Title: "Revenge"
Author: LegolasLover2003 aka Ashley
Category: Book - "Lord of the Rings"
Genre: Angst/Adventure
Rating: M
Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to "The Lord of the Rings". I just adore it to pieces! Legede is a character of my own invention however. You may use him, but please ask permission to do so first.
NOTE: This story takes place after "Savior & Destroyer". MUST read that story first for this one to make sense.


REVENGE


Chapter I:
Thranduil Rides to Battle


"Where was it found?"

Legede sighed, his fingers tapping on the edge of his lord's desk and he stood beside it, allowing the Elvenking to look over the small object which now sat before him. "Five miles from the foot of the mountains, hir nin."

Sighing softly, Thranduil looked up to his captain and closest friend. "He rode out from Imladris and thus one would expect him to travel the Old Forest Road and turn north at the Running River. He should have no business in the mountains. Why then... was his ring found there?"

For a time neither Elf said anything, but then the captain's fingers stopped tapping and he looking on his lord solely. "It is my belief that he did ride out from Imladris and that his every intention was to arrive here in your care as you have described. However... one of my scouts reported that there had been scenes of a camp fire near to the road... and scenes of a struggle as well. How this ring found it's way to the mountains... I do not know. I fear some evil at work here. I fear the Ranger is not in friendly hands."

Thranduil's lithe fingers plucked up the Ring of Barahir as he studied it for a time. "You read the note then... Who found it?"

"I did read the note. Forgive me for prying into something meant for Legolas alone. I am the one who found both note and ring, hir nin."

"Ú-moe edaved. I am correct in assuming you know what it means then?" he asked, his gaze finding Legede once more. ~{[ There is nothing to forgive. ]}~

A moment passed and then the captain nodded. "I do. The Ring of Barahir. I... have seen the Ranger bear it before, when we traveled to Imladris to gather your son. The young man wore it openly." shifting his stance, Legede glanced to the closed doorway, a paranoid fear in his heart that their conversation might be overheard. "I have told none of my suspicions regarding this ring nor of the identity of it's bearer. Secrecy, I think, is best in this case."

Thranduil stood from his desk, pocketing the ring. He had given it to his son earlier in the morning and after Legolas' collapse, felt that keeping it on his own person would be best. If such an object fell into the wrong hands... There were too many dark forces in the world these days that would seek to destroy the human who held the Ring of Barahir.

"A wise choice. I know the man's identity and that of this ring. Legolas confided it to me years ago. If the Ranger is in enemy hands... it would be best if we were to find him first. What say your scouts?"

Bowing to the Elvenking, Legede set a map upon the oak desk and unfurled it, pointing carefully to a small section of the Mountains of Mirkwood. "My scouts have converged here... and here." he indicated the Enchanted River. "I have Elves searching along the river's banks to be on the safe side. However, a contingent is making it's way into the mountains upon my order. They will report by morning what they have found. As far as I can tell, hir nin... the spiders have not been active in that area recently but there have also been no sign of humans in the mountains for a very long time. If it is this man... this... Tileng, as the note reads, he can not hide from our eyes."

"Not in our own realm at least." the Elvenking replied with a slight sigh. He indicated that his captain should follow and the two exited the study together. They walked slowly, speaking for a time about what Legede had seen in the woods that day, though they kept their voices low. Coming upon Legolas' chambers, Thranduil was loath to knock.

"Hir nin... your son will not blame you for the human's disappearance." the white haired Elf whispered, knowing his king's worry.

Blue eyes glanced at the older Elf and for a moment, the Elvenking smiled. "I know. But it does not make the news I bear any better."


What Thranduil found within the prince's chambers... was not what he expected.

Legolas... was gone.

The bed had been made carefully, the room in pristine order... but the Elvenking knew in his heart that his son had fled the kingdom. Slowly he walked forward, his feet making not a sound as lithe fingers reached down to take a folded note from the coverlet of his son's bed. The prince's weapons were gone, his boots, which had been standing alone in the corner were nowhere to be seen, and his cloak had seemingly vanished from it's peg near the door. In Thranduil's hand was the answer to his fear. The letter seemed quickly written. His son's penmanship was not the best in all of Arda, but it was his written by his hand nevertheless.

"Hir nin?" Legede asked softly standing in the doorway. He too understood what this empty room meant. The prince was gone, balcony open, sheer curtains blowing in the gentle morning breeze.

The Elvenking handed his captain the letter, allowing the Elf to read it for himself. "Find my son, Legede." Thranduil spoke, the command in his voice obvious. "I almost lost him once. My heart tells me that Legolas has made a grave mistake."

