Chapter 6

"My, my," Cyras said, licking his lips and smiling. "There is much pain in your past. That should be able to cover many lessons, I think."

Legolas could not help the muffled groan that escaped him as he understood what Cyras meant. He tried to lift his head, but it was too much.

Tears continued to leak out of the corner of his eyes.

Please hurry, Ada, Estel, Gimli, he thought as the world began to fade at the edges. I don't think I can survive this again.

Legolas jolted awake, and there was darkness all around him.

"Where…?" he said, and then it hit him full force. There was only one place in the world this dark. Only one place he could possibly be.

He curled in on himself, rocking back and forth slowly, trying to calm himself down. The panic continued to come over him, though, and soon he was whimpering, and then he was crying, and then he was screaming. He tried to tell his mind to stop showing weakness, that

Cyras would be back soon and he had to be strong, but it would not listen to him.

The door creaked open, and he went silent, knowing that Cyras had come. He needed to be silent. He needed to be strong.

"Legolas!"

Arms wrapped around him, warm and familiar. What was his Ada doing here?

"Ada…" he said quietly. "You need to get out of here! He will come for me, and he will hurt you, too, if he finds you here!"

"Legolas, what are you talking about? You are safe."

Legolas's eyes widened.

"No! You are an illusion, as well! Stay away from me! I know I am not safe, here in this stupid darkness. He will come for me!"

"Legolas, ion-nin, you are at home, in the healing ward! You are no longer with Cyras, you haven't been for ten years. It is only dark because you are blind, and you will remain so for a month. Then everything will be back to normal again."

"I do not believe you!"

"Legolas, did you see any light coming through the door when I came in?"

Legolas frowned, trying to remember. He shook his head slowly.

"Exactly. If you were really still with Cyras, you would have seen the light coming through the door. It is alright, ion-nin. He is dead. He won't hurt you again."

"Ada…" Legolas whispered, and he turned, reaching to where he assumed his father would be. He was trying to put a face to the voice of his Ada, but it was so hard to remember that he had ever been able to see in this cursed darkness.

Thranduil closed his eyes and let his son's hands touch his face, and he saw that Legolas was painting a picture of him within his mind. When Legolas's hands dropped to his sides, he took his son and held him close to his chest for a few moments, before drawing back.

"Herethin has declared that you are now allowed to get up. It's been almost five days," Legolas's eyes widened considerably, but he continued. "Well, if you'd like to, once you're dressed, a council has been called to discuss how to make sure no more of those blasted spiders get in."

Legolas smiled and chuckled lightly at the obvious annoyance in his father's voice, and he attempted to stand. His wound, however, was having none of it, and it shot a jolt of pain through his system. He gasped, groping in the air until he found his father's arm. He clung onto it, trying to slow down his breathing. When he had gotten it back to normal, he smiled in what he hoped to be his father's direction.

"Are you alright?" Thranduil asked, and he nodded slowly, feeling as if his eyes were closed. Every waking moment he felt like his eyes were closed, and it felt ridiculous. He felt a laugh bubble up into his throat, and he let it escape him. He could envision the confused look on his father's face as he spoke.

"Why are you laughing?"

"It's so ridiculous. I feel like my eyes are closed!" Legolas said, and he carefully let go of his father's arm.

He felt for the buttons on his sleeping tunic, but it was taking him ages to wriggle them out of the holes that Thranduil's hands came and did it for him. As his father deftly undid the buttons, he sat and put his head so it was resting on his right hand, sighing.

"I hate this," he murmured, shrugging the tunic from his shoulders and feeling the tunic that he assumed his father had brought from him being put on him. He hadn't been dressed by one of his parents since he was, what, five? He blushed furiously, realizing that now it was time to put on his leggings and he had no chance of being able to put them on properly, never mind lace them. He tried to pretend that nothing was happening as his father put them on him, and a few minutes later he was dressed. He sat down and let his father put his boots on him and comb and braid his hair.

"There, all ready," said Thranduil, placing the circlet on his son's head. He had made him look more like the royalty he was than usual, and he wore a silver embroidered tunic, dark pants and boots, and his warrior braids and circlet.

Thranduil held out his hand and formed a fist, and Legolas put his hand on top of it so it would look like they were just coming in together in the normal fashion for royalty, when really Legolas was depending on his father to guide him.

