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It was about noon when Thranduil and his wife met for tea on their terrace. The young elven prince wandered of somewhere and while Thranduil still watched over him, his wife, Narulenia was much more relaxed about the situation. Across the small table, she reached for his hand while he still watched the woods to their left with a certain fear in his eyes,"You worry to much, Meleth."
He met her eyes again. Her wonderful, piercing blue eyes which she had gifted their shared son,"Anori, he is just a small child. What if something, anything happens to him?"
"He is still an elf. He will know how to protect himself from the small dangers he could be possibly finding in these woods. And it also is very important for children to make their own experiences. Everyone knows fire is hot but to truly hold your hand into the burning flame is a different story. Legolas earned your instincts. He is very much in a space to protect himself."
And as his gaze faded away from her eyes, he watched his son disappear behind the next tree. He was small, barely taller than a flower in Thranduil's eyes and he'd rather have him on his lap reading a book than exploring the wild. The time came for every small elf to star and form a bond with nature but his father really did not appreciate Legolas doing it right here and there in this forest.
"If he comes back bleeding again this time you can-",Thranduil cut himself off again as he heard his son's voice, his gaze instantly shifting.
"Ada!",It called out,"Nana!",The small elf came running towards the terrace.
Naru was the first one to stand up, catching Legolas even before he was able to climb into her lap,"Hey",She spoke, caressing his cheek and wiping away a few tears he shed,"What happened, my little leaf?"
"I-",He blurred out, all the words coming over one another and all she understood was something about a squirrel.
"A squirrel?",She repeated his words,"Wow, that must've been a really big, bad squirrel. How about we go inside and get you a pflaster for that wound of yours, huh?",She stood back up, catching Legolas in her arms and meeting Thranduil's eyes in the process. He only mouthed a I told you so to which she replied with a few ugly words accompanied with a smile before the two went inside of the castle again.
They repeated the same conversation at night. Thranduil stood in the doorway as his mistress was doing her hair. Combing through brown locks, which she usually wore in braids but opened them for the night. Narulenia hummed a song, something which sounded all too familiar because she used to sing their son to sleep with it.
"You are staring",She spoke, smiling as she kept on brushing through her strands.
"I am not staring",He answered,"I am just enjoying the pretty view in front of me",Then he sighed heavily as she blew him a kiss through the air,"You know we should talk about what happened today like the responsible parents we are",Thranduil raised his eyebrows.
"In what world are we responsible, Meleth?",Naru laid the brush down to turn around and smile at him. Narulenia was a pure sunshine, never laid down her smile, not even when she fell asleep. Sometimes Thranduil wondered if it was hard to always look the happiest, since he never came to think that she was the happiest with him.
"Well, you got him a plaster and I let you know I was right",He shrugged his shoulders as he leaned in the doorway,"That's more than responsible."
"Alright, responsible father of Mirkwoods Crown Prince",She got up, walked a few very light steps before she stood still in front if him. Nearly a head small than him, but tall enough to wrap her arms around his neck, which caused him to wrap his own around her waist,"What is your plan?"
"It's time this kid get's a sword."
It stayed silent for a second before she errupted in laughter,"Our sweet boy was afraid after a squirrel scratched his knee open and you want to give him a sword?"
The truth was indeed not that Thranduil didn't understand what danger it brought with it to handle a sword - But that he knew what danger might be waiting in these woods for his oh so curious son.
"Sooner or later he will have to learn it anyways. Rather sooner. And as it is my responsibility to make him the next king of this kingdom, I have decided-",He was cut off mid-sentence by his wife,"No, Thranduil. You didn't decide anything at all. As long as I am here - oh and believe me you won't have me gone anytime soon - the decision about what our child does and what he doesn't is ours. Our child, our decision."
He sighed a little,"Well it sounds good to have you around for so long. Makes reign a kingdom much less exhausting",He bowed just a little closer as she got up to her tiptoes, getting as close as possible to his lips before they met in a delicate kiss. She enjoyed it always a little too much, never stopped smiling during it while his lips stayed the same. Not that he didn't enjoy it just as much as she did, he only learned to show his love through different kinds of gestures.
