I think (and hope) that after about eleven chapters, you realize that neither lily7707 nor I own any part of Lord of the Rings… If not, then I have nothing to say to you…
So, this is it! The final chapter. I hope that you all had as much fun reading it as lily7707 and I have had writing it! Hope you enjoyed it!
"Are you ready for this?" Lanna turned and asked Sherryl who stood behind her.
"Yes," she nodded in response, tightening her grip on the knife that she had managed to smuggle past the guards in the folds of her apron.
Slowly, Lanna inched the door open to reveal Regulus sitting at a desk, presumably working out expenses and slave sales. Taking a silent, calming breath, Sherryl started forward, as silent as a shadow slipping along an alleyway at midnight. As she drew near Regulus, she began to lift the knife above her head. With a quick look behind her, Lanna silently closed the door behind her, leaving them trapped in the room with the monster that was about to be delivered justice.
"REGULUS!" came a yell from behind them. Startled, all three turned and stared at the door. Regulus jumped to his feet upon seeing two other people in the room with him.
"Just what do you think you're doing?" he yelled, but neither Lanna nor Sherryl paused to answer him, with a clatter of the knife and a clash of the windows, the two women fled, leaving Regulus behind, unharmed. Lanna led Sherryl across the roof, until they reached a spot they'd already scoped out that they could jump into a pile of hay. Once safely on the ground, they made a break for the forest. Out of the corner of her eye, Sherryl noticed a scuffle taking place near the entrance to the mines, though she knew that she could only hope that it was Legolas, fighting his way out with Johnny at his side.
Soon, they entered the forest and slowed to a jog that they'd both be able to sustain. After several mintes of silence, Lanna requested a break.
"Alright, but we can't stay for long," Sherryl warned as she sat down, enjoying the feel of dirt between her toes. Lanna went and leaned against a tree, stroking the bark, enjoying the smell of fresh air, the feel of freedom. Then, too soon, the pair began to run again.
"Do you think Leggy made it out okay?" Lanna asked after a few moments sounding slightly out of breath.
"He'd better," Sherryl answered with a dark look on her face as she cast a glance behind them. The two fell in to silence once more with only the sound of nature to accompany them. Then, with flailing arms, Lanna wildly tried to grasp something as she tripped over an object in the undergrowth with a loud "Oof!"
When Sherryl stepped back to investigate, she found that her friend had toppled over due to a man that had his head on the ground. Rolling her eyes in frustration at the man, she pulled Lanna to her feet.
"Come, we've already wasted enough time when we stopped, I suggest that we don't disobey Legolas again and leave this man to his ground listening," Sherryl said in disgust as she looked at the man who had barely given them a glance when they tripped over him.
"Did you say 'Legolas'?" he man cried out when he heard what Sherryl had said.
"Yes, but we really must get going, we have to get to Rivendell and then find a person named Estel, so if you'll excuse us..." Sherryl started to back away, pulling Lanna with her.
"Wait! I'm right here!" he called after them.
"I'm Estel. More commonly known as Aragorn."
Legolas looked up from the floor, rubbing his sore cheek where the miners had punched him. They recently sent a man to inform Regulus that there had been a break out, so he would know soon enough whether or not Lanna and Sherryl had succeeded in their task. Before Legolas had a chance to spare another thought on the other half of the plan, he felt the boot of a miner connect with his rib cage, letting out a sickening *Crack!* and Legolas felt a few bones give way.
"You won't get anything out of him that way," came the voice that Legolas had hoped that he would never have to hear again. Sure enough, it was Regulus that came to stand before Legolas. "Your friends failed. They left this lovely instrument behind for me." Regulus said, pointing out the obvious as he held up the knife that Legolas had given Sherryl. Then, the slaver spoke over the slave's shoulder. "Bring the boy."
Fear immediately overtook Legolas as the realization dawned on him that the miner was going to fetch Johnny.
"No! He's just a boy, leave him out of this! He had no part in any of this!
It was all my idea!" Legolas begged as Regulus looked down on the elf in triumph.
"Oh, believe me, Legolas," Regulus answered in a mocking voice, "I know. I'd rather not get the boy involved in this at all, but you brought this down on yourself. And Lanna. And Sherryl. And Johnny."
Legolas's heart fell. So the girls hadn't made it out. Were they dead though? Alive? Dying? Were they able to pretend that they hadn't been in their right minds? Lanna would find a way of talking them out of it. She was good with words in that way, but would it be enough, this time? Somehow, Legolas didn't believe that it would. It didn't matter, he wouldn't be able to do anything about it anyways, he was in no position to assist them.
Johnny stood, the guards approached him, the larger smiled a cold, mocking smile.
"We have a treat for for you. An elf has come to visit," his deep voice snaked inside Johnny's ears and tightened on his heart. Confusion masked his face as he hoped for the best, that the guards were simply playing a prank on him as he had already seen done about ten times.
