A/N: Yah! Thank you all to my wonderful reviewers you have made me all so happy! (Which is saying a lot as I have been very very sick, which is the reason I have this chapter out so soon… I won't have an ounce of time when I go back to school because the homework avalanche will surely bury me! For all you repeat reviewers I luv you all and to all the rest of my reviewers, you are great too! Thanks a bundle and here you go with an extra long chapter.

Slayer- yeah, he does sleep well, with a little help from my favorite twins as well Elladan and Elrohir! I am so a fan too. Thanks!

Liz- yeah, that was my favorite part too. Poor Elrond, though maybe now he can mend. BTW thanks for the info about school! You're the best!

Snodgrass Winkle- I am sure you are a nice person, you are just suffering from fanficitis, a disease caused by cliffies and no more chapters. Well, here is a slight cure for the ailment. Hope you like the new chapter and thanks!

Elwin of Lorien- Thanks! Yeah I agree, there aren't that many about his arrival, but I kind of wanted to start maybe a series about young Estel, and so I thought I should start at the beginning. I understand why a lot of people don't though, writing a two year old character is not easy for me to so, as I have had no experience with two year olds. (Hence the reason he is asleep most of the time!) lol Well, I certainly agree with you on the chapter front, and hear you have it for once a longer chapter! I even shocked myself!

HarryEstel- Wow, thank you so much! I absolutely love your stories and yeah, kind of thrilled you like my work!

faeriekittie306 animeloverIlaaris / sielge - Thank you so much, I have decided to update sooner than usual, mostly because I have a lot of time on my hands currently, as I am really sick, and because I know that as soon as I go back to school, I will have absolutely no time on my hands at all, because I will be buried alive in make up work.

Cornett-Merci Beaucoup! I do hope I spelled that right. Your English is a lot better than my French, as that is limited to what you learn in one week on vacation! (I always try to learn at least how to thank people in their own tongue while I'm in their country. Well I am pleased to announce you will indeed see Elrond's reaction in this chapter, which is significantly longer than the previous ones!


Chapter 8 Getting to know you

Elrohir gently lay down the child on a large leather chair by the fireplace where it was warm. The flames from the fire sent flickers of light across the subdued room. Elladan stood behind his brother with a soft lamb's wool blanket for the shivering child. Elrohir looked up to Elladan and smiled gratefully for the blanket and softly tucked the blanket around the boy.

The boy's small fist curled around the warm blanket and nestled his face in its folds.

Elrond watched all this in surprise, not that his twins couldn't be caring, but he had not seen his sons act in such a gentle manner in a very long time.

The twins sat on the couch with a sigh; they looked across to their father, who was watching them with a peculiar expression on his face.

"I suppose you would like to know what has transpired the past three days."

They told Elrond all of the sad tidings they had witnessed. His eyes had risen with the information of the fortification of the village. He had been loath to learn of the attack.

Elrond was most aggrieved to learn of Arathorn and Gilrean's death. The chieftain's family had been friends with Elrond's family for centuries. Gilrean was also a friend of Elrond as well. She was from a rather powerful family herself, the perfect match for Arathorn in both blood and temperament.

The death of them had been a sore blow to his heart. They were young, even by human standards. They didn't deserve to die; no one who died at the hands of such wretched abominable creatures such as the orcs ever deserved that.

The line of kings was broken. The hope of all the free peoples of middle earth was now a little less certain. The human population could be sustained without a king but it would remain fractured and alienated into different factions as it was today.

Elrond looked up at his son and was surprised to see that he was still talking.

"His only son, Arathorn, survived. The prince of mankind."

His only son, these words reverberated deep inside Elrond's chest lifting his spirits to a degree. Aragorn, prince of the human race. Elrond looked over to the child sleeping peacefully by the fire and then back at his sons. They nodded in conformation to their father's yet unspoken question.

The prince of the human race was asleep, curled up in a ball of blanket by the fire in Imladris. Already the newly christened day felt so long.

"Why did you bring the child with you, should he not be brought up with his people?"

The twins shifted uncomfortably in their seats.

"Well, we had thought about that, however these orcs were sent on a mission. We think the mission was to find and kill the prince." Elrohir said unhappily as he looked over at the small child resting on the chair.

