Before going into the story, I'd like to give a big, big HUG to Silian, and hope she reads the bottom of this chapter.

Chapter Five: Meetings in the Night

Legolas was in pain.

A lot of pain.

Then, suddenly, there was only darkness, and he floated in that mindless oblivion until the song found him.

It called to him, enticing, seducing, until every particle of his being was drawn to it. The melody stirred something deep within him… a memory, ancient and not his own. A life in splendor and beauty, forsaken for a lord he loved more than life. The memory belonged to the singer of the song, but the song reverberated through him until he could no longer distinguish the new memories from his own.

Do not come here. Feredir rides again, and now there is no Master to bring him to heel.

Legolas gasped, instinctively stepping back though he was still surrounded by empty night. Then darkness shattered, and he felt cool stone beneath his bare feet. Looking around wildly, he saw to his disbelief what could only be described as an underground ocean. Above him, the rocky ceiling glittered with a thousand crystals, and some areas of rock were covered by a green substance, or perhaps it was a plant, providing a dim light to see with. The liquid in the 'ocean' had the fluidity of water, but was an unhealthy yellow-green colour. Legolas' attention was then drawn to what he was standing on.

Where am I?

He was on an island of rock, in the middle of which stood a tall red column of marble, impossibly straight, around twenty paces high. Stepping closer, he saw the writing on it, and gave a sharp cry. It was in a spidery script that he did not recognise, but somehow the sinuous lines conveyed the sense of an evil older than he. He tried reaching out towards it, but drew back when he felt that evil try to grasp his arm.

What is this?

He jumped when he heard a soft thud, but it was only a slab of rock bumping against his 'island'. Several of them dotted the surface of the water, floating seemingly without direction, so thin that he felt even his weight would crack it.

I wonder what would happen if Gimli jumped onto one, he thought in amusement.

As if thinking about him summoned the dwarf, Legolas heard a gruff voice behind him that he could identify without looking.

"Legolas?"

"Gimli," he greeted his stunted friend with a smile, relieved at seeing a familiar face and wondering if the dwarf could answer the questions in his mind. But his best friend only gawked at him. Before he knew what was happening, he was thrown back a little as the dwarf seized him around the waist and attempted to squeeze him into two, cursing incoherently. Eventually the elf managed to disentangle himself and held the dwarf at an arm's length.

"Is that truly you, Legolas?" Gimli said, clutching the elf's hand. "Or are you just another phantom of my dreams?"

Legolas looked at him quizzically. "I didn't know you dreamt, my friend. But it is truly me, as far as I can tell. And perhaps you could enlighten me on where we are. I don't remember how we got here."

It was Gimli's turn to look at him, his expression unreadable. "What was the last thing you remember?"

Legolas had to think about that for a moment. "It doesn't make sense, but… It was night. I remember talking and jesting with Aragorn and Faramir. I remember something grabbing me from the back, and hitting something hard. Then… nothing. Where are we, Gimli?"

The dwarf was examining their surroundings with a suspicious expression on his face. "I fear I cannot answer that, my friend, for my last memories are that of sitting next to your bed in the Houses of Healing in Gondor after we found you near Emyn Arnen. The whole of the King's Guard had been massacred, Aragorn – and it seems Faramir as well – are missing, and you lay on death's doorstep."

Legolas could only stare at his friend. "But… that doesn't make sense…" As if to further emphasize his point, he gestured out at the 'ocean' and the vast cavern.

Gimli simply shrugged. "For my part, I would say I was dreaming, yet if you are truly Legolas, then it cannot be a normal dream. You should be the one who knows about dreams, my friend- you spend your day immersed in them." The dwarf sounded as if he was trying to solve a riddle!

"Gimli…" Legolas was getting more alarmed and anxious by the second, and he wondered how he could convey this sentiment to the dwarf. "I fear I don't understand. For one thing, I recall you once swearing that dwarves don't dream of anything but gold and the nearest mine, if they dreamed at all. For another, how did you suddenly arrive at the conclusion that this is a dream?"

