Chapter 4, From Bad to Worse
From there, things went from bad to worse for Legolas.
They'd only had a few moments to admire the awe-inspiring view when suddenly, they'd had their heads whacked from behind by a certain someone. Who? Well, just a certain bright red-haired elleth who'd suddenly decided she wanted to become a teacher's pet. Caranith even made too-skinny Thangurion fall off from his own horse, moaning a few curses before struggling back up. Then, looking even more smug than Turen had before, with her hands crossed against her chest, the guide had come towards them, threatening and screaming at them even more. He even patted Caranith on the back as he elongated their punishment from 7 months to a whole entire year.
Woo hoo, to cleaning stables and favoritism!
To make matters worse, the trek to actually get to the camp was three hours alone, and they had to go through some nasty swamplands and natural obstacles (the first time Legolas had ever said Lady Yavanna's name in spite) and it added two hours to their difficult way. Caranith, of course, trying to be 'better' than the rest of them, had finished the trek half an hour earlier and was waiting for them with a calm smile as the rest of the novices collapsed on the ground from exhaustion and the guide praised her for her prowess and determination.
And that's not all.
The tired novices were soon dragged by their guide around camp for a tour. Fortunately, Legolas had brought a small notepad with him and he made a quick sketch of the place around him. He wasn't very good with words, but he found he was actually not a bad artist. As they finished walking around, they soon entered a large flat field, where many other older novices stopped and watched in amusement as they were lined up. Orders were barked to them and incoherently, Legolas went along with them, finally standing up in one spot. He didn't really focus on what was happening though, he was too intent on his drawing, on the detail. He straightened the rough edges of the buildings and made new lines, paths, as well as slender cuves and quickly but effetively drawn angles.
The map was looking pretty good in his notepad. It turned out this was only one section of the Eastern Training Center. The other half was four miles away and was for actual warriors to-be, which were either already full-fledged and just practicing or about to graduate. It also offered more challenging and advanced courses. Legolas drew an arrow with a note that said that.
The section he was in was only for novices only. In the northern and southern sides of the camp or the valley, were the training areas, practice rings and watch towers, which were heavily armed and always patroled. The bathrooms were also located outside (outdoor bathrooms, great) and they offered courses on many weapons. Spear-throwing, ax-wielding, hand-to-hand combat, swordfighting, archery and much more. On the eastern and western sides of the valley were the resources and the armoury, full of weapons and foods for the novices, which were supplied monthly by farmers and other locals. These were also patrolled heavily. Inside of this were some other buildings, such as the Main Informational Building, where the authoritative figures were, the Smithy; the Dining Hall, the Study Hall (yes, they also had to continue their education, which to Legolas was more like hours wasted on boredom), a small lake, the Changing Rooms, the Showers and finally...the cohorts themselves. They were like simple small cabins, but they were comfortable, and could easily house 6-7 elves inside-
Suddenly, Legolas' sketchpad was snatched away from him and Legolas, in frustration, was about to growl at whoever had grabbed his personal belongings when he froze and found himself eye-to-eye with their drill sergeant, who was glaring furiously at him behind her blazing light blue azure eyes.
However, her voice was surprisingly calm. She looked at his sketch of the camp. "Hmm...quite the artist, are you?"
Legolas looked around frantically, seeking for help, but found only 90 something or so pairs of eyes staring back at him with pity. He sighed inwardly but fortunately caught both Than and Meren's gazes, who were two rows away and were wincing at Legolas, as if they were feeling his pain and embarrassment. Meren mouthed something back to him, which seemed to be a four word title and Legolas took his best guess.
"Yes, S-Ma'am," said Legolas, quick to repair his error, hoping he'd interpreted Meren right.
He hadn't.
Meren silently facepalmed himself and Legolas in panic watched as suddenly, the drill sergeant slammed the sketchpad unto the floor, and smashing the paper against the mud, making the blond elf wince inwardly. She looked up, her dull and bland face turning fiery red with anger. She stepped forward, literally an inch away from his face, and did what drill sergeants do the best: screaming and breaking down whoever is in front of them.
