My sleep continued to deteriorate at an alarming rate, and I started spending more time in the morning at the forge.
At my request, Raithon made me a handful of sharp metal spikes, around the length and circumference of a pencil.

When he curiously asked what they were for, I explained that I wanted something to keep my hair up that could, if necessary, be used as a last resort weapon.
After that he engraved them with tiny, swirling designs, so they looked a bit more like decorative hair pieces.

It was a week later when Elladan and Elrohir returned from a scouting trip, each wearing matching grins filled to the brim with mischief.

I was in the middle of viciously hitting a training dummy when they found me, alone in the training grounds mid evening.
Frodo, Sam, Merry and Pippin had left an hour or so ago, having grown bored with training despite Merry's efforts to keep them all interested.

The two of them trotted over, Elrohir smoothly confiscating my sword while Elladan twined his hands with mine, spinning me around for a moment.
"Alyssa! Tis a wonderful thing to see you so dedicated to our teachings while we were gone! You've improved!"

I wanted to grumble at them for interrupting me literally mid-training, but I couldn't stop the smile that bloomed at the sight of them.
Though they'd only been gone a few weeks, I had still missed them.
It hadn't helped that they were regularly in my nightmares, twisted or broken in some form or another, making me fear for their lives when they were out of my sight.

I couldn't stop the sarcasm from seeping into my voice when I responded.
Not that I tried very hard.
"Well, you know I want only to impress you, Elrohir. How was your patrol?"

He laughed merrily, releasing me to Elladan, who helped to straighten out my cloaklette from how twisted it had gotten in Elrohir's spinning.
"I'm about to go report to Father now. Erestor and his group are nearly back. We ran into their camp this morning as they were packing up."

"And you stopped to say hi to me first? I'm touched, Elladan! Very moved."

"Purely Elrohir's idea, of course. I wanted to go straight to Father, but he insisted."
Elladan grinned, his tone joking.

He glanced up at Elrohir, his grin widening.
"You get her, I'll keep Father occupied?"

Elrohir nodded with a wide smile, at the same time that I let out an alarmed, "What do you mean 'get her'?!"

Elladan turned to trot away, laughing, and suddenly, Elrohir accosted me.
Well, more like captured.

An arm curled around my waist, another under my legs, scooping me up despite my yelp of surprise and mild fear.
I flailed, locking my arms instinctively around the neck of my captor so as to lessen the risk of being dropped.

Elrohir laughed cheerily.
"You make the most amusing noises, Kit."

I forced my breathing to even out and resisted the childish impulse to tug on his hair.

"Come now, kit, there's no need to strangle me, I'm not going to drop you."
There was a touch of scolding in his voice, though he was still smiling.

I glared mildly at him, giving in to the urge and tugging on a lock of his hair.
Gently, of course.
He gave me a mildly reprimanding look at the tug on his hair, which I mirrored back at him.
"Why does Elladan need to keep your father occupied? Why are you carrying me? I can walk. Where are you taking me?"

He was moving quite quickly, practically running out of Rivendell.

"Elladan valiantly offered to distract our father so that he did not send anyone after us for kidnapping you or suprise attacking Erestor! You'll have to thank him later. And, although I would dearly love to let you walk, Kit, I'm afraid there's simply no time for that! They'll be here soon! We simply must hurry if we intend to give them a proper welcome!"

"No time to let me walk…? What are you talking about? What's going on? What do you mean..proper welcome..?"

"I'm simply helping to educate you on elven traditions!"
He gave me a cheerful smile, the innocence of which made me fear for my life, just a smidgen, as we left the boundaries of Rivendell and entered the forest.

My eyes narrowed suspiciously at him, "What elven traditions are you educating me on..?"

"The tradition of squirreling incoming guests, of course!"

My look of suspicion turned to one of surprise and mild dismay.
"...You want me to squirrel Erestor?! You're going to get me in trouble, Elrohir! It's one thing to squirrel random passers by, but Erestor? I have to have lessons with him when he's back!"

His grin widened.
"I see you and Erestor have yet to get into the greeting traditions of elves. A horrific oversight that I shall address presently. He won't be upset with you! You're simply upholding traditions!"

