Invisible to you

Echoes in the dark

⚠️ Alchohol use, violence, anxiety ⚠️
!Please inform me if I need to add more!
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~Previously~

And then he heard a different noise.

It was the sound of a deep chuckle and Legolas's head rapidly whirled in the direction of the only vacant stable at the very end. Yet he did not have another moment to think before his wrist was clasped and he was dragged into the stable.

~
3rd person PoV:

Before he had walked into those stables, Legolas had vowed to himself that he would find the real culprit behind these random attacks and prove his innocence to the public and to Aragorn. Yet now he could not, he would not dare to face anyone behind those city walls again.

Because as long as he remained, the more he would recall that rough hand clutching his wrist, yanking him into the darkness and staining his mind with everything that followed. This evil man who had been just a shadow even to his elven eyes, possessed the evil of a thousand enemy armies with a lifeless stare that barely glistened with life. Like a white goldfish at the bottom of a pond turned a dull green from the infestation of algae, the white gleam deep below was only perceptible if you intended to seek it out. Yet who would seek out a sliver of humanity in a being infected with the stench of evil? In thousands of evil-hearted humans was it even possible to distinguish one good heart? No, for the infection of evil spreads faster than sincerity in the heart. It did not matter how intense that person's will to fight back went because, in the end, it was hopeless. People crave evil like how a rich man yearns for land, like how a blind person craves sight. In the end, it was unavoidable, evil was like a rabid dog set loose in a crowd of people and instead of running the people lingered, some even threw themselves at it to get a taste of its glory.

That glint of light in the man's eyes did nothing but tell him that hate is stronger than love, and that evil is sought out more than good. Legolas no longer cared to seek out the culprit, for what did it matter? One man against thousands of evil, one less could not change the hearts of humanity.

So, as Legolas came to the realisation that Aragorn was not in danger, he fled the city of men and never looked back. With dulled eyes and paled skin, the elven Prince returned to his homeland of Mirkwood.

"You're back early, were you not having a good time?" A soft voice asked, whispering through the air like the first leaf of autumn falling from a tree. ("I was...but I didn't want to miss springtime in moominvally" I'm sorry I couldn't help myself. See my bird likes watching the moomins but we only have one disk and he watches it occasionally. I sit with him a lot so I have the whole script of that one disk engraved in my brain aaaaa)

Legolas raised his head slightly, watching as his red-haired friend advanced towards him from over the wooden bridge. The stench of rotting leaves invaded his nostrils as he seized a deep breath in to clear the fog in his mind. His eyes were dry as if his body lacked the liquid to dampen his vision and he was confident that from another's perspective, they resembled frozen meat. The light that usually flashed in them had subsided to the degree he looked dead. Paralleling his eyes, his throat resembled earth cracked from drought and each breath he took In felt like sandpaper was grating his lungs. Legolas briefly wondered when the last time it was he had had a drink.

The elf shifted on his feet and for the first time in his life he felt heavy. It was as if the roots from the pine and oak trees encircling him had sprung from the ground in an attempt to sink him into the earth, and yet, when Legolas looked down, the subtle shoe imprints, barely disturbing the auburn soil was the same as ever.