For your information: Legolas is the son of Thranduil and the Queen Rhane of the fairycreatures. The fairycreature realm is separated from the rest of Middle-Earth by a mountain range and a great snowy wasteland. Neither Legolas or Thranduil know of each others existence. Legolas was never answered when asking about his father, and Rhane left Thranduil on the very same night that Legolas was conceived. Any other questions, just ask ;)
Enjoy!
Chapter 1
Hard footsteps were echoing in the hallway to the throne room. The woman sitting on the throne turned to her entering counsellor. "Well, Ramin, what do you think, is he ready?" The question was asked lightly. The fairy creature Queen already knew the answer. The dark being that had entered the room fell to one knee, bowing deep for his Queen, which had deserved his respect through countless decisions and almost as many battles. He stood again, his black armour shining, the helmet tucked under his arm. "Yes, my Queen," he said with a smile, "I believe he is." At the sight of her sad face he drew closer, reaching out his hands towards her. "Your son has been trained in the art of magic by the best in the country. It is now time that he learns to wield other weapons then sorcery. The demons will take the honour of that task upon them, as they have for centuries. Did we treat you bad when you came to study with us? It will only be a few years." He stopped for a second, smiling. "Your son is growing up Rhane, he will be our ruler one day, although that may still be far of, he has to learn to command, learn to fight with the troops. He is a fighter, he'll be alright."
Queen Rhane lowered her head for a few moments, looking at his hands holding hers, then looked up to him. "You are right," she said her eyes shining with a gleam of unshed tears, "you always were. Hard times will come; my son must be ready for them. But that doesn't mean I'll miss him any less." She lifted her hands from his, turning towards the door. "The time has come to say goodbye, let us go to the square." Ramin bowed: "As you wish, my Queen." He replaced his helmet on his head and presented his arm to her. She lightly placed her hand on it and together they walked through the corridor.
"It isn't fair: I am your guardian angel, I should be allowed to go with you. And instead they leave me here to be bored out off my brain." The winged woman crossed her arms and spread her wings for a second before furling them again. "I can't help that, Radiant, you know that." A young man of Elvish appearance responded, lifting some sacks onto the back of his horse. The woman snorted. She was beautiful, wearing a tunic and a pair of shorts that didn't hinder her movements. A great sword was girded around her middle. Light blue hair fell down, reaching her hips and fierce blue eyes fixed on her friend and protégée. Her expression softened as she sighed. "I know that, my prince, but I still think that I should go. I could be of some use."
Footsteps behind them made them turn. "Off course you would be, Angel, but that is against the rules." The commander of the demon pack stood before them, his hand on the reins of his horse. "The problem is that our prince has to learn to fight for himself. As his guardian, you would have to help him, but he has to do this alone. They're the rules, Radiant, like it or not." Radiant sighed again. "You're right, captain Rhûgan, but it doesn't want to seep in yet." She turned a smile to the captain. Rhûgan was enormous, a sight witch his black cape only emphasized more. A large scar ran across his left eye until the middle of his cheek and his black hair wandered to all sides. "I have to go now," Radiant said, turning towards her friend, "your mother will appear soon, and I have to be at her side." Then she turned and strode away. "Don't be too sad, my prince, you will see her again." Rhûgan remarked, placing his hand comfortingly on the young man's shoulder.
All horses were now saddled and their riders ready to depart: twenty demons including Rhûgan, who would soon be joined by their leader and king - Ramin, and the prince off all the fairy creatures: Legolas, son of Rhane. Then the doors swung open and out off them emerged four persons. Queen Rhane, her hand still resting on the arm of Ramin. Behind them walked Radiant and her older sister, Serra, who was the guardian angel of the Queen. Rhane stopped atop the stairs, taking her hand of Ramin's arm. The king of the demons bowed for her, then continued down the stairs and swung himself onto his horse, joining his fellow Demons. Nodding to his captain and the young prince, he immediately turned his attention back to the Queen.