Elladan was also looking at the child. Feelings of anger shot through him, who could ever want to kill something so innocent. Yet he understood that to the enemy he wasn't a sweet baby, he was a powerful bloodline that could unseat their power.

"His every footstep will be dogged if he was to live with the Dunedain." Elladan said sadly. "Not to mention, the Dunidain would be spending all their time and energy protecting the prince and no time doing anything more." Elladan continued on a much more business like tone.

Elrond could see the sense in the twins' rational. However something in his mind just wouldn't click. Why this boy? All the other heirs to the throne had not been bothered with. What was it about this child that set the enemy's sights on the Dunidain?

The child awoke slowly to the sound of soft conversation. He tried to listen and realized that once again it was in the other language. He didn't understand as much of the other language as he did the common tongue. He had heard that language and non other for the past two days. He was almost forgetting what the other one sounded like. Opening his eyes he saw the back of a tall leather chair. He felt warm again for the first time in what felt like years. His mind couldn't place how he had gotten there. He was remembering the last time he had felt this way, and oddly enough it had been listing to those same voices, minus the deeper one. He was beginning to get used to waking up in strange places after all but he supposed it was never a feeling one totally ever got used to. He stretched a little bit, feeling sore from the half a day he had spent on the horse. Although he had been asleep for most of it, his muscles had worked at any rate. His mind still felt slow from the anesthesia Elrohir had administered. He tried to move the blanket away from his face a little. As he did, the soft fibers of the blanket stuck to his sutures, causing a sharp intake of breath as fresh pain redoubled from his chin.

Elrond, Elrohir and Elladan all shot their glances to the child's noise of discomfort. The child's face now was looking into the room, where the back of his head had only been. Elrond felt a chill up his spine as he looked into the young face he had been thinking of only a few minutes ago. The boy's whole face looked the picture of his brother, his twin Elros.

Elrohir picked up the child and held him comfortingly in his arms. The child coughed and looked miserably at the people in the room. Warmth radiated off his body and Elrohir looked to his father in alarm.

"Ada, the boy seems much to warm."

Elrond walked over and placed a hand on the child's forehead. Elrond frowned in concern. The child had a rather high fever, probably caused by the exposure to the elements and maybe a slight infection of his cut. Nonetheless it was not a life-threatening affliction and he didn't want to worry his sons who were so obviously attached to the child.

Elrond looked concernedly at the child in Elrohir's arms. His face was flush and his cheeks were red. His gray eyes were unfocused on anything in particular.

"His clothes are damp, I'm assuming he was out in the weather. Also he may have a mild infection due to the nasty gash he has received. I will take him upstairs, could you find some clothes for him, it may be hard given his stature." The twins nodded

"To the healing rooms?" Elrohir inquired.

"No, the bedroom chamber next to mine and Elladan. He doesn't need much, just a few medicines and a warm bath should suffice." Elladan looked over to the small boy. His heart ached to see him in such pain. Handing the child to his Ada, Elrohir joined his twin in the hunt for clothing.

Elrond walked slowly up the stairs holding the small boy whispering to him in the gray tongue. "(I bet you are tired young one)"

"Mea" the sleepy voice replied to the elf lord. Elrond was so stunned it was all he could do to keep himself from dropping him

"You speak elvish?"

The child giggled, clearly happy with the response he had received from the stunned elf lord.

"Mea" He replied through his giggles.

"My, you are full of surprises, aren't you?" Elrond thought to himself.

He opened the door on the end of the hall and entered a large bathroom. A large copper basin stood in the room. Elrond turned the knobs and water began to fill the tub. While the tub was filling he removed the boy's soiled and tattered clothing. He had many bruises and scratches. He wondered what kind of memories the poor child held of the horrific battle. Then, sadly he thought it was probably not his first one. The life of the rangers was hard, but the life of ranger children was just as difficult.

Elrond tested the water to be sure it was not to hot for the child. He felt as though he was forgetting something. It had been a very long time since he had given a baby a bath. Smiling he remembered and took a small vial out of the cupboard next to the sink. Uncorking the light purple slightly viscous liquid he poured a few drops into the bath. Lavender oil. He remembered how it had always calmed the twins and Arwen if they were stressed, as he was sure this child was.

