This story is based on the characters of the movie/book Lord of the Rings. They belong to JRR Tolkien and whoever else has substantial claims on them. They aren't mine, but the story is mine. All mine…and Songbird's…for better or for worse anyway. All disclaimers apply. No copyright infringement is intended. Also, we take no responsibility for bouts of insanity, heart attacks, or any other infliction that is supposedly caused by this story…
They traveled for another hour or so when Elladan demanded that they stop. "This is ridiculous," he exclaimed. "Human, you must be rubbing off on me. I have never gone running off without a plan before."
"Brother, that is not true." Elrohir provoked.
"Quiet 'Ro," Elladan snarled. Elrohir however, was having none of it and burst into laughter.
Kaolith was quick to respond. "No, don't be quiet. I would surely love to hear some Elladan stories." At that moment, she felt the hair on her neck stand up again. "On second thought," she said looking around curiously. "The stories will have to wait, there is someone following us." The whole group had indeed felt the last chill that Kaolith had felt.
Selinde at this point put her two cents in. "We need to go somewhere we can get information. Strider and Legolas are still missing and we can't just wander around Middle-Earth until we stumble upon them."
With the authority only possessed by one who is used to being a leader, Elladan stated firmly. "Then we must go to Lothlorien. We will get no information from human settlements, but our Grandparents will gladly tell us what they know." Kaolith and Selinde glanced at each other with the mention of Grandparents. As they moved out, the twins both hoped that they would accept the human into their borders.
Heading due north at breakneck speed, trying to outrun whatever it was that was tracking them, Rohan had soon faded from view and the group was stuck in the middle of the plains with nowhere to hide. Elrohir was leading them as quickly as possible to Caras Galadhon, with his brother right on his heels, Selinde a few paces back, and Kaolith about 15 yards behind her.
"Come on, young human, you don't want to get left behind."
"I'm...coming. I'm just...watching your...backs." Kaolith was not quite as fleet of foot on the flat ground, and knew that the elves were outpacing her.
Late into the night, Elladan finally convinced his brother that they could not reach Lothlorien in one night. They made camp, but did not light a fire in fear of leading anyone to them any faster. Kaolith was asleep before she got her bedroll completely laid out, using it as a pillow and her cloak as a blanket.
"Tire easily, don't they?" Elladan asked good-naturedly as he remembered the numerous times he had gone camping with Estel, with similar results. Elrohir was pacing around them, however, uneasy with the halt.
"I don't like this 'Dan, we're too vulnerable out here. It's too open."
"Would you rather be inside the borders of Fangorn Forest, 'Ro? Because that is our only other choice. We all needed the rest. The one behind us will need to stop as well." He looked at Selinde, trying to change the subject, "How long do you think they have been following us?"
"I honestly don't know. I didn't feel anything until even after you two did. It was only Kaolith who knew, but I think she felt something before we even got Tanad home. She said something to that effect, but I thought she was just hiding how much she dreaded saying good-bye. It's possible they have been following us since Gleichen."
Elladan turned to look at the sleeping Ranger. "I wonder how that old woman knew her anyway. Has Kaolith been there before?"
"She never told me if she had. She has never really told me much about her past." As Selinde thought about this she realized that she had also not been forthcoming with her past. It's amazing that they became friends at all; with all the secrets they kept. "We met, only because Strider introduced us. She was but fourteen at the time, and I wasn't even sure I wanted someone so young to be traveling with me." Selinde remembered how hard it was to take responsibility for someone else's safety.
She would laugh to know that Kaolith had thought the same thing. "There was something," Selinde paused. "Well she," pausing again, Selinde was at a loss for words. How do you explain something so personal? The twins watched as the emotions played across the she-Elf's face. "Something just passed between us that day." She was now more talking to herself than her companions. "It was like we were meant to meet. Like looking into her soul and seeing ..." They all three arose quickly and scanned the area. Selinde gently woke up Kaolith. She looked directly into the Ranger's eyes, and within minutes the four were on their way again.
Off they were again, Kaolith still wiping the sleep from her eyes. The presence behind her felt strangely familiar, and it was a rather uncomfortable feeling. They hadn't gone very far though, when a dagger pierced the ground in front of Kaolith. She skidded to a stop and whirled around, as it had obviously come over her head from behind her. "Guys...elves...umm...Firstborns? Ok...this is it," she yelled, backpedaling away from the dagger "Old people!"
The three all stopped at this, naturally, and saw that Kaolith wasn't running, but slowly walking, and upon further inspection, had her back to them and was peering into the darkness. "Kaolith? What is it?" Selinde returned to her side and saw the dagger sticking out of the ground.
