To Tame A Fire

11. Into Dol Guldur

Warning: dark themes ahead. 

He remembered staring in horror as the orcs surrounded her. He couldn't sit there helpless while they took turns torturing her. No, he would not let that happen again. He would die first.

He remembered making his decision to follow her. He remembered pain, so much pain. He recalled her scream as the looming rotten bodies surrounded them.

There was no escape. He failed her.

And his world faded to black.

The sound of galloping footsteps echoed around him. He could feel the wind gushing over his face. He was on something that was running swiftly, he realized.

Opening his eyes, his world began to blur. Throbbing pain in his body made him squeeze his eyes shut. Trying once again, his vision began to focus. His eyes were met with thick brown fur; the smell putrid.

In an instant, he realized that his wrists were tied behind him, and he was lying face down across a warg in front of the orc who's group had captured him and Rhavaniel. Rhavaniel! Legolas' blood pounded in his veins; he needed to know if she was alive. He began to struggle against his bonds, trashing in vain to free himself.

Rough hands grabbed him by the hair, twisting his head up, and Legolas' eyes were met with those of the orc holding him captive.

"Hold still, elven wretch," the horrid creature snarled before dropping his head.

The wargs fast placed movements jerked Legolas' injuries, causing him to gasp in agony. His world began to blur, and he faintly heard echoing laughter. His last thought was of Rhavaniel before darkness overtook him.

Hands roughly grabbed him and dragged him across a stone bridge. Legolas' eyes shot open, and he bit back a scream of pain as the arrow in his shoulder was shifted. His mind was fogged; he tried in vain to remember something, anything.

Opening his eyes, he was met with a sight that would forever strike fear in his heart.

Dol Guldur.

The vast fortress was now crumbled to shadow and ruin; nothing but a ghostly silhouette of what was once a mighty stronghold. The great towers looked as skeletons reaching out of their graves to touch the dark smoldering clouds in the sky. Though it was barely afternoon, the sun seemed to have vanished from this place, surrounding it in utter despair. From a distance, it would be mistaken as deserted, but Legolas was no longer fooled.

This was the enemy's stronghold.

Legolas couldn't hide a shudder. He forgot about his physical wounds, and the blood trickling down his body. Every sanity inside him cried out for him to leave this place. Darkness lurked in every corner, threatening to eat away his light.

Suddenly, his mind came flooding back to him. Rhavaniel, the orcs. Rhaveniel! He began to struggle against the unwelcoming hands holding him; his eyes darting from side to side in a frantic search for her. "Rhaveniel!" He cried out.

An orc stepped forward and backhanded him, sending his face reeling to the side; his hair whipping past his face. "Shut your mouth, elf wretch, or I'll shut it for you," the orc snarled, and the others laughed.

Legolas recovered from the blow and spat at the orc's feet earning him another resounding slap.

"You'll learn to obey soon, elf scum," the orc pulled out a thick black rope.

Legolas shot the orc a deathly glare before bringing his fist in contact with the orcs smug face. A satisfying crunch resounded as his fist crushed its skull, and the orc crumbled to the stone ground.

A roar of anger burst from the others, and soon Legolas was pinned to the ground; his hands tied behind his back.

Legolas struggled in vain until he saw Rhavaniel shoved to the ground beside him. She was alive, and a short-lived relief washed over him. Her heavy eyelids lifted as though she had been asleep, and their eyes met. Both elves saw the fear deep inside each other's irises.

The orc tied the elves limbs, pulling so tight that the rope dug into their skin. Hoisting them up, the orcs procided to drag the elves deeper into the fortress.

They were dragged through a maze of dark halls, pieces of the stone walls crumbled behind them, falling to the ground and echoing around the cold stone walls. Both elves shuddered at the intense wave of evil that enveloped their every sense. Every breath they took was suffocating, almost as if the very air they breathed squeezed the oxygen from their lungs. Their eyes took in every detail, calculating each area in their minds.

Her blood pounded in her ears. She could feel her heart beating too fast in her chest. Her vision faded as if she were looking through a smudged window as her mind raced from Legolas and escaping this foul place. Darkness and anxiety squeezed at her gut, slowly driving her insane. Legolas' injury weighed heavily in her mind; if she did not stop the bleeding soon, he would die, just as everyone else she loved did.

Legolas found it difficult to discern markers; every area looked the same: dark, abanded, hopeless. An orc jerked him roughly from his thoughts and intense pain in his side and shoulder forced a pained moan from his lips.

The orcs laughed at his pain and purposely shoved the arrow deeper into his shoulder causing Legolas to cry out.

Rhavaniel's eyes shot up at his cry of pain, and she began to struggle in a vain attempt to reach him. "Let him go, you bastards!" She screamed; her eyes set ablaze with hatred.

The orc holding Legolas grinned in twisted pleasure. "Don't like that, do you, she-elf wench," his grimy hands moved to grip the arrow shaft yet again. "What if I did it again?"

Before Rhavaniel could utter another word, the orc ripped the arrow free, blood now pouring freely from Legolas' shoulder, and Rhaveniel screamed in horror as Legolas slumped to the ground. She could do nothing but watch in disgust as the orc brought the shaft to his tongue and licked the bright red blood.

She screamed until her throat was raw. She barely heard the orcs uproar of cruel laughter in the background; all she saw was Legolas' motionless body before her world faded into black.

TBC...

Word count: 1,065☠