Legolas caught himself laughing as he watched the odd creature, Gollum, give a somewhat odd laugh as well as he lifted his face towards the wind at the treetops. Legolas sat on a lower branch, perfectly comfortable leaning back into it, as he watched Gollum up above him. But just like some say, bad things start to happen when you relax and let your guard down. Legolas laughed to himself, momentarily allowing himself a moment of thought, and his hold on the rope loosened.
The Elf's hand and wrist were roughly jerked upwards as Gollum took this as his moment to do what appeared to be wildly making strange signals. Legolas sharply sucked in his breath, cursing Gollum silently.
"Gollum! Freeze before I have to drag you to the ground," the prince said, all the time wondering what the odd gesturing movements had meant. One of the guards, meanwhile, had slowly and silently crept up the tree nearly to the point where Legolas stood on a branch. With a slow motion of his other hand, Legolas indicated the guard to stay and wait.
"Come down now, Gollum, slowly," the Elf called. Gollum appeared to be thinking about it for a moment, but then, smiling slyly, he descended the tree, and Legolas handed the rope to the guard as creature and Elf neared the bottom.
Legolas nearly gasped as he started to swing himself down from the tree. It was his wrist, the one Gollum had jerked with the rope. Carefully the elven prince jumped down, and looked at his wrist when he was safely on the ground. It appeared that there would be some bruising, and the rope had burned the skin around Legolas' hand and wrist.
"I'm fine, Firil," Legolas said to the guard, waving him off, "I'll just go up to the palace now to put some ice on it. Please take Gollum back to his cell."
Gollum howled the whole way back, but this time, holding his injured wrist, Legolas felt no sympathy whatsoever.
The prince held ice around his wrist, watching his father worriedly rub his forehead.
"Ada--it wasn't your fault," Legolas said, "About Gollum, I mean. We were only showing kindness, and he took advantage of it."
"You are exactly right, my son, but the question still is, what to do with Gollum," replied Thranduil quietly. "Do we dare trust such a creature again?"
"Have you sent word to Mithrandir?" asked Legolas, tightening the ice over his sore wrist again.
"Yes, but he is busy with other matters," the king said absentmindedly. "Legolas, did Gollum make an actual escape attempt, or was he just trying to go upwards?"
"Like there's much of a difference between the two."
"No, but what I mean is, Gollum came down from the tree for you peacefully, didn't he? Maybe the sun is all he wanted. To see it at last. It makes some prisoners go mad without it."
"Are you saying I should allow him to go up the trees again?" said Legolas, forgetting about keeping the ice on his wrist.
"I think so, Legolas. Just keep a tighter hold on the rope this time."
In the past week, Gollum had been allowed to go up the trees again and again. Legolas watched every time, and the creature kept his word about not getting away. One day, Legolas decided it was time for some much needed target practice after being instructed to take it easy on his wrist for a while. The prince left the care of Gollum to two guards, and picked up his bow and long white knives to head for the practice area.
The guards, meanwhile, settled on the base of a great tree, one on each side, and let Gollum go up.
"I saw Paiorour the other night, eye all messed with," said one.
"Oh? What about that certain maiden of his? Messy breakup?"
"Nah, not heard anything about that. Nasty gossips around here, they are," replied the other, rolling his eyes. Gollum peered down, seeing the guards talking to each other.
"…and you know what he does, he says, 'Aye, you'll have it out one day, for doing something like that, you shall.' Too much wine, if you ask me, but Firiel says…"
Legolas grinned at hitting the target. He really would prove himself with this bow, someday. At hearing the sound of a far off whinny, he thought of the horses, and decided to go riding shortly.
Gollum crept further than he ever had before, smiling wickedly to himself. Yes, he was almost there. He was where the light began seeping through the bows.
"Eh… where did that Gollum get to?" asked one of the guards nervously, eyeing his buddy. Both sat up straight, each thinking warily that they would be killed by Gollum from behind suddenly. "Get down here, now, mud weasel, before we shoot you down!" shouted the guard. No reply. Nervously, and sweating, both guards started to climb the lower bows. Farther and farther they went, with no sign of the creature anywhere.
Common sense stabbed Refan. "Get down, and alert the king on the double!" he shouted at the other guard, who obeyed.
Legolas paused, frowning as he heard something in the woods. Firil stopped a swinging movement of his sword, waiting for the prince.
"Eh… my lord?" Firil said, looking towards where the other Elf was staring.
"Nothing… Firil," said Legolas haltingly, "I just thought I heard something odd."
