Disclaimer: See any of the previous chapters. XD
Sorry 'bout any grammar and/or spelling mistakes.
Eesh, I forgot about the whole thing of being-three-in-the-morning-making-it-Sunday thing. XD Sorry 'bout that guys. I was watchin' my anime… and writing. Yes, for this fic. n.n I didn't end up going to my father's so didn't write as much. ;-; Sad, yes, but expected.
So… yeah. Sorry 'bout the late update, but it's still earlier than usual. n.n;; One day off isn't bad, right?
Enjoy! n.n
Bound
Chapter Eleven: Surprise!
Aelin, Estel and Legolas had all gotten more rest before the insistent elf brought up the subject of going to Adanel again.
Neither human understood Legolas' need to see him, but knew they could not stop him. Not this time.
"Alright!" Estel finally relented. "Just calm down before you hurt yourself!"
The blonde had been trying to get out of bed by himself when the others had refused to let him leave at first.
Legolas smiled at his friend, a smile that said he had gotten his way.
Estel shook his head in amusement despite himself. He had missed his best friend more than he had realized.
"Well… shall we go then?" the elf asked after a minute.
Estel sighed heavily, still not liking the idea.
Without waiting for a response, Legolas sat up, unable to hide a wince when he put pressure on his arms. Estel had given him some herbs for his injuries minutes before their argument had started; the pain had lessened but not dissipated.
Nothing he couldn't ignore.
Taking a deep breath, the elf stood with the help of Estel. Expectedly, he was met with dizziness and briefly closed his eyes against it, grateful for the dark-haired man's steady hold.
Quickly shaking it off, he started towards the door and then outside, Estel right beside him, watching closely.
From there he had to follow Aelin to where they were keeping Adanel, which – ironically enough – was at the leader's home, where he had been held captive.
Once at their destination Aelin opened the door for the two friends and let them in the room.
Legolas' breath caught in his throat when he entered the room. It was the same, the same as the room he had been held in for those unbearably long days.
"Legolas?" Estel questioned worriedly, seeing the panic in the blue eyes. Placing a hand on Legolas' shoulder, the elf jumped at the contact and turned to look at the man with wide eyes.
"Are you alright, mellon-nin?" the grey-eyed man asked, greatly concerned. He had never seen the proud prince act like this before.
Legolas swallowed thickly and, with a wavering voice, said, "Aye. Fine."
There was a chuckle from the other side of the room and they turned to see Adanel tied to a chair, ankles and wrists, appropriately. He was slumped in the chair, crimson stained his tunic from the wound on his side and he looked pale, contrasting deeply to the black of his hair.
A shiver ran up and down Legolas' spine at the sound of the leader, or previous leader. The same sound that had sent chills along his spine before. This, he had not expected.
Estel's gaze hardened when he saw the way in which Legolas reacted to the captive man and seethed silently, for he knew the elf wished to speak to this man; Valar only knew why.
Aelin passed the two friends and went over to the brunette who stood next to the leader. She hugged him tightly.
"I have not been gone for even a day," Ellun said laughing lightly; returning the embrace. He was just as glad to see her as she was him.
"I know," Aelin said quietly.
The fight between Tanol and Estel and then Adanel attacking Legolas had frayed her nerves and made her nervous about Ellun being with the dangerous – not to mention insane – leader.
Legolas never moved his gaze away from Adanel as if the ebony-haired man had him in a trance. He was shocked to see pain and a deep sadness in the equally black eyes when he saw the two embrace each other caringly.
"His wife…" he whispered to himself so quietly that Estel (who stood next to him) was the only one who could hear him.
The young man looked at his friend in confusion for a moment before he followed the frozen eyes to see the same sadness in Adanel's features that Legolas had seen. Then he understood the statement.
He was surprised to find that he felt sorry for the cruel man. He missed his wife and son; wished to embrace them in the same loving manner that Aelin and Ellun were hugging.
When the couple broke apart, Estel decided to approach them, dragging Legolas along.
The blonde did wish to go closer, for he was extremely relieved to see how well Ellun was, but he couldn't bring himself to move on his own. The onyx orbs had him in a fix; he let his friend pull him along, putting up no resistance.
He hadn't thought that by seeing Adanel he would react like way. He hadn't actually done anything to him… just commanded it.
Suddenly, the village leader dived at Estel, knocking him to the ground, bringing Legolas down as well, for he had been using him as support unknowingly.
Everyone was completely shocked and paralyzed by this at first.
Adanel had been bound!
What no one had noticed was that the ebony-haired man had been working at the ropes. Unfortunately, Ellun was not as used to binding people as Tanol had been so hadn't tied it tightly enough. Obviously Adanel no longer cared about his well-being.
"It's your fault! If you had never shown up they would be here!" the crazed leader shouted furiously.
His hands had seemed to find their way around another neck, figuring it to be the most effective way to kill the one who had ruined the perfect ritual since he had no weapon. If he could get out of there and somehow get the elf again then he could still complete it…
Nay, he couldn't! This one had killed Tanol!
He tightened his hold around the man's neck, fingers acting like a vice, tight and unmoving as Estel's fingers tried to pry them off.
Legolas crawled over to Estel – ignoring the pain – and was relieved to see hat he could reach his belt.
Grabbing an object from said belt, he thrust it at Adanel's abdomen from his lying position. The sharp edge embedded itself deep into the flesh, blood spilling out onto Estel below him.
Ellun pulled Adanel off of Estel and threw him to the side. Seeing the amount of blood the so-called leader was losing, he didn't think he would make it. He couldn't believe he had attempted to kill someone again, especially since it was for no reason. Perhaps it was for the best that this demented man would not live to see the next sunrise…
"Estel, are you alright!" Legolas shouted in shock, his voice tense and tight with pain and worry.
