Hunted

Chapter 5

Legolas groaned as he struggled to open his eyes. Everything...Everything hurt. A lot.

"Legolas? Legolas can you hear me?"

He heard muffled sounding voices calling out his name. He continued to try to open his eyes, but at this point, he wasn't sure he wanted to. A part of him wanted to just succumb to the darkness. It seemed so much easier than to endure this pain...

"Legolas!"

The voice was quiet but pleading.

"Come on...Legolas, open your eyes..."

His eyes flew open at the same time he gave a pained groan. Everything was very blurry, but he thought he could make out the faces of Elladan and Elrohir looking down at him. His vision was too blurry to make out their expressions, but they sounded worried.

"El...El...dan?" Legolas muttered quietly. His head was pounding so badly. He wouldn't have been surprised if a knife was stuck through it. And he could hardly form a coherent thought. "O-orcs..."

The twins shot concerned glances at each other. "Yes mellon-nin, there are orcs. They captured us and hurt you. Do you remember?" one of them spoke to him. He couldn't tell. It was even harder than usual to tell them apart when his head was killing him and his vision was blurry.

"Hurts," he said, not liking how it came out as a whimper.

"Yes, I know," the soft and gentle voice of one of the twins came. "We'll try to help you the best that we can."

Upon hearing that, Legolas attempted to stand, but then found that he was bound. A hiss of pain escaped his lips when sharp pangs of pain came from both his shoulder and his arm. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead as he quit struggling and leaned back against the tree the three of them were tied to.

The only thing entering his mind that he could focus on was how they were going to get out of this mess. Before he could think on it any further though, his eyes closed and he passed out once again.

———

"Why do these vile creatures have to keep hurting those we care about?" Elrohir said quietly and sadly to his brother. "First our mother and now Legolas...Why Elladan?"

All Elladan could do was sigh. "I don't know 'Ro, I don't know..." They should have listened to Elrond when he warned them about the orcs in the first place. It was foolish of them. Why did they-why did he risk everyone's safety like this?

Elladan forced himself to take a deep breath. It would be fine. Everything would be fine. Sooner rather than later, Elrond would realise they weren't back yet and would send search parties out for them. And that was only if they didn't manage to escape first.

"Help me think. We need an escape plan." He made sure to speak very quietly, in under even a whisper.

"Hmm..." Elrohir was silent for a moment. "Well, it will be dark out soon. Orcs aren't very smart; there's a chance we won't even be guarded. If that's the case, then we can find something sharp... A rock maybe, and cut ourselves free. If we step lightly enough, they won't notice our escape till morning."

Elladan raised an eyebrow in a critical fashion. "But what if they do decide to guard us?"

"We just have to hope they won't. And they probably think we're defenseless right now in our condition. In their minds, guarding us would be futile."

"Even if that's the case, no mere rock will set us free. Admit it, this plan of yours will just waste our time."

Elrohir glared at his twin-not necessarily mad at him, but the hard situation they were thrown into. He didn't answer for a minute, but then his eyes suddenly widened and a grin broke out on his face. "My extra knife! It's still hidden in my boot, we can use that!" Thank the Valar that orcs were so dim-witted as to not think to check for any extra weapons.

Elladan's face lit up as well. "Yes! Though... Reaching it may prove to be difficult with us tied up like this." Indeed, the ropes were very tight. "And we want to make sure we aren't caught doing it." He glanced up at the sky. "Darkness will ascend in about an hour. I hate to wait because of Legolas, but we cannot get caught. If that knife gets taken... Our chances of escape are very slim..."

Elrohir nodded. "An hour then. Let us hope the great Manwë is on our side this night." An hour. Only an hour, and then they could escape if luck was on their side. They would need it. But even then, would they manage to get far enough away from the orcs before they realised they were gone? Legolas would surly slow their pace down. And then there was the fact that both of the twins sported minor injuries as well.

But they would just have to worry about that when the time came. They didn't have anytime to spare to come up with a better plan. This was what they had, and though it may be a bit imprudent, it would work. It had to.

"Don't think much on it, Elrohir. Unless we somehow get a better idea, we have to have the confidence that it will work. Dawning on if it will work or not will not help us."

Elrohir gave a single nod in reply. He just needed to stop overthinking everything. He needed to keep a cool mind about this. For Legolas. For Elladan. For himself.

A look of strong determination suddenly crossed his face. Because in one hour, they would escape. In one hour, they would be out of these woods and back in Rivendell. And why was Elrohir so sure about this?

Because he wasn't sure what he would do if it didn't work."

Tbc...