Into the Labyrinth
Author: Amorous
A/N: Disclaimer in chapter one.
*Chapter 4: On the Streets*
Legolas, Elven Prince of Mirkwood, sat alone at a dirty table in the middle of a pub. The noise around him was overwhelming, as was the closeness of all the people that were packed in the room. Rough, bumbling men sat directly at his back, and it was all he could see swarming in front of him. Legolas sat with his hands clasped and his elbows resting on the table. He kept his head low, trying to act as though he didn't want to be bothered. Though it was more of the truth than an act.
A drunk man behind him suddenly leaned back a little too far and bumped the Elf forward. Out of initial reaction, Legolas whipped his head around. He found a burly, bearded man with a dazed expression staring back at him. Beer was dripping down his chin and onto his broad chest. The man blinked a few times at him and then reared a hand back sharply. Thinking he was moving to strike him, Legolas began to move back but the man only gave him a clap on the shoulder.
"Sorry, kid." The man turned around and Legolas was forgotten. Legolas as well turned back to his table and found Aragorn sliding into the chair across from him with a mug in his hand.
"Making friends, I see." Aragorn smiled when Legolas gave an exasperated look. "I'm sorry, this was the only table open."
"What took you so long?"
"It took a while to get to the bar."
"What is that?"
"Brandy. Not very strong, though. Just something to drink." Aragorn tipped the mug in his friend's direction. "You want some?"
"You know we don't drink that." Legolas' eyes darted about, following the various men stumbling about the room.
Aragorn laughed. "Relax, I was kidding with you."
Neither spoke for a few moments. Aragorn sat and sipped at his mug while Legolas glanced around them, looking uncomfortable. Aragorn looked up and slowly put his mug down on the table.
"What is wrong?" He asked as softly as he could without being completely drowned out by the noise about them.
"I don't like this place." Legolas folded his hands on the table again.
"I don't think you'd like any of the pubs around here…"
"No, I don't like this town. The whole place, it just…" Legolas trailed off as an old man tried to squeeze behind his chair. The large mug in the man's hand was jostled and though the Elf tried to shift out of the way, there was not much of a space to move to and half of the liquor spilled over Legolas' shoulder and down his front. The old man looked angry, though it was probably more over the loss of his beer than Legolas himself. He mumbled something about young men not pushing their chairs in and wandered away, without a glance at the Elf. Legolas ran a hand over his forehead and looked back to see Aragorn smiling.
"You're attracting all sorts of people in this place." Aragorn said. He leaned across the table and gave the Elf a small pat on the shoulder, despite the fact that it was now drenched. "You didn't have to come with me. Thank you."
"None of us should be out alone yet." Legolas replied, although they both knew that he would've come anyway just to keep the young man company.
"Please, continue what you were saying." Aragorn prompted, wiping the beer from his hand onto his shirt. He seemed to have forgotten the mug of brandy sitting in front of him.
Legolas' light, crystal blue eyes met the Ranger's deep, ocean blue. "There seems to be an underlying unease in this town. It is as though some of these people know of some threat but are choosing to ignore it. Many of them are afraid."
Aragorn merely nodded in agreement. He too, had sensed some sort of guise. These people had reason to be afraid of something but were not facing it. The young man did not have trouble thinking of what may possibly be causing this fear. He looked at Legolas again. Something seemed to be still bothering the Elf, but Aragorn couldn't be sure. Elves were very hard to read when they didn't want others to know what they were feeling. Aragorn, however, had an advantage on most other people, since he was raised by Elves and grew up around them. He decided it wouldn't hurt to ask, and so did so.
"Something is still bothering you, Legolas."
Legolas looked mildly surprised at Aragorn's observation but didn't deny it. But he shook his head as if to say "This is not a good place to get into it." Aragorn nodded and picked his mug up once again.
Legolas relaxed slightly and leaned back in his chair. Turning his attention outward, he began to pick out different bits of conversation about them. He felt the urge to roll his eyes as he listened to the topics of discussion.
"…she said I had two days to be out of the house, so I…"
"…why won't you sing, Thorton? Sing with me!…"
"…if you don't get out of my face, I'll pound your head so hard…"
Legolas was about to mention to Aragorn that they should begin to head back to The Stone Troll when he picked up a piece of talk that seemed more interesting.