"For the first question, I'm afraid it's a long story that I'd rather tell under a more familiar setting. For the second… let us just say that I have been dreaming of late, for which I blame you, and they are strange dreams no dwarf should have. Also, it's the most logical conclusion. Had we been, for example, somehow taken and put here by whatever took Aragorn and Faramir, you would still bear your injuries, yet I see you are hale and unmarked."

The prince of Mirkwood nodded. It was the most logical explanation, and at the moment the only plausible one, yet it still didn't explain where they were, or how they were to get out of there.

"Legolas, do elves ever meet each other in dreams?"

He shook his head. "Nay. When we dream, we walk in our memories, or for those who have foresight, they may see images of things that might be. But we do not meet others, save in times of great need, and even then we only meet those who already dwell in the Halls of Mandos." He looked at Gimli sharply. "You said I was near the brink of death…"

"Peace, my friend," said Gimli, reaching up and patting him on the shoulder. "I think would have woken had your body ceased breathing."

Though not exactly comforted, Legolas knew that Gimli was right. He had a feeling that if he died, the dwarf would know in the instance and would be at his side even if the whole of Arda lay between them.

"What is this?" Gimli pointed at the marble column. "It is very old, and the rock comes from a place very far from here." Legolas nodded. He trusted Gimli's instincts when it came to anything to do with caves or rocks, just as Gimli trusted Legolas in matters to do with trees and living things. He once perceived a very interesting notion that together he and Gimli formed the perfect being, and though he was yet to share this with Gimli, he was sure that the dwarf would agree.

"Do not go near it!" he warned when Gimli stepped towards the column. "There is evil in it. See the writing? I cannot read it properly, for it is old, but I think it speaks of imprisonment. See here?" He pointed at what looked like a separate verse. "I can read the words 'Hunter' and 'Hunted' and something about a maze." He also somehow knew that it was a song… the idea tickled something at the back of his mind, but he couldn't grasp it.

Gimli suddenly looked around wildly. "Elladan? Are you here? Legolas, can you hear them?"

Legolas arched an eyebrow. "Who?" He listened with his heightened senses, but heard nothing besides the slush of water. Gimli, are you all right?"

But Gimli was becoming… indistinct. Legolas blinked, but it looked as if Gimli was fading. His lips moved, like he was saying something, but Legolas couldn't hear his words. "Gimli!" he rushed forward and grabbed his friend's outstretched hand.

Then the world slipped out from under him.

~*~

Elladan quietly led a very worried Derinsul into Legolas' room in the Houses of Healing, and stopped in his tracks, making the Crown Prince collide into him.

"What's wrong?" asked Derinsul anxiously. Elladan was a hand taller than him, so he hushed the elf and moved sideways to let Derinsul see a sight that challenged every elf's perspective of the world.

Gimli, formidable in his full armor and an axe resting beside him, was sound asleep on a chair next to Legolas' bed, his face furrowed in concern and fatigue, and his hand laid gently on Legolas' bruised hand. The elf hadn't moved since they recovered him that morning, at least to Elladan's knowledge, but his hand had clasped onto Gimli's.

Elladan couldn't suppress his smile at Derinsul's shocked face. The Lord of Imladris had gotten used to the close friendship between Legolas and Gimli over the past 6 years, but Derinsul hadn't seen the two very much, and to him Elladan though the sight must be earth-shattering.

But a look at Legolas' frail form reminded him of why he had brought the elf there.

"Come," he said, gently leading the furiously blinking elf onto the other side of the bed. "Tell me what you feel." He put the Crown Prince's hand on Legolas' forehead.

"Um…" Derinsul blinked some more. "What do you mean?"

"Search for his mind. Did you ever take healing lessons?"

That stiffened his back. "Of course I did. I was just…" Then his face blanched. "He's not here. His mind's not in his body. But," he looked at Elladan, his fear for his brother evident in his eyes. "How can this happen? What has happened to Legolas?"

It was what he had been afraid of. Elladan's healing abilities were very limited; he could do little more than diagnose physical injuries and make the most basic poultices. He didn't even trust himself to set bones. But one of the first things his father had taught him had been to immerse himself in a patient's consciousness to assess how far from death the patient was. Out of habit he did this to Legolas as Ioreth worked on him, and his legs nearly buckled when he found that Legolas' body was an empty husk. But he had hoped that it had only been his less-than-adept healing abilities.

