Reviewer responses:
Mornflower: Eeek sorry about the cliffie, Morn! You can come out from under that desk it is over now…you have the chapter to read. Arrows are my friend, yes precious I likes arrows…More arrows to come…but…not the same way.
Deana: I surprised you! Wow…I must have done something right!!! Enjoy!
Spanishgoddess86: I hope you like this update. I am working toward a profound ending and I hope I achieved it.
Beling: Hmm…the order issuing point is a good one. But perhaps he didn't think his people would go to such GREAT lengths to dispose of Estel…or something…I dunno. scratches head Sorry bout the cliffie and yeah, Legolas' bounce was back for a SHORT time…before I took it away again. BAD GWENNETH….not.
HarryEstel: Yeh, they were a bit hasty there! But anyway, glad you liked it!
Natasha AKA: Tash: Hehe…hiya! Glad to see ya again. Enjoy this chapter, and the later chapters question you had…no…they won't. You'll see why…(hint…no later chapters really…)
Coolio02: Nope..nowhere in Middle-Earth are they safe. Not from Gwenneth and her arrows.
Lynx Yamato: Ohh…I got all caps in the beginning…thanks for the enthusiastic review! Enjoy!
Kirsten: Hi there. Glad you liked. I hope you enjoy the flashback…more little Legolas story for you!!!
For days, Legolas did not stir and the worry began to show on Bardon's features every time he entered the healing ward and stepped up to the Prince's bedside. Thranduil was beside himself with grief and even Estel, who had thus far been so sure his friend would live, was beginning to worry.
This particular afternoon was odd in that Thranduil had to leave and take care of court matters. Namely, the five elves who had attacked Estel and led to Legolas' current condition.
The man knew inwardly that the King would do the right thing, even though he feared for the Elves while Legolas dallied in unconsciousness. If only the Elf would wake up, Thranduil's anger might subside some.
Sighing, Estel pushed the chair he usually sat in when the healing chambers were empty, over to Legolas' bedside and slumped into it. His leg was throbbing from the short exertion and he panted a bit until the pain dulled.
Legolas' pale features were alarming to him, but he knew that they were not as pale as they could be. Legolas, being an Elf, was light-skinned to begin with. But just about anything that could worry Estel about his friend's condition, was worrying him.
"Legolas? Please, wake. You have worried us all long enough, mellon nin. Your father particularly, I'm afraid for those Elves who wounded us, for he is not likely to be easy on them with you thus."
There was a light moan.
Estel sat up abruptly. It was the first response of any kind that had come from Legolas since he had passed out in the garden and Estel hoped it was finally a sign he was awakening.
Another moan and a shift.
Legolas' eyes, slowly but surely, fluttered and he winced at the intrusion of light. But, he forced himself to open the eyes and look over at the bleary figure beside him.
Dark hair. Musty smell. "Estel?"
"Yes, Legolas! Does your wound pain you? Do you need anything? Water? Painkillers? Your father?"
Legolas wanted to chuckle, but was not sure he could. Instead, he lifted his hand and attempted to wave Estel's questions off. He got a feeble response from the limb, but not much more.
"I want to speak to you," he finally answered. "But you'll need to come closer."
Estel did so immediately, leaning on Legolas' bed with both elbows and cushioning his head in his hands. Legolas looked at him oddly for a moment, but decided not to question the position.
"I was very young and had only just learned to shoot my bow…" he paused, glancing toward Estel. The man was riveted already, knowing that he would only get one chance to hear this. Legolas continued.
"We had gone out with some of the royal guard for a trip to Lothlorien. Mother wanted to take me there to meet some of my kin in the Golden Wood, but we never made it past the borders of Mirkwood…"
Flashback
"Ata! Look! I know the spiders are evil, but their webs are so beautiful with the morning dew and the bright sun! It looks like glass beads on white necklaces!"
The young Elf was pointing upward at a long-abandoned spider web. It was a beautiful sight, but Ithilwen did not like the fact that there was a web here in the first place. They had warriors with them, but she still worried for her young one's safety.
"Legolas, they are beautiful, but spiders are dangerous and we must move on from here quickly. I do not like the feeling of these woods. Something does not feel right and there are whispers of warning in the air."
