A/N: This story is based on the characters created by J.R.R. Tolkien and
put on screen by Director Peter Jackson, with the screen writing talents of
Fran Walsh and Philipa Boyens. No toe stepping or infringements intended.
All are characters are a figment of my imagination.
Review, please I look forward to any and all insights and suggestions, as this is only my 2nd Legolas fanfic I'll most likely need suggestions too :) Enjoy!
mcmiffstery xxx
Chapter 1. A Promise
".And so we took the small axe and chisels and spent nigh on four moons just to tease out the perfect shape for the amethyst lode.it reminded me much of the delicate curve of The Lady's cheek, it had the same..."
Legolas nodded as he tuned out what his friend, Gimli, riding pillion behind him on the horse was saying to concentrate on what his keen senses were trying to tell him. They rode at a steady pace across the sweeping plains of Rohan, Legolas sought with clear blue eyes across a matching sky for any further hint to explain what he was feeling. He sensed danger, but not. Legolas pulled further into himself, shutting out the noise, and smell of the dwarf and concentrated. His ears started to tingle and then it spread to the rest of his body. This wasn't danger; this was the impossible.
"Hold on." He spoke quietly, his voice carrying only in the weight of his warning.
"What's that you say?" Gimli rudely, in his mind, interrupted from a soliloquy about the fair Lady Galadriel. He sighed thinking about the lost to middle earth as she sailed to the Far Havens.
"Hold on!" Legolas felt Gimli's hands tighten on his waist and urged Arod into a fast gallop.
It took Gimli almost the whole first league to stop gurgling incoherently and speak his mind, "Is that as fast as ye can go then?" He asked and then bit back a shout of alarm as Legolas leant over Arod's ears and whispered something softer than the dwarf's ears could catch and the horse galloped even faster. Gimli concentrated on staying on the quickly moving beast and was just starting to relax and their breakneck pace slowed. "Pointy eared fool, were you *deliberately* trying to kill me or is this one of your feeble Elf jokes? Argh!" Gimli fell off the horses back with a thud. Legolas looked down and spared a quick grin before dismounting a little more elegantly.
"Did I startle you?" Legolas asked, only the twinkling in his eyes giving away his mirth as Gimli scrambled back onto his stocky legs. "Would you like me to find you some refreshment?"
"Damned Elf!" Gimli huffed to hide the laugh rattling around in his barrel chest. He stood and took a good look at the world now it had stopped moving past at an alarmingly blurry fashion. He looked behind Legolas, and then at Legolas and then behind him again. "Fangorn."
"I have been called." Legolas spoke as softly as always as he turned to look at the daunting tangle of trees and undergrowth. He could hear the anger in the forest, but it was the message underneath the sigh and creaks of tree boughs that held his attention. It had been many lives of men since he had felt the calling. He took a step forward, blinking in surprise as he felt a strong hand grip his wrist.
"No. It is too dangerous laddie." Gimli's gruff voice was thick with concern.
"You do not need to follow me." Legolas said and smiled at Gimli's concern. His friend always seemed to think of him as in someway helpless, it was that he looked so young Legolas suspected, no matter how many Orcs he slaughtered or Nazgul he shot out of the sky in Gimli's eyes he would always be a 'laddie'. He felt his body tense as the call came again. Memory, like a bursting dam, ran through his mind.
Fifty years earlier.
"Legolas!" He turned as his friend Lostseregion hailed him; he turned to lift his hand and nod in acknowledgement. He turned and continued; seeing far ahead the edge of the Mirkwood as those outside called it, he called it home. "Ho! Legolas!" He could hear Lostseregion running swiftly to catch him, that in it self was enough to make Legolas pause again, and the host traveling with him paused as well. He turned and watched his lifelong friend stop and stare at him. Legolas straightened as he detected pity in his friend's eyes. There was nothing to pity, he was about to explore the wide world, to see what the elders spoke of in song and soft words, and to see what they whispered and argued in harsh tones about too. He was to find seek knowledge from the Lord Elrond. To find the source of the darkness clouding his fathers, the king's, mind.
"The King sends one last word of warning to his youngest son." Lostseregion smile transformed his beautiful yet harsh face. Legolas had the feeling that his father merely wanted to get Lostseregion out from under his feet for five minutes.
"Speak." Legolas commanded and could almost feel the suppressed grins from behind him as Lostseregion shot him a dark look that boded swift revenge when he returned.
