Chapter 6

-o0o-

"Estel is missing," Elrond explained. "Apparently, he snuck away in the middle of the night and went to look for his brothers by himself."

"What?" Glorfindel asked. "How did he get out of Imladris without being seen?"

"It was a misunderstanding between Erestor and Lindir and apparently our little Estel has learned more about stealth and sneaking out behind our backs than we had thought. We can ask him about the details of his escape once we find him and bring him home."

"Of course," Glorfindel hastily acquiesced. "We will help in the search and we will not stop searching until we find him." Glorfindel's face showed his determination. "Have you found any trail?"

Elrond answered: "Not yet, but we only just started. We need to spread out as much as possible to look for clues."

Glorfindel agreed and while the injured were being directed home by those of his search party that were too weary to go on, he and the majority of his elves immediately joined the search.

-o0o-

"-dan, Elladan, can you hear me?" The sound came muffled as if from far away and was followed the next moment by a hand brushing against his face, clearing mud and loose soil away. Of course - the landslide, he had been buried beneath the thin ceiling of the cave entrance as it collapsed on top of him.

Carefully he blinked his eyes open, shaking his head to dislodge the remnants of earth still clinging to his skin. There was a relieved sigh and a heavy thud as Elrohir sat down beside him. "Thank Eru," the younger twin muttered, relief clear in his voice - but so was exhaustion. The overcast night sky offered preciously little light but compared to their previous surroundings it was practically bright. And now he could see what he only guessed at before: Elrohir was deathly pale. He was breathing through clenched teeth and the flashes of pain that crossed his face whenever he moved his leg were clear signs that he was in agony.

Elladan sat up abruptly, dislodging mud and earth that still clung to him, trying to pin him down. "Why are you here?" he demanded.

Concern flashed across Elrohir's face and Elladan could have kicked himself for the wording of his question even before his twin responded carefully, obviously fearing Elladan suffered from amnesia: "We were stuck in a cave. While you attempted to find a way out the ceiling coll-"

"I know," Elladan interrupted, "but I left you behind where you should have been safe. How did you get here?"

A new emotion replaced the concern in his twin's eyes, defiance. "With all due haste," Elrohir answered icily.

"With great difficulty, you mean," Elladan gave back, just as cold. "You should not have climbed with your knee."

"If you suggest I should have left you, buried alive beneath sand and rocks then you are even more foolish today than I have come to expect. And perhaps you should wait to lecture me until after you have freed yourself from your shallow grave."

His twin's eyes flashed angrily, flicking to where Elladan's legs were still very much trapped in a mire of mud, and Elladan had to concede that Elrohir had a point. They had always come to the other's rescue, no matter how injured. They relied on each other to stay safe. He could not truly have expected Elrohir to stay safely behind while he was in peril.

Not that it felt like much peril. He had lost a few moments perhaps, but the ground that had fallen on him was mostly soil, softened by the recent rain, and he had suffered no more than a few fresh bruises. Still, as he extracted his legs from the ground, he imagined that from Elrohir's perspective, things would have looked very different.

At least they were out of the cave now. The collapse of the ceiling had opened a hole wide enough to climb through. And at the top of the slope of rock and stone as they were, they would be able to grasp onto the edge of the firm forest floor above them and heave themselves out of the dark bowels of the earth with relative ease. It was a small mercy and Elladan silently thanked the Valar for it before turning back to his twin.

Silence still lingered between them as Elrohir steadfastly ignored him, focusing on gingerly straightening his leg instead. Fresh blood dotted the bandage around his head as well, suggesting that his twin either did not tell him about being affected by the most recent cave-in or had indeed overdone it while coming to his aid. Either way, it was no more than a few drops so far and Elladan did not want to chance another argument with his twin.

They had more important things to worry about anyway - such as getting back to Rivendell. How would he bring his thickheaded twin home without horses and barely any supplies? It was painfully obvious that Elrohir would not be able to walk any long distance, not with his knee damaged and weakened by blood loss and injury.

"You could just ask how I am feeling," Elrohir suggested from across the small space, finally breaking the silence and effectively interrupting Elladan's musings.

"Ah, but brother, you would most likely lie."

"Clearly you confuse me with Legolas," Elrohir huffed and the indignation in his voice was almost enough to make Elladan smile. A small peace offering, despite the severity of their situation.

"Very well, then," he said. "How are you feeling? Truthfully."

The ghost of a smile crossed Elrohir's lips. "I think I will be able to walk back home. If," he added with a sheepish expression before Elladan could interrupt him, "you help me get up."

"And help you stay up, I wager." Elladan sighed. But he rose to his feet regardless and helped Elrohir to his. He was not entirely sure if he should trust his twin's words, but the hard truth was that there was no other choice. They had to get out of here.

Clasping his brother's arm he slung it over his shoulder, supporting Elrohir's waist with his other hand and trying to take as much of his weight as possible. It would be slow going but at least they would be moving. The important thing now was to get Elrohir back to Rivendell and into their father's care.

-o0o-

The small group of humans had set up camp for the night. They were on their way west towards Bree to do some trading and had been traveling for days on end from Rohan. Normally, they were a quiet bunch that kept to themselves and tried to keep out of trouble, following the safest road - even if it led past elf territory. Previously this path had always been empty, always felt safe and never had they actually seen any of the elven folk, luckily. But recently they had heard of orcs even this far west on the road.

Today, however, they had diverged from their usual caution and this is what they were discussing as they sat around the campfire: "I tell ye, Bill," Paul said, "we should've left the lil' bairn where we found 'im. We ought not meddle when it is not our trouble."

Bill shook his head and answered: "He is a little child that lay unconscious in our way. What trouble could a little boy cause?"

