LOTR || ⤜𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙤𝙩 → [Legolas x OC]

⤜ 28 → missing

Gimli felt a kick to his side. He grunted and rolled over, still sleeping. A minute later, he felt another kick, this one more urgent than the first.

"Gimli, do not tell me you slept through your entire shift," Aragorn's voice entered the dwarf's dreams but he just grumbled a quick 'no' and delved deeper into his dreamland.

"Gimli!"

Gimli shot up in his bed roll. "I'm up, lad! By Durin, someone better be dying or else you'll have crossed paths with an an angry dwarf!" As soon as his eyes adjusted to the morning light, Aragorn's worried face came into view.

He grabbed Gimli's shoulders and hauled him to his feet. "Where is Rosa?" Aragorn asked, urgency lacing his tone.

Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, Gimli shrugged. "The lass couldn't sleep much last night so she offered to take my watch."

"And where is she now?!"

Gimli looked confused. "She's not here?" He looked around and sure enough, the Rosa's bedroll was empty. But so was Legolas's bedroll. "Where's the elf?"

"Looking for her," Aragorn replied and turned around, anxiously rubbing his beard. "He believes she may have gotten lost in the woods."

"She is not lost." A new voice entered the conversation and both Aragorn and Gimli turned around to find Legolas standing at the edge of the tree line. Relief filled their chests.

"Did you find her, lad?" When Legolas did not reply, Gimli tried again. "Lad?"

Aragorn immediately went up to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Where is she?"

"I—," Legolas shook himself out of the daze. "I have searched every inch of that forest. She is not here, Aragorn. I do not know where she is. I am sorry, my friend."

"What blasted rubbish!" Gimli yelled and threw his arms in the air. "She couldn't have gone far, the lass. I'll find her and bring her back, just you wait!"

"Gimli," Legolas interjected before Gimli went off on a fruitless search for the girl. "She has left. She found the perfect opportunity to leave while we were all asleep, and she took it."

Shaking his head, Aragorn responded dejectedly. "No, I do not believe she would leave like that."

"And, pray tell, how would you know? We hardly know her."

"Something deep in my heart tells me we have known her far longer than we think." Aragorn closed his eyes and sighed. "We must search again. We might not find her but we will find clues to her whereabouts."

Legolas looked like he wanted to say something, but instead he agreed. "Alright."

The three cleared the camp and set out into the woods. As expected, the girl was nowhere to be found. However, when they came across a particular set of scuff marks on the dirt, they immediately knew something was wrong.

"These marks," Aragorn bent down and studied the dirt beneath his fingertips. "Rosa... she was here."

Legolas worriedly observed a set of larger marks next to the first one. "And someone else was with her."