A/N: Sorry for your twin fans… you'll have to wait for a while:P But Leggy here will console you I hope! By the way, just to clear things up, thoughts will be in ' these ' while conversation will be in " these " as normal. If I want something in asterisks in a side note or something, I will use ( brackets ) because they don't show up on when I upload the chapters.

Foxhiei: Glad that a newcomer has joined us, and I have no clue why it wouldn't let you review on the fifth chapter.

Warm welcomes to Teha and Lynx Yamato as well! And that's it. Just kidding! I love all you guys who haven't given up on me yet too!


Chapter Six

Racing the Night

Legolas experienced an overwhelming sense of déjà vu as soon as he had sat down on the damp, grassy terrain. And he had the right to, for he was once again on his watch. The feeling of uneasiness did not leave him as he had hoped, but he concluded that it would be pointless to alert Aragorn, for as wise as he was, he seemed to have a knack for doing the exact opposite of what he said, the worse part of it being that Legolas was almost always right. But Legolas thought this with a grin on his face, remembering some "incidents" when Aragorn had been living at Imladris – it was fairly ironic considering Elrond's expression had been the exact opposite of a grin.


The time had come and with it, Sharkey's urgent message: move out. Gorlak had chosen his most trusted comrades (well, the ones that he had partially inspired trust in anyways) and had started the hunt for the final elf. But this one apparently had more companions with him. 'Somethin' 'em other two had probly bin wishin' fer!' Gorlak cackled in his head. He had chosen Furnash to come with him as back up for himself personally (not that Gorlak ever planned to be out of the picture) and had left Turga with the other half of their group to catch up later; their task required speed. They would meet up later. But Gorlak was beginning to seethe inside with rage directed towards Furnash, his leg was bringing their impossible pace down slightly. Anything slight in this quest was magnified 100 times to Gorlak, he could not fail. But nevertheless, Furnash was determined not to be the subject of ridicule and silently bore the dull burning pain in his shorter leg.


A loud snoring continued to scrape Legolas's eardrums and he found himself wondering yet again why Aragorn hadn't woken up yet. But then answer became apparent instantly; they were really both snoring, they were just snoring in unison. 'I'll have to inform his majesty that he has yet another title, "Wheezer of the West" ' he thought, chuckling to himself out loud by accident. With his expression mimicking that of a deer in the path of an oncoming cart full of drunken hobbits, Legolas waited with baited breath as what he had feared came true; he had disturbed them slightly and one of them had changed their breathing patterns and now the two separate "melodies" were easily identifiable. "Great, I expect we'll be attacked any moment now" he mumbled. On the plus side, the cool night air thankfully soothed his slightly frayed nerves. On the not so good side, Legolas forgot that he was almost always right.


They had crossed the Greyflood earlier that night and they were now ¾ of the way to the river Isen. Gorlak knew that Isengard was somewhere to the east, as Sharkey had informed him in the orientation he had received earlier from yet another crebain. A small doubt began to knaw at him in the back of his mind, after all, the crebain were coming very often. 'How is he managin' all 'o dis?' Gorlak thought. But Gorlak had never questioned Sharkey's authority before and he didn't feel like starting now. Actually, he just didn't want to start understanding the consequences right then. But that didn't matter; they were close to their prey now.


"AAAAAOUGH!" Gimli promptly exclaimed as he woke up. Legolas snapped his head towards the disturber of the peace.

"Must you be so loud? The whole point of having watches is that so we can be alerted of an enemy before they are alerted of us" Legolas said, his eyes smilingly at the ruffled dwarf.

"I am not even going to dignify that with a response right now, I am too tired to wage any sort of war right now, physical or mental – even with an elf!" Gimli grumbled trying to keep his eyelids up.

"That is a pity, for no other elves will be able to take advantage of this wonderful occasion" Legolas replied, finally standing up.

"Ha ha." Gimli mumbled. Legolas' expression instantly became mockingly distressed.

