Chapter 16: Being Replaced
Thranduil had left Tonus to see Cield, after hearing the series of yells coming from the prince's room Thranduil was worried sick.
Before Thranduil had left, Tonus had asked permission to go to town. As uneasy as Thranduil had been about it, Thranduil allowed it, as long as Tonus went to town armed and with a horse.
Tonus went to Elrond's bedroom. Elrond had not slept in the bed in his guest chamber since Florien had come, but tonight he would be able to.
"Well Florien, are you ready to leave?" Tonus asked.
"Yes!" Florien smiled. He sat on the edge of his bed, holding a small haversack.
"My father has given him permission to return home." Elrohir said.
"My father has given me permission to bring him home, though all my father knows is that I am going to town." Tonus said, embracing his tiny son.
"Bye Elrohir." The elfling said, kissing the half-elf on his cheek.
"Goodbye Florien, perhaps I will see you again some time." Elrohir waved as Tonus and Florien left through the door. Florien stayed close to his father as they went through the courtyard and to the stables. Florien was quite uneasy around the large horses.
"Alright, we will be going home by riding a horse. This is my horse," Tonus stroked his horse's mane, "Do not be afraid. I am going to help you on and off, and I will not let you fall. It is high up so do not fidget around whilst you are riding." Tonus said, picking up his elfling and placing him on the horse. Florien was shaking, being so nervous.
"Don't worry Florien, I am coming." Tonus swung himself onto the horse. Florien was amazed at his father's talent.
When the horse began to walk, Florien was horrified.
"It's too fast ada!" Florien whimpered, clutching his father's arm. Tonus slowed down.
"Still to fast!" Florien whimpered. By the time the speed was acceptable by Florien, the horse was going slower than the llama.
"Alright, Florien, this will get us no where. We can go so fast that we will be there is no time." Tonus said, his horse picking up speed. Florien was quite scared, but the two arrived in no time at all.
Florien ran inside, extremely excited about seeing his mother. He ran into his room first, to put away his haversack. But what he saw in his room made him stop in his tracks.
In Florien's room, on Florien's bed, playing with Florien's toys was an elfling and Florien's mother. The elfling was having a grand time with Florien's little toy soldiers, and Yáviel was playing with him. Florien just starred. Had his parents tried to replace him with another elfling? He could not believe it; why did his parents get another elfling? Was he not good enough?
"Nana?" Florien asked in a low whisper. Yáviel looked up and gasped when she saw Florien. She whispered something in the elfling's ear and then got off of the bed and ran to her son, embracing him just before she unlaced his tunic and looked at the stitched up wound.
"Oh Florien, how are you? I've missed you so much!" Yáviel kissed her son repeatedly. Florien did feel loved, but that other elfling was still there!
Tonus smiled at the sight. Once Yáviel had finished kissing Florien, tonus and Yáviel had to introduce the two elflings.
"Sweetheart, whilst you where gone your father and I met this elfling, and he needed a home, so we have chosen to adopt him. His name is Locien, he is seven years old." Yáviel said, showing Florien to Locien.
"Locien, this is our son, Florien." Tonus said. Locien stuck out his hand, willing to shake Florien's. But Florien did not want to. No elfling who was going to replace him was going to shake his hand that was for sure.
"I'm sure you three would all love a snack; I will go make you some food. Why don't you two get to know each other? Come Tonus, let's leave them to get acquainted." Yáviel took Tonus by his hand and the two left.
"Hello Florien." Locien said.
"Hello." Florien grunted. He forgot the elfling's name already, and he did not really care. It was probably just a joke; his parents would not really get an elfling to replace him, would they?
"Would you like to play with me?" Locien asked.
"Those are my toys." Florien said.
"Oh. Can I play with them?" Locien asked. Florien gave no answer, which left Locien waiting.
"Can I?" Locien asked again.
"You already asked me that!" Florien said. Usually Florien was very sweet, but Florien was very upset right now.
"Could I have an answer then?" Locien asked quietly.
"Fine! You can." Florien said.
"Do you want to play too?"
"Oh, I have a fun game we can play!" Florien smirked. Locien smiled too, but he had no idea what game he was in store for.
When Yáviel and Tonus returned, they where both shocked to discover Locien tied up to a chair, beaming, and Florien reading a picture book called 'Elrond: Lord of Rivendell, With pictures!'
"Locien! What are you two doing?" Yáviel asked.
"Playing!" Locien giggled.
"Playing what?" Tonus asked.
"I don't know, but Florien said it would be fun!" Locien beamed.
Yáviel untied Locien and Tonus glared down at Florien, who looked up sheepishly at his father.
"What where you doing to your brother?" Tonus asked.
"My what?" Florien gasped.
"Your brother. What where you doing with him?"
Florien stood up and ran out of the room. Brother. Brother. It kept going through his mind. Locien was his brother. No, it was not true. Florien son of Tonus had no brother, and Florien knew that. But Florien was unaware that he was being followed by Tonus.
Florien turned around and gasped again when he saw his father looking down at him.
