::sob:: I love MoroTheWolfGod and pupupluk, u guys are so way too awesome…u stuck with me this far!!! This chapter is so totally for the two of ya, seriously, u don't know how happy reviews make me!!! (itz kind of pathetic actually) Anywayz, I really hope u guys like it. I mean, I hope everyone else likes it too, I think this is my fav chappie.

Awww, here it goes…

Chapter 9

            Red hot, burning anger coursed through Legolas' lean body. He could taste its bitter quality, felt himself trembling under its heavy, immense strain. This was his moment, and he was tied to a horse like a pet dog. It was this very instance, when he confronted his wife and children's murderer that he had lived for and fantasized about for all those long and lonely years.

            Normally, when this experienced and well-trained warrior anticipated an attack, he would carefully plan every move he or his men would make. In fact, over the years he had often contemplated several attacks he might use on this occasion. Yet at the moment all plans, strategies, and methods flew from his mind. He had only one goal; to brutally kill the man before him.

            Uttering a primal, carnal war cry, Legolas leapt at the man atop his horse, though his hands were yet tied behind him and attached by a rope to the man's horse.

            The man's eyes widened with surprise as the elf catapulted himself into the air, and his surprise quickly became fear as he realized that he was the elf's target. So great was his mixture of fear and surprise that he did not so much as attempt to fend off Legolas as the prince made contact.

            Legolas then pinned the despicable creature to the ground and, with a wild and fearfully deadly look in his eyes, he whispered to the man, "Fear me, human. You have woken my most horrid wrath and shall suffer the consequences. I may very well die before leaving these lands, but mark my word, ere I pass to the Halls of Mandos, I shall slice you into millions of insignificant pieces and cast your disgusting remains to the wild beasts." His voice suddenly softened and he told the man quietly, "They were my loves, all 3, and there blood is on your hands."

            These were the last words Legolas spoke before reaching the town, as at that exact moment one of the man's companions came from behind and hit him across the head with the butt of his sword and with all the might he could muster.

            "Get him off of me!" roared the angry captain.

            "You want I should kill him now, Teg?" asked the one who had knocked out Legolas.

            "No," replied Teg with an evil grin, "No, this creature is the one who shall suffer. Hmph…he thinks to threaten me? He has no idea what pain is. But I will teach him." Returning to his horse, Teg once again lifted the gleaming strands of golden hair. "A mother and her three daughters. Its only right that I make it a family set, and what would they be without their father and husband?"

            Chuckling darkly to himself, Teg lifted his body onto the horse and gave the command to continue to the town.

            So the two members of the Fellowship continued to their apparent doom, both in unnatural and equally restless slumber.

++++++++++++++++++

            A cold, hard surface beneath him and a throbbing pain in his head were what welcomed Aragorn back into reality.

            'Where am I?' Aragorn asked himself as he groggily rose from the floor and sat up.

            Wherever he was, it was a very small room completely devoid of furnishing and boasting one incredibly tiny window, more like a crack, high above his head. Upon his perusal of the room, Aragorn spied the elf prince lying silent in the opposite corner. Rushing to his side, Aragorn gently shook his friend, hoping to call him back to the realm of consciousness.

            Like Aragorn, Legolas awoke to a painful headache but unlike his mortal companion, Legolas' first question did not involve his surroundings, but the whereabouts of Teg.

            "Where has he gone, the vile snake," spat out the fair Eldar.

            "Who?" questioned Aragorn.

            "Not even the Valar could save him once I have my hands around his filthy neck," hissed Legolas as he furiously paced the cell.

            "Legolas," cried Aragorn, disturbed to see his friend so transformed into this hateful creature, "who drives you to such anger?"

            "The leader of the band that attacked us!" roared the Prince of Mirkwood.

"I have never seen you so enraged. Yes this man attacked us, but that is no reason to become so blood thirsty."

"Ha. Who are you to say I have no reason. This filth is a murderer," explained Legolas.

"Would you be any better if you killed him? We still do not even know if he is working with the tree. We did trespass into his land.."

"Hold your tongue," interrupted Legolas coldly, "for you know not what you say. As I was saying, he is the man who slaughtered my family. Do you yet claim I have no claim to my anger?"

An awkward silence hung tremulously in the air as Aragorn digested his friend's words. Yet while he understood the feeling of revenge, he could not comprehend the vast depths of Legolas' hate.

            "Mellon nin, I understand what you are feeling. If someone had murdered Arwen…"

            "Do not compare how I feel to your imagined situations. In your so short life, you have been neither a husband nor, perhaps more importantly, a father. You, being of man-kind, could not possibly understand how the knowledge that you may life forever, but without your wife or children, eats a larger hole in your soul every waking minute. Do not tell me that you understand!" The strong warrior turned away from his friend to compose himself and, without turning to face him, continued saying, "He boasted of ravaging my wife. He told me h-how…delicious she was." Now facing Aragorn with crystalline tears streaming down his shining face he finished, "He kept their scalps Aragorn. As…souvenirs of his triumph."

            Backing against the icy stone wall, Legolas sank to the floor, buried  his face in his hands and wept over the knowledge that not only had those he loved most dearly died, but suffered more than he could have imagined.

            Kneeling before his friend, his comrade-in-arms, Aragorn put a comforting arm around his shoulders and gently told Legolas, "Forgive me, friend. I truly did not know what I said, but I promise you this, I will do anything in my power to aide you in this quest."

