Chapter Five

"Legolas, have you finished with your words?" Saleas's voice broke into the elfling's thoughts and he looked up to find his mentor watching him intently. The young elf realized that he must have been day dreaming again and looked down at the sheet in front of him. To his dismay, he found that he had only completed the first three words. Legolas bit his lower lip and looked up, his brows furrowed in worry.

Saleas sighed but instead of yelling, as Legolas expected him to do, he took the sheet away and placed it neatly on the desk in front of him. "Our words can wait for another day." Saleas informed him. Legolas frowned at his mentor. He had never left an assignment unfinished and Legolas wondered if he was in some sort of trouble. Whenever the older elf crossed his arms and knit his eyebrows like that, it usually meant he had done something wrong.

"Perhaps we should work on our history?" Saleas hoped to peek his charge's interest. But Legolas merely sighed at the prospect of continuing with his history lessons. Saleas put a hand to his head, frustration ebbing its way into his being. He smiled lightly at the young elf who was watching his every move intently. "What would you like to do instead, Legolas?"

The elfling looked long and hard at his mentor before a smile glint of curiosity filled his eyes. Saleas tried to contain his joy at the small spark of the elfling he once knew.

"Anything?" Legolas asked.

"Anything," Saleas said, then added, "Within reason."

"What does that mean?" Legolas responded.

"Well," Saleas twitched his mouth, trying to think of the best way to explain these things to the youngling. "It means that it has to be something we would be able to do in the first place. So flying is out of the question."

Legolas stared back at his mentor before a half smile came to his lips. Saleas urged the smile to turn into laughter, or at least giggles, but it did nothing more. Saleas could see that the elfling was thinking extremely hard of an activity they could do instead of lessons for the day. It wasn't often that the prince could get out of his lessons, let alone at the suggestion of his mentor. He could only hope that the prince would pick something that was appropriate, but something that could possibly brighten the elfling's spirit a bit.

However, to his disappointment, the spark of curiosity soon left the elfling's eyes and were replaced with a dark tone that Saleas had seen all too often in him.

"I would just like to finish my words," Legolas whispered.

"There is nothing else you would rather be doing?" Saleas asked, trying to fish for whatever it was that Legolas had in mind. But when the young elfling shook his head again, he gave up and put the paper back in front of Legolas, who quickly went to work with more concentration. He watched the youngling lean over the paper. Legolas' blonde locks were pulled back into one braid at the back of his head. To look upon him now, while he was at the peak of his concentration, so intent on finishing what he set out to do, Saleas couldn't help but think of Narsine. The white lady, that was how most had referred to her. One of the most beautiful creatures Saleas had ever laid eyes upon. The closest thing to the lady Luthien that Saleas could imagine.

Legolas looked up and their eyes met for a moment before Saleas had to look away. Those blue eyes, how they hurt to gaze upon. The things they had seen, had been witness to. Saleas closed his eyes and gathered himself. "Have you finished?" He asked cheerfully, looking back towards his charge.

The young elfling was watching his mentor quietly. It had not missed him, the way Saleas had to look away from him before he could speak. He never missed those signs. Kelderas had been the first he'd seen it from, the first who could not look upon him. But more and more these days, people would not meet his eyes, they would look away from him, as though his very presence hurt them. The young elfling didn't understand. He didn't know why people hated him so. Had he done something wrong? Of course he had, he'd watched her die. That was the reason. That was why they hated him, because he hadn't done anything. He'd sat in that tree like a baby.

"Legolas?" The elfling realized he had lost himself again and nodded.

"Yes, I finished them," he said, handing the paper to his mentor. Saleas looked them over and smiled.

"You got all of them right," he congratulated the young elf.

"May I go now?" Legolas asked quietly.

Saleas felt a pang in his core and nodded, dismissing the lessons for the day. Legolas got up and left without another word.

Luthin rubbed his jaw for the umpteenth time that day, marveling at the bruise that had formed where Legolas had hit him. He hadn't known his youngest brother to be that strong. The blow had caught him off guard, for Legolas had never struck out at anyone before. Things have changed. Luthin reminded himself.

"Did you get things under control?" Came a voice from the doorway to Luthin's room. He turned and saw Kelderas standing there, his arms folded firmly across his chest. Luthin took in his brother's sight for a moment, admiring the lean, cut build he possessed. Though the way Kelderas' jaw was set, along with the way he held his head and commanded his voice, Luthin could already see the future king his brother would one day become.

"Yes," Luthin said. "He was upset for a while, but Idrial managed to calm him and then we sent him to lessons." Luthin left out the details about the lashing out. Though, by the way Kelderas quirked an eyebrow and glared at Luthin's chin, he knew that his brother had guessed what happened.

"As long as it's settled," Kelderas stated before walking into the room and standing next to Luthin. The two of them looked into the mirror. Luthin looked at himself compared to his brother and tried to make his chest look bigger, or bulk up his arms. "I'll be leaving with a patrol in a few days to join those traveling south," Kelderas stated in a matter-of-factly voice. Luthin looked into his brother's face, but found that there was no emotion there, only a blank stare. His brother was lost in his own thoughts. "There is a party from Lake Town who will be visiting at the end of this week. I trust you will be able to handle them in my leave?"

Luthin frowned. He had hoped his brother would have more things to talk to him about than just political matters. Luthin had wanted to tell him all about the training trip he had just returned from, but he wouldn't rant on if his brother didn't ask.

