See Ch. 1 for disclaimer

Ch. 6 Taking Charge

Legolas shot up, his throat rasping in a muted scream of absolute terror. "Aldeon!"

"Legolas?" A familiar voice cut through his fear-paralyzed brain. He snapped his head around wildly and saw his brother's pale face watching him with concern.

"Aldeon! You are awake!" His voice shook, half in remembrance of the horror of his nightmare, and half in utter relief to see his brother awake at last. He bent down and embraced the prone elf as best as he could. "You are awake!"

His brother's arms encircled him comfortingly. "Yes, I am awake. Are you all right, little one?"

Blinking back tears, Legolas pulled away gently and smiled, his first in what seemed an eternity. "I am fine, now that you are awake. How do you feel, Aldeon? Does your head pain you still? How is your foot?"

It was Aldeon's turn to smile. "My head still pounds, though not as loudly as before. And my foot aches, but it is bearable."

"You do not look well. You are very pale. " Legolas watched his brother critically, his initial relief quickly giving way to rising concerns. Suddenly his weary mind came fully awake with the horror of his realization. "I fell asleep! I was supposed to be watching over you and I fell asleep! How can I do such a thing! I am so sorry, Aldeon. I am so sorry!" Pure misery and guilt washed over his dirt-smeared face. "I am so sorry!"

Aldeon's heart ached to see his brother's face dissolving in a flood of guilt. Shakily he reached for and clasped Legolas' hand. "It is all right, Legolas. You were and still are exhausted. It is a wonder that you are awake at all after what you have gone through."

Legolas shook his head in horrified disbelief. "I fell asleep on my watch! That is unforgivable! What if the wolves came back? You were exposed to all manners of danger because of my failure. I am sorry, Aldeon."

Aldeon wished he had the strength to sit up and comfort his distraught brother but all he could do was tighten his clasp on the other's hand. "It is all right, Legolas. No harm was done and I was not exposed to any danger. I have been awake for some time now and all has been peaceful. You did not fail in your duty. You are exhausted and hurt. You cannot be expected to keep watch in such a state."

Legolas could only continue shake his head in abject misery. "You were injured and unconscious. I should not have fallen asleep, no matter how tired I was."

"Legolas, stop it! You were more than tired. You fought with a pack of wolves bent on killing us. I cannot imagine what damage they have inflicted on you." Aldeon struggled to maintain the firmness in his voice, but his head was beginning to pound again. His concern for his brother, however, overrode the pain. "There is blood on you that do not belong to the beasts. Tell me, how badly are you injured?"

Legolas shrugged and then grimaced as pain flared hotly from his torn shoulder. Taking a deep breath, he ruthlessly pushed aside the pain and guilt. He had no time to dwell on his own discomfort and shortcomings. His first priority was getting his brother to safety and to proper care. "I am all right, Aldeon. Do you think you can walk with my help? We need to get back to the main camp." He glanced warily around him. Though daylight had chased away all shadows of the night, the terror of what had happened in those dark hours lingered still in the morning air. "I do not wish to stay here any longer than we have to."

"Let me see to your injuries first. They have been left untended for long enough," Aldeon said as he attempted to sit up. Vertigo assailed him immediately and he fell back heavily against the blankets with a half-stifled moan.

Legolas reached out quickly and held the older elf down. "Keep still, Aldeon. You are in no condition to see to anything. I told you I am all right. It is you that I am concerned with." Legolas watched his brother with uncertainty. "Even if I help you, I doubt that you can walk far in your state."

Aldeon closed his eyes briefly. "I am all right. Let me rest a little more. Then we will make our way back to the camp."

Legolas shook his head in frustration. "No, you can barely sit up on your own. We must think of another way." He eyed his brother's pale face with increasing concern. "Aldeon, are you feeling sick again?"

Aldeon was feeling sick but he forced back the threatening nausea. Vaguely, he remembered being violently ill the last time he had tried to walk and then nothing but darkness after that. He peered at his younger brother. "Did you carry me here?"

Legolas nodded. "That I did. I thought elves were light weight beings, but I could have sworn that I was carrying a troll when I was bringing you down that hill." He shuddered inwardly at the memory of that nightmarish descent. Even now he could still feel the ache of overtaxed muscles.

