Disclaimer: I don`t own anything , no matter how much I wish I did.
Thanks for the reviews , but I wish I will get some more this time To Cheysuli : Thank you for the reminder about the name of Thranduil´s father´and about quotation marks. To Emme1 and Tsuki no lomelinde: thank you , I will continue ...
Here´s chapter 2- please review , I will answer!
Chapter 2
The human child
This has happened between chapter 1 and 2: Almost 3000 years have passed and Greenwood has been named Mirkwood instead because of all the foul creatures that has showed up there as a result of the shadow rising .Legolas has became a warrior with a special talent for archery after more than 1000 years in Lotlorien. He spends much time fighting off orcs as he has joined his fathers royal guard. Among the elves he is wellknown and much loved for this as well his beauty and kind spirit. Despite this Thranduil sometimes thinks him too headstrong and disobedient since Legolas always chooses his own path and seldom listens to advice ,except from Galadriel with whom he still feels a very special bond ,much because she can tell him about his mother's people .Even though he socializes quite a lot , his true friends are few and the only one he sometimes confides in is his sister , Silmarien. To his fathers dismay he never has chosen a mate ,but he has had his amount of lovers ,both males and females.
In Rivendell Elrond has taken Isildur´s heir under his protection after his mother has died. The elves calls him Estel ,but his real name is Aragorn ( as I suppose all of you know).Estel is now five years old and are going to visit Mirkwood together with his stepfather and his three other children for the first time.
Legolas and his brother Orolen along with some of the king´s guards has been ordered to meet the guests at the borders of the realm for a safe passage through the wood to the king´s palace. The secure paths has become few and they are well hidden and protected.
***************************************************************************
"I see them –over there "Orolen said to his younger brother .
"I see them as well , come on , we must hurry , I sense a warning in the air – they are being followed by goblins! "Legolas shouted to the guards.
"Indeed they are ! How come they haven't noticed ? "Orolen said as they galloped at full speed towards their visitors.
"I guess they are not used to the surroundings "his brother answered. "Now hurry!"
Before they had reached them the goblins were upon their guests with spears and clubs. The Mirkwood elves fired their bows but since the goblins were many it didn´t have much effect. The Rivendell elves fought furiously , but they were too few to make a difference and to further complicate things a thick mist was rising from the nearby lake , making it harder too see even for the elves.
By the time the two princes and the Mirkwood elves reached the struggle the goblins had killed nearly all the Rivendell horses , stabbing them with their spears. Many of the elves had also fallen , but those who remained still fought bravely.
Legolas didn´t know how long he had been fighting , only that it was a long time ,when he all of a sudden , right in the middle of the foggy raging madness , saw a boy child , apparently a human, standing paralyzed with fear tears spilling down his cheeks. Right behind him a goblin was about to strike a blow. The elf quickly shot an arrow that hit the creature in the chest and then he rode forward to the child , lifted him up and put him in front of himself in the saddle.
The boy immediately started to wrench and kick , trying to get free from his captor .
"Ada , Ada !" he shouted.
"Ssh , I mean you no harm , I will help you to your Ada if you stop fighting me "Legolas gently whispered in his ear.
At these words the child turned his head and looked at him. He went still and his eyes widened as if in surprise . He quickly turned his gaze from his savior to look forward again but now he went quiet and leaned backward so that his head leaned against the elf`s chest.
At this moment Legolas realized that they had been cut off from the others by a bunch of goblins running against them . The only thing he could do was to set off in the opposite direction deeper in the wood and away from his father´s palace. The goblins followed them for a long time until they eventually tired of the meaningless pursuit and disappeared.
Legolas slowed the pace of his horse and asked the small figure in front of him:
"How do you feel little one ? "
He heard a sob and then the boy tried to collect himself:
"I´m f...fine but I want to go home now ."
Legolas looked up at the sky and saw that dusk almost were upon them already .He also saw that heavy clouds were approaching and that it was going to start raining in any minute. The rain wouldn´t bother him much , but he was unsure about how it would affect this child since he knew that humans were likely to get all kinds of strange diseases. He also knew that the boy would slow him down and this was no good thing since during the night the terrors that haunted Mirkwood was even worse. It would take several hours to get back to his father´s palace .
