The pre-dawn light was showing the world in brown and gray hues when Beren, as the senior-most guard at the campsite, emerged from his tent (after waking up the other Men in there) and began rousing everyone, save the royal family. "Up, now!" he ordered briskly. "There's a lot of land to search and we're wasting the light!"

Some of the guards were already awake, too troubled to sleep; while others blinked away their drowsiness, each one of them getting the same dismayed expression when they realized that the previous day's events weren't just a terrible dream. Beren felt sorry for them but he couldn't let his sympathy interfere with his command. "No time for breakfast," he informed each one of them. "Just grab some travel bread from wherever you store it and get to the check-in area on the double – plans to make, assignments to receive, and all of that. The prince and princesses are still out there."

For the most part all of them responded with an admirable amount of strength and resolve. It was Day Two of the search – of the nightmare – and the situation was beginning to look very bleak. The trail, which could have yielded all of the information that they needed had fate been kinder, was completely cold now that the previous evening's downpour had washed away all signs that would have pointed in whichever direction it had been heading in. There were so many ill things that could have befallen children so young that lost alone in the wilderness even if they had been unharmed when they escaped from Tanondor, as the former lord claimed they had. The guards themselves were weary and would run out of food soon unless at least some of them returned to the city to restock – robbing the search of valuable manpower. Hope was starting to dwindle, but it was not yet gone. As long as they had feet to stand on and strength enough to do just that the guards would never give up, even if their hearts broke in the effort. After all, it wasn't only the prince and princesses depending on them – it was King Elessar and Prince Legolas as well.

By now it was common knowledge that the prince had had a miscarriage. Beren had discreetly spread the word after informing King Thranduil and Lord Gimli of the matter, warning the guards that he was only doing so only so that they could understand the extend of Tanondor's crimes and the atmosphere in the camp that would come after the king's arrival; and letting them know under no uncertain terms that they were not to speak about it openly. Everyone there had been surprised when Prince Legolas had arrived with the king and as the evening progressed it became increasingly clear that he was in a bad way emotionally. None of the guards had dared to leave their tents when they heard angry shouts coming from the royal couple's tent (it wasn't a very big campsite and sound carried with relative ease, although the noise of the rain made it impossible to hear any of the actual words) or the sound of someone stirring outside during the in-between quiet spell. It was obvious that the poor prince wasn't ready to be there so soon after losing his baby and many of the guards suspected that King Elessar would be leaving them briefly to accompany his distraught husband back to Minas Tirith.

It came as quite a shock, then, to discover both King Elessar and Prince Legolas waiting for them at the open-aired check-in tent just beyond the circle of the campsite, deep in conversation. Prince Legolas didn't look half-crazed with grief as many of them had expected and the traces of helplessness that had been etching their king's expressions as of late were completely gone; they were standing side-by-side, grim-faced but determined, and looking every bit ready to take on the world. The guard Mardil, who'd barely been out of boyhood at the time of the War saw them and was suddenly reminded of the resolved ranger-general and loyal, brash, and focused elf prince of old.

"Your majesties," said Beren in shock, stopping when he saw them. He raised a fist in the air to let the rest of the guards know that they were to follow suit. "What are you doing here?"

"We're ironing out some details while waiting for all of you to put in an appearance," Aragorn told him in a short tone. "You all are late."

"We – we…weren't expecting to see you this early in the morning," stammered Beren, taken aback slightly by the king's tone. "We know that it's been a long night for the both of you" –

"You don't know the half of it," interrupted Aragorn dryly, feeling a little sorry for them but not too much. If they hadn't been expecting to see 'King Elessar' just wait until they beheld 'Aragorn'. "Don't get too comfortable, Men; you will only be staying long enough for the prince and I to lay out the new search strategy for you. We have much to do today and too few hours to do it in."