            Raising his hand slowly, Legolas searched the eyes of his companions for signs that he spoke truthfully and with every intent of following his oath. Finding that his friend was true, Legolas smiled softly and slowly nodded in acceptance of his aide.

            Rising from his sitting position, Aragorn walked over to what had to be the door.

            "Now how the hell are we going to get out of this mess Legolas?" asked Aragorn genially.

            Yet before Legolas could answer the door swung in and several shrouded figures entered the room, led by none other than Teg, and at least a dozen more of the same filled the hallway just beyond the room.

            "Ah, our guests have awoken. I hope you enjoyed the sensation, for it was the last time you shall ever experience it," grinned Teg maliciously.

            Once again filled with swirling torrents of hate and anger, Legolas blindly lunged at the leader, only to be stopped by a blow to the stomach from another of the men.

            Helping Legolas to his feet, Aragorn scowled at Teg and demanded, "What do you want of us? We have done nothing against you or your people."

            "Fool, you should never have run from the Tree of Doom. He is our master."

            "How can you serve a tree?" scoffed the ranger.

           "The Tree of Doom is an embodiment of a higher power, though we know not his name. His waters sustain us and our crops, its roots grow wide and deep. Since you entered our realm it has been asking for the flesh of you and your other companions. One of you has something it wants. A ring."

            'Sauron,' thought Legolas and Aragorn simultaneously. 'it is he who is behind this all.'

            "Make this easier on all of us. Tell us where we can find this ring and you will both have swift deaths, painless even. Keep this knowledge from us and your deaths will be longer, more painful than you could think physically possible."

            Of course, the idea that either would hand a servant of Sauron the ring was ridiculous. The pair simply stared stoically at the creature before them.

            "I didn't think so. Oh well, more fun for me. Rae, take the man to his room. Take as many guards as you think necessary. Leine, grab the elf and follow me. The rest of you do the same. Now!"

            Legolas watched as his friend, perhaps for the last time, as Aragorn was led down the dark corridor. He would not allow his friend to die, and Middle Earth's chances along with him. His thoughts were interrupted as he was shoved roughly into a large room. On a table he saw his precious weapons, gleaming beautifully in the darkness. Teg walked to the middle of the room and stood in front of the table.

            "Stand before me," demanded Teg.

            Slowly and gracefully, hounding Teg with eyes revealing the depths of his hate, Legolas made his way to the spot pointed out by Teg. Stopping, Legolas' gaze wavered slightly as it passed over his weapons and then cemented itself on Teg's dark features. As he did so he saw images of his beautiful wife and lovely daughters, laughing and smiling up at their Ada. Then he saw them being chased through the woods, hunted like wild beasts by the vile creature standing but a matter of feet before him. Forgetting his warrior tactics and strategical mind, Legolas again lunged at the man. Teg laughed at the elf and easily dodged the attack.

            "Try again elf…come…try to kill me," he said mockingly.

            As the prince once again ran at the man, Teg brought his knee into his gut and then slammed his fist into the elf's fair face. Yanking his head back by the golden strands of hair, Teg laughed in his bleeding face and said, "How very pathetic you are…then again, what could I expect from one of your kind." Tossing the elf across the room with the super-human strength given to him by the evil within his soul, Teg took up his place before the weapons table.

            Crouching on the floor, blood blurring his vision and his hair hanging before his eyes, Legolas tried to calm himself. He knew he should be able to take this man without any weapons, but he couldn't. Then a memory from long ago came to his mind…

+Flashback+

A very young Legolas sat on his large, soft bed in his expansive room in the Mirkwood palace. Sniffling softly, the lad had a long slice on his forehead and a bruise on the left cheekbone. Suddenly, the door began opening and the young prince looked up curiously. Seeing that it was his adar, King Thranduil, the little Greenleaf, as he was known to his family, looked down ashamedly.

            "Your nana tells me that you fought with another elfling today, my son," stated the wise King as he sat besides his son.

            "Ai, ada, I did."

            "What was your reasoning behind this decision?"

            "I was angry. He called me little and was very very mean."

            "Yet you lost."

            "Ai. But I don't understand, I usually win at practice."

            "Legolas," began the King, placing his hand on his sons head, "you will fight many battles in your lifetime, whether they be with another or within yourself, with words or with weapons. But you must always remember that you must never fight out of anger. You can only loose if you do thusly. Whenever you go into battle, arm yourself first with a level head and a cool mind." Smiling, Thranduil took his son into his arms and stroked the back of his head. "You have a temper on you, little Greenleaf. Just as I do."

+End Flashback+

Just as his father advised him those thousands of years ago, Legolas cleared his mind of all anger or hate and simply focused on getting the upper hand, surviving the situation. Standing to his feet, Legolas once again began to run and lunge and his captor, but this time, when Teg reached out to jam the heel of his palm into Legolas' nose, the agile warrior made a swift turn to the left and grabbed up one of his long knives from the table. A fraction of a second later, the knife was pressed hard against Teg's bare neck.

            "Your second mistake was leaving my weapons out in the open, villain. But your first was crossing me."

            Yet unknown to Legolas, at this moment, an archer stood in the hallway and aimed an arrow directly at Legolas through a hole in the thick stone walls. Within and instant, the arrow would be let go and would soar through the air and pierce the prince of elves through his royal heart.

Mwahaha!!!! I can honestly say that this is my fav chapter so far. Ooo, whatta ya think is gonna happen. Is legolas gonna get shot? Honestly…I haven't decided…depends on how im feeling when I write it… ummm….i dunt think theres anything else…so please review…thank u!!