Something suddenly occurred to Elladan. Moving next to the sleeping dwarf, careful not to wake him, he put his hand on Gimli's temple.

"Neither is Gimli," he whispered, a cold iciness creeping up his spine.

He felt Derinsul grab him by the shoulder. "What has happened, Peredhel? Why is my brother so? And why was I only told now?"

Elladan sighed. The bodies of his two close friends lay like empty shells, devoid of awareness- he was not in a state of mind to deal with Derinsul. "Three days ago, Estel went on a state visit to Ithilien, and he was expected back today. We rode out this morning and found the King's Guard massacred not far from Emyn Arnen. Estel is missing and Legolas was gravely wounded. We brought your brother back here and stabilised him. We did not tell you of him because we were unsure of his condition, and even now we do not know if he will live, as he is yet to wake." He did not add that Arwen was worried that Derinsul would simply storm in whilst Legolas was still being treated and insist on bringing him to Greenwood; he himself doubted Derinsul was that rash, but it never hurt to take precautions around the children of Thranduil. "Gimli has stayed with him since we found him. Éomer has returned to the site to see to a proper burial for the Guards, and Arwen is searching the libraries for information on what could have caused this."

He gestured at Gimli. "I had thought that whatever butchered Aragorn's men had done something to Legolas' mind and soul as well, but now I see it cannot be so, for Gimli is also gone." In his heart he felt the growing fear for Estel; he sent out a silent plea for his twin to return soon.

Derinsul started pacing anxiously. "I should not have allowed Legolas to come and live here," he muttered.

Elladan snorted; if Derinsul was acting unbecoming by pacing, he was surely allowed to snort. "Allow? Kinsman, I'm not sure you had ever been able to allow or disallow Legolas anything."

"He was a decent elf until he met that human brother of yours."

Now that was going too far. "If I remember correctly, even your father encouraged that friendship! Legolas was alone and friendless until he met Estel."

"He was not friendless! He had me, and he was loved by everyone." Derinsul's face was flushed. "Father didn't know him as well as I did! And look at what his 'friends' brought him to!"

"Do you think we should interrupt them?"

"He is happy with us, Derinsul! How many times has he visited home since he became Lord of Ithilien?" Elladan smiled satisfactorily when he saw that he had hit a sore spot.

"Pwah! And they say we fight like children."

Derinsul was trembling. "Watch your tongue, Peredhel, or you may find it severed from you."

"Maybe we should stop them. They'll waking up the entire street."

"Empty words, Silvan!" Elladan's hand went to the hilt of his sword.

With a cry of rage, Derinsul drew his sword at the same time as Elladan and lunged forward. Or at least, he would have had a pair of knives not catch him by a sleeve and trouser leg and pin him to the wall. Elladan similarly found himself suddenly staring up at the ceiling.

"Brother. Elladan." Legolas said, wincing as he slowly got to a sitting position with the help of Gimli. "Pray tell what suddenly inspired the both of you to start another Kinslaying, and right next to my bed as well?"

Elladan stared at Legolas, then at Derinsul, then back at Legolas, but before he could answer Arwen and Éomer appeared at the door.

Arwen surveyed the situation calmly, her eyes darting from her brother to Derinsul, who was still pinned to the wall, to Legolas. Upon seeing the latter, she smiled in relief; then rounded on her brother.

"Elladan, would you explain why you've drawn a sword in the Houses of Healing," she asked, sounding scandalised. "And what has happened here?"

"I'm afraid I provoked your brother, Lady Undómiel," Derinsul spoke up first.

"Nay, nay, it was as much my fault," Elladan said, getting to his feet and rubbing his head. He helped Derinsul down, and handed the knives back to Legolas. A glance at Gimli's too-innocent face told him that the dwarf had swept his feet from under him at the same time Legolas had pinned Derinsul to the wall. Now that he thought about it, it was a very fortunate thing they had done as they did. "My apologies, Derinsul, I do not know what came over me."

