Chap2

Some while later Arhivil came in and told the room that she gave up and with that collapsed onto a chair. Legolas, grinning broadly came out quietly and crept behind her.

"I win!" he cried out joyfully, "Let's play another game! I know! Tag! Your 'it'!"

And with that he tapped Arhivil on the shoulder and ran off.

"Legolas! Come back!" Arhivil cried out after the Legolas but he paid no heed. Then getting up Arhivil tore after him muttering to herself,

"He'll run out of energy soon. He just has to."

Legolas was running at full speed to put as much distance between himself and Arhivil as possible. As he ran round the corner he bumped into something very solid.

"Oww!"

It was Earelen, one of his best friends.

"Sorry" Legolas said as he helped her to her feet.

"Earelen?"

Aros and Balar, his other best friends, came round the corner. Legolas greeted them and told them what he was doing.

"Great!" said Aros enthusiastically.

"Can we play?" added Balar.

"Sure. We'll have to wait here for Arhivil though. To tell her you're playing, oh, and don't forget, if she catches you, look as though you're about to cry and moan that you don't want to be 'it' or something-" Legolas told them but was interrupted by Arhivil who came running in.

"Wait!" cried Legolas, as she was about to tag him, "Balar, Aros and Earelen are playing too, so give us a five second head start. Thanks."

And with that the four young ones ran off. Not waiting, Arhivil ran after Balar who was the slowest, but still very fast.

About two hours later Arhivil was exhausted. She had caught Earelen once, but the little edhelwen looked like she would cry so Arhivil had let her off. Balar had also been caught but he had said it wasn't fair because he was the slowest and would never be able to catch anyone else. 'Two hours was definitely too long to be 'it'', she thought but was interrupted as Legolas ran past just a few meters off. When Legolas saw Arhivil he squeaked and took off again, but as he ran he realised he wouldn't be able to shake her off. Knowing that puppy eyes wouldn't work he desided to take drastic action. He picked up speed but as he did so he pretended this was too much and feigned falling over. Rolling a couple of times so Arhivil wouldn't tread on him he gave a fake gasp as if he was in pain. However, Legolas had perfected this technique and wasn't really hurt. Arhivil came over to him with a worried expression and Legolas clutched his ankle as if he had twisted it.

"I think we should stop playing tag for the moment" Arhivil said as she knelt down beside Legolas, "Are you going to be OK?"

Legolas nodded "I'll…I'll manage"

His acting was so good that Arhivil thought he was really hurt.

"Come on," she said, helping the young prince up, "I'll call your friends. Aros! Balar! Earelen!

Earelen and the two boys came out from various places and Legolas gave them meaningful looks. All three of them knew this act and what they must do. They came over making a fuss, asking if Legolas was OK, etc. and went back to the palace. Legolas was limping and Aros was helping him, being a better height for it than Arhivil. Earelen was biting her lip as if she was truly, really quite worried for her friend and Balar was pretending to comfort her.

When they arrived back at the palace the dinner bell rang so they headed for the Great Hall. At dinner the four little ones, who were sitting at the children's table, told the story of the game of tag to a couple of their friends.

"And then, Arhivil was catching up with Legolas so, because puppy eyes weren't going to work, he took drastic action." Aros said the last two words in a whisper for effect.

"What did he do?" asked Mindeb excitedly.

Legolas merely grinned and continued to eat, letting the others tell the tale.

"Legolas put on this extra burst of speed and then," Balar pause dramatically, "He feigned a fall."

All present gasped and stared awe-struck at Legolas who grinned and said,

"Yep. A feigned fall, not an easy stunt to pull of. Especially when the person you're trying to fool is practically on top of you. I had to roll three or four times so Arhivil didn't land on me."

"He's right," said Teiglin, "I tried it once myself. The person I tried to fool saw through the act and I got pretty bumped as well."

"But didn't you get really hurt then? When you rolled I mean." asked Laurevil.

"If you fall and roll the right way you don't get hurt, so no, I didn't get hurt," answered Legolas in a matter-of-fact tone.

"But you must pretend he really is hurt," Earelen pointed out, "because if he gets discovered then he really will be in trouble."

Legolas listened as the conversation turned this way and that but always on the same themes. Arhivil, tag and fake falls. Just then he saw Arhivil coming over. The feast was over. He kicked Aros hard under the table.

"Oww," Aros said angrily, "What was that for?"

Legolas jerked his head slightly in Arhivil's direction. Aros's eyes widened. He got the gist. Legolas looked pleadingly at him and Aros began to pass the message down. Looking over at

Arhivil, Legolas realised the message would never reach everyone in time.

Nimloth realised this as well and when Arhivil was in earshot she asked Legolas,

"How's your ankle? I heard about what happened."

"Much better thanks." He replied giving her a look that meant 'Thank you so much'.

"Come on Legolas," Arhivil said, "We have to go."

Legolas sighed but went with her, limping slightly. The rest of the kids began to leave with their parents' as well. Some muttering,

"Poor Legolas"

A/N - Mindeb, Laurevil and Nimloth are girls and Teiglin is a boy, all of them are Legolas's friends.

Sorry I took so long to update!

Translations

Edhelwen - elf maiden

Thank you very much to all my reviewers!

REPLIES TO REVIEWS

tbiris: Glad you like it. It is quite funny, isn't it?

GettoPixiStixLover: I know, it is cute.

TreeHugger: Elenath sila am le to! Glad to know my story brightens up the day. Yeah, I suppose you're right, poor Arhival.