Chapter 21
(Legolas POV)
Tauriel ran beside him, fleeting and silent as she traversed the forest with Legolas. He glanced at her between the dark flashes of trees. Her bright auburn hair flashed like fire. Legolas knew in his heart pondered more than just the bond of friendship. He restrained the thought as he had grown so accustomed to doing. Tauriel had made her position clear through the many subtle cues one of lower standing resort to. Saying no to an Elvish Prince was always an agonizingly sophisticated affair as far too many things were with his people.
Setting the complications in their long friendship aside, Legolas took a deep breath. He grimaced, his elegant brow furrowing slightly as the stench of mold seeped in. The woods he had lived in for so long seemed foreign. The dark ever deeper and the desolate Mirkwood ever more silent. The whisper of light feet on leaf litter the only sign of the Elves following them.
Legolas hated how content his father had become with ignoring the very woods outside their halls.
"The signs of the intruders are many…A small company and…what can only be a Troll." Tauriel called to him.
"How many years has it been since a Troll has dared enter our lands."
"Perhaps a particularly bold scouting attempt by the goblins?"
"Perhaps…"
The mystery of the who dared interlope in Thranduil's lands did not linger long. Ten angry dwarves and a hobbit were soon found. The group was far from elusive as they barreled through the woods. They put up no fight as they ran directly into the trap as Tauriel led the other scouts to encircle them. The ridiculous round beings formed a small pile as they came to a crashing halt before the circle of arrows.
Legolas prepared to jump from his vantage on a tree to confront the Dwarves. Before he did, he caught sight of a rapidly approaching disturbance. Even the tree he stood on had a faint tremor. Their imagination of goblins may have been inaccurate, but it seemed the presence of a Troll was not. A massive specimen of a Troll barreled toward the clearing. Legolas tensed to intercept the brute.
The Troll carried two more dwarves. The Troll seemed to relies the presence of the Elves and deposited the dwarves under the very tree he hid in. The giant green being then put on an exaggerated attempt at stealth as if any elf in a mile wasn't already alerted to it. The foul creature was quite absurd as it tried to be stealthy. Before the beast left Legolas decided to end it swiftly, surely a mercy a being of malice didn't deserve. He dropped down on its massive shoulders with no fear. His two daggers flashed as they sought the Trolls neck… "Clang!"
The two elvish blades rebounded from the beasts flesh! Legolas was stunned. Not even striking stone would have stopped his finely crafted blades with such utter ease. A small trace of blood was barely visible. Legolas may have been young by his peoples standards, but he had already fought countless battles. He barely hesitated in his surprise before deftly spring back out of the oafs range. The Troll may be absurdly durably, but it was doubtless clumsy and slow as they all were. No Troll was as nimble as an elf…surely.
A swift leap and a small kick off the broad trunk had Legolas tracing a reverse arc as he backflipped back into the tree. Legolas had plenty of experience leaping among trees. His familiarity had him gracefully landing on a thick bough. A thunderous crack sounded below. Before Legolas could adjust the whole tree began to fall. He leapt for the forest floor, better to roll away from the Troll than to come down with the tree right at its feet.
As he dove Legolas caught a glimpse of the Troll withdrawing an immense fist from the splintered wreck that had once been the trunk. Legolas rolled to bleed off his momentum. As he came to his feet he took stock, Tauriel had just started to run to his aid, and the towering Troll was lunging for him arms wide. Legolas was surprised to find his speed barely faster than the Troll. Despite being incredibly agile for a Troll, Legolas had no doubt he could dodge with ease. It might be fast, but an Elf was more than just fast, he was skilled.
A sinuous lean and shuffle of footing ensured the swinging arms would miss. The Troll seemed to anticipate this or more accurately hadn't been aiming to hit him to start with. The two hands the size of shields slapped together only a few feet from the Elven Princes head. A deafening blast of noise was created. Legolas nearly unbreakable composure began to show cracks as he stumbled forward, his hair flying askew from the air pressure.
Legolas felt like a nail had been hammered into each delicate ear as the noise thoroughly discombobulated him. A blur of emerald and the feeling of three stone fingers enveloping his chest were the only warning he got before he was lifted. Legolas, ears still ringing but rapidly recovering was not pleased to find himself far too close to a massive slab of moss rock…no that was a face.
