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He's Gone

By Nefhiriel & Imbecamiel

Rating: T (PG-13)

Genres: Action/Adventure/Angst

A/N: Whee! I'm in such a… weird mood. Hehe, our family has been trying to sell our house for nearly nine months now, and it's been incredibly frustrating. Now we think we may actually have at least two possible buyers, and we've both been so relieved! Of course, in our case, relief apparently has decided to manifest itself in the form of near-hysterical laugher, absolutely weird comments out of the blue (you should have heard our attempt at seriously discussing a story last night…), and occasionally collapsing in exhaustion… Hopefully the reviewer responses will manage to be at least somewhat coherent ; )

So here we are with chapter five...a little longer than the last one, which should make people happy : )

For disclaimer and notes see chapter one. Reviewer responses at bottom of chapter.

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Chapter 5

Legolas woke to darkness. For a brief moment, he vaguely wondered if he could have gone blind. It couldn't possibly still be night, could it?

Then all the memories of the night before - or, rather, early this morning, he corrected - came back to him.

The cave. Right.

Moaning at the pain that was now reawakening along with his mind, Legolas pushed himself up to lean his good shoulder against the cool wall behind him. Looking around, Legolas tried to get a better idea of exactly what situation he'd been landed in now.

It was not, he noted, completely dark anymore. So far as he could figure, it must be some time in mid-morning. There was a shaft of sunlight shining down from the roof a short distance to his left. By that light, he could see the whole of the cave from where he sat.

It was indeed, he realized with a familiar echo of claustrophobic panic, a very small cave. Even worse, he could see not the slightest hint of a possible exit except, naturally, the way he had come in.

Deliberately forcing down the trapped, fearful thoughts that clamored for his attention, Legolas forced himself to work through the information he had logically. Even through the thick stone walls, he could hear the river rushing loudly past. Obviously that was not a viable option. He could not count on a second such stroke of good fortune.

Good fortune! You've been battered, whipped, shot, trapped in a tiny cave, and it's good fortune! Legolas silenced the panicky thought. I'm still alive, and that in itself is good fortune enough.

Thoughts of his own survival immediately brought back sad reminders that his friend had not been so fortunate. However, giving in to his grief now could only worsen the situation, and prevent him from carrying out the last small services he could offer Aragorn. So that, too, must be set aside for the time being.

For all its dangerous panic, the voice had brought up one very good point. He had been shot, and he supposed he ought to at least examine the wound to see how bad the damage was. Not that he could actually do that much about it, seeing as he didn't have even so much as a shirt or cloak, much
less bandages or medical supplies of any kind. Still, it was just as well to know what he was dealing with.

He swallowed hard when he looked at the wound. It was indeed quite bad, although, on closer examination, it did not appear to be immediately life-threatening. The close proximity to his heart drove home yet again just how lucky he was to be alive. He sighed at the several inches of arrow shaft still protruding from his shoulder. To attempt removing it himself with no way to properly care for the wound would do far more harm than good. At least the bleeding had stopped now.

After washing it and his other wounds by splashing water from the river on them, he decided that there wasn't really anything else he could do, and sat back again to consider his options.

With frustration - but not panic, he absolutely refused to panic - he realized that there didn't seem to be any real options to consider. The walls were just as solid and unhelpful as the last time he had examined them, and the river still rushed past as loudly as ever.

He let his head fall back against the wall with a soft thud, and stared up at the stone roof of the cave, as if seeking inspiration from the cracks in the ceiling.

The roof... Of course! Inwardly cursing himself for the slowness of his mind, Legolas struggled to his feet. Idiot! I must have hit my head on the way down - there's no other possible excuse. How could I be so stupid!

Making his way over to the place where the light was shining in, he peered upwards, squinting at the brightness of the light. His hopes were confirmed. The hole was large enough for him to fit through, although the climb would be a very difficult one. The shaft rose nearly vertically. Besides that, the opening
was a couple of feet away from the wall and too high for him to reach from the floor, so there was the additional problem of getting to it in the first place...

