Disclaimer: I do not own any of the recognisable characters in this story, and make no money from them. This story is purely a work of fanfiction and written for fun. However, I do own the OC's, and I ask that you don't use them in your own writing without consulting me first.

Thanks goes to CoffeeRanger, Hawaiichick and AndurilofTolkien for reviewing King and Queen!

As this chapter contains all OC's, if you can't remember who is who, then I would suggest reading the end notes of Family Tree again. I have edited them slightly to take into account new story developments that have happened since that short was written.

Enjoy!

The first snippet takes place early Third Age. The other two take place more towards the middle of the Third Age. While I don't have exact dates, they are presented in chronological order.

Tales from Mirkwood: Third age shenanigans

#1

Calithildis carefully braided Lanthirwen's hair. Her daughter's silver-blond locks reached almost to her knees when unbound, and Lanny required aid whenever she wanted to put it up into an elaborate style, as there was so much of it. Calithildis was concentrating hard on crown braiding, and jumped slightly when her daughter suddenly spoke.

"Naneth, did your mother used to braid your hair?"

Calithildis smiled sadly as she remembered her mother, even as she deftly pinned the braid into place.

"I never had as much hair as you do, dear. And I mostly wore it down. Having braids and wearing your hair up is a wood elf custom that we adopted after moving here. It is more practical for this way of life. We also never pierced our ears and wore earrings; that is a typical Silvan custom. You were only young when we moved here, so it is possible you don't remember life from before."

Lanny looked thoughtful.

"Not really. Mirkwood is my home, and always has been. It is where my family and friends are."

Calithildis nodded as she finished braiding, and brushed out the long strand of hair that would drape over her daughter's shoulder.

"Yes, this is our home now. And hopefully will remain our home for a long time, though the growing darkness is turning this once lovely place into Mirkwood. But Thranduil is a good King, and since he and Golwendir both married Silvan elves, we have been accepted by the woodland community. People were never this friendly in Doriath."

Lanny shrugged as her mother stepped away to admire her handiwork.

"Maybe it had something to do with the fact you Sindar are so serious. Give me wood elves any day."

Calithildis's lips twitched as she began putting away the hair supplies. Despite the fact both her and her daughter were full Sindar, Lanny had been raised with wood elves, and most of her immediate family had Silvan blood. Calithildis, while she had embraced much of the Silvan way of life, remembered her Sindar heritage. Her daughter, on the other hand, had never really known anything other than what they now had.

"Maybe it does."

#2

Celebiel was looking for her twin. She had checked all the usual places the golden-haired princess normally hung out, but Coliel was nowhere to be found. Finally ending up in near the kitchens, the silver-haired princess sighed, and decided to have something to eat before continuing the search. Even though she had no idea where her sister was hiding out; she'd searched the whole palace without success, including the inner garden. If Coliel went outdoors, she never strayed far, and searching the safe area of woods outside was next on Celebiel's search list.

But first, food. The delicious smells wafting from the kitchen were way too tempting to ignore.

Celebiel entered the kitchens, automatically glancing around for Barhador. While she had a gruff exterior, and was very possessive of her kitchen and what was made there, the head cook had never once turned away a hungry elf who came and asked her for food. Even though she was more likely to give out apples then sweetcakes, sometimes she would let you eat the broken bits of cakes. Or some pie crust, which was always better than the finished pies were.

"Cele! Where have you been?"

Celebiel looked up in surprise as the person she'd been looking for all morning called down from her perch on top of the long kitchen table.

"Looking for you. Where've you been Colie?"

The golden-hair twin moved over to make room as Celebiel climbed up to join her on the table.

"Looking for you. I searched literally everywhere you normally are, and could not find you. While you were looking for me, I was looking for you. Ha. That's kind of funny."

Celebiel nodded slowly as she leant over to inspect the contents of the bowl that her twin was mixing.

"Yeh. You were outside?"

"I was. And you were inside looking for me, weren't you? We really need to work on our mental telepathy."

The younger twin giggled.

"We never really had mental telepathy, Colie. The most we ever could do is sense each other's feelings. It's been 300 years since our birth; and I don't think that's about to change."

The older-by-six-minutes twin nodded thoughtfully as she continued to stir the batter.

"You're probably right. We've never been like other twins are. We're more like sisters."

"We are sisters, Colie."

"You know what I mean, Cel."

