Chapter 5: Trial

Legolas went through the palace, searching for his father. He wanted to tell his father what had happened in person. He didn't want Thranduil to hear from someone else that his son had been attacked on the road and could very well have been killed. He would be worried and Legolas did not want that to happen.

Thranduil sat at his desk in the study reading over some papers when suddenly the door creaked open. He sat down his quill and breathed a smile into the air. Thranduil didn't have to turn around to know who had entered. He would be able to recognise his son's steps anywhere. He rose and turned to face his son, the smile still on his lips.

"Welcome home my child" he said and hugged Legolas tightly. "I am so very glad to see you so soon again," Thranduil pushed Legolas a little away from him so that he would be able to look at him, "but I wonder what made you turn around. I know you were on your way to Imladris and when I sent out the warriors I did not do it to call you back, but simply to insure your safety when I heard that orcs were about. You needn't have returned but still you did. This is not like you, so there must be something more to this." Thranduil looked expectantly at his son, and Legolas almost laughed at his father.

"You know me too well, Ada." Legolas said and settled for a small smile. "Indeed something did happen on the road..." And with that Legolas started to tell the story.


"So you tell me that this human hit you in the head with a stone after you had saved his petty life, and that he is here now?" Thranduil was positively fuming and his tone harsh and unforgiving.

"I said I was not sure who hit me, Ada. I didn't see who did it. All I know is that the human was behind me when it happened and that there was probably no one else in that direction…" Here Thranduil interrupted him.

"Then who else than the human do you see as possible attackers?" Thranduil asked gently. He knew his son's gentle heart and reluctance to place responsibility for anything before he had rock hard proof.

"I don't know," Legolas sounded tortured, out in the woods he had acted exactly as was expected of him, but here; at home with only his father as witness he could admit weakness and show his uncertainty. "It's just that probably that bothers me. What if I am wrong… What if someone else was there?" His voice faded away

"Legolas, you have a gentle soul, but sometimes you have to look at what evidence you have and then find out what most probably happened." Thranduil had learned the hard way what happened when you simply assumed innocent unless you could proof guilt. He had waited too long then and many people had died due to his misguided justice and kindness.


There it was again, the small sound he had heard only a few seconds ago. It was so hauntingly beautiful that he almost did not dare hope such beauty would be bestowed upon him ever again. He looked up and saw the lark sitting in his window. No light fell on it and the cell was cold now. The sun had long risen to high in the sky to let light into his prison. He sneezed. The small bird cocked its head and looked questioning at the man who sat down there in the dark. It seemed to ask him why he sat there and didn't roam the woods. "I can't go with you little one," he answered the bird with a sad sigh. "I am believed to be guilty of attempted murder of an elf lord." He didn't know that Legolas was a prince, all he had heard was Taurion calling Legolas "My Lord" and if he had been more aware he would have noticed Legolas speaking about his father and later Taurion referring to the same person as "King Thranduil" but as it was Aragorn didn't know what Legolas was.

How did I end up in this mess? he asked himself again and again. He knew that somewhere along the years of living in Imladris he must have done something terrible wrong, but he honestly couldn't figure out what, but he knew that it had to have been his own fault. Elves were the fairest and most just people and the more Aragorn thought about it the more he came to realize that he could not blame a people so fair. He had always been the imperfect one, the one who wasn't as fast, smart and agile as his pears. Before it had seemed not to matter, but now it might have made the biggest difference of them all. The difference between being accepted by you family or not.


The court was in place. Not many elves were in the room, only those necessary to make the proceedings legal. Thranduil's and Legolas' seats were empty so far, the lord and his son would arrive later, but the jury of elves, who were mainly there to observe and make sure no body's rights were being ignored or forgotten, were in place on the row of seats in front of the many other now-vacant seats of the court. They sat there waiting for the human to arrive and after him their lords.

The guard opened the huge door in front of him and led him inside in silence. They didn't touch him, just walked next to him; an unspoken warning to not do anything stupid. Not that Aragorn would ever consider that, he knew he deserved this. He felt ill; the empty hall seemed to scream silently at him, accusing him. They almost made him doubt himself. Could he have done it? He shook his head viciously No! He knew he hadn't done it, he had seen the orc. He knew what happened. He had to believe in his own memories, even if no one else would.

Finally he reached the chair he was obviously meant to sit on. It stood in front of two other chairs, about five meters and two steps up away. One of the chairs was bigger than the other and gold was worked expertly into the scarlet fabric, the smaller chair that stood to the right of the other was blue with silver strings.

Aragorn didn't get much time to study the furniture before the elf lord he had already met in the woods and another elf entered the room. The elf he hadn't met before looked like a king. It was not his clothes but the way he carried himself and the commanding aura around him that gave him away as, if not royalty, then some one who was very important and used to being obeyed.

Aragorn rose from his seat when they entered, he was still brought up by Lord Elrond, even though he was no longer his son, and he refused to betray that upbringing. He would conduct himself as was expected.

The lordly elf took his seat first and after him Legolas sat down in the chair next to him.

"The accused may be seated" Thranduil declared, and Aragorn sat down silently, waiting to be asked before saying anything.

"It is now my duty to read to you the accusation. You are accused of attempted murder of Prince Legolas Thranduilion of Mirkwood," Aragorn sucked in his breath, a prince… the elf had been a prince…

But Thranduil didn't stop reading so Aragorn was forced to let the thought go and concentrate on what was being said. "…the King will judge you and a jury of 25 elves will make sure that no rights are ignored or forgotten." The king looked sharply at Aragorn and spoke directly to him. "Do you consent to this?"

"Yes I do, my Lord." Aragorn replied with a slight bow of his head.

"Good" Thranduil said approvingly. At least the boy knew how to conduct himself.

"What's you name?" Thranduil asked.

Aragorn thought for a moment. He knew his name of course he did, it was just that names were special, and he didn't feel like he had the right to use the one he had anymore. "Thorongil…" He answered hesitantly.

TBC