Chapter 1
The 14-year-old boy ran his hand along the rough bark of one of the many twisted trees surrounding him. He swore under his breath when his hand came into contact with a sticky substance and he instantly pulled it back, setting off along the virtually unnoticeable path beneath him with twice the speed of before. He knew what it was that covered the trees and his path in some cases. He knew it meant danger from the stories his brothers had told him. On the other hand, he hadn't thought those same stories were true until he ran into the first web.
There was enough light that he could manage to make out his immediate surroundings. He had tried a torch when he first found himself lost in the woods, but that had had less than pleasant results, and he'd put it out within moments of lighting it. His hand was wrapped tightly around the hilt of a broadsword at his side. The familiar leather was of only slight comfort to him. He knew full well that anything that attacked him was used to the lack of light. He was not. After three days in the thick, musty woods his eyes had adjusted somewhat to the gloom; however they could only become so good in such a short period of time.
He stepped carefully, doing all he could to stay silent and although every noise he did make echoed in his ears, he was doing surprisingly well for a human. He twitched every time his boots made noise, when he stepped in a puddle or mud, every time he brushed a twig or bush. He was nervous and his face showed it.
His eyes swung back and forth across his path as his grip tightened over the hilt. He wasn't sure what made him stop, but he had learned to trust his instincts and he wasn't about to ignore them now. Slowly drawing the blade from its sheath, he turned to give himself a better idea of his surroundings. He fought his want to run, knowing that he'd get lost in a heartbeat if he left the path in this dark forest, and that his chances of finding it again should he leave it were one in a million.
'Or at least that's a normal mans chances,' He thought sarcastically, 'with my luck… I'd walk right over it… several times… and not know it.'
Pushing his thoughts aside he listened carefully, trying to find the source of his unease. All he heard was a very faint whistling of the wind above the treetops and the near silent buzzing of the moths and other insects that flooded the trees. He realized that the one thing he was worried about at the moment probably wouldn't make any noise at all. The spiders. He was paranoid about them.
'I never thought spiders would scare me this much,' his sarcastic thoughts returned momentarily before he could shake them off again.
He strained his eyes, knowing that they were the only things that could help him at the moment. The black air around him wouldn't allow it though - he was lucky to see past the first of the many trees surrounding him. His skin was crawling; it felt as though the spiders were already upon him. He shuddered, forcing the idea of being covered by them from his mind. He tried to tell himself it was an irrational fear, but he couldn't convince the hair that stood up on the back of his neck, or the chills that ran up and down his body. The cold air clung to him, yet he found himself beginning to sweat. What was it that had gotten him so worked up?
He could feel eyes piercing him. Intelligent eyes. Not the eyes he expected from a group of arachnids. This wasn't right.
Shifting his footing, he readied himself for an attack. He swallowed nervously, his thoughts drifting to a few weeks ago when we was once again beaten down rather easily by his eldest brother in a mock sword fight. His skills needed work and he was unsure if they would be enough now that he needed them.
He stiffened when he realized that he felt the presence behind him now… it had moved. It had moved so silently he hadn't even noticed it until it had gotten behind him. His breathing hitched as he spun around to face his possible attacker. Nothing. He couldn't see anything, but he was sure it was in front of him at the moment, and he forced himself to concentrate on it. If it thought it could get behind him again; indeed if it DID get behind him again; chances were good it would attack.
Whatever it was.
Despite the nervousness it made him feel, despite the fear it created and the anger he felt from it… he didn't feel the evil intent he'd felt on his last close run ins with the spiders.
Wait.
Could it be one of the elves that lived nearby?
No, if it were he wouldn't feel so threatened… would he? Maybe he would… after all he may be considered a trespasser. Certainly humans on these paths weren't a common occurrence and probably were cause for concern for them. His thoughts snapped back to a conversation between his father and his two closest advisors little over two months ago that he had overheard. They had said that Mirkwood was being attacked by a nearby human settlement and that they were trying to fix the issue before anyone got seriously hurt.
The kid smacked his palm against his forehead. Of course! With that attack, surely the elves would be leery of his being here. He paled slightly, his hand slowly dropping down to his side; last he had heard, any humans found in the woods were being taken prisoner by the elves.
Shaking, he slowly lowered himself to his knees and laid his sword in front of him before placing his hands on the ground. He opened his mouth to speak but found himself unable to do so. His mouth and throat were dry and the words refused to form. His fear wouldn't allow them to. He lifted his head just enough to see the ground up to the tree-line and jumped slightly when he caught sight of the elven shoes directly in front of him. A second elf he hadn't even realized was there reached in front of him from behind and roughly jerked his hands behind him, tightly knotting a thin rope around them before hauling him to his feet and checking him for weapons. The man grit his teeth as the rope cut into his wrists in his standing position.
"How did you get elven weapons human?" The one behind him growled in a slightly broken Westron.
"They were given to me," the young boy murmured softly.
"Is that right?" The first elf stated sharply, his Westron perfect, "I suppose you wouldn't be able to tell me why your hunting knife is the same as the ones used by over half our border guard?"
