Out of Mirkwood
Scribbles-on-Parchment
May 30, 2020
Chapter 44 – Forming a Friendship
As soon as the words had left Legolas's mouth, the young elf immediately went deathly pale. His words hung heavily in the air between him and the elf lord. The prince's gaze hardened as both immense regret and anger flooded his heart. He did not know what impact his words had caused and he did not know if he wanted to find out.
Elrond stood in front of him, brown eyes showing an emotion Legolas could not place. Beneath the elf lord's gentle dark eyes there seemed to be a deep sadness, regret even. The young eldar quickly averted his gaze. The silence that had fallen between the two ellyn seemed to ring like thunder in his ears.
Legolas's gaze came to land on Tamír. The Silvan elf had seemed to freeze in place as if still trying to process the words he had just heard.
"You are a son of Thranduil?"
The elven prince whirled his head around to see Glorfindel standing behind him.
"It's not like that is of any surprise to you," Legolas's eyes flashed dangerously, "Is that not the reason why you grabbed me from the Greenwood? You saw that I was his son and you decided to use my injury to gain an advantage over him."
"Penneth, that was never the case," this time it was Elrond's soft voice that spoke, "My sons found you and brought you to me because you were very ill and they feared for your life. I had no confirmation of who your adar was until now. You must understand that I am deeply grieved by your words."
The elfling could not help but scoff at this.
"I don't believe you," his hands clenched into fists at his side, "How can you even say you are deeply grieved? Everyone knows that is a lie. You did this. You destroyed the Greenwood."
To the prince's surprise, the Noldo flinched as if he had been physically struck in the chest.
"How can you say something like that, mellon? You do not know the sorrow that we have gone through thinking that you were all slaughtered."
"I am not your mellon. I am a hostage, that is why you will not let me leave. You seek to use me."
"But why did he remain in hiding for so many long years?" Legolas glanced at Tamír who had taken a step closer to him and was surprised to see pain written clearly across the Silvan's face as the elf said this, "I do not understand what madness drove him to do this. How could Thranduil have done something so foolish and arrogant?"
"Do not talk about that which you understand nothing of," the young Sinda's body was tense with emotion, "You know nothing."
Anger, frustration, and fear were pulsing inside of him, threatening to break loose at any moment. Legolas frowned and moved to walk past Elrond and Tamír, who still stood staring at him. However, the Silvan reached out and grabbed his arm causing the young elf to come to a halt. He had been grabbed like this too much in the past several days. If one more elf did this to him, he swore he would break their arm.
"You cannot leave Maer. It is too dangerous and you have much I wish to know about."
"I can take care of myself," the prince growled, "And my name is not Maer, it's Legolas."
He wrenched his arm out of the ellon's tight grasp and took off into the open grasslands and rolling hills. He knew he could never get far yet right now he had no intention of trying another escape attempt that would likely just end in disaster. His only goal was to get free of the suffocating closeness of the Noldor. He needed to calm his emotions and clear his mind to think about what he needed to do next.
Elrond glanced over at Tamír as the Sinda elfling fled the camp. The shock of the many things revealed in the past several minutes was dampening any underlying emotions, for the moment.
He had assumed that the ellon must be related to Thranduil, but never in a thousand years would he have guessed the eldar was the elven king's youngest son. He had so many questions to ask Maer… no… Legolas. He could tell that the Sinda had been both angered and frightened and had not yet realized the reality of the words he had spoken. He had told them more in the past several minutes than he had revealed in the past several days, but Elrond was not sure if he knew just how much he had just said.
"You mean to tell me that that elfling is the son of Thranduil?" Glorfindel stood watching the blond elf disappear into the tall grass, "He cannot be more than 800 years old. How can that be? How did anyone survive that attack?"
The elf lord just shook his head sadly.
"I think that we have made a grievous error, one that I fear will never be made right. I know not how the Greenwood has managed to last for so many years in the darkness of those woods. There are many questions that my heart wishes our princeling would answer, but I believe it will take time before he does," he ran his hand through his dark hair, "I also fear that this is going to bring about many emotions in some that should have remained buried. There are elves that never thought highly of Thranduil even when he lived and hearing this news…"
The Noldo broke off, his heart filling with grief,
"Glorfindel, if you would please call one of my sons to go after Legolas. I do not desire to have more worries piled upon my shoulders this day, but tell no one what you have heard. Now is not that time."
The silver-haired elf nodded and spun on his heel as he went off in search of Elladan and Elrohir.
They were so entrained in their own shock and emotions that none of them noticed the slim figure of Estel as he slipped out from behind a nearby tent and followed in the footsteps of the young prince.
The sun was not high in the sky having just passed midday and the camp was buzzing. Despite Elrond's words, news that the eldar captured in the morning was a son of Thranduil had spread rapidly. It now seemed that there was no one that did not yet know of this development. While many of the Noldor soldiers were in shock and disbelief, several had other emotions, anger, resentment, and hatred. However, all wanted to know why the once presumed dead king had remained isolated for so many years.
Elladan and Elrohir had left in search of the elfling while Glorfindel was left with the job of scouring the camp for Estel, who was nowhere to be found.
Legolas heard the sound of heavy footfall on the soft dirt but did not turn his head. He knew who it was even without looking for there was only one in the camp who sounded like a young horse as he walked, Estel.
No doubt the young human had been sent here to check on him to make sure he did not wander too far from the camp. Frankly, he would have assumed Elrond would have either come himself or sent one of his elven sons, but he was not surprised that he was being watched. Needless to say, it had taken the Noldor quite some time to send anyone after him.
But Legolas did not mind the company of the man. Unlike the others, Estel vaguely reminded him of Kélion and while he would have preferred to be alone, an odd sense of comfort passed over the young elf at the human's close presence.
"Maer?" The Sinda shook his head slightly as the nickname he had been given. He had still not grown used to it, "Are you well? I came after you because you seemed upset and you have no weapons to protect yourself with."
The prince turned and glared at the edan who stood at the top of the small hill looking down at him.
"I am fine," his sharp eyes slid over the form of the young man, "And even if I were to be in trouble you have weapons on you with which to protect me unless you hide a sword under your tunic."
Estel frowned as he noticed his error. He must have left his sword with his brothers back at the camp. He internally cursed himself for his foolishness.
"We should return. It is not safe out here, for you traveled far from the camp."
"And so have you."
Legolas turned away from the human so he was looking up at the climbing hills that led to the Gap of Rohan and beyond that, his home. How had it all come to this and what would his adar say if he could see him now? How great would his disappointment be? It seemed that that was the only emotion sent his way by the ellon lately. And what would Êmand think?
These thoughts cut at the elfling's heart. Why had they not come after him? Did they think him dead or did they just not care?
"You know you could have picked a more comfortable spot to sit."
Legolas started as Estel's voice sounded from beside him. He turned his head and saw that the young human had come and sat next to him in the tall grass. The prince raised his brows in surprise.
Both males sat there for a moment in awkward silence.
"Why did you come after me?"
The edan broke off the top of a piece of grass that was brushing against his arm as he thought of how to answer.
"I do not know. I just thought that you should not be alone," the human shrugged, "And besides the camp is too crowded with stuffy old elves. I needed a break from them," The prince had no idea how to respond. He was surprised that the young man was not drilling him for information or flooding him with questions, "It is nice to be alone sometimes anyway."
Legolas glanced over at the Estel again, a soft smile playing on his lips for the first time in days.
Unbeknownst to them, two identical elves stood several paces away at the top of the hill watching the two figures talk, each with a broad smile on their face.
Elvish Translations:
penneth – young one
adar – father
mellon – friend
maer – golden