Panic. There was blood, so, so much blood. It was everywhere, soaked into the bed sheet, the carpet and the couch. It was tried mostly, now, it had happened sometime that night. After she went to bed, he should have gone with her. She had mentioned she didn't feel well, and he had only assumed it was because of the wine. He should have gone.

Sorrow. There was too much blood, there was no way anyone could have survived that. She was dead, there was no way it could be otherwise, he would have to live without her. If he could. He just told her, he just found out she felt the same way. He had been happy, blissfully happy. He should have gone with her

Nothing. Already it hurt to feel, hurt to think, hurt to look. It was safer to not feel at all, not that he had control over the numbness that had descended on him. Emptiness was better, emptiness meant he wouldn't have to worry of how she suffer. Of how his father was feeling. How he was feeling. There was a hand placed on his shoulder in what he assumed was meant to be a comforting gesture. The only thing that could have comforted him in this moment, would have been Ava.

Then, he noticed it. A small parchment of paper on her dishevelled bed, blood splattered on it. Leaping over an overturned chair he bound to bed and quickly snatched up the letter into his shaking hands. The words scrawled across it were neat Elvish words, though it appeared to have been written with a shaking hand.

You will get what you want, when I get what I want. It's time my love came back to me, forgive me for this, Mellon nin, but I have suffered through the pain of her absence for far too long. If she is not returned to me, you to, will know the pain of absence.

Folded inside the peace of papers was a large tuff of raven black hair, carefully bound as so it would not break apart. The letter wasn't sighed, there was no need for it to sighed for Legolas to know it had come from Chalion.

Anger. No, this was more than anger. Anger didn't blind him this way, it didn't make every limb tingle and burn as it he had been outside in the cold for too long. This was no anger, this wasn't even furry, This was something completely different that he could not describe even if he had wanted to.

His boot connected solidly with Ava's face, causing her lip to split and her nose to being bleeding once more. Chalion ordered her arms and legs tied to one another tightly, so there is no way she would be able to defend herself even if she tired.

With a thud she hit the ground again, jarring her already broken ribs on the solid earth. She could practically hear Elrond teeth grind together as he attempted to refrain from attacking Chalion, but both elves knew the consequences.

A little to the left Raman held a small child by her hair, a knife to her throat, just as they had done when the kidnapped her from her room. If Elrond moved so much as a hairs breath, the child would die.

"Now" Chalion began, crouching in front of Ava who had managed to push herself into an upright position on the packed, dried earth "Will you tell me what you want to know?"

Ava's mind reeled, she's tried telling him the truth. Her mother is dead. Killed, by Orcs, long ago. That Chalion was there to witness it, but that's not what he wants to hear. She can feel the eyes of all those in the clearing resting on her, the Orcs with hungry anticipation of more violence, Elrond with blatant concern, and the men with emptiness.

Her mind felt thick, it hard to make out clear thoughts, they seemed to stick together in a weird jumbled mess. Whatever he forced her to drink before must be taking effect.

Chalion smiled, a cold, predatory smile. There is no doubt in Ava's mind that he's aware of the effect the drug is having on her "Where is Thranduil keeping my wife?"

Her arms which have been holding her up begin to tremble with the effort, though there was no reason for that to be happening, and her eyes were difficult to keep in focus "In the cellar, beneath the stronghold"

Its hard to tell if her sentence even made a remote amount of sense, but it's the best she can hope for. If he didn't want to hear the truth, she would tell him a lie.

The smile disappeared instantly, rage contorting his features, "No" He screamed into her face, rising back to his feet and screaming in rage, and throwing his sword into the nearest tree

Pivoting on his foot, he turned to her once more "Why won't you tell me!"

This time, she remained silent. There's nothing she could tell him that he would accept, if she were to try it will only mean more pain. And perhaps the death of an innocent child.

Chalion heaved a calming breath, clawing at his hair, before approaching the injured elf on the floor, well aware of the hateful stare he was currently receiving from Elrond.

"Ava baby" He spoke gently, brushing the hair from her face where it stuck to the blood "I don't like hurting you"

"I'm sure she isn't much of a fan of it herself" Raman chortled from a distance away, but was silence immediately from a venomous glance from Chalion

Unlike before, Chalion green eyes seem tender and caring as he looked at his daughter, bruised and bleeding before him "I just need my wife back, you can understand that can't you?"

Reaching out, he wiped blood that had been seeping from her forehead into her eye away with the hem of his sleeve, "Just tell me where she is, and everything will be fine"

When she continued to stare at him in silence, his voice hardened once more "Very well child, have it your way"

Aragorn was awoken by Arwen shaking him hastily, clearly panicked by something. Not one to suffer from nightmares often, the concern upon being awoken in such a manner was instantaneous.

