When he reached the building he hurried inside and closed the door tightly behind him. He turned around and pulled back his hood before looking through the building. The horses had been locked into separate booths instead of roaming freely like they used to. The storm had probably frightened them and therefore they had been separated so they wouldn't hurt themselves or the other horses. There were several horses moving around agitatedly, some even seemed to be on a higher level of distress.

The stable master was there also with his son. They had not noticed his arrival because they were frantically trying to cover a hole in the roof that allowed for the water to fall into the stable. He walked closer to the ladder that had allowed for them to climb onto the wooden beam they were currently standing on.

"Do you need an extra hand?" He asked.

Both of the elves jerked and looked down at him. The stable master was the first to recover and he smiled at Legolas, "I think we have this under control my prince. There seem to be holes in this roof I had never noticed before, but I plan to give it a thorough check when the storm is over. If it were not too much trouble I would ask if you could try and calm the horses instead. I have been trying since the storm begun, but they won't listen to me. Perhaps you will have more luck."

Legolas nodded and answered solemnly, "It is no wonder they are frightened. I have not seen a storm of this magnitude for centuries. It is almost as if the sky is mourning the lives we have lost. I will see if I can soothe them."

Legolas walked firstly over the Móre's booth and gently stroked his muzzle when he stuck his head through the bars. "I will great you afterwards."

He walked over to the booth where he could hear the most commotion from within. He gently opened the door just enough so he could slip in. The grey mare inside was trotting endlessly around the booth with her sides heaving from the effort of drawing breath. Legolas gently walked forward and grabbed her bridle. The horse reared and whinnied trying to get away but as Legolas began singing softly she gradually calmed enough for him to move forward and run his hand down her neck. The mare slowly calmed down completely and he considered his job done so he moved to another booth still singing.

As soon as the stable was completely silent Legolas, after talking some with the two elves, moved over to Móre's booth and walked inside. Móre immediately trotted up to him and laid his head against Legolas' cheek. Legolas smiled and ran his hand through his mane.

Here was one he had to hide nothing from. Móre could tell no one and he could say nothing, he could just stand there offering his companionship silently. This was something Legolas had used many times over the years. He had often come to the stables merely to stay with Móre.

Legolas allowed himself to acknowledge what his body was feeling and that his hands were shaking slightly. He was frozen through and was beginning to wonder if he would ever get warm again. It was not natural for him to feel the cold, it was not natural for elves to feel cold and he didn't exactly know if he was frightened by it. It seemed like his body was failing…

Legolas slowly sat down in the booth placed his hands under his arms to try and get some warmth into them. Móre slowly kneeled down beside him so Legolas moved closer to the warmth he provided. He laid his head on Móre's back and absentmindedly ran his hand over his ebony hair. Móre looked back at him and nuzzled him gently on the forehead.

Legolas closed his eyes and soon would have dozed off if Móre hadn't nudged his shoulder. While shaking his head clear of the tiredness he ran his fingers through Móre's mane and said, "We should go." He stood up and waited for Móre to do the same then he walked out of the booth and held the gate open for his horse. The stable master and his son were immediately rushing to place a saddle and reins on the horse.

When they were done Legolas thanked them and told them that if anyone should ask where he was they should tell them that he was taking a round around the halls. Then he led Móre outside into the rain and mounted him before steering him in the right direction and silently urging him onwards. They galloped as fast as possible with the sodden ground and quickly made it into the forest. Legolas rode on high alert and snapped his head around at any sound. He scouted for spots to place the guards of the new one-hour radius perimeter while making sure no orcs were there. He had estimated the large group's arrival at sometime tomorrow based on the trees' reports, and that would be if they travelled extraordinarily fast.

He came across many dead orcs in the forest. Normally they would have piled the carcasses and burned them, but this time they hadn't had the time or strength. They would do it when the final battle had been fought and hopefully won.