This all-business attitude was too much for the guards to comprehend at first. Had King Elessar forgotten what his own husband had just gone through? "My king," one of the newer guards said, tentatively stepping forward. Aragorn noticed how his concerned eyes strayed many times to Legolas and the Man wondered if he'd every seen his or the elf's true nature. Probably not, as then he would know that Legolas was more inclined to dole out black eyes than grateful tears to people who looked at him with such pity. "May I suggest that we discuss such delicate matters elsewhere? There are – those of us who have yet to recover from the trauma of yesterday present" –

"If there is anyone present who is too traumatized to even sit through a briefing, let him leave now and not be ashamed, for he will be ensuring that he is not allowing his weakness to hold the rest of us up," spoke up Legolas.

His voice was steady; aged and worn-down more than it had been before but still strong. The guards, however, didn't believe it for a minute – knowing their prince he wouldn't admit to how badly his stomach hurt if he'd been run through there with a spear. "Sire, we understand that circumstances" –

"Let's just get this out of the way now so that it won't be weighing us down for the rest of the search," sighed Legolas in frustration. "As you all undoubtedly are aware, I had a miscarriage yesterday. I thank you for your concerns and your condolences but do not make the mistake of thinking for one second that I'm moments away from completely falling apart. I mourn and I miss my daughter but I must keep moving ahead because standing still is not an option right now."

The young guard backed off and bowed deeply, as if he suddenly remembered that the prince consort was not just the king's spouse but someone who was to be respected and reckoned with in his own right. Aragorn noted this and wondered silently when it had become acceptable for the guards to question their authority and be surprised when they exercised it. Well, those times had come to an end. "Not that the prince had made all of that clear, let's get right down to it," he ordered in a stern voice. "We have a few matters that we need to discuss before we disassemble the base camp."

"Disassemble?" repeated Mardil in alarm. Had the king taken all leave of his senses?

"Yes, disassemble," affirmed Aragorn with a touch of impatience in his tone. He'd never been the kind of ruler that was so high and mighty that he couldn't tolerate reasonable dissention and productive debates when he had the luxury of time to address them but this was getting ridiculous. So far that morning the guards seemed to do nothing but question his commands and that wouldn't do, especially when so much was at stake. "The base camp has served its purpose well, but the areas surrounding it have already been searched. It needs to be moved as the search goes forward; we'll lose too much searching time if the camp remains where it is while the search perimeter goes somewhere else."

"But we need a place to check in each night!" protested Mardil worriedly, imagining all of the different search teams out wandering in different directions in the wilderness and the effort it would take to gather them together again once the search had come to an end. "Without it people could wind up searching for days after another party finds the prince and princesses."

Aragorn cocked his eyebrow and Mardil felt like an errant child all of the sudden. "Have you so little faith in my ability to lead you that you think I haven't already thought about that?" the king demanded. The guard bowed his head in shame. "I am well aware that I have not been acting like it lately but I am still your king and am still competent to command you."

"He only said that we were to take this camp down, not forego all base camps for the rest of the search," Legolas pointed out in a tone that left no room for arguments. Some of the guards looked on as if they wondering where their quiet, passive prince had gone but most of their faces lit up in recognition and relief. "We will carry what we need to the site of the new camp, set it up, and take it down when need demands it. We don't need a semi-permanent stronghold; speed and mobility will assist us more now."

"I beg your pardon, King Elessar, Prince Legolas," called out Beren, unconsciously and awkwardly raising his hand. "Moving the camp has definite merits, but before we move it we must know which direction to move it to. Through this action we will be narrowing down which different directions that the prince and princesses are suspected to be going in and we know nothing about that yet."

Aragorn crossed his arms and curled the corners of his mouth up with confidence. The problem with the guards wouldn't be resolved instantly but at least their questions pertained to the plan and not what was best for his husband and Men. It was progress. "We may not have any definite knowledge but we can and must use the information that we do have," reasoned Aragorn with a good deal of certainty. If he didn't want them to question him then he couldn't question himself either.