"Neither do I," replied Derinsul softly, his eyes mirroring the same confusion Elladan felt. The oldest son of Elrond was normally a very patient and calm person, and it was the first time in his life he had intentionally goaded another into a fight. True, Derinsul did his own share of goading, but Elladan had endured worse comments from Imladris elves about Estel without lashing back.

"I see what you meant, Gimli," said Legolas softly as he looked at his injuries. "But as we are in a more or less familiar setting now, will you tell me what has happened?"

Looking very uncomfortable, Gimli reluctantly told of his recurring dream. "And I'm sure that that cave is part of a network of caves that includes the one we just came from. This means they must be deep indeed, for the rocks are ancient and a network that can include a large underground lake covers leagues."

"Lake?" Éomer broke in. "What mean you by lakes, Master Gimli?"

Gimli and Legolas looked at each other, but it was Legolas who answered. "We… met, on an island of rock surrounded by water, or something that has the fluidity of water."

"Met?" Derinsul asked. "What do you mean by 'met'?"

"I'm not sure," said Gimli tentatively. "I only know that I must have fallen asleep, for one minute I was sitting here, and the next, I was standing on the island with this fool elf in front of me."

"Describe this place," Arwen prompted.

Legolas took over. "As I said before, we were on an island of rock in the middle of a large body of yellow-green water. I could not see land from any side, though there were thin slabs of rock floating on the water. In the middle of the island is a large column of stone-"

"Red marble. Very rare and old red marble," Gimli supplied.

"Thank you, Gimli, I'm sure it couldn't have occurred to me that it's old and rare without your age-old wisdom to point it out."

"Of course not. I don't think you would have noticed it was there-"

Éomer cleared his throat. Legolas gave Gimli a triumphant grin before he continued.

"On the marble is writing, of an ancient script that I cannot read well, but I got the sense that it spoke of imprisonment of some kind, and a Hunter that captures those to be imprisoned. I'm not sure if Gimli felt it, but there was evil in that column."

"What do you mean by evil?" asked Arwen.

"I do not know," Legolas admitted. "But I felt that it is part of something larger, and it was either protecting or imprisoning something. And when I approached it, the evil that resides in the stone reached out, and attempted to take hold of me."

"I still do not understand," said Éomer. "You had the same dream?"

"Nay." Gimli looked at Legolas again; they seemed to hold a silent conference that ended when both nodded in agreement to something. Elladan didn't bother trying to understand the barely perceptible body language with which the pair communicated- Estel was the only other one who could understand their silent communication. "We do not know how it happened, but we both feel that we were both there in person. I saw him, he saw me, and we even talked. Consequently, we must consider it to be a real place."

Something clicked inside Elladan's head. "Aye, you were there, but in mind, rather than person."

"Would you care to explain that, brother?" Arwen turned to him.

"Derinsul can confirm what I am saying. As they were treating Legolas, I took a chance to feel out the state of his mind, and check if he's lapsed into a coma, for he had not stirred since we found him. But I found nothing." Elladan looked seriously at his sister. "Nothing. His mind and soul were no longer within his body."

Arwen glanced to Derinsul for confirmation, and the Crown Prince nodded. "I thought whoever had attacked them must have done something to Legolas' soul," Elladan continued. "But when I brought Derinsul here, Gimli was asleep," At this Gimli shifted, looking embarrassed. "And on an instinct, I checked him also. Nothing. It was as if their bodies were here, but their minds, their souls, had gone elsewhere."

A contemplative silence followed Elladan's words. Finally Éomer spoke up. "I think the most important thing we have to do now is find Aragorn."

"And Faramir," Legolas said. "He was travelling with us, and he was standing next to Aragorn the last time I saw them."

Derinsul voice was cold as he glared at Elladan. "I hold you fully accountable for what happened to my brother, Lord Elladan."

"What happens to me is of my own fault," Legolas said in a steely voice that reminded Elladan very much of Thranduil. Despite his injuries, Legolas managed to sit straighter (Elladan was sure he would have stood up had his mangled legs been able to support him) and fixed Derinsul with such a glare that Elladan unconsciously shifted backwards, even though those intense blue eyes weren't even aimed at him. "No one takes responsibility for my actions. Not even you, Derinsul."

