My narrative sometimes tracks Tolkien's version of Middle-earth, sometimes Jackson's.
I would like to thank the following reviewers: punkballet, Here to Annoy, FoxGurl0000, vectis, ziggy3, Angsty Anime Star, Dragonsofliberty, Pghj2005, and CAH. I am delighted to receive any and all responses, whether reviewers are logged in or not. If you do happen to be logged in, I will use the reply feature to get back to you unless you have disabled the private messaging feature. (Please notice that the fanfiction site has changed its system so that responses to reviews go out via the private messaging feature. That is why the people who have disabled that feature have not heard back from me.).
This chapter may incorporate incidents and/or quotations from the book and/or movie versions of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. The chapter may also draw upon posthumous publications edited by Christopher Tolkien, such as The Silmarillion.
Beta Reader: Dragonfly.
Chapter 53: Fangs Unsheathed
After leaving their camp, Gimli and Legolas had only traveled a few hundred feet when Legolas began to glance over his shoulder.
"Why are you so restless?" Gimli asked after the Elf had looked back for the sixth time.
Legolas answered in a low voice. "We are being followed—no, do not look back!"
"Why may you look back but I may not?" said Gimli, a trifle nettled.
"You are sitting behind me. If I turn to look over my shoulder, it may be that I merely wish to speak with you. If you turn to look over your shoulder, however, it is plain that you are trying to spy something behind you."
Gimli had to concede that what Legolas said was true, and he obligingly made small talk so that it would look all the more natural when Legolas glanced over his shoulder.
"Can you make it out?" the Dwarf said softly after awhile.
"Not yet," Legolas answered quietly. "Although I am sure it is not an Orc. No Orc could move that quietly."
They rode on a little longer. Legolas still continued to glance back over his shoulder from time to time. Suddenly he chuckled. "Ah, I see it now," he said, his voice amused. "It is a cat."
"Cat," exclaimed Gimli, alarmed. "No no! It cannot be a cat!"
"I admit that it is unusual to see a cat in the middle of the wild," Legolas said, surprised at Gimli's vehemence.
Gimli began to wail. "Oh, Legolas, I am so, so very sorry. I have done you an injury. You seemed better, but now it appears that you were hurt worse than I thought!"
"Hurt? How hurt? Ow! I am hurt now! Stop clinging so tightly to my middle!"
Gimli continued to wail. Meanwhile, Legolas tried to pry his hands loose.
"Gimli! Whatever are you babbling about? Close your mouth and open your fingers!"
At last Gimli calmed a little. The two dismounted, and Legolas begged Gimli to explain—clearly and calmly—what the matter was.
"I did not pick through the mushrooms carefully enough," Gimli confessed. "You ate a bad one and began to hallucinate. Chiefly, you claimed to see a cat. By morning you seemed to have recovered, but now it is plain that you have not. Oh, Legolas, I shall never forgive myself if you do not recover entirely!"
"I am recovered entirely, Gimli."
"But you are still seeing cats!"
"One cat, Gimli, and a real one."
Gimli shook his head mournfully. "You only think it is a real cat, Legolas. Oh, my poor, poor friend—how I have wronged you!"
"I shall prove that I have seen a cat, Gimli. Sit you down whilst I prepare the noon meal."
Gimli did as he was bade, sitting cross-legged and anxiously watching Legolas as his friend prepared a stew. When the Elf was finished, he ladled portions into two bowls. Then he found a strip of bark and placed a few morsels of meat upon it. He went back in the direction they had come and set the improvised dish down near to the shelter of some briars but still within view. Then he returned to Gimli, and the two quietly ate their stew, their eyes fixed upon the bark with its offering of meat. After a little while, even Gimli could tell that something was moving within the shelter of the briars. Then a tiny creature crept cautiously out and nosed the meat. After a minute it began to nibble upon it.
"Maybe I ate some bad mushrooms, too," marveled Gimli. "What is that little tabby doing in the middle of this woody desert?"
Legolas had finished his stew, and now he poured a little water into his bowl. Arising carefully, he slowly edged his way toward the cat, pausing each time the cat looked as if it were about to bolt. Gradually, the Elf drew within a few feet of the cat. He set down the bowl and then sat back on his heels. Patiently, he waited until the cat crept nearer and began to lap up the water. He began to speak softly to the cat, and when it had satisfied its thirst, he slowly reached out his hand and gently stroked it. At last the tiny cat allowed him to pick it up, and he carried it back to the cook fire.
