Chapter 27
Elrond, holding a stack of papers, knocked slightly nervously on the door to Legolas's room. It had been years since he'd done anything nervously. The last time was when Legolas had been brought to Rivendell directly from Cyras's hands. Now that he thought about it, most of the things that had made him sad or stressed within the last few millennia revolved around the prince. He could only imagine how Legolas felt if he himself was always this stressed about the events that came to pass and they weren't even affecting him directly.
The door opened, and Elrond found himself face to face with Herethin, who he had met on many occasions on his visits to Eryn Lasgalen. Being healers, they got along pretty well because they always had things to talk about from their studies.
"Hello, Herethin," said Elrond. The other elf smiled and bowed his head respectfully, standing back to let the half-elf into the room.
The sight that greeted him warmed Elrond's heart. Legolas was sitting with his legs spread apart, holding a book. Allenda sat between his long legs, pointing at something on a picture. Darean, though too old to be as enthralled by the book as Allenda was, was sitting on a chair with a smile on his face, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere and listening to Legolas read.
"Legolas," Elrond said. Legolas and the children both looked up immediately. Allenda's face saddened because she knew that Elrond was an important grown-up elf and if he needed something then Legolas would have to go and help him and not stay with her and her brother. Elrond saw this in her eyes and gave a small smile.
"Never mind. It can wait until you're done."
Allenda beamed at him and Legolas began to read again. He was nearly at the end of the picture book, anyway.
A few minutes later, Legolas closed the book gently and looked to Elrond expectantly.
"Elladan and Elrohir and Estel should be here in a few minutes, as well as your father and Glorfindel. The twins, Estel and I did some research, and I want to just debrief everyone at the same time."
Legolas nodded, and Darean and Allenda looked at him for an explanation. He sighed.
"I am…sick, little ones, and Elrond has a cure for me," he said.
"Sick? Don't sick people, like, cough and sneeze and stuff?" asked Allenda.
"Not that kind of sickness, penneth. It's more of a sickness of the mind."
Allenda jerked back, nearly tumbling off the bed. Darean barely had time to grab her before she hit her head on the unforgiving ground.
"No! Mommy said that Daddy had a sickness of the mind…and he…" she broke into sobs. "I thought you were different than him! But all of you grown up men are the same!"
"Allenda! Allenda, what's wrong? What do you mean?" Legolas said, alarmed at the sudden change in attitude from the girl.
"Daddy had a sickness of the mind and he…" Darean trailed off, and Legolas's eyes widened.
"He hurt you?" he said, his voice barely above a whisper. Darean nodded, still holding his crying sister. He looked down in shame.
Legolas made an unintelligible noise of rage and jumped out of the bed, shrieking out words in elvish. Elrond and Herethin couldn't decide whether it was because he was too angry to notice or because he had a few choice words for Cyras and there were children in the room.
With a burst of anger-fueled adrenaline, the prince leaped up and was running down the hallway towards the entrance to the Last Homely
House. Immediately Elrond and Herethin were running after him, their feet pounding on the floors with barely heard light elven steps. They yelled to him at the top of their lungs to be reasonable and think for a moment.
But Legolas could barely hear them over his rage. His blood was pounding in his ears. How dare he?
How dare he?
HOW DARE HE?
Elrond and Herethin, both healers and therefore not particularly great runners, were lagging behind as Legolas, a trained warrior of thousands of years, ran at a full sprint down the hallways.
"It doesn't…look like…he's going to stop…any time soon," Elrond gasped, and Herethin didn't turn to look at him as he continued to run.
"Who…cares? We can't let him go all the way back to…Thranduil's palace…to murder Cyras…no matter how much…he deserves it," he gasped, and Elrond nodded in agreement.
They both nearly ran into the legs of a lone figure who was sitting against the wall. Well, Herethin nearly did. Elrond did. He tumbled and fell flat on his face, skidding a few feet. Herethin had to smother his laughter, but when he looked at the seated figure, Legolas, all signs of mirth disappeared from his face. Legolas was fighting tears. Not despairing or sad tears, but angry, hateful tears.
"How dare he? How dare he do that to his own children? And such children as them..."
"Legolas," Herethin said, dropping all formal pretense and kneeling by the younger elf. "I know you want nothing more than to run back home and kill Cyras—"
"No, really?" Legolas snapped. "I thought I hated him before, but this makes it a thousand times worse! How dare he, how dare he, how dare—"
"Legolas, stop!" Elrond said, having gotten up and dusted off his robes before going to sit near the two woodland elves. "I know you hate him, but there is nothing we can do at the moment…"
"That…" Legolas went on a soft rant in alternating languages, insulting Cyras in every tongue he knew.
How dare he?
"Legolas, you left Darean and Allenda alone," Elrond said. "And you didn't explain anything."
Legolas swore softly and stood, but the minute the anger was replaced by concern for Allenda the energy left him and he almost fell down. Elrond caught him, and his voice came out barely above a whisper.
"Tell Allenda that…she is wrong…I would never do that to anyone…" he said.
And then he went limp.
Elrond almost had a panic attack but he calmed immediately when Herethin informed him that Legolas had merely passed out and his heartbeat was stable. Though Legolas seemed almost up to full strength earlier, it was obvious that it had just been an act. No one, not even an elf, or an extremely stubborn elf, could recover from a complete power down in that small of an amount of time.
"Come on. We should get him back to bed," said Herethin, and Elrond nodded, picking up the unconscious prince bridal style. They made their way back to the room in silence.
When they stepped in, Darean and Allenda were still sitting in their little huddle on the floor, but Allenda had fallen silent, content to lean into her brother with her face buried in his chest.
"Allenda," Herethin said softly. The little girl looked up and looked relieved that it was not someone unfamiliar, but she still shied away from the elf. He looked at her sadly. He opened his mouth to say something, but Darean put a finger over his lips in a signal to be quiet. Herethin closed his mouth and watched with curiosity.
"Lenda?" he said, and Allenda looked up at him, her eyes red.
"There you go," said Darean, brushing some hair behind her ear. "Now, Lenda, would your big brother ever let anyone bad come near you?"
"No," Allenda whispered. He smiled at her.
"That's right. Now, if Legolas was a bad guy, would I let him come near you?"
"But he said…"
"That's not an answer to my question. If he was bad, would I let him near you?"
"No."
"Don't you trust me, then? I know when people are bad, Lenda. I just do. And Legolas is not, otherwise I wouldn't let you be around him."
"I guess," Allenda sniffed, and Darean laughed, tickling her lightly.
"You guess? What kind of faith is that, little sister?"
Allenda laughed and squirmed away, looking at the bed where Elrond had lay Legolas. She kissed his forehead gently and whispered in his ear.
"I'm sorry. I know you're not a bad guy. I still want to be friends."
Legolas gave a small smile at the words, and his eyes cracked open.
"Come here," he said, opening his arms wide. She jumped immediately on the bed and snuggled into him as he fell asleep again.
Darean watched with a smile.
A/N: Hello again, everyone!
Dramatic reveal, right?
Also, based on last chapter's reviews, I will be updating the chapters in Caught and this story instead of making the edited versions into a new story. I'll tell you when all that starts, so you can all keep up! :D
Please review! :)