Chapter V: Escape

Sméagol climbed into the tree, clutching the branches with wiry fingers and toes. Turning his head south, he sniffed the crisp air and nodded to the creature on the branch above him. It was a black squirrel, uncommon in the trees this close to Mirkwood's stronghold, but Sméagol knew they could travel far if need be. The squirrel gave one brief, malevolent squeak before scurrying off into the dense lattice of branches and twigs and leaves.

Sméagol secured his perch in the tree and readied himself. It was time.

:: :: :: :: :: ::

"It looks like an eagle," said Nimlas, pointing at a billowy cloud overhead.

Bardil squinted upwards at the cloud in question, a bright white smear against the blue sheen of the sky. "Nay, it is a dog." He threw a glance at Galendur, who was scowling up at Gollum in the tree. "What do you think the beast will do, Galendur—slay us by throwing acorns at us?" Galendur merely grunted in response.

"It is an eagle, I tell you," insisted Nimlas.

"Have you no eyes in your head? It is a dog!"

"You are both fools," said Galendur with an exasperated smile. "It is a fish." He turned his eyes back to Gollum.

"A fish?" Nimlas scoffed. "That, I suppose, is what comes of you fixing your mind on that creature. He talks and talks of raw fishes—perhaps you have fallen under his influence, my friend." Bardil laughed as Nimlas deftly dodged the acorn Galendur flung at him.

"I guard him—as you should be doing, Nimlas." Galendur's glare was formidable, but Nimlas was undaunted.

"Perhaps I should speak to your wife, and tell her that she need not bother cooking your food for you. A raw fish wriggling on your plate will suffice, will it not?"

"If you were as quick to do your duty as you are to exercise your tongue, it would be well," grumbled Galendur without malice. Bardil listened to them needle each other back and forth with a faint smile on his lips. His present task was a pleasant one indeed, allowing him to bask in the open air beneath the trees and listen to his companions' teasing. His lot would have been perfect if his prisoner's plight were less heart-wrenching. Somehow the thought of Gollum made Bardil feel as he had always felt under the rotted trees of southern Mirkwood.

With a shudder, Bardil turned his thoughts and his gaze away from Gollum up in his tree. It was late afternoon; they had brought Gollum out two or three hours after midday, it would soon begin to grow dark, and then they would bring Gollum back to his stony cell.

The afternoon wore on, mellow and soft, and soon it started to silver gently into dusk. "Let us bring him back to the caves," said Galendur. "You! Come down!" He grabbed a branch of Gollum's tree and shook it roughly. "Come down, I say!"

"We don't want to come down yet, no, we don't, gollum, gollum," whined the creature. "We likes the nice tree and the nice forest and we don't want to go back to the nasty caves, no, precious." The last word came out as a hiss, preciousss, its grating sibilance making Bardil flinch and step back.

"You will have to," said Galendur. He shook the tree branch harder, which sent Gollum scurrying up to a higher limb. He shook it harder still, and Bardil helped him, but Gollum clung limpet-like to the tree with both hands and feet and would not be shaken. "We shall have to climb up and fetch him," began Galendur, looking highly annoyed, but Nimlas cut him off.

"Why should he not stay here for a while longer? We could easily stay here with him, as the evening is glorious. Or I could stay with him," he amended hurriedly, looking at both of his companions. "You need not, if you do not wish it."

Bardil and Galendur exchanged glances. "We will not leave you alone with him," said Bardil, and Galendur nodded in agreement.

"It would be a lot of bother to drag him down, anyway, and he would bite and scratch and make a nuisance of himself while we did it. We may as well wait for a while."

So the three Elves lingered at the foot of the tree as the blue-grey evening dulled into a moonless night. A hush fell upon the forest, and the air seemed still and tensed.

"Elbereth has abandoned the skies," said Bardil, looking at the inky blackness above.

"Aye," said Galendur with a frown. He glanced up towards Gollum and then threw a quick look around his surroundings. "There is something amiss, though I cannot sense what."

Bardil closed his eyes. At first there was only a deadened silence, void of all sound, and he felt chilled, lost, negated. But finally the tree-song trickled into his ears, soft and timorous. "You are right," he said, opening his eyes. "The trees are uneasy. I cannot tell why."

"I sense nothing," said Nimlas. "Perhaps the trees are simply restless because we have not had a night without stars for some time."

"No," said Galendur, "it is more than that, I am sure of it." The Elf's eyes glinted and he swiveled around suddenly. "Orcs!"

