And here is chapter three. A word of warning, it is quite long...really
long, but there was just no suitable place to put in a chapter break
without not only disrupting the flow of the action but also taking away
most of the tension. So here it is. As usual, replies to reviews are down
the end as they get quite long as well.
Also, much thanks to Ihni for the chapter title - I was utterly stuck.
*****
The Thrill of the Chase
Chapter Three
Burning Betrayal
*****
Finally deciding that it would be nice if he went to rescue the idiotic guard sometime soon, the Elf kicked the door wide open, sending a number of unlucky men flying backwards as the wooden structure banged into them. Watching his handy work, Legolas took a few steps backwards, lining himself up with the crates while his eyes locked onto a target that only he could see. Head down and a small smile playing across his lips, he ran full pelt towards the open door, springing off the crates once he reached them and thus sending himself soaring through the air.
With that the Elf entered the fray, making the impressive entrance that he wanted as he curled in on himself, flipping over the first row of heads and landing right in the middle of the battle.
Automatically whirling into action, he dispatched as many startled men as possible. A high kick to the head saw the first fall into the mud, just as his elbow crushing a man's nose saw to it that the murky liquid that covered the ground splashed up the sides of the surrounding fighter's pants as blood seeped into the fabric of his tunic.
Bending sideways, his hand sinking into the mud, Legolas used his arm to support his light weight as he kicked both feet into the head and throat of another attacker, not only snapping his neck, but also crushing his windpipe in the deadly move. As the man fell, Legolas pushed off the slumping body and flipped right over his left hand, his flowing cloak following suit as his feet impounded upon the chest of a gang member behind him.
Grabbing a staff from one man who was busy attacking a foe, Legolas brought the end of the wooden pole down on the head of the man before smashing the other end into the face of the individual that he had been attacking in the first place. Casting one end of the staff to the mud and slamming the side of his booted foot onto the bottom of the wood, he splintered the end into a sharp point before throwing it like a spear into the stomach of another.
A man to his left, who was wielding a pitchfork with surprising accuracy, came running at the strange being, the weapon held high above his head, obviously intending to simply bring it crashing down upon the Elf's head. Already having worked our the foundations of the man's attack, Legolas merely waited for his foe to reach him and, as the four points of the farm tool came flying down through the air, the Elven prince turned assassin simply stepped to the side, moving so quickly that the other man hardly noticed at all. As the forked-end sunk into the deep mud, Legolas kicked out at the man while wrapping his hand around the end of the handle. Legolas' kick caught the man in the stomach and forced him to stumble back at the potency behind the blow, effectively parting him from his weapon. Snatching the wooden pole into his hands, Legolas wrenched the tips free and, as the man once again charged at him, spun the fork to the other side of his body, using the four points to dig deeply within his skin and slit the thick throat as he pulled the pitchfork to the side, opening up a huge wound.
Eyes darting across the battlefield, Legolas spied the guard only a few people away. His watchers had found a nice signpost to lynch him from and, while one was beating the man to keep him from running, the other was busy trying to throw the rope over the protruding beam.
Grip tightening around the handle of his new weapon, Legolas wished that he had at least thought of donning his gloves before jumping whole-heartedly into the fight. He held the staff high above his head and, taking a few quick steps, shoved the end deep into the earth and used his momentum to volt over the few remaining fighters that stood in his way.
As his hands let go of the wood and he once again tucked his head under and into a summersault, he reached for his bow-knives, pulling them free from their position at his back with no amount of effort.
Landing easily on both feet, he slammed the blades into the backs of the two people he had just passed over before spinning them over his knuckles and bringing them back to the front. Legolas used this right knife to sever a man's hand from his wrist just as he saw that the man with the noose had in face successfully secured the rope around the beam. Both of the guard's attackers were there, tugging at the other end and pulling the struggling man well off his feet.
Teeth sinking into his bottom lip, Legolas once again spun his daggers, getting them into a more comfortable grip for throwing. Closing his mind to all else around him, he narrowed his world to the two men, the victim and himself, making sure that he knew that this was all that mattered. The others, well, they could all kill themselves off as far as he was concerned. Each and every one of them were scoundrels, criminals and murderers; ruthless man that cared for nothing and no one but themselves and obtaining power. They were the very definition of the type of person that he would gladly accept money for in exchange of him stealing their pathetic life a little before their actual time.
But the guard? He was the only true innocent in this entire catastrophe. All he had done was his job; tried to uphold the law and help a wounded man, and so it was he and he alone that Legolas would worry about. The others be damned.
It was with that in mind that he allowed his daggers to fly from his hands, spinning through the air and catching the soft light along their gold and sliver blades. Both hit true, burrowing deep into the hearts of both men and felling them in little more then a moment. As their eyes rolled back in their heads and their bodies went slack, the strangling guard fell to the ground, gasping for air as his face sunk in the mud.
Shoving his way through the remainder of the people, Legolas first retrieved his daggers from the bodies of the men - needing to use his foot as a brace in order to wrench one of them free - before slicing the restraining rope from around the guard's throat.
Tucking one of his daggers back into the sheath at his back, he looked down at the man. "You humans," Legolas yelled over the din as he hauled the startled man up by his collar, "you are incapable of keeping yourself out of trouble." Practically using him as a battering-ram, Legolas shoved their way through the crowd and basically threw the guard through the doors of the stable. All the while, the Elven prince continued prattling to no one in particular, cursing himself for getting so far involved and letting his emotions take over. "Idiocy in you mortals must come with short years!"
"You are quite bitter, you know that?" the man coughed out, his body doubled over his middle and his hands wrapped around his throat as he tried to rub the feeling back into it. Normally he would have already profoundly thanked his rescuer, but considering the person behind the liberation and said person's ill-contempt the thought never really crossed his mind.
"Comes with the circumstances and the current company!" the Elf shot back as he dashed around the room, dragging barrels and crates to pile in front of the door.
The sound of clashing blades could be heard coming from both angels, the one in which Legolas had entered the stables and the one that he had just barricaded after saving the foolish guard, painfully marking their trapped situation. Outside the fighting continued to rage, the yells and cries growing as the numbers of standing humans dwindled. Bodies crashed to the ground, the liquid mud splashing into the air and laced with the glimmering red of blood. Weapons lay forgotten among the bodies, stained with the very life of all living beings and never again to be used by their rightful owners. Fire lit the street, torches being waved in hopes of taking out numerous foes with one swipe, or the flames splattering out as they lay sinking in the blood stained mud next to unmoving hands.
For the Elf, it was hard to tell which was worse; the scene before him or the sight that greeted him every time a war was over. At least with the battles that he had participated in there had been a greater cause; a purpose and belief that needed defending or proving. This? This was just a slaughter - a petty excuse for the lower beings of Middle-Earth to kill each other off all in the name of apparent 'honor'.
"Do you have a name?" the guard asked of the still moving Elf. Legolas seemed enable to just stop; if he was not making sure that both the doors were well secured, he was searching through the old tools, overturning the lids of creates or testing the stability of rope. A constant frenzied movement that still held a remarkable amount of grace and formality.
"No," was the concise and rather unfriendly reply as the Elf wrapped a length of rope around a wooden pillar and pulled with all his might. Satisfied with the result, the Elf let one end go and quickly wound the excess around his hand and elbow, forming a neat loop before tying it off and shoving it into his pack.
"Well," the man said with a small sigh although his brow was furrowed; this Elf seemed close to being eccentric. "I am Gruthfrid, nonetheless," the man introduced himself to the barely listening blond.
"Aha," Legolas murmured as his eyes flicked over the ceiling.
"I thought that you Elves were all 'live in the light and dance around in joy," Gruthfrid questioned, his interests quirked as he watched the Elf go about his business. He appeared to be counting something, perhaps measuring the amount of steps from the place he stood to the corner of the room and the first horse enclosure.
"And yet I skulk in the shadows?" Legolas added, knowing full well where this was going. Deciding to give the man the truth - or at least the select parts of the truth - Legolas just let out a small sigh and said, "It comes from living a millennia in the eyes of the public... You try it - it is an anger inducer if I ever knew one!"
"So you kill people to take away the anger?" Gruthfrid continued, musing over the small amount that he knew about the being before him. He had no doubt in his mind that he had killed those men in the streets; stolen their lives within the quickest of moments, and yet that stood to contradict the ideas behind the Elf saving him. He did not have to risk his neck to save a human that had been willing to apprehend him only minutes before. "Wait, wait, wait!" he mused, his thoughts finally filling in the open gaps of the situation, "You killed them because they attacked you. But why did they attack you? Maybe you annoyed them in some way before and then-"
Whirling around and glaring at the man with hatred, Legolas emitted a small hiss through his teeth as his eyes flared. "Are you quite done?" he spat out, his tone dripping with venom, "Now be silent and let me think before I silence you myself!"
For a time there was relative quiet within the old stables, the only noise coming from Legolas' scrounging and the guard's occasional cough and pacing. Neither felt too threatened by the happenings outside and yet it was painfully obvious that, Legolas especially, did not want to be in there at all.
"Ah?"
Legolas hissed at the sound, his patience long since pushed past his limit. "I thought I told you to be sil-" he started only to be cut off by Gruthfrid's yell of...
"FIRE!"
Automatically stopping and whirling around on his heels, Legolas looked to the area that the guard was quickly fleeing. Flames lapped rapidly at a small window in the far wall, the bright oranges and reds of the greedy fire spreading up the wall akin to a growing vine up a trellis. Even as he watched, the ever ravenous flames extended, latching onto the already contorted wood and making it crackle and pop as it heated up until it snapped and bent further out of shape before being completely overrun by the heated conflagration.
Legolas had known that he could smell smoke all along but he had simply put it down to the flaming torches that lay dying out in the streets along with their previous possessors. It had not even occurred to him that the pitiful torches would be enough to set the building on fire, let alone as quickly as it had.
Now utterly convinced that he should not have tempted the Valar before, Legolas grabbed one of the many horse blankets that lay around the stables and handed it to Gruthfrid.
"Do the best you can," he instructed over the steadily growing roar of the flames, "do not get too close and try not to do anything characteristically stupid."
Snatching the offered cloth from the Elf, Gruthfrid shook it out as he marched over to the burning wall, muttering under his breath about 'ill mannered Elves.' Flicking his wrists and letting the cloth create its own wind, Gruthfrid tried his best to keep the roaring fire under control and from allocating itself to the straw covered floor.
While the guard was busy waving the blanket at the flames - appearing to be doing more harm then actual good - Legolas decided that it was time that he - they - got out of there. Cutting his scrounging expedition short, he grabbed his pack and slipped it over his shoulders as he started to run towards the corner of the room, counting his steps as he went.
Confidence surged through Legolas. This was more like something that he was used to. The walk into the tavern earlier that night had been like a living hell for him, having to keep himself under control as he allowed the looks that the humans gave him to go unpunished. But this, this was a walkover. This was what he was born to do, what came to him like second nature; a sixth sense which stepped in and took control of his actions without even a moments' hesitation.
This was his life.