My eyes narrowed, though I was unable to keep a slight smile from forming, "I don't believe you. There's no way that's a traditional greeting."

He shot me a mischievous smile, "Oh but it is, my dear Alyssa! And these are not just any guests, these are elves! We always throw acorns at each other when we visit or arrive home. It's tradition! You don't want to cause strife between the elven realms by dismissing tradition, do you? Erestor would be so disappointed."

I gave him a long, disbelieving stare.

He gave in rather quickly, still grinning shamelessly as he carried me through the forest hastily.
"Fine, fine, but it would be fun, and it would cause no harm, so why not?"

I sighed again and rolled my eyes, smiling for the first time in the past few days.
"Alright, fine. But if your father or Erestor are unhappy with me for disrupting, it's your fault, and I am blaming you. I was perfectly happy beating the training dummy to death..."
The last bit was grumbled slightly under my breath

Despite my resistance, it was fun, being pulled away for his mischief.
He and Elladan were the primary reason that I was becoming more the person I had been before my harrowing journey. A playful, happy person, who laughed and smiled easily.
It was easier to be happy around them.
The nightmares and fears were a plague that were difficult to resist on my own, though that did nothing to prompt me into telling anyone of them.

"Nonsense, no one can possibly stay unhappy with you for more than a short moment. You're far too small and adorable. Who could stay angry at such a cute kitten?"

I rolled my eyes again.
He'd been doing this more often recently, comparing me to small cute animals in an attempt to sidetrack the conversation.
It had worked once. One time!
But after that it became his go to response to switch subjects.

Still, I couldn't help but grumble playfully back.
"I'm not a kitten..."

It was nearly thirty minutes of practically full out running before he deemed us far enough outside of the bustle of Rivendell, and another twenty after that was spent collecting fallen acorns, leaves, and other small debris that could be dropped on someone without fear of it hurting them.
That time was mostly spent with him flitting around collecting things and depositing them into my hands.
Occasionally he had to pick up after me when I accidentally dropped some of our ammo while trying to pick up a stray acorn.

Of course, every now and then I had to throw an acorn at him, as revenge for pulling me away from my training and to show that I was at least resisting the tiniest bit.
He always caught them, redepositing them in my hands with a chuckle.

Eventually, my handful of acorns and leaves was deemed a bit lacking because my hands were really quite small to be holding enough ammo for a whole group.
We took off my cloaklette, tying the hood closed so that it formed a makeshift cloth bag, and resumed collecting, now filling my overturned cloaklette instead.
It held considerably more than my hands could.

Once my cloaklette was full to the brim with acorns, fallen leaves, and twigs, he had me cling to his back like the squirrels we were pretending to be, and climbed a tall tree along the path he knew the group would take.
He deposited us both quite high up, making sure I was thoroughly secure before moving to a different branch just across from me.

I grinned, excited despite that I knew we'd likely get in trouble for this.

He matched my grin, voice a bit teasing when he spoke.
"Now then, I find that the best method for squirreling other elves is to wait until they are almost directly below you, and then toss the acorns down in a shower, that way our unprepared guests will have the least possibility of being able to catch or dodge all of the acorns."
He was still grinning widely, "And I know this is going to be difficult for you, but you must be very, very quiet."

I gave him a jokingly offended glare, voice an indignant whisper. "I can be quiet!"
I would have hit his shoulder or tugged his perfectly straight brown hair, but my hands were still full of our makeshift bag of acorns and leaves.

Briefly I debated throwing an acorn at him, but quickly decided against it.
These were valuable squirreling acorns, after all.
They weren't to be wasted on fellow squirrels.

From our vantage point, I could barely make out the hidden path into Rivendell, the dim light of the sunset not allowing me very good vision through the growth of the trees surrounding us.

As the minutes passed, my crouched position started to get uncomfortable, legs still feeling my continuous weeks of brutal training.
I shifted, settling slightly to lean back against the trunk of the tree we were in, managing to stabilize myself despite my cloaklette filled hands.

