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Overthrown

Chapter 10

Failed Attempts

While Gimli was getting drunk, King Thranduil was just waking up, hunched in the corner of his cell with his arms wrapped tightly around himself to shield his body from the cold, damp, darkness that shrouded him like death. He simply wished for it now, to curl up and shrink to nothingness in the gloom. If it wasn't for the shred of hope at seeing his son, he would have died already.

The scrape of a lock and the door swinging open announced his guard, his only salvation and shred of companionship in this death race. The man made his way slowly across the room with a torch, the dazzling flames flickering on Thranduil's face and burning his tired eyes. The light was too much, too much when all he wanted was darkness to sink into. The man knelt down beside him and set a tray of food by the King's feet.

It was the usual, left-overs and unwanted scraps from the kitchen. Not much of a meal, when it consisted of burnt meat and cold vegetables. Still, the King managed to pull himself painfully into a sitting position and gently take a soggy mushroom from the plate. The limp fungus drooped between his fingers and threatened to fall apart no matter how softly he held it.

"That was the best I could scrounge." The guard whispered, glancing over his shoulder in fear. There were no approaching footsteps and no one near by, as far as the weak elf could hear. "I also bring word. Your son is not in this keep, that I know. There are a few other elves here but I believe many are kept in the east tower and underground dungeons." Thranduil felt his heart constrict at this news.

"There is no way to find out?" He whispered back desperately. The man shook his head, a pitiful look on his face. "You aren't friends with the other guards?"

"It was hard enough finding what I did." He answered. Reaching down, he fingered the potatoes on the side of the tray. "Hidden inside is a key. When I take you to the chamber tonight I will leave on important matters. I will not tie the straps tight enough and you will escape." Thranduil raised an eyebrow, startled by this news.

"Excuse me?" He asked. The man smiled slightly and shrugged.

"It was the best I could do. There will be a crisis in another cell." Thranduil opened his mouth to speak but the man seemed to read his mind. "Its better you don't know. There are escape tunnels at the far end of the hall where we take you. They are accessed through hidden panels under a large table with a mace on top and a gold helmet. Push on the far left hand corner, at the bottom. It will swing open. Follow the passage for as far as it goes and you will come to an underground stream. Follow the marked path and you'll get out into a small patch of trees. There will be guards but if you are careful they will not see you."

Thranduil shook his head and reached up, clapping the man on the shoulder. "How can I thank you?" He asked weakly. The man shook his head and patted his hand.

"Just pray to the Valar Aron does not find out what I have done." He got laboriously to his feet and went to the door. "Eat the potatoes carefully."

After eating and waiting in the dark, feeling the slender key between his numb fingers, the guard came back, this time with his large friend. Thranduil quickly stuffed the key into his mouth and held it under his tongue.

"Up you get." The guard yelled. Winking at Thranduil, he pulled the King around and took him from the cell. The walk seemed to go by faster then usual and very soon they were in the torture chamber. The guard was just tying Thranduil down when another rushed into the room.

"We have a riot going on in a cell down the hall." He gasped, clutching a stitch in his side. "We subdued two of them, but the other is very persistent. You best come."

The guard standing over Thranduil nodded and waved the other off. "I'll be there in a second. I just need to do something about him." The other man ran off leaving Thranduil and the guard alone. "Hurry."

Thranduil watched the guard silently as he crossed the room and pulled open the door. He was just about to leave when Thranduil called to him. Stopping half in the room, half in the hall, the guard turned back to the elf lying prone on the table. "Who can I tell my people about when I am free and they are safe? What is your name?" A ghost of a smile flickered across the man's face.

"Belraind." He answered. Turning, he left the room and closed the door with a sharp click. Thranduil waited a few seconds, watching the door and then began to pull at the straps. He spit the key out of his mouth as far as he could. The small metal object landed on his stomach.

