Post by Rhonda on May 15, 2014 22:50:57 GMT -5
The Best Laid Plans
Author: RavensWing
Copyright © RavensWing Enterprises Inc. 2011 All rights reserved
Summary: An unknown enemy has entered Imladris bent on destroying Erestor and everything he holds dear, including his relationship with Glorfindel.
Genre: AU
Disclaimer: I make no profit from my efforts and with the exception of my original characters and plotlines; the rest belongs to the Tolkien Estate. I don’t make a dime from this story it’s just for fun, so don’t sue me because I don’t have any and you won’t get any. Smooches!
OC’s: There are lots of OC’s, but don’t worry they won’t all be thrown at you at one time. You’ll get to know some of them well, others just in passing; but since it’s important to distinguish what is yours and what is Tolkien’s, here are mine: Adril, Anandórë, Andras, Aphrod, Barandir, Braneth, Brithil, Cerus, Cilinwë, Círfin, Colwandë, Daenir, Ecthíras, Elwaith, Findol, Finnor, Gaer-âr, Gaer-sûl, Geleph, Golros, Hidrion, Ianthir, Indórië, Ingorn, Lethros, Malrin, Menwen, Nilfin, Nénilya, Norë, Perril, Perwaen, Rangil, Rilloth, Silmo, Sûl-linnon, Timagol, and Tyellin.
Dedication: To Rhonda a.k.a Pookums, keeper of the Mellon Chronicles who never let me forget that this story was on the shelf, thank you for your gentle nudges; your steadfast resolve to seeing this story finished and for your friendship, which is more valuable than Mithril. Hannah le Mellon nín.
Chapter 1 – Some Things Never Change
The morning sun shone brightly over Imladris, and the events of the previous weeks were slowly beginning to fade into obscurity. The elves had faced the demon head on and had come out on the other side victorious, but not every victory brings with it the result you expect.
Estel awoke from a restless night of sleep. His dreams of late had been uneasy, filled with the memories of gold-flecked eyes and the horror of running for his life. The bad elf had been destroyed, but not before inflicting pain on three people that the child called friend, and not before striking terror in his heart. Aphrod, his friend with the special nose, was healing nicely, as was Haldir, their wounds still fresh enough to recover from quickly. But Andras’ recovery was slower, more painstaking. The wounds had brought him within a hair’s breadth of Mandos’ halls, and it would be some time before he was fully healed.
Although healing was slow, the apprentice ostler was still up and about, much to the consternation and disapproval of his healers. Elrond wanted him to rest, regain his strength, but the lad protested. He was tired of being abed, tired of being confined, and the great elf lord finally acquiesced and allowed him limited exercise in the gardens. Of course, like all young ones Andras took that to mean that he could go where he chose and he chose to spend his time in the stables, as would be expected.
Messages had been sent to Lóthlórien, to his father and Lord Celeborn advising them of his ongoing recovery. As one might expect, his father Daenir was overjoyed, and had begun counting down the days until his son’s return. Lord Celeborn was, as could be predicted, mightily pleased. He had placed great faith in his herb master with this assignment, and was glad to know that his faith had been justified. Elwaith had proved himself yet again to be the right elf for the task and Celeborn stood now in his study having an unusually prideful moment regarding his decision.
Missives had also been sent to Kings Thengel and Thranduil to advise them that the riddle had indeed been solved and the villain vanquished. Upon hearing the news Thranduil smiled, and made it a point to inform his sometimes overbearing chief advisor that he had been undeniably right. His pride in that fact was not at all unusual, and he delighted in letting all within earshot know that his decision to send a most precious tome to Lord Erestor for translation had proved to be the act that, as he put it, “turned the tide” for the Imladrian elves.
Just as the great king had predicted, the Lord Erestor, had unraveled the code and solved the riddle putting an end once and for all to the beast that plagued them. Thranduil could not help gloating; at the time, his advisor had been quite churlish with the representatives from Imladris, saying, “Here it is my lord, the tale of the beast, and the riddle that tells how to destroy it. The riddle is written in a language that is unknown to me, and as far as I know there is no one who has ever been able to decipher it, let alone solve it.” His comments were made sarcastically, as he glanced over his shoulder at the still kneeling couriers. However, it was not the couriers, but the king who took offense at his words, and he made sure that the advisor was firmly put in his place.
