*Note to the readers: I received a lot of reviews on my formatting I worked
on that and I hope that this chapter is easier to read. I also received
word that I should maybe find a beta reader???? Anyone want the job? Again
thank you for you reviews and I have replied to each of you below. (
Crystalcarol: Thank you for the review, right now I'm just trying to set the mood a little bit. And show how Legolas and the twin will do anything to protect Estel. It won't be long until he rebels against it.(
StriderGrrl: I take it from your name that you are also a strider fan ( I will try to fix the paragraph problem (
Trustingfriendship: Poor Estel is right; he will prove himself to the elves all in good time. Thanks for the review.(
ThE iNsAnE oNe: I will try to get the formatting down.my story posted different than how I had it typed out. So give me some time to figure out the formatting on ff.net (
Dragon: Thank you for the idea. I will definitely try and do that to make the story more understandable.(
Pinto: Again formatting is new to me so I will try to make it better. And I will look into finding a beta reader. Thanks for letting me know. (
Meckinock: I'm glad that you are enjoying the story so far and I intend to keep going. I will work on expanding my description. (
Maire: There is more Aragorn and Legolas friendship coming up, although they do hit some rough spots along the way. (
Chapter 2 It starts
Elladan entered the mouth of the cave several hours later with a plate of food in his hand. Bending down he gently shook the slumbering princes shoulder.
"Legolas.wake up I brought you some food." The prince's eyes blinked up at the older elf nodding he released his hold on Aragorn and slowly sat up, rearranging the blankets around his human friend Legolas gently lifted Estel's head and cradled it in his lap before reaching up and taking the offered plate from Elladan, and digging into the roasted rabbit.
Alertness slowly started to come back to Aragorn, as he felt the warm body next to him slowly move away, and his position was changed so that he head was being cradled in someone's lap. His mind slowly left the peaceful darkness that it had been resting and started to come back to the light that was wavering above him. A blinding pain shot through his head and the uneasy feeling of nausea swarmed in his stomach.
A voice above him startled him briefly "I think Estel is coming around!" the voice was quickly followed by another familiar voice "That's it baby brother open your eyes."
He recognized the voice of his older twin brother. BABY?!? He wasn't a baby? Swallowing the nausea back Aragorn slowly opened his eyes, when he did all he saw was a white blinding light. Whimpering Aragorn snapped his eyes closed and turned his head into the lap in which it was cradled, seeking darkness to sooth his now aching head
Both Elladan and Legolas saw the way the light had blinded Aragorn and grew worried. Wanting to look at Aragorn's eyes more closely Elladan leaned down close to Aragorn's ear before asking "Easy Estel, can you open your eyes for your big brother?"
Aragorn didn't want to open his eyes in fact all he wanted to do was go back to the darkness that he had been hiding in for the past several hours. Deciding to remain quiet Estel hoped that his brother and friend would just assume that he had gone back to sleep. "Estel we know you're awake, please open your eyes." With out thinking about the consequences Aragorn shook his head, which quickly proved to be a big mistake as a white-hot pain shot through his temple. "No.h...hurts!" was all he could think of to say, as he slowly got his breath back under control and the pain in his head subsided a little.
"I know it hurts little one but you need to open your eyes for just a moment." Both Legolas and Elladan doubted Aragorn would do as he was told, but sure enough Estel slowly opened his eyes like his brother had asked him to do. Elladan looked closely at his little brothers pupils watching the way they reacted to the light. Thankfully they appeared normal, just a little sluggish but nothing to be overly concerned with at his time. Satisfied he took a cloth, wet it with water from his water skin, and gently placed it over Aragorn's eyes hoping that the water would cool the burning in the human's eyes.
"Rest now little brother, I'll go get you some food." Elladan said while leaving the cave. When Elladan had gone Legolas started to stroke Aragorn's cheeks and smooth his hair back off his head. "You gave us quite a scare Strider. You need to be more careful, and pay more attention to where you are going. You could have asked for help you know, either myself or one of your brothers would have been right there to help you. Hell the rest of the group would have been too."
Aragorn stiffened at his best friends comment. He couldn't remember what had happened but the way Legolas made it sound it was probably something that would never have happened to an elf. Once again he had proven that he was an insignificant human that couldn't do anything right unlike the perfect elves that he traveled and lived with.
Elladan and Elrohir choose that moment to re-enter the cave. Sensing the presents of his brothers Aragorn quickly bit back the retort that he was about to answer back, to Legolas with. Elrohir kneeled next to his little brother, "How are you feeling Estel?"
