Chapter 6: A Strange Noise...

King Thranduil was not known to be an open book for emotions. He was like a wall of stone, cold and emotionless for those who could not see into him. However, Thalos had been his son for more than two thousand years and he could catch some tiny emotions slipping from his father when he wanted to.

He was helping his father, again, in an issue involving moving some of the elvish villages in the outskirts of Dol Guldur (something his father thought was perfectly stupid in the first place) closer to the fortress so that they could be protected more.

They'd sent some patrols over there and got a small portion of elven women and children inside Thranduil's palace to be cured. They had nasty orc burns and cuts which could have been the most clearest signs of raping. However, they'd found most villages pillaged and empty so actually finding elves was a good sign. The elf men were being armed but would be taken to the palace last, since they were better prepared for any battle.

Suddenly, a servant came inside. His eyes were calm yet slightly frantic as he looked at Thranduil after doing the usual round of greetings. "Some southern patrols have found small proofs of orcs roaming near an active elf village near Dol Guldur, your Highness. What must we do?"

Thranduil sighed, and looked up at the servant. "We will ambush them before they can threaten the village, have a patrol ready. You can let Lego-"

For a while, he stopped in midair and Thalos admired this rare feat of emotion. It was as if his father had suddenly forgotten Legolas was at Imladris and not at home, perhaps shooting his arrows.

"Adar, did you forget that Legolas is at Imladris?" asked Thalos quietly.

"I know that," Thranduil snapped back at Thalos. "I was merely thinking about who should replace him to lead the patrol."

"Send Liawen there with twenty other elves," said Thranduil to the servant who nodded. "Send Nasgor behind him in case he needs backup, with ten elves."

The servant scurried off, closing the door behind him and Thalos smirked at Thranduil who had turned back to his writing, muttering, "Exactly when we need him the most, that wretched elfling is off in Imladris doing who knows what."

He catched Thalos' smirk, he glared at him. "Does that mean you could abandon your work?"

"Sorry Adar," muttered Thalos quickly going back to analyzing another complaint. He now knew why his father was so grouchy all the time...with these complaints even Thalos, himself could go insane. "It simply amuses me, really..."

"What amuses you?" snapped Thranduil as he sighed at the sight of what seemed another complaint.

"The fact that you miss Legolas," said Thalos and he raised his eyes at Thranduil's.

"Well, of course I miss him! He is my son! What did you think I would do? Be happier that he was gone?" asked Thranduil half-angrily, half-unbelievably.

Thalos hadn't really thought about that but still, he was quite surprised that his father had admitted he felt emotion. "Of course not, it is only that you're not very known for being emotional. We hardly believed that Legolas' departure would affect you."

He rose up to deliver a set of parchments to the scholars in the library when his father asked at him rather angrily, "Who is 'we,' may I ask?"

" 'We' means the whole kingdom," said Thalos darkly leaving the office.

Thranduil leaned back from his pile of papers and looked at the closed door. He rubbed his temples and sighed because in the inside, he knew that it was true.

Legolas looked back at the twins, who were being overly excited with themselves, doing their usual round of chatting but more passionately and unfortunately-loudly.

"Be more quiet," he warned them. "Your talking is louder than the breathing of dwarves. It certainly serves as a good flag to wave the orcs over here."

Elladan snorted. "You are wrong Legolas, whilst dwarves are unpleasantly short creatures with breathing that sounds like an orc choking, our chattering is as pleasant as the song of a bird."

Elrohir nodded in approvance. "Indeed...it would be hard to tell us apart. Our voices are just that beautiful."

Legolas snorted as they laughed and they went on through the forest out of Imladris. It truly was beautiful, the forest, he meant, with trees bright green and fresh land which proved not as slippery as Mirkwood's. Flowers bloomed pleasantly at every sight and birds lingered upon the branches of wise trees. It was long since he had seen a flower, and he let his memory roam. However, it was hard since there was still some snow on top of everything, which was slowly melting but still there.

"Aí! It seems as if I have found some orc tracks!" exclaimed Elrohir, making Elladan and Legolas rush next to him.

Legolas bent down and his fingers squished the dirt, he, being the most experienced of them all. The footsteps were new, so they couldn't be too far away from them. Legolas knelt near the dirt, something that made the twins wrinkle their nose with and he sniffed the dirt. After a while, he stood up and smelled the air. He easily tracked the scent of the orcs a couple of miles from them west.

"They're going west," Legolas immediately. "Maybe a couple of miles from here...they can't be too far. And you're right, it's a small crowd, perhaps no more than ten. However, we might not know if they have backup somewhere."

"Jeez, all that just by smelling dirt? You truly are something Legolas," stated Elladan as they followed him through the forest, their steps light.

"Indeed, let's just finish this hunt to go back to breakfast," said Elrohir. "I'm famished."

