Okay this chapter is exciting. What a lot of you have been waiting for, but for waiting patiently you have been rewarded. This chapter and many of the next ones will be all adventure, drama, angst, and action. So I hope you're happy, because I wouldn't write it if I knew it would bore you. But if it does just tell me and I'll make it a lot more exciting.

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Cutheniel called out to Manwein, but the only thing that returned was her echo. She stood there for a while, thinking of what she should do.

'I can't go after him like this, without my weapons. It would be too dangerous. But if I go to the willow, by the time I get back here again, he could already be several leagues away.'

She stood there amused at an ironic thought; elves were made to run fast, so they could run after their enemy and would be able to catch them, or so they could runaway and not be captured. That was an advantage. But the disadvantage here was that the person running, and the person chasing were both elves. So it was like a dog chasing his tail, he could only run into either side of him if he stopped.

So Cutheniel had to hope that Manwein's anger would drain his energy and he would stop to rest.

Meanwhile she would have to go back to the willow to retrieve her weapons and maybe her belongings as well, just in case.

As she walked back toward the willow she hoped that not only Manwein's energy wearied, but his anger as well. She needed him to sit still while she explained. But first she had to find out how to explain.

When she got to the willow she opened the door- the willow had learned to recognize her and opened up automatically when she stood before it.

She sprinted up the stairs into her room where she collected all her belongings: her cloak, bag, extra clothes and her sack of food, which she had not even touched over the years. She threw out the apples and all the other food contents, except for the lembas-it could stay good for a long time.

She put all her knives back in their sheaths, hidden all over her body: a small dagger in her right boot, her longest knife in a sheath on her belt, an average sized knife in a sheath attached to her quiver, and her favorite one, which had not been given to her by Legolas.

It was hers; it was given as a gift to her from an elderly elf. He did not look old at all, but his eyes showed it, they were wise beyond the years of any mortal man, and stored a great amount of knowledge even for an immortal being. He had given it to her when she was walking at the edge of the forest by the village. He had been carrying many antique items into the back of his cottage and she could see that he was overwhelmed by his burden. She had helped him move all his items into his home and he was very grateful.

He let her in and allowed her to pick one thing from his vast amounts of treasure. She had found the knife there; its blade was long and thin. About half an inch wide on the flat side and one sixteenth of an inch wide on the other side. It was a foot and a half long and had a slender hilt. Tied around the edge of the hilt closest to the blade were two silk ribbons, one blue and one red. It could easily slice one's arm off if used correctly, and could be harmless if used the wrong way. It had taken her a long time to master its full potential.

She held it for a moment and shook it up and down a bit and watched the blade wiggle in several waves. Then she placed it in its slender sheath at the back of her belt.

She picked up her bow, secured her quiver and pack on her shoulder and stepped out. Hoping that Manwein hadn't gone too far in the ten minutes she had spent collecting her things.

Running she retraced her steps and then followed Manwein's trail. Just as she had suspected he had stopped several times, though only for a short amount of time, to regain his energy. His anger had drained him quickly, and Cutheniel guessed that he did not know that being angry while one is running only drains energy and that one should wait until he or she has reached their destination to let out their anger. But it was to her advantage so she did not complain.

Soon she came along his tracks, which were only several minutes old, she was catching up. But soon while she was following Manwein's trail a familiar smell reached her nose, and soon she could see the creatures' footprints as well. Orcs. Lots of them.

They had run into Manwein, and she could make out where they caught him. Manwein had struggled a lot, turned around only to find more orcs, and then tried to defend himself against them. He had soon given up; he deemed it too precarious to try to fight of all of these orcs and had just given up.

She followed their prints until she heard several voices talking, first talking in the Black Speech, and then in the Common Tongue. She climbed into a tree, peered down and saw several orcs crowded around a figure sitting on a stump, the figure was Manwein and they were interrogating him.

"What were you doing running so deep in the forest?" the largest one asked.

Manwein sat there silently and winced as the captain slapped him with the back of his disfigured hand. He remained silent and stared at the ground. The orc grew angry and struck him powerfully. The blow caused Manwein to whimper lightly in pain, and Cutheniel could see that his cheek was badly bruised.

'Manwein,' she whispered aloud by accident, hoping the orcs did not hear her express her grief.

They hadn't and she sat in the tree watching them ask Manwein more questions, but he still did not answer.