Right leg stretching up, his foot landing on one of the rungs of the enclosure, Legolas quickly and easily pushed himself off and threw his body weight in the other direction. Bending his knee and drawing up his foot, his boot slid off the side of the wooden wall, his toe fitting into a tiny gap which provided enough leeway for the abnormally light being to push off from again.
Finally seeing that what he was doing was useless, Gruthfrid turned around to see what it was that the Elf was doing - the silence with which he moved was utterly unnatural. As he turned, he saw the last thing that he ever would have expected. Now, keeping in mind that he did not know much about Elves but he was more educated on the subject then most mortals, Gruthfrid felt for sure that what this particular one was doing was far from normal.
He appeared to be running up the wall although that was obviously not true...not possible... It merely looked like it; the Elf was moving that fast, springing from the tiniest crevices and footholds in the wooden wall that it looked as if he were just floating up to the ceiling, his feet propelling him up the corner of the room as if he were simply climbing a ladder.
As wall space unavoidably ran out, Legolas simply angled both feet to the wall and pushed off with all his might, sending himself into a back flip off the side of the building. His arms were held above his head, bent at the elbows and his palms out flat as his lithe body soared through the air akin to a leaf caught in the wind. Hands perfectly in line, Legolas caught the side of one of the wooden beams with his fingertips and allowed his palms to come down on the flat of the rafter. Lining up his center of balance flawlessly, he stayed perched on the beam in a handstand for a mere moment; simply enough to make sure that he had successfully stopped his forward momentum. Bringing his fingers of his right hand taut, he used them as a spring and pushed himself to the side and over his still gripping left hand. Soft leather boots hit the beam without so much as the tiniest scuffling sound as he stood himself upright on the girder.
Only remaining in the position long enough to be sure that he had his footing, Legolas dropped to the beam and hooked his legs around the wide girth. Falling backwards, he tightened the muscles in his legs, causing his body to swing in under itself on the rafter while hanging him upside down a few feet away from the guard.
"Grab my hand," Legolas instructed as he swung from his bent knees. Cautiously Gruthfrid moved forward, heading towards the upside-down Elf and reached out his hand. He was not at all thrilled with what he guessed was coming next and the fact that he hardly trusted the strange Elf before him did naught to make the situation any easier.
"Hurry up!" Legolas commanded, giving his hanging hands a small jolt to emphasis the fact.
Taking a leap of faith, Gruthfrid jumped up, his hands outstretched and grabbed hold of the Elf's leather arm guards. Legolas' hands closed tightly around the human's lower arms in a grip that almost made the human gasp in pain. One swift tug saw the human being lifted off his feet as, through a remarkable amount of flexibility, Legolas heaved himself back up into a sitting position, dragging Gruthfrid with him like a dead weight.
"Grab onto that beam," Legolas instructed, motioning with his head to another supporting rafter that ran close behind the guards dangling position. Once the man had a strong grip of the wooden plank, Legolas let his grasp drop and rose to his feet.
The Elf could hear the sounds of Gruthfrid scrambling to gain his footing on the other beam just as he could feel the strange, if somewhat frightened gaze of the mortal locked onto his back. Determined to ignore the other, Legolas went about putting phase two of his escape plan into action.
"Who the hell are you?" Gruthfrid demanded as he stepped easily onto the same rafter as Legolas, his fear now mixed with wonder.
"Someone that advises you that is it best that you do not know," Legolas mumbled as he walked easily across the beam and to the place where the slanted roof met the vertical walls. Slipping his bag from his back, he placed one foot behind the other and balanced expertly on the thin beam before swinging the heavy pack and allowing it to crash into the underside of the roof. Shingles smashed, shattering against the weight of the blow and flew into the air before falling to the straw covered floor like a hail. A gush of fresh, cool night air swept over Legolas' face as the small openings in the room were widened, and, with yet another swing, he had the hole to a size that he was sure even the human could fit through.
"The trick is to be quick," Legolas told the man, hoping that he would display an uncharacteristic amount of intelligence and understand what it was that he was telling him. "They will break under your weight so move fast. Try not to think too much about where your foot is going but more on when it will be rising again." Turning to the man who clung to an intercepting beam to keep his balance, Legolas saw the slight hint of fear in the guard's eyes. It was often a hard thing to remember that not all people did this sort of thing at least once a week, especially not humans and so, secretively telling himself that he was not going soft and starting to care, Legolas offered the man a small smile and an encouraging pat on the back of the shoulder. "You can do it, just follow me and try to keep up." Wishing that he had time to get his leather gloves from his pack, Legolas reached up and clasped his pale, slender hands around the edges of the roof tiles, feeling the jagged edges cut into the tender skin as he tightened his grip. "Oh," Legolas added for the human as a last thought, "Do not look down."
With that he raised himself up easily, the folds of his black cloak swishing as he disappeared through the hole in the ceiling, leaving the anxious guard to his own accord.
The cool of the night air was a relief to the Elf as he pulled himself out into the open. The moon was high in the sky, a large silver and gold ball floating upon the dark heavens and casting a golden-blue ring around its edge. Pale hoary light danced upon the long, wispy clouds that stretched across the sky like the reaching fingers of a hungry child, making them seem magical in their appearance; curved shavings of glimmering silver floating in a pool of dark water.
Knowing that he was safe for the time being - since he was an Elf he hardly added any extra weight to the fragile shingles, and he was well out of the human eyesight of the gangs below - Legolas waited until he saw the shifting shadow of Gruthfrid. The man was coming, which was a good thing, but chances were that he would need aid in getting out so Legolas took the time to inspect his cut hand.
The wound was surprisingly deep, cutting right into his palm and spanning all the way from near his thumb to a few inches below his little finger. Angling it up to the light, Legolas could see that the tear was serrated and uneven with large flaps of skin being lifted but remaining still attached. Surprisingly for both the degree of blood that ran down his arm and stained his shirt before dripping steadily to the ground and the horrendous look of the cut, the wound did not hurt or throb as one would expect. Just another war wound, another scratch and another scar, all of which were part and parcel of his job - especially when things went wrong to such a degree as this. The only problem that Legolas could foresee this wound causing would come later when he would have to try and hide it from Erestor during his planned visit to Rivendell.
"Ah... A little help please..." a voice said meekly from below the Elf's position. Glancing down, Legolas saw the man holding onto the side of the shattered tiles, grimacing slightly as the compounded and hardened mud- brick cut into his flesh.
Stepping carefully around the broken tiles, Legolas positioned his feet where he knew there were two sturdy beams to support the human's weight. Right hand brushing against his cloak to wipe off the blood, Legolas reached down and grasped the man by the wrist, crossing both his arms to provide better leverage. With one quick pull, the Elf had the man up through the hole, turning him around as he went so that Gruthfrid's back was to him. Once the man was half sitting on the tiles, Legolas moved off the beam, allowing the guard to scramble the rest of his way by himself.
"Stand right there," Legolas instructed, positing the man on a section of the roof which was supported by two crossing beams.
Gruthfrid did as he was instructed, his eyes on the sloping roof as he moved to balance on the partly stable section. Once satisfied that he was in a safe enough position, he turned back to the Elf, intending to ask him what they were to do next, only to be completely caught off guard by the sight of him.
His unnamed companion was standing easily on was a noticeably an unstable section of roof, his feet resting on decaying tiles in a fashion that suggested that the dangerous flooring was the safest in the world. But that was no the thing that startled him. The Elf's hood was down, forming a layered triangle under his long, golden hair and leaving his face exposed for all eyes to see. Yet, unlike before when the Elf had been hidden in the night, his skin now seemed to radiate a soft light. Pale like the moon, the glow illuminated the Elf, making him stand out against the dark sky like a softly glowing star of golden light.
"By the Valar!" the man exclaimed, stumbling backwards and further away from the Elf, his eyes huge with fright. "You...you are glowing..." he started dumbfounded as he stared at the Elf's exposed hands and face, his mouth hanging agape.
Merely rolling his eyes at the reaction of the man - a typical one to say the least - Legolas let his hands drop to the back of his shoulders and flipped his hood forward, pulling it right over his head. He had completely forgotten about that little fact. Truly, it was such a small, trivial thing that he could hardly understand what it was that seemed to frighten human's so badly.
"But..."
"'Tis an Elven thing," Legolas muttered as he quickly plotted the best course across the unstable roof, "do not trouble yourself over it." Finally working out exactly what he was going to do, Legolas turned back to the man, his glowing face now hidden deeply in his cloak hood.
"This is what is going to happen. I will go first and until I tell you to move, you stay here and stay put." Waiting for a nod of confirmation from the human, Legolas slipped his pack in front of him, keeping it on one shoulder as he dug into the opening. As his hand emerged with a rope - a different one to the one that he had taken only moments before - the Elf continued. "I mean it when I say that if you move before I tell you to, I am not coming back, so for your own sake, do not do anything stupid. But when I tell you to come, move quickly, as I said before, and try to follow the path that I took. Understand?"
Teeth biting into his lower lip, Gruthfrid had to battle his own rage to simply give the arrogant Elf a nodded answer once again. The blond seemed to have a way of getting under his skin and irritating him, causing his blood to boil at the unnecessary words spoken with such a clipped attitude- filled tone.
Legolas paid the man no attention - as was becoming normal - as he readied himself to set out. Simply leaping to the adjacent roof of whatever building lay next to the stables was a futile idea. With the flames spreading so rapidly it was a logical guess that the foundations of the next establishment would be the next to be caught within the blaze. That was, if they hadn't already. It was with that in mind that Legolas chose the more obscure of the two paths. Over the roof, across the large gap that formed the battle ridden street and onto the next block of buildings.
Resolved to see to it that this night would hurry up and end, the Elven prince wasted no time in starting his light-footed run across the decaying roof, each foot hardly touching the roof as he traveled easily across the slanting surface.
It was hardly a matter of time before he was standing at the corner of the stables and as he reached to his belt to grab the cross bow that he had taken from Caldinor, he allowed himself a few moments to take in the scene below him.
The fighting still raged on, although with less intensity then when he was out there. Most of the men now lay in the gutters or sinking in the deep, liquidly mud whether they were dead or slowly dying and completely overlooked by their supposed comrades. A handful still fought, determined to see the battle through to the end while, judging from the shouts and cry's a number had fled with their enemy's in hot pursuit as they weaved through the streets.
Once again Legolas was struck by just how unimportant the battle had been. Such a waste of life, even if it was only that of mortals.
Not wishing to ponder the situation any further, Legolas concentrated on the knot that he worked over the end of one of the crossbow darts. The Elf then used his boot heel to open a small hole in the tiles of the ceiling which he used to secure the other end of the rope, tying it securely around one of the smaller structural beams. Looping the rope around the shaft once more, the Elf fitted it to the crossbow carefully, knowing that if he were not careful the knot would be spoiled by the trigger mechanism. Eyes narrowed, the Elf took meticulous aim before his fingers squeezed upon the latch at the base of the handle, setting the dart and rope flying out in the direction of the other building.