The grey-eyed man continued to cough and wheeze, his own hand loosely holding his throat. He still waved off the elf's question, showing that he would be fine.
Legolas let out a breath of utter relief. However, his expression turned to one of pure anger at the one who had done this to his best friend. It had been bad enough that he had tried to sacrifice him, but he wouldn't tolerate someone even hurting his friend.
He stood unsteadily and marched over to Adanel. Kneeling before him, he found that he was dying and that he didn't feel guilty for being the cause. The wound he had inflicted was bleeding profusely, even with the attempts on Ellun's part to stop it, the human hated to see people die.
"Go join your family," Legolas growled, turning to go back to Estel.
He was also shocked to find that, as he turned around, he could no longer support himself.
His knees buckled and he started to fall forward; he braced himself for the impact, for more pain.
Aelin saw Legolas sway on his feet and caught him before he could hit the ground, preventing further damage to the beautiful creature.
"Legolas!" the woman shouted in surprise. Had he been injured?
Gently laying the light form on the floor, she jumped when someone was suddenly beside her.
Estel had regained his breath and was worried to see the state his friend was now in. He was relieved that Aelin had caught him.
Quickly looking Legolas over, he found blood seeping through his tan tunic. His wounds had reopened, not surprising, but not welcome either.
The excitement of the abrupt attack, the emotional strain he had been under, and the blood loss seemed to have become too much for Legolas to handle. Estel could tell that the stubborn elf was close to passing out.
He sighed heavily. He had known it had been a bad idea for Legolas to see Adanel, although he never would have thought the man would attack him. He thought that, if he attacked anyone, it would have been Legolas. It was a good thing Adanel hadn't seen the dagger at his belt and that Legolas had known it was kept there.
Ellun, too, was shocked at Legolas' collapse, but turned his attention back to the dying man before him, knowing the elf was in good hands.
He had stopped trying to staunch the blood flow, for he knew it to be in vain.
Adanel would die this night.
The brunette was taken aback to see pure hatred in the deep black orbs as he glared at Estel and Legolas, but there was also a subtle hint of sadness.
Ellun watched Adanel let out his last breath, noticing that the black-haired man never took his eyes off the two friends for even an instant.
Ellun sighed deeply with a pang of sadness. Adanel, while being cruel and obsessive with his family, had been a decent man and once a great leader.
He pulled the dead man from the wall and laid him down gently.
Aelin came over to Ellun and said, "Is he…?"
A nod was her answer.
She only sighed in response, having no idea what to say.
Silence hung in the air for a minute while they thought about what to do. Then Ellun looked up from Adanel's still body and asked, "How is Legolas?"
"Fine. He just pushed himself too hard; too soon," the woman said with an exasperated tone. Both she and Estel had told the elf to stay at the cabin but he hadn't listened. She had a feeling that him not listening was usual and an often occurrence.
Ellun smiled, "That's good… well, that he's alright."
Aelin returned the smile and nodded in agreement.
"So, what do we do now?" the red-head questioned uncertainly, looking at Adanel.
Ellun looked at the man as well and shook his head. "I suppose we just tell everyone. Nothing we can really do. Someone shall be back soon anyway," he said, thinking aloud. They had been taking shifts, thinking there was no way Adanel could get loose; obviously they had been wrong.
"Go back home with Estel and Legolas and I shall tell them what happened," Ellun told his wife.
Aelin reluctantly nodded, figuring this to be the bet course of action.
She wanted to stay with her husband and help him explain everything. However, she – as well as Ellun – doubted that Legolas and Estel would be able to get back to the cabin without being stopped if one of them wasn't with them.
Aelin and Ellun stood from their crouched position near their dead leader.
The woman pulled the brunette close, kissing him and then embracing him tightly, wishing him good luck. Perhaps when their two new friends reached the cabin she would return to her husband.
They broke away from each other and when Aelin got over to Estel and Legolas, the grey-eyed man already had the elf ready. He had taken off the blonde's tunic and ripped a part of it off to bind the wounds that had reopened. The bandages lay beside him, soaked thoroughly in blood and useless.
Legolas had long since lost consciousness, having succumbed to it soon after collapsing.
"Come, let us go back, Estel," the woman stated, motioning for the young man to follow.
Estel looked over at Ellun, who merely nodded after his wife for him to go with her.
The dark-haired man understood and nodded back. Picking up Legolas gently, he left after Aelin.
Ellun smiled as he could hear his wife talk with the young man.
"So is your name Elvish?"
A pause – probably a nod – and then, "What does it mean?"
"Hope," was the man's reply.
Another short pause.
"Aye, that was a good choice," the red-head said sincerely.
Ellun had to agree with Aelin: that was the perfect name for a man who had saved not only one life but a whole village. Who knew what would have happened if he had not stopped Adanel from performing the sacrifice. They surely would not have gotten there in time.
Aye, Estel was the perfect name.
Oops, I killed Adanel. XD
..:ahem:.. But, what'd ya think? Did ya like it? Hate it? Think it was a bad idea to have him die like that…? Hm? I dunno, you let me know, just don't be harsh about it, 'kay? n.n
I'm not exactly sure when the next update will be, but I'll get it out as soon as I possibly can. Wait a minute… Winter Break starts next week... ..:ponders:.. Never mind, you'll prob'ly get an update real soon. Wow, how did I forget about that…? But… yeah, I'm hoping to get out a few updates during vacation… I'll prob'ly finish this fic, in fact… ..:shrugs:..
Thanks for the continued reviews! They're very much appreciated; please keep them comin'. n.n
Ja ne