Legolas

   A hot bath and a tray of food had taken care of Aragorn's basic needs. Forgoing sleep, he had stubbornly taken up watch at the bedside of the still unconscious Legolas. The twins had joined him for some hours. They had spoken together quietly, whiling away the long watch. At dawn of  the next day  Aragorn finally fell asleep. Lord Elrond relieved Elladan and Elrohir as the sun neared its zenith in the sky. He covered his human son with a blanket making sure to tuck in the edges. Estel did not stir. He too was exhausted. A sad smile touched Elrond's face. Estel was always pushing himself to his limits, trying to prove his worth.

   Legolas stirred and gave a soft cry in his sleep, "daro, daro!"

Elrond held onto his hands as they tried to push away an invisible foe. Aragorn, awakened by the frightened cry came to kneel at the other side of the bed. He frowned in his concern. Legolas was twitching and tossing his head from side to side. His breath came in ragged gasps. A glistening sheen of sweat covered his body and his face was pale. His sweat soaked hair stuck to his head in clumps. He groaned deep down in his throat.

"How can we help him father? He fights against things we cannot see." Aragorn's grey-green eyes were anxious. Lord Elrond sighed, looking down at the fragile hands he held in his own. He was unwilling to look into those eyes that believed he could undo all hurts. "We must be there for him whenever he awakens ion nin, we must reassure him that he is now safe. That is all we can do… for now." 

Legolas' body abruptly went still, but his breathing was still irregular and his dark brows were knit as though he were in pain. Aragorn placed a chair he took from the corner of the room next to the bed. He would be there when Legolas awoke.

   The ringing clash of metal on metal was what alerted the patrol to the attack.

"Yrch!" came the far off cry.

 Legolas raced with nine others toward the sound of battle, his heart pounding in his chest. Even before he could see them clearly, his arrows sang through the air finding targets in the mass of the dark hulking bodies of the orcs. Soon he was out of arrows, but by then he was close enough for hand to hand fighting. He pulled his twin blades from their sheaths and twirling like a vengeful god, hacked his way into a mass of grunting, sweating, stinking bodies. But as fast as he slew them, he could not stem the seemingly unending tide of orcs that poured through the trees to join the battle.

"Daknor ruk!" the bellow came from a large orc.

Suddenly the sky was filled with weighted nets. Legolas lost one of his knives as the heavy nets pulled him and three others to the ground. Finally gaining the advantage, the orcs brutally and methodically set about battering the trapped elves into submission. Not losing hope Legolas thrust his blood soaked blade into the foot of the nearest orc. The creature bellowed its rage and swung a heavy club at the elf. The club caught Legolas on the right side of his head and for a long time the world went grey.

   By the time he had recovered his wits, he realized they were being taken away from his homeland. His feet and wrists had been bound tightly with strips of raw hide. A dirty rag effectively gagged him. There were two other elves trussed up with him in the net. Their frightened eyes and erratic breathing told of their terror.  

The ends of the nets had been securely tied to the middle of two long poles. Eight orcs carried the ends of each pole on their shoulders. Here were four to the front and four at the back. In this way the prisoners were taken far from Mirkwood forest. As far as Legolas could see there were fifteen nets full of his kin. The orcs set a relentless pace and ran late into the night.

By dawn of the third morning, they had reached the regions of the Misty Mountains. Legolas had no illusions about their fate. There was only one reason orcs captured elves alive; to torture and mutilate them using black magic until they turned into orcs themselves. It was a fate worse than death.

"I will die before that happens to me." He swore to himself. He would fight until he drew his final breath. Despite this, he could not help but shudder, when his captors carried them underground into suffocating blackness.

   Legolas eyes shot open and a strangled cry escaped his lips. He startled Aragorn who dropped the cup of tepid tea he had been sipping. He reached for the elf's hands. They were cold and trembling.

"Ya ier le Legolas." He whispered, rubbing the elf's hands with his own to warm them. Legolas's unseeing eyes were a brilliant blue. There were flecks of silver in their depths. Aragorn had never seen an elf with blue eyes before. Even lord Glorfindel, the only other elf with blond hair he knew, had eyes of molten silver. Lord Elrond quietly entered the room. Observing the elf's open eyes he thought Legolas had awakened.

"He still dreams father." Aragorn said softly. "His hands are cold and they tremble."

"He does not dream ion nin, he is reliving a terrible experience." Lord Elrond sighed as he paced his hands upon the trembling elf's forehead. He could feel his panic, no not panic, terror.