The dart held true to Legolas' aim and the thin shaft buried its head into the soft wood of the building opposite. Glancing behind him, Legolas was glad to see that the guard was still where he had told him to stay. All was going well.
Now came the hard bit. It was all very well for Legolas to run across the rope and be on his way, but to get the human over the large gap would prove to be a bit more of a challenge.
As he stepped onto the beginning of the rope bridge, Legolas felt the small amount of leverage that it gave and the slight spring from the slackening. Quickly calculating how hard he thought the wood of the other building to be against the estimate of his weight and that of the human's the Elf was able to get a clear answer. He would have no problems, but Gruthfrid would not be so lucky. Even if he pulled himself hand over hand the chances of the head of the dart pulling free were far too great. Not to mention the small tugging of his mind that would not allow him to push aside the thought that the rope was not strong enough for the human to use...
Stepping out onto the makeshift bridge, Legolas pressed his fear to the back of his mind as he deftly made his way across the thin rope, his footing sure and not slipping once. Once on the other side the prince shouted back to the human, using his name for the first time.
"Now, Gruthfrid," he called, knowing that the man could make out his words, "move now!"
Releasing his fear, Gruthfrid propelled himself across the roof, his arms held way out by his sides to keep his balance. Despite how the Elf had said his instructions and just how easy Legolas had made it look, Gruthfrid was hard pressed to keep himself moving. Each and every step that he took reminded him of what danger he truly was in - a single second too long on a certain spot could see him falling through the roof and into the roaring fire that was slowly consuming the stables. It was through sheer fear that he was actually able to keep himself moving, attempting to follow the Elf's path in his frightened and disorientated state.
Legolas was surprised to say the least. He had half expected the human not to make it. To cling to the far end of the building and refuse to cross the dangerous path that the Elf had set. But no. The guard had kept his eyes focused on the opposite side of the roof and had run faster then any human Legolas had seen before. Although it was a given that Legolas would never admit to his sense of admiration for the man at that moment, the Elven prince could not help but pass a small smile over his lips as his unlikely companion finally came to a stop near the end of the rope bridge.
"Please," Gruthfrid panted out, his hands resting on his knees in his doubled over state. "Please, don't seek to tell me that I have to follow what you did here..."
Surprising even himself, Legolas laughed as the man looked up through his hair at the being that stood waiting on the other side of the gap.
"No, no. Nothing like that," the Elf informed the other. "In fact, you are going to be original and swig across!"
"What?"
The expected reply, to say the least, but it did naught to deter Legolas from his plan.
"The dart will not hold your weight and even if I hold this end of the rope, it is likely to fray. The best choice is to get you over here as soon as possible and then I can pull you up." Horror flashed in Gruthfrid's eyes as the Elf explained the line of action, but again, Legolas did not allow it to bother him. It was probably just a human thing after all. "Seriously, it is the safest option."
Gruthfrid looked to the street below. The number of people had dwindled even more since Legolas had last looked and all threat from below was practically ruled out - well, that was except for the drop that was at least twice as long as the gap was wide.
"Trust me," Legolas added, all the while knowing full well that if he were in the guard's position - Valar forbid - that he would not. In fact, if someone like himself said those very words to him, Legolas was almost sure that he would throw his pride to the wind and run off in the opposite direction.
Gruthfrid merely offered a nervous half laugh as his response as he straightened his back. Looking the Elf in the eyes, the man once gain had to question himself on the happenings of that night. He held no doubt that Legolas was further involved in the current state of the town and yet for the life of him he could not work out why. The Elf seemed nice enough - slightly psychotic, but nice nonetheless. He had after all, risked his own life in order to save his and that was something that Gruthfrid both would not forget and which brought up questions. Especially since the Elf was once again going out of his way to get him to safety. But then why the murder of the three men in the streets below? Sure, they were thieves and criminals as the blond had stated, but it was still out right murder. Something that, looking at the Elf now and seeing the way he smiled and prompted Gruthfrid on, appeared almost impossible for the innocent seeming character.
Sighing and resolving to the fact that he may never know, Gruthfrid looked once again to the Elf and shrugged his shoulders.
"Tell me what to do."
Thankful that the man seemed to have emerged from his contemplation, Legolas wasted no time in explaining.
"Do you have a knife?" At Gruthfrid's nod, Legolas continued, "good, now cut the rope on your side - make sure to keep a hold of it!" he added quickly as the man reached down, just in case he was cursed with an even further lack of intelligence then most of his race.
Muttering half to himself and half to the Elf in proclamation that he was not that stupid, Gruthfrid cut the rope and wrapped his end around his arm, making sure that he had a tight grip on the almost slippery feeling cord. On the other side, Legolas pulled the dart out of the wood and did the same, insuring that he had a strong enough hold on the rope to be able to support the human's weight.
"Come on!" Legolas called out to the man, seeing that the building was slowly becoming further engulfed by the flickering flames.
For the second time that night, Gruthfrid found himself placing a lot of faith in a murderous Elf that he did not even know the name of as he took the fateful step off the side of the roof.
He was freefalling, the air whooshing against his face and playing with strands of his hair as he sailed down and across. It were a mere moment before he felt the rope go taut and, squeezing his eyes closed, his body thudded against the building that the Elf stood on.
Legolas had his feet braced against the far more stable roof and was ready for the human's weight to pull at his arms as soon as the rope went taut. Hand passing over hand, Legolas pulled the rope up, letting the useless other end fall behind him as the hand of Gruthfrid finally reached around the roof.
"I thought you said that you were not going to save me," Gruthfrid said with a small smile - triumphant and yet thankful - as his head appeared from over the edge.
"I said I was not coming back for you," was the only response that he received as the Elf once again pulled him onto the roof. Thankfully this one was far more stable, safe even for a heavy-footed human to tramp across without having cause for concern.
By now the old stables was well on its way to burning to the ground, the walls snapping as the heat and flames ate away at the wood. Parts of the roof were starting to cave in, shattering against the fire covered floor and sending small, burning embers up into the night like the twinkling of red fireflies. Assessing the size of the blaze, Legolas took a wild guess at what would happen. With most of the town split in two, and then half of them already dead, no one would be there to think of the fire and, at the rate in which the flames consumed the stables, it was Legolas' opinion that within a few more minutes - ten at the most - half of the building around it would be on their way to adding to the pile of ash. The fire would jump in the breeze, leaping from one building to another while becoming stronger and stronger with each new establishment that it incinerated until finally hardly any of the town's buildings would remain untouched. It was just a matter of time.
Pushing all feelings of guilt and self-blame from his head, Legolas reassured himself that all that had happened since his target had gone down was not his fault. It was merely the manifestations and results of a large group of unintelligent humans jumping at the smallest excuse to draw blades and kill each other.
That in mind, he once again set out over the rooftops of Larnfield, Gruthfrid in his wake, as he headed for the main walls. From here on out it was easy going. Gruthfrid should have no problems traversing the roves, and they were well out of harms way of the gangs. A quick scale down the side of the walls, a small hike into the woods, and the tying up of a loose end and this entirely disastrous night would all be over.
*****
"I owe you one," the man said as he reached out to shake Legolas' hand firmly. Finally free of the constricting walls of the burning town, the two unlikely companions stood atop a hillock that normally acted as a sentry post for the town. An old, decaying watchtower loomed off to their right, a dark shadow against the red streaked sky, from where all could be seen. Look to the north and one could see the entirety of the thieving town, to the south lay the woods that surrounded and both east and west were bored by large stretches of plains, dotted with thick clusters of trees.
"Aha," Legolas just sighed, practically snatching his hand back from the human while his gaze remained cast out into the distance, "because I really need the aid of a human that is incapable of keeping himself out of trouble!"
"Well either way," Gruthfrid continued, feeling that by now he was used to the Elf's apparent attitude problem and disdain towards humans. "I guess that I was wrong about you - you are a half decent person...Elf."
Smiling at the man, Legolas offered him a small bow; the most acknowledging action that he had showed the human since the time they met. "That is why I feel like I should apologize," Legolas said sincerely, his words causing a mirroring smile to form of Gruthfrid's lips only moments before the Elf smashed his fist into the humans face.
Gruthfrid looked momentarily stunned before the sheer force of the blow caused his eyes to roll back in his head and his body to slacken, his legs no longer being able to keep him upright. The man fell like a dead weight to the ground, landing in such a prone, unmoving form that, for a split second, Legolas thought that he may have hit him too hard and killed the fool.
Either way, what's done is done, and whether or not the man was still in fact breathing was not really the issue here - if anything, it would be better if the guard had been that easy to bump off. After all, he had seen Legolas' face. The man should be lucky - that is, if he did in fact live through this - that Legolas had not left him somewhere earlier; or let him end up strangling to death; or barricaded him in the burning stables; or...
Bending down, the Elven prince grabbed hold of Gruthfrid's heels and started to drag him across the leaf-litter of the forest. His arms following after his head and the back of his skull bumping along the ground actually forced a few grunts and moans from the man, a clear sign that Legolas had been lucky - or unlucky - and that the human was still alive.
Still weighing up the extent of his misfortune, Legolas let the man's legs drop unceremoniously to the ground as he went back for his pack. Tugging the flap open, he shoved his hand deep into the bag and scrounged around until his fingers came to settle on the rough fibers of the rope that he had taken from the stables.
Again...everything had been preplanned before he even dashed out to save the whelp!
A single tug to the smallest end of rope saw the length unravel as the Elf wondered back to the unconscious human. Throwing one end around a large tree truck, the left the rope sitting on the floor as he went and wound his fingers into the front of the guard's shirt. Towing him towards the tree in an upright position, Legolas merely let the fabric go once there and watched as the body slumped hard against the splintering wood. Kneeing down next to the man, Legolas grabbed both ends of the rope and crossed them over in front of the man's chest, pulling them tight and jolting Gruthfrid into an sitting arrangement, his back flush against the trunk. Looping the rope around the body and the trunk numerous times, Legolas moved behind the make-shift stake and tied the rope off tightly, placing knot over knot over knot just to be safe. He needed to be well out of this region before this man was allowed to escape.
Job finished, Legolas grabbed his pack off the ground and slung it over his right shoulder before once again offering the unconscious man a small bow. "Again, I do apologize! But you did bring it on yourself..." he muttered as he hiked into the woods, once again disappearing into the darkness of the night.
*****
Finally stopping as he rounded the top of a hillock, Legolas turned back in the direction of the village as he pulled out a small flask of water. The night sky was a dark black, streaked with grey clouds and harboring the floating moon like a dock to a ship. Well save for one part. Over the location of Larnfield the sky was lined in red and hazy black. Fire seemed to lick at the heavens above, roaring up in a frantic attempt to consume the darkness and make it surrender to the glowing embers of the flaming buildings.
Eyebrows quirked, Legolas merely looked at the proceedings with what appeared to be disinterest as he entertained the hope that he had roped Gruthfrid far enough away from the spreading flames...
Before turning on his heels and heading further into the woods, Legolas muttered one last word into the night.
"Humans..."
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
End Flashback (finally)
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
"Did you do it?"
