Category: Lord of the Rings

Rating: M

Couples: None

Warnings: AU, Blood, Character Death (sorta), Mention of Rape

Chapter: 10

Copyright: Characters & places © By Tolkien, Plot & OC´s © by me

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It was during the talks about the Last Alliance that Oropher happened to mention that his beloved queen was pregnant, but that for years now no child had survived the first few days, if it had been born alive at all. Gil-Galad offered my services as a healer, which Oropher took after only a short moment of contemplation. I traveled to Greenwood, where I found as the pregnancy progressed that the very aura of evil coming from Mordor was to blame for the deaths. I reasoned that being away from the forest would free or at the very least sufficiently lesson the hold of Mordor on both mother and child for the child to survive.

Oropher agreed and we set out to Lothlórien. We did not even make it out of the forest. Mordor's forces ambushed us, and while we fought the Queen went into labor, the stress of the danger and the strain of the foul influence causing her body to reject the child. I managed to save both it and her though, but she was killed not long thereafter. They left me for dead and took the child.

I somehow managed to follow them, drawing strength from Valar-know-where. They traveled North, ever further away from the established elvish realms: they knew that someone was hot on their heels and determined to save the babe. I pursued them, but they were too fast. I would have lost them had they not made an unfortunate turn: into a set of caves in the far north of the Grey Mountains.

There they came upon powers that were far greater than they. Truly, had the two eldest not been wounded recently by dragons, I fear I would still have been too late. As it was, only the youngsters truly fought, not only to defeat the attackers, but also to protect their parents.

Well I recall my terror and horror when I caught up and entered the cave. Skin covered in scales seemed to cover every inch of wall, so many of them were there. The only thing one could hear was the hissing of thousands upon thousands of snakes, crawling over the stone-floor.

I think I might have stood there frozen, waiting only for my end had the child not cried out in that moment. I still cannot say whether they knew I meant them no harm or that they were simply surprised at my move, but I rushed forward to where the child was now crying its' little lungs out and reached it unhindered.

It was then I first came face to face with Ragon. He told me it would be best if I left. He knew I meant no harm, but those that preceded me had wounded his wife so gravely that she would soon die and his rage afterwards would not distinguish between friend and foe.

Perhaps I was a bit of an idiot, but I felt that I had to offer my help. I had already failed Oropher's wife, I was not about to fail another's. What he led me to was not what I expected at all: a snake, massive and huge, her body as thick as a fully grown Mallorn and one side of her head smashed in. Shilene, Queen of Snakes, lay dying and still I did not back off. I managed to heal her, but it nearly killed me myself. Had Ragon not taken pity on me and carried me far South, where I could reach an elvish kingdom unaided, both I and the child would have remained in the North. As corpses…

Great was Oropher's gratitude when I managed to reach Lindon – and him – with his firstborn son. Elves from Lothlórien had found our slaughtered escort and the dead queen days beforehand and had send word to Greenwood's King almost immediately afterwards. Despite both me and the child not being there, they had presumed us dead too. It took me months to recover from the ordeal and one night I suddenly faced an intruder in my very room.

Ragon had managed to enter the very palace of Lindon unnoticed and had been waiting for me in a room in one of the most heavily-guarded wings of Gil-Galad's residence. He told me that by my aid his wife had recovered and that he owed me a debt of gratitude he could never repay. And while he refused to fight battles for the elves, he promised me that he'd always be at my service for what I had done.