A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for uploading the wrong chapter last night (NO idea how I managed to mess that one up lol. Guess I should stop doing this kind of stuff at 2 in the morning :P)! Here's the right one...I promise, there's no pirates haha. Hope you enjoy! c: And thanks to the few lovely reviewers that let me know about my mistake!

Chaos Unleashed: Part Two

Chapter Eight

Legolas' POV

I watched as Tauriel unveiled a weathered map before us, the parchment bearing a faded but detailed drawing of Mirkwood and some of its surrounding areas. The others gathered around her and I as she pointed to the marking in the northeastern corner which showed our current location. "Our journey begins here," she spoke. "We have much ground to cover if we are to reach your friends." Sliding her finger downwards, she traced what was to be our path. "We will cross the Forest River here, and continue traveling southward along the eastern edge of the woods. If our luck holds, we will not encounter any enemies so close to the borders and the halls of King Thranduil."

"What about these?" Kathryn reached out and touched a range of mountains nestled within the forest. "Are we going to have to go through them?"

Tauriel seemed uncertain. "In truth, I do not know," she said. "The Mountains of Mirkwood are small, but the elves do not have any safe paths leading through them that I know of."

"It might be faster to go over them anyway, if they're not too massive," Erin said. "And above all else, this requires speed."

I glanced up at her, shaking my head. "I do not think it would be our best option. Few elves ever traveled through those mountains even before Sauron overtook the forest. I could not guess what might lie there now." Looking down again, I pointed back to the map. "It would be safer for us to go around to the east. We would not lose much time that way."

"Then I suppose that will be our road," Tauriel said quickly, folding up the map and tucking it away inside her tunic. She looked to all of us briefly before turning to the mess of trees ahead. "Come. Every second counts." Without waiting any longer, she took off, moving at a brisk pace as the rest of us fell in line behind her. I was about to turn and speak with Erin when I heard her calling from ahead. "Legolas! Tolo enni!" (Come to me!)

Quickly, I strode up to her side. "Man?" (What?)

She paused for a moment, lowering her voice slightly. "...Istar peded edhellen?" (...Can they speak Elvish?)

I could hear Boromir and Kathryn conversing quietly behind us and shook my head a bit. "Lónannûniel pêd-ithon edhellen. Rodhwen adh Boromir ú-bedir. Ven ú-cheniar." (Erin speaks some Elvish. Kathryn and Boromir do not. They cannot understand us.)

She nodded, speaking at a normal volume again. "Goston andin. I ven hen delu, adh boe di meriad." (I am worried about them. The road is dangerous, and they need to be protected.)

"Di ndegitham na yrchs ne ndagor," I replied. "I philin vîn gwathrathar Anor."(We will defeat the orcs in battle. Our arrows will obscure the Sun.)

Tauriel merely smirked. "Avo faro an drastad, mellon. Telitha angin." (Do not look for trouble, friend. It will come to you.) But then her tone changed again. "Danath...te ú-velin nín." (Still...she does not like me.)

I frowned. "Man pen?" (Which one?)

"Lónannûniel." (Erin.)

"...Am man theled?" (...Why?*)

"Ú-iston." (I don't know.)

I risked glancing over my shoulder and saw Erin walking behind Kathryn and Boromir in silence. She stared blankly ahead at nothing, and I could tell she was deep in thought. "Den ú-iston, le avo drasto," I said. "Ci vellon nîn n'uir annath." (I doubt it, but do not worry. Forever you are my friend, at least.)

She smiled again, and I could not help but return it, though still she carried a slight undertone of sadness in her voice. "Ci vilui, Legolas." (Thank you, Legolas.)

"I 'ell nîn." (My pleasure.) Our conversation fell silent after that, and Tauriel moved further ahead as we first turned off of the elven road and began our travel southwards through the thick tangle of trees. I was troubled by what she had told me, however, and found myself glancing between the two women on more than one occasion. Why would Erin ever dislike Tauriel? They seemed to be great friends while they visited the halls. Whatever the reason, I could only hope it would resolve itself. The last thing we needed on this journey was fighting amongst the five of us.

oOo

Kaia's POV

"Come on," I grunted, lifting Pippin with all the strength I could muster. "Up you go." He quickly grabbed ahold of the ledge above us and scrambled up, and I gave Merry a boost soon after. Although no one wanted to admit it, we'd been making good progress in the past couple of days with Gollum leading us along. Granted, his path was a bit rougher than we'd expected, but it was getting us somewhere. We'd stopped going in circles, at least.

