Susan stood there for what must be at least 5 minutes before she returned from the shock. "Legolas is mesmerized by a mermaid," a voice kept on repeating in her mind. The voice grew louder and louder and soon, she was mumbling it out loud. This time she pulled on the elf's shirt with force but he refused to shift even a single bit, eyes glued on the Thing's green ones. The smirk on the humanoid's face angered the Narnian and with one forceful withdrawal of her hand, she finally managed to make the prince back away from the bench by one small step. She sighed with relief but only to be disappointed at her failure as she saw Legolas approaching the railing once more to get a look at his new-found "love". Seeing him look at someone with that much intense passion grew a lump on her throat.

With every moment that passed, she grew more miserable, if that was even possible. She yelled out his name, caressed his shoulders, whispered him to return and even squeezed his wrist but he just would not move. His eyes had such an intent expression in them that she was afraid he might try something crazy. Her worst dreams came true for slowly, he began to lean his body on the railing. Adjusting his hands, he shifted a bit to raise his right leg to go over the hand rail. She was in shock for a few seconds before she realized what he was trying to attempt and with all the strength she could stifle, she yanked his left leg to stop it from leaving the deck.

What happened next chilled Susan to her bones. Legolas, for once after the spell casted on him, turned to look at the Narnian. She ought to be happy that her goal had succeeded but he had not looked at her lovingly or for the least, shocked at his own behavior, instead, it was a deadly glare. The queen had never witnessed so much hatred from a man, not to mention from an elf. Yet, the hate was so genuine that she whimpered, releasing her grip on his ankle. Seeing that she was backing away, the possessed prince turned his head away and focused back on getting his way to "his" mermaid.

A wicked look on the Thing intensified as it found her plan working. Seeming a bit impatient at the agonizingly slow steps its captive was making towards her, she tried boosting the charm with her voice. At first, she sang at such a low volume that Susan could not make out her words. As the song grew louder and louder, the girl found it extremely unpleasant and wondered if it was meant to deter the elf. However, Legolas' eagerness to reach the mermaid seemed to have intensified and was moving towards her faster than ever. The song grew so irritating that Marksmen Queen could no longer stand and plugged her ears with two fingers to mute the screech. Yet, one good thing did come out of this horrible noise made - it had alarmed the sleeping dwarf and hobbit.

With an axe, Gimli stomped out of his room grumpily as if someone had ruined his sweet dream. "What's going on!" he yelled. His voice was so loud that Susan lifted her head up. In an instant, she realized the danger of sending the dwarf into the mermaid's bosom as well and shouted back to halt him. "Stay where you are! It's a mermaid! She's trying to seduce Legolas and she's succeeded!"

Gimli nodded to indicate his understanding and diverted his eyes from the sea, knowing exactly how mermaid possessed someone. "Legolas!" he cried, trying to get his attention. Of course, as expected, the elf did not budge. Being shorter than everyone on board, except for Sam of course, he slowly moved his way towards Legolas with only hair poking out of the railing. He was pretty safe for as long as he did not look down.

Being as close to the elf as he could, the dwarf tried untangling each of his fingers to loosen his grip on the bar but they always curled back in to strengthen his hold. Knowing this was not the best solution to offer, he lift the axe that had been hanging on his belt and hit Legolas' knee hard that his legs buckled. When the prince was preparing to rise back up, he received another blow on the head and it knocked him out. Instantaneously, the singing stopped and hurriedly, Susan rushed to assist Gimli in carrying the fainted elf back to his room.

Lifting Legolas as high as they could, they threw him on his bed with a loud thud but he had been too unconscious to ever stifle a groan. It was when Legolas was changed to his sleeping attire (with the help of the dwarf and hobbit) that Gimli retired to his own room. For the rest of the night, Susan sat beside his bedside; taking care of him, making sure his pillow was fluffed up enough, that he was not shivering from the cold or what not. Yet, even till the sun has risen, he still had not recovered from his coma. Slowly, the young woman began to wonder whether the final blow had been too destructive and worry filled her up. She could not concentrate when she dined with the two old men later that noon, dropping her utensils and spilling food all over the place constantly. She had prepared a bowl of soup for Legolas as she entered his room and found him already sat up, messaging the lump on the back of her head with pain written all over his face.

"I see that you're awake," Susan said with questioning tone as if to find out whether he remembered the night before.

"Have I been out for a long time? I feel as if every bone in my body has crumpled and my head is especially painful," he murmured, feeling his arms for any more damage. At the sight of this, Susan giggled and stepped forward to offer him his meal. He nodded with gratitude and holding up the bowl, slowly drank down the liquid.

"You seriously have no account for last night's incident?" she asked suspiciously.

He thought hard but returned his question with a shake of his head. "What happened?"

"You were seduced by a mermaid?" she said, trying to lift his memories.

He crunched up his forehead to think harder yet nothing came out of it.

"Anyways," she sighed, giving up, "you were ready to jump over deck to reach her but it was lucky that Gimli came to your rescue by knocking you out."

"No wonder my head hurts that much." He murmured after digesting the information. And adding, he said, "Hope I have done anything to offend you. I 'm sure I had not meant those things at the time."

"You bet," Susan replied with a knowing smile.

Hello everyone, I am so sorry that I took such a LONG time to update this story but I have finally hit the writer's block and did not know how to continue. So please forgive me if this chapter Is not up to standards and I hope that I will be able to update soon. However, I doubt that having left the story alone for so long, many would be reading this. Anyways, I will sure try to update soon. Fingers crossed that the "wall" will not appear for a very long time.

To the Cretin: I am so glad you're still checking out the story! I've been busy these days so I'll try my best to continue the story with as much adventure as possible! CIAO!