It was only half an hour later when Legolas and Adela where back in their room, this time, however, with glasses of milk and squares of chocolate.
Sitting on Adela's bed, Legolas crossed his legs and looked out the window. "Everything's so different here," he commented.
"I know, it barely seems like you can get into trouble," Adela mused.
"Apart from Elladan and Elrohir when they yell at us," Legolas giggled. "Have you noticed how people look at us strangely, and how they seemed shocked by Papa's rules? What's wrong with the rules? In Mirkwood no one question's them at all and everyone's happy. We seem to have so much freedom here… it's scary without the structure of the rules."
"I know… I wonder how long we'll have to stay here?" Adela wondered.
"I don't know, a while yet I should think, we've only had two full days here," Legolas guessed.
"It seems so much longer than that, and although we're friends with Elladan, Elrohir and Arwen, I still miss home," Adela sighed.
"So do I, although it's nice here and everyone's kind, it's not home and I doubt it ever will be home. And Elladan and Elrohir will never take the place of our brothers, they just can't, its not possible for them to do so," Legolas told her.
Just then a cold breeze blew in from the open window and Legolas jumped down off the bed to close it. He realised how dark the sky had got and knew that they were going to have rain that night. He climbed up onto the windowsill and sat and looked out at the deserted gardens of the Last Homely House. Adela came and joined him and the two didn't speak for a while, both silently wondering when the rain would start. The sky was getting steadily darker and they could feel it getting colder so they both retrieved a jumper from their drawers and put it on. Adela's was a light mint green colour and Legolas' a dark blue, both of which went with their uniforms, which they were still wearing. It wasn't long before the rain started to fall and then it came down hard and fast and didn't show any sign of stopping anytime soon.
Legolas let out a little sigh. "Looks like the summer is finally over and autumn is here," he said.
"Yeah, it won't be winter for a while though and there shouldn't be any snow for at least two more months," Adela told him.
"That's good, because Papa promised he'd come and visit us before the first snows settled in," Legolas remembered. "I wonder what everyone's doing back home in Mirkwood at the moment?"
"If it's raining like this then everyone will be inside, either reading, talking quietly, cleaning weaponry, catching up on work or something. If we were there we'd probably be doing something with Danini, most likely baking. That or we'd be sat at the dining room table drawing," Adela said.
"Yeah, we'd never be stuck in our room, unless we were being punished, which was hardly ever. It makes me feel so lonely just being stuck in our room here… Elladan, Elrohir and Arwen never seem to be stuck in there rooms, but I suppose they have other friends here and don't need us tagging along with them. But imagine if our places had been swapped, if they were staying in Mirkwood… they wouldn't be left to sit in their rooms alone if they didn't want to, Papa would of made sure that they had one of us or our brothers with them, made sure that they had something to do…" Legolas trailed off, once more thinking of his family and how things were run back in Mirkwood.
Legolas and Adela passed the remaining time until their bedtime in their room, completing three pages of history from their Mirkwood workbooks.
They had been curled up in bed and sleeping soundly for a few hours when the storm broke out. It had still been raining heavily when they had gone to bed and on the first crash of thunder, both were jolted wide-awake. They weren't exactly scared, but they couldn't say that they liked the noise of the storm all that much though. The thunder sounded different from it did in Mirkwood, where it was absorbed by the sound of all the trees whistling and creaking in the wind. The lightning looked better then it did in Mirkwood, not getting lost in all the trees. In Rivendell the twins could see it streak across the sky. Legolas and Adela grabbed their bedcovers and teddies and curled up together on the windowsill, only wincing ever so slightly with each crash of thunder.
A couple of rooms along, the storm had also woken Elrohir. He sat up in bed sleepily before he became aware of what had awoken him. He chucked his pillow at Elladan who rolled over sleepily and claimed the pillow for his own, burying his head in it. "Elladan! Wake up!" Elrohir hissed quietly at his twin.
"What's the matter?" Elladan asked sleepily. "You're not scared are you?"
"Come on! Let's go check on Legolas and Adela!" Elrohir ordered.
"Good idea," Elladan told him, as he pulled his bed covers around his shoulders. "Lets go see how Thranduil's youngest two children are."
Elrohir also had his bed cover wrapped around his shoulders and the two slipped out of their room and down the corridor to Legolas and Adela's room. The knocked quietly and entered, scaring both Legolas and Adela.
"What are you two doing up at this time?" Adela asked.
"The storm woke us and we decided to check whether you two were ok," Elladan told them.
"We're fine, we just can't sleep with all the noise from the storm," Legolas told them.
"Come on then," Elrohir told them, "lets go sit downstairs where it's warmer."
So with bed covers wrapped around them and Legolas and Adela holding their teddies the four went downstairs and took refuge in one of the main halls, near the embers of the dying fire.
And the next day when Lord Elrond of Rivendell made his way downstairs he discovered Legolas using Elladan as a pillow and Adela using Elrohir as a pillow and they were all just a tangle of arms and legs and still sleeping soundly. He chuckled quietly to himself and made his way to the dining room. Indeed, Legolas and Adela were not what he expected at all, he thought.