Ch. 6
Somebody was shaking him and he swatted the annoying hand away with a groan.
"Wake up, Legolas. We must leave now." A voice spoke from some distance away. "Open your eyes. It is not impossible, princeling."
Open his eyes? No wonder it had been so dark. But why were his eyes closed? With considerable effort, he pried open the heavy lids and saw Tavaro’s grinning face looking down at him. His bleary eyes darted about in confusion. Where was he? This was not his room, and why was his brother here?
"Well, you certainly are a difficult one to wake. Make haste now, the entire camp awaits you." Tavaro extended a hand down to him.
Camp? Memories came rushing back to him and he grasped his brother hand and pulled himself up, suppressing another groan as his body protested the movement. "How long have I been asleep?"
"By the looks of you, not long enough, but we have to move out now." Tavaro handed him his quiver and knives. He peered at his younger brother’s face rather anxiously. "Will you be able to ride?"
Legolas began to strap on his quiver. "I am fine. You should have woken me sooner. I do not wish to be the one to cause any further delays."
At that moment, Feren entered the tent. "You are awake. How do you feel?"
Legolas frowned, wondering whether he looked as poorly as he felt. "I am fine, and I will be able to ride."
Feren’s regarded him with a raised brow. "We will see about that soon enough. Legolas, before we move out, I need you to listen to me carefully."
Legolas looked at his older brother questioningly. "Yes?"
"I want you to promise me that you will stay either by my side or by the side of Tavaro, at all times, unless I give you orders to the contrary. Is that understood?"
"I am quite capable -", Legolas began.
"No, you are not. You should not be here in the first place, and the fact that you are does not mean that you have the right to act as you please. You will be under my command, like all the other warriors." Feren’s tone of voice was that of a commander, not a brother.
"Yes, Feren," Legolas said, though his eyes flashed with defiance.
"As your older brother, and commander, I am responsible for your safety. Do not think that you are a warrior just because you are here. You have never been in battle. You will not know how to conduct yourself in a battle. If I so command, you will immediately move into the trees and stay out of sight until I deem it safe for you to return to the ground. You are in no way to take part in the fighting. Is that clear?"
"But I can help -", Legolas could not help but protest.
"Is that clear?" His brother’s voice made it evident that he would tolerate no answer other than an affirmative.
"Yes, Feren," Legolas grunted between pursed lips.
For a moment, Feren regarded him in studied silence. In the end, he reached out and placed a hand on his younger brother’s shoulder. "I am doing this for your safety. I do not wish you to come to harm. I know you yearn to become a full-fledged warrior, but now is not the time to do so. This will be no simple confrontation with a few marauding orcs nor is this a training game. We will be riding into utmost danger in which even the most seasoned warriors might not escape injury, or in some cases, death. Adar will never forgive me if you should come to harm if there is a way that I can prevent it. Nor can I ever forgive myself, for that matter."
Legolas took a deep breath and nodded. "I will do as you wish."
"Good." There was obvious relief on his older brother’s face. "Let us prepare to leave now."
Tavaro stepped forward and grasped Legolas’ shoulder with a grin. "Let us hope that you will remember that promise in the heat of action."
"Do not tempt him, Tavaro." Feren shot a glaring look at his other sibling.
"Peace, brother. I am only reinforcing your order to the princeling here. It is easy to lose sight of reasoned thoughts, or promises, when the action gets too intense."
"I should think that is also a reminder to yourself as well," Feren said dryly.
Tavaro smiled a little too broadly. "Fear not for me, Feren, for you have enough to fret about with the commanding of the troops, and our little princeling here."
This time, it was Legolas’ turn to glare at him. "Let us not forget that the little princeling did manage to get this very important message to you, and with record speed, I may add."
At these words, Feren looked at Legolas rather sharply. "How did you manage to get here so quickly? It would seem that you have covered the same distance that we have in half the time. Even if you took no time to rest, it would still seem unlikely that you could reach us in so short a time."
Legolas could not help but smile. "I know of short routes through our lands."
"Short routes?" Feren echoed. "How?"
"Let me show you on a map. If we follow the same route back, we may have a chance to get back to the palace in time."
His older brother regarded him rather dubiously but nonetheless retrieved and unrolled a map before them.
Legolas traced his finger along the map and explained. "I took the most direct route to where we are now from where I met up with the scouts. It is not a route followed by most as the terrain is rather difficult and there are no readily available sources of water unless one takes a detour."
"Do you think the troops will be able to follow this route of yours?" Feren asked.
Legolas was immensely pleased that his older brother was actually asking for his opinion. "I do not see why not, if we fully replenish our water skins before we leave. There are parts that we will have to lead our horses and travel by foot, but it is still a much shorter route."
"How do you know about these routes? I thought you have been forbidden by Adar to venture beyond the palace gates," Tavaro asked.
