~*~ Chapter 4 ~*~


"Sit down," the elven guard pushed the Ranger into a chair.

"I could have done that myself," he muttered, trying to soak up the blood running down his face with the sleeve of his overcoat.

At that moment the King came in, followed by two guards and, who else, but Legolas. When the prince looked over to where their new prisoner should be
he jumped.

- What? – He thought, - why is he here? - The elf glanced between the Ranger and his father, not knowing what to do.

"State your name," the King said sternly, "and why you are here."

"My name," Strider started, "is Aragorn, and I do not know why I am here, if you mean your courtroom, if you mean in Mirkwood, I was merely exploring
the land, I did not know I was trespassing."

"What is he charged with," the King asked the guard that had dragged the human here.

"He is charged with trespassing and the assault of our guards," the elf replied.

Aragorn nearly smiled at this, but held back giving Legolas a venomous glare that made the elf flinch. The prince dropped his gaze to the floor, he knew that humans weren't allowed near here, but he'd completely forgotten. As much as he hated him before, he hated to see him hurt so badly now. He thought a while and before he knew it, the Ranger had already been sentenced. Being human, the sentence was cut in half, but that was still one hundred years. The Ranger dropped his gaze to the ground and nodded when he heard his sentence. Before Legolas could say anything, the human was already being dragged out of the room. Still in shock, he turned to his father.

~*~*~*~*~*~

"I wish to see the new prisoner," Aragorn's sharp hearing heard the elves speaking at the door. A couple moments later he heard soft footsteps just outside his door. He fell back into the corner and pulled his overcoat over his face, not wanting to see the one whom he felt had betrayed him.

"I wish to see him alone," Legolas said, "give me the keys."

A second later, Legolas opened the door and shut it behind him. He turned his gaze on the man in the corner.

"What do you want now?" the Ranger's voice whispered angrily.

Legolas looked at him a moment and knelt beside him, Strider moved further
away.

"I'm sorry," the elf whispered bringing his hand to the human's throat. Aragorn tensed and tried to pull away, scowling at the elf. Delivering slight pressure to a certain point on the human's throat he held him still while the human slowly blacked out. The elf did not get away from this unharmed however; he got himself a firm, strong punch in the face first. Rubbing his face he pulled the overcoat off the human and threw it on his chest, slightly bunched up so as to hide the movement of the Rangers chest. The elf lifted the human gently and walked out the door with him, the human's weight distributed on his good arm and shoulder.

"He died," Legolas said simply. The guards looked at the Ranger's limp body for a moment and nodded. Legolas passed through the prison and out to the door guards. He explained that he was going to go and bury the body near the edge of the forest. Once that was done, he went quickly out into the forest and ran as fast as he could through the forest.

In a few hours, the elven prince had found their last campsite and lay the Ranger down on the ground, flinging his overcoat on top of him. The elf fell fast asleep within half an hour as the sky darkened.

Rising slowly, the Ranger blinked, not believing his eyes. He was in the forest, and seemed to be in the same campsite that he and the elf were in a week and a half ago. He glowered at the elf lying by the burnt out fire-pit. Annoyed as he was with the elf, he couldn't help wondering why he brought him out here. Looking into the elf's half open eyes, he realized Legolas was asleep. Moving quietly, he walked out of the camp, he did not intend to stay here and he began to head home. Realizing that the elf could wake any minute, he continued his quiet escape, brushing all his tracks away behind him with a pine branch. As daylight began to filter through the trees, he began moving faster, knowing that the elf was probably awake by now.

"Where did that human go?" Legolas muttered to himself darkly. He had moved all around the camp carefully looking for the human but had found no sign of him, "How could he get out of here without leaving a single mark or sign or… something!" the elf threw his arms in the air, "I am about to give up. I'll head west, if the human does live in Rivendell, then he'll be heading that way," Legolas turned to face west and made his way out of the camp, making sure that everything was covered up.

Legolas sighed. He'd been walking for almost an hour and this was only the second sign he'd found, the first was a pine needle trail and slight scratches in the dirt that came from the needles being dragged. Now he found the branch the Ranger had been using to hide his tracks. At least he knew he was going the right way.

Aragorn paused; he could swear he heard someone. Quietly jumping into the bush on his right, he got ready to run out if anyone found him. His weapons
were all taken when he was taken prisoner. During his long walk, his head had begun to swim. The injury to his forehead had begun to bleed again and all he could do was tear off a piece of his blanket and wrap it tightly around his forehead. But he hadn't done it soon enough and the blood loss was beginning to make him light-headed. Nothing seemed steady to the Ranger and he was glad to have an opportunity to sit down for a moment. A couple seconds later, the elf walked up next to the bush the Ranger was hiding next to. When he stopped the Ranger winced, knowing he could probably hear his deep, shallow, unsteady breathing. The elf turned and started searching through the bushes, looking for the human he knew wasn't far. Strider crawled under the bush and came out on the other side. While the elf was searching the other side, he climbed up the nearest tree. He pulled himself up onto the first branch and quickly but quietly moved up a ways so that the leaves hid him. Then the elf turned and looked through the bushes beneath the Ranger. He couldn't help but smile when he saw the elf's confused look, but that caused his head to spin, which caused him to moan. Quickly realizing his mistake he rolled his eyes, which didn't help the dizzy
feeling. At the sound of the moan, the elf started and looked up. The elf walked towards the tree and was just about to climb up when two other elves came towards him. At the sound of their voices, Aragorn jumped and looked down at them happily.

