Chapter 3

Legolas had cleaned up in record time and now sported a fresh, clean tunic as he raced through the halls towards the dining hall where he was certain everyone had already finished their meals without him. But as he rounded the corner, a pair of arms scooped up the elfling into a wild swing, which was rewarded by a whoop of delight. Legolas' flight through the air ended with him upside down, face red with laughter. He desperately tried to turn himself so he could see who his 'attacker' was. However, a laugh gave them away before Legolas had a chance.

"Elladan!" Legolas beamed as the elder twin turned him right side up and set him down. Elrohir was standing behind his brother, with the same grin lining his face. Legolas looked between the both of them, a thought suddenly occurring to him. "Did you finish eating already?" He looked distressed.

"Of course not!" Elrohir reached out a hand to ruffle Legolas' pale hair. "We wouldn't dare tempt your wrath."

The grin returned to Legolas' face. "Good!" He turned and motioned for them to follow. "We better hurry then. Ada always tells Calacil to make something good for when you come. I hope he makes berry cakes."

The twins laughed at Legolas' enthusiasm. They listened and chimed in occasionally with his chatter all the way to the dining hall, where everyone was waiting. Arwen had apparently been entertaining them, but as soon as the others walked in, she quieted and began bouncing in her seat. "Legolas!" She called to him. "Your Adar says that after we eat you can take me to see if the pond has frozen over."

Legolas frowned, throwing a glance at Thranduil. "I thought I would show them my archery, Ada." There was a hint of a whine in Legolas' voice and Thranduil raised an eyebrow.

"I'm sure they won't mind waiting to see your archery skills until after you have shown Arwen the pond," Thranduil's voice gave no room for negotiation and Legolas sighed before sitting down. Arwen looked unphased by the disagreement, her excitement too much.

They were soon served dinner and any unpleasant attitudes Legolas had were diminished when he found himself eating berry cakes. Kelderas and Arminas had joined them for the meal as well and as soon as Legolas took a bite of his third cake, Kelderas spoke up. "Legolas, did you and your friends have fun this afternoon?" Legolas looked up at his eldest brother with his mouth full. He nodded slowly, eyes wide and shifting towards where Arminas was smiling at him. "What were you up to?" Kelderas asked, his eyebrow quirked in a knowing arch.

Legolas glanced towards Thranduil, who was observing him questioningly. Legolas suddenly felt cornered. He swallowed his bite of berry cake before saying, "We had a snow fight." He paused for a moment and returned his gaze to Arminas. "With Nellas."

"Was that before or after Arminas proclaimed her love for you?" Kelderas chuckled as Arminas elbowed him in the ribs, but she too was laughing lovingly.

Glorfindel looked towards Legolas, who was blushing rapidly, looking down at his plate. "He's a little young for you, wouldn't you say?"

Arminas laughed and swatted her hand at Glorfindel. "Oh," she scolded. "Now Legolas, you know that I hold you very dear. But my heart belongs to your brother. I'm sorry I have given them something to tease you mercilessly about."

"Serves him right for spying," Kelderas chimed in, trying to sound grumpy, but failing miserably as he saw the look on Legolas' face.

Thranduil leaned back in his chair. "Spying?" He asked and suddenly Legolas' eyes turned towards his father. "Legolas, you shouldn't be invading others' privacy as such." Thranduil said sternly.

Legolas shook his head. "But Ada, we weren't spying!" He quickly defended. "We were playing hunting and Kelderas and Arminas were our boars!"

Kelderas, who had begun to sip his wine suddenly choked and coughed. The twins broke into laughter as Thranduil tried to contain the smile that came to his lips. "Boars?" Kelderas mocked horror. "Legolas, surely you think more of us than that!" He joked.

"Of course!" Legolas protested, suddenly becoming frustrated with the way this was going. "I didn't mean it like that."

Seeing that his elfling was about to get very upset, Thranduil decided to end the pestering. "Well, the next time you decide to play hunters, make sure it is on subjects who won't mind it. Privacy is something we find little of these days." Kelderas snorted and reached for Arminas' hand. She took it and Thranduil smiled warmly at the two of them. He had been waiting for the day one of his children would bond. He approved of Arminas well enough, knowing she would make a worthy wife for his son. She had a good head about her.

