OMG! What's this? An update!

Hey guys! Long time no see! You didn't think I was actually going to abandon this story didja? You did?! Aw, I'm sorry. I know it's been... awhile(!) needless to say, but I'm finally back! Hope I didn't leave anyone hanging. Before I let you go to read, I just want to give a big shout out to all my readers who read and reviewed the last chapter. Your encouragement is what keeps me warm and cozy through these long winter nights! Enjoy the new chapter!

Disclaimer: Lord of the Rings and all associated characters are not mine and belong to JRR Tolkien, nor are they being used for profit in the telling of this story.

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A pale touch of pink was just beginning to warm the far eastern corner of the sky as the first hint of morning sunlight began to spill out over the horizon and onto the sleeping land. Standing by himself near the railing of his bedroom balcony, Legolas Greenleaf watched in a detached sort of trance the sun's golden head slowly creep up over the horizon, warming the sky with its light. As he watched in reflective silence, the inky black darkness of the nighttime sky slowly began to fade like a watercolor painting into a deep royal blue, then to purple which in turn bled into a rosy colored orange, and finally yellow. As the eastern sky continued to brighten with the cresting dawn, the stars still shining in the dim morning light slowly began to fade and then finally disappear from view.

Legolas heaved a weary sigh, suddenly feeling empty and alone at the loss of the stars overhead. He felt somehow connected to them, as if their pale, silver light somehow represented everything he once knew himself to be. But no longer. Now it was like with their disappearance from the heavens also faded his innocence and everything that had once made him who he was. He felt scared and alone, a stranger to himself. Now more than ever in the last few months of unnameable fear and anxiety, he felt lost, unable to understand what was happening to him or what he was now suppose to do.

Legolas gave another shaking sigh and slowly leaned down over the railing of the balcony. Everything felt different, as if he was somehow living the life of another person or trapped in some dream he couldn't wake up from. And he wanted to wake up. Oh gods, did he just want to wake up from this nightmare and go back to his old life before any of this ever happened! But he couldn't. Because he knew this was no dream, and that the band of mysterious elves that had rescued him the night before from his would-be kidnapers had not lied to him. And what they had said was not something he could honestly deny or ignore.

Legolas hung his head tiredly. He could all the stress, fear, and anxiety of the previous day weighing down on him. Exhaustion like he had never experienced before clawed at his mind and body, pulling him down like a heavy weight tethered to his soul. He felt so tired. So lost. All he wanted to do was sleep and escape this nightmarish reality, to somehow delay the inevitable of accepting who he really was and what he now needed to do. He just wanted to sleep, to rest his weary body and escape this horrible nightmare at least for awhile. But he couldn't. There were just too many thoughts and questions swirling around in his head to find such peace for his troubled mind.


How was he – he of all the elves in Middle-earth! – suppose to be this great savior of Arda these elves from across the sea were searching for? He was Legolas Greenleaf of Mirkwood, youngest and thus least important son of King Thranduil. He was a simple warrior, not some great and powerful elf lord from ancient legend that supposedly helped the Gods of the West defeat the dark lord Melkor and seal him away in the Void. How could he possibly be this FËaglin they searched for? How could he possibly be the one these mysterious elves from Valinor placed the entire fate of Middle-earth on?

He wished Gandalf or Elrond were there. They would know what to do. They were two of the wisest beings to ever walk Middle-earth, save for perhaps the Lady Galadriel who truly had no equal. But Legolas had to remind himself that none of them were there to help him. All three had sailed away in a silver ship bound for the Undying Lands almost two years before. None of them could help him now. It seemed he was to face this mystery alone.

Legolas almost wanted to cry out of stress and confusion. Some great Savior of Arda you are... he couldn't help but mentally remark. You're suppose to stop the end of the world from happening, and here you are about to burst into tears like some child not old enough to leave his mother's side...

Thinking this somehow only made Legolas want to cry more. He was so tired. He just wanted to sleep. Why did this have to happen to him?

