Thranduil shifted his shoulders, adjusting to the weight of a quiver on his back. He stared at himself in his wardrobe mirror, accepting that his leather tunic and boots meant he was going hunting.

"You will do fine," Harune encouraged.

Thranduil turned to look at his father sitting on the bed. "This is not a walk in the woods with Kryn shooting rabbits and squirrels. This is a hunt."

"It may be a hunt, but you know well enough you do not have to do anything you are not comfortable with. I know I cannot be with you, but Hyrondal will be at your side."

"And Marseille will be waiting to throw herself on me and kiss me when I return," Thranduil sighed. "She is such a leech."

"Marseille is too elegant to be a leech or throw herself on you," Harune chided. "And be kind; she has been raised to expect to marry you. In her eyes, she is doing her duty."

Thranduil wrinkled his nose. "I do not know about her, but I will not marry her."

"Such thoughts are years away," Harune said. "Now, go, the hunting trip is only three days long and there is to be a grand celebration afterwards."

Thranduil glanced out the window at the green shoots plying the branches of the trees. "I know. Spring equinox is one of my favorite celebrations and Jade, Onyx, and Sapphire are all coming."

"I did not know Jade was coming home!" Thranduil said. "I thought she was still in The Iron Hills?"

"Your sister does not make it her business to neglect important elvish holidays, even if she was surrounded by dwarves," Harune replied, his eyes twinkling.

A horn bellowed outside and spiraled to echo in the trees. Thranduil quickly pinned on his cloak and grabbed his bow. He and Harune walked down to the stables together. Harune joined Ailunai, Nimrethil, and Jailil to wave goodbye.

Yuai headed the party of huntsmen. Dressed in greens and browns, arrows bristled in the elves' quivers and the horses pawed the ground. Thranduil hugged Harune goodbye, kissed Ailunai, and stepped into the stirrup of his horse beside Hyrondal, already mounted.

Yuai clucked to his horse and the hunting party started, riding out onto the road that looped around the palace and led out into the trees. As Thranduil rounded the palace, he saw the road lined with women in silk, holding onto the elbows of their lords, encircled by spindly elflings. He spied Marseille waving her handkerchief and dabbing at her eyes and did his duty by blowing her a kiss.

Thranduil squinted at a familiar figure poised on a horse on the road ahead. His heart sank as he rode closer; it was Oropher wearing his crown.

"Perhaps I neglected to mention the King will accompany us," Yuai said.

Thranduil built a smile onto his face. Dressed in a green silk tunic topped with a leather breastplate and a cloak flowing from his shoulders, Oropher did not turn as Thranduil and Yuai rode up beside him.

Thranduil glanced at the longbow strapped to Oropher's horse before he trained his eyes ahead and followed Oropher's lead down the road to fanfare and flowers. Slowly his smile became real as he passed the servants and farmers gathered to say goodbye. He saw Nimrethil jumping up and down and raised his hand, causing Oropher to let out a heavy breath.

Ailunai blew him a kiss and Jailil waved but Thranduil waved the hardest to Harune before the road rounded the first stand of trees and cut the palace out of sight. Immediately Oropher's head whipped to the side to glare at Thranduil. "Your feelings are misplaced! How dare you disgrace me by saluting the lower classes?"

"Forgive me, my king," Thranduil answered. "I found my hand heavy with falsity at the time we passed the nobility."

Oropher growled. "Do not make another mistake on this hunt, Thranduil."

"I will do my best, my king," Thranduil said.

Yuai took the lead on the open road, his horse nodding its head as the elves headed out into the northern part of the forest and soon left the road behind. Oropher rode safe flanked by the hunters as they passed small farms and glimpsed villages built on solid rock foundations before the land turned wilder by nightfall.

As Hyrondal built a fire and two of the huntsmen set up a dozen rabbits to roast over the flames, Thranduil sat on a tree trunk and pondered: he had seen the great wild boar spitted over feasting fires, sizzling and popping with fat, big enough to feed a crowd twice over. He wondered what the animals looked like alive.

