Lord Of The Rings Fan Fiction ❯ Legolas and the Rangers ❯ Reunions ( Chapter 13 )

Chapter 13

 

Reunions

 

Elrohir returned to consciousness spluttering when one of the goblins threw a pale of water into his face. He shivered slightly, feeling unnaturally cold. The goblin just leered at him and left, slamming the door shut as loudly as he could. Elrohir sighed and settled back against the wall.

 

They'd done this to him several times already, enough to make Elrohir stay awake for prolonged periods of time to avoid being drenched.

 

Wearily he glanced around his cell but it was the same as the last time he'd looked. Dusty, rocky walls, a dirt floor and a heavy wooden door were all there was to his chamber. Though the place was dry, the portal in the wooden door still allowed the dank smell of the corridor beyond to drift into his tiny cell.

 

Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Elrohir lay down not caring about the consequences of sleeping. He was simply too tired and needed sleep wherever or whenever he could get it.

 

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Elrond stood, his fingers gripping the balcony railing so hard his knuckles had turned white.

 

Steeling himself, he turned back to Erestor. `What do you mean Blaen is gone?' demanded Elrond icily.

 

The advisor remained unfazed, not at all minding that he had been the bearer of such bad news. Generally a composed person, Erestor was one of the few who'd ever seen Elrond's temper get the better of him. In truth he found it rather amusing that Elrond should have a mixture of his children's' temperamental natures. He could explode without a moments warning such as Elladan was prone to doing when angry or he could restrain himself to amazing limits just as Elrohir had always done.

 

`Exactly what I said,' retorted Erestor. `I have seen nary a sign of the ranger all day and when I looked into his current movements, I discovered no one has seen or heard him all day and one of the mounts is missing from the stables. It was assumed that Lord Glorfindel had taken the extra horse with him on patrol despite later reports indicating that he left with only one horse.'

 

Elrond sighed and thumped the railing hard. `Men!' he growled, `they're all the same: stubbornly pig headed and willful.' `Calm down,' ordered Erestor. `Getting upset is not going to solve anything.'

 

`Calm down?' questioned Elrond disbelievingly. `I can't! It amazes me that Thranduil still manages to remain sane when his son is still missing. If it were any of my children I probably would have blown the roof off this house by now. As it is I'm getting close to it. Our efforts to locate Legolas have proved futile thus far, my own sons are out in a very dangerous situation for the first time on their own and now that wayward ranger has decided to up and leave without a moments notice while still recovering from the last time I let him out of my sight! How can you expect me to remain calm!' hollered Elrond.

 

`Because you are the Lord of Imladris, your father was perhaps one a man's most renown heroes, your ancestors before you have been of the highest linage, your own brother the greatest King of Men . Most importantly though, you are Master Elrond, the wisest of the wise and I have faith in you,' answered Erestor.

 

Elrond sighed, seeming to deflate before Erestor eyes. He gazed tiredly outwards from the balcony. `You are right mellon nin.' `I am always right,' answered Erestor, amused.

 

Elrond snorted, `your ego leaves much to desire though.' Erestor shrugged, `point taken.'

 

Elrond hesitated suddenly. Silence stretched between them before eventually Elrond mumbled, `will you come and help me in the Healing Wing?' `Why?' Erestor asked puzzled. Sheepishly Elrond displayed his hand which was turning a startling black. `I broke my finger hitting the railing; I will need you to help me set it.'

 

Erestor sighed, `ai Elbereth preserve us all.'

 

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Elrohir, his body trained to wake anytime the door to his cell opened, frowned when the door did open but to admit a large goblin and not one of the usual guards that patrolled in his area.

 

`Here,' grunted the goblin tossing several objects at his feet. Looking at them, he realised that they were mining tools. Elrohir glared furiously at the goblin. `I am not working for you if that's what you think,' hissed Elrohir. `You will,' sneered the goblin hauling Elrohir to his feet by his tattered leather jerkin.

 

Though bigger in girth and muscle mass than Elrohir, he knew that he was the stronger of the two and didn't hesitate in letting the goblin know it. A fury had awoken in Elrohir such as he'd never known and he punched the goblin soundly in the jaw, followed by a powerful thrust of his knee into the beast's midsection.

 

The goblin went down like a tonne of bricks and Elrohir deftly scooped up the pick that had been given too him, intending to end the beast's life and escape.

 

The goblin was already getting back to his feet despite his obvious pain. `Stop!' roared the goblin as Elrohir raised the pick to deliver the killing blow. Something in the goblin's voice made him hesitate and in that amount of time the beast managed to wheeze, `I wouldn't if I were you.' `Why not?' demanded Elrohir icily.

 

Leering, the goblin gestured back at the doorway where two other goblins stood in the shadows. They stepped forward, throwing something onto the floor of the cell just beside the first goblin Elrohir had intended to kill.

 

He stared, not sure what he was supposed to be looking at and then the goblin kicked the bundle and it rolled over.

`Elladan?'

 

Elrohir's voice came out in a strangled gasp. His gaze quickly rose from his brother and he stepped forward, fury blazing in his eyes. He could see nothing wrong with Elladan but his brother's face was pale and his eyes closed in exhaustion or maybe pain, Elrohir could not tell. Only the slight rise and fall of his brother's chest had let Elrohir know that Elladan still lived.

 

`Oh no you don't,' growled the goblin leveling Elrohir with the blade he'd drawn from his sheath. `Unless you want a bolt through your heart and your brother's then I'd pick up that stuff and come with me.'

 

Elrohir saw the glint of the crossbow bolts beyond in the passage and knew that the beast was right. Cautiously, he sunk down and gathered the other mining tools even though his heart sank with him as he did. Helplessness washed through him as one of the guards stepped into the cell and pulled his brother back out of reach.

 

Elladan was everything to him and to see him alive after he'd thought him dead and then lose him again was a cruel blow to his heart. Of course, the goblins would have had to have been blind not to have noticed that he and Elladan were twins. Unfortunately, they'd realised that his brother would be the perfect leverage to get Elrohir to work in the mines that the beasts were no doubt constructing in the back of the cave the twins had planned to take shelter in what felt like centuries ago.

 

The goblins leered at him as they noticed the defeat in his face but Elrohir vowed that the first chance he got, he and Elladan were getting out of there.

 

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Kit, his hood drawn low over his face and an arrow resting gently against the string, moved back to the area he had left Trelaen scouting in. He had deliberately kept close to the older ranger in the past several weeks to keep an eye on him.

 

They were close now, tantalizingly close to the orc band they had been tracking. The tall young ranger's heart pounded with anger as he remembered the ambush that had cost so many of the rangers' lives and had taken Blaen from them.

 

Yet, it was not orcs he sensed ahead but something else though he could not place it.

 

Eventually he spotted Trelaen on the shadows of several large oak trees and signaled him over.

 

`Something ahead,' he murmured right beside Trelaen's ear so that only he heard.

 

Trelaen nodded and moved back into the brush. Using bird calls, Kit directed Trelaen back towards the clearing ahead of the area he had been scouting. There was nothing there and Kit was about to step out into the clearing when someone grabbed him from behind, a hand going firmly over his mouth to prevent him crying out and a blade pressing firmly against his neck.

 

Kit hissed slightly as he felt the cool steal press against his neck but could make no other sound. He was furious with himself. He, a ranger skilled in the art of stealth, had suddenly gone from being the hunter to the prey.

 

Just as suddenly he was being released and laughter reached his ears. Whirling angrily, his expression rapidly changed to one of shock.

 

Behind him, laughing as if he had gone mad, stood Blaen dressed in elven clothes and a little worse for wear but alive.