Mischief

Mischief: Chapter 4

It turns out, the hobbit was here for a 'little' chat.

About revenge.

It was later revealed by himself later on that Peregrin Took had been a notorious pranker back in the Shire, his tricks dreaded by all the older hobbits and famous with the teens and children.

Pippin just couldn't resist the prospect of a good prank, and he would be able to witness it without taking any of the blame. Like Gimli, the constant peace was beginning gnawing at his bones. It was a win-win situation, at least mostly for him. Legolas gets that long desired revenge of his (Though he denies that he had ever thought of anything of that sort), and he would get a chance to witness what would be no doubt a once-in-a-lifetime chance of comedy.

After about an hour of prodding and urging, he finally managed to get the prince on board with his idea, even if it was just to get him out of his hair, the subject that had caused so much chaos in the first place.

But to be honest, Legolas was a not a big fan of pranks, primarily after the incident with his father as a kid, which had earned him a vicious trip over his dad's knee that ended in tears and a sore bum for about a week.

~Flashback~

A couple of the other elflings thought it would be hilarious to prank Legolas's father, the King.

The best part yet, Legolas, or "Leggy" as they had called him back then, would be the one to do it. And they would get off without any trouble. Also since Legolas was his son, King Thranduil would probably punish him less severely if he was caught or something unexpected happened.

They were wrong.

What they wanted Legolas to do was to was sneak spiders into the presence of the King. Meaning run overhead on the indoor balcony above Thranduil's feasting hall and throw down spiders. Why they decided to do that was beyond anyone's' comprehension.

The one thing elves hated the most was spiders, especially in Mirkwood.

Thranduil wasn't particularly scared of spiders, more along the lines of hating them because he said they were "annoying", but when someone throws spiders at you any sensible person would get away from it as soon as possible.

But the story happened like this.

The Elven King was having one of his usual feasts after a successful eradication of a overpopulated nest of giant spiders, that had been too close to the border and particularly aggressive to everything that wandered into the forest, from elves to travelers to animals.

The other elflings pressured Legolas to strike there and then, in front of the whole house to see while they hid in the shadows.

So he did.

Carrying the jar carefully outwards he ran past soundlessly, the sound of merrymaking far too strong for the Prince to be heard either way. He bolted his way across the overhanging with his arm holding the open jar of spiders over the railing, and just as he was about to pour some, he tripped over a towel left by one of the maids, and the entire jar went tumbling down, the little arachnids flying everywhere (The original plan was to just sprinkle a few), leaving the princeling stunned speechless a few seconds too many.

If the ongoing party had not been preoccupied, they would have noticed the onslaught of tiny black dots about to descend on their heads.

And it just so happened that Thranduil was looking the other way as he raised his goblet to his lips, where the first couple of bugs had landed a few seconds ago as he was holding it. No one else had seen it either, for they were looking towards the shrill screaming coming from the kitchen where the other children had hidden in the shadows.

"A! Ada! Vá yuln tanya!" (Ah! Dad! Don't drink that!) A panicked voice rang out from above.

Alas, he was a couple seconds too late, and the rest of the party was being attacked by clumps of wriggling, black devils.

If one had looked through the window of the palace, they would have seen a bizarre scene in deed.

Food was knocked everywhere and the usually graceful elves were scrambling around shouting angrily at each other, while the King spluttered over the table, face as red as a tomato from fury.

Chairs were overturned everything escalated as golden-armored guards came pouring in to aid their Lord, thinking that there had been an attack.

Meanwhile, the younger and less wise version of Legolas stood on wooden legs immobilized, and the rest of the elflings had long since fled from the site, leaving him to take the brunt of the blame.

After everything was cleared up in about an hour, Thranduil was definitely not in a good mood like he usually was after a feast, and instead sought out his son for a well-deserved lesson.

He eventually found him hidden in the boughs of a large oak tree, and needless to say, Legolas was sent to his room limping and bawling, carrying a week-long burning backside while his dad stormed off back to his own chambers.

~End of flashback~

Every since that episode, he had not dared to pull another trick on anyone, and had avoided his father for five days after the incident.

But that was beyond the point now.

He never went back on his word, which he had now promised to Pippin.

Sighing, the prince cupped his face in his hands and tried to forget the painful memory, no doubt Gandalf's hand could probably be just as harsh as his father's hand if he wished for it too be.

Pippin, who was now suddenly unusually observant, could see Legolas's doubts and started talking just before the archer could change his mind.

"Well what type of stunt do you wanna pull?" The Took asked, leaning in a little too close just to distract him.

"I don't want to pull anything on Gimli," he mumbled through his hands.

"You promised!"

Knowing Pippin would just continue to nag him until he picked something, racked his brain trying to think of the least damaging thing he could pull on Gimli.

"Alright. Um maybe I could put dirt in his food?" And make it even filthier than it already is, he smirked silently.

"Are you joking? That's it? It looks like you'll need more help than I thought," he said beaming, and at that point Legolas knew he was going to be screwed over by Gimli by the end of this.

"Okay so what does Gimli like?" Pippin asked, cocking his head.

"Uh....his axe?"

"No he needs that for fighting, so we can mess that up," the hobbit dismissed.

All Legolas wanted to do was get out of this mess, and just pretend none of this conversation ever happened, but Pippin wasn't letting him off.

"I'm not gonna let you go until you think of something." And it was really hard to think of anything when Pippin was staring at him like that, despite him only being half the elf's height.

He contemplated tossing him in a sack into the river, but concluded that it probably wouldn't slide with Gandalf or any of the other hobbits.

Eventually, Pippin's rare patience finally won out, and the prince let out a despairing sigh.

"Fine. He likes his beard I guess."

Anybody who'd been watching them would have thought that Pippin won the local Shire lottery from the look of his face.

"That's perfect."