Pressing his lips together in a thin line, Legolas considered the wall. There were certainly plenty of cracks for hand and toe-holds. Towards the top, there were even some fairly thick roots, which had worked their way down through the cracks in the stone. The greatest obstacle was trying to do it with only one working arm.

Still, unless he wanted to wait until the level of the river went down, and risk that way, there was no other way out of here. So, pressing his left arm against his chest, he resolutely tackled the wall.

Even despite his handicap, Legolas made fairly swift progress. When he reached the top, he found a sturdy root to hold on to and twisted part-way around to get a closer look at the opening, now only a couple of feet away from him. It was infuriating to be so close that he could have reached out and touched it, and yet, with all the challenges still ahead, really very little closer than he had been back down on the ground.

Even so... that shaft cannot be very much more than a yard long. There has to be a way.

There did appear to be a sort of ledge on the near side of the shaft. If he could grab on to that... Then what? The best way to climb up would be to press his back against one side, and his hands and knees against the other. Even normally, pulling himself far enough up to get into such a position would be quite an athletic feat, even for an elf. He knew that, uninjured, he could manage it, but could he do it now?

Alright, Legolas, time to get moving. Hanging here wondering if I can do it won't accomplish anything. The only way to find out is to go ahead and try it.

Gritting his teeth, he forced himself to grasp the root firmly with his left hand. Then he reached out with his right and grabbed hold of the ledge. With a last deep breath, he let go of the root, and began struggling to pull himself upward into the shaft. He tried to bring his left hand up to help, but the pain of attempting to raise the arm above his head nearly made him loose his grip on the ledge, so he was forced to give that idea up. Legolas focused his entire mind and body on pulling himself upward, ignoring all thoughts of pain, exhaustion, or worry, everything but getting into the shaft. Sweat beaded on his forehead and his arm began to tremble under the strain, but still he kept on.

He was succeeding. Slowly, painfully, he drew himself upward.

And then he heard it. First came the soft cracking sound, amplified in the silent, echoing cave. In the next second, Legolas felt the rocks under his hand shifting under his weight. Before he had time even to truly register what was happening, much less react, he was falling.

He landed hard on his back, pain roaring through his entire body as the wind was knocked out of him. As he tried to remember how to breathe again, he was certain every bone in his body must have been broken. After some time, his breathing returned to more normal rhythms, and he was able to assess his injuries in a more reasonable light.

All-in-all, he seemed to have got off surprisingly lightly. Other than a myriad of bruises, which hardly mattered, as knocked-about as he already was, and the white-hot fire burning his back, which had been scraped open again when he had landed, he didn't really appear to have acquired any injuries worth noting. His left shoulder was complaining with a vengeance, of course, but that was only to be expected. At any rate, he could hardly spend the rest of the day just lying there, so he decided to get up again. That, as it turned out was a big mistake.

The moment he gained his feet, he fell back down again with a sharp cry. All right, so obviously there were other injuries. His right ankle had been twisted sharply when he'd fallen. He hadn't noticed it specifically in the overwhelming pain at the time, but he remembered it clearly now.

Tentatively examining it, Legolas was relieved to discover that it was only sprained, not actually broken.

The twins will never let us hear the end of this, both of us managing to sprain an ankle on the same hunting trip...

And then his heart contracted as tears sprang to his eyes. The twins would never have another opportunity to tease Estel about anything now. How many times did he have to tell himself that he could not take time for his grief now? Yet still, the slightest thing would remind him again of his friend, and the hollow, empty ache in his heart would turn into a crashing tidal wave of grief and pain.

A good part of him simply wished to lie down here now and give up, to escape this world and all the suffering that life inflicted. As an elf, he knew that he did have that option: to just choose to let his grief overtake him and release his hold on life. But he knew that was not truly an option. Angrily blinking the tears away, he tried to focus his mind again.

Alright, I obviously can't try that way again, not with a twisted ankle. So, I suppose that leaves me right back where I started - thinking. Scooting back against the wall, Legolas began yet again examining his surroundings and trying to find a way out of the impossible puzzle that the Valar had set him.

