"Useless...orcs..." I struggled to find breath to speak my words of defiance, more than likely one of the final utterances I would procure.
A warg growled lowly and lunged at me, muscles rippling under his coarse marbled pelt. I slashed my knife through the air, clubbing the beast on the nose with the hilt, and as I pulled it down, the blade sliced thinly, leaving a slim line of red. All occurred in the span of one heartbeat.
A high-pitched whimper erupted from the warg and it skittered away, only to be steered back by an irked Orc.
I forced a mocking laugh through the haze of weariness clouding my senses. "Come now, control your dogs."
Another warg snapped its slavering jaws at me and charged, heavy paws thundering. The huge creature threatening to slam me into the earth as if I was an insect; just the weight of the thing soaring through the air made me cringe at the incoming pressure.
I dropped to the ground, under the beast, and darted out behind it, thrusting my sword into the muscle of its back, and yanking it out, slick with blood, at the first agonized howl.
Feeling a rush of renewed confidence, I moved forward to behead the injured warg's rider, who was preoccupied with soothing the beast beneath him.
Moist, hot breath pressed against my neck, and ten obsidian knives pierced my shoulder blades, sliding a little and leaving fiery lashes of pain in their wake. In a bout of solid instinct, I jumped away, and the only 'away' happening to be the back of the warg I had stabbed. I clutched to the warg's fur, still soaked with fresh blood.
I could feel massive jaws about to clamp around my neck, the edges of ivory canines digging into my skin, and knew I hadn't been fast enough. Yet, I was not about to surrender.
Reaching up with hands like lightning, I pried the jaws of the warg open and jerked my head out of the death trap with only minimal scratches on my neck where the teeth had begun to pierce my flesh.
Literally throwing myself to the ground, I rolled away a few feet, and then sprang to my feet, heart ramming against my rib cage as it realized how close it had come to stop beating.
The warg who had almost ripped my head from my shoulders was standing on its hind paws, forepaws resting against its wounded companion where I had been sitting, it's jowls dripping blood and its fangs bared in a scarlet grin.
I could feel blood trickling down my neck and upper back, minor wounds, but I did not wish to lose too much blood, which would be as effective as bringing death as a torn-out throat.
I raised my head and wielded my sword higher, letting the sun reflect off of whatever part of the blade was not drenched in blood. I gazed at it, jaw gritted, even as the wargs circled me, barking in triumph as their prey began to recognize her own bitter fate.
Was this all I had to show for my life? Death and sorrow, spread to the land? A cruel legacy when I had been handed nothing but misfortune, with nothing to give to others but the same.
"Aiya, Jevryn Haldaer." A well-known voice called and I spun on my heel in the direction of the unwanted speaker.
Legolas Greenleaf stood, bow in hand and a sharpness in his eyes as he stared over the land, his gaze searing into mine. His cloak was missing and the splendor of his clothes was dulled by the dust of the road, but he was there, looking for all the world as if he was about to lead his army into victory.
The wargs' ears pricked and they shuffled to look at their new opponent. I stared back at the prince coldly, scorning his presence. "Gwanno ereb nin!" I certainly did not want him here to witness my death.
His eyes sparked with a challenge and suddenly an arrow flew past, burying itself in the eye of the warg that had nearly decapitated me. It collapsed soundlessly and it's rider leapt off, cursing Legolas heatedly in the Black speech.
I narrowed my eyes at the princeling, who gave me a courteous nod rather unbefitting of the situation, and slung his bow on his back, unsheathing his knives. He began to run towards me and the wargs; he was going to attack.
My hand tightened on my sword, watching his agile movement with a hunger that had yet to be sated. This could be it; before I perished, my revenge could be complete.
Yet I could do nothing but observe as an Orc stepped up to met his doom under the blades of the Greenwood prince. He dropped to the earth and Legolas pushed on, meeting the next enemy with an infectious intensity.
Howling of the wargs and shouting of the orcs consumed me, and I whirled around, slitting the throat of an Orc, hearing his dying squeal, like a stuck pig.
I wove around the fighting, dodging and turning, warding off attempts on my life with frightening indifference. Unlike all the other battles I had fought with Legolas, I was fully awake and aware of the horrors surrounding me.
This time I dueled at his side. This time I knew nothing could touch us. A strange sense of security, not foolish cockiness reigned over me, something that I had forgotten from traveling with Quinn. But this carried even more weight to it. It held the ring of destiny, and I was not sure I liked it, but I knew I had no choice.
One last body crumpled in front of me and I stood still, glaring at the corpse, the fire of combat burning in my veins.
Footsteps, light as snowfall, sounded behind me, and I slowly faced Legolas, the silence of the aftermath pierced only by our breathing and the cries of the carrion birds.
The longer I looked at the prince, the more I wondered at what had just occurred. My eyes questioned him, but I could not bring myself to say anything.
His own eyes held sympathy, not pity, but a compassionate understanding that, ran over me in the cooling light of his sky-blue eyes.
The first in the centuries, besides Quinn, to give me, a traitorous ranger with too much anger in her heart, a simple chance, to take or leave. A proud question, between two who understood each other.
I respected him for that, albeit if it was just because fate was calling me to do so against my will.
Indeed, he needed someone to help his people; I could've very well been just a pawn in a greater game, but what I just experienced led me to believe we were the participants in a quest to come.
So I tilted my head back, eyeing him. "Mae govannen, Legolas."
