AN-I know, THIS IS NOT MONDAY! I'm terribly sorry for the wait, there have been a lot of family and personal problems including illness =[ But anyhow, I'm back and i'm not leaving anytime soon. I hope that all the fourth age fans are still there! This chapter is longer than most and the next chapter will be even longer. This story has an update day now, which is Sunday. so look out for uploads every sunday =D anyway, enough of my rambling, i hope you enjoy.


Chapter 6-Traps


Not ten minutes later, Eldarion was racing down the hallway; towards his sister's room. He had heard a scream from down the hall, which had sent goosebumps up his arms and an ice chill in his heart. Most would have ignored the scream and waited for the morning gossip, yet his father had told him different.
Always follow gut instincts! Those had been his words.

Eldarion had stumbled out of bed, grappled for the candle stick next to his bed and had awkwardly searched through the dark for his robe and some shoes. He'd then virtually ran down the hall, towards Elwin's room.

The night was cooler than usual and seemed somewhat intimidating, belittling Eldarion to the size of a mouse. There was no sound except for the faint echoes of his footsteps as he hastily padded towards Elwin's chambers. It was as if darkness had swallowed the whole kingdom around him, including the people and the guards set to be on duty.
He rounded a corner, only to jump back in fright - nearly dropping his candle as he did so, as a small black bird flew past and landed on the lantern in-front of him.
Its small beady eyes searched his, analyzing every emotion, every feature, everything. Another silence set in, this one more disturbing than the last. The bird squawked surprisingly as the prince held out an arm to shoo the creature away, a bird in the house was never good luck.
It took flight once more and disappeared around the corner in which the man had just come.

Eldarion gulped as his feet set off once more; once again the silence surrounding him being his only company - unwelcome company!

Eventually he came to the end of the hall, Elwin's room was facing him; partly ajar. His breathing quickened as he reached out for the door knob, his heart; which was beating twice its normal speed, threatened to burst through his chest. His sweaty palm grasped the knob and he closed his eyes, bracing himself for whatever was on the other side of the door. He pushed it further open, a cold night air slamming into his face as it escaped from the room - a storm was definitely brewing.

His heart stopped as he took in his surroundings. Torn clothes were flung around the room, silver bottles of perfume had been smashed - the remainder lying on the floor. The window had been broken with such such a force, that only a few shards of glass hung in place around the frame.
He stepped gingerly into the room, making an attempt to avoid stepping on the sharp glass which covered Elwin's rug. Once in the middle of the room, he scanned it more thoroughly. The place looked like a bomb had hit; there had definitely been a struggle.

"Elwin" he whispered, there was no response.

He tried again, but a little louder this time.

"Elwin?"

A loud sniff brought his attention to a large bundle at the bottom of the king-size bed; it was shaking uncontrollably and was quietly sobbing and murmuring words which were indecipherable. He bent down and removed sheet covering it.

"Lutheniol?"

The girl looked up and met her brothers gaze, there was a fresh scar from her cheekbone to her chin of which a trickle of blood was escaping. There were several bruises round her left eye and she had a burst lip. She tried to swallow her sobs, though she still couldn't regain control of her shaking shoulders, nor the tears which slid down her face.
Eldarion brushed his finger over the scar and pulled her into a brotherly embrace, whilst she let her tears fall freely.

"Luth, you have to tell me what happened!"

Eldarion was now stood, his big brother voice taking over.

Lutheniol nodded, her face red and blue from the beating she'd been given.

"Luth, what happened to you?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you!"

Her voice faltered, still croaky from the sobbing.

"Try me!"

She bowed her head to face the floor and sighed weakly before continuing.

"They took her"

"Who?"

"This Uruk-Haii and....a man, they took Elwin. Sh-she was unconscious."

Eldarion swayed on his feet, Urak-Haii, Elwin missing? It was hard to take in.

"El?"

He looked down to his younger sibling, her weary face looked drained.

"Come on, lets get you cleaned up!"

He held out his hand to her and she took it willingly. Slowly he helped her to her feet.

It didn't take long to reach the house of healing, though they could have been faster if Lutheniol hadn't been limping.

"You still haven't told me what happened to you!"

Eldarion looked at his sister expectantly.

"I saw the Uruk-Haii and it launched itself at me I..."

