E/N: Please don't yell at me for not updating in Eru knows how long! It's not my fault! School is pretty much taking over my life, on top of four hours homework a night, I work seven hours on a Saturday, have three hour rehearsals on a Sunday and have to visit my Nan straight after until like 8pm or something. And I have to sleep with all this going on. The 1½ hour journey to and from school is kind of knackering too. So you see, I really don't have half as much time as I did last year. I have, like, no time at all!
Does anybody want to lend me some of their time so I can at least get more than five hours sleep a night? Anybody?
Luvs Elfie xXxXx
Translations:
Ada = father
Meleth-nin = my love
Nissëamin = my sweet
Chapter 47
Legolas and Silva spent six further months in Lothlórien (until a month after Kemen's sixth birthday), in which time Haldir became VERY reclusive, due to the fact that everyone seemed to hate him. Every time he opened his mouth, someone else seemed to be yelling at him or wanting to beat him into a bloody pulp. He had a sneaking suspicion that Legolas was paying people to yell at him, but of course, if he inquired this, he'd get more than just a telling off. Not to mention the fact that insulting him meant insulting Silva as well, which was worldly known as a BIG mistake.
And Kemenhin was probably the worst of the lot, even more so than Silva or Legolas or Elladan. The boy had decided that he really didn't 'the git' in the slightest, and took every opportunity he was offered to bug the hell out of the sentinel. By the time Silva and Legolas left, it had got to the point that any time Haldir saw the child approaching, he would literally run in the opposite direction. This created great amusement throughout the inhabitants of Lórien, and so situations were set up in which they could view this for themselves.
"Oh, how I will miss the festivities," Silva sighed, grinning madly, as they ensured nothing was left behind. "Kemen, you make sure you carry on doing such a good job of freaking Haldir out. Oh, you make me so proud."
"I will, Silva, don't worry," he replied.
"Be good, and we'll see you as soon as we can," said Legolas.
"I will and ok." He hugged his parents tightly and waved them off sadly, though the child couldn't help but grin when he caught Haldir in the corner of his eye.
**
As usual, it took them two months to get home. Thranduil was his usual self, excited as though he hadn't seen them for years (though they came to the conclusion he'd been on a chocolate binge before they got back, because he was more hyper than usual).
They had been home for about a month when a maid found her, out in the forest, with a message from her beloved.
"A message from Legolas?" she repeated again.
"Yes, ma'am," the maid replied, getting slightly irritated with her mistress. It was the fifth time she'd said that.
"But, he normally comes and finds me himself. Nothing's wrong is it?"
"No, ma'am, as far as I'm aware. All he asked me to say to you was that he requests your presence back up at the Halls. He's sorry he couldn't come to you personally and he told you not to worry." Silva snorted.
"Don't worry? He knows that's all I ever do!"
"Please, my Lady, don't shoot the messenger, for that is all she is. Can you please just do as he wishes? Otherwise he also shall worry, then King Thranduil will worry, and before you know, all of you are hyper on chocolate." Silva arched an eyebrow.
"If you say so. Ok, I shall be up shortly."
"Yes, my Lady."
Once up at the castle, Silva had the problem of actually finding her darling other half. She went straight to their living quarters, but no Legolas. Then the library where'd been spending a lot of time, doing various different jobs for his father. Not there either. Neither was he in the kitchens, any of the smaller sitting rooms or studies, the private gardens, the storage rooms (for some reason he'd been doing stock-taking of received goods, even though Thranduil had employed people to do that), the stables, the wine cellar, any of the dining rooms or their Great Hall.
She made her way to the Throne Room, in annoyance.
"Ada, have you seen Legolas anywhere today?" she asked irritably. "He sent me a message asking me to come and see him and now he appears to have disappeared entirely."
"He was in here no more than ten minutes ago and said nothing to me of sending a message to you. However, this is Legolas we're talking about, he's not going to have called you here for nothing now, is he?"
"That damn child would do anything to piss me off!"
"I wouldn't get too used to calling him a child, Silva, else you may start feeling sickened at yourself."