"Ma'am is it now?" she hissed. "MA'AM? THIS AIN'T COURT, THRANDUILION! I'M NOT A MADAM, I'M A BLOODY DRILL SERGEANT! If an elleth here can't even be treated with her title, WHAT IN BLOODY MANDOS will you ever think of your FELLOW novices? Your superiors? Do you know that I could WHIP YOUR ASS right now without hesitating?"
"I-I most certainly think you could," Legolas said stuttering, nodding his head repeatedly. Things were going downhill quickly. "I-I meant no disrespect, I-"
"YOU THINK YOU'RE BETTER THAN THE REST OF US?" she hissed at him and continued, almost spitting in front of his face. Legolas' legs suddenly flimsy and he tried to stop the shaking in his limbs by bitting his lower lip. "YOU THINK I'M GOING TO TREAT YOU BETTER AND LET YOU DISRESPECT ME WITH YOUR 'ART' JUST BECAUSE OF WHOSE SON YOU ARE?"
Legolas took a deep breath, summoning all his courage and consciousness left to respond. The nervousness drowned out and instead, seriousness took over. This was a serious topic after all. His heritage...Legolas knew just the answer. Gulping inwardly, perhaps for the last time, he faced the drill sergeant directly and looked at her in the eye, wishing he could've said farewell much longer.
"I don't expect you to think of me more or less than what I would think of you, which is, Drill Sergeant, nothing, since I have no idea of who you are or what you do," said Legolas calmly. "All I'm asking though, is that certain people don't judge me for whose son I am."
"Did you just TALK BACK tome, Thranduilion?"
"Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I'm just asking for some respect," replied Legolas shrugging.
Silence.
It seemed as if not only Legolas held his breath, but all the novices, who looked at him with incredibility and disbelief. They were wide-eyed, and some even looked at Legolas with pity, almost as if they could foretell Legolas' future disastrous death by the hands of this angry-looking drill sergeant. However, just like Legolas, who was visibly trembling, they all waited for the final verdict.
The blow from the sergeant never came, and instead, Legolas was faced with a half icy, half calm voice.
"So be it. But I hope you keep your promises, Thranduilion, because you'll learn that I expect you to drag them down to your grave," the drill sergeant replied in an icy voice, her glare blazing. Then, she twisted her heels and headed unexpectedly towards the novice three rows in front of him and two to the right, who squealed as soon as she stopped in front of him and began barking and ripping him apart verbally.
Legolas gave a large sigh, almost fainting right in the spot as soon as he was forgotten.
That had been a close one.
O-O-O
Later, after some more rounds of screaming and even some cries, teary eyes and sniffles from the novices, they were excused. For the day, they didn't have to follow any formal schedules, which would be handed later on that day, so Legolas had rest of the day off to explore. But before, he had something to do.
"Meren, Thangurion," Legolas said, waving to the two other novices, who were aimlessly heading towards the Dining Hall, possibly on Meren's demand.
"Oh, hello Legolas!" smiled Thangurion. "That was really smooth what you did back there."
"Indeed! I thought you were going to be pulverized right there. We would've made your tombstone fabulous though. We could've used some ribbons and glitter from Than's, and I would've personally carved your epitaph," said Meren enthusiastically, perhaps too much. "It would've said, 'Died being honorable: which means he was sassy.'"
"I see," said Legolas dryly, not very amused. "Anyways, back there...what were you mouthing me? It sounded like it started with an 'M' and it had four words. So what was it? I thought it was 'Ma'am' but apparently I was wrong..."
Than and Meren looked at each other and finally, Meren responded.
"You thought I'd said 'Ma'am?' You really need to practice on your lip-reading," stated the spiky red-haired elf. "I said 'Myra.' Do you know who she is? Than mentioned her earlier, when he was telling Turen's story to you. Myra...Myra is Turen's older sister."
Legolas groaned.
O-O-O
Legolas knelt down, scrubbing the floor with vigor.
