Elladan and Elrohir sat beside each other atop of a branch that overlooked the main path leading into Rivendell. Their bows were strapped onto their back and their swords hung at their sides. This was the fifth day they were out guarding the border; the only person they had seen so far was Glorfindel when he came occasionally to hear if there were any changes.

"What do you suppose Ada is doing back at home?" Elrohir asked while leaning his bead against Elladan's shoulder.

Elladan smiled and answered, "Erestor probably has him tied to the desk doing paperwork and this time we're not there to drag him out from time to time. He'll probably be entering a depression when we get back from patrol."

"Erestor still thinks we drag him out of there against his will." Elrohir sniggered, "He still needs to learn that not everybody is as fond of paperwork as he is."

"I don't think he'll ever understand that." Elladan grinned back.

Suddenly both Elladan and Elrohir tensed as they heard the sound of hoof beats nearing them from the path. They got up from their sitting positions and instead crouched on the branch. Elrohir had already found his bow, notched an arrow and was ready to fire. Luckily both of them recognized the rider quickly and descended from the tree as soon as he came closer.

"King Thranduil." Elladan greeted and bowed with his brother, "What brings you to Rivendell alone?"

Thranduil had that persistent scowl on his face that he was famous for, but the twins didn't let it hinder them. Their true feelings escaped behind a mask of formality.

First when Thranduil came completely close to them they saw that he had his son, Legolas, sitting in front of him on the horse.

"Peredhils." Thranduil greeted inclining his head slightly.

Elrohir walked up to the horse and touched Legolas' cheek lightly. Legolas opened a pair of tired blue eyes. He smiled though when he saw Elrohir.

"Are you all right my prince?" Elrohir asked.

"Of course he is all right." Thranduil snapped making Elrohir take a step back, "He's just exhausted."

"What happened?" Elladan asked and stepped up to his brother.

"Orcs pursued us as soon as we left Greenwood." Thranduil said, "I think we've managed to shake them off, but we should not linger."

"Orcs?" The twin exclaimed. He felt the never dulled hatred well up inside him, but kept it under control. "How many?"

"Two dozen of them." Thranduil said.

Just them all of their heads jerked up as the sound of a heavy footstep sounded right outside the clearing. The twins' hands flew to their weapons and cursed that the creatures had managed to sneak up on them.

"King Thranduil you must go." Elrohir whispered hastily. "Take Legolas to Rivendell. You will reach it in a day if you follow the path. If you come by any patrols alert them."

"You cannot be serious." Thranduil growled back, "You cannot fight them back with just the two of you."

"No we cannot and that is why you must go." Elrohir said. Just then the first orcs came into the clearing. Elladan had already unsheathed his sword and engaged them.

"Go!" Elrohir hissed to Thranduil and unsheathed his own sword.

Thranduil ground his teeth together but nonetheless kicked the sides of his horse and quickly made to ride away. Just before he left the clearing though an orc appeared beside him and grabbed him so he fell off the horse. The impact left Thranduil gasping and coughing. He could hear Legolas calling for him and opened his eyes to see the orc standing in front of him with the sword in his hands.

As the sword was heading down to lay on his neck the green blur of Elrohir's cloak passed before him and Thranduil watched as Elrohir fought with the orc. Before long Elrohir managed to defeat his enemy and came over to help Thranduil up.

Thranduil had never seen the twins fight and the only expression he remembered seeing on their faces was their annoying grinning faces. Now though there was nothing but seriousness tingled with, more in Elladan's case, anger.

Elrohir watched as the orcs came towards them and cursed. He quickly stopped helping Thranduil and instead looked to Legolas who was still on the horse. There were tears running down his cheeks and a look of fear in his eyes.

"Legolas go! Ride!" Elrohir shouted to him knowing that Thranduil wouldn't get on the horse in time. When Legolas hesitated Elrohir shouted to the horse, "Ride to Rivendell!" The mare seemed to understand and immediately set into a gallop.

When the horse was safely gone Elrohir used a second to check on his brother, who was by now surrounded by orcs. Thranduil had gotten up so Elrohir hurriedly pressed him up against he nearest tree and stood before him as the orcs kept coming. He heard Thranduil's protests but really didn't have time to think about it. They need to at least hold the orcs until Legolas could get far enough away.

Elrohir began fighting and soon lost himself in the series of strikes and parries until he saw something that made his heart freeze. Elladan went down inside the ring of orcs.

"Elladan!" Elrohir shouted pained. He wanted nothing more than to go over on help his brother, but Elrohir ground his teeth together and kept fighting where he was.

"Elrohir give me a weapon!" Thranduil shouted behind him.

After finishing an orc and before turning to the next Elrohir threw his bow and arrows to the king. He knew that he was an outstanding archer.

