Sons of Thunder II: Where the Shadows Lie.

BETA: The incomparable and generous Anarithilen. Thank you as always.

Sons of Thunder is the story of Elrohir and Legolas. WARNING: This is a slash pairing with violence, sexual violence, elements of non-con and certainly references to it. At least one scene with dubious consent. Some of the sex IS gratuitous but the violent sex is always part of the plot and essential.

All my stories follow the canon timeline but fill in and play about with characters, but essentially the plot remains as Tolkien wrote it.

You don't have to have read any of my other stories - anything that needs explaining I am intending to put into the writing. Anything I can't will be noted at the beginning of the chapter.

Chapter 1: On the edges of Mordor

It was in the blessed time after the War had been won but Aragorn had not yet been declared King. The Fellowship basked in the peace of those blissful days after the War and Aragorn had not yet come to the White City but remained camped on the Field of Cormallen. They met each evening to share supper and they had begun to tell their tales and every morning there was a small gift to be found for Sam and Frodo to remind them a living things. Legolas had taken this upon himself for each of the Fellowship had their part to play in the Hobbits' recovery; this was his.

He threw open the flap of Aragorn's huge tent. One of Aragorn's huge tents, he amended, for it was not the tent where the King Returned was at this moment. This was the tent Legolas was looking for though. It was where the King dined and at one end of the tent were chests full of gleaming silver cutlery and glass that sparkled in the sunlight. He grabbed a crystal goblet that was so fine, so delicately made it looked like it would shatter if drunk from, and tossed it cheerfully into the air and caught it at the moment one of the stewards turned to look.

'My lord, that is from the reign of Túrin the Second!' protested the steward. 'It is crystal, made by the Dwarves of Erebor before the Dragon!'

Legolas balanced it upon the tip of one finger and flashed his most blinding smile. 'It is for these,' he said, opening his hand and showing them the slender buds of anenomes. 'They need water or they will die.' He spun the goblet so it flashed and gleamed. 'For the Hobbits.'

The nervous steward softened immediately. 'I have the very thing,' he said and clicked his fingers towards a passing servant who was hurrying past with a basket of fresh loaves in one hand and a dish of fried mushrooms in the other. 'When you have served second breakfast, please bring the crystal flower flute, the very fine one from Boromir the First's reign.' He turned to Legolas and smiled complicitly. 'It is quite priceless but those flowers will look enchanting in it.' He paused and then asked anxiously, 'My lord, are you not expected at the King's council?'

'Oh, I do not suppose he needs my counsel in addition to everyone else's,' Legolas replied nonchalantly. 'It is far better that I attend the hobbits for second breakfast,' for he had seen Merry and Pippin had just entered the tent and were waving at him.

'Good morning Legolas! Are you joining us? It's just Merry and me otherwise, and that is hardly worth all the effort they have made.' Pippin waved an apple at Legolas and grinned. In one corner of the huge tent was a low table and bench. The table was laden with loaves of bread and honey and butter, cheese and eggs, bacon and mushrooms and jugs of water sparkling. The hobbits perched on a bench at the wide table, feet dangling. They scooted up to make room for Legolas though he had to stretch his legs out in order to fit.

'Apparently I am late for Aragorn's meeting,' he replied unconcerned, reaching over and snagging a slice of bread which he spread thickly with butter and then honey. 'I am useless at meetings anyway,' he said. They ate eggs, bacon, mushrooms, cheese, fruit and the small delicious loaves that he liked so much. Much later, he licked his fingers and gestured to the crystal goblet. 'I am taking these for Sam,' he said and rose to his feet. 'And then I suppose I had better go and find out what Aragorn has decided.'

'Do you have to?' Pippin asked plaintively. 'Gimli is already at the council and he'll tell you all the important bits. Surely Aragorn can manage on his own?'

'Yes, he has Gandalf, and Gimli, and all those advisors and officials, and we only have you,' Merry added grinning, and Legolas laughed.

'I think I have to go. Aragorn wants me to ride into Minas Morgul with Gandalf and it would be good to know what I have to do when I get there.'

'You are going into Minas Morgul?' Merry asked horrified. 'Surely Sauron is defeated, gone. There is nothing left.'

'He is defeated indeed,' Legolas agreed. 'But as to there being nothing left, well someone needs to find out if that is indeed the case.'

'It sounds dangerous to me,' Pippin said looking up at Legolas anxiously. 'Legolas,' he said a little hesitantly, 'are you sure it should be you going? You know the Nazgûl seemed to have a special interest in hurting you.'

