Chapter 3 Pain and Loss

Legolas wandered through the shadows blindly, surrounded by nothing other than darkness. The elf tried moving his limbs but he found he couldn't move them, they felt as though they were being weighed down so as to prevent him from moving from where he was.

The darkness haunted him. Elves didn't usually fair well in the dark, and to be trapped there, it was truly unnerving for him. Legolas was about to give up when he spotted a white light, which pierced his vision; even if it was only small, after spending so long in the darkness, the ray of light, was blinding.

He clung onto the light with all the strength he had, and slowly the darkness, which surrounded him, start to recede until he found himself lying on a bed in a strange room, with an unfamiliar young woman sitting beside him.

"Who are you?" Legolas asked wearily not sure if his eyes were deceiving him or if she really was there with him.

"I'm Bella, how do you feel?" Bella asked as she placed a hand on his unwounded shoulder to stop him from getting up and causing more damage to his wounds.

"A little stiff, where am I?" he asked, taking another look around the room, "I don't remember how I got here," he looked back at Bella with a puzzled expression crossing his face.

"I was hiding in the ante room during the battle, when it was over I found you with your father, " she sighed and looked at the floor, "My brother Jasper could feel your pain as he was coming to find me, with his help we brought you to the House of Healing."

"Thank you," Legolas nodded weakly at her and sat up despite Bella's protests, "You did not have to do all of that though."

"I did not want to leave you here on your own, it was no problem at all," she smiled back at him, and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.

Legolas smiled briefly, before his face fell as he remembered holding his father's motionless body in his arms. He felt a new pain wrack through his whole body not from his wounds though; this was the pain from losing his father. Reality hit hard and his world came crashing down around him as he replayed his father's last words repeatedly in his head.

Bella understood Legolas' grief and placed a gentle hand on his arm, "I truly am sorry about your father, Carlisle is outside and he wanted to know when you were awake."

"Who is Carlisle?" Legolas asked drawing his eye brows together.

"He is like a father to me, he is the doctor here." Bella replied softly.
"Doctor? I don't know that word."

"I'm sorry; my family is not from here, I believe you would call him a healer."

The elf nodded aimlessly and stared at the floor as Bella slowly left the room to retrieve her father.

"How are you feeling?" An unfamiliar voice from the doorway of his room asked. Legolas looked up to see a creature unlike any he had seen before, he tried to sit up and reach for his sword but found he didn't have the strength.

"Who and what are you?" Legolas demanded with a voice the echoed his royal birth.

"My daughter just informed me you were awake, my name is Carlisle Cullen and I am a vampire. I am also the lead healer and you have been asleep for quite some time."

"How long?" Legolas asked as he fell back into the bed.

"Two days, you received many injuries before the orcs were defeated. You have four broken ribs and a deep cut on your right arm, the rest is mostly smaller cuts and bruises.

"When can I get up? I am my father's son and have many responsibilities to my people."

"If your ribs are healed well enough perhaps tomorrow," Carlisle explained as he moved into the room and gathered the iteams he needed.

Carlisle checked over his wounds quickly but Legolas was surprised at how cold Carlisle' hands were but waited to address his questions to Bella after Carlisle left the room.

"Bella wait, I have some questions," he asked, forcing himself into the sitting position as Bella reached forward and adjusted the pillows for him.

"Of course, I'll try to answer what I can." Bella sat back down in the chair just to his bed.

"What is a vampire?"

"Nothing like starting with the hardest one first," Bella laugher sounded like silver bells tinkling in the wind.

"He was very cold and I couldn't hear his heart beat." Legalos' eyebrows drew together as his head leaned slightly to the left.

"That's because he doesn't have one, my family and I are from a distant place, maybe even a different plane of existence?" Bella started with a small shrug of her shoulder. "All vampires were humans at one time; vampires create venom and if it's injected into a human that person turns into a vampire. They have no heart beat after the change and are stronger than humans. Actually most vampires prey on the blood of humans, which kills the human if they are not changed and most are not. My family is different, they choose in feed off the blood of animals, or they did before we came here. One of the strange things to us is that they are able to eat lembas and it takes away their blood lust."

"If they could have killed you why do you call them family?" Legolas asked as he sank further into the pillows.

"That is a question for another time I think." Bella smiled as she stood and moved to the doorway. "For now I'll leave you to your rest, now that you are awake I'm sure maters of state will have to be address soon." With a small nod she exited his room as Legolas' eyes drifted closed.

closed.