Sweat beads formed at the edge of his hairline but he continued washing. Despite it being barely the first day of the novices' arrival, the guide had been particularly strict on making Legolas, Meren and Thangurion follow their duties, meaning that Stable Cleaning 101 started that same day. And while Legolas had bitterly been about to argue back, Thangurion had tried to lighten up the situation, saying that "-the sooner we start, the sooner we'll end."
He was also the genius who decided to give them less hours. The guide had lectured them about it. The three of them had a daily stable cleaning hour quota of 3 hours, but Thangurion had the idea of cutting them slack. After much persuasion, he had been able to make the guide give in and divide the 3 hours into 1 for each of them. Meaning that instead of the three of them cleaning the stables together for 3 hours, each of them would spend one hour stable cleaning consecutive shifts. This meant, that they still had to clean stables…just 2 hours less each day.
Legolas' thoughts of admiration for Than, however, were interrupted when a certain annoying voice suddenly cut into his brain.
"Hey Princey-boo, how's it feel cleaning stables?"
Legolas frowned as he looked up to the sneering face of Turen. He had apparently just taken a bath, because his fair dark face looked like a wet mop and some strands settled up in front of his pale eyes and even paler skin, which were covered with little water drops. He leaned against the wooden rim of the back door to the stables, a big triumphant smirk on his face. His clothes, the casual clothes they were allowed to wear during free time, were new and smelled of lavender, crisp and clean.
Legolas looked to the front door, where he was supposed to be watched over by a guard…and who also was supposed to avoid these kinds of issues happening. However, it seemed that he was too busy, speaking to two of his friends elatedly and distractively holding a mug full of a frothy liquid Legolas didn't need to see to guess what it was.
Great, he thought.
And that's exactly what he said to Turen. He made sure his voice was as sarcastic and as mock excited as possible. "Great. How's it feel being Mirkwood's greatest douche?"
Turen only laughed, sauntering over to Legolas and standing right over him. Legolas was now standing up, although he had to admit Turen held some advantage. After all, he hadn't just spent fifty minutes scrubbing horse manure, loading hay and falling face-first into mud pits because some dumb horses didn't want to get their manes combed by Legolas. And he was a buff elf, at least four inches taller than him. So yes…Legolas guessed this was not going to end well.
"Pretty fantastic," grinned Turen. And out of a sudden, he grabbed Legolas from the back of the head and pushed him head first into a nearby mud pit. Legolas gagged, fighting back and screaming every obscene word (he'd pretty much grown up hearing things in the archery field, so it turned out he wasn't that innocent) he knew, gurgling and spewing out mud, hoping and praying to the Valar that some idiotic guard would stop being idiotic and come see what the commotion was about. He struggled a bit more, feeling the disgusting puddle of muddy water gurgle around in his mouth, nearly choking him. After some more ten minutes of having his head like that, Turen's massive form got off from him and stood up, letting Legolas process and cough out the mud in his system, trying to regain his breathing while he kneeled in all fours. He'd also gained a massive bruise in his right cheekbone and his mouth felt really weird.
"How'd you like that mud bath, punk?" asked Turen teasingly, crossing his arms and looking awfully proud of himself. "I, myself, rather enjoyed it, I-"
It didn't take him that long though.
With a growl, Legolas stood up and threw a handful of spiky hay on Turen's eyes. The big bully hissed in response, clasping his eyes and Legolas took this opportunity. Because he was much shorter, he had to jump and he landed a nice square hit in the jaw, hitting him with all the strength his punch could summon. He let out a howl and they both fell backwards, Legolas falling on top of Turen. With his enemy temporarily blinded, the blond elf punched him in the left eye and right in the nose. A bone cracked, and blood now flowed freely out. However, Turen didn't take much time to recover either. He pushed Legolas off, flipping him backwards into a pile of hay and jumped on top of him, elbowing him in the ribs. Legolas groaned and bent forward, letting Turen kick him a bit more.
