I feel as if I've know you my entire life

Although I met you just a week ago.

I feel as if we have been friends for years.

How is this possible? I do not know.

-

I only know that every single time you hurt

I hurt with you. I feel your grief, your pain.

I want to take it on myself. To hurt instead of you.

Although a week ago I didn't know your name.

"You did it again, my friend," Eldarion spoke softly, as he gently cleaned the unconscious elf's wound. Legolas had lost a lot of blood and had a few broken ribs. "Once again you got hurt trying to save me. And you barely know me."

"The funniest thing is that he got hurt, but he didn't save you," one of the pirates laughed. "I would call that stupid."

"Why do you need to be that careful with his wounds?" another added. "Just patch him up a bit and let's go!"

Eldarion glared at the pirates who had survived the battle. "It was quite cowardly of you to run away like a scared bunny and leave your man to die!" he glowered at Dargmor. "I hope you realize that the trolls are still looking for you. My father too. But you probably don't care who will find you first. You die in both cases."

Dargmor just grinned, "You seem to be forgetting, my little prince, that we want your father to find us. And we know exactly which way he will be coming. I've left some of my men to meet him. And I didn't betray my men – I ran away for their good. Someone needs to stay alive to kill Elessar. When he is dead, we will defeat Gondor easily, and all my men will be rich."

"It is a strange way to seek happiness by harming others," Eldarion commented dryly and proceeded with bandaging Legolas' wound. The elf had done it for a second time. First he got badly hurt when he intercepted the arrow meant for Eldarion. And back then Legolas didn't even know that he was Aragorn's son.

"Why should we even bother keeping him alive?" one of the Corsairs questioned. "He is in a pretty bad shape and we have the kid."

"We need to keep anything we can use against the king," Dargmor explained. "Now he will certainly come and look after us. We left an obvious trail."

Eldarion winced as he visualized the trail the Captain mentioned. How much blood had Legolas lost?

At the same time six pirates were waiting hidden in the trees. They were placed on the trail they had purposefully left. They were sure Elessar would follow it as soon as he discovered it. Their bows were ready. They were prepared to follow the orders Dargmor had given them. And the orders were short and clear.

Kill the king.

---

"Maybe the blood isn't his?" Gimli offered hopefully. "Maybe he passed by this point and his hair just fell."

"His hair doesn't just fall," Aragorn dissipated his hopes. "There must be a reason. He was fighting someone here." He dipped his fingers in the blood again and smelled it. He closed his eyes and paled.

"What? What is it?" Gimli asked although he was starting to guess the answer. And he didn't like it.

"The blood is elven," the man whispered. "It's his blood…" he took a deep breath. "It's his."

Gimli gasped in dismay. "It's so much. Can he be alive?" He stared intently at his friend. There was only one answer the dwarf would accept.

"He cannot be dead," Aragorn stated with certainty and stood up. "Let's go!" he said and walked forward, following the blood trail.

"Wait!" Gimli ran after him. "I have the feeling that someone wanted us to follow the trail."

"I know," Aragorn answered simply without slowing his pace.

---

He hadn't felt that bad in ages. Well, it wasn't that unusual actually. Almost every trip he had with Estel ended like that. Luckily, the ranger was always there to take care of his injuries. He could feel the bandage carefully wrapped around his wound. Only one man in Middle-earth could bandage wounds like this, and he had experienced his cares painfully numerous times.

Eldarion smiled slightly when Legolas finally opened his eyes. The boy was quite distressed, however, when his friend just stared at him in shock and then burst into laughter, desperately trying to stop as his broken ribs protested.

Eldarion observed him in concern. Surely there was nothing funny about their situation. Did the elf have a head injury he didn't know about? "Don't move," he gently put his hand on his patient's chest to still him. "Why are you laughing?" he asked slowly, hoping with all his heart to get a coherent answer.

"Won't I ever stop that?" Legolas' smile grew wider. Eldarion flinched. This was certainly not a coherent answer.

"Stop what?" he asked.

"Think that you are Estel." The elf looked at him affectionately. "I've lost count of the times I've done that since I first met you."

It was Eldarion's turn to laugh. "I'm honored, my friend, but unfortunately I'm not my father. We are still captives. Ada would have had an escape plan, and I don't."

Legolas' laughter just intensified. "I'm sure that you can come up with a better plan than his usual ideas. Well, certainly you can never come up with a worse, no matter how hard you try."

Eldarion looked at him curiously. Obviously, there were things he didn't know about his father. "This sounds like a good story."

"Not a good story," the elf corrected him. "A lot of good stories."

"I would love to hear them," the prince grinned.

"Oh, that would take a while. Let me summarize – shortly after you left us, your father thought that it would be a really good idea to serve as a troll toy, feel what it's like to be troll soup, collapse a cave and trap us underground, and last, but not least, lead a troll army to fight the Corsairs of Umbar, commanding it from the powerful position of… a captive!"

Eldarion's eyes widened. "You mean that he caused the last battle?"

"Yes, he did." Legolas nodded. "Although I cannot say that he actually planned it."

"Oh, the elf is awake!" one of the pirates observed. "I though he wouldn't make it."

Legolas turned to take a look at their captors. They were about twenty men. Escape would be hard.

"Of course he would make it," another Corsair stated with great authority in his voice. "I told you elves could do magic."

Legolas and Eldarion exchanged an exasperated look. But then they simultaneously smiled at each other. An escape plan had just begun to form.

