A Greater Terror
By the Lady Ione Athene
Disclaimer: If you recognize it, probably not mine. Don't recognize it, probably mine. You know the usual drill.
Rating: R for violence and later chapters
Setting:Post-RotK.
Description: What would happen if the Dark Lord Sauron felt left out? Morgoth created Orcs, Saruman perfected them and created Urukhai... But Sauron had only made wraiths of men. So let's find out! Haldir/OC & Legolas/OC.
AN:This story is the product of a curious question I asked myself one day. Let's see how it goes. /Holds her breath with her five muses/
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Ch. 1: A Dark Lord Defeated?
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What would happen if the Dark Lord Sauron felt left out? Morgoth created Orcs, Saruman perfected them and created Urukhai... But Sauron had only made wraiths of men. While the nine were indeed terrible, they were not a new creature merely shadows of what they once were. Sauron was jealous of the legacy of his predecessor. Even his puppet seemed to have outdone him! No, the Dark Lord would suffer no defeat! Thus Sauron sought to create a race more terrible than the Orc and more powerful than the Urukhai. But Sauron's worst perception was that his new creatures should be graceful and powerful enough to hide amongst the Elves and deceive the hearts of men. And so he set about capturing fair creatures. Captured Elves and Men were brought into his presence for this ghastly experiment. Thus it was that in the Age before his defeat, Sauron would unleash a terror unmatched and unrivalled by either of his competitors. But he would never have a chance to use these creatures in battle. Sauron eagerly awaited the birth of his first creations when the ring of power was destroyed. Yet in the gloom and the dark that hung about the shadowy land of Mordor, this terrible danger was not perceived. The scars of the land ran too deep. Thus it was that the creatures would not be found until the time of the Elves had ceased. They slept on biding their time to spring forth, but it came not for centuries even ages. When the land had quite forgotten the splendour of Numenor and the Elves that once graced its hills, the land was utterly reshaped. Eru knew that still a shadow lay in his creation. The Valar perceived its presence, but they also perceived that it could not be defeated by men alone. The halls of the deep were thrown up, and the seas took new shape. Valinor alone remained untouched as Arda took new form. The Halls of Mandos were emptied, and the Elves were given the opportunity to return to the new Arda or to remain in Valinor. Many of the Elves born in Valinor that had never known Arda before wished to seek out its promises. Many of those that had left the shores of Arda were to return only to the disappointment of a new and foreign land. Yet the creatures that had once been were also changed save the sacred eagles in their high places. It was said that Manwë had taken them to his high halls in Valinor to keep them safe from the changing world.
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Having become fast friends in Valinor, Haldir and Legolas decided to return to Arda to see what had become of the home they remembered. Where Legolas went, the stout-hearted Gimli followed. He alone of the old-world Dwarves had been gifted to come to the undying lands, and he alone of his race would not perish and return to the earth from whence they had come. Of the races remaining in Middle Earth, the Dwarves seemed the least changed. Rumoured to be loved of Aulë even as Manwë succoured the eagles, the Dwarves remained a stout and fierce breed keeping very much to themselves. They were a bit shorter and stubbier than had once been and Gimli was soon recognized to be a lord amongst them, but the old-world Dwarf was loyal to his friends also and refused the kingship that was offered to him. The remaining Urukhai that had plagued the remaining peoples of Middle Earth were harmless though perhaps a bit annoying little creatures that scurried from hole to hole in the forests. What many of the old-world came to miss was the merry hobbits. Frodo had not been ready to yet face Arda despite how different it may have become, and Sam the ever loyal remained by his side. Elladan and Elrohir, sons of Elrond also returned to see the new lands. Yet many of the sages of the old-world would not return perceiving perhaps that there was yet evil that caused the reshaping of the world. Mithrandir, Celeborn, Galadriel, and many others who had seen the strife of the Third Age remained in Valinor.
But for all the changes, the new evil remained the same. Wholly departed from the children of Eru that they had once been, they no longer obeyed him. New creatures kept emerging. Men still remained in Arda though they no longer had any knowledge of Elves or felt any kinship with them. Men were a rough breed now seeking after the interests of their own kind. They remained in small settlements to the south near their ancestral homes. It was rumoured that they held sacred one lonely mountain circled by a ring of trees. Here it was said that the greatest king of ages past had been laid to rest. The circle of trees was all that remained of those the queen had haunted with her weeping. Even now if a wanderer came to these trees, the mournful wail of the queen would come to him and beg him to leave her husband to rest in peace. No man dared to set foot on the lonely mountain.
Haldir, Legolas, and Gimli stood even now before the legendary hill. They could hear the mournful cries on the wind.
"Are we not even now standing upon the remains of the white city?" Gimli asked gruffly. It often amazed his two faithful listeners at how he still managed to speak Quenya, the tongue of Valinor, with his characteristic Dwarven brashness.
"We are indeed," Haldir answered in rapt attention to the wind's call. "And yet I could swear by blessed Elbereth that I know the voice that calls to us on the wind."
"I have thought the same, my friend, though my ears sadly were less accustomed to it," Legolas agreed.
"Well, are we just going to stand here and look at the mountain?" their thoughts were interrupted by the dwarf's brusque voice.
Slowly and deliberately Legolas stepped forward passing through the circle of trees. The wind picked up and the melancholy wails increased in fervour. "Arwen Undomiel, sérë ëa meldelyë!" (Arwen Evenstar, peace it is thy friends!)
The wind ceased its mad course almost instantly, and the wailing cry stopped. "She recognizes us," Haldir realized. The three friends began the steady ascent up the mountain silently.
Presently Gimli commented on the changes of Arda. "Strange it is that this mountain stands alone from the range that once was while Erebor was laid bare to its foundations!" It had been to the dwarf's dismay to find his old home was no more. The new dwarves had dug into the new mountain ranges finding pockets of old Khazad-dum.
"Not a single place is as it was, friend Gimli. The ruins of Rivendell long since disappeared into mountains. Yea, I have not yet found a single Mallorn within which to make my home."
"Wanderers we have all become," Legolas affirmed with a sigh.
"Look!" Gimli cried suddenly. They had reached the crest of the mountain and before them stood a deep cave. "They say his children rest beside him," the dwarf whispered.
"Not his children…" the younger elf replied. They had been there when the king and his friends were laid to rest. Haldir lit a torch, and the trio entered the cave. They did not have to go far. Four forms greeted them lit up by the torch for the first time in ages. Three gilded coffins, which bore the likeness of their occupants, looked just as they had last seen them. Beside the larger coffin lay the remains of a woman. The three friends looked sadly upon them as grief overtook even the seasoned dwarf. Legolas moved towards the coffins touching each in turn though reverently leaving the woman's remains alone. "My friends!" he cried. So bitter was the separation of death between mortal and immortal friends. The bones of Arwen showed that in fact the Evenstar had faded ages past.
"Mayhap this is why Lord Elrond chose not to return," Haldir decided his voice weighted with sorrow. "How could he bear to return to Arda when the Evenstar would not be here to greet him?"
"Let us grieve no more for what was," Legolas proclaimed with resolution. "Arwen Undomiel chose her fate to follow her husband, and Eru has honoured them here in this new Arda. We take our leave of the dead." His two companions nodded and together they descended leaving their friends to their peace.