Chapter five.

"We," Lanthir stated, "are still walking."
"Really?" Legolas said sarcastically, "I hadn't noticed."
"You promised we would stop walking if we reached the end of the sewers. We reached the end of the sewers hours ago, and we are still walking."
"I said: we would stop walking as soon as we found a safe place to rest. Have you seen a safe place to rest? No, you haven't, because there were no safe places to rest. I've been looking out for safe places, but we are in Mordor. Safe places do not just pop up every ten seconds in this Valar forsaken place!"
Legolas' patience with his brother had left him a long time ago..

The truth was he was getting rather tired himself. He knew it was time to rest. He could feel it in his arms and legs, but he also knew that resting now, in the middle of Mordor, in view of anyone who happened by, was not a good idea. They were following a river that lead into the Ephelduath because it was the only way out of Mordor that Legolas knew of. However, the river attracted all sort of foul creatures, as it was one of the few sources of water in the dry wastelands of Mordor. If they stopped now, the chance of discovery was far too high because there were no places to hide. They had been exceedingly fortunate that no creature had noticed their presence so far.
'But maybe some of them had', Legolas thought. 'Maybe four starved elves just didn't form enough of a meal to tempt the larger beasts. Or maybe they all looked too much like orcs, with all the dirt and muck covering them.'

Legolas decided to try a different strategy on his whining brother. "Lanthir.
We will reach those mountains soon. We can find a place to hide somewere in there. Those are the Ephelduath, you know. The Mountains of Shadow. They form the bordor of Mordor."
"Yes, I know, but they are miles away. It will take ages to get there!" Lanthir whined.

Legolas smiled. It was excactly the reaction he had expected. "Not if we make a dash for it."
Limloeth looked at her older brother. He couldn't be serious. Lanthir's eyes grew wide.
"You mean like a race? You will race us to the mountains?"
"No Legolas, you can make him run, but you can't make us run; we haven't had a drink in hours…we'd never make it! Besides, we need to save our strength," Limloeth protested.
Legolas knew his plan was dangerous. He knew the running could cause their elvish body's to burn up from lack of water, but he was really sick of being in Mordor, and if Lanthir had that much breath left to complain, he could use it for running as well. They would be fine, he decided. He hoped. It was a gamble he was willing to take if it would keep his brother quiet.

Legolas shifted the weight of Lainfea a bit. He would have to run while carrying her, and he didn't want her to fall. "Three…" he said.
"This is a bad idea," Limloeth said, shaking her head.
"Two…"
"We will regret this!" Limoeth said, still trying to dissuade Legolas.
"One! GO!" Legolas shouted, and he bolted off. Lanthir and Limloeth followed as fast as they could. Neither one of them had any breath left for complaining, whichwas exactly what Legolas had wanted.

A couple hours later Lanthir was the one that first slammed his hand on the first real rock of the shadowy mountains. Close behind, Lainfea followed, who had woken up after they had started running and demanded to compete as well.
Legolas had allowed it when the mountains got closer. Legolas himself had stayed behind a bit to keep an eye on Limloeth, who wasn't doing so well. Legolas suspected she had hurt her foot somewhere, but was to stubborn to let anyone know.

Running to the mountains had taken its toll on the group. Years of harsh treatment and not enough food had made their flight to the borders of Mordor very difficult, and the group could hardly stand once they reached their destination.

"I WON!" Lanthir said with what little breath he had left. "And look! There's a cave over there on the mountainside! I'll go check if it's safe. You stay here!"

Legolas smiled. He knew his brother very well. He knew winning this match would keep his brother from whining for a while. He watched his brother enter the cave, and wondered if he should come with him. But no, he decided. His brother could handle it.

"Have I not found the perfect cave for us to rest?" Lanthir asked his siblings. "It's dry, its big, and it has water actually fit for drinking, instead of that muddy river Legolas made us follow!"
The four elves sat together leaned against the wall of the cave, drinking freely water from the waterskin now that they could refill it.
"This is the same river, Lanthir, it's just deeper and farther away from the orcs, that's all," Legolas said with a smile. Lanthir was trying to steal all the credit for their escape, but it was fine with Legolas. He was simply pleased that they could finally rest in peace. He smiled as he thought of his brother; he liked this compeditive, loud Lanthir much better than the whining, childish Lanthir they had seen earlier that day.

Lainfea had picked up a small stone and wrote a few letters into the sand.
"Lanthir?" she asked. "How do you write when you are not a slave?"
"When you are not a slave you write the same as when you are a slave. You pick up something to write with and simply write," he answered.
"No, I mean… when you are a slave you write this." She used the stone to write "Slave" into the sand. "But when you are not a slave... what do you write then?"
Legolas smiled and said, "I think she means to say: how do you write that you are free."
"Ah. Let's see," Lanthir said, and he also picked up a stone. Two seconds later he and Lainfea were writing words on the sand, both of them deep in concentration.

Legolas got up to check on Limloeth. "You don't look very happy. Does your foot hurt that much?"
"There's nothing wrong with my foot," Limloeth said.
"Yes there is. I noticed it when we were running."
"I just had a rock in my boot. See for yourself if you don't believe me," she replied as she lifted her foot. Legolas checked it, and found nothing wrong.
"Good. Now the other one."
Limloeth sighed and showed him.
"Alright," Legolas said. "If you're not hurt, then what is it? Why are you so uncomfortable?"
Limloeth looked away. "I don't know. It's just a feeling. There's something about this place that just feels… wrong. It's something about the water. It feels... dangerous."
Legolas looked worried. Limloeth had always had a strong feeling for these kind of things.
"You think the water is dangerous?" he asked, looking at his little brother and sister writing at the waterside.
"No, it's not that. It's just the direction of the danger. " She closed her eyes for a moment. "It's coming closer."

Legolas looked at the water. Maybe it was because Limloeth had said something about it, but he felt the approaching danger as well.
"Lainfea, Lanthir, get away from there," Legolas said.
"What?" Lanthir looked up and followed his brothers gaze. Lainfea looked as well.
"Look!" she cried, "Ships!"
Legolas paled. He got up from the floor, ran towards Lainfea, snatching her off the ground.
"Corsairs!" he yelled at his brother.
"RUN!"

TBC

sam611: never mind your english, mine isn't that good eighter.. Luckily i have a great editor..

Nessa Ar-Feiniel : There is another reason why killing is harder for Limloeth than for the others.. you will find out.. And yes, Legolas has taken the father role.. As he is the eldest.

That was it for today!