As they drew closer to Eryn Galen, and moved farther from the southern part of the forest, the tainted trees grew fewer in number: those that were not tainted sang in a chorus of life that never ceased to amaze the Wood-Elf. Soon we will come across trees that I have met before. The idea comforted him.

Legolas had expected the Ranger to be confounded at his answer, or perhaps worried, but Strider grinned sympathetically and told the Silvan, "I am not surprised. If only I had a mithril bauble for every time Elladan and Elrohir had tried to kill me..."

"Estel!" Placing his hand over his chest, Elladan teased, acting as if though the Ranger had wounded him with his statement, "We have not tried to kill you for at least a year!"

"That is only because he has been gone for over a year, Elladan," the younger twin retorted dryly from ahead of them.

The Wood-Elf smiled to see the twins' treating their human brother with less anger than they had the night before. If this is their manner all the time, I could not blame Strider for leaving. He chuckled at his own thoughts: he had no siblings and so did not quite understand their strange humor, but the Silvan was not altogether sure it wasn't just the twins' humor, and had nothing to do with their being brothers.

Rolling his eyes, the Ranger put the sidetracked conversation back on topic, yet again, by asking, "When did they try to kill you, Legolas?"

"I was barely old enough to be a warrior." The Wood-Elf frowned and attempted to remember how many years ago the incident had occurred. "In fact, I believe that it was my first patrol." Shifting on his horse, Legolas tried to find the memories as he tried to find a comfortable seat on the mount. He did not want to confess it to the others, but his pain had not abated, and the perpetual agony of his body being jarred by the gentle gait of the sentry's horse was making it hard for him to think clearly. Each time he closed his eyes he found it harder to open them again. Nevertheless, he basked in his companions' banter, their amusing antics and arguments as warming to him as the sun trickling through the boughs of the trees overhead.

"Legolas?"

The Prince opened his eyes, not truly aware that he had shut them again, to find that Strider was on the verge of leaping from his horse to catch the Silvan. "I was only remembering," the archer tried to appease the worried Noldor and Ranger, who relaxed to see he had not lost consciousness though they still regarded him with cautious eyes.

Surreptitiously, or so he hoped, the Silvan righted himself from the slouch his failing body had assumed, and he grinned at them, continuing his story as if he had not been on the brink of insensibility. "We were accompanying a group of Wood-Elves that were traveling to Lorien to visit their kin. We intended to escort them over the Anduin so that they could travel on its western shore, where the road is safer. However, as we crossed the river, a band of Orc spotted us." Legolas adjusted himself again, invoking a disgruntled snort from his borrowed horse at his inability to be still. He patted the horse's neck in apology, telling his audience, "There were only ten warriors, and over a score of travelers. So we sent the travelers ahead with two of the warriors, while the rest of us remained to ward off the Orcs from following the others –" the Silvan trailed off, this time truly submerged in memory. It had been his first real skirmish outside of the training grounds, and though a seasoned warrior now, then he had been scared witless.

"Which is how we came to know that Legolas and his warriors needed aid," Elladan explained to the Ranger. "The Wood-Elves came crashing through our campsite on their way into the foothills, not knowing we were there until they nearly ran over us."

"They intended to hide in the trees until the rest of us came to collect them," the Silvan said, stroking the horse's mane absently as he tried to recall the event. "They were mostly families with Elflings, not warriors." The image of the frightened young Elves clinging to their Naneths came to the Prince's mind, and how afraid he had been that they would not be able to repel the Orcs, that these Elflings might lose a parent as he had lost his Naneth. "The Orcs outnumbered us greatly but we held our ground, slaying most of them before they could cross the river to reach us."

"Meanwhile, however," Elrohir told his human brother, shifting Tirn before him on the horse as he spoke, "the Elves at our campsite told us of the Orcs, and while they went on to the forest at the foothills of the mountains, we rode to the river to find the battle."

"But the battle came to us ere we could reach it." With an indulgent smile at the Wood-Elf, Elrohir stated succinctly, "And then we saved Legolas from certain death. End of story."

Legolas thought of how he had helped one of the wounded warriors in escaping: with no other recourse, they had run from the river when the Orcs had rallied, nearly surrounding the few woodland warriors. "Our commander bid us to flee, to break free of the encircling Orcs. We separated, a few of us bearing the wounded. I ran with one of the wounded warriors to find safety in the trees."

