"Good morning, Gimli."

Out of practice, the dwarf in question managed to stay perfectly still. Sometimes if he managed to do it long enough Legolas would let him be, even if he knew it was faked.

"Good morning Gimli."

Not this time, apparently.

"Good morning, Legolas." He muttered back, without opening his eyes.

Aragorn had warned him about the wine but he had not listened as he should have. That explained the drinking contest in Rohan, then. The room they had put him in, was not meant for one his size. But that just meant all the more room in the huge and comfortable bed.

"Drink this."

Gimli didn't have to open his eyes to look at whatever liquid the elf was trying to offer him to know that he did not want any of it, his nose did the trick just fine. "No, thank you."

Legolas clucked his tongue like when he disapproved of something, not the cluck that almost sounded like a chirp when he was pleasantly surprised by something. "It will rid you for your wine-induced ails."

"Hand it over."

It tasted far better than it smelt, and worked quicker than he thought any natural thing could. Slowly he peered an eye open, and then the other when the sunlight did not instantly make his head feel as though it might feel better if it were removed from his body entirely.

Like all the other rooms he had been in, this one was stocked full with more plants than the forest outside. Indeed it seemed to him Legolas had grown up in a self-grown underground jungle of sorts.

His friend sat cross-legged on a vast empty space on his bed, idly stroking a leaf with a finger while he waited for Gimli to come fully to life. Looking the most plain and bare Gimli had ever seen him in their near constant companionship.

His bow that was almost always within grasp was nowhere to be seen, and neither were the familiar bulges that he had come to recognize as hidden blades, there was not but a loose-fitting white shirt and pants on him. Not even shoe's. The most notable, and perhaps the most uncomforting was his hair. It did not hold the same exact braids it had every day, in fact, it held no braids at all and hung around his face very similarly to his father's.

With some effort, Gimli pulled himself fully upright to sit against the head of the bed.

Legolas smiled at him and pointed to the bedside table where he had brought a hearty breakfast, which Gimli's newly settled stomach yearned for. And so he pulled the tray onto his lap and began immediately to try the pile of eggs.

"You have something to say," He managed around a mouthful.

It was easy to tell when Legolas had something important to say because he had probably practiced it at least thirty-seven times in his head before this point. By the time he was ready to say anything, he was all but bursting at the seams.

"I am sorry that you are upset with me."

"That is a terrible apology."

The plant curled away from Legolas' touch like it felt something it didn't like, "That is because it is not an apology."

Gimli gave no verbal response but tried a sampling of the sausages next. Legolas would get to his point eventually.

"I am not saying you are wrong to be hurt that I did not tell you about Ava, because had the roles been reversed I would feel the same." Gimli glanced sideways for a moment because he knew sometimes Legolas needed encouragement to know that you were actually really listening to him. He put hard work into some conversations, it was only fair that he felt listened to.

"I do not know what dwarves know of the creation of Orcs. But they were not born naturally, they were not formed by a stronger being with an image in mind. They were my kidnapped ancestors tortured and twisted until there was nothing of light left within them until they hated anything that was not darkness and hatred. Until they hated us most of all, those they used to be."

A few other vines reached for him from where they had wrapped around the bed frame almost entirely, Legolas allowed them to coil around his fingers and hands, '" I have never told you about my mother."

Gimli shook his head, "You haven't, though I gathered long ago that she is no longer here with you."

"No, no she is not. She has not been here with us since just after I could walk." The plant reached out again, wrapping yet another tiny vine around Legolas' pointer finger, he idly resumed stroking it, "She was killed, cruelly, because of who she was to my father. Because of how much he loved her, how known it was. My grandfather had already fallen, and the same would have happened to me, probably worse, had my mother not hidden me in the bushes minutes before they found us. The tree's tried to keep me from seeing, but I could still hear. I didn't move or make a sound until it was over and she was gone. The sun had set by then, and the forest was burning. Ada didn't find me until the next morning."

And then his eyes got that faraway look, when they looked both blank and too full. Every time he saw it, a pit opened in Gimli's stomach though he did not fully understand why.

