Guilty in love (Legolas x reader)

Chapter 11

"Legolas... Legolas, wake up."

Legolas felt small arms shaking his shoulders harshly, bringing him from a dreamless slumber.

"Legolas!"

He opened his eyes to see the face of a very worried looking Merry.

"What, what is it, is anyone hurt?" Legolas said, still trying to wake up.

"It's y/n,"

That snapped Legolas right out of his tired state. He shot up, whipping his head round to y/n's mat, just for his eyes to be met with nothing but cold stone. He jumped to his feet, walking round the cave floor, calling her name, and in doing so waking the rest of the fellowship.

"Where is she, where did she go?!"

He ran out of the cave in a frenzy, to be met by Aragorn, who captured his shoulders in an attempt to calm the elf.

"Legolas, is everything alright?"

"No it's not, y/n has disappeared. We must send a search party at once. It must have been orcs...

"Legolas she's fine."

"...Or perhaps bandits..."

"Legolas I said she's fine."

Legolas stilled in Aragorns grasp

"...what? How do you know?"

"I spoke to her when she left this morning. She is going to find Lady Galadriel, she left of her own accord and I am sure that she is safe."

"She left?"

Legolas' head was spinning. He felt as though he had swallowed one of the hobbit's potatoes. He couldn't loose her, not after what he'd said. What he'd done. She was his oldest and best friend, and he had thrown it all away. And for what? She had left anyway, all because he was too much of a coward to tell her his true feelings? 

"Yes, she's been gone a few hours now."

"Oh. But her injuries?"

"They didn't seem to be affecting her."

"I see."

He didn't know what to do with himself. It was as though he no longer had any direction, any purpose any more.

"Do not despair, I am certain you shall see her soon." Aragon said with a twinkle in his eye, a twinkle that sparked a flame of hope in Legolas' heart. He would carry on to Mordor with the fellowship, and once they had destroyed the ring, he would find her, and he would never leave her side again.

- meanwhile, somewhere in the mountains, not too far away -

Y/n had been walking now for quite some time. The sun was now fully risen, and was casting long fingers of golden light across the dew-slipped grasses of the mountainside. She was lost in her head, convincing herself that everything she had said to Legolas was true, that it was better for everyone that she left, besides, there was a chance the fellowship would be passing through Lothlórien so she could see them again soon.

She was stirred from her thoughts by the sound of her stomach rumbling, so she reached into her pack for her lembas bread, only for her hand to come back empty.

"Damn." In her haste to leave, she must have left it in the cave. 

She shook her head slightly, a gentle sigh leaving her lips. She had roughly a three day trek ahead of her with no food, that wasn't going to be fun. However since the argument with Legolas, the idea of food wasn't particularly appealing anyway, so it shouldn't present too much of an issue.

Y/n continued onwards through the crisp morning air, footsteps silent as the dewy mountain grass gave way to rock and snow as she continued upwards. She had determined the best path to be to go over the mountain again, without the humans, dwarves and hobbits, sweet as they were, keeping her to the path, she was able to walk without so much as a stumble up the steep mountainside.

Y/n came to a halt at the next mountain top, pausing for a moment to replenish her energy as she took in the spectacular view. The mountains were crawling with forests and lakes in the valleys, topped with rocky outcrops and snow-capped peaks. Birds flew high above her head in the cloudless sky, unbound freedom lifting their wings as they cried, their melodies floating on the air to her eleven ears. She breathed in deeply as she relished in her senses, her nose filling with the sent of ice and smoke. Wait. Smoke?

Y/n flashed her eyes open, trying to find the source of the irregular scent, when below her, down the mountainside, she spotted a camp crawling with large figures.

She crept slowly closer, hoping to see who these mysterious people were. 

Pausing behind a rock, y/n peered down towards them, gasping quietly, now that she was closer she could see they were orcs. The whole camp was teeming with them. It shouldn't be too much of a problem, she just needed to go far enough around them they wouldn't pick up on her scent. Besides, it looked like they were all going in and out of the mines anyway, they shouldn't pay her much attention.

Hold on,

They were going through the mines,

The same mines as the fellowship,

The same mines as Legolas,

Shit.

She had to warn them, they were walking straight into a death trap and they had no idea.

She raced back up the mountainside, with any luck they would have only just left the cave and she could intercept them before it was too late. With agile grace, she swiftly descended the rugged terrain of the mountain, her slender form a blur against the backdrop of towering pines, as she headed back down the path she had taken not even 5 hours ago. Every leap, every twist, a testament to her natural agility and elven prowess as she raced onward, fueled by the need to warn her friends of the impending peril, warn Legolas.

- back down the mountain-

The Fellowship had been passing south for a while now, trekking back down the mountain along the misty shadow of an aqueduct's ruins. Legolas had been walking behind the rest of the fellowship, deep in thought. And though the halflings and even boromir had tried cheering him up, the elf could not stir the ache in the pit of his gut, could not miss the warmth of her smile, could not grieve the sound of her laugh. So he resorted to eavesdropping on the other's conversations, hoping to hear something, anything to distract himself from the clear absence of his best friend.

"Frodo, come and help an old man." Gandalf called out to the halfling, sensing they were nearing their destination, there was a lot he wanted to say to the young hobbit. Especially after the close call with boromir on the mountain.

"How is your shoulder?" He asked.

"Better than it was." Frodo answered honestly, although he suspected there was going to be more to the conversation than more formal pleasantries.

"And the Ring?" Ah, that's what he actually wanted to ask. 

"You feel its power growing, don't you? I've felt it too. You must be careful now. Evil will be drawn to you from outside the Fellowship. And, I fear, from within."

"Who then do I trust?"

"You must trust yourself. Trust your own strengths."

"What do you mean?"

Gandalf paused for a moment, thinking.

 "There are many powers in this world, for Good or for Evil. Some are greater than I am. And against some I have not yet been tested."

"The Walls... of Moria!" Gimli announced, stirring the two from their conversation, and Legolas from his thoughts.

This was it, this was where he would truly part destinies with y/n, this was where he gave what was left of his heart for the good of middle earth.