However, when the young boy stepped in to the man-made cavern, it was Legolas that he saw being held up between two guards, looking at Johnny in horror. Confused, Johnny did a quick look over of himself. He was dirty, but that was to be expected, being in the mines and all. The only other thing he could spot on himself was the bit of blood that had leaked on to his shirt when he had received a cut on his cheek from one of the guards. Other than that, Johnny was perfectly fine, so why did Mr. Legolas have that look on his face? More importantly, why was Mr. Legolas even here?
"So, unless you want to tell me about your plan, I need just a few more details, little Johnny Boy here will gain a few extra mementos," Regulus said to Mr. Legolas, pointing the knife casually enough at Johnny, but with a gleam in his eye that got the message across clearly. For the first time in all the hours Johnny had known Mr. Legolas, the elf looked lost.
"What am I doing again?" Lanna asked with a look in her eye that quite clearly said that she was hoping that the answer had changed. The three people had arrived at the spot that Lanna and Sherryl had originally stopped when they first made it out of the hell hole. And despite her objections, Aragorn and Sherryl had decided that it would be best if Lanna waited for everyone in the forest. The other two would go back and find out if Johnny and Legolas had escaped, Sherryl was wild with worry over the young boy.
"You're going to wait here while Aragorn and I do a quick sweep of the buildings. If we don't find either of them, we'll come back and wait for Legolas and Johnny in Rivendell," Sherryl explained once again, slightly exasperated with Lanna.
Grumbling incoherent words, Lanna went and sat on a tree stump.
"Alright, here you go," Aragorn said handing one of his smaller blades to Sherryl. And with that, the two set off again for the slaver's facility. A few paces led them into the shadows of the first building they encountered. With a slight nod and no parting words, Aragorn slipped along the buildings to the dungeons where Sherryl assumed Legolas would be while she herself headed to the mines where she knew she would find Johnny, the only person she was worried about at the moment. As she slipped in to the entrance she thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye, but when she got a closer look, there was nothing there, only a few scuff marks on the ground. Faintly, she heard could hear Johnny, screaming out in pain. Rage overtook Sherryl as she sprinted towards the sound of his voice, vowing to destroy whoever stood in her way and disembowel the person harming the little boy.
However, as Sherryl neared the source of Johnny's voice, she realized that this might not be the best plan. As she got a handle on her fury, Sherryl slowed to a silent jog, thinking over the best way to save Johnny. There would obviously be other guards in the room, possibly even Regulus, but that would give her a chance to finish the job she has started.
Finally, after many twists and turns, Sherryl came upon the rocky cavern in which Johnny's screams had been emanating from, though they had just ebbed away. And as she poked her head around the corner, she had just enough time to slip in to the shadows before Regulus and about five other guards exited the cavern. Once they had gone, Sherryl stepped in to find Legolas sitting across the room from Johnny, tears streaming from the elf's eyes as he muttered incoherent apologies.
"Johnny! Oh, Johnny, what's happened to you?" Sherryl whispered as her eyes fell on the broken boy. He was curled up in the fetal position in a pool of blood, whip lashes lacing his back in a pattern only the devil could call beautiful.
"You shouldn't be here," the boy said as he reached for the woman. He had no restraints, his injuries and broken will were enough to hold him in place. The other side of the cavern was a different matter. Legolas had ropes dripping off his body, rendering him immobile. It took, from Sherryl's point of view, far too much time to cut the ropes off of him.
"Johnny's right, you shouldn't have come. You should be looking for Estel," Legolas said as the last of the ropes fell from his body.
"You mean Aragorn? We found him, in the forest. He was looking for you," Sherryl replied as she helped Johnny to his feet.
"I should have known," Legolas said with a small smile on his face as the trio exited the cavern and began the journey that would bring them outside.
"Then I'm glad you came. Earlier, Regulus made it sound as though you two had already died. Speaking of two, where's Lanna?"
"She's waiting in the forest, but we're going to have to find Aragorn before we can meet up with her," Sherryl replied.
As the group followed the tracks Sherryl had left in her mad rush to get to Johnny, a feeling of unease settled over them. Though Sherryl had paid no mind to it before, it became obvious that no guards were stationed at their posts.
"This is too easy. Why are they letting us just walk out?" Legolas wondered aloud.
"They're not even trying to stop us," Sherryl remarked.
When they reached the door that would lead them to the outside, Johnny rushed forward with a huge smile on his face in anticipation. However, Sherryl called him back out of caution and he trudged back to his companions, eager to smell the crisp, fresh air, once more. Sherryl smiled as she reached around Johnny and opened the door to the outside. Almost immediately, the air that the young boy had been longing for washed over them.
"I'd say," came the cruel, unwanted voice of Regulus, "it's time to repay Sherryl for the little stunt she and Lanna pulled just a few hours ago."