Ten minutes went by with no sign of our targets. When another ten went by the same, I started to swing my legs.

Finally, over an hour later, right as I was about to rouse myself from the light doze I'd started to drift into and suggest to Elrohir that we had clearly missed them and should just go back, his smile widened and he made a shushing motion with his hands, peering through the trees.

He pointed carefully with one long finger, voice barely a whisper when he spoke.
"Look there, Erestor is towards the front of the group right there, we'll aim to drop just before he's below us." I shook my head, opening my mouth to tell him we were too far up and I couldn't see a thing, only to be shushed by another hand motion.
"They're here, be silent. We'll attack on my signal."

It was another few minutes still, filled with both of us getting progressively more excited, until the beginning of the group was beneath us, and after that, only a few moments until Eresstor was as well.

I was just starting to question whether it was the best idea to do this to one of the people who had believed me when I spouted what surely sounded like nonsense, when Elrohir stole the decision away from me.
He surged forward, grabbing the bottom of our makeshift bag and upending it, sending all of the acorns, leaves, and small twigs tumbling through the branches and showering down on the group of elves.

There was a cry of surprise from some of the group of elves, as well as a few laughs, and one exasperated sigh.
My eyes followed them, having not expected that, and Elrohir let out a not so quiet snicker as the debris fell.

I vaguely heard a voice say something lovely in Sindarin, though I couldn't make out what it was.
"Go on, you keep going and get one, I'll get the one here."

I was just about to complain to Elrohir that it wasn't fair for him to do that, but when my eyes returned to the branch he had been on, it was to find that he was no longer there.
All I could see of him was his back as he fled across branches, one hand waving behind himself as if to say 'See ya, wouldn't want to be ya'.

My eyes grew wide, mouth opening in a silent cry of indignation as I clung tightly to the trunk of the tree I was in.
I was really quite high up, and it was nearing dusk, it would likely be getting rather dark by the time I made it down, and that was only if I started climbing right now.

That thought was swiftly discarded when, a moment later, one of our targets appeared in front of me, having climbed up so silently that, for a moment, I wondered if elves could apparate, like in Harry Potter.
He was decidedly not brown haired, nor was he any of the elves I had met during my time in Rivendell.

He wore a green travel tunic over brown breeches, the edges of his tunic embroidered with vines and leaves in a lighter accent of green.
His hair, which was a startling silver blonde, was littered with leaves, as well as a number of small twigs that had fallen off the trees in the downpour.
I had thought I was getting used to the appearances of the elves, but faced with this annoyingly perfect creature, looking ethereal and otherworldly even with sticks and twigs in his hair, I couldn't make myself speak.
His features were a bit more angular, lacking the familiar softness that I'd come to recognize in the Rivendell elves, and though the Rivendell elves always seemed comfortable in trees, this stranger before me wasn't just comfortable, he was at home.
Despite the extreme height of the tree we were in, he had no hand holds, balancing easily on the balls of his feet, crouched across from me.

A bow and quiver was tucked on his back, along with a sword at his waist, and he had a very distinct hunter feeling about him.
Maybe this was an emissary from Mirkwood?
I wasn't surprised Thranduil wouldn't send his son, though I was a bit disappointed.
I suppose that without the need to inform Elrond of Gollum's escape, it wasn't important enough to send him.

I couldn't tell the color of his eyes in the already fading light, though they seemed sharp. Intent.
Despite that, I could see that he was smiling slightly, still looking rather surprised to find me here.
He looking around briefly, as if expecting someone else before his eyes returned to me.

I was a rather odd sight, obviously human, garbed in clearly elven training garb, holding a fur lined cloaklette upside down in gloved hands, not to mention my face was marked with tiny scars, criss crossed and spider webbed over any visible skin.

I stared right back, rather like a deer, or perhaps squirrel, in headlights.
He was crouched on the branch of the neighboring tree, not more than five feet from me.

"My apologies, milady. I had rather expected someone else. Might I ask your name, and what you are doing so far up in this tree?"
His voice was different than the rest of the Rivendell elves, accented in a slightly different way, somehow sounding almost dark and smooth, rather like the difference in milk and dark chocolate, or velvet and silk.
It was still music to my ears, of course.
Because nothing is fair about elves.

