#Greenwood Orophans

[growingingreenwood]

Did Legolas and his friends disappear from home and sneak out into the forest to cause mischief for lengths of time as much as Thranduil did when he was younger and growing up? Your stories about Oropher trying to wrangle his escape artists son always make me laugh btw thanks for writing!

No they didn’t, nowhere even close. For several reasons. 

First and perhaps most importantly, the world that Legolas grew up in is very, very different from the world that Thranduil grew up in. Greenwood is much more dangerous than Doraith ever was, and Legolas and his friends all have the    T r a u m a    to prove it. 

“Sneaking out” the way that Thraduil did was unthinkable. That’s how people die. Quickly. Or even worse, very slowly. 

Thranduil used to vanish into a puff of smoke for all intents and purposes, Legolas (if he’s up to no good away from home) doesn't hide WHERE he is, he hides what he’s DOING there. People need to know where you are in case something goes wrong, nobody can help you if they don’t know where you are. 

Second, Thranduil learned from his fathers mistakes and whenever Legoals did want to go out into the forest, Thranduil made sure that it happened in a timely manner. With extremely armed escorts, of course. He worked very hard to not make the forest away from their mountain home a Tantalizing Forbidden Wonderland begging to be explored. There was no need for Legoals to sneak out, generally speaking, because his travel wasn’t hindered. And the escorts kept any mischief from happening. 

Third, Legolas and his friends….. Really are traumatized as all hell. The only reason they all met each other is because (with the exception of Farlen) everybody they knew and their entire families were violently killed on the same day. Several of them heard and saw parts or all of what happened to everybody else. When they were younger they didn't feel safe being too far away from their Designated Adults. 

Fourth and lastly,, they were all significantly more scared of the consequences Ferdan could come up with than Thranduil had EVER been about Orophers punishments. Some things are simply not worth it, and vanishing without a word is definitely one of them. 

Unfortunately, for the residents of Greenwoods mountain home, all that simply added up to meaning all of their chaotic mischievous energy was trapped within the safe borders of the mountain home and its immediate surroundings. For over a century. 

Thanks for reading and reaching out! Im glad you enjoy them, they're also pretty fun to write I wont lie.