Unlikely Rescue

Chapter 17 - Fight or Flight

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Legolas stared down at the human in utter horror. How could he have just frozen? He had been... unable to move. He didn't know how else to explain it, but it hadn't been purely out of fear. He knew that much.

It had been like the panic had set off some other reaction and it had hurt. He collapsed to the ground beside the human. Was his companion dead?

He checked in the only ways he knew to see if someone was alive. He rested his hand on the human's chest, but felt no rise or fall. Pressing his ear to the man's lips, he listened for breath and felt for it too.

He waited.

Nothing.

But... there! A tiny flicker of breath brushed the elfling's ear and he breathed a sigh of relief. Aragorn was, for now at least, alive.

But I did this.

He's not dead.

But if he does die...

He won't. I can't let him.

He concentrated on the shallow breathing. Legolas had never before in his life encountered someone, other than himself, so badly injured.

Still, from comparing the man's breath now with his own and what he thought it had sounded like before, this wasn't good. He wasn't sure though, because who listens to someone's breathing, semiconscious and in the middle of being rescued, for Ilúvatar's sake? Certainly not him.

A soft, almost inaudible thud from behind jolted him from his inspection. Jerking his head around, he saw that the elf who had shot Aragorn had jumped down from the tree, and was heading towards them. Squinting, Legolas could see his intention written clearly across his face, albeit it was marred by a deep scowl.

He's coming. For me.

Legolas jumped to his feet to flee. He was about to take the first step when...

But what about Aragorn?

He couldn't just leave the human lying there on the floor, could he? After all he'd done for him. He's practically given his life for me. I can't just abandon him now.

And yet something deep inside was pulling the elfling away. Hurry! There's  nothing you can do, save yourself! His instincts screamed at him to move, but his heart... how could he leave the man that had saved him to such a cruel fate? If Thranduil got hold of him...

Legolas shuddered at the thought, the tremor running through his entire body. He knew what it was like to be subjected to Thranduil's wrath, and he would wish it upon nobody. Well, maybe Thranduil himself deserved it...

But Aragorn didn't. What had he ever done to deserve being tortured, likely to death? What had he done to deserve being abandoned by the very one whose life he'd saved? What sort of gratitude was that?

Run.

But Aragorn was still lying there, and the soldier was coming closer...

Run.

The soldier's footsteps would have been audible to a human now...

Run.

Even Aragorn would have been able to hear them. The though sent a pang of guilt straight through the centre of Legolas' heart, breaking it into two.

Run!

But Aragorn had saved him. He owed it to the human...

RUN!