Where Once was Light
By Firniswin
Authors Note: Ok, I actually did a little research for this story. It is kind of an interesting one. Lots of pain and angst and all that good stuff. I worked hard on this, picking out just the right title, I did the research. Yay me!
Oh and yes, the title did come from the "Gollum Song"…I love that song. I like the Hey..Haw, song too. I sing it running around the house and my mom screams at me. "Stop it! That song scares me!"
I am evil! But anyway, um as I said, More Lego' angst……..ya! A little Aro' angst!!! But not much besides the fact that his leg is healing. And by the way, I am no doctor so…I tried my best to estimate how long it would take for a broken leg to heal. And for his arm. Well that is healed! So ya, please enjoy, and read and review! NO FLAMES! Thanks! Namarie!
Chapter 1
From better to Worse
"Estel! Do not ruin my splint!"
The young man sighed and tapped his fingers on the bedside table while Elrond, the half-elven healer, tied a new splint to his leg. It still hurt when he did it, but Aragorn just acted annoyed, that way Elrond could never see he was actually in pain.
Plus, if he showed his father that he was in pain, he would never get out of what he now called, 'Morgoth's bed'. Nobody really understood why he called it that, but nobody that really knew Aragorn cared.
The twins knew full well that he called it that because he thought that all beds he was made to stay in for months and months on end were evil, and had no other purpose than, as Estel put it… 'To destroy the world of men.' Namely himself.
"Estel hold still! I am almost done, then Elladan can take you out!" Elrond said impatiently as he waited for the child to still the movements of his other foot.
"But Ada," Estel whined, "I do not want him carrying me around again. I want to walk!" Estel pushed his bottom lip forward, so that it was in front of the top and his eyes even seemed to sparkle with unshed tears.
The lord of Imladris looked up and sighed deeply, refraining from rubbing his eyes in exasperation. 'Oh Valar, he is going to become a jester instead of a king.'
"Very well, you may walk…..but only if you use the crutch that Legolas brought in."
He pointed behind him to an old wooden limb, that had been carven down and was shaped like a 'Y'.
"Yes Ada." the boy moaned and let his body fall back on the barrage of pillows behind him. Suddenly he sat up, and quickly regretted the swift movement, wincing in pain as his old rib injuries reminded him that they were not fully healed yet. "Ada, where is Legolas?"
Elrond smiled as he tied off the last bandaging. He stood up and walked to the table that sat on the other side of the room.
He thought it funny, because it seemed now that Legolas had become another one of his sons.
'Eru, not another one, 3 is enough.'
The elven prince and Estel had bonded much too close to be anything but brothers. They were like Elladan and Elrohir, save the fact that they looked nothing alike. But Legolas had spent almost all of his free time in the room, talking and laughing with Estel. They would play games, which Legolas usually won. Or sometimes just sit and talk for hours.
The elven prince had not gone a hunt ever since the fateful hunt that he and Estel had went on, almost four months ago.
"I do not know ion nin. [my son]" the elf lord said as he finished the medicine he was making and walked over to his young boy, handing him the bitter drink.
"Ada, I feel so well. Why make me drink anymore of this stuff. I feel as if-"
"Save it for your brothers Estel. Drink!" Elrond interrupted before Estel had time to finish.
Aragorn groaned, but complied and downed the foul drink quicker than many others might have done it. Actually, truth be told, the boy rather liked the drink, but it was that fact that it was a potion made by his father that worried him. He always tried to see what kind of herbs Elrond put in his drinks.
"I don't know where Legolas is, maybe he is-"
Interrupting the elf lord in his sentence, the door to Estel's room burst open. And before anyone could speak another word. A rather frantic and wide-eyed Legolas came through. Shivering and shaking with horror.
Raw fear glinted in the silver-blue eyes as he walked in, his steps reluctant.
"Speak of the devil." Aragorn said wryly as he watched the elf walk over rather quickly now, to Elrond and start speaking in Sindarin with the elven lord.
"I don't know why they bother? I can understand what they are saying." Estel shook his head and tried to listen to what they were talking about.
"I must speak to you lord Elrond! Please!" the hysterical look in the blonde elf's dark sleepless eyes made him worry. So he consented on the other elf's wishes.
"Of course Legolas."
