Chapter Twenty

Elladan grabbed Ontare and twisted her around, putting a long blade to her neck. Legolas shot an arrow directly through the skull of the Orc at Daralis' bedside, and ran to collect his unconscious daughter. He placed a hand on her forehead. She was clammy, in a cold sweat. He whirled around to face her captor.

"Who are you?" he spat out. Ontare remained silent.

"How dare you take my daughter captive? What did you wish to prove?" There was still no response to Legolas' questions.

Elladan was quickly becoming irate. He put more pressure on the blade and hissed lowly into Ontare's ear.

"Answer his inquiry."

"I shall not speak. I refuse to put myself in a position of vulnerability." Legolas' face was in a grimace.

"You will receive a lifetime imprisonment, wench, for your crime. You may as well share your repulsive plot."

She spat at his feet.

"Come Elladan," Legolas began, scooping Daralis into his arms. "Let us depart." Elladan went first, leading the way out of the labyrinth of caverns.

In the main chamber of the cave, Aragorn, Elrohir and the others finished up the last of the Orcs.

They were visibly relieved to see Legolas and Elladan emerging with both Daralis and a captive, but confusion also graced the features of the warriors.

Daralis faintly heard voices and metal clanging around her, and she forced her eyes to open. A thought entered her mind immediately.

"Atar," she rasped, throat burning from thirst. "Atar we must get to Mirkwood immediately. Imsiriel's in trouble."

Legolas and Glorfindel raced ahead of the group, going back to Mirkwood with Ontare in tow. After Legolas had been able to discern the situation from Daralis, he left her in Elladan's arms in order to control the impending doom of Lady Imsiriel.

Three days away from Imladris, Daralis was almost completely healed. She had dark bruises on her wrists, face and back from Ontare's treatment, but her body was quickly conditioning to her elvish blood and the bruises healed rapidly. She sat with Elladan underneath a willow near the pond of the same glen they had first stopped to rest at.

Elladan thought back to his feeling the first time he had even visited the glen and winced.

"Daralis" Elladan began, pausing at the realization that he had nothing to say.

"What is it, Elladan?" She looked straight into his eyes, sparking passion and emotion inside of him.

" I was so worried for you, Daralis. You have no idea, no comprehensible idea of how much I wanted you safe with me." Daralis shifted her eyes to his face.

"I think I might. I was sure you were dead, Elladan."

"Why would you think such a thing?"

"Because I couldn't believe that they had gained access to the royal wing of Imladris and not killed all of the officials! I had no hint to tell me whether or not you or my father were okay, and I assumed the worst. At least in this case, I was pleasantly surprised."

"Have you so little faith in my combat skills?"

"I assumed that those same skills would have prevented my capture if you had still been alive, Elladan. It only made sense to me that both you and my father, along with all of my other loved ones in Imladris, had been slain. I am but a princess, and a recent one at that. It isn't logical for me to be taken, or even heard of." She looked at Elladan again, tears welling in her eyes. "I was so afraid that they were going to hurt me, Elladan. I didn't know what I could have meant to them, I just knew that they could have hurt me." He pulled her into his embrace and pulled away strands of chocolate hair from her eyes.

"They probably would have, Melamin." He changed the subject quickly. "Did the wench tell you anything about her plans?"

"She told me that she was going to use control of Mirkwood as ransom for my return. I told her that my grandfather would never have given her power, but she insisted that I was wrong. She kept telling me that he would give it up and I'd be killed anyway, that Mirkwood and it's people would be destroyed and that it would be all for me. I don't know what I would have done, Elladan. I don't know what I could have done!"

"Nothing, Melamin. Worry not, it is all over now."

Legolas and Glorfindel stopped to rest their horses. They dumped the bound Ontare against a tree, and Glorfindel took the horses to drink while Legolas stood facing the criminal. She glared at him, and he glared right back.

"It would seem," Legolas began, "that I have the better hand. We both glare, yes, but only I can stand and sit at will." He gestured to the bonds around her feet.

"That may be, but I command those who are your enemies."

"And I command those who kill my enemies with ease, and reason." He received another glare, but continued. "I am better than you, if only for the reason that I have committed no unjust crimes against others. Who do you think you are, to lay a hand on my daughter?"

"I am one who wants the former glory of Mirkwood to return."

"The glory of Mirkwood has returned, and it has grown greater than ever before. Who are you to judge my realm?"

"I am one who formerly resided in Mirkwood."
"That makes you one of many, and still unworthy of criticism. Mirkwood nurtured you and you attack her princess?"

"Mirkwood was best when darkness dwelled in it! When it was taken away, my father was imprisoned."

"No doubt he deserved it. My father would never persecute his subjects unfairly."

"Thranduil does many things that you don't know about."
"I would say that that is truer of you than me. You have no right to call me father such. He is your king. You know nothing of the political workings of Mirkwood, and you speak ignorantly against my statements now."

Ontare shifted her eyes away from the piercing, judgmental blue of her former sovereign.

Alright. I'm pumping these chapters out guys, and Daralis is probably going to get some in a few chapters. I do have a reason, however, for the lateness- finals and AP Testing! It's a bitch.

Rudhiriel out! (Hehe, I'm like Ryan Seacrest!)