Thoughts While Reflecting on Battle
Written by: Gnaea
Disclaimer: I do not own JRR Tolkien's characters or anything involving Middle Earth, and I only write with these characters for fun and writing practice. No money is being made from my endeavors.
Summary: After a battle with orcs, Estel ponders the enemy… (written for MC Orc Challenge)
Estel and Legolas sat around a campfire deep in the forests of Mirkwood, eating their rations quietly. It was not long past nightfall, but the fall air had cooled and a chill had set through the air. Neither spoke, for neither wanted to break the silence that the fall of the orc troop had brought earlier. It had been a trying battle for the orcs had been fierce opponents.
Earlier while Estel cleaned his sword and Legolas searched for salvageable arrows, the young human had said, "Have you ever read the story of how Melkor disfigured and darkened the yrch into being?"
Legolas' had head pushed through the brush he had been searching for arrows in when he heard that. "Aye, I have, Estel. I do not—"
"I cannot believe Adar when he says that they come from the Eldar," Estel had interrupted angrily, kicking the body of an orc harshly.
"Now, Estel, it was only—"
"It must have been a horrible thing for them. The elves knew not as they fled their bodies that they would have been used against their kindred. I would rather die than betray my family—and you, of course, Legolas. I would not…"
Legolas sighed as he listened to the human ramble on. When he had been of such an age, barely sixteen summers by human standards, his father would have sent him out to work off such extra energy. However, he knew that it was Estel's way of learning to deal with death, even one of an enemy. "Estel, peace," the elf softly hushed his friend from rambling. "While the first of the yrch may have been twisted elves—as my father explained it—those we fight now are merely spawned from them. They are no more my kindred than the trolls who live in the mountains. Yrch have only hatred and the wish to kill, they are not as we are. You could never betray your family, even purposefully, so that they would become as yrch. Caring, love, and emotion separate us from them. Without them, we would be just like yrch, but fair in face. The ancient knowledge to twist elves in such a way is no more."
So, with that to think of, neither the elf nor the human spoke. They simply thought on all that had been spoken. Although later in the night, Legolas began to regale his friend with tales of his childhood and the splendor Estel would see when they reached Mirkwood.