Broken (sequel to Caught)

Father and Son

After forty lashes, five for Gandalf, Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Aragorn, Gimli, and Thranduil, it was finally over. Legolas could not stop a muffled groan that escaped him, and he heard the others' laughter. Soon, it all melded into one voice, which he recognized as Cyras's.

"Wasn't that fun, princeling?" he said as he laughed, and he ran his fingers gently over the cuts, all too real on Legolas's back. The elf arched his back in pain, but no sound escaped him.

Chuckling, the man put his fingers on the elf's chin and forced it up, so they were eye to eye. The unguarded view of the icy orbs proved too much for the prince, strained already as he was, and he allowed the familiar blanket of unconsciousness to smother him in its embrace.

"—golas! Legolas!"

Legolas woke up with a start. He jolted upright, and he and Thranduil both felt a sharp pain explode in their skulls as their heads were smashed together.

Legolas gasped at the pain, and he leaned into the pillows, cradling his throbbing head with one hand. Thranduil also had a hand on his head, and he was biting back a few colorful curses in a variety of languages.

There was a pause as both of them attempted to get their bearings.

"Are you alright?" Thranduil asked his son after the world had stopped spinning wildly. He leaned over Legolas, who was still leaning back on the pillows, hand on his head. His eyes were closed as he tried to control himself enough to speak.

"Yes," he said finally after a few moments pause. "I am fine."

Thranduil's eyes softened as he looked upon his only child.

"Come on," he said, and he grabbed the knives, bow, and quiver that stood by the door and tossed them to Legolas, who barely had time to catch them before they hit him in the face. "I know you're not going to sleep and you're probably going to sneak out into the woods somewhere. Both of us might as well go. It will be safer."

Legolas grinned at his father's knowing smile and stood, quickly changing into his clothes and strapping his weapons to his back. They walked out of the room and down the hall, and they stopped at Thranduil's room to give him time to dress. When they were both in the appropriate garb, they went quietly through the hallways on the way to the door.

They waved to the guards, who gave them knowing smiles as they passed. Legolas grinned mischievously as they approached the tree line and darted up the trunk into one of the larger trees.

"Legolas!" Thranduil exclaimed almost exasperatedly as the merry laughter tinkled down from above him. Thranduil sighed, going over to a nearby tree and pulling himself up. The minute he was standing in the branches, Legolas appeared again, this time right above his father's head.

"My, my, Ada. You're getting slow!" he said as Thranduil began to try and climb up to reach him only for him to suddenly be a few branches higher. Thranduil groaned.

"It's not me you get your Silvan blood from, you know."

Legolas laughed and deftly picked a pinecone off of a nearby tree, dropping it directly onto his father's head. There was a soft exclamation, and he smiled, doing it again, causing a soft swear to reach his ears. Still grinning, Legolas flipped himself downwards so that his legs were the only thing holding him on the branch, and he was hanging upside down, his face inches from his father's.

Thranduil almost fell out of the tree in surprise.

"Someone's jumpy," Legolas commented, and he flipped back so he was sitting on the branch normally again. "What's up with you?"

"Some of your emotions from the dream you had won't leave me," Thranduil said, fingering the sphere on the necklace he wore as well as the crest of his family.

When they thought the poisons given to him by Cyras had left Legolas, Elrond had tested his blood to see if all of it had really gone. What surprised them all was that only the Denetinei left him, and the other poison was still there. Knowing that if the sphere broke, Legolas would die, Thranduil had a clasp made around the circle that was shaped like an eagle's claw, so that he could wear it all the time and no one could take it. It had deepened his connection with his son a little further, and they were still, after ten years, exploring its effects.

"Did you actually see the dream?" asked Legolas, not knowing the full extent of the power of the sphere. The ability to see each other's dreams was never one that he and his father had been given, but maybe the sphere allowed Thranduil to access his mind while he slept.

"No," said the Elvenking. "I don't know if I could do that. I only felt the emotions, so I woke up and came to find you. I thought something might have happened, but apparently it was only a nightmare."

Legolas was silent, and so did Thranduil. They both knew he was aware that it wasn't a nightmare. No dream could cause as much terror as something that had really happened.

"Hey, Ada," Legolas said, changing the subject abruptly. "Did you know that Estel is going to Rivendell in a month?"

Thranduil raised his eyebrows.

"Really? It's been a while since he's been to any of the elven realms. You are planning to go see him and Elrond's sons, I am assuming?"

Legolas nodded and smiled at the way his father could read him so easily, and he looked at the horizon, where the little pink tendrils of sunlight were beginning to peak into the sky.

"We should get going," Thranduil said. "There's a meeting a seven." Legolas nodded, but Thranduil noted that his son looked a little disheartened at the sound of a meeting.

"But we can stay until then," he said, and Legolas began to smile widely. Thranduil lifted his hand to hold his son's, which was hanging limply by his side, which was slightly above Thranduil's head.

The sun rose.