Author's Note: Hi again! Won't take up too much of your time, new chapter,
not Tolkien, and enjoy!
Chapter 16
"How many wounded were there?"
"Three of us, and one dead. We had to leave him, there were too many to go back and bear him home."
Legolas sat up and swung his legs over the side of his bed. He had been lying idly, staring up and through the large window that let the somber twilight from outside shine in. But now there were the sounds of many rushing past his door and down the hall, and he did not like the snatches of conversation he had just heard.
Legolas stood and made his way to the wooden door before opening it and peering out into the darkened hallway. The low light cast by a few torches flickering along the walls let him see the backs of some of his kin disappearing down the hall, towards his father's chambers at the end. Legolas quickly went after them, not bothering to throw on his outer-tunic and only wearing the silver clothing that went underneath.
It had been almost a week since he had been home and Legolas had had plenty of time to rest and heal, but he had been hoping that the rest of his time here would remain uneventful. He and his father had merely been waiting for word from the second search party that had gone out before Legolas came back, and now it appeared as though they had come back. And Legolas did not think he would like their reports.
Legolas reached his father's chambers just as the door was closing. He pushed against it and the elf on the other side yielded and let him in before realization hit him.
"Prince Legolas, you are here," he said with surprise evident in his voice.
The other elves turned to look as well and Legolas saw with a glance the torn and bloodied state of their clothing. Thranduil was coming in from a side door towards the large group gathering around the door of the main room, bidding everyone to come further in.
"Yes, I have been home for a while now," Legolas said quickly, "right after you had gone."
"Come, everybody, come sit," Thranduil urged the group of elves, turning their focus from Legolas. The elves moved and everybody found a place around the large table that sat in Thranduil's front room.
Once everybody had settled, with Thranduil sitting at the head flanked by Legolas on one side and one of his advisors on the other, he said, "Tell me all that happened."
Legolas listened silently as one of the elves from the search party began to speak. He told them of meeting the dwarves outside the Lonely Mountain and demanding that they return Legolas when the dwarves said he had already gone and then attacked them.
"The dwarves attacked without provocation?" asked Thranduil.
Legolas watched the seemingly designated speaker with a sharp eye. The elf nodded and said that one of the dwarves rushed them from the side and before he knew it they were being set upon on all sides with more dwarves coming forth from the mountain.
"And you would say it was the fault of the dwarves?" Legolas finally spoke up.
The elven warrior turned his gaze to Legolas. "All we did was ask for your return," he said, "we did not know that you were already gone."
"And that is why the dwarves attacked?" Legolas asked. He was trying to keep the suspicion out of his voice, but something about the story did not seem right to him. He knew that the dwarves were stubborn and quick to judge, he had enough personal experience for that, but he also knew they were not so quick to attack without some sign of a threat.
"The dwarves insulted you personally," another of the elves spoke up. Legolas looked at him and saw he was a younger elf. "As such I drew my bow and demanded an apology."
Legolas sank back into his chair. "You drew your bow," he said, more like a confirmation than a question. Even he had not drawn a weapon against the dwarves during his time there. He knew the dwarves to be full of pride and territorial, they would see such an action as a threat and an insult.
Thranduil glanced at his son. "You think that demanding an apology warrants an attack from the dwarves? Surely you can see they were the first to actually attack."
Legolas nodded. "I do not dispute that their response was out of line, but perhaps our going there in itself was out of line. We should have sent a runner to intercept the party before they even neared the Lonely Mountain."
"There is more my Lord," the original elf was speaking again. Thranduil turned to him.
"We did not wish to fight and retreated as fast as we could, but we suffered a loss."
Legolas remembered the words he had heard outside his door. Two wounded and one dead.
"Who?" Thranduil said, his eyes suddenly going through each of the elves seated before him as if he was checking to see who was missing.
"Culhil," the elf said in a flat voice.
Legolas closed his eyes. He had known Culhil well and had no doubt that Culhil had volunteered to go with the party wanting to help Legolas.
Thranduil's eyes had darkened. "The death of one of our own is not something to be thrown lightly aside."
Legolas opened his eyes. He did not like the sudden tone in his father's voice, he was familiar enough with it to know that it meant he was about to make a decision and see it through no matter what. Legolas interrupted him before he had a chance to finish.
"We were on their territory, threatening them with weapons. They reacted as we would."
