About five years after Legolas entered Fangorn…
A quiet unease had fallen over Fangorn Forest that morning. That in itself wasn't unusual – a similar feeling had come to the forest on that particular day each year for the last five years – but this year was different in that the Ents were finally acknowledging both it and the reasons behind it. 'Which,' the Ent Quickbeam mused as he walked briskly between the trees with his companion on his shoulder, 'weren't a complete mystery anyway. It is more than time that we got involved.'
He couldn't blame Treebeard and the other Ents for being so slow to agree with him; as far as they were concerned the troubles of elves and Men weren't supposed to be their business and if the survival of Fangorn wasn't at stake they didn't want to get involved. There was no threat now but still the current situation was their concern. Five years earlier a certain elf had made this their business when he took up residence in the forest. None of them had really believed Legolas when he claimed that he wished to make his stay there permanent, figuring that he was just tired of the outside world and intrigued by their trees, but now after he'd gone through so much and still remained it was clear to all that the elf wasn't going anywhere. While the Ents like or at least tolerated their respectful guest, other factors in the situation forced them to realize that something needed to change and that needed to happen soon.
For Quickbeam this was made doubly his concern by his travel companion that morning. Frolicking through his branches as he strolled along was Caladel, the baby that Legolas had delivered some months after his arrival to Fangorn. Though Ents generally took a long time to get attached to anyone, Quickbeam – the closest thing that there was to a hasty Ent – had been fond of him since soon after his birth and that feeling had only grown as the boy had. That bond combined with his relative speed (when compared with others of his kind) made Quickbeam the perfect minder for Caladel whenever his father was otherwise occupied. It was his attachment to the boy – who was both an elf and a Man; a well known fact though Legolas rarely spoke about it – that made the Ent both reluctant to do what he knew he had to do and more determined than most to do it.
Had the only issue on those days of unease only been that he needed to care for Caladel then he wouldn't have cared to do anything about it at all. Legolas never required Quickbeam's assistance in that manner often enough for it to become a nuisance, but the reasons why the Ent's help was required on the same day every year had started making him anxious a long time ago. Every spring without fail the elf would become seized with a terrible fit that lasted from the sunrise of one day to the sunrise of the next. Since elves, Quickbeam knew, felt grief more keenly than any of Eru's other children he had come to deduce that Legolas was continuously pained by a loss he'd endured one day in a previous spring.
'He probably came to Fangorn in the first place to get away from it,' the Ent rumbled internally. 'But there comes a time when one must move on physically before they can move forward in their other senses. That time came for Legolas a long while ago. I doubt that he's confronted whatever drove him into here and it will start crippling Caladel too if it's not dealt with soon.'
"Quickbeam?" Caladel's bright voice broke through the Ent's ponderings.
"Yes, little one?" asked Quickbeam.
The boy seemed almost startled. "You heard me that time!" he exclaimed. "I've been talking to you for a really long time but you weren't paying any attention. Very treeish behavior, if you ask me."
"Never lecture an Ent on the behavior of trees," rumbled Quickbeam warmly. "But you have my attention now; what is so important?"
"We're almost to the river," Caladel informed him, gesturing straight ahead. "I can see it now. Can you do the look-out?"
The elfling and his father went to the banks of the River Isen every morning to bathe and collect a day's worth of drinking water. Legolas' strange but hardly unusual fit didn't change the fact that Caladel still needed to do these things and it had fallen to Quickbeam to see to it that this was taken care of. Unfortunately this was as dangerous as it was necessary, as the boy enjoyed swimming and too often swam far enough that he went beyond the boundaries of the forest. A few feet was the farthest he'd ever gone – he'd never been out of Fangorn otherwise and being out in the open like that scared him a bit – but they still needed to practice extra caution lest he or Legolas be spotted by a random rider of Rohan or roaming eored. Thanks to the elf's sharp eyes and the Ents' awareness of their surroundings no being outside of the forest had ever laid eyes on Caladel before and he had never interacted with any of them.
That, however, was all about to change. "Caladel," said Quickbeam as he searched the surrounding areas of any sign of people. When he saw what he'd been half-hoping and half-dreading to see he steeled his resolve. "Do you ever desire to see the world beyond Fangorn Forest?"
