Estel knew his brother was looking for him, but at the moment he didn’t want to be found. ‘What will I do if Ada dies.’ Estel could hardly think about it. The being that took him in, who treated him like his own son, could possibly die. It was preposterous, impossible.
“Elves aren’t supposed to die.” he said to himself.
Shaking his head clear of those thoughts he focused on putting one foot in front of the other. It was getting harder to do that, though. It was harder to breath, his arm ached painfully, and he was worried about his father. He just wanted to collapse upon the ground and never move again. His legs refused to do what his mind told it to, and the grief-stricken six year old ran until he thought he really would pass into the Halls of Mandos.. Finally falling in a heap upon the ground, he cried. Sobbed, actually. It had been the first time that he cried since his mother’s death. Even then, tears wanted to fall, but Estel would not let them, refusing to show human weakness to the people that he called his family. He cried for his dead mother. He cried for his supposedly dead father. He cried for his current predicament , and still he cried for no apparent reason at all. The tears just kept coming.
Seeking shelter from the rain that threatened to pour down, (which had also come down earlier) Estel crawled over to a tree and rested himself between two of its protruding roots. Hopefully, the branches would shield the child from the rain.
“Amin mela lle, Adar,” Estel finally murmured weakly, before crying himself to sleep.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
‘Where have you gone off to, Estel nin?’ Elladan thought to himself. The child was learning quickly, he had ran where other tracks had been, causing poor Elladan to take the time to figure out which set of prints belonged to his brother. Elladan knew that in the future, when Estel was more experienced, they would not be able to find him if he did not want to be found. Already he was making it hard for the elf. A set of rabbit, squirrel, fox, and human prints were all mixed in a jumble of nature’s art in the mud.
Elladan finally found the prints he needed and took off after them. It hadn’t taken long to figure out, Estel was running, making his prints less noticeable. All the others had been walking and their prints were implanted deeper into the ground. He hoped his father was alright, in his heart he knew he was and this was just a minor dilemma, but his younger brother had taken it so seriously. None of them had expected that of the young adan. Though Glorfindel probably did have something to do with it.
“Glorfindel could be so stupid sometimes.” Elladan thought bitterly. “He had no right to accuse Estel.” Another part of his brain told him, “ He didn’t accuse Estel. Estel just took it that way.”
He would be having a little ‘chat’ with the advisor when this whole situation was all over.
That is, of course, if he was still alive after Elrond dealt with him. Elladan nearly laughed at the thought.
“Alright, Estel where are you?” he called.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Elrond’s first thought when he woke was how come he couldn’t see. A few seconds later he realized he had his eyes closed. His next was why he heard voices that could have possibly come from the dark lord himself. He groaned when he finally found himself opening his eyes to his three friends arguing. Glorfindel and Erestor were definitely ‘having it out.’ Faelon was arguing with them to take it outside, or talk about it later. As a result he got reprimanded by the two friends for interfering and they argued over another subject entirely.
He groaned again and he heard a voice say, “Pitiful, isn’t it? And these are the people you put in charge of our studies?” Elrond turned his head to see his son holding his hand and grinning mischievously at his father.
He grunted in reply.
“My friends!” he tried to say but his voice wouldn’t work. He heard something resembling a gasp come out of his mouth. Elrohir quickly went to get him a glass of water.
After drinking the whole glass down, he tried again.
“My friends!” the three elves finally stopped bickering at their lord’s voice and looked at him surprised he was awake.
“I believe Faelon is right in this argument. Please take it to the kitchens or something where my poor ears can enjoy the silence and not have to deal with grown adults bickering like elflings.”
Seeing the astonished looks on Glorfindel and Erestor’s faces, Elrond was unable to hold in his small chuckle. Elrohir was practically falling of his chair, in laughter. Faelon just smiled at the two.
“Once again, mellyn nin, I am right and you two have lost.” he said. Obviously there was an inside joke between the three elves.
“Anyone care for poker?” grunted Erestor. Though, he was completely serious.
Elrond just smiled before his stomach grumbled in defiance. Glorfindel quickly made his way over to his lord.
