Grapes of Wrath

Estel ran.

He could hear the girl behind him curse, and a moment later the familiar yet terrifying hum of an arrow followed him like an angry swarm of bees.

On instinct, he turned to his right sharply and was rewarded by the dull thump of the missile hitting a tree. His heart was in his throat now, beating painfully. For some reason he had not thought that she would make true of her threat with such deadly intent, but there was no turning back now.

Fear made his head spin, yet at the same time it fuelled his strength. It felt like his feet barely touched the ground as he ran even faster, dodging left and right, ducking low beneath the foilage or jumping over fallen trunks. Low-hanging branches left scrapes on his face that he barely felt. All that counted now was outrunning death.

Estel soon lost any sense of time and place. He could not even tell how many arrows had whooshed past him, some close enough to make him feel their draft. When he suddenly burst into a clearing that robbed him of any cover, he had too much momentum to stop himself.

All that was left was to pump his legs even faster, to hope against hope that he had put enough distance between himself and the girl to reach the other side without getting shot.

"Stop or you are dead!" The voice was frighteningly close. Estel´s hightened senses could tell that the girl had stopped running, taking her time to aim properly, and he new without a doubt that she would not miss again if she chose to kill him. Another arrow closed in on him and disappeared into the grass by his feet, near enough to graze his boot. The warning was as clear as it could be.

His legs slowed almost without his consent and finally crumbled beneath him, sending him to the ground in a heap. Lungs heaving, all he could do was to wait for her reaction.

It was only then that he realized that the clearing was covered in very high grass – high enough to obscure his view now that he was on his knees. For a moment he contemplated ducking low and crawling away under its cover, but the sheer stupidity of this plan made him chuckle. It was an embarrassingly desperate sound.

"Laughing at me will not ease my anger!" the girl spat furiously. "Now get up and raise your hands and maybe I will not kill you just yet."

Estel tried to comply, he truly did, but it seemed like he had completely lost command of his legs. They would not obey his orders and stayed exactly as they were, too tired from the flight to do more than twitch a muscle.

"Get up, I said!" He could hear the grass rustle as she began to walk towards him and he bleakly wondered whether she would believe him if he said that he simply could not stand. He considered telling her when his next attempt to rise was to no avail, but a sudden sound stopped him. It was a growl, and it came from nearby.

"Hold on!" he called out, finally able to at least straighten enough to turn his head and look over his shoulder, barely managing to look over the grass. "There is something hiding in the meadow!"

The sight that greeted him was not encouraging. Even though the girl was still quite a few paces away, the arrow she had pointed at him seemed far too near and the fury that boiled in her keen eyes spoke of little pity. Her mouth twisted in an angry snarl as a response to his warning.

"Do you expect me to believe that, little elf-friend? What, is your precious father crawling through the grass, come here by the magic people say he possesses to save his little human? Do not take me for such a fool because..."

And then, all of a sudden, she vanished as if she had been walking on a frozen lake and the ice had broken beneath her feet. For a moment Estel was too stunned to even understand that the threat was suddenly gone, and his high-strung mind wondered whether she had simply turned invisible.

But then he heard her scream. It was not a sound of fear but one of pain, and it was accompanied by more snarling and the thumps and rustles of a desperate fight.

Estel´s legs chose this moment to obey him again and he sprang up, ready to run for the trees, but then he found that – again - he could not. This time he did not have his legs to blame but the small voice inside his heart that insisted he could not leave the girl to her possible death. He cursed himself, wishing that he could simply leave. However, there was no way he would be able to live with the memory of her agony, of her screaming in terror while he turned his back.

Cursing again, he waded through the grass towards the girl and her assailant, both still hidden from sight. Only the blades indicated their position, swaying and breaking were they rolled here and there in their struggle. He dimly wondered what he would do once he reached them, weaponless as he was, when he remembered the arrow she had shot at him. He began to search for it, slowly at first, then with encreasing panic. He could not understand why he suddenly felt so obliged to save the girl. Maybe it was the sheer fear in her screams and their increasing weakness.