The blond elf crawled out of the way, and with his dirtied weak fingers went to grab the rim of the bucket full of water he'd been using to clean the stable floors. Suddenly, gritting his teeth, he dumped all the water on top of Turen, who immediately scowled at Legolas like a cat, wet and shivering from head to toe. Legolas then used the empty metal bucket and whacked it against Turen's head. They both fell down, Legolas on top of his attacker, and started banging him repeatedly in his face with the bucket, while Turen fought back with ferocious punches.
However, Legolas soon heard the hurried sounds of shouting and the firm steps of several elves. He soon felt firm arms ripping him and Turen apart from each other and dragging his severely tired and also injured body out of the stables. Of course, when the massive bully is shoving him face-first and drowning him in mud, nobody ever came or saw anything. But of course, when Legolas is whacking and punching the massive bully with a bucket, everyone rushes over and sees everything.
Of course.
O-O-O
"-And I see you've had quite the troublemaking personality, Thranduilion. It is most unexpected. And even more because this is merely your first day. Do you not understand the consequences, even after your stable cleaning punishment?"
Legolas gaped wide-eyed at his guide, looking incredulous.
"What? This isn't my fault!" he exclaimed. "This is all a large, very great misunderstanding. You need to understand that I have done nothing wrong. I was just doing my stable cleaning quota like I was supposed to do…and Turen just barges in and starts beating the lights out of me and making me eat mud! What was I supposed to do, sir?"
"You should not have engaged in any violent physical contact."
"Oh I'm sorry, maybe I should've just shrieked and cried like a damsel in distress instead, waiting for a gallant, sober guard to come and save me," replied Legolas sarcastically, rolling his eyes.
"This is not funny, Thranduilion," said his guide, glaring at him.
"It's not," Legolas agreed. "And what's more, I stink."
And he did. He hadn't been given any time to bathe anyways, he had been rushed here to his guide's office right away. Turen's injuries were slightly more severe than Legolas, so his punishment had been decided quickly and he'd gone to the infirmary to be treated. He was to take over Legolas' stable cleaning duties for a month…which had possibly been the only good thing coming out from this ordeal. But now, it was Legolas' turn.
The guide's glare only intensified. "Considering your bloodline and previous reports from your masters, this is incredibly disappointing. Most disapproving behavior, I'd say. I was told you had innumerable potential…now I'm not so sure."
Legolas' face fell.
"Anyways, I suppose curfew is coming soon though and you'll be wanting to head to where the other novices are to get assigned your bunk cabin. So I will need to quicken this up," said the guide, suddenly leaning forward from his armchair and staring deep into Legolas' light blue orbs. "Your punishment."
"Right," said Legolas nervously.
"Of course, I understand you didn't cause the problem, so it will only last a week. It will be a minor one, because you did become involved with it," stated the guide, taking out some papers and writing some notes down. And normally, Legolas could read easily, but the Tengwar symbols only seemed like scribbles to him at that moment. His mind was cobbled up with his nervousness and his anxiety for the result.
He wanted to scream that this wasn't fair! That he had no right to receive a punishment for this. That it was only an act of self-defense and that if he told his father and brother to come, his father would have probably made the guide deaf with a large sermon. Or…he would've locked him up in the dungeons. His brother would possibly defeat this guide both physically and verbally, possibly giving 200 reasons why Legolas was innocent and why he should come out without any punishment whatsoever.
But of course, that sounded spoiled and exaggerated, so he kept quiet. And if he did speak, his punishment would only get worse.
"I have it!" said the guide triumphantly after much thought. He looked at Legolas. "We have had a small accident in the kitchen staff. One of the young servants destined to serve the food has received a minor burn in one of his arms, and he is healing right now in the Healing Ward of the infirmary."
Legolas didn't like where this was going. Suddenly, everything dawned at him. His face paled, and his eyes widened as well with realization. "No."
"Yes," smiled the guide. "You'll serve everyone's meals for a week."
"What? No, please…I'd rather clean those wretched stables for a week than do that," exclaimed Legolas. It wasn't that the task itself was difficult. No, this was about his dignity and the non-princely image he was showing. He looked at the guide desperately. "Is there really no other punishment for me? Is there really nothing else I can do?"
