A/N1: Warning for language.

A/N2: The story I am writing is, at its roots, one that has not yet been told and was intended to propose possible solutions to one of the many mysteries that appear in the Tolkien's trilogy. One of my very gracious reviewers offered a suggestion that I have been considering since I received her review and that was that I take my time writing the story so that the quality of the work would not suffer. For that reason, I have decided to post once each week, on Thursday which will mean that the chapters will more than likely be longer as well.

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"Courage is doing what you are afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared."
-- Eddie Rickenbacher

Chapter 4

Friendship Defined

The sun had not yet touched the innermost shadows of Mirkwood when the white mare carrying one human and one elf, cleared the borders of the forest. The trio followed the Old Forest Road for a distance then crossed the Anduin River at the Old Ford, enjoying their journey which had been pleasant and uneventful as the two beings took the time, each to gain the measure of the other. They found that they had a common bond, a particular human, who was destined for greatness although to one of the beings, the man was already great - in his heart.

Legolas was fascinated and suitably impressed by Halgar's knowledge of the history of Arda and knew that the knowledge the man had could only have been amassed over a long period of time. The Legend Keepers had done well by their duty and had preserved what each Keeper had been taught then had passed that same knowledge down to his or her successor in a precise and unchanged accounting of the events from the Disaster of Gladden Fields on.

The elf shivered, and not only because of the temperature of the air along the west banks of the river, but also from the knowledge of what the cave in the little village of Hope held. To have the mystery solved, at long last, to finally know after over 3,000 years, what had happened to Isildur, was mind boggling. There had been many assumptions made and from these assumptions had risen speculations, legends and even ghost stories, telling of humans as well as elves seeing the ghost of the King walking along the banks of the river, wailing in despair, calling for his "Precious."

He had never believed those stories although he remembered one occasion when he had been but an elfling when an older elf had told him the story just before he had gone to bed. Long had he remained awake that night, anxiously peering into the darkened corners of the room as if he expected to see the eldest son of the great Elendil come walking toward him dressed in the tattered rags of the dead.

The two had been riding in silence for some time, each immersed in his own thoughts and quiet contemplations when Legolas's battle trained senses detected the approach of an enemy. He always had a part of his trained warrior's mind keeping watch wherever he traveled and no matter what else he might be doing, such alertness oftentimes was what kept him alive to face his next battle.

He quietly pulled his mare to a stop underneath the shadow of the stately pines that grew at the base of the Misty Mountains. He gave Halgar a hand signal, silently telling the human to climb a tree and stay there and when he saw Halgar shake his head "no", Legolas shoved him, and none to gently, towards the nearest tree. With an irritated look on his face and a "we will talk about this later" expression, Halgar finally complied with Legolas's instructions and nimbly began to climb.

Halgar finished hiding himself among the branches of the tree, stilled his movements, then worked to slow his breathing so his gasps for breath would not give away his hiding place, when a group of ten of the heavily built Uruk Hai lumbered out of the surrounding trees. These creatures, though bulky and built for power, were not as slow as some beings thought them to be. Reaching behind him for his first arrow, Legolas only had time to quick fire five times before he had to drop his bow and go to his long knives.

His knives flashed in the sunlight as he stepped into the first Uruk, his long knife slicing deeply into the creature's belly then, without pause or thought bending forward and ducking under the deadly scimitar of the second Uruk while his blades sought yet another target. Halgar was fascinated by the speed with which the Mirkwood Prince wielded his deadly weapons, knives moving almost too fast for the fascinated human to see and with the instincts that only a seasoned warrior could acquire. But it was not just the speed of the knives that impressed Halgar; it was how the elf seemed to know where each combatant was, what they were doing and what they were thinking. His lithe body twisted and bent, avoiding the poisoned scimitars of the Uruks while his own blades sliced through the chests or bellies of the beasts or their exposed throats, after which he would spin around their bodies to hack at their lightly armored backs.

The Uruk Hai were the suicide soldiers of Sauron and when they went to battle they went to either kill or die - self-preservation was never an issue with them. As a result of this philosophy, their armor was thicker and more protective in front, for they theorized that if they faced an enemy, that enemy would not live long enough to attack them from behind.

The downside of wearing this type of armor in combat was that too many beings knew the armor's vulnerability and were only too willing to exploit the armor's weakness, as did Legolas, who was now using this knowledge to his advantage. His blades bit deeply into the Uruks and very soon they were all down - it was over.

Legolas leaned his back against a tree and bent over with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath and resting for a moment before using handfuls of grass to clean his blades then resheathing them beside the quiver on his back. Halgar knew that even though the elf had made it look easy and had finished off the enemy in short order, that it had taken much strength and endurance to do so.

When he saw the Prince smile at him and motion for him to climb down out of the tree, he did so and for a moment his back was to the elf, and it was for that reason that he did not see the Uruk nearest Legolas stagger to his feet. When Halgar turned and saw the brutish warrior standing behind his friend, he opened his mouth to give warning but Legolas, seeing the expression on the human's face and instantly knowing what it was that caused him to act that way, spun around.

