"Would you stop worrying?" Lindethiel turns towards the ellon that was no doubt worrying his head off. She knew he was, because of his peculiar habit to be deadly silent when he was worrying.

Falasdir turned to her then, with a look of both irritation and tiredness.

"Yeah, tell me that when the King comes," he retorts and Lindethiel rolls her eyes.

"I hope he comes," she hisses and Falasdir was in doubt of how much he knew about this girl walking in front of him.

They were marching into the deep woods of Mirkwood. The trees provided little to no light as they ventured deep, maneuvering their way through twisted roots and webs. There was mindless chatter behind him, all in forced hush whispers. The new recruits seemed to be more than excited.

Behind everyone else walked Mantheniel, her flaming hair a fair contrast to the gloomy wood. She was indeed, a walking target. They reached a spot where there seemed to be enough leveled ground for everyone to huddle up and listen to instructions. Lindethiel stood and asked them to form a circle around her.

"Alright," she spoke, eyeing them one by one. " I want you to divide yourselves according to your aptitude test results."

"Close to close combat, I want you to stay in the right and divide yourselves according to choice of weapon," a few of the recruits started moving as the rest awaited for Lindethiel's next order.

"Those of you who prefer long ranged attacks," she patted her bow, " or are tested to be quick and have fast reflexes, stay on my left."

She divided them among skill, weapon of choice, dexterity and even built and height. After everything, she managed to divide the 20 recruits into 5 groups, each having 4 members.

"Aggressive sword group," Lindethiel calls and the group to the farthest right turn to her. All of them were boys.

"Congratulations, our queen is your teacher," she explains and their faces practically light up with nervousness and anticipation. Mantheniel turns to narrow her eyes at Lindethiel but walks towards the eager recruits without complaint.

"Sword wielders with fast reflexes group," two groups turned to her, only 3 of 8 were girls, " Your instructor, is Captain Falasdir." She gestured to Falasdir who was standing silent in a corner. The three girls lit up like beacons as they walked towards where Falasdir stood.

"Archers and sensitives," she turned to the last two groups, composed of four girls. She had named the elves who had sharper senses than most as the 'sensitives'. "You're with me."

They began their training in the woods, a good 10 meter apart from each other. Mantheniel's group watched in fascination as Mantheniel demonstrated how she wielded two swords.

"My lady," one of them says and Mantheniel pauses for a moment before turning to the dark haired ellon who was watching her with curious eyes. " Is it true that you and the King are the only known elven soldiers to ever wield two swords?"

Mantheniel paused for a moment, surprised by the question before she finally spoke, " Well, I am quite sure there are others. Me and the King are just known to prefer wielding two swords." She explained.

"Is it true that you have fought with the King before? Like a spar? My naneth told me about it."

Mantheniel blushed a deep red, already overwhelmed by the questions and the memories of those days.

"Well-" she began but was cut off by another student.

"What was it like to fight the King? Were you afraid?"

"I--"

"- Now, now children," a voice breaks from the trees. Lindethiel appeared with her group and they all looked like they had just been dragged and dropped from a tree. Mantheniel found it amusing as she addressed the elves as 'children' knowing fully well they were probably twice her age. "We are not here to interview the queen, we are hear to train. Now, show me what you have got."

Mantheiel gave her friend a look of gratitude before gesturing her students to show Lindethiel what they have learned. First, two of them took a run at each other and when someone falls down someone quickly replaces him until there was only one victor. After a few moments, the dark haired ellon who had begun the questions was the last elf standing in Mantheniel's group. Mantheniel gave him a proud smile that made him beam.

Then they heard it. It was a scream before the ground shook slightly. Then there was a sound of an ongoing battle. Lindethiel turned to Mantheniel before they ran towards the direction of Falasdir's group.

"What is that? Where are we going?" One of the elven recruits ask as they dashed through the forest.

"A battle, we are going to your first real training," Lindethiel calls behind her. They stopped as they neared the scene. Spiders were everywhere and the recruits were fending them off.

"About time!" Falasdir bellows as he beheads a spider that was pouncing on one of the elleth recruits.

"Forgive me, princess," Lindethiel snaps back before turning to her students who looked like they were already prepared to die.

"Remember what I taught you," she told them and they all give her a nod before jumping and climbing the trees. A rain of arrows fell on the spiders as Mantheniel and her group dashed forward to join the battle.

There was another shake that penetrated the ground and the three teachers looked at each other for a moment, dreading that sound and movement.

More where coming and they knew it.

"We must protect the young ones," Mantheniel orders and this gets a laugh from Lindethiel.

"We all know I am the youngest," she says this like they were not about to be attacked. They had disturbed a spiders nest. The forest echoed the sounds of flying arrows and running feet.

Lindethiel kept her eyes on the recruits, knowing this was going to be all her fault. It was always a problem for her to think clearly when she was utterly pissed off. She looked on to Falasdir who was busy trying to shield the ellith in his care. She fought the urge to roll her eyes at the ellith.