The cry was unnecessary, as the Orcs crashed towards the guards without a care for their noise. It was also too late: the enemy closed swiftly in on the three Elves and there was little hope of successfully fleeing. Drawing his long knife, Bardil thrust and parried. Their struggle was in vain---he knew this in some dim corner of his mind, as he slashed the throat of one Orc and dodged the blow of another. He saw Nimlas fall, clutching his shoulder, heard Galendur's rough-edged shout of "Elbereth Gilthoniel!" Perhaps if one of them could escape, run back to the stronghold and return with help for the others…but it was impossible, they were too thickly surrounded and it was only a matter of time…

Bardil's knife locked against the sword of an Orc, and he pushed against the creature with all his strength. So engrossed was he in his struggle that he did not notice the other Orc that came upon him from behind until it clubbed him over the head. Bardil swayed, the world spinning in dizzying circles around him, and he fell to his knees as his sight clouded. He tried to collect himself, but his mind spiraled wildly into oblivion and he knew no more.

:: :: :: :: :: ::

Near the stronghold, the Wood was peaceful and an ideal trysting place for the two lovers who talked beneath the darkening sky.

"Do you think we will ever be able to have children?" Nimwen was uncharacteristically sober as she spoke to her betrothed.

"'Never' is a long time," said Nendur lightly. "Our people have weathered worse than this. We cannot now, and will not for at least the next few centuries, but who is to say that the Shadow will never lift?"

"How can it?" Nimwen's voice rose, fierce and impassioned. "You see what is happening as well as I, Nendur. Our realm shrinks year by year, our warriors keep dying…we may even be overrun some day, for all we know." She stared at him, pleading wordlessly for an answer she knew he could not give.

Nendur was silent, and Nimwen thought at first that he was grieved by what she had said. But then she noticed that his eyes were fixed outwards, away from the stronghold. She followed his gaze and saw a group of warriors clustering together some distance away, at the very border where the woods began to grow dangerous. Narrowing her eyes, she saw them fighting, dancing away from the swords of the Orcs…

"Orcs!" she cried. Never before had Orcs come so close to the stronghold. Spiders, yes, but not Orcs.

"Many of them, more than I have ever seen at once," said Nendur, growing pale. "Too many. I am no soldier, but even I can see that those warriors are outnumbered."

"We must go for help!" Nimwen turned and ran to the caves, crying out in a shrill, keening voice, Nendur at her heels. "Yrch, yrch! We are attacked! Help!" The two guards at the mouth of the caves heard them and ran towards the struggle, as did a few warriors who lived in cottages close to the caves. Nimwen and Nendur ran inside, still shouting, hearing distant battle cries from the outnumbered Elven warriors. Nendur paused to ring the large bell that hung in a nook just inside the cave, ringing it six times to signal that the attack was nearby. The deep, sonorous tones of the bell echoed through the stony passageways.

Elves poured out of their chambers. Legolas and two other captains ran to the mouth of the caves, Legolas barking "Go deeper inside, where it is safe! Go!" to Nimwen and Nendur as he passed.

"We should go," said Nendur, tugging Nimwen's arm. Throwing one worried glance behind her, she fled with him into the depths of the caves.

:: :: :: :: :: ::

"Elbereth," breathed Legolas, gazing at the Orcs swarming closer and closer to the stronghold. He turned to Thondil and Ereg, the two captains who had come outside the caves with him to assess the threat. "If each of us brings his entire patrol out to fight them, it may be enough."

"That would be ninety warriors," said Ereg. "The Orcs certainly number more than one hundred and fifty, and they are dangerously close. Perhaps we should keep another patrol waiting and ready to assist us, to be safe."

Thondil ran back to the caves to ring the bell, signaling the patrols to come. Legolas and Ereg followed him, going down to the armory to fill their quivers with arrows and then rushing back out again. By the time they arrived, their warriors were already there and awaiting orders.

The three captains held a quick council. "I will take my patrol straight ahead into the forest on the ground," said Legolas. "Thondil--"

"My spearmen will wait where the trees begin to thin for any Orcs that flee that way," said Thondil. "Ereg, your bowmen can cover Legolas's warriors from the trees, can they not?"

"Very well," said Ereg.

The captains gave the orders to their troops, and Mirkwood's warriors charged into the fray.

:: :: ::

When Lothwen Thranduiliel heard the chiming of the warning bell, she hurried into the corridor outside her chamber without thinking twice and made for the uppermost portion of the caverns. Lothwen, like the other Elves of the Wood, knew by necessity exactly what to do if danger struck too close. Warriors went to confront the threat directly if their captains so commanded it; healers fled to the very depths of the caverns to wait for the wounded. And those who were neither warriors nor healers hid along the passageways of the caverns, waiting to defend themselves in case the enemy entered the caves. This had never happened, but the Woodland Realm had not survived for so long by adopting an attitude of foolish optimism.

