#mf8

You ran, your legs burning. Tree branches slapped your face as you passed them, but you didn't dare to stop. You leaped over fallen logs and vaulted small streams, not daring to look behind you.

Finally, after a few hours of running, your legs gave out and you collapsed onto the floor in a heap, taking heaving breaths, eyes watering.

Your ears strained for any sound of the elves catching up with you, but you could hear nothing. You must have lost them.

Panting, you rolled over into your back and stared at the sky. The tree coverage was thick, but you could see patches of mid-day sun shining through the leaves onto your exhausted body. You allowed yourself ten minutes to recover, then forced yourself to stand up, legs screaming in protest as you let them take your weight. Reaching to your hip, you let out a sigh of relief as you noticed you still had your sword, strapped tightly to your hip.

"Thank God," you muttered to yourself, at least you were able to defend yourself. Who knew what kind of creatures inhabited this place.

You had been running for a long time, and were disoriented. The dwarves were still the most important thing to you. You had come on this quest because you owed Gandalf a favour, and leaving them, just as they were at the end of their journey wouldn't shine you in a good light with the old wizard.

Sighing to yourself, you realised that you would have to climb a tree to get your bearings. Luckily for you, there wasn't exactly a shortage of trees around.

You picked a particularly sturdy-looking one with strong, thick branches, and walked towards it, shaking out your aching limbs in preparation for the climb. You reached the bottom of the tree, and grabbed hold of a dangling branch, getting a good balance on it, before beginning to hoist yourself up. Gradually and steadily pulling yourself towards the sky, you began to get closer and closer to the top. Eventually, after what seemed like forever, you had finished your ascent, and looked around desperately, trying to spot the river in the vastness of forest before you.

Finally you found it, a thin glistening line in the otherwise endless expanse of trees. It was due West, and looked like it would be at least a day's travel. Who knew you could run so far in two hours?

You leaned back on a thin branch and took in the view before you. Forest stretched in every direction, and the sun, right at the top of the sky, shone rays of light over the leaves of every tree.

Suddenly, you heard a loud SNAP, and your stomach lurched as the branch you were leaning on shattered and you fell backwards, arms desperately grabbing for an anchor, but finding none.

"Shit, shit, SHIT!" you yelled as you squeezed your eyes shut and prepared yourself for the impact.

A strong pair of arms caught you, jarring your teeth and knocking the breath out of your body. Opening your eyes in shock, huffing out a pained breath, your eyes widened, as looking down at your curled up body was Legolas.

You jumped in surprising, making him drop you, and you thudded to the ground, painfully hitting your tailbone on the hard floor. You winced, then stood up, glaring at the elf in front of you.

"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?" you shouted, causing him to step back in shock.

"A simple 'thank you' would suffice," he replied, raising his hands passively, his face looking hurt, "I did just save your life..."

"SAVE MY LIFE?" you roared back, taking a step forward and making him unconsciously take another one back, "YOU'VE DONE NOTHING BUT ENDANGER MY LIFE EVER SINCE YOU FOUND ME!"

The toils and traumas of the past few weeks had finally caught up with you, and you let your anger out at the only person you could, the rather shocked and wounded-looking elf price.

"NOW I'M COMPLETELY LOST IN THE MIDDLE OF THIS BLOODY FOREST! TO ADD TO THAT, MY ENTIRE COMPANY HAS LEFT ME..."

Legolas looked horrified as he took in your expression. You could feel water clouding your vision and blurring your eyes but you didn't stop.

"And now I don't... I don't know..." you blinked and a single tear ran down your face. You swiped it away angrily, furious at yourself for breaking down.

As you wiped the tear away, you felt a sharp, stinging pain in your head, and reached your hand to it. Bile raised in your throat as you felt the warm, sticky mess of blood coating your forehead. You had almost forgotten about the head wound you had received from the rock in that river.

Legolas stepped forwards, and you drew your sword, ready to fight him off, but he raised his hands again, showing he was weaponless.

"(Your name)," he said desperately, looking at you with pleading eyes, "Let me tend to it. It will just get worse if I don't."

"How do I know I can trust you."

"If I wanted to kill you, don't you think I would have done it by now?" he replied, eyebrows raised.

That shut you up. You guessed he was right, so you silently nodded and sat on the ground, as he came up and knelt beside you.

He began to slowly clean out the wound with a small wineskin, causing you to hiss in pain as the alcohol burned your exposed flesh.

"I'm sorry," he said earnestly, as he ripped a long strip from the bottom of his fabric tunic and began to wrap it around your injured head, his cool fingers soothing the heat of the pain.

"How did you find me?" you asked, once he had secured the makeshift bandage in place.

"I followed the sound of laboured breathing and clunky footsteps," he responded, smiling at you to show he was joking.

"You should rest," he said, "I'll find us something to eat."

"Can you lead me back to the river?" you responded, trying to sound strong and brave, and inwardly groaning as it came out as a quiet whimper.