"Don't get it in my eyes you idiot!"
"Then stop moving about!" Baran retorted to Aerthor. They had travelled far enough away from the patrols of their herd and had stopped by a stream beneath a small copse of trees where the twins could change their hair. To save time before the sun set, Baran was fixing Aerthor' s hair and Thenid was working on covering Aerlaer's long hair in the black/brown mixture.
"Aerthor stop being impossible." Aerlaer growled at him as she sat gracefully allowing Thenid to finish, enjoying her friend playing with her hair.
"That should be enough." Thenid said quietly and Baran announced he had finished too.
"Now we must wait a little before rinsing out the excess." Aerlaer directed and while they waited, the other four elves disappeared into the trees to change into what they planned on wearing into Mirkwood.
"One-thousand. Okay we can wash this muck out now and I brought a scented hair rinse so we do not smell like walnuts although you are a bit of a walnut..." Aerlaer snickered as she lay back on the bank, tipping her hair into the stream and allowing the mixture to wash away. Aerthor copied her and then Aerlaer unstoppered the small bottle of hair rinse and poured half the bottle on her head and passed the rest to Aerthor.
"I'm going to smell like an elleth!" He grumbled and Aerlaer laughed as she quickly applied the scented rinse of vanilla orchid and berries to her lengths and then washed it out. She had packed two towels and picked one up and quickly dried her hair and untangled it until it fell in soft, dry waves over her shoulder. The others emerged from the trees in clean tunics and trousers.
"Looking dashing." She grinned at them. "Did the walnut work?" Thenid chuckled quietly and walked over to her and inspected her hair.
"It seems to have. Look into the water and see; it is a nice, rich brown. Aerthor had finished drying his own hair, having slightly less than his sister and they both peered at their reflections in the light of the nearly set sun.
"Perfect." He breathed gleefully and rushed over to where his bag was beside Aerlaer's and pulled out a change of garments. "Hurry up Aerlaer and get changed." He called to his sister as he dashed off into the trees. She went to her own bag and pulled the dress she intended to wear from it and melted into the cover of the trees to change. The dress she wore was of a soft and light material of a dark blue which tied up at her neck, leaving her back bare until two ties at her hips held the length which flowed to the floor in place, tied in a long bow at the small of her back. She was well aware she was going to be entering a land she was uninvited to and this dress would give her a full range of movement if she needed to fight. She already felt vulnerable by the lack of weapons she now wore. She had hidden hers like the others had, high up in the trees. Dressed, she picked up her other clothes and walked out to the others. Aerthor whistled.
"Ada would have a cow if he knew you were wearing that devastating number in a strange realm." He teased and Aerlaer shrugged.
"It's practical if we need to fight to break our way out weapon-less." She grinned.
"The only breaking you'll be doing is that of the poor hearts of the ellon's in Mirkwood!" Baran snickered and Aerthor shot him a mischievous look.
"That's my sister you're talking about, eyes off." He said jokingly and Baran snorted in laughter and grinned at Aerlaer who laughed at him as she walked over to where the masks were stashed in her bag. She handed a solid red and brown and black mask to Baran and then a mask which looked to be made of the leaves of ivy to Narthan. She handed a black and white mask to Glaurandir and to Thenid, a charcoal and grey mask of an intricate pattern of leaves. To Aerthor she handed over a black mask which turned into a point down his nose and was decorated with dark blue painted wood which twisted away from the bridge of his nose and around his eyes almost as if they were the branches of a tree. Aerlaer pulled her own out and quickly put it on and then Aerthor tossed her bag up high into a tree.
"We look well and truly ready for a masked dance." He said excitedly. "It is dark enough now to sneak into the forest. We just have to be extra careful of those spiders which have started lurking in those trees and hopefully we do not run into any orcs. We should be able to dodge the Mirkwood patrols unnoticed if we are quiet and think on our feet. We're all wearing dark clothing so we will blend into the shadows. If at any point we become found out, we must leave immediately and swiftly. We'll enter the celebration as though we are meant to be there. Are we all agreed on this?" Aerthor looked to his five companions who each nodded, impish smirks upon their faces.
"Then let's go."