Legolas sighed thinking about all the things he would have to do when the fighting was over. He would have to organize groups to collect orcs, make sure none are left, find out where they came from, one to the old dungeons to see if they could retrieve the bodies of the two from Urion's group and one to figure out what had happened to the group that had followed the tracks that Halben had found weeks ago. Along with that Elrond, Celebrian and Elladan and Elrohir were coming and he needed to send a message to Gwaur's home to say that it was safe to come back. Hopefully his father would be well enough to take care of the counsel meetings…

Without warning Móre stopped roughly, nearly sending Legolas off his back and onto the ground. Móre shook his head agitatedly from side to side.

"What is it?" Legolas bent forward and whispered into Móre's ear.

Just then a high-pitched elven scream ran through the forest. Legolas felt a chill run through him over the sound and quickly jammed his knees into Móre's sides forcing him into a fast gallop. As they came closer to the place the scream had come from the sounds of orcs reached them. Legolas reached up and took his bow from his back and notched an arrow.

They soon rode into a clearing filled with orcs; two of them were currently restraining an elf, one of the scouts, by the outskirts of their army. They seemed to have been interrogating him before Legolas rode in and made them all lose focus. Without giving them time to regain their wits Legolas drew back the string of his bow and let the first arrow hit one of the orcs holding the scouts. Almost without pause he let the next fly and hit the other. By that time to was close enough to inside the period of a couple of seconds lock his arm with the elf's and thereby helped the scout swing up behind him and then steer Móre in the direction of the halls. Chaos erupted in the orcs' ranks and they quickly started firing arrows after them.

Legolas could feel the scout trembling against his back. One of his arms was locked with a vice-like grip around his waist and the other was cradled to his chest. From what Legolas had seen he believed that one of his arms had been broken. He had no time to think about this now though as the orcs were relentlessly pursuing them, running at top speed. Arrows kept flying past them.

Without warning Legolas felt himself being flung forward as one pounded into his back right bellow the shoulder, an inch from the scout's head. The scout cried out in shock and moved forward with Legolas since he was still holding his waist. Legolas groaned through gritted teeth and breathed deeply before reaching back and tearing the arrow out and after checking it for poison flinging it with a disgusted look in his eyes into the forest.

"Ride Móre! Show us the meaning of haste!"

Móre immediately speed up and gradually the orcs were left behind. After some time Legolas dared speed down a little from the potentially lethal speed they were going. Legolas looked around and came to the sinking realization that they were only one hour from the halls… How in the name of the Valar had the main group of orcs managed to sneak up on them like this? According to the trees they were first supposed to be here in more than twenty hours! The trees… Realization hit Legolas like a hammer. How could he have been so stupid as to trust the words of trees that were so far out? They had without a doubt turned to darkness and had aided the orcs in their attempt to catch them unawares by giving false information. Legolas cursed silently.

"Are you all right?" Legolas asked, turning his head around as much as possible without pulling his wound too much.

"Yes my Prince." The scout answered tightly, "Although I believe that my arm is broken." The scout's eyes wandered from a point on the ground to the ever-growing patch of blood under Legolas' shoulder blade, which was effectively hidden by the darkness of Legolas' cloak. "Prince Legolas you are bleeding."

"It's all right, the arrow didn't hit anything vital." Legolas responded without anything in his voice giving away any pain. He would be damned if he allowed any of his body's damage to stand in his way and therefore he was currently pushing down both pain, coldness, exhaustion and weakness. His people needed to be warned and quickly. By the time he was back at the halls the orcs would only be about half an hour behind him, maybe even less…

The trees were still closed off and the rain falling endlessly from the sky. It was a very solemn and despairing day to be fighting on. At the moment it even seemed like they couldn't win… he had seen how many orcs had been in that clearing and he didn't have nearly enough elves to take this fight leisurely. The orcs could not be allowed to enter their home!

"My Prince… The orcs they were asking me how to get into the halls."

"Did you tell them anything?" Legolas asked gently not really surprised.

"I told them that the entrance was back the way they came." The scout chuckled and then winced when his broken arm pressed against Legolas' back.

"I take it they didn't believe you?" Legolas smiled.

"Unfortunately not."

Legolas urged Móre to go faster once more wanting to get to the halls quickly, but still having to take in account the level of pain his passenger was feeling. It wasn't pleasant riding a horse with a broken arm, the jolts constantly made the pain flare up. He could feel when the elf tensed.