As she left off of him again, her hands wandering a little more upwards to caress his cheeks, she sighed heavily,"I suppose we could try a bow? If it is really necessary."
"We could also leave it like this and he comes home every day with scraped knees from the very bad squirrel which bit him - Or he just shoots it when it gets to annoying."
"We will not teach our son to shoot random animals.",She shook her head.
"But will we teach him that you will kiss his pflastered knees until he is three-thousand years old and had still never held a sword in his life beforehand? Naru, I need to make sure he gets married one day. No she-elf will want him if he does not even know how to shoot an arrow."
"Meleth, please",She sighed,"He is just a small boy. He doesn't need to carry the world's weight on his small shoulders. This kingdom will probably never be his to reign, so there is no need for him or for you to stress about the future."
"No but we will really not teach him that, right?"
"No.",She shook her head again to which he repeated with a No way
"And to add",She raised her eyebrows,"It is my responsibility to find him a women. And it won't be all too hard if he should grow up to be as handsome as his father."
He may have been in the right age to learn how to shoot his first arrows - But that really didn't mean that he had to. Since this marriage was a little more unusual then others, the mistress of the mirkwood realm just spend her noon sipping wine while she watched her husband teach their son the art of archery.
She wasn't fully against him learning how protect himself - She was against him learning how to start and fight in a possible war. All's fair in love and war but she knew him. She knew her sweet, little Legolas. He was not a fighter, he was very much creative and very kind and sometimes a little to much for his own good if she was honest. But would that start a war in which he would need to know how to protect himself? Not very likely.
"Can you see how it works?",He spoke as he sat down next to his son in the grass,"So when you lay your arrow right here...",He laid it onto the tendon,"And give this just a little pressure",Thranduil proceeded to tension the tendon,"You can let it go",He goaled at the bullseye at the other end of the meadow of their private garden, let loose of the arrow and it strikes the red eye right in the middle.
"Wow, Ada!",Legolas eyes nearly started to shine like a star,"I want too!"
"Before you shoot, sweetie. There are a few rules I need to tell you because if I don't your mother is going to divorce me."
"Haha!",She laughed from the terrance,"Very funny Meleth!"
"What is a divorce?",Small Legolas dared to ask which made him father sigh,"We might be discussing this topic later."
Or rather when it came to Naru teaching him how to treat a women right when he was old enough to start courting and someday get married to secure their bloodline from going extinct - But that was a whole different thing than squirrels and scrapped knees.
Parenting really was a weird thing.
"So for the first rule. You will only shoot at the target. Not at me, not at your mother, not at yourself or anyone or anything else that or who is moving. Okay?"
"Yes, Ada!"
"Can you repeat that for me?",Thranduil raised his eyebrows in impression as Legolas was actually able to do so,"Only shoot at target. Not at people or animals."
"Very well",He nodded at his son before he stood up,"So now you can give it a try",Thranduil had given him a small bow, one made for children which wasn't made out of the usual material the kings of the mirkwood would fight with.
His actual bow laid splaid on the lap of his mother, where she hummed lowly while she lovingly carved small engravings into the bow. It was much taller than her son but he would start growing one day and since he was probably going to be as tall as his father, he would soon need one fitting for his height.
Legolas laid the small arrow down, his hands shaking as he was a little unsure of how to hold it right. Thranduil noticed, kneeling down on his side and adjusting his posture,"The arrow will fly exactly where you point it to it, you just stay concentrated. You got this, my little leaf."
The first arrow ended up on the right of the target,"Well, you've hit the target. That's very good!"
They kept in practicing the arrows which didn't hurt as much until Thranduil decided it would be fine for Legolas to try the real ones out,"Alright, now you have to be careful with the-",And right when he was about to say the next word, Legolas had already slipped, fell and accidentally had shot an arrow right into his father's chest.
"Oh dear, Eru",Narulenia was the first by his side as he just stood there,"Thranduil! Hey! Don't you die in front of my eyes, I will hunt you down!"
"Naru, I am doing alright. Do not worry about me",He was a lot more pale than usually and while it didn't seem to hurt for him, there was a arrow in his chest!