Finally, his searching hands collided with the wooden shaft and he yanked it free , losing no time to race for the girl. When he reached the area of crushed grass and had a clear view of the girl and her attacker, the sight that greeted him froze him in his tracks.

The girl was on her back, her clothes torn and bloody, both hands holding on to an arrow . Its tip was broken and useless, and yet it was her only and last protection from the wolf that hovered above her. It had cleary tried to rip out her thoat, only to find its jaws stopped by the thin wooden shaft that was now wedged between the rows of sharp teeths.

The girl´s arms were quivering with the effort and there were tears streaming from her eyes, but she still looked at the beast, still struggled to find leverage with her legs to throw it off.

Estel could tell she would not succeed. The arrow´s shaft was alreday bending beneath the strength of the enraged creature. It was only a matter of seconds before it would shatter.

With a few quick strides, he covered the distance between them. The smell of blood was suddenly so overpowering that it made him gag, and he could see the wolf´s eye turn towards him. Without even thinking about it, he jumped forward and plunged the arrow into the wolf´s eye.

What happened next would always remain a blurr to him. The wolf howled and tried to run from its pain, but it could not due to the metal chain with its jaws of steel that held it trapped. Estel somehow managed to pull the girl free and drag her away, shouting words he did not remember later.

Then, all of a sudden, there was another voice, calling his name. His confusion did not allow him to immediately recognize it but he turned towards it even so, pulling the dead weight of the girl along. Behind him the wolf still raged until there was the song of another arrow, followed by silence.

Estel plunged on through the high grass, on and on and on to reach the trees. He was dimly aware of his name being called but still would not stop until all of a sudden he walked in the bulk of a horse.

The solild warmth of the animal brougth him to his senses and he looked up into Legolas´concerned face.

"Estel, are you hurt?" The boy could tell by his friend´s tone of voice and the fear clearly etched into his fair face that the elf had pobably asked this question many times. He found the strength to nod, the girl slipping from his grasp to the ground.

"Yes" he rasped, his voice sounding strangely unfamiliar to his own ears. "Even though she tried to kill me." Legolas sighed with relief and peered past the boy to the unconscious girl. "Did she now? Well then, that makes two of us."

/

Legolas gingerly lifted the girl´s arm to make sure her worst wound had finally stopped bleeding. When he found the bandage free of red stains, he breathed a sigh of relief. It was a feeling that kept flooding through himn ever since he had discovered Estel and the girl about an hour ago.

It had been a stroke of luck that he had found them – aided by the uncanny instinct of Estel´s horse that even now stood close by its master, nudging him gently ever so often. The boy looked a bit better now than he had at first, but there was still a haunted expression in his eyes and his features were far too pale. The elf shook his head, pitying the boy for the ordeal that he had been through.

"Your arm is bleeding." Legolas shook himself from his thoughts to find Estel looking at him keenly. "You should not have moved it so much. You certainly should not have used your bow."

The woodlef snorted. "And what should I have done instead? Leave you to your own devices? Leave that wolf to suffer?" He peered at his bandage and was satisfied that there was but little blood. The wound hurt him, it was true, as did his leg, but both pains were perfectly bearable.

"I could have taken care of the girl myself", Estel answered defiantly.

The elf bit down his smile. It was not his wish to make fun of the boy. "I know that, Estel. I have my own life to prove how capable you are. But together we could help her faster. Why make her suffer when the price to pay for helping her was so low?"

Now it was the boy´s turn to chuckle, some of the tension easing from his face. "Why? Well, maybe because she shot you not too long ago."

"And she tried to kill you", Legolas smoothly replied. "Even so, you faced an injured wolf to save her. What does that make us?"