"Lin!" Mantheniel screams from somewhere and immediately, Lindethiel was pushed down the ground, her face hitting the rough earth. With a groan she quickly turned on her stomach just as the spider proceeded to sting her. She rolled away quickly enough to evade it and her and the spider soon began a sort of dance before Lindethiel took one of her small daggers and cut a hole from its head all the way down. She cringed as she was showered in spider blood that had a putrid smell. The spider fell on her and she groaned.

"Of all the things!" She muttered as some of her recruits gathered around her to help the spider off. The four girls looked at her with excitement. They were all dirty but their faces were beaming. Now this type of girls made her proud. One of the girls, who had dark brown hair, offered her hand to Lindethiel which Lindethiel took. She was brought up to her feet and she and her recruits looked out on the scattered recruits and spiders around them.

"This is exciting!" The dark haired girl cheers beside her, she was practically shaking. Lindethiel smiled, it was not so often she saw herself in someone.

"What is your name?" She asked the dark haired girl who turned to her and suddenly became bashful.

"Allea, captain." She replied and Lindethiel gave her a smile and a small pat on the back. She then turned to watch as Mantheniel was trapped between three spiders. Not good. She jumped towards her before a quick dash just as a spider prepared to stab Mantheniel from behind. Before she got to her, she was roughly tackled to the ground by a smaller yet not any less disgusting spider. She screamed in frustration as an arrow embedded itself right between the spiders eyes. When she stood up, she found that they were joined by the patrol.

Along the patrol was the King, on his elk. Lindethiel took this moment to rest, leaning on a tree and finding that Falasdir was standing and watching her from where he stood.

The king was silent, his face rigid with anger. He had just killed the spider that was on its way to kill Mantheniel. The recruits had their heads casted down as they all seemed to fumble under the looming presence of their king. He did not have his armor on and even his cloak, which meant he left in a hurry. All he had was his layers of clothes. A silver tunic that seemed to just overpower his gloom.

Behind him was that dreaded elleth, on a horse. Beside her was a royal guard. Lindethiel fought the urge to snap. Instead, she remained quiet.

Thranduil looked at each and everyone of them before his eyes land on his wife. He did not understand why her eyes were burning with anger as she glared at him.

"Do you know how it feels like to suddenly find that your wife was gone?" His deep voice echoed through the forest making some of the recruits flinch. Allea, however, kept her eyes firmly on the scene before her.

"You finally noticed, did you?" Lindethiel snapped and Thranduil turned to her. Both Falasdir and Mantheniel eyes her with warning but she could care less of what the king would do to her. Lindethiel eyes the elleth from Myrin, who leveled her gaze. Something was just not right about her.

"I did not ask you, captain," he replied with the same dark tone, "although, I am pleased to inform you that because of your recklessness you and the recruits will have a fun time camping in the woods this evening." His sarcasm practically dripping out of his tongue. All of them knew, however, he was not kidding. Lindethiel could hear the sharp exhale of breath from Falasdir and she felt a bit irritated by that.

"It is not their fault, It was my idea," Mantheniel finally spoke and Lindethiel opened her mouth to protest but stopped short upon seeing her friends fuming rage against her husband.

Mantheniel could not understand it but she felt the need to snap something in two and burn it to the ground. A king perhaps? What was he doing without his robe on? What had he been doing before this? Her eyes practically twitch with the thoughts that ran through her head before she turned to Arlayna.

"I admire your need to protect your friend but that will not free her of her punishment," Thranduil began, feeling his own anger rise. What was with Mantheniel lately? She had been acting like a child. "You, however, need to explain yourself later when we return to the palace."

They both stared at each other as the tension seemed to increase around them before Mantheniel breaks her gaze.

"I will stay here," she states firmly, gripping her sword tight enough that her knuckles had gone white. Thranduil stares for a moment before whispering something to the royal guard with them who then proceeded to turn around and head back to the palace with a very disappointed elleth beside him.

"Leave us," he then says to Lindethiel and Falasdir who began ushering the recruits further into the forest for their one night of exile from the palace. They had not walked a few paces before they heard metal clashing and they knew the king and queen had drawn their swords against each other again.

Lindethiel shook her head as the recruits seemed to be surprised and curious as to what was going on.

"Are they usually like that?" Allea asked beside her. Lindethiel looked at the elleth before nodding her head.

"Usually, and I cannot blame Mantheniel for her reason now."

"It is that elleth from Myrin, is it not?" Allea inquired as they seemed to stop walking. They could hear nothing anymore and from the looming shadows of the leaves, it was almost nightfall. Not that it ever made a difference.

"Yes."

"I knew it, something is off about her." Allea stated and quickly corrected herself as she was in front of her captain. "Not meaning to offend."

"Trust me," Lindethiel assures her, " I can do a lot worse than you on 'not meaning to offend'." With this they shared a laugh as the recruits started complaining and talking to themselves. Although, most of them seemed to be grateful for the exile.

Falasdir was ignoring her. She knew this because he was making a good show of it. Of all the times he ignored her, this was probably the most serious one. Lindethiel knew he was undeniably cross with her so she did what she normally did and ignored him completely.

This was going to be a long night.

--

Authors note: So, Manthy and Thrandy have issues. XD haha

Lin and Falasdir are having a sleep over. Haha

Things are about to get interesting-ish. Hopefully.

xo