.
Gimli.
When Elrohir offered to take over the onerous chore of trying to force Legolas to eat he grasped it with both hands. He regretted that later and felt no small amount of guilt about it, but at the time, not knowing what was to come, he was happy to hand the care of the elf over to someone else.
He knew Elrohir was not the right person at that point in time, not after the events of the day before but he was tired and worn down by days of struggling with his friend. Days of steadfast support and weathering what was at times a vicious storm. So Elrohir offered and he gladly stepped aside.
Instead he spent the break from the ride with the men, enjoying their easy uncomplicated company, relaxing into the thrill of not having to think deeply about his every word. It was a very pleasant interlude and at the end when Aragorn indicated it was time to move once again he was refreshed and ready to face whatever the ride ahead might bring him.
It was only when he went looking for Legolas and did not find him that he began to worry. He cast his eyes about for Elrohir and spotted him with his brother, the two of them looking so similar he still struggled to tell them apart much to Legolas's amusement. He strode over to enquire as to where his friend might be feeling a churning of anxiety beginning in his belly.
" Elrohir, where is Legolas? " he enquired. "Aragorn is ready to depart but I can find him nowhere."
Elrohir looked both tense and stressed by this news.
"He is not back?" He asked, "He ...left...to calm down, I would have thought he would be back by now"
"He left? What do you mean by that? He left...where did he go? Why did you let him?" He felt the crawl of anxiety begin to turn into pure fear.
" You were right. It was not wise for me to approach him. We argued...he went to the woods, I thought to clear his head..." Elrohir looked shamefaced.
He could not believe his ears, Legolas had gone into the woods on his own. They would never find him there, not if he did not want to be found. Still there was no point dwelling on that now, perhaps he was just there sulking.
He sighed.
"He is probably still sitting a in a tree talking to the leaves and time has got away from him. I will fetch him."
He stomped moodily off towards the forest wondering, as he often did, what he had done to deserve being saddled with a whole bunch of uncontrollable elves. The forest itself to his eyes was dark and depressing, its dankness pressed inwards upon him. As much time as he had spent with Legolas he had never become accustomed to forests.
"Legolas?"
He called for his friend but in truth he had little hope of locating him. Legolas took much pleasure in his ability to hide from him in trees.
"Legolas! Come down and show yourself. We are ready to leave and you hold us up. Legolas, come out, I have no patience for this foolery today!"
He had found sometimes being dictatorial and issuing orders did have an impressive effect, but not today because of Legolas there was no sign. In the end he admitted defeat and returned to the camp.
Elrohir was waiting for him anxiously on the edge of the forest.
"Did you find him? I thought not to go in after you... He may not find my presence welcoming." He looked so defeated and broken Gimli felt a jolt of sympathy for him despite the fact they were in this difficult situation due to his inattention.
"No, if he is there he does not wish to speak to me obviously," he sighed heavily,
"We will have to confess to Aragorn we have mislaid him. He will not be pleased."
It was with a heavy heart he approached Aragorn who was looking more burdened by the day. He knew the effect their friends antagonism had on him
"Gimli," he said lightly, maybe too lightly when they approached.
"Is Legolas ready, I cannot see him."
"He has eluded us." He said bluntly for he could see no point in dodging the issue.
" He has taken himself into the trees and we cannot locate him."
"How did that happen?" Aragorn was indeed tense as he had expected,
"Were you not with him?"
He opened his mouth to confess to his error, his eagerness to grasp the opportunity for a break away from Legolas had led to this, but behind him Elrohir intervened.
"It was my fault, I went to speak to him and I should not have. We argued..." His voice trailed off in despair.
Gimli braced himself for an explosion from Aragorn but it did not eventuate.
Instead he laid a hand on Elrohir's shoulder in support.
"We must look for him then" he sighed
"Although finding him is unlikely to be an easy task."
He watched Aragorn as he organised his men arranging the search although he must know there was no possible chance any of those soldiers had a hope of locating Legolas. He looked like a man who was totally defeated and yet still he would not give up on his friend.
"You kept your temper well with your brother" he said to him as they walked towards the woods.
" For surely he has erred here, letting the elf disappear."
He knew matters between Aragorn and that particular brother were far from easy, Legolas had told him as much even had he not been able to see it with his own eyes. Aragorn turned to him and smiled,
" I understand the rocky path speaking with Legolas is at present. I am guilty of straying from that myself, Look at Elrohir, he is crushed by this. What do I gain by making his burden even heavier?"
They were wise words and he nodded his agreement.
"You know we have no hope of finding him if he does not wish it?"
Aragorn gave him a rueful smile.
"I have been known to track him down occasionally! He is most certainly not himself, there is a chance."
"A small, remote, hardly worth mentioning chance. I hope you do not fool yourself."
Aragorn turned to him,
" I know, Gimli. I know it is unlikely. In all probability we will just have to sit here and wait until he sees sense and emerges by himself . But what would you have me do? I have to try."
And he had to agree with that.
He hated the forest with a vengeance. It felt oppressive, and all he could see were trees. He was hoarse with shouting and had seen no sign of the elf. Somehow he found himself separated from the others but he could still hear their calls echoing around him.