Caladel frowned at the odd question. No one had ever asked him anything like it before, nor did they speak much about the topic. In fact, had it not been for the few times he'd spied on the Men who stopped by the Isen at times with their horses he wouldn't have believed that there was life beyond the borders of the forest. "I don't know," he finally answered. "I've never thought about it before, but…well, no, not really. What could I get out there that I don't already have in here?"
"Someone to play with perhaps," suggested Quickbeam. "A child like yourself whom you could run around with and get into all sorts of mischief."
"Ada says that there's no one else like me," replied Caladel in a matter-of-fact voice; "at least no one that we'll ever see."
"Well, what about just someone your own age?" Quickbeam inquired. "Come now, little one: have you never longed for a companion who wasn't your father or an Ent? A playmate that you can climb trees with instead of one who lets you climb him?"
"I climb trees with Ada, and I enjoy climbing you," countered Caladel merrily. "What more could a playmate my own age give me? I haven't had one before and I don't think I'm any worse off because of it."
"But would you like one?" Quickbeam continued to press. "Do you miss having a friend who's more like yourself?"
The boy shook his head resolutely. "How can you miss something that you never had?" he asked rhetorically. "I have you, Ada, and all the other Ents and trees in the whole of Fangorn! Why would I need even more friends on top of that?"
It was an innocent question from a naïve child but still Caladel's words made Quickbeam falter for a second. After all, the world outside of Fangorn was full of confusion and pain – Legolas and his grief were yearly reminders of that. The elf seemed to be fine on every other day of the year and Caladel was content in his lack of experience; who were he and the other Ents to mettle in that?
He shook the feeling off quickly. 'Caladel speaks as he does because he doesn't know any better,' Quickbeam reminded himself. 'Legolas chose this life for the both of them when he was upset and not thinking clearly. Now he needs to regain control of his life because Caladel deserves to know what else could be out there for him besides constant exile here. Do not let your regard for the two of them interfere in what's best for them!'
"What about family?" asked the Ent slowly. "I know that Legolas has told you that you two have at least one family member who lives beyond the forest. Do you wish, then, that you had more than just your father in your life in that respect?"
"I love Ada," answered Caladel firmly. He wished that he could have added that he didn't care about getting to know the rest of his family but that wasn't always true. Most of the time he didn't think about it; but sometimes his ada got in a strange mood and started telling stories about his life before Caladel was born. It was on those nights when he dreamed about a land in another forest where his brave grandfather was king, a gruff but kind dwarf who looked beyond everything he'd been taught about elves to care about his father, and those cheerful and courageous hobbits who saved the world. This never failed to pique Caladel's curiosity, and the way that Legolas' eyes shone as he told these tales made the boy think that he wasn't the only one who sometimes longed to see any one of them just once.
Legolas never suggested that they go to visit King Thranduil, Gimli, or Frodo, Merry, Sam, and Pippin, though; nor did he ever say anything about inviting one of them to come for a visit. There were reasons why father and son had to stay hidden, even from those who Legolas obviously cared about and missed; Caladel understood that this was so even though he didn't know specifically why this had to be. The whole topic seemed to make his father very sad and the boy, not wanting to cause him any more pain, had never questioned him about it.
No one had ever brought up any of this in the past, not even the more reserved Ents who wouldn't have been entirely unhappy to see the two elves leave the forest once and for all. It seemed strange to Caladel that his closest friend was doing it now. "Why are you asking me all of this?" the boy demanded suspiciously. "Do you know something that I don't?"
"Many things," Quickbeam couldn't help but respond dryly. "You'd have to live a long time before you'll know all that I do now and by then I'll know more and you'll still have much to catch up on."
"I don't mean in general," said Caladel, exasperated. "I mean about me and Ada. You're asking a lot of odd questions."
"Not odd," mused Quickbeam. "They are just questions that you haven't yet considered seriously. You will have to give them honest answers soon enough."
"Why?" quizzed Caladel insistently. "It's not like I'm leaving…that's it, isn't it? Are Ada and I going on a trip? Is that why you're with me today and not him? Is he planning something, for my birthday maybe?"