He placed the child in the warm bath and gently cleaned all of the grime and blood from his body. He carefully cleaned his face being very mindful of the gash on his chin. The child's breathing deepened, a sign that he was relaxing from the trauma he had endured.

The child's pensive eyes looked right into Elrond's heart. There really was something more to this child than met the eye, he was very special. Elrond was very glad the twins made the decision they had. This child was quite possibly the heir that could reclaim the throne of Gondor and unite the human race in its entirety.

The child's fever was taking its toll on him he was so tired even though he slept soundly for nearly twelve hours. Of course, Elrond conceded he had some help in that due to Elrohir's expertise. Elrond thought he might have made the ointment a bit to strong but he didn't want to tell him that quite yet. He knew that it hadn't done the child any harm; he was just going to feel its affects linger longer than it should.

Elrond grabbed a large white towel off the shelf. Wrapping the clean child in the towel undid the drain plug and rinsed out the tub.

"Come on little one, let's get you in some nice clean clothes." Elrond said as ruffled the child's wet hair. The little boy smiled and looked up at Elrond's face. No longer was there the tint of fear in the round gray eyes. The pain of losing his family and missing them greatly was still prevalent, however in time Elrond was sure that too would fade.

Elrond was surprised to see as he entered the room that would be the child's, that the bed had already been made up with fresh linens and a fire blazed merrily in the hearth warming the room. Temperature did not matter that much to elves, but to a young human child the cool air would only make the ill boy worse. A small pile of clothing waited atop the dresser. A green silk robe and white leggings were folded neatly and on top of them lay two tiny deerskin moccasins. The robe was a bit to long for him, but the leggings and the moccasins fit him just right.

Elrond was stunned at the transformation, the grubby little child now most certainly looked every bit the young prince he was. Elrond couldn't believe how much the little human child looked like a young elfling. He guessed it was because he had elven blood from both sides of his family, but nether of his parents looked to elven as him.

Elladan poked his head in the doorframe and smiled at the young child.

"He looks much better clean." He laughed

"You have an extraordinary talent for stating the obvious gwador nin." Elrohir replied dryly from down the hall "Now if you would only bathe we could see if the same holds true for you, although I do think you look good covered in muck and slime" Elrohir continued teasingly.

Elladan threw him a withering look but did not deny that he did look rather horrific in his clothing that was very tattered and splotched with blood.

"And then you will come back to me so I may inspect that wound on your shoulder you neglected to tell me about" Elrond said wryly.

Elladan looked at his father with a slightly open mouth. He had indeed said nothing of the matter and he thought he had been very careful not to favor the other shoulder.

He looked over at his twin, Elrohir however simply looked perplexedly back at him.

"Boys, when will you learn I am a healer, and more importantly an Ada, I know everything." Elrond replied smugly.

"Elrohir, since you have taken the liberty to return to your usual state of cleanliness, come and help me with our little prince. "

Elrohir smiled and walked into the room to join his Ada in caring for the ill child.

The little boy looked even smaller than his tiny stature by the enormity of the oak bed he rested on.

Will you sit with him as we I go and prepare a medicine for him?

Elrohir nodded to Elrond's already retreating form. Elrond made his way to his healing herb stores, while on his way he began thinking of what he could give the child. It had been a long time since he had treated a mortal child.

He looked at the shelves of herbs kept in the cold storage closet. This closet was located in the basement of the house. Built into the solid rock, a small spring ran behind the wall keeping it a steady temperature of around 40 degrees. Yet the air in the cupboard was remarkably dry, considering the constant stream of moisture that emanated from the ground not ten feet away.

Selecting the six herbs he anticipated needing he walked down the hallway to the room where he prepared all of his medicines.

He put a kettle on the stove for steeping the herbs in as he crushed them. Once he had reduced them to a fine powder he added a few drops of tree oil to the now boiling water. Elrond allowed the tea to steep for ten minuets while he worked on a topical ointment for the gash on his head.


A/N: Hope you liked it, as always, purple button is your friend, please review, they make sick little me so happy! (I know I'm pathetic, but hey…) Yeah well, see ya all in a week!