"…he told me how to get in, but…we have to go to…going to be dangerous…"
Legolas' ears pricked slightly and his eyebrows furrowed. The conversation was soft; he judged that it was probably on the other side of the room, near the bar. Looking at Aragorn, he could see that the man couldn't hear the discussion.
"Actually, now that I think about it, I am in the mood for some ale." Legolas said casually, knowing Aragorn would easily pick up on the hint. The man looked up and searched his friend's eyes with his own.
"Would you like me to get you some?" Aragorn asked, unsure of what Legolas was trying to tell him.
"No, but you can come with me to the bar." Legolas replied, tipping his head in that direction. Aragorn nodded and they began to make their way over, weaving in and out of the crowd. There was an empty space at the bar and they quickly took it, Aragorn sitting on the high stool and Legolas leaning leisurly next to him.
Legolas quickly glanced around and found a nearby table that seated two young men who were talking quietly with each other. Trying not to let his gaze linger on them too long, Legolas took in a bit of their appearance. The one who was facing him had short, black hair, and high cheekbones. The other he could not see as well but got a flash of longer, brownish hair. Listening, he found that these were the ones he'd heard before.
"This is what we came here for, we can't back down. We have to get in and we have to do it tonight." Hissed the one with black hair.
"Why tonight? Can't we wait till tomorrow?" Replied the other.
"Come on, Kenan. Think of Vahlia. You know she needs all the help she can get if their plan is gonna work."
"I know."
Aragorn met Legolas' eyes. He could barely hear the conversation now, too. The man leaned back a bit so he was closer to their table.
"So what are you so worried about?"
"What if they don't buy it? I mean, people have tried to get into The Labyrinth…"
"Shut up, Kenan! Are you crazy? They have people everywhere, we can't just fling the name around like that…"
"Okay, okay!…well people have tried to do this before. Do you remember how we found Jedd? Do you remember what he looked like? He'd been dead for days, Rovion. I don't want to end up like that."
"I know, I don't either. But that's why we need to do this. We need to stop these guys before many others get hurt. And this is the only way."
"But Vahlia and the others have plenty of people already working in there…"
"They need more help, Kenan! Why do you think we got that message?"
"I know, I know…"
"So let's go, alright? We've already wasted too much time."
Legolas and Aragorn heard the scraping of chairs being pushed back and saw the young men standing up to leave.
"What can I get you, sonny?" A loud voice suddenly blasted in their ears. They turned around to find the bartender standing there, rubbing a hand over his sweaty forehead. "You hafta get something if you wanna stand at the bar. Don't want you blocking the way for paying customers."
"No thank you, we were just leaving." Aragorn said shortly and got up, keeping his eyes more or less on the young men that were now walking out the door. He made his way over, pulling Legolas behind him.
Aragorn stepped out the door and was greeted by a blast of cold air. He looked around and saw the two young men walking down the road to his left. He started down the road but was suddenly tugged into a dark corner by his overcoat.
"Wait, Aragorn." Legolas whispered in his ear. "We should get the others before going off alone."
"There's no time. This sounds like it could be what we came here for! If we don't follow these guys now, we'll lose them. This could be our only chance, come on!"
Legolas nodded reluctantly and they stepped out into the road again.
They strolled down the road side by side, chatting about nothing in particular and making sure they remembered all the roads they turned down. They followed slowly, far enough behind their subjects so that they remained unsuspicious but close enough to keep them in sight. They walked for many minutes, and eventually even Aragorn began to wonder how much farther it would take to get to their destination.
When they'd been walking for close to an hour, the two men stopped in front of a large pub that was slightly set apart from the others. Without even being close to it, Aragorn and Legolas could hear a roar of extreme noise emanating from the large building. This particular pub seemed to be quite the place to be at night. When the two young men stopped near the door, Legolas pulled Aragorn off the road into the cover of some trees. He then peeked around again, and although he could not hear their words for the loudness of the pub, he watched them talk for a moment, Aragorn looking over his shoulder. Then, they seemed to compose themselves before opening the door and strolling in. Legolas looked around the road to be sure it was mostly empty and they quickly got back onto the road again, making for the building that their subjects had disappeared into.