“Tell us…does the Lord Erestor, formerly of Lindon, still reside at Imladris?”
The two couriers knew that Thranduil was well aware that Erestor was Lord Elrond’s Seneschal, and that there was no way that he would live anywhere else, but they answered the king’s question nonetheless.
“Yes, your majesty, Lord Erestor still abides at the Last Homely House.”
“Very well then…you will take this book to him; Lord Erestor has always impressed me as an elf of great intellect, if there is anyone on Arda who can decipher this text it will be he.”
Score it, King one, advisor zero. The great woodland lord then proceeded to add insult to injury by admonishing the advisor to remind him to send Lord Erestor a case of his very best winter wine, his best stock, along with a volume of poetry that Erestor had long admired, but was never allowed to copy. Further, he sent the advisor to his private vault to retrieve a sword that had once belonged to his father. It was not an especially unique item, but still, it had once belonged to a king, and he wanted Imladris’ sword master, the slayer of the beast, to have it.
Much had been made of the battles with the beast, and Thranduil made a mental note that perhaps it was time to pay his Elven brethren a visit. He realized only too well that he’d come close to losing his dear friend Haldir, and he wanted to see for himself, not only that his friend was well and healing, but to see this human that the great archer risked his life so valiantly defending. Not much had been said, in private ears, about this adopted son of Elrond, and the great king was not one for hearing things second hand…yes, perhaps a visit was in order. After all, he could not let it be said that the king of the woodland realm failed to keep himself apprised of the going’s on outside his gates. “Yes,” he decided, he would journey to Imladris, present the gifts himself and meet this human who garnered such loyalty from his compatriots.
~~~~~
Turning over in his bed Estel opened silver colored orbs to the bright rays of Anor. As his sleep laden eyes became adjusted to the light, he slowly rose from his pillow and looked around his room. As always, his trusted adviser Nif lay beside him under the covers and the hilt of his new sword could just be seen peeking out from under the overstuffed pillow beside him. Sitting up, he glanced at the now open door that led to Elrohir’s bed chamber. The twin had insisted on leaving it open at bedtime ever since the night of the attack. Not that it really mattered one way or the other, for since that horrible evening one or the other of his brother’s had made a pallet and slept beside his bed on the floor each night. Peeking over the side of the bed Estel smiled down at Elladan who laid in complete, uncomfortable disarray, long black hair obscuring his face, snoring loudly. A matching sound was heard coming from beyond the door of Roh’s room and Estel giggled at the thought that they did everything exactly alike…even snoring. But on this particular morning their snores were accompanied by those of a third party, and Estel could just see the top of Cilinwë’s head jutting out from under a blanket that had been pulled up all the way to his forehead.
“Silly elves,” the boy said aloud as he shook his head like a disapproving school matron.
“Dey gonna catch cold sleeping on da floor like dat.”
And although he had not looked yet, he was sure that if he did, he would find one of Halli’s brother’s standing watch in the hallway. Haldir had repeatedly told them that it wasn’t necessary, but Rúmil and Orophin were stubbornly resistant to Haldir’s assertion. They had a debt to pay, and pay it they would, whether Haldir objected or not. Besides, Rúmil was thoroughly convinced that his brother simply wanted to keep the child to himself, and in his time spent with Estel he had grown quite fond of the little fellow, and would not be cheated out of their moments together. In fact, he was so smitten with the child that he actually dreaded the day when Lord Elrond would release them from their duty and send them home. He knew that on that day his heart would ache with an emptiness that he hadn’t felt since the passing of his parents. It’s hard to keep from loving a child. A fact with which he was becoming all too familiar.
Estel leaned over the side of the bed and dangled Nif over the edge, grazing his brother’s face with the rabbit’s ears. At first Elladan stirred not at all, then began batting at the rabbit intermittently, as if swatting a fly. This foolishness continued for several minutes, amusing Estel immensely. That is until the door opened and a very prim and proper tutor walked in giving the boy the same disapproving look that he had just given his protectors in the corridor.
“Estel, stop that at once. It is not nice to use your brother as a plaything…even though he does look ridiculously foolish at the moment.”
“Aw Westor, I was just gettin’ started. If you do it e’nuff times Dan will slap himself right in da face…watch!” he said gleefully.
As tempted as the staid counselor was to witness one of the banes of his tutorial existence slap himself silly, he put a stop to Estel’s antics and bid him “Go,” to the lavatory to bathe for morning meal.
