide him. She dragged me off because adar was angry with me again and I forgot to get him back out."
They carefully opened the ancient box, revealing an equally ancient and battered teddy bear, showing all the signs of years of love and care. One of the large, bright blue glass eyes had fallen out, and was replaced by a small red button, half the size of the other eye. The thread it was attached with seemed to be a dull shade of mossy green. One ear hung limply by a single stitch, and the pink leather that was once so new and perfect was now scraggy, half ripped and half glued on to the ears and paws by sticky tree sap. The brown fur was all worn away, only appearing here and there in balding tufts, gone lumpy with age and hugs. The rest of the toy was worn so thin in places that the stuffing showed and was trying to make its way through. The little black nose was long gone, replaced by an empty nutshell, and the string making the shape of the mouth was fluffy and shrivelled.
Legolas carefully picked up the battered toy with the love and respect of a parent picking up a newborn child, and held it up to see it more easily in the flickering lamplight, grinning widely.
"Lin!" he breathed, "I thought you had left us!"
"Little Greenleaf, what is that you have?"
The three princes whipped around, startled. Legolas flung the dilapidated bear behind his back, only to see it that it was just Nuryävié standing there with Calensil in front of him. The three breathed a collective sigh of relief, and Legolas brought the ancient mascot back in to view.
"Look who Nilwethion found," he grinned, holding up Lin carefully. The brother and sister gasped.
Calensil tore across the room and plucked Lin out of her brothers' hands and began to cradle it. She stopped suddenly and turned to Legolas, a tear glistening in her eye.
"Where is his ear, Legolas?" she whimpered. The ear, which had only moments ago been hanging on by a single stitch, was gone. The four brothers turned as pale as the new snow in winter, and started looking around for it desperately, flinging aside everything to find it. The small triangle of forlorn fabric had fallen off when Legolas had tried to hide the bear, the thread not able to take any more. Thellind picked it up and held it to the light.
"Oh no," he moaned, "Poor Lin! His ear!"
"I shall sew it back on as soon as I get a moment," said Legolas, his voice shaking slightly, "We had better put him back in the box before he gets hurt any more."
Calensil gently returned Lin to the box and Thellind laid the little ear by the bear, and then they closed the creaking lid. A tear dribbled down her cheek. Legolas grabbed her in to a hug as more tears began to flow down her pretty face.
"Hey, shush little baby. Don't cry, Legolas is going to make Lin better. You have to stop crying now because the nice elves from Imladris are coming any minute and we have to go down to the great hall to meet them. You do not want to cry in front of them do you?"
The little princes shook her pretty head tearfully as Nilwethion used his sleeve as to mop up her tears. Nuryävié took her doll like hand and led her out of the room. As he was closing the door he turned to Thellind, Nilwethion and Legolas.
"For the sake of the Valar get ready and get down there before adar gets angry. He is already tense enough as it is!"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The sons of Elrond were quite definitely bored and tired. They may not have appeared to be from the outside, but they had just travelled through miles of unchanging darkness for what seemed like months and months, and they had not eaten since they had left the camp on the path in what had to pass as morning, and there was nothing to look at or do other than ride their horses and make mindless conversation. The halls of Mirkwood had come in to view, and they had been greeted by ten soldiers, led by a captain. He had a deep and recent gash across his left cheek, and unblinking eyes. The elf looked tired, as if he had only come away from a battle the day before, and he seemed to be cold, offering little in the way of conversation. Elladan turned to his brother.
"Wonderful," he whispered, as the captain and Elrond rode side by side, the captain answering Elrond's questions with short answers. None of the other troops had made any move to begin a conversation and seemed as bland as their leader.
"We have just ridden hundreds of leagues across mountains and through the darkest forest possible to be greeted by people who may as well be made of stone!" he continued "I do hope they are not all like this. If they are I am sure we shall go mad! I wish we had never made that promise about being on our 'best behaviour' to adar,"
His twin nodded in agreement, his eyes searching over the faces of the dark green and brown clad warriors, hoping for a spark of interest. Instead, the warriors all seemed to be weary, as if they had just been fighting, but Elrohir found that impossible to believe. After all, they were still in the middle of peace time, were they not?
"Adar said that we shall be spending a lot of time with the royal children. If they are like these guards, I do not know what I will do. Three whole months of boredom! Oh look, I think we are here."