High above her people, who had come to see this important moment in the lives of the royal family that ruled them, Rhane drew in her breath, strengthening herself. "My people," she said, her voice resounding in the courtyard, "we have come here today to see our prince, my son, for the last time in many years. True to our old pact, the Demons have come to take him to become a warrior worthy of once ruling our country." A loud cheer from the croud interrupted Rhane. It hit her that they loved her son so much, even though his father was Elvish and not a fairy creature; they had taken him in as one of their own. She looked quickly at him. He was so beautiful, a beauty that went beyond Elvish or even fairy creature beauty. But he was also strong; she had seen it in him during his training as a sorcerer: a tremendously powerful spirit in a still young body with a pure hearth. Rhane was pulled back from her thoughts as the scream died. "I bid you all a safe journey and I beg you to teach my son as much as you can." -He'll need it in days to come- Rhane thought, but she did not say it out loud. It was not time yet. Rhane raised her hand as a sign off farewell and Ramin shouted, the Demons screamed to their horses, spurring them to speed. Legolas whirled his light brown steed around and disappeared with them through the gates into the world away from the castle.
The people left the courtyard heading to their homes. Alone on her high stance Rhane felt her joy die. -Farewell, my son, at least for a few years. Learn fast and hard, Legolas, you will be needed.- Then she turned and went back into the castle. As she walked through the corridor, tears welled up in her eyes and when she felt the comforting grip of Serra's hand on her shoulder, she did not shake it of like she would have otherwise. From behind her she heard Radiant mutter. "He won't be gone for long: that kid is a better student then any other." And Rhane knew she was right: her son would come back to her in not too long a time.
Legolas rode in the front of the company, flanked on his left by Rhûgan and on his right by Ramin. He realized that his position in the group was rather strange. As prince of all the fairy creatures he was the equal of all the rulers of the individual races, above them stood only his mother, the Queen of the fairy creatures. But he was here to be trained, which meant that he had to listen to whoever had to practice with him. He had no trouble with that, Legolas knew that there were many people in the land that knew more than him, and he had no problems with taking orders from more qualified persons. Hopefully, the Demons would think of him as a fellow race mate and not as their prince.
After having ridden in silence for about an hour, Ramin looked at the fragile-looking being at his side. Seeing Legolas' heavy mood, he started talking. "Well, my prince, so your study with us begins." Legolas gave him a weak smile; he liked Ramin and intended to listen to his advices. "I guess so," he answered, "Oh and Lord Ramin, would you do me a favor?" "And what would that be, my prince?" Ramin asked amused. "If you would not mind, would you call me Legolas instead of 'my prince'? I mean, there's not much use in titles right now, is there? I'm going to take commands from you for a couple of years, so just Legolas would do fine." Ramin blinked his eyes a couple of times, looking quickly at Rhûgan, who only raised his shoulders for a second. Then the Demon King burst into laughter. "Very well, 'Legolas', that's what we're going to call you." And so they rode on, speaking comradely as they rode for three weeks, finally reaching the capital of the Demons: Kee-ool.
The day after there arrival, Legolas was summoned early: he had to appear before the King. As he entered the throne room of the Demons with it's high ceiling and thick stonewalls and pillars he saw Ramin was already sitting on his throne. Legolas stopped at the bottom of the stairs leading to the High Throne of the Demons. "Hail Lord," he said, "you have called me?" Ramin smiled: this wouldn't be a problem: he had hoped Legolas would understand he was going to be treated like one of their youngsters now. "Yes, I have. I found a company in which I can put you to start your training. Their captain is Rhûgan, and there are still 11 others in it. They'll start practicing in about 15 minutes, so I'm afraid you're going to have to pass breakfast." He gestured to a Demon at his side "Bring him to his company." Both the Demon and Legolas bowed and then left the room.
His guide took Legolas to the exercising terrain. On their way they passed several other groups who were already busy. Swords flashed as students fought each other, trying to find openings in the defence of their sparring partners. Legolas felt a shudder going through his body while he wondered if his own rank body could ever be strong enough to fight against the stronger built Demons. Suddenly the Demon stopped and pointed towards a group nearby. "There they are, sir." He gave him a quick smile and just a hint of a bow. "Good luck, my prince." he whispered. Legolas smiled back but before he could say something the Demon strode off. Softly shaking his head, he joined the other Demons in his group. Some off them looked oddly at him and snickered, others looked at him with amusement.
"Good morning!" At that sound everybody jumped and turned towards the heavy voice. Before them stood Rhûgan, fully armoured and with two long, heavy swords at his side. "So, twelve people, we're complete. Now before we do anything, I'm going to give my speech. I advice you to listen to it carefully, cause I'm not going to repeat it." Legolas bit back a smile at those words: Rhûgan certainly knew how to get attention!