Hyrondal sat down beside Thranduil as Yuai entered the fire-lit circle. "I did not know his majesty was coming," Hyrondal said, and gestured discreetly to Oropher's tent set up under two trees.

Thranduil sighed. "He wanted me to join him in "the King's camp" but I do not want to feel like I am still at the palace."

The forest whispered dark around them as the elves ate dinner and settled down to sleep. Thranduil heard the horses neighing and crunching on the young leaves near where they were tethered as he flopped down on his bedroll beside Hyrondal and fell asleep.

Yuai's horn awake the camp at the break of dawn. Thranduil yawned in the cool air as he scrambled upright and rolled up his bedroll. By the time the first ray of sun rose, the camp was packed, and the elves mounted. The hunting party pushed forward.

Yuai's shoulders tensed as he gestured to snapped sticks and deep hoofprints in the rich soil. Low tree branches were broken in jagged pieces. The land began to slope uphill and the narrow path wound out onto a hill. The path was cut into the side of the slope, with hills and trees at the top of the hill and reaching up from the steep incline below the path, but only grass grew on the upward hillside. The sunshine was warm as the elves left the tree line behind and started two abreast down the path.

"I want you and Thranduil to stay in the back," Yuai said, falling back beside Hyrondal. "We are in boar territory now and the animals are dangerous."

"I do not see how we are to learn anything or partake if we are being treated like onlookers!" Hyrondal grumbled, as he obeyed Yuai's order. He brushed against the last tree before reaching the sunshine and frowned.

Thranduil brushed against a tree and frowned. He glimpsed the tree's view of the forest. His mind jumped between branches and slid down vines. He halted his horse to stop and touch the tree trunk and saw the boar casting a long shadow and pawing up dirt with its hooves. As he watched as if from a high branch above the creature, it raised its head with tusks like lances and snorted. It was answered with louder snorts and Thranduil became aware the boar was not alone.

Thranduil jumped back to himself as the animal moved. He looked at Hyrondal and saw Hyrondal take his hand off the same tree. He knew Hyrondal had seen it too.

Hyrondal cleared his throat. "Thranduil, Yuai does not believe the things I tell him the trees tell me."

"We have to try and tell him," Thranduil answered, and pressed his horse into a trot. He caught up with Yuai, forced slightly uphill off the path because of the narrow trail and the drop downhill.

"I told you two to stay in the back," Yuai said.

Hyrondal pointed up the hill. At the top, the trees sprang up again as the hill sloped down, out of sight. "The boar are up there; Thranduil and I saw the herd."

Yuai glanced up the hill. "I doubt we could have missed the herd."

"You cannot see it from here," Thranduil said. "The herd is up over the rise and headed straight for us."

"This is not the time for childish lies, Thranduil," Yuai said coldly.

"It is a herd, Yuai!" Thranduil cried. "It will charge into our flank and sweep us down the drop! I saw the boar through the trees."

Yuai laughed. Oropher snapped, "Thranduil, return to your place in line!"

Thranduil looked at Hyrondal and bit his lip. He grunted with frustration and wheeled his horse around. The huntsmen were looking at him with pity and disgust in their eyes as he rode to the back of the line with Hyrondal.

"I cannot believe Yuai!" Thranduil cried. "The boar will move fast coming down the hill and it is a steep drop down the other side."

Hyrondal turned his horse off the narrow path uphill. "If Yuai will not listen, we cannot be deaf as well. Maybe we can turn the herd. Come on!"

The horses plowed uphill, straining their shoulders until they frisked their tails and reached the crest. The crest dipped down into a short ditch of bare dirt that ended at the tree line.

Thranduil swallowed as he looked at hoofprints the size of his face in the soft ground. He and Hyrondal pressed on, ducking under low branches as they headed into the rapidly thickening forest. A low rumble halted them.

The ground shook in warning and seconds later the boar plunged down the hill, bawling and tossing their heads. They burst out of the trees, struck out across the ditch, and crested the hill. Chunks of dirt flew up from their hooves and branches snapped across their broad backs.