Everyone was wary of him, though. I was pretty positive that Frodo was the only person in our group that trusted him at all, and even that didn't go too far. More often than not, I found myself watching the slinking creature from where he led Aragorn along at the front, bound by a leash of rope around his neck. I kept a spare dagger given to me by the ranger at my side at all times, even while I was asleep. We all wanted him gone...but just the same, we needed him.

As I hoisted Merry up so that he could grab Aragorn's waiting hand and get over a particularly tricky cliff face we'd encountered, I heard the miserable thing whining from where he waiting for us up above, splayed out on the rock like a bug. "Oh, poor us, Precious... the ropeses, it burns us! They does not care if we should suffer! Filthy humans does not care!"

I glared at him. "Shut up," I muttered. "At least you're still alive." Frodo then stepped up, the last hobbit remaining to climb up to the top.

"See, Precious? They does not care at all!" he groaned. But then his voice softened. "...Not like Master..." I paused for a moment, glancing at Frodo before clasping my hands and bending down so he could step into them. The hobbit in question refused to look up at Gollum, focusing on the rock in front of him instead as his little fanboy kept talking. "Master knows...Master knows the burden..." Up he went. "Master knows how we struggle..." Soon enough, he was up at the top, and Aragorn was reacing down for my hand. I grabbed it tightly and jumped, getting just enough of a push for him to pull me up so I could grab the ground above.

But suddenly, there was a shout, and then his hand was gone. Clinging to the edge of the rock, I looked up to see Aragorn stepping towards Frodo, sword drawn, as Gollum slowly approached the dark-haired boy. "Hey!" I shouted. "Leave him alone!"

Gollum didn't seem to hear my warning. "...Master knows...he can see them...he can hear them..." I frowned at his cryptic words, pulling myself up with one arm as the other hand desperately grasped at my belt. Gollum's eyes went wide as he stared at the chain dangling from Frodo's neck. "The Precious calls to us..." His bony fingers twitched as a hand reached out, Frodo's eyes going wide...

In a flash, Aragorn was leaping towards the creature, grabbing the string of rope tied around his neck and yanking him back hard as I ripped my dagger out from its sheath and threw it as hard as I could. Gollum gasped and choked on his own breath as his head snapped back and he fell to the ground, the blade flying past him. In his state, I was surprised the fall didn't kill him. Before another word got out of his mouth, the rugged man had the tip of his sword touching Gollum's chest, forcing him to scuttle backwards and away from Frodo, who was breathing hard and clutching his chest as if in pain.

Aragorn's eyes were blazing with hatred. "You...will not ever lay a finger on him," he said, his voice reaching a new level of terrifying as he stared Gollum down. "Is that understood?"

As the creature nodded meekly, I rushed over to Frodo, who was now slumped back against the rock. "You okay?" I asked.

He nodded, but it didn't seem too sincere. "Yes...Yes, I'm fine."

My frown deepened. "Are you sure? Did he do something to you?"

"No..." he gasped. "No, I...it's nothing, Kaia. I promise."

I hesitated, looking him over in concern. "Frodo, you're sweating. You look like you just ran eight miles."

He looked mildly confused at my phrasing, but still shook his head. "I'm all right," he insisted.

I stared at him for a moment longer. I wasn't convinced...but for his sake, I didn't keep pestering him about it. "...Okay. If you're sure." He nodded, and a moment later Aragorn was coming to us, Merry and Pippin close on his heels. As the man also checked to make sure Frodo was okay, I turned to Gollum, jaw clenched in fury. Before he could so much as blink, I was crouched down in front of him, grabbing him by the neck and pushing him up against a wall of rock, my dark eyes boring into his. "What did you do to him?"

"N-Nothing, Precious! We swears!"

"Don't you fucking lie to me, you piece of shit," I hissed, tightening my grip. He coughed and squirmed in discomfort. "What the hell did you do?"

"We didn't do anything!" he wailed. "Nice human girl must understand, we did nothing!" Fed up with him, I let him drop back to all fours, where he looked away and made that oh-so-iconic retching sound. "It was the Precious!" he cried. "The Precious calls to us!"

