An elfling's curiosity

Pastries cannot fight orc

The clearing had been quiet for a few moments now while the King reminisced on his past days as a young Prince newly in love. The only thing disturbing the tranquillity were the quiet sounds of breaking pastry and content munching.

Legolas was still perched on top of the flattened boulder, sat upright with his legs crossed and his body facing into the rest of the food to keep guard over it. He was incredibly glad that his father was otherwise occupied with his daydreaming, sat a few metres away leaning against a tree and carefully nibbling along the edges of a tart. He knew that if he was seen in this state he would most certainly not be going back to the palace without a trip to the nearby stream or a thorough handkerchief attack. He had been taking great advantage of the amount of sweet food brought with them and was now on his eighth jam-filled pastry, holding the evidence of every last one of them on his bright red fingers and no-longer-white undershirt. When his father finally reopened his eyes and saw him, the look of absolute horror immediately had the elfling in fits of giggles even through the pastry he currently had half shoved into his mouth.

Of course, Legolas hated it when his ada was mad at him, which -unsurprisingly- was quite often. But he could tell that this horrified look was different. Despite how genuinely uncomfortable the King seemed at the mess his son had caused, the elfling could spot the mirth hiding beneath his eyes. He was amused by it. He had raised Legolas to be a mighty and noble prince who could bring honour to their Kingdom even at his young age, and here he was, perched atop a boulder stuffing his face with jam pastry, looking like he had murdered something.

Thranduil sighed deeply and carefully stood up from his reclining position to walk over to his jam-covered child and hold out a pale handkerchief that he could take, still fixing the elfling with a slight glare for managing to cause such a mess.

"Here, make sure you clean your fingers when you're finished with that one, ion nin. You won't be going anywhere near Gilroch with fingers as sticky as that" He warned, earning a soft gasp from the prince as he grabbed the fabric at the same time as shoving the last bit of the food into his mouth, then furiously getting to work wiping all the jam off his fingers.

The clearing was quiet once again, and Thranduil returned to sitting against the tree with another couple of neatly wrapped snacks, enjoying the peace as the two of them came to the last few bits of the food. But, inevitably, Legolas broke the silence with a further question.

He looked up from studying a grape with incredible focus, tilting his head to the side and turning his attention to his father. He popped the fruit into his mouth, grabbed a pastry to go and jumped clumsily down from the boulder. Then, he went to sit in front of him, looking up with his brows knitted slightly, much in the same way his father would. "Ada... If nana was so good at protecting stuff, why isn't she still here protecting us? Did she have to go and protect other things?"

Thranduil had been waiting for that question. He was deliberately taking it slowly for his own sake more than Legolas', knowing that if he were to tell the whole story in one go he would never be able to finish it without having some kind of breakdown in the middle. He did not want that to be something his son witnessed. Still, even taking it so slowly the question hurt. Knowing he would have to explain at least slightly was like a dagger to the heart. But, he wanted him to have some knowledge of it, however vague.

"You know that some evil creatures don't like elves don't you, Legolas? Like the spiders? Well... Orc are much worse than spiders, and they hate elves and nice things more, especially important elves" He paused for a moment to look at his son's face, managing a small smile when he was met with an expression of pure curiosity.

"Your nana was married to me, so she was the most important elf there was, and the orc knew that. One day, when she was busy protecting the kingdom with me, the orc took her away, and she couldn't get back"