Thranduil craned his neck painfully, watching it and began contracting his stomach muscles as hard as he could, watching he key move inch by inch along his stomach and fall off the side, onto the plank beside his arm.

His arms were fastened into their straps to tightly to get loose but he was able to wriggle his feet free. Kicking off his left boot with his right, Thranduil brought his leg up and bent it at a painful angle, bringing it along his side between his arm and his stomach. With his pale toes he managed to hook the key and lift it. Extending his leg, he dropped the key into his hand and sighed as he stretched his leg fully out again. He was getting to old for this.

Working frantically, Thranduil freed one hand and then the other. Crawling painfully off the table, Thranduil grabbed his boot from the floor, pulled it on none to gracefully and raced across the room.

He left the room and ran into a man standing just outside the door. How he hadn't seen him or heard him became apparent when he looked up into startling blue eyes and a pale face. Pointed ears poked out from beneath dark brown hair. The Elf grabbed the King painfully and turned Thranduil around, hooking his hands behind his back. Aron stepped from the shadows in front of them, so silently and suddenly he could have appeared from thin air.

"Take the good King inside, strap his down again and we'll cut open every crevice of his body to make sure he hasn't snuck another key in with him." Thranduil managed a short lived glare before Aron was pulled from his vision. He screamed that day until he passed out.

Miles away, Legolas moaned and rolled over in his sleep. His father was there, with in his reach, so close he could touch him but his arms wouldn't move.

"Ada! Reach out your hand!" Legolas' vision shifted and now he could see a room, cold and damp with dripping grey walls and molding cupboards. The floor emitted a hollow sound as he crossed it, staring at the figure in front of him.

It was an elf, strapped to a table in the center of the room. The elf's face was gone and all that remained was pale skin stretched grotesquely over empty eye sockets. There was no nose, only two gaping holes in the middle of the face and the mouth. Legolas choked to see the elf's mouth, a twisted display of split skin, wormed into a pained scream of anguish.

Reaching out, he grasped the poor creature's cold hand and ran his thumb over the first finger. The ring of the king of Mirkwood flashed at him in the dim flickering lamp light around them. Legolas screamed and stepped backwards into a table covered in bloody instruments used for torture. Blood spilled over his hands and down his front, staining his clothing crimson.

"Legolas?" Legolas spun around and saw Aragorn standing in the doorway, watching him. The King of Gondor was clad strangely, in the clothing of Legolas' father. His head was wreathed in a crown of leaves and berries from the forest. His robes were silver and white jewels adorned his fingers and neck.

"Why are you wearing that?" Legolas asked, his voice sounding dim and echoing. Aragorn raised his sword and Legolas realized it wasn't Anduril but another, foreign with the marks of a tree and a moon on it's shinning blade.

"Because Mirkwood is mine." Aragorn whispered. Legolas stepped away from him but his foot found empty air. Reeling, Legolas grabbed the table trying to steady himself from falling into the abyss but he just pulled the table with him. As he fell through the dark air, the body on the table came free and the skeletal arms wrapped tightly around him, choking off any air he had left to scream…

Legolas shot awake, springing up in his bed and knocking his book to the floor with a loud thud. Hissing in pain as his side began to sting, Legolas turned to look through the darkness at Gimli whose drunken snores filled the tent. It was amazing he hadn't woken before now. Crawling out of bed and pulling his boots on, Legolas left the tent and stepped out into the night.

Many of the men were asleep, lights inside of tents darkened long ago. Guards patrolled between tents with their weapons at the ready and only a few even glanced at him as he passed. The edge of the camp was littered with tankards and the discarded items from the drinking party, tallies scratched into the mud beside them. It seemed to Legolas, as he stood over them that Gimli had one by a considerable margin. He'd have to listen to the dwarf brag about it all the next day.

What was even more disturbing than that prospect was the dream that had woken him. He had always dreamed little in his long life, only after battles and feasts, and occasionally during the time he spent with the fellowship or chasing the Uruk-hai.

