Stars (A Legolas Love Story and Lord of the Rings Fanfiction)

"Tired."

I stiffened as the Orc held me against his filthy body, his crude knife pressed to my throat.
I didn't know why he was hesitating to kill me.

I heard a gasp and Aragorn stopped about 10 feet away in front of me, gaping at my situation.
He wasn't used to me needing help in battle, but then again, I didn't usually lose my strength like this.

Aragorn stepped forward, but the Orc pressed the knife into my skin, drawing blood.
"Not another step!!" The Orc rasped out the words in his strange accent.

I stared at Aragorn.
My eyes reflected anger and vulnerability, but not fear.

Yet I couldn't move. I didn't have a weapon anyway.

Aragorn stepped forward again.
What was he doing??!!

The Orc raised his knife to slit my throat but as he did, he made a gurgling sound and dropped the knife to the ground.

I half-turned and I saw the body of the Orc fall away to the side, revealing my hero, Legolas.

Legolas pulled me into his arms and kissed the top of my head.
"Do you need help?" He asked softly.

"Yes." I whispered. "I'm not myself right now." I was tired of lying about how I felt.

"Stick with me." He said, releasing me from his embrace.

I picked up my weapons, but I held them at my side. I felt utterly weak.

I half-heartedly blocked attacks from multiple enemies, but Legolas killed most of them for me.

After awhile, Legolas seemed to be getting farther and farther away.
I tried to make my way towards him, but everywhere I turned, I was surrounded.

Suddenly, something hit the right side of my head and I saw stars as I fell to the ground.

A Warg had knocked me down and was now hovering over my face, its drool dripping down onto me.

It bared its teeth and lunged down to kill me.

An arrow whistled through the air and went into the Warg's skull, making it fall to the side, already dead.

My eyesight became really fuzzy and cloudy. I heard a voice talking and I saw a head of white-blond hair bend over me.
Legolas was trying to talk to me but there was silence.

I reached up to touch my right ear, which was throbbing.
My hand came away bloody.
I could feel the blood trickling from the inside of my ear down the side of my face.

Legolas' eyes widened and his mouth moved as if he were shouting, but I couldn't hear him.
A line formed between his eyebrows as he became even more worried about me.

I reached up to smooth the line on his face, but my body felt limp.
I didn't want to leave him like this, but I had no choice.

I blacked out.

Hours later....

I opened my eyes to see a white stone ceiling.

I was in Minas Tirith, that wasn't hard to figure out.
But how did I get here?
What had happened?

I looked over and saw Legolas smiling at me.
His lips moved, but I couldn't hear what he was saying.

I turned my head so that my left ear was facing him and I finally heard him.

Legolas' face fell.
"You're deaf, aren't you."

"Just in my right ear." I looked down, ashamed that I now had a weakness.

I reached up and felt that a bandage was covering my ear entirely, but I still couldn't hear anything. Not even the rustling of the bandage.

"I'm sorry, it was my fault." Legolas apologized as he blinked away tears of sadness.

"No, it wasn't." I protested. "I should've kept up with you."

He huffed in exasperation and stood up, running his hands over his face.

"What are you feeling?" I asked quietly.

"I feel....angry, but I also feel like I let you down again. Over and over again, I have turned away from you and let you get hurt. I hate the feeling that I can't protect you from the evil in this world. All I want is for you to be safe, but I can't always make sure that happens." He was frustrated, but I could tell that it had helped to talk.

It was sweet that he wanted to protect me, but I wasn't exactly the type of woman who would appreciate that.
I was the type who hates to feel useless and be lady-like.
It made me kind of irritated that he wanted to treat me like a queen, even though I should be honored. I didn't want any special treatment just because I was a woman.

I slowly got up, wincing at the enormous headache I had. My entire head felt like it was about to explode.

I stood by the window looking out on the White City.
I stayed silent. I didn't want to fight with Legolas or even contradict him.

He stood behind me and wrapped his arms around my middle, as if to keep me safe in his arms.

"What are you thinking?" He leaned down and whispered in my good ear.

I leaned my head back onto his chest and closed my eyes, not answering his question.

I wanted silence for now, just a wonderful moment of nothing but the sound of our lungs receiving and releasing air.

But it couldn't last long with Legolas.
"Please, Kat." He murmured my nickname, trying not to succumb to my want for quiet.

"I don't know." I mumbled. It was true. I didn't know what I was thinking about, really. It was such a mixture of thoughts rather than one thing.

"Try."

I sighed.
"Sometimes I get tired of all of this. Always being on the move, always battling, always trying to feel as if I'm doing something I want to do, when in reality, this is nothing that I like to do. I don't like killing, but I do it. And I'm starting to feel like it's wrong. Even though I'm killing Orcs and Goblins, it feels wrong to take a life. I killed so many humans today, and it was terrible. I don't ever want to have to do that again. You probably have no idea what I mean, but that's what I'm thinking about." I had slowly made my way through the sentences, making sure he heard and understood every word.

"I sort of get it." Legolas turned me around so I was facing him. "All my life I've been trained to fight, attack and defend. There was a time when I hated to get up in the morning because it would mean more training. But now I don't even think about it. I can't completely understand what you're feeling, but I can at least take a guess."

My head dropped as I suddenly felt like crying. I was so tired and the pain in my head was excruciating. My body was shaking uncontrollably and I didn't know why.
So much had happened, yet I felt as if something hadn't happened yet.

Legolas pulled me into his warm embrace.
"You'll be alright. You can rest as much as you want now. We won't be doing anything for a few days.
Merry was found alive on the battlefield by Pippin.
We must see what Sauron's response is to our success. And we still need some sign that Frodo is out there and if he is close to completing his task. Rest, darling. I'll always be here for you."

Legolas tucked me into bed as if I were a child and kissed me on the forehead. He always knew just how to comfort me.
His mouth opened to say something....

Time slowed as I greatly anticipated his next words. Would he say his usual farewell or would he finally say he loved me?
As his lips moved, I held my breath.

"Sleep, my little Kat. You'll need your energy. We can explore the city tomorrow."

His words, or the lack of the words I wanted to hear, weighed heavily on my heart, but I put a smile on my face instead.
"What will we do?"

"Ah, ah. You need to sleep. Good night, Katherine." He kissed my cheek and left the room.