Hunted

Chapter 9

It had been a few hours now, and Elrond was tending to Elladan's wounds again, when he suddenly heard a soft groan and saw his son's eyes flutter open.

"Legolas!" Elladan exclaimed in a panic as he suddenly sat straight up, ignoring the sharp pain it brought. He turned to Elrond, his eyes wide.  "O-orcs, they took us and-"

Elrond kept his expression collected even though fear ran through his heart.  Orcs.  If they did get taken prisoner by orcs, Elrond needed to know why Elladan escaped or was set free when Legolas and Elrohir obviously weren't.  He placed a hand gently on the elder twin's shoulder.  "Slow down and breath, Elladan.  Start from the beginning."

Elladan didn't look happy about this, most likely thinking about how much time it would waste when they could have instead been looking for the two missing elves.  But nevertheless, he complied.  He told Elrond everything, from the orcs being spotted, to Legolas falling out of a tree and getting seriously injured, to their mostly failed escape.  Elrond was silent during it all, only nodding gravely.  Once Elladan finished, an unreadable mask came about the lord of Rivendell's face.  For a few seconds there was silence.  But then Elrond stood.

"So orcs keep them captive now."  His tone was slow but steady and unwavering.  Though he sounded collected, Elladan suspected that they shared the same burning sense of malevolence that could never vanquished because of what orcs had done to their family.  It was history repeating itself right now, and only the Valar knew what Elrond would do if anything permanently affected either Elrohir or Legolas.  When his wife had been tortured by the foul creatures many years ago, she had been too scarred both physically and emotionally, and could no longer find peace or joy on Arda.  She would have faded away had she not sailed for Valinor...  Elrond nor Elladan would be able to stand seeing someone they loved going through that much pain a second time.

No. He wouldn't even ponder on that terrible thought. He vowed to himself that both of the young elves would be found, and brought back home in one piece.

Elladan was staring sadly at the ground when Elrond glanced back at him.  "We'll send out a search party at once. How many orcs did you say there were?"

Elladan frowned, thinking.  "We killed several so now... At least eight, no more than fifteen though."  He paused for a split second. "I'm going with the search party."

Elrond raised an eyebrow.  "Might I remind you that you're injured, Elladan.  The journey would not be wise with the so few hours of rest you got. You exhausted yourself running back here to Imladris."

"Adar—you can't expect me to just sit around here patiently and wait!"

Elrond pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed—something he happened to do a lot when his stubborn twin sons were involved.  "I understand that you are concerned for their safety, but I will join the party-"

Elladan's eyes narrowed almost dangerously, stubborn as ever. "I-"

"Elladan!" Elrond said exasperatedly.  If a fight broke out, which was the most likely thing to happen, Elladan would be weaker in a fight because of the injuries he had sustained. Elves may heal faster than mortals, but it still took longer than a few hours to be back to normal. And if Elladan got hurt any worse...

Suddenly, the eldest of the twins had a sorrowful expression appear on his features. "You don't understand. If I had been paying better attention to our surroundings on our hunt, we wouldn't even be in this mess right now.  It's all my fault that Legolas is badly injured and that I left him and Elrohir to the mercy of the orcs and that I couldn't kill all of the orcs and-"

His words came out in a jumbled mess that only a sharp eared elf would be able to make out. He choked on his words and it immediately became evident to Elrond that Elladan needed this. He wouldn't be satisfied until he personally saw all of those orcs dead, most of them at his own doing. Elrond understood that feeling. He didn't have peace again until he slaughtered the orcs that had tortured his wife..

"Very well. You may come."  Elrond's answer came to the obvious surprise of Elladan, who's eyes widened slightly.  He didn't question it though, and gave a single nod in return. He made to stand up, but Elrond gently pushed him back. "We will leave in an hour. I want you to get as much rest as possible while I prepare the search party. You will need it."

With those words, Elrond left the room and Elladan was stuck wondering how exactly he was supposed to get some rest while the prospect of leaving to rescue Elrohir and Legolas was fresh on his mind. He did feel more at peace than he had in hours though, and knew with an almost complete certainty that no orc would bring anymore injury or pain to Elrohir or Legolas once he was there. This had been the longest two days of his life, and Elladan could hardly wait to see it over with. And he doubted that he would be taking any more hunting trips anytime soon. But that was a matter for another time, once Legolas was healed and he and Elrohir were safely back here.

He laid back in his bed and stared at the ceiling. The sky was starting to darken now.  It would be slightly harder to complete their task at the mercy of nightfall, but luckily they had the wonderful gift of sharp Elven eyesight on their side. They could do this.

They had to.