In the Ruins//Legolas

Chapter 9; Sweet Dreams are Made To Confuse You

"Can you not do something?" Kili asks Oin, who is probably the best healer of all of them.

"I need herbs, something to bring down his fever."

"I have nightshade, feverfew..." Bard says as he rummages through his medical bag.

"They're no use to me. Do you have any Kingsfoil?"

"No, it's a weed. We feed it to the pigs."

"Pigs? Weed? Right." Bofur nods and before he bolts out of the door he turns to still moaning Kili. "Don't move." Durion turns to Bain and hands him a piece of cloth.

"Can you soak this in cold water, please?"

"Will do."

"Thanks." Durion then cuts into the fabric of Kili's pants to free up more space. The state of the injury makes him wince. Suddenly, they hear a powerful roar from a distance. The house shakes and dust falls off the ceiling.

"Da?" Tilda's voice shakes.

"It's coming from the mountain." Bain says and hands Durion the wet cloth. The elf places it against Kili's forehead.

"You should leave us. Take your children; get out of here." Fili tells Bard, who looks out of the window with evident worry.

"And go where? There is nowhere to go."

"Are we going to die, Da?"

"No, darling."

"The dragon, it's going to kill us." The little girl is in tears now. Bard looks at his children and then reaches up. He pulls out a black arrow from where it was hidden among the drying racks. Everyone except Durion stares at him in shock.

"Not if I kill it first." He then rushes out of the door. Sigrid brings Durion a pot with boiled water and the elf carefully tests its temperature, then dips a new piece of cloth into it and starts cleaning Kili's wound. The dwarf shouts in pain and jerks away. Fili helps to hold him down but he still trashes around.

"This isn't going to work." Durian mumbles and drops the cloth into the pot, then rips the fabric of Kili's pants a bit more. "Alright Kili, this is going to burn a bit." He warns the dwarf before drawing a rune into his skin. Nauthiz. Rune for endurance and survival. Kili screams.

"Da? Is that you, Da?" Sigrid calls out of the window as she hears some noise. The dwarves and the elf look up as they hear footsteps on the roof. Sigrid suddenly screams and they turn to her and see her trying to shut the door on an orc. Durion sprints to where he left the sword, grabs it, then quickly decapitates the orc chasing the two young girls. Another orc bursts into the house through the backdoor and Durion barely avoids the ax swinging at him.

"Shit!" Durion swears as more orcs get in by breaking the roof. He kicks the orc attacking him back , making him fall off the ledge of the house outside, then turns and rushes to help Bain protecting his sisters with a bench. One of the orcs is cornering Kili, who fell from the bed and crawled back. Suddenly, an arrow pierces the orc's chest. The red-headed elven woman from his dream and from the time they were caught in Mirkwood steps into the house along with Legolas and help to slay the orcs. Suddenly the scene starts to become terrifyingly familiar. One of the orcs flees over the balcony. Legolas kills the last orc on the inside and tips him over the railing. It lands on a boat below, which catapults the escaping orc back up. Legolas decapitates him with a satisfied smirk.

"You killed them all." Bain speaks, amazed and Durion quietly curses, now sure he dreamed of this.

"There are others. Tauriel, come." Legolas walks to the door and turns to wait for her. Tauriel exactly copies her expression from the dream.

"We're losing him!" Tauriel's conflicted look makes Durion make a decision for her.

"Let's go." He told Legolas, who looked at him like he was seeing him for the first time.

"What?" He asked.

"You said there are others, no?" Durion raised one dark eyebrow at the prince. "Let's go then." Legolas looks almost as conflicted as Tauriel, but doesn't say anything else and runs after the orcs, Durion right behind him. Legolas and Durion make their way through the orcs towards Bolg. The large orc sends a few of the other orcs away across the bridge on their wargs and starts walking towards the two elves. "Here he comes." Durion sighs and Legolas unsheathes Orcrist.

Two orcs attack them from each side and they barely manage to knock them out when Bolg swings his mace at Legolas and kicks Durion in the chest. Legolas dodges the blow, but Durion stumbles back a few steps, having the wind knocked out of him momentarily. He gets back into the fight just as the orc throws the Woodland prince into a wooden wall and Durion takes over for him. He swings his sword at Bolg's neck, but the orc dodges under it and drives his shoulder into Durion's stomach, well, at least tries to. Durion jumps up, vaults over the orc's head and lands behind him. He slices at Bolg's back, but any real damage is deflected by the iron plates that are grown into the orc's flesh. Bolg swings his elbow back at Durion, and it catches the elf in the side of his head. He stumbles back against a wooden railing and spits out blood from where the skin inside his mouth split open against his teeth.

Legolas throws a punch at Bolg's head and lands, then he smashes the orc's head against a wall, then throws the orc's whole body against it. Bolg rebounds and crushes Legolas in a deadly hug that would break human bones. The prince strains in pain and Durion smashes his foot into the back of Bolg's knee just as Legolas headbuts the orc. Bolg throws Legolas at two incoming orcs, grabs the front of Durion's tunic and starts dragging him away. Durion swings his sword again and his hand gets twisted behind his back. He drops the sword in pain and lets out a yelp. He struggles, but that only leads to increased pressure against his shoulder socket. When Durion sees that Bolg is dragging him towards an awaiting warg, he panics a little. His breathing quickens and he has to close his eyes to calm down enough to think. With a quick move of his finger, he draws the rune Kenaz onto the orc's skin. The rune of fire works its magic and the stench of burning flesh fills the air. Bolg shouts and throws Durion away in reflex. Durion flies through the air and his back smashes against the side of one house, then he falls into the ice cold water of the lake. When the elf resurfaces, gasping for air, he sees Bolg riding away on the warg, the Woodland prince close behind him on a snow-white horse. 

Okaaayy, I kinda dig the last fighting scene. I wonder why the orcs seem to wanna capture Durion...