This is more than double the length it's supposed to be, but it's almost the new year so
I Don't Care.
Enjoy!
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Legolas heard the noise before it was too late to do anything about it.
A growl ahead, and even worse, an answering snarl behind. Barely heard over the thundering waterfall.
Panic struck him like lightning and he grabbed onto Estel's arm and pulled him back, the ledge was too then to squish the small human behind him for protection and there were no caves or crevices to push him into.
The growl had been closer than the snarl; and so he looked ahead.
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Estel turned back to Legolas, confused why all of a sudden the elf had a death grip on his arm. But stopped when he saw the look in his friends eyes.
He had never, not even once, seen Legolas scared.
Not even five summers ago when Legolas and his brothers had allowed him to go come camping with them and they woke to find that a group of wild cats seemed to have decided to make a meal out of them. Elladan and Elrohir had looked afraid, but not Legolas.
But now he look terrified. "Estel, are you a good climber?"
He swallowed hard, usually he would fear being seen as weak with such an honest answer, he shouted to ensure he was heard, "Tree's, yes. Rockewalls? No."
Legolas eyes began darting around the rock wall next to them, searching for something.
0o0o0o0o0
How he wished the human could climb. But the child was not strong enough to fight the current of the waterfall in the small pool below.
Estel would drown.
He searched the walls around him for any kind of ledge or grip he might put the child on, or root to help secure him. But there was nothing.
He reached out with his mind to the trees, allowing them to feel the full extent of his fear and dread, and feeling that their hope lied with getting word, quick and concise, to Lord Elrond.
It was their only option. Their only chance.
It seemed impossible that there was a hunting pack so close to the borders.
Then Warg stepped into view.
0o0o0o0o0
Elrond knew this panic was not his own. It was more wild than anything he had ever felt before, more chaotic.
It was borrowed. It was a message.
A plea.
There was only one elf anywhere near Imladris that the trees would serve as a messenger for. And that person was in charge of his son.
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Legolas had already fired his bow before Estel even got a chance to turn back to the Warg, and only saw a huge brown lump splash into the water.
He tried to scream, to warn Legolas of another behind him but the elf had once again already shot it before he got the chance.
And then there was a burning sensation in his back.
And then he was falling.
And then he couldn't breath.
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Legolas cursed at himself and his slow hands, unable to protect the child and shot two more wargs - the one two left that he could see - before jumping headfirst into the raging waters below.
He aimed away from the waterfall but the churning pressure still dragged him to the bottom.
O0o0o0o0
Estel felt his leg get scraped against the ground as he was dragged backwards; much against his will. Another shape fell into the water.
He couldn't tell which way was up.
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Legolas allowed himself to be pulled across the bottom, managing to only bump his arm once or twice. Knowing that he would be pulled to the same place the small boy, if only he did not fight it.
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Something was pounding on him from above, pushing him farther and father into the earth that was so unforgiving. He couldn't open his eyes. He couldn't see. He couldn't swim. He couldn't move.
Something grabbed him. Not a Warg, but hands. Deterind hands.
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One arm securely around Estels middle, Legolas felt for the side of the pool and pushed off the ground with his feet, kicking as hard as he could and using the rocks to help literally pull himself and the child to the surface of the water.
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His face broke the surface of the water and be began coughing wildly. Sputtering and gasping, still unable to see anything.
"Hold on." A choked voice told him, taking both of his hands and attaching them to a vine A vine that had not been there before, tucked behind the waterfall. "Don't let go." The voice told him.
Legolas. That had to be Legolas.
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He felt the wargs jaws close around his foot and ankle and he desperately hoped that Estel had a good enough hold that he would stay above the surface when he not longer could. "Your Ada will be here soon."
His own father was hundreds of miles away. His own father would not know until days afterwards. Weeks, maybe. Depending on the tree's.
That was all the physical reaction he managed, making sure Estel could hold himself up, before Legolas was pulled under the surface once more.
The crushing waterfall once again dragging him through the currents, but this time with a Warg very much attached to his leg.
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Red bloomed in the water around him, and Estel had never been so scared in his life. "Legolas?" He called.
"Legolas?" He screamed, desperate.
There was no reply.
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Blindly he slashed at his leg with one of his two twins knives, the one that hadn't been roughly pulled off of him and away.
He slashed again.
He hit something, but the warg still did not let go. He swung again, this time it let go.
Red bloomed around him.
He didn't know if that was the wargs blood or his.
As long as it wasn't the child's he didn't mind.
He would die to protect this child, without one single regret.
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His grip began to slip on the root, the current pulling him under was too strong and he was too weak to lift himself all the way out of the water and hold himself there.
He tried so hard. But he slipped.
It was too strong.
Estel went back under the surface.
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The tree's told him that Estel had been pulled back under, and so with one final swish of his blade he moved away from the Warg and left it to be pulled around by the current while he searched for the boy.
And also did not stab the boy, either. Hopefully.
He tried to reach the surface and take a breath, but just as he reached the top another powerful paw pushed him under.
Deep, under.
His face scraped across the rough rocks below.
More red bloomed.
His lung screamed.
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Everything was water. There was no getting away from it. No safety. No hope for him. He was too little, and the water too strong.
