Growing Pains- Chapter 17
Next chapter- I am starting to come down with a rather nasty cold so my head is definitely not screwed on properly right now- please forgive any small typos or errors. I had to get through double physics today and it completely sapped any strength I had left out of me.
Anyway, a few people have said they look forwards to seeing Estel train- here it is, then! And a little more shameless fluff (I just can't help myself).
Disclaimer: see Chapter 1
0-o-0-o-0
Estel eyed Legolas warily. "You look like you are going to enjoy this far too much," he said.
Legolas chuckled, but didn't say anything other than reminding Estel to watch his footing on the mud. The twin blades hung loosely in his hands, but Estel was nowhere near fooled. He had seen those knives in action, and knew just how deadly they could be.
His sword felt a little heavy in his hand, and he tightened his grip until his knuckles stood out, white. The drizzling rain wasn't helping with that, either, making the worn handle of the sword slippery.
Elladan stepped back a little from between the two. "If you can, you should fight with honour, Estel," he said. "But there is no point fighting with honour if your enemy will not. Then honour will only get you killed. This is why we fight like this, in training. The more tricks you know, the more chance you have of winning any fight, of fighting your way out of insurmountable odds like we have done before."
Estel nodded, adjusting his grip on his sword and raising it to a defensive position. Legolas brought his knives up with a small smile, and Estel, not being able to help himself, grinned back.
Elladan and Elrohir stepped back until they were clear, and then Elladan nodded. Estel barely had time to prepare himself before he suddenly found himself parrying the first blow from Legolas' knives.
At first the sparring wasn't too hard, and by that Estel meant that he wasn't being totally and utterly defeated by Legolas. He was only just keeping up with Legolas' flashing knives. Two knives meant twice as many things to concentrate on, and the weapons moved far faster than a sword. But then when Estel did manage to strike a blow, he felt how little strength the blond elf had in his two knives, compared to a sword. The only problem was that he was so fast.
And then Legolas started pressing him.
The first thing was, whilst Estel was blocking a blow, Legolas swung his leg around and swept Estel's legs out from under him, knocking him down into the mud. A quick roll from Estel kept Legolas' blade from striking down into him, had it been a real fight. Estel, panting as he came to his knees, suddenly decided that he wasn't even going to attempt to play fair anymore.
With his free hand he dug his fingers into the mud, flinging a handful towards Legolas' face as he rose. Legolas reeled backwards, instinctively ducking, and Estel used that opening to swing the flat of his blade around, aiming for Legolas' ribs to knock him over.
Legolas twisted and the blow only glanced his side. He recovered quickly, twisting his wrists so his blades flashed out and locked on Estel's sword. Estel tugged backwards, twisting his blade in an effort to free it. Steel grated against steel, and then his sword was suddenly free.
The force sent Estel reeling back, and it took him a few steps to regain his balance. In that time Legolas had already moved. Estel spun, kicking out as he did so, and managed to catch Legolas with a glancing blow to the lower leg. Legolas' leg buckled slightly, and he took a step forwards, his knives flashing out and the flat of them catching Estel in the stomach. The air was forced out of Estel's lungs and he doubled over, gasping for air.
Swiftly Legolas brought the handle of one of his knives down on Estel's back, and he fell down to the floor. At the last moment he twisted so his face didn't fall in the mud. With a grunt of effort he swung his sword out, and managed to catch Legolas' ankle.
Although the bond elf's ankle had healed, and the stitches taken out a few days ago, it was still tender. Legolas' leg buckled underneath him, and then as Estel reached out and grabbed his other leg, yanking it out from underneath the elf, he fell.
Unfortunately for Estel, an elf has far quicker reflexes than him. Legolas twisted mid air and threw himself to the side. His blades flashed out, and Estel stilled halfway through getting up as two silver points settled on his throat.
Estel gulped. "Those look rather sharp," he said, looking down at the fine knives. He knew they were only sparring knives like the sword he was using, not Legolas' actual hunting knives that were sitting safe in his room, but they still managed to look sharp.
Legolas laughed. "It's funny how you notice these things when they are pointing at your neck," he said. But the knives disappeared back into their sheaths, and in their place was a hand, reaching out to him.
