Sorry for the delay.

I have exams at the moment you see, so a lot of my time is spent revising for those. I will be back to normal in a few weeks though. But for now chapter 3.

arqueni-telrunya: It's not schizophrenia. And it's actually not a lady, does it give you the impression it's a lady? Tell me, please. Cos I didn't think it did. BTW. When do we get the next instalment of betrayal deception?

Chapter 3

Legolas raced through the woods he could still hear the orcs behind him, and from the sounds of it there were wargs with them. The elf glanced up into the treetops, normally he would have used the branches as a means of escape, but in this weather…he was safer on the ground.

The howling of the wargs drew his attention and he looked back over his shoulder through the trees he could see a lone warg racing towards him, drawing a knife he slashed the warg across the throat, killing it.

"And I'm going to leave the perfect scent trail for those beasts" he cursed-momentarily considering throwing the knife into a bush…but the thought of loosing a weapon given to him by his Father was not a thing he wished to consider.

Running on, darting through the trees the elf knew that his pursuers were gaining on him. The smell of blood on his knife drawing them on…but Legolas knew these woods better than anyone and on a calm night could easily loose a pursuer in the trees.

But tonight was not a calm night…

Pausing to gather his breath Legolas looked around and froze. He knew the orcs plan. He knew where they had chased him. He was heading towards the South of Mirkwood, and he guessed their aim was to drive him towards Dol Guldur…

Turning he ran east, aiming to lead the orcs back North, to their deaths.

Estel shuddered as five large spiders entered the cave, and looked around for a potential meal.

"Do not show fear; it only aids them" Elrohir whispered, so quietly the mortal had to strain his ears to hear.

"How can I not show fear-I hate spiders!" Estel replied, realising his mistake when a pair of eyes turned to face them

"Now you've made them mad" Elladan said, from his seat against the wall, he clutched a sword-he had refused to be defenceless, despite being unable to stand unaided.

"And that's not a good thing" stated Elrohir leaping at a spider that appeared on his right. He slashed at its face spraying the others with the pieces of the spider's eyes. Before kicking the spider onto its back and stabbing it with his sword.

Estel stared in shock as one spider approached him "Go for the eyes first" he whispered" as it crept closer and closer. Then he leapt at the spider, slashing with his sword, only to find that he had missed the eyes and instead severed three of the spiders legs, the Spider hissed in anger and attempted to move towards Estel on only five legs, Estel walked towards it, and sank his sword into the spiders bulbous eyes causing the beast to screech in pain, then he swung his sword at the Spider's neck, separating it from its body, and spraying the spider's blood around the room.

Then he looked around, Elrohir had dispatched another spider, and was fighting a third, and Elladan was fighting the final one…Estel ran to Elladan's side and sank his sword into the spiders back…the spider turned on him only to promptly have its head sliced off. Elladan sat behind was sprayed in blood,

"Thank you Estel" he said sarcastically wiping the blood from his face.

Estel grinned, and turned around, he watched Elrohir plunge his sword into the belly of the last spider, and breathed a sigh of relief.

But as he did this, he chanced to glance upwards, and saw, to his horror, a large spider, bigger than any he had seen previously. Without thinking the mortal ran forward, and pushed Elrohir out of the way, just as it fell on the floor.

Then, ignoring Elrohir's complaints he snatched up the younger twin's fallen sword and his own and leapt at the spider, which had now turned its attention on Elrohir…

The mortal landed on the spiders back, and crossing his swords drove them into the spider's back. The Spider rose up onto his hind legs throwing the mortal to the cave floor, and knocking the blades out of his hands. It then, before the mortal could get to his feet turned to face him, and began to advance on him slowly…

Legolas continued to race through the woods, leading the orcs north as he had aimed to do. Though, the elf was now tiring, and he was far from safety. The Orcs however still ran on behind him…now much closer. Legolas looked over his shoulder and carried on sprinting away.

Estel fumbled at his belt, his hand slippery with the spider's blood, he grasped his knife and pulled it out of his belt, just as he spider loomed over him. He stabbed his knife into the roof of the Spider's mouth. It screamed in pain as the knife sliced into its hide, and then reared up, giving Estel the opening to slice open its belly. The Spider stood no chance, a moment later it fell dead, landing on top of Estel.

"Estel!" Elrohir cried rushing forward and rolling the spider off Estel. The mortal looked up at him, "I'm alive" he stated grinning, "Now help me up!"

"No." Elrohir replied "You're covered in spider blood and you look foul"

"That's nice. You don't look to good yourself" replied Estel, getting to his feet.

"I must agree. Whatever you have been doing? But I'm not sure I want to know?!" The three span around at the sound of a new voice only to come face to face with King Thranduil.

"Lord Thranduil!" Elladan replied, with a wry grin "It was spiders"

"I can see that!" Thranduil replied "But…" he trailed off as he realised something

"Where is Legolas!" he demanded

"He heard something…and went to investigate" Elrohir replied

"And you didn't go with him!" Thranduil snapped

"He wouldn't let us. Lord Thranduil, Elladan has broken his ankle and Estel is not well, they would be more of a hindrance than help to him, and I had to stay to make sure they were not attacked"

"Good job you did of that" the elf king muttered "How long ago did he leave"

"About two hours ago"

"Thank you." He turned to face the soldiers behind him; three of you can accompany these young elves back to the halls. The others will accompany me to find my son. And get him out of whatever trouble he is in this time." The king gave an exasperated sigh as he climbed on his horse. "We ride now!" he added, riding off East.

Legolas carried on running through the woods, his cloak at this time was soaked and clung to him and his hair was plastered against his head. He knew he was running out of breath. But he also knew he had to keep running.

Chancing a glance over his shoulder as he heard the clamour of the orcs become louder, this however turned out to be a mistake, for the normally agile Prince then tripped over a fallen branch and sprawled onto the ground. As he did this he felt something stab into his leg. Gasping in pain he searched for the intrusion, and discovered, that part of the tree branch was stuck in his leg. Just as he felt things couldn't have got worse, Legolas saw the first few orcs burst from the trees. All could have turned into a disaster, but it was at that moment that arrows burst from trees, and a troupe of elves rode out from the trees. Thranduil leapt of his horse and stabbed an orc through the stomach before beheading another. The body of this one landed on Legolas' prone form, shoving the body off him, the elf Prince decided it was possibly better to get a little aid.

"Adar!" he called "I could use a bit of help" the King turned around and saw his son,

With an exasperated sigh he moved over to his son

"Legolas Get up" he groaned

"I can't, it seems that I have impaled my self on a tree root" Legolas said, grimacing with pain as his leg moved slightly. He heard his father groan even as the king sank down into the mud beside him.

"This is going to hurt" the king warned, the he seized his son's leg and pulled it away from the branch.

Legolas could not help but cry out in pain as his father removed the branch from his leg. He hardly felt his Father wrap a piece of cloth around his leg before he passed out.

Thranduil looked down at his unconscious son, then round at the warriors who were killing the remaining orcs. Then he placed Legolas on his horse and leapt up behind him, "We must get back to Mirkwood" he called riding away back towards his halls.

TBC…

I'll be back soon. Most likely Saturday.

Oh yeah, happy b'day to Orlando Bloom