"For the moment, I wish only to know the purpose of diverting me from my daily practice." (E/N: She's the gardener! *giggle* Sorry, that just makes me laugh when I put it like that!) The door opened behind her. Her fair lover walked in, clutching a small, round, white fur-ball. "There you are! I've been looking for you everywhere, literally. And what the hell is that?!"
"It's a present for you, meleth-nin," he replied, walking to her and kissing her cheek.
"Again I say, what is it?"
"Hold out your hands." She did so, looking thoroughly unimpressed. For now. It wasn't until the 'fur-ball' lay in her hands that she realized it was moving, ever so slightly. The centre of it rose and fell. And it was warm. And she could feel a gentle pulsating on her palm underneath it.
It was a white kitten that fitted into the palm of one hand. She stroked it gently, almost afraid that if she touched it, she'd break it. It was so small and looked so delicate. As she stroked it, it started to move. She cradled it close to her chest as it stood up in her hands clumsily. It looked blearily up at her, that's when she saw big, beautiful, amber eyes that glowed almost unnaturally so.
"Oh, Legolas, she's beautiful!" She hugged her lover carefully, so as not to crush the gorgeous little thing. "Oh, honey, thank you so much!! She is absolutely gorgeous! But……… why?"
"What do you mean, why?"
"Why have you bought her for me?"
"Oh, I just thought that since I'm doing so much work for father at the moment, you could do with the company. You have a little friend to help you with your 'daily practice' now."
"And I'm sure she'll make a fine friend," said Thranduil.
"Oh, I'm going to have to thank you well tonight!" Silva giggled, winking cheekily at the prince. He blushed and Thranduil laughed.
"Well, I think this deserves chocolate all round!" the King announced. "We'll celebrate with some of my best chocolate!"
"Are you feeling alright, ada?" Silva asked. "Since when do you ever give your chocolate out freely?"
"Well, I feel like celebrating. I can always not share it if you want, however."
"No, no, I wasn't say that!" The three of them laughed. "By all means, gives us your chocolate!"
"I thought you might say that."
**
*~3 months later~*
"AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!"
"Uh-oh!" Silva muttered and ran in the direction of the scream (it was emanating from the throne room). She skidded to a halt outside the Throne Room, preparing herself for what the problem was this time, and for the reprimand she was going to get. 'Not my bloody fault the cat's demented,' she thought.
She entered the room to find a scene of mass destruction. Thranduil's formerly elegant red leather and mahogany throne now had big, brown smudges on it, the room smelt remarkably strong of chocolate and there was a………… thing on the floor that had been shredded to pieces (it looked vaguely familiar as the (now) late Blankie). Thranduil was in a trembling heap on the floor and the white kitten (who was now named Random Ransome, much to the confusion of everyone), also covered in brown smudges, was draped languorously over the throne, her head removed from view as it was buried deep in the arm of the chair where Thranduil kept his store of chocolate.
"Er………… ada?"
"Get that monster away from my chocolate!!!" he roared. "AND LOOK WHAT IT DID TO BLANKIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Poor Blankie!!!!!" Legolas came running through door.
"What's going- whoa………" He surveyed the chaotic room in shock. Then he turned to Silva. "I suggest you get her out of here, nissëamin, before he decides she's on the menu tonight." Silva made a small squeak of horror, ran to the throne, picked up her chocolatey kitten, then ran out of the room again.
"Blaaaaaankieeeeeeee!" Thranduil wailed. Legolas went tentatively to his father.
"Erm……… dad?" Another loud wail reverberated round the room as his reply. "Look, we'll get you a new Blankie. I know it won't be the same as the old one, but even Blankie was new once."
"Blankie's GONE!!!"
"Yeah, I know. It's a sad, sad day for us all." His voice was dripping with sarcasm. He was mentally screaming 'ALL PRAISE THE CAT!!!' "It really saddens me to know that I shall no longer be able inherit the foul- I mean, er, famous rag- I mean Blankie! Really saddened. Honest." Thranduil glared at his son for a while.
