Responses :
Mercuryeadept: ok! Thanks for being my beta reader.
Dragon Confused : yes, the reference for the Elven unit of the year was at the back of my Lord of the rings book, under the appendices D. I don't know what page it is, since we probably have a different version of the book. Thanks for explaining the kinslaying thing, but was Galadriel a kinslayer? I mean, who did she kill? Can't imagine her killing elves, she seems so gentle, somehow. Ok, I will correct their names.
Blue4dogs: hi! Yes! You're the only one who re-reviewed! Thank you for coming back! Ok, I will try to change the spelling mistakes.
Adsh: whoa! Cool idea! Yes, I think I will do it... when Legolas has grown up, of course.
~~~~~~~ 4-year-old Legolas, youngest and 5th prince of Greenwood the Great, awoke to the pain of somebody rapping his head.
"Awake, Greenleaf! The guards have fallen asleep on some of the most potent wine we have managed to get our hands on..." hissed Arianduil, the 4th child of mighty king Thranduil. Arialas, Arianduil's younger twin, ripped apart the velvet maroon curtains to let the sunlight stream into Legolas' room.
"Come on! Race you to our secret hideout!" Arianduil whispered. With that, he took off out of his youngest brother's room and sped down the corridor to the open forest, with Arialas hot on his heels. Legolas hurriedly threw on a light tunic, then darted after his brothers. He charged pass his father's chamber, making as little noise as possible for fear he would awake the king, then tip-toed pass the sleeping (and dreaming and smiling and snoring) guards. Sure enough, Arianduil had fed them one of the most potent wines, wine from the vineyards of Dorwinion. He raced down the corridors of the cave, and kept on running, and running, and running, until he suddenly stopped short at the door of the palace – where the stone stopped and the forest began. For instead of the hard, solid ground of the soil of the forest, there was a sea of weird, brownish stuff in front of him.
He squatted down and peered intently at it, for he had never seen it before. Then, he reached out stuck a little finger into the brown stuff. "Eeewww......yuck......" for the brown stuff, as you would probably know, was mud. Sticky, yucky, gooey, brown mud. When had he seen this before? It had been raining heavily recently... oh! He had seen it under the roots of trees. But he couldn't remember what it was called.
A dark shadow loomed over Legolas, and three pairs of ankles, dirty and muddy, appeared on front of his little form. Looking up, he recognized his father, a fuming Arianduil and a red-faced Arialas.
"Father! What are you doing here?" Legolas asked in surprise. He did not know that his father was awake, and he thought that he and his brothers' plans to go orc-hunting under the pretense oh hunting animals had been discovered.
"The question is, Legolas, what are my three sons doing out of their beds at this time of the morning? Were you not told that a band of orcs were roaming in my realm?" Thranduil asked smoothly, with a hint of lie-to-me- and-you're-dead tone in his voice. Legolas, who recognized that tone immediately, gulped, and nearly gave the three away out of fear.
"Y-yes, we knew there were orcs in Greenwood, so we – the three of us, w-we decided to hunt the orcs down..."
"And what of my guards?"
"Arianduil gave them a drought of wine from Dorwinion, you know, the one that you always drink, and they well... you know what happened – oops, I wasn't supposed to say anything, was I?" he added, seeing that the older twins were glaring at him with fire in their eyes.
"Don't listen to him, he is saying all this under the influence of wine – the mildest ones – you know how he refuses to listen to what we say, he went ahead and drank everything up – we were only out here because Legolas was fascinated by the mud." Yes, it was a lame excuse, but what else could they say? The only person who could probably worm himself out of this mess was their spoilt little brother-and even his chances of escaping looked dim.
"Lord Thranduil, I overheard these three pranksters planning to go on an orc-hunting trip-as the youngest prince revealed. They were going to drug my guards with the wine of Dorwinion, one of the most potent drinks. I alone managed to stop myself from over indulging in it. There was nothing in the plan whatsoever which concerned mud." The speaker was Serilorn, one of the chief of the guards.