The unyielding flesh holding him had Legolas imagining the tree trunk and how easy he would be to crush in this hand. The grasp was surprisingly controlled for what could be his tomb. A clatter had Legolas looking up as Tauriel's arrows skipped off the beasts brow and the wrist holding him. Legolas calmly looked into the panicked eyes of his friend; this might be the end.
"Parlay…parlay!" …"Man, you sure you Elves aren't part bar of soap? You are incredibly slippery."
Legolas blinked at the incongruous statement from his captor. A brief struggle had the hand tightening, not enough to crush him but enough to knock the air from him in a wheeze along with any thoughts of getting free.
"Release him at once you foul creature!" Tauriel threatened to loose another shot, not that the Troll looked all that worried. With the previous ease his hide had at defending from even Elvish arrows Legolas had little hope this one would be different.
"Yeah, no."
"…"
"You take my friends hostage; I take one of your friends hostage. Fair is fair lady."
Tauriel face managed to became even more enraged. Legolas almost felt like laughing, how many years had it been that anyone had managed to get her so worked up despite her normal composure. Nevertheless, he felt he should intervene before she said anything that might make the boulders pretending to be digits get any ideas about closing.
"What do you want?"
Not his most eloquent opener, but he was being held at metaphorical sword point.
"See…soap man here gets it! Now we're getting somewhere."
"I'm an Elf not Man." Legolas couldn't help letting the response slip as he recoiled from both the nickname and assertion of him being one of the children of Man.
The Troll snorted, it's ugly mug splitting into a smirk.
"I would make a joke with an open statement like that but…I'll be the bigger MAN…"
Even Tauriel paused in her steps where she was slowly circling to his blind spot. The creature seemed to be immensely proud of the horrible joke.
"At this rate I might actually prefer you crush me."
"Now, now. Don't be so negative. No one needs squished today, and my friends don't need new arrow holes in them. This seems to be a clear-cut negotiation to me."
"Negotiate…you shameless…"
"Yes. Yes, I am. But I also have sir Flips-a-lot…so."
"We have more hostages here than you." Tauriel pointed out.
"If we kill a few, we still have leverage you only have the one." She smoothly lied; the creature probably didn't know his status as prince.
"Yeah, but I don't have to be reasonable…" the flippant tone dropped from his deep voice. "…So, you kill even one of them, and I have no reason to believe in negotiations. I'll just have to try to kill all of you and hope some of my friends survive, starting with this poor 'not a man'. That said I don't think you all are that indifferent to me killing him."
"What do…you want." Tauriel grit out.
"Don't suppose you would give me back my friends and let us be on our way?"
The Dwarves grumbled as the elves watching them aimed at the group tensely.
"Unlikely, and certainly not while you still have…my compatriot."
"How about you return me to my people first and then we discuss this like…civilized…beings"
The Troll gave him an amused lift of a heavy brow.
"So how about a truce. We go get a promise of safe passage for me and mine from your king…and you all get to not be the ones explaining to him why his son became jelly."
The creature knew who he was. This was bad.
"Very well. But we keep the Dwarves and Hobbit until you return Prince Legolas."
"Well then lead the way."
The Dwarves managed to grumble even louder as they were marched toward the Elvish stronghold. The Elves remained in formation around them. Tauriel walked behind the beast close but not near enough to it's long arms to be in reach.
(POV Alric)
Alric looked down at one of his favorite characters from LOTR. The witty banter between the future self of this Elf and Gimli was legendary. He still couldn't bring himself to stop grinning. He had a fight with the Legolas! Sure, he was a less experienced younger version, but it was still him.
"So…If you promise not to run off and you return to my hand for when we get there; I'll let you ride my shoulder instead of carrying you like a sack of potatoes."
The one and only Legolas squinted up at me.
"Why?"
"I trust you wouldn't break an oath. Besides no reason not to give you a little less discomfort and a little more dignity."
The archer took a second to consider before answering.
"Very well…I swear it."
"Good…break it and we go back to trying to kill everyone."
Alric warned the prince before bringing the surprisingly light Legolas up to his shoulder. He wasted no time before doing yet another flip to boldly stand on Alrics shoulder instead of sit as he intended. The long-haired blond gave Alric some serious side eye.
"You are a strange Troll."
"Alric…the name is Alric."
"…"
"Legolas…Prince of the Wood Elves."