"Legolas?!" the first one said, "we didn't expect to see you here."

"We were on our way to see you," the second said, "we've been… looking for someone."

"Oh?" Legolas asked, "who does this someone look like?"

"Well, um," the second stuttered, "he's uh…"

The first sighed and shook his head, "he's a human. He was sent out to get rid of three or four orcs to make sure they did not come back to Rivendell with more, but he has not come back and it's been just over two weeks now."

"A human huh?" the elven prince couldn't hold back his smile.

Aragorn almost sighed in relief, if his brothers trusted the elf he could too, he smiled mischievously, but he decided to listen and find out where this would lead.

"Yes, a human," Elladan said, "have you seen him?"

"Well," Legolas said, "I have seen a human, if he was the one you're looking for, I do not know, what is his name?"

"His name is Estel," Elrohir said, "… what happened to your arm!?"

"What? Oh, I was following the human and I… fell out of a tree," the prince muttered the last part quietly in an annoyed tone.

"You fell out of a tree?" Elrohir said, "I can't believe… ouch!" he said when his brother elbowed him in the side.

"Have you seen the human?" Elladan asked, "we need to bring him home, father is getting worried."

"Home?" the prince raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, he's our adopted brother."

"Oh, so it was the same human," he said.

"You saw him?" Elrohir blurted out hopefully, "do you know where he is?"

"Well, yes, I was tracking him here," Legolas said.

"Tracking?" Elladan asked skeptically.

"It's a long story, here, sit down and I'll tell you."

~*~*~*~*~*~

Elladan was almost laughing, "So, you were tracking him and got hurt, he helped you, somehow was taken into your prison and you didn't know until his
trial…"

"Where he was sentenced to one hundred years. Then you helped him get out and he ran off," Elrohir finished, then burst out laughing. When he finally stopped he asked, "So where is he now?"

Legolas opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by a voice above him, which made them all jump.

"Yeah, sure Legolas, but, you forgot to tell them that when I helped you, you tried to kill me and then caused me to black out by choking me to carry me out of your prison," Aragorn said, starting to laugh.

"Estel! There you are!" Elladan jumped to his feet, "fathers been worried
about you."

"Legolas, you tried to kill him?" Elrohir almost found this funny.

The elf prince turned red in the face and turned away. Strider jumped out of the tree and landed in between them.

"Hello Legolas," he laughed.

"Hi," the elf muttered back. He'd thought there was something different about this human, now he knew. The human lived with elves, he acted kind of like them too, which would be why he hid in the tree instead of staying on the ground, as well as being quieter and stealthier than other humans, that and the fact that he was a Ranger explained it all quite well.

"Come on," Elladan said suddenly, "we should go explain what happened to your father Legolas."

The other three nodded and headed back towards the palace, laughing and talking.

"You know, Estel, we're going to have to hurt you for taking off," Elrohir smiled evilly at the human.

"If you think you can…" Aragorn smiled cruelly.

"Ooo," Legolas started, "you'd better watch yourself Elrohir, the human will hurt you," he laughed.

"You'd better watch yourself," Strider said and pushed the elf forward.

Legolas faked the human, pretending to fall, he caught himself on his hands and spun around gracefully, tripping the human and causing him to fall forward. Elladan caught the Ranger and laughed.

"You'd better watch yourself little brother," Elrohir smirked, "you're not
as tough as you think you are."

"I'm going to make you eat those words!" the Ranger laughed and started chasing after his brother. The elf was faster and Aragorn knew that, so he used the elfs speed against him. After a while the Ranger stopped and hopped quietly into a bush beside him and waited, knowing it wouldn't take long for his elven brother to realize he wasn't following. Sure enough, a couple minutes later the elf walked back his way, calling for him. As he walked by, Strider put out his leg and tripped him. The elf, startled, fell forwards and stopped himself just above the ground with his arms. He sighed and lowered himself to the ground, trying not to smile.

"You know," Aragorn said, jumping out of the bush, "I said I'd make you eat your words, but, I kind of like watching you eat dirt more," he grinned wickedly and put his foot on his brother's back. At that second, he was jerked back and a long elven knife placed under his throat.

"What are you doing?" the elf whispered fiercely.





Lomiothiel- I know it got messed... sry 4 makin' ya' wait! Will post faster!

feanen- Thanx, glad ya' still like it. :)

leggylover03- sry to make ya' im... wait... that is sooooooooooo not my fault!!!!!!!! *grins*

Elanor8- nope, will not make ya' wait long. :) Glad ya' love it!

LalaithoftheBruinen- Glad ya' enjoy it and glad that it's excellent! Unfortunetly, yes the 3nd ch. was posted twice, wasn't my fault! *mock glares at the editor who posts for her 'cause her com. is evil.* THANK U 4 DA' HUGS AND BUNNIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *Huggles bunnies*

Bunnies: Help!

Lita of Jupiter- Me knows, me fixes... thank u 4 da' review!

Editors Note: Well, Elven Kitten and myself responded to your pleas for speed. Sorry bout that mistake again. I hope the speed for this one made up for it!