As he lifted the knife that Sherryl had dropped earlier, she saw that he was aiming for not her, but for Johnny. Fear overtook her body, yet she pushed past it as Regulus let the knife fly.
"NOOOOO!" she screamed, throwing Johnny aside and stepping forward to take the knife. As she stepped, time seemed to slow, the world around her seemed to cease, even though the knife was still a good ten or fifteen feet away. It was only Sherryl and the knife, the rest was blackness. Sherryl had a fleeting thought, a fleeting fear, that this was what awaited her. Darkness, emptiness, nothingness. However, her attention was drawn from the surrounding nothingness to the only other thing in her world. The knife. It spun, end over end, as it approached her, glinting with an unseen light. In her state of hyper awareness, the slowed travel of the knife made it easy to see all the flaws and imperfections of the knife. A knick in the blade where another knife landed on it. A dent in the handle from when she dropped it. A scratch near the tip where it rubbed against bone during a butchering. All this, Sherryl took in with respect. The respect that despite all the deformities, all the dents, this object would be the one that ends her life.
As the knife neared Sherryl, the world returned to normal, she became aware of Johnny screaming in denial, Legolas, momentarily shocked into paralysis; and Regulus looking expectantly at the knife.
It lodged itself in Sherryl's stomach.
Then, the darkness returned.
Johnny couldn't believe it. Sherryl couldn't be dead, she just couldn't. She'd always been there for him, no matter what. Now she was gone. And it was all Regulus's fault.
Regulus.
Johnny turned to the slave lord who grinning, triumphant at the kill. Why was he turning red? The whole world was turning red, in fact. However, at that moment, Johnny didn't care. All he cared about was making Regulus pay for what he'd just done.
Fueled and powered by rage, Johnny rushed Regulus, screaming words that didn't make sense to anyone but the grieving boy."That's all she ever did! What's happened here? Don't think you'll get away with this, young man! Don't play with your food, just eat it! NEVER AGAIN! DO YOU HEAR ME? NEVER AGAIN!" In all his fury, he managed to take Regulus by surprise and bring him to the ground, fists flailing. Beating the face in front of him to a bloody mash.
Behind him, Johnny could sense that Mr. Legolas was watching him, letting him get his anger out. But he could also sense another figure approaching, this one unfamiliar. Johnny planned to throw himself at that person, too.
Perhaps Mr. Legolas sensed this because he gently pulled Johnny off Regulus, whispering "That's enough, Johnny" in a soothing voice, bringing The grief-stricken boy back to his senses.
All he could do was cry into Mr. Legolas's shoulder after that.
Aragorn couldn't understand why Legolas was letting that boy rip into a downed man, but as he approached, that didn't hold his attention when he saw the crumpled body of Sherryl. Grief invaded his heart, though he had only known the woman a short while, he had respected her. She knew her priorities and would die to save her family.
Unfortunately, she had done just that.
"Legolas, we have to go. There were about a dozen guards back there and more are on their way," Aragorn said as he approached his friend who was now holding the boy in his arms.
"Were?" Legolas asked.
Aragorn nodded.
Legolas sighed to himself and started to stand, still holding the boy in his arms.
"Do you want me to...?" Aragorn didn't finish the sentence, but looked at Sherryl's body to get the point across.
"I think it would be best," Legolas nodded. So, Aragorn kneeled down and gently picked up the body of the fallen woman.
Then, the man and the elf left the retched slave house behind carrying the boy and the body, leaving the men to find their beaten leader.
Never again did Legolas wish to see that grove again.
The men ran through the forest in silence, the boy's sniffling was the only sound for miles, it was as though all the animals of the forest were mourning the death of Sherryl. Soon, they reached the clearing where Lana sat, waiting impatiently.
"Leggy! It's about time!" she was silenced as she caught sight of Sherryl. "What happened?"
"Regulus" was the only answer she needed. Silently, she held her hands out for the boy, whom "Leggy" handed over immediately. Aragorn was going to have to ask Legolas about that later, but this was not the time.
*lily starts to cry*
voice: Lily! Is that...tears?
smiley: Hey guys- LILY YOUR LEAKING!
voice: They're called tears
smiley: VOICE WE GOTTA GET HER TO A DOCTOR SHES BROKEN
voice: Actually-
smiley: Lily, don't die. You can't die. You have to write the epilogue!
voice: Smiley, she's not going to-
lily: I can't believe you, smiley! You k-k-killed her!
smiley: And? I've killed lots of people in this story. What's his face from Chapter 1, Atticol, Sheryll and Johnny. Wait, sorry spoiler.
voice: She's joking, Johnny doesn't die. Just calm down. Don't break the computer. It's okay.
lily: Smiley you're a genius!
*voice groans*
LILY EATS REVIEWS FOR BREAKFAST!
(Wow... that was slightly random)