A/N I thought I would celebrate my birthday like hobbits do. :) So here is my gift to you. Fair warning, I wrote this much swifter then I do normally because I decided I wanted to post today (which meant nothing that I needed to get done, got done) so their may be more mistakes then usual included. :)

Disclaimer: not mine.

Stuck

"Ah!" Gimli cried out in his deep voice, making both Legolas and Aragorn jump and pull out their weapons faster than the eye could see. "A short-cut!" The dwarf pointed off the trail and into the dark woods that they had been traveling along side.

The three friends were out together on their latest journey, Legolas and Gimli having forced Aragorn to accompany them using the excuse that the man spent too much time copped up in Gondor. It had only taken a little pushing before the man gave in, and the three had decided to visit Gimli's home, before traveling further north to Rivendell together.

"A hunter's path that we sometimes use to trap wild game," Gimli began to explain, plunging into the bushes with a satisfied air to his walk. "Why, when I was a wee lad I trapped my very first deer on this path!" the called back oer his shoulder to his companions.

Legolas sheathed his twin knife that he had pulled out with a causal flick and turned to Aragorn, who sliding his sword back into his scabbard.

"A short-cut?" he said, sharing a significant and amused look with the man. Aragorn laughed lightly, clapping the elf on the shoulders.

"Nothing could possible go wrong this time, Gimli says he knows the path well." The man mocked lightly, following Gimli onto the almost nonexistent path. Legolas shook his head, before joining them.

"Short-cuts never end well." He predicted darkly.

The light of the moon, which had been their guide through their night up until this point, faded behind the branches of the tall trees and Legolas sighed with discontent, running his hand lightly alongside the tree trunks.

"Why aren't we stopping for the night again?" he asked, causing the man in front of him to glance his way with a smile.

"Because only a few hours away awaits a warm fire, bed, and shelter." Aragorn answered.

"And even better a mug of beer!" Gimli called back, the excitement in his voice raising.

"I can think of many things more pleasant than a mug of beer." Legolas muttered under his breath, his disdain for the beverage clear. Aragorn stifled his grunt of amusement quickly as a cough and stopped for a moment, letting the elf catch up to him.

"That wouldn't be your father's wine that you are thinking of?" he asked in a grin, to which Legolas rolled his eyes.

"What else could it be?" he asked in the same quiet tone, gracefully slipping past the man and picking up his speed so that the dwarf wouldn't leave them behind.

But, just as Legolas had predicated, trouble soon came their way.

As they followed the faint path forward, Gimli suddenly paused, holding his hand up from the others to stop. In the dark of night, however, the other two didn't catch the movement in time, and Legolas just stopped before walking into him. Aragorn wasn't so lucky. When the elf suddenly stopped, he was only a few feet behind him and didn't have time to complete slow his own footsteps. He bumped into Legolas, who in turn stumbled forward into Gimli, who let out a cry as the ground suddenly vanished beneath his feet.

"Gimli!" Legolas just had time to shout out with urgency brought on by dread before he ground beneath his own feet shifted dramatically and he stumbled forward again. Aragorn cried out something indistinct behind him, and then the ground they were standing on gave way completely. Legolas' heart lurched with panic and the motion, and then he was falling into nothing.

Panic tore viscously through Legolas as he ground himself plummeting into the abyss of pitch-black. The air whistled in his ears as the speed of his fall increased, and he reached out, desperately trying to find something to latch onto. His fingers found only air and he felt his breath catch in his lungs. He was still falling, but he could no longer tell what was up and what was down, everything was dark. The few seconds that he fell stretched into hours for the elf.

The ground rushed up out of nowhere to meet him, and Legolas connected face first into the ground with a solid thud that reverberated through his bones. All the breath left his body, and he let out a strangled wheeze, his lungs protesting the harsh impact. His eyes flickered for a moment, and then closed as he slumped back the earth, consciousness momentarily fleeing him.

The clatter of dirt and twigs hitting the ground filled the air, and then all was silent.

One of the others groaned loudly before a dark sharp rose from the earth like a ghost.

"Legolas? Gimli?" Aragorn called out dazedly, cradling his right arm gently against his body. The only light that they had was from the moon and stars, but that hardly descended into the pit that had capture the three friends, and the man felt his heart drop. Only silence met his call, and he glanced uselessly around in the dark. "Legolas! Gimli! Answer me!" he called again urgently, crawling awkwardly along and feeling for his companions with his good hand.

This time, a moan answered him, and his heart fluttered with mix of relief and fear. Changing his direction towards the sound, he crawled hurriedly forward.

