*after the Hobbit but before LOTR*

Aragorn and Legolas were journeying from Rivendell to Rohan and were passing through a small town, called Sador, East of the Gladden Fields, when they decided to stay the night.

"We had better stay the night here." Aragorn said, gesturing to an inn. Legolas nodded in agreement and followed Aragorn. They walked to the desk where the innkeeper sat and asked for two meals and a room. The innkeeper nodded and Aragorn handed him a few coins. Then, Legolas and Aragorn sat at a table in the back and the maid brought them a meal.

"If ya need anything else, just let me know." She smiled and walked away, leaving two plates of steamy food on the table. Aragorn dug into his food gratefully. The hot meal tasted wonderful.

Legolas smiled back, "Thank you." He watched Aragorn immediately start eating with slight amusement before starting on his own meal.

Across the room, two figures watched Aragorn and Legolas carefully. When Aragorn and Legolas went to their room, the figures followed them. Aragorn locked the door and looked around the room. It consisted of a table, two chairs, and two beds. He sat down at the table when a knock sounded at the door. Legolas was still at the door, so he reached for the handle and slowly unlocked and opened it.

The two figures stood in front of the door. One was wrapped in a grey cloak and one was wrapped in a dark blue cloak. They both had hoods concealing their faces. "May we come in?" The grey cloaked figure asked. From the voice, Legolas could tell the figure was male.

His face morphed into a quizzical expression, "Um...what do you want?" Legolas asked them.

The grey-cloaked Man unsheathed a knife and quickly put it to Legolas' neck.

"Let's go inside, shall we?" The dark blue cloaked woman, as the voice betrayed, suggested menacingly. Legolas blinked in surprise, but quickly agreed with a blade to his neck. He never even saw the knife coming! "Lead the way!" the woman commanded and the man pushed Legolas into the room. Legolas glared at him, but stayed quiet. Inside, he was seething! Aragorn and him always seemed to attract trouble no matter what.

Aragorn looked very startled. "What do you want?" He asked, trying to keep himself calm.

"What are you two doing here?" The man asked seriously.

"Why is it your business to know?" Legolas answered sharply.

"Well, that's none of your," empasis on your, "business." The man sarcastically said, "As it is, we have the upper hand. Answer the question."

"This is ridiculous. We were just passing through." Legolas huffed.

"On your way to what?" The man persisted.

"No no...no. You asked what we were doing here." Legolas pointed out, getting ready to rip the heads off the stupid humans, "I answered your question."

"Did I? Well, now there is a new question, so ANSWER IT!" The man practically yelled.

Legolas looked to Aragorn, letting him decided what to say. Aragorn sighed, trying to concoct a believable story. "Fine. We were just on our way to a town to visit some of my relatives."

Legolas caught on right away to Aragorn's plan, "I was escorting him there." He confirmed.

The man looked skeptically at them, "I don't believe that. It's a lie concocted to save your life."

Legolas looked shocked, but quickly concealed it, "Wait, you're going to kill us?"

The man rolled his eyes, "I might if you keep lying. Now, tell me the truth."

"Look here, human," he spat out, "I don't know why you think it's okay to terrorize your guests or threaten to kill them when we didn't do anything wrong! If you start being open and honest with us then maybe we will do the same!"

"You cannot parley with me! I could slice your neck very easily." The man pressed the knife harder against Legolas' neck, until a trickle of blood ran down.

A shiver ran down Legolas' spine. He held back a grunt as the blood continued in a faint trickle down his neck. "Okay...I see your point." He raised his hands in the air, "Just calm down."

The man smirked, "Well then answer me. What were you on your way to do?"

Legolas groaned, "Aragorn..." He looked to his friend for help.

"We were tracking some Orcs. My mother was kidnapped by them." Aragorn told him. That was the truth, they were tracking Orcs, but Aragorn's mother was not kidnapped. The whole truth was that they were tracking the Orcs because they wanted to see where the Orcs went. To see if they had a new master.
"Alright. I see you were smart enough to tell the truth." The man said, but really, he was not wholly convinced. The man released Legolas, cut a slash through Legolas's left palm, and departed. The woman left with him.

