Chapter 7: The Vase

It had been one month. One month and a week, really, since Aldaril's funeral, and not much had changed. Cield spent most of his time in his room, he loathed speaking to others and he was often rude or aggressive. Illiendal was much more quiet then usual and spent the day speaking softly with other often quiet elves who understood how much pain she went through: Erestor, Figwit, Elladan and Elrohir. During the night she would usually cuddle up against Thranduil or Elladan and fall asleep, even once falling asleep on Erestor. Legolas followed people all day; it had always been his hobby. Legolas had taken an interest in bothering Glorfindel, pulling Cield's hair (it being so long), singing songs his mother had sung to him and knocking on doors and giggling if an elf answered the door.

Thranduil changed a good amount. He spent time with all of his children, though when he was with Legolas he was often acting as if Legolas was a toddler still learning to speak elvish.

Tonus was different… much had changed with him. He was aggressive, and much more than Cield. Tonus, the sweetest of Thranduil's boys, was now easily aggravated and just as quick to yell. But Tonus also disappeared more and more often, leaving the palace and going to town, never telling anyone why.

'It has been one month, one bloody month… The twins are leaving soon, everyone is. Gandalf will be coming, I best avoid him, he will easily find out about Florien, he seems to know everything anyways, I would not be surprised if he already knows. I might as well go check on Florien and Yàviel, naught much else to do around here anyways.' Tonus thought, getting off his bed and pulling a cloak around him.

Tonus left the palace in silence, making sure no one was following him. Relieved that nobody was around, he ran to town before anyone saw him, and entered his home, where Yàviel was playing with Florien on the floor of the family room.

"Very good Florien, you see? You cannot put a big block on top of the little block, it falls off."

"Learning." Florien giggled, piling up his blocks and watching them fall.

"Can you spell your name with your blocks Florien?"

"Ya! F – L – O – R – I – E – N! Florien!" Florien giggled as he stacked the blocks with letters on top of each other to spell his name.

"Good job ion-nin." Tonus smiled, bending down and kissing Florien, then Yàviel.

"Did good." Florien smiled at his good job and knocked the blocks over.

Tonus sat himself on a nearby chair and watched his son spell things out.

"E – L – F." Florien knocked over his elf tower.

"D – W – A – R – F" Florien destroyed the dwarf tower, too.

"Dog!" Florien was about to destroy that tower, when his mother stopped him.

"Florien? Dog is not spelt D - H – J – K – P – Q – E – S – O – G…" Yàviel whispered.

"Oh!" Florien fixed his tower to spell dog.

"Good, that is the right way to spell dog."

"Oh no." Florien gasped.

"What?" Tonus asked, concerned.

"Need two A blocks, can't spell ada." Florien pouted.

"I will make you another set of blocks, just no this moment, alright?"

"Okay."

Florien crawled over to a table and pulled himself to his feet, almost pulling the table onto of him if Tonus had not grabbed onto the table.

"Florien, be careful."

"Yes ada. I am careful. Very good boy."

Tonus sighed and sat down again, just to jump up when Florien knocked over a vase.

"Florien!" Tonus yelled. Florien had already been scared when he knocked the vase over and saw it break into little pieces, but he was in more shock when his father yelled at him.

Florien burst into tears and ran to his mother, grabbing onto her dress amd sobbing.

"Ada scary!" Florien cried as his mother rocked him in her arms.

"Hush, hush, don't worry Florien… Tonus you scared him!" Yàviel glared at Tonus.

"I did not mean to… Here, let me hold him… Florien, it's alright, just ada…"

"No!" Florien screamed when Tonus tried to hold him.

"I am so sorry little one, I did not mean to upset you!" Tonus pulled Florien from Yàviel and sat him on his lap. Florien wanted to run away but kept as still as he could.

"I am very sorry ion-nin, I truly did not mean to yell, I have just been… Stressed. Please forgive me, I am your ada and I will always love you, no matter how many vases you break." Tonus remembered his father saying something like that to him once, and it had pleased him very much.

"Okay." Florien jumped off of his father's lap and stayed far away from him.

Florien played with his blocks of wood, sometimes looking up at his father. Something was wrong though.

"Ada crying?" Florien asked, approaching his father slowly.

"No… Yes. Yes ada is crying." Tonus wiped his face dry as Florien pulled himself on his father's lap.

"Don't cry. I still love you." Tonus smiled as Florien wrapped his arms around Tonus' neck.

"I love you too ion-nin, more than you can believe." Tonus cuddled Florien, Florien's bright red hair in his face.

"Ada?"

"Yes ion-nin?"