"Wood-Elves and their trees," the elder Noldo teased, winking at the Prince knowingly. "When Elrohir and I heard the approaching Orcs, we waited for them to grow closer, our bows at ready. As they came through the thicket, we began letting our arrows fly."

The younger twin gave a loud grunt. "You mean you let your arrow fly, Elladan. You let it fly right into Legolas."

"He moved so loudly I was certain he was an Orc!" the elder twin protested. "And I apologized to Legolas a hundred times that night."

"I was carrying a wounded Elf, Elladan, and running for our lives! I couldn't be expected to tread quietly, especially wading through the thorn bushes and with a herd of Orc behind me." The twins and Aragorn laughed at his mock irritation, and the Prince could not retain a straight face; he smiled, explaining to the Ranger, "His arrow nearly lodged in my cheek, but luckily, Elladan's aim is terrible." The Prince pointed to his right shoulder, just by his neck, where the arrow had hit him. "And when I thought the situation could not become any worse, the Orcs caught up to us. Where the rest of the warriors were, I did not know at the time, but I later learned that they had tried to lead the Orcs away from our fellow Elves in the trees."

"Which is what I advised Legolas to do," Elrohir said, sounding proud of himself. "The Orcs following Legolas did not know he was not alone, so we helped him deposit his wounded warrior in a tree and then told him to run. The ridge we were camped on gave us a perfect advantage, so we told him to lead them that way."

"And so I ran with an arrow in my shoulder, listening to your brothers only because they were older and I was too frightened to know what else to do. Had I more sense at the time, I believe I would have declined Elrohir's plan and stayed in the trees."

From behind them, at the rear of their odd procession, Jalian asked Legolas, who had nearly forgotten the man was with them, "You took Elrohir's advice?"

The Prince hesitated to answer: hearing the mercenary tease the younger twin was peculiar to him, but Elrohir called from the front with amusement in his voice, "You learn quickly, Jalian. However, my advice worked, and that is all that matters! The Orcs followed Legolas as he ran, pretending to be more injured than he was, I might add, and Elladan and I picked them off one by one from the ridge above them."

"Although I do recall that not all of the Orcs fell by your arrows, Elrohir, and I was frightened out of my mind to be dodging both the arrows of the Orcs and those that you and Elladan were releasing. One Orc nearly had me. I was out of arrows and with an arrowhead stuck in my shoulder I could barely keep hold of my sword to fend him off." The Silvan shifted himself, stretching his wounded leg out to relieve the cramping. "That was my first and only encounter with your brothers, save for now. When the Orcs chasing me were killed, the other warriors came to the forest to find our brethren, but instead found their Prince wounded by a Noldo's arrow," Legolas concluded, seeing that the Ranger was smiling gleefully at his story. "Elladan and Elrohir had the good sense to travel onwards that night, and good riddance. Your brothers are mad, and I repeat, Strider, that you must be stout at heart to have lived so long as their brother."

Nodding his head vigorously, the Ranger agreed, "It is luck that I have lived this long. But I hope you do not have ill opinions of all Imladrian Elves," Aragorn told the Silvan. "They are not all as vexing as my brothers."

Elladan harrumphed, flicking a bug off his sleeve and at the Ranger. "Although they all now have ill opinions of you, Estel. We won't be the only ones looking for revenge. All of Imladris will have your hide when you return."

The Ranger sneered at Elladan's admonition and his reminder of the human's prank, but Legolas, desiring to hear the human's story before he was no longer able to pay attention or Strider could avoid the topic again, interrupted the ensuing argument. "Now, Estel," the Prince demanded with a smirk, "tell me what trouble you have wrought in Imladris."

Elladan obviously enjoyed the slight squirm the Ranger made, twisting in his saddle uncomfortably as Legolas gave the human an impatient look and Estel floundered to explain. "It was not much trouble," the human healer said, flushing slightly as Elrohir, still riding ahead of them, snorted his disagreement.

He rubbed his feverish forehead, willing the headache there to abate as he thought of some way to avoid telling of his mischief. Suddenly, though, the Ranger laughed, holding his aching belly and chest when his laughter stretched them as he thought of what he had done. The twins will have their revenge, but it has been well worth it! They will have to think hard to find a better prank.