"Aragorn! Where's Gimli?" Legolas voice range out a moment later, sound strained and panicked. Aragorn picked up his speed, his worry for his friend increasing.

"Gimli?!" Aragorn called out as well, waiting anxiously for a response.

Legolas shakily pushed himself into a sitting position, his head throbbing painfully at the moment, and he felt himself waver. Luckily, Aragorn couldn't see the movement and Legolas thanked the darkness for this one blessing.

Reaching up, Legolas touched the side of his head where the pain was the worst and frowned when his fingers came away wet. Smelling it, his frowned deepened as the unique smell of blood hit his nostrils.

A deep groan suddenly echoed into the darkness and Legolas looked up, hurriedly wiping his hands on his leggings. He would have beat money that the he had a concussion, he had enough in his life-time to know what they felt like, and suspected that it had something to do with his head connecting so forcefully with the ground mere moments before. He didn't have time to worry about that now, though; the important thing was his friends.

"Gimli?" Aragorn yelled out, switching mid-crawl to turn towards where the dwarf's voice was coming from.

"I'm here, laddie." The dwarf replied a moment later, sounding slightly groggy.

"Are you alright?" Aragorn asked the concern in his voice evident.

"Of course I am!" The dwarf proudly rumbled, though the elf thought that he could hear pain as well. Legolas winced at the loud tone, but sat up straighter, listening for the others in the darkness.

"Ah!" Aragorn suddenly exclaimed, followed by a dwarfen cruse and Legolas assumed that Aragorn had found his short friend. The dwarf and the man began to converse in quiet tones, and Legolas assumed that Aragorn was trying to discover what injure the dwarf had. This suited him just fine, as it meant that he was left alone, and he merely listened.

"I'm so sorry. So sorry." Gimli murmured in his rough tones.

"It is not your fault, Gimli." Aragorn replied gently. "We know you wouldn't have purposefully lead us into danger."

"My kin use pits to trap animals sometimes, but they are normally marked." Gimli lamented, and Legolas heard him shift uncomfortably.

"Well, what is done is done. What we must do is concentrate on getting out." Aragorn said firmly. For a moment all was silent. Taking a deep a breath, Legolas closed his eyes, wishing that the two would start speaking again and district him both from the pain and the sense that the walls where closing on top of him.

"How," he began to break the heaviness in the air," How are we going to get out?"

"Usually there is rope somewhere, just in case something like this does happen." The dwarf replied and Legolas cast a glance around the carven, half-hoping that a piece of hemp would magical in appear in front of his eyes, despite the darkness. His head throbbed, and he froze, waiting for the pain to decrease before trying again.

"Where would it be at, do you think?" Aragorn asked, the elf heard him getting to his feet, followed by a sharp hiss of pain.

"You are injured." Legolas called out in concern, leaning forward with a grimace of his own.

"It is just my arm." Aragorn tried to deflect and Legolas sighed in exasperation loud enough for the man to hear. "Fine, let us all state our injuries in order to tell what we are dealing with." The man stated, his voice changed in direction as though he had turned his head. No one spoke.

"Valar, we really are too stubborn for our own good." Legolas finally said with a small laugh, his heart beginning to beat faster at the silence. He was fine if he could hear the others, but without them… "I took a small knock to the head. Nothing serious." He downplayed, a twinge of guilt flaring in his heart, but he easily pushed it back down. He doubted that his concussion was bad enough to worry his friends, and he didn't think that Aragorn or Gimli would be completely honest as well.

"I sprained my arm." Aragorn murmured after another silence pause. "And I am fairly sure that Gimli broke a rib. Anything else?" When no one said anything else, the human sighed. "Well, if anything else just happens to show up, please tell me." The healer stated, apparently thinking along the same lines as Legolas.

"So, this rope…" Legolas prompted, closing his eyes as the pounding in his head abruptly increased. Oh, he was thankful for the cover of darkness.

"It is more than likely either one the ground, or tried for a root, hanging down." Gimli answered, and the sound of his heavy body shifted came to the elf. Legolas also moved, thinking to get up so that he wouldn't be the only one on the floor. As he did so, blinding pain shot through his head and dizziness swamped him. He had just enough sense to stuff his fist in his mouth to stop himself from crying out and giving himself away.

"How big do you think the pit is?" Legolas just caught Aragorn saying as he eased himself back down, leaning his head against the wall of the pit to ease his dizziness.

"My guess would be ten feet wide, maybe ten feet deep as well." The dwarf mused.

"Right." Aragorn said, his tone thoughtful. "Gimli, you take the right, Legolas the left, and I will go back to the other side. We need to find the rope if we don't want to spend the night here." He added unnecessarily.

