The Bonds of Blood

PROLOGUE

Clawed, mangled, stinking hands ripped and pulled at him, trying to tear straight through to his abused flesh. He was twisted, shoved, jerked between the two of them, great putrid orcs, each wanting to get their sadistic fill of the elf, each craving to bring him down. With terrible glee, they battled him in front of their master, forcing him in the direction of their outstretched, slashing weapons. He ducked and rolled, continuously evading their blows, but his own sword only met with steel armour. They would push him away, sharpened blades missing his body by a hair's breadth.

A blackened haze of fury had descended upon the outer rims of Legolas' sight. He throbbed with the screaming weight of it, moving as if possessed by a wild, vengeful spirit. The metal of Orcrist flashed and blinded in the starlight, a blur which was only stopped when smashing into its target. He shouted. He screamed. And they laughed.

One grabbed him by the hair, yanking him back into a vicious crush. He panted and struggled fiercely as the breath escaped him. Its arms dug into his ribs and they shrieked with the unnatural pressure. He writhed. One of his elbows dug deep into a weak spot in the orc's protection and he bounded forward.

He went for his sword but the other beast grasped him like a rag doll, squeezing and wrenching his arm. He squirmed, resisting with all his frenzied strength. His heels scraped along wooden planks, searching for purchase.

But then the world span. He was lifted and tossed, crashing, curling into a toppling stack of brimming boxes. They screeched with laughter. A cleaver dashed past his whirling head. Hands tugged at his belt to pull him up.

He slashed one of them off with a furious hack of Orcrist. It was met with a howl, a bubbling sound that intensified and heightened as the other appendage was decimated. Bloody stumps smeared against his tunic. He leapt to his feet, ignoring the tilt of the town about him as he finished the orc's pain in one foul sweep across its open neck. Thick black liquid spurted against him, blinding him, but he turned to the other creature, gasping, whole body vibrating.

The sound of clashes filled the choked air. Wide-eyed, feral, he met the orc's every thrust and swing, dashing the balance of the weapon, striking its momentum. As soon as he was near enough, he rammed a knee into the vermin's gut. It doubled over. He did it again, exposing a tear in the shield upon its back. With a cry, he drove the sword straight into the gap. It burst through the organs beneath, penetrating right to the other side, the tip peeking out of the stomach. The orc wailed. It fell, stone dead, to the ground.

Stained with black blood, Legolas raised the sword once again to meet the two foes' master.

But the street was empty.

He had gone.

And suddenly the world was heaving and pulsing about him.

His head slammed back into a wooden pole as he collapsed gratefully against it. His chest surged and swelled, breath fighting to come out in short, sharp pants. The sword nigh on slipped from his grasp when his knees began to soften beneath him. He coughed, spluttered, wiped the salty perspiration from his trembling lips.

It could hardly have been a minute since he left the dwarves. Hardly a minute since the orcs had ambushed him. Hardly a minute yet an age had seemed to pass.

He forced himself to remain upright, the suffocating fury gradually dissipating. Where was he? What had led him to this orc-ridden place?

Esgaroth, that is where he now found himself, shaking in the aftermath of near death. He had followed Tauriel here, under some petulant delusion that she could handle thirty orcs on her own, flagrantly disobeying the king's orders. The dwarves; they were here also, being harboured in the house of some townsman. That's why she had ventured to the lake - wanting to protect that troublesome company, who had, until mere days ago, been the prisoners of his father. Her heart was far too young, far too impulsive. She should not have left, and neither should he.

But he could not concentrate on that now. He reeked of death, throat clogged with a metallic burn. He leant back his head, saw through slitted eyes the dark forms of orcs leaping from rooftop to rooftop as they retreated from the town. This was no normal invasion. They had been sent here, under one prime objective. And they were coming from somewhere, hordes of them like breeding spiders infecting ever more lands.

The dwarves had brought this upon them.

Or so it seemed.

Slowly regaining his control, he gathered his sword and slid it back into its scabbard. He must return to the woodland realm, face his father's wrath at having left against his word. There was something gathering; more than merely escaped prisoners.

Yet a warm trickle of liquid dripping into his mouth abruptly stopped him from moving. He raised his hand, touched his lips. Crimson painted his pallid skin. No black orc blood. His own. He stared, frozen. Curiosity soon changed to rage.

In the distance, there came the sound of heavy, racing steps. As he glared at the redness seeping through fingers, a figure moved in the periphery of his vision. A warg and rider, clattering through the night, making in the direction of the bridge back into the forest. The master of the orcs he had fought, the one who had disappeared as he destroyed his companions.

It was time to move.

The creature would not retreat so easily back to its venomous, dirty little hole.

Legolas had no thought for his father's words as he acquired the nearest horse he could find, leaping astride it and dashing after the withdrawing orc. The night faded into hazy black around him as he gave chase, the darkness tunnelled into one clear goal. No more blood would be spilt by the hands of these beasts.

(Tbc)

aw man I love writing angry, violent legolas xD

anyway, I wanted to write this after seeing DoS (which I loved) as I adored the end fight scene with Legolas. I couldn't help thinking of all the ways they might continue his story line in TaBA. So this story is a little speculation on that :)

Disclaimer:: as always don't own the characters, just playing about!

Feedback always appreciated :) xx