"He says to play nicely with the Elf Maidens of Rivendell." Lostseregion smiled toothily and turned to run back the way he came, melting into the forest he disappeared.
"In other words look for a wife." Legolas muttered under his breath and turned his horse with a gentle nudge and word back towards the path that would lead him towards whatever fate had in store for him. He ignored the laughs and pointed teasing that went on around him. Marriage seemed to Legolas like the very last thing he wanted to do. His father had other ideas pointing out that most of his kin were betrothed before they saw one hundred summers, not almost three thousand. "I wish to see the sky and hear the wind, not to spend my days in quiet contemplation" He spoke so softly even the sharp Elvin ears around him didn't hear.
******
Legolas touched his ear idly, the tingling had been growing more persistent and even more annoying as the journey continued through its third seven- day, around him his companions rested, their eyes seeing other stars than the ones they stared up at. Sighing Legolas stood up and searched with all his senses for the cause of the disturbance to his peace. It was like something called to him. It hinted at secrets and longing and tonight there was something else.fear.and danger. Legolas looked to the east, his eyes piercing the darkness, nothing moved save small animals seeking food under cover of darkness. He walked two steps towards the feeling; it pulled sharply, as if something seemed to reach out to touch him.
"Strange." he whispered, picking up his bow and quiver Legolas walked silently to the oldest of his companions touching is shoulder lightly Legolas waited for Haewethion to focus and then spoke with his heart hammering as the call started to fade. "I must go, I will meet you at the ford if I can."
"Prince!" Haewethion spoke and would have stalled Legolas until he saw the look in the younger elf's eyes. "Go, we will wait as long as we can. We you tell me what this errand is?"
"I cannot say, it is still.unclear." Legolas looked east again and rose, "I will find you when all is found and done."
"Travel safe youngling." Haewethion said calmly and lay back down.
"If at all possible I will." Legolas said as he mounted Frega and rode swiftly from their camp. He didn't know if keeping himself safe was going to be the real problem, or if finding out what the calling would be.
Behind Haewethion spoke to the night, "Keep her safe Princeling."
*******
He was as tired as he could ever remember being, as the day ended and the sun went down the call had grown fainter, edged around the fear was hopelessness, so sharp it made Legolas stumble at the base of a steep rocky outcrop. As he pushed himself up from the ground he heard it. Snarling and fierce barking. Without thinking Legolas sprinted up the slope, drawing his bow and notching an arrow he saw the pack of wolves surrounding a narrow fissure in the rock. A faint cry alerted him to the fact that someone was inside, in pain and almost beaten. He let fly with his arrows, one after another, until the remaining of the pack snarled in frustration and fear, they slunk off into the rolling mass of stones, boulders and stunted brush. Legolas approached the cave with caution, firing one last arrow into the darkness he was rewarded with a soft thud.
"AHH!" He yelled and the sound of soft padded feet faded into the distance. Satisfied that at least for the moment the path to the cave was clear and relatively safe Legolas approached the crack in the rock with caution, his soft boots making no sound on bare stone, he took a knife from the scabbard at his back.
He stared into the deeper darkness of the fissure, trying to make out what it was the wolves had been hunting.
"Stay away!" The voice was harsh with pain and fear. Legolas heard the sound of feet scrabbling on loose rock, and then a moan of pain. He moved cautiously, sensing there was still danger.
"I would help you if I may." Legolas let the unfamiliar Westron speech flow from his tongue as he entered the fissure and saw it opened into a small space, with a quick glance he saw the rough sleeping mat and the remnants of a cooking fire and utensils. He stopped the blow well before it fell.
"Ahh!" Legolas stared at the woman whose wrist he held, the knife in her hand dropped as she cried out in pain again. Legolas was shocked, believing that he had used only enough strength to stop her hand; he had not intended to injure. He stopped as the woman fell to the floor of the cave, clutching at her distended stomach. She looked up at him through tears and he saw that once she had been a great beauty of her people, deep red hair fell now in tangles around her ruined face, the rake of claws had ripped the skin of her cheek and destroyed one of her eyes, the other, a deep green stared at him. "You're an Elf!"
"Yes, Lady what ails you?"
"You.must.leave."
"I cannot leave you in distress."
"He will find us."
"He?"
"Sar.ahhh!" The woman groaned and reached out to grip his hand, "It comes."
"What?" Legolas asked and looked around, he felt nothing, no danger apart from the sulking wolves as they sought out other, easier, targets, and he felt the pull again like a moth to a candle flame. "The giving of a child." He said in wonder as he finally realized what the rounded rippling stomach of the woman portended. "We must find a healer of your people." Legolas reached out to lift the woman but stopped as she shook her head.
