The Do'Urden Brothers

Chapter 12

Those thoughts, those feelings of resentment, of hoping that another being died in agony, Legolas tried so very hard to push them from his consciousness. This wasn't who he wanted to be. He wanted to be capable of compassion, even to his enemies. But how many elves begged for mercy before Dinin cut them down? Legolas couldn't help but wonder and think that the drow was getting what he deserved.

A slight shift in the forest air would have gone past most humans, but the elf, with his sensitive senses, was immediately alert. He tensed, gripping the blades he held in each hand as he glanced around at his surroundings.

"We're being watched," Catti-brie spoke up as Legolas came to the same conclusion.

"Proceed slowly," Drizzt whispered as he and Ky'lor inched along with the stretcher. It was quickly and poorly constructed of vine and branches and threatened to come apart and drop the drow with every movement, so Drizzt and Ky'lor had to take every step carefully and slowly. This had made the pace of the entire group unbearably slow. And now, perhaps, they had lingered too long for their own good.

Legolas inched forward, casting his gaze high to the canopy. As high as he could possibly see, scanning the branches and leaves for any movement. When a flutter caught the corner of his eye, he whirled, only to find himself staring at the tip of an arrow aimed at his face. He froze, glancing beyond at the archer.

"State your purpose in these woods," the elf woman demanded as she trained her arrow at him, her expression firm. About five elves, their weapons drawn, stood defensively behind her.

Legolas let the words catch in his throat for a moment, unsure of his response. That he found himself at the mercy of one of his own race was an irony not lost on him.

But as the woman regarded him and those who came with him, she narrowed her eyes. "You are an elf," she commented, speaking in an elven language. A familiar tongue that had Legolas cocking his head in confusion and surprise. "Yet you travel with dark elves. Are you being held against your will?"

In his time on Faerun, Legolas had been introduced to a few languages. Dwarvish and Drow were unfamiliar to him. The language that the dwarves spoke was similar to Khuzdul, but clearly different. And Drow was unlike any other language Legolas had ever heard. Legolas expected the elves of this world to speak a different tongue from the elves of Middle Earth. But although this seemed to be an unfamiliar dialect, it was clearly Silvan.

"No," Legolas stammered in Silvan after a wiggle of the arrow prompted him to speak. Though Mirkwood was one of the last strongholds of Silvan elves, and though his mother was a Silvan elf, his father had raised him as one of the Sindarin and by his lifetime, the Silvan elves were in decline, even in Mirkwood.

"We require a healer," Catti-brie explained in the common tongue as she moved up to stand beside Legolas. "Please, we do not mean to trespass in yer forest, we entered only out of need."

The elf regarded the human woman suspiciously. As a male elf moved up beside her, she kept her weapon trained on them.

"What should we care of dark elves?" he commented, shooting a glare at the drow. But as Dinin let out a loud moan of pain, both elves flinched, concern and sympathy clear in their faces.

"Please," Drizzt insisted as he and Ky'lor brought the stretcher forward so the elves could see that they were indeed carrying another drow, and that they were no threat since neither could draw their weapons while they carried the stretcher. "My brother was attacked by a ghoul. He cannot last long."

The elves exchanged hesitant looks, and the woman focused her attention back to Legolas. The two eyed only another, both scrutinizing their appearances with curiosity. She was a beautiful elf, her hair long, thick, and dark, and falling past her waist, her bangs covering her eyebrows. Her skin was a warm medium tan hue, and her eyes were a beautiful mahogany brown with flecks of red and gold in them. She was dressed in leather armor, armed with her bow and short sword on her belt.