"I though Ada's advisors were going to take care of the matters with Lake Town," Luthin replied, glad to have any conversation at all with his brother.

"That is there job, but they will follow Adar's orders to a fault," Kelderas commented dryly, bitterness seeping into his voice.

"But, they're advisors," Luthin chided. "They're suppose to help Ada make the decisions. I think they can handle this delegation just fine…"

"They're afraid that their king will get angry should they go against something he's said," Kelderas spat back. "They are afraid to take matters into their own hands and Lake Town will be turned away. Without them, our trade is nothing. We cannot afford to lose them." Kelderas paused and turned to Luthin. "Do whatever it takes to ensure that we don't."

With that, his brother walked towards the door. Luthin watched him go, but couldn't stop the small whisper that escaped him. "Kelderas…"

His brother turned, waiting for a question. When he didn't get one, he frowned and pushed, "Yes?"

"Nothing," Luthin shook his head. "I will see you at dinner."

Kelderas nodded and left. Luthin sighed and sat down on the bed behind him. He ran a hand over his face. "Things are all so wrong," he whispered to himself, feeling a slight pang in his gut. He shook himself out of it and stood again, intent on searching out Idrial and Legolas, to see what the two were up to.

"We got an early leave," the elf who rode in front of Elrond stated, before turning around and smiling at the elf lord. "We are nearly there."

Elrond smiled kindly back. Beside him, Glorfindel snorted. Elrond turned his head quickly to look at the blonde warrior, wondering what could cause such a stir out of his friend. To his surprise, he saw that Glorfindel wore a sore look on his face. "What ever has put you in a foul mood, mellon-nin?" Elrond asked pleasantly, inwardly chuckling as the sour look turned into a glare aimed towards him.

"There was nothing," Glorfindel said. "Nothing. This is the trail to Mirkwood and we didn't even see one spider web, or wolf track…nothing."

Elrond raised an eyebrow. "It seems to me that no sign of danger would be a good thing on this trip," Elrond said.

Glorfindel snorted again. "I bet them each a knife we would see something."

After a small pause, Elrond broke into laughter. Glorfindel glared again at his friend. "You have not learned from your mistakes in the past." He commented, making Glorfindel's lips twitch with a smile. But soon the sour look was back on his face. "I've lost more knives to those two warg faced…web heads."

"Glorfindel!" Elladan called from behind them, where the twins had been sitting, grinning identically. "We need to work on your name calling!" Beside him, Elrohir broke into laughter.

"Indeed," Celebrian smiled at the blonde warrior before patting him on the back and riding back to her sons to have a chuckle herself. The elf lord rolled his eyes and shook his head, while Elrond chuckled along with is family. In all honesty, he was glad they had reached Mirkwood. A dark foreboding had crawled it's way into Elrond's foresight and he now wished that he had received Idrial's letter sooner. Arriving in the morning would have been better, for it may have found Thrandruil in a better mood than what he was sure to be in now that the day had progressed.

"Ride ahead and announce the arrival of Lord Elrond and company," one of the soldiers said to another.

When they turned a bend, Elrond saw that they had reached the gates that surrounded inner Mirkwood. The gates opened immediately and one of the soldier rode off to announce Elrond. Celebrian came up to ride next to her husband, and Glorfindel turned to spit some comment at the twins, but Elrond did not hear, for his eyes were set on the people he saw just inside. None of them were elves that he recognized, but all had stopped what they were doing to see who had come in. A few bowed respectively as they passed, but for the most part, none recognized Elrond. It had been a great many years since Elrond was in Mirkwood.

A few stable hands came to take their horses as they dismounted and headed towards the palace. The twins walked behind their father, taking in the wonder that was the Mirkwood palace. It was cave-like in appearance, but there was no doubt that it was an elvish residence. The walls were highly decorated and beautifully lit. The ceilings were higher than the twins expected, but it didn't help to take away the enclosed feeling, compared to Rivendell.

"It's…cozy," Elrohir whispered to his brother. Elladan smiled, but nodded his agreement.

They reached a pair of doors and the guard in front of them stopped. He opened the doors and stepped inside. Elladan and Elrohir both moved to peer around him, but Elrond waited, knowing that their arrival was unexpected to Thrandruil.

"My Lord," the guard began. "Lord Elrond of Rivendell and his company have just arrived." The guard announced. There was a long period of silence and for a moment, Elrond thought that his old friend would turn them away. But then, the guard nodded and stepped aside.

Elrond was the first to enter. His eyes fell upon Thrandruil, who sat at the head of the table, looking rather surprised to see him. Elrond also recognized Kelderas, the crown prince, Luthin, who sat next to him, and Idrial, who saw across from him and had turned around to look at their guests. Then his eyes fell upon a seat in between Idrial and Thrandruil's. A little face was turned towards him. A face that bore so much resemblance to the queen. But Elrond smiled, showing no flicker of sorrow as he gazed upon the young elfling. "Mae govannan," Elrond stated.

Review Responses:

Hearts Corruption: Yeah, Legolas is my favorite too. Glad you enjoy the story and sorry it took so long to update!

Templa Otmena: Thank you! Yeah, there's a lot of dynamics when it comes to the royal family. But, deep down, I think they all really love each other. It's just a question of whether or not they'll be able to get over what's happened to them.

Tica: Thank you very much! Again, sorry the update took so long. Stupid holidays and school got in the way lol. I had to change my major to Criminal Justice. Oh well.