Legolas patted Pippin on the shoulder tenderly, affectionately. 'Thank you Pip. Khamûl especially did seem to really dislike me for some reason.' He laughed lightly. 'I think it was because I fought them in the Wood, at the command of my brother. I was one of Laersul's warriors and they really hated him. In fact, I do not know who they hated more; my father or my brother.' He considered. 'Or my other brother.'

'Oh! You have two brothers?' Pip breathed. 'I didn't know.' He looked crestfallen that they could have travelled for so long with Legolas and yet know so little about him.

'I will tell you of them some day if you like, Pip. They are both far more suited to almost anything than I am. They are very brave and very clever. But I am a better archer and much better looking. Also my middle brother is a lackwit.' He grinned so Pippin would know that was not true for Thalos was more than a match for any, and suddenly Legolas felt a pang of loneliness; he remembered the news that had reached them a few nights ago, that Celeborn and Thranduil had fought a terrible battle under the trees and met only days before. He knew his father was alive but there had been no news of his brothers, or Galion. Or any of his friends.

Although some of his friends had already fallen.

Legolas' hands stilled and he looked down, remembering Anglach; he squeezed his eyes shut trying to block out the last time he had seen his closest friend, the light hearted and playful Anglach, whose eyes had been gouged out and ears cut off by orcs when Smeagol was freed. And there was too the vision that Saruman had given him when they were in Orthanc, of a body hitched upon a lance, golden hair fluttering. Saruman had suggested it was Thranduil and while the Battle under the Trees had been won, that did not mean his father was safe, or that orcs had been entirely driven from the Wood.

Slowly he became aware of a warmth on his arm and looked down to see that on one side Pippin was looking up at him with concern and Merry on the other.

'Is it the sea-longing?' Merry asked and Legolas frowned.

'No! No,' he said more gently. 'No indeed, that is…that is a joy to my heart although still a bewilderment… No. I was just a little homesick.' He smiled slightly.

'I get that too, don't I, Merry?' Pippin turned to Merry who nodded. 'I miss the Shire. I miss Longbottom Leaf and ale and beer. I miss bread and butter and cheese and pickles and ham and eggs and bacon and tomatoes and …'

Legolas laughed and spread his hand out towards the considerable feast before them.

'I know,' said Pippin and he helped himself plentifully to the slices of ham and bread and cheese and pickles and butter. 'But it just doesn't taste the same,' he said with his mouthful.

Suddenly a man dashed through the tent door, looking about in consternation. The hobbits and elf looked at him and when he saw them, he looked intensely relieved and sketched a hasty bow. 'My lord,' he said to Legolas, who almost twitched as if he wanted to shrug off the title that he did not care for. 'Please will you come with me. His gracious majesty has asked that you attend him.'

Legolas sighed and rose to his feet. 'Farewell then my friends. Think of me when the hour is long past noon and I am still listening to Aragorn's many advisors and lords telling us again how glorious is the King, how he has single-handedly vanquished the forces of all darkness and evil, how the land is more fertile and the animals gone silly with breeding, how flowers blossom where his feet touch the grass.' He laughed merrily and tossed the crystal goblet in his hand ignoring the smothered cries of the servants. 'Tell the King I am coming. But I have something else to do first.'

Sam and Frodo were still asleep when he left the delicate flowers in the crystal goblet on the table beside them. He carefully placed so it would be the first thing Sam saw when he opened his eyes. And only then did he go to the council of the King Returned.

0o0o

When he arrived at Aragorn's tent, the wing-helmed guards snapped to attention and stood aside to let him pass.

Aragorn was half bent over a map and his hair was in his eyes.

'…we must search in Minas Morgul,' he was saying as Legolas entered. 'We need to be sure there are no secret enemy forces.' The captains and the great lords of Gondor were seated or standing around the long oak table upon which were spread maps of Gondor and its surrounding lands. The map of Mordor was before Aragorn. All had the weary expressions of those who had been long in debate and discussion. Aragorn glanced up irritably at Legolas' entrance and then softened when he saw it was his friend.

Gimli turned and hurrumped emphatically and Legolas flashed him a smile, but in truth his attention was all on Elrohir who sat at Aragorn's side, a cane resting against one thigh for he was still wounded from the Battle of the Morannon, his beautiful face impassive. But his eyes were smokey with lust the moment Legolas walked in. Legolas inclined his head to the gathered lords, and Imrahil smiled warmly. Legolas was grateful that Eomer was not there for the Man still watched Legolas with hurt and longing in his eyes.

Legolas walked behind the gathered lords and captains and although they made as if to part for him so he could stand at the front of the long table and beside Aragorn, he waved his hand carelessly in dismissal and indicated he would stand further back. In truth he wanted to stand opposite Aragorn but only so that he could gaze at Elrohir, to look his fill and to distract him if he could.

