King Thranduil sat draped comfortably upon a wooden throne under the canopy of his trees observing the activities of the elves about him. Their celebration had just begun and most were eating and drinking while a quartet of musicians played a pleasant tune in the corner of the glade. He sipped at the sweet wine in his chalice and cast his eyes idly around, seeking out his son and held back an amused smirk.
The masked young elf was listening politely to the avid conversation of one of the court elleths. She was a pretty creature and kind enough but he knew his son found her rather dull. He watched as Legolas, the perfect picture of a well-bred and mannered ellon, politely made an excuse to leave the conversation and sought the company of the ellon comrades he trained with, a chalice of wine also in his hand.
"My Lord Thranduil?" He turned to the guard before him, a brow raised in question.
"Yes Bronwe?"
"Six of the wild elves have been spotted heading towards us my Lord. They are masked. I was unsure if you had invited them so we have not hindered their approach yet."
"Are they indeed?" Thranduil chuckled to himself. "Are they armed at all?"
"No my Lord, there are five young ellon's and one young elleth." Bronwe replied dutifully.
"How intriguing. Let them sneak in, I have no qualms with the edhelroch and Falas, although he keeps to himself much like I do now, is a good King, his warriors indirectly help keep the orc and spider population down." He smiled more to himself. "Did one of the ellon's and the elleth have unusual hair?" He asked curiously and Bronwe shook his head.
"No my Lord, there was a near black haired elf, a chestnut, two blondes and the elleth and another had a dark russet brown coloured hair." Thranduil tried to puzzle this information out. He was certain Falas's daughter was the only young elleth in the herd from reports he had heard. Maybe he had been misinformed.
"Two appear to be siblings, the dark russet haired ellon called the elleth sister." Bronwe thoughtfully added and Thranduil nodded. They have concealed their hair, clever elves.
"Do not hinder them in any way, just allow them to join the celebration unnoticed, they are quite harmless but even weapon-less, if you corner or trap one of them you will most likely come out worse for it." Thranduil warned the guard, and nodding with a curt bow, he slipped away back into the trees. Thranduil took another sip of his wine, he was looking forward to the arrival of the wild elves as some of his people referred to them as and he was curious to see what sort of elf Aerthor had grown to be and to see for himself if the rumours he sometimes heard from the guard were true of Aerlaer's grace and beauty. He silently did the math in his head to discern their age now, remembering they too had come to be during the time of the watchful peace as had his own son and realised they had just come of age at fifty. How young they were he mused.
There was movement on the fringe of the glade and two masked ellon's, both blonde haired slipped into the glade unnoticed. He realised he had not even seen the chestnut haired and dark haired elves enter but they were talking now with the two blonde elves. He then saw an ellon and elleth appear as if from nowhere beside the other wild elves. They are sneaky but not sneaky enough to quite evade my eyes or my woodland guard. A smirk played on his lips. He noticed they were well dressed and all bore beautifully crafted masks. He realised Aerthor was their leader as he quietly spoke to them, a small smirk upon his face. Thranduil took another sip from his chalice and let his eyes fall lastly to Aerlaer.
Although the mask hid most of her face, Thranduil could easily see the wild she elf was beautiful. She held herself regally and her movements were graceful but bellied hidden strength. He watched curiously as she listened to her brother speaking, all the while fiddling with the ends of her long tresses. A nervous habit. He realised. The group as a whole although blending in well among his own people, looked poised to flee at any given second. Suddenly the wild she elf turned and looked at him and he could just register uncertainty mixed with curiosity upon her masked face. From behind her mask, her eyes seemed to lock on to his for a brief moment almost holding his gaze back at her before; she was interrupted by a tap on the shoulder by one of his own ellon's. What an intriguing creature, she was very similar to a younger version of her grandmother he realised. She will grow into an elf not to be idly trifled with. He mused.