“Come now, no more silliness, off you go, morning meal will be served soon and cook has made your eggs again and you do not want to be late for that.”
“Yippee!” the child shouted as he rolled off the bed and deliberately into his sleeping brother’s chest, scooting away just as Elladan sat up like a shot.
“What…what?” the startled elf blurted out as his eyes began to focus.
Erestor just stood there staring at him, shaking his head, and rolling his eyes toward the ceiling.
“Sometimes one wonders who is protecting who.” came the sarcastic reply as the teacher extraordinaire breezed past the semi-prone elf at his feet.
“You may wake your cohorts now,” he said as he nodded in the direction of the balcony and the open bedchamber door. “I have already released Orophin from his watch and Estel prepares himself to break his fast. I suggest that the three of you do likewise, we will no doubt need ‘protection’ as we walk down to sup.”
“There is no need to be obstreperous Erestor, I get the message.”
“Hummp, I am surprised you even know what the word means,” Erestor said as he walked toward the lavatory.
“I had a half way decent teacher” the twin replied as he made a face behind Erestor’s back.
“I saw that.”
“You always do, my snarky friend, you always do.”
Slowly wiping the sleep from his eyes Elladan rose from the floor and headed towards the balcony door as he tried to stretch the kinks out of his back. “Mayhaps Erestor is right,” he thought to himself. “Everything is under control now, the beast is dead and things are pretty much back to normal. I do not suppose it is really necessary to sleep by Estel’s bedside each night, especially since Roh’s room is mere feet away, and the door is always open now.” Standing in the doorway Dan called out to Cilinwë. He’d learned the hard way to do this from afar the morning after the beast had been slain. He made the mistake of approaching the sword master and actually shaking his shoulder to wake him. The resulting blade at his throat made him keenly aware that perhaps any future “wakings” should be precipitated by either more warning or more distance.
“Linwë, Linwë!
The sword master sat up slowly, shielding his eyes from the morning sun. Slower still, he rose from the settee stretching as he did. ”I am genuinely missing my bed,” he said quietly. “I do not think that I ever truly appreciated just how comfortable it is until I started sleeping out here.”
“I know what you mean” Elladan responded, “the floor is no great bargain either. Erestor thinks we are being quite foolish and overprotective, and I am beginning to agree with him. Perhaps we should all get together later and discuss whether we are going to continue this watch over Estel, and if so maybe we could arrange a rotation of sorts…at least that way we would get to see our respective beds at least a few times a week.”
“It sounds like a plan, I will bring it up to Orophin and Rúmil, Estel is safe now and we really should be better organized…if something were to happen, we are all so tired we would probably sleep right through it.”
“Agreed” replied the twin. “I will wake Roh; Estel is with Erestor readying himself for the morning meal.
With that, Elladan slowly made his way to the open door of his brother’s sammoth, dragging his blanket and pallet behind him. Elrohir was still snoring soundly and Dan could not help but think that his earlier appraisal of their “protection” detail did indeed need some adjusting.
“I thought I was bad,” he thought to himself. “I swear Roh could sleep through the second dawning of Mordor and never know that there had been a tremor in the earth.”
Playfully, he tossed his blanket and pallet across his brother’s face and then allowed himself to fall prone on the bed beside him. As expected, Roh stirred to wakefulness not at all, merely turned over onto his side, his blanket covered face still obscured from view, and continued to snore.
“Elbereth help us,” Dan said under his breath, “nothing could wake him.” Deciding to put his belief to the test, Elladan stealthily rose from the bed, careful not to jostle his brother awake. Crossing to the door that led to his room, he silently opened the door and retrieved one of his short swords, then, standing at the foot of the bed he prepared to test his brother. At that moment Erestor and a freshly washed Estel appeared at the door to Estel’s room.
“What are you up to now? Erestor questioned.
Dan quickly put a finger to his lips to silence the counselor and Estel before they could say anything else that might wake his brother. Erestor merely shook his head, eyes rolling, indicating his displeasure with these early morning hijinks. With sword at the ready, Elladan quickly unsheathed the weapon, the sound made by the highly tempered steel as it released from its cover sang out into the air. Like some lithe dark-haired jungle cat Elrohir sprang from his bed, rolling off onto the floor pushing the blankets from his face as he pulled his sword from beneath his pillow. Positioned now at the side of the bed, crouching on one knee, with his weapon at the ready he looked quickly about the room assessing his situation. Estel squealed in glee, clapping his hands together in delight as he encouraged his brother to “Get ‘em Roh!”
