A/N I finally managed to get my hands on the TTT:CR and I am in total bliss as I sit here listening to it as I do FF. What more could I want?

Chapter Four

"You hit like an elf-child!" Legolas insulted with contempt, looking directly into the orc's smoldering eyes instead of at Aragorn. He could tell that the human was trying to catch his attention, but he refused to give it. He would never be able to carry through with his plan if he did. If he saw the fear in the man's eyes, then his own would be too great.

The orc roared at the insult and at the mocking of his fellow orcs as they jeered them both on. He pummeled the elf hard in the stomach, striking again and again tell It was heaving for breath. Legolas wasn't able to take air in at all as he lay on the ground, his chest heaving what he had lunged forward, but the orc that had originally been doing the torture, caught him easily by the collar and yanked back. The man was tossed effortlessly to the ground, but was almost instantly scrabbling to get back up.

"Stay!" the orc commanded, grunting as it latched onto the man's collar once more as he made a dive towards his friend.

"I hope you die painfully!" the human spat with as much fury as he could muster. The orc lashed out, striking the man. A cheer went up from the orcs surrounding Legolas and the two looked up. Their differences momentarily forgotten as they both tried to see what was happening. Aragorn pushed upwards, struggling to his knees. But all he could still see was the legs and arms of the orcs. He snarled with frustration, his belly crawling with internal panic. This couldn't be happening, not to Legolas, not so soon after Fêr-Lairë.

"Legolas!" he yelled, ducking his captors retaliating blow. "Legolas!" The elf didn't answer and Aragorn began to crawl forward, desperate to reach his friend. "Answer m—" he began, chocking on the words mid-way through as the orc yanked back on his collar. This time, it didn't loosen its grip and the man had to relax or have his air supply cut yells of sadistic delight swelled and Aragorn clenched his fist, breathing heavily.

A roar of pure anger, louder than all the other orcs put together, broke through the air, shattering the orc's delight. Aragorn's orc froze, its eyes widening as he let him go, backing away slowly as many of the orcs in the abruptly deathly silent clearing began to flee. A second terrible cry of anger was heard and one of the orcs squealed out something in the black tongue, darting for the woods. He never made it, he feel with a knife sticking out of his back. Aragorn's inward froze as he glanced at the dead, knowing who was coming, but then through the retreating orc's legs, he finally saw Legolas.

The elf was laying face down in the dirt, one arm twisted under him. The ragged rise and fall of his shoulders assured the man that he was alive and Aragorn looked around. No one was there to stop him and he began to inch forward.

"Legolas!" he called in a soft whisper, and to his surprises the elf slowly pushed his hands underneath his body and raised his head, smiling feebly at Aragorn. A second later, his limbs gave out and he clasped back to the earth, his body going still. "Legolas!" Aragorn cried out again, crawling as faster as his bound hands would allow, but once again he stopped. The orc leader was standing over Legolas, its face livid with anger. It snarled something out, before kicking the elf roughly in the side to turn him over.

"Don't touch him!" Aragorn yelled out, his fear for his friend overriding his fear of the orc. The leader turned its yellow eyes on him, and the human swallowed thickly. "You don't scare me, not in the least," he whispered in an attempt to calm his pounding heart.

"You might want to rethink that, human. Ask your pretty friend, here, and I'm sure he could tell you some nice stories," the orc leered, anger radiating off him in palpable waves. It turned away and began to order his underlings around in rapid fire sentences. Orcs scattered, gladly fulfilling whatever had commands had been given them just so that they could get away from their leader.

Aragorn was grabbed again and dragged backwards towards the tree.

"Where is Legolas? What have you done to him?" he snarled as he glared up at the orc hauling him. The orc, a massive wall of muscle, glared right Aragon down, it pulled out its knife. Aragorn instantly stilled, eyeing the dirty object with apprehension.

"You will be 'illed if you ma'e a run 'or it," the orc hissed through a mouthful of broken and rotting teeth. Bringing down the knife, it sliced through the rope binding Aragorn's hands. "Tend 'im," It growled in parting. Aragorn's heart leapt at the last words and he looked around hopefully, riding his hands of the cut rope as he did so. A second orc come towards him, and Aragorn could just glimpse a handful of golden hair in its fist.

"Legolas!" Aragorn called scrambling forward as his heart throbbed so hard that it hurt. Why! Why did his dear, dear, friend have to be so self-sacrificing? The orc, seeing him coming, carelessly tossed the limp elf to the ground. Aragorn flung his body forward, but wasn't in time to catch his friend and the elf landed face down in the dirt.