"I think he caught up to us."
"He? There's only one of them? Sounded like a whole herd of deer or something."
"No, there's only one, believe me."
"You're sure, then?"
"Oh, she's sure of it all right. She ought to know who's following her, after all. I am going to enjoy every minute of ending her pitiful existence, something I should have done long ago."
"If I remember correctly, you did try once, tried but failed." Kaolith was shaking as the face of her nightmares appeared before her. *Why didn't I recognize him before, in the town,* she wondered to herself.
The three Elves coming face to face with their pursuer knew exactly who he was. He was the chief of Gleichen; or rather the former one. It looked as if he had been run off. "I didn't know you knew this man Kaolith?" Selinde asked.
"I didn't recognize him until now," Kaolith ventured to reply. Elladan and Elrohir had stayed out of it thus far, but were getting very concerned as Kaolith's shaking was only intensifying.
"Want to tell me who he is," Selinde asked. She was trying to keep her friend focused on her and not the man before her.
"Hagley!" She spit the word like a curse.
"Enough," Hagley commanded.
"I see I still have the same effect on you, my little plaything." Kaolith cringed at his words, and the flashbacks hit her like a ton of bricks.
Suddenly, Kaolith felt as if she were 10 years old again.
Hagley was a dear friend to Lullyn, or so they had thought at the time. Eagerly providing lessons to the child, the would-be Ranger learned many skills that would one day serve her well. From the healing arts to weaponry, Hagley had been an excellent teacher. Then, everything changed. Too young to understand at the time, Kaolith did not listen to her father's pleas not to go to his friend anymore after they'd fought. She had followed him to the woods for a lesson about athelas, imagine the irony in that, and the next time Lullyn had found her, 3 weeks later, she was hardly recognizable.
He had tried all sorts of new *medicines* on her, playing with the extent of her pain receptors and using her as a small child would carelessly play with a doll. He hadn't hesitated to beat her so as to get the desired result. There were other things, Kaolith was sure, but even seeing Hagley again could not and would not be brought to the surface. Needless to say, it had taken all the skills of the greatest healer in the village to save her, and until her tormented mind finally shut out the memories, she would cower and shake, as she was doing now, whenever Hagley was nearby.
Jerked back to the present, Kaolith stood her ground and commanded her body to stop quivering. All she really wanted to do, however, was hide behind Selinde.
"Imagine my surprise, young one," yet another reason she disliked the nickname, Kaolith decided, "when you burst into my town that night and stopped the burning of your friends. You ran me from that town once, little child of Lullyn, and it seems you have managed to do it again. I will have my way with you this time, and your friends here will not be able to stop me."
He was not prepared for the fierceness of the attack. For with the words that had passed between Kaolith and Hagley, Selinde knew what must have happened. For she, herself had been subjected to such torment.
And then the face before her changed. To her mind, she saw the one 'human' she wished never to see again: the man who had been her master. With fierceness none of her companions knew she possessed, she launched herself at Hagley. What was even more surprising, she attacked with her bare hands.
Kaolith couldn't move, frozen to the spot she stood in, Selinde's reaction had frightened her. Elladan and Elrohir, stunned for just the briefest moment, grabbed Selinde and tried to pull her away. They were utterly shocked by her strength. When they finally were able to pull the two apart, Selinde was covered in blood and her eyes were wild with rage, Hagley lay dead at her feet.
Kaolith was frozen stiff, her eyes darting between her worst enemy and her best friend. Her breathing was ragged, and she could not believe what she had just seen. She had known her friend to fight skillfully with a bow and her daggers, and knew that she had no problem killing an enemy in self-defense, but this was a side of the Elf Kaolith had never seen before.
The twins were still holding Selinde who, after she realized Hagley was dead, had lost all of her energy. She too looked horrible and not quite in the present, and neither Elladan nor Elrohir was quite sure what to do with the two. They knew something evil had happened to their two companions, and were unsure as to how to make it right again.
"Kaolith?" Selinde asked shakily, recomposing herself more quickly than her young friend. "Are you all right? Kaolith?"
It was entirely too much for Kaolith's mind to comprehend, and she did not even realize when a cloak was draped over her shoulders by the elder twin, nor when he led her, Elrohir following with Selinde, away from the corpse of her nightmares.
It was in this condition that the companions approached Lothlorien. As they entered the woods and headed in the direction of Caras Galadhon, Lorien guards met them. "Halt," the words were spoken in Elvish.
As Haldir and his guard stepped forward, he recognized the twins. "Lord Elladan, Lord Elrohir, what brings you to Lothlorien? I see you have brought guests."
