Round Robin
Chapter 24
By T'Pai

On the shore, Elrond just stared in horror as the sickle in the man's hand made its way down to Legolas' face. But then, just an instant before the impact, the course of the weapon changed, and instead of the tip cutting through the blond elf's face, its handle landed on the prince's shoulder, knocking him down.

The elf lord had concentrated so completely on Legolas' face that he hadn't seen exactly what happened; but he did see that, seconds after Legolas had went to the floor, his attacker fell, too.

Later, he would realize that the fisherman had slipped on the blood that had dropped from Legolas' and Elrohir's wounds onto the blank polished wood of the boat, making it quite slippery. For now, he was just grateful that something had saved Legolas; and he didn't spent time on wondering just how that could have happened. The only important thing in his mind was reaching the boat before the man could get away from the shore and him. He knew that he was in no condition to follow the boat once it had started its way up the river with its captives.

So he hurried his way down to the water, climbing and slipping, trying his best to ignore the jolts of pain from his foot whenever he managed to put it into an especially awkward position.

Fortunately, the captain, once he was back on his feet, didn't look in his direction. If he actually knew that the elf lord had been on the land and fighting--and that seemed highly probable considering his sons had come onto the deck of the boat to watch him--the captain obviously thought that he was either still fighting with the she-elf, or too far away and not a threat to him. It really didn't matter; either would work to his advantage.

When Elrond was finally by the water, he had to quell the impulse to swim directly to the boat. But he could already see the man move; from the looks of it he was chaining his captives, so it was just a matter of time until he would look for their father. Instead, Elrond ran some paces along the shore, to get to the boat from another side, before he plunged into the water to swim.

The moment his arm made contact with the water, he had to bite back a scream. In his haste to get to his children, he had completely forgotten that it wasn't a river he was going to swim in, but the sea. The burning of the salty water in his wound painfully reminded him of that fact. Well, he didn't have much of a choice but to swim there. Concentrating on his sons with all his willpower, and thus ignoring his foot and arm, he made his way through the small waves to the boat that lay still on the water.

When he was nearing his goal, he decided to further swim around it, so that he would reach it from the side that was to the sea. And his plan worked. Climbing up the side of the boat, he came up behind the captain, without alerting him. The man had just finished securing his prisoners, and was now making the boat ready for the way back.

One look to the bound prisoners, and Elrond didn't think long about how to get the captain out of the way. He took the chain the captain had left where it had fallen after his fight with the elves, tied it around his hand, and hit the captain on his head.

Safe in the knowledge that the captain wouldn't disturb him anymore, he moved to untie the prisoners. Taking a closer look at them, he paled, and prayed to every god that might listen that he had come in time.

TBC...