Disclaimer: I don't own these characters and I make no money from this writing.

(Feedback, as usual, greatly appreciated, and any comments on the style of the writing in this part very welcome – though all comments are of course equally welcome. But I do worry about Estel's sections!)

Estel

I don't like being bumped along on this man's back. I feel sick. I might just be sick but I don't think he'd notice.

My head is swimmy, and the ground is a long way away. But I can see he's leaving a big track that a blind man could follow, and I think Elladan will come after me. I feel silly. This is the second time in two days. I have to learn to defend myself better. When I grow up I'm not going to let anyone take me prisoner, not anyone.

Suddenly the bumping stops. The man takes me in his arms and throws me to someone else, who slings me up over his shoulder. This one smells even worse.

"Hey!" I say, wanting this to stop. I really would be sick if I had anything in me at all, which I don't.

"Shut up," comes the reply, so I kick him, hard, until he does stop. He stands me on a rock.

"Look, boy. I'm doing you a favour. I could kill you now but I think we'd get something for you. I'm taking you to the camp. You can have some food then. So stop whining, otherwise I'll make you run too."

"I want to run!" I say. "I want to run that way." I point, and the man follows my hand and I jump the other way. It's a trick I learned to play on my brothers and it worked, for a little while, anyway. Enough for me to leave my own tracks, and the man was too stupid to notice. He could easily have just stamped all over my footprints but I don't think he thought of that.

"Right. I'm tying you. And you'd better not shout otherwise I'll gag you. Got it?"

He has his hands round my throat so that all I can do is nod. I can't wait to be bigger. Being small is annoying me.

I'm choking so he takes his big hand away and ties my arms behind my back and my legs together. I want to be sick again and I want to know where Papa and my brothers are, but I'm not going to ask. I am worth something to this man so I think I'll be safe for the moment. I hope.

It seems like hours before I'm put back on my feet. My legs have gone numb and I can't stand up, and when I fall over, people there laugh at me but I just look at them. There are lots of people, ladies and children and men, and some dogs and chickens. It's like my – like the Rangers' village only it's not clean and laid out with neat tracks and they're all standing near one big fire. They don't seem to have fires for each family. There's something cooking, I can smell it.

The man who carried me has untied my legs and arms, then ties my hands in front of me. Then he runs a rope from my wrists to a peg in the ground. I saw a pig tied up once. I feel like the pig.

"Here. Eat this," someone says, and I try to hold the plate they give me, which is not easy because of my tied hands. It's like a stew, pieces of meat and gravy or something.

"I can't," I say, meaning well, I can't just put my face in the stew and eat it, can I? Only he doesn't take it that way, and he just takes it and throws it away. A couple of the dogs are happy, anyway. My stomach is growling.

"Give the boy something to drink," someone says. I look up and see a young lady and she's holding out a cup of water.

"Give it to him yourself," the man says and so I get some water. And I'm close enough to the fire to keep warm even when the light begins to fade and all the big landscape around us gets dark and goes away.

And still no Elladan or Legolas or Papa.

I would like to have a big feast. It's very cold now and the stars are sparkly in the sky, which doesn't have a single cloud in it, not one. I think it's going to be frosty in the morning. Someone gave me a blanket and I am sitting on it because I remember Elrohir says to keep off the ground. The fire has died down a bit but it's not too bad for warmth. I think my clothes are dry now, too. So if I could just sit at a long table, with lots of people there, and Glorfindel telling us a story and me with my plate filled with good things to eat, then I could be happy.

Or I could be in Grandmother's house, and Hú could be playing with me, perhaps a tugging game if I could find an old piece of rope or something. Halbarad would be there too and he and I could plan something, like defending the village or something like that. I wonder if he would let me lead the last soldiers. The ones who would be noble and die bravely.

The stars look really far away tonight. Papa was teaching me some names but I can't remember any of them now. They just look like cold bits of fire, thrown up there into the air, and they don't have any pattern than I can see. But Papa says – Papa says. Where is Papa?

It must be close to morning by now. I have been trying to work my hands out of the rope but it's not working very well. I pulled a big log over and put it carefully onto the fire so that it wouldn't go out or anything, and now I am waiting for it to catch properly. I am standing now with the blanket round me and I suppose I am doing a little dancing around to keep warm because this boy, who was taller than me and who should have been in bed came up to me and said something silly. He asked if my britches were on fire.

I didn't know what to say. If Elladan had said that, or Elrohir I would laugh and pretend they were and then rush around and do something like sit in a puddle or something, or at least I would have done when I was little.

But what do I say to the boy who is laughing at me? I do the only thing I can think of and I run at him, head down, and catch him in the stomach. He ends up on his back and he isn't happy with that so he starts kicking me and then he's yelling and people come running and separate us.

Someone washes my face and brings me another blanket and tries to say nice things. It surprises me. I didn't know bad people can be kind as well as good people. But they don't do it the way Papa does.

This time they make someone guard me, though there's a lot said about me being a boy and not clever enough to get away but I don't take any notice. So this big man sits down quite near me and looks at me as if I'm the very worst thing he can think of. And I just try to think of days playing by the shiny river that sings to me, and the elves who keep me company sometimes, and sit in the trees and sing happy songs and silly ones sometimes. It feels as though, for once, I am having a good vision instead of one I don't understand and don't like. That one in the river, with the faces in there. I didn't like that one at all.

In the very early morning, when the very faintest light in the sky begins, just as my belly has given up hope of ever, ever, ever getting anything in it ever again, I hear something. I don't know quite what it is, maybe a snuffling sound, then I hear them plainly, paws running on the ground, and suddenly I'm being licked and there's a big, hairy dog standing right by me. I put my arms over his back, and wonder if it's Keeper or a dog from the camp but I am pleased to have the company.

There is a noise, a grunt, a noise as something heavy hits the ground. I think it must have been the guard.

"Keep still, little brother. Be quiet!"

It's Elladan! It really is Elladan! He done something and the rope tethering me goes slack. "Come on! Run as fast as you've ever run in your life!"

So I do, and as quietly as I can as well and I try not to trip over the rope which keeps hitting me in the shins and I feel a bit giddy but I still run, listening out for my big brother. The dogs are running with me, right by my side, and I want to stop and hug them both because they found me, I know they did.

"Elladan," I say, trying to draw breath. "I can't run much more!"

"I know, Estel! Just a little more!"

And it really is just a little more, then Elladan stops.

And I run to him, because I can see him a little now, and he hugs me close and then lifts me up and starts me climbing into a tree.

"Climb, Estel! It is a yew and it'll hide you. Go on! And whatever you do, stay there!"

When I get settled on a branch, I see that Elladan has been watching me. Then he lays his hands on the trunk of the tree and says something, but I am not sure what. He smiles at me and waves, and I wave back, not asking him to stay because I know he knows what he is doing. Even though I really want him to stay.

Then my brother begins to run again, keeping the dogs close by him and I have to watch him get smaller and smaller until he disappears, suddenly, as if he's been swallowed up by the trees. Snap, and he's gone.