"You carried me by yourself?" Aldeon asked incredulously. Though Legolas had recently gone through a rapid growth spurt, he was still a good head shorter than his brothers, and had yet to fill out to match the gain in his height.

Legolas smiled thinly. "Yes, by myself, as there was no one else about at the time to aid me." The he added, in a barely audible voice, "It was not easy."

Aldeon looked pained. "You should not be doing all this on your own. It is not right. I am your older brother. I should be the one looking after you." Aldeon's voice shook slightly as he recalled the scene of his brother struggling with the wolves in a deadly combat. "You saved my life by risking your own."

Legolas said quickly. "And I would do so again. You would do no less for me." He suddenly looked away. "If I had not persisted in following the trail of that buck, we would not have been caught on this slope in the first place. I should have listened to you, Aldeon."

His brother's hand tightened around his comfortingly. "Had we not been pursuing that buck, we likely would have been caught in the earlier landslide which was much more damaging than the one that we were caught in. This is not your doing, Legolas. I too wished to follow that buck. The important thing is that we are both still alive."

Legolas turned back to the older elf, misery once again filling his young face. "But you need the care of skilled healers, not my inexperienced ministrations. The gash on your head needs stitches, and I do not know how to do it. What if it starts to bleed again? We have no more healing supplies. We must get back to Feren and Tavaro somehow."

Aldeon closed his eyes briefly as another wave of dizziness swept through him. Taking in a deep breath, he forced reassurance into his voice. "We wait here for Feren and Tavaro. They will come searching for us if we do not appear by the agreed upon time."

Legolas shook his head. "That may take too long. Your injuries need more care than I can provide." He cast a wary look up the slope and suppressed a shudder. "Besides, I do not wish to spend another night here nor do I wish to fight the wolves again should they come back."

"Our brothers will find us well before the night falls again. I have faith in them," Aldeon said with quiet confidence.

Legolas continued to study his brother, his brows knitted in doubt and uncertainty. In the end, he shook his had. "I do not wish to wait here for them to find us. I do not -- I do not feel safe here." He paused, looking ashamed for admitting his fear.

"All right, Legolas, then we will not wait here. With your help, I think I will be able to move about, though I am afraid my pace will be slow."

Legolas shook his head, "No, you are not walking. If you stumble and fall, you will do more damage to that foot of yours, not to mention what it will do to that head wound. Your injuries are serious enough without jarring them unnecessarily." Suddenly, he brightened as an idea sprang to mind. "If I can construct some sort of litter with the blankets, then I can pull you along. It will not be comfortable, but at least you will need not to hobble along and risk further injury. Do you think you can bear to be jostled about like that?"

"No, Legolas. You are injured yourself. I do not want you to harm yourself further on my account," Aldeon said firmly. "Help me sit up so I can take a look at your injuries."

Legolas shook his head impatiently. "I told you I am all right. You are in no shape to fuss over anyone right now, Aldeon. For once, allow me to tend to you." He gave his brother a stern and uncompromising look. "I will help you sit up if you promise to sit still and rest while I construct the litter."

Aldeon was about to protest further, but he saw the expression on his brother's determined countenance and swallowed whatever words had been forthcoming. There was a look of severity and forced patience on the younger elf's dirt-smeared face that was all at once both familiar and alien. Aldeon had seen the same look often enough on Thranduil's face, mostly when the King was in the midst of admonishing this same brother for some misdeed. It was certainly not an expression he had expected to see on his brother's young face.

Gently, Legolas shifted his brother into a sitting position and then eased him back against the nearest tree trunk. The older elf squeezed shut his eyes against the sudden wave of dizziness that swept through him as his body adjusted to the vertical position. He felt a gentle prod on his arm. Reluctantly he opened his eyes and saw Legolas holding out a water skin.

"Take some water, Aldeon."

Aldeon needed no second urging as he gulped greedily at the liquid, but the source was pulled away before he had but a few mouthfuls.

"Not too much, Aldeon. You do not want to be sick again," Legolas cautioned. "You may have some more later."

Aldeon smile wanly. "You make a good nursemaid, little brother."

Legolas let out a small laugh and Aldeon was glad to see the stern façade slip from his brother's face. The sudden and unlooked-for austere maturity that Legolas had displayed earlier had caught him totally off-guard.

Legolas eased the blankets from underneath Aldeon as he responded to his brother, smiling still. "Of course I would make a good nursemaid. I have had plenty of experience of being fussed over endlessly by one father, three brothers and a guard who thinks he is my nursemaid."