'If indeed the forces of Sauron have been vanquished, there will be nothing there anyway,' one of Gondor's great lords spoke. He was a tall man with grey hair and leaned upon a cane much as Elrohir. But this was not through injury but through infirmity; Legolas remembered that Bard had done the same as he grew old. 'Surely you do not wish to risk our remaining men to satisfy mere curiosity?' the old man declared. There was a slight stirring amongst the gathering, one Legolas recognised from his father's court; some would be anxious at the implied slight to the new King, others would agree. But if Aragorn had anything about him, Legolas knew, he would simply assert his will.

'Curiosity now may well mean that we catch any stragglers, my lord Adrahil,' Aragorn said calmly to the aged lord. 'Any strays who might later attack our settlements. Or there may be some greater danger that we do not yet know.'

Legolas stifled a sigh and was bored; he knew they would go to Minas Morgul as Aragorn desired and search the ruined city to make sure the Nazgûl had truly departed with Sauron. Gandalf had wanted it. He wondered why they even bothered discussing it. This was a waste of his time, he thought, when he might be doing more interesting things instead.

He watched the sun catch in raven-black hair instead of listening, stared in fascinated lust at the rounded tip of Elrohir's ear and thought about running his finger along the edge. His sigh was longer, louder this time and an entirely different sound; several men glanced his way although none said anything. But he saw Elrohir twitch.

'Here is the road from Osgiliath,' Aragorn stabbed his finger down onto the map. 'And here,' he ran his finger along the thick black line that marked the road, 'is Minas Morgul. Can you not see, it is the most strategic point on the river, our mainstay….'

Legolas stopped listening again and drifted around the back of the gathered lords as if he were going to peer over Aragorn's shoulder at the map, to get a better view.

It took him directly behind Elrohir's chair, and when he leaned forwards slightly to look at the map, he let his breath drift over the back of Elrohir's head, it lifted one or two strands of his long black-silk hair and Elrohir turned his head ever so slightly to glance back over his shoulder at Legolas, standing close, too close, behind him. His lips turned upwards slightly and then he turned back to face all the generals and lords.

'I wager we will be leaving at dawn,' Legolas whispered so quietly against Elrohir's ear, deliberately letting his breath caress it and was pleased at the shiver it brought. 'Will you miss me?'

Elrohir shifted uncomfortably and Legolas smiled and let his hand surreptitiously trace the straight spine of his beloved who was trying so hard to concentrate.

'...the bands that escaped the assault on the Morannon will have taken to the hills here...' Aragorn was pointing to an outstretched map in the middle of the table. 'And here too, in the Morgul Vale.'

'I will be glad of some rest,' Elrohir murmured below the hearing on Men, he turned his face slightly towards Legolas and smiled. 'You have quite worn me out.'

Legolas raised an eyebrow. 'Then I will find you well rested and eager on my return,' he whispered back. Aragorn glared at them for a moment and Legolas flashed him a brilliant smile.

'The Morgul vale is where the Nazgûl dwelt,' Aragorn continued. 'It will be an evil place and I need to know if it is quite vacated or there is some evil lingering. Are all their winged beasts dead or do they have more kept in there?'

'I will take a troop of riders, my lord, if you wish?' Imrahil said smoothly, as if he and Aragorn had not prearranged precisely this conversation to persuade the lords and captains of the necessity. 'Twenty will suffice will it not, if it is merely to search the ruins? We will not engage with any substantial forces, and if my lords Elladan and Elrohir will come? And perhaps you too, my lord?' He bowed slightly to Legolas who grinned excitedly at Aragorn. 'We will be sufficient.'

'I am delighted to be of service, my lord,' he said to Aragorn. 'And I know a dwarf who will be very grumpy if he does not ride at my back….' Gimli made a sound that Legolas assumed was agreement. 'But my lord Elrohir should not go,' he said emphatically. 'He is not recovered.'

Elrohir began to protest but Aragorn spoke over him. 'Certainly not. He cannot even stand for a council, let alone ride to Minas Morgul. No, he will stay here.'

'I am more than capable…' Elrohir tried to say but Legolas cut across him.

'Good. That is settled. Gimli will go in Elrohir's stead. That will be more than enough I am sure, Aragorn, to check out a few 'wee beasties' as the dwarf would say.' He laughed brightly and flashed another smile at Aragorn.

'If there are wee beasties, it'll be a good thing you have my axe,' Gimli said over Elrohir's further protest.

Elrohir began to rise to his feet but Legolas was always stronger than he and firmly pushed him back into his chair.

