Concerning Us

Chapter Twelve: Jealous Fury

Ailin had Legolas in a stronghold with a sword to his throat. The blade was pressed close against Legolas's neck as Ailin stiffened with anger on his face. "You are not fit to love the princess!" Ailin shouted as he held Legolas in his lock. The prince stifled a chuckle before grinning, "So you think that you are fit? Listen to my laughter!" The love troubled elf choked  Legolas further, "You are about to lose the ability to laugh, and more," he threatened as he continued to press his hostage. "I dare you", Legolas continued to provoke him. His retaliating actions caused Dartha to gasp from where she was trembling on the ground. Even at sword-point, it was as if he wasn't intimidated by Ailin's jealous fury. Ailin moved his blade again and an amount of blood trickled down to Legolas's collar, "Do not think I won't kill you!" Legolas snickered as he stretched his neck, tilting his head back he exposed more of his flesh to Ailin. Ailin brought his lips near the prince's ear and asserted himself, "If you retaliate, I will kill you immediately". Legolas lowered his brow before the sword was removed from his neck and he was shoved to the earth. Rope was quickly applied to Legolas's hands and feet as he laid on the ground. He was forced to recoil in pain when he was kicked  in the stomach before Ailin redirected his attention to Dartha. She was still undergoing convulsions and hallucinations from the medicine. "He couldn't even protect you," Ailin furrowed his brow as he dropped to his knees, looking over the princess's wound. "We were greatly out numbered!" Legolas held to his defense. Ailin snapped his head in the prince's direction, "Only the weak make excuses". Legolas tested the knots of his ties and found them to be bound tighter than his strength.

After some time the convulsions concluded and Dartha was able to peacefully lay on the ground with Ailin beside her. Beads of sweat had formed on her face as the completion of her healing came. Ailin searched her glistening face with his eyes before looking dejected, "I was never going to accept him marrying you." He referred to Legolas who was laying a few feet from them tied up and bound. The prince was frowning as he watched with clenched teeth, Ailin place his hand on the smooth of Dartha's tummy. The princess responded by placing her hand over his as it rested on top of her. Her action came as a surprise to Ailin, because she had always been one to reject his advances. It appeared now that she was receptive of him. He thought then that her touch meant something changed within the elleth that has called him mellon for hundreds of years, but in reality she was pitying him for coming here. Ailin removed his hand from underneath hers and allowed it to fall unto her stomach before he picked it up and found the silver of her betrothal ring between his fingers. He began to slip the ring from her finger as she stared up at him in confusion. Once he removed the piece of jewelry fully, he leaned his head in and said, "Marry me?" Once those words departed Ailin's lips, the sound of hemp fibers tearing filled the air as Legolas broke through his ties.

The princess and Ailin both sat up and faced Legolas who was now standing. His felt angry and challenged, "What is your answer to his question?" The princess was met with both elves looking at her in anticipation. The pressure come over her as she measured consequences. She loved Ailin and he knew it now from her stare. Ailin wrapped his arms around her body, "I've endured hundreds of years of having my heart shattered repeatedly by you, yet I never stopped pursuing you. With one word you can solidify my heart forever." Thousands of years went by in silence until with tear filled eyes Dartha sucked in her breathe, "I can't". Ailin broke his embrace and held her by the shoulders at arms length. Her response came to him as a surprise and he stared at her in disbelief. Dartha knew she could not escape her betrothal in this way, it would probably result in Thranduil burning down her kingdom. The princess closed her eyes before removing his hold on her, "I'm already betrothed to Legolas". 

A light scrawl appeared on Ailin's face as he looked at her, "You do not wear a betrothal ring", he said childishly. Dartha turned over his clenched fist and attempted to pry it open, "That's because you have it. Please don't do this..." Legolas watched as Ailin withdrew his hand from Dartha's in retaliation before he began to question Dartha on everything, "Do you love me?" Dartha was beginning to feel flustered at his lack of cooperation but answered him anyway. She gave a weary sigh, regretting all the times she had denied him when she knew in her heart from the beginning that one day she would inevitably come to love him, "Since three days prior to my engagement, I've loved you". Ailin continued to wrestle with the princess his hand containing the ring, "Then why are you going to marry Legolas? Do you love him as well?" All Dartha wanted at this point was her ring, "I don't believe I love him but our bonding is an agreement that can not be broken". The princess hadn't spoken to Ailin of the ordeal between the Harlond and Mirkwood kingdoms and she didn't spirit to explain. "If it's not bound by love then it certainly can be broken", Ailin assured her in desperation. Legolas began to pity the elf and stepped up to place his hand on his shoulder, "Return her the ring. Our marriage has already been determined for us prior to our existence".

Ailin tossed the ring a few feet away and stood up, "Perhaps things would be different if you ceased to exist then". Legolas took a square fist to the face before he stumbled backwards. In the time it took Legolas to recuperate, Ailin had extracted his sword to the sound of Dartha's scream. The end was pressed to Legolas's flesh, right against a visible vein that formed on his neck. The prince held his still and breath at how close the tip was on him. Ailin pivoted his position, without removing the blade from Legolas's neck, to stand behind him yet again. Legolas was placed in a head lock once more with the sharp instrument under his chin. "Ailin please don't do this!" The princess pleaded. After hundreds of years of enduring, unrequited love had finally driven Ailin insane. He was tortured to know he has come so close to Dartha but now Legolas stood as the stone wall in his way, "I am loved by her and she will be my wife before the carrion birds find your dead body to devour!" Dartha stood covering her mouth, paralyzed and helpless as she watched Ailin gripped the handle of his sword tighter in preparation to decapitate the prince of Mirkwood. Ailin looked at the deep black center of Dartha's irises as her eyes appeared to fogged. They were no longer the clear bright green he had lost himself in countless of times, but a green filtered through distressing darkness. They were something he had never seen before. She stared at him with a fearful look and he was overcome with some conviction. "I can not do this in front of your eyes", he said. He began to drag Legolas backwards on his heels. Legolas struggled in his stronghold, trying to resist being taken back into the thick brush. Unable to reach his bow and arrows on his back, and Dartha, frozen in fear, could not bring herself between them, Legolas was forced to think quickly. Being that Ailin did not want to preform such act before Dartha, Legolas's mind led him to the saving knowledge that the princess was Ailin's unchangeable weakness. The blonde haired prince attacked his enemy with the critical question,  "Do you really think after you've killed me the princess will accept you?"

A half second was given for reflection and it was in the partial second that Legolas took advantage of Ailin's slightly loosened grip. Legolas knocked the sword away from his neck and the unexpected blow sent the weapon soaring from Ailin's hold. Before the blade touched the ground, Legolas had already spun himself to face Ailin. The prince swiftly met Ailin with a fist. The look of surprise flooded to the surface of Ailin's face as he collapsed backwards gushing blood from his nostrils. His eyes were still large when Legolas stood over him with his bow equipt with ready arrow. Three fingers held the draw as Legolas aimed for the space between Ailin's eyes. Though frowning down at the elf, his eyes held enough pity. How he had wounded Ailin was not fatal, "Depart from here and do not attempt to search for us". Ailin turned his head to fixate on Dartha who was looking back at him, weeping at the choice he had made, and understood that she couldn't accept him now, even if he changed his decision on attempting murder. He looked back up at Legolas with such hatred but he hated himself more for allowing his heart to shatter into a thousand pieces over and over throughout the centuries---something that he knew would continue to happen as long as he lived because he wanted her and only her. He furrowed his brow and cursed Legolas, "Orc filth!" The moment he executed those words, he closed his eyes expecting what came next. Legolas released his arrow and pinned Ailin's skull to the earth.