"What's this? You really are not going to make any attempt to oust me?" Legolas gasped, his eyes widening. "Perhaps I should take your watch as well and let you have your beauty sleep if you really are in desperate need" he concluded. Gimli's eyes shrank to slits.

"Are you calling me lazy, laddie?" Gimli suggested, just daring Legolas to say yes. But instead he burst out laughing. Gimli was not amused.

"Are you implying that - " but Legolas stopped short, suddenly hearing something that had escaped him in his conversation with Gimli, a faint whistling sound that he had been the cause of for many years and had always ended with a gurgled scream from an offending orc. This time it was almost the other way around. Whirling around and leaping to the side, a black tipped arrow sailed past his head and past Gimli. Legolas instantly whipped out his long white knife and searched for the offender, but everything was still, just for a split second before a mass of orcs leapt forward out of the shadows.

"Aragorn!" Gimli roared at the man on the ground, and reached for his axe. But it was in a pile with Legolas' bow and quiver… which was almost immediately seized. Left with no alternative, Gimli started laying in on the orcs with his fists, pummeling mercilessly and using his thick helmet to his advantage. Legoals was doing fairly well with his knives, but there was no way any of them would survive long. Argorn was doing fairly well as well, over taking Legolas with his much, much longer blade. Trying to survive was the only thing that mattered now.

'This is bad' Legolas thought grimly as he sliced the head off a screeching orc and was rewarded with a small spray of black blood on the side of his face. 'How long can we keep this up?' he thought, but he already knew the answer; not long. But then a wild thought came into his mind. The dead. Where were they anyways? He couldn't see them at the moment, but that meant nothing when they had the ability to turn invisible. Aragorn. Aragorn had to rouse them. "Aragorn!" he shouted as he kneed yet another orc in the stomach and punched another in the face. Legolas' heart sank as he knew that there was no way anyone would hear him.

Aragorn had his own problems and could not afford to spare any scrap of his mind to anything else except the ragged intake of his breath and the slicing motion he was using with his sword. He hadn't sustained any major injuries yet, but the little ones were starting to add up.

Legolas repeatedly stabbed an orc in front of him that refused to die and finally pulled out his knife for the last time, with a sickening slurping noise, the telltale noise of tissue clinging to the blade. That's when everyone pulled away from him. 'I seriously doubt they're giving me a break' he thought glancing around for their reason. Once again, he heard the low whistle, only a little later this time because of the sound effects of war. And once again he whirled around, just in time to take the arrow that was aiming for a non vital part of his back in the chest.

Legolas stared unbelievingly at the arrow in the right side of his chest. 'I don't remember that being there before' Legolas mused, stupefied with temporary shock. 'What supreme craftsmanship…' he noticed as his gaze continued to rest on the arrow shaft. But the shock quickly wore off and a wave of tingling pain in which his blood was the boiling water quickly hit him and he gasped for the escaping air. But with the pain came his reflex to retaliate and managed to wound one orc in his lunge for the receding host before his eyes began to unfocus and he slowly sank to his knees. As Legolas sank down, so did Gorlak's excuse for a heart. That did not look good. 'Why did he have to turn!' Gorlak thought frantically, as his stomach notified him that it was ready to heave. Furnash quickly took over and had the man and the dwarf tied to a tree, with only the loss of a mere 5 orcs in the process; Aragorn and Gimli were too beat up and shocked to inflict anymore damage. Furnash figured that Gorlak wouldn't want them killed in case they weren't supposed to be – he had already messed up enough already. 'This is the end' Gorlak thought, nauseated. 'Of me an' the elf'.


A/N: Ahhhhhh! It feels nice to leave you with yet another cliffhanger. Thanks for all the reviews guys, it's extremely nice to have encouragement. But it would also be awesome if I could have more specific compliments (or suggestions) such as which parts you liked in particular and why, whether it was the description, writing style, literary device or whatever. Thank you for the support!