"Do lots of elves have blonde hair like yours?" Florien asked, pulling out a strange of his father's hair and compairing it to his own flaming red hair.

"Well… There are many with blonde hair, many with black hair, many with brown hair and many with red hair."

"Like mine?"

"Yes, just like you."

"Good."

"Yes, that is good isn't it? You would not want to be the only elf in Arda with red hair, would you?"

"No!"

"I thought so." Tonus smiled, rubbing his son's cheek affectionately.

"Thanks ada."

"For what?"

"I don't know, but thanks." Florien whispered, clutching his father's robes as he cuddled up against his chest.

"Ada." Florien whispered.

"Florien." Tonus smiled.

"Ada."

"Florien."

"Ada."

"Florien."

"Nana."

"Flori- Hey I am not your nana!" Tonus laughed, kissing Florien on the top of his head.

"I know that ada. Silly ada." Florien clutched Tonus' hand and began to cough.

"Florien, are you alright? Florien?"

"I-

Florien coughed more.

"-Fine…" Florien began to cough even more until he coughed up blood.

"Yuck!" Florien gasped, but Tonus had jumped up already with Florien in his arms.

"Something's wrong. Something is very wrong." Tonus lay his son down on the floor and opened his tunic.

"Glass… A piece of the vase is in him. Damn!" Tonus' eyes where filled with tears as he heard his son's whimpers.

"It hurts ada, a lot…" Florien coughed up more blood.

"I have to get him help… Yàviel stay here, don't worry…" Tonus knew she would worry.

"Die." Florien whispered. "Going to."

"No, don't say things like that! You are not dying and you never will." Tonus held his son carefully and left the house.

'I cannot take him to the palace, I just cannot… But there are so many talented healers there and I would have to pay to see a public healer and I cannot do such a thing and… Elrond!' Tonus thought to himself. Tonus hid his face with his cloak and held his son carefully. A man who had five llamas, all to be sold, saw Tonus rushing. He could not tell who Tonus was since his face was covered by his hood, but he could see the whimpering, bloody elfling.

"Take a llama, it will get you there fast!" The man said, releasing one llama and let it come over to Tonus.

"Thank you! I will repay you if I ever see you again!" Tonus jumped onto the llama and took off, but he then learnt that llamas go quite slow so just ran on his feet and snuck into Elrond's bedroom. Elrond sat on his bed, and looked up when he heard his door open.

"Elrond! Sir, please help him!" Tonus showed Elrond the sad elfling.

"Valar…" Elrond placed Florien on the bed and opened his tunic.

"Something inside is punctured…"

"Will you be able to heal him?"

"Yes. I can see the glass, I can get it out."

"Please, do!"

"But first, I want to know who he is and why you have him with you." Elrond saw the shocked expression on the young prince's face.

To be continued…

It is very hard to write this, I have a headgear on and the bar is between my eyes, very distracting, and the elastics hurt a lot. But this was fun to write, oh my poor baby Florien! I love that little red-haired elf more than anything! Oh, and I have an actual photo, a real one, of Florien, standing beside Haldir and random elf extra no 344… I will post it on my site eventually, for now… E-mail me for it if it is really wanted…Happy Thanksgiving, I don't know when it is but it's soon or now, as I am Canadian!

Laer4572: Oh, I am sorry… I am glad I did that good, I was really happy with the way Legolas' point of view turned out. Tonus is a chicken, or a turkey I should say, in honour of the American's thanksgiving! Not for me of course, I'm a Canadian eh!

Mistopurr: My teacher has been playing Christmas music all week!

Starr Light1: Tonus is shy, so am I but not on the Internet. Tonus is like me a lot – except I do not have a son named Florien or a wife – why would I have a wife anyways?!

Aranna Undomiel: I wanted to make Legolas seem like that cute little elfling he is in Haldir's Here, but sad at the same time, but still oh so confused. Glad you liked it.

Here comes the hockey puck/Clip Clop: Odd nickname… Well, my nicknames have been Joe, Merry (or Meriadoc), Nikki, Saruman and Little Hobbit.

Here comes the hockey puck: I have never been to a funeral… I hope I did the funeral as well as I can for someone who has never been to one. My friend was a little kid when she went to a funeral and she was playing with the ashes of the dead person… She has always been 'odd'…

Rainbow Fish: Don't forget you need to be rich. Old and rich plus the two requirements… Yes, honour role is for high marks… Over 70 percent in all class marks and over 80 in the average…

Haldir's Heart and Soul: Tonus is very close to his family, yet he is not so close… He hates talking to them but he loves them more than anything.

Surf all day and do the hula: Well my aunt's dog died of a heart attack, nothing to do with the vomit – as far as I know…