Disclaimer: For full disclaimer, please see chapter 1.
A/N:
Hi guys, I'm really sorry for keeping you waiting, but... *ducks blunt objects, a hail of arrows and a random, rather startled-looking balrog* Jeez, you're not exactly what one would call 'understanding', are you? *g*
Well, as I said, I'm sorry, honestly. I wanted to post this Saturday or Sunday, but several things prevented me from doing so, among them an evil college paper from hell and the fact that some friends decided to drop in to watch "Matrix: Revolutions" with me on Saturday. I won't say anything about the movie which caused me to nearly die laughing once or twice, even though I don't think that that was the directors' intention - but it is of course debatable what the directors' intention _was_ apart from demonstrating that Keanu Reeves, pretty as he may be, possesses not an ounce of acting ability, but the paper is finished so I can go on with my weird life. *g* Yay Nili.
It's great to hear that you like the betting pool, but I am afraid that I can't accept any bets. Anardir would kill me since he has the monopoly for things like that - you know how touchy elves can get... *g* And I see that the CLF has reared its ugly head again - you should know that this time I don't intend to let myself be intimidated! *shakes fist* I can kill who I want, and that includes Celylith!! *several readers start looking for sharp, pointy objects* It's not that I mean to or anything, really. *hastily* I was just babbling... *g*
Okay, here is chapter 3, in which Aragorn annoys Galalith even more, Anardir finds out exactly how doomed he is, Legolas has a _brilliant_ idea and everybody's favourite question, namely who will win the bet, will be answered. Oh, and there is that little thing at the end, what's it called again ... climber ... cluster ... cliffy! *beams* Yes, that was it!
Enjoy and review, please!
Chapter 3
As Aragorn had predicted, Celylith was not happy.
He didn't say anything in front of Anardir or the rest of the warriors, knowing full well that it was not his place to criticise his prince for his actions in public. But still, discontent and reproach rolled off the silver haired elf in waves, and when Legolas offered to get the horses that had spent the night in a smaller clearing under the watchful eyes of a guard about a five minutes' walk away from their campsite, he rose and offered to accompany him, or he told him he would be accompanying him, that was closer to the truth.
Legolas had only inclined his head, apparently resigning himself to his fate, and the two of them had left the camp, either ignoring or oblivious to the amused glances they received from the rest of their small troupe. Aragorn's ears, although keen for a human, were not sharp enough to hear what Celylith told his friend, but judging from the barely suppressed grins that each and every one of the warriors wore, it had to be memorable.
The young ranger simply leant back against a large oak tree and didn't even bother to try and hide his amusement. He imagined Legolas was just receiving the Things-a-proper-elf-lord-never-does-speech, the one Glorfindel loved so much as well. He had been present once or twice when the golden haired elf had lectured the Lord of Rivendell thus and had enjoyed the look of chagrined acceptance on his father's face more than he would care to admit. His brothers and he himself had heard it more than once themselves, from more than one person one might add.
But only now he was beginning to understand why Glorfindel enjoyed giving that particular speech. There was nothing as satisfying as knowing that someone – other than oneself, of course – was being lectured about his or her misconduct, and the fact that that someone was Legolas and that he actually deserved it made the whole thing only sweeter.
Aragorn grinned broadly. Indeed, Legolas had been very foolish to wander around Mirkwood alone, and at night at that! What a perfectly reckless elf…
He was so focused on his self-satisfied musings that he didn't hear that someone addressed him, and only when a hand grabbed his shoulder and shook him slightly he looked up, straight into the rather annoyed face of Galalith.
"Pardon me?"
The elf resisted the urge to roll his eyes, the sparse sunlight lending his long dark hair red highlights.
"I asked you to get up and help me pack up the tent. It is yours, after all."
Aragorn grinned at the elf and slowly got to his feet. He had only known him a day, but he was already beginning to like him a lot. Contrary to his best friend Anardir who always seemed to be worried by something, Galalith was a cheerful and merry person, and he reminded the man of his elven brothers. Which, he thought dryly, would not exactly be considered a compliment by most people.
"It is not mine," he told the dark haired elf, but followed him obediently to where the small beige tent was still pitched. "Legolas got it from somewhere, I don't even know from where. If it were mine, it wouldn't be that abominable colour."
"It is probably a good thing you don't know from where it comes," the elf retorted and stopped in front of the tent. "It is always best not to ask from where the prince gets all these things." He paused and turned to look at the man. "And what do you mean, 'abominable colour'? What is wrong with it?"
The ranger threw the front flap to the side and quickly rolled up his sleeping mat. Grabbing his other possessions, he crawled back out and deposited them at the foot of a nearby tree before turning unbelieving eyes on the other.
"What do you mean, 'what's wrong with it'? Well, everything! Just look at it, it is beige, and there is even a little green and that horrible brownish colour…"
"Green and brown, human, are the colours of Mirkwood," Galalith informed him frostily. "What colour would you chose for a tent, then?"
"White," the man answered promptly. "Especially for the winter. Otherwise, I would choose…"
"Ah," Galalith held up his hand, interrupting the young man. "Don't tell me. You would choose …. grey."
"How did you know?" Aragorn asked in mock surprise and grabbed a tent pole to pull it out of the ground, motioning to the elf to do the same.
"'Twas not too hard to guess, ranger," the dark haired elf grinned. "You are from Rivendell, after all. All you Noldor wear is grey and white and a little black … boring."
"Boring?" the man asked, flabbergasted. "A person who spends his life wearing brown tells me I am dressing in boring colours?"
Galalith obviously wanted to retort something, but before he had even opened his mouth, Aragorn had jumped forwards, quickly grabbing the elf's arm when he was just about to pull out literally the only tent pole that would have sent the entire construction to the ground in a tangled heap.
"Don't!" Aragorn exclaimed, looking at the other in surprise. "Not this one!"
"And why not?" Galalith asked in annoyance.
"Because this is the important, supporting pole. Honestly, have you never pitched a tent in your life?"
"No," the elf replied curtly, quickly checking if anyone was watching them, which was not the case, to his relief. "I have never had the need. I'm…"
"…an elf and therefore you don't need tents," Aragorn finished the sentence tiredly. "Yes, I know." He ignored the dark haired elf's dark and rather annoyed expression and pointed at another tent pole in front of them. "This one. And then this, this, and this one. Alright?"
Galalith merely shot him a scathing glare and grabbed the pole, pulling it out of the ground in one move.
"Yes. I am not a moron, Strider."
Aragorn began to grin as he helped remove the poles and strings that kept the small tent upright.
"For a minute, Master Elf, you really had me fooled…"
The elf's expression darkened even further and he pointedly ran a thumb over the roughly tipped point of the pole he had just pulled out of the earth.
"Go on, Master Human, please."
"I had nothing more to say, Master Galalith," the young ranger assured the elf and knelt down to roll up the canvas. "Everything of importance has already been said, I believe."
The elf looked up from where he was tying the poles together with a length of cord.
"Has anyone ever told you that you are incredibly annoying, Estel?"
"Several people," Aragorn nodded, an innocent and confused expression on his face as he stuffed the billowing fabric into a large, coarsely woven bag. "I don't know why either. Perhaps you can enlighten me?"
Galalith didn't answer, but several low mumbles that the human quickly identified as rather nasty Dwarvish curses could be heard. Aragorn listened attentively, always willing to learn more about foreign languages, and so it came that they really managed to pack up the tent without any more bickering.
Deciding that it was probably best to ignore the mumbling elf, Aragorn took up the bag and his bedroll and brought them over to the fire, depositing them on the snowy ground. Next to the campfire stood Anardir who had apparently just been in conversation with another elf whose name the young man couldn't presently remember. The other members of their small troupe were scattered all around the small clearing, talking to each other or making last preparations while they waited for their horses to arrive.
Aragorn gave the blonde elf a polite nod and stepped closer.
"Anardir. Are you well?"
Anardir gave the ranger a mildly suspicious look, asking himself if Galalith had talked with him about what he had said yesterday evening.
"Thank you, Strider. I am indeed well." He nodded at the elf next to him. "We were just talking about which route to take back to the palace."
Aragorn narrowed his eyes, trying to remember where exactly they had to be.
"If my estimation is correct, there are only two ways: First, to the north and then along the Forest River, or to the south until we reach the road."
The golden haired elf bowed his head.
"You are correct, Strider. Personally, I would like to take the northern road; this way we can check on the river and see how thick the ice is up here. Around the palace it is always thinner, and it would be nice to know when we will be able to take up our travels to Lake-town again."
The young human did his best to hide a broad smile. Anardir was indeed sounding as if getting away from the palace was the first and foremost thing on his mind, and when he was completely honest, he couldn't even blame him. Life in Mirkwood had been very … stressful for many people lately. But on the other hand, he reasoned, it had been a lot more interesting as well. That was a point most people tended to neglect.
"I am sure Legolas wouldn't mind doing so," he shrugged. "Taking the road might be slightly swifter, but we will be back before nightfall either way, so it doesn't really matter."
"I agree," Anardir nodded, smiling somewhat hesitantly at the man. "The prince would probably not mind, but on second thought…"
Aragorn cocked his head to the side, eyeing Anardir quizzically and frowning slightly when he saw that the nameless elf was beginning to grin knowingly.
"But on second thought what?"
"The road is … safer," Anardir explained slowly. "There are … other elves who are stationed close-by, just in case we need their aid…"
"Why would we need their aid?" the man asked, obviously puzzled.
The blonde elf narrowed his eyes, his back stiffening unconsciously.
"One can never know…"
Aragorn shook his head, apparently dismissing the other's concern as unfounded.
"Everything has gone well until now, has it not? I'm sure we won't need anyone's aid, and travelling along the river sounds like a good idea."
At this moment Legolas and Celylith appeared at the far side of the clearing, a number of elven horses dutifully trailing behind them; the elf who had been guarding them during the night was walking next to them. Aragorn turned back to Anardir and the other elf, giving them a bright smile that was probably meant to be reassuring.
"Do not worry, Anardir," he told the elf. "What could possibly happen?"
Giving both of them a nod, he turned back around and quickly disappeared into the direction of the horses, leaving the two elves behind. Anardir looked at his companion with incredulously raised eyebrows, blinking rapidly.
"Did he really just say that?" he asked the other elf. "It was my imagination, wasn't it?"
"No, mellon nín," the other answered in a grave voice. "He said it."
"'What could possibly happen'? 'What could possibly happen'??" Anardir repeated loudly, staring at the figure of the ranger who had reached his friends' side by now.
"To say that out loud is an invitation," the other nodded.
"Indeed," Anardir agreed and hung his head again, ignoring the small voice in his head that told him that he would end up with a neck like a swan if he didn't stop that soon. "We are doomed."
"As you know I am usually an optimistic person, my friend," the other elf said, shaking his head sadly, "But this time I think you are correct: We are doomed."
Anardir nodded hopelessly.
"How very nice to know that we agree on this, my friend."
The other clapped him on the back, a gesture that, if it had been meant in an encouraging way, produced no effect whatsoever.
"Have faith, Anardir. It could be much worse."
Anardir shook his head and stared at the other incredulously, not even able to say a single word as he watched him follow the young ranger over to the horses. Slowly, as if he had forgotten how to, he began to move and gave a low whistle to catch his horse's attention. He was still shaking his head when a big, chestnut brown steed broke away from the other animals and trotted up to him.
'Oh, it could be much worse,' he thought inwardly as he began to load his gear onto his horse, 'And it will be much worse. Much, much worse.'
That was the one rule one could always rely on, a fact he had learned a long time ago.
Celylith was eyeing his prince with the eyes of a hawk, looking for any signs that might support his theory.
Right now, he thought, he was probably looking more like an anxious mother hawk that was watching its offspring that was still far from fully fledged perch on the edge of the nest, preparing to try and fly.
He unwillingly shook his head and banished that thought from his mind. He strongly denied that he was in any way over-protective of Legolas or any of his other friends, and that comparison was nothing he would have approved of under normal circumstances.
But, he admitted tiredly, when travelling with Legolas or Aragorn and especially when travelling with both of them there was no such thing as "normal circumstances". And right now, every time he looked at his childhood friend, he had to resist the urge to close his eyes and hide in the forest, because there it was: The familiar gleam in Legolas' eyes that very clearly said that he was planning something, something that most people would have described as either foolish, dangerous, stupid, reckless or unbefitting his rank. Or as all of it, and when that was the case, it was usually wiser to seek cover as soon as possible.
Celylith decided that he could risk taking his eyes off the fair haired elf long enough to give Estel a cursory glance, who was right about now immersed in a lively conversation with another warrior a few feet to his left. This time, he concluded after a few seconds, he was rather sure that the young ranger hadn't even the slightest clue what this was about either, even though he too had apparently noticed that Legolas' behaviour was slightly … off, for a lack of a better term.
No, Aragorn didn't know anything either, which was a tiny ray of hope. If both of them were planning something, all of them would be doomed.
The silver haired elf returned his eyes to the figure of his prince, dark blue eyes narrowing slightly as he studied him closely. Right now Legolas was riding in front of their troupe and talking to Anardir about something connected with the trade with the Lake-men, he believed, and any random observer would have stated that he looked like the most innocent elf on Arda.
He knew that to be untrue, very simply because Legolas never looked this innocent unless he was planning something; in fact, he always looked rather guilty when he was in truth innocent, something that made it rather hard to judge the veracity of his statements for people who didn't know him well. But Celylith had known him ever since they had both decided that obeying their nursemaids was boring and that wandering around the palace unattended was much more fun as very young elflings, and he knew when Legolas was up to no good.
But try as he might, he just couldn't think of anything that his friend might be planning. They had left the campsite a few hours ago, after Legolas had decided that they would indeed take the slightly longer route alongside the river, something that none of them really minded. A ride alongside the Forest River at this time of year was always beautiful, and as long as they did get back to the palace before nightfall, no-one at home would care either.
The ride had been uneventful until now, but Celylith hadn't missed the looks of fear and dread that Anardir and a few of the older warriors were beginning to give their surroundings, as if all of them were expecting an unknown foe to burst through the trees at any given moment. Not that he could really blame them, since the last two times he had gone somewhere in the company of either Legolas or Aragorn (or both) he had nearly been cut into pieces, shot, poisoned and generally almost killed in every conceivable way.