Closing his eyes to collect himself, the elven prince folded his arms up over each other on the balcony railing and leaned forward so that his forehead rested on his forearm. Gods, he was so tired... Ever since he started having those dark and disturbing dreams almost two months before he had not had a proper night's rest. And now after his attempted kidnaping by a band of unknown elves apparently trying to kill him and keep him from fulfilling some ancient prophecy he still wasn't even sure pertained to him, Legolas could feel all those sleepless nights finally catching up with him.

If he could just get some sleep then everything wouldn't look so dark and mysterious, and he would be able to figure things out with a clear head.

"Legolas?"

Suddenly startled out of his thoughts by the soft calling of his name, the elven prince bolted upright and wheeled around in surprise. Legolas was greatly taken aback and frightened by how he had not heard anyone approaching from behind, and immediately chastised himself for being so inattentive to his surroundings. His hands automatically flew down to grab for one of his long knives to defend himself with from whatever unknown attacker had managed to sneak up on him. He was dismayed however to find his knives were not there; he had left them sitting on the end of his bed back inside his room.

Fortunately though, Legolas did not need them as he quickly spun around on his heels and found himself not staring at some unknown attacker, but rather Aragorn and Gimli standing in the doorway of his room that led out onto the balcony. The man and dwarf instantly froze on the threshold, startled by elf's uncharacteristic jumpiness. For several long heartbeats of silence Legolas stood perfectly still, staring back at them with his eyes wide and shining with unmistakable fear. Aragorn and Gimli could feel the tension radiating off the elf's body in almost palpable waves. Every muscle in the elf's lithe body seemed tense and strung tight like a bow string right before release.

Aragorn seemed the first to recover his voice from his initial shock of his friend's reaction to them. "I'm sorry, Legolas. We didn't mean to startle you," he said, holding his hands up in front of his chest as a sign of peace to the clearly startled elf, "We just wanted to make sure you were alright."

Recognition finally seemed to spark in the archer's eyes. Releasing a low, shaking breath he hadn't even been aware he had been holding, Legolas' whole being suddenly seemed to droop, as if the release of tension from his body had somehow drained away the last of the elf's strength. His shoulders sagged forward and eyes seemed to dim with returning exhaustion. "It's alright," he said in a distinctly weary voice as he unconsciously reached out a shaking hand to steady himself with on the balcony railing, "I just did not hear anyone coming..."

Gimli might have stored away this bit of information to use at a later date in one of his verbal sparring matches with the elf, but the heavy pall of the circumstances surrounding his friend's sudden inattentiveness chased away any such thoughts from his mind. Aragorn and Gimli exchanged concerned glances with one another, both thinking the same thing. Never before had they known Legolas to be able to be snuck up on and startled like that by any living creature – including by fellow elves. And for Legolas to actually admit his slip of alertness only made them all the more concerned.

"Legolas, are you alright?" Aragorn asked worriedly as he strode forward and came to a stop in front of his friend.

Legolas blankly stared at Aragorn for a long minute of silence, as if just pondering this question himself for the first time. "I– I don't know..." he finally answered after a time, shaking his head slowly. His voice was like that of a child wandering alone in the woods: lost and frightened. Legolas slowly brought a shaking hand to the side of his face. "I just don't know what I am anymore," he moaned, dragging a hand through his disheveled blonde hair fretfully.

"Easy there, lad," Gimli admonished lightly, coming up to stand beside his friend also, "There's no need for you to get all worked up like this."

But this did not seem to calm the distraught elf down at all. "Yes there is!" Legolas cried loudly, beginning to agitatedly pace along the balcony, "I have every right to get worked up over this. Not only have I been plagued by dark, reoccurring dreams for the last several months and felt some unknown darkness growing in my heart, but now these elves from across the sea come saying I'm the reincarnation of some ancient warrior that supposedly defeated the dark lord Melkor, and that it's my responsibility to stop the end of the world! How am I suppose to react to something like that? What am I suppose to think?"

