For Pride, For Gondor

VII

In an act of pure desperation, Legolas reached for the Ring, still clutched in Boromir's hands. He forgot he was being held down by Boromir and his fingers only gripped the Ring for a second before falling back to his side. Legolas hadn't realised that Boromir's grip had slackened out of surprise from seeing men and orcs bursting into his father's hall, Legolas' light touch was able to whisk the chain out of Boromir's hands and across the room. Luckily, the barraging army flooding through the doors had not noticed the object their master so desired flying freely through the air. Legolas stood up, attempting to locate the Ring, before he had the chance however, rough hands grabbed his shoulders and foul breath flowed through his nose as a cruel voice whispered into his delicate ear, "Well now, what have we here...this one looks different from the rest. I'm sure the Lord will appreciate a new toy", before Legolas could react, a blow to the back of his head sent him reeling towards the ground.

Legolas awoke with his hands chained above his head. He hung by his wrists at the top of a dark tower. As he turned his head, his eyes were assaulted by a bright, fiery light gathered in an oval shape to make up the image of an eye. Despite all the stories and warning, Legolas' mind couldn't comprehend how terrifying it was to be before the Dark Lord, unprepared and defenseless. "Greenleaf. Prince. Thranduillion. You lost something of mine, and it has caused me great inconvenience." Legolas blinked before he remembered the Ring flying across the Tower Hall. "Minas Tirith has fallen, yet, the fools under my command managed to lose the one thing they came for!" Legolas couldn't hold back a small scoff at the exasperated tone that the one so feared adopted. A roar of rage sounded and a flash of pain swept through Legolas' body, burning his intestines and shattering his bones, or at least that's what it felt like. He knew, though, that this was merely the beginning of Sauron's might. Legolas would be subject to torture until either he died from his wounds or Sauron was defeated.

Days passed and the Ring still had not fallen back into Sauron's possession, making the Dark Lord increasingly frustrated and vengeful, taking out all his rage on the one he knew to blame for the loss of his single most prized asset. Legolas recalled the method of which Sauron seemed to like punishing him most, commanding his orc slaves to stab him with old Elvish blades from times long past, crusted with blood from past victims. Legolas now found himself always bleeding somewhere, or doubling over in pain as a wound from a twisted blade decided it was an appropriate time to make itself known.

Sauron screamed. Once again, the orcs came forward. Legolas had come to expect this whenever the Dark Lord was frustrated, however instead of plunging a blade into his stomach, the orcs raked their yellow and fungus-ridden fingernails down the Elf's already tortured body. Blood rained down on the stone below, enough to manage turning even the black stone of Barad-Dur a dull red. Sauron's laughing rang through his mind, urging the orcs on, desperate to get a scream out of Legolas. One orc pressed its filthy teeth into the veins on the underside of Legolas' wrist, before looking up and smiling at Legolas, his own blood dripping from the fangs that resided in the cave that was called a mouth. The orc waited until Legolas blinked before sinking its teeth back into his wrist, drawing as much blood as he could and swallowing it. Once, when the orc had a particularly large amount of the Elf's blood in its mouth, it spat it out on Legolas' face, which it held by the chin, leaving Legolas unable to shake the blood off. The crimson stained his face before running down his neck and chest where it remained. It wasn't long before the process was repeated on his other wrist.

And so, finally, Legolas was left alone with red, dripping trails running down his body and two cut wrists that weren't quite bleeding enough to leave him dead. But still, hope remained, because Aragorn, Gimli, Merry and Pippin were out there somewhere, seeking the Ring to take to Mount Doom and throw it into the fiery pit. Every hurt and every scar was a reminder of this. Legolas was Middle Earth's shield, copping each and every blow with a solemn demeanour and always refusing to give a reaction. He could not break, the entirety of Middle Earth was resting on his shoulders. Thalion.

A/N

Thalion = shield

sorry if translations wrong i can only do basic Sindarin, blame this if it is - https://eldamo.org/content/word-indexes/words-s.html

This one's pretty bad too. But i did have a cool sadistic smile for some of it...dont worry, the torture will get more full on.............................................

783 words by the way :)