Marbles

Just some fluff I had an idea for…

It's for my grandmother, an Easter present, and I hope it will help her overcome her fear of reading the Lord of the Rings and actually do it.

Legolas flicked his rock, missing his target by less than a millimeter.

'Drat!' He exclaimed.

Elenion took his turn, hitting the target so that it spun towards Arnalian. Arnalian sent it spinning towards Legolas, who glowered at his brother.

'Arnalian, why me?'

Arnalian shrugged. 'You are across from me.'

'So's Elrohir.'

'Whatever.'

Legolas hit the rock firmly, sending it flying over his brother's head and to the other side of the stream. 'I guess marbles is out then.'

Elladan rolled his eyes. 'You had to do that, didn't you? Just my luck I suggested marbles and you declined, that means I have the only right to forfeit the game.'

'Yeah, I know, the only right.'

Gathalorn held up a hand. 'Guys, guys. What's with the arguing? Who wants to have a footrace?'

His older brother, Harrebryn, gave him a light push on the back. 'No, 'Lorn, you'll win.'

'Well, that is why I suggested it.' Gathalorn was offended. 'One, Two, Three, go!' All of the gathered elflings leapt up and ran off in different directions. They hit where they were aiming for at about the same time and yelled, 'I win!' From where they were watching, Thranduil and Elrond both put their heads in their hands.

'All right, something else.' Said Elenion, 'Tree climbing race. Lord Thranduil, will you make sure it's fair?' Thranduil grudgingly stood up.

'If I must. We'll do it tournament style. Elenion, Arnalian, choose a tree.' Elenion stayed where he was, next to a large oak and Arnalian ran towards his favorite tree in that grove, a huge beech tree. Thranduil showed them how high they had to go.

'Ready, set, climb.'

Elrond, who was enjoying this affair quite a lot, began commentary.

'Arnalian takes the early lead… Good move there by Elenion, twisting around like that… great acrobatics from Arnalian, swinging his legs up… Elenion gaining on his opponent… Elenion wins!'

'Alright Elenion, go stand over there. Arnalian, over there. Elladan, Elrohir, you're up.' Elladan took Elenion's place and Elrohir took Arnalian's. 'One, two, three, go.'

Elrond, who seemed to like commentating, began to comment. 'Elladan gets an early lead… Elladan still in an early lead… Elladan still in the lead…'

Elladan stopped climbing and looked down at his brother, four feet below. 'I told you he likes me better.' Elladan's stop had been a mistake. Seeing his chance Elrohir shot upwards and grabbed onto the branch he was aiming to get to, but his leap had proved a mistake as well, because the branch broke, bringing Elrohir down with it. Elrond ran forward to catch his son.

'Well, Elrohir, you little trouble maker, how many times do you need to be told? Slow and steady wins the race. You could do with a reminder too, Elladan, penneth nin!'

'Very well, Elrohir wins.' Elladan scampered down his tree to join Arnalian and Elrohir escaped Elrond's clutches to join Elenion, who gave him a fist bump. Harrebryn and Gathalorn took their places at the foot of the trees.

Harrebryn won by an inch. 'Legolas! Malvafin!' Legolas and Malvafin scampered forward. They were by far the best climbers, though he expected Legolas to win by at least a few feet. Malvafin was a very quiet boy, his father was the steward, Thranduil's best friend. He though Malvafin would be an excellent steward when Legolas became king. That would not happen for a very long time, as Thranduil expected, when he died, Legolas, as king, would give the role of king to someone else, likely switching places with Malvafin. Expect for the fact that it was strictly forbidden. At his signal, Legolas and Malvafin leapt up the tree and in less than half a minute, Legolas was sitting on the top branch and almost a second later Malvafin was on his own branch. Thranduil sent them down and over to their spots. Elenion and Legolas volunteered to go next. As expected, Legolas won by a lot. Elrohir then beat Harrebryn, and Elrohir and Legolas took their places. They had selected new trees for the championship, harder, taller, ones. They hopped up onto the first branches all action. As expected, Legolas took a lead climbed as fast as he had ever climbed before. Elrohir was on his tail and determination was making up for expertise. Legolas reached his top just as his competitor caught his trail properly.

There were cheers for Legolas and he and Elrohir climbed down. They claimed Legolas as the official victor of the day.