Deana You're the 1st reviewer, mellon! As always!
Dur En Thurin Naur You'll sign a petition for me? Awwww…so sweet!
REAL Anonymous Fan : Why is your brother so angry at you? Want me to kidnap him?
Joee1 Yes, I think so too. I also wondered if the administrators even read the fics before removing them. Probably not.
Legolas Greenleaf : Thank you so much. I love to be patted! Do it again.
Aranel of Mirkwood I'll hurry, babe! (Have you received my two e-mails?)
Pavement Here's my e-mail address '. But if it didn't appear here, you can look it through my bio page.
LegolasLover2003 Ah. The curling iron, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. He! He! In Middle-earth, where there's no electricity, Kel and the twins had to poke the iron into the hearth to heat it up before coiling Leggy's hair around it. They needed to repeat the procedure until they got the desired effect. Thank the Valar Leggy slept like the dead! LOL!
Mellaithwen I know that feeling.
Astalder27 He is not going to be doing just fine any longer. Wait and see what he will get himself into.
Kel That humans' part are coming your way. (Now that I know you're afraid of leeches, I'll send you a bunch of them by mail. He! He!)
Aly K : I promise to keep you giggling.
Brazgirl Nope. Not really all pranks. In fact, the pranks will backfire.
PL Wynter : You put snakes in Erestor's boot? He! He! That poor guy must still be screaming.
Hi! I'm glad to know you've been busy laughing! LOL! To those who have requested, I'll mail to you 'Triple Jeopardy'. And about the short extra-R rated story, it is also coming your way around next week. But I have to warn you, it is very nasty, a never published scene from 'Trauma'.
Now on to the current story!
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
"Will you hurry up, Legolas?" Keldarion poked his head into his brother's room the next day. "We need to get there before nightfall."
Tightening the buckle of his quiver belt, Legolas looked up and smirked back at his brother. "Hold your horses, Kel. The tavern is not going anywhere."
"If you are not down in one minute, we are going to leave you behind," Keldarion warned and left the room.
Legolas shrugged. Right. Whatever.
He turned to stare at the mirror, taking his own sweet time to check his appearance. Assured that no more curls appeared on his head, he picked up his bow and dagger before walking down towards the courtyard where his elder brother and the twins—as well as four magnificent horses—were impatiently waiting.
"Ah, here comes sleeping beauty," Elrohir dryly said.
"Ha, ha. That's a funny joke, Ro. My armpits are tickling with amusement," Legolas responded as he walked to his mount, a black stallion with a white blaze on its forehead.
"Oh, there's more, Legolas," said Elladan, sharing a secret look with his twin and Keldarion. "You will go to sleep laughing by the time this day ends."
"Really." Legolas grinned, knowing that they had planned something for him during the journey to Oak Byre, a small human town about fifteen leagues away. But he was too hardheaded—or rather, too blockheaded—to decline their invitation to join them. In fact, he was deeply curious to know what they had in store for him, so he prepared himself to expect the unexpected.
His latest prank—like the first one—had also become a huge success. Keldarion's loud shriek last night was still echoing in the palace. The leeches had done their work beautifully. To remain alive, Legolas had to hide himself in his father's room until the steam had stopped coming out of Keldarion's ears.
Earlier in the day yesterday, Keldarion and the twins had told him of their plan to get to a tavern for some beer, asking him to come along with them. Legolas could still recall the first time he took the beverage and went roaringly drunk. It was not an experience he wished to repeat, considering the mother of all hangovers he had suffered afterwards. But he knew he would be bored to death without his companions around. So, against his own good judgment, he decided to tag along. But he swore not to touch any of those beer mugs again, though. He needed to be on full alert after all. Valar knows what the twins and Keldarion planned to do to him.
During the ride to Oak Byre, Keldarion kept his eyes on his brother's face. Legolas looked nonchalant, as if he had no care in the world, but the elder prince noticed the gleam of suspicion in his brother's silver eyes. Legolas knew what they were up to, knew they were pulling him into a prank.
Feeling his brother's eyes on him, Legolas turned, smiled at Keldarion and faced forward once more, pretending that nothing was amiss.
When they stopped at a creek a couple of hours later, Keldarion and the twins immediately got together under the pretext of watering the horses.
"He knows," Keldarion muttered through the corner of his mouth as he ran a hand down his mount's flank.
Elladan snorted. "Of course, he knows. He is not stupid."
"Then why does he still come if he knows we are up to no good?" Elrohir wondered, feeding water to his mare using the cup of his hands.
