It hadn't taken the two quarreling elflings long to catch up to Elladan, who seemed intent on just leading them further into the woods. Although on occasion one would punch the other on the shoulder or shove them into a tree—at one point, Elrohir even sent his foot out, causing Legolas to trip flat on his face.
While the young prince spluttered, pulling leaves from his hair while spitting grass out of his mouth, he had already begun to complain.
"Guys, my feet hurt. Can't we just figure out where we're going to spend the nig—oof!" he groaned as Elrohir thrust out his arm to stop him in mid-step. "Ugh, what was that for?" he demanded, eyes wide and vengeful.
Elrohir sniggered while Elladan sighed, rolling his eyes. "You were so intent on getting all that stuff out of your pretty hair, you didn't realize that you were about to walk straight into a lake," the younger twin declared, crossing his arms. "So you should be thanking me."
"Thank you?" Legolas questioned sarcastically as he sized up the lake and the waterfall that sent water into it. "I definitely think that I'd rather face a lake than you!"
"Oh really?" Elrohir questioned, his eyes glowing as he reached out to push Legolas into the water. He was stopped, however, as Elladan grabbed onto his brother's tunic. "Remember what father said? I promised him I wouldn't let you push him in the water. So knock it off."
"Fine, whatever," Elrohir rolled his eyes before brightening once again. "Hey, that means you can push him in!"
Groaning, Elladan shook his head before looking up towards the waterfall. "We're going to camp right up there. Now hurry up."
"Yeah, you heard him. Hurry up or—" Elrohir didn't get to finish his 'threat' to Legolas as the younger boy shoved him straight into the lake. As the boy resurfaced, spluttering and shaking his wet hair out of face, his eyes widened in shock while he quickly rambled his protest.
"Elladan! Aren't you going to go off on him? I mean, you yell at me for everything I do and you won't even tell him off for pushing me in the lake?"
"Actually," Elladan began slowly, as if thinking the matter in his head. "That was technically allowed. Father never said he couldn't put you in a lake."
While the two happily dry elflings exchanged a high five, Elrohir glowered while pulling himself out of the lake. "Watch your back, Legolas. You're going to get it tonight."
As he trudged along, soaked through, the other two quickly raced towards the waterfall. Elladan managed to scream at the top of his lungs "Last one to the top gets shoved off it!"
"Hey, that's not fair! Just wait for me, guys!" Elrohir begged as he picked up speed while the other two were already a quarter ways there. "I was already shoved into the lake and I'm not going back in!"
While the other two elflings laughed, continuing with their quick pace, Elrohir growled before scrambling up after them. As he was last to get close to the top, however, he never saw the adult elf following him from below. And they never heard the groan and thump of the Lord as Elrohir set loose a rock and it collided with his head.
While Glorfindel began to sit up straight, holding his throbbing head, he turned his gaze back towards where Elrohir had just managed to crawl over the top of the roaring water. "I told Lord Elrond I didn't want to come. But no, I'm stuck here babysitting these elflings while trying not to let them know I'm following them!" he hissed to himself, wondering why he had come in the first place. If he was supposed to stay out of site, then he could have sat on a log somewhere alone. Elrond would never have had to know!
But knowing these boys, something would happen soon enough. And he'd have to save their hides eventually.
Thank you, my dear reviewers! I love you all! But just as another note...the more reviews I get, the faster I update! Honestly, this is fast for me. Pretty soon the updates will get extremely rare. So review while you can and I'm still subject to more ideas!