"Let's go," Thranduil said, and they began to walk to the council room.

O:o:O

Legolas heard the squealing of chairs as the lords and ladies hurried to their feet when they entered. Their hushed whispers stopped, and he assumed they all bowed as his father led him in the familiar arc they always took to their seats. Thranduil lowered his fist, and Legolas let go, feeling the chair below is fingertips. He pulled it out and sat down, slamming his knee into the table when he misjudged the distance between it and the table. He winced, rubbing his leg and hoping no one had noticed.

"We are here to discuss what course of action we should take in order to prevent spiders from coming into our home as easily as they did five days ago," Thranduil said, starting the meeting with the same introduction as he usually used. "It has been determined that the guards were knocked out by the spider but received no further injuries. It is still unknown, however, how the spiders got into the palace in the first place. Yes, Lord Ferenthe?"

"Well, my King, I propose that in order to stop similar occurrences, we should…"

Legolas tuned his hearing into every breath, every movement that any of the council members made, trying to imagine what the room looked like. He could barely bring the blurry image of the room he used to know so well to mind.

"…so that the prince will not have to sacrifice himself as he did before."

Legolas returned to listening to the conversation, hearing his title said.

"He should not have had to," another lord agreed.

"I disagree," said Lord Garien, a particularly irritating member of the council who was immeasurably stubborn and pompous. "It is not our job to protect the realm. Besides, he gets injured so often, he must think it is fun."

"That is absurd, Lord Garien," said Thranduil. "No one thinks getting hurt is fun. It is painful, but occasionally necessary. Legolas saved all of our lives when the spiders attacked, and we should be grateful."

"Saved us? I bet we could have fought them off. There are thirteen of us, including you! He only saved us for the sport and the fun he has fighting, and his injury just added to the fun."

Accompanied with his annoyance at not being able to see and his dislike of Lord Garien, Legolas's temper flared to life. He stood up, and his chair screeched. He felt rage building inside of him at the comment, and he practically spat his words in the direction that the lord's voice had come from.

"Fun? You think I find being hurt fun, Garien?" he said, ignoring all formalities and scowling into the blackness. "Does this look fun to you?"

He jerked up his tunic, exposing the bandage that was wrapped around his chest and torso.

"Legolas…" Thranduil said in an attempt to calm his son, but it was no use. The temper that had flared before him was a mirror off his own, and he had no control over it.

Legolas ripped the bandage off, revealing the long, bloody gash that ran from the right side of his chest to his left hip.

The ladies gasped and the lords covered their mouths in shock at the painful-looking wound. It was stitched, but the stitches had ripped when Legolas had stood up so abruptly. The wound still looked almost fresh because the poison slowed its healing. The skin around it was raw and irritated, and the gash itself had begun to ooze a mixture of dark poison and blood once more with the stitches gone.

"This is what I paid for defending you, and if that is all the gratefulness I get for doing so, I won't do it next time!" Legolas shouted, and though he could not see it, Garien was cowering in his chair. "And where will that put you? Dead. That's where you'll be. And your soul, in Mandos, will regret ever speaking to your prince so."

Legolas wanted to storm out of the room, but he knew he would not be able to find his way to the door and would probably end up revealing his secret.

"Legolas!" Thranduil said, his own temper kindling at his son's unreasonableness. The small part of him that cried out that he should be understanding, that he knew how it felt to be controlled by your temper, and he had no idea what Legolas was going through in terms of his blindness, he ignored. "Do not speak to Lord Garien so!"

"By saying that you are as bad as he is," Legolas said quietly, scowling in the direction from which his father's voice had come. He gently replaced the bandages as best he could and pulled his tunic down, muttering under his breath.

"Speak up, Legolas," said Thranduil. "You know I hate mumbling. If you have something to say, say it clearly, so all can hear you."

Legolas growled at him, sitting down.

"I said I hate you. I hate you, and I do not want to be your son."

A/N: OH SNAP!

I know that Lord Garien was completely unreasonable, but you have one of those ridiculous people in every group like this, I would think. And I know that Legolas was completely unreasonable as well, but his temper is as big as Thranduil's, and once it is ignited he has no choice in what comes out of his mouth. I love writing Legolas with his father's temper.

Also, I saw the Desolation of Smaug again today! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

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