Chapter IV – Never do that again

As soon as the guards unchained him from the wooden beam, Legolas struggled away from their hands and sprinted off…

… to where he did not know. He pushed past several workers shoveling heavy loads of coal into a red hot fire with the guards on his heels.  Not one of my better ideas, he thought dismally as he realized he didn't know how to get out of this wretched place. And besides, he could not or rather would not leave without Aragorn. His main goal, he decided as he almost tripped on a pail of boiling hot water, was to keep out of their clutches for as long as possible, whatever good that would do him.

And then disaster slammed into him head first. He stumbled on a mound of coal on the floor and fell into a pile of soot just as the guards caught up with him. The bigger one grabbed him by his shoulder and pulled him out, turning the dirt covered elf to face him.

"Never, do that again." He said slowly, with an evil glint in his eye. The elf absorbed his look but said nothing. A well aimed punch to his stomach knocked all the air out of him and he doubled over trying to catch his breath. Darkness followed.

~*~

Aragorn was shoved unceremoniously into their new home away from home at the end of the day. He wondered where Legolas was and stopped short when he saw the crumpled body of his friend lying in a corner.

Carefully, turned the prone body of Legolas over and gasped. There was a nasty looking shoulder wound that still seemed to be bleeding. He hurriedly tore off a strip of fabric from his coat and applied pressure to the wound. Legolas moaned slightly at his touch as awareness slowly returned to his eyes.

"Aragorn…" He said, smiling slightly at the ranger before closing his eyes for a moment as the pain of his body overwhelmed him. He hardy noticed as Aragorn half removed his tunic and undershirt to reveal his bloodied and bruised upper body.

"What happened, my friend?" The ranger queried quietly as he tried to ascertain the extent of Legolas' injuries.

"Well… I tried to escape… again… and failed … again. I must admit I am getting a bit tired of being punished for escape attempts. "

Aragorn frowned as he inspected the bruised ribs and checked if the shoulder wound had stopped bleeding.

Finally when Aragorn has done all he could, he helped prop Legolas up against the wall. The elf was shaking slightly. The amount of blood lost had made him weaker then he liked to admit.

"So are you ready to tell me why they did this for a mere escape attempt?"

~*~

Legolas awoke in a dark dank place, tied to the mossy walls. As his eyes adjusted to the dim light he noticed the guard who had warned him earlier was directly in front of him again.

"Good. I wanted you to be awake for this." He smirked and then raised the knife in his hand and brought it down into Legolas' shoulder.

The elf gasped in shock and pain as he felt the sharp edge of the knife scrap against his bone before being pulled up again. He bit his lip hard to stop from crying out.

Much to his horror the man produced a bottle and allowed the blood that was pouring from his wound to flow into it. The elf swallowed hard. The sight was sickening and he turned his head away.

When at last the bottle was full, his captor corked the bottle.

"And now we have a little letter to write … with nice red ink too."

Legolas' head snapped up in horror as he realized just who they were writing to.

"Ah ha little elf… scared are we? I'm not quite done with you yet. Put us up on a merry chase just now… can't have you doing that again."

He grabbed a fistful of blond hair and forced the elf's head up as he cruelly slammed the elf against the wall and punched him …. Again and again and again…

The pain faded to nothing as consciousness flew off into oblivion.

~*~

The cell was silent save for the dripping of water that seeped in through a crack in the ceiling as the two companions thought over just how much trouble they were in now.

TBC …

There! I finally updated! My finals end in a week so from then on I'll update regularly. Meanwhile, all of you still reading this… hope you stick around!