The Jewel of Mirkwood

Chapter 131

Legolas lay on his side sweat trickling down his face as he tried and failed to combat the pain. It had begun that night a wash of pain that swept through his body paralysing him to his sleeping roll and robbing him of breath. Even the beatings of Keeldon did not compare to the agony that tore through his abdomen and left him gasping and squirming on his bed as if he’d been hit by a thousand arrows. Nothing Gandalf had explained to him had prepared him for the pain and while it was excruciating Legolas had a feeling it was only the beginning.

Knowing his captors view on the subject of his pregnancy Legolas had at first tried to conceal his pain by biting his lip but as the pain it had grown gradually worse Legolas no longer cared who heard his cries of agony. With every wave of pain that engulfed his body Legolas called out Glorfindel’s name desperately trying to draw his lover to him in the darkness of the night. Yamalin had tried to silence him fearing that his cries would give them away but even the gag that had been tied loosely around Legolas mouth did not silence the pitiful cries. Fearing that Legolas was choking Yamalin had relented and removed the gag earlier in the night leaving Legolas free to howl his pain into the night.

Now however as the contractions continued the coppery smell of blood had begun to fill the air of the tent, the front of Legolas’ tunic was soaked in the crimson liquid. Tears ran freely down Legolas face as one of the guards stepped into the tent and stared at him in fear before turning and disappearing back outside. From the shadows on the tent walls Legolas watched as the guard approached Yamalin who had been pacing back and forth past the tent entrance like he was the expectant father. Though his pain distorted his hearing Legolas focused his attention on the conversation that passed between the pair of men outside.

“He is bleeding heavily sire although it is impossible to tell how far along he is. I have never witnessed a male give birth and I believe it is very different to what a female would go through. I have no knowledge on how to slow the process or even how to deliver the child should he survive through the night. He is going to bleed to death my Lord if we do not find him an elvan healer.” Legolas let out a keening wail as another particularly severe contraction ripped through his body. The shadows of the men turned around to face the tent at Legolas scream both of them staring until Legolas breathing regulated itself again.

“Where is that messenger? Berlin should be back by now with Glorfindel’s answer.” Yamalin swore in a foul tongue that Legolas had never heard before and in his moments respite from the pain took solace in the fact that he was not alone in the wild. It had become glaringly obvious that there would be no help for Legolas in delivering his own child and so the prince decided to put what he had learned into practise in the hope that the rest of what he had to know would just happen as he went along. Shakingly Legolas rolled ungraciously onto his hands and knees and began with one hand undoing the ties of his blood soaked tunic. His once nimble fingers had become almost useless with pain and the contractions forced him to pause after each tie had been undone. So far Legolas had not dared feel beneath his tunic for fear of what he would find but considering his situation there was little else he could do but attempt help himself. With his tunic hanging loosely open beneath him Legolas braced himself before opening his eyes and glanced down at the plump round belly that bulged out under him.

Although his pale skin was covered in blood Legolas could just see the opening that had begun to split his lower abdomen. Feeling ill at the sight of himself Legolas was forced to look away before another contraction had him weakly lying with his face pressed against his bedroll while he tried to catch his breath.

“Breath Legolas, Breath.” Legolas knew there was little he could do for himself regarding the changes happening in his body, but he did know a little after reading his books about how to combat the pain. Whispering to himself in elvish Legolas began the breathing exercises he had practised from the book he’d read. As much as the exercises had proved useless during practise, now as he took another contraction the breathing exercises actually began to work. The prince was amazed at how better he felt to be actually doing something instead of lying down and taking wave after wave of agonizing pain.

So concentrated was Legolas on his breathing exercises the prince didn’t even notice the commotion that had begun in the camp around him until the flaps of his tent burst open…

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Elrohir hadn’t found it hard to find Legolas as soon as the sound of the war had lessoned in the distance and the rain had slowed a little more. Legolas screams had drawn Elrohir directly to the camp of men. From the trees surrounding the camp Elrohir had spent sometime just observing who or what was about. It would do no one any good for him to just storm in there and attempt to free Legolas by force, because he would most likely end up captured as well. Having pin pointed the tent Legolas was most likely being held in Elrohir listened intently for signs of the prince’s health. Thank-fully the prince had stopped screaming Glorfindel’s name but his laboured breathing had continued to get worse with the prince’s pain.

The camp of men was relatively small and in his short time in the trees Elrohir had counted only 15 men, five of which had disappeared into the woods as a small hunting party a few moments after he’d arrived. So that left ten to deal with and Elrohir was slowly becoming aware of the hierarchy within the encampment. A man not unlike the messenger who Glorfindel had killed paced the entrance to the tent Elrohir was sure housed Legolas. The man was certainly not a guard and it seemed most of the men in the camp came to him for jobs to do or permission to go hunting. Elrohir decided he was most likely the captain leading the proceedings. Due to the laziness of men leaving their rear unguarded Elrohir surmised the simplest course of action was to take Legolas through the back of the tent and ride off into the mountains, without any of them any the wiser. Elrohir was just about to climb down from his position in the trees when below him he hearo ofo of the men reliving themselves at the base of the tree he was hiding in. With no choice but to remain still Elrohir listened intently to their passing conversation.

“Yamalin is a fool he will get us all killed.” Elrohir smiled down upon the men as he watched them measuring themselves against one another in a somewhat friendly display of manhood.

