I just recognized that a part of the chapter is missing, so I post it again.
Hopefully complete .
Sorry, that it took so long before I noticed it.
Disclaimer: see chapter 1
/bla/ Thoughts
"bla" speech
Enjoy reading and let me know if you like it or not.
Chapter 3
After standing under the water for close to an hour, Glorfindel felt refreshed and decided to return to finish his preparations for tonight.
Soon the sun would make place for the silver moon and he wanted the place to be ready by sunset.
Reaching the bank he walked over to the boulder where he had left his belongings, only to find it empty.
Frantically his eyes searched the grounds but he found nothing.
He heard the soft rustle of leaves and turned around quickly only to see a dark head disappear behind a tree.
"ELLADAN! ELROHIR!" He yelled. "BRING BACK MY CLOTHES IMMEDIATELY OR YOU WILL REGRET IT! THIS IS NOT FUNNY!"
/Especially not tonight/ he added in his thoughts.
Now he had to find a way to return to the house without being caught and that as fast as possible.
Squaring his shoulders he took his first step into the woods. Not far away he could hear a light laughter.
"Enjoy it as long as you are able to do. You will pay for this, I swear." Glorfindel muttered darkly under his breath as he clenched his fists.
He walked quickly through the forest, always alert. He did not want to be caught by someone, not because he was naked, but because of the fact that this pack of orcs, which Elrond called his sons, had caught him unaware and off guard.
Lost in his thoughts of plotting his revenge on the twins, he paid not much attention on the way in front of him.
He was jerked out of his dreams of strangling the twins or plunging them into an anthill when his toes were caught in a twine on the floor. Whirling his arms he tried to regain his balance, but it was too late.
He dropped forward and landed not very gracefully on his hands and knees in the middle of a half dry puddle of mud.
The soft substance welled over his fingers and the force of his impact sent some of the mud up to his face and covered his features with dark spots. Sitting up on his heels, he tried to wipe away the mud but the only thing he achieved was that he smeared the sticky substance all over his face.
With a frustrated groan he turned around to free his foot from the twine.
The moment he had it in his hands he felt the knots. Lifting the thing up in front of his face he saw that it was no ordinary ivy or vine but some kind of curtain, made of reed.
He heard the giggling of the twins and the light laughter of a child not faraway from his spot. These orcs had dragged the innocent, little human into this. He could not believe it.
He knew that they were watching him from a safe distance and he knew that they knew that he knew that they were there. They had built this trap, and from the look of it, they want him to wear that skirt. He would play along for a while but the time for revenge would come and then they would pay dearly for that.
Carefully he rose to his feet, fully aware of the slippery surface under him. Standing safe again outside the puddle he wrapped the skirt around his waist and fixed it with a tight knot. He knew that he would reach his rooms unnoticed, so it did not bother about this ridiculous outfit.
He brushed back his mud-caked hair, straightened his back and walked slowly down the path to the house.
In his current state, he could not use the main entrance, but he knew some more ways into The Last Homely House. The only problem was that all the ways into the house would lead him over open space. So he had to wait until the paths were clear.
By now it was dinnertime and soon the elves of Imladris would meet up in the large dining hall. He would wait until all of them were inside, then he could sneak over the place and enter the house over one of the balconies.
It satisfied him that the brothers would be late for dinner as well, because they would wait to see what he was up to, which was what he had thought they would do.
But they surprised him again.
When he reached the outskirts of the forest, he hid behind one of the large trees and prepared to wait. Suddenly he heard the sound of laughter coming from the other side of the courtyard. Glorfindel could not believe what he saw.
The twins emerged from one of the paths and headed towards the house, the little one between them, constantly babbling how funny Uncle Glorfy had looked sprawled naked in a puddle of mud.
The twins showed identical grins on their faces and apparently enjoyed the babbling of the child.
None of them urged Estel to lower his voice and so all the elves who were walking over the yard could hear him clearly.
Glorfindel felt heat rising up his face. He would not live this out.
With a groan he smacked his head against the rough bark of the tree. This had to be a nightmare and he wished to wake up in an instant, but the pain on his forehead taught him that he was wide awake.
"My Lord?"
He jumped by hearing the soft voice behind him. He had not noticed that someone had approached him. Glorfindel knew that voice and the elf to whom it belong very well.
/Please, oh Valar, please not her. What have I done to deserve this?/ He thought.
Slowly, he turned around to face Yáviëwen.
"My lord, what has happened to you?"
Too ashamed of his current state he dared not to meet her gaze and averted his eyes from her face. He could not answer, his throat felt so tight, like someone was strangling him.
Glorfindel heard the rustling of robes and then he felt the soft touch of her hand on his face.
Lightly she brushed away a few wayward hairs and cupped his chin with one hand, while the other kept on brushing the dirt away from his features.
She increased the pressure on his chin and forced him to lift his head.
He looked into her sparkling eyes and feared what he might find in the depths of them, but there was no pity or malicious joy. He saw only concern and something more, what he had not thought to see in them.
She held his face in both of her hands and brushed a thumb lightly over his lips before she leaned forward and gave him a gentle kiss.
"You look like you became the victim of one of the twins' famous pranks." She stated. He did not trust his voice, so he only nodded.
"I think, I should go and bring you some clothes before someone else sees you like this."
Yáviëwen turned around and started to walk back to the house, but Glorfindel grabbed her by one hand and held her in place.