Estel took it and pulled himself up, wincing at the dull ache on his torso from the flat of Legolas' blades hitting him. He was sure it was going to leave a bruise. Legolas grinned at him.
"Well fought," he said, attempting to wipe the mud from his face and only managing to smear it a little across his brow. "Even if you did get mud in my eyes."
Estel grinned. "Sorry?" he offered, trying to wipe some of the mud from his tunic. He heard a short laugh, and looked up to see Elladan and Elrohir approaching. Elladan laughed again.
"You both look a mess," he said with a smile. "Legolas, you look like you did when you fell into the stream in the northern glades." Elrohir laughed at that.
"Do I get to clean up?" asked Estel, ineffectively wiping at the mud on his leggings.
Elrohir chuckled. "No," he said with a grin. "You did well, Estel, but you have to move faster. We may move far faster than orcs, but the faster you can move, the more chance you have." Elrohir smiled. "And try to stay on your feet. If you fall, the battle is already half lost."
Estel nodded, and adjusted his grip as he turned to face Legolas again. The blond haired elf gave an easy smile as he raised his knives, and then the metal flashed as they began over again.
0-o-0-o-0
"Ai Valar."
The groan came from the muddy ground, and Estel rolled over from where he had been knocked down, again. He groaned again.
"That one is going to bruise," he said. "Like all the other ones." He really did ache all over now. They had been going at it for hours now, alternating between the brutal sparring that was the cause of most of the aches, and other things that now seemed easy in comparison, though trying to shoot down clay balls when they literally were being thrown straight at your head was still pretty hard.
Elladan chuckled. "I have never known you to complain so much, little brother," he said, offering his hand. Estel groaned for a third time.
"Do I have to get up?" he asked, trying to wipe the mud from his face and failing miserably. "I'm pretty sure this is more comfortable."
There came a snort of laughter from above and Estel cracked open his eyes to see Legolas looking down at him. "You cannot eat lunch on the muddy floor."
"Lunch?" asked Estel, grabbing hold of Elladan's hand and swiftly pulled himself up. "Where?"
"I told you that would get him up," said Elrohir with a laugh. He glanced up at the skies. "Quickly, before the rain really starts to fall."
They were too late. Even as Elrohir spoke the clouds broke above them and they quickly became soaked. Estel cursed, picking up the various weapons he had been training with and making for the warmth and dryness of inside. Legolas was by his side as he jogged across the training fields and up the track, though the blond elf seemed indifferent to the rain. Elladan and Elrohir followed, after a brief wordless argument that Elladan quickly won, and resulted in him flipping the hood of Elrohir's cloak up over his head.
They made it inside, quickly, though they were soaked by the time they got into the armoury that is the nearest part of the house to the training fields. Estel literally shook himself like a dog, grinning when Legolas recoiled at the flying drops of water.
"Aren't you bothered by the rain?" asked Estel, watching the drops of water slide from Legolas' wet blond hair. Behind him came a chuckle.
"You wait until you visit Mirkwood, Estel," said Elrohir as he entered the armoury, pushing back his hood. Estel could still see the vivid scar across his temple, and his gaze fell away.
"Aye," said Elladan, coming in behind his brother, his hand briefly clasping Elrohir's shoulder in one of their unspoken conversations that Estel couldn't understand. "You will not find rain so irritating after that."
Legolas chuckled. "It rains all the time," he said to Estel. "But usually it isn't actually that strong. One of the advantages of living in a forest, I suppose." He moved past Estel further into the armoury, slinging his quiver and knives off his back and down onto the end of a long table, and his attention turned to his weapons, carefully drying them and then beginning to oil the leather of his quiver.
Elladan and Elrohir began to do the same with their swords, oiling the scabbards and carefully drying the buckles so they wouldn't rust. Elrohir glanced up. "Do your sword, Estel," he said. "Then we will eat."
Estel nodded and unbuckled his sword belt, grabbing a cloth from the workbench and beginning to dry off the wet leather. This had been drilled into him since he had first started training with weapons, and he knew exactly what to do. His brothers had repeated it again and again: the weapons were the things that quite often saved their lives, and the lives of so many others. They needed looking after.