"You're always famished," replied Elladan rolling his eyes. "You eat like a pig and you have the stomach of a halfling. You never seem to have enough."

"I do not!"

"You most certainly do, pig."

"Le uchann, dôl lín cofn!" replied Elrohir at him. (You're stupid, your head is empty.)

Their argument started from there and began more heated. Legolas wanted to ask them what a halfling was but well...he took orc hunting very seriously and his concentration crackled. His senses became more keen and every tiny sound became louder. Until suddenly, about half an hour of walking later, he heard voices. "Quiet," he ushered the arguing twins and pointed to their ears.

They listened and with their elven ears, were able to capture the gruff talking of orcs. Legolas told the twins he would go up the trees to get a better view of them. So he scurried through the branches of the trees not making any noise and set an arrow in his bow.

There were about eight orcs there, a relatively small band. They were armed with clubs, some ruggedly sharp swords and poisoned knives. None of them were armed with bows and arrows, which gave Legolas some advantage. He looked back at the twins, who had their swords out and looked at Legolas for the signal. He nodded and turned to look at the orcs below him, who were already walking away. And then Legolas shot an arrow.

It hit the side of an orc's head, slashing clean through it's skull and falling down dead. Legolas loaded two more arrows and they landed in two orcs' necks, killing them quickly as well. The orcs, now aware that they were being tracked, had their weapons ready when Elladan and Elrohir charged. Elladan and Elrohir had great teamwork, slashing like a hurricane, slashing out two orcs immediately and working with two others. Legolas jumped out from the tree and shot an arrow at one of the orcs, which crumbled down. Then Elrohir beheaded the last orc, ending the battle. It had not taken them five minutes and the battle was already over.

"Well, I thought it would have been harder," said Elrohir grinning. "Don't know why Ada said it was too dangerous for us."

"You were lucky," said Legolas darkly at them suddenly thrusting into another memory. "First-timers usually don't have their first patrol this easily. This was a small patrol, there will be more orcs here, after they smell their fellow orcs' blood."

A dark silence gripped upon the air until Elladan said, "Whatever, I'm just glad this is over. I do think that appetite of yours is getting on to me, Ro."

As they walked by home with Elladan and Elrohir resuming their previous fight about who was more pig-like, their chatter echoing rather loudly into the forest, Legolas thought about his first patrol. And lucky he hadn't been.

[BEGIN FLASHBACK]

When Legolas opened his eyes, all he felt was pain. It was overwhelming and he felt sore all over and over again. It was as if he had been kicked by a horse in the lungs and stamped by a barricade of orcs...it hurt that bad. His chest felt tight and his head throbbed.

He looked around as his vision became less blurry and immediately struggled to sit up, immediately regretting it as he slumped back in his bed. He recognized where he was now: in the Mirkwood hospital wing. He was sitting in one of the hospital beds, wrapped around with bandages in several places.

"Mae govannen, Legolas."

His head painfully turned right as he faced the small grin in his brother's face. Thalos looked as honorable as Legolas had always seen him, clad in full battle uniform even with a warrior's armor. "How do you feel Legolas?"

"Like I've been stampeded over by a barricade of orcs," he was able to say, although he croaked a bit.

Thalos sighed. "Well, at least you're alive. And I'm glad for that...you were gone for two days. Once we almost found you without your heart beating."

"I-I was out?" asked Legolas shaking his head, discovering it only throbbed more like that. "What happened?"

"Don't move your head like that, it'll heal more if you stay still and rest," Thalos whispered carefully adjusting Legolas' head on the pillow. "Do you remember your patrol?"

Memories flooded back into his brain about the patrol when Legolas said, "I think I do."

"Well, it turns out that our scouts were wrong," he said. "There were more orcs than we imagined. Although your patrol was outnumbered, well...you led them pretty nicely. However, everybody did get pretty serious injuries. And you saved a fellow soldier by receiving a poisoned blade in the shoulder."

Legolas hissed, imagining. "Oh, that must have hurt."

"Indeed," said Thalos. "A few minutes more and we would have been late. Nobody died though, that is a relief. However, Adar is not happy."

Legolas groaned. "I thought that with these injuries, I would have received enough. I will need to talk to him?"

"I tried, Legolas, I really did," he whispered looking down. "I tried to tell him that he should talk to you a few days after you've woken up but he insisted he wanted to talk to you as soon as you woke up. It wasn't a pretty fight...I really tried to convince him."

Legolas raised a hand and smiled weakly, "Don't Thalos. Do not put yourself in so much trouble for me...I always seem to drag you into these fights, don't I? Please don't...you know him, once he is up to something, he will never give up."

"Stubbornness runs in the family," shrugged Thalos and Legolas slightly laughed, although his ribs felt like collapsing when he did so.