"I´m sorry , little one ,but we are not able to get to your Ada before the rain and the dark is upon us. It looks like we have to spend the night here in the forest."
He thought that the child would start crying again. But to Legolas surprise he didn´t.´
"Just don´t leave me alone "was the answer he got instead.
"Of course not. Let´s see if we can find ourselves a tree-hut where we can reside during the night and I sure hope we can find one before the rain is upon us. "
The tree-huts were built by the woodelves throughout the whole Mirkwood as simple shelters up in the highest trees. Their purpose was also to , when needed ,serve as watch posts and to ambush orcs and goblins . Legolas had never used them before and had even objected when they were going to be built, but now he was grateful they existed .
Before long he found one up in a big oak. He pointed it out to the boy who was very suspicious.
"Aren´t there any evil creatures hiding in there ?" he asked.
"No, they are protected by an ancient elven magic so "the evil creatures " aren´t capable of seeing them , you don´t have to worry about that. "
The child seemed satisfied with this answer. When they had dismounted the horse he had another question:
"What about the horse ? Can it climb the tree too ?"
Legolas couldn´t suppress a smile.
"No , of course not but if it stays under the tree it will be invisible also. And it knows that so it will stay "he added when he saw the look on the face of the little human .Then he continued : "Now , young one , let´s get up that tree".
With these words he loosened a small satchel that he had tied to his belt and brought out a rope which he tied around the boy´s waist. He turned around, kneeled and said:
"Jump up on my back and hold on tight ".The child immediately did as he was told . Legolas tied the rope around his own waist and started to climb upwards. Dusk was falling rapidly around them. Before they were halfway gone he heard the boy laugh.
"This is fun "he said . "I have a ticklish feeling in my stomach."
The tree-hut solely consisted of a small room where Legolas couldn´t stand straight. There was no furniture at all , only some blankets and an amount of weapons like knives, bows and arrows. There were no windows except for two small openings near the ceiling.
Just in the same moment they stepped inside , the dark lit up by a white lightning immediately followed by a loud thunder , opening the sky outside and a heavy rain started to fall.
The child whimpered when he heard this and started to cry while he was shaking uncontrollably.
"I´m afraid of thunder and I do not like that it is so dark in here "he sobbed.
Legolas gently took the boy´s hand.
"We´ll get some light then" he said and lighted a small torch that stood in a corner. While the light gathered in the room the elf took the still weeping child in his arms and seated himself on the floor with the boy in his lap.
"Hush, I won´t let anything happen to you "he whispered softly and stroked the child´s hair.
The boy clung to him almost desperately , his sobs still continuing. Legolas then started to sing an ancient elvish lullaby , a lullaby about the two trees in Valinor that gave the world light before the sun and the moon. The sobbings slowly subsided and the child went so still that Legolas almost thought he had fallen asleep.
When he had stopped the boy immediately sat up and looked at him with a gaze that was very intense.
"Do you come from that place that you sung about ? Do you come from Valinor ? "he asked.¨
"What ? Why do you ask that ?"
The child looked slightly embarrassed for a moment before he answered :
"Because you are so beautiful , I have never seen anyone so beautiful in my entire life and I have never heard anyone sing so beautifully before....not even my Nanna."
And then,before Legolas got a chance to reply he continued :
"What´s your name ?"
"Legolas .And yours , little one ?"
"I´m called Estel , but I have another name as well but "– he looked troubled for a second –"I don´t remember what that was right now."
"It doesn´t matter , you can tell me some other time .Now , tell me Estel , are you hungry?"
The boy hesitated for a moment and then he slowly nodded. Legolas opened his satchel and brought out some pieces of lembas and a small waterflask , giving Estel a piece of lembas and taking one for himself. The child was obviously hungry because he practically engulfed it , all the time sitting in the elf´s lap , refusing to do otherwise.
After his meal was finished the little human yawned and said :
"I´m tired and I´m freezing .
Legolas was amazed at this because he didn´t feel cold at all , rather the opposite. He knew that elves didn´t experience heat and cold the same way men did , but ....He managed to gather some of the blankets that lay on the floor,which was not an all too easy task, with the child clinging to him. He wrapped them around Estel , then he seated himself on the floor with his back against the wall holding the child tight to him.