As the king's daughter, Lothwen felt it her duty to take greater risks than the other Elves did, and so she placed herself in a wide crevice close to where the caves opened into the outside world. She laid a hand on the hilt of her dagger and drew in a deep breath. There were some whose blood sang joyously in the heat of battle. Lothwen was not one of these. The slaying of enemies made her alternately nervous and nauseated. She was especially apprehensive now, as the bell had signaled that the Orcs were close by and that there were many of them. How many warriors had gone to out to fight the monsters? Was her brother among them? Her father, she knew, would be safe further down in the caverns, hearing reports from the scouts on the progress of the battle. And Queen Alphiel would be safest of all, with the other healers deep within the caves. But Legolas? He might be with Thranduil, or he might be out in the thick of the fighting. Lothwen felt her stomach twist within her and immediately diverted her mind.No wounded warriors had stumbled back to the caves yet; that was a good sign. This would soon be over, as it always was, and then ordinary life would resume.

:: :: :: :: :: ::

Legolas thrust his knife into the throat of one Orc and then whirled round to skewer another, the spurts of Orc-blood covering him with black droplets. They were many, the Orcs, but he could see that they had come from over the mountains and were unused to fighting amongst trees. Throwing a quick glance around, he saw that there were not more than twenty-five Orcs left; the rest were dead or fleeing. With a sigh of relief he threw himself back into the battle, slicing and hacking with his knife until he finally looked up and saw only Elves and no enemies.

Ereg dropped lightly from a tree branch high above. "No more left, hmm?" He grinned at Legolas and then grew serious. "I was concerned for a time," he said. "Never have so many Orcs come so close."

"Well, they are gone now," said Legolas, "and we must count our fallen and wounded."

"Come," said Ereg, and turned to call his warriors, but Legolas stopped abruptly where he was. "What is it?"

"Those Orcs came from over the mountains," said Legolas, his brow furrowing. "That means...that means that the path they took very likely led them to the warriors guarding Gollum. Ereg, the guards are in great danger!"

Ereg frowned. "Gollum? Oh, yes, the prisoner we keep for Mithrandir. Why would he and his guards be out of doors?"

"They sometimes take him out, and if they went where they usually do then they undoubtedly met the yrch. This is no time for talk, Ereg! We must go to their aid, though I fear it may be too late. Tathar, Luinmir!" Legolas named two of his warriors, calling them to him. He and Ereg gave quick instructions to their lieutenants and then they set off with Tathar and Luinmir to where they believed Gollum and his guards to be.

When they finally reached the spot their eyes met with a sorry sight. One Elf lay dead and another was pinned to a tree with arrows, his life's blood slowly seeping out of his body.

"Galendur!" Legolas cried, striding over to the dying Elf.

"Help…" Galendur croaked. He broke off, choking on his own blood and spitting it out. Then he seemed to summon every last grain of strength he possessed and spoke again. "Bardil…yrch…took Bardil…"

"I see the tracks where they dragged him," said Luinmir.

Galendur drew in a long, strangled breath, his face contorted with pain. Legolas pulled out a small, sharp dagger. It was clear from Galendur's wounds that the Elf was beyond all forms of help save one. "I shall ease your passing, if you wish," said Legolas gently. Galendur gave a short, thankful nod. Legolas thrust once with his dagger. Then it was done, and a spray of red blood shot out to mingle with black on his tunic.

Legolas stepped back, shaking almost imperceptibly. He felt Ereg's hand on his shoulder. "We must go after Bardil," Legolas said, keeping his voice even. "We cannot abandon him to a torturous death."

"Of course," said Ereg. "But…you cannot have failed to notice that Gollum must have escaped." He threw a glance at their surroundings. "He is nowhere near here."

"Yes," said Legolas, who had forgotten Gollum completely. "He has escaped, but we cannot go after him until we find Bardil."

"Yet…Gollum is a prisoner of some importance, is he not?"

Tathar frowned. "Surely you would not hold Mithrandir's prisoner more important than one of our people," he said, his voice tinged with accusation.

"I said not so, nor do I say it now," said Ereg. "Of course we must rescue him."

The four Elves followed Bardil's trail. It was a clear one: an Elf dragged through the dirt between two heavy-footed Orcs. Legolas wondered if Bardil had been aware of himself when the Orcs took him, and fervently hoped that it was not so.

At long last, after his mind had traveled well-trodden paths in imagining how the yrch would treat their new Elven plaything, Legolas heard the guttural voices of the enemy. Immediately the four Elves melted into the trees and moved towards the sound.

Fifty Orcs sat in a circle, round a fire kindled from wood taken from living trees. Bardil lay slightly apart from their ring. Legolas stared at him, searching for the faint rise and fall of chest and shoulders that would mark him as alive.