"I don't know what your father's plans are for your birthday – that's still about eight months away – but the answer to the rest is yes, in a way, and no," replied Quickbeam. "Legolas is in no condition to be planning anything, let alone your journey out of Fangorn."
This conversation was getting odder by the second. "I don't understand any of this," he complained plaintively. "Please tell me what's going on, Quickbeam."
"Your father is ill," replied Quickbeam solemnly. The boy gasped. "Do not be too alarmed, little one; this is just a passing fit, as it has always been. Do you not remember how ill he got last year at this time?"
"Kind of," said Caladel uncertainly, suddenly afraid. He'd been too young to comprehend his father's distress in the years before but last year…. Seeing Legolas writhing in agony, groaning and babbling nonsense had scared him badly; it had been like his ada hadn't even known that he was there. He'd started to scream for help and Treebeard and Quickbeam and responded with uncharacteristic hastiness, escorting the frightened elfling away from his father with just as much speed while Legolas continued to moan and weep. It was then that they had explained that this sort of thing had happened before and would pass soon enough.
That had turned out to be true enough but still Caladel hadn't quite fully recovered emotionally from the experience. "Is he – Ada's sick again, isn't?" he asked in a small voice.
"Yes, little elfling, he is," answered the Ent solemnly as he stared off into the distance.
"And this time he'd not going to get better?" fretted the boy tearfully, trying to imagine his life without his father and almost falling off of Quickbeam in his grief.
"I have no doubt that he'll recover," replied Quickbeam, choosing his words carefully, "but if he continues on as he has been he will never truly get better. I've come to believe, Caladel, that your father came to Fangorn to find healing for his affliction. Most likely he thought that being among the trees that he held in so much reverence would soothe his spirit but now it's plain to see that the forest can do him no more good – if indeed it did any at all. Treebeard and I love you both and want only what's best for you, and we both have concluded that the time has come for Legolas – and you – to start the next part of your journey."
"What journey?" demanded Caladel, not liking the sound of this at all. "I've never gone anywhere outside of the forest in the first place, except –"
Caladel's voice cut off as his sharp ears picked up the sound of hooves pounding against the ground in the distance. There – he could see a whole group of horsemen (an eored, if they were the same people that he and his father sometimes saw there) coming straight for the river, close to where the water met the forest. This was usually the point where he and Legolas hid; Quickbeam had to have known this but it was clear to Caladel that the Ent had no intentions of moving.
"Quickbeam," he whispered urgently. "There are people coming. Let me down so that I can find shelter until they leave."
Quickbeam took him into his hands and pulled Caladel off his shoulder enough to look him in the face, but did not place him on the ground. The boy could have sworn that there were tears in the Ent's eyes. "Quickbeam?" he asked nervously.
"You need to go out to the river, Caladel," Quickbeam told him gently. "Get a drink, fill all of the water bottles, go swimming if you wish, and wait. The riders approaching – Men of Rohan, if I see their markings correctly – will be here soon. You need to go to them, little one; and when they ask you who you are, tell them your name and say that your father is ill. Then they will most likely ask you to take them to him and you're going to have to do that, for both yours and your father's sakes."
Now that he knew what was happening Caladel wished that he had never asked. "I don't want to," he pleaded as tears formed in his eyes. "Ada – Ada says that I'm not supposed to speak to anyone without his permission because there are bad things in the world. What if those Men are bad?"
"I will be right here watching over you," promised Quickbeam. "If they have evil intentions then I will stomp on a few and leave the rest to the mercy of the trees. But I don't believe that they will mean to harm either of you. Now swear to me, Caladel; swear to me that you'll do everything I'm telling you to do."
"No," sobbed the boy, the tears falling freely now. "I'd miss you too much, and the other Ents, and the trees. Ada wouldn't want to leave either; this is our home."
"And it will always be here," returned Quickbeam with a kindly firmness. "But you need to see the world outside of Fangorn and Legolas needs help that is beyond what we can give him. The Men will want to take your father to a healer, Caladel, and you will have to go with them."
