Chapter 55: Playing with weapons

Legolas crawled over to Haldir's weapons and took his entire quiver and one of his blades, and he crawled over to the riverbank.

He skipped the arrows across the river. When he had only six arrows left, he realized the arrows did not skip well. So he trough the whole quiver into the river. Then he fooled around with the knife, slicing at trees and writing his name in the dirt.

The trees however, did not like being sliced. One particularly elder tree's arm slowly went down and caught Legolas by the edge of his leggings, hosting him into the air, piercing the elfling's leggings as he did so.

Haldir then arrived with the berries in one hand. He popped a few in his mouth. "Here are some berries Legolas. You want some?"

"Hal those berries are poisonous."

Haldir took one glance at the berries in his hands and spat out the remaining ones from his mouth and through the rest on the ground, stomping on them. He regretted eating them immediately. Then he noticed the elfling, struggling to be freed from the tree that's branches clawed in his leggings and his lower back.

"Legolas!"

Haldir ran over to the tree and quickly scrambled up it.

"Let him go you old tree! That is your youngest prince you hold so tightly!"

The tree's arm Haldir stood on shook and sent Haldir flying off. The elf quickly climbed back up, this time staying low and holding tightly. He rammed his foot in the willow's face and the tree moaned. His fingers slowly released Legolas and the elfling was sent falling to the ground, landing on his backside. He let the knife go and it flew into the river.

Haldir gasped as he saw the knife land in the river and saw his empty quiver float beside.

He ran down and first checked the prince to see any injuries. He found some bruises to the elfling's backside, some being their from Cield, others from just now, as well as some splinters from the tree's branches on the elfling's back.

"Are you alright Legolas?"

"My bum hurts again and my back has booboos and my leggings ripped. But that's all. I no cry."

"Good."

Haldir embraced the small child then pulled away.

"You played with my weapons did you not?"

"Yea."

"That is very bad of you Greenleaf."

"Sorry."

"I'll deal with you when we arrive back home. For now, I am going to go see if I can rescue my weapons. This time, STAY PUT."

Haldir went over to the edge of the river. The ice was broken in a large space, but ice still covered a fair amount of the river, blocking many sections off. He removed his jacket and layers of his tunic, leaving himself wearing only the thinnest layer of his tunic and his leggings, all the other layers much to thick to swim in. He was cold like this, and extremely cold as soon as he jumped in the water. But he swam. Legolas watched as Haldir caught his quiver and threw it at the riverbank.

Haldir went after his knife, but soon it sunk deep and beneath the ice. Haldir came up for breath, and jumped back in. He swam deep under the water but could go no further. He lost his breath and struggled to swim upwards without panicking. And then he truly panicked when his nose his the ice that blocked his way and he could see blood fill the water in front of him.

Legolas could see the blood too, and quickly jumped into the water to save Haldir. But he rapidly sank beneath the surface, to the bottom.

The elfling could swim, but very little. His father planned to teach him when he was at least thirteen human years because of his fear of the creatures in the water.

But at the moment, creatures in the water would have been Thranduil's smallest worries. Legolas' foot was caught in a sea plant, and Legolas tugged but he had gotten his foot quite stuck, and struggling only got it worse. He began to cry as he struggled as nothing he did worked, and soon he could not hold his breath anymore.

Haldir managed to escape the ice and breathe once again, with only a bad nosebleed to show. But then, he saw the elfling and let out a loud warrior cry in rage as he sunk back down to save him.

The prince saw Haldir and was so happy. Haldir had not found his blade, so he sunk deeper down to the plant. He got many kicks from Legolas struggling foot and because Legolas panicked as he saw Haldir's blood and he could not bleed. The prince soon fell into a sleep of nightmares, as he could breathe no more.

Haldir took a huge bite out of the plant, which freed Legolas. He grabbed Le body and looked at the elfling's face in horror. The child's eyes wide open, not moving once. He could feel Legolas' heart pounding, and still had hope. He swam to the shore and placed Legolas down.

To Be Continued...