She trailed off as they reached the houses of healing and two healers ran out on seeing them. Both their faces seemed surprised to see the princess in such a state. They quickly hurried off with her, whilst leaving Eldarion sat in the waiting room.

After half an hour or so, a healer came out to fetch Eldarion, when they entered Lutheniol's room, she was asleep. All cuts treated and the scar on her face stitched and healing.

"She'll be fine in no time!"

Eldarion thanked the healer and left to find his mother, his heart still sick with worry for Elwin.


Arwen opened he door after a rather rude set of continuous knocking awoke her.

"Eldarion?"

Sensing something was the matter, she let him in.

He took a seat next to his mother as he let go of everything, he broke down into sobs as he told her of what foul fate had taken Elwin. She responded with yet more tears.

"What do we do now?" asked Eldarion, tears subsided for now.

"We call a council in the morning, Elwin is missing and we need to do something about it. For now get some rest!"

She smiled down at her son and ruffled his hair like she used to do when he was small, letting him fall asleep on the end of her bed.


Morning had come and the two remaining Hobbits had woken to find that they were one down. Pippin was gone! Instead of breakfast, each of them set off in search of their friend, Sam had no luck, but Merry did.
After searching the chambers, he passed Elwin's room. The door was still open and so he automatically rushed in. He was shocked when he saw the state of the room, Elwin didn't exactly seem like the messy type. He rushed over to the windowsill, where a small box caught his attention. It was the present that Pippin had insisted on delivering, and next to it was a note.

The note read-

Whoever finds this will probably already know that we've taken the kings daughter and your small halfling friend as hostages. Hope your all ready for a second round! This time, you wont be so lucky

-C

Merry read the letter and his heart skipped a beat, Pippin had been taken hostage? An awful sickening feeling took over him as he ran to a city guard, hoping that it was a sick joke, that somebody was playing. Whilst on his way, he turned the letter over to find the drawing of an eye, he cried out loud in shock.


Aragorn and his men came to a stop where the Orcs had been sighted. Right now, there was no sighting what so ever. A storm had began last night and the rain hadn't stopped since, everyone was drenched and were all happy to reach their destination.

"My Lord?"

Aragorn looked back to the soldier who had shouted him. The soldier pointed down to a small wire set on the ground, then to another further to the left and then to another behind them.
Aragorn took a coin from his pocket and flipped it onto the wire. The wire responded by snapping back up and devouring the coin.

"Traps!"

Aragorn shouted to his men, who stopped still in silence. A faint sound of feet running towards them.

"Prepare for battle"

The men turned to face the oncoming enemies. Urak-Haii came charging at them.

Legolas ran quickly over to Aragorn, his bow drawn and an arrow ready in place.

"Looks like these are your Uruk-Haii mellon nin!"

Aragorn smiled and clasped his friend's shoulder.

"Indeed! Now are you ready to fight some Orc?"

A broad smile spread across Legolas' fair features.

"I thought you'd never ask."


Pippin slowly opened his eyes, they were sticky and hurt, yet he forced them open anyhow. He tried to move his hands but they were bound behind him, the dark haired man was carrying him.

On seeing that the small being was awake, a wicked grin made itself at home on Carinther's face.

"Ahh, the midget is awake!"

"I'm a Hobbit" spat Pippin, his distaste for the man growing increasingly.

"Ready?"

Pippin creased his brows, confusion taking hold. Ready for what? he thought to himself.

Suddenly, a searing pain scraped across his back as a leather whip came down. The pain was like a spreading fire, it burnt his back. The whip was brought down again in the same place, this time intensifying the pain. The man laughed before bringing it down again, and this time Pippin heard a yell. He looked around, no one else was yelling, he was.
The whip came down again, this time knocking Pippin sick with pain, his small back flaring up bright red as the whip cut straight through his flesh. He yelped helplessly, trying to struggle out of his bonds, yet not succeeding.
The whip was brought down once more, before knocking Pippin unconscious.


Hope you enjoyed it, please leave a review telling me what you think =] They mean the world to me and inspire the next chapter! All reviews are welcome! Thankyou, love you guys x Sorry for the Pippin torture, and brace yourslef cause there's a hell of a lot more to come =]

Mizztawky xx