AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ugh, I hate that last chapter. It was due to severe writer's block. Honestly. I can't write anymore. *breaks down in tears* Yes, I'm having doubts about myself. Gotta problem with that?
DISCLAIMER: Snort. I own nothing.
ATTENTION BETA READERS!! I need serious help.
"Fang, what's out there?" A burly disembodied voice questioned from inside the house. There was a sound of heavy footsteps and the door opened, a tall, rather 'big boned' (not fat) human stood in front of the doorway, holding a crossbow, pointed indirectly at Legolas' heart. The elf stepped slightly to the left. "Harry! Ron! And two other people I haven't met!" he greeted, lowering the weapon much to Legolas' relief.
"Hello Hagrid," Harry said, holding the parcel wrapped in bright pink tissue paper, "Happy Christmas."
"Aww, thank you Harry, now you better come inside, but first, introduce these new… people," the giant said eyeing the elf.
"Well, this is Legolas," Ron said motioning towards the elf, "and this is Estel slash Dunadan slash Strider slash Elessar slash-"
"Aragorn," the ranger corrected, "Just Aragorn".
"Oh yeah, forgot about that one," Ron said, "one day you'll wake up and forget which one you're going by."
"Well, what are you waiting for? Come in before the chill gets you," Hagrid said, obviously confused about the many-named Ranger, and wishing to end the subject. He motioned carelessly with the crossbow that they should go inside, accidentally releasing the arrow. (A/N: And it hit Legolas in the heart and he died instantly, and all the author's problems ended. The end. *sigh* wishful thinking, I still need him for other stories.)
The projectile sailed above Legolas' head, and thunked into the tree above. There was a moment of shocked silence. Finally Hagrid came to his senses, "Laddie, are you alright?"
"It would appear so," the elf replied, tip-toeing to reach the thick bolt imbedded in the tree bark, after a few hard tugs, the arrow came free, but the head was still stuck in the bark. Legolas heard the tree groan. "I've had some nasty accidents with crossbows, as Aragorn would know."
"Must we bring that up every time we set eyes on a crossbow?" The ranger grumbled as they walked into the threshold of Hagrid's hut.
"Yes."
"What happened?" Harry asked.
"His brother, Elladan, took him Faroth-esgal hunting," Legolas began his tale by sitting on the couch, Ron sat beside him, Harry pulled up a chair from the table, and Aragorn leaned on the wall opposite of them all, with one hand covering his face. "Faroth-esgal means simply hunting the hidden. It's also a game small elflings play, you might recognize it as 'hide and seek'. Only Elrohir had told him that it was a special species of deer that were running in the vale."
From his little corner, Aragorn groaned in remembrance.
"Well knowing young Estel's brothers, they left their youngest sibling in the vale without a horse for at least five hours. When his father, Elrond, became worried, I went out to look for him. He must have thought me a deer or Warg, because using his trusty crossbow; he shot me in the back."
Ron winced on his behalf.
"It was an accident, I swear!" Aragorn half shouted.
"I'm sure it was," Legolas said sincerely, a bit too sincerely, "you wouldn't have wanted to kill me on purpose, or would you?" he raised a thin, graceful eyebrow. "Well Elrond was very impressed when you brought me home with an arrow sticking out of me."
"No, I don't think Elrond was very pleased at all," the ranger replied sarcastically.
"I wouldn't be either," Hagrid replied, eyeing his crossbow warily as if he half expected it to shoot the elf again. "Well yaw best be off then, it's late and tomorrow is Christmas day and it wouldn't be very good if you were to sleep through it all."
After they left, Hagrid was left to open his gift by himself, even though it was only Christmas Eve. As the last bits of tape fell off he smiled, he was yearning for a bologna sandwich anyway.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"Legolas, why aren't you asleep?" Aragorn asked. Elves were known to sleep with their eyes open, but after living with elves for most of his life, the young Dunadan could tell that this elf was merely staring at the ceiling.
"I'm too… excited," the heir of Mirkwood replied sheepishly, "As far as I know, Christmas is like mid-winter's festival. And as you know, it's my favorite celebration."
Aragorn smiled, even thousands of years old, the elf never failed to show the inner child in him. In fact, in the eyes of the Eldar, Legolas was still quite young. "Sleep, it'll make your wait seem shorter," he replied, knowing the time it took for the elf to actually go to sleep would probably take as much time or longer.
~*~ (The next Morning, December 25th,)
"Aragorn! Wake up!" The ranger groaned and rolled onto his stomach, pulling the covers over his face. "Aragorn," the elf's persistent and excited voice broke through all thought of going back to sleep.
"What?!" he grumbled, but one look into the crystal eyes of his friend brightened even his miserable morning mood.
"It's Christmas!" he said, barely able to stop himself from bouncing on the floor. For once, Aragorn was glad that mid-winter's festival only came around once every few centuries.
"Well Aragorn," the elf said, starting to pout slightly, "I suppose I'll open that gift from Arwen for you."
The Ranger was out of bed instantly.
Well, I hope that makes up for the last chapter. I hated that one, totally pointless.
MoroTheWolfGod~ I like your suggestion. It was the only one.
Inweofnargothrond~ I hope I spelled your name right. It's worse than mine. Yes, always have pity on the animals. It's the proper way of life, well, that's how it goes it my life…
Sirithiliel ~ I'm not too sure about perfect, since there's no such thing as perfect. Speaking of perfect, that brings me to my favorite quote: if practice makes perfect, and there's no such thing as perfect, why practice?
Sunrunner of Summer ~ Thanks for adding me to your favorite author's list! Most kind of you. I wouldn't call this a cliffy, would you?
El loco uno ~ Thanks for the cookies, I haven't been given cookies before. Too bad my bird got to them first.
Angel 1 ~ Glad you like it! My computer is also messed.
Irish QT ~ You've got a really bad case of run-on sentences. And I would have posted sooner, but FF.net wasn't working with me.
Miralas ~ I need a beta reader… *hint hint* That's what took me so long to post; I was trying to improve my writing skills.
Pakasui ~ hope I found what you're looking for!
Tindomiel ~ Thranduil's letter, eh? Well I that was actually taken from a letter I had to do for school. I got full marks! Tell you the truth, it is Harry's first year, but it's the Third Age is Middle-earth. Make sense? No, I haven't finished OOTP, my mom is reading it. But even before I started, I knew who died. It's called flipping to the middle and reading from there. I'm really evil, aren't I? Page 711!
Megolas ~ Er… you're reviewing for the first chapter? But I'm well on my way to becoming finished!
I have 5 stitches in my face from hitting my head in the commonwealth pool. I get them taken out on Monday! (Does it hurt? If yes, don't tell me and lie.) My friend came with me on the Ambulance and was very disappointed because we didn't go fast and didn't have the lights on. She cried and I didn't.
And no, I don't want your pity, I pride myself in independence.