The vine tugged harshly on his hand.

Legolas blinked, "Part of my promise to my people, the worst promise I have ever kept, is that I would do everything within my power to keep them from being captured. To keep what happened to her, from happening to them. Sometimes when I wasn't fast enough, or we weren't strong enough to protect everyone, sometimes that promise meant killing them with my own bow. To keep them from being captured at all costs."

"The first time I had to do it, it was Eloassia's wife. It was the first time my hand shook, I think, holding my bow. I almost missed. She was the first of many, and it only got harder."

Gimli was fixed, his attention completely taken up, Legolas very rarely ever spoke about this aspect of his home. He hinted at things or troubles but that was all, he was much more likely to focus on the good and happy memories. At least verbally.

"When they attacked my first home, the one my grandfather built, Sauron yet had a strong hand on their wild natures. They were too reckless, too wild with hate when they slew my mother. In our later wars with them, they were smart, they had plans and orders. They knew who we were, they knew who was important and how. They couldn't know how much I love her, they couldn't know what it would mean for them to kill her. For them to make me kill her."

A few tears dripped from his eyes, but he hastily wiped at them, "I told none on our quest of who I really am for if I were to be captured they would have used me against my father, and I did not say anything about Avaliena lest she be used against me or my father in the war. The only way I could protect her from so far away was to pretend she meant nothing to me. Pretend she didn't exist and never had. If our trees have ears, who's to say something else doesn't?"

The more Gimli learned about his friends past the more he wished they had brought him here sooner.

While the past year might have been the absolute worst part of most of their lives, it sounded like but one chapter of a dreadful book Legolas had been living. All the more wondrous his positive nature and friendly attitude seemed.

"It is not that I do not trust you, or value you. Because I do, very much-"

Gimli could see, or perhaps he could sense a building panic, it wasn't uncommon if Legolas felt he could not adequately and accurately convey himself. A problem he already had in his own language made all the worse in Westeron, and so Gimli quickly caught his friend's hand as the vines fled in preparation of them wailing about. "I know, Legolas. I know. I was only a bit hurt, not angry, I know that you always have good reasons for things."

Legolas looked unconvinced and so Gimli continued, "Perhaps not always, for somebody who has lived as long as you with so many responsibilities you are an incredibly reckless creature, and I'm fairly certain that you have no sense of danger but when it comes to the matter of the heart, you always have good reasons."

Legolas laughed then, quick and sincere, "Alright."

Satisfied Gimli returned to his sausages and released Legolas hand, "Alright." But the elf's face betrayed him, "You have something else to say."

"Later today Ada, myself and our captains are going to Dul Guldur so he can unenchant something for us, and I would like you to come however I feel as though you might shout at me once it's fully explained."

Gimli paused mid-chew and narrowed his eyes, "And why might I shout at you?"

"Because I lied to you."

His eyes narrowed to slits, "Lied to me about what."

"This," Legolas pulled on the cord around his neck and out popped a wooden carving of a tree Gimli had seen dozens and dozens of times.

He had asked about it once, and Legolas had told him that his father had carved it for him many years ago and it was a sentimental piece. "What was the lie?"

"The purpose of this pendant is not sentimental, at least it was not created to be one. Inside, there's a small compartment that holds a strongly toxic substance. When Ada carved them, he asked them to release it upon hearing a specific word. It only takes a drop or two on the skin to be fatal; even for an elf."

The dwarf's eyes went from slits, to orbs of surprise, and then once again to slits of accusation, "What sort of person would carve such a thing for his son?"

Legolas' voice was falsely smooth, the kind of smooth of a rock after centuries of being worn down and not by choice, but the tone was still biting, "The kind of person who does not want to find the brutally abused and desecrated corpse of another person he loves, who does not want any more gruesome things to haunt his already crowded nightmares."

"Legolas I apologize I-" But Legolas was protective, Gimli knew that well (as did Eomer), and he had insulted one he loved. He would simply have to wait until the elf was done.