"Why, it's naught but a kitten," exclaimed Gimli.
"It's a 'he', Gimli."
"Right. He's naught but a kitten. He was hungry just now, but he's not emaciated. I'd say that he has been well cared for were it not for the state of his fur. Look how matted it is!"
"That's blood, Gimli."
"Blood! Is the poor little creature injured, then?"
Legolas hid his smile at the sight of the gruff dwarf hovering solicitously over the wee kitten. The Elf pulled out a roll of bandages from his pack. Dipping a length of the cloth in water, he began to carefully clean the tiny cat.
"I see no sign of injuries," he said when he was finished. "The blood on this kitten comes from some other creature."
Gimli picked up the kitten and cradled it. "Looks too little to have brought down anything larger than a moth," he said doubtfully. "I don't think that much blood could have come from anything that this tabby has slain."
The kitten began to mewl and struggle to climb down.
"Let us see what he does now that he has been tended to," Legolas suggested. He fetched his bow and quiver from where he had set them near the cook fire and then nodded at Gimli. The Dwarf set the kitten upon the ground. He stalked off and then looked back at the companions and mewled.
"He wants us to follow him," Gimli pronounced.
The tiny cat went deeper into the woods, and Legolas and Gimli followed, with Arod bringing up the rear. After awhile they came upon a track.
"Trading route," said Legolas. "Wide enough for carts."
The kitten marched along in a rut left by a wagon wheel, and Legolas and Gimli continued to trail him. After a while, Gimli grimaced. "Smell that?"
"Aye, Gimli," Legolas said softly. He checked the tautness of his bow string, and Gimli unwrapped his large battle axe and hefted it. "I reckon the skirmish is long over," the Dwarf said grimly, "but you never know what may linger in the vicinity of one."
A few hundred more feet and around a bend in the road they came upon the source of the dreadful smell. People lay in various contorted poses on either side of the track. Flies swarmed over them, and the vultures tore at them. "Begone," bellowed Gimli, rushing forward and waving his axe. "Begone! Find an Orc to sink your ugly faces into!"
The vultures flapped their wings and arose into the air, but they settled into the trees nearby, and Legolas knew that they would wait patiently for an opportunity to resume their feast. Trying not to inhale too deeply, the Elf went from body to body. Only one was a man full grown. There was a boy about ten years of age, two little girls, and a woman. The kitten scampered to the smaller of the little girls. The child's garments were stiff with dried blood. Tentatively, the kitten held out a paw and touched the child. When there was no response, he mewled. Again he pawed at the little girl. At last the kitten, still mewling, tucked himself against the child's body.
"I reckon we know how that little creature came to be so bloodied," Gimli said sadly.
Legolas looked carefully at the ground. A wagon had passed this way recently. Probably it had been the family's. He supposed that they had been slain by brigands and their goods stolen. Well, they would not go unavenged. First he and Gimli would see to the bodies; then they would track the murderers.
"Gimli, we must not leave these folk exposed alongside the road. We must carry their bodies into the woods and cover them as best we can."
Legolas and Gimli each picked up one of the little girls and bore her into the woods. They carried the children as gently as if they were merely sleeping and laid them with equal gentleness upon a patch of moss. The kitten had followed them and again settled himself against the body of his slain mistress.
Returning to the road, together Legolas and Gimli lifted the Man. Treating him as respectfully as the children, they conveyed him into the woods as well.
Returning to the road once more, Legolas instructed Gimli to fetch their bedrolls while he picked up the boy. He carried the lad into the woods, with Gimli a few paces behind carrying the blankets. The Elf laid the boy beside his sisters, and with one blanket, they covered the three children. The other blanket would be shared by the man and his wife, couched together in death as they had been in life. They went back to the road to retrieve the woman's body.
On the return, Gimli was a few paces ahead of Legolas. The woman lay huddled upon her stomach, with her knees drawn up. She had been stabbed in the back and her head slashed. Carefully Gimli rolled her onto her back. He let out a wail of distress. "Too cruel," he cried. "Too cruel!"