And Estel was beginning to understand, a little, why his brothers kept their weapons in their rooms at all times, why they were always meticulously looked after, why even now there was an unspoken rule that meant he didn't even retrieve his brothers' weapons if they needed them, not without them asking him to. They almost owed their lives to their weapons, even though it was their own skill that made them so deadly.
Idle talk filled the armoury as the three elves and young man worked, cleaning and then putting away the sparring weapons that they had been using. None of them had been using their actual weapons, though Estel did not actually have a sword that he called his own yet.
Eventually they were done, and Legolas liberated lunch from the kitchens, even managing to charm the elves there to give him a few of the sweet pastries they had baked that morning. At Estel's raised eyebrows on return to the room, he simply shrugged.
"I have had a lot of practice," he said with a smile. "Hungry and weary warriors have long since forced the kitchens in Mirkwood to be near impregnable, or after every lengthy patrol or skirmish there would be nothing to serve for dinner." He chuckled. "We have yet to work out ways around them."
Elladan raised one eyebrow. "I am sure you have your methods," he said. "Just don't teach them to Estel. He already raids the pantries enough as it is, and we don't need him eating everything in the house."
Estel had the good graces to blush a little at this, his cheeks turning pinker than normal. "I don't clean out the entire pantry," he muttered under his breath.
"What was that, little brother?" asked Elrohir with a smile. "I didn't quite hear you."
Estel glared at him good-naturedly. "Of course you heard me," he snapped. "With your irritating elven hearing, you hear everything." He snatched an apple from the table and somehow managed to bite into it with indignation. All three of the elves chuckled.
After a while Legolas shifted, and Estel looked over at him, noticing for the first time how the blond elf, though appearing relaxed and slouched in his chair, looked like one of the cats occasionally seen around Imladris. It was like he was almost ready to pounce at a moment's notice. Estel suddenly recognised the posture, having seen it occasionally when his brothers though he wasn't around.
He guessed it was what came from their lives, from their readiness to fight at a moment's notice. It seemed more prominent in Legolas, but then his home had been under attack for a long time, whereas here, in Imladris, at least Elladan and Elrohir knew they were safe. Legolas didn't seem like he knew that.
Legolas sat up, and his gaze wandered to the balcony and outside, where it was still raining. "We should get moving again," he said. "We still have things to do."
Elladan nodded, briefly catching Elrohir's eye. Something, another of those infuriating unspoken conversations that Estel could never decipher, passed between them, and then both Elrohir and Elladan pushed back their chairs and stood up.
"Before you two get started, we wanted to give you something, Estel," said Elladan, crossing the room to where a dark bundle sat on a chair. He picked it up and shook it out. "Here," he said, handing it over.
Estel took it. It was a coat, made of dark green leather. If put on, it would hang down to near the top of his boots, and was thick enough to keep out water, or to keep him warm in snow. Estel felt a small smile creep across his face. This was different to pretty much anything he owned. This wasn't the coat of a child anymore.
Legolas smiled from where he sat. "Put it on," he said. "It should be a little big. We want you to grow into it."
Estel, still not thinking he could say anything right now, pulled the coat on. Legolas was right, it was a little big, but it was still warm, and felt strangely comfortable, like he had worn it before. He was right- it hung down to just past the top of his boots, and the sleeves were a little long, but he somehow knew it would be the perfect size when he had finally finished growing.
"We thought you might need something a little warmer for this winter, if we are going to keep up this training," said Elrohir, coming over and adjusting the coat around the shoulders. "And you need to learn to be able to fight with something like this flapping around your legs." He cast an amused glance over at Elladan and Legolas, and the other two chuckled softly.
Elladan almost seemed a little nervous as he looked at Estel. "Do you like it?" he asked.
Estel felt a grin come across his face. His brothers had been trying to be less protective, had tried to let him take knocks and get pushed over. Legolas was helping a little, showing Elladan and Elrohir that Estel could take it. Sometimes they didn't do too well. But this coat, for some strange reason, suddenly meant a lot to Estel.
"I love it," he said, turning to his brothers, and hoping that they would realise what he was thinking. "Thank you."
From the soft smiles that spread across their faces, he guessed he had gotten his message across.