Suddenly a large hand came over her mouth and the other grabbed he by the waist and she kicked at her captor, as it pulled her roughly down the tree. She was shoved into the clearing by the large orc and the captain grunted amused.

"Ah, another elf has decided to grace us with its presence. I knew he was not alone," he stepped closer to her and took her chin into his slimy hand and tilted it up to get a better look at her. He snorted and laughed. "This one is a maiden."

The rest of the orcs laughed loudly and slapped each on the back, each one wildly amused. But Manwein just stared at her, and amazingly his stare was neither cold nor angry, but worried. She smirked at him trying to look smug and shrugged her shoulders, as if to say, 'That didn't go exactly the way I planned.'

He smiled back warmly and seemed to forgive her for the time being, until she could fully explain what had happened earlier. He could never really stay mad at her for long, and in fact he could never really be mad at her in the first place, he was always mad at himself.

The captain turned back to her. "Now what is fair maiden like you doing out here in the dangerous forest, you could get hurt," he teased. Cutheniel angrily spat in his face, she hated when people thought she could not defend herself because she was a girl. He swiped the spit off his face with the back of his hand. "This one is feisty," he said amused even more by her spunk.

He turned to his fellow orcs. "Tie their hands. We'll take them back to camp, and then bring them to the dark wizard. He will be very pleased."

Cutheniel stared at Manwein as the orcs tied both their wrists behind their backs. He stared back, and she could sense fear in his eyes. He hadn't encountered orcs since his village was burned down and that incident had traumatized his life.

The orcs walked in a line with their prisoners in the middle. The ones on the side carried large sticks with which they sometimes whacked Cutheniel and Manwein's legs if they went to slow.

They led them for many miles through the forest and by the time they arrived at the orcs' camp the sun was long gone and their legs were so wounded that some of their lesions drew blood.

While Cutheniel and Manwein rested on the damaged bedrolls that were given to them only because they were useless to the orcs because of their condition, they listened to the conversation the captain and his closest official were having by the fire.

Though she could hear all of it, Cutheniel could only understand snippets of their conversation. But they were not simply prating; they were discussing what they would do with their prisoners. She heard the word snaga, which meant 'slave', and she made out something that sounded like, 'or give to dark master'.

So they had a master, and she assumed that this 'master' was not an orc, but a dark wizard, from what she had heard them say ere their arriving at camp.

"Can you understand what they're saying?" Manwein asked scooting over to sit next to Cutheniel.

"Partly," she said turning to face him. "They're debating if they should keep us for slaves, or if they should give us to their master. I think, I'm not sure exactly, but I don't think their master is an orc. I've heard them call him a wizard several times, so he might be human." She stared at him silently for a while, hoping that he had forgotten what had happened; though she knew he did not.

"That was the Prince, earlier today. Was it not?" he asked slipping carefully into the dreaded subject.

Cutheniel bowed her head, stared at the ground, and nodded. "Yes, it was," she said playing with the laces on her long boots.

"So…you've known each other long?"

Cutheniel untied the laces of her right boot. "Yes, since we were young."

Manwein waited for a while then asked nervously, "Have you liked each other long?"

Cutheniel thought about it for a moment as she began to tie her bootlaces again. "I am not sure about him, but I've… well I've liked him ever since I came of age."

"Why didn't you ever tell me?" he asked, his voice gentle, not wanting her to think he was angry, because he was not.

Cutheniel tied the top of her bootlaces into a knot, so that the remaining laces dangled down to where the laces started up. "Because I could tell, since the first day that you felt, you know… that way about me, and I didn't want you to get hurt, though I knew waiting longer to tell you would hurt you more. But I thought I could hide it from you, and I did for some time."

Manwein looked at her face, her eyes were too preoccupied with looking down at the laces she was tying on her left boot, and he could see that she was scared to look at him. He stared at her staring at her laces for some time, until the quiet was shattered as the captain orc stomped over to them.

"You two," he grunted loudly. Surprised Manwein jerked his eyes from Cutheniel and Cutheniel jerked her eyes up from her laces. The two stared at the orc waiting for him to tell them what he had to say. "You to will get your rations tomorrow, and don't expect a feast. We will only feed you once a day and if you do not walk fast enough I will eat your rations myself. My troop and I need to get where we're going a soon as possible and I do not want you two slowing us down. If you do not like this arrangement, tell me now and I'll kill you right here."