Reaching up Aragorn removed the wet cloth from his eyes and blinked past the water in his eyes. "I'll be okay, now that my headache has finally gone away." Aragorn answered as he slowly tried to sit up. Noticing his slow movements, Legolas leaned forward and gently helped his friend up. Biting back his annoyance Aragorn thanked his friend; it wouldn't do to start something just because he was feeling very irritable. As soon Legolas was sure that Aragorn no longer needed his assistance in sitting, and that the young human was settled and he wasn't going to topple over from lack of support, he stood up and exited the cave allowing the brothers some time alone.
Elladan handed Elrohir a plate of food, as the younger elf pulled his human brother into his arms. "Here try and get him to eat this." Aragorn hated it when they talked about him like he wasn't there or couldn't understand them when he was right in front of them. He was about to say something smart when Elladan turned to him and added, "You eat what you can then lay back down and go back to sleep you need your rest; we must continue on to Rivendell in the morning."
Taking one look at the meat on the plate was enough to make the nausea rise up in his throat again. Turning his head away Aragorn tried to get away from his brother and the offered food, he felt like vomiting, clutching his stomach with his left hand Aragorn, started to crawl back over to where his bedroll lay by the fire. He wasn't hungry and to top it all off his headache had returned.
"Estel you have to try and eat something even if it is only a little bit. Come on the rabbit is roasted just the way that you like it." Elrohir tried to coax Estel into eating something. Aragorn knew that his brother was speaking the truth but to be frank he didn't care besides he knew that he would never be able to keep anything down. He glanced at the fire that burned brightly in the middle of the cave, his vision became fuzzy and spots began to dance around the room. His head began to spin and he looked away as vomit rose up to his mouth, he tried to swallow it be was unable to do so and soon found himself covered in what little had been in his stomach from earlier that day.
Elrohir was at his brother's side in an instant, taking a cloth he wet it from water in his water skin and started to sponge Aragorn's face and hands off. Next he helped the Ranger to remove his now soiled clothes and then climb into clean ones before crawling under the covers of his awaiting bedroll that lay next to the fire. Taking another cloth he wetted it and laid it on Aragorn's brow that had started to feel warm to the touch. "Just rest little brother I'm going to go and make you some tea to settle your stomach.I will be right back."
Aragorn didn't really care where his brother was going he felt awful his head was pounding, his stomach was tossing and turning, he was even seeing stars. Laying his head down on the cold stone ground he welcomed the cold relief that it offered his burning head, as he allowed the darkness of sleep to come and claim him.
Elrohir returned moments later with Elladan and Legolas right at his heels only to find the young human sound asleep snoring softly. Kneeling down Elladan examined Aragorn's head again; bruising had started around his right eye and knot that he had earlier found on the ranger's temple, but that was only to be expected since Aragorn had landed face down on several rocks.
Taking a closer look at his little brothers swollen and bruised face he was alarmed to find a large swollen bump just next to his right ear that had thus far remained hidden from their view by Aragorn's long wavy hair. The rather large goose egg was very swollen and undoubtedly very painful for the young human. Elladan gently probed the bump until he heard Aragorn hiss in pain, not wanting to wake his slumbering brother he stopped.
"His head wound is worse than I originally thought, he has two very nasty looking bumps to the head, we're going to have to wake him up several times during the night just to make sure that he is still with us." Elladan told the others. Elrohir looked grim but nodded. Legolas on the other hand felt sick. He and Estel had had a fight earlier before Aragorn fell, if it wasn't for that fight he would have been at the Ranger's side when he slipped and would have been able to steady his friend before he went down. But no he had been walking ahead, ignoring the young human. But that wasn't the case and Estel now lay injured before him. Looking down at the still form of his friend Legolas realized how much the human meant to him. *******A look into the past********* Legolas Greenleaf, Prince of Mirkwood, hadn't thought highly of the race of men, for most were cowards that didn't care about anything other than themselves. It wasn't all that long ago that Legolas refused to have anything to do with the filthy race.
But then he had meet Aragorn, granted that the boy had been raised by the elves, he was still a human, Legolas hadn't thought much of the 14 year old boy. In fact he had thought that the adopted human son of Lord Elrond was annoying, the boy was always tagging along with him and the twins. Evidently, he was almost an adult according to the race of men however his few years made him barely even weaned, just a baby, when it came to the elves.