No, he really did not know what Legolas was thinking about, and, on second thought, he wasn't so sure that he wanted to either, but ever since the blonde prince had laid eyes on the frozen river, that … sparkle could be seen in his eyes, and Celylith had seen it often enough to know what it meant: Trouble.
Celylith was so immersed in his musings that he was surprised when the company suddenly slowed and then stopped, causing him to nearly bump into the warrior riding in front of him. In fact, he would have done it had it not been for his horse, which skidded to a halt and let the elf know of its discontentment immediately by shaking its head unwillingly and giving a short, annoyed neighing.
The silver haired elf looked up, inwardly vowing to somehow make it up to the animal later, and saw all his suspicions confirmed when he saw where they were. He didn't really know what it meant that they had stopped here, but he was sure that it was not good.
Their group had stopped at a fork in the small path they were following next to the river bed; both paths were quickly disappearing in the thick forest all around them. The right path would lead them back to the palace while the left wound through a small copse of trees until it reached the water's edge. This was one of the spots where the woods reached right up to the river so that one didn't have enough space to ride directly next to it.
Celylith narrowed his eyes yet again. He knew this place…
"But my lord!" Anardir's nearly desperate voice sounded at the front, bringing Celylith out of his reverie, and he quickly began to move his horse to his friends' side.
He reached them just in time to see Legolas give the golden haired elf a patient look.
"There is no need for all of us to remain here, Anardir. You wanted to see how thick the ice really is, so I think it would be prudent to actually have a look."
Anardir shook his head, obviously not convinced.
"We don't need to go down there to see that, your Highness. We can do it just as easily by looking at it from a distance! You cannot send my men back and remain here alone!"
"I will not be alone," Legolas shook his head, looking as if he were reasoning with a headstrong, not so very bright child. "Estel will stay, as will Captain Celylith."
"Oh, I see!" Anardir exclaimed, obviously suppressing the urge to throw his hands up in the air. "That changes everything, of course!"
Celylith frowned. He was in fact rather sure that he had never before heard someone put so much sarcasm into a single sentence.
Legolas either hadn't noticed that the other's voice was positively dripping with sarcasm – something that Celylith thought highly improbable – or he wisely chose to ignore it.
"The others will return to the palace with the quarry, and we will stay for a little while to have a look at the river." He smiled somewhat sadly when the other kept shaking his head no the entire time, and added so softly that only Anardir could hear him, "Don't make me order you, my friend, because you know I will."
The golden haired elf looked at the determined face of his prince and ground his teeth after a second when he realised that Legolas wouldn't back down an inch from his position.
"As you wish, my lord," he finally managed past clenched teeth, giving Galalith a sign to join them. "Galalith will lead them back home, and I will stay here."
Legolas raised an eyebrow.
"Mellon nín, you do not have to…"
"Oh yes," Anardir nodded firmly. "I have to. I am responsible for you, your Highness, and I will not return to the king bearing the news that I left you somewhere by the Forest River, alone. I will stay."
The elven prince gave him a long look before he finally bowed his head slightly.
"Very well."
Anardir gave a curt nod, and a few moments later most of the other elves had already ridden on, even though most of them sported rather doubtful expressions. Galalith still remained, looking at the three elves and the human in front of him with wide eyes.
"My lord, are you sure this is such a good idea?"
Legolas merely nodded, slightly exasperatedly, and Aragorn grinned at the dark haired elf. He didn't know what Legolas was planning, but he knew that look on his elven friend's face. If he knew anything about the elf at all, this was going to be fun.
"Do not worry, Galalith," he assured the obviously rather distraught elf, "We will look after him. Nothing will happen, trust me."
Galalith's green eyes narrowed so far that one could barely tell whether they were still open, elven eyes or not. All Aragorn received for an answer was a scathing glare that should have killed the ranger on the spot, and with a rather cold nod into Legolas' and Celylith's direction the elf turned his horse and followed the rest of the troupe.
They remained where they were for a while, their eyes following the lone figure of the rider until he disappeared round a bend in the path and vanished from sight. After a few more moments Legolas looked up, silver-blue eyes gleaming mischievously.
"Wonderful," he declared and grinned at his companions, ignoring the way Anardir looked at him in disapproval, "Let's go then, shall we?"
He turned his white horse and headed down the path to the left, trusting that the other would follow him which they did, after one or two seconds. Aragorn was the first to reach the blonde elf's side, and he looked at him questioningly, one eyebrow arched in amusement and confusion.
"What is it you are up to, my friend?" he asked, studying the other's emotionless face closely. "What is at the end of this road?"
"Why, Estel," Legolas began, surprise written on his disconcertingly innocent face. "The river, of course."
"Of course," Aragorn agreed in mock seriousness. "And other than that?"
"I have no idea what you are talking about, my friend," the elf shook his head, as if hurt by the human's apparent doubts. "What else should there be?"
Before Aragorn could retort something, Anardir closed the distance that lay between them and looked at his prince with wide, disbelieving eyes.
"Oh, please tell me you are not thinking about it, your Highness!"
Legolas raised an eyebrow in confusion, looking at the golden haired elf as if he had just told him he was in reality an orc in disguise.
"Thinking about what, Anardir? You really need to specify a little…"
Anardir shot the elven prince a look so dark that it would even have impressed his liege and opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off immediately by Celylith's voice, sounding torn between anticipation and disapproval.
"Oh no, Legolas. This is not a good idea. In fact, it is an exceptionally bad idea. A very, very bad idea, to be perfectly precise."
"Come now, my friends!" Legolas exclaimed with a slightly annoyed undertone in his voice. "You don't even know what I'm thinking about and yet you criticise me!"
"We are not criticising you, my lord," Anardir shook his head, not willing to rise to the other's bait. "We are merely telling you that it is not a good idea."
"What?" Aragorn exclaimed, looking from one elven face to the next in confusion. "That what isn't a good idea? What are all of you talking about?"
"Let me tell you what is at the end of this path, Master Human," Anardir turned to look at the human's confused face. "There is the river, yes, but next to it there is a shed, and in this shed we keep the sledges that are not needed right now. The big sledges which we use to transport the barrels back to Esgaroth."
The confusion on the ranger's face slowly made way to understanding, and then to anticipation and excitement.
"Oh!" he said, trying to keep these feelings out of his voice. "Oh, I see!"
"I seriously doubt that," Anardir grumbled in a low voice. "The sledges are not easy to steer even for those who use them often, and if you don't know what you're doing you might very well end up with a few broken bones. Or," he added, giving the others dark looks, "a broken neck."
"Oh, come now, my friend," Legolas exclaimed, turning back to the blonde elf and giving him a bright smile. "They are not that bad, and I promised Estel that I would show them to him this year. And since the twins will be arriving in a few days, this is most likely the last chance we are going to get."
"You could show him next year," Celylith suggested carefully. Truth to be told, he was looking forward to a little ride on the sledges himself, but everything inside of him screamed in panic when he imagined Aragorn and Legolas on such a vehicle. "Or the year after the next. Or at any point when the two of you have reached a certain degree of maturity."
Neither of the two replied to that, but when Legolas and Aragorn traded a look and grinned at each other, Celylith knew that that had been exactly the wrong thing to say. He shook his head and tried to push the voice of caution to the back of his mind that was nearly having a fit inside his skull. So what, a little ride wouldn't hurt them, would it?
"Alright," the silver haired elf relented. "But I want my own sledge. I refuse to be on the same one as either of you."
"A very wise precaution, sir," Anardir grumbled. "I for my part will not set foot on the ice. One of us has to inform the king of your demise, after all."
"You are far too pessimistic," Legolas shook his head, his keen eyes already able to see the end of the small wood they were riding through at the moment. "This will be fun, believe me."
He spurred on his horse and raced down the path, long hair streaming behind him. Aragorn and Celylith merely looked at each other, shrugged and quickly followed him, already bickering about who would get which sledge.
Anardir was left to look at their retreating backs and shake his head in dismay.
"Fun," he mumbled as he slowly followed the three young beings. "Fun, of course."
About an hour later, all doubts that had ever been in Aragorn's mind about Legolas' newest endeavour had vanished as if they had never existed.
No, he vowed to himself, he would never again doubt his elven friend when he claimed that something was fun, well, that excluded sleeping in trees. Sleeping anywhere high above the ground where there was always the possibility of free-falling a few dozen feet was not his idea of a lot of fun, thank you very much, no matter how much Legolas, Celylith and even his brothers claimed that there was no better place to spend the night.
Aragorn grinned and pulled his sledge slightly to the side, grinning even more broadly when he heard an outraged shout when he cut right through the path Celylith's sledge was taking, nearly causing the silver haired elf to collide with him. Only the elf's quick reflexes saved him and his sledge, and when the young ranger pulled his vehicle back towards the middle of the frozen river, he heard a string of vicious cursing behind him that bore witness to Celylith's reaction that was none too favourable indeed.
Legolas had been right, the man thought, smiling blissfully as the wind whipped his hair to the side and reddened his cheeks. This was the most fun he had had in quite a long time, and that meant quite a lot in his opinion since he had had a lot of fun since he had been allowed to leave Mirkwood's healing wing.
A flash of long blonde hair and a dark brown coat crossed his vision, and he looked to the side just in time to avoid Legolas who had manoeuvred his sledge next to his, moving at an incredibly high speed. The sledges were the smallest they had been able to find, were lightly built and, when one had figured out how to do it, not that hard to control after all. They had found out that the ice was very slippery right now and largely snow-free since it hadn't snowed for quite some time, and so even the smallest run-up produced a rather impressive result. Aragorn was sure that he had been speeding across the ice for a few minutes now without losing a sizable part of his velocity.
"Everything alright, Strider?" the elven prince laughed, grinning at his human friend with childlike joy. He had indeed forgotten how much fun this was, and to see Anardir wince every time they almost collided made everything even more enjoyable, in an evil sort of way.
Aragorn grinned back, pulling at one of the cords that were attached to the front axis of his sledge and shifting his weight to the left to make his vehicle describe a wide, graceful semi-circle.
"Of course! Celylith doesn't sound too happy though!"
"See?" Legolas shouted back and mimicked his friend's actions, following him closely. "Even you stubborn humans are able to learn how to use a sledge…"
Aragorn merely scowled at the elf and headed back to where they had left Celylith. Legolas had been most annoying in the beginning and had been behaving as if he were a child that was really too young for something as "dangerous" as a sledge…
"And you have to pull here to change directions, understood?" Legolas looked at the young ranger, regarding him as if the mechanics of an elven sledge were beyond his ability to comprehend. "You have to pull on the right one to go right and on the left one to go left."
"No!" Aragorn exclaimed in mock surprise, looking at the elf with wide, astonished eyes. "Really? I don't have to pull on the left one to go right and on the right one to go left? The firstborn truly create the most amazing things!"
The elven prince glared at the man, doing his best to ignore the barely muffled snickers from Celylith's and Anardir's direction.
"I was simply trying to help."
"No," Aragorn shook his head. "You were assuming that I have the intelligence and motor abilities of a five-year-old child. Again."
"And your point is what exactly?" the fair haired elf shot back, smiling wickedly when the ranger's face darkened and he glared heatedly at him. "Besides, that is not true. I do not believe that you have the intelligence of a five-year-old child."
"Four years would be more adequate," Celylith chimed in, looking up from where he was examining his own sledge. "And I wasn't aware that you had any motor abilities at all…"
"Those are words I wouldn't say if I were you, Master Who-will-soon-find-himself-face-first-in-a-snow-drift," Aragorn shot back, tugging at the strings of his sledge to pull it towards the glistering, frozen surface of the forest river.
The ice was simply begging to be set foot on, and ever since they had dismounted and unlocked the shed that held the sledges he had been waiting for this moment. It was very much like all the times he had skated with his elven brother home in Rivendell as a child, he decided after a moment when he had nearly reached the gleaming ice. As a young boy he had been fascinated with ice and snow, even though it always brought painfully to his attention that he was no elf and couldn't walk on top of snow – or that ice that easily endured the weight of several elves could splinter under his.
Aragorn carefully pulled the sledge onto the ice, mindful to stay on the snow-covered ground that offered at least some support and not to come too close to the gleaming metal runners, and was just about to turn around when he heard a soft, crunching noise, something that even his keen, elven-trained senses would nearly have missed.
He cursed inwardly and barely managed to turn around half-way when something slammed into his back and threw him face first into the snow. The young ranger spluttered angrily and spit out a mouthful of cold snow, and when he heard a clear, pealing laugh he knew who or what had just tackled him.
"Well, Master Who-currently-is-face-first-in-a-snow-drift," Legolas' voice teased, still chuckling softly, "It appears that you still have a lot to learn about how to avoid attacks."
Aragorn wiped several layers of snow out of his eyes and turned onto his back, blinking up at the tall figure of his grinning friend who stood lightly in front of him on top of the snow.
"There is no other race as rude or as sneaky as the Elves," he declared with a disgusted shake of his head. He slowly stood to his feet, beginning to grin wickedly when he saw Legolas back away a few steps. "I will get you for this."
"Will you now, human?" Legolas teased and was on his sledge in a fraction of a second. "You will have to catch me first!"
Aragorn watched the elf speed away and quickly moved over to his own sledge, gripping the carved handholds tightly as he began to follow his friend, his movements still a bit awkward and overly careful to avoid slipping.
"Oh, I will, elf, trust me on this!"
Well, to be perfectly honest, Aragorn shrugged, he hadn't exactly got him, not yet anyway. Legolas was simply too fast and too experienced on a sledge to be caught easily, but he wouldn't give up. Sometimes – now being one of them – the elf's over-protective behaviour really got on his nerves, and it appeared that his friend needed to be taught that he was far from young and was more than capable to look after himself, and that included steering a sledge.
He pulled his sledge a little to the left to avoid a large rock that protruded from the ice, somehow looking as if it had been surprised by the encroaching frost and been overwhelmed before it had had a chance to flee. The young man was just looking over his shoulder to see where his friends were when a colourful blur sped past him, giving a short, evil laugh while doing so.