Besides, he loved it when he was able to slide the different puzzle pieces into place and his early morning discussion with Legolas had done wonders in terms of that. He'd forgotten how helpful it was to go over things with someone who was as strong in his opinions as he was in his faith in the king. "We know that the trail that Tanondor was found retracing his steps on was heading north," Aragorn went on, hurrying to the table under the tent to spread out a map. Legolas held one end flat while the guards gathered around. "We also know that he was ultimately heading to Dol Amroth but had to act as if he was going to Ithilien, which is pretty much in the opposite direction that he needed to go in. He would have needed to turn south-west, but that would take him too close to parts of Gondor that knew about the abduction unless he was far enough north to take the round-about way."

The guards observed in growing awe as Aragorn tore small pieces from the corner of a piece of parchment. "We are right here," he explained, setting down each piece as he pointed out a location. "Ithilien is here, and Dol Amroth is here. Based on what we've figured out so far we can conclude that we need not search any lands south of where we are now."

"We won't need to search as far west as Dol Amroth either," spoke up one of the guards enthusiastically. Now that he could actually see the potential search area laid out on a map it didn't seem so intangible and expansive. "Even a top speed Tanondor couldn't have gotten that far in less than twelve hours. Considering the time that he left and the time that he managed to walk to where he was found I would say that he couldn't have gone more than twelve leagues to the west at the most."

"Let's not forget that he would have wanted to get as far from the path to Ithilien as possible to make sure that King Thranduil wouldn't be able to hear the cart," pointed out another. "So searching the lands right next to there shouldn't be a high priority either."

"I'm pleased to see that we're all starting to think along the same lines," said Aragorn, using the pieces of parchment to roughly outline the search perimeter as he and Legolas had figured it earlier and the guards were reasoning it now. "As of right now, we're figuring about twelve leagues in each direction at the most. What else do we know?"

"Well, there is what Eldarion will presumably do to consider," chimed in Legolas. "He would have been able to discern from the cart's trail and the position of the sun what direction that they had been heading in before the time of their escape. While he obviously didn't follow that trail itself he would have chosen to go in the same general direction. If we can believe Tanondor about the approximate time that they got away, they could have covered more than a few miles."

"Yes – if he was clear-headed enough to think about all of that," countered another guard forlornly. "But he must have been one scared little boy."

Legolas bristled at this description of his son, though in the recesses of his heart he couldn't entirely disagree with it. He had such a hard time thinking of Eldarion as anything but a child at times; yet from Tanondor's frightened babblings and the actions he took before he was caught told another story. "He had the presence of mind to see through Tanondor's lies, fight back and win, and then sort through the supplies and presumably organize them and his little sisters; all while getting away before Tanondor awoke," he argued proudly. "He might indeed have been frightened but everything that we've learned so far suggests that he was thinking rationally at the time."

"Agreed," nodded Aragorn supportively. "He is almost thirteen, remember."

"And he has training beyond what most twelve-year-olds have," added Beren. "His family, friends, and even a few of us guards have been teaching him survival and tracking skills for most of his life. And let's not forget that he is of Numenorian and elvish blood, the child of our king and prince."

"Yes," said Legolas quietly, as if to himself. "It is not in his nature to lose his head when it counts."

"The prince is likely to have chosen a clear trail," suggested Beren. "He was in a place that was most likely strange to him so I can't imagine him deciding to go at it completely blind; yet I agree with Prince Legolas that he wouldn't have followed the cart trail – there was too much of a possibility that Tanondor would also take it when he woke up. My guess is that he would have decided to use something prominent and permanent as a guide – an unusual tree or mountain in the distance, perhaps, or a crude trail made by some of the country folk, or the river if they were anywhere near that when they escaped."

"He'll have left some sort of tokens behind them as well," said Legolas, feeling, well, not enthusiastic, but fueled with a new surge of energy. "Remember, he knew that his abductor was a Man who hadn't served in Gondor in any capacity except as an Advisor since the War and most likely hadn't bothered to keep his skills up-to-date. And he knew that the people that were coming to look for him that he did want to find the four of them would have much sharper eyes. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Eldarion is leaving a path behind him; we just have to find it."