They remained silent. "Good. Now go to sleep, or however you strange elves rest. My troop has been marching a great distance before we captured you and they need to rest as well. Don't' try to run away though, I'll assure you that I've already appointed a guard to watch you two," before he walked away he kicked both of them in the stomach and laughed as he watched them flinch.

They crawled into their separate tattered bedrolls, and the two silently watched some of the orcs that were still awake.

Three of them were sitting near the fire spitting into its flames. One large spew sent the flames crackling wildly, causing a spark to hit the one of the orc's nose. The other two laughed so hard that they fell over.

Cutheniel turned away from them and looked at Manwein, who had been staring at her. "Amin feuyaten'ron- They disgust me," she said as she turned to look up at the starry sky.

Manwein looked up as well, but there was still a question lingering in his head. He propped his body on one shoulder and turned to her. "Cutheniel…"

Cutheniel tilted her face toward him; she was too tired to sit up so she remained lying down. "Yes?"

"Before you left to go on that walk. That kiss…did you mean it?"

"What do you mean?" she asked confused.

"Well I know you meant to do it, but did you mean it, you know. Did you kiss me because it seemed like the right thing to do or because you wanted to?" After he asked this he looked down and blushed, embarrassed.

"Well, yes I did. And it was longer than I thought it would be. I don't even know if it was you or me, who extended it," she laughed light-heartedly. "But I think because you were so shocked, it was most likely me."

"Really?" he asked, his boyish side kicking in again, which like it was guaranteed to, made her smile.

"Yes really. Now go to sleep before they hear us talking," she watched as he slipped back into the bedroll she sat up and spontaneously kissed Manwein on the forehead. Then astonished she lay back down and looked at the sky.

"What was that for?" she heard him ask.

"I don't know. Does there have to be a reason?" she said smiling.

"I guess not." Suddenly Manwein seemed to grow up in an instant, and was no longer the young warrior who still acted like a love-struck, little boy. But a young, love-struck warrior who acted his own age. He turned to Cutheniel who was staring at the stars and took his forefinger and stroked Cutheniel's ear up to its pointy tip. Then he began to play with her hair, wrapping and unwrapping it around his forefinger.

She stared at him perplexed as he palpated her locks. 'Oh well,' she thought, 'What could it hurt? Legolas will not find out, he is stuck in the palace. And he has had many lady friends; he has even made love to many of them. Am I not allowed to have a male friend? I am not bedding with him anyway, what could it hurt?' She smiled and pulled Manwein's hand away from her hair. She held it in hers, and he looked at her bewildered.

"What could it hurt?" she said slyly.

Manwein smiled and replied, "Nothing."

She turned her back to Manwein and he put his hand on her waist. 'Curse elfin hormones,' she thought humorously. 'Of all times they kick in when I'm in the middle of a crisis,' she silently giggled, and fell into dream, with not a shred of guilt in her mind. A saying from Maliana entered her dreams. 'All's fair in love and war,' she had said to Cutheniel and they had both started laughing. She was not cheating against Legolas; he had done this many times before anyhow. He was growing and he was older than she was and his lust was not easily satiated. Now she was growing and her lust needed to be fed before it grew insatiable.

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Well less happened in that chapter then I had reckoned. Oh well, it's summer vacation, and I'll have lots of time to write the other chapters, esp. since I'm grounded and can't watch t.v. So writing is really the only thing I can do, lol.

Well there will be a lot more excitement. Don't worry. Ha! Elfin hormones! Lol! Sorry I couldn't help putting that. By the way do elves have hormones? Someone please review and tell me.

Any takers on how old I am? I'm in between 10 and 20. ElVeNdEsTiNy don't answer that cause you already know. And no asking her for the answer. The first person to guess it correctly will get a cameo appearance in the fic! Your very own character! You even get choose how he/she looks like, what part they play in the story, and what you want them to do. I'll email you if you win and ask you some questions about how you want your character to be. I'll announce the winner in the 12 and that person's character will be introduced in the 13 chapter. So review and guess. Only one guess per reviewer, please to minimize confusion.

So review, review, and review again! I love reviews! Come on press the button, you know you want to. Well, Namaarie!

~ Cutheniel Yavadren ~