Chapter 5 - Home

The little group of elfling hunters stood in a circle staring at the ground. Arrust put his toe out and touched the limp body where the arrow had pierced it and blood had seeped out into a small pool. Thranduil looked at the arrow. It was not one that he and his parents had made, and he was glad of it. Even as he had the thought, however, he felt a wave of shame and guilt flood over him as he watched the limp body of the rabbit move with Arrust's toe. It was not supposed to happen this way, and really it had been an accident because they already decided that they did not want to hunt.

A sudden noise behind them startled all three elflings and they spun around in unison. A group of armed elves Thranduil did not recognize emerged from the trees. Their clothing was not like that worn by the warriors who served with his ada, that much he did know.

"What is this?" One of the elves with a brown cloak asked as he stepped forward. "Have our cave-dwelling kin become so desperate that they now send their elflings out to hunt for their food?"

"Leave them be," said another elf as he walked to Thranduil and his friends.

This one was dressed slightly differently and seemed older than the first elf who had spoken. He was wearing a green cloak and everyone listened to him and backed away when he spoke. Thranduil thought he must be in charge.

"Do you not think they have been through enough without us adding to it?"

"Please excuse me, Captain. I did not mean.."

The elf in the green cloak nodded and held up his hand, making the first elf stop talking. He looked at Thranduil and his friends and then at the rabbit.

"It is a great responsibility taking a life, young ones. In our lands, hunting is reserved for those much older and wiser than three young elflings."

The look of horror on all the faces of the elflings gave them away.

"I believe your parents will be surprised to see you three have become providers so young."

"We did not mean to," Thranduil's small voice said shakily. "We already decided not to and then E... it just happened."

He looked up at the elf, not sure what to do. He did not want to touch the rabbit and he felt a sadness inside that he could not explain. Everytime he looked at the rabbit, he could not help but think about the wounded and the dead that he saw as he and his nana were running to escape from the bad elves. He did not want to be a bad elf, but was certain that somehow this made him one.

With a grim expression, the elf they called Captain picked up the rabbit and pulled the arrow from the side of its throat. He looked at the three elflings for a moment and then handed it to Eldiren. Thranduil and Arrust both looked at him too. Eldiren did not look happy to be holding the rabbit, but Thranduil thought that since it was his arrow that killed it he should be the one to carry it.

"Come," the captain said to Thranduil and his friends, "we were just on our way to your camp to speak with your elders. We will walk you back."

"Who are you?" Arrust asked before taking a couple of small steps but not fully falling into line.

"We are warriors of this realm and we have been sent to welcome you to our lands. My name is Malagar and I am the officer of this patrol."

Malagar started walking toward their camp and Thranduil followed along with his friends. The other elves from the patrol followed behind them. As soon as they stepped into the clearing there was a lot of running around. All of the grownups were rushing over and talking to Malagar.

Thranduil found himself holding his nana's hand and being walked away from the patrol quickly. He noticed that his friends were being led off by their nanas as well and Eldiren's was looking very unhappy. Thranduil thought it looked like she was scolding Eldiren right in front of everyone too. He would not like it if he were Eldiren.

Looking back toward Malagar and his warriors, Thranduil waved to him to thank him. He was not entirely sure what he was thanking him for but it seemed like the thing to do. Malagar smiled at him and waved back, but Thranduil's ada was there and started talking to Malagar so the warrior could not call out goodbye. Secretly, Thranduil hoped he wanted to. He thought Malagar looked like a good warrior.

"What did you think you were doing?"

The sudden sound of his nana's angry voice brought him out of his thoughts of Malagar.

"Nana," Thranduil said, looking up at his mother a bit surprised by her stern tone, "I did not shoot any arrows."

"You left here with your bow when you know you were not to. Not only that, but you left intending to go hunting even though your father and I have both made it clear that you are not to be firing your bow unless you have an adult with you. You disobeyed, Thranduil. I am very disappointed in you. You could easily have hurt yourself... or someone else. How would you feel now if you had hurt one of your friends? It is bad enough that a rabbit was needlessly killed, but it very easily could have been one of you. We do not kill things for fun. We only take what we need. You should know that already."

Thranduil looked at the ground. He did not think he would have hurt anyone. He could hit the target when he concentrated very hard. He was not going to point that out to his nana, though.

"Well, I think that you will not be needing these for a very long time, child."

Thranduil looked up just in time to see his nana reaching for his bow. With a gasp, he tried to pull it away but his nana was faster and took his bow then his quiver, and set them up where he could not get them. With a fallen expression, Thranduil's eyes went from his precious bow to his nana's face then fell to the ground again. He knew that his ada was going to be angry too and the thought of both of them being angry with him again made him sad. To Thranduil, it seemed that ever since they left home nothing good had happened.