The journey back to the halls seemed to go immensely slow for the two elves, but after an hours riding they found themselves bolting into the courtyard. Legolas immediately shouted to the two guards standing on either side of the main entrance, "The orcs are less than half an hour away from here! Spread the word and summon the warriors!"

The next half hour could only be described as total and utterly chaos. The short and unexpected warning had given them very little time to prepare and since there was no time to meet the orcs at another point the fight would have the be fought there, on the grounds, close to the halls.

Leaving Sarnor, Tharbadon and Urion temporarily in charge of the warriors Legolas ran inside. He took the stairs in the entrance two steps at a time and at last reached the dining hall. Almost all the healers were running around in there getting ready for more wounded. One of the healers immediately diverted his attention to the prince.

Legolas immediately started talking, "I am going to leave this part of the halls open so we can transfer wounded in here during the fight, but the doors leading to the four wings will be closed off. This will leave you slightly more vulnerable, but there if we want to save as many wounded as possible…"

The healer nodded understanding and smiled to the prince.

"Two should be placed by the entrance to take the wounded to the dining halls. If even one orc manages to get in here then barricade the entrance."

"But that will lead you with no way into the halls if this fight goes awry." The healer protested.

"I know. If everything's is completely hopeless and you have barricaded the entrance then we will try to make it to the old barrack. There is a passageway there that leads us into the halls."

At that moment a horn blast tore through the chaos and everyone stilled for a second before continuing even more frantically than before. Legolas closed his eyes for a second saying a prayer and then he turned. He was about run outside once more when he heard his father call his name. Legolas snapped his eyes to the entrance to the healing wing and saw Thranduil standing there, leaning against the doorframe and Ecphen standing beside him, both of them looked serious and concerned.

After a few long and fast strides Legolas was by their side. "Ada you need to go to your room in the royal wing. I am leaving this part of the halls open so you'll be safer there. Can you close the entrance to the four wings?"

"Of course I can close them, but I am going to stay here."

Legolas looked at Ecphen, "Get him to his room." He looked back at his father and said, "I am sorry father, but Mirkwood needs you to stay alive." He moved forward and hugged Thranduil shortly. Thranduil had barely placed his own arms around Legolas before he pulled away once more.

"I need to go."

"Be careful." Thranduil begged.

Legolas nodded and ran towards the entrance. It was first now that Thranduil realized that his sleeve was wet and he looked down. His eyes widened drastically and blood washed out of his face when he saw that it was blood that had soaked his sleeve. Ecphen saw it as well and cursed violently inside himself before taking Thranduil's arm and steering him towards the wings. They closed off the entrance and then headed towards the royal wing.

O

When Legolas burst outside the orcs were already entering the grounds. He ran through the ranks while drawing his weapons until he was at the front with Sarnor, Tharbadon and Urion.

"You ready my Prince?" Urion asked with a smile.

"Always." Legolas smirked back.

The four of them watched as the orcs ran onto the grounds watching them step-by-step, waiting for them to come within range for the archer. Legolas took out his bow and notched an arrow.

"Ready." He called.

The orcs neared the invisible line.

"Hold your fire…"

They came closer and closer. There!

"FIRE!"

Immediately the sounds of over a hundred arrows being released sounded through the grounds and only seconds later the first orcs fell.

The surviving orcs continued to run towards them.

"FIRE!"

"FIRE!"

"FIRE!"

Finally Legolas switched his bow for his knives and shouted, "CHARGE!"

The two armies ran towards each other and met in the middle of the field and the battle broke out. Immediately clashes of metal against metal and cries of pain ran through the clearing …sounds of war and suffering. The smell of blood was in the air immediately after the first of it had been spilt.

Sarnor kept close to Legolas this time, not wanting to lose him once more. They fought the enemies side-by-side, back-to-back, keeping an eye out for each other as they continued to hack, slash, cut and kill.