Aldeon found himself laughing at this sudden levity from Legolas and then wincing as pain resonated through his head by the unguarded movement. He watched with silent admiration as his brother deftly put together a makeshift litter with the blankets, a few sturdy branches and a length of rope. Even as he admired his brother's handiwork, helpless frustration continued to brew within him. Not for the first time, he wished they had not left their horses behind on this fateful outing. Though being on horseback would do nothing for his pounding head and throbbing foot, at least Legolas would be spared of the arduous task of pulling his much heavier weight along in a litter. It was not right that his little brother should be burdened with the responsibility of caring for him, especially when Legolas was far from hale himself. The very thought ate at his heart.

Aldeon tried to gauge how far along the day was from the position of the sun in the sky. It seemed to be early morning yet. He only hoped that Feren and Tavaro would not wait too long before setting out to search for them. Like his brother, Aldeon had no desire to remain in this place, but already guilt was beginning to eat away at him at the mere thought of the torturous task that Legolas had set before himself. From the grimly determined look on his brother's face, Aldeon did not think Legolas could be persuaded to abandon his current plan. In silent frustration, Aldeon cursed his brother's stubbornness and his own current helpless state.

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Legolas nearly stumbled, yet again. He came to a wavering stop, half-blinded by the constant onslaught of pain and fatigue that assaulted his body with each faltering step. The urge to succumb to his exhaustion clawed at his remaining senses and this time, he could not ignore it as he had been so ruthlessly doing. Every fiber of his body trembled with bone weariness and he was uncertain if he could take one further step without falling flat on his face. He would be of no help to Aldeon if he dropped down in a faint now. He needed to rest.

Once decided, his overtaxed muscles were suddenly beyond his command and the weight of the litter dropped from his scraped hands with a thump. He could only wince at the sound and hoped that the abrupt drop did not aggravate his brother's injuries further. With this last thought, his own body buckled and he crumbled to the ground in an ungraceful heap beside his brother.

"I am sorry, Aldeon," he mumbled miserably to his brother, though the latter's eyes remained closed and unresponsive. His injured brother had some time ago lapsed into a deep sleep or unconsciousness. He knew not which. The urgency to get his brother to care flickered through his numb mind, but his abused body refused to respond to that urgency. He could only repeat lamely what he had said before, "I am sorry, Aldeon. I am so sorry, but I can go no further."

He stared with disinterest at the blood seeping through the strip of cloak that he had wrapped around his own injured thigh. He could also feel the warm liquid trickling down his back from where the wolf had ripped into his shoulder. The pain was still there, but it seemed to be at some distance now, as was everything else. He knew that he should make some attempt to stop the bleeding but such effort seemed insurmountable at this moment. Perhaps later. He swallowed painfully. How he wished for a drink of water, but the water skin was empty. He had given Aldeon the last drops a while back.

His aching eyes fell on his brother. At least Aldeon's head wound was not bleeding, he thought dully.

A sense of bitter defeat suddenly overwhelmed him. He had been unwavering in his determination to get his injured brother back to the camp and he had been so certain that he would succeed. But he had failed. His exhausted body would no longer heed to his commands. Tears stung his eyes, but he could not even find the strength to weep.

Shadows flitted alarmingly across his vision and he struggled to maintain his senses. If he were to lose consciousness, then his injured brother would be completely vulnerable to whatever danger that may be lurking about them. He must not fail in his watch again. Ruthlessly, he dug his fingers into his own bleeding thigh and nearly cried out from the sudden explosion of pain. It worked! His dimming senses instantly came alive with the throbbing agony that was spreading like fire through his injured limb. With breath hitching from the self-inflicted distress, he prayed fervently that his other brothers would find them soon. It hurt so much. He did not know whether he had the courage to continue this fight against the encroaching oblivion when his body wished nothing more than to give in to the inviting darkness. But he must! His brother's life was in his hands.

Fumbling half-blindly, he reached out and gripped his brother's unresponsive hand. "I am sorry, Aldeon, but I have not the strength to go further. We must wait now for Feren and Tavaro, but I promise that I will keep you safe." For as long as I can. Unbidden, these words echoed through his weary mind with undisputed reality. The will was there, but the abused body may not heed its call. It was a bitter thought to carry.

TBC