The first week of riding with Legolas had been an easy one. Legolas was quiet traveling companion but a considerate one. Someone had been thoughtful enough to pack several books in the saddlebags of Adessa's horse and a note from Arwen had implored her to read slowly or she'd have nothing to read later. The landscape had gone from the lush green and warmth of the Valley to the brisk cold and brown of the surrounding land gripped in winter. Legolas didn't push the horses too greatly, keeping them at a steady ground eating walk would keep them in better shape he'd said and they did make good time if not as fast as Adessa might hope. They'd made camp in a copse of trees one night when the moon was full and she couldn't help the urge to fly.
Moonlight danced in between the tree branches that surrounded their campsite and Adessa watched the light dance across her skin, feeling a nice warmth springing up inside her. It reminded her a lot about the first night that she had left her sanctuary and it made her feel alive. She looked over to Legolas, who was relaxing against a tree after he had tended to the horses and she giggled lightly, recalling how he had looked the first day she had seen him. "I'll be right back, don't wait up for me." She said, light laughter in her voice as she sprang up and flitted her way through the branches until she was above the trees completely. "What a view..."
Taking off, Adessa flew around the grove of trees for a moment, briefly memorizing their location from above so she would know where to come back down to and took off higher. The cool evening breeze blew past her face, she noted that it was getting colder by how it bit at her cheeks and made them burn. She felt like she was drawing power from the moon and held out her arms to it, wanting to take it all into her at once. Refreshed and feeling alive again, Adessa brushed her fingers through some clouds and laughed when she drew back to find them wet and cold. Another strong breeze blew and she shivered, wrapping her arms close to her body again and shrinking into herself.
"Okay, it's time to grab the blankets." She giggled to herself, taking one last look at the moon and then slowly spiraling back to the trees. "Legolas was right, it does feel good to travel again..." Touching back down to the thick limbs of the nearest tree, Adessa looked around and tried to find Legolas to make sure she was in the right place.
She was so intent on her search for Legolas she didn't see the dark shapes below her until the net struck her, tangling her wings and bringing her crashing to the ground. Dazed she was only barely aware that they were humans dressed in clothing designed to blend into the shadows, all tattered grays and dark blues. One of them muttered something to the other but she couldn't make it out. The second one clubbed her unceremoniously and she blacked out.
She woke with her hands and feet bound, a filthy gag in her mouth and she was in a cage that was obviously not designed to hold a human, it was too short and she lay on the rough floor curled in an uncomfortable ball smelling animal dung in the rough wood under her cheek. Blinking slowly, Adessa tried to get her bearings and moved a little, trying to test the bonds around her wrists and nearly choking on the gag in her mouth. Her breathing was laborious and no matter how she tried, she couldn't get the nasty gag out of her mouth or her breathing to slow down and even out. All she wanted to do was get back to Legolas and that would be the drive that she needed to get free, but at the moment there wasn't a way for her to do that. Instead she'd have to rely on her wits and wait for the opportune moment. Right now she had to figure out who these men were and what they wanted. Obviously they wanted something from her, otherwise she wouldn't be here, but her fear was what would they want from her.
'Who are these people?!' She asked herself, growling a little against the nasty gag again. 'I just hope Legolas can find me.'
She flinched in pain that she just realized was hurting her. There were several scratches on her sides and from what she could feel there was probably a shallow gash on the back of her head, the result of her splitting headache. She had no doubt that there would be bruises a plenty to go along with her crash from the trees and she'd be hurting for a while. With a frustrated sigh of pain, Adessa stopped moving and let her head rest against the floor of her wooden cage, waiting for something to happen.
A pair of boots moved into her field of vision and a man crouched down to look at her. "Well… I came out tonight thinking I might trap me some elves… or maybe some wolves or even a wildcat prowling the dark but I went and caught me something a bit more… exotic. What's an elf doin' with wings I wonder to myself and then I tell myself it don't really matter because the sea raiders won't care long as the wings don't impede their sport." He reached into the cage and ran a finger along the long distal ridge of her wing.
"And you are so very pretty… Might just keep you for myself I'm thinking."
If looks could kill then Adessa was glaring murder at her captor once she had recovered from the initial shock at the mention of Sea Raiders. His touch on her wings felt like sticky webs, nothing like Legolas's gentle caresses and she fluttered them enough to where she could fold them against her back and away from his filthy hands. She made a series of noises that could have been interpreted as threats, but she knew she didn't sound so convincing in her immediate predicament. As far as she could see he was the only one in the room. Looking around she found herself to be in some sort of tent with other crates and boxes with she figured could have held anything from weapons and supplies of sorts. There were other cages, most were empty, but a few others held animals, chained by iron collars to their cages. She knew how they felt and if she could then she'd get them out too.