Elrond turned fearful eyes on Estel and smiled warmly. "I will be back, do not go anywhere, unless your brother comes."Aragorn nodded quietly and leaned back against the red wood headboard, eyes glinting softly in the new morning sun that seeped through the tightly shut window.
"I'll back in a moment Estel." Elrond finished as he quickly exited the small room, and shut the oak door behind him.
Elrond surveyed the prince of Mirkwood with rather worried eyes. The elf had dark bags under his eyes, which easily told of the lack of sleep. He was shaking like a leaf that was aloft in the winter wind. And to top it off, he was in his night clothes. Legolas never went around in his night clothes.
Elrond could stand it no longer, walked fleetingly up to the prince, he grabbed the younger elf's shivering shoulder and turned him around so the young prince had no choice but to face the elven lord's strong piercing eyes. Something Legolas did not like, Elrond had the most emotional eyebrows of anyone he had ever seen. And the look that he gave the ones he was worried, disappointed, harsh, or just plain startled with was not a pleasant look.
"Legolas? What is wrong? You never come in and ask to talk with me. You always talk with Estel!" he had a need to remind Legolas of what he did and did not do.
"I know, hir nin [my lord]." the prince's silver-blue eyes shimmered with unshed and frightened tears. The lord of Imladris looked at him with worry deep in the pits of his gray irises. The youthful elf's eyes wandered to a bench that sat in the hall, the gold lining shimmered off the torchlight. "Let's sit down, then I may tell you."
The pair sat down, Legolas did not yet look at Elrond. He kept his eyes turned away and unfocussed. Finally Elrond coughed and that pulled the prince's attention back to him.
The elf lord smiled warmly and took a deep breath. "Tell me Legolas, what bothers your immortal mind?"
The younger elf thought a moment. How was he going to tell Elrond what he had seen. It frightened him more than he wished to say, but to tell the lord of Rivendell; it would break his fatherly heart.
"I-I have been having dreams for nights….all of them the same."
Elrond nodded in understanding, he knew of Legolas's past with horrible dreams. Right after the finding of his mothers body, Thranduil sent Legolas to visit the lord of Rivendell, because he had said he could help with the child's dreams. And he had, the elven prince had went home, happy and had almost forgotten about the picture that he had seen.
"They are about Estel! Each night I wake up from what I think is the dream world, then I proceed to the next room. 'Tis Estel's room. There I see…" he gulped and Elrond watched a tear trickle from his eyes. "Sauron, in the form he was before the alliance….he is right over Estel's bed, he takes a dagger of Morgoth and…" The elf prince could not finish. The words simply would not come from his mouth. He could not bring himself to tell Elrond what that dark lord did.
"He what Legolas?" the elf lord pressed harder than he should have, and he noticed this when more unwanted tears welled up in the young elf's bright blue eyes. The tears shimmered in the torchlight.
"He cut out Estel's heart! He killed Estel!!!! And I was powerless to stop him. He held up the organ and I saw it Elrond!!! I saw Estel's pale lifeless form on the bed!!!"
Sobs now racked Legolas's lithe form, he did not care. He let the tears fall, they dripped upon his soft green night shirt and the wet stains slid down.
"He laughed mercilessly, and crushed the heart in his iron grip." the words were muffled as the prince put his face in his hands and wept.
Elrond looked stunned at Legolas, how had he managed to keep the dream secret for so long. That was a horrible thought even to behold. Elrond shook his head in horror at the images that were probably plaguing the elf's young mind.
But the elven lord knew what it meant, he knew well. Aragorn was in no danger, well, he was, but no immediate danger was after him.
The elven lord put a reassuring arm around the elven prince and hugged him closer.
"Legolas, I have much to tell you." he whispered looking about to make sure the halls were clear. He then set gentle silver eyes on the prince and spoke softly.
"Have you heard of Arathorn, Legolas?"
Aragorn smiled, then winced as he gingerly brought his mending leg over the side of the bed and let it hang.
The man had heard his foster father's warning, but he paid little attention to those so called warnings. His father could not do much except ground him. Not that he liked being grounded, but what was the point? He could hardly walk anyway, and going on a walk by himself meant he could get out for a few minutes before his father or his brothers caught up with him, and that was worth the risk of being caught.
The young man brought his other leg down and reached feebly for the crutch that Legolas had brought him. But to no avail, he would have to walk to it.
