Okay, once again, thanks to everybody for your support.

And I am so so so so SO sorry for my loooooooong absence. I've been so so so SO very busy recently. Now, my brother's gone for a week, and I'll have complete access to the computer, so I'll try to get out a couple chapters to try to make up for the loss. My apologies once again.

Tears of Blood

Chapter Six: Orcs!

Legolas tried to stretch his legs from his seat on the horse's back. They had been riding for about three days now and the excitement was wearing off as he watched the seemingly endless trees rush by.

"Are we going to stop soon?" He asked, turning to look at Galu who seemed to Legolas not to be getting even the least bit sore from all the riding.

"Aye, just be patient, Ernil nin (My Prince) we'll take a break soon enough." He gave the prince a tight smile. Legolas sighed and returned his gaze to the path ahead that seemed to keep coming and coming out of nowhere. They continued to ride on in silence for a while before the scout ahead came riding back with haste and urgency.

"Yrch!" He yelled, drawing his saber. Legolas heard Galu gasp behind him as most of the other elves, including Naegion began drawing their weapons. The older elf dismounted as the rest of them charged forward to meet the creatures.

"I want you to get out of here. Go back a little ways and hide. If I don't come find you by midday, I want you to go back to the palace, okay?" He explained quickly, patting the horse's back. She started to trot forward, but Legolas stopped her.

"But Galu—"

"No, not now! Go, Legolas!" Galu gave the horse a harder slap and she quickly sped into a run down the lane. Legolas looked behind him as Galu's figure disappeared in the intimidating trees. He slowed the horse to a trot as the noises of battle slowly began to fade. Then he thought he heard another noise. As he tried to focus on it, he realized it sounded like a small animal. It wasn't until too late that he realized what it was.

He let out a short yelp as the orc's deformed figure wrapped around him, toppling him to the ground. The horse went berserk, her hooves flying out wildly. Legolas was thankful as they landed on the orc's helmet, knocking him off his back for a minute, but the horse didn't calm at all, and continued stamping wildly, landing another stomp on Legolas' back. He let out a cry as he felt the wind whoosh out of him, leaving him gasping for air. Once he was breathing normally again, he looked up to find that the orc was now standing above him, his jagged sword raised. In a split second, the elf rolled over, pulling out his blades as he did so. The orc's sword came down on the dirt with a thump!

"Come 'ere, you li-le…" Legolas flinched at the violent curses the orc threw at him before charging into combat with the creature. Thankfully, the orc was rather dazed from the crack on the head, and Legolas had his twin blades in the monster's chest in no time. Once he had flicked the orc's black blood from his blades, it only took him a few short minutes to decide what to do next. He abandoned the still terrified horse, running back the way he had come. He had to help Galu and Naegion, or try to at least.

It wasn't long before he spotted them through the trees. He sped on, noticing that more than half of the elves were down. There was only three left, two of which were Galu and Naegion. Legolas threw himself into the combat, finding that there were about seven orcs left. He was so focused on fighting, he didn't even notice as the others fell around him.

Legolas faced the last orc, who had almost crossed eyes and crooked teeth. They were locked in combat for a few quick minutes; Legolas feeling like his arms would fall off if he had to do this much longer. He sort of got lost in the rhythm of it, until he was pulled out of his thought by a sharp pain in his shoulder. He dropped one of his blades in surprise. The orc began to chuckle with a gravelly laugh. Legolas took the diversion to thrust his remaining weapon into the creature's face. The fiend's chuckling was cut short by a scream of pain as he toppled over.

The prince let out a sigh of relief as he realized that it was over; the orcs were gone. His relief quickly turned into panic as he noticed that not only was there no more orcs standing with him there, but there was also no elves standing with him.

"No…" He gasped shakily as he returned his knife to its sheath. Legolas trotted over to where he spotted Galu's body. "Galu…" The elf had a long sword straight though his chest, which was still being held by a dead, twisted orc.

"Hmm…?" The older elf stirred, opening his eyes to the noise. "Legolas? What… are you doing… here?" He choked out between breaths.

"I… I fell, and—there was an orc… and…" Legolas stuttered as he felt hot tears welling up in his eyes. It was rather obvious that his tutor wasn't going to get up from this one.

"Legolas… you have to… go back… go back home…" The elf choked out.

"No, I don't want to leave you…" Legolas shook his head stubbornly as the tears rolled down his cheeks.

"You… have to… these orcs… are just scouts… more are coming… it's dangerous… to be here…" Galu stopped to cough a bit.

"No, but they'll hurt you!" Legolas protested as he grabbed Galu's hand. It felt cold.