Estel seemed satisfied with this arrangement and let out a contented sigh leaning his head against Legolas breast.
"Please Legolas ", he begged , "can´t you sing me another song ?"
The elven prince smiled and began to sing another elvish lullaby , one from Mirkwood this time. To his somewhat surprise he realized it was hard for him to deny this boy anything at all. Before long he noticed that the child´s breathing had changed into that of sleep.
Legolas looked down at him and softly caressed his dark locks. He found the human quite lovely with his dark hair and light- blue eyes although they were closed in sleep at the moment .The elven prince hadn´t seen many human children before , but the ones he had seen he found surprisingly beautiful , none of the crudeness showing that was so significant for the grown- ups . All about this child touched him deeply and the tenderness he felt was almost overwhelming him in a way he never had felt before.
He leaned his head back against the wall. He wasn´t in need of any sleep this night and this was fortunate , since sitting like this on the hard floor leaning against an even harder wall was far from comfortable and did not prove a good night´s sleep even for the fair people. Not that he minded as long as he watched this strange creature.
After some time the child in his arms started to toss and turn in his sleep. The elf tried to hold him closer , but it didn´t help at all , on the contrary the human began to kick and cry out , all the time still in deep sleep. All the things Legolas tried to do only seemed to make his nightmares worse.
When Estel started to weep still dreaming the prince took his face in his hands and gently pressed his fingers against the human´s temples.
"Now , little one , dream of this instead "he whispered and kissed him on the forehead , doing something he hadn´t done for a very , very long time: sending images of the two trees of Valinor to the child´s mind . The trees that were destroyed long before Legolas was born , but in his heart he had always known what they looked like. He smiled to himself when he felt the boy relax in his arms and start to breath peacefully, there was even a faint smile playing on Estel´s lips.
Legolas then felt a searing pain in the back of his head , a pain so intense like the flashing lightnings outside the tree-hut. It didn´t last long, but he felt almost dizzy afterwards. He then remembered something Galadriel had said when he was a mere child , something that it was not meant for him to hear :
"The ability of dream-healing isn´t a power meant for Middle-Earth."
Thanks for the reviews , but I wish I will get some more this time To Cheysuli : Thank you for the reminder about the name of Thranduil´s father´and about quotation marks. To Emme1 and Tsuki no lomelinde: thank you , I will continue ...
Here´s chapter 2- please review , I will answer!
Chapter 2
The human child
This has happened between chapter 1 and 2: Almost 3000 years have passed and Greenwood has been named Mirkwood instead because of all the foul creatures that has showed up there as a result of the shadow rising .Legolas has became a warrior with a special talent for archery after more than 1000 years in Lotlorien. He spends much time fighting off orcs as he has joined his fathers royal guard. Among the elves he is wellknown and much loved for this as well his beauty and kind spirit. Despite this Thranduil sometimes thinks him too headstrong and disobedient since Legolas always chooses his own path and seldom listens to advice ,except from Galadriel with whom he still feels a very special bond ,much because she can tell him about his mother's people .Even though he socializes quite a lot , his true friends are few and the only one he sometimes confides in is his sister , Silmarien. To his fathers dismay he never has chosen a mate ,but he has had his amount of lovers ,both males and females.
In Rivendell Elrond has taken Isildur´s heir under his protection after his mother has died. The elves calls him Estel ,but his real name is Aragorn ( as I suppose all of you know).Estel is now five years old and are going to visit Mirkwood together with his stepfather and his three other children for the first time.
Legolas and his brother Orolen along with some of the king´s guards has been ordered to meet the guests at the borders of the realm for a safe passage through the wood to the king´s palace. The secure paths has become few and they are well hidden and protected.
***************************************************************************
"I see them –over there "Orolen said to his younger brother .
"I see them as well , come on , we must hurry , I sense a warning in the air – they are being followed by goblins! "Legolas shouted to the guards.
"Indeed they are ! How come they haven't noticed ? "Orolen said as they galloped at full speed towards their visitors.
"I guess they are not used to the surroundings "his brother answered. "Now hurry!"