Legolas remembered how hard the boy had tried to be accepted by Legolas and the other elves from Mirkwood that where his elfin brothers' friends. Only to be shunned away by the foreign elves. But that didn't seem to stop the human it only made him try that much harder.
He remembered the day that he accepted Aragorn as a friend like it had happened yesterday; Legolas had been on his way to Rivendell to winter with Lord Elrond and his sons Elladan and Elrohir, unfortunately along the way he was attacked by a hunting party of humans. For most humans didn't like the elves anymore than the elves liked the humans. Not really caring whether he hurt the humans or not Legolas started to fight the humans off he was doing fine for awhile but the humans soon got the upper hand in things and he soon found himself being stabbed in the side with a crooked knife. Things could have gotten a lot worse but a Ranger chose that moment to ride into the hunter's camp. The Ranger grew livid when he saw what the humans had done to the elf.
The fight was a bloody one but in the end the Ranger was the only one that still stood. His right hand tightly gripping his side as blood poured through his fingertips. He raised pain filled eye's on Legolas before collapsing to the ground. When he hit the ground, his hood that had thus far shadowed his face fell away. Legolas remember gasping; the one that had saved him was Estel, foster son to Lord Elrond. The boy that had tried so hard to be accepted but was only shunned away over and over had risked his life to save him.
Legolas never left Aragorn's side all during his recovery from the wound that he had sustained during that battle. A Friendship had bloomed that day between Estel and Legolas, one that ran deeper than any other friendship ever had, and to this day the friends are hardly ever apart, each watching the other's back, sometimes often then not. ******* Back to the present. ********************* Legolas had failed Estel the boy was hurt. And Legolas was cruelly reminded of how fragile mortals where. He wasn't ready to lose his best friend not yet. Vowing to himself, Legolas promised that he would always be right there to lend a helping hand to the young whether he wanted one or not. he wouldn't, he couldn't let Estel be injured again. Gently he reached out and stroked Aragorn's face. Aragorn rolled over and mumbled something in his sleep before snuggling down in his pillow and slipping deeper into sleep.
*Ok enough with the fluff at the beginning of the story; the group reaches Rivendell in the next chapter. That is were we learn why Aragorn in so annoyed with his brothers and best friend. And the story really gets going. Hopefully the chapters will start to get longer too.
Crystalcarol: Thank you for the review, right now I'm just trying to set the mood a little bit. And show how Legolas and the twin will do anything to protect Estel. It won't be long until he rebels against it.(
StriderGrrl: I take it from your name that you are also a strider fan ( I will try to fix the paragraph problem (
Trustingfriendship: Poor Estel is right; he will prove himself to the elves all in good time. Thanks for the review.(
ThE iNsAnE oNe: I will try to get the formatting down.my story posted different than how I had it typed out. So give me some time to figure out the formatting on ff.net (
Dragon: Thank you for the idea. I will definitely try and do that to make the story more understandable.(
Pinto: Again formatting is new to me so I will try to make it better. And I will look into finding a beta reader. Thanks for letting me know. (
Meckinock: I'm glad that you are enjoying the story so far and I intend to keep going. I will work on expanding my description. (
Maire: There is more Aragorn and Legolas friendship coming up, although they do hit some rough spots along the way. (
Chapter 2 It starts
Elladan entered the mouth of the cave several hours later with a plate of food in his hand. Bending down he gently shook the slumbering princes shoulder.
"Legolas.wake up I brought you some food." The prince's eyes blinked up at the older elf nodding he released his hold on Aragorn and slowly sat up, rearranging the blankets around his human friend Legolas gently lifted Estel's head and cradled it in his lap before reaching up and taking the offered plate from Elladan, and digging into the roasted rabbit.
Alertness slowly started to come back to Aragorn, as he felt the warm body next to him slowly move away, and his position was changed so that he head was being cradled in someone's lap. His mind slowly left the peaceful darkness that it had been resting and started to come back to the light that was wavering above him. A blinding pain shot through his head and the uneasy feeling of nausea swarmed in his stomach.
A voice above him startled him briefly "I think Estel is coming around!" the voice was quickly followed by another familiar voice "That's it baby brother open your eyes."