Early in the quest, he had learned the very valuable lessons that Legolas could tolerate nearly anything directed towards him specifically, but any insults to this he loved - especially his father - were not tolerated.

There had been one evening where Gimli had been fairly certain Legolas might actually kill him before Aragorn and Gandalf pried him away. That has been the last purposefully negative comment he had made about Thranduil.

"It is my job, as their captain to not let them suffer. To keep their souls and their minds from ever knowing such evils, and it is his job as our King to keep us from the same fate. He cannot be in the woods with us every day, he cannot fire the arrow and we would not ask any below us to shoulder such a burden."

Slipping it over his head Legolas nearly cradled it in his hands, "He is my father. He did not know how else to protect me anymore."

Gimli closed his Legolas' fingers around the precious cargo and patted it once, "Forgive me, it is easy sometimes with your nature to forgot how different our lives were. I would much prefer you not have known that date either."

"Yes," Legolas agreed, turning the object over in his hand twice more before returning it to his neck, "Me too."

…..

Thranduil caught the movement out of the corner of his eye immediately, the door leading directly from his study to the meeting from cracked open enough for a small elf to slip through.

Knowing that she had been spotted, Avaleina stopped just inside the door. Waiting for further commands.

Usually, he would wait for a natural break in the conversation to call for a recess if the news was not urgent. But he was curious, earlier in the day Galion had gone searching for her and been unable to dig her up. Which was odd, Galion had an incredibly good success rating when it came to finding people.

Legolas had spent the morning showing his mortal friends around the forest and so he had tried to keep Avaleina's random absence a quite as possible. It was likely that Galion had taken it upon himself to create a fabricated explanation; his captains were loyal to him almost to a fault and they did not keep things from him. Often.

Perhaps others would be troubled by the knowledge that some of their closest underlings still considered for secrets under their king's nose. But Thranduil did not particularly care, he trusted and had faith in them. If there was a secret, it was for a reason.

Running a kingdom smoothly relied on a lot of faith and trust, he had learned, a lesson his father had never mentioned.

The people of Greenwood had never let him down.

Holding a hand to the air and clearing his throat the others in the room fell silent, "I think it's time for a half hour break, don't you?"

Eyes that had been too preoccupied to already notice drifted to the office door. They all nodded easily.

"Good."

By the time he got up from his chair and through his office door Avaleina was already standing expectantly at his desk. Papers were laid out carefully on the surface of it.

Seeing no point in asking questions yet Thranduil turned his full attention to the papers on the desk. Some of the parchment was so old or wasn't even parchment, but a rough hide that had runes burned into it.

But not Silvan runes. He glanced up at her slightly guided face, "Well you have been very busy, haven't you?"

He was mildly surprised the trees had not warned him of her travels, she must have convinced them away from it.

Next to the hide was a much fresher looking paper, the ink hardly dry. Half of the runes had been replaced with old Silvan ones; a rough translation.

"Jah'har couldn't help me with the rest of the words, he said his people had no use of them and so they have been forgotten. But the other tribes might be able to help, Radagast too, if you ask."

Thranduil reseated the urge to chew on his lip, something he was much better at doing than Legolas. It had been a very long time, even by Elven standards since the tribes had last worked together as such. They worked with Greenwood, individually, but not together.

He read the half - translated mess before him, admiring the hard work Avaleina had managed to scrounge in such a short time. "You left to see them last night."

He still didn't look away from the papers, contemplating his choices. "Yes. The moment I left your room after Legolas fell asleep."

"It is a wild and far-fetched idea."

He heard her cross her arms, and didn't know to look to know the dismissive expression that would be on her face, "But it is an idea."

"It is." Thranduil tapped his long finger against his chin. It might be difficult to convince them all. "We couldn't tell Legolas."

He would put a stop to it. Or at least try to.

Avaleina shrugged, uncrossing her arms "So be it. He will forgive us."

Walking around to the other side of his desk Thranduil took a seat behind it, "Would you please pass me some ink, I have some favors to ask."

…..

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