Elladan quickly backed up, raising his hands in front of himself in a gesture of attrition. “Easy there big guy, I was just checking to make sure you were on top of your form.”
From behind Erestor they heard a sleepy voice say, “You should know that already Elladan, Elrohir does not sleep with his eyes open only because he is an elf, Glorfindel has trained him well, you will never catch him asleep when the sound of an unsheathing sword can be heard.”
“That was a foolish thing to do,” Roh replied angrily as he tossed his sword onto the bed, “I could have killed you!”
“No worries little brother, I made sure I was far enough away from you to avoid any untimely skewering,” Elladan said laughing.
“Foolishness, absolute foolishness” Erestor commented as he turned to move away from the door pulling the giggling Estel behind him. “Sometimes I believe it is your brothers who are in need of tirn and nappies instead of you little one.”
“Aw Westor you know I don’ wear nappies any more.”
“Yes my love I do, you certainly demonstrate a repeated maturity that your brothers seem to lack. Foolishness, just d**ned foolish I say.”
This type of stern language was a thing unheard of from Erestor, and certainly never done in front of the child. Estel of course, took this to mean that it was a suitable phrase for him to repeat and immediately dashed back to the door. Forgetting that only moments ago he had encouraged Roh to “get Dan,” he waggled a disapproving finger at Elladan saying, “d**ned foolish I say.” Then, placing his little fists on his hips, he gave an accompanying Erestor-like “hummmp” and nod of his head to emphasize his displeasure; then turned on his heels and followed his mentor from the room.
“Now see what you have done,” Elrohir exclaimed, “I guarantee he will be repeating that for Ada before the day is done. And no matter if it was Erestor who said it, we will definitely be the ones to pay the piper for it, or actually YOU will be the one, for I had no part in this.”
“No part, what do you mean no part, you drew a sword on me.”
The argument went back and forth in this fashion for several more seconds while Cilinwë gathered his belongings and headed for his rooms. “Those twins,” he thought as he shook his head, “Will they never learn?”
Author: RavensWing
Copyright © RavensWing Enterprises Inc. 2011 All rights reserved
Summary: An unknown enemy has entered Imladris bent on destroying Erestor and everything he holds dear, including his relationship with Glorfindel.
Genre: AU
Disclaimer: I make no profit from my efforts and with the exception of my original characters and plotlines; the rest belongs to the Tolkien Estate. I don’t make a dime from this story it’s just for fun, so don’t sue me because I don’t have any and you won’t get any. Smooches!
OC’s: There are lots of OC’s, but don’t worry they won’t all be thrown at you at one time. You’ll get to know some of them well, others just in passing; but since it’s important to distinguish what is yours and what is Tolkien’s, here are mine: Adril, Anandórë, Andras, Aphrod, Barandir, Braneth, Brithil, Cerus, Cilinwë, Círfin, Colwandë, Daenir, Ecthíras, Elwaith, Findol, Finnor, Gaer-âr, Gaer-sûl, Geleph, Golros, Hidrion, Ianthir, Indórië, Ingorn, Lethros, Malrin, Menwen, Nilfin, Nénilya, Norë, Perril, Perwaen, Rangil, Rilloth, Silmo, Sûl-linnon, Timagol, and Tyellin.
Dedication: To Rhonda a.k.a Pookums, keeper of the Mellon Chronicles who never let me forget that this story was on the shelf, thank you for your gentle nudges; your steadfast resolve to seeing this story finished and for your friendship, which is more valuable than Mithril. Hannah le Mellon nín.
Chapter 1 – Some Things Never Change
The morning sun shone brightly over Imladris, and the events of the previous weeks were slowly beginning to fade into obscurity. The elves had faced the demon head on and had come out on the other side victorious, but not every victory brings with it the result you expect.
Estel awoke from a restless night of sleep. His dreams of late had been uneasy, filled with the memories of gold-flecked eyes and the horror of running for his life. The bad elf had been destroyed, but not before inflicting pain on three people that the child called friend, and not before striking terror in his heart. Aphrod, his friend with the special nose, was healing nicely, as was Haldir, their wounds still fresh enough to recover from quickly. But Andras’ recovery was slower, more painstaking. The wounds had brought him within a hair’s breadth of Mandos’ halls, and it would be some time before he was fully healed.
