"Ada!" Elladan burst into the kitchen and nearly pounced his father, hugging him fiercely. "Thank you so much! I never thought you'd let us get one, but I'm so glad you changed your mind!" He even kissed his father's cheek before rushing back out of the room. Elrohir entered shortly afterward.
"She's perfect! Cutest one I've ever seen! Thank you, Adar!" Elrohir hugged Elrond with such excitement he nearly choked him before leaving.
Across the table, Haldir raised a brow. "What did you do, rent an elleth for them?" Celebrian kicked her brother under the table as Celebdreth skidded into the room.
"I can't believe it!" he exclaimed. "Decades and decades, I didn't think it would happen. Thank you, Uncle!"
"Two elleths?" guessed Orophin as Celebdreth left. Celebrian glared and narrowed her eyes at her other brother, who was too far away to kick. "Well, whatever it is, I want one!" he announced, looking to Elrond.
"I have no idea what it is they have found," he said, wiping his mouth as he stood from the table. "I'm sure whatever it is, they are not supposed to have it."
Orophin nodded knowingly. "You're right. All of your presents are boring ones. With the way they were grinning, most definitely could not have been you." Ignoring the look of death he was being given by his brother-in-law, Orophin looked to his sister. "What did you get them?"
"Me? Nothing!" she defended. "It was probably you," she accused, pointing her finger. "Or you," she added, motioning to Haldir. He pointed to himself, giving her an innocent look. "Oh, don't do that, you sent them all the worst gifts – swords, bows –"
"Worst gifts? Every elf should have a sword! Even Nana... well, maybe she shouldn't have had one..." Haldir amended.
"They were nine!" shouted Celebrian as Elrond left the room.
"What? They were small swords-"
"They were huge!"
Elrond was only a pace from the parlor when Orophin touched his shoulder, nearly causing him to jump. "Are we spying on them?"
The Peredhel ground his teeth. "Only a little."
"And are we going to take their new toy away from them and make them all cry?" he asked, making a pouting face.
"Possibly," he replied after a few moments.
"Excellent." Orophin rubbed his hands together. "Soon as you do it, I'm getting them a half-dozen of whatever it is. Can't pass up a chance to assert my position as the favorite uncle."
Sighing and shaking his head, Elrond turned to enter the parlor again, but was stopped as a shoe was tossed through the open doorway. This was followed by shouts of encouragement, and then a large, furry dog racing out of the room, retrieving the shoe, and racing back, without paying any attention to Elrond or Orophin.
"Oh, this is too easy!" Orophin said delightfully. "You take away their dog, and then I'll go get them six or seven puppies!" Orophin grinned at Elrond's horrified look.
"No. Puppies," he nearly snarled at Orophin. "And no dogs, either." He marched back into the kitchen, pushing the door open with one hand, but so hard that it whacked into the wall around the corner. "Which of you did it?"
"Did what?" asked Haldir from over his mug of coffee.
"There is a dog in my house. My house," he emphasized. "There are only two elves I know of who would have the gall to put one here. Obviously you, because you know you're the only one I would never consider throwing out of the house," he said to an amused Celebrian, "and you, because you're the one who put the damned flamingos in here, and Valarda told me you put a goat in her talan or some such nonsense."
"First, the goat – I'm fairly sure that was Thandronen who got it up into her talan, and I think it was a dairy cow, not a goat," he added, trying hard not to smirk. "Second, if it had been me, I'd have gone with a bunch of puppies instead." To this, Orophin hit Elrond's shoulder with the back of his hand and gave him a `told you so' look. "Third, I was acting under orders with the flamingos. My father told me to put them into the house."
Crossing his arms, Elrond said, "And if your father told you to jump off a bridge-"
"And if your father told you to get rid of a dog," interrupted Celebrian, "after he had told you for years and years that you could not have one, would you do it?"
"Oh, that was good, Clebri!" commended Orophin. "What have you to say to that?" he asked in a taunting manner.
Closing his eyes, Elrond rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Well. I suppose a dog isn't too much trouble. Besides, it's not my slippers or my stuffed rabbit she'll be chewing on."
Haldir blinked once before standing up. "Perhaps I should speak with them." Orophin snickered and turned his back to them to try to hide some of his laughter. "Stuff it, Oro," he said as he passed by.
Rumil, however, entered the room. "Has anyone seen the dog that was on the beach last night?"
Elrond turned his attention to the youngest of the brothers. "Did you let it in here?"
"No," Rumil said quickly. Scratching his neck as he blushed slightly, he said, "I may have left the door open and put a plate of table scraps by the door and a warm blanket in a pile in a corner and called to her a few times last night before going to bed, but-"
"Ai, Elbereth!" Throwing his arms in the air, Elrond stepped again toward the door as Celeborn walked in.
Looking around, he ventured a wary, "Good morning," as he made he way to the table, weaving through those who were standing. He began to select fruit from the tray as he asked, "Has anyone seen that dog that was wandering around earlier?"
"Am I the last to know everything?" Elrond asked of Celebrian as she suppressed a laugh and moved next to him, leaning her head on his shoulder.
"And we shall keep it that way!" decided Orophin.
Biting into an apple, Celeborn chewed and then said, "So, you were not the one to lure her in here?" His eyes fell to Orophin.
"Why me? Why always me?"
"Well..." Haldir shrugged. "I thought it was you. You just happen to have this reputation..."
"Has anyone ever noticed how few times it actually is me?" Orophin wondered aloud. "And never is it `Poor Orophin, we wrongfully blamed him yet AGAIN', no, never that."
"At least with the tags, perhaps we'll find out to whom she belongs," spoke Celeborn.
"I'm sorry, tags?" asked Elrond.
Celeborn nodded. "On her collar. Just her name, but it's unusual enough for us to have some chance of tracking down her owner."
"Her name, on a collar that her owner would have put on her," Elrond concluded with more than a little excitement. "Well, my spirits are certainly brightened," he decided with a smile. "I'm so happy I could practically kiss you, but, uhm, no," he said quickly. Instead, he kissed his wife's cheek, before happily leaving the room, whistling as he went.
"So little to keep him happy," joked Orophin as the door swung gently shut.
"Plus, an adventure for us," said Rumil. "To track down the owner of the mystery dog."
"Oh, I know whose dog it is," said Celeborn. "Best to just let him figure things out, it will give him something to do."
"And we doubt where Orophin gets it from for what reason...?" Rumil whispered to Haldir.
Haldir chuckled. "Well, there goes your adventure, Rumil."
"On the contrary," spoke up Orophin. "We have a new mission before us. To find a pack of puppies!" Smiling mischievously, he added, "If that's what one does, we have got to see what a dozen or so would do."