'Stay,' he said lightly, humorously. 'You will slow us down.' But the smile he gave was soft with love although Elrohir did not return it. Nor did he meet his gaze.

00o0oo0o

Elrohir seethed.

How dare Aragon and Legolas talk over him, decide if he were strong enough to ride, to fight, to go with the company to Minas Morgul!

He leaned heavily on the ebony cane and limped over to the heavy wooden table that someone had thought it necessary to bring all this way and put into a tent for his comfort. One handed, he pulled the stopper from a cut glass decanter, equally unnecessary, and poured himself red wine into the cut glass goblet. He looked around in contempt, feeling the familiar surge of fury swirl around him.

Not gone.

Just because Angmar and Sauron have gone does not mean I am whole, he ground out, hating himself. Hating his weakness.

'You should not be on your feet! Here, let me.' Legolas caught him by the elbow and began to turn him, intending to steer him to the carved chair near the tent doorway.

Elrohir shook him off and turned glaring at him. 'I am not an invalid. Nor a fool!'

Legolas took a step back. His eyes were wide in astonishment . 'I know. I just…'

'You just treat me like one! You and Aragorn talking over me like I am some whining whelp still wet from its mother's milk! How dare you speak for me!'

But Legolas was not easily intimidated either and he bristled right on back. 'Then stop whining like one. You are injured.'

'In my leg not in my head!'

'And you cannot ride!'

'You treat me like I cannot think for myself, cannot do anything myself.'

'I know.' It was as if Legolas had suddenly remembered what it was like and tried to soothe, placate. 'I am sorry. Sit down please and let me do this for you.'

But Elrohir was too angry, and his leg hurt, throbbed wildly. 'For the last time, stop treating me like I am an invalid.'

'But you are an invalid.'

'I am mildly wounded.

'You nearly died...'

'And you are suffocating me!' Elrohir breathed in suddenly, almost a gasp. He felt like clapping his hand over his mouth as if he might take back those words; he would drive Legolas away.

Legolas stepped back, hands spread and Elrohir's heart dropped away as if he were falling from a great height. Of course. Legolas would leave now and with time and distance, he would wonder why in all of Arda he had taken up with one so soiled and corrupted as Elrohir was.

Legolas sighed. 'Yes. That is probably true. Perhaps we are both too anxious about the other right now?' He looked with mild enquiry and Elrohir, hardly able to believe, almost held his breath. 'It's just I have never felt this way before about anyone.' And the Wood-elf grimaced slightly. Elrohir tried not to think it was because it was a well-worn phrase for Legolas; he knew Legolas had had many lovers before Elrohir, and Elrohir had not. He did not want to think about that either. He did not want to feel even more soiled that he already was.

'Let us agree then,' Legolas said and smiled. 'We will not seek to prevent the other from doing anything that we would not prevent Gimli from doing.' His smile became a grin then and Elrohir smiled back.

Elrohir conceded, 'I can live with that; if Gimli said he was going to climb to the topmost branch of that oak, I would be able to stop him because as a dwarf, he would not be safe.'

Legolas laughed softly. 'And if Gimli said he was going to swim that mighty river or cross the Hithaeglir in Winter, I would stop him because he is too short and would be lost in a snow drift.'

Their eyes met. 'It will take us time, beloved,' Legolas said. Elrohir reached out and stroked a finger over Legolas' cheek, marvelling because he could. He gazed at Legolas and there was a slight smile on his lips, disbelieving, and Legolas laughed.

'What?' he asked. 'Do I have something on my face? In my hair? In my teeth?'

Elrohir laughed softly and dropped his gaze, then looked back up. 'No. I just cannot believe you could love me.'

Legolas made a sound that was part sad and part irritated. 'How can you doubt this? You are Ravéyön. You saved me three times, from the Nazgûl no less. You defeated the Brethren gathered to take you into shadow. You are the Son of Thunder. How could I not fall helplessly at your feet?' he said extravagantly and looked adoringly into Elrohir's face. He leaned towards him and kissed him deeply. 'Never forget, Elrohir, my beloved, I am utterly yours. Every bit of me is yours. My heart and soul and body.'

Elrohir lifted his hand then to Legolas' lovely face and cupped it so Legolas turned his face into his palm and kissed it. 'I do not deserve you.

'Was I won too lightly then?' Legolas said laughing and pulled away.

Elrohir shook his head but in his heart, a little quaver of doubt seeded itself. Was he too lightly won? Not by Elrohir, but Eomer? 'I do not deserve you,' Elrohir repeated and he meant it with all his heart.

o0o0o

Next chapter: Minas Morgul..