"Oh, Adar has finally acknowledged the unreasonableness of that rule. I am permitted to wander to certain parts of the woods, as long as Salque accompanies me." Legolas’ eyes glinted momentarily with mischief. "And Salque and I have come to an understanding." Turning sober again, he continued, "I have spent much time studying the maps that are kept at the library. I believe a warrior should know his realm as thoroughly as possible in order to better defend it."
The look of surprise on his brothers’ faces changed to one of growing respect and Legolas suddenly felt better than he had in a long time.
"Well, well," Tavaro breathed as he wrapped an arm around his youngest sibling. "It seems we have underestimated our baby brother. Who would have guessed that for someone who was practically chained to the palace would know Mirkwood better than those of us who had been travelling to its borders for more than a millennium? What are we waiting for then? Lead the way, little brother."
***
Legolas did not exactly lead the way, as it turned out. He was at the moment sandwiched between his two brothers, with warriors riding both before and after him. No doubt some were hovering in the trees above to ensure that no danger would drop from the sky and land on him. His annoyance at this smothering protectiveness was brewing and he wondered briefly whether he could abide by the promise that he had made to his brothers should they continue to hover over him so needlessly. He could not even imagine how they would act once they were within striking distance of their enemies.
He shifted restlessly on his mount and wished again that he was atop of Hwesta, but his faithful horse was still weary from the all too recent difficult journey and Legolas had chosen another stallion for the return trip to allow Hwesta his much-deserved rest. Rest. Though he would never admit it, Legolas sorely needed rest himself. The short sleep had restored him a little, but after hours on horseback riding through some very difficult terrain, weariness was once more catching up to him. To make matters worse, they were fast approaching a long stretch where they must travel by foot as the ground was too rocky and dangerous for the troops to continue on horseback.
"Feren," he turned to address his brother. "The ground will be getting very treacherous soon. We will have to travel the next while on foot."
"I am beginning to see that." Feren nodded as his horse stepped gingerly around a sharp outcrop of rock. He issued a quiet order to one of the elves who quickly edged forward to pass on the command to the troops ahead. Feren dismounted, and the others followed suit.
***
Feren stole a sideways glance at his youngest brother. They had been travelling on foot for quite some time now and it was obvious that Legolas was tiring. The boy had made this difficult journey once already, Feren thought to himself grimly, and now he was doing it again with nary a rest between journeys. He wondered how much longer Legolas could keep up. He saw Tavaro reached out with a supporting hand as Legolas nearly stumbled.
"I am fine, Tavaro. You can let go of me," Legolas said irritably.
"I know you are fine, but I need support," Tavaro said good-naturedly, keeping his hand lightly on his younger brother’s arm.
Legolas sighed audibly but said no more, nor did he shake himself loose from his brother’s grasp, which only added to Feren’s concern. Legolas must be exhausted if he was willing to let Tavaro help him along. Concerned as he was, Feren knew he could not afford to call for rest any time soon. Rest on this journey would be short and far between. Too many lives depended on their speedy return to the palace.
"How much longer on foot, Legolas?" he asked. For his brother’s sake, he hoped they could remount their horses soon. The outcrops of rocks were beginning to thin out.
Legolas looked around him. "Just up ahead, we will be able to ride again." There was obvious relief in his voice.
The ground slowly levelled out and Feren gave the order to remount their horses. He laid a hand on Legolas’ shoulder as the latter prepared to climb back onto his steed.
"Legolas, you are riding with me," he said to the younger elf.
His brother turned to him, scowling. "Why?"
"Because you are exhausted and are more likely than not to fall off your horse if you should attempt to ride by yourself."
"I am not about to fall off my horse. When do elves ever fall off horses?," Legolas asked angrily.
"When they are about to drop from exhaustion." Feren took in a deep breath and softened his voice. "Legolas, there is no shame in needing rest. You have travelled long and hard. Even the most seasoned warrior need rest after such a journey."
"You better do as he says, Legolas," Tavaro chimed in. "Or he will likely knock you out."
"Tavaro!" Feren was in no mood for his brother’s peculiar sense of humour at the moment.
"All right, all right. You better do as he says, Legolas or I will knock you out."
Legolas looked at both of his brothers for a long moment. With a sigh, he climbed onto Feren’s mount. He really was too tired to argue with them further and he had been harbouring the fear that there was the possibility of falling off his horse should sleep overcome him. He decided that there was less shame in falling asleep in his brother’s arms than in falling off a horse. He felt Feren climbed on behind him and his older brother’s arms circled round him protectively.
"Sleep, Legolas. I will not let you fall."
In spite of his initial reluctance, Legolas found himself slowly relaxing into his brother’s arms and his eyes closed as exhaustion finally overtook him.
TBC