Thranduil turned to his son. "Am I to believe that you would so willingly forgive their treatment while you were there? And besides that, they have killed one of our kin, are you willing to let Culhil's death be forgotten and so easily disgraced?"
"And how many of them died?" Legolas retorted. "Did we stop to check their death count?"
"The blood of their own lies on their hands through their own foolish actions. I cannot sit by and have them continue to shame and murder our own."
Legolas sighed and sat back. He knew there would be little chance for reasoning with his father now. But why should he care anyway? He should be happy and be one of the first to lead a march against the Lonely Mountain and finish off its hateful inhabitants.
Yet even as his mind tried to build up false bravado, he knew he couldn't let it happen. Despite anybody else who dwelled under the mountain, Gimli was still there.
And Gimli was his friend.
Legolas tuned back in to what was going on around him. Thranduil was still talking.
"We shall assemble all the warriors and lead a march to Erebor. We will make no effort to hide our arrival or our numbers and give the dwarves a chance to save themselves by providing retribution for what they have already cost us. Yet if they insist on remaining foolish, then we will hold nothing back."
Legolas was only half-listening to his father's plans. His mind was thinking of ways to avoid an all-out war. He knew his father would not listen to him now, there was still enough of the old grudge in him backed by plenty of pride. He would take every action of the dwarves as a personal insult to him.
Legolas' thoughts were interrupted when there was a heavy knock on the door. Thranduil quickly called out for the individual to enter and Legolas saw two elves come into the room carrying some sort of burden in between the two of them. It was not until the burden was placed on the floor, and none too gently, that Legolas finally realized what it was.
"We found him following the tracks of the search party, a spy."
Legolas jumped up, "Gimli!"
The two elves looked startled as Legolas walked quickly to them and knelt down at the dwarf's side. He peered down into the dwarf's face and saw that he was unconscious.
"What did you do to him?" Legolas snapped, pulling his face up towards the two that had brought him in.
The elves backed away a few steps, surprised by the sudden malice in Legolas' voice. "Nothing, we thought him to be a spy."
"Legolas," Thranduil was standing now. "Step down," he said.
Legolas did not even glance back at his father. He was checking to make sure Gimli was still breathing. The dwarf seemed all right, besides evidence of their being a minor scuffle, there was not even a major wound to his head warranting his unconscious state.
"What did you do to him?" Legolas asked again, this time with a quieter tone that somehow seemed more dangerous.
The two elves glanced nervously at each other.
"He was a spy, we had to immobilize him in order to safely bring him back for questioning."
"He is a prisoner of war, Legolas," Thranduil said now standing close to him. "Leave him be and he will be taken down to the dungeons."
Legolas lifted his head. "So he can fill in his father's place?"
Thranduil's eyes flared for a brief second before his expression smoothed out again. "This has nothing to do with what happened between his father and I, though I suspect Gloin would like to think it has everything to do with it. He is a prisoner of war, and that is what we do with them."
"I will watch him," Legolas said, "I will see to it that he commits no act of spying."
Thranduil was firm. "No, he is one of the enemy now. I cannot risk him having loose quarter again."
"He will not be having loose quarter," Legolas said, "I will guard him, he will be confined to only my chambers."
"How can you even suggest that he is still a friend of yours after all he has done to you and your friends? Or have you forgotten your pleasant treatment from the dwarves?"
Legolas snapped. "Because if it was not for Gimli I would still be down there. He was the one who let me escape, I could not have done it on my own."
Legolas' revelation silenced Thranduil for a few seconds.
"I will watch him," Legolas said, standing. "And I will see to it that no harm comes to him."
Thranduil and Legolas were now standing eye-to-eye, having a silent battle of wills. After a few long moments, in which nobody else dared to interrupt, Thranduil finally let out a breath.
"If you insist on continuing to think of him as a friend, then so be it. But if he leaves this place without my knowing, then I will no longer be so quick to place my trust in you Legolas. You say you will guard him, so I expect you to guard him. He is a prisoner of war."
Legolas did not wilt under his father's fiery gaze. "I will guard him," was all he said.
Thranduil moved back a few steps and Legolas bent back down to Gimli's side. "I will ask one more time," he said not looking up, "what did you do to him?"
"Put him to sleep," one of the elves finally answered.
"How?"
The two elves looked at each other again, but this time as if they were forced to explain something to somebody else who was rather stupid. "With elven wine," he answered, "large amounts of elven wine wreaks havoc with dwarves."