"I received a letter from Idrial today, Adar," Kelderas said. "She's decided to stay an extra few days in a settlement to the west. She said it was for diplomatic reasoning." Kelderas turned towards the twins. "She will be sorry she missed you."

Elladan smiled warmly at Kelderas. "Yes well, perhaps we could stay until she returns."

Glorfindel sighed. "Not with the way this weather is going," he said. "I'd say we only have a few days to visit until the High Pass will be closed up for winter."

Thranduil nodded. "Indeed. It looks like we are in for a rough winter."

"I don't see why we couldn't stay here for winter," Arwen broke in. "Ada wouldn't mind. And we wouldn't be trouble." The last bit was aimed at Thranduil.

"Surely," Thranduil said, eyeing Glorfindel. "You always say that, but trouble seems to find you elflings wherever you are." Arwen just grinned and Thranduil let out a chuckle.

Line Break!

After everyone was done eating, the twins, Glorfindel, and Arwen followed Legolas as he led them to the pond. Kelderas and Arminas were trailing behind, hand in hand, chuckling at the two elflings. He had conveniently brought his bow and quiver of arrows, 'just in case.' Legolas had begun to chatter to Glorfindel about archery as the twins stayed back with Arwen as she told them repeatedly how excited she was to see the frozen over pond.

"Saleas says that I've learned quicker than any other student he's ever taught," Legolas was saying, his hand unconsciously started to rub the tip of his bow. Glorfindel smiled, though he was finding harder to think of Legolas as a warrior, even though he had a long way to go. Legolas would for always be a young elfling in his eyes. Nothing would change that and Glorfindel didn't want to think about the days he would worry himself over how the elfling was faring in patrols and whatnot.

Suddenly, Arwen was at Legolas' side, having gotten annoyed with her brothers' pestering. She grinned at Legolas, who looked slightly annoyed at being disturbed, but managed to hold his face steady. "Legolas, tell me about the snow fight you had today. Did you win?"

That perked Legolas' interest and he began telling her about the snow fight. Glorfindel fell behind them to walk with the twins, Kelderas and Arminas. He looked towards the crown prince of Mirkwood. "Your brother certainly is excited about his archery skills."

Kelderas nodded, though there was a hint of sadness in his eyes. "Yes," he said. "He is very good. I've watched him on several occasions and I've had to constantly remind myself that he is only an elfling. He's good enough to be in the advanced classes. But we've been hesitant about moving him up too quickly. He needs to be with his friends, not with students who will sworn in years ahead of him."

"It is hard to watch them grow up so quickly," Glorfindel guessed on what was causing Kelderas to look at his brother with sudden emotion in his eyes.

"Indeed," Kelderas whispered, sounding all the more like his father.

Arminas took the hint to step in. She wrapped herself around Kelderas' arm and laid her chin on his shoulder. "It is a shame, Glorfindel, that you don't plan to winter here," she said. "Kelderas and I were planning on bonding this winter and the ceremony would come right before spring."

Glorfindel raised an eyebrow. "Congratulations," he nodded towards Kelderas who smiled back at him. "I didn't know you had planned it out already."

"Yes," Arminas nodded. "We've had it planned out for a while. But we were trying to plan a time when all could come. Idrial's been so busy with her diplomatic missions and Luthin is enjoying his lieutenant's position so much-"

"Too much," Kelderas broke in, shaking his head. "It is hard to get them to come home."

"Surely they would come home for the ceremony," Glorfindel questioned.

Kelderas nodded. "There's no telling with them. We're waiting to hear when Luthin plans to take his leave of duty. Then we'll make arrangements. We had hoped to get it done before the High Pass closed for winter, so we could invite Lord Elrond and yourselves, but as you can see, that didn't happen."

Arminas chuckled then and ran a hand down Kelderas' back. She looked to Glorfindel. "Tell him he worries too much," she said. "A ceremony is just a ceremony. We don't need one to know we are in love."

Glorfindel smiled. "You should listen to her," he said, making Kelderas roll his eyes and laugh.