With her Silvan blood, Ithilwen was highly tuned to her surroundings. Legolas frowned. "I hear nothing, Mother…"
Ithilwen smiled. "Worry not, young one. You will learn to listen to your surroundings in time. Right now, you are young and have much yet to learn of the ways of the natural world. Come…let us be off. Lothlorien awaits."
The young Elf nodded and skipped ahead of his mother. He was ever under the careful gaze of the head royal guard, however. Celronen would not let the prince out of his site for a moment. He glanced to the Queen and found her looking at him.
"Your highness? Something bothers you."
Nodding, she spoke quietly, barely loud enough for him to hear. "Promise me, if you had to make a choice between my life and that of my son, that you would choose my son."
Celronen faltered in his step, nearly coming to a complete halt. "M'lady! Why ever would you make me agree to such a promise?"
Ithilwen did stop. "Because in the event it happens I would like your word."
Not able to deny his liege, he nodded. "I would and I will should the need arise."
He didn't like the way Ithilwen's eyes flirted to her son and she sighed in acceptance. "Then all is well."
Celronen could not disagree more. "M'lady. Have you forseen something? Your gift of foresight is great and I do not wish to be surprised if you know something."
Ithilwen shook her head. "I see men. But I do not know what that means. I just wanted your word, Cel. Nothing more. I have not foreseen anything in specific. I have a feeling that is all."
The warrior nodded. But he was not appeased.
Legolas, who had gotten rather far ahead of the group by now, suddenly stopped in his tracks. He hadn't been looking where he was going and before he knew it, he had crashed headlong into something.
Or rather…someone.
A very tall someone with dark brown boots and course fabric leggings and tunic. Legolas took a step backward his eyes wide and nearly stumbled over a fallen tree branch.
His eyes widened further when he realized the being he had run into was not an Elf but a man. Legolas had little occasion to meet men and this was definitely not how it usually happened.
Unfamiliar with the Common Tongue, he stuttered. "Pardon…I had not the intention to hit into you, Sir."
The man chuckled. "Young Elf, your Common could use some work, but I get your meaning. It is rather good that you did though, for Elves were who we sought."
More men materialized from around him and Legolas stepped further back, this time running into Celronen. The Elder Elf had his eyes trained on the leader of the men, or who he assumed to be the leader, and he placed both hands on Legolas' shoulders.
"Pardon our wayward companion, Sir. He was not paying attention to where he was going. If you will pardon our sudden appearance, we would be on our way."
The man smiled again. Celronen did not like the smile.
"No, I should like to remain in your company."
The warriors touched their weapons now, as did the men. Legolas' eyes were wide with surprise. Men never threatened them before. Ithilwen took her son's shoulders and drew him behind Celronen.
The man caught sight of her. "A she-Elf. Fancy that. What might you be doing in the company of so many warriors, who are so…heavily armed?"
A cursory glance did not reveal that Legolas and Ithilwen were royalty, but the men knew they were no ordinary Elves. What ordinary Elf would have a guard such as this?
"Lay down your weapons and we will not harm you," Celronen said.
The man laughed again. "I think not."
And before Legolas knew what was happening, they were under attack. Ithilwen let out a scream of surprised fright before she was hustled away by a warrior, Legolas in tow. Both were deposited on the outskirts of the skirmish with a guard to take care of all who penetrated the others.
But to the misfortune of the Elves, the men were more in number and gaining the upper hand. Ithilwen turned to her son. "Legolas, I know you are frightened, but I ask you to take to the trees and hide. Do not emerge until the battle is over and if it goes against us, do not emerge until the men are gone."
"No…" Legolas began to shake his head. "I won't leave you, Ata!"
But she gripped him tightly. "Do it, Legolas. I do not ask it of you, but order it of you as your mother and your Queen. Do it now!"
He nodded, tears leaking from his eyes. Grabbing the tree beside him, he hoisted himself upward and began to make his way into its higher bows. He heard the shouts of the men, nearly below him, where his mother was.
"Where is that Elf brat?! Don't let him get away!"
Then there was a scream. A feminine scream. Mother! Legolas desperately wanted to vault from the tree and save his mother. He heard Celronen shout out and then heard a thud and a scream from Ithilwen that sounds a lot like "Cel!"
Tears did more than leak now…they poured from his eyes, blinding him. But he couldn't stay up here. He couldn't let them kill his mother and all his friends and do nothing about it! Orders or not, that was his mother!