"On this moment you are all pretty useless, you know little to nothing about the art of fighting. It is my task to learn you how to fight, defend yourselves and your companions, plan an assault or defence and many other things. This will be a pure physical teaching and I do not want any off you who would know sorcery to use it." Rhûgan paused, looking around to see if he still had everyone's attention. "After your training is completed, you will be free to wear a Demon armour: a thing only made for those who have proven worthy of it. Some off you will most likely not pass, but I wish each and every one off you the best of luck. Now, I have here a list of names, please give a yelp if you hear yours." Rhûgan took a list out off his armour and unrolled it. "Daggor." "Yes,sir!" the reply came from the Demon at Legolas' right: a lean but tall black-haired boy who would be about his age. "Nîhun." "Yes." An enthusiastic shout from the other side of the group. "Thanin." "Present." A young woman standing next to Daggor, her black hair in a long piggy tail. Several other names were called, their owners replying swiftly, most of them excited. The only one now left was Legolas who felt very uncomfortable under the stares of his fellow apprentices.
"Legolas." The young prince straightened his shoulders and stood up. "Present, sir." he replied. Rhûgan looked at him quickly and nodded. "Well, if everybody would seek a partner, we'll begin with the basics." Most of the Demons were quick to choose everybody but Legolas, who felt completely stupid. Making up his mind to do the best he could to please his mother and Rhûgan, Legolas gave a friendly smile to Daggor, who was the only one without a partner. Rhûgan passed between them, handing out wooden training swords. "These will only be your weapon for a week, then you get metal ones," he commented, "but these won't harm you if a stroke goes wrong and you get used to holding weight for a couple of hours." He then began to show them how to hold the sword, to balance its weight and to do some basic steps of attack and defence. "Ok, your turn." he said to them "practice what I just showed you. Take turns attacking and defending, I'll be walking from group to group to correct if necessary."
"I'll attack first," Daggor said with a grin, "just parry, all right?" Legolas nodded, getting into the defensive stance Rhûgan had shown. Daggor, still grinning, swayed at him with the wood, but was so enthusiastic that he overbalanced. Legolas grinned, seeing his chance. He took a quick step back and parried. Rhûgan came at their side, shaking his head disapprovingly. "Patience, Daggor, patience. Your father is a great fighter and we expect much off you, but not from the first lesson." he gave a quick smile "Take your time, learn the balance of your blade. You'll learn, carry on now." And with that he was gone, turning towards another pair. Daggor sighed. Legolas looked at him with a wry smile. "That's one hell of an expectation to live up to, if you don't mind me saying." Daggor grimaced. "Yeah," he said, "but I'll learn: I can't fail my father!" He motioned for Legolas to attack him and so he did, but his blow was almost parried as easily as his partner's.
They went on like this for hours, until Rhûgan was kind of satisfied with their moves. Legolas saw that there was already some class forming in the group. There were two people who could already fight a little, a boy called Khînu and the girl with the piggy tail: Thanin. Then there were the others who were middle-classed, Legolas amongst them. Lastly there was the unlucky kid that was in every class and seemed to do everything wrong no matter how hard he tried. In this case it was the boy with the enthusiastic voice Legolas couldn't see at the name-calling: Nîhun. He had a sheepish grin, and blurred, short hair that was browner than the normal black of the Demons.
They had a quick break, sitting on the ground, breathing heavily as Rhûgan went to get their meals. "Only this first time," the captain had said, "next time you'll all go to the mess like the rest." So they sat in the warm sun, wiping the sweat of their faces and catching their breath for a few minutes. "He look," a teasing voice came from behind Legolas, "the Elven's tired already." Turning around, he looked for the origin of the voice. Many off the Demon's were grinning, but his plaguer spoke again. "You must be the son of some rich idiot who thinks his money can get his son through a Demon training." "What makes you think that, Khînu?" he asked neutrally. "Cause no normal Elf would send his son here, knowing he wouldn't be able to complete the training. Give it up, Legolas, you'll only hold the rest of us back." Behind them Rhûgan had come back, but he remained in the shadows, listening to the conversation. He had known there would be trouble in the group because of Legolas. And Legolas would have a hard time, not being able to explain why he was there. It was decided that the identity of the prince would be kept secret. The fact that some of the other races indeed sent their children to be trained by the Demons would have to be a good enough cover for him.