Just as he paused for breath and contemplation the air was shattered with an agonised keening wail. It echoed of the trees around him and turned his legs to jelly for he knew who it was, there was no mistaking Legolas. He ran as fast as he could through the vines that choked the forest floor stumbling in his panic as the wailing continued.
It was a cry of deepest grief and pain.
Then just as suddenly as it started it ceased and all was quiet. He stopped, trying to get his bearings, where had the sound been coming from? He damned the disorientating trees to all eternity. As he stood heart hammering in his chest, echoing in the now eerie silence, noise returned. Not a wail now but cries and shouts, the sound of an altercation and it was near him.
It took him a brief few minutes to get there, and when he did, emerging into the tree lined clearing what he saw riveted him to the spot in shock.
It was Legolas, of course, and he was a wild, raging thing. His hair flew out in a halo of pale gold around him. His eyes were flashing with fury. He held his knife aloft dripping with blood and he was a frightening sight. But it was not that which shocked him to his core for he had seen Legolas in his battle state many a time before, it was the sight of the figure in front of him.
Aragorn was on his knees, on the ground his face a bloodied mess. He clutched at his right arm, blood oozing down through his fingers.
The scene before him was incomprehensible. What was happening?
"Legolas!" He cried, " Stop this!" It was an order that could not be disobeyed, all his authority, his determination he threw into those three words. He would not be ignored.
And it worked.
Legolas turned his head towards him startled at the sound.
"Gimli?" He seemed bemused at his presence but there was no time to waste pondering on that. Taking the opportunity provided by the moment of distraction Gimli strode forward placing himself between his two friends.
"Stop this Legolas. Put down your weapon."
Behind him he heard a noise, the sound of Elladan arriving kneeling beside his brother.
"Brother. what has happened?" Elladan asked. It was a question he wanted answered himself.
"This is my fault" he heard Aragorn say between gritted teeth.
While he stood, in front of his closest friend who brandished a bright glinting weapon in his face his mind was racing. What could have caused this? He tried to force himself to think...think of a reason, a way he could calm and resolve this but he came up with nothing.
He had known his elf was a simmering pool of deep buried anger. He had also known every day that anger forced it's way closer to the surface. But this? ... and Aragorn? He would have been prepared to swear on his life that Legolas, no matter what tensions lay between them, would never, never harm Aragorn. It was unimaginable.
He could not afford to take his eyes off Legolas, not yet, but at the sound of Aragorn's voice the elf turned his gaze towards the man he protected and stood, staring as if in a dream his eyes wide, his face white with shock.
"Come now Legolas, give me the knife." He had to get that weapon away from him he thought, none of them were safe until he managed that.
Legolas tore his eyes from Aragorn and swung to look back at him, confusion written all over his face.
"What have I done?" He gasped.
"It is alright Lad," he spoke calmly and softly to him now careful not to startle. His heart ached to see the tear-streaked face, the lost expression on the bewildered elf before him.
"It is alright, give me the knife Legolas...I need you to give that to me."
It was as if Legolas did not hear him.
"Where has he gone?" He asked "He was here, where has he gone, did you see him?"
"There is no one here Legolas, no one but us. You are safe, we will not hurt you. Give me the knife." And he held out his hand. Despite his horror at Aragorns injuries he was still confident he was safe with Legolas. He could not bring himself to believe he would ever be at risk from his beloved friend.
Legolas turned his head to look at the knife in his hand, he seemed mesmerised by it and slowly, slowly he opened his hand and dropped it spiraling to the ground, his eyes never leaving it as it fell.
He let out the breath he didn't know he was holding as the knife fell but before he could move to retrieve it Legolas was on his knees beside it running his hand over the blade as if caressing the blood that lay there.
He winced as he watched the sharp blade slice through the palm of that pale hand but Legolas did not so much as flinch as his blood began to mingle with Aragorns on the ground.
Quickly, before any more damage could be done he knelt and placed his hand over his friend's, pulling a cloth from his pocket to hold against the wound.
"Come now Legolas," he said softly, "This will not do. I will have none of this foolishness, we do not need you hurt as well."
Legolas lifted his head to look at him, his eyes, deep dark wells of pain and he was shaking beneath his touch.
"I did not know," he said, " I did not know it was him."
He patted his hand gently,
"I know that Lad." In truth he knew nothing of the sort and worried about exactly what had happened to his friends mind.
" We don't need this now do we?" He carefully, slowly pulled the knife away from Legolas's grasp.
"I will look after it for you."
He turned placing it on the ground behind him and took the chance to check the wellbeing of Aragorn while he was at it. He looked dreadful, pale and bruised, pain etched on his face but he would live. It could have been so much worse he thought, though it was certainly bad, very bad. Still, if he could calm Legolas down, get an explanation, they could find a way to move on from this.
He felt rather than saw the movement beside him and jerked back around at Aragorn's cry of warning but his reflexes were sluggish, slowed down by the release of tension gaining control of the knife had caused.
His one moment of inattention cost them dearly.
By the time he had turned himself around, Legolas was gone.