Aragorn didn't even need to give the sledge that had just overtaken him a second glance to know who it had been: Legolas, because only he could laugh like that. Besides, there were only two persons with him on the ice, and since Celylith should be somewhere behind him by now it really wasn't that hard to guess.
His conclusions were confirmed when the person on the sledge turned around slightly and grinned at him, blonde hair flying wildly around his head.
"So, what was all this about you getting me for some thing or other?"
"Oh, just you wait," Aragorn grumbled, quite audible for his elven friend even above the howling of the wind, and quickly kicked out with a leg to accelerate again, already in hot pursuit of the elf.
Within a few seconds he was alongside the elf, and if not for Legolas' quick reflexes, they would have surely have collided – something that would probably have given poor Anardir a heart attack, Legolas mused amusedly while he evaded to the left. The golden haired elf was watching the proceedings with wide eyes – even though it was rather obvious that he did have no real wish to witness any of this – and was wincing almost continuously, something that just couldn't be healthy even for an elf.
"If you would just stay in one spot and face me like an elf all this would be a lot easier!" Aragorn's laughing voice complained, and Legolas looked back at him, eyes gleaming with mischief and joy.
Before the man even had enough time to blink, Legolas quickly steered his sledge back towards the right, and the wooden construction collided with Aragorn's vehicle with a sharp crack. For a few moments, the two sledges were fused together while their riders battled to pull them apart again, and Legolas had to grab the wooden handholds tightly to prevent himself from sliding off his vehicle. A Elbereth, Aragorn's face was priceless!
"Are you planning to scare me to death or is it just a strange side product of your questionable humour?" the man inquired while he sharply jerked his sledge to the side in an attempt to separate both of them, inwardly marvelling at the lightness of the sledges that allowed them to move at such an impressive speed even after such a collision.
He took a deep breath and tried to get his heart under control that was thumping inside his chest so loudly that he asked himself if Legolas was able to hear it as well. That little trick had surprised him to be honest, just a little bit of course.
"Just always remember what my brothers will say when they arrive here and find me dead because of you!" he added, shifting his weight to the right to disentangle his sledge from Legolas'.
The elf merely snorted and jerked his sledge to the side in the exact same moment Aragorn did the same, and with a cracking, mildly tearing sound they broke apart. He flashed the ranger a smile when both of them accelerated again, describing a wide circle to the right to return to their friends.
"If I have learned one thing, dúnadan, it is that it takes a lot more than this to kill you!" His smile turned into a grin, and he added, "Unfortunately, and the Valar know I have tried."
"Oh yes, I can vouch for that!"
Legolas smiled at his friend's wry voice and accelerated a little. He would be damned if he let himself be caught by a human, Númenórean blood or not. He looked over his shoulder to see how far behind him Aragorn was – merely a few yards, not that bad for a beginner – and when he turned around again he saw something he had missed when they had passed this spot earlier: A fallen tree that was protruding from the ice.
From the looks of it, the tree had been struck by lightning, probably in one of the winter storms that had been rather fierce this year, and had fallen into the river when it had already been frozen over. Half of it had crashed through the ice, and the tree had frozen in this position, one half beneath and one half above the surface.
Legolas pulled on the cord that was attached to the left side of his front axis, and his sledge obediently turned to the left, describing a wide, graceful arc. The blonde elf grinned; it had taken him about two hundred years to perfect that manoeuvre. He fully expected Aragorn to do the same and didn't even look behind him to check if the man was following, and therefore was rather surprised by his human friend's rather pressed sounding voice that reached his ears clearly even above the loud howling of the wind.
"Oh no."
The elven prince turned, now only a few dozen feet away from the fallen log himself, and looked at the human with wide, unbelieving eyes when he realised that he had done nothing to change his course.
"Aragorn! What are you doing?"
"I can't do anything, that's the problem!" the ranger shot back, looking up at his friend, something like quickly controlled panic flickering in his silver eyes. "It's not reacting at all! I can't go left!"
"What do you mean??" Now Legolas was sure that his eyes were indeed popping out of their sockets, something that happened to him far too often when he was spending any amount of time at all with Aragorn.
"I can't go left!" Aragorn repeated, tugging on his left cord to prove his point, and this time there was definitely a panicked sparkle in his eyes.
Legolas turned around to his friend fully, not really caring at the moment where he was going. He quickly scanned the other's sledge, becoming more nervous with each passing second for he knew only too well how close they already were to the obstruction that loomed at his back, and felt how his heart turned into a lump of ice all of the sudden when the saw the reason for his friend's difficulties: The left steering cord had been torn off, probably when their sledges had collided a few minutes earlier, and instead of being attached to the axis and therefore enabling one to steer it was now wrapped around a part of one of the vehicle's carved struts.
A combination that could only be described with three words: Very, very bad.
The elf needed only a second to survey the damage and come to the conclusion that there was no way that Aragorn was regaining control over his sledge or slowing down sufficiently before they reached the fallen tree, and he whirled back around and jerked at the right rope of his sledge, manoeuvring his vehicle closer to the man's and fervently praying to Ilúvatar that he would be fast enough.
Aragorn quickly saw what his friend was intending and was already moving to the very left edge of his sledge when his eyes grew wide as he saw the tree that was coming closer so fast that he was sure it blurred around the edges.
His head turned to the side, grey eyes locking with grim silver-blue ones.
"Don't, Legolas! Get away from here! You won't make it in time!"
"And have your brothers kill me for this? I think not!" the elven prince shouted back, and with a loud crack his sledge connected with Aragorn's.
Legolas' right hand shot out, preparing to grab his human friend's arm and pull him onto his sledge, but that was the moment both of them realised that it was indeed too late.
In the one moment they were still some feet away from the tree, in the next it was right in front of them, seemingly growing towards the heavens in front of their astonished eyes. The two friends had just enough time to look at each other with a weary, somewhat long-suffering in their eyes before their sledges collided with the unyielding tree with a sickening crash.
The next clear sensation Legolas was aware of was being flung into the air and flying for an impossibly long amount of time before the snow-covered ground rushed up to meet him and the white world turned suddenly black.
TBC...
mellon nín - my friend
dúnadan - 'Man of the West', ranger
*nods contently* I really have missing being evil ... I'm very glad my alter ego's back. I'm sure you missed her too, right? *g* Well, I do have to shift a bit of the blame for this cliffy: All this was inspired by a review Alilacia sent me some time last story, something involving Aragorn, a sledge and a frozen waterfall. *shrugs* I changed it a bit, but could not resist the temptation. So, if you want to know just what injuries the two of them have managed to sustain this time, check back in on Saturday! In the meantime, you could send me a review! What do you think? Please??
Additional A/N:
LOTRFaith - *defensively* Hey, it's not my fault! I think you can activate an author alert somewhere - don't ask me where I've never tried. But then you get a message every time that author updates - or something. *shrugs* If you have me on your favourites, shouldn't it tell you things like that? *shrugs again* I dunno, I will never understand FF.net. Well, technically my posting schedule is every five days right now, I hope to get it to every four. More likely than not, that won't work, but still. It's great to 'see' you again, thanks for reviewing!
Sirithiliel - Well, I guess he wouldn't _really_ say that since that's a real quick way to get yourself killed or thrown into the dungeons for a few millennia, but poor Anardir's not really thinking clearly, I'm afraid. Totally understandable if you ask me! *g* I don't think either that elves have money, or own money at that. I think they would use money they would need for trading with humans or jewels, weapons, things like that. Or pretty sparkly obejcts, in Thranduil's case... *g*
Gwyn - You people and your possession with not killing Celylith! I still think it would be _so much_ fun! But then again, it would probably give Zam Kenobi a heart attack, and we can't have that, can we... And yes, some action is in here, and much more is coming a little later - have patience, my friend!
Amelie - *evil grin* You might be right there. No fights, evil guys and things like that can only mean that everything is coming later and will be much worse! *g* I'll try to tell you the general idea of when I'm going to post, but I might forget it sometimes. I'll do my best though. LOL, you might be right, perhaps I should send Celylith to a therapist or something because of the gambling? That would be interesting for sure... I'm sorry, but he won't be in here as much as in THOM, rather more like the twins. Not that much, but he won't disappear either. Deal? *nods* Deal.
TrinityTheSheDevil - Ah. THAT dance. It's scary and weird, but what else should one expect from you... *evil grin* Ack! J/k, put that sword down! Great you liked that little scene, it's always nice to see that you guys like what I write - especially when it's as weird as that! *g*
Deana - *hisses* It's my idea, precioussss! Mine, it was given to me, it'ssss my birthday presssssssent... *g* No, never mind my alter ego, it's funny indeed that we came up with the same idea to torment our dear elven prince! I didn't exactly post quickly, but I hope it was still okay. No? *hangs head* Okay then.
Marbienl - *g* I am known for not being able to remember the things that really matter - the year in which Caesar crossed the Rubicon, the date on which Walther Rathenau was murdered, whether it was Kleisthenes or Perikles who changed the constitution of Athens - but I remember weird little details like who wishes to be huggled and who doesn't! You have to get your priorities straight, haven't you? *g* So, you have kidnapped one of my dwarves? Let me guess ... it's either Dofur or Nabur, right? Right? Well, whoever it is, I demand that you return to me immediately! I will NOT have you wackos, uhm, I mean readers, of course, kidnap my dwarves! Understood!? *threatening look* LOL, it would really be rather pathetic if Legolas wanted to kill and ED but hit Estel instead, I agree. Rather embarassing, too. Hmm, this is taking place in spring of III, 2954, therefore Aragorn is nearly 23 years old - but I guess you're right, my brother is 23 and not THAT mature either... *g* And yes, it was a VERY thin cut, but NO, it will NOT become infected or anything. Okay? Okay. And I learn my Sindarin mainly from a nice book I got via Amazon, it's rather nice, even though it's a bit complicated. Sindarin is a very hard language, harder to learn than Quenya in my opinion...
Nikara - *g* Well, to be perfectly honest, I don't think that any of them would agree with you that they are "wonderful" injuries, but what do they know... *g* And you're right of course, there are some injuries coming up. It's about bloody time too, right?
Tapetum Lucidum - Welcome back yourself! Great to 'see' you again! And I agree, Thranduil is not insane, or at least not yet. His behaviour makes perfect sense, in a way at least... *g* And I agree again, Anardir is a rather sweet elf. He will need all the support he can possibly get too, the poor thing... *evil grin* Thank you very much for reviewing again, I really love 'seeing' people I know!
Dha-Gal - *hangs head* I know. I admit it. I've just started to attend meetings of the AAA, the Angst Authors Anonymous, but it hasn't started to help yet. They said I needed to get rid of my evil alter ego, but I can't do that! She's part of me, after all! *shrugs* Well, if you like cliffies, you're perfectly right here, since, as you probably know by now, is one! Mhahahaha! And I was surprised because I know that the story is about 475 pages long, and that's a lot even for a fast reader. I have never read it in one go, but I still think 2-4 hours is rather fast. *shrugs* Whatever. *g*
Firnsarnien - *sly grin* Oh, I knew you would. You and Elf Angst - a perfect match. *g* And don't let Legolas or Aragorn hear that they're wonderful victims - even if it's true. I'm rather sure that they wouldn't like that one bit... LOL, I know, it must be HORRIBLE to miss your target by the third of a centimetre, but hey, he's kinda obsessed, isn't he? And don't worry, I'll - probably *g*- restore him to his former "perfection", and I am using that term loosely. *evil grin*
Alisha - *grabs Elrond and appears miraculously in Alisha's dorm room, causing her room mate to finally lose it* There! There she is! Fix her! *shoves startled elf lord into equally startled Alisha's direction* *giggles* See, I brought you ME's best healer! He will have fixed that cut finger of yours in no time. He can still amputate it as a last resort ... hey, j/k! No fainting! Wake up! Hey! *g* And don't hold your breath or anything similarly foolish, okay? I would realy hate to lose a beloved reviewer... And yes, I'm bad. I'm evil and sadistic and about a thousand other things in between - it really took you over ten months to notice that? *unbelieving look* You're weird... And I have to say, you may be weird, but you're good. Your guess is really not bad - you and dear Celylith may have to share the money... *g*
Firniswin - Yeah, I know what you mean. I'm being called interesting things all the time, including She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (I kinda like that one), Daughter of Morgoth and things like that. Rather flattering, really. You're marking me on the calendar? Jeez, either you or I need more of a life, mate... *g* Me, I guess...
Silvertoekee - Nah, don't change your s/n. I like it. I don't really get what it's supposed to mean, but I don't get a lot of things, so no worries. Oh, and the bets are not really extensive, they could bne much worse. I think they're still rather simple. *g* LOL, Legolas and Aragorn meeting up to ALL the options? That is a rather interesting idea - scary, but interesting...
Jenny - *sighs* No, the summary is not a cliffy. You already know that neither Legolas nor Aragorn will be killed, unless I decide to change this into an AU all of the sudden... *g* And yes, this one has a cliffy. I'm sorry, I really am. I know how you hate them, but my alter ego demanded it. Who am I to argue with myself? *g*
Mouse5 - Wow, you really do that? Betting on which fly crawls up a wall first or something like that? That sounds even worse than Celylith and Co. in my opinion... Thanks for asking, college is ... well, you could say okay, I guess. I'm not really happy with my courses, unfortunately I had little choice. Hm, make that no choice. *g* But it's only for this term, so I'll be fine, eventually. Unfortunately, this is indeed a cliffy, but you'll forgive me, right? *hopeful smile*
Coimastara - Huh, really? That's quite a lot - I'm very flattered, thank you very much! LOL, you could tell the police that I murdered you, but I very much doubt they would find me. And even if, I would simply sic Aragorn and Legolas on them! Mhahahah! *g* Thanks for your review!
