Mischief

Mischief: Chapter 1

Gimli was bored.

Looking around under his bushy, burnt-orange eyebrows, he searched lazily for something, or someone, to entertain him. And whenever the two words "dwarf" and "bored" or anything remotely like that was in the same sentence together, it meant somebody was either gonna run away screaming or crying, or huddle up in a corner and hope to Valar that they weren't going to find them.

The Company had been moping for the last couple of days, or resting as they liked to call it, and Gimli was getting seriously bored. Gandalf had insisted on letting Aragorn rest after an unexpected orc raid a couple of days ago, resulting him a serious, sprained ankle when he tripped over a root in the dark, along with a concussion after an orc bashed him on the head with the blunt of a heavy sword. And if that wasn't terrible enough, a couple of their horses had ran away during the skirmish, along with about a third of their supplies, and Aragorn was surprisingly heavy to carry.

So, for the last couple of dreadfully boring days they've been sitting on their arses waiting for the Ranger to heal at least enough to be able to limp along and for Gandalf to come up with a plan.

And currently, there were eight possible prankees for Gimli to toy with.

Aragorn Estel, who had been crossed off his mind immediately. Pity, maybe next time, Gimli promised himself.

Gandalf the Grey, which honestly wouldn't go down very well, whom Gimli then ruled of off his mental list of victims.

Then there were the four hobbits; Frodo Baggins, Sam Gamgee, Meriadoc Brandybuck or Merry as they called him, and finally Peregrin Took or otherwise known as Pippin (Sounded too much like one of those annoying birds for the dwarf's liking), who was frankly, of a lesser intelligence than the rest of his companions. Frodo was much too important to be pranked, Gimli realized disappointingly, and so there was another option gone. The next hobbit, Sam, who was always by Frodo's side and nearly impossible to separate, would have been a hard one to trick. The third halfling, Merry, in Gimli's opinion, would probably not be a bad choice and he didn't seem like a person to hold a grudge, so he went onto the 'maybe' list. And finally, Pippin.

Ah Pippin, he would be an easy target, as he had graciously demonstrated in the Mines of Moria, thought Gimli with a wince. So off he went onto the list with Merry.

So far, he had only found two. Moving on to the next people.

There was the other man. Boromir. He was usually frowning and seemed like the kind of guy who would cut off your beard if you accidentally bumped his drink. So nope.

That only left one person to determine. Or more specifically, an elf. The moment the dwarf laid his eyes on that graceful figure he immediately wanted to dunk him in a pile of mud and hold him there until he started floundering like a fish. Some goblin mutant I am! Gimli recalled with a growl. There was something about that elf that made him want to mess up his perfect hair or rig his bow. It probably had something to do with his too-smug father Thranduil. And to be honest, he did give a single dead dog about what that pompous king thought. It would be a perfect opportunity for revenge, too. For locking his da up in a cell.

Grinning like the Grinch, he tried to hide his smirk but only succeeded in looking weird, earning a few looks from the hobbit who were already wary of him and a raised eyebrow from Aragorn.

Scanning the clearing where they had made camp, the dwarf searched for Legolas. Where in the name of Valar was that elf by anyway? No matter. Whatever, he didn't need him here anyways.

"Uh Gandalf!" He called to the robed-form standing over Strider. "I'm not feeling so well, I'm gon' go get some fresh air," he lied in his usual gruff voice.

The wizard raised an eyebrow at him, a knowing look in his eye. "Alright Gimli. Just make sure to be careful out there. We wouldn't want another accident to happen would we?" Gandalf said, looking down at a glaring Aragorn.

"Hmph!" Gimli grunted, as if he didn't know better.

Slinking out into the forest, the leaves a golden hue glinting in the sunlight as the sun started to set behind the mountain. He picked his way down to a nearby riverbed, not nearly as quietly as he would like mind you, but he would just have to hope that nothing unwanted heard him. Which included Legolas.

Chuckling under his massive beard, he took out the sack he had hidden in his armor and started filling it up with the nastiest things he could find under the mud. He would get a little bit dirty, but it was never something that dwarves minded. But Legolas definitely would.

Time to ruin his pretty little head, Gimli thought smugly, trying desperately to hold in his laughter.

While he was brooding over his evil plan, he didn't notice a certain someone sneak up on him and watch him work over his shoulder with a raised eyebrow.

A hand fell upon Gimli's shoulder and the shorter man shrieked the least manly sound the archer had ever heard, and nearly pitched himself into the water in surprise along with his precious bundle of mud and other horrible things.

"Friend Gimli? What are you doing down here?" He tried to sound as normal as possible but seeing the usually undaunted Gimli so astonished made his insides hurt from holding back his laugh. But it seems like he probably didn't do of very good job at it because Gimli looked like he wanted to much him in the face. More than usual at least.

"Uuuuh I'm preparing a trap! For fish! In the river! You know those little flashy things that swim around? Yeah that's it!" He complimented himself for his 'amazing' bluff.

This made Legolas even more incredulous than before, but he decided to humor his friend anyways. "I know what a fish is. But you're planning to make a trap by putting mud in a sack?"

"Uh yes laddie! Now go away and stop bothering me. I can't concentrate." At the word 'laddie' Legolas couldn't hide his smile, even though he was at least a thousand years older than him. Well, there was no reasoning with dwarves either way. Especially not this one.

"As you wish friend Gimli." The elf stalked off to go do who knows what and Gimli returned to his 'work'.