Disclaimer: I don't own any of Tolkien's work. The OC's are mine. Sorry I forgot to put this in the intro
Also, there's going to be a few time lapses in this chapter, & the whole story in general. Happy reading!
(& in case anyone's confused, Beleg, Alquawen, Mablung, & Culdôr are around seven-eight years old at the beginning of this chapter.)
An elfling quietly padded down the corridor. He stopped in front of a door and listened intently, there wasn't a sound. He groaned. Of course, she's still asleep! He thought to himself, as he opened the door. He walked over to the bed as silently as he could. "Al." he whispered, giving his sister a light shake. "Alquawen." Alquawen murmured something unintelligible in her sleep and rolled over. Beleg sighed. There was nothing to do now but wait.
He sat down beside the bed, drumming his fingers against the hardwood floor to keep himself occupied. Patience had never been one of his virtues. The minutes seemed like hours to Beleg as they slowly passed by. One… two… three… Finally, he had enough. Beleg scrambled to his feet, snatched the pillow from underneath his sister's head and smacked her with it.
Thingol awoke to the sounds of yelling and laughter. He allowed himself a small smile as he got out of bed, taking care not to wake Melian. The twins had been his alarm clock every day without fail. He quickly got dressed, walked over to the door, and opened it a little. Thingol glanced into the hallway, almost screaming with laughter at the comical sight that met his eyes. Beleg was sprinting at full speed, tripping about every five paces or so in his two sizes too big pajamas, with Alquawen hard on his heels, trying to hit her brother with a pillow.
"What's all the commotion about?"a voice asked. The twins immediately stopped what they were doing, and Thingol noticed that Beleg stood at attention, as a soldier would.
"Good morning, Lúthian! " Alquawen chirped brightly as three hundred and five year old Lúthian, princess of Doriath, daughter of Thingol and Melian came into view.
"Good morning to you too, Alquawen. Oh, and good morning to you too, little marchwarden!" Both the twins dissolved into giggles, and walked down the corridor with Lúthian. Thingol felt a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"They're growing up so quickly." Melian said softly.
"Aye, that they are." Thingol replied with a smile "But at least they're having fun growing up, even if it means waking up to their yelling everyday and watching their poor nurse chase them halfway round Doriath in just to get them to take a bath." Melian laughed.
"But you enjoy their company." she pointed out with a smile. Thingol smirked mischievously in return.
"Sometimes."
"Race you!" Beleg shouted over his shoulder as he darted through town, dodging elves, livestock, and carts filled with produce.
"No fair! You got a head start!" Alquawen yelled back. Beleg just smiled as he sprinted head on towards the fountain. His best friend, Mablung, was sitting on the edge of the fountain, whittling something.
"Late as usual!" Mablung cried out jovially as Beleg slowed to a walk, brushing a few of his silvery blonde locks out of his face.
"I'm not late." Beleg retorted "You're too early." Mablung grumbled something hotly under his breath and stood up, sheathed his carving knife, then placed the knife and wood into his pocket. "Hey..." Beleg commented suddenly "Where's Culdôr? He said he'd be here today."
"Here I am!" a strawberry-blonde elfling called out as he jogged over, slightly out of breath. "Sorry I'm late. Nana had me stay behind for a little while and make the beds while she washed the dishes."
Mablung nodded. "That's a fair reason to be late, but why were you late, Beleg?"
"I'm late, 'cause Al slept in!" Beleg replied loudly as Alquawen walked over.
"At least I don't wake you up by hitting you over the head with a pillow every time you don't get up on time!" Alquawen snapped. Beleg was about to correct his twin, as she had buffeted him with pillows on a few occasions, when Mablung chuckled, his grey-blue eyes sparkling with amusement. Soon the others found Mablung's merriment contagious, and were soon joyously struggling to contain their mirth.
"Show me an elfling who hasn't hit their sibling with a pillow, and I'll show you a hypocrite!" Mablung managed to say between gusts of laughter.
"That's true," Culdôr agreed "but let's get to the topic of what we're going to do today."
"Aye." the three other elflings said in unison, much to their own hilarity.
"Well, " Beleg said thoughtfully after their second bout of laughter had subsided. "We went to the archery grounds yesterday to watch the training sessions, and we went to the river the day before that, so, where should we go today?"
"How about the stables?" Alquawen suggested hopefully. She had always had a special bond with the incredible animals. Everyone agreed and soon they were surrounded by the smell, sounds, and sight of the magnificent creatures prancing around in their stalls. They wandered around admiring each steed, particularly Thingol's massive dapple-grey stallion, named Nar-emel, which meant Fire-heart. All the grooms and stable hands said that he was aptly named, as he was fiery and stubborn with everyone except for Thingol. Though, for some reason that none could explain, Nar-emel had seemed to take a liking to Alquawen's gentle nature. Beleg watched in utter astonishment as Nar-emel lowered his head, began sniffing the top of his sister's head and then proceeded to lightly nibble the sleeve of Alquawen's light green tunic. Alquawen giggled as she lightly pushed him away. Culdôr attempted to stroke the stallion's velvety nose, narrowly missing being bitten. Once again, the four of them fell into peals of laughter.
"What's so funny, cravens?" a mocking voice said. Immediately, the laughter died on Beleg's lips. They knew that voice all too well. The four of them slowly turned around, not knowing what exactly could happen next. Seregmir, the only son of a noble in Thingol's court, was standing there with a smirk on his face and the six other elflings in Doriath behind him.
"What do you want?" Mablung growled. He had always been rather open about his distaste for the elf.
"I want to know why you spend time with elflings who are a year younger than you are. Rather childish, isn't it?" Seregmir's friends snickered as Mablung's face went a bright shade of red. Culdôr lightly placed a hand on his friend's arm, in an attempt to calm him.
"Ever thought that the reason he chose us to be his friends is because the only other elflings around his age were the likes of you?" Beleg commented, obviously disgusted with Seregmir's behavior.
"At least we're not orphans." Seregmir snapped, allowing his gaze to linger on the twins as he said it. Had Alquawen not moved quickly to restrain her brother, Beleg would've certainly given Seregmir what he was begging for.
"DON'T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT US LIKE THAT! " Beleg cried out furiously as he tried to lunge forward.
"Stop this Seregmir." Culdôr replied, doing his very best to keep Mablung from punching Seregmir in the face. "Or we'll let 'em loose." Alquawen looked over at him with a scared expression on her face, almost like she was saying "Is that really a good idea?"
"Why? Is it because you're too scared to fight us yourself, dwarf?" Culdôr could feel the blood rushing to his cheeks. Yes, it was true that Culdôr was small for his age, but what he lacked in size, he made up for with normally quiet strength and fierce loyalty. The three boys looked at each other, and then sprinted forward.
Beleg couldn't explain exactly why he thought back to the stable episode that happened all those years ago, as he now stood with Mablung to his left, and Culdôr to his right, as the three of them faced an unsmiling General. He noticed Mablung wipe away blood trickling from a split lip he had gotten from that fight in the barracks, and Culdôr keeping his left foot slightly off the ground to keep his weight off it. Beleg couldn't help reaching up and gingerly touching the bruise that decorated the area under his right eye.
"Alright." the General's booming voice seemed to fill the whole room. "What happened?"
Sorry that this took me so long to write! There will hopefully be more next week! Bye!