Legolas fell into his usual dance as he wielded his twin knives with deadly precision flourishing them about expertly and taking down orc after orc after orc. The wound under his shoulder was giving him some trouble in terms of pain. He had opened it completely again almost after fighting with the first orc and he knew that he was only opening it further with each stroke, but there was no time to think about it now. He was already counting new injuries as he went along wondering what Ecphen would think if he started having a competition with himself about gaining as many injuries as possible. Ecphen would most likely have a fit, or else he would just be calm and say that he had stopped getting surprised. At the moment he had unfortunately been injured more than a handful times, but it was mostly cuts and bruises, nothing serious. He hadn't reckoned he would come out without any when the amount of orcs was as large as it was.

Legolas parried a sword and continued to parry it until he found an opening in the orc's defense that allowed him to step forward and run one of his knives through its heart. Almost immediately after he dunked under a sword and ran his knives along the side of a new orc and when the orc fell to its knees with a grunt Legolas drew one of his blades over its neck while parrying another onslaught by the next orc.

Time seemed to slow down to the point were one second seemed to last a minute as his senses amplified. One pause between two orcs would give him time to look around and assess the situation, carefully following the fights outcome so he would immediately if he needed to change tactic. He saw Sarnor fighting with two orcs one on either side of him so he reached into his belt, drew out his throwing knife and quickly threw it into the back of one of them before turning back to his own enemies.

The rain was still pouring down and it was causing the ground under his feet to turn to mud. Legolas used this to his advantage though and found that it helped him spin with greater speed while the orcs often slipped in it.

Legolas looked up once more after driving his knife through an orc's chest and saw Tharbadon get stabbed in the side, as he was watching though another elf ran forward and first finished the orc and thereafter got Tharbadon to his feet and started helping him back towards the halls. The doors were still open and Legolas could faintly see healers taking to wounded by the doors and leading them into the dining hall apparently no orcs had made it in.

Legolas threw himself to the ground and rolled under the two swords coming at him from opposite directions. He managed to get a good look at him enemies before pushing himself up once more and catch each of their swords on his twin knives as they came at him once more. These two orcs were determined on killing him and they came at him with all they had forcing him to edge backwards. One of them managed to graze his cheek and Legolas felt the warmth of blood slowly making it down from the cut. Out of the corner of his eye he saw someone draw a bow and in the next second the orc to his right toppled forward with an arrow in its back. Legolas proceeded to move forwards and begin pushing the other one back as he shifted from defense to offense. Soon the orc found itself without a head and fell lifeless to the ground.

Legolas looked up once more and with a jolt realized that he couldn't see Sarnor anywhere. Cursing inwardly he began moving to the place he had last seen him while slaying the orcs in his path. He soon saw Sarnor lying on the ground with two bolts from a crossbow still inside him, one in his thigh and the other in his stomach. Legolas saw that Sarnor was still conscious and quickly bent down to grab his arm and place it around his shoulders before hauling him up from the ground. Sarnor moaned and would have probably fallen back down without Legolas' support. Legolas didn't have the time to allow Sarnor to recover so he quickly began dragging him towards the halls.

When they stepped inside there were no healers waiting by the entrance. Instead after walking a bit into the halls they found the dead body of an orc. Legolas cursed and set up their pace until they came to the dining hall. He heard chaotic sounds from inside both those form wounded but also from fighting. Quickly he entered and upon seeing a single orc inside, currently one of the healers was fighting it, Legolas snarled and threw his knife with deadly precision into the orc's back where its heart was.

The healer jerked his head up to look at Legolas with relief obvious in his widened eyes. It had been clear that the healer hadn't been trained to fight, but he had been holding his own well enough with that taken into account.

Legolas dragged Sarnor over to one of the empty mattresses along the wall; all the field beds were already full. After clasping his shoulder quickly, Legolas let the healers take care of him. As he as about to tell one of the other healers to barricade the entrance he heard unwanted sounds coming from further down the halls. With a curse Legolas tore out of the room and met the first orc at the top of the stairs. He slid his knife over the orc's throat and kicked him so he toppled down the stairs once more, fortunately hitting one of the other orcs on his way down. Legolas ran down the first few steps and fought the next orc, following this pattern all the way down the stairs growing ever more frustrated as they kept coming into his home.