His gaze caught on a pile of driftwood of various sizes. He had dismissed as unimportant earlier, when he had simply been looking for an exit. Well, he had found a way out, the only problem was that he couldn't reach it. To be sure, that was quite an "only problem" to have, but now the beginnings of a vague idea were tugging at the edges of his consciousness.

He rose slowly and, leaning against the wall for support, made his way over to the pile. He had nothing which could even be used as a makeshift rope, which was definitely a difficulty, but still... He was certain that some solution lay in that pile of driftwood. What exactly that solution was still remained to be seen. He could certainly stack it up underneath the hole, but climbing a pile of smooth, shifting wood was, at best, a rather challenging proposition in his current condition. At worst, it could be positively disastrous.

With my luck, I'd end up twisting my other ankle. Probably break my right arm as well, just to even things out.

So, that idea was out. He scanned the wood, shifting aside various pieces and staring at them as if expecting some incredible revelation. And then, it struck. Or at least, he hoped it had, as he hurriedly shoved aside smaller pieces to reveal one very long piece near the bottom. Legolas ran his hand over it, barely daring to hope that it would work.

The piece was very long, certainly longer than he was tall, and had the remains of what were once branches sticking out at irregular intervals all along its length. He began to awkwardly drag it over to the shaft, sending up fervent prayers to the Valar all the while. It took some doing, but he finally managed to first get it over, and then raise it up until one end was wedged firmly in a crack in the side of the shaft.

Apparently the Valar were smiling on his prayers - either that, or they were suffering a belated sense of remorse for landing him in such a situation - for the small tree was just the right height.

After dragging several good sized rocks over to hold the bottom of the sapling more securely, Legolas surveyed the result with satisfaction. It was doubtful whether such a flimsy ladder would have held a human's weight, but for an elf it should be quite sufficient. If he could get his leg to cooperate well enough that he didn't end up taking the shortcut to the ground, that is.

He was forced to move rather more slowly than his pride liked for what should normally have been a simple climb, and to use his right leg far more than it liked; however, he did manage to make it to the top without serious mishap. Then came the truly hard part. Hard, in this case, not because of technical difficulties, but rather because of the pain involved.

Pressing his aching back against the rough stone on one side of the shaft, he brought his legs up to push against the opposite side. By alternately inching his back and knees upward, he was able to gradually ascend through the shaft. It was no very great distance to the surface, but to him it felt like miles. Progress was slow and painful. He tried to favor his right leg as much as possible by taking most of the pressure with his left, but there was very little he could do to relieve his back.

When he at last reached the surface, he was completely exhausted. His exit was more a matter of dragging himself out to flop down on the ground than of actually climbing out, but he was far beyond caring. After a few minutes, he pushed himself into a sitting position to get a good look at the place where he'd ended up.

With relief, he found that he'd come out on the same side of the river he had fallen in on. It had not occurred to him before that, after all he'd been through to get this far, he might still have to cross the river to get back to Rivendell.

Upon further examination of surrounding landmarks, he discovered that he had been washed into the cave very near to the place the orcs had camped... Could it really have been only yesterday? It seemed as if it must have been years since... But such thoughts were straying far too close to dangerous territory.

Legolas decided that, whatever his body thought, it was high time for him to move on. It had already taken him far too long to find a way out of the cave. He gained his feet - amazingly on the first try - and limped toward the site of the camp.

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When Aragorn woke, hours later, he was barely more refreshed than he had been when he'd fallen asleep. Everything hurt fiercely, and he could feel the beginnings of what would very soon be a full-blown fever wrapping itself around him. Thinking about anything but his overwhelming sorrow was like wading through molasses.

He stood unsteadily, looking about, for all the world like a lost little boy. Somehow he felt he should keep moving, go somewhere, but he couldn't make his mind cooperate long enough to tell him where, or why, for that matter.