"I'm sure we'll see it ourselves soon 'nough!" Paul replied testily.

"He is a child. If we had left him there, he would have died," Bill tried to reason.

""Betta him than us, I say. We dunno where he came from and who'll be lookin' for him."

"Who says that anyone will come lookin' for him? We know nothing about this child," Bill said.

"Is what I'm sayin'. We know nothing and don't need to find out."

"But ..." Bill started to reply but was interrupted when a third voice joined the discussion: "I have ta agree with Paul. We do know nothin' about the bairn, but it is not likely that a child so young would be out here by himself," Ed explained. "He is no orphan that's for sure. The way he's dressed says he's from a good house and the trail showed that he got here on a pony. I dunno what the bairn's story is, but I think we can all agree that there are people lookin' for him right now."

Paul chimed in: "An' I tell ye, these people willn't be happy to find him with us. We'd betta have left him there."

Before Bill could answer, John answered for him: "I agree with Bill. We couldn't have left him lying there. He wouldn't have lasted long defenseless and alone as he was. An' close to elf country, too. Who knows what they'da done to him."

"An' what if them wanna punish us for takin' him?"

"Maybe his parents will thank us for saving his life," Bill argued.

Before they could start the discussion again, John declared: "Either way, there is nothin' we can do about it now. What's past is past. We took the bairn with us and we can't leave him behind anymore. Right or wrong, he is our problem now and we'll just have to hope that whoever is lookin' for him, willn't do us no harm for what we've done."

After these final words on the subject, all four men turned towards the small boy that was lying on the other side of the fire, still unconscious and not giving them any answers.

-o0o-

Time was dragging on. It was hard to guess the exact time of night in the nearly complete darkness. It felt like they had been walking for hours, but that might just be exhaustion finally getting the better of them. As Elladan stopped again to allow him and his twin a moment of rest, he wondered if this forsaken night would never end. Trying to remember just how long they had been fighting to survive in darkness, he noticed how difficult it was to even guess. Too long at any rate. But who knew if it had been daylight outside when they had woken in the cave?

Elladan gripped his twin's hand tighter, dragging a bit more of Elrohir's arm over his shoulder as he got ready to continue their journey home. It was pointless to dwell on the unknown, or on things he could not change, for now he needed to focus on the present. That meant he had to focus on getting home, on getting Elrohir into their father's care. At the very least there were a few hours of night left, if they could make it to the borders of Rivendell by morning they would most likely be found by patrols quickly.

"Do you hear that?"

Elrohir's voice drew Elladan out of his musing and he halted in his steps for a moment. Now that he was not focusing on just putting one step in front of the other, he did indeed hear something. The faint murmur of voices reached his ears, too far away to make out words but the sounds suggested human speakers. Turning his head in the direction that the sounds seemed to echo from, Elladan thought he might just see light shining through the densely growing trees.

He exchanged a glance with Elrohir.

"They might be able to help," the younger twin suggested.

"Or mean new harm," Elladan gave back.

"Either way, we need to know."

Elladan nodded. It was true; in their current condition they could not let the chance of a safe haven to rest go unused. Neither could they continue while leaving an unknown danger behind them – in their state they would not be able to outrun it.

"Stay here!" Elladan said, stopping next to a tree that would hopefully lend both support and cover to his injured brother. As he turned to leave he found Elrohir's hand on his shoulder holding him back. He was already prepared for the discussion that he knew would follow.

"Elrohir," he began as he turned around to face his twin, barely holding back a sigh at the obstinacy of his brother. What he saw made him hesitate. There was no stubborn refusal to be left behind in Elrohir's eyes, just a weary acceptance of the circumstances.

"Only scout, then come back." the younger twin said. He gave his twin's shoulder a light squeeze before he added: "and be careful they do not spot you. You move with all the grace of a mûmakil tonight."

Elladan snorted despite himself: "Only because I have to drag a sorry excuse of a mountain troll around with me."

The twins shared a look and half a smile, neither fooled by the apparent levity of their words yet comforted by the familiarity of it. Elrohir let go of Elladan's arm and the older twin moved away, heading for the sounds in the distance.

Elladan kept to the shadows, moving from one tree to the next. He had indeed seen light earlier, the glow of a fire that was soon lightening his way. But more light meant a higher risk of being discovered. Never discarding the possibility that the men would have sentries, Elladan slowed his pace and moved to the deeper shadows of the old trees lining his path. His sharp elven eyes did not detect a guard as he crept slowly closer. Soon he could see the fire blazing before him, alighting on the shapes of tents and men. They were a rowdy lot; their loud discussion clearly traversed the distance. Based on their speech, he guessed they were from Rohan and going by their appearance their journey had been hard. Their clothes were dirty and old, though mended with care in many places. It seemed their provisions were running low, unless they had further stores inside their tents where Elladan could not see them, but he doubted it. No stew was cooking over the fire, no sign of a successful hunt was seen in the grass and the faces of the men who were still awake were grim.

'No,' Elladan decided: 'these men have nothing to spare.' And while they did not seem hostile, Elladan did not for a moment entertain the idea of bringing his injured brother into their midst.

The older twin turned to leave when a sudden movement at the other side of the fire caught his eyes. One of the men leaned forward, inspecting something wrapped in a coarse woolen blanket that lay close to the fire. When the man straightened, he revealed the face of a child, stirring slightly against the sudden touch of the man's hand. Small moans flitted through the air and reached Elladan's ears.

His blood ran cold. He knew that voice! He knew it as well as the much loved face that was scrunching up in pain besides the fire. These men had Estel!

-o0o-

tbc...

A/N: After a short break last week we are back with a new chapter. And we'd love to hear your thoughts and comments on the newest chapter. Reviews feed the muses :D