Elrohir and Elladan were BORED. They had been on probation ever since the last incident, so they couldn’t go to the archery range, or ride the horses, or even go visit Grandma Galadriel in Lothlorien. There were plenty of books to read and maps to go over in Elrond’s study, but who wanted to do that on a bright sunny day? Arwen wasn’t helping anything either. She kept telling them all about what she got to do and they didn’t. And waving that doll in their faces too like she thought they wanted one. Who cared if she got it from Grandpa Celeborn, along with that now ratty stuffed horse? They didn’t need one. They didn’t want one.

Those daggers that all the Lothlorien guards had, now those were cool. But Arwen had to keep reminding them that they couldn’t get one until they were older. Little brat. It would serve her right if she married a scruffy ranger someday like Dad was always saying she would if she didn’t settle down. Ha. They would laugh at her wedding. But they wanted to get back at her now.

As they walked along the passage to the dining hall, Elladan was plotting different plans for sticking her in her place. “What if we stick honey in her hair when she’s sleeping?”

“Nah, we did that before,” Elrohir replied. “Besides, now she has her nanny sleep in her room with her just to keep us out.”

“A trap in the woods?”

“We can’t go out there, remember?”

“A burr under Asofoth’s saddle?”

“We’re banned from the stable.”

“Could we climb the trees next to the path and bomb her with old tomatoes when she goes riding?”

“Now there’s an idea! Maybe we could!”

The duo continued on plotting their revenge on Arwen, unaware that their father was making an announcement in the dining hall.

“Thranduil is coming for a visit with his son Legolas and a company of Mirkwood elves. They will be here tomorrow. I’m sorry for the advance notification (or lack thereof), but the spiders were growing reckless of anything traveling along their western borders – a direct result of the pranks that were played on them when we went to visit them, no doubt – so they had to use secrecy.”

At the end of this speech, the elves began chattering away about this and that, most of it centered on Arwen or the new arrivals. Elrohir and Elladan sat in a corner still ploting their revenge. Elrond looked at them and the thought flashed across his mind that they were planning something, but forgot all about it as Glorfindel asked him a question.