   Legolas and the others had been stripped of their clothing and bonds in the darkness. The orcs jeered at them. They roughly cut off the tunics and leggings the elves wore, not caring if a knife slipped and cut the skin instead. The knives seemed to slip quite often. Their rough hands pinched and fondled the naked elves, as they made crude jokes about their impending doom. Legolas felt a gnarled hand touch his thigh. He squeezed his eyes shut and bit his lip to keep from retaliating. To do so was folly. At last tiring of their games, the orcs herded them into cages and then left them alone in the darkness.

Time passed. Legolas tried to maintain his equanimity, but it was hard. They had had no water or food for three days and the rough treatment doled out by the orcs further sapped his waning energy. Time passed and as it did his feelings of despair awakened. He heard the muffled sobs of a young elf who was imprisoned with him. Only seventy years separated them in age, but Legolas felt the weight of those years on his shoulders now. He felt responsible for their situation somehow. He should have fought harder. How could he tell Uial that their trials had barely begun. Instead he reached for the young one and embraced him. "My Lord Legolas, what will become of us?" Uial cried.

"You must be brave Uial." Legolas replied softly, blinking back his own tears. "You must be strong." He began rocking the young warrior back and forth humming a barely remembered lullaby.

   The beatings started without warning. Legolas, who had drifted into a fitful sleep, was startled into wakefulness by the sound of whips on flesh. He clung to bars of his prison, helplessly listening to the far off cries and screams of elves imprisoned elsewhere in the gloom. The orcs laughter echoed evilly in the darkness. Dread filled him as they came closer.

They rattled the doors of the cage and laughed at the terrified whimpers of the young elf. Legolas reached for him and held him close. "Dinnen pen neth, dinnen." He said to him softly.

 "Be gone you cowards!" he shouted at the darkness.

"No caun nin!" shrieked the terrified Uial "Do not anger them further!"

The derisive laughter of the orcs was cut short by a barked command uttered in the dark tongue. There was a rasping sound and a lighted torch was suddenly thrust at the cage. Legolas scrambled backwards dragging the terrified younger elf with him. A huge orc peered through the bars. "Which one of you is the prince!" he demanded.

None of them answered.

 "Answer me or your deaths will be slow and painful."

Uial began to weep. Legolas stood slowly. "I am." He declared, holding his head high.

The large orc smiled. "Bring him." He commanded the four others. They eagerly opened the cage door and clubbed him into unconsciousness. Legolas fell without a sound. The last thing he heard was Uial's pitiful scream.

Legolas awoke in darkness. He heard no noise, only his own harsh breathing. His back and left side were on fire. His head felt like it was about to split into pieces. He pushed himself to his knees with shaking hands. He felt soft animal skins on the floor beneath him. His questing hands encountered a bowl filled with water and something that felt like bread. He tasted the water and it was fresh. He greedily drank all there was. The bread he left on the ground. He reached out and his hands encountered solid bars. He was still in a cage. He crouched quietly in one corner of his prison, listening to the silence. He knew there were eyes watching him. "I know you are there." He said suddenly, willing his eyes to see his captor. All he heard were retreating footsteps.

The next day, there was water and fruit.

The day after, there was water and bits of roasted meat.

The day after that, there was water and bread.

Legolas lost count of the days.

   This day was different, when he woke up there was some dim light. A spluttering torch had been stuck into a crevice in the far wall. He could see that his cage was at the dead end of a wide tunnel and that he was alone. He wondered what was going to happen. Time passed slowly. He paced for a while, but tiredness, hunger and the cold that seeped into him from the surrounding rocks had taken their toll. He lay down on his side facing the light. His unbound golden hair fell in a swathe around him. His hair had grown much longer in the time that had passed. His braids had come undone, but he had not the heart to redo them. He was glad for the light, even if he could only see rocks and the cage that held him. He yearned for the sunlight and the stars and the moonlight. Tears slipped from his eyes and he let them run freely. He wondered if everyone else was dead, he thought of his home, his father, his friends. Eventually he closed his eyes and refused to think.

   He did not hear at first when the two orcs entered the tunnel, but their harsh voices startled him from his torpor like state. He leapt up and backed up against the side of the cage that was furthest from them. The same large orc who had ordered him to be moved was talking to a slightly smaller one. As Legolas watched them with glaring eyes and pounding heart, the smaller of the two snatched a dagger from his belt and fatally stabbed the larger. The dead orc fell with a sickening thud. The smaller orc approached the cage and Legolas cursed him with all his rage.

The orc smiled. "My name is Garuk," he said "you will come to know it well"

Notes

Daro, stop

Ion nin, my son

Yrch, orc

Daknor ruk, let fly the nets

Ya ier le, where are you

Dinnen pen neth, hush/quiet young one

Caun nin,my prince

To;

Pie --- hannon le mellon nin

Kryspen---- you give me energy

Amy D ----I hope you are not disappointed

Silvertoekee----- May your wish speed my hands

Canon-------- Duly noted