I am so sorry. it seems to be ages between each of my updates lately and I am sorry to keep you all waiting but I have been very busy (doing what I'm not sure). I promise I will try to be quicker but here is the next chapter for now.

Death of a crown

It was almost dinnertime when they got out of bed the next day. They decided it was probably best if they spent a relaxing day the beach today. This time Legolas wasn't going to get burnt. He came down from his room wearing his swimming shorts and he had a very big, thin sheet wrapped around him which he refused to take off.

"What??" He asked as everyone wondering what in Middle Earth he was doing. "I'm never getting burnt again."

Merry and Pippin had their usually collection of toys and Frodo was once again covered from head to toe in sun cream. Gandalf had his 'old man' outfit on, as Pippin called it, and Aragorn had his almost inexistent trunks and his crown on.

"Have you ever thought of how many sharks there could be in that sea?" Merry asked as they walked down to the beach.

"Sharks?" Frodo cried. "I'm not going in that water with sharks."

"Frodo, there are no sharks in that water." Sam tried to assure him.

"So where do sharks live?" He asked.

"Well, in the sea..."

"So how do you know there aren't any in that sea?"

"Well, I don't but..."

"I'm not going in." He sat down under a shady part on the beach and refused to move for the rest of the day.

Legolas couldn't help but take his sheet off and within minutes of getting to the beach he was lying down in few view of the sun, no sun cream in sight. Aragorn went for a swim in the sea with Merry and Sam sat trying to persuade Frodo to go for a swim. Gimli took his usual place on the rock, axe in hand.

Pippin decided that things needed to be livened up a bit. He asked Frodo and Sam to help him and whilst Legolas was asleep, Merry was in the sea and Gandalf and Gimli were too busy to pay them any attention they set about causing a 'bit of excitement'.

*~*~*~*~*

"I enjoyed that swim." Merry came back up the beach with Aragorn. "Are you coming Pippin?"

"In a minute Merry." He had a mischievous smile on his face. "Come and sit down for a bit."

Merry came up beside Pippin and threw himself down onto his towel, and down into a big hole. All that could be seen of him were two feet and two hands waving around helplessly trying to grab something to pull himself up. Pippin was rolling around clutching his stomach as he laughed at the success of his plan. Sam too was laughing.

Both hobbits had dug a big hole and then put Merry's towel over the top so that the hole couldn't be seen. At first they didn't have anywhere to put all the sand that they dug out of the hole until Pippin came up with another idea. They had buried Legolas with the excess sand. There was nothing left of him now except his head.

After Aragorn had pulled Merry out of the hole they noticed Legolas. Unable to control themselves they burst out laughing, joining Pippin and Sam. Gandalf and Gimli turned to see what was so funny and in no time at all they were all in hysterics. This woke Legolas up.

"What is so funny?" He asked, trying to sit up but soon realising exactly what they were laughing at. "Oh yes hilarious. Now let me out."

He shuffled his feet and his arms around but couldn't free himself from the pile of sand on top of him. He wiggled his head and pushed but could not get out.

"Oh come on let me out." He pleaded. "I'm missing my sun."

"You did quite a good job of that." Aragorn told Sam and Pippin. They beamed proudly. "But you know it will begin to crumble eventually."

"Will it?" Pippin asked. "Will he get out?"

"Yes, eventually." Aragorn said, giving Legolas an evil looking smile. "But I know what can help stop that." He bent down and whispered into Pippin's ear. Pippin whispered to Sam and both grabbed a bucket and ran off.

"Aragorn?" Legolas moaned. "You're supposed to help me out not help them keep me in. Pleeeaaase?"

"Nope."

"I'll love you forever and ever and ever." Legolas whined.

"Nope."

"I'll...erm...buy you some Smarties."

"Ooooh!"

"No Aragorn don't give in." Merry told him. "I'll buy you two packets if you keep him in.

"I'll buy you three if you let me out."

"Four."

"Five."