"Fools", came the whispered reply from the ground. The girl´s eyes had slipped open, even though the potion they had given her dulled their gleam. "You shall not – not be..." Her voice faltered. Legolas smiled down at her without malice. "Do not tax your strentgth with insults, tithen-wen. Sleep and heal."/little girl/

The look she gave him spoke volumes, but she could not keep her eyes open and soon slept yet again.

"Should she sleep with her eyes closed?" Estel asked curiously. "Or does she do so due to her injuries?"

Legolas shrugged. "I cannot tell, my friend. Your father sleeps with his eyes open, as you know, but mayhap that is because he chose an elven life. He will be able to answer your question for sure."

Estel nodded and leaned back against a tree, his hand finding and stroking Alagos´ soft snout. He glanced across at Legolas and could not quite hide a grin when he saw the grey stallion nudge the elf to also get some affection.

"You did not yet tell me how you found your new horse", he said.

The elf looked up in surprise, then smiled a little sadly and stroked the massive animal´s head. "Ah, he is not mine. He merely helped my escape, that is all."

"You may not have chosen him, but he certainly has chosen you", the boy observed. "What is is name?"

Legolas shook his head. "Again, I have no answer. I am not even sure he has one, for he has given his owner so much grief that I doubt he named him yet."

"Then you should, for he has certainly not given you grief, has he?"

Legolas chuckled at that. "Less grief than help, that much is certain." The grey stallion nickered and nudged the elf again to make him resume his stroking. Legolas turned to look into the observant dark eyes and was surprised to find that Estel was correct. The grey was his horse, he felt it in his heart. The realization made him slightly uneasy, for his trusted mare had only been dead a few days. Then again, these days felt far longer than they had actually been.

"Estel has a pont, you truly deserve a name." His hand travelled over the light grey fur. "What you like to listen to Faun?"/Cloud/ The stallion snorted, spraying the elf with a thin layer of droplets.

The boy burst out lauging. "Such an apt name! But maybe Faun-Tegi-Ross would be even more accurate." /Cloud-Bringing-Rain/

Legolas good-naturedly wiped his face. "You are correct yet again, my young friend, but how should I give him orders with such a long name?"

"From the look of it, he is not prone to follow orders in any case", Estel observed, still laughing. It clearly felt good to laugh again after so many hours of fear and doubt. Legolas laughed along with him, and for just a moment, the air seemed a little warmer and the sun a little brigther.

Then the moment passed.

"We have to make a choice now, Estel" Legolas said with a sigh and leaned forward. "I wished we could postpone it just a little to let you rest, but matters are pressing. What shoud be our next move?"

Estel looked slightly taken aback by the question, but then a small, proud smile appeared on his face. "You need to tell me everything that you know" he replied, "and I shall do the same. Then, we shall make our choice."

So beneath the warm sun, guarding the fallen girl, the elf and the boy talked.

/

Not too far away from them, Galoth had only just awoken from his long sleep with a burning headache and a taste for revenge. He shot sly glances at the elven twins as they broke camp and prepared to ride into his trap. Soon, he would be able to reap the fruits of his long-laid plans.

To be continued...

Thank you so much for your patience and, as always, for your lovely reviews!

Review responses:

Mirkwood warrior: Thank you! Sorry for the slow update.

Aini-NuFire: Hm – good guesses - maybe! Thanks for your review.

Guest: I can assure you that the girl will NOT be a love interest. I´m glad you enjoy the story!

Horsegirl01: Funny how you can always see the angst coming *g* About Arwen – in an earlier chapter the twins joked that since Estel has now saved Legolas´ life, the only one of the siblings not to have done so is Arwen.

Pip the Dark Lord of all: Yep – here you go, he did escape!

AgentsofArda: Thanks! I´m happy you like it so much. I cannot answer all of your questions, obviously – but I can tell you that "Alina" is a common name here and I simply added the "h" because because there already is a ff author who uses the name without the "h". Please keep reviewing!