They were, indeed, there. The twins dismounted with the rest of the Imladris party and were lead by the soldiers over a bridge as stable boys took their horses away silently, with a small bow to the Elves before whispering to the horses in tones too low for either Elladan or Elrohir to be able to hear the words.
"I do not like them taking away our horses," muttered Elrohir, "Who knows how they treat them?"
"They had better look after them well," growled Elladan, in low tones. One of the Rivendell party gently pushed the twins forewords until they were standing beside their parents Elladan suspected that it was Glorfindel. In front of them, the royal family was stood. The king looked tense, and three of the princes looked impassive, but the Queen and the princess were positively shinning with smiles – although there were stains on the princess's cheeks as if she had been crying – and the fourth prince just looked bored. He was staring at Elrond and Celebrian, but in his eyes there did not seem to be any great respect or wonder such as there had been when visitors first saw the lord and lady in Imladris.
"I thought there were seven of them," whispered Elladan.
"There are," replied Elrohir
"I meant seven brats . . . um, children,"
They counted again. Definitely only five children. The royal family bowed, or curtseyed, and the twins remembered to return the gesture only just in time. They tried to edge backwards out of the limelight, but found themselves being held in place by one of the elf lords. Glorfindel again, most likely.
"Lord Elrond, I am very glad you made it. You had a safe journey, I hope?" the king was the first to speak, and the captain who had been accompanying the Elves of Imladris was now standing just behind him. Elladan blinked. He had not noticed the Elf move.
"Very safe, and quite enjoyable, King Thranduil. Please meet my wife, Lady Celebrian and my children, Elladan and Elrohir," replied Elrond. His eyes flicked down the row of royal children, also noticing the two gaps.
"This is Queen Imlammthien, my wife, and my children Oroweth, Astaler, Nuryávië, Thellind and our daughter Calensil," the king was smiling, but the smile seemed strained somehow.
"I was under the impression you had two more sons, your majesties,"
"So were we my lady Celebrian," answered Imlammthien, making light of the situation. Her eyes flickered towards the entrance of their halls "It seems that two have gone missing. Thellind dear, do you have any idea where they are?"
"Yes Naneth."
The twins looked the prince up and down. This was the one who appeared bored and restless. The twins had wondered if the prince might possibly be a little bit interesting, but with such a short, strait, simple answer like that there was no hope for him. He was as snobbish and dull as the rest of them. The twins exchanged a quick glance, but Elrond intercepted it and glared warningly at them both. The twins quickly looked away; anywhere but at their father.
"Could you go and fetch them then please, dear? They ought to be here,"
The twins noticed a small grin flash across the princes' face. What was his name again? Thellind, or something similar, was it not? There could be a flicker of hope after all.
"It seems there is no need Naneth. They are here,"
He looked around, and the twins' suspected it was to hide a smirk as much as anything else. They followed his gaze and grinned widely. The two stray princes were running gracefully down the palace steps, hair flying behind them, and then they came to a grinding halt at the end of the line. The princess began giggling, the king went red and the queen let out a distressed sigh. She turned to Lady Celebrian.
"Well, my lady, these are my other two sons. This is Nilwethion, and this is Legolas." The two princes made a quick bow, and eyed the Imladris Elves carefully. Like their people, they were not overly trusting of strangers.
"Legolas, Nilwethion, where have you been?" The kings voice was strained, and the Mirkwood elves around the family were passing pained looks to each other. Elladan smiled to himself with relief. It would seem that the three months may not be so boring after all.
Legolas and Nilwethion looked at each other nervously.
"We were late, adar. We are very sorry." The slightly smaller one – Legolas – answered for both brothers. He looked at the ground.
"We know that my dears, but your adar is asking why you are late."
Lady Celebrian pitied the queen. She came across so calm and collected and sweet, but she must have been burning up with embarrassment. Especially with . . .
"We were just late, Naneth. We are very sorry. We tried very hard not to be,"
The queen shook her head at the princes and, as she turned, away her eyes locked with those of Celebrian. She gave a small, hopeless smile, as if to say 'I'm sorry'. Celebrian returned the smile. She understood the pain of the queen, having two sons who had a habit of turning up in a similar fashion, though she doubted that the two princes could cause as much trouble as Elladan and Elrohir. At least the princes had not tried to be late.