Critternut - Nope, no Legolas. No Aragorn either, only the twins, Elrond and Glorfindel. Oh yes, a little bit of Erestor as well, and I think Arwen's mentioned a few times. *g* And don't worry, Tolkien actually doesn't write all that much about the twins at all, so most of the things you read in fics are made up anyway. Incluiding my interpretation of their characters, of course. And no, it won't interfere with this story since I wrote and finished it before I even started with this one. So it's all done and waiting for the 23rd. *g* And sorry if I have to disappoint you, Legolas won't be captured now, that would be far too predictable, right?
Zam - I've always liked the confetti. It makes me feel so ... special. *g* LOL, I can totally understand Anardir. I wouldn't want to join your orc horde either. They're incompetent - and they cheat at scrabble and Trivial Pursuit! That's not even evil, that's disgraceful! *g* Yeah, the rabid fangirl category would be good too - with their luck and you around... Great you like it so much! It's always nice to please you and Lina - you're too evil to displease... *shudders*
Ellyrianna -*nods* Yes, sometimes FF.net does that. Usually it helps to add an "a" or an "a/" to the link you want to see - but, unfortunately, not always. Most of the time it does though. And your guess wasn't that bad, only that it's supposed to be early February and doesn't rain. It snows. *snickers* Just you wait, it will snow soon... *evil grin* I'm _always_ taking torture suggestions! You never know when you might need them... Eek - as I said before, I've never read the Code, and now that you tell me the many nice things you've found in them I suddenly have no desire whatsoever to do. Funny, eh?
Helen T - *shrugs* As I said, I don't know yet. I might put it into the next story, I always like to tie everything up nicely, but it might take me some time. Thank you! Finally someone is agreeing with me on the definition of the word cliffy! Most people here have a really funny idea of the meaning in my opinion... And sorry, but I really have no time at all to chat in the evenings. I don't think I will be on AIM in the near future, I'm just too busy. Sorry. *sheepish grin*
Calenore - LOL, all the possible dangers will happen to them at once!? I have the very bad feeling that that would be enough to finally kill them... *g* Thanks a lot for your review! Reviews are wondrous things, they make authors very happy and therefore enable them to post sooner! Honestly! *g*
CrazyLOTRfan - *mysterious smile* Well, Legolas might get well again - then again, he might not. Who can possibly know? I know, I know, _I_ can know, but I don't really count. *g* And yes, Glorfindel will be in here, I promised Cathy and can't break that now - she would find a way to kill me, cunning little creature she is... *watches her bounce* Uh-oh. *being crushed* Didn't ... I ... say don't ... bounce ... for ... cryin' out ... loud? *g* Don't mind me. I LIKE being crushed. Really.
Leggylover03 - *shakes head* I will not comment on your obsession with Aragorn pain, for I have done that many, many times in the past and it never worked. So I will only say that yes, Aragorn pain is coming up in the next few chapters, but nothing too serious, we don't want the boy to be hurt too badly, do we? *g* Nooo...
Aurienia - Yup, I feel sorry for Anardir too - he's a very, very poor elf... The question of who will win will be answered here - in a way, that is. *g* So you want a cliffy? Really? A real cliffy? Okay then, here you go! I hope you have fun with it! *leaves her dangling over the cliff* Mhahahahahaa!
Aratfeniel - Ack! Then don't twist it, for Christ's sake! No twisting broken wrists! And yes, of _course_ Araogorn is reckless. I don't know whether he really thinks someone will believe him when he says things like that, since we all know that he is the most reckless being ever to grace fair Arda! *shakes head* Reckless human...
Mystic Girl1 - Mann! Wieder eine Mega-review! Yay! Hmm, wenn du weiterhin so lange Meisterwerke schreibst, koennte ich mich vielleicht bereiterklaeren, auf einige der 48 Reviews zu verzichten. *g* Und nein, du musst nicht auf Englisch schreiben, Gott bewahre. Ich hab' schon mehr als genug auf Englisch, da ist ein deutsches mal ganz schoen... *unschuldiges Laecheln* Ein was? Ein cliffy? Hier? Neeeiiiinnnn... LOL, ja, Legolas stellt sich wirklich ein bisschen an, nech? Aber so ist er halt, der dumme blonde Waldelb. Ich war im Bogenschiessen immer recht gut - aber wir haben ja heutzutage so viele Hilfmittel, da wuerde sich ein Elb vor Lachen wahrscheinlich auf dem Boden waelzen - oder vor Schock sterben- *g* ManuKu hat ja Gottseidank geupdated - ich war kurz vor drastischen Schritten!!
Tychen - *nods* Yeah, we ALL know it, but somehow, neither Legolas nor Aragorrn are getting it. That either makes us very clever or them very stupid.. *grins satified* Well, your guess is interesting, but it's not ... quite correct. It's rather good to see that I'm not that predictable yet... LOL, the odds of the other elves leaving for Valinor are ... hm, what about two-to-one? Something like that... *g*
Maranwe1 - *hangs head in shame* I changed it as soon as I got your review, honestly! I kinda knew that it was you, but I didn't have time to check it and didn't want to write anything wrong, so I just wrote I couldn't remember. *falls to her knees* Will you forgive me? Please!? *fake sobbing* Yeah, I know, these details are the things that keep me alive in boring lectures. I like learning weird stuff like that that I will never need in later life.. *g* LOL, I think that neither Thranduil nor Aragorn would be exceedingly pleased to be compared to one another. But they are alike - kind of, right? *g* Poor them. Huh? How long the chapter was? Ch.2 was 14 1/2 pages, this one is 14, the next one is 16 1/2. So I manage to keep to 15 pages, most of the time, which is god because I really don't want them any longer. And no, it would NOT be funny had they grown. NOT. *evil look* Oh, and I'm glad you liked the tree-joke, I like it too. *huggles* Thanks for reviewing!
TrustingFriendship - Mhahaha, ARAGORN said Legolas' arm would be alright, not me! Who knows what's going on in that scary mind of mine... *g* You're evil if you want to see poor Anadir sweat - he's been through too much already! He deserves our sympathy! *shakes head* You're evil, really, the poor elf...
Lady Sandry - No, you didn't read it wrong. I meant it that way, kind of, that is. I mean, Estel means hope, and if Aragorn is around, so is hope, therefore he can't fall into hopelessness, because Aragorn will still be there. Does that make sense? Even if not, it was a nice play of words. About your criticism: First: I'm not the Emperor or Sauron, I LIKE constructive criticism. I really do. I doesn't help me if people don't tell me what they really think, so I thank you for taking the time to really think about it. Even flames don't bother me, and yours definitely wasn't one. *smiles* See? No hard feelings. Okay, so ABOUT it: To be honest: It took you so long to realise that? I mean, the Thranduil of my stories has ALWAYS been OOC. Tolkien's Thranduil wouldn't be friends with Elrond, he wouldn't allow Aragorn to stay in Mirkwood, he wouldn't have got drunk with Elrond and Glorfindel in the Second Age. Still, I know what you mean, and I didn't mean that Thranduil was behaving like that in front of his court or something. It was only in front of Galion, who has been his servant for years. Even the Thranduil of my stories wouldn't wander through the palace grinning like an idiot or petting a letter. *g* So, essentially, he has been OOC from the start. As has Elrond, and the twins (who ever said they played pranks - somehow I can't see Tolkien writing that) and Aragorn to a certain degree who I always pictured more solemn and aware of his heritage and duty, even if he didn't want it. Now that you mention it, almost ALL my characters are OOC. *sighs* Great.
Salara - SALARA! *auf sie stuerz und umarm* Ich dachte schon, du waerest verschollen! Es ist echt toll, euch mal wiederzusehen, ich dachte schon, der Wuerger von Boston oder wo der auch immer herkam hat euch erwischt... *g* Hm, eine 10-Review-Kompaktversion? Das ist in der Tat eine nette Idee, wenn ich mal drueber nachdenke... Ich muss zugeben, dass ich noch nie von "Eaton Palace" gehoert habe geschweige denn es gesehen habe, aber ich dachte an den Butler aus "Der Prince von Bel Air", der ist auch so aehnlich. Galalith spielt in der Tat noch eine groessere Rolle, aber an dieser Stelle versiegeln sich meine Lippen. Kein Wort soll sich von meiner Zunge loesen! *g* Ich muss zugeben, dass ich selbst noch nie in einer solchen Situation war (wenn man den einen angebrochenen Finger mal nicht zaehlt, ich war schon immer unverschaemt gesund), aber die beste Freundin meiner Mutter schon und auch mein Vater. Also ein bisschen Erfahrung ist schon da... Und die Idee mit dem Pfeilschuss, von dem dann ein Leben abhaengt, hat sich schon seit langer Zeit in mein krankes Gehirn eingeschlichen, keine Angst... *g* Ich hoffe wirklich, dass dein Leben wieder ein bisschen leichter geworden ist, und es war toll, mal wieder was von dir zu hoeren! Danke!
Maerz - Also alle fuenf - oder, in diesem Fall, sechs - Tage findest du schnell? Was kann man da noch sagen... Ich danke dir jedoch fuer deine Weitsicht; es ist immer schoen, reviews zu bekommen, aber wem sag' ich das... *g* Ich hoffe, das Update hier was jetzt nicht zu schnell - wuerde mich aber extem wundern... *g*
Seveawen - I know what you mean, I guess I should start "acting my age" too, which would be incredibly boring though, wouldn't it? *evil grin* I honestly can't tell you yet whether or not Seobryn will be in this story. I don't know yet, he just might, but I haven't planned it this far. What I can tell you though is that I definitely plan on writing a fic in which Seobryn and Seveawen marry, if I ever get that far in my stories. It might be two or three fics in the future, but if I'm still writing then, I will do one about that. Okay? Jeez, I really hope you're okay now? Five days in the hospital doesn't sound like fun! I hope your mom doesn't hate me now! *g*
Jazmin3 Firewing - I will ignore the sarcasm. I'm rather good at that, you know... *g* Well, my stories tend to come in pieces, or were you referring to the chapter? Why would you have to read it in pieces; it's not THAT long, is it? *shrugs* Whatever, thanks a lot for your reviews! I do love them, I mentioned that somewhere I think...
ThE iNsAnE oNe - LOL! Legolas is hearing voices, huh? Well, to be honest, I'm not really surprised - it only is a miracle that Nólad managed to stay sane for so long in the company of you people... ROTFL, you LICKED Elrohir's hand? Jeez, the poor elf will be traumatised for LIFE! Considering he's an elf that's a very LONG time! And OF COURSE (somehow I'm writing a lot in capital letters right now, I don't know why either *g*) I'm happy to see you back! I missed you and Nólad and all the other wackos! (Elladan/Elrohir/Aragorn/Legolas: *outraged* HEY!!!) And don't worry about reviewing on time or something like that, as long as you THINK of me I'm happy... *Gosh, that sounded sappy* LOL, but I'm sorry, the twins won't be in here before chapter 8. Probably chapter 9, sorry. And yes, I know what you mean, telling someone he is nice is evil, almost as evil as telling him he's normal or ordinary. That's even worse in my opinion! And yes again, I agree, the scene was a little bit mushy. *Miki snickers* Okay, so it was VERY mushy, happy now? Great the chappie was lovely after all! Thanks for the huge review!
Suzi9 - Oh, you would do that? I've _always_ wanted a dragon pulled chariot, ever since I read that story. I was about ten there, I think... So Nov. 23rd is your birthday too? Great, then it's a present for both you and Kaeera. Hope you like the twins? There will be no Legolas or Aragorn, only the twins, Elrond, Glorfindel and a little Erestor. *raises eyebrow* I really think I don't want to know about the fence thing. Give Boudicca my regards and tell her the whole insurrection was a bad idea! *shrugs* Sorry, but I've always thought it was kinda like fighting the inevitable. Which doesn't make it any less remarkable, of course...
ManuKu - MANU! *kreischt und umarmt* Schoen, dich mal wieder zu sehen! Wie ich schon Salara sagte, ich hatte schon das schlimmste befuerchtet... Nun bin ich aber wieder komplett gluecklich! *grinst bloede* Siehste? Gluecklich... Hmm, du moechtest, dass sich Legolas und Aragorn nicht-verbal auf die Arme nehmen? Das saehe ein wenig seltsam aus, meinst du nicht, wenn der eine den anderen permanent rumtragen wuerde... *g* Und ich finde immer, es sollte einem nicht peinlich sein, laut zu lachen, egal wo man ist. Die Welt ist eh schon trueb genug, und alle anderen sind eh viel zu ernst... Dein guter Vorsatz freut und ehrt mich natuerlich, aber schon mit einem gelegentlichen Zeichen bin ich ja schon zufrieden! *knuddelt noch mal* Danke fuer ebendieses!
Tinlaure - Wow - a six-word-review! Well, I'll simply assume that you liked the story - thank you very much - and that you are happy that I updated - thank you very much again. Correct? I hope so... *g*
Alex Mistress Squirrel - Well, no, I didn't seriously think that, but now that you have assured me that you would indeed not abandon me I feel much happier! Thanks! It's very nice that you decide to keep reviewing my weird story... *huggles*
Cicci - LOL, you're right, the poor elf really has no idea - but that will change soon, don't worry... *evil laugh* I guess that you're right and that there really is a difference between Legolas' relationship with Mirkwood elves and with Aragorn. I guess that for Silvan elves, no matter how well they know him, he will always remain their prince rather than their friend, no matter what. Fortunately, Aragorn isn't an elf so he doesn't do that. *pats ranger on the head* Good boy. *g*
ElrondsEyebrow - Or GollumsEyes or whatever you are called right now... *g* Well, I guess I would be lying if I pretended I fully understood what you are talking about. It's very nice to hear though that you like this story so far. At least I think that's what you said, right? I kinda got distracted by the squirrels. Why squirrels? Thanks for the reviews nonetheless!
Just Jordy - You are really lucky, you know that!? You wrote just on the day I am indeed updating! Yay you! *g* I'm really sorry that this is so late, but as I said, there really was no time to get this up any sooner. I hope this was still soon enough?! Thanks a lot for the reviews, they really encourage and help me a lot!