Arrows started flying from behind him, some only missing by a hairsbreadth. Suddenly Elrohir stopped moving without even thinking as Elladan was brought to the front unconscious with a sword to his throat. Elrohir didn't hear Thranduil shout his name, but suddenly something hard hit him over the head and he blacked out.

O

The first thing Elrohir noticed when he came around was a thundering headache and dizziness. He struggled for some time with opening his eyes, but when he realized that he was tied up and the memories of what had happened flew through his head, his eyes snapped up.

He quickly closed them again with a wince when the world spun around him. When it passed he tried again, but slower. From the position his head was already in Elrohir looked directly towards the orc camp. They were inside a forest, but it was not the one surrounding Rivendell any more. They must have moved them while he was unconscious. Most of the orcs were sleeping except some who were keeping guard, but they only looked towards him once and then looked away again. Clearly there had been more orcs than Thranduil had thought or else they had joined up with another group.

Elrohir turned his head slight, grimacing when his headache flared up. His eyes widened slightly when he saw that Thranduil was sitting beside him, also bound, and watching him.

They stared at each other for some time before Elrohir coughed softly and asked, "Elladan?"

Thranduil nodded towards his other side and Elrohir once again moved his head to look at his brother. The shock of seeing Elladan pale and still unconscious made Elrohir sit up quickly.

Immediately it felt like a bolt was being hammered into his forehead and Elrohir groaned. His bound hands made their way up to his head and Elrohir felt the sticky substance, he knew was blood, down the side of his face.

"Valar, what did they hit me with?" Elrohir winced.

Although Elrohir had meant it as a rhetorical question Thranduil answered, "A club."

Elrohir hid the grin on his face and instead turned towards Elladan again. His expression turned serious as he checked his brother over. Elladan had several cuts and bruises from fighting in the midst of the orcs, but he seemed to have been felled by the same thing as Elrohir, a sharp blow to the head. Elrohir was certain that Elladan would wake up with just as nasty a headache as he had.

Elrohir breathed in relief. When first he had seen Elladan go down he had been afraid that he had been seriously wounded.

Elrohir then turned his back to Thranduil, "Are you wounded?" Elrohir asked, he didn't say Thranduil's name or his title because he didn't want the orcs to know if they didn't already.

"No, they just drugged me instead of clubbing me over the head." Thranduil said. Elrohir noticed that his eyes had anger in them. "What were you thinking when you stopped fighting."

Elrohir controlled himself and answered as emotionlessly as possible. "I didn't think when I saw Elladan. He's my brother."

"What use are you in a battle if you do not think?" Thranduil said angrily. "It would have done your brother no good if you had died with him."

"I would have been beside him if you had gone when I told you to." Elrohir hissed, his temper finally bursting. "Instead I watched him go down and still protected you."

"I was doing fine by myself until you two showed up."

"We would have acted differently if we had known the orcs were still so close, but you told us that you had managed to shake them off." Elrohir defended. The anger he felt made his head pound more fiercely and his jaw tighten. "You should have left when I told you to then you wouldn't be here."

"Stop it…" Elladan moaned. "Both of you."

Elrohir started and all the anger disappeared from his expression as he looked to his brother. Elladan's eyes were still closed, but he moved his hand up to his forehead. Elrohir could see, from the grimace in his expression, that Elladan had a headache.

"How are you Elladan?" Elrohir asked as he moved closer to Elladan and studied his expression. "Can you open your eyes? I need to check if you have a concussion."

Slowly Elladan's eyes opened and he looked into Elrohir's. Since his pupils reacted normally to the light Elrohir deemed that he, thankfully, had no concussion.

Elrohir smiled to his brother and said, "No concussion. You're lucky it looks like they hit you quite hard. Can you remember what happened?"

Elladan sat up slowly. He leaned his back against the tree behind them and looked both Elrohir and Thranduil over. Then his gaze landed on the wound on the side of Elrohir's head. He brought his hand up and wiped the blood from the side of Elrohir's face. It was difficult because the blood had hardened somewhat in places. The sight of his brother coated in blood was never pleasant. Elrohir grimaced slightly in pain when he came closer to the actual wound and bruising so Elladan did it gently.

"They had me surrounded so it was fighting them from all directions. I don't really now which one hit me because it was from behind, but I guess they took advantage of me stumbling slightly over a rock. What happened after I lost consciousness?"