For a moment, Legede feared to speak, but if he did not... "The trees whisper, hir nin. Of... danger. Of death in the air to the south." but when the Elvenking remained where he stood, when he did not turn to acknowledge the Silvan Elf's words, the captain bowed low. "I will do all that is in my power to return to you the prince. My patrol shall leave at once."
Thranduil nodded, though he did not watch his friend depart nor did he make any notion to move as the captain returned the archer's letter to the bed.

How could Legolas be so reckless? How could his son run head-first into danger again? How could...

The Elvenking's blue eyes found his son's letter once more. For a time he stared at the parchment, fear clutching at his heart. But that fear turned to anger... frustration... hatred... as he remembered his son's words on a night so very very long ago.

"Estel is the hope of Middle-earth, ada... He is Aragorn, son of Arathorn, and heir to the throne of Gondor."

It seemed a lifetime ago really that Thranduil had rushed across the threshold of Imladris to recover Legolas. The prince had been wounded... assaulted in the most vile of ways... his pride and his body shattered. Even now the son of Oropher could see the burning red marks along his son's throat... could hear the pain in his voice... feel the despair and the fear in those blue eyes... could touch those crudely cut golden locks. It had taken years for the prince's hair to return to what it once had been... months for the pain of his wounds to disappear fully.

"All this time... All this time I thought you to have befriended him simply out of spite or with some point to prove to me, Legolas... Never would I have imagined this friendship to be so dire.
"Then you understand why I gave up myself? You understand that I had to... I had to draw attention away from him... If he were to die..."
"I understand."

But did he understand?
An immortal Elf risking his life for a mere mortal Man... It was foolish and reckless and was certainly not how he had raised his crowned prince.
Or was it?
Friendship was important. Legede had never deserted the Elvenking and they had been friends since the Sindar first came into the Greenwood. His white-haired captain had been the one to speak for the Silvan Elves who met with Oropher... and the captain had pledged his loyalty to Legolas' grandfather not long after. Thranduil developed a deep friendship with his captain... a friendship that he would risk his life for, even if it were really Legede's charge to prevent that from ever happening. The Elvenking could understand why Legolas placed such value on friendship... because he had learned it from Legede too.
Yet a mortal man was not kin to them... Kin to the Noldor perhaps but not to the Sindar... not to the Silvan.
Not truly.

'Yet my own kin deserted us in battle. Do I think myself any better than those stubborn Dwarves who hole up in their mountains on the eve of war? Do I think myself above the station of a King of Men? I am an Elf Lord of the Sindar, a King beneath my own mountain... yet I cling to the old ways and the prejudices of my father. Perhaps... some of the old alliances are not as dead as I had thought.' Thranduil thought to himself as he walked out onto his son's abandoned balcony. Looking out at the woods around the palace, hearing the river rushing past not far away, the Elvenking closed his eyes and let himself feel the nature about him. 'If Legolas were here, he would tell me what the trees speak... perhaps I have dwelt too long within my Halls.' he found himself thinking, blue gaze opening to watch the wind in the leaves. "Perhaps... it is time I ride alongside my soldiers once more."

Turning, Thranduil returned inside the palace, closing up the balcony doors as he went. His robe swayed about his feet as the Elvenking strode swiftly through the halls.

Legede would not be the only one to ride out in search of the prince this day.


Ada,

Forgive me... I know it is wrong of me to disappear into the early morning light, but I have no other choice. Estel's fate was meant for me. This evil desires vengeance and I will not leave my friend to torment and death. Not when I have gone through so very much to keep him safe. Thus I leave the Elvenking's Halls with a heavy heart, for I do not wish to cause you grief, ada. I fear that I have overheard your conversation with Legede and so I go south into the mountains. I must find, Estel, ada. Please, try to understand.

Legolas


TO BE CONTINUED...


Elvish Words To Know:
Hir nin = My lord
Ada = Father


Author's Notes:
- The italicized portions when Thranduil was recalling an earlier conversation with Legolas comes from this story's prequel, "Savior & Destroyer".


Muse Moments:

Nil sits there, watching the 2013 Golden Globes. "I can't believe "Skyfall" won for best Original Song! That made me sooooo happy! I really do love that song. In fact, I've been listening to it and other James Bond tunes (I have them all) while I wrote this chapter. Daniel Craig... so gorgeous..."

Glancing to the woman, Legolas sighs, "You are writing very slowly, you know. I think these Globes are distracting you."

She shakes her head, "Nonsense! I can multi-task! Oh! You know... I was hoping that Robert Downey Jr. was hanging out with Mel Gibson at his table cause they were gonna make a movie or something together. BUT it turns out that they were giving Hamsters to Jodi Foster."

"What?" Legolas asks, staring at her as if she's gone mad.

"Hehehe and Robert gave Mel this big kiss on the cheek. It was cute and funny and I love both of them in movies, seriously. "Iron Man" and "Sherlock Holmes" are like in my top 50 movies of all time category."