"There is no time.ughn.you must help me." The woman started to pant and there was a rushing sound and fluid suddenly dampened and then drenched the stone floor of the cave. Grimacing slightly Legolas lifted the woman gently to the makeshift pallet.
"I. I do not know what to do Lady." Legolas looked at the woman and then the moving bulge under her dirty robe. She gritted her teeth and panted heavily.
"You.catch." She said and held her breath before pulling the skirt of her robe up and over her knees. Presented with something he never expected to see Legolas swallowed in a gulp and looked away before taking a deep breath and turning back to watch as the woman pushed again. He jumped as she spoke in his native tongue; "What is your name?"
"Legolas." He answered before getting up to restart the fire and placed a pan of water over it. He turned back swiftly as the woman gasped, but what made him turn was the call, it was back, it was weak but still there, like quicksilver in his mind it sought him out. 'Pain' it whispered and he felt tears prickle in his troubled blue eyes.
"I am Halwyn of Rohan, Daughter of Halmeth." Halwyn bore down once more and Legolas moved in time to see a tiny head emerge and then a shoulder, he managed just to catch as Halwyn had instructed.
"A maid!" Legolas looked down in wonder at the small body in his hands, covered in birth fluid the baby didn't move.
"A girl!" Halwyn breathed and then reached out, "Let me see her."
"My lady Halwyn." Legolas looked down in dismay at the silent child, knowing not what to do, he looked a little closer, and he cleared the fluids from her nose and mouth.
"She does not make a sound, Legolas. does she live? It was too soon. she is too small. Hold her up by the feet and smack her bottom once Legolas" Halwyn's voice was weak, and Legolas looked from the babe to the woman who had been gifted with her, there was blood, too much blood. He felt the call waver, it had been almost clear and now it faded, he did as Halwyn said; there was no change to the baby. Looking down Legolas covered the baby's mouth with his own and breathed out gently, willing the tiny lungs to expand and breathe. He looked down and then at Halwyn who was reaching out blindly through tears.
"Breathe little one. *Ú i vethed... nâ i onnad*1" Legolas whispered hoping the words had some power, wishing for once that he had spent more time learning the ways of power than the bow, willing life into the frail body that fit in cupped bowl of his hands, he sighed as nothing happened, and then he reached deeply within himself to find the call, it was still there, he concentrated, trying to fan it back to life in the same way he had with the fire, it wasn't so easy, but he called to it, filling it with his hope and happiness, with memories of the great trees and the sky, the birds that sang and the stars that shines for all to see. He jumped as the baby twitched and then let out a startlingly loud scream. "Greetings.
"Let me hold her, just once. Oh Luinëros our daughter! She will have you mother's name." Legolas looked for who Halwyn was talking to, there was no one, Legolas looked at the baby and then back at Halwyn, "Legolas you must take her to Fan.to Fangorn forest, one will be waiting for you there, he will keep her safe."
"Fangorn? You must jest, surely." He smiled as the babe cried once more; she looked peaceful and outraged at being forced into a new world all at the same time, as he watched he saw Halwyn's head loll to one side.
"Thank you Legolas, promise me you will take her. They will find you, on the southern edge of the forest."
Legolas looked at the woman and then the baby, the calling was muted but he still felt it singing in his veins, it wasn't everyday an Elf helped bring a new human life into the world. "I will, but how will I know who it is I should gift her to?" He felt a stirring of concern for the little one's fate. He wondered how much they would laugh at him at home if they knew he was agreeing to take charge of a child of man.
Halwyn breathed one last word, a name: "Tanaearien." Halwyn smiled once at her daughter and left. Legolas watched, as Tanaearien seemed to try to burrow into her mother's chest. He rested his hand against his heart and murmured, "*Hiro îth. ab 'wanath...*" Tanaearien whimpered and Legolas felt the first clutch of what he could only identify as fear as he realized he was now in sole possession of and responsible for a small baby of Man.