Arianduil and Arialas were seething with rage-the chief was the most righteous, strict, lawful elves they had ever met, and always told their father about all the midnight escapades the twins had ever gone on, ensuring that hardly any of their plans ever succeeded. To think that he had managed to keep from falling asleep!
"Alright. Back to your beds-the three of you-and you will not be allowed outside the palace gates for three days," Thranduil ordered.
"Three days!" Arianduil howled in anger. Legolas turned on his 'makeshift' tap, making his bright eyes teary and glistening. Not even his father could hold out against his earnest expression for long. Serilorn was the one who had sense-he immediately distracted Thranduil with the false case of having heard that the Lake-men of Esgarouth were under attack by goblins, rendering Legolas' trick useless.
As the trio walked away, Arianduil clenched his fist and the sharp ears of Arialas and Legolas caught the word 'revenge'. Arialas' agile mind started running over possibilities to get Serilorn sacked. Then, he called his brothers together and whispered some secret plan into their ears. "Yes!" Legolas hissed, exalted. This plan was foolproof!
* * *
Legolas tramped down the stone corridor of his home and went into the courtyard of the palace.
"Hello, Serilorn," he said in a forlorn voice. The guard looked at him briefly, wondering what had caused the usually robust Legolas to be so quiet, then dismissed the thought as one who was looking for attention. Legolas kicked at the mud, splashing a small amount at Serilorn's feet.
Suddenly, he grabbed a pot that he had hid behind his tunic and, in one swift motion, filled it with mud and tossed it onto Serilorn. The guard sputtered, wiping the goo from his eyes.
"You! How there you! Your father will hear this! And I assure you, this time he will not be taken in by your tears! I-"a second load of mud crashed down on top of him. Gasping with rage and anger, Serilorn looked up to the branches of the mighty beech beside him. Arianduil stood there, a much larger bucket of mud in his hands, grinning wickedly.
"Get down at once! And that is an order! I will take you to your father and if he is merciful, you will escape with your lives!"
"oh, really? I don't think so!" He pulled hard at the long cord of rope tat dangled beside him. Serilorn stared on surprise... the rope not been there the day before... and all of a sudden, he felt a net closing around him and he was pulled into the air with a sharp yank, and he felt a strange sensation, and the next thing he knew, he had banged his head hard against the bough of the tree.
"Oops! My apologies, my aiming skills aren't too good, you know..." Arianduil said smoothly, without any hint of regret in his voice whatsoever. He tied the rope to a branch so that the net would not loosen.
"Hey, Arianduil! Why did you use that net! I made it one week ago, you know it is not strong enough to take Serilorn's weight! You should have used the one I made yesterday!" Arialas yelled from below.
"Get me down off this net at once!" Serilorn shrieked, all pride and dignity forgotten in this state. His dark hair was tangled in the cords of the net, and he was twisted around in a very awkward position. And now the princes were laughing at him, and even suggesting that his weight was too much for the ropes! How infuriating!
Half the elves in the palace of Greenwood dashed out when they heard his scream. The personalities of the princes switched immediately. Arianduil worked fervently cut away the rope with a purposely-blunt knife, portraying the image of a kind, good elf who wanted to help his friend. Arialas made a show of climbing up the tree and going out to the branch that was closest to Serilorn and started shouting encouragements to the livid guard.
"Hang in there, Serilorn! Stop struggling! We will get oyu down in no time!"
"What's all this racket!" boomed a voice that was guaranteed to intimidate anybody. It belonged to Thranduil.
"Lord, your sons tricked me into this! First Legolas through mud at me, then Arianduil pulled a net up around me, trapping me in this net! I demand that you punish them immediately!"
"Is this how you would repay us?" Arianduil stepped away from the net, his face twisted in to one of shock. "Is this how you would repay us, who have helped you with your job all this while? We, who even try to get you down even after what you put us through this morning?"
"Liar!" Serilorn hissed, clenching his fists.