The elf had been freed of his tunic and Aragorn could clearly see the ends of several long gashes in his skin that extended up from his chest and belly. They oozed bright, red, blood and the elf's pale skin was decorated by it in long, ominous, streaks.

"Legolas, answer me," Aragorn whispered in fear, his throat closing up. Reaching out, the human gingerly turned the elf's limp form over. Blood and dirt covered his chest and midriff, and it was difficult to tell where all the blood was coming from was all coming from."I need water, please!" the human called out, gathering the prince up against his chest and wrapping his arms around him as if to protective from even the orcs eyes. "If I am to tend to him, I need water."

An orc paused and glared at the two, then jerked his arm back and threw a water skin at the pair, laughing harshly when it smacked the human in the face. Aragorn scooped up the flask without even noticing that his face was stinging.

"I've got you, Legolas, just hang on," he murmured into the prince's blonde hair. Carefully he scooted back until he was leaning up against the tree stump and then glanced down at Legolas once more. "Oh, Legolas, you stubborn elf!" he cursed, lowering his friend onto t he ground so that he would have better access to his wounds. Ripping a strip from the bottom of his tunic, Aragorn began to dab at the blood covering his friend's chest. Quickly it became clear that Legolas had been treated much like a cow ready for butchering as Aragorn wiped blood from slash after slash of open flesh. The cuts weren't deep, but there were many of them, and they bleed profusely. Aragorn cursed once more softly, and added pressure to some of the deeper cuts. The injuries were not life threatening, but they were not going to be an enjoyable experience.

Legolas moaned softly, his head twisting feebly to the side.

"Legolas?" Aragorn questioned anxiously, quickly moving around his friend so that the wood-elf would only see him, and not the masses of orcs, when he opened his eyes. The elf moaned again, his eyes flickering.

"Estel?" Legolas groaned thickly, blinking his eyes sluggishly open as he met Aragorn's worried gaze.

"You stupid elf!" Aragorn rebuked with a touch of anger as the emotion bubbled unexpectedly up after the relief died down. He lifted the rag from one of the especially deep cuts that was against the elf's lower right rib and sighed as blood continued to leak out. Legolas gazed up in confusion at him for a minute, and then clarity returned to his eyes.

"I was selfish, yes," Legolas said, not meeting the man's hard gaze. Aragorn gently pressed the bandaged firmly back and winced along with Legolas. He wanted to scream and shout at the elf, wanted to tell him how much it hurt to even look at Legolas' injured body when it should have been him. But he didn't.

"You're bleeding," Legolas said softly, reaching up a lightly trembling hand and brushing it up against the man's cheek, which was indeed caked in blood.

"You are quite unobservant for an elf," Aragorn replied, bringing up his own hand to enfold Legolas, "You are the one getting blood everywhere."

"Aragorn, I couldn't. I couldn't watch you go through it," Legolas insisted, a pleading tone entering his voice. Using Aragorn as leverage, he pulled himself up into a sitting position, his eyes desperate as they locked onto the man's. "Please don't be mad at me, Estel. I know I was selfish, I know I did it for myself, but I just couldn't." Aragorn sighed heavily and closed his eyes. When he reopened them, the edge of anger in them had faded, leaving only sorrow behind.

"How could I remain mad at you, old friend?" he asked, offering a smile of encouragement that Legolas returned hesitantly. Aragorn again lifted the rag, and then glanced up at Legolas' pale and drawn face. Legolas had turned his gaze away from his once more, insteading locking his eyes on the faint specks of light that were the stars far, far, above them. Fear that was simmering just below his controlled surface, Aragorn could tell easily.

"It is a pity you lost your tunic," Aragorn said lightly, trying to shift the elf away from the dark and painful thoughts he could he was having. "We could have used it for more bandages." Legolas snorted softly, turning to face the human with a disgruntled look. His eyes stared intently at the man instead of at the sky, and the man felt like silently cheering the small victory.

"My father says that I go through more tunics than anyone he knows because I am always using them as bandages," Aragorn stated, smiling in remembrance of his father's words after he had come home yet again with the both the bottom half of his tunic and cloak missing. "He told me that he was going to start having the seamstress make me new clothes as soon I walked out of the door, so that I would always have a tunic available. I think he was only half-joking." As he talked, the man motioned for Legolas to lift his arm so that he could get to some of the creatively placed cuts. The elf leaned up against the human's shoulder, drawing a sharp breath as Aragorn tended him.