Although healing was slow, the apprentice ostler was still up and about, much to the consternation and disapproval of his healers. Elrond wanted him to rest, regain his strength, but the lad protested. He was tired of being abed, tired of being confined, and the great elf lord finally acquiesced and allowed him limited exercise in the gardens. Of course, like all young ones Andras took that to mean that he could go where he chose and he chose to spend his time in the stables, as would be expected.
Messages had been sent to Lóthlórien, to his father and Lord Celeborn advising them of his ongoing recovery. As one might expect, his father Daenir was overjoyed, and had begun counting down the days until his son’s return. Lord Celeborn was, as could be predicted, mightily pleased. He had placed great faith in his herb master with this assignment, and was glad to know that his faith had been justified. Elwaith had proved himself yet again to be the right elf for the task and Celeborn stood now in his study having an unusually prideful moment regarding his decision.
Missives had also been sent to Kings Thengel and Thranduil to advise them that the riddle had indeed been solved and the villain vanquished. Upon hearing the news Thranduil smiled, and made it a point to inform his sometimes overbearing chief advisor that he had been undeniably right. His pride in that fact was not at all unusual, and he delighted in letting all within earshot know that his decision to send a most precious tome to Lord Erestor for translation had proved to be the act that, as he put it, “turned the tide” for the Imladrian elves.
Just as the great king had predicted, the Lord Erestor, had unraveled the code and solved the riddle putting an end once and for all to the beast that plagued them. Thranduil could not help gloating; at the time, his advisor had been quite churlish with the representatives from Imladris, saying, “Here it is my lord, the tale of the beast, and the riddle that tells how to destroy it. The riddle is written in a language that is unknown to me, and as far as I know there is no one who has ever been able to decipher it, let alone solve it.” His comments were made sarcastically, as he glanced over his shoulder at the still kneeling couriers. However, it was not the couriers, but the king who took offense at his words, and he made sure that the advisor was firmly put in his place.
“Tell us…does the Lord Erestor, formerly of Lindon, still reside at Imladris?”
The two couriers knew that Thranduil was well aware that Erestor was Lord Elrond’s Seneschal, and that there was no way that he would live anywhere else, but they answered the king’s question nonetheless.
“Yes, your majesty, Lord Erestor still abides at the Last Homely House.”
“Very well then…you will take this book to him; Lord Erestor has always impressed me as an elf of great intellect, if there is anyone on Arda who can decipher this text it will be he.”
Score it, King one, advisor zero. The great woodland lord then proceeded to add insult to injury by admonishing the advisor to remind him to send Lord Erestor a case of his very best winter wine, his best stock, along with a volume of poetry that Erestor had long admired, but was never allowed to copy. Further, he sent the advisor to his private vault to retrieve a sword that had once belonged to his father. It was not an especially unique item, but still, it had once belonged to a king, and he wanted Imladris’ sword master, the slayer of the beast, to have it.
Much had been made of the battles with the beast, and Thranduil made a mental note that perhaps it was time to pay his Elven brethren a visit. He realized only too well that he’d come close to losing his dear friend Haldir, and he wanted to see for himself, not only that his friend was well and healing, but to see this human that the great archer risked his life so valiantly defending. Not much had been said, in private ears, about this adopted son of Elrond, and the great king was not one for hearing things second hand…yes, perhaps a visit was in order. After all, he could not let it be said that the king of the woodland realm failed to keep himself apprised of the going’s on outside his gates. “Yes,” he decided, he would journey to Imladris, present the gifts himself and meet this human who garnered such loyalty from his compatriots.
~~~~~
Turning over in his bed Estel opened silver colored orbs to the bright rays of Anor. As his sleep laden eyes became adjusted to the light, he slowly rose from his pillow and looked around his room. As always, his trusted adviser Nif lay beside him under the covers and the hilt of his new sword could just be seen peeking out from under the overstuffed pillow beside him. Sitting up, he glanced at the now open door that led to Elrohir’s bed chamber. The twin had insisted on leaving it open at bedtime ever since the night of the attack. Not that it really mattered one way or the other, for since that horrible evening one or the other of his brother’s had made a pallet and slept beside his bed on the floor each night. Peeking over the side of the bed Estel smiled down at Elladan who laid in complete, uncomfortable disarray, long black hair obscuring his face, snoring loudly. A matching sound was heard coming from beyond the door of Roh’s room and Estel giggled at the thought that they did everything exactly alike…even snoring. But on this particular morning their snores were accompanied by those of a third party, and Estel could just see the top of Cilinwë’s head jutting out from under a blanket that had been pulled up all the way to his forehead.