He reached in further and checked the bindings and gave a satisfied nod. "You're a pretty one at the least. I'll have to think on what best to do. For now I've other things to attend to." He stood and picked up a tarp and covered the cage before walking away.
'And while you're away, this mouse will play...' Adessa started to think before she sighed. 'And hope that Legolas finds me soon.'
She started to rub her face on the inside of her arm and pushed outward with her tongue, not really caring for the nasty gag in her mouth at all. After several attempts and flinching from the pain, Adessa was able to push the gag out of her mouth and let it linger around her neck for now. She tried to cough as quietly as she could so the noise wouldn't bring any guards and then she shuffled her arms carefully. Tucking her knees as close as she could to her chest, Adessa bit back a groan as her muscles strained against their bonds.
'Come on! Just a little further!' She thought, giving herself a victory for the mouth gag. 'Just pull your wrists over your feet and then you can rest.' Through the mind-numbing pain and her several attempts to pull her arms from behind her back, she managed to do it and rested for a brief moment, letting her body go limp on the floor of her cage for a minute. With great effort, Adessa tried to get the thick rope untied and scuffed her fingers up pretty badly, two starting to bleed. The cords were unyielding, that was troublesome and annoying to say the least. 'If only I had a knife or something sharp... this would be so much easier.'
She heard shuffling outside the cage, then the tarp flew back and an ugly man with a crushed nose leered in at her. "Oh ho!" He gurgled. "Someone got loose. Can't be having that." He picked up a club and cackled. "Boss said to put you back to sleep so we can transport you nice and quiet like. Gotta make sure not to break that pretty head of yours though."
"Wait, please!" Adessa said hoarsely, giving him a pleading look and she held her arms up to protect her head. "What do you want?!" She was desperate and if she could barter with this man to let her free for a price then she'd pay it. Or at least get to a place where she could escape on her own from his foolish mistakes.
He chortled and stumped closer, she realized one of his legs was twisted and it gave him an odd crouched gait. "Oh what I want pretty thing is something you wouldn't give the likes of me." He said and hopped up on top of the cage. There was a small hatch at the top for safe feeding of the occupants without risking hands being bitten off, too small for anything larger than a cat to get through.
He opened it and peered down at her. "No I think you would tell me to go to Mordor before you let the likes of me have his way with a pretty thing like you." He was so intent on her that he missed the gleam of metal in the rafters above him until it was too late.
An arrow sprouted in his neck showering her with blood as he gagged and fell to the side with a faint thump. A second later Legolas dropped lightly to the top of the cage making almost no sound. He glanced around to be sure no one had noticed and then used a knife to start prying the hasp of the lock away from the wood. His face was a grim angry mask as he worked. "Legolas..." Adessa choked out quietly, relieved tears falling from her eyes and mixing the the man's blood to cause rivets down her cheeks. "How did you find me?"
She struggled even more against her bonds now that he was here. It was important that they get away as quickly and as silently as they could and once Legolas had broken through the wooden cage and opened the door, Adessa shuffled out on her hands and side, worming her way onto the floor and wheezing from exhaustion. She listened to make sure that no one was coming and thanked her lucky stars above that no one else came to check on her.
He grabbed her arm and led her through a slit in the back of the tent. Once they were out her tugged her low to the ground and led her along a path only he seemed able to see. The entire time he'd be utterly silent and his face was a stony mask of calm. They reached the horses which were both saddled with the saddlebags packed. He helped her up onto hers, then vaulted up onto his and grabbed her reins before heeling his horse into a gallop. Crouching low over her horse's neck and holding onto his mane and the reins, Adessa kept quiet and bit back every groan of pain she could. The horses carried them far away from their campsite and the men who had captured her. She wished they could have saved the other caged animals, but knew she they had to get away first and didn't stop to argue... It didn't seem wise, not with the angry mask that Legolas wore upon rescuing her. His blue eyes had lost their calm demeanor and had been replaced with a darker emotion that didn't look good on him and it scared her a little. She didn't speak for a long time and listened to the horses' hooves beating the ground. They didn't stop for nearly two hours and by that time Adessa was starting to pass in and out of consciousness from the bruises and scrapes and she could feel her horse shuddering beneath her. "Legolas... please..." She said hoarsely, trying to get his attention over the howling wind. "I need to stop. The horses need to rest..."
She clutched her horse's mane tighter and tried to keep herself steady in the saddle, if she wasn't careful she'd fall off and be too exhausted to get back up.
He slowed the pace a little and sat up straighter looking around for a safe place to camp. He eventually found a craggy overhang with a tree partially collapsed in front of the opening and helped her down. He unsaddled the horses and rubbed them down before hobbling them to the tree and only when he was sure the horses were seen to did he build a fire. She could see in the stiff set of his shoulders that he was still angry but his placid face revealed nothing.