Elrohir sighed and related, "I saw you go down, but I keep my position and fought for some time. We were defending ourselves relatively well, but when they brought you out into the front and held a sword to your neck I froze and therefore allowed them to knock me out. I actually don't know yet what happened afterwards…"

Elladan had stiffened slight when he heard that he had been dragged somewhere by the orcs while he was unconscious and that they had held a sword to his neck. All of that happened without him having a clue about it. He was at fault for Elrohir's injury. Elrohir apparently saw the guilt in his eyes because the next thing he did was roll his eyes and shake his head slightly.

Thranduil waited for both of them to give him their attention before saying. "After Elrohir fell the orcs forced me to drop the bow and held a sword to my throat. They knew whom I was and had followed Legolas and I in attempt to kidnap me, but I do not yet know why. They did not say much before drugging me. I remember waking up sometime, but they gave me another dose so I'm guessing we're a long way away from Rivendell by now."

Both Elladan and Elrohir looked thoughtful and slightly disturbed by this. Their expressions matched each other's and Thranduil once again found himself wondering how anyone was able to tell the two of them apart.

Elladan was the first to say something, "And you are sure they meant to kidnap you?"

Thranduil's eyebrow twitched in annoyance and he wasn't able (if he even tried) to keep it from his voice when he answered, "Yes."

Elladan turned to Elrohir, "Why did they take us as well?"

Elrohir shrugged, but both of them had a bad feeling about it. They swallowed their concerns for themselves and focused on Thranduil instead.

"Why were you and Legolas alone? Where were your guards?" Elrohir asked. It was rare to see the king without his own personal escort.

"When my guards realized that we couldn't escape from the orcs they stayed to hold back the orcs so me and Legolas could escape." Thranduil said.

The twins bowed their heads and were silent for some seconds out of respect to the soldiers who were more than likely dead now. They sent a silent prayer to the valar.

"It seems that they didn't manage to hold the orcs back." Thranduil said emotionlessly.

Both Elladan and Elrohir felt a pang of rage at that comment. It didn't seem as though the king had any regrets about his men dying. They held back their comments though, because they knew that they were representatives of Rivendell. They were Elrond's sons and they couldn't make a comment that lost Rivendell Mirkwood's, sometimes wavering, alliance.

Elladan asked after some time, "You managed to get Legolas away from there? Did anyone see if the orcs went in pursuit of him?"

At this Thranduil stiffened. You could call Thranduil many things, but he really was a father, he really cared about his only son and heir. Legolas was the only thing he had left after his own wife had died in childbirth.

Elrohir shook his head, "When I sent the horse away all the orcs directed their weapons at us and we managed to make some kind of barrier between us and the path to Rivendell. It didn't seem like the orcs wanted to capture Legolas. It seems that they were only after Thranduil. Hopefully he will make it to either Rivendell or a patrol and alert them of our capture. If he manages to do that then we should count on having to stay alive for about a week before they'll find us."

"He's no more than a child." Thranduil muttered, "After all he had been through it is not certain that he will handle this very well."

"Have faith Thranduil." Elladan said and smiled to him. "Rivendell's woods are safe and there are many patrols out. They will take care of him and bring him to our father if he manages to come by them. Your horse will guide him."

This seemed to have the opposite effect on Thranduil and only served to enlarge his anger. "You know nothing of Legolas. You have lived a shielded life in Rivendell with nothing bad ever coming your way. Unlike you Legolas has had a tough childhood in Mirkwood without a mother and dangers lurking about everywhere. You are so secure in Rivendell and you run around totally naïve and without care. Nothing noteworthy has ever happened to the two of you. Even your mother is still alive and well." Thranduil hissed.

He hadn't watched Elladan and Elrohir while he said this and was now waiting in silence for their response. A huff left his throat when he heard nothing from the twins, apparently he had hit the mark and they had nothing to say for themselves. Thranduil looked over at them and his eyes widened in shock over the pure sorrow in their eyes. The twins seemed to have aged from when he had last looked at them and now they seemed weighted down by burdens.

Elrohir was the first one to speak, as Elladan seemed to have anger in his eyes. "You do not know what happened to Celebrian?" Elrohir asked, his voice lacking its normal strength.

Thranduil's brows furrowed together in confusion and he said uncertainty suddenly etching into his voice, "She grew tired of Middle Earth and decided to go into the west."

Elrohir nodded slowly, but Thranduil could see that there was more to the story than just that. If there was then why hadn't he been informed of it in the letter he had received from Rivendell?

After some time of silence the emotion once again fled from Elladan and Elrohir's eyes. Thranduil watched mystified as something he had never before seen in any of the twins once again disappeared before his eyes.

Elladan was the one to speak first this time, "We will ignore what you have just said for the relationship between our two realms." His voice was painfully unemotional.

Thranduil could only nod. The twins sat silently between each other from then on, Elrohir leaning his head against Elladan's shoulder. All of them watched, as the orc camp through the day grew more restless.