Legolas narrowed his eyes for a second, then spoke "Just do your best Khînu, then I'll do mine."
Khînu laughed shortly "Within two weeks I'll see you beg to go back home, Elf."
Rhûgan decided to break it up before it got out of hand. There was no reason to believe he would do such a thing but Legolas could use his magic and kill Khînu in a matter of seconds and Rhûgan saw no use in a confrontation between them now. But maybe this was a good thing: as he came from behind the stone with the food, he saw Legolas narrow his eyes. The last time he had seen that look, it was when the prince had nearly broken all his ribs when he couldn't find the right counterspell for a curse and had been seriously injured. He swore to learn them all and within two weeks he had indeed mastered most of them. That same determination to continue was in his eyes now. Legolas wouldn't quit until he could defeat Khînu.
The rest of the day, they discussed tactics in the shadow of a large three that stood on the exercise-field. Rhûgan drew the positions the different parties would take in the dust asking what the group thought could be improved about them. There were many suggestions, but some small thing was always overseen. The last hour they trained with the swords again, but were too tired to really try. "Enough for today," Rhûgan said when the sun had already gone under, "You'll have about half an hour to clean yourselves up and assemble in the mess. Your sleeping hall is the furthest on the right of the barracks. Come on now, drag yourselves up and give me those swords."
You like? Review please!!!!!
Thanks for all the reviews on the previous chapter:)
Cheysuli: great! you actually like it! Whiiiiiii, Im a great admirer of your stories as wel *g*
Deb: thanks for reading
anonymous: thanks for having so much faith in me
J Ill try not to disappoint you.
Kelly: Im sorry if this wasnt the next chapter to my other story, but that has been posted in the meantime. Hope you enjoy this one as much too ;)
And finally to canon police. Im very sorry if you took offence of the artistic liberty I have taken with this story. I didnt mean to bother anybody with it. It is true that Legolas never referred to himself as a half- Elven, and this is obviously an AU story, but look at it this way: if you were half a creature that everybody else believes does not exist, would you tell them? Especially if it is supposed to be a secret! Also, Legolas does not have wings! Please, like I would do that! The reason he doesnt use magic is also because that would reveal him. I do not (of course) claim to follow Tolkien to the letter, and more references to Middle - Earth will have to wait until later chapters. But eventually the scene will shift to the Middle Earth we all love and cherish. So if you cant stand this, then please dont read it. But a lot of the stuff would be explainable even if this wasnt an AU story.
If anybody else is bothered with the fact that the story is a far-driven AU please tell me, and Ill just stop writing.
But now, without any further ado, chapter 2:
CHAPTER 2 : TRAINING
Moments later they arrived at their dormitories. There were three rooms with four beds, and two with two beds in them. "I suggest we get one with two beds." Thanin said, referring to herself and the only other girl in the group: Canirch. "Sure, who would want to sleep with a girl?" Khînu reacted sarcastically. "I will take the other room with two beds," he continued. Looking at one of the others he said, "Rhâvin, you can sleep with me." Rhâvin grinned broadly, seemingly overwhelmed with joy. In a split second it seemed the others had divided over the remaining rooms. The only option Legolas had was to move in with the group that only had tree persons. He sighed, entering the room, knowing that his presence wouldn't be very appreciated. Looking around, he saw that the others had already picked their beds. Legolas headed for the free one and was pleasantly surprised to see it was located under a window, one without glass. It looked out over the yard and behind that a forest. Behind him he could hear Daggor shout something, and a wave of laughter from the other two. He looked at them, identifying his roommates. Beside Daggor there was Nîhun and a tall young man called Zhinouk. Legolas dropped the bag he had brought from the hall where all their luggage had been brought, onto the bed.
At the sudden silence he looked behind him. The three Demons were staring at him, neither friendly nor threatingly, more like estimating his strength. "What?" Legolas asked, meeting their eyes without any sign of fear or weakness. "Your time to clean yourself up, Elven boy." Daggor laughed, tossing him a towel. He had already changed, as had the other two, and with most of the time given them already gone, Legolas disappeared into the bathroom. Behind him he could hear laughter again.