"He's the liar!" Legolas wailed, his make shift tap quickly being turned on, and tears streamed down his face. "We helped him to make a net so that it will be easier to catch ones who would intrude into the palace, and he accidentally got caught in the net as we were putting up the net!" Serilorn's face was now so red, it contrasted deeply with the brown net.
"Believe us! Look, we even helped him to make a net, in case his failed!" Legolas dragged up Arialas' net, and showed it to the Elvenking. Thranduil inspected it closely. Sure enough, he saw the untidy workmanship of the twins embroidered on the net. Come to think of it, he had seen them making a net a few days before. And looking at the other net that was carrying Serilorn, he saw the skillfully wrought net. It was entirely possible that Serilorn had made it himself.
Of course, Thranduil was never to know that the skillfully wrought net had been purchased by his sons.
"fool!" Serilorn cursed, and Legolas ran to his father and started bawling all out, while Arianduil and Arialas bit their lips to prevent them form bursting into laughter.
"He's the fool! The most ungrateful, stupid, dumb, crazy fool ever!" Arianduil yelled, feeling that Legolas needed someone to back up in his story, and not wanting to miss out on all the fun anyway. Thranduil hugged his youngest child. He felt that something was wrong with what he was about to say, but he couldn't help himself from pleasing his youngest everytime Legolas cried.
"Shh...don't cry, Greenleaf! Look, I'll...I'll let you do whatever you want to do to Serilorn anyway, alright?" he whispered.
"Really?" Legolas' turned his tear stained face to his father. At that moment, Laeregil appeared to see what the commotion was all about. Serilorn gulped, and his complexion paled visibly. Everyone knows that women are funny creatures with weird mood swings and unreasonably hot tempers. His fate was bound to be a horrid one, especially because Laeregil was extremely protective over Legolas.
"Elbereth Gilthoniel..." Serilorn sighed as he prayed for courage to be able to get through his fate alive. When he looked down, Legolas was pouring out all his so called miseries to his mother.
God help the poor elf who gets the wrath of the elven queen Laeregil.
Sorry, girls! Apologies for the temper thing. But I just had to put it in.
Mercuryeadept: ok! Thanks for being my beta reader.
Dragon Confused : yes, the reference for the Elven unit of the year was at the back of my Lord of the rings book, under the appendices D. I don't know what page it is, since we probably have a different version of the book. Thanks for explaining the kinslaying thing, but was Galadriel a kinslayer? I mean, who did she kill? Can't imagine her killing elves, she seems so gentle, somehow. Ok, I will correct their names.
Blue4dogs: hi! Yes! You're the only one who re-reviewed! Thank you for coming back! Ok, I will try to change the spelling mistakes.
Adsh: whoa! Cool idea! Yes, I think I will do it... when Legolas has grown up, of course.
~~~~~~~ 4-year-old Legolas, youngest and 5th prince of Greenwood the Great, awoke to the pain of somebody rapping his head.
"Awake, Greenleaf! The guards have fallen asleep on some of the most potent wine we have managed to get our hands on..." hissed Arianduil, the 4th child of mighty king Thranduil. Arialas, Arianduil's younger twin, ripped apart the velvet maroon curtains to let the sunlight stream into Legolas' room.
"Come on! Race you to our secret hideout!" Arianduil whispered. With that, he took off out of his youngest brother's room and sped down the corridor to the open forest, with Arialas hot on his heels. Legolas hurriedly threw on a light tunic, then darted after his brothers. He charged pass his father's chamber, making as little noise as possible for fear he would awake the king, then tip-toed pass the sleeping (and dreaming and smiling and snoring) guards. Sure enough, Arianduil had fed them one of the most potent wines, wine from the vineyards of Dorwinion. He raced down the corridors of the cave, and kept on running, and running, and running, until he suddenly stopped short at the door of the palace – where the stone stopped and the forest began. For instead of the hard, solid ground of the soil of the forest, there was a sea of weird, brownish stuff in front of him.
