~*~Chapter 2~*~
Aragorn smiled as he woke, he would have liked to get up but knew Legolas would start lecturing him or something if he caught him. He shrugged and got up anyways, stretching out and looking around the room for his pack and weapons. He froze when he caught a very light sound just outside his door and muttered something under his breath about not paying attention and darn quiet elves. He quickly got back into bed and just pulled the covers up as the door opened.
"Good, you're awake," he said with a smirk and a look in his eyes that said 'you were up and I know it'.
Aragorn raised his chin in mock defiance and grinned at the shorter elf standing in the doorway, an odd expression on his face. He smiled at Legolas and looked over at the elf in the doorway, "Mae govannen, Raenan, sut naa lle?" // Well met, how are you? //
The elf blinked and grinned, "Amin naa quel." // I am well. //
The man smiled, "Quel." //Good. //
Legolas smiled at the two, "Strider, I felt I should tell you that we have some scouts out looking for your friend and they will report if they find any sign of him."
Aragorn sighed, "I wouldn't count on finding signs of him, you either find him, or he finds you… unless of course the trees find him for you," he added as he remembered the bond the wood-elves had with the trees. Any elf did but wood-elves relied more on the trees than any other kind.
Legolas smiled and nodded. Raenan gave him a funny look but shrugged and sat on the edge of the bed as Aragorn propped himself up against the headboard, ready to talk through-out the day as to what had happened during the ten years they'd been apart.
Halbarad glanced around; he could not find where the younger Ranger's path left his. He sighed; he'd trained him well. He turned around, he was sure that the man must have continued on in the direction he'd originally gone and headed deeper into the forest. He knew that Thranduil wouldn't want un-known men wandering near his realm, but he'd been there before and surely the King would understand if he were looking for someone. The Ranger moved swiftly and quietly through the forest, not wanting to catch anything's attention… that didn't work well. He suddenly heard a rustle of leaves above him and speedily drew his sword just as a large spider dropped out of the dark tree. The man leaped forward and stabbed the creature in one of its many eyes; he did this twice more before the spider died. He glanced around, checking for more and was relieved to see that this one was alone. He went quickly on his was again.
He glanced around the gloomy forest warily, knowing that vile things lived in there. He moved more carefully now and froze as he heard a sound. He pulled himself into a tree and un-sheathed his sword. He sighed in relief as a couple wolves passed, that was all. He waited for them to pass before re-sheathing his sword and climbing down. He walked but a few steps before growling to himself. He felt someone or something watching him. He spun around and found himself facing another spider. He groaned and went in to kill the thing.
After he'd killed that and two others that were with it, he wiped his blade off and sheathed it. Sighing, he continued on his way.
After a while he looked off to his side while walking, feeling yet another creature was watching him and just barely stifled a cry of surprise as he tripped over something soft and fuzzy. As soon as he hit the ground he leapt up again and drew his sword. He spun around quickly and blinked in surprise at the small creature he saw on the ground. The little white creature was low to the ground, ears back eyes wide and it held its tail between its legs, whining. Halbarad gave the wolf pup a weird look but it did not move, instead, it continued to look up at him, as if expecting something. He cocked his head to the side and examined the under-nourished pup, temporarily forgetting the feeling of being watched… that is until he heard a rustle to his right and saw a black blur come flying from a nearby tree, he barely drew his sword before the creature was literally on top of him. He quickly brought up his sword and be-headed the spider before it had a chance to bite him. He sighed, that was way to close. He pushed the dead spider off him and got to his feet.
He was about to be on his way when he heard a small yelp from behind him. He turned to see the wolf sitting there looking at him. Muttering to him-self, he pulled out a small piece of salted meat and threw it towards the pup, hoping to get away as the thing ate. He was sorely mistaken. The pup wolfed the meat down in one bite and bounded after the man she now had food.
Halbarad sighed, "Alright, come on Draug," he gave it an elvish name, seeing as it'd be around for a while.
The wolf pup yelped and bounded after him as he headed forward. He suddenly froze and leapt up into a tree. He suddenly realized he wouldn't be able to hide this way from whatever he sensed coming as the pup sat down at the bottom of the tree looking up and howling. He grimaced and dropped out of the tree, picked up the pup and lifted himself and the wolf into the tree and wrapped the pup in a blanket to smother it's barks. He sighed in relief when he saw a group of elves pass underneath, they were about to stop and Halbarad was about to call to them when the wolf pup gave a particularly large yelp and the elves raised their bows and aimed them straight at the man. They blinked in surprise upon seeing the man and waited for him to come down.
Halbarad dropped out of the tree and set the pup on the ground where it growled and nipped the end of the man's shoes. Then it turned on the elves and snarled at them, ears back and back arched. The elves stared at the pup and then up at the man, a question written clearly in their eyes.
Halbarad shrugged and sighed, "It's been following me," he said, breaking the silence.
The elves nodded slowly and the first one stepped forward, "My name is Adaron," he said, "we come looking for a man, are you looking for someone?"
Halbarad nodded, "Yes, I was training with someone and something has befallen him for he never showed up."