With a sigh, Legolas hits the mute button on the remote. "Care to explain the Hamsters bit?"

"Something about Jodi wanting a hamster when she was little and so after Robert talked about it, Mel had this silver platter with a plush hamster on it. It was adorable. Makes me happy to see Mel Gibson again... makes me wanna see 'Gringo' even more now." Nil replies, grabbing a bottle of strawberry flavored water.

The prince thinks back for a moment, "So then, what are your top 10 movies of all time? I would ask what all 50 were but... then I might be here all night."

Nil laughs, "Well let's count down, 10 to 1, okay? So at #10 the "Star Trek" movies cause it's too hard to pick just one out of so many, #9 would have to be "Kingdom of Heaven" because Balian is so like if you took yourself, Legolas, and you took Aragorn... and then made one man hehehe, #8 is my favorite musical "The Phantom of the Opera"... mmmm... Raoul..., #7 is a tie because they're both from the same film franchise, between "Goldeneye" and "Skyfall"... not my fault I love James Bond movies so much AND it was "Goldeneye" that got me hooked on Sean Bean, #6 is probably "The Patriot" since it was the movie that made me fall in love with Jason Isaacs, #5 would have to be "Moon Child" because I'm shallow and enjoy hot Japanese musicians FAR too much, #4 of course more Orli with the "Pirates of the Caribbean" trilogy... because it's just not POTC without Will, #3 is easily "JAWS", #2 would have to be the original "Star Wars" trilogy, and obviously #1 is "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy... extended edition. But there are so many more that come in close like "Australia" with Hugh Jackman and David Wenham (course "Van Helsing" has them both and I like it too!) or the first "X-Files" movie or "Hidalgo" with Viggo Mortensen or the "Harry Potter" films and of course the aforementioned "Iron Man" and "Sherlock Holmes". There are just so many good movies!"

"And what of the Hobbit?" Legolas asks with a slight smile.

The woman smirks, "Well... they aren't finished yet soooooooooo eventually it'll go with LOTR at #1 since they really are a huge movie mashup. Can't wait to see you in that Mirkwood armor, caun nin." she replies with a teasing wink, taking a sip of water. "Speaking of LOTR... look at all these updates, Elf-boy."

Legolas raises one eyebrow, "And strangely enough I haven't been tormented that much in any of them. You have my... gratitude... I think."

Nil waves a hand at the remark. "I'm just getting to your torment in this "Revenge" story here. I particularly enjoyed writing the scene between you and Legede in "Triple H". It was cute."

"Some could say it was slash-like." the Elf raises an eyebrow at her.

The woman laughs, "Oh come off it! It was not slashy. Not in the least. He's your friend. You're his friend and liege. Seemed only natural to me. Much better than Aragorn hugging poor Haldir." the prince laughs at this but Nil continues on, "Besides... I wanna 'play' with Estel for a while. He deserves it after nearly getting Paris killed." she glances to the chaise where Paris is STILL recovering from his near freezing experience.

"So he is the object of your torment for a while?"

"I think... maybe..." she replies with a slight nod. "Wow... saying Josh Brolin sounds a lot like saying Josh Groban... ah... Groban... HIS JOSHNESS... Did you know that he has a new album coming out on the 5th of February? It's called "All That Echoes" AND when I get it I'm also going to buy the import of his Japanese single! Oh! And speaking of music... perhaps even cooler... did you know that Yoshiki (who follows me on twitter oddly enough, hehe) composed the theme for the Globes this year? He was there too! Mmm... suits don't suit him, no pun intended. He's too cute for a suit. I wanted to hug'im!"

"Yes... you talked about it all night last night and no, I had not heard that though I realize you do enjoy his piano compositions. Would you rather hug Yoshiki or GACKT?"

Thinking on this for a second, Nil sighs. "Don't make me choose... Yoshiki's closer geographically than GACKT but but but..." she glances to the Nemuri poster on her wall. "But GACKT is just..." she has a dreamy sigh.

"To think my actor has been replaced by a musician..." Legolas says, shaking his head. "And a musician who is 40 at that."

Nil points to her poster. "Does he REALLY look 40?" she sighs again. "His music speaks to my soul... Besides, your actor is now a happy baby daddy. WOOT OF CONGRATS! And... GACKT is still single..." she smirks. "Course then again... HIS JOSHNESS is still single too... yummy."

Laughing softly, Legolas realizes that he'll never get an answer out of her, least ways not a completely honest one... and thus, "So are you sure you will not be tormenting me right now?" the Elf asks.

Nil nods again, "I just don't feel like tormenting you right now. I'm in too good a mood, hehe."

Legolas sighs, "Hannon i-Valar..."