Legolas did no wait for the other to fully leave the clearing before before he scrambled to his feet and closer to his father, wincing slightly. "Mae govannen, Ada."

"Mae govannen, Legolas." Thranduil responded coolily, crossing his arms, "Perhaps you could take the time to tell me exactly what it was that you were thinking during all of this?"

It was very much not a question, and every bit a demand. Legolas winced further, he always hated whenever Thranduil used this tone of voice. To his knowledge, he had yet to encounter any being that had no issue with this tone of voice. It sent troublesome elflings and young warriors scattering for cover if they could, council members studied their shoes in depth, and even Lord Celeborn had been known to let out a long and drawn out groan at its appearance. Occasionally, if they were together, Elrond and Celeborn world do it simultaneously.

"Thinking, my king?" Legolas nearly stammered, glancing up at his father's face hoping that it would have softened since he had last looked. It had not.

"Yes, Legolas, thinking. That is if you gave it any thought at all, joining a fellowship comprised entirely of children! You promised me that you would be careful when I allowed you to go, this was the complete opposite of careful!"

"Not...entirely comprised of children..." Legolas realized that was the exact worst thing he could have said in that moment, a second after he was done saying it.

"Do not speak to me of Mithrandir." Thranduil snarled, "I have heard that he plans to remain on the other side of Middle-Earth from me until he sales west. It is no matter; I will see him again in Valinor and we can talk about the Dwarves, the Dragon and the fact that he led my only son into the pits of Moria to fight a Balrog."

"You heard about the Balrog?" It was a statement, not a question. Legolas had been hoping that a complete story of their travels world not have reached his father by now, and that he could underimbelish certain aspects of the tale. Like the Balrog.

"Yes, I heard about the Balrog. I also heard about the creature of the lake that guarded it. If you were thinking you would not have consented to go anywhere near the mine to begin with! You tried to climb the Caradhras, Legolas!"

"A very small part" Legolas squeaked out.

"The portion does not matter to me." Thranduil ground out, "Next you are going to say that you only went 'A little close to Mordor.'"

"Well-"

Looking appalled Thranduil waved for silence, "Enough. I do not want to hear anymore."

Obedintly and somewhat gratefully, Legolas snapped his mouth shut. Thranduil heaved a sigh, and looked down at his son who still looked incredibly distressed infront of him. He was by no means done with this conversation, but Legolas had been gone for much longer than Thranduil was accustomed too and he had missed him dearly. The ElvenKing had a soft spot for the Prince, and the entirety of the woodland realm knew it. Without another word Thranduil opened up his arms expectantly.

A grin spread across the youngers elfs face and he wasted no time in throwing himself into his father's arms, clinging to him tightly. They stayed like that for a while, glad to finally be reunited before Legolas mumbled, "I missed you" into his father's chest, where he was currently still crushed into.

"I missed you too." Thranduil gave his son one last tight squeeze before letting him go, "But we are not finished with this conversation. However, I think the dwarf would look far less exceptionally terrified if he arrived at the stronghold with you by his side. "

Legolas studied his father shrewdly for a moment, he must have known about Gimli for some time for him to react this way. The ElvenKing did not deal with dwarves or surprises well, being surprised by a dwarf was just terrible for everyone involved. Somebody must have told Thranduil everything before he got home, "Who betrayed me?"

The King grinned with wide satisfaction, "The sons of Elrond traded information for pardon in their fathers blame of not tying you securely to post in Imladris until sense returned to you. Also, the tree's lied when they promised they would not tell me you had brought the dwarf, penneth, they heard about your stay in Lorien. And visit to Fangorn."

Legolas sensed a very vague expression of guilt from the forest around him as he turned from his father to give the closest tree a scandalized look, it merely turned its leaves upwards slightly in a show of its displeasure with him. "Come now, you know you will always be my favorites."

The tree turned its leaves a touch higher and an acorn fell perfectly from a tree onto his head, and then it went back to ignoring him. Legolas turned to his father in exasperation but found a smirk that seemed to match the feelings of the tree's. He scowled at his father too, "I will admit the visit was pleasant, for a time, but I could never stay there for long. There are no other tree's in all of Arda whose company I enjoy more than yours."

Still, the tree ignored him. "When I was in Lorein I still wished for your comforting branches instead, and even the Ents of Fangorn cannot compare to you. You know you have the warmest place in my heart, do not be jealous. There is not reason to be."

Leaves on all the nearby tree's ruffled themselves in what could only be a sigh, Legolas felt the collective mood of the foliage shift into a more favorable one for him than it had been. The forest was still not happy, but it would likely not drop anything else on his head until it had truly forgiven him.

"Go find the Dwarf, before I change my mind. And tell Estel I will deal with him for his part in all of this later."

…..

Elves, it seemed to Gimli, grew on trees in this particular forest and fell like ripened fruit when it suited them. Three descended from above with such haste and stealth that even one of the twins gave a jump in surprise, both were clad in the simple green clothing that Legolas himself favored with bows and knives glinting dangerously on their backs.