Aragorn didn't have to make a decision and Merry and Legolas didn't have to offer any more Smarties. Sam and Pippin returned. Each was carrying a bucket of water. Aragorn had told Pippin that if they poured the water over the sand on top of Legolas it would make it harder and more difficult for Legolas to get out.

"Argh! It's cold." Legolas screamed as the water was tipped over the sand and the hobbits began to jump on it to pat it down.

"Much better." Aragorn told them "But there is only one thing missing." He walked over to Legolas and drew on him a very pretty dress and shoes with his finger in the sand. All four hobbits fell about laughing.

"I think we should all go for a swim." Sam announced, hoping that he could persuade Frodo to overcome his fear. Everyone got up for a swim. Merry and Pippin carried their inflatables, Gandalf only wanted a paddle, Gimli wanted to cool his feet off, Aragorn wanted a swim but refused to take his crown off and Sam was telling Frodo to take one step at a time.

"You can't leave me here." Legolas called to them. "Let me out!"

They all walked off giggling and didn't return for quite a while. Legolas had given up trying to get out. He resigned to his cage of sand.

"You still here Legolas?" Aragorn asked smiling as he came and sat beside him. "You know you have pretty hair." He began to take the bobble out of Legolas' hair.

"Oh no!" Legolas tried to wriggle out of the way. "Don't touch the hair."

Aragorn began to comb Legolas hair up and within minutes it was all platted in little plats and arranged nicely around his head. This was another cue for a laughing fit at Legolas' expense.

"Ok, laugh." Legolas told him. "But at least I don't own a crown that is turning my head green."

"What?" He pulled the crown off his head and looked at it. He had a green ring around his head and his crown had begun to turn a bronze colour. "My crown!!!" Aragorn began to sob. "My beautiful crown."

It was Legolas' turn to laugh. "A cheap crown."

"It was not cheap! It's the stupid salty sea that turned it funny."

"Then you should have taken it off."

Aragorn decided that his crown had reached a painful end but it had been a good crown and he was sad to see it go. He ignored the others when they tried to tell him that he shouldn't have thrown his other away. He dug a hole and buried it with a little sign on top saying:

A beloved crown and friend

Died today.

Legolas thought he was mad but it was almost time to go and he was busy trying once more to free himself. At last Pippin offered to let him out if promised they could all go to a theme park tomorrow. Legolas said yes, anything and he was at last dug out.

They all headed back to the hotel and Legolas ran straight to the shower to clean all the sand out of his hair. They had tea and then decided to have an early night. Tomorrow they were going to hire something called a 'car' and drive to a theme park Pippin had seen pictures of. This was going to be fun.

The Converted: I am afraid I haven't had time to call the zoo yet but I will get round to it soon. And I do think you were very patient waiting all that time for an update and still coming back to review. Well done to you!

Queen Arwen: Why do all my reviewers have such horrid ideas for what to do to different member of the fellowship? But yes, I agree that jellyfish and Frodo would be very funny. I would love to see that. And sorry for hurting Aragorn so much, I'm sure he welcomed the aspirin.

totallyObsessedwithLOTR: Ok, ok I'm sorry for not naming the horse. I think I will give that privileged role to you as I don't really know a lot about horses. I will let you think of a name. It can be a reward for reviewing lol. And I suppose I do LOVE Smarties but it depends what mood I'm in. Cream eggs are my fav. mmm.

AAAClub: Wow, tank you for adding me to your favourite authors list. And I can't believe you sat and read the whole story from the beginning. You deserve some Smarties for that! I'm sure 'totallyObsessedwithLOTR' won't mind me sharing. Thank you once again and I hope you come back to read more.

Ainu Laire: Yes it is a very hectic vacation but those are the best. And you can have the shiny crown once I've finished with it if you like it so much. Thank you for reviewing.

MichelleFrodo: I am also sick of telling you that I have updated my summary. I update it every chapter. It's not my fault if it doesn't come up on your comp but I do. And I didn't get your review for last chapters so don't know what happened. Anyway, bye for now.