Something grabbed hold of him again.
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Using most of the strength that he had left, Legolas managed to pull the both of them back up to the surface one last time. He pulled Estel over to the edge of the pool once more, this time on the far side of the thundering waterfall.
Reaching up, Legolas grabbed as high as he could on the rocks, and hoisted Estel up with the other arm, "Reach!"
The child did as instructed, his hand caught another root. A stronger root. Legolas kept pushing until Estel's entire torso was in the loop of the root.
Then he gave the tree the command, and the root snapped tight. Keeping Estel firmly in place.
His energy and strength almost entirely spent, he didn't have much left when another massive paw pushed him back under the water.
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He watched Legolas got pulled under by another warg, one of three who were still alive and in the pool with them.
Red blossomed again, making it impossible to see anything in the water at all.
"Legolas!" He screamed.
The elf's head did not pop back up.
"Legolas!"
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Elrond heard his son screaming. The same as Elladan, Elrohir, and Glorfindel had.
The rest of the warriors had been left behind.
The four that had rushed ahead didn't care.
Their boy was in danger.
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Glorfindel reached the edge before anybody else, his bow already drawn and ready. He saw Estel literally tied to the rock wall.
The water below churned with water and blood.
He didn't see Legolas.
He couldn't see anything.
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No matter how he tried to reach the surface he was pushed back down.
A claw to his legs.
His back.
His face.
Chest.
Down.
He tree's screamed in his ears.
Down.
But Estel was safe.
The wate pulled him father under.
0o0o0o0oo0o0
Elrond used all the force stored within his Ring to bring a stop to the waterfall, to stop the turbulence that threatened to swallow his beloved youngest son.
And the son of a friend, the one who he loved so dear he might as well he been a son.
The heart of the tree's thudded loudly in his chest. Louder than his heart ever could. Louder than any natural human being could feel.
Legolas was dying.
Estel was alive.
But Legolas das drowning, of this he was certain.
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The tree's tugged him upwards.
Told him which way to go.
And he pushed.
He really did.
He tried.
The air barely touched his lips, before another paw pushed him under
The waterfall claimed its price.
I'm sorry, Ada.
The tree's told him the child was safe.
Good….. That's as good…. The child…..
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The effort to stop the waterfall was too much for Elrond, and so his twin sons began shooting the Wargs that were still alive in the water.
Hoping to not hit their woodland friend.
Prince Legolas.
Their fourth brother.
Estel still wept and called for his friend, securely attached to the rocks.
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Glorfindel panicked. And leaot headfirst into the water below, trusting the twins he had trained himself to not land a killing blow upon his skin.
Or the princes.
If there was even a killing blow to land. If Legolas was still alive.
The tree's screamed within his chest.
O0o0o00o0o
The tree's told him that someone had come to find him.
To find the child.
The tree's knew the child was more important.
They told him where to aim his last efforts towards instead.
He trusted them.
With the last of effort and will he had, Legolas pushed away from the bottom.
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All of a sudden, the water was calm. The wargs were dead, and the waterfall stopped.
Estel could see where one blond elf dived for another, where Glorfindel grasped him securely and pushed for the top.
Red continued to spread around them.
Another body joined the pool; one of his brothers.
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Elladan reached his brother, secure that the other creatures were dead.
"Estel!" He called, knowing that was blood he smelled from his little brothers clothes. "Estel!
Upons the prince's command, the roots gave way with a wail if despair.
He heard Legolas gasp in pain, and Estel fell into his arms.
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Glorfindel felt the water growing calmer around him, the same time he saw Legolas trying his best to float towards him.
He swam desperately for the elf he had known since before the prince could even speak.
Thankfully, he reached him, and began to depreraitly make his way towards the surface.
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Elrohir already had one rope tied around a tree and dropped below before his father even woke up from his trance long enough to even register what was happening.
Elrond began to pull Elladan and Estel up immediately.
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Legolas' head lolled to the side and water seeped out of his slack mouth.
Glorfindel tied the rope around both of them, and hoped for the best.
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The ones tied to the rope arrived at the top around the same time.
Elrohir fell towards his brothers, and Elrond fell towards the Prince bleeding out in his forest, his lungs screaming for air and the forest screaming to help the elf the loves to much.
0o0o0o0o0
The bed was comfortable under his skin.
Too comfortable, comfortable enough he knew he was on pain numbing teas.
He tried to say 'Estel' but frankly was not certain any sound even came out of his mouth.
"Safe." A voice assured him. A voice he knew, he thought. "Thanks to you, he is safe."
The fell asleep before he remembered who the voice belonged to.
O0o0o0o0o0o
Aragorn griped Gimli's arm, hard. Very hard.
They were out of Legolas' ear shot, of this the ranger was certain.
Still, he bent down to Gimli's level, and hissed, "The loyalty and love of any elf is not to be taken lightly, especially not the love and loyalty of Legolas. Treat it lightly, and I will live to make sure you regret it."
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Happy New Year! And thank you!
Thank you to everyone who reads all of these very weekend. Bigger thank you to everyone who has ever left me a review, even if its something like "Nice"! And the biggest thank you who manage to leave a review on most or everything I post.
Thank you all, for every read and like and follow and review that you have. You're amazing.
