18. Snarls in the Strands

Aragorn had spent almost the entire afternoon with his mother and, truth be told, he was feeling a bit exhausted. He had to admit that it was due more to lack of sleep and chasing through the forest outside Rivendell all morning than anything else. He let out a happy sigh, he had laid awake for hours last night, grinning at the ceiling. In retrospect it was rather odd behavior for him but then, it had been a most unusual week.

He reached the door of his chambers, he would wash and change clothes and perhaps see if he could not find Arwen before dinner. He wanted to ask her to go riding with him tomorrow. He turned the handle pulling the door open.

"Such a pleasure to see you, Estel!" Erestor snapped, the young human stopped short, nearly walking into the elf's chest.

"Erestor!" he exclaimed in surprise "What are you doing in my room?"

"I was hoping you might tell me!" Erestor replied, his eyes flashing dangerously. "I have been locked in here all day!"

"Locked in?" Aragorn asked with his most bewildered expression. "Erestor, what are you talking about?"

"I came to get my manuscript." he snarled, holding up the tattered old tome in one hand "and when I went to leave, the door would not work!" Aragorn stared down at the handle as Erestor continued to rant angrily at him. He tested the outside first, finding it in perfect working order, then the inside. Sure enough, the handle stuck.

"I do not appreciate your mindless pranks!" Erestor continued as Aragorn knelt on the floor drawing his knife, he jimmied the handle with the blade tip, an annoyed expression on his face. He was finding it ridiculously difficult to think clearly with Erestor bellowing at him.

He resheathed his knife, climbing to his feet again.

"You are far too old to behave like a child, I would think that a little more maturity would suit you better!" Erestor frowned severely.

Aragorn shut the door in his face.

The door flew open almost immediately, Erestor's expression even more enraged than before.

"I was not finished! I... " His voice trailed off as he turned the handle several times, staring at it as if he had never seen one before.

"I did not meddle with the door." Aragorn said evenly, folding his arms over his chest. "But I can assure you that it will not happen again."

"Oh, yes, well..." Erestor paused a moment considering the door and then the human with a deflated expression. "That is settled then."

"Quite settled." Aragorn agreed with an amused smirk. Erestor gave him an an apologetic look that could almost be considered a smile as he slipped out of the room.

"I shall see you later then." the elf said, collecting what was left of his dignity before making his retreat.

"Do tell Ada I will not be at dinner," Aragorn called after him, his eyes narrowing as he stared at the door. "I've been alerted to a situation that I will have to rectify immediately." Erestor only nodded in reply, disappearing down the corridor.

Aragorn slipped into his room with a frown. He could only think of two culprits for such a prank and doubtless both suspects were working together. His mind turned quickly to possible strategies, he would need to be cautious. He...

"Blessed Eru!" he groaned, Erestor had cleaned his room.

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"I am certainly glad you are doing so well with Elladan." Meril said with a dark frown, "Indelin and I are having no luck at all."

"He has been an absolute dear." Eirien sighed happily. She leaned back on the courtyard bench, stretching her feet out in front of her as Meril sat down beside her.

"Orophin seems to be far more interested in you than I." Indelin admitted sadly, she was curled up in the grass at their feet with a basket of flowers, carefully weaving a garland from them.

"Orophin has no real interest in me whatsoever." Meril replied hotly.

"But he's so flattering and sweet to you." Indelin objected innocently, her shoulders sagging dejectedly. "He does not even know I exist."

"Indelin, love, do not be silly." Eirien sighed "Orophin is only playing for Meril's favors."

"Her... favors?" Indelin asked, as if testing the word. Both older elleths glanced at each other, rolling their eyes.

"Most elves prefer an elleth with full lips and strong hands." Eirien replied giving her a meaningful look. Indelin's brow furrowed as she processed this new information. Realization finally seemed to dawn on her and her eyes grew wide at the implication.

"But, but an elf like Orophin would never do... that." she whispered, a shocked and slightly alarmed expression marking her upturned face.

"He is an elf." Meril replied sourly "that is enough."

"Indelin, it is time you grew up dearest." Eirien said gently, "Elves like Orophin are only interested in one thing."