"Ah..Well, you see, I was...ah….I was brought here..by a very traitorous squirrel...Just about to leave..think I left my oven on.."
I trailed off into mumbles.
I was stung momentarily with the unexpected betrayal of Elrohir leaving me all on my own to deal with the consequences of our squirreling.
He likely had stayed nearby just to make sure I at least made it down alright, but I was definitely going to be a little miffed at him for a while.
Probably.

The strangers smile stayed true, despite that my words sounded mildly crazy, and he tilted his head slightly to the side, reminding me quite vividly of a curious puppy.
"My, it must have been a very large squirrel indeed, to spirit not only you, but also a hoard of acorns so high into the trees."

The anxious expression I'd held melted a little bit at that, a smile tilting up the corners of my mouth slightly.
I couldn't help it.
I'd expected him to be mad that we dropped things on them, not to joke about it.

He had leaves in his hair, for goodness sake!
Once I noticed that, my attempts to appear serious and keep from laughing failed quite quickly.

My smile grew a bit wider, though I did my best not to burst out laughing.
"Ah...You've got some leaves.."
I motioned vaguely at his hair, and he chuckled softly, running his fingers lightly over his head to tug out any caught leaves as I continued speaking.
"He-..I mean...it, is maybe..around..your size...And, well, you see, milord, the summer months are quite harsh on acorn collections. Too much fur to venture out. Much too warm. So it's necessary to stock up acorns when it's cooler."

As I said this, I untied the hood of my cloaklette, shaking out any remaining leaves that were stuck to the inside and tugging it over my head again.
Immediately I felt safer, more secure with the majority of my neck obscured from view, the only skin I was showing now was my face.

He laughed, though his eyes stayed on me, looking curiously over the cloaklette and the scars, "Ah, so your friend is a male squirrel, then. Mayhap you should go down and collect the acorns that were dropped upon me. All that hard work lost, what shall he do for the coming winter?"

I shook my head, widening my eyes and attempting to look innocent, "Nay, milord, the acorns were not dropped, they were thrown by this squirrel! A traitorous squirrel who leaves their friends behind in high up places."
I was still clinging to the trunk of the tree, not feeling entirely steady.

His smile turned into an entertained grin.
"So it was this traitorous squirrel that threw his hard gathered acorns down on us?"

I nodded quickly, "It wouldn't listen to a thing I said against the idea."
I mean, maybe I hadn't said that many things against the idea, but Elrohir hadn't paid any attention when I did say things about not throwing acorns at people, so it wasn't exactly a lie.

He looked decidedly amused, and it came through in his voice, "So you are simply an accomplice to this squirrel's dastardly plans? Kept or discarded when convenient?"

Well, that was not very nice of him to say, perhaps blondie wasn't as nice as he appeared.
They couldn't all be nice, after all. What a shame.

"Actually, I'm a squirrel too. I just have..tree climbing..problems."
My voice held a distinct note of 'hah, so what do you have to say about that?' in it.

His amused smile turned into a rather sly grin, "A squirrel that cannot climb trees? I've never heard of such a creature. Perhaps you are instead, a kitten, pretending to be a squirrel. Stuck up a tree, needing to be rescued?"

I scoffed, found an errant acorn that had landed on my branch when Elrohir had knocked them from my the bag, and threw it at him.
He caught it, laughing merrily, and tucked it into the pouch at his side.

I began seeking out another branch to start climbing down from the tree, ignoring the still laughing elf, and grumbled quietly to myself. "I am not a kitten!"
I needed a name for this mildly annoying elf.
"Why does everyone keep comparing me to one? I can climb trees just as well as everyone else."

My eyes skated across him for a moment, trying to find something to identify him by, something I could use as a nickname.
they focused in on the embroidered leaves on his tunic.
Who wore an embroidered tunic to travel?
Green leaves, though..
"Just you watch, greenleaf!"

