@Kayo : Yes, mellon, this fic might turn into an R. You'd like that, don't you? Now go fetch some lemonade for me!
@Szhismine : Holy crap indeed! Prepare your parachute to jump off the cliff, mate!
@Alkvingiel : Finding Leggy is so funny! Ha! Ha! Ha! Thank you for sending it to me!
@Lucy : I keep seeing red haired 'Thranduil' everywhere! Why do people love to color their hair when the results are so disastrous? Erk! Not for me please! I love my raven tresses just as it is!
@Brazgirl : Glad you like the red hair…I mean, the chapter!
@Fire Breathing Ferret : Adromir is my name, cliffie is my game! Muahahaha!
@feanen : Thank you. I'm glad you like the sparring. And for that, the next evil cliffie from Mordor will be especially for you! (I know how much you 'like' it! ^_^)
@Queen of Shadows : Nope. The princes won't get a break. So will their father.
@Volcanic Plug : Three chappies in a day? Arghh! (faints) Anyway, this might take about 8 to 9 chapters, might be more. 'Trouble In Telcontar' is still under renovation. But it will come… I hope.
@Menthol : You want me to serve you cliffies? Gladly.
@Aranel of Mirkwood : Yes. 'He' is back. And everything will turn very ugly.
@Mystkyten : But I love to see you all hanging! He! He!
@Lady Lenna : I can almost hear you laugh! Ha! Ha! I've also just booked the TTT extended version and will go and take it from the store today! Can't wait!
@Karina : Your mom just bought you a pomegranate? O-oh. Be careful, girl. Something might happen. LOL! Yep. It's 'him'.
@layla146 : I'm sorry to say there will be no Rivendell characters this time. But I'm unpredictable. I might change my mind in the end. Let's pray I won't. :)
@Young Storyteller : You just finished your exam? Hope you score with flying colors!
@Gerri : Okay, girl. You'll get your lembas!
Note : Leggy is 2,000 years old now. Equivalent to human age, Legolas would be around 20 years old while Keldarion is 30. (This story happened right after 'Thranduil's Forgotten Vows').
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The gruesome sight of Laiél's body lying in his own blood in the bed nearly caused Legolas to retch.
The once proud warrior, a patrol officer in Thranduil's army, had been cruelly slain by an obviously demented person. From the lack of struggling signs, they deduced that Laiél was slaughtered in his sleep. Then the killer had the audacity to dig out both the victim's eyes, sending sprays of blood against the wall in the process.
The killer didn't stop there. Laiél had also been castrated. His severed organ had been thrown carelessly across the room, like a sign of total desecration.
It was merciless and heartless. The killer seemed to be enjoying what he was doing.
And then, there was Laiél's wife, Luthwen. They had found her sprawled on the floor beside the bed, naked and battered. She had been raped before, or after, she was choked to death. There were still the sign of handprints on her pale slender neck.
Legolas couldn't look anymore so he turned his head away. Linden then walked in with a couple of blankets in his arms. He and another warrior quickly covered the dead bodies.
"Find out who did this," Thranduil said through gritted teeth. He was incredibly angry to know that such hideous crime had taken place in his realm. "I want every inch of this house search. The killer might have left something for us to trace."
"And there must be some reason why no one heard when this killings took place," Keldarion wondered, squeezing Legolas' shoulder comfortingly when he saw his younger brother shudder in revulsion at the gory scene. "Why is there lack of struggles? It was as if they submitted fully to their murderer."
Legolas was staring hard at a stuffed doll propped against a light stand on a table. "Didn't this couple have a young daughter named Neléah?" he asked softly. "Where is she?"
They looked at one another at the prince's query. So far, they had seen no sign of the little girl.
"Find her!" Thranduil ordered and everyone disperse to do his bidding. They repeatedly called out the girl's name, praying that she would answer. But no such luck. Neléah was nowhere to be seen.
Legolas then stepped into the empty nursery for the third time, finding it hard to believe that the girl was not there in her bed. He leaned over to touch the mattress, and found it cold to the touch as expected. She had been away from the bed quite a very long time. The prince looked up and scanned the room, trying to see it through the eyes of a child.
If I were a frightened little girl, where would I hide?
He bent down to look under the bed. No one was there or he would have sensed it already. But he wanted to make sure, just in case. Elves could only sense other living beings, not the dead ones.
Legolas straightened up and caught sight of the tall closet across the chamber. He flinched involuntarily when old bad memories resurfaced to taunt him.
