"Legolas!"
Somebody called after him, he didn't turn to look and the roaring in his ears made it impossible to discern the voice. Even if he had known, he wouldn't have stopped. He would have ignored even his father.
It was nearly a struggle to refuse the urge to slam his fist into the nearest solid object; the only thing that kept him from doing it was the knowledge that it would most definitely break his hand in several places. And he needed both his hands to use his bow, which was important because he planned to leave at morning light to retrieve the body of a friend they had been forced to leave behind.
Even he would not attempt going into that area of the forest at nightfall, he would never risk his warriors lives like that. The only reason they had gone in the first place was to get new seeds for a flower they used in antivenom and it had cost them a life.
A life he was supposed to protect. A body he was supposed to bring back to her people, at the very least.
And he had left her.
Trusted her into the safe arms of tree roots, cradled away from the harm that had ended her life. Waiting for them to come back for her, to take her back to her mother and rest under the same tree her father was.
Unless the Orcs were feeling particularly vengeful that day and tore the tree from the ground to get at her, just to spite them. Or for sport.
The blood seemed to boil in his veins and the trees visibly shrank away from him, pulling all there branches upwards and roots lower. He was the one their king loved like no other, and so the forest did as well, but even they knew better than to attempt anything when he was like this.
An unsuspecting elf turned onto the same path that he was currently storming down, took one look at his prince, and promptly turned and entered the forest managing to disappear within a second.
Smart elf.
As a rule, Legolas did not like to be angry because any who knew him well knew that he had a temper to rival his father, it was just much harder to trigger, but much more unpredictable if you did. It was an unhelpful emotion that brought out the worst in him, and he went to great lengths to control and stifle it.
Even Galion had been known to flee from him on occasion.
Especially when it was anger like this, the same kind of anger that burned whenever he thought about his mother and the impossible darkness that stole her away. The same kind he saw burning in the eyes of the parents of the warriors that never came home. Vengeful, hateful, ugly.
Rage. Burning rage the likes of which could have burned the entire forest to cinders in seconds.
He reached the clearing that his feet had automatically taken him too, stopping at the edge stiffly when he saw his father standing to wait for him in the center. There was no crown atop his head or formal robes, in fact, he was only in simply leggings and a loose shirt.
But the look on his face told Legolas that his father had heard about what happened, and would have known exactly how Legolas felt about it even if the tree's had not told him.
He was one stray thought away from literally quaking with anger when Thranduil tossed a long and sturdy staff to him, used in training for sparring. The second it touched his hand Legolas spun it behind his back and leaped for his opponent, meaning to bring it down upon his head but was unsurprisingly blocked with expert speed.
He rolled when he hit the ground to avoid the counter-attack that was coming for him and sprung back up quickly to block yet another deadly aimed swing, "How long do you plan to do this?"
There was no possible way that his father did not have something he should have been doing, some meeting or council or reading. Something more important than his son having a tantrum in the woods.
But Thranduil was relentless, driving Legolas back a few steps with the intensity of the match, "I plan to do this until your arms are too sore for me to worry about you breaking a hand on something."
With a somewhat feral smile, Legolas returned the assault with as much force as possible, "We're going to be out here for quite some time then."
"I could use the exercise."
…
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