Epilogue

To say Thranduil was annoyed would've been an understatement. Not only did they have to deal with spiders, orcs, wargs and other unpleasant creatures, now also thirteen dwarves had trespassed into Eryn Galen and disturbed his people. The dwarves had been captured and he would have to talk and deal with them. He was not looking forward to it. Dwarves were a stubborn and often unpleasant race.

Thranduil sighed. There was no sense in delaying the confrontation any further. It would surely sour his mood, no matter when he talked with them so it was best to get it over with.

A knock on his door interrupted his musings.

"Enter," he called, awaiting whoever it was who disturbed his peace.

Galion entered, carrying several items. "Sire, the prince asked me to fetch these." With these words, he put everything down in front of the king.

Thranduil recognized a few heavily adorned rings, the mithril crown he normally never wore and very elaborate and splendid clothes.

He looked at Galion and thought he saw his butler suppressing a smirk. "What is my son up to now? Does he think I should impress the dwarves?"

Galion put on a mask of innocence. "He didn't elaborate, Sire. But it worked very well for the trader from Harondor, didn't it?"

Thranduil harrumphed. "At the price that Imladris was questioning my sanity. You should have seen the letter Elrond wrote me, carefully and politely asking if everything was alright with us. He just avoided to ask if the darkness had gotten to me and if I had finally gone mad. He didn't stop enquiring after our wellbeing until I let the twins visit. I had trouble to explain that all of it was the harebrained scheme of my son."

Galion smiled. "Oh, but it was a brilliant scheme."

Thranduil scoffed. For months after the trade caravan's hasty departure from Eryn Galen he had to bear the brunt of the amusement of his friends and people. "Let's see what he comes up with now," he finally resigned himself and started to don everything that Legolas had chosen for him. Carefully putting his wedding ring into a drawer of his desk, he put on the other rings and then changed from his much simpler tunic and breeches into the formal clothes. Finally, Galion helped him to adjust the crown.

"Well, time to face the dwarves. Tell the guards to bring Thorin Oakenshield to the throne room."

Galion cleared his throat. "Legolas bade me to tell you to go to the central platform first."

Thranduil raised an eyebrow and stared at Galion. "You know what he plans, don't you?" he accused.

Once more Galion's face was the picture of perfect innocence. "Sire, I only relay the request of my prince. He didn't share any of his thoughts with me."

"Of course," Thranduil said wryly, not believing one word of Galion's claims. He threw the butler a suspicious look and left his study. The guards at the entrance stood to attention as he passed and he could feel their eyes on him. Obviously, they too, had noticed that something was going on that could prove quite interesting.

Thranduil walked through the winding corridors of the stronghold down to the lower levels of the stronghold. As he neared the central platform he saw to his surprise that obviously guards had been stationed there. Normally there were only guards at the doors to the outside, at the throne room, at the entrance to the royal quarters and in front of his study. Something also seemed odd about them.

As he came closer, he finally could make out what was off. The guards, who normally wore the same clothes as the warriors on patrol, were clad in hideous armor, that covered all of their bodies, only leaving a small part of the face free, while black cloth covered the rest. Really, what purpose did the cloth serve? To conceal the identity of the guard? One would think that a king would like to know which persons were responsible for his safety. The metal surely hampered their movements severely, not to mention that they should have trouble turning their heads and seeing enough because of the form of the helmets, who covered their peripherical vision. Who in all of Arda would wear such armor? It was simply ridiculous.

"Sire," one of the guards addressed him.

Thranduil recognized the voice, otherwise it could have as well been statues standing there, with what little that was visible of them. "Thóraladh, what in the name of the Valar are you wearing?"

The guard straightened, the small part in the armor that allowed him to see at all facing in the direction of Thranduil. "Sire, the prince asked us to use this armor."

Thranduil looked the guards up and down. He couldn't remember having seen these before. "And where did my son get these things?"

"I don't know, Sire."

Thranduil lifted his hand and pressed it against his brow. He felt a headache building. One more thing he noticed was the conspicuous absence of his offspring. "I'm sure the prince has a perfectly reasonable explanation for this." He once more scrutinized the guards. "At least I hope he has," he muttered.

From one of the guards came something that sounded suspiciously like a snort. He raised an eyebrow and continued onto the platform, only to stop after a few steps, dumbstruck. For a moment he simply stood there and stared, his jaw dropping.

The central platform was normally used for announcements or for weddings, although most couples preferred the outside for that. Normally it was a round, flat space. Now there stood a solid block of rock in which stairs had been hewn. He silently wondered how they (whoever they were) had managed to get it there in so short a time that he hadn't noticed anything. The thing looked as if it weighed tons. The stone steps led up onto another platform on which stood something. He recognized his throne but it didn't look anything than normal. His wooden chair had gotten a few additional decorations. To the left and right of it were what looked like giant antlers. He could well imagine that Thalon, the carpenter, had a part in this, there simply was no way these things came from a living creature. They also extended over the backrest, giving the whole ensemble a quite eccentric look.

Thranduil still stared with open mouth, hearing the guards behind him shuffle and suppress sniggers.

Light footsteps sounded and he heard Feron's voice behind him, "Thranduil, I wanted to talk with you about the dwarves…" His friend's voice trailed off as he came to stand beside him. "Well, that's…"

"Absolutely insane?" Thranduil supplied.

Feron looked at the carefully constructed ensemble and thought for a moment. "Creative and unique." He gazed at the guards. "Where did he get the armors? I didn't know that such things existed."

"I have no idea," Thranduil admitted.

"Well that will be interesting," Feron stated. "I just want to see Thorin Oakenshield's face." His friend started to chuckle and couldn't control himself any longer, erupting into laughter.

Thranduil glared at him while Feron shook with mirth and finally he found voice for his indignation. The shout of outrage could be heard throughout the stronghold:

"LEGOLAS!"

End

Author's note: After watching The Hobbit again, I couldn't resist, so here you have a perfect explanation why everything appeared as it did in the movie ;-)