Caught (a legolas fanfiction)

Alright

Chapter 33

Galadriel paused, listening, as Elrond gave her the glass. What was that? Someone was coming up the stairs.

"DO NOT GIVE MY SON THE FLOWER! WE HAVE FOUND THE KILLER, NOT THE CURE!"

"Thranduil?" she said in surprise. "What—"

At that moment, the usually composed, proper Elvenking burst into the room, panting from his incredibly fast climb, or rather clamber, up the stairs. He snatched the glass away from her and tossed it out the door, grinning in relief as it was heard shattering and smiling sheepishly as a loud curse was heard afterward.

After running over to make sure whoever had just been hit in the head with the glass was not injured, Galadriel turned to Thranduil, giving him a 'You'd better explain yourself right now' look.

"Oh, great. I left the book in the Great Hall," said Thranduil, sighing. "I'll go get it."

He walked, albeit a lot more slowly, out of the room. Everyone looked at Elrond, seeing as he was the most likely to know what

Thranduil was talking about.

"I honestly have no idea," said Elrond, sighing.

They all sat in companionable silence for a few minutes, waiting for Thranduil to return.

When he did, the journal was in his hand. The Elvenking went directly to Elrond and Galadriel.

"What's that?" said Galadriel, staring at the old, beat up book. "That's the reason you through a glass at one of my subjects from the top of a tree?"

Thranduil snorted, but he immediately sobered as he realized that it was up to him to tell Galadriel what was in the book.

"This is the journal of Legolas's captor," he said. "It tells everything that was done to him while he was captured. At the end, it said the cure was the Golden Flower of Lothlorien. But the man was not so stupid as to write the real cure in plain view." Thranduil shuddered at the thought of what might have happened if he had not gotten there in time (A/N: oh yes I did just say that).

He put the paper up to the light, which was fading quickly, and pointed to the writing that was now visible.

Fools! You truly believe me stupid. By the time you find this, if you ever do, the princeling will be dead; the flower will have killed him. Did you truly think me to be so dim-witted as to write it where you could easily find it? I am a smart man. I knew you would find this journal. I knew you would behave like idiots and not think twice about giving the flower to the prince. I knew this and was thus content in my death. If you'd like to know, the real cure would be to leave it. All others given these two poisons together tried to stop them by adding more substances to the body, but if it was just allowed to stay, both substances will eventually leave the person. You believed me stupid, but you are the stupid ones! Ha! Get that into your stuck up elvish heads, would you?

Elrond shook his head.

"I guess it is safe to assume that the flower was not the cure, but we cannot assume that leaving it alone is the cure, either. He might be lying again."

Thranduil sighed in exasperation, going to sit on the bed next to his son, who had fallen into a light sleep, his eyes closed in an unnatural slumber. Thranduil gently touched his son's hair.

"Then what do you suggest we do?" he said, looking up at the Noldo with an almost pleading look in his eyes. "I'm tired of thinking about this. I just want him to be okay, and then I want to rest."

Elrond's eyes softened as he saw the emotional exhaustion in Thranduil's posture and eyes. They had all been through a lot, but

Thranduil's worry and pain for his son had been even deeper and stronger than theirs.