He squatted down and peered intently at it, for he had never seen it before. Then, he reached out stuck a little finger into the brown stuff. "Eeewww......yuck......" for the brown stuff, as you would probably know, was mud. Sticky, yucky, gooey, brown mud. When had he seen this before? It had been raining heavily recently... oh! He had seen it under the roots of trees. But he couldn't remember what it was called.
A dark shadow loomed over Legolas, and three pairs of ankles, dirty and muddy, appeared on front of his little form. Looking up, he recognized his father, a fuming Arianduil and a red-faced Arialas.
"Father! What are you doing here?" Legolas asked in surprise. He did not know that his father was awake, and he thought that he and his brothers' plans to go orc-hunting under the pretense oh hunting animals had been discovered.
"The question is, Legolas, what are my three sons doing out of their beds at this time of the morning? Were you not told that a band of orcs were roaming in my realm?" Thranduil asked smoothly, with a hint of lie-to-me- and-you're-dead tone in his voice. Legolas, who recognized that tone immediately, gulped, and nearly gave the three away out of fear.
"Y-yes, we knew there were orcs in Greenwood, so we – the three of us, w-we decided to hunt the orcs down..."
"And what of my guards?"
"Arianduil gave them a drought of wine from Dorwinion, you know, the one that you always drink, and they well... you know what happened – oops, I wasn't supposed to say anything, was I?" he added, seeing that the older twins were glaring at him with fire in their eyes.
"Don't listen to him, he is saying all this under the influence of wine – the mildest ones – you know how he refuses to listen to what we say, he went ahead and drank everything up – we were only out here because Legolas was fascinated by the mud." Yes, it was a lame excuse, but what else could they say? The only person who could probably worm himself out of this mess was their spoilt little brother-and even his chances of escaping looked dim.
"Lord Thranduil, I overheard these three pranksters planning to go on an orc-hunting trip-as the youngest prince revealed. They were going to drug my guards with the wine of Dorwinion, one of the most potent drinks. I alone managed to stop myself from over indulging in it. There was nothing in the plan whatsoever which concerned mud." The speaker was Serilorn, one of the chief of the guards.
Arianduil and Arialas were seething with rage-the chief was the most righteous, strict, lawful elves they had ever met, and always told their father about all the midnight escapades the twins had ever gone on, ensuring that hardly any of their plans ever succeeded. To think that he had managed to keep from falling asleep!
"Alright. Back to your beds-the three of you-and you will not be allowed outside the palace gates for three days," Thranduil ordered.
"Three days!" Arianduil howled in anger. Legolas turned on his 'makeshift' tap, making his bright eyes teary and glistening. Not even his father could hold out against his earnest expression for long. Serilorn was the one who had sense-he immediately distracted Thranduil with the false case of having heard that the Lake-men of Esgarouth were under attack by goblins, rendering Legolas' trick useless.
As the trio walked away, Arianduil clenched his fist and the sharp ears of Arialas and Legolas caught the word 'revenge'. Arialas' agile mind started running over possibilities to get Serilorn sacked. Then, he called his brothers together and whispered some secret plan into their ears. "Yes!" Legolas hissed, exalted. This plan was foolproof!
* * *
Legolas tramped down the stone corridor of his home and went into the courtyard of the palace.
"Hello, Serilorn," he said in a forlorn voice. The guard looked at him briefly, wondering what had caused the usually robust Legolas to be so quiet, then dismissed the thought as one who was looking for attention. Legolas kicked at the mud, splashing a small amount at Serilorn's feet.
Suddenly, he grabbed a pot that he had hid behind his tunic and, in one swift motion, filled it with mud and tossed it onto Serilorn. The guard sputtered, wiping the goo from his eyes.
"You! How there you! Your father will hear this! And I assure you, this time he will not be taken in by your tears! I-"a second load of mud crashed down on top of him. Gasping with rage and anger, Serilorn looked up to the branches of the mighty beech beside him. Arianduil stood there, a much larger bucket of mud in his hands, grinning wickedly.
"Get down at once! And that is an order! I will take you to your father and if he is merciful, you will escape with your lives!"