"Well met, Haldir of Lorien." Leaving Kaolith with Elrohir, Elladan stepped forward. "We seek a respite from our travels, aid for our friends, and a word with our Grandparents," he told the guard with authority.
"The human may not enter. You know the laws of our people."
"She will enter," he retorted, "for she is under my protection and I will not leave her. I will take responsibility for breaking the law, and take it up with Lord Celeborn myself." "Then I will go with you," Haldir replied. Giving instructions to his men, Haldir led the four weary travelers farther into the forest. They had walked for sometime when they crested a rise. Relief flooded the twins at their first glance of the city, and the two females could only stare, for few had ever seen Caras Galadhon, one of the most beautiful sights in Middle Earth.
The Lord was not pleased. The heart of Elvendom on earth was not a place for humans. His courtiers had informed him of her presence before Haldir and Elladan presented her. They had not told him, however, of her age, or the state that she was in. Regardless, he was reluctant to allow her to remain in the realm, and he told the group as much.
"She cannot stay here. You know the laws, son of Elrond. No human may pass through these borders. Yet you have brought her with you, and though I do not have the gift to change the past, she will be escorted to the borders, and may wait there for you. As for your brother, and your companion, you may seek rest here in safety, and we will see to your needs."
Kaolith was unaware of anything that was going on, for she did not hear them, nor could she understand the language, and so did not stand up for herself.
Selinde saw this, and, as she had done in the past, and would in the future, stepped up to her aid. "Can't you see that she is not well? She is in shock, and to separate her from us now, denying her asylum and aid in your fair lands, she will only get worse. Will you have that on your head?" Her eyes went wide, and she realized, but did not regret, her impudence. "My Lord," she finished.
It was Galadriel who stepped forward and stopped her husband's remarks. "She will remain and be tended to. If she travels with descendants of ours, then she will be welcome here."
The twins smiled at their grandmother, and as she led the child away from the meeting place, Selinde turned to follow, for she would not leave her friend alone in this state that she still wasn't sure she was not at fault for...
The twins remained to speak with their grandfather as Galadriel led the young ones away. She led them into a beautiful room. Both the young women perceptibly relaxed just from entering it. When Galadriel spoke, her voice was both commanding and ethereal. "Tell me what has happened to your friend." Her voice was very soothing, though Selinde sensed that it could also be terrifying.
"What all do you want to know," Selinde stuttered. She had known all her life of the Lady of the Golden Wood; she never thought she would meet her.
Galadriel laughed softly. "Let's just start with how she got in this condition, and go from there."
Selinde lowered her head in shame. She was still covered in Hagley's blood, and was now pretty sure Kaolith's condition was her fault. So with a deep sigh, she told Galadriel the story. When she was finished, Galadriel assured her that Kaolith would be okay.
"I would like to also discuss Bethune with you, after you have had some rest." Not knowing how the Lady of Light knew where she came from, Selinde was escorted from the room.
When Selinde had been escorted to her own room, Galadriel turned to the young human, who, if anything, looked more in shock and jumpy now that there was only one Elf in the room.
"Your friend will be all right, Kaolith. It is you that she is worried about, and would that you returned to her tomorrow well and as you were before. The pain in your heart and in your mind can vanish now, your tormentor is gone, and he can not hurt you any longer." She spoke softly in the common tongue so as not to frighten the child in front of her. She was pleased to hear the choppy breathing ease significantly, but the color of her face was still a pale gray, and she did not speak.
Singing softly in the high tongue, Galadriel eased the human into the bed and pulled up the covers. Then, sensing what it was that still kept the human from peace, Galadriel called for one of the Galadhrim elves to bring another bed into the room and sent for the Bethunian Elf. Selinde came at once when she was called, and as soon as Kaolith saw her friend, the human settled into a deep sleep.
"You see, young Elf, it is not your fault that your friend was ill. Memories long thought dead assaulted her and hurt her more deeply than any injury could ever do. She will be well in the morning, now that you are close again." Both elves smiled down at the now sleeping human, whose cheeks had returned to a pale pink color, and whose lips were drawn into a small smile. "Now, about your home."
To the Reviewers:
Elendil – Hey Eleni! I'm amazed we can still surprise anyone. I'm glad you enjoyed this chapter. Hope you like the next one.
TC – LOL TC! You're not very patient are you? Breg will get his when it comes. *Hope that was vague enough* If you kill him for us TC, we won't end the story. Hehe.
Elwen - Hey Elwen, I will only kill if they are clones. Cube and I have better things to do with the real ones. Can you guess who gets which one? Anyway, keep enjoying.