I wanted to hit him so, so badly. "You don't get to touch the Ring. I don't care what you want, all you're here for is getting us out of this stone labrynth. Nothing else. And if you ever even think about touching him again..." He tried to scoot away, but I grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him right up close to me, speaking lowly. "...I promise you, you'll long for something as sweet as pain. We clear?"

He nodded slowly, and I let him go, tossing him away as I took a moment to calm myself down. That fucker. How dare he try and touch Frodo! God, I can't wait to get rid of this asshole. I continued to glare at him as we all regrouped and began following him out of Emyn Muil again, though my gaze often drifted to Frodo as well. He still seemed really shaken by what Gollum had said to him, and that bugged me. Please tell me this isn't about to get worse.

oOo

Kathryn's POV

I dropped gracelessly to the ground, totally exhausted from the amount of progress we'd made in our first day. It was well past nightfall, and Tauriel had seemed satisfied enough with how far we'd come, so we were allowed to stop and rest for the night. We'd decided that it would be best not to start a full-on fire, but thankfully the weather was still warm enough that we didn't need it to survive through the night.

Erin soon came over and plopped down next to me, the two of us leaning back against a thick tree root that was charred beyond belief and jutting out of the ground at an odd angle. "Well, we did it," she said. "One day down, several more to go."

"Do we know how long it'll take to reach them?" I asked.

She shrugged. "Legolas thinks we can be out of the forest in about eight or ten days if we keep a steady pace, and then maybe another three to cross the plains that come after that."

"So, two weeks," I estimated. Erin nodded, and I glanced around the dark forest, exhaling. "I wish we could've brought horses. That would make this a lot easier."

"Yeah, but we would be spotted really easily," she replied. "And we don't even know what we're up against this time. It's more than just orcs."

"That's what scares me," I said quietly. "I mean, I know that the other three are good fighters, but...if something were to happen-"

"We'll be fine, Kathryn," Erin cut me off. "Don't worry about it." There was a short pause before she continued. "Though I don't really like being out here any more than you. I'd love to just stay in Thranduil's place and spend the rest of my days trying to build up a tolerance to elven wine."

I smiled a bit. "That was embarrassing."

"Incredibly so," she agreed with a laugh. "I'm sure we made great first impressions."

"I bet Thranduil hates us now."

"I hope not. The last thing I want is for one of my favorite characters to hate me."

"I feel like he kind of hates everyone in some way, though," I said. "He just comes off that way."

Erin twirled a stray twig between her fingers. "He's not so bad once you get to know him." She then switched to picking the bark off of it instead. "...Did he talk to you, too?"

"No," I said curiously. "You?" She nodded. "What did he say?"

She was quiet for a moment, and I couldn't see her face well enough to tell what she was thinking because of the darkness. "...I don't know, he talked about a couple different things." Another pause. "It's weird, though. He mentioned something about betrayal at one point."

I froze. "...Betrayal? Whose?"

"One of you guys'," she said, flicking the bark away. I desperately hoped she couldn't hear my heart from where it was pounding in my chest. "He implied that my friends would turn their backs on me, and asked what I would do if they did."

"And what would you do?" I asked, trying to sound as casual as possible. Oh God, oh God, oh God...

"Well, obviously I'd be mad," she said. "I mean...that's basically leaving me for dead, alone in the wild. Might as well steal from me while you're at it, because it's just as low." I swallowed nervously as she shot me a small smile. "But I know you wouldn't do that. You have no reason to."

Before I knew it, words were flying out of my mouth faster than I could think to filter them. "Of course not! Erin, I'd never leave you by yourself like that. I'm your best friend, it's my job to be loyal to you anyway."

"...Really?" she asked quietly.

"Uh, yeah!" I answered. "I'm sticking with you the whole way through this."

"Thanks, Kathryn." Even in the shadows of the night, I saw her smile widen a little. "You're awesome, you know that?" I nodded as she stood, not even finding it in me to laugh as she walked away, leaving me with my thoughts.

I was screaming on the inside.

Oh my God, what did I just do?!

*Literal translation is "...For what purpose?"

A/N: Sorry, this one's a bit short. Hope ya like it anyway! :D