Legolas found a tree large and branching enough to climb easily and settled himself in the topmost boughs, leaning against the trunk and letting his eyes stare unseeingly at the moon. He hoped what he saw never came true. He couldn't bare his father to die so horribly…

Aragorn. In the dream the man had betrayed him but Aragorn would never do that…or would he? Things were so backwards lately, it was impossible for Legolas to make sense of them. Lost in his thoughts about the dream, Legolas didn't hear light footsteps approaching until they were right beneath him.

"Legolas?" Elladan's voice floated up to him like a butterfly on the breeze. Startled, Legolas leaned over the edge of his branch and stared down at the Elf below him. "Are you alright?"

"Yes." Legolas replied. He watched silently as Elladan climbed up the branches and perched beside him. Sighing, the other elf leaned back and smiled at him. Legolas didn't return the smile but looked back at the moon. "What do you think of Aragorn? In all the years you've known him?"

Elladan seemed startled by this abrupt question and laid a hand on Legolas' shoulder. "Are you alright? What's wrong?"

"I am fine." Legolas answered. "Just, what do think of him?"

"You have known him almost as long as I have." Elladan answered silently. He let his hand fall and leaned forward carefully, studying Legolas' face. The blond archer didn't turn away but stared impassively at the ground far below him. "I believe Aragorn is a fare man who loves his friends and his family more then himself. By the Valor he loves his horse more then himself!" Elladan laughed lightly. "He would never hurt you nor do anything but protect you, if that's what you are worried about."

"No, it is nothing like that." Legolas lied. Faking a smile, he shrugged and craned his neck to look back at the camp behind them. "Did you watch the drinking game?"

Elladan laughed and nodded. "From the shadowed safety of a tent. I was secretly cheering the dwarf, though I have no doubt in my mind that you or I could beat him in that game." Legolas raised an eyebrow and turned back to watching the moon. His worries seemed ludicrously unjust towards Aragorn. Of course the King would never hurt him…on purpose.

TO MY REVEIWERS:

Jedi Padfoot: Of course it'll be stylish! Legolas is in style…I was going over all the fighting moves for a future fight scene in my head while I was in the shower. It was so pathetically sad. I hope you liked this chapter.

Moonyasha: Hey! Wait to burn until I'm gone somewhere safe please!

Iloveboduke: Oh, I won't just give up on it, don't worry. Sometimes I stop for a while, to clear my head but I always finish. The only way I wont is if something happens to me.

Zammy: I hope you liked it and it was quick enough.

Legolas-gurl88: Yeah I know what you mean. I have to update and then I have to study for my test tomorrow. I am so stressed because I have a whole bunch of other stuff to do! Not enough hours in the day. I hope you liked it.

Dawn: Thank you, I'm glad you didn't find it boring. I hope you liked it.

Faerlas: I'm glad you havn't figured it out yet. Yeah, I like Pippin he gets into so much trouble. You think theirs something sinister with Gimli? That's interesting…you'll soon see…we'll not soon soon but soon.

Elessar-Lover: I know, I felt sorry for Gimli to but him giving up drinking would be to good to be true.

Slayer3: I didn't get the link, it wouldn't come up. Sorry.

morph: Thanks. Keep reading and reviewing.

Flamesofthemo0n: 3:00 am? I've seen all of the extended versions. There was some really funny parts in them that I wish was in the original. Oh well, though. For me I love the Two Towers the best, not just because there is a lot of Legolas, but I love the battle of Helm's Deep.

Kelsey Estel: I loved the rambling. Like I said, it told me things I hadn't known so it was very helpful. You'll find out why Eowyn has to stay behind. It's nothing sinister…or is it? LOL can't wait to hear your new theories.

IwishChan: I know, poor Legolas. He just wants to read! Gimli should be more careful with his drinking. There could be enemies anywhere and he wouldn't even be able to raise his ax!

And to anyone I may have missed or who isn't reviewing, thank you.