"GET OUT!" Legolas bellowed and his aura erupted with a blast sending the first few orcs to the ground. He threw his knives into them and as he ran past after the orcs that were suddenly fleeing from him he pulled them out once more. "GET OUT!" He yelled once more and made another blast, he found it easier to wield his power when he was angry.

He followed the orcs and drove them out until he was beside the entrance and all of them were gone, either dead or fled. Upon reaching it Legolas staggered and would have probably fallen to his knees if a hand hadn't reached out and supported him. Legolas looked back and saw the elf that had held back the orc in the dining hall apparently he had followed him.

Legolas shook his head and blinked as he regained his bearings. At the moment he had done it he hadn't thought about how releasing his energy in form of his aura would affect him afterwards. He managed to rid himself of the lightheaded feeling and soon straightened out.

"Perhaps you should stay here instead my Prince." The healer said worriedly.

Legolas shook his head. "Barricade the entrance." Legolas was about to walk out of the door when he heard the answer.

"No."

He turned around and stared at the healer who was standing there with a determined but also a little anxious look in his eyes. Before Legolas could say anything the healer continued.

"I know that you want to close the doors to protect us in here, but we are willing to risk it so we can help as many as possible, we are not as defenseless as you seem to believe we are. I know that we have limited time to discus this so please just trust me. If anything happens I will take responsibility for it."

Legolas ground his teeth together, but finally conceded, "Fine, but the responsibility is mine."

Legolas turned around and ran out of the door. He quickly scanned the battle and saw with horror that they had been pushed back slightly. Legolas cursed silently while musing over how many times he had done that the last couple of days.

Some elves were rather close to the entrance so he called out to them, "Make a formation around the entrance! Allow no orcs to enter our homes!" The elves quickly nodded and retreated to stand before the doors.

Legolas looked at the battle once more and with a growl set into a run.

"For our home!" He shouted as he ran thought his warriors.

"For our people!" He watched as the elves around him gained more determined and ferocious expressions.

"For the end to this damned rain!" Legolas quickly killed the orcs that stepped up before him.

"For rest! Sleep! Peace!" Legolas was steadily nearing the front line and while flinging himself into the line of orcs he shouted louder than everything else.

"WE FIGHT!" He swirled around killing three orcs in succession. "Send them back to the hole they climbed out of!" He engaged in another fight and also quickly killed this orc. "WE FIGHT! WE SHOW THEM NOT TO UNDERESTIMATE US!"

Legolas soon found himself before the leader of the opposing army. The two of them snarled at each other before quickly making the first attack. Legolas soon lost himself in a series of parries, strokes and blows as the fight seemed to last forever neither of them wanting the give in to the other. The orc managed to spin his sword around one of Legolas' knives and force it from his hand and up into the air, but Legolas jumped and caught it once more. The orc not expecting this had no way to prepare for the next part where Legolas used gravity to cut the orc from shoulder to hip on his way down. The orc staggered but before it could fall to the ground Legolas grabbed its armor and yanked it forward onto one of his outstretched knives. Then he threw the body from him in disgust and killed the orc who had watched in both shock and horror as Legolas had killed its leader.

Urion joined in beside him and after nodding to each other in greeting they stood side-by-side and faced the onslaught.

After an hour Legolas found himself standing still amidst destruction watching the scenes unfold around him as the last orcs were killed and cheers erupted from all around him without the sounds ever really reaching his ears and his mind. He could hear his heart pound in his ears, but little else than that was able to make it to him undistorted. They had won. His people were safe. Legolas also noted with a feeling of disbelief that the rain had stopped. It had just …stopped. Odd… Strange… Weird… As suddenly as it had come, now it was gone. Perhaps the orcs had summoned it…

Legolas didn't hear a voice call his name but he felt as hands suddenly grabbed his arms and he could see as Urion's face appeared before him changing almost comically from completely joyous to utterly concerned and frightened. Legolas did the only thing his body really had the strength to at the moment. He sunk to the ground. Urion kneeled beside him and shouted something. Legolas tried to read his lips and came to the conclusion that it was most likely his name that had passed Urion's lips. Legolas tried to answer but he suddenly couldn't wrap his tongue around any words as his body was slowly drained. His vision darkened and he fell into the awaiting oblivion.