Home Soon, Love (Book 1)

25 Clueless, Slightly Frightened, And Dreamwalking

LEGOLAS POV

I sat upon a rock in her special place. "I finally found her getaway" I lightly chuckled. I began tossing small pebbles into the pond. I had come back to Mirkwood for a few days to kind of force her to get to know other people. I knew if I never gave her time to herself, she wouldn't try to give the town a chance. She would be miserable for those weeks living there. The sudden sound of rustling in a tree above directed my attention towards the sky. Yet as soon as I looked up, a sharp pain rang through my skull, leaving my vision black and hearing non existent.

I shot up from a sleep to nearby voices. The ground beneath me was cold and hard. I recognized my surroundings to be a cell, but not one of my kingdom. I sat forward, looking as far as my elven eyes could see past the slotted cell door. I took in every detail, trying to gather information to form a location of where I may be. "Give it a rest elf-prince" a young, hooded woman came out from around the corner. "No point. You haven't been here before" she placed her hands around my door's bars. She had a ring on the ring finger of her left hand. It held a gem the color of a deep red, the rest made of gold.

"We cannot have you helping Latalia. She must lose hope in you returning to her to convince her to lose hope in finding her people. It's for her own good" I ran to the door and reached my arm through the small gap. Being able to fit, I pulled my other arm though and began to choke her. I don't know why I insisted on choking this woman, but it happened.

"Baeltrice!" a man with short red hair ran over to the woman, pulling her back from my grasp. She began gasping for air, cursing me between breaths. Anger filled me as I used all of my strength to try and pry the cell door off of its hinges. But no matter how much force I put in, it would not budge. I sunk to the floor and watched the woman recover.

I remember this moment as if it was deja vu. I had a dream about this very moment a few nights before Latalia left for Esgaroth. "Baeltrice" I muttered, catching her attention once again. "Askit, get out of my sight you stupid fool. You are not supposed to utter my name" Baeltrice slapped his face hard, sending him away. She glared at me before storming off in the opposite direction of Askit. Once she left the view of my cell, I placed her ring that I had taken in my pocket.

Knowing I hadn't a plan of escape and that it may be impossible for a few days, I decided to get some more sleep to build up strength.

My eyes fluttered open, a tray lay next to me containing a single piece of lembas. I broke off a small corner and savored the waybread. "Keep it in your pocket so I can take the plate" a soft yet stern voice called. I looked out the cell door to an elven guard. "Why?" I asked. "So you can keep it instead of me taking it away from you. I don't know when they will give you food again." he looked around making sure no one was listening in to our conversation.

"Where are they keeping me?" he moved closer to tell me, but suddenly tensed and stood up straight. "Give me the plate, now" his voice was filled with hatred. I caught him wink at me, letting me know his words were just an act. Sure enough, the woman from earlier showed up at my cell door once again. I tossed the plate across the cold floor, waiting for the guard to reach for it and leave.

"Unlock his door and bring him to my study" Baeltrice eyed me closely before walking off. I tucked the lembas into my pocket like the guard suggested and stood up, waiting to be freed. The man unlocked my door, but held onto me tightly before I could try to escape. There was no use in trying to escape this strong guard's grasp. I took notice of every detail I could register. I studied every little piece of everything this place held.

The ground I was walking on was formed from bending tree trunks. The path was similar to the ones leading to ada's throne room. There was not much around for me to tell exactly where I was being kept. My thoughts were pushed aside as I was pushed into a nearby room, the doors closing and locking behind me. I immediately looked around for a weapon, but stopped when I saw what lay above a fireplace in front of me. On the fireplace mantle, framed pictures of my father, my mother, Aragorn, Tauriel, and Latalia. "Why do you have these" I walked closer to the pictures, carefully touching the frame of my mother's picture.

"To get you to break down." she stated coldly, my attention turning to her. She sat behind a desk, her dark eyes never leaving mine. "The maid for Latalia" I sighed, finally remembering who she was. "You know, before she left I helped her pack. She even told me of her plan. And sweet prince, it did not involve you. She told me she is to only focus on her tribe and nothing else can distract her. She already had an elven woman picked out for you to fall in love with. She wanted you to replace her so she could be on her own." her words stung.

"You expect me to believe you when all you want is to bring her to her doom." I paced around the room, looking for escape routes or things to use as a weapon. "Oh, we have already started that." she smirked, getting up from her seat and moving to the fireplace. I raised my eyebrows at her, motioning for her to continue.

"We know exactly where she is and where she will go. While waiting for you to come find her in the Fangorn Forest, my people will be using you as bait. She will be killed on the spot. You will even be the last face she sees when she is betrayed by her true love. So now you just have around two weeks to think about that until we head south to meet with her." her eyes flicked to the doors, like sending a secret message. Before I could comprehend what was fully going on, the doors opened and I was yet again dragged away to my cell.

Minutes turned into hours. The hours proceeded into days. I had been in this place for five days now. Marking two weeks since Latalia had moved to Edoras, and two weeks since I had last seen her. "Legolas. I only have a minute, but here" the same guard from days ago handed me small daggers that could easily be hidden within my tunic. "Thanks Berenin." he nodded before quickly walking off. I had talked to Berenin, and he was to help me escape from here. Yet I still hadn't asked where I was.

I laid back against the cell wall, ready to practice something I had read in one of the books in my kingdom's library. I closed my eyes and quietly began chanting the words I had cited from the book. I was performing a dream walking spell to reach Latalia. I had to let her know what happened to me in any way possible.