When the door closed behind him, Legolas let his breath out slowly, exercising self-control. He re-opened his eyes, seeing a basin in the ground, fed by an underground source. The water felt warm to his touch and he took his tunic of and quickly washed himself before putting it back on.
Opening the door to the dormitory he saw the others were waiting for him. They silently trotted through the corridor into the open air.
The mess was a low building carved out off thick stone. Inside there were lots of benches and tables, neatly ordered in rows. A separate table was put in front of the others. Rhûgan had already taken place there together with some other officers Legolas hadn't met yet. Seeing some of his apprentices looking rather lost, their teacher pointed at their places. As other groups entered Daggor turned around on his chair at Legolas' left. "Hey, " he said we're organised by year. There are the lastyears on the other side of the room." Zhinouk, opposite of Legolas, gave a dark glance at Khînu who had come to sit at his left. For some reason he didn't like the upstart any more than Legolas did.
On the officer table a Demon stood. Surveying the gathered students, he smiled. "Good evening everyone. For those in their first year who have just started today: welcome and good luck. For those who have 'survived' the past years: good work. As you have undoubtfully noticed you are organized by year and by training group. After tonight you can sit at any position at the table of your year. But for now: welcome again and let's eat." At that, servants came to the tables and put plates of food on them. There was fresh bread, soup and fruit for dessert. Daggor smiled "Oh this is great!", and began to help himself to a bowl of soup and half a bread. Legolas looked surprised at the amount of food that everybody around him ate. Because he was half Elvish (from his father's side) he had never eaten much, certainly not at evening meals. He reached for an apple and took a firm bite from it.
"You're not going to stay upright tomorrow if you won't eat more than that." a voice said at his right. Startled Legolas turned towards the sound to find that Thanin had taken that seat. She smiled to him from above her own spoon of soup. Legolas smiled back. "Thanks for the warning, but I've never been able to eat much so late on the day." Thanin shook her head still smiling, returning her concentration to her food. The others had all dug in and for about ten minutes the mess was relatively quiet. Daggor was looking thoughtfully at the officer who had addressed them before supper. "What is it, Daggor?" Nîhun asked. "That's my father." Daggor stated proudly, bowing over the table towards him. "His name's Targoth, and he's one off the closest advisors of the King." Legolas smiled as he recognized the name: Ramin had used it a couple of times when talking to his mother about strategies. So that was the man Daggor was hoping to equal. Not the easiest job but he had faith in the young man: there was something about him that he respected without being able to tell what it was.
Supper was over, plates were passed to the beginning of the rows where the servants picked them up and brought them back to the kitchen. People began to scatter again, going back to their sleeping quarters. Staying seated for a moment longer, Legolas looked around: most of the crowd was Demonic, with occasionally a Minotaur or a Viashino. As far as he could see, he was the only Elven in the bunch. "We're going back," Nîhun's cheerful voice sounded, "you coming?" Nodding he rose, following to their room. Once there they each sat on their beds, occupied by their own thoughts. "Well," Zhinouks deep bass rumbled, "since it seems we're in this together, we might as well get to know each other a little better." Looking at them he continued: "I'll begin. My name you already know. I come from the Kashimir province where my father is mayor of a small town. I came here because I always admired the guards when they trained. I know this is going to be heavy and especially so for those without friends to help them out occasionally. So I hope I've found some friends in you guys to have some fun with." he ended, cracking a wicked grin at them. Nîhun and Daggor laughed in response, Legolas gave a friendly smile, trying hard to think up a plausible story in just a few minutes.
"My turn," Nîhun stated. "I'm also from the Kashimir province. My parents have a farm and I still have two other brothers. We have a tradition of sending the youngest to undergo military training, so here I am." he finished with a raise of the shoulders. "As good a reason as any, if you ask me." Zhinouk said. "What about you Daggor, I heard you're here because of your father." Daggor nodded. "He's the officer that spoke to us at supper. Because he had such a good career he wanted his son to follow in his footsteps. I don't know if I'll be able to do that but I'll certainly try." Bowing his head, Daggor sighed. "You'll do it." Nîhun said sounding convinced of his own point of view.