"Because he likes to live his life dangerously," Keldarion answered. "He is curious by nature. That is why he always gets into trouble."
"Do you think he is going to like this 'trouble'?" Elladan grinned, and leaped away quickly when Legolas' stallion suddenly came near and tried to take a bite of his hair.
"What trouble?" Legolas asked with a straight face. He knew they had been whispering about him. He caught a bit of their conversation here and there, but still could not figure out what they planned to do.
"No trouble at all, Legolas. Don't worry. Everything's fine," Elrohir answered with an over bright smile, much to Elladan and Keldarion's exasperation. Elladan cuffed the back of his twin's head in warning.
Elrohir spun and glared. "What did you do that for?"
"There was a mosquito," Elladan replied, deadpanned.
Keldarion rolled his eyes and quickly herded everyone back onto their mounts before the twins could get into a nasty brawl.
When they finally arrived in Oak Byre, it was still late afternoon. They had to walk down a busy street, passing through thatched roof houses and small shops to get to Silver Barrel, the town famous tavern.
The twins were leading the way for they had been to the tavern twice before with a pack of Dunedains. All four elves had pulled the hood of their cloak over their heads to avoid the humans' attraction towards their fair faces and pointed ears. They even left their long bows with their mounts in the woods outside of town, knowing that to bring them here would only raise eyebrows and stir trouble.
Keldarion and the twins were exchanging grins as they neared the tavern, nearly causing Legolas to pounce on them and demand to know their plan. But he kept a level head and waited patiently, which was not an easy thing to do because he was not a patient person!
"After you." Elladan was holding the tavern door for Legolas, smiling mischievously.
Frowning, Legolas took a wary step forward, but froze in mid-step when he heard the sudden sound of a woman screaming.
"NO!"
The elves instantly whirled around, looking about for the source. They saw the town people walked to and fro, minding their business, but some of them were seen rushing towards a certain area further down the street.
The screaming came again.
"Please, no! We beg you!"
Curious, Legolas was already walking towards the commotion. "What the blazes is going on?"
"Legolas, wait!" Keldarion called out, but his younger brother pretended not to hear. Sighing, Keldarion muttered, "Foolish imp."
To the twins, he said, "Let's go follow that stupid brother of mine and make sure he doesn't get into silly scrapes."
With Elladan and Elrohir hot on his heels, Keldarion chased after Legolas.
The younger prince was rushing towards the town square near the market place, following the voices that now grew more frantic and hysteric. When he got there, he was astounded to see the people crowding around a raised platform where five bodies of little children had been laid upon. Firewood and kindling were piled under the platform, making a pyre, waiting to be torched and burned.
Several women and men, obviously the children's parents, were kneeling on the ground before a tall, white-haired man wearing a long grey robe. They were begging and pleading with him, asking him to spare their children's life.
Legolas felt his brother and the twins came next to him, but he couldn't get his eyes off the intriguing spectacle.
"He wants to burn the children," Keldarion whispered in disbelief. He stared hard at the grey-robed figure who the people called Shakmi, the medicine man.
"But the children are still alive!" Legolas said in contained anger. He could clearly see the rise and fall of the children's chests. He knew they were still breathing. "They are gravely ill but still alive nonetheless. They need healing, not a burning!"
"These children bring great evil to Oak Bryce!" The man called Shakmi spoke out loud as he raised his long wooden staff. "They bring our doom! The plague they carry will be the death of us all if we let them breath among us. I've had dreams of this calamity, and the Power Above has spoken to me to burn these demon spawns before they spread their hideous spots onto us!"
Most of the crowd nodded and murmured in agreement as they sent feared and hatred glances towards the ailing children. There were three boys and two girls on the pyre, all lying so still and unresponsive, oblivious to the excitement around them. Their pasty looking skin were spotted with hundreds of tiny red dots, and their sweat-soaked bodies shivered in the dusk breeze, a sure sign that they were suffering from a pestilence called Red Pox.
As everyone watched wide eyed at the unfolding scene, Shakmi turned to a man standing by the pyre holding a lit torch.
"Light the fire, Mordred," said Shakmi. "For the sake of our lives and our children's, burn this sickness lest it claims us all. Curse on the plague and blessings on this sacrifice to the Power Above. May this devilry stop so that we shall live and prosper. Light the fire! We will let the evil burn! Let it burn!"
Legolas had heard enough. Before his companions could stop him, he broke away from the crowd and confronted the grey-robed man.
"The heck you will!" he shouted. "I demand a stop to this madness, right now!"
TBC…
How foolish can Leggy get?