Just then, Barhador bustled over to inspect the cake mixture. Spying the second twin, she gave Celebiel a mock frown.

"Great. Now I have two troublemakers in my kitchen."

She was only joking, and Celebiel knew it, so grinned at her cheerfully.

"Yes, and I am hungry. Could I please have something to eat?"

Barhador harrumphed as she put a tray of cakes in the oven.

"See that basket of apples there? If you slice two bowlfuls of them up for me, you may eat as many pieces as you like. Knives are on that board."

Without needing to be told twice, the twins hurried over to the basket, and happily started chopping apples. Though at first, more pieces went into their mouths then what went into the bowls.

Barhador hid a smile as she went back to her work.

#3

Braigneth curse Helegion for the fifth time that morning when he almost trod on her toes.

"Watch it, you clumsy oaf! Those are my toes!"

The youngest prince went bright red, and stammered an apology. Braigneth sighed in exasperation. How had she managed to land the job of trying to teach the still-practically-an-elfling Helegion Thranduilion to fight?

Rhetorical question. The Silvan elf knew exactly how it had happened. And, the next time she saw Garavon, she was punching her husband in the face for tricking her into it. He was an elf; the resulting black eye would heal.

Even though this situation was probably pay-back for that watermelon incident.

Which in turn had been payback for the feathers and honey.

Which had started with the glue, ferrets, and a bored Tordir. Braigneth was not sure how Garavon had even gotten involved to begin with.

Don't ask what happened. Trust me, it's better for your sanity that you don't know the details.

Suffice to say, Braigneth and Garavon were currently out to make each other's lives as difficult and embarrassing as possible.

Preferably without anyone else getting caught in the cross-fire. While it had happened before her birth, while Oropher had been king, Prince Belegon had apparently not being impressed when his stunning silver hair ended up dyed a bright blue.

Legolas and Lothwen had hidden out in the forest for five days straight after that one, the tale went. Braigneth had no wish to have to do the same.

Some might think it strange that two married elves would constantly prank each other. But the reason Braigneth and Garavon had fallen in love and gotten married in the first place was because they shared the same sense of mischief and fun. They enjoyed pulling constant pranks on each other as much as they enjoyed cuddling up together or patrolling the forest. It was part of who they were.

And, as annoying as the prince could be, Braigneth loved Garavon with all her heart. She could not imagine not having him in her life.

Lost in her thoughts, the Silvan warrior was caught unawares when Helegion suddenly swung his sword at her. Ducking out of the way just in time, Braigneth brought her own sword up and blocked the next blow, even as she looked at the prince in annoyance.

"What are you doing?"

Helegion smiled at her. His expression was slightly feral, and reminded her eerily of his father.

"I didn't hear anyone say the bout was over."

With that, he attacked again. As Helegion moved around his sister-in-law, ducking and blocking all the shots she aimed at him, the Silvan elf was forced to think fast (and move fast) to keep up with him. However, she did have time to revaluate her initial assessment of the youngest prince.

Youngest being the key word. She often forgot he was still so young. He acted so mature most of the time, it was easy to forget he had not yet seen one century. Most elves had stopped having children as soon as the darkness had started spreading across their lands centuries ago, so there were no elflings running around anymore. Helegion had been an unexpected but very happy surprise for everyone.

But he was still young. With time and more maturity, Braigneth decided as she easily dodged a very clumsy blow before moving in to take him down, he probably would make a soldier.

He certainly had the determination for it.

A/N

This will be the last story I post for a few weeks. Mostly because we have reached the end of what I have completely written. There will be more, but not for a while. My whole focus now is on finishing University. I only have two more weeks to go, and then I am finished. I can't wait.

But, when I am finally finished, I will be celebrating by editing and posting a two-shot for this Universe! It is called 'Aftermath' and looks at some of the effects the Battle of Dagorlad had on the wood elves. It's a guaranteed tear-jerker, which gives you all something to look forward to!

I will also, around the same time, be posting an Avengers two-shot! This one is called 'Mission to New Mexico', and is a Thor tie-in with my CSC Universe. I'm going all out to celebrate the end of my Uni degree.

In the meantime, please leave a review, and let me know what you think of any of my stories! I will reply personally to all who sign in to comment on ANY story, even though it may take me a while to get to it.

Thank you for all your support and understanding, and I will see you all again in a couple of weeks!

Providing this Research Project does not kill me...