"So that brings us to our very own Elven." Zhinouk said, "Legolas, anything you want to share with us?" "We understand if you don't want to." Nîhun said compassionate. Legolas gave them a quick smile: they offered him an easy way out but he decided to tell them as much as possible without either lying or revealing who he was. "My father is Elvish, I never met him." The others gave him a sad look, but he continued. "My mother is half Demonic and half Terran. She is a powerful woman in our community that lies in Immryr. She decided I should be trained before taking over the family business." The others nodded. "We're sorry for you. . ." Daggor started but Legolas laughed it away. "Why?" he asked, "because I don't know who my father is? Don't be: if you never had something you just don't know if you're missing it." "That's a weird way to look at it." Zhinouk rumbled. "But it's true, I think." Nîhun added thoughtfully. "Maybe it's better we went to bed now," he continued, "I don't think they 'll let us sleep out tomorrow." Daggor laughed, then threw his pillow at the younger Demon. They went to sleep, Nîhun refusing to give Daggor his pillow back, lest he throw it at him again. Mumbling goodnight Zhinouk turned his back to the others. Legolas curled up in his own bed, tired enough to sleep.
Nîhun proved to be right about the sleeping time they got. The sun wasn't even up when a trumpet blast shook everybody awake. Groaning, the Demons were up in a few minutes, seeing Legolas sitting in the windowsill, already awake and dressed. "Oh my," Daggor yawned, " how does anybody manage to be awake at this hour?" After a lot of rushing and fighting for the use of the bathroom, the four were just in time for breakfast at the mess. Slipping into the same places as yesterday evening, they greeted their teammates, some of which were more awake than others. Thanin looked pretty fresh, smiling at them. "Hey, had a good night?" Zhinouk gave her a smile of his own, but didn't answer. "I never noticed a night to be so short," Nîhun complained. The others laughed, leaving him to feel pretty stupid.
Rhûgan passed by their table, leaning towards them. "You have about an hour to eat and gather. I'll expect you at the three were we discussed tactics yesterday." Khinu dropped in ten minutes late, looking for someone to bug, Rhâvin as a loyal dog right at his heels. "Hey Elven," he jeered, "You still alive after a night in such 'terrible circumstances'?" Legolas ignored him, fully intending not to let the annoying idiot ruin his time here. Although some at the table laughed at Khînu's remark, most paid no attention.
Together with the girls the four went to the training field. They still had some minutes before the rest showed up and they spent them talking about the things that had already happened to them so far. The fellow students joined them and they laughed about some of Nîhuns jokes until Rhûgan showed up and put them to work, ordering them to repeat the moves they had learned yesterday. The only difference was that now he was much harsher. He corrected more and drove them on until they almost had a heatstroke from the burning sun. Only then did he allow them to sit down. "As you have undoubtfully noticed, Im not so nice anymore, but that, Im afraid is needed to make good warriors of you. Remember that you can always give up when it becomes too hard on you. Now everybody, take a break and get something to eat. You have half an hour."
Moaning they stood up. "This cant be happening," Nîhun whispered, "Im never going to hold on if every day will be like this." The others said nothing: he had just spoken their every thought. It was very well possible that none of them would pass this training, no matter how hard they tried. They all still ached from the day before and the new strain on their muscles seemed to leave even Khînu with little desire to do anything but drag himself to the mess.
In the afternoon, they had more strategy and sword fighting, no slouching allowed. When Legolas let himself fall onto his bed to get some sleep that night, he wondered how his mother had made it through her training. "She could have at least warned me," he thought, moving his shoulders to find out in how many places they actually hurt. Looking round to his roommates he saw he wasnt the only one with sore spots: Nîhun was dead to the world, snoring lightly, Daggor moaned as he shifted to his other side and Zhinouk rubbed his shoulders in an attempt to have most of their stiffness gone against the following morning.
They trained for weeks like that, handing in their training swords for metal ones, falling asleep with painful muscles, wishing it was over already but knowing the worst still lay ahead of them. Amazingly only one person quit those first weeks: Dardân, a young man of a rich family. Khînu snorted as he left, marking him as too less to pay any attention to. The others shook his hand, wishing him all the best and asking to write once in a while. In the short time they had known each other a firm band had already been formed because of the shared suffering and dreams. As Dardân rode off, the rest flung themselves back onto the training field, parrying and striking as well as they could.