So, and I really think I have to find another solution for this... I can't think of anything though. *shrugs* We'll see. A huge Thank you to all my wonderful reviewers! *huggles* I love reviews, which is well known by now I guess... *g*
A/N:
Hi guys, I'm really sorry for keeping you waiting, but... *ducks blunt objects, a hail of arrows and a random, rather startled-looking balrog* Jeez, you're not exactly what one would call 'understanding', are you? *g*
Well, as I said, I'm sorry, honestly. I wanted to post this Saturday or Sunday, but several things prevented me from doing so, among them an evil college paper from hell and the fact that some friends decided to drop in to watch "Matrix: Revolutions" with me on Saturday. I won't say anything about the movie which caused me to nearly die laughing once or twice, even though I don't think that that was the directors' intention - but it is of course debatable what the directors' intention _was_ apart from demonstrating that Keanu Reeves, pretty as he may be, possesses not an ounce of acting ability, but the paper is finished so I can go on with my weird life. *g* Yay Nili.
It's great to hear that you like the betting pool, but I am afraid that I can't accept any bets. Anardir would kill me since he has the monopoly for things like that - you know how touchy elves can get... *g* And I see that the CLF has reared its ugly head again - you should know that this time I don't intend to let myself be intimidated! *shakes fist* I can kill who I want, and that includes Celylith!! *several readers start looking for sharp, pointy objects* It's not that I mean to or anything, really. *hastily* I was just babbling... *g*
Okay, here is chapter 3, in which Aragorn annoys Galalith even more, Anardir finds out exactly how doomed he is, Legolas has a _brilliant_ idea and everybody's favourite question, namely who will win the bet, will be answered. Oh, and there is that little thing at the end, what's it called again ... climber ... cluster ... cliffy! *beams* Yes, that was it!
Enjoy and review, please!
Chapter 3
As Aragorn had predicted, Celylith was not happy.
He didn't say anything in front of Anardir or the rest of the warriors, knowing full well that it was not his place to criticise his prince for his actions in public. But still, discontent and reproach rolled off the silver haired elf in waves, and when Legolas offered to get the horses that had spent the night in a smaller clearing under the watchful eyes of a guard about a five minutes' walk away from their campsite, he rose and offered to accompany him, or he told him he would be accompanying him, that was closer to the truth.
Legolas had only inclined his head, apparently resigning himself to his fate, and the two of them had left the camp, either ignoring or oblivious to the amused glances they received from the rest of their small troupe. Aragorn's ears, although keen for a human, were not sharp enough to hear what Celylith told his friend, but judging from the barely suppressed grins that each and every one of the warriors wore, it had to be memorable.
The young ranger simply leant back against a large oak tree and didn't even bother to try and hide his amusement. He imagined Legolas was just receiving the Things-a-proper-elf-lord-never-does-speech, the one Glorfindel loved so much as well. He had been present once or twice when the golden haired elf had lectured the Lord of Rivendell thus and had enjoyed the look of chagrined acceptance on his father's face more than he would care to admit. His brothers and he himself had heard it more than once themselves, from more than one person one might add.
But only now he was beginning to understand why Glorfindel enjoyed giving that particular speech. There was nothing as satisfying as knowing that someone – other than oneself, of course – was being lectured about his or her misconduct, and the fact that that someone was Legolas and that he actually deserved it made the whole thing only sweeter.
Aragorn grinned broadly. Indeed, Legolas had been very foolish to wander around Mirkwood alone, and at night at that! What a perfectly reckless elf…
He was so focused on his self-satisfied musings that he didn't hear that someone addressed him, and only when a hand grabbed his shoulder and shook him slightly he looked up, straight into the rather annoyed face of Galalith.
"Pardon me?"
The elf resisted the urge to roll his eyes, the sparse sunlight lending his long dark hair red highlights.
"I asked you to get up and help me pack up the tent. It is yours, after all."
Aragorn grinned at the elf and slowly got to his feet. He had only known him a day, but he was already beginning to like him a lot. Contrary to his best friend Anardir who always seemed to be worried by something, Galalith was a cheerful and merry person, and he reminded the man of his elven brothers. Which, he thought dryly, would not exactly be considered a compliment by most people.
"It is not mine," he told the dark haired elf, but followed him obediently to where the small beige tent was still pitched. "Legolas got it from somewhere, I don't even know from where. If it were mine, it wouldn't be that abominable colour."
"It is probably a good thing you don't know from where it comes," the elf retorted and stopped in front of the tent. "It is always best not to ask from where the prince gets all these things." He paused and turned to look at the man. "And what do you mean, 'abominable colour'? What is wrong with it?"
The ranger threw the front flap to the side and quickly rolled up his sleeping mat. Grabbing his other possessions, he crawled back out and deposited them at the foot of a nearby tree before turning unbelieving eyes on the other.
"What do you mean, 'what's wrong with it'? Well, everything! Just look at it, it is beige, and there is even a little green and that horrible brownish colour…"
"Green and brown, human, are the colours of Mirkwood," Galalith informed him frostily. "What colour would you chose for a tent, then?"
"White," the man answered promptly. "Especially for the winter. Otherwise, I would choose…"
"Ah," Galalith held up his hand, interrupting the young man. "Don't tell me. You would choose …. grey."
"How did you know?" Aragorn asked in mock surprise and grabbed a tent pole to pull it out of the ground, motioning to the elf to do the same.
"'Twas not too hard to guess, ranger," the dark haired elf grinned. "You are from Rivendell, after all. All you Noldor wear is grey and white and a little black … boring."
"Boring?" the man asked, flabbergasted. "A person who spends his life wearing brown tells me I am dressing in boring colours?"
Galalith obviously wanted to retort something, but before he had even opened his mouth, Aragorn had jumped forwards, quickly grabbing the elf's arm when he was just about to pull out literally the only tent pole that would have sent the entire construction to the ground in a tangled heap.
"Don't!" Aragorn exclaimed, looking at the other in surprise. "Not this one!"
"And why not?" Galalith asked in annoyance.
"Because this is the important, supporting pole. Honestly, have you never pitched a tent in your life?"
"No," the elf replied curtly, quickly checking if anyone was watching them, which was not the case, to his relief. "I have never had the need. I'm…"
"…an elf and therefore you don't need tents," Aragorn finished the sentence tiredly. "Yes, I know." He ignored the dark haired elf's dark and rather annoyed expression and pointed at another tent pole in front of them. "This one. And then this, this, and this one. Alright?"
Galalith merely shot him a scathing glare and grabbed the pole, pulling it out of the ground in one move.
"Yes. I am not a moron, Strider."
Aragorn began to grin as he helped remove the poles and strings that kept the small tent upright.
"For a minute, Master Elf, you really had me fooled…"
The elf's expression darkened even further and he pointedly ran a thumb over the roughly tipped point of the pole he had just pulled out of the earth.
"Go on, Master Human, please."
"I had nothing more to say, Master Galalith," the young ranger assured the elf and knelt down to roll up the canvas. "Everything of importance has already been said, I believe."
The elf looked up from where he was tying the poles together with a length of cord.
"Has anyone ever told you that you are incredibly annoying, Estel?"
"Several people," Aragorn nodded, an innocent and confused expression on his face as he stuffed the billowing fabric into a large, coarsely woven bag. "I don't know why either. Perhaps you can enlighten me?"
Galalith didn't answer, but several low mumbles that the human quickly identified as rather nasty Dwarvish curses could be heard. Aragorn listened attentively, always willing to learn more about foreign languages, and so it came that they really managed to pack up the tent without any more bickering.
Deciding that it was probably best to ignore the mumbling elf, Aragorn took up the bag and his bedroll and brought them over to the fire, depositing them on the snowy ground. Next to the campfire stood Anardir who had apparently just been in conversation with another elf whose name the young man couldn't presently remember. The other members of their small troupe were scattered all around the small clearing, talking to each other or making last preparations while they waited for their horses to arrive.
Aragorn gave the blonde elf a polite nod and stepped closer.
"Anardir. Are you well?"
Anardir gave the ranger a mildly suspicious look, asking himself if Galalith had talked with him about what he had said yesterday evening.
"Thank you, Strider. I am indeed well." He nodded at the elf next to him. "We were just talking about which route to take back to the palace."
Aragorn narrowed his eyes, trying to remember where exactly they had to be.
"If my estimation is correct, there are only two ways: First, to the north and then along the Forest River, or to the south until we reach the road."
The golden haired elf bowed his head.
"You are correct, Strider. Personally, I would like to take the northern road; this way we can check on the river and see how thick the ice is up here. Around the palace it is always thinner, and it would be nice to know when we will be able to take up our travels to Lake-town again."
The young human did his best to hide a broad smile. Anardir was indeed sounding as if getting away from the palace was the first and foremost thing on his mind, and when he was completely honest, he couldn't even blame him. Life in Mirkwood had been very … stressful for many people lately. But on the other hand, he reasoned, it had been a lot more interesting as well. That was a point most people tended to neglect.
"I am sure Legolas wouldn't mind doing so," he shrugged. "Taking the road might be slightly swifter, but we will be back before nightfall either way, so it doesn't really matter."
"I agree," Anardir nodded, smiling somewhat hesitantly at the man. "The prince would probably not mind, but on second thought…"
Aragorn cocked his head to the side, eyeing Anardir quizzically and frowning slightly when he saw that the nameless elf was beginning to grin knowingly.
"But on second thought what?"
"The road is … safer," Anardir explained slowly. "There are … other elves who are stationed close-by, just in case we need their aid…"
"Why would we need their aid?" the man asked, obviously puzzled.
The blonde elf narrowed his eyes, his back stiffening unconsciously.
"One can never know…"
Aragorn shook his head, apparently dismissing the other's concern as unfounded.
"Everything has gone well until now, has it not? I'm sure we won't need anyone's aid, and travelling along the river sounds like a good idea."
At this moment Legolas and Celylith appeared at the far side of the clearing, a number of elven horses dutifully trailing behind them; the elf who had been guarding them during the night was walking next to them. Aragorn turned back to Anardir and the other elf, giving them a bright smile that was probably meant to be reassuring.
"Do not worry, Anardir," he told the elf. "What could possibly happen?"
Giving both of them a nod, he turned back around and quickly disappeared into the direction of the horses, leaving the two elves behind. Anardir looked at his companion with incredulously raised eyebrows, blinking rapidly.
"Did he really just say that?" he asked the other elf. "It was my imagination, wasn't it?"
"No, mellon nín," the other answered in a grave voice. "He said it."
"'What could possibly happen'? 'What could possibly happen'??" Anardir repeated loudly, staring at the figure of the ranger who had reached his friends' side by now.
"To say that out loud is an invitation," the other nodded.
"Indeed," Anardir agreed and hung his head again, ignoring the small voice in his head that told him that he would end up with a neck like a swan if he didn't stop that soon. "We are doomed."
"As you know I am usually an optimistic person, my friend," the other elf said, shaking his head sadly, "But this time I think you are correct: We are doomed."
Anardir nodded hopelessly.
"How very nice to know that we agree on this, my friend."
The other clapped him on the back, a gesture that, if it had been meant in an encouraging way, produced no effect whatsoever.
"Have faith, Anardir. It could be much worse."
Anardir shook his head and stared at the other incredulously, not even able to say a single word as he watched him follow the young ranger over to the horses. Slowly, as if he had forgotten how to, he began to move and gave a low whistle to catch his horse's attention. He was still shaking his head when a big, chestnut brown steed broke away from the other animals and trotted up to him.
'Oh, it could be much worse,' he thought inwardly as he began to load his gear onto his horse, 'And it will be much worse. Much, much worse.'
That was the one rule one could always rely on, a fact he had learned a long time ago.
Celylith was eyeing his prince with the eyes of a hawk, looking for any signs that might support his theory.
Right now, he thought, he was probably looking more like an anxious mother hawk that was watching its offspring that was still far from fully fledged perch on the edge of the nest, preparing to try and fly.
He unwillingly shook his head and banished that thought from his mind. He strongly denied that he was in any way over-protective of Legolas or any of his other friends, and that comparison was nothing he would have approved of under normal circumstances.
But, he admitted tiredly, when travelling with Legolas or Aragorn and especially when travelling with both of them there was no such thing as "normal circumstances". And right now, every time he looked at his childhood friend, he had to resist the urge to close his eyes and hide in the forest, because there it was: The familiar gleam in Legolas' eyes that very clearly said that he was planning something, something that most people would have described as either foolish, dangerous, stupid, reckless or unbefitting his rank. Or as all of it, and when that was the case, it was usually wiser to seek cover as soon as possible.
Celylith decided that he could risk taking his eyes off the fair haired elf long enough to give Estel a cursory glance, who was right about now immersed in a lively conversation with another warrior a few feet to his left. This time, he concluded after a few seconds, he was rather sure that the young ranger hadn't even the slightest clue what this was about either, even though he too had apparently noticed that Legolas' behaviour was slightly … off, for a lack of a better term.
No, Aragorn didn't know anything either, which was a tiny ray of hope. If both of them were planning something, all of them would be doomed.
The silver haired elf returned his eyes to the figure of his prince, dark blue eyes narrowing slightly as he studied him closely. Right now Legolas was riding in front of their troupe and talking to Anardir about something connected with the trade with the Lake-men, he believed, and any random observer would have stated that he looked like the most innocent elf on Arda.
He knew that to be untrue, very simply because Legolas never looked this innocent unless he was planning something; in fact, he always looked rather guilty when he was in truth innocent, something that made it rather hard to judge the veracity of his statements for people who didn't know him well. But Celylith had known him ever since they had both decided that obeying their nursemaids was boring and that wandering around the palace unattended was much more fun as very young elflings, and he knew when Legolas was up to no good.
But try as he might, he just couldn't think of anything that his friend might be planning. They had left the campsite a few hours ago, after Legolas had decided that they would indeed take the slightly longer route alongside the river, something that none of them really minded. A ride alongside the Forest River at this time of year was always beautiful, and as long as they did get back to the palace before nightfall, no-one at home would care either.
The ride had been uneventful until now, but Celylith hadn't missed the looks of fear and dread that Anardir and a few of the older warriors were beginning to give their surroundings, as if all of them were expecting an unknown foe to burst through the trees at any given moment. Not that he could really blame them, since the last two times he had gone somewhere in the company of either Legolas or Aragorn (or both) he had nearly been cut into pieces, shot, poisoned and generally almost killed in every conceivable way.