So he wound his way back down. And froze on a low limb.
Ithilwen's white gown was stained bright red, nearly nothing on it remained white. She was stumbling around, in the midst of a circle of men, and they were jeering and laughing at her in her pain.
Legolas' eyes saw only fire then as he pulled his bow from his back and began to fire into the men with no regard for accuracy or aim. Luckily his instincts were good and he killed many of them before he was felled from the tree by two well-aimed arrows.
The men retreated now, thinking their quarry finished. Legolas, panting and bleeding, crawled to his mother's side and shook her. "Ata! Ata wake!"
She shuddered and her bright blue eyes opened. "Legolas!? You are here?"
He nodded, tears falling on her bloody face. "Yes, I have to take you home, Ata. Bardon can fix you, I know he can, he's a great healer."
She shook her head. "No he is not that great, no healer can save me, Legolas."
But the elfling would not listen. Instead, ignoring his wounds, he lifted her with surprising strength. Ithilwen was not a tall elf, she was very light and he was determined.
But as they continued on, Ithilwen's breath slowed to a trickle and Legolas' strength waned. He walked and walked and walked…never losing his determination, but slowly losing his battle to remain upright.
The gates…there were there, right there and he was nearly to them. "Ata…we are nearly there."
He did not realize that in the day that he had been walking, when all that drove him was sheer love of his mother, he had not noticed that Ithilwen had stopped drawing breath hours ago.
End Flashback
"So I arrived at the courtyard, the very one we arrived in a few short weeks ago, and I fell to the ground in exhaustion. But I had gotten her here, Estel, and I thought I had saved her!"
His eyes were full of tears, some shed, some waiting to be shed. He was tiring and his voice was barely audible in his growing pain. The wound was reminding him of its presence. He had to finish.
"Ada ran out and he dropped to the ground beside us and I told him 'Ada I brought Ata home. Bardon can save her, can't he?' But…I didn't know, Estel. I didn't know I had been carrying my dead mother for hours. I truly thought she would live."
He paused. "Then Ada told me, I'll never forget his words. 'Legolas, your mother has left this world. She passed, my son.' And when I heard them, I cried, Estel, and he cried with me. My tears were not just from sorrow, but the pain of my wounds."
"Ada noticed the arrows then, one in my shoulder and the other in my right side. He pulled my mother from my grasp and carried me, while another took her. And I remember little else but despair after that."
Legolas was winded and could say nothing more right then. He sighed, needing to add one more thing. "Thank you…for being my friend."
Estel nodded. "No…thank you. It took a lot to trust me with that knowledge, Legolas. You had every right to withhold it from a man after what those men did to you and your mother. But know this, not all the race of men is as such. And I will never hurt you, mellon nin. Never."
Legolas smiled and nodded, gripping Estel's hand as he fell into a deep, healing sleep.
Thranduil suddenly emerged from the nearby doorway, his eyes riveted to his now slumbering son. He had heard everything. "If it is not witchcraft, as the people claim, which binds you to my son, than what is it that has taken away his hatred of men in so short a time?"
Estel looked up from his spot beside the Prince's bed. His eyes were glistening with tears he refused to let fall. "It is friendship, my Lord. Nothing more. There is no greater binder than that."
"Friendship?" Thranduil let the word roll over in his head, not really expecting an answer. But he got one.
"Aye," Estel replied. "Friendship is the greatest power of all. It transcends race, time and place. It transcends history. And, in this case, I hope that is does more. I hope it will heal Legolas. And myself." He looked down. "Yes, it is the greatest power of all," he whispered to himself.
Thranduil nodded. In a moment, he was standing behind Estel, gazing at his son's slumbering form. He gently, tentatively, laid his hands on the man's shoulders.
"Is there room in this friendship for an old King?"
Estel smiled and put one of his own hands on the King's. "Aye, my lord. Friendship is boundless. And I offer it freely to you, too."
Thranduil took a deep breath and as he released it, he released the hatred of men he had held for so many years. "I accept the offer and reciprocate, Estel. Your name fits you, mellon."
And so, not only was it the beginning of two beautiful friendships, but it was the beginning of acceptance and peace among a people that had long harbored hatred.
THE END
A/N: (An epilogue will follow dealing with the men in Mirkwood and the Elves that injured Legolas…so don't worry…that was a fitting end for this story though.)