"Legolas. Legolas, just calm down," Aragorn ordered, striding forward and taking hold of the restless elf by the shoulders and wheeling him around so that he stared back into the man's face, "Just calm down and breathe. I know how confused and alone you must feel right now but getting upset like this isn't going to help us figure this out at all. Now just calm down. Gimli and I are going to help you through this, but you have to calm down first."

This seemed to finally earn a response from the emotionally distraught elf. Legolas slowly raised his downcast eyes and looked up into Aragorn's, trying to gauge the sincerity of his friend's offered support. But he could find no sign of deception or false promises in the man's steel grey depths, only the honest desire to help his friend. Slowly lowering his gaze again in shame for his unjustified outburst, Legolas gave a wan smile, humbled by his friend's sincerity. "Thank you," the elven prince said softly in a calmer tone.

Nodding in satisfaction that he had finally talked some sense back into his friend, Aragorn slowly released Legolas' shoulders and stepped back. His eyes unconsciously began to scan Legolas' body, taking in the elf's stooped shoulders and the way he wearily hung his head. "Did you get any sleep last night?" he asked, already knowing the answer by the dark circles ringing the elf's pale blue eyes.

"No," Legolas replied, confirming Aragorn's suspicions, "I tried, but I couldn't. I couldn't stop thinking about what ElendwË said last night..."

Aragorn nodded in understanding. Last night's revelations had left all of them asking many questions, and no one more than Legolas himself. He had seen the way the elf had seemed to progressively draw into himself as the night progressed and Elendwë explained what now needed to be done now that he and his men had finally found Legolas. Afterwards, Legolas had promptly retreated to his rooms and once again shut himself away from the outside world. Aragorn and Gimli had wanted to follow him to make sure he was alright, but it was obvious that Legolas had wanted time alone to think. And so they had honored the elf's need for privacy. But now that Aragorn actually saw his friend on the morning of the day after and saw the frazzled state of unrest of the elven prince's mind, he was beginning to wonder if leaving Legolas alone to stew in his own thoughts for the entire night without checking in on him earlier had really been such a good idea.

"Do you think what those elves are saying is true?" Gimli asked, abruptly pulling Aragorn's wandering mind back to the present as the dwarf turned to address his elven companion, "I mean, do you really believe you are who they say you are?" he questioned with barely concealed skepticism. Even after everything he had seen and heard the night before, the stout little warrior was still having trouble believing everything their mysterious guests were saying.

Legolas slowly shook his head. "I don't know," he admitted in a tired voice as though he had asked himself this question a million times over and still could not come to a conclusion, "I mean, I do not know if I truly am this Fëaglin they are searching for or not, but I know what else they say is true. There is some evil darkness rising. I can feel it in the air and hear the whisper of its approach in trees. I have felt it now for several months, even though I have not known what it truly was until now. What they say will happen is no lie. I can feel Melkor's presence growing more and more every day in the back of mind. He will soon break free from the Void and return to Arda. I can feel it. Even though I do not know if I am the one they search for, I feel I must somehow help them. There is a great evil stirring in the land that will soon erupt and spill its darkness out over all the free lands of Middle-earth unless it is somehow stopped."

"Are you saying you're actually going to listen to this strange elf and go with him and his men to Mordor to try and stop this dark lord from returning?" Gimli exclaimed, "You just said you didn't even believe you're this Fëa...whoever it is they're looking for! Why are you getting yourself involved in this if it has nothing to do with you?"

"Gimli..." Legolas sighed wearily as he closed his eyes and brought a hand up to his temple as if trying to fight the onset of an impending headache, "I have to do this. I know what will happen if I do not help them. I have seen it in my dreams... Please, you must understand, I have to help them. There is some great evil brewing here that we still do not fully see or understand. Those men that tried to kidnap me last night would not have taken such a chance as attacking me so close to the Citadel if they did not believe that I – or the one they're actually searching for– was worth such a risk."

"Then shouldn't that tell you it's not safe for you to travel into the wilderness – let alone Mordor of all places!– with a group of strangers when some deranged cult of elves is out there trying to kill you?" Gimli exclaimed in utter disbelief of the elf's almost suicidal decision.