No, he really did not know what Legolas was thinking about, and, on second thought, he wasn't so sure that he wanted to either, but ever since the blonde prince had laid eyes on the frozen river, that … sparkle could be seen in his eyes, and Celylith had seen it often enough to know what it meant: Trouble.
Celylith was so immersed in his musings that he was surprised when the company suddenly slowed and then stopped, causing him to nearly bump into the warrior riding in front of him. In fact, he would have done it had it not been for his horse, which skidded to a halt and let the elf know of its discontentment immediately by shaking its head unwillingly and giving a short, annoyed neighing.
The silver haired elf looked up, inwardly vowing to somehow make it up to the animal later, and saw all his suspicions confirmed when he saw where they were. He didn't really know what it meant that they had stopped here, but he was sure that it was not good.
Their group had stopped at a fork in the small path they were following next to the river bed; both paths were quickly disappearing in the thick forest all around them. The right path would lead them back to the palace while the left wound through a small copse of trees until it reached the water's edge. This was one of the spots where the woods reached right up to the river so that one didn't have enough space to ride directly next to it.
Celylith narrowed his eyes yet again. He knew this place…
"But my lord!" Anardir's nearly desperate voice sounded at the front, bringing Celylith out of his reverie, and he quickly began to move his horse to his friends' side.
He reached them just in time to see Legolas give the golden haired elf a patient look.
"There is no need for all of us to remain here, Anardir. You wanted to see how thick the ice really is, so I think it would be prudent to actually have a look."
Anardir shook his head, obviously not convinced.
"We don't need to go down there to see that, your Highness. We can do it just as easily by looking at it from a distance! You cannot send my men back and remain here alone!"
"I will not be alone," Legolas shook his head, looking as if he were reasoning with a headstrong, not so very bright child. "Estel will stay, as will Captain Celylith."
"Oh, I see!" Anardir exclaimed, obviously suppressing the urge to throw his hands up in the air. "That changes everything, of course!"
Celylith frowned. He was in fact rather sure that he had never before heard someone put so much sarcasm into a single sentence.
Legolas either hadn't noticed that the other's voice was positively dripping with sarcasm – something that Celylith thought highly improbable – or he wisely chose to ignore it.
"The others will return to the palace with the quarry, and we will stay for a little while to have a look at the river." He smiled somewhat sadly when the other kept shaking his head no the entire time, and added so softly that only Anardir could hear him, "Don't make me order you, my friend, because you know I will."
The golden haired elf looked at the determined face of his prince and ground his teeth after a second when he realised that Legolas wouldn't back down an inch from his position.
"As you wish, my lord," he finally managed past clenched teeth, giving Galalith a sign to join them. "Galalith will lead them back home, and I will stay here."
Legolas raised an eyebrow.
"Mellon nín, you do not have to…"
"Oh yes," Anardir nodded firmly. "I have to. I am responsible for you, your Highness, and I will not return to the king bearing the news that I left you somewhere by the Forest River, alone. I will stay."
The elven prince gave him a long look before he finally bowed his head slightly.
"Very well."
Anardir gave a curt nod, and a few moments later most of the other elves had already ridden on, even though most of them sported rather doubtful expressions. Galalith still remained, looking at the three elves and the human in front of him with wide eyes.
"My lord, are you sure this is such a good idea?"
Legolas merely nodded, slightly exasperatedly, and Aragorn grinned at the dark haired elf. He didn't know what Legolas was planning, but he knew that look on his elven friend's face. If he knew anything about the elf at all, this was going to be fun.
"Do not worry, Galalith," he assured the obviously rather distraught elf, "We will look after him. Nothing will happen, trust me."
Galalith's green eyes narrowed so far that one could barely tell whether they were still open, elven eyes or not. All Aragorn received for an answer was a scathing glare that should have killed the ranger on the spot, and with a rather cold nod into Legolas' and Celylith's direction the elf turned his horse and followed the rest of the troupe.
They remained where they were for a while, their eyes following the lone figure of the rider until he disappeared round a bend in the path and vanished from sight. After a few more moments Legolas looked up, silver-blue eyes gleaming mischievously.
"Wonderful," he declared and grinned at his companions, ignoring the way Anardir looked at him in disapproval, "Let's go then, shall we?"
He turned his white horse and headed down the path to the left, trusting that the other would follow him which they did, after one or two seconds. Aragorn was the first to reach the blonde elf's side, and he looked at him questioningly, one eyebrow arched in amusement and confusion.
"What is it you are up to, my friend?" he asked, studying the other's emotionless face closely. "What is at the end of this road?"
"Why, Estel," Legolas began, surprise written on his disconcertingly innocent face. "The river, of course."
"Of course," Aragorn agreed in mock seriousness. "And other than that?"
"I have no idea what you are talking about, my friend," the elf shook his head, as if hurt by the human's apparent doubts. "What else should there be?"
Before Aragorn could retort something, Anardir closed the distance that lay between them and looked at his prince with wide, disbelieving eyes.
"Oh, please tell me you are not thinking about it, your Highness!"
Legolas raised an eyebrow in confusion, looking at the golden haired elf as if he had just told him he was in reality an orc in disguise.
"Thinking about what, Anardir? You really need to specify a little…"
Anardir shot the elven prince a look so dark that it would even have impressed his liege and opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off immediately by Celylith's voice, sounding torn between anticipation and disapproval.
"Oh no, Legolas. This is not a good idea. In fact, it is an exceptionally bad idea. A very, very bad idea, to be perfectly precise."
"Come now, my friends!" Legolas exclaimed with a slightly annoyed undertone in his voice. "You don't even know what I'm thinking about and yet you criticise me!"
"We are not criticising you, my lord," Anardir shook his head, not willing to rise to the other's bait. "We are merely telling you that it is not a good idea."
"What?" Aragorn exclaimed, looking from one elven face to the next in confusion. "That what isn't a good idea? What are all of you talking about?"
"Let me tell you what is at the end of this path, Master Human," Anardir turned to look at the human's confused face. "There is the river, yes, but next to it there is a shed, and in this shed we keep the sledges that are not needed right now. The big sledges which we use to transport the barrels back to Esgaroth."
The confusion on the ranger's face slowly made way to understanding, and then to anticipation and excitement.
"Oh!" he said, trying to keep these feelings out of his voice. "Oh, I see!"
"I seriously doubt that," Anardir grumbled in a low voice. "The sledges are not easy to steer even for those who use them often, and if you don't know what you're doing you might very well end up with a few broken bones. Or," he added, giving the others dark looks, "a broken neck."
"Oh, come now, my friend," Legolas exclaimed, turning back to the blonde elf and giving him a bright smile. "They are not that bad, and I promised Estel that I would show them to him this year. And since the twins will be arriving in a few days, this is most likely the last chance we are going to get."
"You could show him next year," Celylith suggested carefully. Truth to be told, he was looking forward to a little ride on the sledges himself, but everything inside of him screamed in panic when he imagined Aragorn and Legolas on such a vehicle. "Or the year after the next. Or at any point when the two of you have reached a certain degree of maturity."
Neither of the two replied to that, but when Legolas and Aragorn traded a look and grinned at each other, Celylith knew that that had been exactly the wrong thing to say. He shook his head and tried to push the voice of caution to the back of his mind that was nearly having a fit inside his skull. So what, a little ride wouldn't hurt them, would it?
"Alright," the silver haired elf relented. "But I want my own sledge. I refuse to be on the same one as either of you."
"A very wise precaution, sir," Anardir grumbled. "I for my part will not set foot on the ice. One of us has to inform the king of your demise, after all."
"You are far too pessimistic," Legolas shook his head, his keen eyes already able to see the end of the small wood they were riding through at the moment. "This will be fun, believe me."
He spurred on his horse and raced down the path, long hair streaming behind him. Aragorn and Celylith merely looked at each other, shrugged and quickly followed him, already bickering about who would get which sledge.
Anardir was left to look at their retreating backs and shake his head in dismay.
"Fun," he mumbled as he slowly followed the three young beings. "Fun, of course."
About an hour later, all doubts that had ever been in Aragorn's mind about Legolas' newest endeavour had vanished as if they had never existed.
No, he vowed to himself, he would never again doubt his elven friend when he claimed that something was fun, well, that excluded sleeping in trees. Sleeping anywhere high above the ground where there was always the possibility of free-falling a few dozen feet was not his idea of a lot of fun, thank you very much, no matter how much Legolas, Celylith and even his brothers claimed that there was no better place to spend the night.
Aragorn grinned and pulled his sledge slightly to the side, grinning even more broadly when he heard an outraged shout when he cut right through the path Celylith's sledge was taking, nearly causing the silver haired elf to collide with him. Only the elf's quick reflexes saved him and his sledge, and when the young ranger pulled his vehicle back towards the middle of the frozen river, he heard a string of vicious cursing behind him that bore witness to Celylith's reaction that was none too favourable indeed.
Legolas had been right, the man thought, smiling blissfully as the wind whipped his hair to the side and reddened his cheeks. This was the most fun he had had in quite a long time, and that meant quite a lot in his opinion since he had had a lot of fun since he had been allowed to leave Mirkwood's healing wing.
A flash of long blonde hair and a dark brown coat crossed his vision, and he looked to the side just in time to avoid Legolas who had manoeuvred his sledge next to his, moving at an incredibly high speed. The sledges were the smallest they had been able to find, were lightly built and, when one had figured out how to do it, not that hard to control after all. They had found out that the ice was very slippery right now and largely snow-free since it hadn't snowed for quite some time, and so even the smallest run-up produced a rather impressive result. Aragorn was sure that he had been speeding across the ice for a few minutes now without losing a sizable part of his velocity.
"Everything alright, Strider?" the elven prince laughed, grinning at his human friend with childlike joy. He had indeed forgotten how much fun this was, and to see Anardir wince every time they almost collided made everything even more enjoyable, in an evil sort of way.
Aragorn grinned back, pulling at one of the cords that were attached to the front axis of his sledge and shifting his weight to the left to make his vehicle describe a wide, graceful semi-circle.
"Of course! Celylith doesn't sound too happy though!"
"See?" Legolas shouted back and mimicked his friend's actions, following him closely. "Even you stubborn humans are able to learn how to use a sledge…"
Aragorn merely scowled at the elf and headed back to where they had left Celylith. Legolas had been most annoying in the beginning and had been behaving as if he were a child that was really too young for something as "dangerous" as a sledge…
"And you have to pull here to change directions, understood?" Legolas looked at the young ranger, regarding him as if the mechanics of an elven sledge were beyond his ability to comprehend. "You have to pull on the right one to go right and on the left one to go left."
"No!" Aragorn exclaimed in mock surprise, looking at the elf with wide, astonished eyes. "Really? I don't have to pull on the left one to go right and on the right one to go left? The firstborn truly create the most amazing things!"
The elven prince glared at the man, doing his best to ignore the barely muffled snickers from Celylith's and Anardir's direction.
"I was simply trying to help."
"No," Aragorn shook his head. "You were assuming that I have the intelligence and motor abilities of a five-year-old child. Again."
"And your point is what exactly?" the fair haired elf shot back, smiling wickedly when the ranger's face darkened and he glared heatedly at him. "Besides, that is not true. I do not believe that you have the intelligence of a five-year-old child."
"Four years would be more adequate," Celylith chimed in, looking up from where he was examining his own sledge. "And I wasn't aware that you had any motor abilities at all…"
"Those are words I wouldn't say if I were you, Master Who-will-soon-find-himself-face-first-in-a-snow-drift," Aragorn shot back, tugging at the strings of his sledge to pull it towards the glistering, frozen surface of the forest river.
The ice was simply begging to be set foot on, and ever since they had dismounted and unlocked the shed that held the sledges he had been waiting for this moment. It was very much like all the times he had skated with his elven brother home in Rivendell as a child, he decided after a moment when he had nearly reached the gleaming ice. As a young boy he had been fascinated with ice and snow, even though it always brought painfully to his attention that he was no elf and couldn't walk on top of snow – or that ice that easily endured the weight of several elves could splinter under his.
Aragorn carefully pulled the sledge onto the ice, mindful to stay on the snow-covered ground that offered at least some support and not to come too close to the gleaming metal runners, and was just about to turn around when he heard a soft, crunching noise, something that even his keen, elven-trained senses would nearly have missed.
He cursed inwardly and barely managed to turn around half-way when something slammed into his back and threw him face first into the snow. The young ranger spluttered angrily and spit out a mouthful of cold snow, and when he heard a clear, pealing laugh he knew who or what had just tackled him.
"Well, Master Who-currently-is-face-first-in-a-snow-drift," Legolas' voice teased, still chuckling softly, "It appears that you still have a lot to learn about how to avoid attacks."
Aragorn wiped several layers of snow out of his eyes and turned onto his back, blinking up at the tall figure of his grinning friend who stood lightly in front of him on top of the snow.
"There is no other race as rude or as sneaky as the Elves," he declared with a disgusted shake of his head. He slowly stood to his feet, beginning to grin wickedly when he saw Legolas back away a few steps. "I will get you for this."
"Will you now, human?" Legolas teased and was on his sledge in a fraction of a second. "You will have to catch me first!"
Aragorn watched the elf speed away and quickly moved over to his own sledge, gripping the carved handholds tightly as he began to follow his friend, his movements still a bit awkward and overly careful to avoid slipping.
"Oh, I will, elf, trust me on this!"
Well, to be perfectly honest, Aragorn shrugged, he hadn't exactly got him, not yet anyway. Legolas was simply too fast and too experienced on a sledge to be caught easily, but he wouldn't give up. Sometimes – now being one of them – the elf's over-protective behaviour really got on his nerves, and it appeared that his friend needed to be taught that he was far from young and was more than capable to look after himself, and that included steering a sledge.
He pulled his sledge a little to the left to avoid a large rock that protruded from the ice, somehow looking as if it had been surprised by the encroaching frost and been overwhelmed before it had had a chance to flee. The young man was just looking over his shoulder to see where his friends were when a colourful blur sped past him, giving a short, evil laugh while doing so.