“When was the last time you ate something, my lord?” he asked.
Elrond had to think about that statement for a few minutes before finally coming to the conclusion that he had no idea. He told Glorfindel this and Glorfindel exited the room giving Elrohir a pleading look. Elrohir nodded. These gestures did not go unnoticed by Elrond and he frowned at his son.
His vision still being blurry he felt his face turn red, “El, I am so sorry but my vision still isn’t great and I can’t tell which one you are. I’m sorry.”
Elrohir chuckled, “ Wow! I could definitely pull a prank out of this one.”
Elrond frowned at him again.
“Ro, “ he said showing him the jewelry upon his wrist. True enough, there was Elrohir engraved in one of the fine bracelets.
Elrond nodded and thought to himself that they still could’ve exchanged bracelets before he woke. It wasn’t like they hadn’t done that before.
He was wondering where the twin was. He hadn’t seen Elladan, ( Elrohir) since after they arrived home from the hunting trip. He was about to ask where Elladan (Elrohir) was, when Glorfindel came in caring a tray of pastries and fruit. Glorfindel was actually a great cook. Elrond knew by the smell that Glorfindel had made these himself. Only his very close friends knew of his hobby. He didn’t want people to know that when he was upset, he cooked instead of practicing with his knives, as they, meaning his troops and people, believed.
Elrohir (Elladan) moved away from the bed and went to get himself cleaned up. He had never changed from his hunting clothes, he hardly had the chance. After Elrond collapsed, Elrohir could not bring himself to leave his father’s side. He had been wearing dirty clothes for the past few hours.
“Yes, go clean yourself up. Your brother would surely make a joke of you looking like a
warg with cleanser.” Glorfindel told him. Elrohir just smiled.
After the twin left Elrond looked up at his advisor and asked, “which one was that?”
“Ro.”
“Just making sure.” Glorfindel laughed also remembering that time.
“Now, mellon nin, what do you remember?”
Elrond sighed. "Not a lot, actually. I remember Erestor telling me that a letter from Mirkwood arrived yesterday and that I should probably take a look at it. I remember Estel coming-" he trailed off. Elrond felt his heart beat fast and his stomach drop.
"Glor, where is Estel?" Elrond whispered in panic. He suddenly remembered Estel sitting on his lap and smiling at something before he passed out.
"Where is my son, Glor?"
"We are not sure, Elrond."
At this time Elrohir entered once more. He saw the looks that passed between Elrond and Glorfindel. He sat down next to Glorfindel, and together they began to tell the tale of how Elrond now lay on his bed still fairly ill with two of his children missing.
~*~*~*~
"Estel took it as a lecture and that you blamed him? Thats unlike him." Elrond mentioned.
"Father, it brought back memories of his mother."
"But of course it did, please continue. And Glor, I will be talking to you later." Elrond said before glaring at his advisor.
Elrohir continued.
~*~*~
"Where are you, tithen-muindor?" Elladan thought. It had been the 100th time exactly that he had thought that thought within the last three hours. He found the tracks, that he had lost at least 7 times, again, and moved after them.
After what seemed like only a few minutes, Elladan found a small form cradled into itself, lying between to tree roots.
"Of course, Estel, it just had to be this tree." Elladan sighed. Putting that thought behind him, he made his way over to his little brother. He felt his heart drop as his brother didn't move at all. Finally able to grasp the situation he realized his brother was only sleeping.
"He's just sleeping. Only sleeping." Elladan said to convince himself.
"Estel, muidor nin, please wake up." Elladan whispered to his mortal brother whose eyes remained firmly shut.
Elladan carefully picked up the small human, being mindful of his broken arm, and turned his steps toward home and the healers who would help the child. He walked as quickly as he could without jostling the injured boy, but the trip seemed to take forever since he was so worried about his little brother.
"My lords", one of the house elves said as he hurried to Lord Elrond's chambers, "your son approaches the house and he has the child with him."
Elrond started to swing his legs off the bed to stand up but was stopped by both Glorfindel and Elrohir.