"Open the door! Please open the door!"
"No! That should be your penance for your misbehavior!"
"Open the door, please! Let me out! Let me out!!"
Legolas vehemently shook his head to chase the disturbing recollections away. This was no time to think about painful past. There was a little girl to be found. But his eyes kept straying back to the closet for some unknown reasons.
Legolas slowly approached the said furniture. With a hand that slightly trembled, he reached up to touch the knob. He took a deep breath, and then chided himself for acting so silly. What do you expect to see inside? A hysteric little prince? Silently berating himself, Legolas pulled open the door….and went cold all over at what he saw.
"Hey, brother. What do you find in there?" Keldarion suddenly entered the room. He frowned when he saw the absolute horror on Legolas' face. "Legolas? Are you well?"
Legolas had staggered a few steps backward, his eyes still fixed at the opened closet. Keldarion rushed over to him and grabbed his quaking shoulder. "What's wrong?"
"N…Neléah…" Legolas whispered, pointing a trembling finger at the body he had just discovered. When Keldarion saw it, he gasped in shock. And then he cursed, vile and long.
The couple's daughter was indeed dead. Curling in the corner of the closet, she was still clad in her nightgown. Her neck lolled at an odd angle, snapped by the cruel hands of her killer. There was no other sign of abuse on her little body but obviously it was a great enough impact on Legolas.
"It's…it's him. He's back." Legolas said, still trembling.
Keldarion gently pushed his brother until they both sat on the bed. "What are you saying? Who are you talking about?"
Legolas turned to gaze at his brother with eyes that filled with pain and fear. "Dior. Our estranged cousin has returned."
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That night, Legolas lay in his bed with his arms crossed behind his head. His eyes were staring directly at the ceiling, but the intense silver orbs were seeing something else entirely.
"Let me out! Let me out!" The pitch-black darkness was closing in on him.
"Stay in there! That should be your lesson!"
"Let me go! Please, let me go!"
"You shall pay, you little prick!"
Then he was drowning. "No! I can't breathe! I can't breathe!" He then screamed for help, but choked on lungful of water instead. Still, he screamed…
"Legolas?"
The prince jerked back to awareness. He turned to see the Mirkwood king walking from the door towards him. So deep he was in his thoughts, Legolas had no idea when his father entered the chamber.
Thranduil's eyes narrowed as he saw the same flicker of traumatic expression on Legolas' face that had first appeared there when his son was just an elfling of 500 years old. The little prince had been badly mistreated by his own cousin, Dior. The king could never forget how frightened Legolas had looked the day when Dior nearly drowned him in the stream behind the palace garden. The prince was lucky that his older brother was always attuned to his whereabouts or he would have surely died as Dior had lost all reason in his action, fueled with fury ignited by causes only known to him. After the dreadful incident, Thranduil had banished Dior from the realm as well as his father, Maeglin, the queen's older brother, even though the king had had the uncontrolled urge to kill the young elf himself then and there.
They all had thought it was the last they saw the both of them, but Legolas did not fully believe it. The murder of Laiél and his family only added to the prince's unease. Laiél's wife, Luthwen, was once Dior's love interest. But she had pledged her heart to Laiél after Dior had left her for hundreds of years to roam the Middle-earth. It was yet to be confirmed, but Legolas firmly believed that Dior had silently returned to Mirkwood to get his revenge on all of them.
Thranduil was not ready to fully accept his son's theory due to the lack of proof and evidence gathered at the murder scene, but he would not disregard it either. Thranduil had given out orders to intensify the security of the palace and the palace ground. Patrol rounds were increased, and no one should enter or leave the realm without proper screening.
"Still awake?" asked Thranduil as he sat on the bed.
Legolas rose to a sitting position and placed his folded arms over his upraised knees. "I can't sleep," the prince told his father, shrugging.
The king smiled sadly. "Is the thought of Dior still bothering you?"
"It's not simply a thought, father," Legolas said. "I know he is back. The signs are all there. His revenge on Laiél for marrying Luthwen, and then there's the little girl in the closet. Now I'm sure he is giving some kind of message to me, and to us all. He has returned to settle a score.'
"Maybe it's not him," Thranduil said, patting Legolas' feet comfortingly. "Maybe it's someone else and the signs you thought were there were merely coincidence."
Legolas gave a rueful smile. "But why don't I feel so assured? Why do I feel as if someone is watching us, watching me?"