Legolas scowled through the door and clutched his hand. "Thanks." He muttered to Aragorn.

Aragorn nodded shortly. "We must leave now." He whispered. "They may try to follow us."

Legolas sighed, "Good grief. We have not had a decent night's rest in...well, I don't know how long. I'm beginning to think that there isn't such a thing as sleep." He grumbled.

Aragorn shrugged, and started to pack up his few belongings.

Legolas just picked up his unopened backpack, wrapped a small piece of cloth from it around his palm, and headed for the door, stopping to listen for noise outside before opening it. Aragorn followed behind him, making sure that no one was following them. Legolas and Aragorn crept out the back door and headed back to the Orcs tracks and started following them. Just as they picked the tracks back up, Legolas froze. "Aragorn..." He whispered, "you were right. We are being followed. I can hear them."

"Keep walking. We'll catch them unawares at the next town." Aragorn hissed at Legolas.

"They will overtake us. I believe there are too many for us to handle." Legolas paused for a couple of seconds to listen, before finishing, "It sounds like they are moving faster."

Aragon frowned. "We have to lose them. I don't know what they want, but it's not good." He sighed, "Any ideas?"

"Maybe we could stay out of sight and when they come, ambush them. Then, get them to tell us what they want." Legolas suggested.

Aragorn thought about it. "We would have the upper hand by surprise...we could hide and when they come around, we'll see how many there are of them. If there are too many, we will just hide." Legolas agreed and they searched for a hiding spot. When they were settled and out of sight, Legolas pulled his bow out and notched an arrow. Aragorn unsheathed his sword and waited for the men to come into view.

A quiet, barely distinguishable rustle sounded from nearby. Then, through the trees five men approached. They were armed with swords and carried a mean glint in their eye.

Aragorn glanced at Legolas and then meaningfully glanced at his bow. Legolas nodded slowly, understanding. He held it up and aimed, but before he could release the arrow, a sharp pain spiked up from the back of his head and he slipped into unconsciousness. The arrow was released and flew off into the forest, missing its target completely.

Aragorn turned to see why Legolas had missed and gaped as he saw the man grinning wickedly above Legolas. Aragorn leaped up and  stabbed at the man. Obviously, Legolas had been knocked out by the man. Aragorn mentally kicked himself for being so careless.

The man dodged Aragorn's blow, barely, and as Aragorn turned to try again, he grabbed a fist full of Legolas' hair. He pulled the unconscious elf up and once again, a blade was placed against his neck.

Aragorn rolled his eyes to the sky. 'Not again.' He thought. "What do you want?" He asked.

The man motioned to the clearing where the other humans were, "Go into the clearing. Now." He commanded. Aragorn sighed and went into the clearing. The man followed behind him, dragging Legolas. When they stopped in the clearing, the human rid them of their weapons.

Aragorn looked around the clearing and noticed the man and woman that had threatened Legolas the night before. They walked over to Aragorn and smiled wickedly. "Still looking for your mother?" The man asked sarcastically.

Aragorn did his best to play the innocent part. "Yes, we are." He said, "May we be on our way?"

The man snorted, "No."

"Why not?" Aragorn asked, "I must find her before she gets killed!"

This time, the woman spoke, "We will all go." She said, smiling. The smile was not sincere and Aragorn knew it. "To help your mother, of course." Aragorn felt a wave of dread come over him.

Hello there, reader! Thank you for taking the time to read this fan fiction! I truly appreciate it:)

Now, as far is information goes...this story was written by me and Evara, aka BananaBam03

So...please vote, comment, or follow if you enjoyed and want more!!

Ithildae and Evara

Credits:
(who wrote for what character)
Evara-Aragorn
Ithildae-Legolas
Evara and Ithildae-Extra characters