Aragorn could feel his heard pounding in his chest. For the first time in longer than he cared to admit he felt like he was in control, as if the fog that was Tanondor's deceptions and his own passive complacency had been lifted and he could finally see clearly what needed to be done. "It's unlikely that we'll ever be in the position to follow them, though," he pointed out. "We'll be heading toward them, not after them."

"True," conceded Legolas with an internal groan of exasperation. He thought fast, determined not to be frustrated. There was a trail out there that led to his children – he was sure of it – and just because it would prove to be very difficult to find didn't mean that they would never find it; they just had to be more open-minded. He stared down at the map and inspiration hit. "But still, the point where they set out from can't be too far away – after all, Tanondor was able to walk the distance in less than a day. No matter how motivated he was he couldn't have gone any farther than the twelve leagues, and most likely less. Men on horseback could easily cover the distance in a fraction of the time."

"Point taken," concurred Aragorn, too caught up in the emotions that came along with everything starting to be as it should be again to notice how a few of the younger guards' mouths dropped open in shock at witnessing the prince contradict the king. "It should be easy enough to modify the plan to take that into consideration. We can pull some of the guards to ride ahead…"

The couple began to murmur animatedly to each other, gesturing with subtle wildness with their hands as they obviously illustrated various points of the plan that they had yet to lay out for the guards. The Men watched them in wonder and curiosity for a few moments before Beren felt compelled to clear his throat and get their attention. "I beg your pardon, sires," he apologized, "but what is the new plan?"

"You already know the first part, which is taking down the camp and carrying only what we need with us – meaning that everyone, including Prince Legolas and I, will have to share our tents with more people," plotted out Aragorn. He then turned to nod at Mardil, who gulped a little. "Then Mardil and the rest of his search time are going to lead us to the exact spot where they captured Tanondor. The closest piece of land that can serve as a campsite will be the new base camp. A minimum number of Men will remain there, charged with setting it up and keeping track of each search teams comings and goings. The rest of us will divide up what we've outlined on the map and search, leaving no stone unturned."

"Except for three of the search teams," chimed in Legolas, assessing each one of their faces carefully. "We can establish which ones they will be when the time comes but the Men led by Beren will be one of them. "When the other teams depart on their searches, those people will ride out twelve leagues in the west, north, and east. At that point, they will start combing the area for the natural guides that Beren mentioned earlier: a mountain, a notable tree in the distance, a trail of some sort, the river or any of its tributaries – something permanent that plausibly lends itself to being followed. Chose the ones that are promising, breaking into groups no smaller than two if you need to in order to follow them all, and do a thorough search back in the direction of where Tanondor was captured."

"Those Men don't need to report back to the camp at nightfall if they haven't met up with the searchers in their areas before then," added Aragorn thoughtfully. "If they feel that they be more effective by camping where they are when it gets dark than having to ride back and forth every day I'll grant them the discretion to do so."

The guards were wide-eyed; they looked like their hope had grown greatly since they first unexpectedly came across their king and prince waiting for them, but there was still some confusion there as well. Aragorn couldn't really fault them for that: it had to be a little disconcerting to have their own plan of action modified to become much more ambitious by a king who'd essentially been hibernating and a prince whom they'd expected to be too beside himself with grief to function. They would get used to it, however; what's more, judging by how well they responded after getting over the initial surprise the guards were more than happy to get used to it.

"Enough talking!" declared the Man. "We can work out the details further while we take down the camp and move out. For now, you know what must be done so start doing it! We're wasting precious time already!"

That order seemed to rattle the guards out of their surprise-induced semi-stupor. "Yes, King Elessar!" shouted some of them in one voice. They bowed deeply as best they could in that cramped space and set forth at once to make short work of the camp.

Legolas watched them go for a second or two, heading toward all of the tents including – ai Elbereth. He mentally smacked his forehead and turned a grim, fiery eye back to Aragorn. "What are we going to do about Tanondor?" he wondered.

"I forgot about him," admitted Aragorn. He let out an annoyed groan and glared in the direction of the tent that was serving as the disgraced lord's cell. "Well, we can't be dragging him all over with us and having him slow us down."