"You should have heard the twins, Legolas," Aragorn told the Wood-Elf, "I could hear them screaming even from the courtyard!"

"It is well that you left before we could find you, muindor," Elladan chided, keeping his horse in pace with the Prince and Ranger's as they spoke to keep the three abreast of each other, "although your recompense would have been swiftly paid had we found you then."

"You have given us the time to think of a much better way to repay you," Elrohir called back to them. "Although what I want to know," the younger twin said, slowing his horse to let the others catch up to him when he realized how far ahead of his mates he had become, "is how you caught them."

The elder Noldor twin inserted his own barb, "Estel is one of them, Elrohir! Can you not smell him?"

The twins and Ranger laughed, the latter no less than the former, for Estel had become accustomed to the twins' taunts. If he weren't certain that they loved him, he would no doubt have taken exception to their insults.

An amused but exasperated Legolas prompted, "He smells like one of what? Or do you intend to force me into piecing together this tale from your arguing?"

Estel smiled at the Wood-Elf, earning him a smile in return. "Skunks. I convinced a group of Elflings to catch two skunks for me. One for each twin."

Frowning at the healer inquisitively, Legolas asked, "Why skunks? And however did you convince them to catch them for you?"

"I bribed them with sweets from the kitchens," the Ranger admitted. A lot of sweets. I wonder what their parents thought of them returning home that day still reeking of skunk with their pockets full of cakes. "I taught them how to lay the traps, as had I caught the skunks myself, the twins' would have caught wind of it." The Silvan snickered at the Ranger's unintentional pun, and Estel laughed himself before he continued, "I had them put the skunks in boxes… without hurting them of course," he assured the Wood-Elf so that the woodland being would not think him so careless in his treatment of the creatures of the forest. "I kept them behind the stables that night, for the next morning I was leaving for the south." Aragorn chuckled at the memory of trying ineffectually to hide the awful smell of the animals from the stable staff, all of whom had learnt not to interfere with the twins or Ranger's pranks, lest they become targets themselves.

"The next morning I awoke very early, collected the skunks, and while Elladan and Elrohir were in the baths, I put a box on each of their beds." The glare Elladan gave him would have frightened a lesser man, but Aragorn was quite used to them, and merely smiled in return. "I knew that the twins were too curious not to open the boxes immediately upon seeing them. I found father, told him my goodbyes, and when he asked why I did not wait until the twins came down to see me off, the screaming had begun."

"I suppose it is our own faults," Elrohir said, turning to face them for the moment it took him to reply glibly, "even though I could smell the skunk through the box, I never thought you would stoop so low, Estel. I thought perhaps you had only doused some favorite item of mine in the smell, and I was compelled to see what you had destroyed! I did not expect a sleeping skunk to wake and then leap out at me!"

The Ranger shrugged his shoulders, and then began chuckling outright when the Silvan began to laugh merrily. "I have never made such quick goodbyes to Ada," he told the Wood-Elf. "Ah, I wish I could have seen the look on the twins' faces when their curiosity bested them and they found they had released two very annoyed skunks in their chambers." Estel chuckled some more, remembering the look his adopted father had given him: the Elven Lord had not been surprised nor had he been pleased, even without knowing what prank Aragorn had pulled – Elrond had only lifted one eyebrow in his usual manner and then instructed the Ranger to ride quickly before the twins caught up to him.

"What you do not know, Estel, is that those two skunks escaped from our rooms. The smell still lingers. They ran rampant through the house for days, spraying any unfortunate Elf who happened upon them!"

"Including Erestor," the elder twin added to his younger twin's outraged story. "He is not pleased with you. One of the skunks had become lost in his study, and when he went to fetch a report for Ada —"

"— he was sprayed not once, but three times! The skunk had him cornered with his back against the wall and between two shelves for half an hour before his aide found him," the younger twin continued.

Because he was far away from Erestor, his father, and the other Elves in Imladris, the twins' elucidation of the aftermath of his prank did not bother him in the least, and he laughed all the more at the thought of the stately Lord Erestor trapped in his study by a skunk.

"Truly, Strider," the Wood-Elf asked, the Silvan as happy and carefree as the Ranger had yet to see him, "I hope not to be around when the twins' see their revenge come to fruition."

Ignoring the portentous undercurrent of the Prince's cheerful statement, Aragorn vowed of himself in like tone, maintaining his cheer in thankful recognition of the bright smile the fading Silvan held, "So do I."