Chapter 16
"How many wounded were there?"
"Three of us, and one dead. We had to leave him, there were too many to go back and bear him home."
Legolas sat up and swung his legs over the side of his bed. He had been lying idly, staring up and through the large window that let the somber twilight from outside shine in. But now there were the sounds of many rushing past his door and down the hall, and he did not like the snatches of conversation he had just heard.
Legolas stood and made his way to the wooden door before opening it and peering out into the darkened hallway. The low light cast by a few torches flickering along the walls let him see the backs of some of his kin disappearing down the hall, towards his father's chambers at the end. Legolas quickly went after them, not bothering to throw on his outer-tunic and only wearing the silver clothing that went underneath.
It had been almost a week since he had been home and Legolas had had plenty of time to rest and heal, but he had been hoping that the rest of his time here would remain uneventful. He and his father had merely been waiting for word from the second search party that had gone out before Legolas came back, and now it appeared as though they had come back. And Legolas did not think he would like their reports.
Legolas reached his father's chambers just as the door was closing. He pushed against it and the elf on the other side yielded and let him in before realization hit him.
"Prince Legolas, you are here," he said with surprise evident in his voice.
The other elves turned to look as well and Legolas saw with a glance the torn and bloodied state of their clothing. Thranduil was coming in from a side door towards the large group gathering around the door of the main room, bidding everyone to come further in.
"Yes, I have been home for a while now," Legolas said quickly, "right after you had gone."
"Come, everybody, come sit," Thranduil urged the group of elves, turning their focus from Legolas. The elves moved and everybody found a place around the large table that sat in Thranduil's front room.
Once everybody had settled, with Thranduil sitting at the head flanked by Legolas on one side and one of his advisors on the other, he said, "Tell me all that happened."
Legolas listened silently as one of the elves from the search party began to speak. He told them of meeting the dwarves outside the Lonely Mountain and demanding that they return Legolas when the dwarves said he had already gone and then attacked them.
"The dwarves attacked without provocation?" asked Thranduil.
Legolas watched the seemingly designated speaker with a sharp eye. The elf nodded and said that one of the dwarves rushed them from the side and before he knew it they were being set upon on all sides with more dwarves coming forth from the mountain.
"And you would say it was the fault of the dwarves?" Legolas finally spoke up.
The elven warrior turned his gaze to Legolas. "All we did was ask for your return," he said, "we did not know that you were already gone."
"And that is why the dwarves attacked?" Legolas asked. He was trying to keep the suspicion out of his voice, but something about the story did not seem right to him. He knew that the dwarves were stubborn and quick to judge, he had enough personal experience for that, but he also knew they were not so quick to attack without some sign of a threat.
"The dwarves insulted you personally," another of the elves spoke up. Legolas looked at him and saw he was a younger elf. "As such I drew my bow and demanded an apology."
Legolas sank back into his chair. "You drew your bow," he said, more like a confirmation than a question. Even he had not drawn a weapon against the dwarves during his time there. He knew the dwarves to be full of pride and territorial, they would see such an action as a threat and an insult.
Thranduil glanced at his son. "You think that demanding an apology warrants an attack from the dwarves? Surely you can see they were the first to actually attack."
Legolas nodded. "I do not dispute that their response was out of line, but perhaps our going there in itself was out of line. We should have sent a runner to intercept the party before they even neared the Lonely Mountain."
"There is more my Lord," the original elf was speaking again. Thranduil turned to him.
"We did not wish to fight and retreated as fast as we could, but we suffered a loss."
Legolas remembered the words he had heard outside his door. Two wounded and one dead.
"Who?" Thranduil said, his eyes suddenly going through each of the elves seated before him as if he was checking to see who was missing.
"Culhil," the elf said in a flat voice.
Legolas closed his eyes. He had known Culhil well and had no doubt that Culhil had volunteered to go with the party wanting to help Legolas.
Thranduil's eyes had darkened. "The death of one of our own is not something to be thrown lightly aside."
Legolas opened his eyes. He did not like the sudden tone in his father's voice, he was familiar enough with it to know that it meant he was about to make a decision and see it through no matter what. Legolas interrupted him before he had a chance to finish.
"We were on their territory, threatening them with weapons. They reacted as we would."