He picked up the cloak from the floor and then regarded it with a grimace before pulling the quiver off his back and tearing its soft kid lining out. He ripped a piece of cloth from his under tunic and dipped it into the water he had set aside from the fire, picking Tanaearien up gently he carefully cut her umbilical cord and tied it to stop any bleeding before carrying her over to the fire and bathing her body, she was so tiny, he handled her with as much care as he could muster
Legolas thought but he recognized the name Luinëros, it was the name of one of the exiles that had gone from the Wood many years previously, all had assumed he had found his death or sought the Far Havens. For the first time Legolas noticed that Tanaearien had delicately pointed ears. "Half-Elf" he breathed in astonishment, it was something almost unheard of for the past age at least, it was, he thought, almost an impossibility. All of Legolas' uncharacteristically muddled thoughts stilled as he looked down to see himself being regarded by the palest green eyes he'd ever seen, like the silver underside leaf of a birch, she watched him with serious eyes and Legolas smiled "*Mae govannen Tanaearien*".
************
Five days later Legolas approached Fangorn Forest with a happily gurgling Tanaearien on his back in place of arrows in his quiver.
"This is not a good place." Legolas said and Tanaearien gurgled a bit more, "You my Little Lady, should be sounding a lot more concerned." Legolas stopped and sat waiting.
Hours later Legolas sat singing one of the bawdier songs of his people when he detected another sound. Rising swiftly he was ready with his bow and single arrow before whatever it was broached the tree line. The wood spoke of old things, its anger muted. Legolas almost fell over as one of the trees stepped forwards. Taking a second look Legolas realized what he was seeing, and wonder filled his heart so much he had trouble speaking.
"Ent Master." Legolas bowed his head and then spun as he felt the quiver torn from his back. "No!" The Ent held Tanaearien high above Legolas's head. "Let her go."
"Hrrooom, an Elf? It is a long time since any of your kind visited our forest." The Ent said slowly, its deep booming voice sending vibrations through the ground and up through Legolas' tense body.
"I made a promise to bring Tanae.Tanaearien to the forest, for safe keeping." Legolas explained and he swiftly calculated the best way to climb the Ent and get his Little Lady back.
"I will keep her safe as I promised her father not more than a moment hence."
"It takes longer than that to be gifted with child" Legolas pointed out as he prepared to spring. Usually Legolas would never even dream of attempting to even touch one of the tree herders without express permission but a promise was never made lightly.
"In the lives of men, but to me this has been little more than a pass of mere moments, but that is the way it is with Ents, do not try to follow, the forest will not let you." Legolas stared as the Ent disappeared, taking Tanae with him, Legolas took a deep breath and entered the wood, but could not see or hear where the Ent had gone, as he pressed forwards the trees closed in, and all of his senses screamed to flee, in the end Legolas only made it out of the wood as the trees clashed in their haste to get to him. Standing well out of reach Legolas looked back towards the forest and whispered.
"Good bye Tanae. I AM LEGOLAS, remember me!" He mounted his horse swiftly and rode towards his promised meeting at the ford.
"Legolas, damn elf hearing, LEGOLAS!" Gimli accompanied his shout with a poke in Legolas' side with the butt of his axe. Legolas blinked away the memories and looked down at his stout companion.
"Yes?" He hid a sigh as Gimli grumbled.
"What are we doing here Lad? Are we not going in as we spoke of?" Gimli referred to their agreement regarding a little sightseeing tour around Middle Earth, Fangorn and then the Glittering Caves behind Helm's Deep.
"There's something in there." Legolas said quietly, feeling the old tingling sensation wash through his body.
"Well yes, old angry trees for one, but the quicker we go in the sooner we're out. Lets get going!" Gimli walked towards the treeline. Only Legolas' quick reflexes saved him from the arrow that whizzed above his head. "What was that? Grrrr.." Gimli picked himself off the ground again, "Don't tell me the trees have worked out how to use a bow.lets visit the living forest he says, it looks interesting, oh yes and now it shoots arrows."
"Shh My friend, someone approaches. I don't *think* the trees have worked out how to use a bow, but I'd say she has." Legolas relaxed and lowered his bow, as a slim figure seemed to separate from the forest.
"Who are you?" the voice, speaking the tongue of man, was muffled by the multi green scarf wrapped around most of the bow wielder's head, "And what is your business here?"
Anticipating Gimli's usual response Legolas put a hand on his shoulder and spoke first, "I am Legolas and this is Gimli Son of Gloin, we simply wish to walk the shaded paths of the Fangorn forest.
"No one just takes a walk through the forest."
"You seem to be doing fine doing just that Stranger," Gimli said in a feisty tone and Legolas bit back a grin.
"A Dwarf and an Elf, very strange." The stranger walked towards then, never relaxing completely just as Legolas did.