"Yes," Legolas replied as Verdox stepped from the shadows, his hood drawn over his face. Suppressing a shudder, Legolas again asked himself why he had taken this job. Something about Verdox caused shivers to run up his spine. The way the man stood, his back straight and his shoulders squared and yet his head constantly bowed, covered by his hood, seemed wrong, off- putting. Even his voice had a strange coldness to it.
There was no real plausible reason for him to have accepted this offer over two months ago other then the fact that he had been itching for a challenge. He had not had anything that resembled a challenge in over a year, all his targets falling within a week or two after he was assigned to the case, and thus, a chance of tracking down one who had not been seen in over a year was just too much to turn down.
"Well?" Verdox demanded, his hand outstretched as he looked at the Elf expectantly.
Reaching behind him and into his pack, Legolas pulled out the various items that he had taken as a token of his achievement and handed them over to the human.
"I asked for his right hand," Verdox stated annoyed, his dark eyes fixating on the Elf.
"That would have arisen far too many complications," Legolas told him truthful while being completely undaunted by the harsh glare the man directed at him. "He was in too hard a place to just take such a thing, but I did the best I could. The dagger is from the concealed pocket in his right boot and the ring from his left hand. It is his seal and thus a good enough token of the kill."
Looking the items over, Verdox could not help but be surprised at the boldness of the Elf before him; it was as if he seemed to hold no fear at all.
"Very well," he sighed while tucking the belongings of the dead man into his pocket and the dagger into his own boot. Reaching to the small pouch at his belt, Verdox unfastened the ties and threw it to Legolas. "Your reward," he stated with a blunt expression.
Catching the bag easily, Legolas placed it into his pocket, not even bothering to check to see if it was indeed the promised amount. The money never mattered, and why should it? He was the sole Prince of Mirkwood and thus had no real need for the payment of hate driven men. He did it for the thrill, for the chase and for the fact that, by aiding the wicked, he was ridding the world of even more horrible people.
Placing his hand over his heart and bowing his head in a formal Elven blessing, Legolas smiled plainly at the man before him. "May the next time we meet be under the same circumstances." He had adopted that saying a few years ago after he finished a job for one man, only to find that his next assignment was to see that his past employer was involved in an accident as such. In such a world it was hard to tell who his next target would be, but, judging what he knew of Verdox, it was highly unlikely that he did not already have a few people after his head.
Without so much as another word, Legolas turned away and walked back the way he had come, heading to where he had left his faithful horse and back to the life of a prince.
*****
Watching the Elf go and making sure that he was out of earshot, Verdox turned to the three men waiting behind him. Since the Elf had turned they had quietly drawn their weapons in unison, the steel tips of the blades dull and lifeless in the strange light.
"Not yet, though we can't afford to leave him too long." he said with a small, commanding flick of his wrist, calling for the men to lower their arms. "Cardise," he called the leader forward.
Cardise, a man of about thirty years, stepped forward and, hand over his broad chest, bowed his head while letting out a small, "Hoy."
"I want to you take a message to Gareth," Verdox instructed slowly, as if the man were a simpleton. His eyes were still locked onto the place in which the Elf had disappeared through the trees, seeking out any glimpse of the being that he could see as the Elf retreated, his head held high. "Tell him that I want two thousand gold pieces upon that Elf's head and I want every bounty hunter, assassin and mercenary within three days ride of here to know of it. We will show him fear!"
"Why not hit him now, sir? When his defenses are down." Alkin, the younger of the group asked, his sword being turned over and over in his hands as the shifted his weight from foot to foot.
Growling lightly in his throat at the prospect of his leadership being challenged, Verdox glared the young man down, forcing him to recoil a few steps. "Because," Verdox replied in what could almost be said a sing-song tone yet with a slightly insane edge. "There are only three of you; he is not the best assassin out there because he has a pretty face. In order to take out the superlative, one must enlist a slight overkill in the numbers of the lesser and more inefficient to make sure that the job gets done. Also, he is still too close to Larnfield. If his body was found in these woods, it would go back to the remains of that pitiful town and then there is a chance of someone recognizing him, thus linking him with these woods and inevitably us. Besides," he added as if it were an upside to it all, "it will be interesting to see them squabble over whom has the right of first shot..."
***** To be continued...
*****
Next Chapter preview:
Walking forward, he almost let out a fierce growl when the man went out of his way to block his path again. Anger flaring in his eyes at the realization that Estel had been doing this on purpose the entire time, Legolas glared up at the taller man with a look that would have made a band of Orcs flee...Formality be damned! No one treated him in such a way, guest of Rivendell or not.
Later on:
"Last time I saw you, you left me unconscious and tied to a tree in a burning forest!" Gruthfrid reminded the Elf. It had been a close call. He remembered waking up to the intense heat of a burning forest and, as soon as his body started to function once again and obey his desperate need to move, he found that he was quite incapable of doing so. "And now you come here searching for my help..."
*****
Replies to reviews
lyric_firedancer: I know what you mean about having the two sides - they can be annoying as hell. One tells you slash, the other says friendship and they just keep arguing over the story until you finally beat your head upon the desk and pass out... or maybe that is just me! Lol. But yes, I know how frustrating it can be. But I am glad that you like it. Are you still going to go ahead with your assassin story, as if you do, please send me the link. There needs to be more funky stories with our Elves being slightly more on edge and with an attitude!
Rabbit of Iron: I'm so glad that you like Legolas - he is a bit if a - for lack of better word - bitch! Lol. And trust me, the arse-kicking is only just beginning...same with the 'damn sexy' (yes people, be afraid, be very afraid...) and I am trying to keep the update regular, it is just a matter of making sure that I have at least one chapter ahead prewritten before I post the next one. *hisses at you* Not James Bond...I hate James Bond!!!! His very name makes my blood boil...icky, icky, icky. If anything, I would rather say that this is along the lines of the TV show Alias, just with a male Elf who is not working for the government and has no problem with killing people and with slash...ok, so it is nothing like that show either, but it was worth a try! Lol.
Kael Kalespel: Glad you liked it yet again and I had hoped that it would be interesting. As for Legolas' use of his looks, well, that is not going to be a common occurrence - not really. It was just a matter of playing the part of the common whore was the best way to get to Sard, and then his man already seen Legolas acting as such and did not fear him because of it. Legolas merely played up to the role to give him a better grip on the situation and more of the upper hand. The next job that you see him do sees yet another different side of him...
whispers of an angel: Estel will be in it next chapter and he makes quite the impression...
Al: At the moment, most of this story that I am posting has been pre- written for AGES, I am just touching it up as I put them up. The lack of updates on stories such as Shadows Within is due to my sever lack of time these days. It normally takes me a good two weeks or more to write the chapters for that story since lots of them are close to 20 pages long - to a standard that I am happy with, and then I always make sure that I have the first few pages of the next done so that I know I have not written myself into a trap. Then comes the editing, the re-reading and often re- writing and making sure that it all fits my timeline. Being in the last term of my last year of school just means that I do not have the time to do this very often, so progress is very slow.
With this story I have the next chapter complete and waiting for a good edit, I have most of the chapter after that written, the last chapter written, and about 20 pages of prewritten scenes that are waiting to be slotted in at the right time, so I actually have it quite well under control. At the moment I am updating a chapter a week, but shortly it will probably be a chapter every two, depends on how much more writing I can get done in the last few days of my far-too-short holidays. But oh, there shall be many evils that are thrown to Legolas... no ropes through the ankles like Shadows, but evils nonetheless... Thank you for your review and I hope that I put your mind at ease at least a little with the stories progress report! Lol.
Analia: Oh no, another that is glaring at me for past stories... to save me tying what I called "The progress Report" all over again, please read the reply above! And yes, the later on previews are so fun for me to do! Finding all the really taunting bits to tease you all with... And look, an update, please don't threaten me...I am likely to threaten you back! Lol. Again, I am glad that you like this story and I am honored that you feel that way about my writing. Thank you kindly!
Vana E: *Is unsure where to start* those muses of ours are a real handful, aren't they?! Muse #4, trust me when I say that his conscience is only going to become more of a hassle as we go along, and the blood, gore, torture, and lots of death will only increase!! But I am sorry about Gruthfrid's rescue but it needed to happen for later on in the story... *hint hint* Muse #2: oh, so you are the slash fan, I gather. Well, I think you will like the next chapter!!! *Swats at Vana and tells her that I shall update when I am ready...but I hope that was fast enough for you* Muse #3: Come now, you know me...do you honestly think that I could do a story without something violent and bloodthirsty and you already know it is slash - I mean, look at what I did to them all in the Helm's Deep story...hold that as hope! Vana: you may want to look into getting a few tranquilizer guns and shots!
Sirithiliel: Ewww, I am not a romance fan either but I will write slash. And yes, slash is romance in a way, but it will not even be coo-y and crap like that. I will be there, as you will see next chapter (but after next chapter it kinda disappears for a time) but it will not be strictly romantic. I hope it is thrilling enough. We are now into the actual story, which is a relief, so it will hopefully be becoming a little more thrilling as we go.
Ihni: Well, I think I pretty much replied to you on the night, but here goes...
Yes, more Minka-ish! As was this one, I hope. Next you will probably kill me for, but then I'll just bribe you with the promise of pain, fight scenes and hurt and we will hopefully get over that... already told you that I liked your 'words of wisdom'!
LOL! 'Once in awhile' and as said above, I am trying to keep this one going nice and quickly so hopefully it will all work out as I planned. Glad you love the violence, it makes the world go around, it does! I write like a camera? Well, that is a different one, but something that I shall be greatly honored to except. *bows* and did we not attempt to switch language skills the other night? Lol. But by all means, kill a few people you don't like...just tape it so I can watch!
*Watches you go off on your rather large tangent here...wonders how we got from Legolas to Pirates and to Will...lol* Yes, I am ashamed of myself!! Oh, see, I can't read them - thy make me angry! I like to see my Elf strong, heroic and utterly deadly! I mean, he could probably kill someone with his pinky finger if he really put his mind to it! *makes note to try that out later...* As I said, I have not yet ventured over to the Pirates arena of fiction, but I will end up there soon, it is unavoidable. But god help anyone who writes a story with Will all weak without giving warning - I hate reading something and then BOOM, you are stuck in this typical Legolas/Will/any Orli character weak mode. It is so wrong! And yes, they are both strong, it is just that Will is not all that intelligent...but he can fight!!!
"...Will act like a dog who's begging for Jack's approval..." DUDE!!! There is a whole story idea in that one sentence!!! *ducks various sharp implements that are thrown her way* ok, ok, so maybe not... But thank you for clearing things up on the story plan we did. I shall try and get around to experimenting with it asap!
Ok, your criticism. Lol! I am not sure I understand. Are you saying that I am long winded and thus 16 pages never gets my anywhere, because if you are then I must agree with you (which kinda takes out the criticism factor) I know I don't shut up! Lol, I never get to the point, provided that I even have one, and if I really tried I could turn three seconds in about 1000 words! Lol. But if that is not the case, I shall get you to explain it so I can make improvements. *wink*
****
Wow, that was long, I do apologize. But anyway, until next chapter, I shall take my leave!