0-o-0-o-0
After a brief pause all three elves stirred again. Legolas moved over towards the balcony and leant on it, uncaring about the rain thundering down outside. Estel eyed it warily. "We aren't going out in that, are we?" he asked, looking from Legolas to his brothers and back.
Elladan and Elrohir simply smiled knowingly, and Legolas merely shrugged. "It is only rain," said the blond elf. He glanced over at Elladan and Elrohir. "I will try to make sure he doesn't get too wet."
Estel rolled his eyes. "I am mortal. Doesn't mean I can't get wet, Legolas." He straightened and adjusted his new coat, grinning slightly as his fingers slipped over the smooth leather. "Are we leaving?" he asked, gesturing towards the door.
Elladan and Elrohir suddenly chuckled, and Estel glanced over at them. "What?" he asked. "What is it?"
Elladan merely smiled. "We need to be going," he said, another unspoken message passing between him and Legolas, resulting in Legolas nodding slightly. Elladan turned back to Estel. "Good luck," he said. "You might need it."
On that, he and Elrohir turned and left. It took Estel a few seconds to catch up. "Wait," he said, too late. "What do you mean, 'I might need it'? Why are you wishing me good luck?" Sudden dread came over him, and he slowly turned to Legolas.
"What are we doing this afternoon?" he asked slowly, watching Legolas' back as the elf leant on the balcony. "Legolas, tell me what we are doing."
A low chuckle came from Legolas. "Are you ready to go?" he asked, straightening from the balcony and turning back to Estel. Estel noticed that he didn't have any of his usual weapons on him, save for maybe a dagger hidden in his boot or up his sleeve. Legolas seemed like the kind of elf to keep a dagger hidden on him.
He nodded. "Aye," he said, reaching to grab his cloak, where it was hung out drying over the back of a chair. Legolas shook his head.
"With what we are doing, it might be better to leave that," he said. "You will get wet, but your new coat should keep you warm. Trust me, you will not want that cloak this afternoon."
"And what exactly is it that we are doing this afternoon?" asked Estel. "Do I even need to get any weapons?"
Legolas shook his head again, that infuriating smile still on his face. "Shall we leave?" he asked.
Estel nodded, and was about to head for the door when Legolas turned back to the balcony. With a grin at Estel, he vaulted lightly over the edge and jumped into the branches of a nearby tree.
Estel's mouth fell open slightly. That was what they were doing today. He strode over to the edge of the balcony and looked across to where Legolas was perched on the balls of his feet on a branch. He had made the jump look so easy.
"No doors today," said Legolas cheerfully. "Take your time, and don't take your eyes off your landing, but it is not actually much of a distance. Keep your knees bent on landing, though, or you will slide off the branch."
Estel cursed loudly. "Do my brothers know you are making me do this?" he called out, hoping that they didn't and he didn't have to jump from his balcony.
Legolas' smile widened. "I checked with them, and they told me the story of when you were ten years old and snuck out of your room one night by jumping off the balcony and climbing down the tree. If you can do it then, you can do it now."
Estel rolled his eyes. "I was ten, Legolas. I was hardly aware of the dangers of jumping off a balcony in the dead of night."
"And now it is the middle of the afternoon," replied Legolas, his smile broad. "And you are far taller than you were six years ago. It should be easy."
Estel growled under his breath. "Ai Valar, save me from irritating Sindar!" He sat on the balcony and swung his legs over so he was standing on the other side. Legolas shifted in the trees until Estel had a clear landing space, but so he was close enough if something did go wrong.
"There is no telling where you will end up later in your life," he called out. "Someday, taking to the trees may be the only way you survive. Whilst I am here, I might as well teach you this."
Estel glared at the blond elf, and fixed his eyes on the tree in front. It wasn't actually that far away, a distance he could easily jump on the ground. It was just that it was a balcony, and a tree. He cursed under his breath, pushed off from the balcony and jumped.
To Be Continued...
It's all getting a little more fun now- we will get to see a much younger Legolas who doesn't have to worry so much about things. And I couldn't resist putting that bit in with the coat- it's meant to be the same one that Aragorn wears throughout the Quest. I just really liked the idea that it was given to Aragorn as a gift a while ago, and he kept it for all those years :)
As always, reviews are very welcome.