"He will come soon, won't he?" asked Legolas and Thalos sighed.

"I suppose so. But I must ask you something before he does."

"What may that be?"

"Damn it, Greenleaf! You were surrounded and nearly killed by eighty orcs! You were tossed around, punched, stabbed and who knows what else! And yet...your hair. How does it stay so perfect?"

He knew Thalos wanted him to laugh, to cheer him up...the hair was always a topic where Legolas always laughed, but with the pain and the future notion of a talk with his father: he wasn't very cheery. He managed a small grin before the door burst open.

In Mirkwood, most people had to knock...but never King Thranduil. Nope, he could go anywhere, burst anywhere and appear anywhere whenever and wherever he wanted. That was how he ruled and he didn't care. He looked sternly at his sons before he eyed Thalos the, Do-what-I-told-you-before stare. Thalos quickly left the room and as it closed, Thranduil looked at Legolas.

"You were almost killed."

"So I've heard."

He glared at him. "That was a foolish thing to do. To risk yourself for a common warrior. You are a prince Legolas, you can not risk yourself for others like this."

"He still had a life," muttered Legolas. "He is still a living thing."

"Yet you are worth more Legolas," said Thranduil. "You cannot go around throwing yourself to protect those people of a level inferior than yours. It is not worthy."

"It is worthy," snapped Legolas back. "You may be a good king, but you have no heart for your people-"

"DO NOT tell me how I rule this kingdom," Thranduil roared back.

But Legolas went on. "How can you rule when you truly do not care about the people who follow you? How can you expect them to trust you and be loyal to you?"

"LEGOLAS, STOP IT," Thranduil snapped. "You know nothing. I risked more for my people than you ever knew. I lost more for them than you will ever imagine. You have no idea how much I suffered...of course I care about them."

"You do know, that your family also count as your people," Legolas roared, struggling but finally achieving the feat of sitting up in his bed. He felt as if he were burning though but only used this energy to glare at his father. "If I had died protecting that soldier and my body had been brought back here-you would never had mourned me."

"Do not speak of nonsense Legolas," snapped Thranduil. "Of course I would have mourned you, the entire kingdom would have had."

"You wouldn't," he repeated. "You wouldn't have even shed a tear. Thalos is too honorable, too loyal to you to tell you this to your face and I am as well, but I am not afraid of you. When I was young...I used to have a father. I used to have two loving parents...now I have none."

For a while, silence hung in the air as two different glares sizzled in the air. Legolas' lighter, gentle but fierce, electrifying blue with Thranduil's harder, stronger and colder dark blue. Then, Legolas felt as if his shoulder burst out, as if the marrow inside the bone had exploded. Overwhelmed by the pain, Legolas collapsed and the last thing he heard, was the shout for the healers.

[END FLASHBACK]

"Legolas, are you all right?"

Legolas turned to look at the twins, who were frowning at him. They looked worried and for a while, it were as if Thalos had split into two and was taking care of him. He quickly shook his head to stare at Elladan and Elrohir, "I'm fine."

"Oh, no you're not," said Elrohir. "You looked as if you had been punched in the face."

"Ada told us that you, Mirkwood elves, are as stubborn as hell," said Elladan. "We may be goofs sometimes, but we aren't stupid...we know when somebody isn't fine."

"I said I was fine," repeated Legolas. "Anyways, are we getting close to Imladris? You two arguing finally got some appetite out of me."

"That's what we were talking to you about," said Elladan. "Although we doubt you were listening."

"Yes, Imladris is just up there," Elrohir pointed up to a beautiful white dome ahead. "We were asking you about your favorite foods. What do you guys eat there in Mirkwood?"

"Well, we have the same diet as you," said Legolas. "Although I became vegetarian when I was very young-"

"VEGETARIAN?" asked Elrohir horrified. "So...you don't eat meat? Not even one bit?"

"Perhaps fish sometimes," said Legolas. "But yes, I don't eat meat."

"Can you imagine Ro in a vegetarian world?" chuckled Elladan. "He wouldn't survive a day and he'd go quite insane, I believe!"

"Mítho orch!" roared Elrohir back indignantly. (Kiss an orc!)

Legolas sighed as another set of friendly fighting ran out through the twins. He felt some sympathy for Arwen now, did she drink anything to tolerate these two? He would have to congratulate her when they reached Imladris. He really did. He could never imagine those two as his brothers.

Then suddenly, he heard a noise.

O-O-O

AN: As I promised, here is immediately another chapter! I made this one more humorous to lighten up the mood! :) I kind of left it in a cliffhanger but it's little. This is one of my favorite chapters of this story...I do love Thalos! He's such an awesome brother, I think. Kind of like Dean Winchester (Supernatural) except Dean is the perfect brother.