His silence told her everything and at the moment she didn't want to break it for fear that he was angry with her and not just what happened. She avoided making any large motions that might catch his attention and pulled her knapsack slowly toward her, taking from it a bowl, a rag, some ointment, several bandages, and grabbing the waterskin from her horse's saddle bag. Pouring the water into the bowl, Adessa set about cleaning herself up a bit, wanting to get the dried blood off her face as quickly as possible. Some of the blood was her's but the rest was not and that made her squirm and feel dirty. She wrung out the rag and washed her face, applying the ointment to a few scratches here and there on her face before moving to her wrists and arms, rolling up the sleeves at show the bruises already starting to form where the men had grabbed her roughly and bound her. 'That man was right.' She thought, dabbing the rope burns on her wrists with the cold cloth. 'He got what he deserved.'
Wincing as she touched the tender flesh, Adessa continued to work until her wrists and ankles were taken care of. The last place she needed to take tend to was the dried blood on the back of her head. She still had a splitting headache and as she touched around the crusted and dried blood spot under her head she cried out softly and drew her fingers away in annoyance. "That smarts something fierce." She bit back, wringing out the rag and trying to dab at it again, a little more carefully than before but still not having much luck.
She felt the cloth being tugged out of her fingers and Legola gently began to clean the cut on her scalp. He used ointment on the cut and the pain began to receded. He silently took a look at her other scrapes and cuts then seemed to relax. "I thought the worst when you didn't return." He said softly.
Her heart pinged a little as she sat still and let him check over her other cuts and scraps. His voice had returned to being soft, but that didn't mean anything if she couldn't see his face. Slowly and carefully she turned on her legs until she could see him clearly. His face still showed her was concerned and his eyes held something else that she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
"I'm sorry Legolas, I didn't mean to cause you so much worry." Adessa said, looking at him apologetically and searching his face for understanding. "I didn't realize how long I had been gone or if anyone else was around... when I fly I lose track of time because it's the most freeing feeling in the world."
She looked down at her bandaged wrists and shook her head. "I won't let this happen again."
He touched her chin and made her look up at him. "I'm not mad at you. I was furious with those beasts that walk like men. You have a right to fly free and seeing you caged like that was infuriating. I am often intemperate when I'm angry and speak too harshly. I did not wish to take my temper out on you when it was not your doing."
"I understand..." She said softly, covering his hand with her own and leaning her cheek against his palm. "I don't wish to see you that angry again, it doesn't sit well... thank you for treating my head, the pain has lessened greatly."
He caressed her cheek for a moment before letting go and turning to the fire. He pulled out a pot and threw water and herbs into it letting it brew. When it was finished he gave her a cup of the steaming liquid. "It will hasten your healing." He said and settled back against the rocky wall of the outcropping.
"Thank you." Adessa replied, pulling a cloak from her knapsack and carefully wrapping it around her shoulders and scooting a little closer to the flames of the fire.
She warmed her hands on the cup Legolas had given her and blew on her tea before sipping it. The liquid soothed her parched throat and she welcomed the comfort that it brought. After a few moments, she looked over at Legolas and voiced a question that she had been wondering about since they had made their escape. "How did you find me?"
He smiled slightly. "When you didn't come back I went looking for you. I didn't figure you'd traveled far, you're cautious by nature. When I found a tree with broken limbs and churned bloody earth I figured something had happened. Those slavers left a trail a blind man could follow."
"Hmph." Adessa sniffed. "And they thought they'd catch some Elves the same way they caught me... not likely."
She didn't think they would be smart enough to catch Elves at all unless it was a sneak attack and even then hey would have a hard time of it for Elves weren't so easily captured. Standing up carefully, she walked to Legolas and sat down beside him, making sure her wings were folded close and not getting squished by anyone or anything, including him. "Thank you for coming after me, it seems I will be the troublesome one of the two of us on this trip, not you." She laughed softly, sipping her tea again.
He laughed with her. "If it's all the same to you I'd rather not have any further trouble."
He handed her the rolled blanket from her saddlebag and pulled his out as well. "We should sleep. We have to rise early and get back on course."
"Agreed." Adessa replied, setting down her empty cup on the by the medicines they had used and taking the blanket from him. "Good night Legolas, may you have pleasant dreams tonight."
She shuffled away from him just enough so she could lay out her blanket on the ground to keep rocks from poking into her back and side, no matter how she turned over in her sleep and folded her arm beneath her head. If she needed to wake him for whatever reason, he would be right there within arms reach and that made her feel safe. She wasn't going to stray from his side again until they got to Lothlorien and there she'd fly around as much as she wanted. Thoughts of Lothlorien filled her mind until a yawn escaped from her and the flickering firelight lulled her off to a peaceful sleep.
All too soon she was woken by Legolas who helped her into her saddle and got them back on course. The days dragged on while they traveled but the weather warmed as they traveled.