Thranduil turned to his son. "Am I to believe that you would so willingly forgive their treatment while you were there? And besides that, they have killed one of our kin, are you willing to let Culhil's death be forgotten and so easily disgraced?"
"And how many of them died?" Legolas retorted. "Did we stop to check their death count?"
"The blood of their own lies on their hands through their own foolish actions. I cannot sit by and have them continue to shame and murder our own."
Legolas sighed and sat back. He knew there would be little chance for reasoning with his father now. But why should he care anyway? He should be happy and be one of the first to lead a march against the Lonely Mountain and finish off its hateful inhabitants.
Yet even as his mind tried to build up false bravado, he knew he couldn't let it happen. Despite anybody else who dwelled under the mountain, Gimli was still there.
And Gimli was his friend.
Legolas tuned back in to what was going on around him. Thranduil was still talking.
"We shall assemble all the warriors and lead a march to Erebor. We will make no effort to hide our arrival or our numbers and give the dwarves a chance to save themselves by providing retribution for what they have already cost us. Yet if they insist on remaining foolish, then we will hold nothing back."
Legolas was only half-listening to his father's plans. His mind was thinking of ways to avoid an all-out war. He knew his father would not listen to him now, there was still enough of the old grudge in him backed by plenty of pride. He would take every action of the dwarves as a personal insult to him.
Legolas' thoughts were interrupted when there was a heavy knock on the door. Thranduil quickly called out for the individual to enter and Legolas saw two elves come into the room carrying some sort of burden in between the two of them. It was not until the burden was placed on the floor, and none too gently, that Legolas finally realized what it was.
"We found him following the tracks of the search party, a spy."
Legolas jumped up, "Gimli!"
The two elves looked startled as Legolas walked quickly to them and knelt down at the dwarf's side. He peered down into the dwarf's face and saw that he was unconscious.
"What did you do to him?" Legolas snapped, pulling his face up towards the two that had brought him in.
The elves backed away a few steps, surprised by the sudden malice in Legolas' voice. "Nothing, we thought him to be a spy."
"Legolas," Thranduil was standing now. "Step down," he said.
Legolas did not even glance back at his father. He was checking to make sure Gimli was still breathing. The dwarf seemed all right, besides evidence of their being a minor scuffle, there was not even a major wound to his head warranting his unconscious state.
"What did you do to him?" Legolas asked again, this time with a quieter tone that somehow seemed more dangerous.
The two elves glanced nervously at each other.
"He was a spy, we had to immobilize him in order to safely bring him back for questioning."
"He is a prisoner of war, Legolas," Thranduil said now standing close to him. "Leave him be and he will be taken down to the dungeons."
Legolas lifted his head. "So he can fill in his father's place?"
Thranduil's eyes flared for a brief second before his expression smoothed out again. "This has nothing to do with what happened between his father and I, though I suspect Gloin would like to think it has everything to do with it. He is a prisoner of war, and that is what we do with them."
"I will watch him," Legolas said, "I will see to it that he commits no act of spying."
Thranduil was firm. "No, he is one of the enemy now. I cannot risk him having loose quarter again."
"He will not be having loose quarter," Legolas said, "I will guard him, he will be confined to only my chambers."
"How can you even suggest that he is still a friend of yours after all he has done to you and your friends? Or have you forgotten your pleasant treatment from the dwarves?"
Legolas snapped. "Because if it was not for Gimli I would still be down there. He was the one who let me escape, I could not have done it on my own."
Legolas' revelation silenced Thranduil for a few seconds.
"I will watch him," Legolas said, standing. "And I will see to it that no harm comes to him."
Thranduil and Legolas were now standing eye-to-eye, having a silent battle of wills. After a few long moments, in which nobody else dared to interrupt, Thranduil finally let out a breath.
"If you insist on continuing to think of him as a friend, then so be it. But if he leaves this place without my knowing, then I will no longer be so quick to place my trust in you Legolas. You say you will guard him, so I expect you to guard him. He is a prisoner of war."
Legolas did not wilt under his father's fiery gaze. "I will guard him," was all he said.
Thranduil moved back a few steps and Legolas bent back down to Gimli's side. "I will ask one more time," he said not looking up, "what did you do to him?"
"Put him to sleep," one of the elves finally answered.
"How?"
The two elves looked at each other again, but this time as if they were forced to explain something to somebody else who was rather stupid. "With elven wine," he answered, "large amounts of elven wine wreaks havoc with dwarves."