“Aye that he is. The Lord of Gondolin will single-handed kill us all if his mate dies. Rumours say that after battle he is hardly recognisable beneath the blood of his victims.” The taller of the two men spat crudely onto the ground before removing a small tin box from his tunic pocket and sharing something that looked like rangers pipe weed with his friend.

“I bet Glorfindel will hunt us down as soon as he finds out we have his mate.” Gladly accepting his friends offering the shorter of the guards pushed the strange weed into his mouth and began chewing nosily as did his friend.

“He’s probably on his way now, to sting us up like he did with the Lord Keeldon. We won’t last the night.” Seeing the two men wandering back to camp Elrohir smiled as a new plan entered his mind. The plan was far simpler than the earlier one and it would certainly avoid moving Legolas unnecessarily. With his mind made up Elrohir descended from the tree and crept his way slowly to where Legolas tent was pausing as one guard appeared from inside the tent to converse quietly with his leader. Elrohir was not close enough to hear what was being said but saw the concern on the men’s faces as Legolas let out a keening wail. After a moment the lower ranking man disappeared off into another tent leaving the leader again vulnerably pacing in front of the entrance to Legolas tent.

“For a man of Gondor, you pace as if you actually care for your captive.” Approaching from behind Elrohir spoke calmly, lowering his voice so that it sounded far more authoritative like Glorfindel’s did. Almost instantly the man spun around his sword drawn but Elrohir easily blocked the blow having pre-empted the man’s moves.

“Who are you?” Although he growled Elrohir could see the fear flash in the man’s eyes and secretly delighted in seeing it so.

“Who do you think I am?” Elrohir sneered as he blocked another badly attempted blow from the man’s sword who was now slowly backing away from Elrohir and towards the center of the encampment where the men were relaxing around the fire. Tripping and stumbling on a log the man alerted the attention of the rest of the encampment and while most of the men went for their arms all of them paused as they turned to see the elf who was now slowly approaching them.

“Glorfindel?” The man was beginning to stutter his fearless façade falling away as he continued to back away from the approaching elf. Elrohir secretly smiled to himself as the leader ran into one of his guards causing them both to fall over haphazardly onto the ground.

“For your sake you better hope I’m not.” Elrohir growled low in his throat watching again as some of the guards at the rear of the group began hastily mounting their horses and abandoning their camp as quickly as they could.

“What do you want?” Again the leader of the group spoke already noting with fear that his men were deserting him. Elrohir stopped walking when he was hovering over the man on the floor who was now shaking in his very boots.

“Glorfindel of Gondolin does not take kindly to your capture of his mate. Even as I speak he rides swiftly from the field of battle, abandoning his kin in their hour of need to seek penance from those who have kidnapped his lover.” Elrohir screwed his nose up in disgust as the man on the ground before him wet himself with fear. The race of men was just as weak as it had been in the Last Alliance and Elrohir could now see why the elves looked on with disgust as the realms of men destroyed them selves. “It would be wise for you to heed my warning and flee while you are still able too, the pain of one elf is enough to secure the scorn of an entire realm of elves and I do not think you want to be hunted like the dog you are until the end of your days now do you?” Elrohir had not even completely finished his sneering remarks before the leader of the men was on his feet and was running swiftly away from camp, what remained of the men close on his tail.

With the men gone Elrohir took a moment to revel in his success before doing the once over the camp to ensure it was secure before hastily moving towards the tent that he was now sure held Legolas. Bursting through the flaps of the tent eager to attend his friend’s health Elrohir was shocked at the sight that greeted him.

Legolas kneeled on all fours his breathing laboured and pain etched into every fibre of his being.

“Legolas?” Dropping to his knees beside the prince Elrohir gently brushed the wild disarray of braids from Legolas face as the blond looked stricken up at his friend. While Elrohir saw relief in Legolas eyes it was only brief and was quickly replaced by a guttural groan as Legolas collapsed onto Elrohir in breathless exhaustion. “Relax my friend you are tiring yourself to early.” With Legolas resting in his arms Elrohir gently inspected the wound opening slowly on the prince’s lower abdomen. To Elrohir’s relief Legolas was still in the early stages of his labour the opening far from fully developed which gave Elrohir a fair amount of time to work still. It was not safe to stay within the camp of men in case they should return and Elrohir had spotted orc tracks on his way up the hill indicating that the patrols were out in force again.

Easing Legolas down onto the bedroll Elrohir quickly propped the prince’s legs up on some trunks before draping a blanket carefully across his now shivering friend. “Be still and concentrate on your breathing Legolas, I am going to fetch Iest and see what I can take from the camp then we will ride north to safer ground.” Legolas smiled weakly at Elrohir and nodded as his friend pressed a gentle kiss to his forehead and ran from the tent to ready Iest for the ride. It would not be easy for Legolas to ride but Elrohir had little choice in such dangerous times, the young half elf only hoped that the heir of Gondolin was not in any rush to be entering the world…

TBC>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

A/N) Well it's on for young and old now isn't it??? Leggy's kid is on it's way, Glorfindel is singlehandedly killing the orc population, Elrond is in deep shit with his senschal, Erestors finger is gone, Lorien and Mirkwood have yet to make a grand apperance if at all and to top it all I've still got to work in the reuniting of the elvan realms in the most spectacular way you're going to ever read.........So basically it's going to be a long day.... Hope you're still enjoying and really you don't have to review if you don't want to I'm don't need them to survive or anything, it's just that they're nice to get every now and then to remind me I've still got an audience apart from my pet cat.

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