"A new one from where?"
**
"You are going to get me into so much trouble," Silva said, whilst she bathed the kitten in a shallow bowl of lukewarm water. She amber-eyed feline turned her doleful eyes up to her Lady and let out a quiet 'Mrow'.
"No use apologising to me, it's ada you have to worry about. You really should stop eating all his chocolate and ripping all his things to pieces."
"Mrow." She picked up the now clean but soaking wet kitten and a warm, fluffy towel and began to dry her.
"You're a good little kitten really, aren't you, Random?" Random purred in response. After getting the excess water off, the placed Random in a patch of sunlight streaming through the open window. She stretched lazily, then curled up in a ball and purred contentedly.
Silva sat at the desk in her chambers and stared out of the window, thinking of nothing in particular. This was dangerous. Silva had many of her most bizarre, stupid and dangerous ideas when she was daydreaming and always thought them to be good until it went disastrously wrong. Like the time when, before the battle, a small band of humans from Esgaroth passed through the Forest and one woman had a raging fever. Silva thought it a good idea to give the woman an ice bath, to lower her temperature. It had been a good idea until she forgot about the woman and she almost died of pneumonia.
Legolas despaired of her daydreaming. He was always left to pick up the pieces. 'Well, he's good at it, why shouldn't I leave it to him to sort out?' she thought.
That day was not unlike any other day she'd drifted off into the Land of Dreams. And so, she did not go without a random thought. 'Quite appropriate really, since it's about Random,' she giggled mentally. 'There's no way this can go wrong. And it doesn't affect anyone but me, so he doesn't have to worry.'
"Well, off we go then."
**
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE, WOMAN?!?!?!"
"Don't you like it? The idea just popped into my head earlier and I thought why not?"
"BUT SHE'S GREEN!!!!" Random Ransome: probably Middle Earth's only purple-eyed, green cat. Silva's random idea had been to enchant her beloved feline friend into vibrant colours.
"Yeah, I know. Pretty, isn't she?"
"PRETTY?!"
"See, I knew you'd agree. You see, I thought about the fact that everyone has seen a white cat. Granted, very few have - well, had - amber eyes, but still. So I thought 'what would be really great to say your cat looked like?' Purple and green were the first colours to spring to mind."
"Silvawen, this is beyond even YOUR stupidity! What were you thinking?!?!" Silva's eyes narrowed.
"Stupidity?!?!? I'll show you who's stupid, you big git!!" Three seconds later, the door slammed behind him and locked.
"Dammit! Why did I have to argue? What difference does it make? It's her damn cat. Oh, I'll win her round."
Legolas wasn't allowed back into his own bed for four nights.
"You shouldn't have called her stupid, son," said Thranduil at breakfast on the fourth morning. "Of all the things you could have said, you called her stupid,. I mean really, has the last eight years of living with her taught you nothing?"
"I wasn't thinking. The cat shocked me too much."
"Well, don't worry she'll come round soon enough. You know she can't last long without-"
"Yes, well, we'll see, won't we?"
"You know me too well, ada," said Silva, entering the small dining room, cradling the green cat. "I'm getting lonely now and Random doesn't quite fill the bed or provide the safety you do. You're forgiven." Legolas looked at his father.
"It's so nice to know she's taken me back because of the love she has for me and she holds me so high on her list. It's really touching knowing she's taking my own feelings into consideration."
"You can sleep on the couch again tonight, if you want." Legolas turned back to her and grinned foolishly.
"I love you, Silva, with all my heart and soul and I love the cat too. I bow down to your splendour."
"You're a fool," she giggled.
"I do try."
"Keep that monstrosity away from me, Silva," Thranduil warned, eyeing Random suspiciously. "I hope you're happy that that has scarred me for life. I can only just about look at it for the painful memories it brings back-"
"Your new Blankie is almost ready, by the way."
"-however, I'm sure I can live with it."
Silva smiled satisfactorily. It was very good and useful and fun having the King and Crown Prince of Mirkwood bowing to your every whim.