“Silly elves,” the boy said aloud as he shook his head like a disapproving school matron.
“Dey gonna catch cold sleeping on da floor like dat.”
And although he had not looked yet, he was sure that if he did, he would find one of Halli’s brother’s standing watch in the hallway. Haldir had repeatedly told them that it wasn’t necessary, but Rúmil and Orophin were stubbornly resistant to Haldir’s assertion. They had a debt to pay, and pay it they would, whether Haldir objected or not. Besides, Rúmil was thoroughly convinced that his brother simply wanted to keep the child to himself, and in his time spent with Estel he had grown quite fond of the little fellow, and would not be cheated out of their moments together. In fact, he was so smitten with the child that he actually dreaded the day when Lord Elrond would release them from their duty and send them home. He knew that on that day his heart would ache with an emptiness that he hadn’t felt since the passing of his parents. It’s hard to keep from loving a child. A fact with which he was becoming all too familiar.
Estel leaned over the side of the bed and dangled Nif over the edge, grazing his brother’s face with the rabbit’s ears. At first Elladan stirred not at all, then began batting at the rabbit intermittently, as if swatting a fly. This foolishness continued for several minutes, amusing Estel immensely. That is until the door opened and a very prim and proper tutor walked in giving the boy the same disapproving look that he had just given his protectors in the corridor.
“Estel, stop that at once. It is not nice to use your brother as a plaything…even though he does look ridiculously foolish at the moment.”
“Aw Westor, I was just gettin’ started. If you do it e’nuff times Dan will slap himself right in da face…watch!” he said gleefully.
As tempted as the staid counselor was to witness one of the banes of his tutorial existence slap himself silly, he put a stop to Estel’s antics and bid him “Go,” to the lavatory to bathe for morning meal.
“Come now, no more silliness, off you go, morning meal will be served soon and cook has made your eggs again and you do not want to be late for that.”
“Yippee!” the child shouted as he rolled off the bed and deliberately into his sleeping brother’s chest, scooting away just as Elladan sat up like a shot.
“What…what?” the startled elf blurted out as his eyes began to focus.
Erestor just stood there staring at him, shaking his head, and rolling his eyes toward the ceiling.
“Sometimes one wonders who is protecting who.” came the sarcastic reply as the teacher extraordinaire breezed past the semi-prone elf at his feet.
“You may wake your cohorts now,” he said as he nodded in the direction of the balcony and the open bedchamber door. “I have already released Orophin from his watch and Estel prepares himself to break his fast. I suggest that the three of you do likewise, we will no doubt need ‘protection’ as we walk down to sup.”
“There is no need to be obstreperous Erestor, I get the message.”
“Hummp, I am surprised you even know what the word means,” Erestor said as he walked toward the lavatory.
“I had a half way decent teacher” the twin replied as he made a face behind Erestor’s back.
“I saw that.”
“You always do, my snarky friend, you always do.”
Slowly wiping the sleep from his eyes Elladan rose from the floor and headed towards the balcony door as he tried to stretch the kinks out of his back. “Mayhaps Erestor is right,” he thought to himself. “Everything is under control now, the beast is dead and things are pretty much back to normal. I do not suppose it is really necessary to sleep by Estel’s bedside each night, especially since Roh’s room is mere feet away, and the door is always open now.” Standing in the doorway Dan called out to Cilinwë. He’d learned the hard way to do this from afar the morning after the beast had been slain. He made the mistake of approaching the sword master and actually shaking his shoulder to wake him. The resulting blade at his throat made him keenly aware that perhaps any future “wakings” should be precipitated by either more warning or more distance.
“Linwë, Linwë!
The sword master sat up slowly, shielding his eyes from the morning sun. Slower still, he rose from the settee stretching as he did. ”I am genuinely missing my bed,” he said quietly. “I do not think that I ever truly appreciated just how comfortable it is until I started sleeping out here.”