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Elfhelm breathed a sigh of relief when the River Isen finally came into view. It had been a rough few weeks for him and his eored, spent in the northernmost part of Rohan settling disputes between the Rohirric villages there and the Dunlanders. The hurts that the Wild Men had inflicted while under the command of Saruman had been punished but not easily forgotten and this wasn't the first time that King Eomer had been obliged to send some Men out there to keep the peace. For these tired Rohirrim the river not only meant ready access to fresh water; it also meant that they were one step closer to Edoras – and home.
"The river is in sight and straight ahead," Elfhelm called back to his Men.
Murmurs of elation and relief buzzed behind him and his second-in-command, Léod, soon rode to his side, letting out a breath long held as he too saw the flowing waters. "I am glad to see the Isen," said Léod with a wry smile, "but it also pains me to arrive at it so soon in the day! I was hoping that we would be able to make camp by it tonight but now we still have time to rendezvous with Forwin's eored at the Glittering Caves by nightfall. I don't relish the idea of having to sleep so close to a dwarvish settlement."
"The king finds the dwarves trustworthy enough," said Elfhelm with a frown. "They are there with his permission, after all. Do you not trust your king?"
Léod noted the disapproval in his commander's tone. "Of course I do," he replied, feeling rightly reprimanded. "And I trust the dwarves' lord too, for he has already proven himself to be loyal and friendly to our people; but what of the rest of them? I do not mistrust them as I would a potential servant of the enemy but I will still be sleeping lightly tonight."
"Take heart, my friend," said Elfhelm as he gestured for his Men to ride around him to the water. "We still have time to tarry here for a bit. The horses can drink, we can refill our water bottles and even bathe, and when we get to the Glittering Caves later on we can be assured that we're the cleanest ones there."
"Now there's something that I always wanted," quipped Léod dryly.
While Elfhelm's attempt at a joke fell flat with his second-in-command the rest of the Rohirrim made their way to the river's edge. All around Men were jumping enthusiastically into the river or greedily drinking up the water, but one young Rohirrim named Alfmund stayed subdued. The next part of their journey troubled him more than he cared to admit, for it would take him back to Helm's Deep for the first time since the great battle there. Alfmund had been thirteen back then, obliged to fight along with his younger brother. He was still standing when Gandalf came with the future king and reinforcements; his brother had fallen early into the night. Needless to say, that place held a lot of sorrowful memories and he was not eager to revisit it.
Perhaps it was the memory of the Battle of Helm's Deep and recalling the mixture of terror, wonder, and relief he felt when the Huorns finished off the uruk-hai once and for all that made him glance down the river into Fangorn Forest. Perhaps it was just a coincidence. Whatever the reason, Alfmund did indeed look and so was the first to spot a rather strange sight: a blonde child, walking out of the forest toward them. Goggling at the apparition, the young Man was further amazed to see that the child had pointed ears and so was not a child at all, but a young elf.
"My lord!" he called as loudly as he dared, not wanting to frighten the elf in any way. "My lord Elfhelm! Come quickly!"
"Yes, what is…" Elfhelm's voice trailed off when he followed Alfmund's line of vision and laid eyes on the mysterious child.
Caladel was shaking when he finally got close enough to the strangers to speak. He prayed that they didn't notice, but how could they not with them staring as they were? Why did they have to do that? Wasn't it enough that he was farther away from the forest than he'd ever been before and approaching people he'd never before had to interact with? Why couldn't he just run back into Fangorn and let them wonder?
But Quickbeam was expecting him to do this and these Men were supposed to help his father so he had to stay. "Hello," greeted Caladel, darting his eyes nervously between the Men and their horses.
"Hello," stammered Elfhelm, struggling to find the right words as he looked into the child's blue eyes. "I'm – I – I'm sorry, young one, if we disturbed you; I for one was not aware that elves dwell in Fangorn."
"There are only two of us," replied Caladel, stalling. "Me and my father."
"Oh," was Elfhelm's only reply.
This was it; oh how he didn't want to do this! "My name is Caladel," the boy said, feeling lost for one of the few times in his life. "My father is very sick. Could you please help him?"
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
'This,' decided Elfhelm with a surprising amount of detachment, 'is probably the worst command decision that I have ever made.'