"Nana," he said so quietly it was nearly a whisper, "we wanted to prove that we were hunters like the older elflings."

"But you are not. Nor is it for you to decide when you are, or when we require hunters to go out for that matter."

Thranduil was startled to hear his ada's voice behind him and spun around. The expression on his ada's face told him everything he needed to know.

"We do not have time for this discussion right now, Thranduil. You will sit on your bed until your naneth and I return. Do not leave that spot for any reason, do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, ada," Thranduil whispered as he went to his bed and sat down.

He looked up and watched his ada and nana speaking quietly with each other and then leave. With a sigh he sat with his elbows propped on his knees and waited. Several minutes seemed like a lifetime, and soon Thranduil was fidgetting. After drawing in the dirt with his finger, he laid down and stared at the tops of the trees just overhead.

At first his thoughts were on his bow, but they soon strayed to the rabbit. The rabbit was dead. It bled and it had squealed when Eldiren's arrow hit it. The sound was not a sound Thranduil wanted to ever hear again. He thought it sounded just as bad as when the bad elves killed people back where he used to live.

He found himself wondering again if he was as bad as those elves. His nana had said that he had killed needlessly. Did she think he was bad? Maybe she thought he liked what he did. A tear slid down Thranduil's face as he thought about it and with a small cry of dismay he rolled onto his side, curling up into a ball. If his nana thought he was bad, then he knew his ada thought even worse. He wondered how long he had been on his bed and decided it had been hours. It felt like hours. Even though he was not hungry, Thranduil thought that it was likely past supper time now and his parents were so unhappy that he had turned out to be a killer of rabbits that they did not want to come back.

"Thranduil."

Thranduil opened his eyes with a sniffle. His ada was sitting on a treestump near where he was laying. Thranduil did not say anything. He just looked. He thought looking was enough. His ada probably did not want to hear him say anything anyway.

"Come here."

Taking a ragged breath, Thranduil obediently got to his knees and then stood up. He wiped his eyes and walked to where his ada was sitting. As much as he tried not to cry, he could not help it. He was crying by the time he stood before his ada. He wondered if he was going to be told how bad he was again. He could not look at his ada.

"Are you crying," his ada asked as he lifted his chin, "because you know that your nana and I are not happy with you, or because you lost your bow."

Thranduil's tears came harder now. He did not even try to stop them.

"Be-because I am a bad elf and you know that now."

Before Thranduil knew what had happened he found himself in his father's arms in a tight embrace.

"You are not a bad elf, Thranduil," his father said to him softly. "You did wrong and you know that you did, but you will learn from this and I trust that you will not be repeating it."

Thranduil nodded despite his misery and pressed his face to his father's chest. "I am s-sorry that the rab-bit got killed, ada. I tr-tried to stop him but it was t-too late."

"I think the next time you are tempted to disobey you will remember this and realize why you need to listen."

"I will, Ada. I promise."

As much as Thranduil hoped it would be finished then, it was not and that realization dawned on him very quickly as his father lifted his chin and addressed him firmly.

"I will take you at your word, ion-nin, and I trust you to keep it, but you will be spending the next two weeks helping your naneth instead of playing with your friends. After that time I will decide if you are ready to begin using your bow again and if you are ready to play with your friends again."

Before Thranduil could protest he was silenced.

"I do not need to remind you that it is unwise to try to argue with me, I am sure."

Thranduil shook his head and his ada nodded.

"I thought not."

Thranduil dragged his sleeve across his eyes and sniffed again. Maybe it would not be so bad. They had stayed in this camp longer than any other, which meant that nana had been spending time doing more than just talking with the other ladies. He would not like to spend two weeks listening to all the naneths sitting around and talking about his friends.

"There is one other thing."

Thranduil looked up, meeting his father's eyes.

"We will be staying here," his ada said as he smiled, "but that means that I will be gone for several days so you will need to be especially good for your mother."

"Staying?" Thranduil's excitement was barely contained, "will we live near Malagar?"

"We will likely be settling in or near his village. It is late, little one, and you need to get yourself ready for bed. We will talk about this more when I return."

"Yes, ada."

Thranduil went with his nana to get changed and was soon laying in his bed again thinking about the days to come. He wondered what it would be like to live here in this new place. Ada had said that Malagar lived in a village. That must mean they lived outside and not under ground like they did where they lived before. Thranduil curled up on his side as he grew more tired and decided that he quite liked living outside. He liked seeing the trees and seeing the stars. It was going to be fun living in their new home.