Reviewer responses:

Sorry all, but I do not have time to reply to each of you separately. I wish I could because you are all so wonderful and I really appreciate your reviews, more than I think you know!!! At any rate, please read the A/N at the end of the story...there is some HUGE news in it...

Now, on with the story!!!

Chapter Nine: Remembering

Legolas groaned lightly as consciousness came back to him. All at once, he was inundated with pain; his wound reminding him of its presence. He couldn't help but grumble under his breath as he opened his eyes.

Estel.

The boy was standing in between Legolas outstretched and parted legs. The Elf had fallen asleep leaning up against a tree. The young boy's face was inches from Legolas'.

"I heard that," the boy whispered. "Won't your Ada be angry with you if he heard you say that?"

Legolas, still stunned at the close proximity of the child, didn't answer for a moment. Estel frowned at this and waved his hand in front of Legolas' face. Legolas shook his head. "No, I'm awake, you just surprised me. You must have been very quiet for me not to wake with you so close."

"Or," interjected an approaching Elrohir, "you were simply too pained and fatigued to wake."

The Elf Prince frowned at that. "Perhaps. I like my explanation better however." He shifted now, fully intending to stand up. It was not lost on him, the late hour and the fully packed camp.

"Just where do you think you are going?" Elrohir asked the Prince, pushing him back down. "You aren't getting up until you have eaten something."

Legolas looked ready to argue. He was in too much pain to eat; it was the last thing on his mind. All the Prince wanted was to get back to Imladris and a warm, soft bed. He didn't particularly feel like dealing with Lord Elrond or his father, but he would pay that price for comfortable dwellings.

"Please, can we not just leave?" He pleaded. The look in the Elf's eyes and the complaintive tone made Elrohir laugh merrily.

"You sound like Estel when he doesn't want to do something, Legolas. But, if your wound pains you greatly, I would settle for you eating a bit of lembas and then we could set off."

The Elf offered Legolas the lembas bread, which the latter reluctantly accepted with a frown of distaste.

"You like lembas, Legolas," Estel said quietly.

Legolas frowned again. "I like lembas when I feel like eating, Estel. Right now, I do not feel like eating."

Estel smiled. "Well, I'll help you. Look, I'll eat my lembas if you eat yours!"

With a small smile, Legolas nodded in agreement. "We have a deal, then."

Thranduil wasn't angry. No. He was more accurately described as being furious. Beside himself with rage. Ready to pounce on his wayward son the minute he returned to Rivendell.

"I gave him permission to go with your sons on a hunt. A three-day hunt. They have been gone a whole week already. That is not acceptable!"

Elrond sighed. Thranduil was difficult to deal with when he was angry. "You brought him here to heal, Thranduil. Perhaps he is doing just that out in the wilds with my children. After all, he needs to have a good time in order to heal. He has been locked inside himself for far too long."

That stopped Thranduil in his tracks. Elrond had a point there. Legolas probably needed this trip. Needing time away from him, who pestered the Elf to heal and speak.

Sighing, Thranduil nodded and slumped into a chair. "All right, I will try to control my emotions when they arrive. I'll yell at him later, when he has had time to heal some more."

The other Elf Lord smiled wanly. Legolas was definitely in for a lecture when he returned. Elrond gazed out over the fertile valley that was Rivendell. I hope they are still in one piece... He knew the Prince's and his son's penchant for finding injury. He could only hope that had avoided that fate this time or there would be heads rolling in Imladris.

"And did I tell you how Legolas fought off fifty Orcs before they caught him?"

Estel was rambling again. This was the third time he had asked his brothers this question, and every time he did the number of Orcs grew. Legolas rolled his eyes.

He had already told the twins he had not fought when he had seen the Orc's and men had Estel in their clutches. But let the child have his fun, he thought, after all, it wasn't hurting anyone.

"We have heard that story already, Estel," Elladan chided gently.

