till forever falls apart

chapter 21: help

Thranduil was glad that Elrond had already left before the confrontation began. The last thing he wanted was to have Elrond judging his parenting again. He decided to give Legolas a few minutes to cool off before attempting to talk to him again. It was karma he thought to himself, she knew he was just like Legolas when he, himself was younger. He made his way to Legolas' room without asking as he wasn't sure Legolas would have let him in if he had asked. "Legolas?"

"Go away. I'm asleep," said an angry little voice.

"Can you please talk to me?"

"No. I'm asleep."

"I'm going to stay here until you talk to me."

"I can't talk when I'm asleep," he said through gritted teeth. 

"Do you want to be alone?"

"Yes."

"Good night, tithen las . I love you."

Thranduil was met with silence. It broke his heart to have Legolas angry enough to not even say "good night". Comments like this hurt Thranduil as he knew if his wife was with here she would've been able to cheer their son up. They had a better relationship together and he envied that.

Legolas spent all night devising a way to go to the waterfalls. The twins were right, there had to be a way to go, even without his father's permission. By morning, he thought he had a way, but he would need the twins' help to do it. "Legolas! What did your father say?" asked Elrohir. They had all gathered in the dining room for breakfast. Luckily, Thranduil and Lord Elrond hadn't come in yet, so they had a few minutes to go over the plan. "He said 'no'. But I think I have away. All we need is to distract Berion long enough for us to get away. Then I can show you to the waterfalls."

"What do you need us to do?" both twins said in unison with excitement plastered on their little faces. "We're going to have a picnic in the woods. While we're eating, we'll distract Berion so we'll have time to ride away and go to the waterfalls."

"That's brilliant, Legolas!" exclaimed Elladan. "We'll do it. Whatever you need!" added Elrohir. Lord Elrond and Thranduil came in soon after. He knew that the whole adventure depended on this, so he sucked it up and tried to act normal. "Ada, we decided to have a picnic in the clearing where the elk like to graze. Is that alright with you?" There was a sourness in Legolas' voice that made Thranduil suspect that his son was still angry at him. "Of course it is, penneth, " answered Thranduil sweetly.

The rest of breakfast went by smoothly. No arguments, no quarrels, and most importantly, none of the elflings let their plan slip. 

...

Legolas was elated as his plan worked and they were finally free to go wherever they fancied. He knew the fastest way to the waterfalls and, before they even knew it, they had arrived. Berion had tried to yell their names but the young elflings were already far away. Now he grew worried.

The twins gaped at the majestic beauty of the waterfalls. They were just as beautiful as everyone had said. Imladris had waterfalls too, but they were nothing compared to these as they didn't look as dangerous.  They were about half of the way up when a crazy idea popped into Elrohir's head. "Have you ever tried jumping from the top?" Elrohir asked Legolas. Legolas stood still, he had heard the story of how his mother and father had visited these very waterfalls when they were younger and his mother had got seriously injured and needed loads of stitches. But that didn't stop the little adventurous ellon.

"No I haven't. It's too dangerous. Most of us don't climb any higher than we are now, the rocks are slippery towards the top. It's easy to fall down." Legolas almost shouted over the noise of the strong current below. "Should we keep going?" asked Elladan nervously. "I've been to the top before. I can do it. We can stop if you want to." Legolas very much hoped that they wanted to stop. It was true, he had been to the top, but that was once and with the help of his father. Thranduil had to carry him half of the way, but he didn't want to be the one to chicken out. They climbed a little higher until Elladan had had enough. "You can keep climbing if you want. I'm going back down. I liked the view from down there."

Legolas, who was leading the way  turned around to follow Elladan, when he bumped into Elrohir. Legolas lost his footing and, before he knew it, plunged into the water down below. Elladan and Elrohir climbed down as quickly as they could but they didn't know what to do. They saw their cousin go under yet he hadn't come back up yet.  Berion was right. The young elflings had gone to the waterfalls. He found their trail soon enough and was able to follow it and rode as fast as he could until the waterfalls came into view. Sure enough, he saw three horses tied to a tree and three elflings climbing towards the top of the waterfall. He got there just in time to see Legolas fall into the river below. Without a moment's hesitation, he jumped into the water and raced towards where he saw Legolas hit the water.

He dove deep underwater, where he found Legolas who had a large cut on his forehead. He would sustain a nasty head injury but would survive. When he finally reached the shore he realised Legolas was turning blue. Berion was right; Legolas wasn't breathing. He tried to do compressions on his chest while the twins looked on in horror. It wasn't working. Elladan quickly gathered his wits to help Berion. "Ada taught us how to do this. I can do it." It seemed like he did chest compressions on Legolas for hours and it didn't seem to be working. He couldn't give up; he kept doing them until Legolas began to cough up water and started taking deep breaths. They all breathed a sigh of relief. At least that was one problem taken care of. Legolas was still unconscious, but at least he was breathing. "Quick! Give me your cloaks!" yelled Berion to the boys. They both ran to their horses and retrieved their cloaks from their bags. The river was now ice cold, and Berion knew he had to keep Legolas warm if he wanted him to survive. He couldn't let the only Prince die.

He held onto the reins with his good hand and held Legolas with the injured one. Berion usually carried a horn with him, to signal an emergency, and this was as good a time as any to use it. He handed it to one of the twins and told them to keep blowing it. Hopefully, someone at the palace would hear it and send riders out to meet them. That way he'd be able to hand over the little princeling to someone who was able to ride faster. 

Berion eventually heard riders coming. They were riding fast, heading in their direction. After a couple of minutes, the riders came into eyesight. Their leader was none other than King Thranduil.