"Here we are!" Legolas yelled from the front, holding his arms out. "I don't know, it still looks thin." He said, walking down to edge of the ice. Glorfindel eyed it as well, sizing up the thickness. He was pretty sure it wouldn't be strong enough to hold them if they were to walk on it yet.

Legolas walked carefully down the small slope towards the ice. He put his foot out, testing the ice gently. Arwen ran down to join his side, intent on helping him in any means necessary. However, she didn't anticipate the slippery slope and the snow caught her off guard, sending her straight into Legolas. The two gave a startled cry as Legolas lurched forward and hit the ice hard with his forehead, momentarily stunned.

The young elfling had to shake his head a few times to get the ringing out of his ears. When it was finally gone, he heard someone yelling. He turned his head and saw that it was Kelderas. He focused on his brother's mouth, trying to hear what he was saying. Finally, his hearing came back and Legolas felt the full force of the situation.

"Don't move!" Kelderas was yelling. Legolas spotted the twins carefully making their way down the slope towards where Arwen lay still, eyes wide and scared. Glorfindel was on the other side, making his way towards Legolas. "Legolas lay still, the ice is cracking. Spread out your weight." Kelderas was saying.

Legolas suddenly realized how far Arwen had pushed them both out onto the ice. There was no way Glorfindel or the twins would be able to make it across the ice. If it was cracking under their light weights, it would certainly crack under the older, heavier elves' weights.

"Wait!" Legolas called, making Glorfindel and the twins stop. "It's too thin," Legolas said, his voice quiet, as though the sound would crack the ice alone. "We can crawl…"

"No!" Kelderas yelled. "Legolas you will stay perfectly still. We're coming to get you."

Legolas looked towards Arwen, who was looking towards him for any sign of what to do. "Arwen," Legolas said, making her concentrate. "Ignore them. We have to crawl to the side. The ice will crack with all of us out here." Arwen nodded, telling him she heard him. "All right, move slow. Keep your weight spread through your entire body. No quick movements just go slow."

Arwen began to crawl. Elladan and Elrohir yelled for her to stop and stay still, but she began to panic and started moving faster. Legolas shook his head. "No! Arwen go slow!"

But it was too late. With a splintering crack, the ice beneath Arwen suddenly shatter and she let out a harsh scream as her lower torso was submerged beneath the water. The crack in the ice spread quickly and Legolas forced himself to stay calm as he felt it shift beneath him. When there was suddenly a louder, nearer crack, Legolas rose his head to stare at Kelderas, whose eyes had widened. Then he felt the ice give way beneath him. He grab onto something, anything, but he slipped and before he could control what was happening, his head had slipped beneath the water.

Review Responses:

jen: I am a Legolas girl at heart as well, so you can be sure that Legolas will be in this story a lot. Probably a little more than he should be lol.

KyraSummer: Thank you! I appreciate that. Hopefully it will get as good of a response as the other one.

Hearts Corruption: Legolas will have to deal with the whole teasing matter sooner or later. But you can bet that I will bring it back in hehe.

SilverWolf7: Yeah it does that for me too. There's a lot of stories that I'd like to review but it won't let me for some reason, or it will cut off the end part of the story so I don't really know what happens in the last two sentences or something. And as for when Celebrian sails, I'd say that Thranduil and his family went to Rivendell. I kind of mention in this that Arwen's met the family before, but she's never seen their home, so perhaps that was when she met them. I just didn't have the heart to write a story like that yet. Maybe one day I'll write it.

werewolflemming: I bet Mithrandir could make a stone like that. But I don't think he made one for Arwen, I think it was just suppose to be a charm. :-) Maybe Mithrandir will make an appearance in this story? Hmm...

kel: Leggo has a crush? Where? Who? What! ;-)

Lothlaurea: I'm glad you decided to "de-lurk" lol (that gave me a laugh by the way.) Thanks for all the kind words. Here's the beginning of some action for you. It's going to be a pretty spaced out story, but hopefully it will keep people interested. I'm thinking about writing a bunch of Legolas stories and I have some events planned out, but for right now, I've just got to focus on this one so people will stay interested.

ALL: I hope everyone likes it so far. I promise there will be more action and tragedy later on. But we'll have to wait and see if little Legolas is all right from his venture on the ice!

PL