Caught (a legolas fanfiction)

You could have saved him

Chapter 4

Legolas woke up because of a fiery pain all over his body. It was centered in his arm and his chest, and as he forced his eyes open, dizziness overcame him. He knew this feeling.

Poison, he thought sourly. Just what I need right now.

"Ah, you are awake, princeling," he heard a voice say, and he cringed, but he put a mask of indifference over his eyes. He had showed far too much weakness to this man already. He heard laughter that made him wince. The man looked at him, and blue and green clashed in an icy battle. The man smirked.

"You still believe that I am him, don't you?" the voice said, and the man laughed some more. Forcing his eyes open again, Legolas looked up and blinked in the bright light. A face loomed above him, and the eyes were filled with laughter. Legolas coughed, and when he spoke, his voice was hoarse.

"What?" he said, and the man smiled even wider at his response.

"I am not the man you think I am. How could I be? That was over a thousand years ago. We humans don't live that long, you know," he said, twirling one of the prince's locks around his finger. Legolas tried to move away, but he found himself unable to move without a bout of dizziness.

"Not him?" Legolas rasped, wishing for water silently.

"No. Not him," the man said, blinking his big eyes.

"But...But the eyes..." Legolas said. The man laughed.

"Many in my family inherited these eyes from him, princeling," the man said, and Legolas's eyes widened.

"He was...ancestor?" he asked. Of course, now that he looked past the eyes, this man was pretty different from the one who had haunted him as an elfling. While the other had dark hair and a stubble on his chin, but this man had lighter hair and a clean shave.

"These eyes of his have been a curse to all who inherited them," he said, shaking his head. "My father was lucky, and he did not get them.

"Veritinan," he continued, and Legolas shivered at the familiar name, "Knew that his eyes were what scared you most about him. He said that it was the duty of any who received them to find you and finish where he left off."

"So you mean to kill me," Legolas said without expression. "because of your eye color."

The man laughed.

"Of course, princeling. For once my duty is complete, I can live freely without the burden of your capture in my shoulders."

"The ways of men have always confused me," Legolas said, glaring. "But I never knew they would kill a person for a family member long forgotten."

"No, princeling, not forgotten," the man said. "Never forgotten. The eyes have always searched for you, always. You know this, obviously."

"Many years have passed," Legolas said, trying to ignore the dizziness that was growing steadily worse. "I am no longer an elfling. I have lost my naneth, been through many battles, and become Greenwood's," ah, how he loved that name. "finest warrior."

"And yet you still scream for your daddy at the sight of these eyes," the man taunted, bending over so that the icy green was all he could see.

Legolas felt the panic and anger swell within him, just as it had all those years ago. He wanted to scream, but he clamped his mouth shut. The dizziness became overwhelming, and as he faded into oblivion, he heard the man's maniacal laughter.

When Gimli woke up, it was because of a groan from his right. Muttering under his breath about it being too early for anyone to be awake, he blearily made his way over to Aragorn, who was wide awake and in pain.