"I shall talk to you later about," began the king. The twins saw the small flinch the princes gave, "These are our guests. Lord Elrond, Lady Celebrian, Elladan and Elrohir and some members of their household,"
The bowed quickly, turning a pink colour. The king and queen turned back to the Elves from Imladris.
"My lords and ladies, allow our people to show you to the quarters prepared for you, please. We are sure you must be weary after such a long journey. If you would like to rest now, we have a feast prepared tonight in the forest,"
The Mirkwood elves ushered the Imladris elves in to the great halls of their king, letting the two late arriving princes step out of the spotlight as quickly as they could. The two elves turned to their brothers and sisters.
"Why were you late?" hissed Thellind, "Adar will have your necks as soon as we get some peace!" Legolas and Nilwethion shrugged.
"We were making sure Lin is safe, where nobody can see or find him. Oh, and Nilwethion's hair was in such a state after rummaging around under the bed. It took both of us with two brushes to get through the mess!"
Calensil giggled and stuck her arms up towards Nuryävié, indicating that she wanted to be carried NOW. Nuryávië, who, like his other brothers, always found himself obeying every wish and order his sister ever gave, picked her up. As he did so, he noticed the twins standing not far away from the group, watching every move the princes made, like eagles. He nodded at them respectfully. His siblings turned to see whom he was nodding at and instantly pulled themselves together, becoming tense. The twins grinned and stalked over, avoiding getting in the way of other Elves.
"We just had to say we loved you arrival," said one. Not one of the princes could tell which one had spoken.
"Such style," agreed the other. The royals kept their faces impassive, unsure as to whether the twins had given them a compliment or a sarcastic insult. There was a pause as the twins smirked.
"Was that sarcasm?" asked Legolas after a moment, "Or were you being sincere?"
"Oh we were being sincere." the first twin spoke again, "Very sincere, in fact. Why would we lie to you?"
"You all seemed to tighten up when you noticed us," said the other, looking over the impassive faces in front of them.
Nilwethion was getting confused, and the confusion was aggravating him. He could not tell one twin from the other and he did not like it. He was unused to such confusion, and did not like to feel so pinned down in his own home.
"Well you are wrong, we did not. We are always like this. Why should we change our ways for you?"
Legolas thumped him in the back, not hard, but hard enough. Oroweth glared at his younger brother, and Astaler folded his arms and rolled his eyes.
"Nilwethion, shut up before you say something to anger adar." He said. Legolas noticed how toneless his voice was. He frowned inwardly. Perhaps it was not just he, Nilwethion and Thellind who were so worried and unhappy about the visit. Perhaps his elder brothers felt the same way, too.
"So you really are as arrogant as we expected you to be?" one grinned. Legolas could not tell for certain which it was, but he thought it was Elrohir.
"Arrogant? Us?" Legolas had to bite his tongue to stop himself from yelling it out loud in anger, instead of just hissing it, "You are the arrogant ones!"
"It looks as though we might not be in for such a boring three months at all, Elladan. We might be able to have some fun, after all." said one of the twins, proving Legolas incorrect in his guess. Without another word, the twins turned around and disappeared off through the bustle of Elves, out of sight. Oroweth tightened his lips.
"If any of them give you any hassle at all," he growled, "tell Astaler and I. Do not let adar hear about though. After all the preparation that has gone in to this meeting, I would hate to see him crushed at its failure because of his sons."
His younger brothers and Calensil nodded, their mood dampened. One by one they dispersed to the great halls in which they lived, thinking darkly about the twins.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
DOT ~~ Chaos. Yup, I think that about sums it up
ASH ~~ Glad you think it will be interesting. Personally, I'm dreading to see what they do next.
DAW THE MINSTREL ~~ None of them have any sense at all. Not a scrap of it between them.
GREENLEAFGRL ~~ Celebsil is cute, and she has them all wrapped nicely around her little finger.
ANALIA ~~ Pretty name. Glad you like it. It's only good depending on the point of view. Imagine it for Elrond or Thranduil. Then it would be VERY bad.
IMBEFANIEL ~~ Thanks for the review; I'm glad you liked it.
JUST A READER ~~ Like I said to Imbefaniel, thanks for the review and I'm glad you like it.