First Meeting
Chapter 5: Enemies
Disclaimer: The Lord of the Rings Trilogy belongs to J. R. R. Tolkien. I'm writing this for fun, not money.
Thranduil watched with fury as his son was taken away from him. Even greater than his fury, was his fear. His only son was more dear to him than all else. He could deny no request if it meant risking his son's life. However, he knew men like the one who had overpowered Legolas. Men like him had no honour. He would only allow Legolas to live as long as it benefited him. Thranduil did not intend to leave his child to the mercy of that man.
After the man and the elf were gone, Thranduil turned to the captain of his guard.
"Send two warriors after them. Send the most skilled you have at stealth and fighting."
Stealth, not manpower, was needed for this task. Two warriors would be better able to track them through the forest, unknown. And they would only need to fight against a single human. The Adan's companions were currently all locked in his dungeon, so they would not be a problem.
'That is another testament to the man's honour.' The King thought. 'He would leave his companions to die, but save himself.'
"Have your warriors follow the man and Legolas. Instruct them to be completely silent. If Legolas is in any immediate danger have them take down the man at once. Otherwise, have them wait until he lets his guard down or falls asleep so that you can free Legolas without the man's knowledge. Then, arrest the human. I want him brought in alive."
"Yes, my lord."
'Yes.' Thranduil thought. 'I wish to teach him myself what happens to those who harm my son.'
After awhile, Aragorn could go on no longer. He determined that he had wondered far enough away from the stronghold for now, because he knew he could go no further until he had at least seen to his shoulder wound. He ordered the elf walking in front of him to a halt. As soon as they were out of sight of the gates, Aragorn had taken a length of rope from his pack to bind his prisoner's hands. Since then the elf had walked before him, shoulders straight and head held high, while Aragorn had followed with his knife never far from the elf's back. He was not a fool. He knew the Elvenking would send elves to follow him. So far, they had not tried to overtake him, but Aragorn knew that they were likely just waiting for him to let his guard down. It pained him to so cruelly treat the elf before him, who had committed no wrong, but he deemed it a necessary evil.
At his command Legolas stopped walking, but he did not turn to face the man. Indeed, he had not glanced at him at all during their journey so far.
"We'll rest here for a bit." He explained. He grabbed hold of Legolas' arm, and guided him to sit before one of the tree trunks. Then, using some more rope, he tied the elf to the tree.
Keeping his knife near at hand in case more elves arrived to rescue his hostage, he began to tend to the wound the guard had given him. It was not very worrisome. The wound had been delivered out of desperation, and had missed its mark. Still, he applied herbs to it to fight off infection and wrapped up the wound. While he did this, the elf remained silent, ignoring the man completely.
When he had cared for his wound as well as he was able to, he returned his healing supplies to his pack and took out his water skin and some bread. After eating a few bites of the bread and taking a sip of water, he hesitated. By now, he had resigned himself to playing the villain in order to survive this affair. If he wanted to be able escape using Legolas as a hostage, then he would need to make the elves believe that he might truly kill Legolas if they did not obey his demands. However, he could not find it within himself to be cruel to the elf. He sighed, and held the water skin up to the elf's mouth so that he could drink without the use of his hands.
"Drink it." Aragorn commanded after the elf simply glared at him. "It's not poisoned."
To illustrate this, Aragorn took another drink from the skin. Still, Legolas refused to drink. After a moment, Aragorn understood. The elf was not refusing for fear of poison, he was refusing out of pride. Aragorn decided to try something else.
"Sogo." He commanded in Sindarin. He smiled. In all the chaos, he had not thought to speak Sindarin while in the dungeons.
He had been warned by Elrond that he should not share information about his unique parentage or upbringing with strangers in order to keep his true identity hidden until the time was right. Because of this, he had grown accustomed to speaking only the tongues of men in recent years. Perhaps, if he just told the elf that he had lived in Rivendell, then Legolas would be more corporative. But Legolas glared at him.
"Do not foul my language by speaking it with your dirty tongue, Adan." The voice was full of nothing but contempt and anger.
Aragorn sighed. He had been warned that the Mirkwood elves were suspicious and xenophobic. It appeared that the rumours were true.
"Let's go." He ordered. He did not know how he would reach the boarder without collapsing from exhaustion, but he had to try. He could not allow himself to be recaptured by the Elvenking. That could only lead to death.
I don't know Sindarin, but according to what I read online 'sago' means drink. Please correct me if that's wrong so I can edit it.
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