He recognized the voice of his older twin brother. BABY?!? He wasn't a baby? Swallowing the nausea back Aragorn slowly opened his eyes, when he did all he saw was a white blinding light. Whimpering Aragorn snapped his eyes closed and turned his head into the lap in which it was cradled, seeking darkness to sooth his now aching head
Both Elladan and Legolas saw the way the light had blinded Aragorn and grew worried. Wanting to look at Aragorn's eyes more closely Elladan leaned down close to Aragorn's ear before asking "Easy Estel, can you open your eyes for your big brother?"
Aragorn didn't want to open his eyes in fact all he wanted to do was go back to the darkness that he had been hiding in for the past several hours. Deciding to remain quiet Estel hoped that his brother and friend would just assume that he had gone back to sleep. "Estel we know you're awake, please open your eyes." With out thinking about the consequences Aragorn shook his head, which quickly proved to be a big mistake as a white-hot pain shot through his temple. "No.h...hurts!" was all he could think of to say, as he slowly got his breath back under control and the pain in his head subsided a little.
"I know it hurts little one but you need to open your eyes for just a moment." Both Legolas and Elladan doubted Aragorn would do as he was told, but sure enough Estel slowly opened his eyes like his brother had asked him to do. Elladan looked closely at his little brothers pupils watching the way they reacted to the light. Thankfully they appeared normal, just a little sluggish but nothing to be overly concerned with at his time. Satisfied he took a cloth, wet it with water from his water skin, and gently placed it over Aragorn's eyes hoping that the water would cool the burning in the human's eyes.
"Rest now little brother, I'll go get you some food." Elladan said while leaving the cave. When Elladan had gone Legolas started to stroke Aragorn's cheeks and smooth his hair back off his head. "You gave us quite a scare Strider. You need to be more careful, and pay more attention to where you are going. You could have asked for help you know, either myself or one of your brothers would have been right there to help you. Hell the rest of the group would have been too."
Aragorn stiffened at his best friends comment. He couldn't remember what had happened but the way Legolas made it sound it was probably something that would never have happened to an elf. Once again he had proven that he was an insignificant human that couldn't do anything right unlike the perfect elves that he traveled and lived with.
Elladan and Elrohir choose that moment to re-enter the cave. Sensing the presents of his brothers Aragorn quickly bit back the retort that he was about to answer back, to Legolas with. Elrohir kneeled next to his little brother, "How are you feeling Estel?"
Reaching up Aragorn removed the wet cloth from his eyes and blinked past the water in his eyes. "I'll be okay, now that my headache has finally gone away." Aragorn answered as he slowly tried to sit up. Noticing his slow movements, Legolas leaned forward and gently helped his friend up. Biting back his annoyance Aragorn thanked his friend; it wouldn't do to start something just because he was feeling very irritable. As soon Legolas was sure that Aragorn no longer needed his assistance in sitting, and that the young human was settled and he wasn't going to topple over from lack of support, he stood up and exited the cave allowing the brothers some time alone.
Elladan handed Elrohir a plate of food, as the younger elf pulled his human brother into his arms. "Here try and get him to eat this." Aragorn hated it when they talked about him like he wasn't there or couldn't understand them when he was right in front of them. He was about to say something smart when Elladan turned to him and added, "You eat what you can then lay back down and go back to sleep you need your rest; we must continue on to Rivendell in the morning."
Taking one look at the meat on the plate was enough to make the nausea rise up in his throat again. Turning his head away Aragorn tried to get away from his brother and the offered food, he felt like vomiting, clutching his stomach with his left hand Aragorn, started to crawl back over to where his bedroll lay by the fire. He wasn't hungry and to top it all off his headache had returned.
"Estel you have to try and eat something even if it is only a little bit. Come on the rabbit is roasted just the way that you like it." Elrohir tried to coax Estel into eating something. Aragorn knew that his brother was speaking the truth but to be frank he didn't care besides he knew that he would never be able to keep anything down. He glanced at the fire that burned brightly in the middle of the cave, his vision became fuzzy and spots began to dance around the room. His head began to spin and he looked away as vomit rose up to his mouth, he tried to swallow it be was unable to do so and soon found himself covered in what little had been in his stomach from earlier that day.
Elrohir was at his brother's side in an instant, taking a cloth he wet it from water in his water skin and started to sponge Aragorn's face and hands off. Next he helped the Ranger to remove his now soiled clothes and then climb into clean ones before crawling under the covers of his awaiting bedroll that lay next to the fire. Taking another cloth he wetted it and laid it on Aragorn's brow that had started to feel warm to the touch. "Just rest little brother I'm going to go and make you some tea to settle your stomach.I will be right back."