"Florien, what's the matter with you?"
"Nothing. Leave me alone." Florien turned on his heel.
"Florien, does it have to do with Locien?" Tonus asked, kneeling down and turning Florien around to be face to face with him.
"Why did you try to replace me?" Florien asked quietly, before bursting into sobs.
"Oh elfling, don't cry, we do not want to replace you at all! We love you. Locien needed a home, and we brought him in. He would die if we do not keep him. He is nice and he will not bother you, if you do not bother him. All I ask is that you share your toys and to be kind to each other. I also would like it if you would apologize to Locien." Tonus said. Florien sighed for the third time and nodded his head.
"Good lad. Come with me." Tonus guided his son back to Locien.
"Sorry." Florien muttered.
"It's alright." Locien smiled. Florien noticed Locien was missing two teeth on the bottom in the front of his mouth.
"How come you're missing two teeth?" Florien asked.
"Oh, they fell out." Locien said. Florien's eyes widened.
"Florien, it happens with all teeth. They fall out and new ones grow in!" Yáviel explained.
"No, these teeth wont come back. They where knocked out. They had fallen out once, grew back, and when I was punched they fell out again. My nana told me they would not come back." Locien said. Yáviel bit her lip.
"Who punched you?"
"I don't remember." Locien said quietly.
Yáviel sighed and gave the elfling a squeeze.
"That's alright, don't worry about it any more." Yáviel said softly.
-------------------------------------------------------
"Erestor, what are you doing?" Illiendal asked softly.
"I am chasing an oliphant… What does it look like I'm doing?" Erestor looked up from the paper he was writing on to glare at the bothersome she-elf before returning to his work.
"It sure does not look like you are chasing an oliphant." Illiendal said. Erestor grunted something that sounded like 'I was being sarcastic'.
"Erestor?"
"Yes…"
"Do you have a wife?"
"Yes…"
"Do you have any children?"
"Yes…"
"How many?"
"One…"
"Is it a boy?"
"Yes…"
"So then those rumours about you and Glorfindel cant be true, can they?" Illiendal asked. Erestor's head shot up and his grip tightened on his quill.
"What rumours?" Erestor asked sharply.
"Never mind." Illiendal said, now reading what Erestor had wrote.
"Oh! It's a diary! Oh look, you've included me in your diary! 'Princess bothersome. Will not quiet. Suggest bothering other elves to her.' That's very sweet of you! But you really should write better than that. 'Princess bothersome' is a fragment; even I know that! And you call yourself an advisor!" Illiendal scoffed.
"My hand is too sore." Erestor held up the hand he was writing with, which was swollen and looked infected.
"That looks awful! Let me have a closer look at that; has a healer seen to it yet? How did that happen?" Illiendal asked, holding Erestor's hand with her own, carefully prodding the pink flesh.
"Ow! No, a healer has not seen it, it happened on the way here, a spider was biting my hand and then I fell and scraped it." Erestor yelped as she touched his damaged hand sharply.
"You should not write with the hand then. It will most probably get worse, from what I can tell, but I am no healer. Let me take you to a healer, at the least." Illiendal begged. Erestor sighed and stood up.
"As long as you promise to stop irritating me."
"I will irritate you less."
"Fair enough." Erestor followed the princess to the healing wing in the palace.
"Erestor, have you been writing with this hand, infected like this and all?"
"Yes ma'am." Erestor said the nurse. She was not one to mess with, and Erestor had learnt that. Erestor had figured out that if he upset the nurse in any way she was much more rougher on his hand.
"You should have had this seen to at once! Your lucky lady Illiendal was here," Illiendal beamed, "Else we might just have had to remove this hand of yours, which would not do much good for a scribe like you."
"Advisor." Erestor corrected. By saying that, he seemed to have angered the nurse, for she was much rougher when she was treated the hand, making Erestor scream a couple of times.
"You squirm like a child, Erestor." The nurse said. Erestor did not comment on this, he had good self-control.
"Now, do not write today. Tomorrow if you feel well enough, you may. But that's it for writing for today." The nurse said. Erestor nodded and returned to his quarters, Illiendal following.
"Was that so bad?" Illiendal asked.
"She was being hard on my hand intentionally!" Erestor spat.
"But she did put some salve on it, it should ease the pain."
"I suppose so." Erestor said.
"No." Illiendal said when Erestor picked up the quill. She pulled the quill from his hand and dunked it in ink. "Tell me what you want to write." Illiendal said.
Erestor sighed; he knew he had no other choice.
"I miss my wife and son, and I wish that some princesses where not so nosy and had better things to-do with there free time. This-
"You're going too fast."
"Oh, sorry."
"Okay, go on."
"This journey-
"I would not call it a journey."
"Alright… Then put, this visit to Mirkwood has inspired me to write a book when my hand is in better shape, and I will title it '101 things for princesses to do who have too much spare time on their hands." Erestor grinned.
"Go on."
"I'm thinking! Oh, add that I have a sore hand." Illiendal did as Erestor asked.