"Not so strange as a daughter of Men and Elves protecting the same forest." Legolas put up his hands as an arrow was aimed directly at his chest.
**********
1. This is not the end... it is the beginning.
Review, please I look forward to any and all insights and suggestions, as this is only my 2nd Legolas fanfic I'll most likely need suggestions too :) Enjoy!
mcmiffstery xxx
Chapter 1. A Promise
".And so we took the small axe and chisels and spent nigh on four moons just to tease out the perfect shape for the amethyst lode.it reminded me much of the delicate curve of The Lady's cheek, it had the same..."
Legolas nodded as he tuned out what his friend, Gimli, riding pillion behind him on the horse was saying to concentrate on what his keen senses were trying to tell him. They rode at a steady pace across the sweeping plains of Rohan, Legolas sought with clear blue eyes across a matching sky for any further hint to explain what he was feeling. He sensed danger, but not. Legolas pulled further into himself, shutting out the noise, and smell of the dwarf and concentrated. His ears started to tingle and then it spread to the rest of his body. This wasn't danger; this was the impossible.
"Hold on." He spoke quietly, his voice carrying only in the weight of his warning.
"What's that you say?" Gimli rudely, in his mind, interrupted from a soliloquy about the fair Lady Galadriel. He sighed thinking about the lost to middle earth as she sailed to the Far Havens.
"Hold on!" Legolas felt Gimli's hands tighten on his waist and urged Arod into a fast gallop.
It took Gimli almost the whole first league to stop gurgling incoherently and speak his mind, "Is that as fast as ye can go then?" He asked and then bit back a shout of alarm as Legolas leant over Arod's ears and whispered something softer than the dwarf's ears could catch and the horse galloped even faster. Gimli concentrated on staying on the quickly moving beast and was just starting to relax and their breakneck pace slowed. "Pointy eared fool, were you *deliberately* trying to kill me or is this one of your feeble Elf jokes? Argh!" Gimli fell off the horses back with a thud. Legolas looked down and spared a quick grin before dismounting a little more elegantly.
"Did I startle you?" Legolas asked, only the twinkling in his eyes giving away his mirth as Gimli scrambled back onto his stocky legs. "Would you like me to find you some refreshment?"
"Damned Elf!" Gimli huffed to hide the laugh rattling around in his barrel chest. He stood and took a good look at the world now it had stopped moving past at an alarmingly blurry fashion. He looked behind Legolas, and then at Legolas and then behind him again. "Fangorn."
"I have been called." Legolas spoke as softly as always as he turned to look at the daunting tangle of trees and undergrowth. He could hear the anger in the forest, but it was the message underneath the sigh and creaks of tree boughs that held his attention. It had been many lives of men since he had felt the calling. He took a step forward, blinking in surprise as he felt a strong hand grip his wrist.
"No. It is too dangerous laddie." Gimli's gruff voice was thick with concern.
"You do not need to follow me." Legolas said and smiled at Gimli's concern. His friend always seemed to think of him as in someway helpless, it was that he looked so young Legolas suspected, no matter how many Orcs he slaughtered or Nazgul he shot out of the sky in Gimli's eyes he would always be a 'laddie'. He felt his body tense as the call came again. Memory, like a bursting dam, ran through his mind.
Fifty years earlier.
"Legolas!" He turned as his friend Lostseregion hailed him; he turned to lift his hand and nod in acknowledgement. He turned and continued; seeing far ahead the edge of the Mirkwood as those outside called it, he called it home. "Ho! Legolas!" He could hear Lostseregion running swiftly to catch him, that in it self was enough to make Legolas pause again, and the host traveling with him paused as well. He turned and watched his lifelong friend stop and stare at him. Legolas straightened as he detected pity in his friend's eyes. There was nothing to pity, he was about to explore the wide world, to see what the elders spoke of in song and soft words, and to see what they whispered and argued in harsh tones about too. He was to find seek knowledge from the Lord Elrond. To find the source of the darkness clouding his fathers, the king's, mind.
"The King sends one last word of warning to his youngest son." Lostseregion smile transformed his beautiful yet harsh face. Legolas had the feeling that his father merely wanted to get Lostseregion out from under his feet for five minutes.
"Speak." Legolas commanded and could almost feel the suppressed grins from behind him as Lostseregion shot him a dark look that boded swift revenge when he returned.
"He says to play nicely with the Elf Maidens of Rivendell." Lostseregion smiled toothily and turned to run back the way he came, melting into the forest he disappeared.
