Caught (a legolas fanfiction)

I killed her

Thranduil, Aragorn, and Gimli walked practically in silence, apart from the footsteps of the human, dwarf, and horses. As the elvenking stepped soundlessly over the ground, he wondered at the heaviness of his companions' footsteps. He was taller than and just as broad as both of them, yet he was the one making the least noise.

How he longed to run and leave them behind! The dwarf kept shooting him dirty looks, and the human insisted that they did not go as fast as he wished. If he could have gone on without them, he could already have reached his ion!

"Gimli, King Thranduil, I have lost Legolas's trail," the ranger said, stopping and leaning on a tree, "There is no sign of him past here," he motioned to some footprints in the soft mud they had been travelling on. "Here, the ground gets too hard for there to be any footprints."

Thranduil saw this. The ground before had been wet from the stream that they had passed, which ran into a small lake that kept the soil around it wet. Now, they were too far from the lake to see the prints that Aragorn relied on when tracking.

"Well," Gimli said. "It would make sense for them to continue forward, wouldn't it? I say we continue straight on."

"That may be, Gimli," Aragorn said. "But they may well have gone in any direction. We just have to choose a path."

Suddenly, Thranduil felt a rush of pain surge through him through the bond he shared with his son. He grimaced as he felt the equivalent of a knife being shoved into his chest. He knew this pain. It was physical, but the worst of it was emotional. He heard the same words going through his head a million times a second.

I killed her. I killed her. I killed her.

He couldn't see what was going on, but he could feel the burning pain. As it began to overwhelm him, he had enough sense around him to realize that Legolas had started blaming himself again, and he felt like the pain of the knife had doubled. He forced himself to cut off the connection, because he knew if he didn't he would pass out.

"King Thranduil!" Aragorn said, kneeling beside the king, who had dropped to his knees. The elf shivered, and the ranger's worry grew. "Hir nin, what's wrong?"

"Legolas..." Thranduil breathed. "He is hurting."

Aragorn sighed in sympathy. He knew the king and his son had always had a connection, and Legolas was undoubtedly in a lot of pain with his injuries and whatever the man was doing to him now.

"He thinks he killed her..." Thranduil said, and Aragorn gasped. Elrond had once told him of the time when Legolas had given into grief and almost faded because of thinking he had killed his mother, who Aragorn knew Thranduil was referring to.

"No!" Aragorn said, covering his mouth with his hand, the realization of how dire the situation really was hitting him full force. Even if they got Legolas back, now, they might lose him to grief.

Thranduil stood up, but his legs would not obey his command to stay that way, and they crumpled below him. He felt Aragorn's strong arms catching him, and the human seemed very warm. Everything was cold and icy around him. Feeling like an elfling needing to be kept warm on a winter night, he leaned into the human and closed his eyes in exhaustion.

Gimli and Aragorn were stunned by the suddenness of the king's collapse, and Aragorn lowered him onto the ground. The king muttered something about being cold, and Aragorn went over to one of the horses and retrieved a blanket from the saddlebag. Upon his return, he draped it across the elf, whose eyes had opened slightly and were glazed over in the elvish form of sleep. He turned to Gimli.

"It seems we must stop here for tonight." He glanced at the sun, which was setting above them. "We wouldn't have gotten much further today, anyway.

Gimli did not respond, he only frowned.

"What is it, Gimli?" Aragorn said as he grabbed some nearby wood and began to make a fire.

"Who does the elf think he killed?" Gimli said, sitting down next to the ranger. "Who is 'she'?"

"His mother," Aragorn said sadly, and he leaned back as he finally got a blaze going. He turned his head towards the stars.

"Why would he think that?" Gimli said, frowning more deeply. "What happened to him? It seems I cannot go on without knowing the truth any longer."

Aragorn sighed. "I wish that he was here to tell you himself, for it is not my place, and I barely know anything myself. Gandalf would be a better person to ask, but he is not here. Alas, I will tell you what I know."

Legolas was going crazy in the darkness. Stitching his wounds in the blackness had been a painful ordeal, but once he was done, he couldn't help but wish he would have to do it again, just to have something to do.

He was swimming in the darkness. He only knew that the floor was below him. He had forgotten where the shelves were, and he felt the walls crawling in on him. He suddenly felt choked up, and he closed his eyes. This was a cage, a tiny one, surrounding him, suffocating him. He needed to move, he had to! Yet he could not make his muscles work in his painful fear of the unknown. Maybe there was a cage. If that was the case, not knowing was better, right?

He whimpered in the darkness. A faint echo was his only response, and he began to feel increasingly alone. He needed light! He needed air! Trees! Birds! The sunshine!

Slowly, the door opened a slit, letting in a small ray of light onto the pale face of the elf.

The man grabbed the leash, smiling, and he tugged roughly on it, forcing Legolas to follow. When they arrived in the courtyard once again, he tied the leash to the post once again.

"Now, princeling," he said. "We have not been properly introduced, have we? My name is Cyras. Pleased to make your acquaintance, Prince Legolas of Greenwood."

He laughed, and Legolas winced at the sound.

"Now, let us begin the lesson."

A/N: After I wrote "He turned to Gimli" I really wanted to put "Who was feeling disconnected from the action because he had barely made an appearance so far." Ha! The awkward ways of my mind.

To find out more about my view on Legolas's past, my fic "Hello" explores this topic a little more, though it does not mention Legolas's guilt over his mother's death, it does talk about his almost fading. So go check that out, guys!

I am thinking of, instead of letting you hear Aragorn boringly talk about Legolas's past, I could make Cyras make Legolas relive it! Wouldn't that be fun?

MWAHAHAHAHA I AM SO DEMENTED!

R&R!