The soft scrap of boots on dirt filled the air as the other two began to move around in their directed spots, but Legolas didn't move. Slowing drawing his fist out of his mouth, the elf took a deep breath. Maybe the concussion was worse than he had originally thought…

Reaching up once more, he tenderly ran his hand along his skull to were the pain was the worst. It felt like the wound was still bleeding…

Giving an audible sigh, Legolas pushed himself away from the wall and bent his head over his knees as the dizziness pounced once more. Squashing the moan that wanted to leave his lips, Legolas gathered his strength and stood.

If he had thought the dizziness had been bad before, then he had been proved wrong. Slumping back to the ground, the prince of Mirkwood stat down hard on his rear-end. His stomach churned nauseously and for a moment, the elf was afraid that his dinner would make an abrupt reappearance. Before that could happen, however, Legolas senses dimed and he fainted, his body falling sideways to land in the dirt.

All was silent in the pit as Aragorn and Gimli worked their way along the walls, reaching, feeling, and grasping for any sign of the rope. They didn't talk, each concentrating on their work.

Finally, Aragorn gave up, sinking to sit on the ground, cradling his injured arm.

"We are just going to have to wait for more light." He called out and heard Gimli's heavy tread stop. "We will have to spend the night here. There could be worse places, though." He added encouragingly.

"I know that I have done much worse…" Gimli agreed. "Speak to me, laddie, and Legolas and I will came to you. No point in spending the night in opposite corners." Aragorn nodded in agreement, though he then remembered that the others couldn't see him.

"Is a pit as bad as a cave, Legolas?" Aragorn asked, turning to where he thought his friend would be. The elf made no reply, and the king frowned. "Legolas?" he asked, raising his voice even though he knew perfectly well that the elf could hear him if he chose to whisper.

"Legolas?" Gimli called out as well, his footsteps stopping as they listen for the elf's musical voice to answer. "Answer us!"

"Legolas, this isn't funny!" Aragorn yelled, his voice pitched slightly higher than normal in fear as he scrambled hurriedly back onto his feet, his injured arm forgotten. "Answer me right now!"

The Mirkwood elf didn't make a sound, and Aragorn felt his heart rate triple.

"Help me look for him." He pleaded to Gimli with a suddenly parched throat. The dwarf was already moving through the darkness. Aragorn hurriedly followed suit, making a beeline for the last place he remembered hearing Legolas' voice.

"Legolas!" he called out again, hoping against hope that his friend would answer. His outstretched fingers brushed up against the damp, cool, dirt and he began to move along the side, keeping a hand pressed against the wall for orientation.

The dwarf's rumbling baritone could be heard calling the elf's name as well and Aragorn felt the dregs of fear in his stomach raising. Just when he was thinking that he had surly been all the way around the pit, his foot connected with something and he tripped. Throwing out his arms to catch his fall, Aragorn hissed as his injured arm was put to the test. Before the sound had finished, however, the king was twisting, trying to see where what it was he had tripped over.

His fingers touched soft, subtle leather and his fingers explored farther, he found that it was a boot.

"Gimli! I found him!" Aragorn shouted excitedly, crawling quickly towards the elf's head, running one hand lightly along the elf's body so that he wouldn't lose the elf again.

"Good! Make sure he pays for scaring us!" Gimli called out, his tone relived despite his words.

"Legolas, mellon-nin,?" Aragorn called, finding the elf's shoulder and shaking him. A small moan flittered past Legolas' lips and Aragorn felt like crying out relief. At least he knew that his friend was alive, if not well. The prince stirred lightly under his touch, and Aragorn clasped his shoulder momentarily.

"Lay still, Legolas," He commanded, still unsure of how badly his friend was injured. Lightly moving his hand up past Legolas' shoulders , Aragorn found the elf's throat and after only a few seconds of fumbling found the main artery there. Legolas' pulse was strong and steady, which make Aragorn feel tn times lighter.

"Is he alright?" Gimli asked, making Aragorn jump at the closeness of his voice. He could more feel than see Gimli now as the dwarf knelt next to him.

"His pulse is strong. Besides that, I don't really know and I won't know until I find the source." The king said, his fingers now traveling across the elf's face. They passed the prince's nose, and he moved them higher. "I am thinking that it might be a concussion, it makes sense. Both of you were out for a couple of minutes after hitting the ground." The healer continued. Now that his fingers were acting as his eyes, he let him gently brush the prince's eyes, wanting to know if they were open or not. They were closed, but as Aragorn rested his finger tips lightly against them, he felt them twitch, before fluttering lightly.

"Legolas?" the man asked.