"You do go through them rather quickly, you know," he whispered tightly, trying to offer a smile. It faulted and died almost immediately. With a small groan, he let his head drop until it rested on his outstretched arm and closed his eyes. He wasn't feeling well, not well at all. The amount of blood that he had lost was catching up with him, making him dizzy and slightly nauseous… And when he closed his eyes all he could see was the carnage of Fêr-Lairë as Dol Guldor stared down at him, mocking him with memories.

Aragorn saw the movement and touched Legolas' cheek gently.

"Are you alright?" he asked, shifting closer and shooting a dangerous glare at the nearest orc. He flung the blood soaked strip of cloth away and quickly ripped another one from his hem. This time, he splashed some of their precious water onto the cloth, and again began to wipe at the cuts, trying to clean them.

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me," Legolas murmured faintly, not meeting Aragorn's eyes. He sucked in a shaky breath and Aragorn paused.

"You are not well," he insisted anxiously, touching his friend's face. Legolas opened his eyes at the touch and once again offered a smile.

"It is not my bodily injuries that make me ill," he said in a soft whisper, soft enough that he thought the man would miss it. Or at least he told himself that he didn't want Aragorn to hear it.

"What do you mean?" Aragorn asked intently, again stopping.

"Nothing," Legolas said a little too quickly, his eyes growing dark as he attempted to straighten, but Aragorn's firm hand on his arm stopped him.

"This is about Fêr-Lairë, isn't it?" the human asked quietly, trying to look his friend in the eyes. "This is about what happened there. The elves that died." Legolas looked away, shaking his head. He could feel his eyes starting to burn and blinked unmercifully.

"None of them should have died," He said through in a thick voice. His emotions had been a roller coaster ever since finding himself back in the shadow of Dol Guldor and he cursed himself softly. "If I could –should- have done something different." Aragorn looked down at his friend, pity in his face. He was unsure of how to help his friend, unsure of for the first time in years how to make his friend better.

"From what Thranduil told me, there wasn't anything you could do," he said, treading gently on the unfamiliar ground.

"He wasn't there. He doesn't know anything," Legolas resisted bitterly, struggling into a sitting position so that he wasn't leaning on his friend. The tears in his eyes were starting to fall, despite the princes best efforts. Aragorn carefully placed a hand on his back, but otherwise let him do as he wished. "He doesn't know how they haunt me."

"Haunt you?" The man asked, worry clearly entering his tone. For the past six months after Fêr-Lairë, Legolas had refused to give any detials but the bare minimum of what had happened. Even Thranduil hadn't been able to pry anything out of him, but Aragorn sense that the dam Legolas had built in his mind was about to break.

"Every time I close my eyes, I see their faces. Their beautiful faces," Legolas whispered, his eyes growing wide as he saw things that Aragorn couldn't. "I pass their family and friends in the street, or at the palace, and I feel their grief. Grief that they should have never been asked to bare." Legolas words began to pick up speed, blurring slightly in his rush to get them out.

"How about you start at the beginning," Aragorn intoned gently, shifting closer to Legolas until their shoulder's were touching once more. He laid a hand on the elf's arm. Legolas looked up at him, fear and guilt swimming in his sapphire eyes. He searched Aragorn's face for a few moments of silence, and then looked away again, unable to meet his friend's eyes for long.

"We, me and my twenty elves, where ambushed at the Fêr-Lairë. We were far outnumbered, but the orcs and spiders where working together. They wanted us alive. We were taken captive and brought here, just beyond the hill and closer to Dol Goldur." He paused, biting his lower lip to stop the trembling and heaved a despairing sigh. "I promised them that they would be safe," he started once more, his voice threatening to crack with emotion. "I swore that they would want me, and not them." He had to stop for a several seconds, but then continued. "For a while that was true. The orc captain wanted information about Mirkwood, and its troops. He tortured me. I still have the scars in some places." He pointed to his cheek, showing the lines that were only faintly visible.

