Exhausted. That was the predominant feeling in Thranduil's being as he sunk ever further into his throne. The encounter with the raven haired male had gone better than his worst fears but also went worse than he'd been hoping for. Fortunately the starlight haired king had kept most of his inner thoughts from showing but he knew he hadn't been perfect. He'd startled ever so slightly once and let fear and anger creep in on another moment. Ordinarily he would have no such problem. He would pass judgment calmly and resolutely, but here there was no judgment to pass. Only modification of Himelon's containment. He'd been a bit more confident and felt ever more empowered when the encounter had first begun. His prisoner was frightened, albeit proud, but he had been frightened. That was how it should be.

As King he held the power of life and death in his hand and only a fool should be unafraid when facing his judgment throne. And yet Thranduil hated that. Despite bolstering his ego he also found the fear in the other's eyes was like a knife to the heart. As the conversation had progressed Thranduil had felt himself loosing more and more control. At least that's how it felt to him. He was hoping beyond all hope that he had not seemed as weak as he'd felt. When Himelon had made a subtle threat to his people and had threatened to end his own life Thranduil had felt helpless. That both scared and angered the young elf king. He feared for his people and was enraged that anyone dare threaten them and he'd been afraid of loosing the one who had just threatened that which he held dear. Fortunately things seemed to have ended as they began. He was in charge of the situation and all the raven haired elf male could do was obey. So why was he so exhausted? Their encounter couldn't have lasted more that ten minutes if that even and he still felt worse than if he'd just returned from a battle.

Thranduil didn't know when he'd begun walking or how he'd managed to navigate out into the stables unaware but he had. In search of either answers or solace from his own mind he'd come here. Sighing Thranduil found his elk and wrapped his arms around the beast's neck. He'd caught the creature when he was sill only a prince-ling and it had ended up being one of his best friends throughout life so far. The elk hummed and nuzzled its master. The starlight haired male smiled softly cuddling it back before sinking to the ground to curl up next to the large creature's side. At this moment he didn't care if someone saw. He didn't care if this was something a ruler should never do or if the ground would make a mess of his silver robes. As he snuggled up to the elk and it curled protectively around him he was not King of Greenwood the Great. He was just Thranduil Oropherion. Just an elf and his pet bonding as he tried to calm the emotional storm brewing in his mind.

"Well that went well!" Himelon exclaimed somewhere between a laugh and an annoyed remark, "I suppose it could have gone worse…" The large doors had closed behind him with a thud and he found that there was a rather large guard tailing him. In truth he'd been a bit shocked when the king had rejected his offer of the gems and even more surprised when he hadn't been thrown in the depths of the palace to rot. As Thranduil had put it Himelon had attacked his people. There was no denying that the King was being exceedingly lenient. Going from prisoner to supervised guest was about the second best result he could think of.

He was supposed to stay in Greenwood so taking back his weapons and leaving would probably not be allowed but you never know until you try. And try he would. Taking a deep breath Himelon spun on his heel to face the guard and while said individual was trying to make out what would happen next Himelon's hand made contact with the other's helmet clad face. A slap. That's all it had been and that's all that was needed to confuse the guard long enough for the raven haired male to bolt. He'd faintly heard shouts and footsteps behind him but that mattered not. With all the skill of a native Himelon wove in and out of passages and dodged several servants as he made his way toward the cellars and, more importantly, the armory. With most of the guards racing about looking for him it had been easy to over-power the two who were there. A few well placed punches and some rope from a wine rack had served him well. Seeing as how these two seemed to have been into the wine recently things had gone especially smoothly. Himelon was barely able to contain the happy squeal that found its way through his lips as he spotted his bow, arrows, and blade completely unharmed.

"Now let's get out of here." the raven haired male whispered to his weapons as he swung them onto his person. It was then that the guards began to wake and struggle.

"Oh sshh!" Himelon bit out swatting at their frantically twisting heads, "You're fine! Just a bit tied up." He felt like he was reassuring children that the scrape on their leg was nothing. It was bit amusing to think of it that way and he let out a soft chuckle as he strode out into the main hall. With light feet Himelon had tried to avoid detection but unfortunately one or more of the guards were particularly vigilant and spotted him. It wasn't long before it was a full on chase through the palace and seeing as how the main entrance and exit was blocked Himelon found himself leaping out over a balcony into the forest.

Author's Note: Thank you all for the reviews and everything. Since the question was posed to me in a PM (Silvara) I will tell you in escence what I told them. I plan on angling this in a slashy direction eventually. However I plan on building the slashy-ness on a foundation of freindship and there is quite a bit left to come in the story. Don't worry. There's not going to just be a random chapter where we go nuts with a homosexual love fest out of nowhere. As previously stated I intend on building the slash relationship of a freindship relationship. I will likely be changing the rating to "M" in time but I will also put an author's note at the begining of the chapters where the slash begins to mannifest. Once again thank you so much for all of the reviews, comments, views, messages, follows and favorites. You are all what encourage me to keep going with this story. Thank you one and all.