"It… doesn't matter… I'm going to… pass on anyway…" The older elf reached his other hand up weakly, pulling Legolas' head down to him and kissed his forehead. "Now; go! You must… make haste…"

"But—"

"Go! They are… upon us!" Legolas realized that he was right; the orcs could be heard now, crashing noisily through the forest. The little elf whimpered, squeezing his tutor's hand quickly before he reluctantly trotted off, though not without looking back one more time.

"What's this?" A large orc asked as he surveyed the sight in the small clearing. "Our scouts stumbled upon something, did they?" His deep voice filled the area.

"Aye, but 'oo won dis 'un?" A smaller orc wondered.

"Looks like a tie." The leader decided. "Oh, but what's this?" He said, stepping over to where Galu still drew painful breaths. "Looks like this one's damage is beyond repair." He said with a rough chuckle. "Guess we should put it out of its misery…" Galu turned his head away as the orc pulled out a thick spear. Out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a pale face watching in the trees nearby…

The orc thrust the spear into the elf's neck, a twisted smile appearing on his face as the blood oozed out.

"Take all you can find, then we'll continue on." The taller orc said as he pulled his spear back and ordered them to keep moving.

Thankfully, none of the orcs caught the sound of the elfling in the trees as he tried to muffle his sobs in his retreat.

As he looked up, all he could see was black. He moaned, trying to reach his face. He found that there was something on top of him, holding his arms down. Throwing all his weight and strength (the bit he had left) on the thing crushing him, he sat up, freeing his hand and other arm. Naegion now realized that it had only been black because of the dead orc on top of him. The little bit of light from the quickly sinking sun lit the deserted battle-field with an eerie orange light. It didn't even feel real.

Naegion tried to stand, but stopped as pain ripped down from his right shoulder to his right waist. He let himself fall back to the ground, hoping it would lighten up a bit. When it didn't, he decided to try again.

After some effort, he managed to sit up again and see if anyone had survived. He looked around, trying to spot the Mirkwood elves in the mess of orcs. He counted them off slowly in his muddled head, finding, to his horror, all of those who accompanied him except Legolas. One the one hand that meant Legolas was probably still alive. On the other hand, he could have been taken by orcs…

Naegion shook his head quickly; and immediately regretted it. He had to wait a few extra minutes to let the pain die down before he tried to stand again. Grabbing his sword and sticking it his sheath, he walked towards one of the dead elves; there would probably be something in the pack he could use.

Unfortunately, all he found after searching all of the packs was a single loaf of lembas and some bandages. Someone had already been through them all… Unsure of anything else to do, Naegion sat down again and pulled his shirt off to inspect his wound.

The cut wasn't too deep, but it was bleeding pretty badly. Using the bandages he had found, Naegion quickly wrapped his torso before putting his bloody and torn shirt back on.

Back home, then… He decided in his head, then started heading in that direction. As he left the area, he tripped over something. After closer inspection he realized it was one of Legolas' blades.

"Now how did that get there…?" He mumbled, tucking the knife in his belt, and continuing. He was a little too disoriented to think about that right now.

It wasn't long before the sun sank completely and it was utterly dark. The moon was out, but it was hard to see it from under the trees. Naegion continued to stumble along, now unsure if he was even heading in the right direction.

After doing this for a while, he bumped into something. He panicked, drawing his sword quickly and pointing it at the thing. He was sure he was a goner now; it was orc. He knew it.

But instead of attacking, the orc snorted and neighed softly. Naegion slipped his saber back into its sheath, feeling rather stupid. It was a horse. Galu's horse, if he wasn't mistaken. He shook his head, but then mounted; maybe the horse could get back even in this dark. Naegion sighed tiredly as he slumped on the horse's back. He hoped this wouldn't be a long ride; his wound was pounding like crazy and he wanted some water. But he knew the palace was at least two, maybe three days' ride away.

So, as the horse walked forward, he tried to relax and imagine that he was in his own bed for a while. That didn't work too well.

At some point, he fell asleep, and when we woke up, he found himself falling from the horse's back. He hit the ground with a grunt, letting himself go limp. He lay there a minute, looking up at the light from the moon which filtered in slightly in a crack in the leaves above. It was like a candle in a large, dark room, lost in the sea of black.

Naegion then realized that the horse was either eating something, or nudging something. He took a closer look, finding the horse's snout in a pile of leaves, but there was something else in the leaves. After an even closer inspection, he saw that it was a small being, wearing green and brown, and he also had medium-length, raven hair.

"Legolas…" He breathed in relief. After he had found the blade on the ground, he had feared the worst. Unsure of what else to do, Naegion curled up in the leaves next to his cousin, wrapping his arms around the younger. He slowly fell asleep, the pounding pain down his torso making it rather difficult…