a/n: Sorry it took me a while to update; I've been a little busy. (Okay, so I was reading and playing video games. A girl's gotta live a little!)

Please enjoy and review!
-Romen

Disclaimer: Unfamiliar; mine. Familiar; not mine.

28. More Vows

"What do you need to tell us?" Elrohir raised one eyebrow higher than the other.

Estel shut the door behind him, glancing down at Legolas to make sure that he was still asleep. "It's about Klia. I told you that she tended my wounds while I was in her village, correct?"

Elladan shook his head. "I didn't know. You must have said something about it while I was still gone."

"I should have died," Estel continued, swallowing nervously. "For some reason, her brother, Berve, who is a captain, saved me and brought me back. Klia informed me before I escaped that they thought I was the reincarnation of her dead brother."

"Uh...You lost me." Elrohir shared a look with his older twin.

"They think that I'm their brother!" Estel cried, exasperated. "Their brother died twenty-eight years ago, and they are convinced that I am him, reborn. They weren't planning on letting me leave, so I had to climb through a hole in the roof."

"A hole in the roof?"

"Yes, a hole in the roof. That's when I met up with Ro, and we came back here."

Elladan frowned. "So Klia was looking for you when she found Legolas."

"Well..." Estel paused, searching for words. "She didn't exactly find him. He took her prisoner. She escaped when...when he was accidentally stabbed in the arm. She came back for him later and brought him to Imladris." The adan decided to skip that part about Varda's dead body in case Legolas wasn't completely asleep.

"Estel, why didn't you tell us before?" Elrohir asked concernedly. "Does Adar know?"

"He doesn't know yet. I haven't been able to tell him. He's been...busy, I suppose." Estel looked back down at Legolas before collapsing in a chair and putting his head in his hands. "That's not all, either. Klia thinks that they are coming after her."

"Why? How does she know?" Elladan pressed.

"She just knows." Estel lifted his head and met their gaze. "It isn't that unlikely. To some, it might have appeared that he was kidnapping her and bringing her back to Imladris."

"But that's insinuating that someone saw them." Elrohir frowned. "That's not very probable. The storm was very strong that night."

Estel shrugged before falling silent. Shortly after finishing their conversation, Legolas awoke, sitting up and yawning.

"What's going on?" he asked after examining their faces. "Did something happen?"

"Nothing really happened," Estel answered hesitantly. "We were just discussing some things."

Legolas's brow furrowed. "What were you discussing?"

"Wild Men," Elrohir replied before Estel could say anything. "How are you feeling? Dolenion finished checking your wounds and said that they were healing as they should."

"I'm feeling all right. When did Dolenion leave?"

"Not too long ago. We dropped in to see how you were doing, and when we found that you were sleeping, we spoke with him about old times." The youngest twin sighed.

Estel laughed. "Old times? What do you mean?"

"You don't want to know." Elladan stood, crossing his arms. "I'm going to see Adar. I'll see you all this evening."

(Space)

"My lord, we found someone."

Berve pulled his eyes away from the crows sitting atop the horse's dead carcass. A soldier, short in stature, was standing next to him. "What is it?"

"My lord." He gestured to a gruff looking man beside him. "He has word of your sister."

Berve shooed the soldier away and took the man to the side, glancing around before speaking. "What did you see?"

"It was about a week ago," the stranger grumbled, his eyes shifting to the side shadily. "I was traveling down the path when I came upon an elf. He didn't look like he had any high rank. He was rather rough in appearance, if you know what I mean."

Berve nodded, encouraging him to continue. "Yes?"

"Later on that night, I went out to take some cattle in near our village since it was storming. A few had wandered very far away, out across the plains, and I was going after them. In the distance, near a rock fissure, I could make out the same elf struggling with a woman. It was raining too hard, so I came back in the morning after the storm had lessened. The only thing that I could find was this." He held up a knife.

Berve took it from him gently, examining the hilt. The engraving of two foxes was barely visible after being passed through so many hands. However, the blade was still just as sharp. This was definitely Klia's.

"Did you follow them?" he asked, sticking the knife in his hilt.

The man shook his head. "No, but I told some of the other villagers. Someone came and told me that they saw the elf riding with a woman toward Rivendell. I'll bet everything I own that it was your sister."

"Thank you. You shall be rewarded greatly." Berve turned away, pulling out the knife and observing it once again. He watched the sunlight glint off of it, frowning.

"My lord, what are your commands? My lord?"

Berve turned around, his mouth drawn to the side as he stood in silence for a few moments. "We attack the nearest Elven outpost," he decided. "Then, we wait a few days for them to respond."

"If you pardon my saying so, my lord, there is an easier point."

He looked up from the knife, his eyebrows furrowed. "Well, what is it? Speak up."

"My lord, we have spotted a party of traveling Elves in the woods. It is small, and whoever they're escorting seems to be of great importance."

Berve's eyebrows rose. "How far are they from here?"

"They should be near this point by nightfall."

"Thank you. Tell the men to be on the look-out for them."

The soldier nodded before walking off, leaving Berve to his own thoughts.