"Well," sighed the guide. "If only you were more like your brother…"
Legolas sighed. Not again.
He had been used to hearing these types of talks for a long time. He'd grown up with them all his life anyways. The 'If only you were more like your brother' talks, ones that were popular among the palace staff. Whenever he made a mistake, people never hesitated to remind him. Apparently, so did this guide. He talked on and on without stopping, seemingly speaking hours long in Legolas' ears. Legolas wasn't hearing of course, but he knew it went on the lines of 'Ah, your brother is so perfect! He is such an ideal prince. He excelled – and still does of course, a wonderful little gent – at everything. He got flawless marks in school with barely any effort. He got only praises and songs from everyone. He had the best physique in all of his novice class and ranked first. He became one of the youngest to join the most prestigious and dangerous patrol. He became one of the youngest commanders. He has the good looks and an even more precious personality. He is perfection put into a body itself. Everyone loves him. You should try to be a bit more like your brother.'
Then, to conclude his little speech of admiration for the eldest prince of Mirkwood, the guide looked at Legolas with a small look that said, 'In all, your brother must be some sort of Maiar in disguise. You? You must be adopted.'
"Anyways, no, Thranduilion. I am not backing up on your punishment. It is what it is. And it's only a week besides, it will not last for eternity. Do not exaggerate on its severity," said the guide, Irithror, rolling his eyes at the end. "Go now. And run, the bunk cabin assignment will be happening soon. If you do not reach there soon enough, perhaps you will not even receive a room to sleep in tonight!"
Great. His day was getting better and better now.
Legolas looked at the guide, nodded and then rushed off, slamming open doors and breaking into a run. This day had already been a nightmare…but if he had to spend the night sleeping outdoors and freezing to death, it would be much worse.
O-O-O
AN: Haha, Legolas has had a great first day, hasn't he? Anyways, thanks for all the positive reviews! And by the way, happy late Valentine's Day! How did everyone spend it? :)
By the way, I'm pretty sure this isn't how the military works or how drill sergeants speak…so do excuse me if I've made any exaggerations, mistakes or misconceptions.
Masked Man 2: I actually find Daedhel attractive too. I like dark-looking guys after all. I know he didn't appear at all here, but he'll appear more next chapter, so don't worry! Next chapter is a lot about novice training life. And aww, I remember the stew scene too! I might have gotten some inspiration from that. And also, now that you're saying, Than and Meren are very alike to Merry and Pippin…but no, I didn't do that on purpose. It's cute though! And of course, thank you for your insightful review! I love how thoughtful you always are. Anyways, last chapter was indeed a mix of humor and emotion…most of these chapters will, anyways. I hope you like this one too!
WoodElfJedi: Aw, thank you so much! And apparently a lot of people like him too. I personally think he's one of my favorite OC's…and I invent life stories on the way, so who knows what I'll think of? And I'm glad you liked the sock part. ;)
Schattenjagd: HOW. DID. YOU. KNOW? Haha…some of the characters and happenings here were SO inspired by Harry Potter! I had just watched a bunch of videos and I got really inspired. So Meren is like Ron, Legolas is like a blond Harry, Than isn't really anyone but I'd say he might be like Neville, Caranith (haha, she is pretty annoying I guess, but she gets better in time) is like Hermione and Daedhel is like Snape…you know, except less greasy, younger and more handsome. But I love Snape as a charater, so I love Daedhel too! And haha…if you thought Legolas had rotten luck before, think about now. And I know, I like writing about his novice days too. It's interesting. Here, he can't be too heroic or too able. He's just a novice…and that is so unlike what I've written. It is quite different. Thanks for all the compliments too!
Horsegirl01: Thanks! I loved writing the sock bit too. :) And I will always try to always update as much as possible! I've just been pretty busy these days.
Bettsam0731: Thank you, and he will! Haha…they just need to wait, don't they? ;) And I do see the similarities as well. However, for now, they just need to try and get over their differences.
Maupe: Haha, a great combination, aren't they? And…thanks for the compliments! I will always keep updating! Best regards for you too. :)