Ereg, who was closest to the Orcs, leaned forward with narrowed eyes. Then he stood back, looked at Legolas and shook his head. He darted around the Orc circle to where Legolas was. "He is dead," said Ereg, his face grave. "And there are more Orcs than the four of us can defeat—we have little hope of retrieving his body."

"My heart burns to think of how the Orcs will defile it," said Legolas, blinking hard. Tears were of no use save to blur the sight and wet the bowstring. "But we have no choice."

"Let us call Tathar and Luinmir and be gone," said Ereg.

The Elves left their fallen countryman, making their way back to where the two other guards lay dead. Legolas was, in some secret and shame-ridden corner of his heart, grateful that Bardil had died before he was found. If Bardil had been alive, they would have had to slay him to prevent his torture at the hands of the Orcs; rescuing him alive would have been impossible when there were so many enemies to reckon with. And Legolas was relieved beyond measure to avoid another kinslaying in the same day. For kinslaying it was, and its necessity did nothing to ease its torment.

When they reached, Legolas squinted, staring at the ground. "These are not the marks of Orc feet, though they are among the footprints of many Orcs," he said. Ereg knelt by the marks in question.

"You think these marks belong to the escaped prisoner?"

"I do," said Legolas. "They certainly do not belong to the Orcs, at any rate."

"We should go after him, then," said Ereg. Involuntarily both captains glanced over to Tathar and Luinmir. All four Elves were heart-worn from the deaths they had witnessed this day, Legolas knew, and for their people grief of the mind caused weariness of the body. Yet Gollum could not vanish in their wood without a trace; if they began tracking him now, perhaps they might find him.

"Let us go," said Legolas, and once more the small band set out, Ereg and Luinmir on the ground and Legolas and Tathar peering overhead from the trees. Quickly they moved, hardly causing the branches to sway in their wake. The trees whispered to them as they passed, and the wind sang in their ears. Hours passed without rest or true meals, and so did days; Legolas was uncertain as to how many. Gollum's trail led them further and further south, until finally they reached that part of Mirkwood which was truly a perversion of Yavanna's gifts. Legolas felt his breath grow choked, heard the disharmony in the song of the trees, and felt the familiar grey touch of despair on his mind. The path they took grew increasingly circuitous, and the two Elves on the ground seemed to grow more perplexed by the minute.

Finally Ereg whistled a signal, and Legolas leapt from his tree. "I fear we have lost the trail on the ground," said Ereg. "And from the path it has taken, it seems likely it would lead to Dol Guldur. No one has gone there in centuries, and it is still an evil place…is this prisoner truly worth following?"

Legolas looked at Tathar and Luinmir, neither of whom had experience with the southern Shadow, taking in the brave tilt of Tathar's chin and the barely-hidden sorrow in Luinmir's eyes. He looked at Ereg and saw the other captain's weariness; he felt the grief that lurked in his own heart.

"Let us turn back," said Legolas.

TBC

Original Character List: (Look, Ma, more OCs!)

Bardil: one of Gollum's guards

Galendur: one of Gollum's guards

Nimlas: one of Gollum's guards

Nimwen: Elf of Mirkwood, friend of Legolas and distant cousin to his family

Nendur: Elf of Mirkwood, Nimwen's fianc

Lothwen: daughter of Thranduil and sister of Legolas

Alphiel: queen of Mirkwood, wife of Thranduil and mother of Legolas

Thondil: captain of Mirkwood

Ereg: captain of Mirkwood

Tathar: warrior of Mirkwood

Luinmir: warrior of Mirkwood

Responses to Reviewers:

Daw the minstrel: Oh, wow—thanks for the reviews, and the recommendation! I'm glad you like the way I've done Mirkwood—I tried to give several different POVs of it, from foreigners like Aragorn to people who live there, and I also tried to work with Tolkien's emphasis on compassion, so it's good to know that it came across.

Ithilien: Thank you! Updates will be as fast as I can make them. This will mostly focus on the Elves, as Gollum-in-Mordor is too depressing even for me.

Antigone Q: Thanks! I tried very hard to make it in-character, especially for Aragorn, who I don't feel I really have a handle on, so I'm glad you liked the way it turned out.

Brazgirl: Thank you very much! I'm glad you think it's original…when writing about Legolas there's always the risk of being hackneyed.

Jilian Baade: Thank you, and yes, it's too bad about the guards. Anyone who's read the books knows right from the start that they're cannon fodder.

LOTRLover: I'm especially grateful you said you liked my OCs, because I was a bit worried about them, as there are so many.

Enigma Jade: Do I mind being put on a favorite's list? Of course I don't mind! Thank you, and updates will be as soon as I can possibly manage.