Before they had reached them the goblins were upon their guests with spears and clubs. The Mirkwood elves fired their bows but since the goblins were many it didn´t have much effect. The Rivendell elves fought furiously , but they were too few to make a difference and to further complicate things a thick mist was rising from the nearby lake , making it harder too see even for the elves.
By the time the two princes and the Mirkwood elves reached the struggle the goblins had killed nearly all the Rivendell horses , stabbing them with their spears. Many of the elves had also fallen , but those who remained still fought bravely.
Legolas didn´t know how long he had been fighting , only that it was a long time ,when he all of a sudden , right in the middle of the foggy raging madness , saw a boy child , apparently a human, standing paralyzed with fear tears spilling down his cheeks. Right behind him a goblin was about to strike a blow. The elf quickly shot an arrow that hit the creature in the chest and then he rode forward to the child , lifted him up and put him in front of himself in the saddle.
The boy immediately started to wrench and kick , trying to get free from his captor .
"Ada , Ada !" he shouted.
"Ssh , I mean you no harm , I will help you to your Ada if you stop fighting me "Legolas gently whispered in his ear.
At these words the child turned his head and looked at him. He went still and his eyes widened as if in surprise . He quickly turned his gaze from his savior to look forward again but now he went quiet and leaned backward so that his head leaned against the elf`s chest.
At this moment Legolas realized that they had been cut off from the others by a bunch of goblins running against them . The only thing he could do was to set off in the opposite direction deeper in the wood and away from his father´s palace. The goblins followed them for a long time until they eventually tired of the meaningless pursuit and disappeared.
Legolas slowed the pace of his horse and asked the small figure in front of him:
"How do you feel little one ? "
He heard a sob and then the boy tried to collect himself:
"I´m f...fine but I want to go home now ."
Legolas looked up at the sky and saw that dusk almost were upon them already .He also saw that heavy clouds were approaching and that it was going to start raining in any minute. The rain wouldn´t bother him much , but he was unsure about how it would affect this child since he knew that humans were likely to get all kinds of strange diseases. He also knew that the boy would slow him down and this was no good thing since during the night the terrors that haunted Mirkwood was even worse. It would take several hours to get back to his father´s palace .
"I´m sorry , little one ,but we are not able to get to your Ada before the rain and the dark is upon us. It looks like we have to spend the night here in the forest."
He thought that the child would start crying again. But to Legolas surprise he didn´t.´
"Just don´t leave me alone "was the answer he got instead.
"Of course not. Let´s see if we can find ourselves a tree-hut where we can reside during the night and I sure hope we can find one before the rain is upon us. "
The tree-huts were built by the woodelves throughout the whole Mirkwood as simple shelters up in the highest trees. Their purpose was also to , when needed ,serve as watch posts and to ambush orcs and goblins . Legolas had never used them before and had even objected when they were going to be built, but now he was grateful they existed .
Before long he found one up in a big oak. He pointed it out to the boy who was very suspicious.
"Aren´t there any evil creatures hiding in there ?" he asked.
"No, they are protected by an ancient elven magic so "the evil creatures " aren´t capable of seeing them , you don´t have to worry about that. "
The child seemed satisfied with this answer. When they had dismounted the horse he had another question:
"What about the horse ? Can it climb the tree too ?"
Legolas couldn´t suppress a smile.
"No , of course not but if it stays under the tree it will be invisible also. And it knows that so it will stay "he added when he saw the look on the face of the little human .Then he continued : "Now , young one , let´s get up that tree".
With these words he loosened a small satchel that he had tied to his belt and brought out a rope which he tied around the boy´s waist. He turned around, kneeled and said:
"Jump up on my back and hold on tight ".The child immediately did as he was told . Legolas tied the rope around his own waist and started to climb upwards. Dusk was falling rapidly around them. Before they were halfway gone he heard the boy laugh.
"This is fun "he said . "I have a ticklish feeling in my stomach."
The tree-hut solely consisted of a small room where Legolas couldn´t stand straight. There was no furniture at all , only some blankets and an amount of weapons like knives, bows and arrows. There were no windows except for two small openings near the ceiling.
Just in the same moment they stepped inside , the dark lit up by a white lightning immediately followed by a loud thunder , opening the sky outside and a heavy rain started to fall.
The child whimpered when he heard this and started to cry while he was shaking uncontrollably.