"How.." He winced when he heard how raspy his voice sounded. He cleared his throat and tried again. "How did you know that I'm here?"
"I heard the little one's story and went out to search for you."
Glorfindel groaned again and felt that the heat entered his face again.
Yáviëwen had watched him closely and suppressed a laugh when she saw that the tip of his ears had turned into a very interesting shade of red. "Please let me help you. You know that everybody had heard the tale now, and they are all waiting for you to show up."
Glorfindel saw his worst fears confirmed by her statement, and the only thing he wanted now was that Arda would open a gap and swallow him this instant.
"My lord, just wait here, I'll fetch you some clothes and when you are dressed we will go to dinner as usual."
"No my lady, we can not show up together, I do not want to compromise you with my presence."
Glorfindel answered her, eyes again fixed on the floor, and lightly shivering by the thought that she would be the target of the others' banter.
That way he did not notice the sadness that swept over her face for a brief moment, before she put up again her joyful expression. It pained her deeply to see this mighty elf shivering while he thought only of her well being.
Never before in her long life had she met someone like him, so strong but at the same time so vulnerable, so full of mirth and yet so sad at the same time, so self-confident but also very shy.
He hid it well but sometimes when he thought himself unnoticed she had seen the joyful façade fell, only for seconds but in these seconds he had shown his real self to everybody who would watch.
He was one of the eldest elves on Arda. She did not know if anybody knew how old he really was, but now he looked younger than the twin sons of Lord Elrond
When she first had met him all those years ago it had been this air of innocence around him that had captured her at once. Over the years she had tried to visit Imladris as often as possible but he had not tried to invite her or even speak to her more than necessary.
She had watched him blushing every time she had talked to him, but had pretended not to notice.
When he had finally invited her after long years of waiting she had been overjoyed, but she wanted him to make the first move and so she had waited patiently until today. And now she feared that she had gone too far by kissing him and what she feared most that he would withdraw from her.
Yáviëwen had watched many elleths who had tried in vain to capture the heart of the ancient warrior.
They had overwhelmed him with their attention and what she had noticed at one time was that he was not aware that the attention he received from the elleths was meant for him. On one of their long walks he had told her that the ladies always wanted to know everything about the twins and how they were. She had not told him that the ladies said that only to try to catch his attention. Yáviëwen could not understand why someone so experienced in life like him could be so blissfully ignorant when it comes to matters of the heart.
She did still not know his whole tale. She only knew what was common knowledge -that he had fought and died in Gondolin and had been sent back by the Valar some time in the middle of the second age.
Yáviëwen hopped that one day he would open up to her and tell her about his past. She would wait, there was time enough. They had an eternity.
"You could never compromise me. I know one thing for sure, many of the she-elves in the hall would be glad to be on your side." She assured him.
"Even when you look like an orc." She added seconds later to tease him.
She felt relieved when she noticed a little smile appear on his face. She touched his hand and gave it a soft squeeze before she once again turned around and finally walked away.
Glorfindel noticed that she went a few paces in the cover of the trees before she entered the courtyard from the other side. When she disappeared out of his sight he sat down and leaned his back against the trunk and waited.
It took not long before she returned, carrying a pile of clothes on her arms. When she approached he noticed that it all were his own clothes and he raised an eyebrow enquiringly.
"I asked Lord Elrond and he gave me those clothes."
She handed the bundle over to him and turned her back to him to give him some privacy. She heard the rustling of the fabric when he dressed and mere minutes later a still very dirty but never the less very impressive elf lord stood in front of her.
Yáviëwen eyed him from head to his still bare toes. She had forgotten about the boots, and dropped a curtsy.
"My lord, it would be a pleasure if you would accompany me to the dinner."
"The pleasure is on my side, my lady." Glorfindel answered with a smile on his face and a deep bow.
He offered her his arm and she took him by the elbow.
"I think, you should wash the dirt out of your hair, or else the people might think we had a little accident in the forest." This time both blushed by the thought of an accident in the woods. But they regained their composure and headed for the house.
"So, my lord, would you tell me how you might want to pay that back to the twins? I see it in your eyes; you have already something in mind." She asked curiously.
Elrond watched the pair emerging out of the woods from the balcony of his study.
He had not returned to the dinner, after Yáviëwen had called him out to ask him for some clothes for Glorfindel.
Now he watched Glorfindel bending down to whisper something in her ear. Yáviëwen burst into laughter and Glorfindel joined her.
He had not heard what Glorfindel had told her, but when he should risk a wild guess, he would swear that it had to do with the twins. He had seen this particular expression on his friend's face more than often and he knew that his sons were in deep trouble.
He stayed on the balcony until the pair disappeared through one of the doors in the house. Then he decided that it was time to return to the hall. He wanted to know how this would end.
He did not know that he would have to wait much longer than a few hours.
Later that evening Glorfindel fetched the basket with the food and the wine, gathered a blanket and some torches and candles and left the house again.
He came back an hour later and met up with Lady Yáviëwen in the courtyard. They walked away in the direction Glorfindel had taken earlier and both did not come back until the next midday.
Elrond knew where they had gone and he had a special gift for his friend.
He knew that elves could be very curious, and he did not want the pair discovered so he had used his powers to create a barrier around the place, which no one could permeate, except those two.
With a smile on his face Elrond returned to the library, where he had ordered his sons to wait for him. Now he would have to tell them that some pranks are not as funny as they seem.
TBC