"I would like to thank princess Illiendal for helping me write this. Now I will stop writing for if I do not soon her poor hand will fall off because she is not used to writing so much!" Erestor laughed.
"What's so funny? It's a lot!"
"That's barely anything, princess. I was a scribe for many years and now I am an advisor I write a hundred times that a day."
"No wonder your hand looks like that." Illiendal grinned. Erestor reached for his book Illiendal had opened it to a previous page and began to read the journal entry.
"I love Adlanna so much but I'm so afraid to let her know. I told Glorfindel that, he laughed at me, that hurt, he's my best friend and he's not helping at all! I told him I was afraid to kiss her to, I told him about the time she had tried to kiss me. He laughed more. I'm getting angry now; Glorfindel is not much of a good friend! I told him I needed help, that I was not sure how to kiss her and then Glorfindel did the unexpected: He pulled my face towards his and kissed me, right on my lips. It was long and disgusting! He's my friend, yes, but we are not close like that! I will be washing my mouth out as soon as I am finished writing this. Despite that, he kisses very nicely. I wonder if he had a wife back in Gondolin. Anyways, he helped me learn to kiss, luckily I did not have to kiss him again, he made me kiss my hand so many times my hand became sore." Illiendal read out loud.
"Give me that!" Erestor grabbed the book.
"Oh, but I want to know how the story ends!"
"The story ends like this: Erestor goes to Adlanna and tells her how much he loves her, and she says she loves him too. They dance together and Erestor kisses her for the very first time. A few months later after having some dance lessons from some other elves I will not name-
"Elladan and Elrohir." Illiendal said. Erestor grumbled and nodded his head.
"Erestor finally danced with Adlanna like Erestor wanted too, at a ball in Rivendell. Erestor kissed Adlanna like Erestor never had before, and she returned with Erestor to his talan after the ball. Needless to say what went on in his talan, a month later Adlanna tells Erestor that she is with child, and eleven months later from that Erestor's beautiful baby Fheredir was born." Erestor said.
"Where is Fheredir now then?"
"With his mother in Rivendell." Erestor said. "He would have came with me, but I forbade him, he is healing."
"Healing?" Illiendal looked up at Erestor, who looked down at the desk in front of him with sadness.
"Only a few days before we where going to be leaving for Mirkwood, my wife, son and I where eating in the woods, just outside the borders of the woods. I am an advisor, I have no idea how to fight, nor does my wife, but my son has been doing a bit of training with Glorfindel. I've seen better, but he is a very good fighter none the less. While we where eating two orcs came, which may seem like not much to a warrior but only Fheredir was able to fight them, I had to keep Adlanna safe. Fheredir killed one orc with his only weapon, his bow, but he dropped an arrow and had none left, so his bow was useless. The arrow was beside me, so he threw me his bow. He was cornered by the orc so he could not move. I had to use the bow to save him… But when I shot… I…" Erestor sat down; gaze still fixed upon the desk, as if on the desk he was watching the scene happen again.
"I missed. I hit my son in his chest. He pulled the arrow out and stabbed the orc, but I still hit him and nothing will change that. He managed to survive, I thank the Valar for that, but he was very close to death because of the wound I gave him. He forgave me right away but I cannot forgive myself, I hurt my son and I am such a horrible father now." Erestor said.
"For such a boring scribe-
"Advisor." These elves that could not tell the difference from a scribe and an advisor had really started to piss Erestor off.
"For such a boring advisor you have wonderful stories to tell. Can I hear another one?" Illiendal asked. Erestor looked a little happier that someone was interested in him, aside from his wife (for the past 1000 years or so only his wife took interest in what Erestor did).
To be continued…
Hm, little bit of randomness with the Erestor stuff, eh? Erestor is one cool elf though; I like him a lot. I like Fheredir, too.
Mistopurr: I have some really good-looking Haldir backgrounds, if you want. And one of the twins and Arwen, I just got them today and they are the best! Originally it was unintentional, but after you said that well, you know, I sent you e-mail. It's fun to send you e-mails.
Aranna Undomiel: When I read "Thranduil cut the crap" I thought you where talking about something else, but then I realised that what I thought you where talking about was not posted yet and only happens in chapter 17! So what where you talking about? Later in the story Florien and Legolas will become friends but…
Haldir's Heart and Soul: What do you think it is? Don't be afraid to tell me.
Here comes the hockey puck: I don't have heat! It's –12 degrees here!
Karone Evertree: Neither can I, but he is sore, I'm pretty damn sure about that!
Rainbow Fish: So do you go to school during this time or is it summer for you? I wish it were 30 degrees here! My bus has been coming so early that I miss it so I have to wait for the next one, which means discussing with the others who missed the early bus about why the city should buy some heaters for the bus stops, listening to Mikey (he looks like a hobbit!) play his harmonica like a hobo and hearing really bad jokes. And we freeze half to death in the meantime. But Mikey makes a good windshield.
Laer4572: Aw! A Legolas Baby book sounds so cute!