"In other words look for a wife." Legolas muttered under his breath and turned his horse with a gentle nudge and word back towards the path that would lead him towards whatever fate had in store for him. He ignored the laughs and pointed teasing that went on around him. Marriage seemed to Legolas like the very last thing he wanted to do. His father had other ideas pointing out that most of his kin were betrothed before they saw one hundred summers, not almost three thousand. "I wish to see the sky and hear the wind, not to spend my days in quiet contemplation" He spoke so softly even the sharp Elvin ears around him didn't hear.
******
Legolas touched his ear idly, the tingling had been growing more persistent and even more annoying as the journey continued through its third seven- day, around him his companions rested, their eyes seeing other stars than the ones they stared up at. Sighing Legolas stood up and searched with all his senses for the cause of the disturbance to his peace. It was like something called to him. It hinted at secrets and longing and tonight there was something else.fear.and danger. Legolas looked to the east, his eyes piercing the darkness, nothing moved save small animals seeking food under cover of darkness. He walked two steps towards the feeling; it pulled sharply, as if something seemed to reach out to touch him.
"Strange." he whispered, picking up his bow and quiver Legolas walked silently to the oldest of his companions touching is shoulder lightly Legolas waited for Haewethion to focus and then spoke with his heart hammering as the call started to fade. "I must go, I will meet you at the ford if I can."
"Prince!" Haewethion spoke and would have stalled Legolas until he saw the look in the younger elf's eyes. "Go, we will wait as long as we can. We you tell me what this errand is?"
"I cannot say, it is still.unclear." Legolas looked east again and rose, "I will find you when all is found and done."
"Travel safe youngling." Haewethion said calmly and lay back down.
"If at all possible I will." Legolas said as he mounted Frega and rode swiftly from their camp. He didn't know if keeping himself safe was going to be the real problem, or if finding out what the calling would be.
Behind Haewethion spoke to the night, "Keep her safe Princeling."
*******
He was as tired as he could ever remember being, as the day ended and the sun went down the call had grown fainter, edged around the fear was hopelessness, so sharp it made Legolas stumble at the base of a steep rocky outcrop. As he pushed himself up from the ground he heard it. Snarling and fierce barking. Without thinking Legolas sprinted up the slope, drawing his bow and notching an arrow he saw the pack of wolves surrounding a narrow fissure in the rock. A faint cry alerted him to the fact that someone was inside, in pain and almost beaten. He let fly with his arrows, one after another, until the remaining of the pack snarled in frustration and fear, they slunk off into the rolling mass of stones, boulders and stunted brush. Legolas approached the cave with caution, firing one last arrow into the darkness he was rewarded with a soft thud.
"AHH!" He yelled and the sound of soft padded feet faded into the distance. Satisfied that at least for the moment the path to the cave was clear and relatively safe Legolas approached the crack in the rock with caution, his soft boots making no sound on bare stone, he took a knife from the scabbard at his back.
He stared into the deeper darkness of the fissure, trying to make out what it was the wolves had been hunting.
"Stay away!" The voice was harsh with pain and fear. Legolas heard the sound of feet scrabbling on loose rock, and then a moan of pain. He moved cautiously, sensing there was still danger.
"I would help you if I may." Legolas let the unfamiliar Westron speech flow from his tongue as he entered the fissure and saw it opened into a small space, with a quick glance he saw the rough sleeping mat and the remnants of a cooking fire and utensils. He stopped the blow well before it fell.
"Ahh!" Legolas stared at the woman whose wrist he held, the knife in her hand dropped as she cried out in pain again. Legolas was shocked, believing that he had used only enough strength to stop her hand; he had not intended to injure. He stopped as the woman fell to the floor of the cave, clutching at her distended stomach. She looked up at him through tears and he saw that once she had been a great beauty of her people, deep red hair fell now in tangles around her ruined face, the rake of claws had ripped the skin of her cheek and destroyed one of her eyes, the other, a deep green stared at him. "You're an Elf!"
"Yes, Lady what ails you?"
"You.must.leave."
"I cannot leave you in distress."
"He will find us."
"He?"
"Sar.ahhh!" The woman groaned and reached out to grip his hand, "It comes."
"What?" Legolas asked and looked around, he felt nothing, no danger apart from the sulking wolves as they sought out other, easier, targets, and he felt the pull again like a moth to a candle flame. "The giving of a child." He said in wonder as he finally realized what the rounded rippling stomach of the woman portended. "We must find a healer of your people." Legolas reached out to lift the woman but stopped as she shook her head.