Aragorn didn't even need to give the sledge that had just overtaken him a second glance to know who it had been: Legolas, because only he could laugh like that. Besides, there were only two persons with him on the ice, and since Celylith should be somewhere behind him by now it really wasn't that hard to guess.
His conclusions were confirmed when the person on the sledge turned around slightly and grinned at him, blonde hair flying wildly around his head.
"So, what was all this about you getting me for some thing or other?"
"Oh, just you wait," Aragorn grumbled, quite audible for his elven friend even above the howling of the wind, and quickly kicked out with a leg to accelerate again, already in hot pursuit of the elf.
Within a few seconds he was alongside the elf, and if not for Legolas' quick reflexes, they would have surely have collided – something that would probably have given poor Anardir a heart attack, Legolas mused amusedly while he evaded to the left. The golden haired elf was watching the proceedings with wide eyes – even though it was rather obvious that he did have no real wish to witness any of this – and was wincing almost continuously, something that just couldn't be healthy even for an elf.
"If you would just stay in one spot and face me like an elf all this would be a lot easier!" Aragorn's laughing voice complained, and Legolas looked back at him, eyes gleaming with mischief and joy.
Before the man even had enough time to blink, Legolas quickly steered his sledge back towards the right, and the wooden construction collided with Aragorn's vehicle with a sharp crack. For a few moments, the two sledges were fused together while their riders battled to pull them apart again, and Legolas had to grab the wooden handholds tightly to prevent himself from sliding off his vehicle. A Elbereth, Aragorn's face was priceless!
"Are you planning to scare me to death or is it just a strange side product of your questionable humour?" the man inquired while he sharply jerked his sledge to the side in an attempt to separate both of them, inwardly marvelling at the lightness of the sledges that allowed them to move at such an impressive speed even after such a collision.
He took a deep breath and tried to get his heart under control that was thumping inside his chest so loudly that he asked himself if Legolas was able to hear it as well. That little trick had surprised him to be honest, just a little bit of course.
"Just always remember what my brothers will say when they arrive here and find me dead because of you!" he added, shifting his weight to the right to disentangle his sledge from Legolas'.
The elf merely snorted and jerked his sledge to the side in the exact same moment Aragorn did the same, and with a cracking, mildly tearing sound they broke apart. He flashed the ranger a smile when both of them accelerated again, describing a wide circle to the right to return to their friends.
"If I have learned one thing, dúnadan, it is that it takes a lot more than this to kill you!" His smile turned into a grin, and he added, "Unfortunately, and the Valar know I have tried."
"Oh yes, I can vouch for that!"
Legolas smiled at his friend's wry voice and accelerated a little. He would be damned if he let himself be caught by a human, Númenórean blood or not. He looked over his shoulder to see how far behind him Aragorn was – merely a few yards, not that bad for a beginner – and when he turned around again he saw something he had missed when they had passed this spot earlier: A fallen tree that was protruding from the ice.
From the looks of it, the tree had been struck by lightning, probably in one of the winter storms that had been rather fierce this year, and had fallen into the river when it had already been frozen over. Half of it had crashed through the ice, and the tree had frozen in this position, one half beneath and one half above the surface.
Legolas pulled on the cord that was attached to the left side of his front axis, and his sledge obediently turned to the left, describing a wide, graceful arc. The blonde elf grinned; it had taken him about two hundred years to perfect that manoeuvre. He fully expected Aragorn to do the same and didn't even look behind him to check if the man was following, and therefore was rather surprised by his human friend's rather pressed sounding voice that reached his ears clearly even above the loud howling of the wind.
"Oh no."
The elven prince turned, now only a few dozen feet away from the fallen log himself, and looked at the human with wide, unbelieving eyes when he realised that he had done nothing to change his course.
"Aragorn! What are you doing?"
"I can't do anything, that's the problem!" the ranger shot back, looking up at his friend, something like quickly controlled panic flickering in his silver eyes. "It's not reacting at all! I can't go left!"
"What do you mean??" Now Legolas was sure that his eyes were indeed popping out of their sockets, something that happened to him far too often when he was spending any amount of time at all with Aragorn.
"I can't go left!" Aragorn repeated, tugging on his left cord to prove his point, and this time there was definitely a panicked sparkle in his eyes.
Legolas turned around to his friend fully, not really caring at the moment where he was going. He quickly scanned the other's sledge, becoming more nervous with each passing second for he knew only too well how close they already were to the obstruction that loomed at his back, and felt how his heart turned into a lump of ice all of the sudden when the saw the reason for his friend's difficulties: The left steering cord had been torn off, probably when their sledges had collided a few minutes earlier, and instead of being attached to the axis and therefore enabling one to steer it was now wrapped around a part of one of the vehicle's carved struts.
A combination that could only be described with three words: Very, very bad.
The elf needed only a second to survey the damage and come to the conclusion that there was no way that Aragorn was regaining control over his sledge or slowing down sufficiently before they reached the fallen tree, and he whirled back around and jerked at the right rope of his sledge, manoeuvring his vehicle closer to the man's and fervently praying to Ilúvatar that he would be fast enough.
Aragorn quickly saw what his friend was intending and was already moving to the very left edge of his sledge when his eyes grew wide as he saw the tree that was coming closer so fast that he was sure it blurred around the edges.
His head turned to the side, grey eyes locking with grim silver-blue ones.
"Don't, Legolas! Get away from here! You won't make it in time!"
"And have your brothers kill me for this? I think not!" the elven prince shouted back, and with a loud crack his sledge connected with Aragorn's.
Legolas' right hand shot out, preparing to grab his human friend's arm and pull him onto his sledge, but that was the moment both of them realised that it was indeed too late.
In the one moment they were still some feet away from the tree, in the next it was right in front of them, seemingly growing towards the heavens in front of their astonished eyes. The two friends had just enough time to look at each other with a weary, somewhat long-suffering in their eyes before their sledges collided with the unyielding tree with a sickening crash.
The next clear sensation Legolas was aware of was being flung into the air and flying for an impossibly long amount of time before the snow-covered ground rushed up to meet him and the white world turned suddenly black.
TBC...
mellon nín - my friend
dúnadan - 'Man of the West', ranger
*nods contently* I really have missing being evil ... I'm very glad my alter ego's back. I'm sure you missed her too, right? *g* Well, I do have to shift a bit of the blame for this cliffy: All this was inspired by a review Alilacia sent me some time last story, something involving Aragorn, a sledge and a frozen waterfall. *shrugs* I changed it a bit, but could not resist the temptation. So, if you want to know just what injuries the two of them have managed to sustain this time, check back in on Saturday! In the meantime, you could send me a review! What do you think? Please??
Additional A/N:
LOTRFaith - *defensively* Hey, it's not my fault! I think you can activate an author alert somewhere - don't ask me where I've never tried. But then you get a message every time that author updates - or something. *shrugs* If you have me on your favourites, shouldn't it tell you things like that? *shrugs again* I dunno, I will never understand FF.net. Well, technically my posting schedule is every five days right now, I hope to get it to every four. More likely than not, that won't work, but still. It's great to 'see' you again, thanks for reviewing!
Sirithiliel - Well, I guess he wouldn't _really_ say that since that's a real quick way to get yourself killed or thrown into the dungeons for a few millennia, but poor Anardir's not really thinking clearly, I'm afraid. Totally understandable if you ask me! *g* I don't think either that elves have money, or own money at that. I think they would use money they would need for trading with humans or jewels, weapons, things like that. Or pretty sparkly obejcts, in Thranduil's case... *g*
Gwyn - You people and your possession with not killing Celylith! I still think it would be _so much_ fun! But then again, it would probably give Zam Kenobi a heart attack, and we can't have that, can we... And yes, some action is in here, and much more is coming a little later - have patience, my friend!
Amelie - *evil grin* You might be right there. No fights, evil guys and things like that can only mean that everything is coming later and will be much worse! *g* I'll try to tell you the general idea of when I'm going to post, but I might forget it sometimes. I'll do my best though. LOL, you might be right, perhaps I should send Celylith to a therapist or something because of the gambling? That would be interesting for sure... I'm sorry, but he won't be in here as much as in THOM, rather more like the twins. Not that much, but he won't disappear either. Deal? *nods* Deal.
TrinityTheSheDevil - Ah. THAT dance. It's scary and weird, but what else should one expect from you... *evil grin* Ack! J/k, put that sword down! Great you liked that little scene, it's always nice to see that you guys like what I write - especially when it's as weird as that! *g*
Deana - *hisses* It's my idea, precioussss! Mine, it was given to me, it'ssss my birthday presssssssent... *g* No, never mind my alter ego, it's funny indeed that we came up with the same idea to torment our dear elven prince! I didn't exactly post quickly, but I hope it was still okay. No? *hangs head* Okay then.
Marbienl - *g* I am known for not being able to remember the things that really matter - the year in which Caesar crossed the Rubicon, the date on which Walther Rathenau was murdered, whether it was Kleisthenes or Perikles who changed the constitution of Athens - but I remember weird little details like who wishes to be huggled and who doesn't! You have to get your priorities straight, haven't you? *g* So, you have kidnapped one of my dwarves? Let me guess ... it's either Dofur or Nabur, right? Right? Well, whoever it is, I demand that you return to me immediately! I will NOT have you wackos, uhm, I mean readers, of course, kidnap my dwarves! Understood!? *threatening look* LOL, it would really be rather pathetic if Legolas wanted to kill and ED but hit Estel instead, I agree. Rather embarassing, too. Hmm, this is taking place in spring of III, 2954, therefore Aragorn is nearly 23 years old - but I guess you're right, my brother is 23 and not THAT mature either... *g* And yes, it was a VERY thin cut, but NO, it will NOT become infected or anything. Okay? Okay. And I learn my Sindarin mainly from a nice book I got via Amazon, it's rather nice, even though it's a bit complicated. Sindarin is a very hard language, harder to learn than Quenya in my opinion...
Nikara - *g* Well, to be perfectly honest, I don't think that any of them would agree with you that they are "wonderful" injuries, but what do they know... *g* And you're right of course, there are some injuries coming up. It's about bloody time too, right?
Tapetum Lucidum - Welcome back yourself! Great to 'see' you again! And I agree, Thranduil is not insane, or at least not yet. His behaviour makes perfect sense, in a way at least... *g* And I agree again, Anardir is a rather sweet elf. He will need all the support he can possibly get too, the poor thing... *evil grin* Thank you very much for reviewing again, I really love 'seeing' people I know!
Dha-Gal - *hangs head* I know. I admit it. I've just started to attend meetings of the AAA, the Angst Authors Anonymous, but it hasn't started to help yet. They said I needed to get rid of my evil alter ego, but I can't do that! She's part of me, after all! *shrugs* Well, if you like cliffies, you're perfectly right here, since, as you probably know by now, is one! Mhahahaha! And I was surprised because I know that the story is about 475 pages long, and that's a lot even for a fast reader. I have never read it in one go, but I still think 2-4 hours is rather fast. *shrugs* Whatever. *g*
Firnsarnien - *sly grin* Oh, I knew you would. You and Elf Angst - a perfect match. *g* And don't let Legolas or Aragorn hear that they're wonderful victims - even if it's true. I'm rather sure that they wouldn't like that one bit... LOL, I know, it must be HORRIBLE to miss your target by the third of a centimetre, but hey, he's kinda obsessed, isn't he? And don't worry, I'll - probably *g*- restore him to his former "perfection", and I am using that term loosely. *evil grin*
Alisha - *grabs Elrond and appears miraculously in Alisha's dorm room, causing her room mate to finally lose it* There! There she is! Fix her! *shoves startled elf lord into equally startled Alisha's direction* *giggles* See, I brought you ME's best healer! He will have fixed that cut finger of yours in no time. He can still amputate it as a last resort ... hey, j/k! No fainting! Wake up! Hey! *g* And don't hold your breath or anything similarly foolish, okay? I would realy hate to lose a beloved reviewer... And yes, I'm bad. I'm evil and sadistic and about a thousand other things in between - it really took you over ten months to notice that? *unbelieving look* You're weird... And I have to say, you may be weird, but you're good. Your guess is really not bad - you and dear Celylith may have to share the money... *g*
Firniswin - Yeah, I know what you mean. I'm being called interesting things all the time, including She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (I kinda like that one), Daughter of Morgoth and things like that. Rather flattering, really. You're marking me on the calendar? Jeez, either you or I need more of a life, mate... *g* Me, I guess...
Silvertoekee - Nah, don't change your s/n. I like it. I don't really get what it's supposed to mean, but I don't get a lot of things, so no worries. Oh, and the bets are not really extensive, they could bne much worse. I think they're still rather simple. *g* LOL, Legolas and Aragorn meeting up to ALL the options? That is a rather interesting idea - scary, but interesting...
Jenny - *sighs* No, the summary is not a cliffy. You already know that neither Legolas nor Aragorn will be killed, unless I decide to change this into an AU all of the sudden... *g* And yes, this one has a cliffy. I'm sorry, I really am. I know how you hate them, but my alter ego demanded it. Who am I to argue with myself? *g*
Mouse5 - Wow, you really do that? Betting on which fly crawls up a wall first or something like that? That sounds even worse than Celylith and Co. in my opinion... Thanks for asking, college is ... well, you could say okay, I guess. I'm not really happy with my courses, unfortunately I had little choice. Hm, make that no choice. *g* But it's only for this term, so I'll be fine, eventually. Unfortunately, this is indeed a cliffy, but you'll forgive me, right? *hopeful smile*
Coimastara - Huh, really? That's quite a lot - I'm very flattered, thank you very much! LOL, you could tell the police that I murdered you, but I very much doubt they would find me. And even if, I would simply sic Aragorn and Legolas on them! Mhahahah! *g* Thanks for your review!