The Uruk grabbed Legolas's throat with one hand and drove the jagged blade of his dagger deep into the elf's side with the other, twisting the blade and enjoying the look of shock and pain on the face of the fair being he held upright with one hand. The fiery pain from the poisoned blade raced throughout the elf's body and, as the hand around his throat that was preventing him from breathing tightened even more, unconsciousness took him and Legolas suddenly went limp in the Uruk's grasp.

"Put him down you smelly, perverted, ugly-ass, freak of nature!"

The Uruk, head cocked to one side, paused and looked at the human quizzically, for he had been unaware that there had been anyone else in the vicinity of the battle. Now there was a puny human standing in front of him with his own dead comrade's deadly sword held in front of him in a position that left no doubt in the Uruk's mind that the human before him meant business.

With a sneer of acknowledgement, the Uruk soldier tossed Legolas's limp body away from him then advanced on the much smaller human scimitar held ready in one large hand. He was surprised when the human did not seem to be intimidated and advanced on him aggressively, driving him back with the ferocity of his blows. Though the Uruk could tell the human was by no means a full-time warrior, he could tell that he did have enough knowledge of fighting techniques, just enough skill and all the heart necessary to be a major hindrance to him. He raised his own sword to put the human down, but when he did so, the smaller and faster being used the opportunity to drive the scimitar deep into the big Uruk's undefended stomach, ripping upwards towards his chest and effectively gutting him.

Halgar did not even bother removing the blade from the Uruk but let the foul creature drop to the ground with the blade still deeply imbedded in its body. He quickly went from one body to the next, making sure this time that all the Uruks were, in fact, dead then ran to Legolas and dropped to his knees beside him. With a trembling hand he felt under the elf's jaw line for a pulse and closed his eyes and gave thanks to his Creator, for the elf was still alive although his pulse was weak and somewhat irregular.

Seeing the dagger protruding from the elf's side and the blood already flowing thickly from the wound, Halgar knew that he would have to act quickly to save his life. He also knew that he had to get the two of them away from the dead bodies before the smell of blood started attracting much deadlier predators than the ones that now lay before him.

Halgar looked around him for the mare.

"Oh, no." He said softly to himself.

The cruelty of the Uruks had not just been directed towards the elf, for Halgar and Legolas's beautiful traveling companion now lay upon the ground, blood pooling beneath the jagged wound in her throat. For a moment the human knelt beside her, tenderly stroking the neck of the faithful animal.

"Be at peace, my Lady." It was all he said before he rose from the ground and walked back to his stricken friend.

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Halgar patted the elf's cheeks gently and called his name repeatedly until finally, with a weak moan, Legolas's eyes came open. He frowned in confusion then grabbed the human's arm in a vice-like grip as the intense pain from the poisoned wound in his side once more threatened to consume him and send him back into the darkness of unconsciousness. His whole body felt like it was on fire and instinctively his hands moved towards his side to grasp the dagger, until they were held still, and away from the wound by the human kneeling at his side. Halgar looked into his eyes and spoke soothingly to the injured elf, trying to hold his attention and when Legolas's eyes finally managed to focus on him, he relaxed a bit.

"Legolas, I have to leave the knife where it is until I can get you a little further away from here. If I remove it then try to move you, you could very well bleed to death. I hope you can understand why we cannot stay here."

When he saw the elf nod weakly he hurriedly put a makeshift bandage around the knife to slow the bleeding and stabilize the dagger. Then with an apology to the Prince for causing him additional pain, Halgar wrapped one of the elf's arms around his neck and slowly and carefully helped him rise from the ground. He knew just by the pallor of the Prince's face, and the way his knees kept trying to give out that he did not have much time before the elf would pass out. Knowing that it was imperative to reach his destination before that happened, Halgar moved quickly in a southerly direction to a little cave system that he knew of. All of the Legend Keepers knew every nook, cranny and cave that existed in the area in case they had to use these places to hide - as he had to hide now.

He had just stepped into the cave he would be using as a shelter when the wounded Mirkwood Prince went limp in his grasp.

TBC

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COMING NEXT: Legend Keeper: And we must also recognize when it is time to run. Isildur's son knew that his father had to run rather than let what he carried fall into enemy hands. The King was so adamant about this and told his Token Bearers that even if it made them look like cowards for deserting their King, that they had to run. And for us, no matter what our heart and soul says to us, no matter how fiercely our heart aches for what we must do, we also, like the Token Bearers of that time, must run.

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Kim( ): Thank you for the review and the advice. As you can see from Author's Note 2, I have decided to accept your advice and take my time with the writing. It is my greatest hope that I can preserve the integrity of the story while providing fanfiction readers with all the other elements that they have come to expect and enjoy. I hope that you continue to enjoy what I write and I hope to hear from you when something I write doesn't "quite hit the mark."

Silabrithil: Welcome and thank you for your review. I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.

Deana: Thank you for reviewing my story. It is my hope that you continue to enjoy the journey of the Star of Elendil.

silvertoekee: This story is depressing, yes, but at the same time is a story of outstanding courage and dedication. I am glad you are enjoying the story.

aduwathiel: Thanks for the review and I'm glad you are enjoying that Sindarin Dictionary program. Hope you like this chapter.