Derinsul blanched slightly, and nodded, his eyes unable to meet his younger brothers'. Elladan shook his head. It was an easy mistake to think that Legolas was easily intimidated, because of his gentle nature and being slow to anger, but once his ire was roused, the youngest son of Thranduil could suddenly transform into a masterful and proud elf-lord in his prime. He remembered the first time he had seen Legolas in his cold anger, twice as deadly as his father's; it had been a sight to behold.

Legolas kept his gaze on Derinsul for another minute before slowly shaking his head and turning to Gimli for a whispered conference. Arwen took a deep breath and spoke up. "Then we must send a message to Éowyn immediately to tell her of what has befallen. Meanwhile, the hour is very late, gentlemen, and we are in the Houses of Healing. I urge that we depart to let Legolas rest- yes, Gimli, you may stay. We shall reconvene in the morning and discuss how we will search for my husband."

Elladan sent his sister a brief, comforting look even as he forcefully dragged a protesting Derinsul out of the chamber. He had forgotten about how worried she must be over Estel. Stay strong, Undómiel; we'll find him.

She smiled gratefully at him. Thank you, 'Adan, her eyes said.

~*~

Author's Notes:

Hello again. I know I should go back to Aragorn and Faramir, but I absolutely adore Legolas and Gimli, and as they haven't been together at all yet, I decided they could have a whole chapter to themselves (well, sort of).

On that note, for those of you who like Aragorn and Legolas pre-FOTR, I've started a new story titled Race With Wrath to apologise for suspending Enyalie (please go over to it and read why before you throw something at me!). A new perspective on how the friendship between Aragorn and Legolas may have developed. Featuring Thranduil like you've never seen him before: as a decent elf! And for those who didn't catch it, that's the event Derinsul and Elladan mentioned in their argument (actually it refers to that time period).

Anyways, thank you to all those who are still following this story, and even more thanks to those who took the time to say something about it.

Response to Reviewers

Aria- sigh, I was wondering when the guessing game would start. In any case, I have to regretfully inform you that I *will not* be revealing who it is until much later ;-). But have fun guessing anyway (it's actually quite interesting to see who you guys come up with). In fact, I just realised that I've sub-consciously put a major clue in there! My thanks, and good luck revising (glances guiltily at Chemistry books squashed in the corner)

acacia – aww, sorry, but the A/F duo (Aragorn and Faramir, but no slashy) will be up next, as well as a bit more of Gimli and Legolas. And yes, there is mucho dreaming in the air, I will be having fun with Derinsul (that came out wrong, didn't it?)

Thundera Tiger- once again, you are flatterin' me to death! I'm glad you picked up on the similarities between Elladan and Elrohir's words- you're the only one to spot that! I plan on including a bit of explanation on the dreams in a coming chapter, but for now I'll say that it's somewhat loosely based on Robert Jordan's Tel'aran'rhiod (World of Dreams) in Wheel of Time. Thank you so much for all the kind words!

mageani- if you're interested in Derinsul, you can see him in Race With Wrath before lil' bro Legsie left home. Thank you, hope your stove is behaving!

Hai- thanks, glad you like it! It's slowing down a bit as I try to get everyone in position, but we'll hopefully see some action in two chapters or so.

Last but most definitely not least, many, many thanks to SILIAN, who has followed this story faithfully from the first chapter. I DO appreciate ALL your reviews, because they tell me that you're still with me and still enjoying what I write- a huge comfort, and *hopefully* one that will continue for a long time yet ;-). Your question concerning the twins' half-elfiness takes some time to explain, but basically Tolkien himself (I just found this out, actually) always made a point of emphasizing that Elrond and his children aren't full elves. He never refers to them as 'elves', always 'half-elves'. Thundera Tiger took the time to figure out the percentage of elf-blood in them and posted it in one of her fics, but I can't find it at the moment. Give me a day or so, and I'll send you an e-mail, cuz this is taking up a lot of space, OK? Thank you so much for your constant support!