Legolas hurried to his side. Beneath the slain woman had lain a small bundle. Its contents were plain, for a tiny little foot protruded from a fold in the blood-streaked cloth.
Legolas laid a hand upon Gimli in an attempt to comfort him, but Gimli suddenly shook it off. "Hope," he cried. "There is always hope!" He knelt beside the bundle and began to unwrap it.
Legolas was bewildered at the Dwarf's abrupt change of mood, but suddenly he saw what the Nauga had seen. The tiny foot twitched.
"My friend," he exclaimed, "you do have the eyes of an eagle!"
"I've been telling you that for ages," grumbled the Dwarf, "but never mind that." He had unwrapped the infant, which proved to be a little girl, and he cradled her in his arms as tenderly as he had cradled the kitten. "There is life here, but not much. And I don't know nothing about nursing no babies. Do you?"
Legolas gently stroked the infant's cheek with his finger, and the baby turned in that direction and made feeble sucking motions.
"We need to get some liquid into the wee creature," Gimli observed.
"Let us dip cloth into water and let her suck upon that," Legolas suggested. "You see to that whilst I finish tending to the bodies."
While Legolas carried the infant's mother into the woods, Gimli soaked a cloth in water. Then, sitting cross-legged, he laid the baby in his lap and carefully allowed her to suck upon the cloth, dipping it anew every few minutes. Legolas smiled fondly when he returned to the roadway and saw the Dwarf tenderly nursing the baby. In his own hands he carried the kitten wrapped in his tunic. The little creature had not wanted to leave his mistress, and so Legolas had been forced to bundle him up to bring him away.
"I think," Legolas said to Gimli, "that this kitten went to fetch help for his little girl. I wish I could make him understand that there was nothing to be done for her other than to see her body respectfully bestowed."
Legolas put the kitten into a saddlebag that he emptied out for that purpose. "He shall have air and space enough," he said to Gimli, "and after enough days have passed, perhaps he will attach himself to another human."
Gimli looked longingly at the saddlebag. 'Or perchance the kitten will attach himself to a Dwarf', Legolas thought to himself, again smiling in spite of the grim surroundings. Then he began to consider what they ought to do next.
"I had thought that we should follow the brigands," he said to Gimli, "but this infant needs more care than we can afford it. The water has slaked her thirst, but she needs milk. We must make for Helm's Deep as quick as we may. I only hope," he added, "that we can keep the child alive until we reach that place."
"We might make a broth," Gimli suggested, "and soak the cloth in that. That would be a little better than water alone."
"True. Let us brew up some right now, before we set out, and fill one of the water skins with it."
Quickly Legolas built a fire and hung the pot over it. Into the pot he poured water and then tossed several strips of dried venison. For good measure, he added pine needles, for everyone knew that there was some substance in pine needles that, when brewed into a tea, strengthened the body. He also added one drop of miruvor. (He was afraid to add more of the potion, for he was unsure what amount would be fitting for an infant.)
At last the Elf judged that the venison and pine needles had steeped long enough. Gimli soaked the cloth in the liquor, and when he offered it to the infant, it seemed to suit her, for she sucked vigorously. The rest of the broth Legolas carefully poured into a water skin.
Their preparations complete, Legolas boosted Gimli atop their horse. Then he handed up the infant, who was now wrapped in Legolas's spare tunic. The Elf had resumed his original tunic, which, in spite of some rents from the claws of the kitten, was still serviceable.
"I know I twit you about carrying extra garments," Gimli observed, "but I must allow that that peculiar habit of yours has come in handy today. Our blankets we have bestowed upon the dead. They were o'erlarge for swaddling, but we could have cut them into a manageable size. We could have also cut up our cloaks. They were a gift from the Lady, but if need required it, I would have sacrificed mine. Still, I am glad your tunic will serve. It is one of the many sewn for you by Edwen Nana, isn't it?"
"It is," Legolas agreed, swinging himself atop the horse.
"She will be pleased to hear that it served in such a case as this."
"Yes, she will be very pleased indeed to learn that something that came from her hand was used to succor a creature so helpless."
Legolas urged their horse into motion. Trying to move at a swift pace but without jostling the infant, they set out anew for Helm's Deep.
