TO SPEAK WITH ONE'S HANDS

Sign language/animal sounds

Black Speech

((Elvish))

Legolas made his way down to the kitchens to help the women to make the rest of the nightly meal and to collect his master's dinner. He was meant to just grab the dinner and leave but he always left early to get the meal to that he could help.

He had spent most of the day serving his three masters as they negotiated with a group of Uruk-Hai who were visiting. But his major problem now was that seven other members of the Fellowship were also there. He had been completely unprepared when he found the Fellowship members in the dinning room. But he had tried to keep his cool in the hope that Rondir wouldn't know that he knew the people in front of him, however his hopes died when Rondir had thanked them for his return

Following the familiar path through the caves Legolas ignored the advances that the males around him made and finally arrived at the kitchen. While he hadn't met any of the human women, he knew nearly all of the fully grown orc women, having met them last time he was a slave. Unlike the male version of their species the orc women were kind in mature and well mannered; it was the men who gave the race a bad name. The Uruk-Hai in the other hand were a different matter, as they were a newer species and they were breed for the sole purpose of killing they didn't have a female population, instead the growth of the population depended on the need of the people who created them.

Legolas was greeted enthusiastically by the kitchen staff, some whom had helped him through the years when he was injured or sick. But all of them were his friends in someway, even those he had only just met.

After greeting the women, they went back to work preparing the dinner for the male population. The men had a habit of coming down to check on them if they were even a minute late in serving the meals and it always ended badly.

Oda, one of the Orc women, was the eldest in the staff if not the eldest in the cave system and as such she had helped Legolas when he had first arrived at the caves. She had also been the one to help him to create his sign language when Sandor's ancestors had taken away his voice.

As such he was able to ask her about his friends.

While she hadn't known they were there she asked the others about them and they soon had a group of women from both races willing to go and check on the fellowship and sneak them some food.

Not long after the plan was made the meal was finished and Legolas had to leave. It was decided that the group of five young girls would go to the cells with the guards dinner. While the guards were eating two of the girls would go down stairs and take the fellowship some food. If the guards finished their meals before the two returned then the remaining three would distract the men until they returned.

Before leaving the kitchen, Legolas signed a message to Oda, who translated it to the younger girls for them to tell the fellowship if they didn't trust the women, which was most likely.

When he was sure that his message was understood Legolas left the kitchen with the meals for his three masters balanced precariously on his arms.

The five volunteers moved silently away from the main dining hall with the guards meals. They travelled down some of the less used tunnels to try and avoid attracting any unwanted attention.

When they arrived at the cells, two of them stayed out of sight so they wouldn't be missed by the guards, while the other three went forward with the meals. The men drove into the meals ravenously giving the other two the time they needed to sneak into the cells where the fellowship was.

Carolyn, a human girl originating from Gondor, went first so that the fellowship wouldn't be startled by, Drya, a young orc who was born in the caves. Carolyn hadn't been in the caves for long, she had been on her way home from visiting a family member in Northern Arnor when a group of Orcs and Men had taken her to the caves. That had been around 9 months before.

Slipping into the room, the two girls crept over to the cells. The two men and the Dwarf were in one cell while the Hobbits were in the other. The Hobbits had been given the run of their cell which the other three had their hands tied behind them, each with a length of chain about two metres long attaching them to the wall. The Hobbits had come right up to the cell wall, while the others came as close as they could so that they could talk about the happenings of the past few days.

The ranger, Aragorn was the first to notice them and he nudge the man nest to him. Carolyn's eyes widened as she recognised the man as the stewards son, and curtsied to him as she would have in Gondor.

"Miss Carolyn?" he said moving as close as her could to the woman.

"You know this woman?" Gimli inquired.

"Yes, but she never returned from visiting her relatives, it was assumed that she stayed with them."

"Nay I was brought here by a group of men and orcs not 9 months ago."

Boromir went to reply but Drya interrupted, "we must hurry, the guards will finish soon."

Boromir simply glared at her and went to continue what he was going to say but Carolyn spoke over him as well.

"Drya is right we must be quick, Legolas asked us to bring you a meal. It is not much but it is something." Both women brought food out of the small bags they had brought with them.

"How do we know we can trust you?" Gimli asked.

Carolyn smiled softly at the dwarf, "Legolas did not think you would trust us. So he gave us a message. He gave us a list of names," she then proceeded to tell them the names of every person who had attended the council of Elrond. She then spoke a string of Elvish which made Aragorn chuckle and accept the food from the women.

He handed some to the Hobbits and then to Boromir and Gimli, who took it less enthusiastically then the Hobbits. They were also given some clean water with they shared around before the women announce they had to leave.

"Please tell us, how is Legolas?" Pippin asked before they could leave.

"As well as can be expected, however I don't think he will last long here. Everyone knows of the last time Legolas was here, Oda believes that Legolas hasn't faded only because you are still here. If you do not get him out soon, he will be dead within the fortnight."