"Estel?" Legolas responded, sounding dazed. Without preamble, Aragorn asked the question that was burning in his mind.

"Where are you injured, you stubborn elf?" Legolas was silent for the longest time, but Aragorn was not to be denied. "Answer me, Legolas, or I swear I will find out for myself, and I won't be pleasant."

"Just answer him, laddie," Gimli advised gruffly, patting the elf's arm once he found it. Legolas blew out a sigh, and attempted to push himself upright. Two pairs of firm hands pressed him back down. "Don't make me sit on you, you pointy eared princling, because I will." The dwarf threatened darkly, quickly losing patients with his friend.

Aragorn, who had many years of practice dealing with stubborn elves, Legolas especially, laid a hand on Gimli's shoulder to clam him. Sometimes all one had to do was simply wait.

"My head." Legolas grumbled a few minutes later when the silence had become uncomfortably heavy. "I hit my head in the fall." He declared a little louder.

"Hannon le, mellon-nin that is all I needed to know." Aragorn said, a small grin evident in his voice.

"Your pride will be the death of you." Gimli predicted, while Aragorn carefully ran his fingers along the prince's skull.

"You are more than likely right." Legolas agree, hissing loudly and flinching away as the man's gentle fingers found the tender area.

"Hold still." Aragorn rebuked, holding Legolas' head still with one hand while the other continued to prop the spot in question. "There was bleeding." He murmured quietly, more to himself than the others. His hand lightly gilded down his friend's face, feeling the blood trail. "But that's not abnormal for head wounds. Why did you pass out?" he asked, now speaking to include the others.

"I am fine! I just stood up to quickly." Legolas protested, shoving Aragorn's hands away from him.

"I can believe the last part. Not so sure about the first." Gimli grunted to nobody unparticular.

"I'm fine!" Legolas snapped, Glaring in the dwarf's direction. "It is just a small concussion, that is all."

"It isn't life threatening." Aragorn confirmed, still trying to examine the wound with his fingers. He pressed firmly down where he thought the bleeding was the thickest, trying to get it to stop. Legolas gasped lightly, shielding away, but Aragorn didn't let him. "You will tell us if you feel worse?" he asked sincerely.

Legolas was silent and Aragorn frowned.

"Oh what I would give for a little light!" he bemoaned, wishing to see the hurt he cared for.

"The stars are bright tonight." Legolas returned. Aragorn flanked up, and saw that the few stars they could see through the branches of the trees were dimly sparkling.

"That may be." Gimli grunted, and they heard him move a few feet over before settling down against the wall. "But they don't do us any good! What we need is a fire."

"Stars provide assurance as well as light." Legolas argued, fighting against Aragorn to sit upright. The man frowned heavily, but let him do it, keeping a hand on his shoulder for support.

"What is with elves and their stars!" Gimli asked, hitting the ground lightly for emphasis.

"What is with dwarfs and their mines." Legolas returned, and Aragorn would have beat a gold coin that he was arching an eyebrow. He laughed softly, shaking his head. If he hadn't know that this two would give their lives for the others, then he would never have believed them to be even friends.

Legolas shifted next to him, and he felt him raise his hand. Reaching out, he grabbed the elf's arm.

"Don't touch." He said with finality. "Or sleep, you cannot sleep right now." Legolas heaved a sigh, but didn't argue. Gimli chuckled.

"Look on the bright side, laddie, I can tell all about the excellent quality of dwarfen beer." He laughed again, settling in for the long wait.

"Kill me now." Legolas moaned to Aragorn, who snorted.

"Not likely. I've spent half my life patching you back up, and I don't want to let my hard work go to waste." He complained, making Legolas smile good naturedly.

The three sat there together for several hours, until the light began to crease the distance horizon. They talked, laughed, and told stories all while Aragorn made sure that Legolas was a constant part of the conversation. That way, there was little chance of the elf slipping off into sleep.

As the sky slowly lighted, Aragorn once again examined the wound. Legolas was pale in the dim light, and the blood stood out starkly against his pallor, but as the healer probed the injury, he found that it wasn't as bad as it had first seemed.

"I've been trying to tell you that all night!" Legolas protested in annoyed voice as Aragorn bent over him, washing the blood away from his face. Gimli, who had been watching the proceedings with interest, suddenly gave a cry.

"Look, the rope!" he bellowed, scrambling to his feet and pointing excitedly at the thick piece of rope.

THE END

Well, that was fun to write. You guys should have seen how much stuff I had to cut out of it to make it a decent length. I had lots of good banter it there, but ah well. I didn't want to bore you to death. :)

Next time! What happens when a little bit of blood, turns into a lot of blood. :)