Legolas's Christmas

A Useful Present

I woke up in the morning to a whispered voice. I opened my tired eyes to see Ada leaning over me, his hand on my shoulder as he woke me. "Legolas," he whispered, "Come now, it's time to rise. You don't want to miss opening your presents now do you?"

"What presents?" I asked, still trying to wake up.

Father chuckled. "It's the Day of Creation isn't it? Don't you think you have some presents to open?"

I was immediately awake as I realized that he was right. I scrambled out of bed and ran down the hallway in my nightwear, bursting into Ada's chambers, which is where we were going to celebrate. He had assured me that he would play with me go all day, and I was eager to get started. I hardly ever got to play with my father; he was always busy.

I ran over to a small pile of wrapped boxes and eagerly pulled out a small, sloppily-wrapped one that was my present to father. I turned around to see him walking through the doorway, smiling at me. He walked over to the pile and selected one: it had blue and gold wrapping, and looked quite like one of the ones I had seen the servants sneaking away when all the other presents were being delivered.

We sat together in an armchair and exchanged gifts. Ada opened his first and I smiled at his surprised expression. It was a small dagger, finely crafted, with jewels set into the hilt and silver trimming the handle. It had been very expensive, and I had had to save up the small amount of money father gave me every week for a while, but it was worth it. Ada positively beamed at me, hugging me for a moment and thanking me.

It was my turn. I eagerly tore off the paper and revealed a long, thin box with clasps on the side. I snapped it open and lifted the lid to reveal a beautifully crafted small scale longbow!

I gasped and looked at Ada, desperately hoping the glorious weapon was for me and there wasn't just a mix-up with the boxes. A nod from father confirmed that it was mine and I jumped up, throwing my arms around his neck in the tightest hug I could manage. I let go after a moment to go back to the box and carefully lift the bow out, marveling at the carvings on it. It was perfectly fit to my stature, and I couldn't wait to shoot it. I had never had my own weapon before, and I had always wanted to learn how to shoot a bow.

I wanted to immediately go to the shooting range but Ada wouldn't let me until we finished opening the two remaining presents. I tore into them, going as fast as I could. The first box turned out to be arrows to go with my bow, and the other was a quiver to hold the arrows. I threw them together and onto my back and led the way to the archery range, very excited to learn how to shoot.

We reached the range and I stood where I had seen the other bowmen stand. Ada helped me nock an arrow and pull the string back. I let go, and watched as the arrow flew high into the air... and completely miss the target. I frowned and looked up at father, disappointed that I had missed. He half-smiled down at me, and got down on his knees so he was at my level. He helped me nock another arrow, and this time pointing to where I should aim. I let the arrow loose and it missed, but was closer to the target. I looked up at Ada again and we smiled at each other.

We kept shooting until my fingers were bright red and stinging. I had gotten good enough that I was hitting the target, but I was nowhere near the bulls-eye, and I still needed help getting an arrow on the string and pulling back. Ada said that I was doing very well, and I repeatedly thanked him for the wonderful gifts. We took a break to go back to the castle to eat a light breakfast.

As we were walking I looked up at father and said, "Happy Day of Creation Ada."

He smiled down at me and replied, "Happy Day of Creation Legolas."