"Oh Eru!" he sighed as he slid down off the bed and let his uninjured leg connect with the cold stone.
Carefully, he let his leg touch the floor, but immediately moaned and almost collapsed as a sharp stab of pain splintered through his leg. 'By the Valar! That hurt.' he groaned. He let a hiss escape his tightly clenched teeth as he hobbled across the cold floor. It stung at his shoeless toes and made his legs quiver.
Bright flashes of white and golden light exploded in his vision and he growled as he was barely able to see the room. It seemed like an eternity before he finally ran into the cold stone wall. He reached blindly for the 'Y' shaped piece of wood and put it underneath his arm.
He heaved a sigh of content as he lifted his injured leg from the cold, nauseating ground.
How was he ever going to walk normally again? Just walking seemed an odd feeling to him. He shrugged inwardly.
'Ada can help.' truth was, Aragorn had never actually seen his father do physical rehabilitation with others. However, he had heard plenty of stories and it seemed that the patient almost always pulled through. In fact the only one that Estel had ever hear that had not was Celebrian.
"Well, I think I should be alright." he murmured as the dizzy white and yellow spots began to dissipate from his vision, clearing his sight.
When the last of the little spots had gone, he smiled and continued his onward trek out the door and down the hall, hoping desperately that he would find Legolas before his brothers and father found him.
The elven prince sat in the garden, his eyes shifting slightly as he thought of the things that Elrond had told him, secret things. Things that could never ever be mentioned to anyone else. Not even to his best friend.
How could it possibly be that his friend, Estel of the elves, was really Isildur's heir? How could the care free youth that Legolas knew be the rightful king of Gondor and Arnor?
How did Aragorn not know yet; what were they waiting to tell him for? Why could Legolas not tell him? How come Elrond hid Estel's past from him?
But even as these questions crossed his mind, the ringing increased and the elf lords voice became even more powerful in the elven prince's ears.
"You must never tell, Legolas! The consequences could be disastrous. The world of men would fall!!!! And all would fall into darkness."
He shook his pounding head, it hurt to think of the things that Elrond had told him.
"He is Aragorn, son of Arathorn, and heir to the throne of Gondor and Arnor."
The voices echoed in his mind and he smiled, 'Why did it not make sense?' he asked himself, feebly thinking of why he had made such a fit. 'It is rather obvious, a man living among elves.' Legolas shook his head again. 'A man living among elves.'
How odd was that, I mean, just because he lived with the elves did not make Aragorn an oddity or anything. It made him special. He had more training in the arts of fighting than any other man. Estel had the best sight, hearing, and other senses of any of the race of man.
He had no more time to think on this, because at that moment an arousing commotion echoed through the gates of the palace. The warriors had returned, many different looking elves….all of Mirkwood decent marched through the gates, pulling something with them.
Legolas stood and looked over to see what was going on, but stopped in shock and his breath caught in his throat.
Among the tall and orderly elven warriors, one crouched figure walked along. He walked slow and wearily, deep circles marred under his eyes and he was emaciated beyond reckoning. All he wore was a pair of old ripped leggings, and his hair was disheveled.
'What is that creature?' the prince's eyes traveled along the slouched and awkward figure stopping at one spot that was on the side of his face. His ears, they ran into a noticeable point. And his dirty blonde hair stirred slightly in the breeze.
For one instant the two made eyes contact and then all was lost as the strange elf's deep seaweed green eyes were lost among the crowd.
Authors Note: Hey all!!!! Hope you liked it……I tried to make it a normal fan fiction…..[smiles sheepish]. But anyway, Please R&R, NO FLAMING!!! As I said before.
Oh and I forgot before! I wanted to again give a HUGE hannon le to mellon nin Arwen-Evenstar, for correcting all the grammatical stuff, and changing a few redundant words. [sheepish look] Yes, as embarrassing as it is, I need someone to check my grammar. But I am much thankful for it. Anyway, thanks again. God Bless!!!! The next chapter should come soon, though we are having company this week so I am not sure when I post. But hopefully it will be soon. And in that next chapter we will find out, who this elf is? Why he is here? Where he is from? And why he looks like Gollum?…..well maybe not quite like Gollum, but to tell you now, it has absolutely nothing to do with the ring. I don't think. Bilbo still has it with him in the Shire. Thanks again and namarie!