The battle was over before it began. The young elf's skills were impressive but certainly no match for the many grown men. Legolas grunted desperately as he felt the sting of a blade against his left thigh. Stumbling to regain his balance, he stole a glance at his opponents. The men had formed a tight circle around him, but yet as he now tried to stand up tall he saw their sneering faces. But, surprisingly enough to him, none struck again till he had regained his balance. Suddenly the butt of a sword handle struck Legolas in the side of the head and he fell. Legolas quickly tried to roll of his side and onto his stomach, but a swift kick to his torso prevented that. Another kick landed on his unprotected back, forcing all the air out of the elf's lungs. Gasping for air, he tried again to roll over. "I think it's trying to get away, cap'n." A particularly large man chuckled. The man reached down and grabbed a hold of Legolas' thin tunic and practically lifted him of the ground. Once Legolas was at eye level with the tall man, he spat weakly in his face. With a roar, the man threw Legolas back to the ground and proceeded to stomp on the young elf. Legolas grinded his teeth as he felt the heels of the heavy man crunch down on his body. He felt as if his back was being trampled by a warg. The surrounding men had started laughing at the display, cheering their companion on. Finally after what seemed like forever to Legolas, what seemed like the leader of this group stepped into the ring of men and signaled for the beating to stop. He kneeled down close to Legolas' head. Legolas felt pain and fear crawl up his spine; he squeezed his eyes shut and held his breath. "You'll learn respect, Elf. I promise you that." With that said the leader leaned down and spat directly into Legolas' face, then followed the saliva up with a loud slap across his face. Slowly Legolas brought his hand up to touch the sensitive skin on his cheek. 'Don't cry, just don't cry' he begged with himself. Tears, threateningly, filled the bottoms of his eyes. He was to scared to open his eyes and try to blink them away, so he left them to moist his long eyelashes. At that moment he strongly wished he had never left his room. Why didn't he listen to his father? 'Ada, please come find me, seas.' "Tie the elf, and move out. We don't want to run into anything else tonight. We leave Mirkwood tonight." The leader commanded. The men began to disperse, but three remained surrounding Legolas, one being the large man who had beat him. Legolas quickly wrapped his arms around his aching body, his natural survival methods were telling him not to allow himself to be bound by these men. But as the young elf tried to tighten his grip around his knees, the men began to brutally grip his wrists and ankles. The two men near his head each grabbed an arm and pulled upwards, they easily pried his arms off his knees. Legolas' whole upper body was lifted off the ground, and his shoulders, already bruised from the beating, spread pain throughout Legolas' torso. The large man at Legolas' feet laughed as he pulled a rough rope from his belt loop. Legolas' eyes widen as he saw the course rope, and he began to struggle anew. Fear filled every crevice of his body, and completely consumed him; he began to hyperventilate as he pulled and kicked. With another laugh, the man at his feet grabbed hold of both Legolas' feet. He began to bind Legolas' ankles together with the painful rope, no matter how much Legolas tried to kick his feet, he could not stop the man. Soon his ankles were bound and he was left defenseless to stop them from binding his hands. The two men forced his unprotected wrists together and pushed them towards the man holding the rope. Legolas was now bound hand and foot and dropped unceremoniously to the ground. Still panting, Legolas felt tears fill his eyes again. He heard their jeering laughs in the background as he sent his eye skyward. With growing fear Legolas realized that he could not see the stars. Clouds covered them all up, then suddenly Legolas felt a terrible pain at the back of his head and all went dark. ------------------- Sorry…