"oh, really? I don't think so!" He pulled hard at the long cord of rope tat dangled beside him. Serilorn stared on surprise... the rope not been there the day before... and all of a sudden, he felt a net closing around him and he was pulled into the air with a sharp yank, and he felt a strange sensation, and the next thing he knew, he had banged his head hard against the bough of the tree.
"Oops! My apologies, my aiming skills aren't too good, you know..." Arianduil said smoothly, without any hint of regret in his voice whatsoever. He tied the rope to a branch so that the net would not loosen.
"Hey, Arianduil! Why did you use that net! I made it one week ago, you know it is not strong enough to take Serilorn's weight! You should have used the one I made yesterday!" Arialas yelled from below.
"Get me down off this net at once!" Serilorn shrieked, all pride and dignity forgotten in this state. His dark hair was tangled in the cords of the net, and he was twisted around in a very awkward position. And now the princes were laughing at him, and even suggesting that his weight was too much for the ropes! How infuriating!
Half the elves in the palace of Greenwood dashed out when they heard his scream. The personalities of the princes switched immediately. Arianduil worked fervently cut away the rope with a purposely-blunt knife, portraying the image of a kind, good elf who wanted to help his friend. Arialas made a show of climbing up the tree and going out to the branch that was closest to Serilorn and started shouting encouragements to the livid guard.
"Hang in there, Serilorn! Stop struggling! We will get oyu down in no time!"
"What's all this racket!" boomed a voice that was guaranteed to intimidate anybody. It belonged to Thranduil.
"Lord, your sons tricked me into this! First Legolas through mud at me, then Arianduil pulled a net up around me, trapping me in this net! I demand that you punish them immediately!"
"Is this how you would repay us?" Arianduil stepped away from the net, his face twisted in to one of shock. "Is this how you would repay us, who have helped you with your job all this while? We, who even try to get you down even after what you put us through this morning?"
"Liar!" Serilorn hissed, clenching his fists.
"He's the liar!" Legolas wailed, his make shift tap quickly being turned on, and tears streamed down his face. "We helped him to make a net so that it will be easier to catch ones who would intrude into the palace, and he accidentally got caught in the net as we were putting up the net!" Serilorn's face was now so red, it contrasted deeply with the brown net.
"Believe us! Look, we even helped him to make a net, in case his failed!" Legolas dragged up Arialas' net, and showed it to the Elvenking. Thranduil inspected it closely. Sure enough, he saw the untidy workmanship of the twins embroidered on the net. Come to think of it, he had seen them making a net a few days before. And looking at the other net that was carrying Serilorn, he saw the skillfully wrought net. It was entirely possible that Serilorn had made it himself.
Of course, Thranduil was never to know that the skillfully wrought net had been purchased by his sons.
"fool!" Serilorn cursed, and Legolas ran to his father and started bawling all out, while Arianduil and Arialas bit their lips to prevent them form bursting into laughter.
"He's the fool! The most ungrateful, stupid, dumb, crazy fool ever!" Arianduil yelled, feeling that Legolas needed someone to back up in his story, and not wanting to miss out on all the fun anyway. Thranduil hugged his youngest child. He felt that something was wrong with what he was about to say, but he couldn't help himself from pleasing his youngest everytime Legolas cried.
"Shh...don't cry, Greenleaf! Look, I'll...I'll let you do whatever you want to do to Serilorn anyway, alright?" he whispered.
"Really?" Legolas' turned his tear stained face to his father. At that moment, Laeregil appeared to see what the commotion was all about. Serilorn gulped, and his complexion paled visibly. Everyone knows that women are funny creatures with weird mood swings and unreasonably hot tempers. His fate was bound to be a horrid one, especially because Laeregil was extremely protective over Legolas.
"Elbereth Gilthoniel..." Serilorn sighed as he prayed for courage to be able to get through his fate alive. When he looked down, Legolas was pouring out all his so called miseries to his mother.
God help the poor elf who gets the wrath of the elven queen Laeregil.
Sorry, girls! Apologies for the temper thing. But I just had to put it in.