"I seem to remember hearing that before." Indelin sighed, dropping her unfinished garland in her basket.

"Has your Naneth not taught you anything about romance?" Meril asked with a perplexed frown.

"She said to hold to my honor and to always be myself." Indelin replied biting her lip.

"Oh, that will help." Meril said sarcastically.

"But, I'm not sure I want to..." her voice trailed off uncomfortably as she gazed up at the two older elleths, her expression growing increasingly more distressed by the moment.

"We are not suggesting that you should." Eirien smiled kindly, leaning forward to brush a lock of hair behind her ear.

"I certainly wouldn't." Meril snorted.

"But you are too shy dearest, you must be more bold." Eirien added with her most encouraging look.

"Aye, I remember hearing that too." Indelin frowned. Meril gave the younger elleth an amused smile. She shook her head as she stood to her feet, taking Indelin's hand and pulling her up beside her before planting an affectionate kiss on her forehead.

"Come, dear, you and I will ready ourselves and then you are going to march right up to Orophin and ask him to escort you to dinner." Meril gave her a squeeze, leading the younger elleth back toward the house.

"I am?" Indelin asked.

"Of course you are."

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"When I get my hands on Estel I am going to kill him." Elrohir said venomously as they started down the path back to the house. "All our problems will be solved."

"You can not be certain it was him." Elladan pointed out as diplomatically as he could. Elrohir wasn't given to losing his temper but when he did it was usually rather a bad thing for anyone in the vicinity, guilty or otherwise.

"Do tell, dear brother, what other suspects do we have?" he snapped. His twin hesitated only a moment.

"Arwen." Elladan replied with an uneasy frown.

"Oh, you are probably right!" he admitted. "She is twice as vindictive as Estel."

"I would not put it past her." Elladan shuddered, "my dreams are still haunted by the incident with the mice."

"You might have known the little imp would retaliate." Elrohir said, gagging slightly "I told you not to put them in her boots!"

"Aye," he retorted angrily "but I did not think even Arwen would be brave enough to serve them in our stew!"

"Please, do not speak of it." Elrohir groaned, clutching his stomach as his face turned green. "It still makes me ill."

"It would seem we have underestimated them." Elladan said with a frown.

"Really?" Elrohir asked sarcastically "do you think so?"

"Perhaps we should develop a more covert strategy." Elladan frowned as they entered the courtyard.

"Elladan," Eirien said with a warm smile, slipping her hand through the older twin's arm. "I thought you had forgotten all about me."

"Um... never." Elladan tried to smile as he looked down at the elleth on his arm and then caught the distraught glance of his twin. Elrohir looked to be on the verge of some sort of nervous collapse.

"Elrohir," she acknowledged with a dark frown that made the younger twin nearly come apart.

"Could you excuse us a moment?" he asked, grabbing a fist full of Elladan's tunic and dragging him out of hearing range.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" he hissed.

"What do you want me to do?" Elladan whispered desperately "She's never going to believe you are me!"

"We were going to have dinner together!"

"Well I certainly don't want her for a dinner partner," Elladan rolled his eyes, "Go ahead and tell her that it is you she has been trysting with."

"We did not tryst!" Elrohir snapped, Elladan gave him an appraising look.

"You really are serious about this one, are you not?" he whispered, Elrohir stole another uneasy glance at Eirien. She was tapping her foot impatiently, her arms crossed over her chest.

"She is getting angry." he cringed.

"Brother, you should tell her the truth." Elladan said seriously.

"I can not." Elrohir shook his head, "she hates me."

"No doubt I helped today." he whispered sarcastically to himself as he threw Eirien what he hoped was a sincere smile.

"What?"

"Oh nothing." he said hastily. Eirien gave him a rather sultry smile in return and he gripped his twin's tunic in both fists, "Please, I beg of you, tell her." Elrohir would only shake his head and Elladan let out a sigh, rubbing his temples before turning back to Eirien.

"Shall we go, my dear?" he asked, forcing himself to be as charming as possible.

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Legolas descended the stairs, looking back over his shoulder with a frown. It had taken him all morning and part of the afternoon to locate Arwen and now he found he was reluctant to let her out of his sight again. They had spent a quite afternoon in the gardens talking. He was a bit uneasy as he still hadn't thought of a way to broach the subject of his conversation with her father the night before.