"Gimli, please..." Legolas begged tiredly, looking down into his friend's dark brown eyes, "I am not asking you to come with me. I only want you to understand that I must do this. There are forces at work here that are bigger than you, I, or anything else. The elves that saved me last night are from the Undying Lands in the West. My kindred would not have come here to Middle-earth if there wasn't some great evil stirring whose darkness could eventually spread to even the shores of Valinor. I must help them."

"But, Legolas, if you do not believe yourself to be the one these elves are searching for, what help do you hope to offer them in stopping Melkor from escaping the Void?" Aragorn questioned, joining Gimli in his fight to somehow dissuade the elf.

Legolas seemed to have already considered this himself though. "Aragorn," he sighed, as though the effort of trying to explain his reasoning for undertaking such a mission was steadily draining him of his last remaining strength, "I do not know what I have to offer them, but I know I must go. I can feel it, this pull deep inside me that tells me I must go with them."

"But can you trust them?" the man argued desperately, "We do not know these elves. We do not know what their true intentions may be. They believe you are this Fëaglin. And so do those other elves that tried to kidnap you last night. Can you trust Elendwë and his men to be there to protect you if this Brotherhood tries to attack you again?"

"I do not need to be protected!" Legolas spat, his eyes suddenly flaring to life with ire and wounded pride, "I can take care of myself!"

"Well you sure seemed to be doing a fine job of that last night..." Gimli grunted under his breath, sarcasm dripping off every word.

Legolas' eyes flashed again. "I do not need yours or anyone else's help. I do not expect you to understand this evil I have felt growing in my heart now for the last three months, or to understand why I must do this, but I had thought that I might have at least had your confidence and support in my decision. I do not need your protection. I have faced this thing on my own thus far and do not need your help now."

"Legolas, we do not want to make you feel that you have to face this alone," Aragorn said, taking a step closer to the elven prince, "We want to help you."

"You cannot help me," Legolas retorted bitterly, "You cannot feel this darkness growing in my heart or hear the screams that haunt my dreams. You have no way of understanding why I must go with them."

"Maybe not," Gimli relented with a solemn nod of his head, "Maybe we can't feel this "growing darkness" you elves keep sputtering on about, but that doesn't mean we can't tell something is wrong. We're not going to let you face whatever is causing you so much trouble by yourself. We're coming with you. I'm not just going to stand here and let you go off on some crazy mission so you get yourself killed by a bunch of fanatical elves. You're always getting yourself into trouble, elf, so it looks like once again the dwarf has to step in and keep an eye on you while you and your new friends go off gallivanting through Mordor doing AulË knows what."

Gimli's words came off brusque and clipped, as though the dwarf was annoyed with Legolas for having gotten him involved in the whole mess. But Aragorn and Legolas immediately saw through the dwarf's act. The look of unwavering dedication and concern shining in the dwarf's dark brown eyes immediately gave him away.

Standing there looking down into his friend's dark brown eyes, Legolas suddenly felt all his fear and self-doubt begin to melt away, as if Gimli's promise of accompanying him into the wastelands of Mordor to fulfill this mission and save the world was somehow leeching away all the fear and anxiety that poisoned his troubled mind. The elven prince ventured a timid smile. "I thank you, Gimli," he said softly, "I would be honored if you accompanied me on this quest. The heart and axe of a dwarf have still yet to disappoint me."

Gimli smiled broadly at this, happy to finally see some remnant of the elf he befriended all those years ago finally shining through again. For so long now Legolas had seemed like a different person. A stranger hiding behind the face of the elf he once knew. Though he was not about to admit it to anyone – least of all his two closest friends standing there in front of him– he probably would have followed Legolas to the very ends of Middle-earth if that was where the elf's crazy mission so led him.