Aragorn didn't really care where his brother was going he felt awful his head was pounding, his stomach was tossing and turning, he was even seeing stars. Laying his head down on the cold stone ground he welcomed the cold relief that it offered his burning head, as he allowed the darkness of sleep to come and claim him.
Elrohir returned moments later with Elladan and Legolas right at his heels only to find the young human sound asleep snoring softly. Kneeling down Elladan examined Aragorn's head again; bruising had started around his right eye and knot that he had earlier found on the ranger's temple, but that was only to be expected since Aragorn had landed face down on several rocks.
Taking a closer look at his little brothers swollen and bruised face he was alarmed to find a large swollen bump just next to his right ear that had thus far remained hidden from their view by Aragorn's long wavy hair. The rather large goose egg was very swollen and undoubtedly very painful for the young human. Elladan gently probed the bump until he heard Aragorn hiss in pain, not wanting to wake his slumbering brother he stopped.
"His head wound is worse than I originally thought, he has two very nasty looking bumps to the head, we're going to have to wake him up several times during the night just to make sure that he is still with us." Elladan told the others. Elrohir looked grim but nodded. Legolas on the other hand felt sick. He and Estel had had a fight earlier before Aragorn fell, if it wasn't for that fight he would have been at the Ranger's side when he slipped and would have been able to steady his friend before he went down. But no he had been walking ahead, ignoring the young human. But that wasn't the case and Estel now lay injured before him. Looking down at the still form of his friend Legolas realized how much the human meant to him. *******A look into the past********* Legolas Greenleaf, Prince of Mirkwood, hadn't thought highly of the race of men, for most were cowards that didn't care about anything other than themselves. It wasn't all that long ago that Legolas refused to have anything to do with the filthy race.
But then he had meet Aragorn, granted that the boy had been raised by the elves, he was still a human, Legolas hadn't thought much of the 14 year old boy. In fact he had thought that the adopted human son of Lord Elrond was annoying, the boy was always tagging along with him and the twins. Evidently, he was almost an adult according to the race of men however his few years made him barely even weaned, just a baby, when it came to the elves.
Legolas remembered how hard the boy had tried to be accepted by Legolas and the other elves from Mirkwood that where his elfin brothers' friends. Only to be shunned away by the foreign elves. But that didn't seem to stop the human it only made him try that much harder.
He remembered the day that he accepted Aragorn as a friend like it had happened yesterday; Legolas had been on his way to Rivendell to winter with Lord Elrond and his sons Elladan and Elrohir, unfortunately along the way he was attacked by a hunting party of humans. For most humans didn't like the elves anymore than the elves liked the humans. Not really caring whether he hurt the humans or not Legolas started to fight the humans off he was doing fine for awhile but the humans soon got the upper hand in things and he soon found himself being stabbed in the side with a crooked knife. Things could have gotten a lot worse but a Ranger chose that moment to ride into the hunter's camp. The Ranger grew livid when he saw what the humans had done to the elf.
The fight was a bloody one but in the end the Ranger was the only one that still stood. His right hand tightly gripping his side as blood poured through his fingertips. He raised pain filled eye's on Legolas before collapsing to the ground. When he hit the ground, his hood that had thus far shadowed his face fell away. Legolas remember gasping; the one that had saved him was Estel, foster son to Lord Elrond. The boy that had tried so hard to be accepted but was only shunned away over and over had risked his life to save him.
Legolas never left Aragorn's side all during his recovery from the wound that he had sustained during that battle. A Friendship had bloomed that day between Estel and Legolas, one that ran deeper than any other friendship ever had, and to this day the friends are hardly ever apart, each watching the other's back, sometimes often then not. ******* Back to the present. ********************* Legolas had failed Estel the boy was hurt. And Legolas was cruelly reminded of how fragile mortals where. He wasn't ready to lose his best friend not yet. Vowing to himself, Legolas promised that he would always be right there to lend a helping hand to the young whether he wanted one or not. he wouldn't, he couldn't let Estel be injured again. Gently he reached out and stroked Aragorn's face. Aragorn rolled over and mumbled something in his sleep before snuggling down in his pillow and slipping deeper into sleep.
*Ok enough with the fluff at the beginning of the story; the group reaches Rivendell in the next chapter. That is were we learn why Aragorn in so annoyed with his brothers and best friend. And the story really gets going. Hopefully the chapters will start to get longer too.