Chapter 125: Rescued
Haldir gasped as Legolas ate the whole bowl of icing. Haldir had been checking to see if the cake was cool enough to be iced and that only took a moment, but when he turned around to tell Legolas that it was time to ice the cake, the small child had already devoured the icing.
"Legolas!"
"That's meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Legolas shrieked happily, then looked confused as he saw that Haldir was not as pleased.
"What did you do to the icing?"
"Ate it!"
Haldir shook his head and took Legolas in his arms. "You should not have eaten all the icing, you know that it was bad of you." Haldir said, gently reprimanding the little sugar high bundle of green and blond elf he held in his hands.
"Damn it."
"Do not say that Legolas! I will be in enough trouble as it is with your father when he learns of how much sugar you just ate." Haldir sighed.
"Sorry." Legolas embraced Haldir before jumping down from Haldir's arms and running off. His leg was healing fast; after all he was an elf and had been given medicine to speed the healing process.
Haldir was about to chase after the elfling when a panicked Rumil, Orophin, Cield and Firelien came up to him.
"Haldir, the king and prince Tonus have yet to return, and they left long ago. I think we should go look for them." Rumil said. "Then go look for them. You do not need my permission just to leave the palace." Haldir said, about to turn around when Cield forced him to look back at the group of nervous elves.
"We wanted you to come with us. Three is surly not enough to find a king and crowned prince." Rumil finished.
"Three? But there is four of you."
"Firelien is pregnant and also a she-elf, I'd rather not have her killed in the forest, for she has no skills of a warrior. It would be too much of a risk for both the life of my child and her life." Cield told the march warden.
"Let me catch Legolas and then we may go."
"Already done." Orophin said, holding a bundle, which resembled a screaming Legolas.
"LET ME GO!" Legolas shrieked.
"You may hold Legolas... oddly enough I do not want to..." Haldir laughed as they left the palace.
"What did you feed this kid?" Orophin gasped as the elfling lunged himself onto Orophin's back, shrieking and yelling all the time. "He ate a bowl full of icing." Haldir smiled as Orophin's eyes widened. Cield expected Orophin to tell Haldir that was not proper food for an elfling, but the response Orophin gave Haldir surprised Cield, for even Cield would not have given an answer like that, yet he was even younger than Orophin. "Why did you not let me eat all the icing?" Orophin pouted. Haldir sighed.
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Thranduil heard the sound of wargs, and they where approaching. Not wishing to scare Tonus, he said nothing about the wargs. Not telling Tonus was a mistake he would pay for.
"So Tonus... do you plan to one day... have a child? Or even better... Children? Give me more grandchildren?" Thranduil asked curiously. "Well... to... to have a son that I could teach to be a warrior would be nice." Tonus shrugged. "What would you name your son?" Thranduil asked. "...Florian..." Tonus muttered quietly.
"That is a admirable name, Tonus."
"It sounds too female, I know." Tonus bit his lip. "But it was all I could think of naming a child." Tonus finished. "Do not think that way. If I had thought of your name that way, for all I know I may have thought your name too masculine and named you Arwen." Thranduil smiled. Thranduil then shot his glance to an approaching wargs. There was no time for Tonus to run and get his weapons from where he left them on the archery field. They both had not a single weapon to fight away the wargs that approached. Tonus gasped as he saw how many their where: he counted ten, which was a lot for two people who had injuries and no weapons.
Thranduil did the only thing he could think of to save his son, the best possible thing he could do as a father who could no fight away the beasts that where out to kill his son: Thranduil grabbed Tonus and pulled him up as close as possible to him and then wrapped himself around Tonus, using his body and cloak to hide and protect Tonus. Tonus could barely move and was barely able to breath, his face buried in Thranduil's neck and golden hair. Soon Tonus could feel his father's blood trickling down onto him. The wargs where attacking Thranduil, and Tonus could do nothing, but Tonus could not protest, for he could barely breathe let alone speak loud enough for Thranduil to hear over the growling and pain of the wargs.
Thranduil was in pain as the wargs scratched and bit him, torturing him slowly until they would finally kill him. But the king never released Tonus. Thranduil shut his eyes, and then opened them as the howl of wargs stopped and someone touched his face gently.
Thranduil opened his eyes to see Cield next to him, blood of wargs on him and his fighting companions, Haldir and Rumil kicking away the dead warg bodies, and Legolas bouncing around Orophin in circles singing many childish songs, including a song known as 'Mary had A little warg'.
Thranduil slowly released Tonus who embraced his father. Cield and Haldir carried Thranduil to the palace, whilst Rumil carried the weapons and remains of Tonus and Thranduil's picnic, and Orophin running along after a small sugar high elfling.
To be continued...