Once again, instinct came to his rescue, heading him towards Rivendell. He had some vague idea of following the river as long as it ran in that direction, to see if his friend's... body might have washed ashore. But really, he didn't know how he would get down to it if it had. He no longer held any real hope that Legolas might be alive. No, right now there was room in his mind for only two ideas: Legolas was dead, and he had to get... where?... Ah yes, home... that was it. So he set off toward Rivendell.


Reviewer responses:

Evergreene: LOL, yup, those two poor guys… But hey, at least they're not dead! Hehee, glad you liked it. Yeah, I definitely wish that did work, I could avoid a lot of bruises that way -g- Thank you so much for the review! Hope you enjoyed the chapter : )

Ainu Laire: Hehee, every time I try and picture you sitting there typing… -cracks up- Especially funny since we're reading LOTR for school (ah, the joys of being homeschooled…) and the chapter for today is "At the Sign of the Prancing Pony". –sighs happily- Aw…I'm glad you like the award. –holds up fake-looking gold star- I'd give these things away to more people (virtual prizes are free!), but unfortunately I'm afraid a few of them might think I've gone off my rocker… -hands star- But you're not one of those kind of people: you know I fell off that rocker a loooong time ago, right? Oh dear, you got the ranger… -hands ice pack- You may want try this when he comes too. If he doesn't get you, the twins sure will when they see the size of that lump (and somehow I get the feeling they wouldn't believe you if you told them he got it while you were putting him to sleep…). Hmm, maybe you can just hope the Ranger's got a bit of amnesia when he wakes up? ROTFL! What you said about chocolate reminds me so much of Imbecamiel! Most people just laugh when she says she's addicted to chocolate, but if she doesn't get any for a while, she actually starts getting headaches. I guess it's the caffeine, LOL. Anyways…Thank you so much for the hilarious review, mellon-nín! Hope you enjoyed the chapter : )

HarryEstel: Ah yes…the irony of Legolas' situation really is made complete when he gets "rescued" by a cave… Heh, the poor guys. I'm glad you're enjoying the angst, though -g- Thank you so much for the review, mellon-nín! Hope you enjoyed the chapter : )

Slayer3: Hehee, yup, poor Leggy, cave to the rescue! Neither of them are doing too well just now : P LOL. Thank you so much for the review – it means so much to both of us! Hope you enjoyed the chapter : )

crazyAZN kid: Oh I know! Even though they do manage to get into horribly tough spots…you can't help but laugh at the irony of some of their situations. ROTFL! That little skit was sooo funny! No, really, it made me laugh so hard! -cracks up- That was great… -sighs contentedly- I seem to have been blessed with a exceptional amount of reviewers with good senses of humor. There's hardly a review I receive that I can keep a straight face while reading. Anyways…Thank you SO much for the review! Hope you enjoyed the chapter : )

SmilingDragonGirl: -cringes at mention of sharp objects and mutters- Too many reviewers are figuring out the…er…persuasive properties of those things… -gulp- Yes, yes, I know… Saving the elf with a cave was unusually cruel. But it was either that or have him be swept off in the current, never to be heard of again. Imbecamiel and I decided on the cave because…well, because we prefer life. LOL. A ghostwriter? Well, you might say that… Cami is a writer, who is a ghost, so I suppose you might call her a ghostwriter. Ah yes, I love writing Aragorn angst, and have often envied the elves ability to actually die from sorrow. Too bad Númenorians can't do that. -Aragorn sags in relief- But of course, you're right, I'll still find away to squeeze in one of those lovely near-death experiences. I always do. -eg- Ah shucks! It took all this time to find a review who'd tell me the truth – so none of my readers are really falling for those innocent smiles? And I thought I was being SO convincing… -backs away from pointy object wielding reviewer- Heh, who said I thought you ladies and gentlemen were dangerous? –nervous laughter- I'm not afraid of you! LOL. Thank you so much for the review (we're both very relived to hear you didn't find any glaring mistakes)! Hope you enjoyed the chapter : )

