It was a relatively nice afternoon in Mirkwood. Legolas Greenleaf tapped his fingers on the wooden oak desk, bored to pieces.

“Legolas, may I come in?” said Thranduil, knocking on the door.

The prince smiled, glad for company. “Yes, Adar.”

“Son, a friend is waiting for you outside. Will you not go and see him?”

“I will see him,” said Legolas, getting up from the desk. “Who is it?”

“Aragorn,” Thranduil answered.

“Aragorn!” Legolas reiterated, momentarily surprised. He quickly rushed out of the room, muttering a ‘thank you’ to his father as he went past.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Estel! It has been a while,” said Legolas to his friend. The two were in the forest now, in a small clearing. Aragorn smiled.

“Mellon nin, you do not know how happy I am to see you,” he said.

Legolas grinned in return. “And what do I owe to this visit?”

Aragorn visage changed to a frown. “Well, I did not exactly visit you just to say hello…there was this other thing I was going to mention last time I was here, but I didn’t want to disturb…”

“You should have told me right away if you ran into any problems. Besides, you wouldn’t bother me at all!” said Legolas. “Now what is it you were going to say?”

Aragorn hesitated. “Um, well, you see…my fellow rangers and I were patrolling, and we saw a woman being attacked by orcs. Of course, we saved her, but then a scroll fell out of her pocket and landed at my feet…”

“Do you have the scroll now?” asked Legolas.

“Yes, I do,” answered Aragorn. “But anyways I was curious so I picked it up. I had no notion of what writing it contained inside. I was going to give it back to her, but she just smiled a crooked little smile and told me I could have it!”

Aragorn took an old scroll from his pack and unfurled it. The scroll was really ancient and had several torn places. However, the writing was still legible, and was not marred in any unreadable way.

“I can’t read the writing,” said Legolas.

Aragorn shrugged. “You are only able to read it when you are holding it.”

“May I?” said the prince, a bit irritably.

“First of all, Legolas,” Aragorn said, holding the scroll away from his friend, “I have to tell you: the moment I touched this scroll, bad things started to happen to me like I was cursed. Do not take the scroll unless you want to do likewise!”

“It couldn’t possibly do much harm, Estel,” said Legolas. “After all, what could a bit of bad possibly do?”

“It could do much,” said Aragorn. “You must not touch it. I do not want this to happen to you, no matter how much you might want to read the scroll.”

At that moment a servant came by, tripped on something, and sent food splattering all over his face.

“As I was saying about the ‘curse’,” said Aragorn, wiping his face with a napkin.

“All right then,” said Legolas. “So what about this scroll? Why did you consult me?”

“I found out that there is a cure for this, mellon nin…the scroll says something about a cave…some kind of hideous creature, a monster, maybe…and then an antidote for the ‘curse’, which is supposed to be a seven-petalled snow white flower.”

“That sounds simple, but what kind of cave are you talking about, and where?” said Legolas.

“There is a small cave near the borders of Mirkwood, Legolas,” explained Aragorn. “It used to be inhabited by goblins, but it was deserted ever since the ‘creature’ came there. I think that is the cave that we’re looking for.”

“Are you leaving now?” Legolas asked.

“Yes, I suppose,” said Aragorn. “Thank you for spending the time to talk with me. It took a load off my shoulders. I guess I should get going now.” He turned to leave.

“Wait, Estel,” said Legolas.

Aragorn turned. “What is it?”

“I’m coming with you.”

TBC…

~~~~~~~~

Well? What did you think of it? The first fanfic I’ve dared to write after An Unexpected Stay, but this time it’s not exactly locked on crazy humor…

Please review! Tell me what you think!