"Any clues that he might be able to give us as to what direction he came in could be helpful," Legolas debated with both his husband and himself. Then he deflated, his shoulders sagging a little as evidence that Aragorn and his own internal voice had won. "But I doubt it. Tanondor doesn't strike me as the type who can keep too many details straight in his head without proper motivations even under the calmest of circumstances, and he was definitely crazed and angry yesterday."

"We could try bribing him to make himself useful," suggested Aragorn without much enthusiasm. Why did that horrible Man have to continually hinder them?

The elf shook his head. "He knows by now that his fate is sealed," he said quietly. "At this point Tanondor will not assist the search unless we offer him in writing something that I cannot in good conscience bear to grant."

"We wouldn't be able to trust a word that came out of his mouth anyway," said Aragorn disgustedly, thinking back on all the times – all of the years – he'd taken the former lord's word as the truth. How long had he been thinking about acting against the royal family? Not only since Lady Nienor's death – his machinations had been too carefully plotted out to not have existed since before that time. "Besides, we're going to find our children with or without his help and I detest the notion of them having to come back to the same camp where they abductor is before traveling back to the city in the same party. That would be cruel."

"We'll just have to break down and have a small escort take him back to the city's dungeons," decided Legolas with a heavy sigh. "How I hate having to waste any manpower on him! Every guard that's tied up with that task is a guard who that can't be searching for Eldarion and the girls!"

"I think we can be of some assistance to you there," sounded a voice from the other side of the table, one that possessed a perpetually cheerful lilt even when it was deadly serious.

Legolas and Aragorn looked over to see that the hobbits, the twins, Gimli, and Thranduil had approached them while they'd been caught up in their discussion. "We have some eavesdroppers, it seems," Aragorn informed his love, raising an eyebrow at the rest of his family.

"What, you were expecting us to sleep in late only to be roused when some guards tripped over themselves to apologize for taking down our tent while we were still in it?" asked Elladan with a smirk. "I can't believe you forgot that we too are a part of the search party, Estel; or is your memory getting feeble in your old age?"

"Don't go teasing him now, Elladan! Can't you see that they have a problem on their hands and, like I said, we can help them out with it?" admonished Pippin with a shake of his head. "At least Sam, Merry, Estella, and I can. I hereby volunteer the four of us to see to it that scum-sucking, orc-kissing, spawn of the Enemy gets back to Minas Tirith and is thrown into the worst cell imaginable."

"You don't wish to join the search?" asked Aragorn, grateful but perplexed by the offer.

"We don't got much to bring to it," pointed out Sam, using his good hobbit sense. "We hobbits don't know a lot about the land in these parts and we're not great trackers. Sounds to me if you have to send anyone back with Tanondor it would be people like us."

"And what if Tanondor were to try to flee?" questioned Legolas.

A malicious glint came to Merry's eyes as he fingered the hilt of the long knife that he used as a sword. "Then I for one am more than willing to take the chance to spare everybody the bother of a proper trial," he declared, meaning every word of it to his core. "I've stuck uruks, orcs, and the Witchking; and I don't see how he's any different from any of them."

Legolas came around the table and knelt down, embracing all of them in their turn. "Thank you. Thank you," he added in a whisper in Estella's ear when he hugged the hobbit lass. She responded by giving him an extra-tight squeeze and an affectionate pat on the back. "I'm so sorry that I've been neglecting all of you as of late."

"None of that now, Mr. Legolas," scolded Sam paternally. "You were having a rough time of it and we all knew that. Don't go beating yourself up about it! We're your family – we understand."

"I hope that the same goes for me as well," smiled Aragorn as he joined his husband and grasped the hobbits' arms before letting go to scan for the nearest guard. "You there!" he called to one of them, who instantly rushed over. "Escort the Lords Samwise, Peregrin, and Meriadoc, and the Lady Estella to Tanondor's tent. I am entrusting them with making sure that he is dealt with in a fitting manner until the search is over with. Make very certain that their every order is followed to the letter."