polingly-stares at chapter in disbelief- I can't believe I just did that! Legolas – rescued by a cave? Ah, yes, that was Cami's doing… -sighs in relief- I knew I wasn't that cruel -g- Of course, that also means I didn't write the part where he's in the rapids… Ah well, can't have things both ways ; ) –g- Oh yes, you'd think Estel would start catching on by this time. He wasn't dead all those other times, why would he be now? But then, the poor guy's not quite in his right mind at the moment, so I suppose he can be excused ; ) Ah yes, the SNWCG is one of the easiest clubs in the world to get into… Heh, getting nervous in an all-too-easy requirement to meet : P Hope you like the new chapter, gwathel-nin!

Tinorial Peredhil: -sighs happily- You know mellon-nín, every time I read another of your reviews I'm so comforted… It seems like years since I gave you guardianship for Guard – and I must admit, I was a little nervous. I didn't even know you all that well. But now, each day, I grow more and more certain that the two of you were meant for each other. Yes, you do so well together! And I have the relief of knowing that he's in good hands. -sighs again and scans review- I never thought he could be so happy… Just look at him, he went from being a superfluous background character, never very popular with the other guards, no real friends, to having a staring role in every one of your reviews – and look at all the friends he's made! I don't know if he's thanked you yet, but I would like to express my deep gratitude to you for bringing him into such a loving home. LOL. I have a very fond spot in my heart for the poor, sane little guy… huggles nervous Guard Hehee…loved the part with the Witch King… giggles I can't believed you've managed to ensnare him into your reviews too! Ack, got to run! –huggles- Thanks so much for the review, mellon-nín! Hope you, Guard, Moldy - and the rest of the gang – enjoyed the chapter : )

Erulasse: A machete? –yawns- Sorry to disappoint you, mellon-nin, but to someone who sleeps with Narsil and Sting hanging over her head, a machete holds very little intimidation power. 2073 viruses! –gapes- And here I think it's bad when I get one… I certainly hope your computer's all cleared up now. Us? Nasty! How could you SAY a thing like that! –attempts to look innocent and hurt while covering up evil grin and choking on maniacal laughter- Yup, everyone thinks everyone else is dead now, and Legolas gets to experience the joys of claustrophobia. –sighs happily- It's so wonderful being evil. Hope you like the new chapter!

Gods-girl2004: -sniff- Oh…did I give you a virtual cold… Meep, I'm sorry! –hands box of extra-soft Kleenex…with lotion too!- Shelob's cave, huh? Weeeell, good guess mellon-nín. You're off by only a little bit, LOL. Too bad, though, he and Will would have had so much fun together. I wouldn't be surprised if there were spiders in the cave…just not that big. –g- ROTFL! So Strider got out of the closet? Meep! I shouldn't be laughing, now we've got to get him back before Elladan sees that big bump on his head. –bites lip- Yikes, I hope you've caught him again… LOL. Thanks so much for the review, mellon-nín. Luv ya! –huggles-

viggomaniacLOL, it's a good thing I checked my online review stats one last time before posting…I almost missed yours! I know how it is though, I've become quite a professional at putting things off until the last moment : P Yeah, it really is a cruel situation they're in. Imbecamiel and just loved thinking up all the ironic humor (well, the humor part depends on who you are…LOL) for this story. We couldn't resist putting them in a spot where they both thought the other one was dead. Hehee, yeah, school's winding down for us a little early, since we'll probably be moving soon. Hopefully we'll finish posting this before that… Oh yes, I understand how it is: you're absolutely dying to read the next chapter of a story, but you simply do not have enough energy to come up with something intelligent to say about it. Reviewing can be even more strenuous than writing, in my opinion. Most of the time, my reviews come out extremely lame -sigh- Thanks for putting in the effort, though, I enjoy your reviews a lot! Hope you enjoyed the chapter : )

Okay…I'm afraid I have nothing interesting whatsoever to say… Just, we'll update on Fri., as usual – and please review! We love hearing from you all ; )

- Nef and Cami

Proud members of the SNWCG