Minka.
Also, much thanks to Ihni for the chapter title - I was utterly stuck.
*****
The Thrill of the Chase
Chapter Three
Burning Betrayal
*****
Finally deciding that it would be nice if he went to rescue the idiotic guard sometime soon, the Elf kicked the door wide open, sending a number of unlucky men flying backwards as the wooden structure banged into them. Watching his handy work, Legolas took a few steps backwards, lining himself up with the crates while his eyes locked onto a target that only he could see. Head down and a small smile playing across his lips, he ran full pelt towards the open door, springing off the crates once he reached them and thus sending himself soaring through the air.
With that the Elf entered the fray, making the impressive entrance that he wanted as he curled in on himself, flipping over the first row of heads and landing right in the middle of the battle.
Automatically whirling into action, he dispatched as many startled men as possible. A high kick to the head saw the first fall into the mud, just as his elbow crushing a man's nose saw to it that the murky liquid that covered the ground splashed up the sides of the surrounding fighter's pants as blood seeped into the fabric of his tunic.
Bending sideways, his hand sinking into the mud, Legolas used his arm to support his light weight as he kicked both feet into the head and throat of another attacker, not only snapping his neck, but also crushing his windpipe in the deadly move. As the man fell, Legolas pushed off the slumping body and flipped right over his left hand, his flowing cloak following suit as his feet impounded upon the chest of a gang member behind him.
Grabbing a staff from one man who was busy attacking a foe, Legolas brought the end of the wooden pole down on the head of the man before smashing the other end into the face of the individual that he had been attacking in the first place. Casting one end of the staff to the mud and slamming the side of his booted foot onto the bottom of the wood, he splintered the end into a sharp point before throwing it like a spear into the stomach of another.
A man to his left, who was wielding a pitchfork with surprising accuracy, came running at the strange being, the weapon held high above his head, obviously intending to simply bring it crashing down upon the Elf's head. Already having worked our the foundations of the man's attack, Legolas merely waited for his foe to reach him and, as the four points of the farm tool came flying down through the air, the Elven prince turned assassin simply stepped to the side, moving so quickly that the other man hardly noticed at all. As the forked-end sunk into the deep mud, Legolas kicked out at the man while wrapping his hand around the end of the handle. Legolas' kick caught the man in the stomach and forced him to stumble back at the potency behind the blow, effectively parting him from his weapon. Snatching the wooden pole into his hands, Legolas wrenched the tips free and, as the man once again charged at him, spun the fork to the other side of his body, using the four points to dig deeply within his skin and slit the thick throat as he pulled the pitchfork to the side, opening up a huge wound.
Eyes darting across the battlefield, Legolas spied the guard only a few people away. His watchers had found a nice signpost to lynch him from and, while one was beating the man to keep him from running, the other was busy trying to throw the rope over the protruding beam.
Grip tightening around the handle of his new weapon, Legolas wished that he had at least thought of donning his gloves before jumping whole-heartedly into the fight. He held the staff high above his head and, taking a few quick steps, shoved the end deep into the earth and used his momentum to volt over the few remaining fighters that stood in his way.
As his hands let go of the wood and he once again tucked his head under and into a summersault, he reached for his bow-knives, pulling them free from their position at his back with no amount of effort.
Landing easily on both feet, he slammed the blades into the backs of the two people he had just passed over before spinning them over his knuckles and bringing them back to the front. Legolas used this right knife to sever a man's hand from his wrist just as he saw that the man with the noose had in face successfully secured the rope around the beam. Both of the guard's attackers were there, tugging at the other end and pulling the struggling man well off his feet.
Teeth sinking into his bottom lip, Legolas once again spun his daggers, getting them into a more comfortable grip for throwing. Closing his mind to all else around him, he narrowed his world to the two men, the victim and himself, making sure that he knew that this was all that mattered. The others, well, they could all kill themselves off as far as he was concerned. Each and every one of them were scoundrels, criminals and murderers; ruthless man that cared for nothing and no one but themselves and obtaining power. They were the very definition of the type of person that he would gladly accept money for in exchange of him stealing their pathetic life a little before their actual time.
But the guard? He was the only true innocent in this entire catastrophe. All he had done was his job; tried to uphold the law and help a wounded man, and so it was he and he alone that Legolas would worry about. The others be damned.
It was with that in mind that he allowed his daggers to fly from his hands, spinning through the air and catching the soft light along their gold and sliver blades. Both hit true, burrowing deep into the hearts of both men and felling them in little more then a moment. As their eyes rolled back in their heads and their bodies went slack, the strangling guard fell to the ground, gasping for air as his face sunk in the mud.
Shoving his way through the remainder of the people, Legolas first retrieved his daggers from the bodies of the men - needing to use his foot as a brace in order to wrench one of them free - before slicing the restraining rope from around the guard's throat.
Tucking one of his daggers back into the sheath at his back, he looked down at the man. "You humans," Legolas yelled over the din as he hauled the startled man up by his collar, "you are incapable of keeping yourself out of trouble." Practically using him as a battering-ram, Legolas shoved their way through the crowd and basically threw the guard through the doors of the stable. All the while, the Elven prince continued prattling to no one in particular, cursing himself for getting so far involved and letting his emotions take over. "Idiocy in you mortals must come with short years!"
"You are quite bitter, you know that?" the man coughed out, his body doubled over his middle and his hands wrapped around his throat as he tried to rub the feeling back into it. Normally he would have already profoundly thanked his rescuer, but considering the person behind the liberation and said person's ill-contempt the thought never really crossed his mind.
"Comes with the circumstances and the current company!" the Elf shot back as he dashed around the room, dragging barrels and crates to pile in front of the door.
The sound of clashing blades could be heard coming from both angels, the one in which Legolas had entered the stables and the one that he had just barricaded after saving the foolish guard, painfully marking their trapped situation. Outside the fighting continued to rage, the yells and cries growing as the numbers of standing humans dwindled. Bodies crashed to the ground, the liquid mud splashing into the air and laced with the glimmering red of blood. Weapons lay forgotten among the bodies, stained with the very life of all living beings and never again to be used by their rightful owners. Fire lit the street, torches being waved in hopes of taking out numerous foes with one swipe, or the flames splattering out as they lay sinking in the blood stained mud next to unmoving hands.
For the Elf, it was hard to tell which was worse; the scene before him or the sight that greeted him every time a war was over. At least with the battles that he had participated in there had been a greater cause; a purpose and belief that needed defending or proving. This? This was just a slaughter - a petty excuse for the lower beings of Middle-Earth to kill each other off all in the name of apparent 'honor'.
"Do you have a name?" the guard asked of the still moving Elf. Legolas seemed enable to just stop; if he was not making sure that both the doors were well secured, he was searching through the old tools, overturning the lids of creates or testing the stability of rope. A constant frenzied movement that still held a remarkable amount of grace and formality.
"No," was the concise and rather unfriendly reply as the Elf wrapped a length of rope around a wooden pillar and pulled with all his might. Satisfied with the result, the Elf let one end go and quickly wound the excess around his hand and elbow, forming a neat loop before tying it off and shoving it into his pack.
"Well," the man said with a small sigh although his brow was furrowed; this Elf seemed close to being eccentric. "I am Gruthfrid, nonetheless," the man introduced himself to the barely listening blond.
"Aha," Legolas murmured as his eyes flicked over the ceiling.
"I thought that you Elves were all 'live in the light and dance around in joy," Gruthfrid questioned, his interests quirked as he watched the Elf go about his business. He appeared to be counting something, perhaps measuring the amount of steps from the place he stood to the corner of the room and the first horse enclosure.
"And yet I skulk in the shadows?" Legolas added, knowing full well where this was going. Deciding to give the man the truth - or at least the select parts of the truth - Legolas just let out a small sigh and said, "It comes from living a millennia in the eyes of the public... You try it - it is an anger inducer if I ever knew one!"
"So you kill people to take away the anger?" Gruthfrid continued, musing over the small amount that he knew about the being before him. He had no doubt in his mind that he had killed those men in the streets; stolen their lives within the quickest of moments, and yet that stood to contradict the ideas behind the Elf saving him. He did not have to risk his neck to save a human that had been willing to apprehend him only minutes before. "Wait, wait, wait!" he mused, his thoughts finally filling in the open gaps of the situation, "You killed them because they attacked you. But why did they attack you? Maybe you annoyed them in some way before and then-"
Whirling around and glaring at the man with hatred, Legolas emitted a small hiss through his teeth as his eyes flared. "Are you quite done?" he spat out, his tone dripping with venom, "Now be silent and let me think before I silence you myself!"
For a time there was relative quiet within the old stables, the only noise coming from Legolas' scrounging and the guard's occasional cough and pacing. Neither felt too threatened by the happenings outside and yet it was painfully obvious that, Legolas especially, did not want to be in there at all.
"Ah?"
Legolas hissed at the sound, his patience long since pushed past his limit. "I thought I told you to be sil-" he started only to be cut off by Gruthfrid's yell of...
"FIRE!"
Automatically stopping and whirling around on his heels, Legolas looked to the area that the guard was quickly fleeing. Flames lapped rapidly at a small window in the far wall, the bright oranges and reds of the greedy fire spreading up the wall akin to a growing vine up a trellis. Even as he watched, the ever ravenous flames extended, latching onto the already contorted wood and making it crackle and pop as it heated up until it snapped and bent further out of shape before being completely overrun by the heated conflagration.
Legolas had known that he could smell smoke all along but he had simply put it down to the flaming torches that lay dying out in the streets along with their previous possessors. It had not even occurred to him that the pitiful torches would be enough to set the building on fire, let alone as quickly as it had.
Now utterly convinced that he should not have tempted the Valar before, Legolas grabbed one of the many horse blankets that lay around the stables and handed it to Gruthfrid.
"Do the best you can," he instructed over the steadily growing roar of the flames, "do not get too close and try not to do anything characteristically stupid."
Snatching the offered cloth from the Elf, Gruthfrid shook it out as he marched over to the burning wall, muttering under his breath about 'ill mannered Elves.' Flicking his wrists and letting the cloth create its own wind, Gruthfrid tried his best to keep the roaring fire under control and from allocating itself to the straw covered floor.
While the guard was busy waving the blanket at the flames - appearing to be doing more harm then actual good - Legolas decided that it was time that he - they - got out of there. Cutting his scrounging expedition short, he grabbed his pack and slipped it over his shoulders as he started to run towards the corner of the room, counting his steps as he went.
Confidence surged through Legolas. This was more like something that he was used to. The walk into the tavern earlier that night had been like a living hell for him, having to keep himself under control as he allowed the looks that the humans gave him to go unpunished. But this, this was a walkover. This was what he was born to do, what came to him like second nature; a sixth sense which stepped in and took control of his actions without even a moments' hesitation.
This was his life.
