Chapter 42 Camping and Trolls
A few weeks after Gilrean relented her position Estel was informed that he was to be assigned to one of the beginner guards. He was absolutely overjoyed. This trip would be the longest he had ever been on. They would be gone two weeks and would begin to show Estel the wilds beyond the gates of Rivendell. Elladan had become sick and was forced to stay in the house. Elrohir felt guilty about leaving his brother, but they both knew it would be better if one of them were there for Estel.
The trip on the whole went quite well. Elrohir and Estel had even brought back their meals a few times after tracking and hunting the game in the woods. A few days out from Imladris, the group was tracking a series of strange tracks and had split off into separate smaller groups as the tracks went many different directions. Elrohir and Estel suddenly came upon three huge figures in a glade. They shrank back into the bushes and waited for a few moments. The whole time, the figures did not move and suddenly Estel jumped out of the undergrowth brandishing his sword. Elrohir tried in vain to stop his brother.
"Estel! What are you doing?!?" Elrohir asked in a hushed tone. Estel just looked at his brother and grinned.
"Come on you trolls of stone and fight!" He began to play fight the trolls with his sword.
At first, Elrohir was shocked that his brother had compromised their cover, and then laughed as he watched Estel slay the trolls of stone. Some of the elves that were close by had heard all the commotion and came running only to fall in fits of laughter as Elrohir had done.
That night they had a merry feast around the campfire and did not care who or what saw them. They were celebrating for they had caught many deer and had to get rid of the meat before it spoiled.
A few days later, the party returned to Imladris. Estel was shocked the next day when his brothers woke him up fiercely, "Just because we go on patrol, doesn't mean you get to miss practice!" "Get up, you are already late."
"Well, I can't get up because you two are on top of me and I can't shove you off because I can't move my arms! Elladan, get off me!"
"Why are you so grouchy this morning little brother?"
"I don't like getting up early and we got back late. I will be fine, just let me up."
"Okay, okay. But you better be in a better mood later on." Elrohir said as the twins left his room.
Estel had not realized that he would still be required to go practice especially after having returned so late the night before. He quickly got dressed and went down to the practice fields.
Around lunchtime, he sought out his Ada to see if they could cancel their lessons for the afternoon. This would take some time to get used to. Elrond agreed but only this one time. He sighed to himself, shaking his head about how soft he had become because of his foster son.
Estel quickly ran off to his room with profuse thanks and slept all through the night until the next morning.