"Ada",His son spoke, hugging his leg in fear and guilt. The other one just smiled down at him,"No it's alright, I will-"
"You will get a doctor now",His wife spoke out. She looked down at Legolas,"Will you please get inside and ask the first maid you find to notice a doctor. Thank you, sweetie."
And while Legolas went to get a doctor for his father, Naru laid her husband down into the grass,"So much about him learning archery, huh",She started to gather the grass from nature's bed and spoke the first Sindarin spells she could remember.
"Anori",He spoke, waiting for her to stop whispering things to herself.
"Naru",He spoke again which made her groan in annoyancey.
"What is it now? You think it's not enough to have an arrow in your chest, now you have to annoy me to it?",She raised her eyebrows at him.
"I am doing well. It is fine",His pale hand found her while she was kneeling next to him in the grass,"You do not need to worry about me."
"Guess I'm still traumatized, huh?",She smiled at him with a pout,"That dragon-thingy, really was..."
Terrifying. Absolutely terrifying.
Thranduil had once been just as young as his son. Done a lot of stupid things and getting hurt more often than not. Wounds from falling from trees, cutting his fingers open on roses which thrones he carefully removed before sending them off to a certain and definitely not royal she-elf and taking scars with him. A few scratches across his arms from branches when he ran a little to fast through the woods and cut himself open on them, some on the feet when the stones in the water were rougher than expected and a few ones that where less easy to hide.
He took some away from protecting his people too. And the flames in his face hurt the most to look at - Maybe even more for Narulenia than for Thranduil himself.
"I am so proud",He spoke out, earning a very angry look from his wife,"Our son hit the moving target"
"Wasn't all to hard to hide your large forehead, huh?",She answered, raising her own eyebrows
He spent a few days in bed afterwards until the wound had healed perfectly. Which would've been a great opportunity for her to show Legolas how the healing spells worked - But she really didn't want to torture him with this image. She knew he felt guilty enough for it already, his small form had cried for hours in her arms and on of his father's bedside.
"It is not your fault, my little leaf",He combed through the golden locks while Legolas was laying on top of him,"It only means you need to train-"
"No!",She cut him off,"My child won't touch a bow anytime soon",Naru had a small habit for this. She'd rather not try again after it once didn't work out, she always did so - It needed her husband's conviction for her to give it another chance.
"Narulenia",Thranduil spoke harshly, making her aware of the small form craddled in his lap,"Please."
"Don't you try negotiate this. Next time the arrow hits your face. Then he really get's to be the king and believe me sweetie being king is not as funny as it sounds."
Legolas then looked up at her,"No bow for me?"
Thranduil raised his eyebrows at her. She was never able to resist those eyes, he knew it and she also knew it. But was she to say something? She knew her husband would tease her endlessly if Naru would really say yes but how could she say no?
So she sighed, squinting at her husband as he started to grin,"Do you want to shoot an arrow with your Nana? We can give it a try, huh?"
Legolas looked back at his father who only nodded,"You can go. Ada is doing great, I've survived-"
"Alright, that's enough",Naru picked Legolas up, carried him out of the room and send her husband one last warning glance. He just laughed. The arrow didn't manage to cut to deep, only bleeding and a little pain when Thranduil was to move his shoulders but nothing more than that.
So she ended up next to her son back on where her husband's dry blood still clogged to the grass - Oh, her gardner is going to totally love this,"What is important for you to know is how you need to connect to the nature and your surroundings... If you can narrate the wind moving, you can determinate where the arrow is going to land. Alright, you can't do what I'm gonna do but just watch",She raised her own bow, targeting a tree in the distance which she randomly caught an eye on,"You see, there is a tree. And behind, there is another one",She waited just a few second until she knew the moment was right to let her arrow fly.
The wind blowing helped her arrow on to the right track which made it's lane change from straight to curved, avoiding the first tree but landing right onto the second one. Legolas was very much impressed!
"You shouldn't tell him, it hurts his very big ego. But I have always been better at this than your father. He can't do these stunts nearly as well as I do."
What happened afterwards was amazing. Legolas tried every single day, again and again and again until he grew older. And one day, he started hitting the bulls eye right in the middle. Why? Simply because he wanted to make sure his father would maybe be a little more okay with this accident if Legolas had any talent about this at all.
