Unlikely Rescue

Chapter 16 - Mortally Injured

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Legolas stirred for the first time the following morning. Lifting his head and blinking sleep-blurred blue eyes, he gazed up at the canopy above. There was no sign of the sky, only dark, twisted branches curled together in a huge, ominous, windowless blanket over the stars. The stars.

Legolas loved the stars. Having been deprived of their beauty for so many years, they seemed like a beacon of hope and were, to him, a sign of freedom. After all, how can one be free without seeing the stars? He asked himself.

Questions. He had so many questions, and no answers. After asking Aragorn only a few of the hundreds plaguing his mind, it had begun to feel awkward, so he had stopped his incessant asking and bitten back the wondering and curiosity.

Aragorn, he had seen, seemed particularly transfixed by a bright star in the West. Eärendil, he had said it was called. Something about a jewel on a boat. A boat in the sky? Legolas hadn't asked any more, but he was still curious. Still anxious to learn. How had a boat got stuck in the sky in the first place? Why did it stay there? Why did it shine? What even was a star? What even was the sky? The sun? The moon?

So many unanswerable questions. Even when he'd asked Aragorn, he had been told only that these things were best left to themselves and to the Valar, and to Ilúvitar. It was simply the way things were. Animals grew and died, giving health to the soil, and the trees, and all green things, and in return the trees allowed the animals to feast upon their leaves, their flowers, their fruit. Predators kept the populations in check, ensuring without ever realising it that the greenery could return in full year after year. And then these animals, who grew up eating the foliage, feed their providers in death, returning to the earth what they took. And so the cycle goes on.

But why?

Stop. Just stop. It's just the way things are, and nobody knows why. Stop asking, and start accepting the answers you get. And so he did.

He was finally pulled rather roughly from both his thoughts and his comfortable position on the floor by his ranger companion, who hauled him to his feet.

"We should move quickly. Today, we reach the borders of the forest, I hope. There will be less cover, so we must be even more careful. Oh! And one more thing: no questions today. Not a single one, yes?"

Legolas nodded timidly. He knew Aragorn was only joking but still... it wasn't easy to shake off the horrors of his past so quickly.

"Ok. Let's go." He muttered.

✧ ★ ✧

As they walked in silence, Legolas listened to the birds. He had been doing the same thing for the entire day, biting back questions on why the birds sang, what made them sing. It was probably just 'the way things are.'

Legolas' thoughts wandered. He wondered what Aragorn was thinking about. His home? His family? Legolas had neither. Perhaps it would have been nice to have somebody who loved him, but he had had enough time spent in a cell in self-pity. There was, he assured himself, no point in moping over what he didn't have. But he couldn't help wondering...

Would he be happier if Aragorn had nothing either?

He pondered his question. His first, selfish reaction was that yes, he would. He would have nothing to be jealous of.

But as he explored the deeper levels of meaning in the question, he realised he shouldn't be jealous. Why should he begrudge Aragorn the very thing he wanted? Aragorn wouldn't begrudge it him.