"My brother gave it to me years ago," letting his head droop and his dark, wavy hair fall over his eyes, he stopped fighting the fear in them, but he refused to let them see it. He shuffled his weight, the nerves in his brain shooting off in one too many directions for him to understand. Put simply he didn't know how he was supposed to act in this position, should he be defiant like every bone in his body wanted to be? Or should he shut up and be a good little captive like his head was telling him? His heart… well it didn't know either so he ignored the rock-like feeling in his chest that was its indecision.
"I highly doubt that," the first elf growled faintly, leaning forward ever so slightly, "you do know that one of our patrol units disappeared a week ago, right?"
Responding completely honestly, the human shook his head quickly and almost imperceptibly.
Narrowing his eyes, the elf leaned forward and pulled the mans head up so he could face him eye to eye, "They're sending in children now are they? What did they send you to do?"
"I didn't come here because I wanted to, or because I was told to," the fearful voice of the young man came out louder than he had intended, "I got separated from my brothers and they wouldn't have gone on without me so I figured this would be somewhere they might look."
Te first elf spoke again, his tone one of obvious annoyance and surprise, "Why exactly would your brothers look for you HERE when there are several human settlements nearby?"
The child scowled, "Because they know I wouldn't go there."
He inwardly winced and berated himself for speaking out. He certainly didn't wish to anger the elves any more than they already were.
Carefully glancing over the elf in front of him, he instantly noted the differences between this elf and most of the ones he knew from home. He realized he looked more like Glorfindel, what with his incredibly blonde hair. Actually… the look on his face reminded him of the one Glorfindel made when he realized Erestor had gone on leave for a week and left him with a rather large pile of paperwork to deal with.
The elf raised an eyebrow, his annoyance growing steadily, "And why is it that you would rather come here, where you should have known you wouldn't be welcomed."
"Because I hate humans as much as you seem to," he snapped before gasping as the elf behind him kicked him in the back of the knees.
Without letting him fully reach the ground the same elf angrily hauled him back up to his feet by the rope around his wrists.
'I really do need to learn to keep those comments to myself,' he thought, getting rather annoyed with himself, 'none-the-less, I don't know if I quite deserved that…'
"Don't talk back to the Prince," the second elf snarled, jabbing the young man in the back with his own sword.
Eyes widening, the young man instantly jerked his head up to face the seething prince.
Only the elf's anger wasn't directed at him this time, but the other elf, who cowered back slightly, apologizing in his native tongue. The prince sighed and shook his head before cracking a faint smile that barely lasted a fraction of a second.
"You… you're Price Legolas?" The human questioned quietly, excitement and relief suddenly replacing his fear.
"I suppose there would be no point in hiding it now. So yes, I am. This seems to please you an awful lot."
"Yes, my brothers know you."
"Most people around here do know who I am," the elven prince growled, "that does not mean they know me."
The child sighed and shook his head slightly, the elf obviously did no understand what he was trying to say and for the moment he decided to drop it. It was not getting through to him and he was mad. Too mad to hear anything he was trying to get through to him. Adults could be so annoying. Why did they always assume anyone younger than them never had anything important to say?
AN:
Hey hey everyone, thank you all for reviewing, I really appreciated it :3
I made a few changes to the first chapter, hope it works a little better. Can't hurt to go back and fix it up anyway, right:)
WendWriter - Thank you for the help :D I hope this works better… I know it's still not great, lol. I sat down and wrote this in maybe ten minutes… I really have to get into the habit of checking my work and… you know… thinking… before I post :P I know things aren't quite in line with what Tolkien wrote, and I'll try to fix things as best I can as I go along, but to be perfectly honest, I know I can't write like he did, and I know it wont run with his books as well as it could… but to be fair, there were some things in his own work that didn't fit together perfectly or changed between books :P though I can't exactly remember what they were ' . lol, either way, I know I can't write like him, and I'm not too worried about trying. I want to please my readers, but I want to have fun too, and worrying about every little thing will kill t3h fun. I'll do what I can :) but I know I wont be able to please the hard-core fans that know those books like they lived them. But I'll take what you said to heart, and I'll try to fix things as I go Thank you for taking the time to review, I appreciate the honesty
Poetic Tragedy3790 - lol, I'm glad you liked it :P
AriendalTHEMighty – I'm glad you enjoyed it :P But I do appreciate the criticism, can't learn without it right? And they have the right to express their feelings lol I'll admit, I have a tendency to take it badly, but I just sit on it a day and re-read it… try to take the good points right? I just can't stand outright flames… like 'You suck, lern to rite' :P I will verbally bite heads off XD I have a bad temper, I know it, I'm just glad I learned to control it… for the most part :P Constructive criticism I appreciate though. Of course, I can appreciate that you like my style too :D lol Thanks for the review I hope the rest of the story lives up to your expectations.
So, I'm sorry about what will be many annoying messages in your inboxes, I messed up when I re-posted this :P so no, there aren't three differen't chapters, just the same one all over again XD Or mostly the same, I changed a few things, but it's not much so if you don't feel like re-reading it all, it's not entirely worth it anyway lol
Thank you everyone for your reviews, I appreciated it :D
Catch ya laterz 3