RE: Seeing the cast list for The Hobbit

[keeps_count]

As much as I... appreciate how thoughtful you think you are being, I do not think that anyone will ever bring my father to the Tower. And I wouldn't want him to be brought there. In a place where death is common and you wish for the Elfking to be brought there? It is not a curse I would wish on my kin.

And I certainly would not wish to mediate anything between him and Gimli. Depending on just when he would be brought from, if he ever were, it would take far longer than a few days to explain how the rift between Dwarves and Elves are being healed by the friendship Gimli and I formed. And in those few days, it is very likely they would encounter each other.

Let me make this quite clear, Lady Mundane. I have no desire for Thranduil to come to Animus at any point in the future. Even if your friends and yourself do.

Comments

[keeps_count]

[And that's understood by the younger elf.]

There is a princess here whom I intend to train in our ways. So that she can better defend herself. Her race is similar to us.

[elvenking]

[Two slow blinks. You probably know this as dad being intrigued. There may or may not be the sliiiiightest smile.]

A princess?

[keeps_count]

A young woman named Zelda, from a world called Hyrule. Her people have ears like our own but lack our long life. She's quite intelligent, I believe she'll have no difficulty learning.

[elvenking]

[Oh, then not a potential daughter-in-law. Interest waning now.]

Interesting.

[keeps_count]

[She still has potential. After all, Arwen and Aragorn.]

It's a wonderful chance to learn about them. Perhaps, some day, you will have the opportunity to meet her.

[elvenking]

[If he knew about them, he'd say Aragorn and Arwen are not an example, son. Beren and Luthien, then. Although if her dad demands a suicidal bride-price, at least your dad will kick her dad in the...]

Perhaps you should introduce the dwarf first. He should seem less uncomely if he did not happen to come after her.

[keeps_count]

[That's his favorite example though. Zelda's dad is kind of dead though. Killed by the same jerk her killed Legolas.

Legolas chuckles though and nods.]

And Gimli would find offense if I did not introduce him to you first.

[elvenking]

[Seriously. Of all the creatures you could've brought home, kid. You may know what you're doing, but you weren't alive when Thingol was murdered. You haven't lived as long as Thranduil has without seeing that enmity wane. Although Thranduil has also seen greater changes than this, so perhaps this one was inevitable. Just give him time. And maybe additional references. Gandalf, Elrond, and Galadriel are all great ones. Aragorn would be if canon points were less awkward.]

Who is he? Kin of Dain?

[keeps_count]

[The story is known to him though, despite his youth. Time is something that can be given though, they have more than enough of it.]

Distantly, I believe. He is the son of Glóin, and a member of the Fellowship. In the time I am coming from, father, a group of nine set out from Rivendell to destroy the One ring and Sauron.

[elvenking]

[The name Gloin does not ring a bell. Not even a little one. What, you think he learned the names of the dwarves he held as prisoners?

Sauron, on the other hand...

Thranduil fought Sauron once. Not personally or face to face, but he became king in the midst of the War of the Last Alliance. He watched his father and Amdir both cut down, Gil-Galad, Elendil, and many countless others. He was there when Isildur cut the Ring from Sauron's hand, on the plains of Gorgoroth, in the midst of Mordor. The sight of that power, the stench of that evil, has haunted him ever since.

And then the shadow of Sauron moved in next door.]

Sauron cannot be destroyed, my son. Wounded or weakened, as he has been now in my time. Driven away, but not for ever. Destroyed, never. There is no destruction to such a thing as he has become.

[keeps_count]

[The worst neighbor ever.

Between his own father and Elrond being there that day, it's something not easily forgotten or overlooked. Selfish as it may seem, Legolas was glad his father had survived.]

He can be. He was. If the ring, his last link, were thrown into the Orodruin then both it and he would haunt Middle Earth no longer. That was our mission, given to us by Lord Elrond.

[elvenking]

[Thranduil survived, but not Oropher, nor two-thirds of their forces. It had been a bittersweet victory at best. At worst, not a victory at all, but merely a stall.]

None can accomplish such a task. [If the sons of Númenor could not, could anyone? Even the very greatest and wisest of the Eldar would fall to its temptation and become as terrible as Sauron.]

[keeps_count]

I'm sure you know it is unlike me to create such an outlandish tale.

I stood outside Mordor's gates with my friends and an army so that Sauron would focus his eye on us. While, inside, two Hobbits made their way to the mountain and cast the ring into its fires.

[elvenking]

[No, Legolas would not make up such a tale. Thranduil is just kind of a pessimist, to say the least, when it comes to Sauron. He's still surprised the White Council finally got off their collective hind end and banished the shadow from his realm. Stupid Saruman.

But when Legolas mentions hobbits...

Thranduil smiles.]

So the humble are sent to accomplish what the great cannot. Hobbits. [That is not at all a route he could have expected this to have gone. Bilbo Baggins made quite the impression. The honorable burglar, in Thranduil's estimation, is worth more than the sum of the treasure Thorin was willing to die to protect.] That, perhaps, I can believe.

[keeps_count]

[Don't get Legolas started on Saruman and his antics. At least he isn't mentioned and they remain on the subject of Hobbits.]

Great in their own way, as they've shown. I'm glad to count them among my friends.

[elvenking]

[You see, kid? These are wholesome friends. Hygienic, too.]

Is Mr. Baggins among them?

[Yes, but not the one you're thinking of, T.]

[keeps_count]

[Come on, dad, Dwarves make good friends. And are fun to beat in an Orc killing contest.]

There is a Baggins among them. Frodo Baggins, the Ringbearer.

[elvenking]

[Orc killing contests get approval.]

Bilbo's kin, I take it. Good. They have stout hearts indeed.

[keeps_count]

[Oh good! That's a step in the 'getting Gimli accepted' direction.]

Yes, he is Bilbo's nephew.

[elvenking]

And he did the deed?

[keeps_count]

He and another Hobbit by the name of Samwise Gamgee, yes.

[elvenking]

[Middle-earth without Sauron. Has such a thing ever happened? Yes, Morgoth was the greater foe, but Morgoth was only locked up, never destroyed. It is so difficult to imagine an end to the struggle that has been nearly ceaseless since the fall of Númenor against an evil so potent.]

And...you are alive?

Ahaha, my friends and I in Animus are feeling grabby handy now. Your Thranduil <3333

[keeps_count]

I survived the War of the Ring, yes father.

[Legolas himself still had difficulty believing that war to be over.]

sdfzsidlzsdiuslgawieuthloajkhkk thank you!

[elvenking]

[The Elvenking lets out a breath of relief.]

Then I can ask little more.

[Without Sauron, Mirkwood can become Greenwood again.]

Any way we can tempt? Or shall we just continue admiring?

[keeps_count]

[Legolas nods and, screw being proper. He moves to hug his father, he needs it.]