"Then you'd best come with us, I believe I know where your friend is unless there are more than two of you here."
The Ranger nodded and walked with the elves in the direction he knew to be the palace of Thranduil, with, of course, Draug at his heals.
~*~~*~
Aragorn grinned, "Yes, that's right, my brother was so convinced he could walk right into my room and mess around with the bed legs so it would collapse, he did not realize that I'd seen him sneaking around. I went right into his room and put berry juice in his shampoo," the man snorted and smothered a laugh, "he had that purple-red color of blueberry juice in his hair for weeks. I also managed to catch him while he was rigging my bed so I simply cut the legs the rest of the way through and when ada asked what happened I told him… so in the end, Elladan had to serve the food at the feast for Gandalf when he came, with his purple hair… it worked out better than I had imagined!"
Legolas had a huge grin on his face at this point and Raenan was snickering rather loudly.
"I now realize what Glorfindel meant when he'd said it would be a one-sided fight when we were playing those tricks on each other," the elf grimaced, "and I'll admit you did beat me."
"Thank you, though, I plan to do the dye thing with my brothers again," the Ranger grinned wickedly, "for I have learned a way to make quite bright, odd colors that last longer," he snickered, "as Halbarad knows quite well."
"Aye, that I do… unfortunately," Aragorn spun around on his bed to face Halbarad and two elves. One of which the man noticed as an elf that had been with Legolas the last time he'd seen him, Celebelen, the other he didn't recognize. Halbarad had a half amused half annoyed look on his face; the two elves had fully amused looks on their faces.
"What was the matter?" Aragorn asked feigning hurt, "Do you not like orange?"
"And blue," the older Ranger added.
At that the elves could no longer help it and they all burst out laughing. Aragorn grinned and Halbarad simply sighed. Right then, something no one expected happened, the wolf pup made it's way into the palace, raced to the room they were in, and leaped onto the bed, knocking the wind out of the grinning Ranger.
"What the?!" Aragorn yelped when he was able to talk again, "Where in all of Middle-Earth did this thing come from?!?!"
Halbarad snickered, "That thing's been following me."
Aragorn blinked and smiled, lifted the pup off him and started laughing, "She followed you?"
"Yes, for a little while anyways."
Aragorn looked at him, "Halbarad… did you feed it?"
"…Yes."
"That'll do it," he answered, laughing, "okay then little follower, we will call you Aikhila."
Legolas snickered, "Suites it."
"Yup," Aragorn answered.
Legolas just shook his head and flung a wet cloth on his face.
Aragorn snickered and washed his face and hands… then grunted again as the wolf jumped on top of him again.
Legolas grinned, the man was much more recognizable once he didn't have 3 millimeters of mud covering his face.
"Legolas, you've known the twins longer than I have, though not as well," Aragorn started, grinning, "ever done anything… how would you put it… evil… as pay-back to them?"
Legolas grinned, "More times than you could ever know."
"Hmmm… what did you do?" Aragorn asked mischievously.
Legolas looked at him and narrowed his eyes suspiciously, "Why do you want to know?"
"No reason."
"Alright, keep your secrets."
Aragorn grinned, "I intend to."
Legolas scowled.
Halbarad still stood in the doorway, grinning and glancing between the two arguing people.
Aragorn blinked, suddenly remembering that the two did not know each other, "Legolas," he motioned to the man in the door, "Halbarad… and vise-versa," he said, not really wanting to go through the whole introducing thing.
Halbarad and Legolas both looked down at the man; slightly amused. Halbarad raised an eyebrow at the man while Legolas smirked and then smiled at the man in the doorway.
A/N
Yay! Second chapter posted!!!!! Hope it didn't take too long! ^_^ I'm beginning to fall behind… I'll probably be writing all day so I'll catch up!! ^_^
ElvenRanger13- Mae govannen!!! Welcome to this… place!!! I'm glad u like it! ^_^ Keep reading!!!!
Bill the Pony2- Ah yes!!!! Another new guy!!!!!!!!!!! Oooooooh fun!!!!! So many new reviewers 4 1 chapter!!!!! You guys make me soooooooo happy!!!!!!!! ^_^ Glad ur lovin' it!!!!
leggylover03- Hello again! ^_^
I'm glad ur excited about the sequel!!!!!!!!!!!! *sighs* u and ur angst and pain… will update soon! ^_^
aksfjdldsfklds/silverknight7- Ooookay… I have no idea which to call u… u gotta tell me! ^_^ That would be a good idea… it would be short tho… hmmm… maybe… I'll think about it! ^_^ Glad u love my stories!!!!!!!!!!
Pyro- NO!!!! Wait… hate what??? U? I don't hate u!!!!!!!! It's not ur fault, you gots homework and stuff… hope you'll still read tho! AW!!! Don't cry!!!!!!!!!!!!! LOL! ^_^
mascara freak- Hi! ^_^ You'll have to bring that up with my friend… she has a certificate thingy on her web page stating the ownership of Legolas Greenleaf! ^_^ But yes, I will keep writing and up-dating! ^_^ If u keep reading that is ^_^