Chapter 2 - The best prank

"We have been so rude! We were so excited that we completely forgot our manners. I am Elladan, and this is my twin brother Elrohir." The twin on the left said, after Fili and Kili had stared at them for a while, wondering whether they would ever get an introduction, and still a bit dumbstruck in regards to their wondrous good fortune.

"Fili."
"And Kili."
"At your service." They finished the last part in rehearsed unison and with a small bow, in dwarvish tradition.

"Well met, Fili and Kili." Elrohir said, with a small inclination of his head. "So, what can we tell you? Our best prank on our father?" Kili didn't know what to say. Fili didn't either, but as older brother he had to try.

"Um…I don't know. Whatever you want to tell us I guess." Elladan rubbed his hands together in glee, obviously very excited about what he was going to tell them.

"So, our best prank is one we played on our father, over a couple of weeks." He began. "We started off with lots of little things, swapping sugar and salt, bucket of water on doors, amateur stuff really. We kept doing little annoying things like that, once a day at random times, until one day we stopped. We pretended to have suddenly found something to occupy our time with, after an immensely boring week. Then, when no-one was expecting it, we attacked."

"Our best trick to date." Elrohir commented. "And when you are an immortal elf, that is saying something."

"So anyway, we sabotaged a party, as a poltergeist. We had replaced the chair in which our father would sit on with a replica, only with legs that weren't attached. So when he sat down, the chair collapsed." Elladan looked like he was about to burst out laughing at the mere memory of it. "We had only just gotten started. The cake had bark off a birch tree in it, the music was all out of tune, and many more little things, all at once."
"Ingenious really, even if I do say so myself." Elrohir looked a bit too pleased with himself as well.

"Wow. You guys are…whoa. Did anyone ever figure out that it was you? Did you get caught?" Kili knew from experience that the two questions were completely different, depending on who found out.
"Our sister Arwen is far too clever for her own good. She sought us out and congratulated us on another brilliant scheme. Once we said yes it was brilliant planning, she pounced. She blackmailed us into getting stuff for her and other things. Quite clever really." Elladan looked proud of his sister.

"Awesome!" Kili looked like he was brimming with ideas about how to do that. So was Fili.

"Our best prank was telling our Uncle Thorin-"
"Whoa, wait a minute. Your uncle is Thorin Oakenshield?" Elladan looked terrified. "He hates elves! Please don't tell him about us! We will go now." The twins exchange worried looks and started to walk away
"No, please don't go!" Kili begged, catching hold of Elrohir's cloak. He then did his puppy face that no-one, except for Dis, their mother, could resist. Elrohir sighed and then turned back around to face them.
"We won't tell Thorin. We promise." Fili said. "Besides, we haven't upheld our side of the bargain."
"Alright. We are listening." Elladan still looked wary.

"We found some berries, and crushed some to make sure they weren't poisonous. The poisonous ones have green juice, the edible ones have blue, but these had a sort of pinkish juice." Fili said, he hoped that the twins would approve of what they had done.
"We collected as many of the pink juice berries as we could find and squeezed as much juice as we could out of them. We managed to get a whole bowl full." Kili interrupted and continued telling the tale. "We swapped Thorin's hair soap for the pink juice and waited for him next to wash." Kili paused for a breath and Fili swooped in and resumed the tale.
"I had accidentally got a little of this juice in my hair. At first, it looked like it had washed out, but after washing it off, the braid that was covered went pink. We discovered pink hair dye." Fili let Kili finish the story, as this was Kili's favourite part to tell.
"The dye comes into effect about half an hour after washing. Thorin had washed, re-braided his hair and was half way through dinner before the hair dye started to work. Our mother looked up and almost screamed. Thorin's hair was bright pink! After mother had calmed down enough to explain what was going on to Thorin, he was livid. We were too quick though. We had packed and left a note telling them that we were going hunting for a few days, so we stayed out of the way until Thorin's hair was back to normal and he wasn't going to murder us the moment he saw us. We were still in deep trouble for a few months, but it was worth it, wasn't it Fee?"
"His face was priceless!" Fill smiled to himself. It had been amazing.

The twins were astounded.
"You know, that is seriously cool." Even Elladan looked impressed. "I would pay to have seen the look of his face!"

"Could you show us these berries, so that we can do this to our father? If you don't mind us stealing your excellent prank." Elrohir added.
"Of course! To know that our prank has travelled between species would be amazing!" Kili was buzzing with excitement and showed Elrohir to a nearby bush.
"I think that your prank is much better than ours. It can be done much quicker as well." Elladan seemed to be anticipating the day when he could try it out for himself.

Elrohir and Kili returned, Elrohir had a small bag full of the berries and a cutting of the bush on which the berries grew. At the curious look on Fili's face, Elrohir explained.
"If we decide to wait a while before using your idea, then it would be sensible to have a fresh supply of the berries. We are sure our father will let us plant something that originates from elsewhere somewhere in the grounds."

"It has been a pleasure meeting you both. If you ever find yourself near Rivendell, come in and ask for us. Our father is Elrond so he should know where we are, even if no-one else does." Elladan said with a smile.
"Your father is Elrond?" Kili was amazed.
"He must be one elf that Thorin complimented." Fili added, feeling that he should explain the look of wonder on his brother's face. The twins laughed.
"We will be sure to tell him, for that is a huge compliment, judging from what we have heard about him. Farewell, Fili and Kili, sons of Dis. May we one day see each other again." Elladan bade them farewell. Both he and Elrohir put their hands to their heart and stretched them out to the brothers, in what Fili assumed was an elvish farewell.
"Gaubdûkhimâ gagin yâkùlib Mahal." Fili bade goodbye to the twins with a dwarvish traditional farewell. Both parties nodded, and walked off to their respective homes.

Gaubdûkhimâ gagin yâkùlib Mahal – May we meed again with the grace of Mahal.

Thanks to all who reviewed! Thank you! I'm so glad that people like it.

Thanks to The-dwarf-on-Asgard who gave me ideas for some of the pranks featured here and later on!