"There is no time.ughn.you must help me." The woman started to pant and there was a rushing sound and fluid suddenly dampened and then drenched the stone floor of the cave. Grimacing slightly Legolas lifted the woman gently to the makeshift pallet.
"I. I do not know what to do Lady." Legolas looked at the woman and then the moving bulge under her dirty robe. She gritted her teeth and panted heavily.
"You.catch." She said and held her breath before pulling the skirt of her robe up and over her knees. Presented with something he never expected to see Legolas swallowed in a gulp and looked away before taking a deep breath and turning back to watch as the woman pushed again. He jumped as she spoke in his native tongue; "What is your name?"
"Legolas." He answered before getting up to restart the fire and placed a pan of water over it. He turned back swiftly as the woman gasped, but what made him turn was the call, it was back, it was weak but still there, like quicksilver in his mind it sought him out. 'Pain' it whispered and he felt tears prickle in his troubled blue eyes.
"I am Halwyn of Rohan, Daughter of Halmeth." Halwyn bore down once more and Legolas moved in time to see a tiny head emerge and then a shoulder, he managed just to catch as Halwyn had instructed.
"A maid!" Legolas looked down in wonder at the small body in his hands, covered in birth fluid the baby didn't move.
"A girl!" Halwyn breathed and then reached out, "Let me see her."
"My lady Halwyn." Legolas looked down in dismay at the silent child, knowing not what to do, he looked a little closer, and he cleared the fluids from her nose and mouth.
"She does not make a sound, Legolas. does she live? It was too soon. she is too small. Hold her up by the feet and smack her bottom once Legolas" Halwyn's voice was weak, and Legolas looked from the babe to the woman who had been gifted with her, there was blood, too much blood. He felt the call waver, it had been almost clear and now it faded, he did as Halwyn said; there was no change to the baby. Looking down Legolas covered the baby's mouth with his own and breathed out gently, willing the tiny lungs to expand and breathe. He looked down and then at Halwyn who was reaching out blindly through tears.
"Breathe little one. *Ú i vethed... nâ i onnad*1" Legolas whispered hoping the words had some power, wishing for once that he had spent more time learning the ways of power than the bow, willing life into the frail body that fit in cupped bowl of his hands, he sighed as nothing happened, and then he reached deeply within himself to find the call, it was still there, he concentrated, trying to fan it back to life in the same way he had with the fire, it wasn't so easy, but he called to it, filling it with his hope and happiness, with memories of the great trees and the sky, the birds that sang and the stars that shines for all to see. He jumped as the baby twitched and then let out a startlingly loud scream. "Greetings.
"Let me hold her, just once. Oh Luinëros our daughter! She will have you mother's name." Legolas looked for who Halwyn was talking to, there was no one, Legolas looked at the baby and then back at Halwyn, "Legolas you must take her to Fan.to Fangorn forest, one will be waiting for you there, he will keep her safe."
"Fangorn? You must jest, surely." He smiled as the babe cried once more; she looked peaceful and outraged at being forced into a new world all at the same time, as he watched he saw Halwyn's head loll to one side.
"Thank you Legolas, promise me you will take her. They will find you, on the southern edge of the forest."
Legolas looked at the woman and then the baby, the calling was muted but he still felt it singing in his veins, it wasn't everyday an Elf helped bring a new human life into the world. "I will, but how will I know who it is I should gift her to?" He felt a stirring of concern for the little one's fate. He wondered how much they would laugh at him at home if they knew he was agreeing to take charge of a child of man.
Halwyn breathed one last word, a name: "Tanaearien." Halwyn smiled once at her daughter and left. Legolas watched, as Tanaearien seemed to try to burrow into her mother's chest. He rested his hand against his heart and murmured, "*Hiro îth. ab 'wanath...*" Tanaearien whimpered and Legolas felt the first clutch of what he could only identify as fear as he realized he was now in sole possession of and responsible for a small baby of Man.
He picked up the cloak from the floor and then regarded it with a grimace before pulling the quiver off his back and tearing its soft kid lining out. He ripped a piece of cloth from his under tunic and dipped it into the water he had set aside from the fire, picking Tanaearien up gently he carefully cut her umbilical cord and tied it to stop any bleeding before carrying her over to the fire and bathing her body, she was so tiny, he handled her with as much care as he could muster
Legolas thought but he recognized the name Luinëros, it was the name of one of the exiles that had gone from the Wood many years previously, all had assumed he had found his death or sought the Far Havens. For the first time Legolas noticed that Tanaearien had delicately pointed ears. "Half-Elf" he breathed in astonishment, it was something almost unheard of for the past age at least, it was, he thought, almost an impossibility. All of Legolas' uncharacteristically muddled thoughts stilled as he looked down to see himself being regarded by the palest green eyes he'd ever seen, like the silver underside leaf of a birch, she watched him with serious eyes and Legolas smiled "*Mae govannen Tanaearien*".