If anything kept them going through those days, it was the evening conversations they had. Gathering in one of the bedrooms, they sat and talked about what they thought of Rhûgan and the other officers, their dreams and hopes, things they had seen or achieved. They also spoke about their parents, family and friends that they had left at home. Legolas thought that if these were the people he would later rule, he was a very lucky man. Their warmth and friendship were things he appreciated a lot. Even Khînu didnt taunt him that much anymore. "Probably because I wasnt the first one to stop the training." Legolas mused.
After 3 months, Rhûgan had a surprise for them. They had come on the field, heading for the swords as usual when he stopped them. "Today," he said, seeing everyone was present; "we are going to add another dimension to our strategy- training. As part of finding an enemy, Im going to teach you the skills of a ranger. Reading signs and marks you find on the ground can help you a lot in this, so were going to hike today." He led the way towards the forest, going at a strong pace.
They reached the edge of the forest and Rhûgan made them stop signalling them to make a circle around him. He pointed at a spot in the grass. "What do you see, Rhâvin?" he asked. Rhâvin thought for a while but couldnt see anything special. "Uhm, a patch of grass?" he tried. "Good try. Anybody else." His students stood silent, looking at the grass. Nobody seemed to know the answer and after a few moments they began to shift uneasily. Rhûgan sighed. "Legolas?" he asked. Moaning innerly, Legolas answered. "Deer tracks, probably a young because the tracks arent very deep and probably male cause the females arent that audacious to go to the edge." The others began to snicker. Daggor gave him a punch in his side. "Great story, Leg, maybe hell even buy it." Rhûgan stood up, looking around with raised eyebrows. "What are you all laughing about?" he inquired, "Hes right you know, about all of it." A respectful murmur arose from the Demons. "But then again, he has already been trained for this as his mother told us. You will still have to attend each class though." he said with a smile towards Legolas, "Wouldnt be fair otherwise." Legolas nodded and the party moved on.
They spent the whole day in the forest, moving cautiously so as not to step on any tracks by incident. As the day drew to an end, Rhûgan made up a game for them. Dividing the group in 3, the task was to find and sneak up on the other groups without being caught themselves. Legolas, Daggor, Zhinouk and Nîhun were together as always, seeking their way through the trees with caution, trying to make as less tracks as possible. They found traces of another group and followed them, Legolas leading them when the traces were all but erased. At the end of the way, Khînu, Rhâvin and Canirch sat crouched under some shrubs. The smile on Nîhuns face as he saw them stated clearly the pleasure he had in being one of the best for a change. "Are we going to scare them?" he nearly begged, continuing as he saw Zhinouk frown, "Come on, it would be fun. And they do deserve it for teasing Legolas!" Daggors grin was nearly wicked as he nodded his head. He held out his hand. "Revenge!" he whispered. "Revenge!" the others agreed. Legolas had another look at the threesome under the shrubs and then motioned his companions to move backwards. Quickly they crawled to the other side of the shrubs, making less sound than the wind. There they crouched down and waited, listening to the conversation of their prey.
"This is fun!" Khinu leered, "Ive never had this much fun in my life!" His sarcastic expression betrayed his hatred for what he was doing. "Be quiet," Canirch demanded, " youll give us away." She looked out of their hiding to find possible trackers. "This is a typical thing for that Elf, not for a Demon!" her companion continued as though the girl had not spoken. Canirch sighed and glared at him. "If were discovered its your fault. I hope that Legolas," she added, emphasizing the fact that he had a name, "takes you in personally."
Legolas grinned at the others. "This is to beautiful an invitation to leave." he smiled, "are you coming?" The others had similar grins plastered across their faces. "Lets get them!" Nihûn hissed. Together they sprang on their enemies from behind. Zhinouk and Legolas took Khînu, while Daggor grabbed Rhâvin and Nîhun collided with Canirch. The battle was over before it began, and the losers where sent back to Rugan to admit defeat. "Thatll teach him." Nîhun said happily. "Teach them what?" Daggor asked his young comrade-at-arms. "To not treat Legolas that way." he answered intensely, surprising the Elf. He gave Nîhun a smile. "I can take it, its nothing big." "If you need somebody to help you, were here for you." Zhinouk said with quiet confidence. Legolas looked at his friends thankfully, feeling at home among them for the first time. These three years wouldnt feel like an eternity after all.
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