Sitting bolt upright in bed , he found that Arwen was already half dressed, and a few shades lighter than she should have been "What is it, my love? What's happened?"

Whatever response she might have given was interrupted by an urgent, pounding on his doorway. Springing to his feet, Aragorn raced easily across the room and flung the door open. His heart skipped a beat at the sight of the twins standing there, both armed and the same pale color of Arwen

"What happened?" Aragorn demanded for the second time in two minutes, his stomach dropping to his feet

"Its Ada, and Ava." Elohir panted, turning his attention to his sister momentarily at her squeak of fear, but only for a moment before his attention rested back to Aragorn as Elladan moved to embrace their little sister "Chalion took them, sometime last night"

"Arwen, stay here. Estel, come!"

With that Elohir raced down the hallway, Aragorn close on his heels. Behind them there was the sound of a small argument from Arwen, as Elladan kept her from following her husband down the corridor. But it didn't last long, either that, or at the speed they were running they were already out of earshot.

Guards stood at the end of the hallway that led to where the Elves had been staying, not allowing anyone through, but quickly stepped aside as Aragorn and Elohir raced by. A few elves had also gathered, and were muttering angrily to one another outside Ava's room door, that still stood flung open.

The heavy metallic smell of blood clung to the insides of Aragorns nose long before he turned into the room. And once he entered he was quick to find out why.

Thranduil and Legolas were already standing in the room; a piece of paper was grasped in Thranduils hand as his eyes skimmed quickly over whatever was written down. Legolas stood silently beside his father, trembling with was Aragorn first assumed was sadness, but a look at his friend's clenched fists and the growling thunderous expression on Thranduils face told him otherwise.

Never, in his history of living with Elves had Aragorn seen a truly enraged Elf. And now that he had, he wished to never see the sight again.

Chalion, apparently tired of beating his daughter grasped another pouch of liquid from his saddle bag and brought it over to where she still lay on the ground.

"Just remember, my darling, I gave you an option and you lied to me" His voice had taken back the sickly sweet quality to it that Elrond had always hated, even more so now than ever before.

He forced her head upwards, and her jaw open before pouring the drink into her mouth. Because of whatever drug they had given her before, it was an easy enough task for one to handle, along with clamping a hand over her nose and mouth to make her swallow the foul smelling potion.

Once completed, Chalion re-tied the cloth over her eyes, ensuring it was out of reach from her bound hands. And stood, turning his attention to his old friend

"I suppose you are wondering what I have given her" Chalion approached him with an air of confidence and held out the pouch "Care to try some for yourself?"

It took nearly every fibre of Elrond's being to not attack, but the weeping girl to his right was a constant reminder of what was at stake.

"No? Where's your sense of adventure my old friend!" With a laugh Chalion put the stopper back on the pouch and tossed it carelessly over his shoulder

"Its of my own creation you know, Thistleweed and Nightlock"

Nightlock, it was a common enough herb used by healers, if applied in a paste it numbed an area. But if ingested, it paralyzed the person who took it for an undetermined amount of time.

"I perfected it in my time I spent in Lorien, it really is odd that none questioned the lengths of time I spent on my own"

Elronds mind scrambled to think of what the other herb did, it had been so long since he had even heard it mentioned. Thistleweed, as he remember caused hallucination and an elevated heart rate.

A few feet away from himself, Ava lay paralyzed and hallucinating. Not even in his wildest dreams could Elrond begin to image how terrifying that would be.

"Oh" Chalon cheered, "He's got it! He's put two and two together!"

With a laugh he danced back over to his daughter, and snapped a branch of the nearby tree. Then, with a pointed look at Elrond gently brushed the leaves across her face and arms, grinning wickedly at her whimper of paralyzed terror, no doubt hallucinating something far worse than a few leaves on a tree.

Once satisfied with her reaction, Chalion again turned his attention to the Lord of Rivendell, "I had thought of what the perfect way to get you to tell me what I want to know, Mellonn in. Perhaps it would be torture, or starvation, perhaps drowning"

He paused for a minute, seemingly glowing with pride in his decision "But then I figured out, your greatest strength as a healer, is your greatest weakness. Your compassion, Elrond, makes you weak. Your suffering, will be to watch her suffering, and knowing only you can put an end to it. If only you tell me what I want to know"

"We have to go after them, Ada"

"And how do you suggest we do that?" Thranduil asked, hating that he had to be voice of reason when all he wanted was to immediately set out a search party, and not stop until Ava was found "Which direction do you suggest we go?"