************
Five days later Legolas approached Fangorn Forest with a happily gurgling Tanaearien on his back in place of arrows in his quiver.
"This is not a good place." Legolas said and Tanaearien gurgled a bit more, "You my Little Lady, should be sounding a lot more concerned." Legolas stopped and sat waiting.
Hours later Legolas sat singing one of the bawdier songs of his people when he detected another sound. Rising swiftly he was ready with his bow and single arrow before whatever it was broached the tree line. The wood spoke of old things, its anger muted. Legolas almost fell over as one of the trees stepped forwards. Taking a second look Legolas realized what he was seeing, and wonder filled his heart so much he had trouble speaking.
"Ent Master." Legolas bowed his head and then spun as he felt the quiver torn from his back. "No!" The Ent held Tanaearien high above Legolas's head. "Let her go."
"Hrrooom, an Elf? It is a long time since any of your kind visited our forest." The Ent said slowly, its deep booming voice sending vibrations through the ground and up through Legolas' tense body.
"I made a promise to bring Tanae.Tanaearien to the forest, for safe keeping." Legolas explained and he swiftly calculated the best way to climb the Ent and get his Little Lady back.
"I will keep her safe as I promised her father not more than a moment hence."
"It takes longer than that to be gifted with child" Legolas pointed out as he prepared to spring. Usually Legolas would never even dream of attempting to even touch one of the tree herders without express permission but a promise was never made lightly.
"In the lives of men, but to me this has been little more than a pass of mere moments, but that is the way it is with Ents, do not try to follow, the forest will not let you." Legolas stared as the Ent disappeared, taking Tanae with him, Legolas took a deep breath and entered the wood, but could not see or hear where the Ent had gone, as he pressed forwards the trees closed in, and all of his senses screamed to flee, in the end Legolas only made it out of the wood as the trees clashed in their haste to get to him. Standing well out of reach Legolas looked back towards the forest and whispered.
"Good bye Tanae. I AM LEGOLAS, remember me!" He mounted his horse swiftly and rode towards his promised meeting at the ford.
"Legolas, damn elf hearing, LEGOLAS!" Gimli accompanied his shout with a poke in Legolas' side with the butt of his axe. Legolas blinked away the memories and looked down at his stout companion.
"Yes?" He hid a sigh as Gimli grumbled.
"What are we doing here Lad? Are we not going in as we spoke of?" Gimli referred to their agreement regarding a little sightseeing tour around Middle Earth, Fangorn and then the Glittering Caves behind Helm's Deep.
"There's something in there." Legolas said quietly, feeling the old tingling sensation wash through his body.
"Well yes, old angry trees for one, but the quicker we go in the sooner we're out. Lets get going!" Gimli walked towards the treeline. Only Legolas' quick reflexes saved him from the arrow that whizzed above his head. "What was that? Grrrr.." Gimli picked himself off the ground again, "Don't tell me the trees have worked out how to use a bow.lets visit the living forest he says, it looks interesting, oh yes and now it shoots arrows."
"Shh My friend, someone approaches. I don't *think* the trees have worked out how to use a bow, but I'd say she has." Legolas relaxed and lowered his bow, as a slim figure seemed to separate from the forest.
"Who are you?" the voice, speaking the tongue of man, was muffled by the multi green scarf wrapped around most of the bow wielder's head, "And what is your business here?"
Anticipating Gimli's usual response Legolas put a hand on his shoulder and spoke first, "I am Legolas and this is Gimli Son of Gloin, we simply wish to walk the shaded paths of the Fangorn forest.
"No one just takes a walk through the forest."
"You seem to be doing fine doing just that Stranger," Gimli said in a feisty tone and Legolas bit back a grin.
"A Dwarf and an Elf, very strange." The stranger walked towards then, never relaxing completely just as Legolas did.
"Not so strange as a daughter of Men and Elves protecting the same forest." Legolas put up his hands as an arrow was aimed directly at his chest.
**********
1. This is not the end... it is the beginning.