Critternut - Nope, no Legolas. No Aragorn either, only the twins, Elrond and Glorfindel. Oh yes, a little bit of Erestor as well, and I think Arwen's mentioned a few times. *g* And don't worry, Tolkien actually doesn't write all that much about the twins at all, so most of the things you read in fics are made up anyway. Incluiding my interpretation of their characters, of course. And no, it won't interfere with this story since I wrote and finished it before I even started with this one. So it's all done and waiting for the 23rd. *g* And sorry if I have to disappoint you, Legolas won't be captured now, that would be far too predictable, right?
Zam - I've always liked the confetti. It makes me feel so ... special. *g* LOL, I can totally understand Anardir. I wouldn't want to join your orc horde either. They're incompetent - and they cheat at scrabble and Trivial Pursuit! That's not even evil, that's disgraceful! *g* Yeah, the rabid fangirl category would be good too - with their luck and you around... Great you like it so much! It's always nice to please you and Lina - you're too evil to displease... *shudders*
Ellyrianna -*nods* Yes, sometimes FF.net does that. Usually it helps to add an "a" or an "a/" to the link you want to see - but, unfortunately, not always. Most of the time it does though. And your guess wasn't that bad, only that it's supposed to be early February and doesn't rain. It snows. *snickers* Just you wait, it will snow soon... *evil grin* I'm _always_ taking torture suggestions! You never know when you might need them... Eek - as I said before, I've never read the Code, and now that you tell me the many nice things you've found in them I suddenly have no desire whatsoever to do. Funny, eh?
Helen T - *shrugs* As I said, I don't know yet. I might put it into the next story, I always like to tie everything up nicely, but it might take me some time. Thank you! Finally someone is agreeing with me on the definition of the word cliffy! Most people here have a really funny idea of the meaning in my opinion... And sorry, but I really have no time at all to chat in the evenings. I don't think I will be on AIM in the near future, I'm just too busy. Sorry. *sheepish grin*
Calenore - LOL, all the possible dangers will happen to them at once!? I have the very bad feeling that that would be enough to finally kill them... *g* Thanks a lot for your review! Reviews are wondrous things, they make authors very happy and therefore enable them to post sooner! Honestly! *g*
CrazyLOTRfan - *mysterious smile* Well, Legolas might get well again - then again, he might not. Who can possibly know? I know, I know, _I_ can know, but I don't really count. *g* And yes, Glorfindel will be in here, I promised Cathy and can't break that now - she would find a way to kill me, cunning little creature she is... *watches her bounce* Uh-oh. *being crushed* Didn't ... I ... say don't ... bounce ... for ... cryin' out ... loud? *g* Don't mind me. I LIKE being crushed. Really.
Leggylover03 - *shakes head* I will not comment on your obsession with Aragorn pain, for I have done that many, many times in the past and it never worked. So I will only say that yes, Aragorn pain is coming up in the next few chapters, but nothing too serious, we don't want the boy to be hurt too badly, do we? *g* Nooo...
Aurienia - Yup, I feel sorry for Anardir too - he's a very, very poor elf... The question of who will win will be answered here - in a way, that is. *g* So you want a cliffy? Really? A real cliffy? Okay then, here you go! I hope you have fun with it! *leaves her dangling over the cliff* Mhahahahahaa!
Aratfeniel - Ack! Then don't twist it, for Christ's sake! No twisting broken wrists! And yes, of _course_ Araogorn is reckless. I don't know whether he really thinks someone will believe him when he says things like that, since we all know that he is the most reckless being ever to grace fair Arda! *shakes head* Reckless human...
Mystic Girl1 - Mann! Wieder eine Mega-review! Yay! Hmm, wenn du weiterhin so lange Meisterwerke schreibst, koennte ich mich vielleicht bereiterklaeren, auf einige der 48 Reviews zu verzichten. *g* Und nein, du musst nicht auf Englisch schreiben, Gott bewahre. Ich hab' schon mehr als genug auf Englisch, da ist ein deutsches mal ganz schoen... *unschuldiges Laecheln* Ein was? Ein cliffy? Hier? Neeeiiiinnnn... LOL, ja, Legolas stellt sich wirklich ein bisschen an, nech? Aber so ist er halt, der dumme blonde Waldelb. Ich war im Bogenschiessen immer recht gut - aber wir haben ja heutzutage so viele Hilfmittel, da wuerde sich ein Elb vor Lachen wahrscheinlich auf dem Boden waelzen - oder vor Schock sterben- *g* ManuKu hat ja Gottseidank geupdated - ich war kurz vor drastischen Schritten!!
Tychen - *nods* Yeah, we ALL know it, but somehow, neither Legolas nor Aragorrn are getting it. That either makes us very clever or them very stupid.. *grins satified* Well, your guess is interesting, but it's not ... quite correct. It's rather good to see that I'm not that predictable yet... LOL, the odds of the other elves leaving for Valinor are ... hm, what about two-to-one? Something like that... *g*
Maranwe1 - *hangs head in shame* I changed it as soon as I got your review, honestly! I kinda knew that it was you, but I didn't have time to check it and didn't want to write anything wrong, so I just wrote I couldn't remember. *falls to her knees* Will you forgive me? Please!? *fake sobbing* Yeah, I know, these details are the things that keep me alive in boring lectures. I like learning weird stuff like that that I will never need in later life.. *g* LOL, I think that neither Thranduil nor Aragorn would be exceedingly pleased to be compared to one another. But they are alike - kind of, right? *g* Poor them. Huh? How long the chapter was? Ch.2 was 14 1/2 pages, this one is 14, the next one is 16 1/2. So I manage to keep to 15 pages, most of the time, which is god because I really don't want them any longer. And no, it would NOT be funny had they grown. NOT. *evil look* Oh, and I'm glad you liked the tree-joke, I like it too. *huggles* Thanks for reviewing!
TrustingFriendship - Mhahaha, ARAGORN said Legolas' arm would be alright, not me! Who knows what's going on in that scary mind of mine... *g* You're evil if you want to see poor Anadir sweat - he's been through too much already! He deserves our sympathy! *shakes head* You're evil, really, the poor elf...
Lady Sandry - No, you didn't read it wrong. I meant it that way, kind of, that is. I mean, Estel means hope, and if Aragorn is around, so is hope, therefore he can't fall into hopelessness, because Aragorn will still be there. Does that make sense? Even if not, it was a nice play of words. About your criticism: First: I'm not the Emperor or Sauron, I LIKE constructive criticism. I really do. I doesn't help me if people don't tell me what they really think, so I thank you for taking the time to really think about it. Even flames don't bother me, and yours definitely wasn't one. *smiles* See? No hard feelings. Okay, so ABOUT it: To be honest: It took you so long to realise that? I mean, the Thranduil of my stories has ALWAYS been OOC. Tolkien's Thranduil wouldn't be friends with Elrond, he wouldn't allow Aragorn to stay in Mirkwood, he wouldn't have got drunk with Elrond and Glorfindel in the Second Age. Still, I know what you mean, and I didn't mean that Thranduil was behaving like that in front of his court or something. It was only in front of Galion, who has been his servant for years. Even the Thranduil of my stories wouldn't wander through the palace grinning like an idiot or petting a letter. *g* So, essentially, he has been OOC from the start. As has Elrond, and the twins (who ever said they played pranks - somehow I can't see Tolkien writing that) and Aragorn to a certain degree who I always pictured more solemn and aware of his heritage and duty, even if he didn't want it. Now that you mention it, almost ALL my characters are OOC. *sighs* Great.
Salara - SALARA! *auf sie stuerz und umarm* Ich dachte schon, du waerest verschollen! Es ist echt toll, euch mal wiederzusehen, ich dachte schon, der Wuerger von Boston oder wo der auch immer herkam hat euch erwischt... *g* Hm, eine 10-Review-Kompaktversion? Das ist in der Tat eine nette Idee, wenn ich mal drueber nachdenke... Ich muss zugeben, dass ich noch nie von "Eaton Palace" gehoert habe geschweige denn es gesehen habe, aber ich dachte an den Butler aus "Der Prince von Bel Air", der ist auch so aehnlich. Galalith spielt in der Tat noch eine groessere Rolle, aber an dieser Stelle versiegeln sich meine Lippen. Kein Wort soll sich von meiner Zunge loesen! *g* Ich muss zugeben, dass ich selbst noch nie in einer solchen Situation war (wenn man den einen angebrochenen Finger mal nicht zaehlt, ich war schon immer unverschaemt gesund), aber die beste Freundin meiner Mutter schon und auch mein Vater. Also ein bisschen Erfahrung ist schon da... Und die Idee mit dem Pfeilschuss, von dem dann ein Leben abhaengt, hat sich schon seit langer Zeit in mein krankes Gehirn eingeschlichen, keine Angst... *g* Ich hoffe wirklich, dass dein Leben wieder ein bisschen leichter geworden ist, und es war toll, mal wieder was von dir zu hoeren! Danke!
Maerz - Also alle fuenf - oder, in diesem Fall, sechs - Tage findest du schnell? Was kann man da noch sagen... Ich danke dir jedoch fuer deine Weitsicht; es ist immer schoen, reviews zu bekommen, aber wem sag' ich das... *g* Ich hoffe, das Update hier was jetzt nicht zu schnell - wuerde mich aber extem wundern... *g*
Seveawen - I know what you mean, I guess I should start "acting my age" too, which would be incredibly boring though, wouldn't it? *evil grin* I honestly can't tell you yet whether or not Seobryn will be in this story. I don't know yet, he just might, but I haven't planned it this far. What I can tell you though is that I definitely plan on writing a fic in which Seobryn and Seveawen marry, if I ever get that far in my stories. It might be two or three fics in the future, but if I'm still writing then, I will do one about that. Okay? Jeez, I really hope you're okay now? Five days in the hospital doesn't sound like fun! I hope your mom doesn't hate me now! *g*
Jazmin3 Firewing - I will ignore the sarcasm. I'm rather good at that, you know... *g* Well, my stories tend to come in pieces, or were you referring to the chapter? Why would you have to read it in pieces; it's not THAT long, is it? *shrugs* Whatever, thanks a lot for your reviews! I do love them, I mentioned that somewhere I think...
ThE iNsAnE oNe - LOL! Legolas is hearing voices, huh? Well, to be honest, I'm not really surprised - it only is a miracle that Nólad managed to stay sane for so long in the company of you people... ROTFL, you LICKED Elrohir's hand? Jeez, the poor elf will be traumatised for LIFE! Considering he's an elf that's a very LONG time! And OF COURSE (somehow I'm writing a lot in capital letters right now, I don't know why either *g*) I'm happy to see you back! I missed you and Nólad and all the other wackos! (Elladan/Elrohir/Aragorn/Legolas: *outraged* HEY!!!) And don't worry about reviewing on time or something like that, as long as you THINK of me I'm happy... *Gosh, that sounded sappy* LOL, but I'm sorry, the twins won't be in here before chapter 8. Probably chapter 9, sorry. And yes, I know what you mean, telling someone he is nice is evil, almost as evil as telling him he's normal or ordinary. That's even worse in my opinion! And yes again, I agree, the scene was a little bit mushy. *Miki snickers* Okay, so it was VERY mushy, happy now? Great the chappie was lovely after all! Thanks for the huge review!
Suzi9 - Oh, you would do that? I've _always_ wanted a dragon pulled chariot, ever since I read that story. I was about ten there, I think... So Nov. 23rd is your birthday too? Great, then it's a present for both you and Kaeera. Hope you like the twins? There will be no Legolas or Aragorn, only the twins, Elrond, Glorfindel and a little Erestor. *raises eyebrow* I really think I don't want to know about the fence thing. Give Boudicca my regards and tell her the whole insurrection was a bad idea! *shrugs* Sorry, but I've always thought it was kinda like fighting the inevitable. Which doesn't make it any less remarkable, of course...
ManuKu - MANU! *kreischt und umarmt* Schoen, dich mal wieder zu sehen! Wie ich schon Salara sagte, ich hatte schon das schlimmste befuerchtet... Nun bin ich aber wieder komplett gluecklich! *grinst bloede* Siehste? Gluecklich... Hmm, du moechtest, dass sich Legolas und Aragorn nicht-verbal auf die Arme nehmen? Das saehe ein wenig seltsam aus, meinst du nicht, wenn der eine den anderen permanent rumtragen wuerde... *g* Und ich finde immer, es sollte einem nicht peinlich sein, laut zu lachen, egal wo man ist. Die Welt ist eh schon trueb genug, und alle anderen sind eh viel zu ernst... Dein guter Vorsatz freut und ehrt mich natuerlich, aber schon mit einem gelegentlichen Zeichen bin ich ja schon zufrieden! *knuddelt noch mal* Danke fuer ebendieses!
Tinlaure - Wow - a six-word-review! Well, I'll simply assume that you liked the story - thank you very much - and that you are happy that I updated - thank you very much again. Correct? I hope so... *g*
Alex Mistress Squirrel - Well, no, I didn't seriously think that, but now that you have assured me that you would indeed not abandon me I feel much happier! Thanks! It's very nice that you decide to keep reviewing my weird story... *huggles*
Cicci - LOL, you're right, the poor elf really has no idea - but that will change soon, don't worry... *evil laugh* I guess that you're right and that there really is a difference between Legolas' relationship with Mirkwood elves and with Aragorn. I guess that for Silvan elves, no matter how well they know him, he will always remain their prince rather than their friend, no matter what. Fortunately, Aragorn isn't an elf so he doesn't do that. *pats ranger on the head* Good boy. *g*
ElrondsEyebrow - Or GollumsEyes or whatever you are called right now... *g* Well, I guess I would be lying if I pretended I fully understood what you are talking about. It's very nice to hear though that you like this story so far. At least I think that's what you said, right? I kinda got distracted by the squirrels. Why squirrels? Thanks for the reviews nonetheless!
Just Jordy - You are really lucky, you know that!? You wrote just on the day I am indeed updating! Yay you! *g* I'm really sorry that this is so late, but as I said, there really was no time to get this up any sooner. I hope this was still soon enough?! Thanks a lot for the reviews, they really encourage and help me a lot!
So, and I really think I have to find another solution for this... I can't think of anything though. *shrugs* We'll see. A huge Thank you to all my wonderful reviewers! *huggles* I love reviews, which is well known by now I guess... *g*