"Any direction. All directions. I don't care" Thranduils heart sank at the sound of his sons desperate voice, seemingly on the verge of tears.

When first he had seen his son earlier that day he had been enraged to the likes Thranduil had not seen in nearly a thousand years, but it had quickly dissipated into panic and sorrow. As Thranduil had expected it to, but sadly, there was little he could do to ease his sons mind. No matter how much he wanted to.

"Aragorn is arranging search parties, all guards that can possibly be spared will be used to search for them" Striding forward he placed his hands on his sons shoulders, gripping them firmly to insure he was paying attention "We will set out the moment they are ready, but until then, we must remain here"

"We will find them, we will not stop until we do" Legolas nodded at his father's words hesitantly, and dropped his gaze back to the floor

"If he has killed her-"

"You would have felt it" Thranduil cut in fiercely, "You would have felt an emptiness like none other in your life, and the place in your soul where you two are connected would feel as if it had been set fire to inside your body, and was trying to burn you alive from the inside out"

The Elven King paused, remembering the moment her had felt in when his wife had died. He was certain that if Ava were to die, Legolas would have felt it already. Even if they had not yet joined together, they had been too close for too long for him not feel the same sensation.

"She is alive, and we will find her"

Legolas only nodded his head, turning away from his father and going to sharpen his blades for no other reason than to keep his mind occupied until it was time for him to leave.

It was early morning, and still most of the men slept. Chalion had gone off some hours ago in search of something he would tell none of, but with strict orders for the Orcs to be on their guard. Somehow, Elrond was able to inconspicuously shift himself over far enough to reach where they had left Ava gagged, bound, and blindfolded on the ground.

The reason he was not treated as such was simple, if anyone were to be able to wake the tree's from their slumber and get help its, it would be Ava. There for, every possible way for her to contact them had to be eliminated. Along with, it was difficult for him to witness her terror as Chalion intended if he were blindfolded.

Idly, he wondered if she was awake yet. Sometime the night before they had forced a sleeping herb to all of their prisoners, though considering none of the them were healers it was doubtful they had given anybody the correct amount. Which was probably why he was awake, Elrond mused.

With a quick glance at the Orc watching them, Elrond reached his hand outwards and grasped Ava's left hand, her body shielding the contact from their observers.

The reaction was immediate. It took a fraction of a second for her to realise exactly who's hand it was, before she returned the applied pressure with such fierceness that the tips of Elrond hands turned white. Though it hurt, Elrond was reluctant to draw his hand away, knowing it was the only form of comfort she had felt in nearly three days, and while she wasn't one of his children he had developed the same over-protectiveness over her as his own daughter.

Silently he sent a prayer to anyone who would listen that they were found quickly. He did not know the effect the cocktail of herbs Chalion was forcing Ava to consume would have on her body systems, and unless he could come up with a convincing enough lie, it would not stop.

Ava's heartbeat was still much too fast for his liking, though it could be to any number of factors but the most obvious was that the Thistleweed was still affecting her. With one last glance at the Orc who was supposed to be watching them, but wasn't doing a very good job of it, Elrond shifted closer still.

He waited a few beats to make sure he had not alerted the presence of the Orc before he began humming a song. He himself did not know the words to it since he had never sung it to his children, but had heard Thranduil sing it to her and Legolas enough while they were little to known the melody of it.

They were close enough now that Elrond was fairly certain they would not be able to pick up on the low hummed song, and even if they did they had been ordered not to harm anybody and Chalion return. Although, Elrond had long ago decided he would gladly take a swift kick to the ribs if the price was offering the terrified Elleth even the smallest form of comfort.

…..

Just a thank you to everyone who reviewed the last few chapters, you're amazing and bring me great joy. And if you haven't review yet, well, you should really get on that because its great to know what you all think of the story. It really is.
So get to it people im counting on you.

Just because I feel the need to inform all of you, yesterday I went to see Desolation of Smaug, and it was perfect. Ahhhh, although I did have a few problems with some of the sub-plots and characterization of a few people, and of course, there wasn't enough Mirkwood in it for satisfaction. Althoug the entire 2 and a half hour movie could have been staged in Mirwood and it wouldn't have been enough for me. But alas, it was not. And don't even get me started on Benedict's voice for Smaug, oh my god it was perfect. (And im pretty sure Grima has a cousin in that movie in the form of Mr. Unibrow Man who's name escapes me currently ) But as usual, Peter Jackson and his team did an A+++ job.