"Nay, Elrond", Glorfindel stated firmly, "you are in no condition to get up. I know that you are worried about Estel, but you have many healers here that you have trained personally. The best of whom are your own sons. Let them see to the boy. Once his broken arm is set, they can bring him here for you to see for yourself that he will be alright."
"Yes, Ada, please listen to Glorfy. Let 'Dan and me tend to Estel", Elrohir piped up. "We know what to do to fix his arm. We'll bring him to you before we put him in his own bed. One of us will be with him until he's able to get up again."
Elrond saw the wisdom in their words, but that didn't mean that he had to like it. "Make up a cot for him in here", he commanded. "It's my face he needs to see when he awakens, to reassure him that I'm all right."
Elrohir raced down the stairs to meet his brothers and followed Elladan to the Healing Hall. While Elladan was removing the dirty clothing from the tiny body, Elrohir prepared a sleeping potion to give the child to keep him from awakening while they were re-breaking his arm so that they could set it properly. They didn't want to take the chance of Estel waking up during the procedure which would be very painful. Elladan sat on the edge of the bed and held his little brother's body propped against him while Elrohir administered the medicine. Since Estel was still unconscious, Elrohir carefully forced the mixture down his throat, making sure not to give him too much at a time and causing him to choke.
Once they were sure that their little brother wouldn't awaken, they performed the tasks necessary to repair the broken limb. That done, Elladan carefully picked up Estel again and the three brothers left the Healing Halls for their father's room.
Elrond had had an uncomfortable talk, for Glorfindel at least, with the Captain while his elder sons were busy with the child.
With relief, Glor looked up when the twins entered the room.
“How is he faring?”
Elrohir replied, “He'll be fine, Glor. You can relax now. Did Ada talk to you?” he asked with a cheeky grin.
Glorfindel rubbed his face and said, wryly. “Aye, 'Ro. We talked, or rather he talked and I just listened. When do you think that Estel'll wake up? I need to apologize to him.”
“Maybe in another hour. Why don't you check back then,” Elladan grinned.
Glorfindel nodded and left the small family together, quietly closing the door behind him.
“Bring him to me, ion nin. Let me hold him in my arms for a while before you put him on the cot.” Elrond held out his arms for his youngest son.
“I am so sorry, pen-tithen,” he whispered in the unconscious child's ear as he cradled him in his arms. “I'm sorry I scared you. Please wake up and smile at me. I need to know that you forgive me for scaring you like that.”
~*~*~
Due to the fact that Estel was small for his age, and completely worn out from his flight of panic, the sleeping potion didn't wear off for nearly two hours. Meanwhile, his father and brothers anxiously watched over him, quietly talking amongst themselves. Glorfindel peeked in after an hour had passed, but didn't disturb them and quietly left again.
“Ada!” Estel suddenly screamed and sat upright on his cot, frightening the three elves in the room. The boy started sobbing, certain that his father was dead. When he tried to cover his face with his hands, he realized that his broken arm had been bound tight against his chest to keep him from moving it. Looking around in a panic, he spotted his father, anxiously staring at him, arms outstretched.
“Ada!” the boy cried in surprise and tried to get off the cot only to find that his legs weren't willing to support him.
“Take it slowly, tithen-muindor,” Elladan chuckled. “We had to give you a sleeping drought so that we could set your broken arm. You'll feel funny for a little while.”
Elladan quickly moved to his little brother and picked him up, yet again, and carried him to Elrond's bed.
The small human wrapped his arms around Elrond and started sobbing once more. “Ada, I'm sorry you got hurt. It's all my fault,” the child cried onto his father's chest.
“Hush, now, Estel nin. It is not your fault. Rather, it is I who must beg your forgiveness. Can you forgive a foolish old Elf who forgets to eat when he is supposed to? That is all that it was, ion nin. I had missed too many meals while I was away and simply passed out from hunger. Truly, pen neth, it was never your fault.” Elrond hugged the trembling child and rubbed his back in circles to soothe his tears.
At that moment, Glorfindel looked in again, but decided that this was not the time to give an apology to the boy, so he sadly walked down the desolate hall again.
“ I hope he forgives me as easily as he forgives his father.” He thought aloud.