Everything I Do…...
By Rhiana Larsen
AUTHOR'S NOTE! 12/07/05
This story is being completely rewritten. The ending will be completely different, as will perhaps the last third of the tale. The response was not good to that idea, so taking COMPLETE advantage of artistic license, I'm rewriting the entire thing! So NYAR:P I hope you guys like the new way I'm going with it. Let me know, okay? Chapter One is all that has been rewritten thus far, but I will be updating and rewriting chapters at a rate of one every day, or every other day. Thanks for reading, guys, and I hope you enjoy!
Cheers!
--RhianaRae
Summary: I always wondered what Legolas would be like if he ever fell in love, and what he would be like if that love was ever threatened. After reading the books multiple times and watching the movies again, and again, and again (and so on and so forth yadda yadda blah blah blah), I had a feeling that I had a pretty good grasp on his character. SO! Enjoy this little bit of romantic mushiness!
I'm not really sure when this would take place. Perhaps during the time of the Company's stay in Rivendell or, daring a different ending to the books if, after the Ring was destroyed, and all the Companions were to come back to Rivendell for resting…Or just forget all that hullabaloo and enjoy it! Besides, I get utterly confused, so my history is probably incorrect as to the Ethwaine line. I made it up! Okay, done babbling now!
Disclaimers: Please don't sue me, I have no money and it would just waste your time. I don't own anything except my own original characters. If you want to play with them, just ask me first. Thanks! Hats of to Tolkien. No one will ever match him in ability, but we can borrow his ideas and celebrate them in our own way.
Rating: K+ for some violence.
ON WITH THE FIC!
PART ONEOrcs…..
"Lanat, we are not going the right way. I fear that we're going to get lost, and freeze to death in this wicked forest! And what of the Orcs? They-- Lan, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" the impatient female whispered angrily at her companion.
The blonde-haired elf impatiently held up a hand, silencing her. Out of instinct and habit she trusted him, listening intently to the forest around them. Something could be wrong. Lan, being an Elf, had the keenest eyes and ears she had ever seen. Still, he was an outsider from the other Elves, and he lived off the land in the forests. Which totally discounted the fact that she could tell him he was lost. Of course he wasn't lost.
And yet her body ached with cold, and her limbs grew weary from the long chase. She didn't know why Orcs would be after them, but they were, and that was the cold hard truth. They had been evading them for two days, since they had traveled up into the mountains to collect healing herbs and for stockpiling during winter.
Being human, she was not nearly so fleet of foot as Lan, though she could match him at a run for quite a distance. Her frame, however, was much like that of an Elf Lady, only curvier and just a bit taller than most. Unlike the platinum blonde of most Elf maidens, she had long golden hair, burnished so that it fairly glowed like a golden coin in the sunlight. Her eyes were a vivid green, no more and no less remarkable than any other color.
Thankfully, when they had gone into the mountains she had chosen a short tunic of leafy green and a pair of duller green pants to go beneath it. It allowed her better movement and protection from scraping branches and rocks. She tied back her long unruly hair with a thin leather thong, securely away from her face and out of her eyes.
She knew soon they would have to run again, once Lan got his bearings and spotted where the Orcs were coming from. Time to run, like the last two days. She wondered if they would ever again have a moment's peace.
When she was four years old Orcs had murdered her parents while coming home from a party. It was she who had stumbled over their maimed bodies in the road, bloody and torn apart under the early morning light. Lan had taken her in after finding her, curled into a tight ball up in a high tree, as far away as she could have gotten from the Orcs. She had been very young, and as such, hadn't known that Orcs could climb anything. Why they hadn't found her, no one knew.
After he took her in, the other Elves began maintaining a great distance from him, Lan had told her. The only other Man to be raised in Rivendell had been Aragorn, and only then because he was a King by birth, heir of Isildur. So Lan had left the beautiful city rather than give her up, and since then he had become her most trusted and only friend, confidant, and brother. Most folk probably suspected they were in love, and they were, of a kind. She felt bound to this tall, sturdy Elf, bound by heart and soul in a friendship that could not be broken.
Shivering more violently, she pulled her shawl tighter around herself and steeled her mind against the unpleasant memories of her parents' murders, coming unbidden to the surface. They growled in her stomach and made her feel sick. She fought them back harder. In the end, she won the battle, though tears slipped silently down her cheeks in the dark night air.
Lan's blonde hair wavered slightly in the breeze as he shook his head, his handsome countenance grim.
"Coralynne, love, I want you to run. As fast as you can. That way." He indicated with his slender hand the direction he had chosen for her. "There are Orcs about. And they're right behind us." He brought her to him, squeezed her tightly, and kissed her temple. "You must run now," he whispered. "Run and do not look back, do you understand?"
Coralynne nodded, and Lan gave her a grim smile, slowly reaching for his bow. "GO!" he growled at her, and she burst into a run just seconds before the woods behind her exploded with eerie screeches and sounds, the likes of which she wished never to hear again.
Never looking back she ran, her long legs eating up the distance. Coralynne had no idea of where they were going, or when they would get there, all she knew was that she needed to go as fast as possible. Lan would hold them off to give her a start, and then follow her tracks to catch up. It was risky to leave tracks for him, but she had no choice. Perhaps there would be aid or shelter ahead somewhere.
After what seemed like years, though was really only about an hour, she spied a long winding road that led to a beautiful city nestled in a small valley. Rivendell. That was the place, she was almost sure of it. It had to be! If not…It was too distracting to think about, with the sounds of Orcs not far behind her, sending terror throughout her entire frame and making her trembly, careless. She had to keep running, keep moving. But Lan…he might have caught up with her by now, she knew.
It was nearly impossible to not look back and see if he was catching up with her, but she dared not. If she were to stumble or fall, there would be no going back…and Orcs loved to torture, for certain.
Her breathing was coming hard and short, but she refused to give into the heavy fatigue. The city grew closer and closer and, had she not been running for her life, she would have wept at its beauty. She also did not realize that the Orcs had ceased following her after the first mile of running, and that she had been continuing along, lost in thought, at her quickest pace, for nothing.
At last she stopped and knelt, head down, fighting for breath. Her sides ached so that she could barely breathe, her head felt dizzy, her vision wobbly. Daring to look back, she saw that nary a leaf stirred in the peaceful place. The Orcs were gone. Thank the Valar, they were gone!
All but weeping with relief, she struggled to her feet, gasping when her knees buckled, and grabbed onto the nearest support she could find.
When the support grabbed her back, she screamed, and the world went black……