Right leg stretching up, his foot landing on one of the rungs of the enclosure, Legolas quickly and easily pushed himself off and threw his body weight in the other direction. Bending his knee and drawing up his foot, his boot slid off the side of the wooden wall, his toe fitting into a tiny gap which provided enough leeway for the abnormally light being to push off from again.
Finally seeing that what he was doing was useless, Gruthfrid turned around to see what it was that the Elf was doing - the silence with which he moved was utterly unnatural. As he turned, he saw the last thing that he ever would have expected. Now, keeping in mind that he did not know much about Elves but he was more educated on the subject then most mortals, Gruthfrid felt for sure that what this particular one was doing was far from normal.
He appeared to be running up the wall although that was obviously not true...not possible... It merely looked like it; the Elf was moving that fast, springing from the tiniest crevices and footholds in the wooden wall that it looked as if he were just floating up to the ceiling, his feet propelling him up the corner of the room as if he were simply climbing a ladder.
As wall space unavoidably ran out, Legolas simply angled both feet to the wall and pushed off with all his might, sending himself into a back flip off the side of the building. His arms were held above his head, bent at the elbows and his palms out flat as his lithe body soared through the air akin to a leaf caught in the wind. Hands perfectly in line, Legolas caught the side of one of the wooden beams with his fingertips and allowed his palms to come down on the flat of the rafter. Lining up his center of balance flawlessly, he stayed perched on the beam in a handstand for a mere moment; simply enough to make sure that he had successfully stopped his forward momentum. Bringing his fingers of his right hand taut, he used them as a spring and pushed himself to the side and over his still gripping left hand. Soft leather boots hit the beam without so much as the tiniest scuffling sound as he stood himself upright on the girder.
Only remaining in the position long enough to be sure that he had his footing, Legolas dropped to the beam and hooked his legs around the wide girth. Falling backwards, he tightened the muscles in his legs, causing his body to swing in under itself on the rafter while hanging him upside down a few feet away from the guard.
"Grab my hand," Legolas instructed as he swung from his bent knees. Cautiously Gruthfrid moved forward, heading towards the upside-down Elf and reached out his hand. He was not at all thrilled with what he guessed was coming next and the fact that he hardly trusted the strange Elf before him did naught to make the situation any easier.
"Hurry up!" Legolas commanded, giving his hanging hands a small jolt to emphasis the fact.
Taking a leap of faith, Gruthfrid jumped up, his hands outstretched and grabbed hold of the Elf's leather arm guards. Legolas' hands closed tightly around the human's lower arms in a grip that almost made the human gasp in pain. One swift tug saw the human being lifted off his feet as, through a remarkable amount of flexibility, Legolas heaved himself back up into a sitting position, dragging Gruthfrid with him like a dead weight.
"Grab onto that beam," Legolas instructed, motioning with his head to another supporting rafter that ran close behind the guards dangling position. Once the man had a strong grip of the wooden plank, Legolas let his grasp drop and rose to his feet.
The Elf could hear the sounds of Gruthfrid scrambling to gain his footing on the other beam just as he could feel the strange, if somewhat frightened gaze of the mortal locked onto his back. Determined to ignore the other, Legolas went about putting phase two of his escape plan into action.
"Who the hell are you?" Gruthfrid demanded as he stepped easily onto the same rafter as Legolas, his fear now mixed with wonder.
"Someone that advises you that is it best that you do not know," Legolas mumbled as he walked easily across the beam and to the place where the slanted roof met the vertical walls. Slipping his bag from his back, he placed one foot behind the other and balanced expertly on the thin beam before swinging the heavy pack and allowing it to crash into the underside of the roof. Shingles smashed, shattering against the weight of the blow and flew into the air before falling to the straw covered floor like a hail. A gush of fresh, cool night air swept over Legolas' face as the small openings in the room were widened, and, with yet another swing, he had the hole to a size that he was sure even the human could fit through.
"The trick is to be quick," Legolas told the man, hoping that he would display an uncharacteristic amount of intelligence and understand what it was that he was telling him. "They will break under your weight so move fast. Try not to think too much about where your foot is going but more on when it will be rising again." Turning to the man who clung to an intercepting beam to keep his balance, Legolas saw the slight hint of fear in the guard's eyes. It was often a hard thing to remember that not all people did this sort of thing at least once a week, especially not humans and so, secretively telling himself that he was not going soft and starting to care, Legolas offered the man a small smile and an encouraging pat on the back of the shoulder. "You can do it, just follow me and try to keep up." Wishing that he had time to get his leather gloves from his pack, Legolas reached up and clasped his pale, slender hands around the edges of the roof tiles, feeling the jagged edges cut into the tender skin as he tightened his grip. "Oh," Legolas added for the human as a last thought, "Do not look down."
With that he raised himself up easily, the folds of his black cloak swishing as he disappeared through the hole in the ceiling, leaving the anxious guard to his own accord.
The cool of the night air was a relief to the Elf as he pulled himself out into the open. The moon was high in the sky, a large silver and gold ball floating upon the dark heavens and casting a golden-blue ring around its edge. Pale hoary light danced upon the long, wispy clouds that stretched across the sky like the reaching fingers of a hungry child, making them seem magical in their appearance; curved shavings of glimmering silver floating in a pool of dark water.
Knowing that he was safe for the time being - since he was an Elf he hardly added any extra weight to the fragile shingles, and he was well out of the human eyesight of the gangs below - Legolas waited until he saw the shifting shadow of Gruthfrid. The man was coming, which was a good thing, but chances were that he would need aid in getting out so Legolas took the time to inspect his cut hand.
The wound was surprisingly deep, cutting right into his palm and spanning all the way from near his thumb to a few inches below his little finger. Angling it up to the light, Legolas could see that the tear was serrated and uneven with large flaps of skin being lifted but remaining still attached. Surprisingly for both the degree of blood that ran down his arm and stained his shirt before dripping steadily to the ground and the horrendous look of the cut, the wound did not hurt or throb as one would expect. Just another war wound, another scratch and another scar, all of which were part and parcel of his job - especially when things went wrong to such a degree as this. The only problem that Legolas could foresee this wound causing would come later when he would have to try and hide it from Erestor during his planned visit to Rivendell.
"Ah... A little help please..." a voice said meekly from below the Elf's position. Glancing down, Legolas saw the man holding onto the side of the shattered tiles, grimacing slightly as the compounded and hardened mud- brick cut into his flesh.
Stepping carefully around the broken tiles, Legolas positioned his feet where he knew there were two sturdy beams to support the human's weight. Right hand brushing against his cloak to wipe off the blood, Legolas reached down and grasped the man by the wrist, crossing both his arms to provide better leverage. With one quick pull, the Elf had the man up through the hole, turning him around as he went so that Gruthfrid's back was to him. Once the man was half sitting on the tiles, Legolas moved off the beam, allowing the guard to scramble the rest of his way by himself.
"Stand right there," Legolas instructed, positing the man on a section of the roof which was supported by two crossing beams.
Gruthfrid did as he was instructed, his eyes on the sloping roof as he moved to balance on the partly stable section. Once satisfied that he was in a safe enough position, he turned back to the Elf, intending to ask him what they were to do next, only to be completely caught off guard by the sight of him.
His unnamed companion was standing easily on was a noticeably an unstable section of roof, his feet resting on decaying tiles in a fashion that suggested that the dangerous flooring was the safest in the world. But that was no the thing that startled him. The Elf's hood was down, forming a layered triangle under his long, golden hair and leaving his face exposed for all eyes to see. Yet, unlike before when the Elf had been hidden in the night, his skin now seemed to radiate a soft light. Pale like the moon, the glow illuminated the Elf, making him stand out against the dark sky like a softly glowing star of golden light.
"By the Valar!" the man exclaimed, stumbling backwards and further away from the Elf, his eyes huge with fright. "You...you are glowing..." he started dumbfounded as he stared at the Elf's exposed hands and face, his mouth hanging agape.
Merely rolling his eyes at the reaction of the man - a typical one to say the least - Legolas let his hands drop to the back of his shoulders and flipped his hood forward, pulling it right over his head. He had completely forgotten about that little fact. Truly, it was such a small, trivial thing that he could hardly understand what it was that seemed to frighten human's so badly.
"But..."
"'Tis an Elven thing," Legolas muttered as he quickly plotted the best course across the unstable roof, "do not trouble yourself over it." Finally working out exactly what he was going to do, Legolas turned back to the man, his glowing face now hidden deeply in his cloak hood.
"This is what is going to happen. I will go first and until I tell you to move, you stay here and stay put." Waiting for a nod of confirmation from the human, Legolas slipped his pack in front of him, keeping it on one shoulder as he dug into the opening. As his hand emerged with a rope - a different one to the one that he had taken only moments before - the Elf continued. "I mean it when I say that if you move before I tell you to, I am not coming back, so for your own sake, do not do anything stupid. But when I tell you to come, move quickly, as I said before, and try to follow the path that I took. Understand?"
Teeth biting into his lower lip, Gruthfrid had to battle his own rage to simply give the arrogant Elf a nodded answer once again. The blond seemed to have a way of getting under his skin and irritating him, causing his blood to boil at the unnecessary words spoken with such a clipped attitude- filled tone.
Legolas paid the man no attention - as was becoming normal - as he readied himself to set out. Simply leaping to the adjacent roof of whatever building lay next to the stables was a futile idea. With the flames spreading so rapidly it was a logical guess that the foundations of the next establishment would be the next to be caught within the blaze. That was, if they hadn't already. It was with that in mind that Legolas chose the more obscure of the two paths. Over the roof, across the large gap that formed the battle ridden street and onto the next block of buildings.
Resolved to see to it that this night would hurry up and end, the Elven prince wasted no time in starting his light-footed run across the decaying roof, each foot hardly touching the roof as he traveled easily across the slanting surface.
It was hardly a matter of time before he was standing at the corner of the stables and as he reached to his belt to grab the cross bow that he had taken from Caldinor, he allowed himself a few moments to take in the scene below him.
The fighting still raged on, although with less intensity then when he was out there. Most of the men now lay in the gutters or sinking in the deep, liquidly mud whether they were dead or slowly dying and completely overlooked by their supposed comrades. A handful still fought, determined to see the battle through to the end while, judging from the shouts and cry's a number had fled with their enemy's in hot pursuit as they weaved through the streets.
Once again Legolas was struck by just how unimportant the battle had been. Such a waste of life, even if it was only that of mortals.
Not wishing to ponder the situation any further, Legolas concentrated on the knot that he worked over the end of one of the crossbow darts. The Elf then used his boot heel to open a small hole in the tiles of the ceiling which he used to secure the other end of the rope, tying it securely around one of the smaller structural beams. Looping the rope around the shaft once more, the Elf fitted it to the crossbow carefully, knowing that if he were not careful the knot would be spoiled by the trigger mechanism. Eyes narrowed, the Elf took meticulous aim before his fingers squeezed upon the latch at the base of the handle, setting the dart and rope flying out in the direction of the other building.
The dart held true to Legolas' aim and the thin shaft buried its head into the soft wood of the building opposite. Glancing behind him, Legolas was glad to see that the guard was still where he had told him to stay. All was going well.