He followed, still snickering softly at my quiet complaints, an oddly delighted smile coming onto his face at my choice of name for him.

His voice was tinged with curiosity when he next spoke.
"So, how long have you been staying in Imladris?"

I paused in my descent to shoot him a mildly startled look. I didn't remember saying anything about staying in Rivendell.

As if reading my thoughts about how he knew, he motioned one beautiful, slender fingered hand towards me.
"Tis too much of a coincidence to find one garbed as you are so close to Imladris, you must be staying there."

"Well..yes, I am. It's been a few months, I think..? Time feels different there. Slower. The days blend together a bit, and I don't have anything to keep the date with."

I continued climbing, speaking more to myself now than to him.
"Then again, I haven't really been able to keep track of the days since I got here..so..not really Rivendell's fault.."

He gave me a bit of an odd look at the last mumbled words, but didn't comment, simply matching my descent.
He kept relatively nearby, as if he thought I could fall at any moment, and he had to be there to catch me, and of course he made it look far easier than it felt for me.

A few branches down, he broke the silence that had fallen.
"What is your name, Milady?"

I paused slightly, then responded as I continued climbing.
"My name is Alyssa. What's yours?"

"Legolas."
Of course, it was purely coincidence that right after he said his name, and I looked up at him with a very startled gaze, both of my feet slipped from what I had thought to be a secure branch.
Purely coincidence.

I was left clinging to the branch I was on, one elbow planted on it, the other hand still holding to the branch above me.
I let out a yelp as I slipped, trying to scramble my feet back onto the branch they'd been on.

I had thought he was a random emissary from Mirkwood.
We'd sent the invitation for Legolas, but without the reason of Gollum escaping, I hadn't thought Thranduil would actually let him come.

I hardly had time to panic, for he was at my side in an instant, perfectly steady, hands gripping my waist and quickly lifting me onto the branch I was clinging to, as easily as if I really were a kitten.
Though of course, I was inwardly panicking a little bit about who was in front of me, that I almost fell to my death in front of him, and about the fact that Thranduil had apparently deemed our letter important enough to take seriously.

He withdrew his hands, but remained crouched on the branch next to me, sounding mildly scolding, and a touch concerned, but mostly amused.
"Perhaps you oughtn't climb so high next time, Alyssa. Kittens aren't meant to be in trees."

I stuck my tongue out at him, still a tiny bit shaky from my almost fall, trying to come to terms with the fact that I had not only dropped leaves and acorns on Erestor, but also on Legolas, and he was now witnessing my terrible climbing skills.
Life was just not fair.

"I didn't climb this high. I told you, I was brought here by a treacherous squirrel."

His was voice tinged with enjoyment, rich and warm to my ears.
"I believe it was traitorous before."

In contrast, my voice sounded practically petulant, and quite sarcastic.
"This particular squirrel is both."

I glanced down, just barely able to make out the ground in the growing darkness.
Maybe just another couple branches down, then I would be low enough to jump to the ground safely.

"Why did you allow him to bring you here if he is so traitorous and treacherous?"
Legolas's voice was filled with curiosity, and he still had one hand extended slightly towards me, as if I might fall off at any moment, fragile human that I was.

"Cause it's fun being a squirrel. You have to take the fun moments when you can get them."
Had I looked up, I would have seen a slight sadness in his face at my comment.

I climbed down another couple branches carefully, feeling extremely self conscious now that I knew who I was with.
Legolas matched my descent, making it look far too easy, all the while looking rather like he expected to have to catch me again.

What he did not expect was for me to jump out of the tree at roughly six feet above the ground, when there were no more branches for me to climb down.
He made a rather startled noise, and his arms snaked out, reaching for my waist in an attempt to pull me back up.
I'd pushed off quite hard from the branch, though, and the momentum from my jump was too much.

He ended up unbalancing himself from his branch, causing him to fall, and me to be disturbed from my calculated jump.
Somehow, in only six feet, he managed to twist us around so that he could land on his feet, with only a slight stumble.

Of course, that grew from a stumble to a fall when the rest of the momentum from the jump caused me to I stumbled against him.
We both ended up overbalancing.