Aragorn nodded thoughtfully to this exchange between the elf and dwarf. At least Legolas had accepted their offer of accompanying him on this quest. For a while there, he had worried Legolas would have shunned any offered support they may have tried to give him. But while the man was relieved the elven prince had not refused their help in this mysterious quest they still did not quite fully understand, doubt and worry still plagued the king's mind. There were still some things he was not so sure about and questions that still needed answered. "But can we trust Elendwe and his men?" he asked, once again reminding his two friends of the seriousness of the situation and Legolas' decision to join this mysterious group of elves from Valinor. "Legolas, what does your heart tell you?" he asked softly, staring into the elf's fathomless blue eyes.

Legolas seemed to revert into himself for a long moment of thoughtful silence, his eyes becoming dark and troubled as he pondered this question. He slowly turned to look back over the balcony. The sun had already begun its ascent up into the pale morning sky. Warm, golden sunlight now washed out over the land and slowly waking city of Minas Tirith, banishing the last of the night's lingering shadows from the land.

Quietly looking out over the land towards the rising sun, Legolas pondered this question. He had asked it himself many times over throughout the course of the night. Something felt right about saying yes to Aragorn's question. After all, if it hadn't been for Elendwë and his men the night before, he probably would have been kidnaped or killed by his attackers before anyone else could have helped him. They had saved him, and for that Legolas felt somehow indebted to these mysterious elves.

But there was something else that made Legolas hesitate at giving Aragorn such an answer. Something he couldn't quite put his finger on but made him feel vaguely uneasy and wary of his mysterious saviors. Though Elendwë had seemed very honest and truthful in his revelations to Legolas the night before, the elven prince couldn't help but feel that he wasn't being told everything. That some bit of information was still being held back. But he had nothing to base his suspicions or unjustified uneasiness on. And although he felt there was still something to all of this he did not understand, he felt he should trust his rescuers. He could only attribute his uneasiness towards ElendwË because of the strange and frightening sequence of events surrounding his first meeting with the tall, dark-haired elf from across the sea.

"They did save my life..." Legolas murmured softly, finally breaking himself out of his thoughts, "I can find no reason not to trust in them."

"Are you sure of that, lad?" Gimli insisted, "If Faramir hadn't shown up when he did with those guards last night, those elves probably would have attacked us."

"It was dark," Legolas replied, "Elendwë even said they couldn't tell who was by me and thought that you and Aragorn may have been more attackers trying to kidnap me. They were trying to protect me and were caught in the heat of battle. They couldn't take the time to wait and see who it actually was." Even before he finished speaking, Legolas was slightly surprised by how quick he had been to jump to Elendwë's defense.

Gimli meanwhile still looked skeptical, but seemed to decide not to press his point anymore for the time being.

"I trust your judgement, Legolas," Aragorn said with a small nod of his head. Over his many years of acquaintance with the Mirkwood prince, Aragorn had found Legolas to be an excellent judge of character, able to perceive things in a person's soul that no one else could. Perhaps it was Legolas' elven perception that allowed him to discern such things, but Aragorn had never known Legolas to be genuinely wrong about a person. And for that, he was willing to place his trust in Legolas' judgement of the mysterious band of elves.

Legolas meekly nodded his head in reply and looked back out over the balcony towards the distant horizon where the sun was slowly beginning its arch up into the sky. Although Legolas took heart in his friend's admitted trust in him, lingering doubt still troubled his already worried mind. A long and dangerous path now lay before him, wrought with mystery and shadow. One that would lead him into the very heart of darkness and ultimately decide the fate of the world. One that he knew he could not escape from.

For all out sakes, Aragorn, let us hope I am right in putting our trust in these elves... For I fear what might happen if I am wrong...

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To Be Continued...

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Like it? Hate it? Any constructive criticism is welcomed and always appreciated.

So it looks like Legolas and the boys are off to Mordor now. But is their journey there going to be as easy as they may think? Well, whenever I'm at the keyboard it usually isn't, so be prepared for lots of fun stuff along the way! He he he *laughing evilly* Anyway, we'll also get to know more about ElendwË and the other elves, and find out some more about why they actually plan to do in Mordor to stop Melkor's return. And don't forget about those other pesky elves that tried to kidnap Legolas! They're just biding their time to make a reappearance...

'Till then!