Now came the hard bit. It was all very well for Legolas to run across the rope and be on his way, but to get the human over the large gap would prove to be a bit more of a challenge.
As he stepped onto the beginning of the rope bridge, Legolas felt the small amount of leverage that it gave and the slight spring from the slackening. Quickly calculating how hard he thought the wood of the other building to be against the estimate of his weight and that of the human's the Elf was able to get a clear answer. He would have no problems, but Gruthfrid would not be so lucky. Even if he pulled himself hand over hand the chances of the head of the dart pulling free were far too great. Not to mention the small tugging of his mind that would not allow him to push aside the thought that the rope was not strong enough for the human to use...
Stepping out onto the makeshift bridge, Legolas pressed his fear to the back of his mind as he deftly made his way across the thin rope, his footing sure and not slipping once. Once on the other side the prince shouted back to the human, using his name for the first time.
"Now, Gruthfrid," he called, knowing that the man could make out his words, "move now!"
Releasing his fear, Gruthfrid propelled himself across the roof, his arms held way out by his sides to keep his balance. Despite how the Elf had said his instructions and just how easy Legolas had made it look, Gruthfrid was hard pressed to keep himself moving. Each and every step that he took reminded him of what danger he truly was in - a single second too long on a certain spot could see him falling through the roof and into the roaring fire that was slowly consuming the stables. It was through sheer fear that he was actually able to keep himself moving, attempting to follow the Elf's path in his frightened and disorientated state.
Legolas was surprised to say the least. He had half expected the human not to make it. To cling to the far end of the building and refuse to cross the dangerous path that the Elf had set. But no. The guard had kept his eyes focused on the opposite side of the roof and had run faster then any human Legolas had seen before. Although it was a given that Legolas would never admit to his sense of admiration for the man at that moment, the Elven prince could not help but pass a small smile over his lips as his unlikely companion finally came to a stop near the end of the rope bridge.
"Please," Gruthfrid panted out, his hands resting on his knees in his doubled over state. "Please, don't seek to tell me that I have to follow what you did here..."
Surprising even himself, Legolas laughed as the man looked up through his hair at the being that stood waiting on the other side of the gap.
"No, no. Nothing like that," the Elf informed the other. "In fact, you are going to be original and swig across!"
"What?"
The expected reply, to say the least, but it did naught to deter Legolas from his plan.
"The dart will not hold your weight and even if I hold this end of the rope, it is likely to fray. The best choice is to get you over here as soon as possible and then I can pull you up." Horror flashed in Gruthfrid's eyes as the Elf explained the line of action, but again, Legolas did not allow it to bother him. It was probably just a human thing after all. "Seriously, it is the safest option."
Gruthfrid looked to the street below. The number of people had dwindled even more since Legolas had last looked and all threat from below was practically ruled out - well, that was except for the drop that was at least twice as long as the gap was wide.
"Trust me," Legolas added, all the while knowing full well that if he were in the guard's position - Valar forbid - that he would not. In fact, if someone like himself said those very words to him, Legolas was almost sure that he would throw his pride to the wind and run off in the opposite direction.
Gruthfrid merely offered a nervous half laugh as his response as he straightened his back. Looking the Elf in the eyes, the man once gain had to question himself on the happenings of that night. He held no doubt that Legolas was further involved in the current state of the town and yet for the life of him he could not work out why. The Elf seemed nice enough - slightly psychotic, but nice nonetheless. He had after all, risked his own life in order to save his and that was something that Gruthfrid both would not forget and which brought up questions. Especially since the Elf was once again going out of his way to get him to safety. But then why the murder of the three men in the streets below? Sure, they were thieves and criminals as the blond had stated, but it was still out right murder. Something that, looking at the Elf now and seeing the way he smiled and prompted Gruthfrid on, appeared almost impossible for the innocent seeming character.
Sighing and resolving to the fact that he may never know, Gruthfrid looked once again to the Elf and shrugged his shoulders.
"Tell me what to do."
Thankful that the man seemed to have emerged from his contemplation, Legolas wasted no time in explaining.
"Do you have a knife?" At Gruthfrid's nod, Legolas continued, "good, now cut the rope on your side - make sure to keep a hold of it!" he added quickly as the man reached down, just in case he was cursed with an even further lack of intelligence then most of his race.
Muttering half to himself and half to the Elf in proclamation that he was not that stupid, Gruthfrid cut the rope and wrapped his end around his arm, making sure that he had a tight grip on the almost slippery feeling cord. On the other side, Legolas pulled the dart out of the wood and did the same, insuring that he had a strong enough hold on the rope to be able to support the human's weight.
"Come on!" Legolas called out to the man, seeing that the building was slowly becoming further engulfed by the flickering flames.
For the second time that night, Gruthfrid found himself placing a lot of faith in a murderous Elf that he did not even know the name of as he took the fateful step off the side of the roof.
He was freefalling, the air whooshing against his face and playing with strands of his hair as he sailed down and across. It were a mere moment before he felt the rope go taut and, squeezing his eyes closed, his body thudded against the building that the Elf stood on.
Legolas had his feet braced against the far more stable roof and was ready for the human's weight to pull at his arms as soon as the rope went taut. Hand passing over hand, Legolas pulled the rope up, letting the useless other end fall behind him as the hand of Gruthfrid finally reached around the roof.
"I thought you said that you were not going to save me," Gruthfrid said with a small smile - triumphant and yet thankful - as his head appeared from over the edge.
"I said I was not coming back for you," was the only response that he received as the Elf once again pulled him onto the roof. Thankfully this one was far more stable, safe even for a heavy-footed human to tramp across without having cause for concern.
By now the old stables was well on its way to burning to the ground, the walls snapping as the heat and flames ate away at the wood. Parts of the roof were starting to cave in, shattering against the fire covered floor and sending small, burning embers up into the night like the twinkling of red fireflies. Assessing the size of the blaze, Legolas took a wild guess at what would happen. With most of the town split in two, and then half of them already dead, no one would be there to think of the fire and, at the rate in which the flames consumed the stables, it was Legolas' opinion that within a few more minutes - ten at the most - half of the building around it would be on their way to adding to the pile of ash. The fire would jump in the breeze, leaping from one building to another while becoming stronger and stronger with each new establishment that it incinerated until finally hardly any of the town's buildings would remain untouched. It was just a matter of time.
Pushing all feelings of guilt and self-blame from his head, Legolas reassured himself that all that had happened since his target had gone down was not his fault. It was merely the manifestations and results of a large group of unintelligent humans jumping at the smallest excuse to draw blades and kill each other.
That in mind, he once again set out over the rooftops of Larnfield, Gruthfrid in his wake, as he headed for the main walls. From here on out it was easy going. Gruthfrid should have no problems traversing the roves, and they were well out of harms way of the gangs. A quick scale down the side of the walls, a small hike into the woods, and the tying up of a loose end and this entirely disastrous night would all be over.
*****
"I owe you one," the man said as he reached out to shake Legolas' hand firmly. Finally free of the constricting walls of the burning town, the two unlikely companions stood atop a hillock that normally acted as a sentry post for the town. An old, decaying watchtower loomed off to their right, a dark shadow against the red streaked sky, from where all could be seen. Look to the north and one could see the entirety of the thieving town, to the south lay the woods that surrounded and both east and west were bored by large stretches of plains, dotted with thick clusters of trees.
"Aha," Legolas just sighed, practically snatching his hand back from the human while his gaze remained cast out into the distance, "because I really need the aid of a human that is incapable of keeping himself out of trouble!"
"Well either way," Gruthfrid continued, feeling that by now he was used to the Elf's apparent attitude problem and disdain towards humans. "I guess that I was wrong about you - you are a half decent person...Elf."
Smiling at the man, Legolas offered him a small bow; the most acknowledging action that he had showed the human since the time they met. "That is why I feel like I should apologize," Legolas said sincerely, his words causing a mirroring smile to form of Gruthfrid's lips only moments before the Elf smashed his fist into the humans face.
Gruthfrid looked momentarily stunned before the sheer force of the blow caused his eyes to roll back in his head and his body to slacken, his legs no longer being able to keep him upright. The man fell like a dead weight to the ground, landing in such a prone, unmoving form that, for a split second, Legolas thought that he may have hit him too hard and killed the fool.
Either way, what's done is done, and whether or not the man was still in fact breathing was not really the issue here - if anything, it would be better if the guard had been that easy to bump off. After all, he had seen Legolas' face. The man should be lucky - that is, if he did in fact live through this - that Legolas had not left him somewhere earlier; or let him end up strangling to death; or barricaded him in the burning stables; or...
Bending down, the Elven prince grabbed hold of Gruthfrid's heels and started to drag him across the leaf-litter of the forest. His arms following after his head and the back of his skull bumping along the ground actually forced a few grunts and moans from the man, a clear sign that Legolas had been lucky - or unlucky - and that the human was still alive.
Still weighing up the extent of his misfortune, Legolas let the man's legs drop unceremoniously to the ground as he went back for his pack. Tugging the flap open, he shoved his hand deep into the bag and scrounged around until his fingers came to settle on the rough fibers of the rope that he had taken from the stables.
Again...everything had been preplanned before he even dashed out to save the whelp!
A single tug to the smallest end of rope saw the length unravel as the Elf wondered back to the unconscious human. Throwing one end around a large tree truck, the left the rope sitting on the floor as he went and wound his fingers into the front of the guard's shirt. Towing him towards the tree in an upright position, Legolas merely let the fabric go once there and watched as the body slumped hard against the splintering wood. Kneeing down next to the man, Legolas grabbed both ends of the rope and crossed them over in front of the man's chest, pulling them tight and jolting Gruthfrid into an sitting arrangement, his back flush against the trunk. Looping the rope around the body and the trunk numerous times, Legolas moved behind the make-shift stake and tied the rope off tightly, placing knot over knot over knot just to be safe. He needed to be well out of this region before this man was allowed to escape.
Job finished, Legolas grabbed his pack off the ground and slung it over his right shoulder before once again offering the unconscious man a small bow. "Again, I do apologize! But you did bring it on yourself..." he muttered as he hiked into the woods, once again disappearing into the darkness of the night.
*****
Finally stopping as he rounded the top of a hillock, Legolas turned back in the direction of the village as he pulled out a small flask of water. The night sky was a dark black, streaked with grey clouds and harboring the floating moon like a dock to a ship. Well save for one part. Over the location of Larnfield the sky was lined in red and hazy black. Fire seemed to lick at the heavens above, roaring up in a frantic attempt to consume the darkness and make it surrender to the glowing embers of the flaming buildings.
Eyebrows quirked, Legolas merely looked at the proceedings with what appeared to be disinterest as he entertained the hope that he had roped Gruthfrid far enough away from the spreading flames...
Before turning on his heels and heading further into the woods, Legolas muttered one last word into the night.
"Humans..."
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
End Flashback (finally)
*~~~~~*~~~~~*
"Did you do it?"