"I understand how you feel, son. Just don't dwell on it too much. If it's indeed your cousin, the guards will not let him pass through the security of this place," said the king as he got back to his feet. "Now go to sleep."
Legolas opened his mouth to protest, but then thought better of it. He shrugged. "If you say so, father." He lay back down on the bed as his father picked the edge of the coverlet and covered the prince to his chin. As he bent down to kiss his son's brow, Thranduil said, "I wish you good dreams, my son."
But sadly, it was not good dreams that Legolas had that night. In fact, it was the complete opposite. Terrifying nightmares that were darker than he ever remembered assailed him in tenfold.
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The following days after the murder of Laiél's family, the whole realm of Mirkwood was subdued under a pallid atmosphere. Everyone was still in shock and disbelief at the merciless killings. They never had thought such terrible deed was possible among their people, the nature loving elves that cherished life above all else.
After the bodies had been laid to rest in one grave, the Mirkwood people carried on with their daily ritual, while at the same time hoping that it was the first and last time that the realm ever witnessed such a tragic massacre.
But it was a week later when another dreadful thing happened.
It was past midnight and Legolas was deeply asleep when Keldarion came bursting into his chamber, panicked and distraught. "Legolas! Awake!"
The younger prince blinked to awareness and realized that it was still dark outside. He groaned. "What do you want? It's not even morning!" Yanking the coverlet over his head, he began to resume his sleep once more.
Keldarion grew desperate. He shook his brother's shoulder repeatedly. "No, Legolas! I want you to wake up now!" he yelled, snatching the thick fabric away.
"Blast it!" Legolas fumed, glowering at his brother. "Why can't you let me sleep in peace…"
"Because father is dying, that's why!" Keldarion shouted in his face.
Legolas blanched. He stared at the tears that swam in his brother's cobalt blue eyes and realized how terrified Keldarion was. "Wh…what?"
"I was going down to the kitchen to get something warm to drink when I walked pass father's chamber," Keldarion quickly explained as he grabbed Legolas' arm and pulled him along out the opened door. "I heard him coughing so I went in to investigate. I found him covered in blood, coming from his mouth and nose. And there were lots of it! I couldn't stop the flow! I don't know what else to do!"
Legolas was still in mute shock when they entered the king's grand chamber. Thranduil was shuddering in his bed, coughing and wheezing as his life seeped away. True to Keldarion's words, their father's nightshirt was splotched with huge amount of blood, as well as the pristine fabric of his bed sheet.
The elder prince rushed ahead to sit on the bed and propped his father against his side, gently wiping the blood off Thranduil's face. He looked up and saw the way Legolas was standing so still at the doorway, dumbfounded. "What are you waiting for, brat? Heal him!"
Legolas instantly snapped to attention. He dashed forward and sat in front of the king. He firmly clutched his father's limp hand as he placed his other palm on Thranduil's trembling chest, forcing his magical healing ability through his fingertips onto the king's flesh. As a powerful manyan, Legolas could heal all kind of injuries and maladies simply by using his touch. It was the ability he had inherited from his mother.
Not long after, Thranduil stopped coughing and his breathing returned to normal. By then, Legolas was already crying. "I'm sorry, father," the prince said brokenly, burying his face within the crook of the king's neck.
Thranduil was quite perplexed. "Why should you be sorry? I'm fine now. You've healed me," he said as he patted Legolas' back.
Legolas shook his head and looked up. "You have been poisoned! I could feel the venom in your veins just now. Dior has tried to kill you and I've caused all these. If Keldarion had not walked by your door, and if I was not a manyan…" Legolas was not able to finish his words as he was assailed by the strongest fear he had ever known. The thought of living without his father was so dreadful for him to imagine.
Keldarion placed a hand on his brother's shoulder. "We still do not know if it's him, Legolas, but I'll definitely going to find out." He leaned down to hug his father. "I'll go investigate right away and question all the servants and the guards. This incident should never have happened! Someone might have poisoned your food or your drinks and I'll find out who did it!"
Thranduil nodded. "Do whatever you think is best, but be very careful. We are not fully sure who this person is and we still do not know what his real intentions are."
"I will." Keldarion reached down and gently wiped the tears off Legolas' cheek. "Don't ever think that this is your fault, brat. Now help father change and clean up. I'll be right back as soon as I settle this matter."
With that, the crown prince of Mirkwood then walked out of the king's chamber, his posture stiff and his face grim. The anger was boiling hot in his veins due to his father's near death. He vowed to find out the person responsible and bring him down before any more blood was shed.
TBC…