Chapter 7: The Advisor's wrath

by Elven Hope

Rogir stared at his brother, he couldn't speak, Aradwyn would find out. He thought desperately for a second trying to get himself out of the awkward situation.

"Well?" Aradwyn asked."I'm waiting."

Rogir hesitated gritting his teeth. Then he spoke praying that his voice would not make the same terrible sound. "Nothing." He closed his eyes in disbelief, it had happened.

"What was that?" Aradwyn asked curiously.

"What?" Rogir asked before he could stop himself, but the sound came again and he clamped his jaw shut.

"Your voice," Aradwyn said slowly.

"He has a sore throat," Elladan said trying desperately to help his friend.

"Really?" Aradwyn asked suspiciously.

"Yes really." Elrohir answered crossly. Then he paused seeing that Aradwyn had a hand held behind his back. "What are you holding?"

"Nothing." Aradwyn said deciding that dropping in on his brother and the twins may not have been such a good idea.

"Oh yes you are," Elladan said. "What is it?"

"Nothing," Aradwyn said again edging backwards so that he could make a run for the door.

"That's Erestor's book isn't it?" Elrohir asked.

"And what if it is?" Aradwyn asked.

"You have to put it back!" Elladan said. "Erestor will kill you if he finds you with it!"

"And then he'll kill us too because we knew about it." Elrohir said.

"I'll put it back when I'm done reading it." Aradwyn said and left the room without another word. Elladan and Elrohir exchanged worried glances they had finally come to the conclusion that Aradwyn was indeed psychotic.

Later that day the twins were sitting on a balcony looking out over a field which contained a beautiful lake, a reasonable amount of trees, and Aradwyn who had decided to read the purloined book there. Rogir had gone off in a huff looking for Admir. Arwen was out picking flowers with her friends and Estel was somewhere with Legolas. They should have probably checked on their little brother and his companion for neither would survive long if left alone together, but they were far more interested in what would happen when Erestor found that it was Aradwyn who had stolen his book. The chief advisor had been searching the whole of Imaldris for the book thief and there was most certainly going to be an amusing out come to all of this.

"He's asleep," Elrohir said turning away from the game of chess which sat on the table between them and looking out over the pond to Aradwyn who was slumped against a tree trunk.

"And people call us lazy." Elladan said smiling wryly. Elrohir turned back to the game and looked at the board confused. "You were in check."

"No I wasn't," Elladan protested, but his smile spread even further.

"Oh yes you were," Elrohir said moving the black king back to his rightful square.

"No I wasn't," Elladan said moving his king back.

"You were."

"No I wasn't"

"Yes you were."

"No I wasn't"

"Yes you..."

"You wouldn't have happened to see a missing copy of Gilfanon's tale would you by any chance?" Asked a serene voice.

Both twins stopped fighting immediately and turned to see Lord Erestor standing there his expression livid clutching a quill which to Elrohir looked and seemed like an extremely dangerous weapon. Both twins looked at each other for a second, the possibility that they would get out of this situation alive was a slim one, especially if Erestor saw that Aradwyn had the book and thought they were accomplices.

"Aradwyn did it!" Elladan yelled pointing down at the sleeping elf and jumping out the way before Erestor could slaughter him in his rage.

"Why that..." Erestor ground out through gritted teeth. "Just wait; just wait until I get my hands on you." With that he turned and stormed off towards the stairs Elladan and Elrohir following a safe distance behind him. Elrohir knew that if Erestor was angered he may actually use that quill as a weapon especially when there was a book being held hostage.

Erestor walked around the pond and over to Aradwyn stopping in front of him hands on hips, his expression livid. Sensing someone above him Aradwyn stirred clutching the book even tighter and Erestor coughed.

Aradwyn woke with a start his eyes widening in fear as he saw the furious advisor standing above him. He stood up slowly grabbing the book and hiding it quickly behind his back, if Erestor thought he was getting it back yet he was quite mistaken, Aradwyn hadn't finished reading it yet.

Erestor held out his empty hand for the book and Aradwyn stepped backwards. Elladan and Elrohir watched quite amazed that someone had actually chosen to defy the chief advisor.

Aradwyn smiled quickly and turned to run. The only problem was that he misjudged his height by a good few inches and his head came in contact with an over hanging tree branch. He shook his head stupidly trying to clear his vision of stars.

Doing his best to stop himself breaking out in laughter Erestor moved forwards and grabbed the book from the stunned elf's hand.

Aradwyn shook his head hard trying to make sense of what was happening blinking slowly to clear his vision. He looked up at Erestor dimly and grinned making him look like some sort of daft lemur before turning and attempting once again to escape before he was torn to smithereens.

However, he still had no control over his balance and lost his footing. He fell over so that he was lying on his back looking up into Erestor's wrathful eyes. "Uh-oh."

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