"Yes," Legolas replied as Verdox stepped from the shadows, his hood drawn over his face. Suppressing a shudder, Legolas again asked himself why he had taken this job. Something about Verdox caused shivers to run up his spine. The way the man stood, his back straight and his shoulders squared and yet his head constantly bowed, covered by his hood, seemed wrong, off- putting. Even his voice had a strange coldness to it.
There was no real plausible reason for him to have accepted this offer over two months ago other then the fact that he had been itching for a challenge. He had not had anything that resembled a challenge in over a year, all his targets falling within a week or two after he was assigned to the case, and thus, a chance of tracking down one who had not been seen in over a year was just too much to turn down.
"Well?" Verdox demanded, his hand outstretched as he looked at the Elf expectantly.
Reaching behind him and into his pack, Legolas pulled out the various items that he had taken as a token of his achievement and handed them over to the human.
"I asked for his right hand," Verdox stated annoyed, his dark eyes fixating on the Elf.
"That would have arisen far too many complications," Legolas told him truthful while being completely undaunted by the harsh glare the man directed at him. "He was in too hard a place to just take such a thing, but I did the best I could. The dagger is from the concealed pocket in his right boot and the ring from his left hand. It is his seal and thus a good enough token of the kill."
Looking the items over, Verdox could not help but be surprised at the boldness of the Elf before him; it was as if he seemed to hold no fear at all.
"Very well," he sighed while tucking the belongings of the dead man into his pocket and the dagger into his own boot. Reaching to the small pouch at his belt, Verdox unfastened the ties and threw it to Legolas. "Your reward," he stated with a blunt expression.
Catching the bag easily, Legolas placed it into his pocket, not even bothering to check to see if it was indeed the promised amount. The money never mattered, and why should it? He was the sole Prince of Mirkwood and thus had no real need for the payment of hate driven men. He did it for the thrill, for the chase and for the fact that, by aiding the wicked, he was ridding the world of even more horrible people.
Placing his hand over his heart and bowing his head in a formal Elven blessing, Legolas smiled plainly at the man before him. "May the next time we meet be under the same circumstances." He had adopted that saying a few years ago after he finished a job for one man, only to find that his next assignment was to see that his past employer was involved in an accident as such. In such a world it was hard to tell who his next target would be, but, judging what he knew of Verdox, it was highly unlikely that he did not already have a few people after his head.
Without so much as another word, Legolas turned away and walked back the way he had come, heading to where he had left his faithful horse and back to the life of a prince.
*****
Watching the Elf go and making sure that he was out of earshot, Verdox turned to the three men waiting behind him. Since the Elf had turned they had quietly drawn their weapons in unison, the steel tips of the blades dull and lifeless in the strange light.
"Not yet, though we can't afford to leave him too long." he said with a small, commanding flick of his wrist, calling for the men to lower their arms. "Cardise," he called the leader forward.
Cardise, a man of about thirty years, stepped forward and, hand over his broad chest, bowed his head while letting out a small, "Hoy."
"I want to you take a message to Gareth," Verdox instructed slowly, as if the man were a simpleton. His eyes were still locked onto the place in which the Elf had disappeared through the trees, seeking out any glimpse of the being that he could see as the Elf retreated, his head held high. "Tell him that I want two thousand gold pieces upon that Elf's head and I want every bounty hunter, assassin and mercenary within three days ride of here to know of it. We will show him fear!"
"Why not hit him now, sir? When his defenses are down." Alkin, the younger of the group asked, his sword being turned over and over in his hands as the shifted his weight from foot to foot.
Growling lightly in his throat at the prospect of his leadership being challenged, Verdox glared the young man down, forcing him to recoil a few steps. "Because," Verdox replied in what could almost be said a sing-song tone yet with a slightly insane edge. "There are only three of you; he is not the best assassin out there because he has a pretty face. In order to take out the superlative, one must enlist a slight overkill in the numbers of the lesser and more inefficient to make sure that the job gets done. Also, he is still too close to Larnfield. If his body was found in these woods, it would go back to the remains of that pitiful town and then there is a chance of someone recognizing him, thus linking him with these woods and inevitably us. Besides," he added as if it were an upside to it all, "it will be interesting to see them squabble over whom has the right of first shot..."
***** To be continued...
*****
Next Chapter preview:
Walking forward, he almost let out a fierce growl when the man went out of his way to block his path again. Anger flaring in his eyes at the realization that Estel had been doing this on purpose the entire time, Legolas glared up at the taller man with a look that would have made a band of Orcs flee...Formality be damned! No one treated him in such a way, guest of Rivendell or not.
Later on:
"Last time I saw you, you left me unconscious and tied to a tree in a burning forest!" Gruthfrid reminded the Elf. It had been a close call. He remembered waking up to the intense heat of a burning forest and, as soon as his body started to function once again and obey his desperate need to move, he found that he was quite incapable of doing so. "And now you come here searching for my help..."
*****
Replies to reviews
lyric_firedancer: I know what you mean about having the two sides - they can be annoying as hell. One tells you slash, the other says friendship and they just keep arguing over the story until you finally beat your head upon the desk and pass out... or maybe that is just me! Lol. But yes, I know how frustrating it can be. But I am glad that you like it. Are you still going to go ahead with your assassin story, as if you do, please send me the link. There needs to be more funky stories with our Elves being slightly more on edge and with an attitude!
Rabbit of Iron: I'm so glad that you like Legolas - he is a bit if a - for lack of better word - bitch! Lol. And trust me, the arse-kicking is only just beginning...same with the 'damn sexy' (yes people, be afraid, be very afraid...) and I am trying to keep the update regular, it is just a matter of making sure that I have at least one chapter ahead prewritten before I post the next one. *hisses at you* Not James Bond...I hate James Bond!!!! His very name makes my blood boil...icky, icky, icky. If anything, I would rather say that this is along the lines of the TV show Alias, just with a male Elf who is not working for the government and has no problem with killing people and with slash...ok, so it is nothing like that show either, but it was worth a try! Lol.
Kael Kalespel: Glad you liked it yet again and I had hoped that it would be interesting. As for Legolas' use of his looks, well, that is not going to be a common occurrence - not really. It was just a matter of playing the part of the common whore was the best way to get to Sard, and then his man already seen Legolas acting as such and did not fear him because of it. Legolas merely played up to the role to give him a better grip on the situation and more of the upper hand. The next job that you see him do sees yet another different side of him...
whispers of an angel: Estel will be in it next chapter and he makes quite the impression...
Al: At the moment, most of this story that I am posting has been pre- written for AGES, I am just touching it up as I put them up. The lack of updates on stories such as Shadows Within is due to my sever lack of time these days. It normally takes me a good two weeks or more to write the chapters for that story since lots of them are close to 20 pages long - to a standard that I am happy with, and then I always make sure that I have the first few pages of the next done so that I know I have not written myself into a trap. Then comes the editing, the re-reading and often re- writing and making sure that it all fits my timeline. Being in the last term of my last year of school just means that I do not have the time to do this very often, so progress is very slow.
With this story I have the next chapter complete and waiting for a good edit, I have most of the chapter after that written, the last chapter written, and about 20 pages of prewritten scenes that are waiting to be slotted in at the right time, so I actually have it quite well under control. At the moment I am updating a chapter a week, but shortly it will probably be a chapter every two, depends on how much more writing I can get done in the last few days of my far-too-short holidays. But oh, there shall be many evils that are thrown to Legolas... no ropes through the ankles like Shadows, but evils nonetheless... Thank you for your review and I hope that I put your mind at ease at least a little with the stories progress report! Lol.
Analia: Oh no, another that is glaring at me for past stories... to save me tying what I called "The progress Report" all over again, please read the reply above! And yes, the later on previews are so fun for me to do! Finding all the really taunting bits to tease you all with... And look, an update, please don't threaten me...I am likely to threaten you back! Lol. Again, I am glad that you like this story and I am honored that you feel that way about my writing. Thank you kindly!
Vana E: *Is unsure where to start* those muses of ours are a real handful, aren't they?! Muse #4, trust me when I say that his conscience is only going to become more of a hassle as we go along, and the blood, gore, torture, and lots of death will only increase!! But I am sorry about Gruthfrid's rescue but it needed to happen for later on in the story... *hint hint* Muse #2: oh, so you are the slash fan, I gather. Well, I think you will like the next chapter!!! *Swats at Vana and tells her that I shall update when I am ready...but I hope that was fast enough for you* Muse #3: Come now, you know me...do you honestly think that I could do a story without something violent and bloodthirsty and you already know it is slash - I mean, look at what I did to them all in the Helm's Deep story...hold that as hope! Vana: you may want to look into getting a few tranquilizer guns and shots!
Sirithiliel: Ewww, I am not a romance fan either but I will write slash. And yes, slash is romance in a way, but it will not even be coo-y and crap like that. I will be there, as you will see next chapter (but after next chapter it kinda disappears for a time) but it will not be strictly romantic. I hope it is thrilling enough. We are now into the actual story, which is a relief, so it will hopefully be becoming a little more thrilling as we go.
Ihni: Well, I think I pretty much replied to you on the night, but here goes...
Yes, more Minka-ish! As was this one, I hope. Next you will probably kill me for, but then I'll just bribe you with the promise of pain, fight scenes and hurt and we will hopefully get over that... already told you that I liked your 'words of wisdom'!
LOL! 'Once in awhile' and as said above, I am trying to keep this one going nice and quickly so hopefully it will all work out as I planned. Glad you love the violence, it makes the world go around, it does! I write like a camera? Well, that is a different one, but something that I shall be greatly honored to except. *bows* and did we not attempt to switch language skills the other night? Lol. But by all means, kill a few people you don't like...just tape it so I can watch!
*Watches you go off on your rather large tangent here...wonders how we got from Legolas to Pirates and to Will...lol* Yes, I am ashamed of myself!! Oh, see, I can't read them - thy make me angry! I like to see my Elf strong, heroic and utterly deadly! I mean, he could probably kill someone with his pinky finger if he really put his mind to it! *makes note to try that out later...* As I said, I have not yet ventured over to the Pirates arena of fiction, but I will end up there soon, it is unavoidable. But god help anyone who writes a story with Will all weak without giving warning - I hate reading something and then BOOM, you are stuck in this typical Legolas/Will/any Orli character weak mode. It is so wrong! And yes, they are both strong, it is just that Will is not all that intelligent...but he can fight!!!
"...Will act like a dog who's begging for Jack's approval..." DUDE!!! There is a whole story idea in that one sentence!!! *ducks various sharp implements that are thrown her way* ok, ok, so maybe not... But thank you for clearing things up on the story plan we did. I shall try and get around to experimenting with it asap!
Ok, your criticism. Lol! I am not sure I understand. Are you saying that I am long winded and thus 16 pages never gets my anywhere, because if you are then I must agree with you (which kinda takes out the criticism factor) I know I don't shut up! Lol, I never get to the point, provided that I even have one, and if I really tried I could turn three seconds in about 1000 words! Lol. But if that is not the case, I shall get you to explain it so I can make improvements. *wink*
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Wow, that was long, I do apologize. But anyway, until next chapter, I shall take my leave!
Minka.