Aragorn nodded, waiting for the elf to move on. The elf blew out a breath, reflecting. "He couldn't get anything out of me, no matter how hard he tried. I just waited, hoping beyond hope that my father would find us and rescue us. At last, the orc figured out that I wasn't going to give. That was when he took Calanon." His voice broke, and he pressed his trembling lips together. The silence stretched on. "He took him and me, to the top of that hill." The prince said at last, pointing. The words were slow and broken. "And then gave me a chance to tell all I knew. When I wouldn't, he...he beheaded Calanon. Each day, he took me and another elf and every day I lost a friend." Aragorn inhaled sharply, his face turning slightly green as the full magnitude of what he elf was struggling with hitting him hard. Legolas had just told his father that all his companions had died bravely, defending their kingdom. He hadn't told him that he had been forced to watch every single one of them die.

"At last, the orc had nothing left to bargain with. If I hadn't given in by then, then I never would. He let me go as a message to my father that his numbers where growing and that he wasn't afraid of the elves. He would do whatever it would take to destroy us. I wanted so badly to tell the orc everything that I knew, just to spare them. But I couldn't. And I failed them," Legolas finished bitterly, rubbing at the tear stains on his face roughly.

"No, Legolas, you didn't fail them," Aragorn said quickly defended. "I knew several of those warriors. They would have rather died then see you give up information that could cripple the kingdom."

"Tirthon was only just past his childhood. It was his first time out with us on duty and he died screaming for his mother. Don't tell me that they would have rather died," Legolas spat, practically rubbing the skin from his face.

"Legolas," Aragorn said the helpless feeling returning. "I'm sure that none of them wanted to die. But they loved their kingdom and their people enough to make the ultimate sacrifice. They will forever be remembered as heroes of Mirkwood. And though their families and friend's grieve, they do not blame you."

"How do you know? And even if they don't, they should," Legolas convened harshly. "I should have gotten them out of there before-…I was their leader!"

"Legolas, you couldn't have," Aragorn pleaded protectively, "You knew them better than I did, but I know that they knew that they would risk their lives when they went out into that forest. They were ready to face death, it was a consequence they accepted when they joined as warriors."

"No!" Legolas protested, hunching over and threading his fingers through his hair and pulling them tight. "Don't tell me that I shouldn't be feeling what I feel," he begged, his voice almost unrecognizable with pain and guilt.

"I would never tell you that," Aragorn said sadly, shaking his head. "You have a right to feel, but don't hang onto those feelings forever, it will only hurt you in the long run. Besides, I don't think that any of your warriors would want you to go through this. They loved you."

Legolas snorted. "I did not deserve their love. They, they were the ones making Mirkwood great, the ones preserving the light in the darkness."

"As you still do," Aragorn countered heavily, feeling completely helpless. Legolas shook his head mutely, sitting back up with measured movements.

"My body hurts, Aragorn, I wish to rest," he said, turning pleading eyes on Aragorn. The dam was closing once more; the flood was momentarily over, though Aragorn knew that it wouldn't last. At some point, it would break again. Legolas couldn't keep his feelings bottled up forever, he would snap at some point.

"Of course, forgive me, Legolas,"' he said fluidly. Taking the elf by the shoulders, he helped to lower him down and into his lap. "Sleep, and we will think of plan to get out of here. Things will work out, they always have before." Legolas made no reply, but closed his eyes. Before long his breathing slowed and lengthened, but the man could tell that Legolas wasn't sleeping soundly. His eyes remained only partly open, and his eyes flickered back and forth. Aragorn felt him reflexively tighten his muscle's as he began to wipe once more at the red, open, skin.

"No…" he whispered and Aragorn gently brushed back the long, golden hair and laying a comforting hand on his friend's brow.

"Sleep…" he soothed, and Legolas stilled. Picking up the strip of wet fabric, he began again to dab once more, keeping an eye both on Legolas and the orcs. After he had finished to the best of his abilities, he just sat, slowly rocking Legolas as his mind whirled. He had to help Legolas, he had to get them out of there. Every so slowly, however, his eyes also began to drop lower. Soon, he too, was asleep.

TBC...

Well, that didn't end too badly, cliffie wise? It may not stay that way for long, but at least they are together. :) That is always good.

Nameless: You are back, my friend! Glad to see you! Haha, guess I had better hurry it up and update so that I don't kill you. :) Thanks!

Guest(1): I love, love, angst as well. It is a bit of a problem. :) Thranduil really should get on the ball with that before something happens that he wouldn't want to have happen. I love fluff as well, both are fantastic. :) Thanks!

Guest(2): Legolas is so loyal, that is one of his best qualities in my opinion. He has many, though. :) He wouldn't let anything happen to anyone if he would help, I don't think. ha, can't forget the hot part. :) Thanks!