"This elf," Berve said suddenly, turning to face the stranger once again; "what did he look like?"

The stranger chewed his lip, remembering. "Slim fellow," he began, "blond. At the time he was wounded, very pale. Like I said, he didn't look like he was of very high rank."

"His clothing; was there any insignia?"

He shook his head. "Not that I could tell. I don't know much about Elves, though."

"Hmm. Is there anything else that you remember that could be of any use to us?"

"Well...I don't know if this is of any significance, but he talked in his sleep."

Berve sneered. "He talked in his sleep? What did he say?"

"He talked about somebody named Estel. I didn't know if that would be of any help or not."

"Estel," Berve muttered. "That will be all. Thank you."

The stranger nodded before stepping off. Berve returned to watching the crows circle above in the grey evening sky before smiling to himself. This was all working out very well.

"I've informed the men," the soldier ventured to say. "They're preparing."

"You know, we record every man that we sort out and kill in our memory," Berve muttered to himself, still smiling. "Even the nameless. Their faces flash before us, our victories. This 'rogue elf' shall soon join them. I swear before you, he shall fall upon my own knife when I'm through with him, willingly."

"My lord?"

Berve, shaken from his thoughts, turned to face him. "You have done well. Join them in preparation."

As the soldier walked away, Berve sat, staring into the eyes of the horse. His, like that of the dead animals, were not seeing what was in front of him. He was busy trying to imagine that face of the elf that he had sworn to slay, longing for the day that he would see it in reality.

"If...If I could beg your pardon my lord." The soldier pitted on his heel, a vein throbbing in his temple. "You saw what this elf did. He...He destroyed one of our most prominent armies."

Berve frowned, disappointed to be distracted once again. "Go prepare," he repeated before going off to do so himself.

(Space)

"Legolas?"

"Yes?" The elf forced himself a little straighter. "What, Ro?"

The youngest twin hesitated. "Weren't we like the protective brothers that you never had?"

"Uh..." Legolas's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"Haven't we always been there for you? Have we ever let you down?"

The prince sighed. "What do you want me to do now?"

"No, no, I'm serious. Has there ever been a time when we weren't able to be there for you...besides a short while ago?"

Legolas flinched but quickly recovered. "You've always been there for me when you could be. Why?"

"Oh, nothing, nothing." The Elrondion leaned back in his chair as Dolenion rolled his eyes.

"They were speaking about how they've brought you up earlier," he informed him promptly, going through several packs of healing herbs. Estel snorted.

"'How they've brought you up?' What does he mean, Ro?"

Elrohir played with the end of the arm on his chair. "We were just speaking of several...incidents while Legolas rested."

"Incidents?" Estel's eyebrows rose. "What kind of incidents?"

The elf sighed. "Well, just several different times in our lives when we might have led Legolas astray."

"What do you mean, led him astray?"

Elrohir cleared his throat. "Well..." He leaned forward again. "Shall I tell him, Legolas?"

"You'll tell him eventually whether you have permission or not," Legolas grumbled, shifting slightly and trying not to look nervous. What 'incidents' was he referring to?

"I take that as a yes." Ro didn't wait for an answer. "We were just speaking about when he fell out of a tree and Dan caught him."

"Ah!" Legolas sat up. "Please-"

"And when he rode his horse after excessive drinking and broke his arm. You were five, I think, or were you four? Six? Seven?"

"He was five!" Legolas cried. "How could you forget? Now"-

"Oh yes, what was the other one, Dolenion? Yes, I challenged him to see if he could out drink me, which he eagerly accepted at his naive age."

"I wasn't naive," Legolas spat out.

"If you weren't naive, you wouldn't have agreed," Elrohir continued coolly. "Anyway, he fell down a flight of stairs while rushing to the latrine."

"Why haven't I heard about this before?" Estel asked in mock annoyance, looking at each of them in turn. "You've had many opportunities to tell me."

"They aren't my fondest memories," Legolas snapped, glaring at the youngest twin, who was doubled over in laughter at his friend's reaction. "They were all very painful."

"But you brought them all upon yourself!" Elrohir finally managed to gasp. "No one made you agree to challenge me, climb to the top of the tree, or ride your horse."

The prince crossed his arms, leaning against his pillow and frowning before saying, "All right, I was naive. I shouldn't have agreed to challenge you. But you tricked me!"

"Tricked you? How could I have possibly done that, mellon-nin?"

"Enough, enough." Dolenion walked over to Legolas and handed him a small cup. "This will help with your headache."

"If they don't worsen it," Legolas grumbled, shooting daggers at Elrohir.

"I'm sorry; have we made you feel worse?"

"No!" Legolas thrust the cup at Dolenion before scowling at their amusement. "I should tell Estel some of your most embarrassing moments and see what he thinks."

Elrohir smiled innocently. "But my friend, I have no embarrassing moments." 'At least none that you were around to see,' he thought to himself.

As Legolas fumed and the brothers laughed, they had no idea that someone was watching them from within the safety of the Last Homely House.

TBC...