"I´m afraid of thunder and I do not like that it is so dark in here "he sobbed.
Legolas gently took the boy´s hand.
"We´ll get some light then" he said and lighted a small torch that stood in a corner. While the light gathered in the room the elf took the still weeping child in his arms and seated himself on the floor with the boy in his lap.
"Hush, I won´t let anything happen to you "he whispered softly and stroked the child´s hair.
The boy clung to him almost desperately , his sobs still continuing. Legolas then started to sing an ancient elvish lullaby , a lullaby about the two trees in Valinor that gave the world light before the sun and the moon. The sobbings slowly subsided and the child went so still that Legolas almost thought he had fallen asleep.
When he had stopped the boy immediately sat up and looked at him with a gaze that was very intense.
"Do you come from that place that you sung about ? Do you come from Valinor ? "he asked.¨
"What ? Why do you ask that ?"
The child looked slightly embarrassed for a moment before he answered :
"Because you are so beautiful , I have never seen anyone so beautiful in my entire life and I have never heard anyone sing so beautifully before....not even my Nanna."
And then,before Legolas got a chance to reply he continued :
"What´s your name ?"
"Legolas .And yours , little one ?"
"I´m called Estel , but I have another name as well but "– he looked troubled for a second –"I don´t remember what that was right now."
"It doesn´t matter , you can tell me some other time .Now , tell me Estel , are you hungry?"
The boy hesitated for a moment and then he slowly nodded. Legolas opened his satchel and brought out some pieces of lembas and a small waterflask , giving Estel a piece of lembas and taking one for himself. The child was obviously hungry because he practically engulfed it , all the time sitting in the elf´s lap , refusing to do otherwise.
After his meal was finished the little human yawned and said :
"I´m tired and I´m freezing .
Legolas was amazed at this because he didn´t feel cold at all , rather the opposite. He knew that elves didn´t experience heat and cold the same way men did , but ....He managed to gather some of the blankets that lay on the floor,which was not an all too easy task, with the child clinging to him. He wrapped them around Estel , then he seated himself on the floor with his back against the wall holding the child tight to him.
Estel seemed satisfied with this arrangement and let out a contented sigh leaning his head against Legolas breast.
"Please Legolas ", he begged , "can´t you sing me another song ?"
The elven prince smiled and began to sing another elvish lullaby , one from Mirkwood this time. To his somewhat surprise he realized it was hard for him to deny this boy anything at all. Before long he noticed that the child´s breathing had changed into that of sleep.
Legolas looked down at him and softly caressed his dark locks. He found the human quite lovely with his dark hair and light- blue eyes although they were closed in sleep at the moment .The elven prince hadn´t seen many human children before , but the ones he had seen he found surprisingly beautiful , none of the crudeness showing that was so significant for the grown- ups . All about this child touched him deeply and the tenderness he felt was almost overwhelming him in a way he never had felt before.
He leaned his head back against the wall. He wasn´t in need of any sleep this night and this was fortunate , since sitting like this on the hard floor leaning against an even harder wall was far from comfortable and did not prove a good night´s sleep even for the fair people. Not that he minded as long as he watched this strange creature.
After some time the child in his arms started to toss and turn in his sleep. The elf tried to hold him closer , but it didn´t help at all , on the contrary the human began to kick and cry out , all the time still in deep sleep. All the things Legolas tried to do only seemed to make his nightmares worse.
When Estel started to weep still dreaming the prince took his face in his hands and gently pressed his fingers against the human´s temples.
"Now , little one , dream of this instead "he whispered and kissed him on the forehead , doing something he hadn´t done for a very , very long time: sending images of the two trees of Valinor to the child´s mind . The trees that were destroyed long before Legolas was born , but in his heart he had always known what they looked like. He smiled to himself when he felt the boy relax in his arms and start to breath peacefully, there was even a faint smile playing on Estel´s lips.
Legolas then felt a searing pain in the back of his head , a pain so intense like the flashing lightnings outside the tree-hut. It didn´t last long, but he felt almost dizzy afterwards. He then remembered something Galadriel had said when he was a mere child , something that it was not meant for him to hear :
"The ability of dream-healing isn´t a power meant for Middle-Earth."