Estel nodded and scrunched his face up in thought. "All right. Did you hear how Legolas asked the tree to close up and protect us?"

This was something they had not heard. Elladan glanced at Legolas, who had heard the question and immediately tried to feign sleep. "Legolas, I know you are not sleeping..." the Elf muttered.

Legolas' lips formed a frown and he opened one eye. "Are you certain I can't convince you otherwise?"

Elladan shook his head no.

Sighing, Legolas glanced around him at the trees. The horse's gait under him was as even as the animal could manage, but still pained the Elf's wound. But he knew he would not get the twins to change the subject.

"I have always had a natural ability to speak to the trees," Legolas began. "But so does every Wood-Elf. Mine, however, evolved as I stopped speaking to those of my own kind."

FLASHBACK

"Legolas, please, come down from there!"

Thranduil stared at the barely of-age Elf in the willow tree above him. Legolas was wont to climb trees and refuse to come down, but this time the King was having nothing of it.

"Adar, I do not wish to come down right now," came the frazzled reply. The voice was rough and weak. Legolas rarely spoke.

"I don't care what you wish; it is unhealthy for a young Elf to shun his people. Elves are naturally light and cheerful, this constant depression is going to kill you, ion nin!"

Thranduil hadn't meant to sound so harsh, but when the words came out of his mouth they seemed to have a hard edge to them. They sounded like they were scolding the Elf for mourning the loss of his mother.

But Thranduil was also in mourning and he would be damned if he was going to lose his son too.

Legolas, however, felt differently. Instead of coming down, or even acknowledging his father, he climbed higher into the tree where the branches were barely able to hold his weight. Still, he wished to go higher.

"Please," he whispered to the tree, "can you not help me climb higher?"

To his immense surprise, the bows of the tree bunched together and formed a small seat of sorts in the branches. Tentatively, Legolas seated himself and soon felt the tree move again.

It was raising the seat above its highest point! Legolas could see the forest for miles and miles around. He could perceive the spire of Dol Guldor in the background and the mountains.

The tree stopped moving now and Legolas could barely hear the sound of his father's voice.

And so, knowing he had the full attention of the trees, Legolas stopped speaking to Elves and other beings. For he knew the trees would never judge him for failing to save his mother.

The trees had held him back when he had wanted to go to her side. They had impaired his movement, latched onto his arm, when he had tried to jump from the tree. They had whispered to him that it was not the time to go down, that he would perish if he did.

And when they had released him. He had remained frozen. But they would never judge him for it. Trees didn't speak back.

END FLASHBACK

"And so for many long years I spoke to no one. Only to the trees, because they would never judge my fear and my lack of courage."

Elladan looked at his brother, unable to form words at the moment. He knew the torment of seeing a mother in pain, just as Legolas did. Elrohir found his voice first.

"No one would judge you, Legolas. You were young. Very young. And the trees were correct. If you had dropped from their safety, you would be dead now as well. And your father too, from grief. They guided you rightly, mellon nin."

Estel had been listening quietly. He too had lost his mother young. He could remember fragments of screaming women and the screech of Orcs from when the vile creatures had destroyed the Ranger camp and killed his parents.

"You couldn't save her. You were just a child like me," the boy said, looking over at Legolas from his perch with Elrohir.

Legolas looked between his friends, old and new. And he saw no judgment in their eyes.

Tears sprang to his own then.

He had not spoken to anyone for hundreds of years, fearing judgment. Now he knew...there had been nothing to fear.

A/N: SOOOOO sorry for the long update time. I have been immensely busy. For those of you who are following my fics, I am sorry but I will be slow in updating. I have some news for all of you.

Eric, my boyfriend, and I got engaged Nov. 7. I have been really really nuts since then and unable to focus on much of anything, let alone working on my stories. I promise I will FINISH all of them. I will NOT leave them hanging on you guys. Please just be patient with me!!!

-Gwenneth