Although Legolas had assured him that this section of the forest was less inhabited by spiders, it had been the 'less' part of the Wood-Elf's clarification that had Elrohir worried, especially now that the day was fading and night grew closer. The archer had also claimed, judging by the looming mountain range of the forest in the distance, that soon they would cross the Old Forest Road, and perhaps more importantly, a small lake. As they had used the last of their water an hour ago, Elrohir did not even consider stopping their progress towards said lake. They needed the water, and from the looks of the Prince, Ranger, and Elladan, they could all use a bath, not just for their appearances, but also for their well-being and to prevent infection of the numerous injuries Elrohir had not been able to tend properly without sufficient water.

Elrohir was convinced that he had pushed his brothers and the Prince beyond what might normally be safe; however, his desire to be out of the dark and unwelcoming forest around him was exacerbated by the fact that no matter how hard he tried, he could not hold Tirn comfortably in his lap, keep a vigilant watch of the surrounding environment, and observe the condition of his brothers and friends simultaneously. The effort was wearing thin his patience, and though he tried to enjoy Elladan and Estel's bickering over the details of some mischief that had occurred when Aragorn was but a child, their arguing grated his nerves.

At least they feel like bickering, he thought of his brothers, biting his tongue to keep from shouting at them to be quieter, and hopefully then, less distracting.

As they rode through a part of the woods where the trees' trunks were so close that the travelers were forced to ride single file lest they be separated for long stretches of time, Elrohir increased his grip on Tirn's chin to press the sentry's head to his shoulder, hoping to keep the sentry's neck wound from being disturbed. The uncertain steps of his usually graceful horse on the exposed and treacherous roots underneath jostled Elrohir in his seat, and thus the sentry in his. Tirn's leg bumped into the tree beside them, and the last of Elrohir's patience threatened to disappear with the sunlight.

The first part of their travels had been spent in silence until Aragorn had asked Legolas of his first meeting with the twins, and since then the Ranger and Elladan had not stopped arguing. Legolas had long ago ceased trying to maintain any awareness of the brothers' conversation, for the Prince exerted most of his attention on trying to remain on his horse. The Wood-Elf had not complained, but Elrohir could see that he was suffering. We must break soon. They will not last much longer riding. He had offered to stop, to allow the others the rest that they obviously needed that afternoon, but his offer had been summarily declined: each of the travelers had their own reasons for wishing to reach the Elven-King's halls as soon as possible, and none had been willing to waste the daylight.

He shifted the sentry sitting before him on his horse and complained silently to Tirn, I am sure you felt much the same irritation when we rode down the banks of the river. Elladan and I did not alleviate your anxiety with our bickering then, as my brothers are only worsening my stress now. Nudging the sentry's splinted leg so that the timbers tied tightly Tirn's thigh did not gouge his own thigh, the younger Noldo rested his eyes for a moment.

I would that we had not treated you so unkindly when first we met, he thought as if the sentry before him could hear. I wish we had asked for your help rather than demanded it. It was difficult for Elrohir to imagine the sentry angry with him. He had known Tirn less than a week, much less than it would take for any immortal to feel he or she truly knew another, but somehow the younger twin surmised that the sentry held no grudge against either he or his twin. I wish more than anything that you would wake, Tirn.

Elrohir's horse slowed to a stop: the younger Noldo opened his eyes. They had arrived at a break in the line of trees at the forest's edge, and just ahead of them lay the Old Forest Road.

"The lake lays not far from here, Elrohir. We should continue, even if we do not reach the lake tonight. It is not safe to camp near the road," the Wood-Elf called to him.

Elladan's horse came to a halt beside him. "Legolas says Eryn Galen is no more than four days ride from here. Three if we keep the pace we have traveled today." His elder brother watched him, not needing Elrohir to say anything for him to know that his twin was exhausted. "One day at a time, muindor. Just a little further and we will camp."

The younger Noldo knew that despite his sleepless last night and trying day, more work awaited him once they camped. I've wounds to tend, and water to fetch, and food to obtain, and I will find no rest tonight, either. Elrohir thought to Tirn, Just three more days, your Prince says. He sighed, hefting the sentry closer to him and watching Legolas as he led them over the road. Let us reach Eryn Galen soon – all of us, Tirn. Please.