Almost too late, Thranduil and Hyrondal jerked their horses back.

Red eyes and jutting tusks had the boars. Their legs were short and thick and angry tails bounced behind them.

Thranduil and Hyrondal turned their horses to charge alongside the herd, the slope of the hill aiding their pace. No amount of screaming or shoving nudged the stampede over an inch.

Thranduil glanced downhill with drawn eyebrows; the herd was on a path that would take them straight through the flank of the elves trapped on the narrow path swiftly approaching. The elves were turning their horses around and scrambling back the way they had come, but the broad front of the herd was too wide; it would be too late for too many elves.

Thranduil nocked an arrow to his bowstring. He held onto his horse with his knees as he picked out a rolling red eye and let his missile fly. The boar plowed to a halt in the dirt with the arrow in its eye, but the rest of the herd only squealed and went faster.

"Hyrondal!" Thranduil shrieked. "No! Stop!"

But Hyrondal, ten paces ahead of Thranduil with his feet balanced on the sides of his saddle, made no move to stop in his leap from the back of his horse to the back of the lead boar. He landed, almost tumbled, and latched onto the boar's neck with his knees. His dagger glittered in the sun before he slammed it through the animal's skull and twisted. Hyrondal heaved and the dying animal jerked aside, leading the rest of the herd in a new direction. Paces ahead of the panicked hunting party, the herd flashed by and plunged down the steep slope into the forest below.

"Hyrondal!" Thranduil yelled. He jerked his horse to a stop and jumped to the ground, abandoning his bow as he ran to see if his friend had been taken over the drop by the lead boar. "Hyrondal!"

"Here," his friend croaked.

Thranduil turned around; Hyrondal was squirming out from underneath the pressing weight of the dead boar collapsed on the hillside above the path. He tried to pull his dagger out of the animal's skull but have up and ran to grab the reins of his free horse before it bolted.

The hunting party had calmed their panicked horses and turned back onto the path. Several of the elves dismounted to surround the two slain boars. Oropher rode up to Thranduil and remarked, "We will feast well this equinox."

Thranduil glanced at the boar with his arrow in its eye. "I am glad to give my kill to celebrate the coming of spring."

Hyrondal dared to meet Oropher's eyes and bow. "I too am glad to share my kill in celebration of spring, my king. I give my boar to feed my people."

Thranduil straightened his shoulders and prepared for a fight as Oropher said coolly, "What your people do is not my concern, but the benefits of this hunt go to those of noble blood."

Hyrondal dipped his head. "It is my kill and my choice, my king. I do not care to feed your people at a celebration where I am not welcome."

Oropher's eyes blazed. "I forbid it! I am the only one who can."

Hyrondal felt Oropher's eyes twist through him as he looked up. "The ancient rite of the hunt, my king, says the hunter chooses where the meat goes. I, the hunter, have decided."

Oropher's lips twisted. Thranduil rode up next to Hyrondal. "I support Hyrondal's decision, my king. Remember my boar is yours for the feasting."

Oropher wheeled his horse away so abruptly, the animal snorted in protest. Hyrondal stepped into his stirrup and swung into his saddle. He looked at Thranduil. Thranduil said, "The hunter's rite will be the next thing brought up at the council meetings. I will fight it."

Hyrondal looked after Oropher's stiffly retreating figure. "I do not understand why he is so selfish."

Thranduil looked down at his hands clenched on his reins. "I wish he would not separate people into classes. We are all his people."

Yuai rode up as the huntsmen finished lashing the boar to woven mats of branches harnessed to the horses.

"What you and Thranduil did was dangerous," Yuai said. He smiled. "But I am proud of you."

Happy New Year! If you have not yet read A Nin Chronicles Yule, please do enjoy it, my gift to all of you.

I am full of gratitude for all of you who have constantly nourished each chapter of this story into fruitful being. Thank you!

As always, your thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Next Chapter: Thranduil is set an impossible task.