And it also was so much fun!
"Well done my little leaf!",His mother called from her Terrance down to the garden. She smiled as she cupped her tea, smiling at her husband,"Isn't he doing so well? I feel such proudness in my chest."
"Same thing as after giving birth to him?",Her husband raised his eyebrows, sinking his own lips in his teacup as to hide his grin - Which he failed miserably.
"Dear Eru, do not mention this again",She laughed it off in awkwardness, rolled her eyes before she glanced back at the garden. He grew so much older. His hair, his legs, everything about him. And he was still so small...
The two watched him every single day when it was possible for a married couple who had to reign a kingdom while rasing a kid to watch their kid and spend time in their garden. Legolas would carry away scars on his fingertips and sometimes on his cheeks when the arrow came to close.
She always watched. She'd always help, keeping her small casket filled with wound plaster and bandage near - Until one day, when she passed away at the plains of Mordor, Narulenia leaving her live for Thranduil and Legolas to carry theirs on alone.
Thranduil had changed. A lot. What was the moon without the sun? What was a rivulet without the flowing water in it or a bird without his wings?
"Legolas",His father called him from the garden. At the point of their interaction, Legolas was nearly as tall as his father. He still shot his arrows every single day, sometimes splitting one over another. He didn't have anyone to teach him new tricks - Naru used to do so for him. But now she did not anymore.
"Yes, Ada?",He looked away from where he collected the shot arrows from his target again. Thranduil never got over how he looked just as happy as his mother used to - He inherited the same piercing blue eyes which were never to compare with anything he had ever seen before and her smile which rested above her lips at all time.
He couldn't help himself. His own son resembled this women he loved, he deified so perfectly. And it hurt everytime he even dared as much as to look at him.
"Will you come inside for a second please?",He walked the steps forward as Legolas followed him inside into the kings bedchamber. Thranduil kneeled besides the bed, pulled out a small box from under it and gave it to Legolas. His son was a little confused, opening the box and finding a bow inside.
"She made it for you. After you shot your first arrow that day. She...",He cut himself off as he bit his tongue,"She wanted to give it to you before you would leave. You will bystand Elrond in Rivendell tomorrow and I wasn't sure when to give it to you. But this seems to be a good moment."
"Did she do these herself?",His fingers glided across the small engravings. Leafs, trees, flowers, words in Sindarin which translated into Nana loves you and little green leaf.
"You owe her your creativity",He nodded,"She used to draw paintings. And make jewelery out of stones she would find outside. Our wedding rings where made by her, but she used real metal and jewels for it this time",He looked down onto his finger before he found Legolas eyes again.
"Can you promise me something, ada?",He asked, taking the bow in his hands and laying the box it came in down onto the hardwood floor.
"Anything",His father answered, ready to listen to his son's wish.
"When I return to the mirkwood. After I've been wherever I will go. Will you still be here? Will you not go where I can't follow like Nana did?",His voice broke down just a little, only a subtle tone which his father did notice.
"Legolas",He spoke, his pale fingers holding his son's face to meet his gaze,"I will not leave you alone. Your mother loved you so, so much and she would be so proud of what you've become now. But that does not mean I will go, where she went. This kingdom should never be your burden to carry and it won't ever be. I watch over what we have here, while you go outside and enjoy your younger years, alright? This is exactly what she would've wanted for you",He smiled at him, coming a little closee to sit his lips down onto Legolas' forehead before he let off again,"Also",He began,"Have fun. But not to much. Behave, you are still my son and the people know. And if you should find anyone on your way, you find a liking in, I want to be the first to know. You still need to get married one day."
Legolas groaned in annoyance, sighing heavily,"Is this not exactly what you told me not to do? Be stressed about this?"
"Well, yes",Thranduil answered,"But you still are the Crown Prince. Have a small look at your reputation once or twice, I would really appreciate it. Oh and think about what I would do when you're about to do something stupid."
Then he proceeded to sigh,"If im being honest, I have little to no idea what I have done but you turned out just right. Even perfect to say. You are loved. By me. And I have enough love to give, trust me."