A slight smile that was barely more than a upturning of the corner of his mouth brightened the prince's face. "Mae govannen, Jevryn."
I gave him a small nod, still a sorry hand at the courteous nature of the elves. Silence followed, with me unsure of how to break it.
His attention caught, Legolas abruptly crouched, the smile disappearing from his features, and peered at the carcass at my feet. "These seem to be of the same kind that assaulted Tauriel's group."
I honestly felt no pity for the captain of Greenwood, so I held my peace, except to say stiffly, "Do you still intend to return to Eryn Lasgalen?"
Legolas glanced up with a glimmer of amusement as if he knew exactly what irritated me, but that spark quickly faded into dark concern as he spoke. "Nay. I am indebted to one of my comrades. He fell in the battle when the orcs attacked us. I must send supplies."
"Hacril?" I asked quietly, remembering the sincerity on the brunette elf's face as he tried to warn me back at the inn.
"Yes." Legolas rose, looking over my shoulder at the town I knew lay beyond the plains.
Before I uttered anything, Legolas cast another piercing glance at me. "I understand your ordeal. You are free to leave; I will not make you travel with me to my kin."
Looking away to bite back a sarcastic comment that explained that he would never cause me to do anything against my will, I took a moment to regain my composure. "Naturally. I will warn you though; Tauriel will not return to Greenwood without her prince. And if you go back to tend to Hacril, she will not let you leave."
Legolas narrowed his eyes. "I thought Tauriel was simply a loyal warrior."
I gave him a look. "Do not play stupid, princeling. Her loyalty exceeds boundaries, that much is clear, but there is more than a little ambition in her, if you were to ask my opinion."
"I would not, due to the fact that I know you aren't partial to Tauriel's character." Legolas answered my sharp statement with an equally barbed comment, which I found incredibly annoying.
"Let us make one thing clear, prince." I snapped at him, forgetting, in the heat of the moment, that I almost thought I respected this elf not five moments before. Stepping forward, I glared at him. "I do not know you. I do not care to know you. We are barely companions, little more than enemies. Do not presume that I will not kill you because of a clever little stunt you came up with."
"Of course." Smooth as a slippery snake winding through a river!
"Now, do you want to know what I suggest?" I had no idea why I continued barreling on like this.
"Indeed."
"Go back to the town, purchase some medicine and send it off by horseback to your company of elves!" I was practically shouting in his face now. Breathing hard, I stepped back, forcing myself to calm down.
"An excellent idea. Would you care to come with me?" Legolas asked, his tone as light and casual as if he was discussing the weather, although I could've sworn I saw a smirk in his eyes.
I could've cut off his miserable head in that very moment, yet, I controlled myself enough to mutter. "Why ever not?"
Together, we sent off a bundle of supplies to where Legolas said the elves would be, and would've stayed in the town, except I insisted we kept moving. At sundown, we found a suitable place to camp in the shelter of one of the straggling trees. We had not yet made it out of the plains.
I was adding dry leaves to the dying embers as Legolas was out collecting wood, which he may or may not have done on purpose to give me time to recollect my senses.
I had lost control earlier, which I considered unacceptable, especially in present company. And before that, the battle we'd won... I tossed a few leaves into the flames, watching the heat devour them.
I needed to hang on to my soul, or it might slip away. I was losing control, and that very thought made my hands shake.
Was I afraid of the prince? No. I took a deep breath. I had to be brutally honest with myself. I was... afraid of the prospect of the prince. That I was going to be let down again, thrown out like a dog eating scraps off the table. He was too obscure. I could not see past what he was portraying to the rest of world; a quiet, confident prince willing to die for his people.
Quinn had been different. He was a fellow outcast, someone that I could speak to without worrying about... anything.
That was it. I was becoming far too emotional. Legolas was simply someone that... I didn't quite know what we were meant to do, but it was surely something.
I prodded the fire with a long branch, and watched, entranced, as it spit sparks. It was apparent I was not able to be rid of the prince. So I was going to have to endure.
Lowering myself to the ground, I stared up at the darkening sky until I heard footsteps.
Legolas set down his bundle of firewood and sat down across from me, his flaxen blond hair shining in the firelight.
Neither of us spoke, until I, silently swearing to myself that I would remain civil, said quietly, "These shadowed elves you spoke of... what are their names?"
"They call themselves the Heseköl." Legolas met my eyes across the flames, memories like shadows in his irises.
"That is of no language I know." I shifted slightly.
"We believe they made it up themselves." He turned his eyes away, gazing into the fire. "They threaten to destroy us. They have no reason. No reason we can comprehend."
"The Heseköl." I repeated, disliking the foreign syllables on my tongue.
Legolas remained silent for a few more moments filled with crackling flames, and then, "They are people of shadows. One touch from them..." He shook his head the slightest bit, leaving the effects of the Heseköls' grasp up to my imagination.
I grimaced and opened my mouth to speak-
"Heseköl? Who speaks of their kind?" A powerful voice boomed, raspy and imposing.
I jumped up, bristling with my hand on my knife.
"Who goes there?"
"Who goes there?"
Both Legolas' and my voice rang out, challenging the speaker. I glanced at him, but he was staring out into the depths of the darkness, tense and ready for action.
The voice was completely unfazed and answered candidly. "Why, Gandalf the Grey, of course! Legolas Greenleaf, you surprise me, lad. I would've thought you would've recognized an old wizard who has visited your father's court many-a-time! Jevryn Haldaer, you on the hand, I haven't seen since you were but a child."