The guard bowed and led the four hobbits off. Merry glanced back as the left to see Aragorn watching him. There were words of thanks that would be said later, but those would be unnecessary as the emotions in their eyes said all that they needed to say better than any words ever could. With a nod of acknowledgement the hobbit looked away and Aragorn turned to his brothers.

"Well," coughed the Man. "I didn't hear either of you nobly volunteering for anything."

"Must we keep reminding you that we are valuable members of the search party, Estel?" asked Elladan in feigned exasperation. "I do not doubt the guards' dedication but how many of them are both expert trackers and healers? We're right where we need to be! After all, it's not as if you'll be of any use if one of my poor nieces or nephew is found injured – Elrohir and I know all about what happened when Eldarion broke his arm."

"You weren't supposed to tell him that," said Legolas when his husband narrowed his eyes suspiciously at him. The elf smiled over at him, innocently apologetic, before stepping over to the twins. "Elladan, Elrohir – I owe you two an apology as well. I'm sorry that I threatened to kill you."

"No you're not," countered Elrohir nonchalantly. "You're just sorry that it was necessary to threaten us. And so are we – in truth we probably would have 'found' something wrong with you to keep you from doing something that we deemed you weren't ready for. We were wrong and we're sorry for that too."

The three young elves fell into a confused three-way hug, the type that they hadn't done since before the War. "All right, enough of that," announced Elrohir, mockingly echoing Aragorn's previous words. "The two of us are going to make ourselves useful by giving the guards a hand. Nice to see you back in top form, Estel," he added.

The two brothers began to walk away, only to pause and hurry back to trap their younger sibling between them in a crushing embrace before exiting once more for good. That left the royal couple alone with Gimli and Thranduil. The elven king – the proud, stubborn warrior leader who knew all too much about grief and fought all his life not to show it – had tears glistening in his eyes as he smiled warmly at his son. "You seem so…so like my Little Greenleaf again," he observed, his voice thick with emotion. "You both seem to have been restored."

"I only wish that it hadn't taken all of this happening to it," said Legolas, taking one of his father's hands and one of Gimli's. They stood like that for a moment before they too fell forward into an embrace. "I was such an ungrateful brat yesterday when you tried to help me! I'm so sorry."

"You don't need to be doing that, laddie," Gimli told him gently, pulling away a little and gesturing for Aragorn to come to them. The Man hesitantly complied, not sure of what to expect, and Gimli patted him on the arm. "Thranduil and I got to talking last night and we came to the realization that we've been contributing to this whole mess too with how we blindly went along with whatever orders were given to us."

"I mean, really," nodded Thranduil resolutely. "We spent hours sitting in some bushes when you needed us most – when our grandchildren needed us most – and for what reason? To follow an order that we would have realized was ludicrous if we had just taken the time to think it through properly! Well, there will be no more of that! Now that we have my Little Greenleaf and his husband back, it is only right that they have the old Thranduil and Gimli back as well."

Thranduil grabbed Legolas' face and planted a hard kiss on his brow. "I promise you that," he swore in a soft voice before straightening up again. "But what are we doing, standing around and chatting as if we have all the time in the world! There is work to be done!"

Aragorn and Legolas trailed behind as the elven king and Gimli charged to the campsite. "How are they defining the 'old Thranduil and Gimli'?" wondered Aragorn in a low voice. "I don't want your father regressing so for that he ends up not liking me again. That would be awkward – and embarrassing."

"That's not what he meant and you know it," Legolas rolled his eyes. "Things are going to get back to normal, that's all – or at least most things," he added, discreetly touching the stomach that was empty in a way that he could physically feel. A wave of sadness and pain washed over him and he did not try to smile bravely when Aragorn laid a hand on his shoulder worriedly. "It won't go away overnight, my love, and I doubt that it will ever leave fully; but I can either wallow in my misery or take down some tents before combing the countryside for four needles in a haystack. I think that we all will be better off opting to do the latter."

To be continued…