He wasn't exactly certain how she would react to his deception. He hopped she would brush it off, and feared she would be angry. It had seemed like a fine idea at the time but he wondered now if he might have been a bit influenced by the wine.

He turned back down the hall to see Elladan entering the house with his new lady on his arm, Elrohir trailing behind with a menacing frown. The picture was a bit disturbing though he wasn't entirely certain why.

"I thought you should know I finally found your sister." Legolas said casually, "She was out having a bit of archery practice." The twins exchanged unreadable looks that Legolas found curious.

Elladan and Elrohir often could sense what the other was thinking but they needed no innate ability now, as they each caught the other's eye it was apparent to both of them. Arwen had not told Legolas she was spending time with Estel and neither twin thought this a good thing.

"Ah, Legolas, dear. There you are." Meril said with her most sultry smile, slipping her hand over the prince's arm. "I wondered where you disappeared to."

"suilad, Meril." he said as politely as he could, trying to resist the urge to flinch as she undressed him with her eyes. She leaned a little closer to him, letting her free hand slip up his shoulders unseen and he gave an involuntary shiver as her fingertips caressed the back of his neck.

"You know, it just so happens that I find myself without an escort for dinner this evening." She said a bit impishly. "I wonder how that happened."

"One does wonder." he gulped, the twins were watching him with a mixture of curiosity and amusement and he turned to glance down at Meril to avoid their searching gaze. It proved to be a poor choice on his part as it caused her fingers to drift from his neck to the tip of his ear.

Now to imply that Legolas was an innocent would be completely untrue. Still he had been more honest with Arwen than she or anyone else realized. His staunchly proper and respectable father had seen to it that Legolas could never tryst in Mirkwood and while his trips to Imladris were frequent he was, by nature, just the slightest bit shy around women. Despite the show he put on for his friends, his romantic encounters could be counted on one hand with fingers left over.

The simple truth was, Legolas was grossly inexperienced.

This being the case, his senses were screaming violently as Meril toyed with his ear. He was beginning to wonder if she were really so terriably bad after all and if he should not just give in to her while at the same time some corner of his mind warned him to make her stop. One thing was certain, things couldn't get much worse.

"Legolas, there you are!" Elrond called as he approached from his study. The Mirkwood prince jumped, pulling away from Meril.

"I'm sure Elrohir would love to escort you to dinner, wouldn't you Elrohir?" he said desperately, gripping Meril's arm and pushing her closer to the younger twin.

Meril glared angrily at Legolas then threw a haughty look at Elrohir as if daring him to spurn her.

"Um.. yes of course." Elrohir answered, cowed by her menacing gaze.

"Splendid!" Legolas forced himself to calm as he whirled to greet the elf lord. His heart was pounding madly in his chest and he grinned stupidly, trying to to look as innocent as possible.

"Legolas, I wondered if you and Arwen..."

"Hello Ada!" Arwen said brightly, brushing a kiss on his cheek as she slipped past him to take Legolas's arm. She gave her friend a teasing grin. Elrond smiled warmly at her bubbly expression but it was only making Legolas more panicked. He had to discover what elf she had been romancing with and quickly.

"I am famished," Arwen said brightly, tugging on the prince's arm "shall we?" They entered the great hall just as more of the household began to filter into the corridor.

Indelin appeared from the stairs, a determined look on her face just as Orophin came from the gardens with Rumil. She strode up to him, squaring her shoulders and stopped directly in front of him.

"Orophin, I..." Orophin pushed passed her as if she were invisible approaching Meril with a wide smile.

"Meril, Meleth." He said with a bow.

"Orophin," she hissed in reply and gave Elrohir's arm a rough tug, dragging him into the great hall.

Elladan looked back at Indelin as Eirien made to follow, giving her an encouraging smile. Indelin shook her head wistfully in defeat but he gave her a firm nod as if insisting she were doing well. She only looked back at him, biting her lip as Eirien led him away. He spared one last glance over his shoulder for her as he followed his twin to dinner.

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suilad - greetings