There was an elleth and and ellon, speaking after one another so swiftly that Gimli found it a bit difficult to keep track of where one sentence ended and another began. Their accents were thicker than Legolas' and the common tongue sounded odd on their tongues for some words, clearly much more accustomed to only speaking their fair language and not the clumsier one of mortals.

"Did we miss it?" The ellon's demanded, the tallest of the new arrivals ,"Has Thranduil killed the elfling yet?"

"Lord Ferdan cut archery practice short so that we may come watch," The elleth broke in briefly.

"They were all placing bets on what excuse he would use this time to get out of his rightful punishment," the tallest one continued, giving a bright laugh, "My money is on blaming the entire ordeal on Estel."

Aragorn gave a shout that might have been protest, or might have been fear, "Blame it on me? I have done nothing to warrant such a cruel fate, surely the King will see that?" The others around him smiled at one another, and the King of Gondor's distress grew, "Surely?"

"Well he will have to blame it on someone, and he has yet to get even form when you told the King about what the princeling did a few summers ago."

"Thirty summers ago, Farlen," Aragorn corrected, "That was thirty summers ago."

The taller of the two ellon's shrugged dismissively at the correction, "A few summers."

"Elves." Aragorn muttered under his breath to no one in particular, as Legolas made his reappearance to the group.

He did no so much as fall from the tree's as the elves had done earlier, but launch himself with the highest velocity that could be managed and directly into Farlen, knocking them both solidly to the ground with a loud thud.

"Not dead, then." Farlen grunted, roughly shoving Legolas off him in an attempt to gain the upper hand, aiming to pin him to the ground.

Legolas, however, appeared to have been expecting this, and used the momentum to throw him badly off balance as he attempted to spring to his feet, causing Farlen to come crashing back to the ground and directly on top of Legolas. His elbows knocking the air from his lungs.

Regardless, the Prince gave a delighted but breathless laugh, "Not dead."

It was probably the least graceful thing Gimli had ever seen an elf do, but was still fairly certain it was still more graceful than he had ever been in his entire life.

The elleth pushed Farlen off with her foot and roughly pulled Legolas to his feet, "Months we have been listening to your father gripe about you, and you have not been home half a day and he has already forgiven you!"

"Its disgusting, really." Farlen added from where he still laid on the ground where he had been rolled.

"Next time I will be sure to stay away longer." Legolas commented dryly, "Perhapes then the both of you will have missed me properly."

"We did not say that we did not miss you!" The elleth protested, pulling him in for a fierce hug, and then adding brightly, "Just that you disgust us."

Farlen finally and swiftly climbed to his feet, nearly attacking Legolas in a hug that appeared much more forceful than it needed to be, "I guess we should not have been surprised he did not slaughter you on sight as he led all of us to believe. Thranduil is a King, and Kings need an heir, and after the stunt Ava pulled at at Dul Guldur, I no longer believe he world name her one in your absence."

Avaleina gasped in protest and Legolas whipped his head around to look at her, eye narrowing suspiciously, "And what did you do to Ada at Dul Guldur?"

She gave him a scandalized expression, pressing a hand to her against her chest, "I did nothing to your Ada at Dul Guldur."

"Except ignore several very explicit direct orders." Farlen ducked expertiely as Avaleina swung for him, dashing behind Legolas for cover.

"You ignored them too!" She insisted, trying to dive around Legolas to reach him.

"On the contrary," he darted out from behind Legolas and around to the other side of Aragorn's horse, "I was following your orders to ignore the Kings orders."

Avaleina turned to Legolas once more after giving Farlen one last scalding look, "They were really terrible orders, the kind that you would make when you're trying to do the right thing. We never listen to you, I do not know why he expected us to listen to him."

Legolas only laughed, regarding the three other elves with great affection, "It is a true mystery."

"But come, Farlen, we are forgetting ourselves." The unknown elleth turned finally to the rest of the company once more. "Welcome greetings to everyone except Estel, for whom I have yet to decide if I shall even admit to even knowing. I am Eloissa, this if Farlen, we are warriors of the realm."

Aragorn looked as if he was about to dispute his unwelcome welcome when Legolas spoke, "Ada says to tell you that he will deal with you later for your part in all of this, Estel, by the way."

Eloissa crossed her arms, looking triumphant while Aragorn copied Avaleina's aghast expression from before, "You did blame everything on me!"

"I did not have to, your brothers had already beaten me to it."

The new King redereccred his horror to the appropriate targets, "My own brothers?"

"Sometimes sacrifices must be made for the greater good. Besides, you are just upset that you did not think of blaming us first."

Aragorn sniffed at Elrohir's accusation, "That is because, unlike you two, I am loyal and trustworthy."

Elladan patted his younger brother encouragingly on the shoulder, "And you be sure to remind Thranduil of that when he asks you why you led his only son and most important thing in his life, to the very gates of Mordor."