Coming closer, Aragorn saw an old sign hanging above the doorway. It read "The Sleeping Demon" in large, scrawling, red letters set on a black backround. Two red shapes set to the side formed two flaming eyes.
"I believe 'The Screaming Demon' would be more suited." Legolas muttered at his side distastfully, the noise from the building growing louder with every step. When they were nearly there, Legolas, for the third time that night, grabbed Aragorn by the coat and hauled him into the trees by the side of the road.
"Legolas, we have to follow them!" Aragorn whispered hoarsly, pulling on his coat.
"No!" Legolas replied, tightening his grip on his friend. "We are not going in there!"
"Why not?"
"There's no reason to. Besides, it's too dangerous. They may have seen us at that first place and if they see us again, it'll be obvious that we followed them. And," He continued, glancing toward The Sleeping Demon with unease, "judging from the sound of that place, there is a huge chance that our cover will get blown." He indicated his hat with raised eyebrows. "Someone could easily bump into me and knock this off."
"This does seem to be your night for getting bumped into." Aragorn allowed with a smile. Then he shook his head. "But what do you mean there's no reason to?"
Instead of answering, Legolas gestured for Aragorn to follow him and crept toward the building, remaining in the cover of the trees along its side. They reached the side and crouched against the wood. Legolas pointed above him.
"A window." He stated simply.
Wondering why he hadn't noticed it earlier, Aragorn pulled himself up and peered inside the building. He had a clear view of the whole place and could easily see their black and brown-haired friends at the bar.
"I thought Rangers were supposed to be aware of their surroundings." Legolas said from where he crouched with a small laugh. Aragorn gave his friend a push on the shoulder and tipped him off balance.
"I've only been a Ranger for under a year." Aragorn retorted as Legolas caught himself with a hand.
"That's no excuse." Legolas replied under his breathe, settling in with his back to the side of the building.
Aragorn grinned before turning back to the dirty window to keep an eye on the two young men inside.
**
Hm…definitely not the best ending for a chapter, I know. Oh well. See, it actually kept going for a long while after that but if I didn't break it there, chpater4 would have been like 10 pages long. I'm sure you all wouldn't have minded, but you know. Look on the bright side, chapter five is over half done so you'll get it a little sooner than normal. Well, not like any of my updates are normal, but…anyways…I don't really like this chapter, just for the record. I don't know why, really. I guess I just don't think it's one of my best, but I don't really know how I could've made it any better. Okay, enough rambling…
Oh yes, and I know I promised action in this chapter but it didn't really work out the way I planned, so…CH 5 will have more on Isorfinduil and Elladan, for you who are liking that. (And Elrohir, of course.) Yep…
Well, on to reviews:
Anime Soccer Lobos – You definetely aren't bugging me, I love getting your reviews! I look forward to getting them every chapter, and hey, the more the merrier, I say! Thank you so much, you always say such nice and encouraging things. Yes, I'm going to put this on the Mellon Chronicles, but it has to be finished first and this is far from finished. But I ceratinly will when it is! And about those cliffhangers…hehe. You just wait. J Thank you so much again!
Miralas – Thank you for the great review! As for your question, Aragorn didn't carry all those clothes himself. They knew they'd need them so they packed the clothes in their saddle bags before they left. I hope that answers it…thanks again!
James – Thanks so much for 'dropping a line'! I'm glad you like it. Sorry there's no Isor and Elladan in this chapter, I promise there'll be some of them in the next one (I really do promise!) Hm…everyone seems to like those two. Oh and a back story? Does that mean like just a longer and more filled in version? If so, than of course I will. I suppose I owe you one since you did a story on my idea, hm? Yeah, let me know if that's what a back story is…(I hope it's not common knowledge that I should know about J ) Thank you!
Dark-of-stars – Hm, yes, Isor and Elladan and Elrohir are in for a rocky trip. But hey, that's what we all like, right? Thank you for the nice review!
Alrighty, guys. I'm off. Next chapter will be up soon. Please review if you've got time! It's always encouraging and motivatinal!