As if it was planned, shouting came from the direction of Gollum's tree. Legolas' eyes widened as he tried to realize what was happening. Hurriedly he picked up his quiver, bow, and knives and ran towards the tree. Firil was right behind him, wondering what in the name of the Valar was Gollum doing. "We can't see em!" shouted Refan, "It's like he's gone."
"He can't be," said Legolas, as if to reassure himself. One of the guards came running out of the woods.
"My lord," he gasped, screeching to a halt, "Orcs!"
"How many?" Legolas said, wide eyed.
"Hun--hundreds," the guard stammered nervously.
"Everyone to the palace!" the prince shouted, "You need weapons!"
Legolas ran a few steps at a time up the stairs to his father's chambers, banging as he went to alert the king. Thranduil wouldn't know that there were orcs about, not yet anyways, because they were still far back in the woods. The rest of the guards were already on their way to alerting everyone else in and around the palace.
Not bothering to knock, Legolas threw the door to the king's room open, yelling for his father.
A surprised Thranduil stepped out of one of the adjoining rooms.
"Legolas in the name of--"
"Ada, no time for that. There are hundreds of orcs on the rise. You must arm yourself!" Legolas said hurriedly.
Thranduil, used to such short notices, was already gathering things.
"Legolas, do not stand waiting. Take your weapons and ready yourself. We shall go out to meet the orcs, we do not want their kind around the palace."
Legolas nodded, then remembered. "Ada, I fear something else is wrong. Gollum has escaped, and I think the orcs captured him or are in league with him."
Thranduil shook his head, gritting his teeth. "We will not bother ourselves about that now. Just be ready to fight."
Legolas, along with a few others, were walking above the heads of the rest of the elves in the treetops. The smell and sound of the hated orcs grew as they neared. The archers in the treetops stopped, silently, a little distance off but close enough to have a good shot. Thranduil himself had come, and now held up his hand as a signal for the archers to stay their weapons. Seconds later, a volley of arrows ripped through the air as Thranduil gave a second signal. Orcs suddenly toppled over, and had it not been for what was taking place, Legolas would've smiled to see that his father had seen him hit the target.
Beastly roars erupted from the army of orcs, who surged forward, not seeming to care about their loss of soldiers, as it seemed to be even more than was expected. Elves and orcs crashed together as if forced by a monstrous wave.
Legolas, saving some of his arrows, drew his knife and did not even have to reach the ground before the fighting got to him. A few orcs were already clumsily climbing their way up the large tree, but the Elf had the advantage of being skilled in tree climbing. He leaped onto the next bough, spinning around the back of the tree and took the orc by surprise. The few others that were climbing spun out of the tree into the fighting below. Legolas slid his way down the rest of the large oak, landing around the back in time to face a short orc with a particularly foul stench who abruptly pinned the Elf to the tree. The prince vainly struggled and kicked, pinned down by two other orcs on either side. A arrow whistled by, burrowing itself in one of the orcs that was holding the Elf down. The orc toppled, and Legolas quickly spun around, with his free knife stabbing the orc.
What seemed to be a hundred more orcs scuttled out of the forests' depths, but soon Legolas noticed that their numbers were waning. The elven soldiers continued their onslaught, and as quickly as the orcs were toppling there soon seemed to be no more replacing them as they had earlier. Legolas continued his attack with new strength, knives spinning like the vicious blades they were. A few times he faltered, saying to himself he needed to get more practice in, especially since he remembered that he would be seeing Aragorn in a few weeks and needed to have something to prove to the Dunadain.
Suddenly Legolas seemed to be left without an enemy to deal a blow to. He turned around, and saw the other warriors wearily lowering their weapons. The swarms of orcs were gone. The Elf wiped his forehead, putting his bow across his shoulder and going to see his father. For a few precious moments Legolas nearly felt contentment. Now everything was under control, there was nothing to worry about…
Then the prince felt as if someone had poured a bucket of water over his head. Where was that dratted thing Gollum?! Gone? Disappeared? It was perfect for the creature to escape in all the chaos.
Legolas jogged over to Thranduil, who was dispatching orders for the wounded.
"Ada," the prince called. The king turned, eyebrows raised.
"There is something amiss?" questioned Thranduil.
Legolas nodded. "You won't believe it when I tell you, but I think it's true…"
"Out with it, Legolas. What is it?"
"Gollum! You must have him under control somewhere, right?"
The king's face registered shock and surprise.
"No… the creature is gone."
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