---

Soon reason won over worry and Aragorn stopped in his tracks. "We are going straight into the trap," he spoke.

"Any ideas?" Gimli also stopped and looked at his friend.

"We can't go on this way. They are waiting for us. There is an ambush, I am absolutely sure of it."

"Then we should reach them by another path," Gimli suggested.

"I also thought about that. But it's impossible. That's the only path they had walked, there is no way we can find their camp if we leave it. There will be no tracks."

"So do we just stop?" the dwarf asked, hoping that the man would say no.

"We can't. They have Legolas and, most probably, Eldarion. We must safe them."

"But we can't go on this path."

"We can't both go on. You'll wait here," Gimli stared at him incredulously and he continued. "They want me. I'll go on, and I'll do my best to be unnoticed, but even if they see me and attack me, you will be safe. If they capture me, they will have everything they want and won't guard the trail anymore. Then you can freely walk to the camp, and no one will expect you. If this happens, you can later find a way to free us all."

"I don't like this idea," Gimli quickly shook his head. "I can't believe you are suggesting that."

"It is the only way," the man patiently explained. "If we go together, they'll capture us both, and we will be doomed. If I go alone, they'll capture only me and you can free us later. It won't work if you go alone because they want me and will keep the trap until they have me."

"They don't want to capture you!" the dwarf shouted in frustration. "They want to kill you!"

"I know," the man spoke and walked along the trail.

"Aragorn!" Gimli rushed after him. "I don't think we should do this. I have a very bad feeling about it."

The man stopped in his tracks. He also had a very bad feeling about this, but telling this to his friend wouldn't help much. "Stay here!" he spoke without looking back. "Follow me in two hours!"

Staring in fear and apprehension, Gimli watched as Aragorn's back disappeared into the shadows of the forest.

---

They didn't believe him. They laughed at him. But he knew it was true. When he was a child, his grandmother had told him so many stories of the magic powers of elvish witches and wizards, how they kidnapped little children and turned them into their pets.

The pirate sighed. He didn't like the fact that they were keeping an elf and a half-elven child. It would be so much better if they could both just go away.

Another Corsair came closer and shook him. It was time for his watch. It didn't really matter; he hadn't slept at all anyway. How could he sleep with those dangerous creatures so close to him?

All his companions were sleeping. Now he was the only one awake in the camp. This scared him, it meant that if the prisoners tried to do something, he would have to be the one to stop them.

Everything was quiet. The silence was somewhat sinister. But it was suddenly interrupted by a hushed whisper.

"I'm happy you are here, Legolas. I tried to do it, but my forces are greatly weakened. But now that we are together we can use our combined powers and make those pirates pay for this."

The Corsair paled. So it was true. Now they had to believe him. He took two cautious steps forward, hoping the prisoners wouldn't notice him.

"What should we do to them?" Legolas' voice asked. "Maybe turned them into pigs?"

"No, not pigs. Beetles are much better."

"Beetles? Why?"

"Because then we can crush them easily."

The pirate shuddered involuntary. They were in great danger. These two shouldn't be kept prisoners.

"Oh, beetles are too impractical. We can turn them into horses and ride them back to Gondor."

This was too much for the poor pirate. He ran quickly to wake up their leader, leaving the two captives grinning.

Dargmor didn't seem really happy to be woken up just to be informed that the prisoners were planning to turn them into horses and ride them to Gondor. He glanced at the two sleeping captives.

"What's wrong with you!" he stared at the pirate. "How many times do I need to say: elves don't have magic powers!"

"But they said-"

"I don't care what they said – go back to your watch and next time you wake me up, you better have a good reason."

The Corsair looked around uneasily. He didn't feel safe. Maybe there was something he could do. He could talk to the others tomorrow, and if no one believed him, he could set the prisoners free next night.

"We have him," Eldarion whispered softly.

---

It was a trap indeed. They were waiting for him. Aragorn realized this, but it was too late. He was already in their arrow range. There was no time to react.

Six arrows flew at him at the same time.

---

The next morning Dargmor visited his prisoners. "Yesterday one of my men told me that you were discussing some plans to escape by magic. How much of this is true?"

Legolas laughed. "I really wish elves had magic powers, but unfortunately we don't. If we did, you would be in trouble."

"I know you don't have magic powers," Dargmor hissed angrily. "I just want to know what you were talking about last night. What are you trying to make my men believe?"

He was suddenly interrupted as a man rushed into the camp.

"My Lord!" he seemed excited. "My Captain!"

Dargmor turned and his eyes widened in surprise as he recognized one of the six men he had sent to ambush the king.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. "You were sent on a task."

"The task is complete, my Lord," he spoke, trying to catch his breath. He had been running fast. "Elessar is dead."

Dargmor grinned as a desperate "No!" pierced the air. "Are you certain of this?" the Captain asked.

"Absolutely. I saw it with my own eyes."

Dargmor's grin grew wider. He had done it. He had done it at last. He had planned it for such a long time, and he had finally succeeded. Now Gondor was his.

But it still seemed too good to be true. The Captain had been cheated too many times to believe that easily. "Do you have a proof?" he asked.

"We do," the Corsair replied. "The others are coming as we speak. They are bringing his head as a proof. I just ran forward to tell you the good news."

Dargmor turned towards his prisoners. Two trembling forms, white as snow. Two sets of eyes, one blue as the sky, the other gray as the ocean. But both filled with despair, disbelief, sorrow. And tears.

"King Elessar is dead," Dargmor spoke and raised his sword. "I think I don't need you anymore."

TBC