»»»»

Thalion had tracked Legolas all the way to the edge of the border. It hadn't been easy, but Thalion had refused to give up.

Why did he come so far?

Thalion led the small group of elves, and his father, deeper into the forest. He was mess, his hair was tangled and the pain from where he had been stung was killing him.

His eyes suddenly spotted something unusual laying on the ground. He picked it up and found that it was an arrow, his blood ran cold when he realized that it was an orc arrow.

There had been orcs here.
Thranduil was at his side in a heartbeat. His eyes widened in fear when he saw the arrow.

Thalion continued to search the clearing, in one spot he found a small puddle of blood.

Elf blood.

Please...
Please Eru do not let it be his.

"My Lord Thalion."
An elf walked up to him with something in his hand.
"What is it?"
Thranduil demanded.
Thalion took the object carefully from the elf's hand.

It was Legolas' knife.
The arrows, the blood, the knife.
It didn't take long for Thalion to piece together what had happened.

No, oh please no.

Thranduil placed a hand on Thalion's shoulder.
"Thalion-"
"I know."

He couldn't breathe, he couldn't think. His brother, his little brother, who he promised to protect and keep safe....
Had been captured by orcs.

It was an elf's worst nightmare, orcs only took elves alive to torture them, until they died.

Thalion gripped Legolas' knife. He was going after him, he would kill every single one of those orcs. He would make them pay.

"I am going after them."
Thalion turned around and began walking back towards his horse.
"Thalion-"
Thranduil grabbed his arm, but Thalion pulled away.

"I am not leaving him in the hands of those beasts."
Thranduil said nothing and followed him.
"Can you find them?"
He asked quietly.
Thalion mounted his horse and looked down at his father.
"I can, and when I do, I will kill them all."

»»»»

Legolas awoke to a sharp pain in his head. He struggled to clear his mind and remember what had happened.

He suddenly became aware that his hands were tied together behind his back, his ankles were tied together the same way.

He was laying on his side on a stone floor. Looking up he saw the sky, it was dark. How long had he been unconcious?

Harsh voices filled his ears and he turned his attention to a small fire, and surrounding it were at least seven orcs.

They seemed to be eating something, but what it was Legolas never wanted to find out.
He continued to take in his surroundings, he seemed to be in some kind of ruins.

Where he was suddenly dawned on him. He was in Dol Guldur, and a prisoner of orcs. Legolas had heard pleanty of stories about elves who had been captured by orcs, none of them had ever ended well.

Suddenly he was yanked up by his hair, his eyes widened in terror as an orc became only inches away from his face.

"Well isn't this nice boys, the elf's finally awake."
The other orcs gathered around him, the one who had him by the hair threw him down onto the hard floor.

"I wonder what it would take to make an elf scream?"
One of the orcs looked at Legolas with a dangerous gleam in its eye.
"Why don't we find out?"
Another orc took out a large knife.

Legolas tried to back away from the orc but two grabbed him by his shoulders and held him still.
Their claws dug into his shoulders, he gasped in pain and watched as blood began trickling down his arms.

The orc with the knife drew closer, Legolas wanted to wake up from this nightmare, but unlike his dreams he wouldn't be waking.

The orc slashed its knife across Legolas' chest. He cried out in pain and struggled against the orcs.

"That wasn't hard!"
One of the orcs laughed.
Legolas fought against the tears that were forming in his eyes.
"Are you going to cry elf?"

The orcs holding Legolas' shoulder threw him onto his side, Legolas gasped as the wind was knocked out of him.

"We may go easy on you if you cry."
An orc delivered a hard kick to Legolas' stomach.
He had barely any time to recover before another orc kicked him in the back.

The tears began falling, the orcs laughed while Legolas tried to get away from his tormentors.
"You're not getting away from us elf."
An orc placed its foot on Legolas' chest, pinning him to the ground and causing more pain to Legolas.

His chest was bleeding, his shoulders were bleeding, his entire body was beaten, he didn't think he could take much more of this.
He knew that he couldn't.

An orc suddenly approached with a whip, the orcs grabbed Legolas and shoved him up against a wall.

He knew what was coming, he braced himself for it, but could not stop himself from crying out when the orc whipped his back.

Not only was his back struck, but also his bound arms.
Legolas slowly sank to his knees, the orcs laughing everytime he cried out.

He lay helpless on the ground, he looked up and saw the orc about to deal another blow.
"That's enough ya maggot!"
An orc that was fairly larger than the others yanked the whip away from the smaller orc.

"Our master wants him alive remember?"
The orcs grumbled their dissapointment but didn't say anything.
The lead orc grabbed Legolas by the arm and dragged him back over to his original spot.

The orcs then gathered around their leader and began to discuss things in their own tongue.
Legolas lay motionless on the ground, slowly bleeding out from his numerous wounds.

He had never experienced pain like this before, his entire body felt like it was burning.
He wanted to black out, or do anything to escape the pain.

The orcs started arguing, but now they were speaking in the common tongue, Legolas listened to their words in silence.

"I say we wait until dawn. Hirshak said that he would meet us here tomorow."
"If we wait it will give those elves more time to track us and take back their precious prince."
The orc who said this glared at Legolas.

"We should leave now while we still can."
"The elves won't be able to find us. We will be fine of we wait."
"Shut up!"
The lead orc glared at the two orcs who cowered away in fear.

Legolas focused on the lead orc.
If he chose to stay, it would give his father or whoever was looking for him enough time to track the orcs here. But if they left, all hope would be lost.

Legolas' fate was now entirely in the hands of this orc.
As if sensing his thoughts the orc turned to him and snarled.
"Tend to his injuries and get him ready to move."
The lead orc commanded.
"We're leaving tonight."

All of Legolas' hope was dashed in that moment. The orcs roughly put dirty bandages over his wounds, then they shoved a filthy rag into his mouth and blindfolded him.

He felt himself being lifted up into the air and slung over an orc's shoulder.
The orcs put out the fire and carried their prisoner away from his home, and into the darkness.