Few would argue with that, for after leaving behind the vast majority of his Men and only taking a willing few with him he'd actually entered Fangorn Forest – home to trees that he'd witnessed destroying things that go about on two legs – with naught but a little boy to guide them. Every step he took he could feel the trees watching him and whispering. "I don't care for this at all," he muttered anxiously. "It feels like they're plotting against us."
"Not exactly," Caladel spoke up. "They just don't like you. They've told me what people have done to them. I dare say that if your places were reversed and it was them who attacked your home, took axes to your people, and set you on fire you wouldn't be terribly happy to find them wandering where you live either."
"You – you can understand what the trees are saying?" wondered Alfmund in amazement.
"The forest is my home," replied Caladel wistfully. "I've lived here all my life and grew up listening to their language. They tell me things so that I don't repeat the mistakes made by others that go about on two legs."
Fantastic; now he had to learn that their child guide related more to the whispering, scary trees than he did to the Men that followed him. Elfhelm was about to ask him to translate for them when a low, miserable groan cut through the air. "What was that?" he asked. He immediately had the unsettling thought that it was some other traveler who'd foolishly entered the forest and fell victim to the trees.
"It's Ada," said Caladel, his misery turning to fright. He dashed ahead so quickly that the Rohirrim had a hard time keeping up on the uneven terrain, not stopping until he reached his father. Legolas was sprawled out on the ground with his face buried in his arms. "It's going to get better, Ada," the boy said soothingly as he stroked his father's hair.
"Let me see how bad off he is," said Elfhelm, kneeling down on the elf's other side. Carefully he rolled over the prone body and let out a stunned gasp. "Dear Valar, it's Prince Legolas!"
"The Prince Legolas?" marveled Alfmund as he and the others gathered around close. This was apparently the day for surprises.
"Yes – don't crowd him!" Elfhelm scolded them all. He looked across at Caladel with renewed curiosity while the boy whispered to Legolas quietly in elvish. "Do you mean to tell me that your father is Prince Legolas of the Nine Walkers?"
"I don't know anything about this Walker stuff, but Legolas is my ada's name," replied Caladel uneasily. He didn't like the idea that these strange Men knew something about his ada that he didn't and, judging but their shocked but admiring stares, he could tell that this wasn't the only thing. "But none of that's important right now! Can you help him?"
Elfhelm slowly shook his head. "Not if we stay here," he responded, still staring numbly at the reportedly missing prince. "But there are proper healers in Edoras. We shall make haste for there at once. Caladel, gather what you and your father need and come with me."
"But sir!" protested one of the Men. "What about the rendezvous at the Glittering Caves?"
The commander cursed under his breath. "We cannot in good conscience ignore that," he decided, scooping Legolas up into his arms. The elf prince didn't seem to weigh anything. "Nor can we leave Prince Legolas in this state. Therefore Léod will lead you on to the rendezvous and I will care for him. I can make it back to Edoras faster alone anyway."
"What about the boy, sir?" asked Alfmund in a lower voice, glancing discreetly at Caladel as the elfling hastily went about stuffing things into worn-looking packs. "All three of you can't fit on one horse and he should not be separated from his father. Allow me to volunteer to accompany you and bear Caladel on my steed."
"Very good," nodded Elfhelm.
Legolas stirred in his arms, groaning dark tidings of loss and heartache and mumbling something that sounded like, "two minutes." Elfhelm's heart lurched; the elf didn't sound good, and he was very pale and light as a feather. It was clear that he needed help right away. If they hurried out of the forest and pushed the horses to their limit they might reach Edoras before the next day. He could only hope that the healers there would know how to tend to an ill member of the Eldar race.
To be continued…
A/N: I have a map of Middle-earth and I know that it's probably not feasible to get from Fangorn to Edoras in one day but that's what suits my needs and that's how it's going to be.
Some meanings for the new names: Caladel – 'light of an elf'; Léod – I don't know but it was in the appendices under the section about Rohan; Alfmund – 'elf protector' or else 'protection of elves'; and Forwin – I'm not sure. I found it on the same Anglo-Saxon name website that I found Alfmund on but I can't piece together a probable interpretation. All I can tell is that it means is someone's friend ("-win" means 'friend').