“I know what you mean” Elladan responded, “the floor is no great bargain either. Erestor thinks we are being quite foolish and overprotective, and I am beginning to agree with him. Perhaps we should all get together later and discuss whether we are going to continue this watch over Estel, and if so maybe we could arrange a rotation of sorts…at least that way we would get to see our respective beds at least a few times a week.”
“It sounds like a plan, I will bring it up to Orophin and Rúmil, Estel is safe now and we really should be better organized…if something were to happen, we are all so tired we would probably sleep right through it.”
“Agreed” replied the twin. “I will wake Roh; Estel is with Erestor readying himself for the morning meal.
With that, Elladan slowly made his way to the open door of his brother’s sammoth, dragging his blanket and pallet behind him. Elrohir was still snoring soundly and Dan could not help but think that his earlier appraisal of their “protection” detail did indeed need some adjusting.
“I thought I was bad,” he thought to himself. “I swear Roh could sleep through the second dawning of Mordor and never know that there had been a tremor in the earth.”
Playfully, he tossed his blanket and pallet across his brother’s face and then allowed himself to fall prone on the bed beside him. As expected, Roh stirred to wakefulness not at all, merely turned over onto his side, his blanket covered face still obscured from view, and continued to snore.
“Elbereth help us,” Dan said under his breath, “nothing could wake him.” Deciding to put his belief to the test, Elladan stealthily rose from the bed, careful not to jostle his brother awake. Crossing to the door that led to his room, he silently opened the door and retrieved one of his short swords, then, standing at the foot of the bed he prepared to test his brother. At that moment Erestor and a freshly washed Estel appeared at the door to Estel’s room.
“What are you up to now? Erestor questioned.
Dan quickly put a finger to his lips to silence the counselor and Estel before they could say anything else that might wake his brother. Erestor merely shook his head, eyes rolling, indicating his displeasure with these early morning hijinks. With sword at the ready, Elladan quickly unsheathed the weapon, the sound made by the highly tempered steel as it released from its cover sang out into the air. Like some lithe dark-haired jungle cat Elrohir sprang from his bed, rolling off onto the floor pushing the blankets from his face as he pulled his sword from beneath his pillow. Positioned now at the side of the bed, crouching on one knee, with his weapon at the ready he looked quickly about the room assessing his situation. Estel squealed in glee, clapping his hands together in delight as he encouraged his brother to “Get ‘em Roh!”
Elladan quickly backed up, raising his hands in front of himself in a gesture of attrition. “Easy there big guy, I was just checking to make sure you were on top of your form.”
From behind Erestor they heard a sleepy voice say, “You should know that already Elladan, Elrohir does not sleep with his eyes open only because he is an elf, Glorfindel has trained him well, you will never catch him asleep when the sound of an unsheathing sword can be heard.”
“That was a foolish thing to do,” Roh replied angrily as he tossed his sword onto the bed, “I could have killed you!”
“No worries little brother, I made sure I was far enough away from you to avoid any untimely skewering,” Elladan said laughing.
“Foolishness, absolute foolishness” Erestor commented as he turned to move away from the door pulling the giggling Estel behind him. “Sometimes I believe it is your brothers who are in need of tirn and nappies instead of you little one.”
“Aw Westor you know I don’ wear nappies any more.”
“Yes my love I do, you certainly demonstrate a repeated maturity that your brothers seem to lack. Foolishness, just d**ned foolish I say.”
This type of stern language was a thing unheard of from Erestor, and certainly never done in front of the child. Estel of course, took this to mean that it was a suitable phrase for him to repeat and immediately dashed back to the door. Forgetting that only moments ago he had encouraged Roh to “get Dan,” he waggled a disapproving finger at Elladan saying, “d**ned foolish I say.” Then, placing his little fists on his hips, he gave an accompanying Erestor-like “hummmp” and nod of his head to emphasize his displeasure; then turned on his heels and followed his mentor from the room.
“Now see what you have done,” Elrohir exclaimed, “I guarantee he will be repeating that for Ada before the day is done. And no matter if it was Erestor who said it, we will definitely be the ones to pay the piper for it, or actually YOU will be the one, for I had no part in this.”
“No part, what do you mean no part, you drew a sword on me.”
The argument went back and forth in this fashion for several more seconds while Cilinwë gathered his belongings and headed for his rooms. “Those twins,” he thought as he shook his head, “Will they never learn?”