CHAPTER 33 - For you


Light from the flames of many torches brushed over a silent chamber. They licked at worn and wearied faces of ones standing by a pallet in the healing chamber, where a form lay still, bandaged and covered in roughly spun cloth. The air was heavily scented with medicinal herbs used for compresses.

Legolas looked to where his brother lay, a pale specter with closed, sunken eyes. He sat upright on a pallet of his own near that of the sleeping elf.

"The shaft luckily did not spear though vital points, but recovery, as you know, will take time," Arwen was saying as she sat kneeling by Tadion's side.

Legolas regarded the wound, wrapped cleanly around in white cloth. They had hurried upon their arrival to call Arwen and others in aid of the injured members of their party, and Arwen with other women apprentices swiftly took to nurse the gravely wounded elf. It had been a tenuous operation due to much blood loss, but possibly owed to the strong bodies elves possessed he had survived the invasive procedure. His brother had spent the entire time at the head of the cold table where Arwen worked, his own leg pending treatment until after his brother was tended to. And now, a day later, he was still here.

"You have saved my life," he sighed looking to a depleted Arwen, his gaze returning to Tadion.

The elf maid regarded her hands. "I have little of my father's healing prowess, but I did what I could." She was silent for a while. "But it was not I who saved you," she spoke.

Legolas placed his palms to his eyes, straightening his tense back. "Foolish attempts."

"Of ones who care for you," Arwen returned. "It was not in vain. And, as selfish as it makes me, I am glad. For I could not bear the thought of losing the last brothers I had left," her lip quivered.

Legolas said nothing, reaching for Tadion's wrist to feel his pulse.

"Have you spoken to her since?"

"No."

"She fought for you-"

"She fought without thinking," he growled. "And now others bear the consequences," the elf gripped the wrist of this brother tighter, where a steady heartbeat held his fear of loss at bay.

"It was his own choice, Legolas," Arwen hedged gently.

That much was true. But if she had stayed, if they had both obeyed as they were supposed to...

"Dear friend, barring any unforeseen complications, his condition is stable and will improve."

"I know. It is hard for me to leave him."

"It may be difficult to relinquish blame-"

"Arwen," he propped his forehead against his knees now come drawn to his chest. "I do not lay the blame of this on her."

The elf maid used a dampened cloth to wipe the ashen face of Tadion. "Since when do you say things you do not mean?" she asked softly.

A barely felt stir made Legolas lift his head. He saw flickers of life, heard a weak groan, and the memory of green lit forests opened to the world.

"Brother," Legolas leaned in closer as Tadion focused his ailing features on his kin.

"You..." Tadion rasped, and to their disbelief his bruised lips formed the shadow of a smile. "... are a bother... away with you," he managed before coughing and grimacing with the pain.

Legolas frowned but could not help the strong relief surging through him.

"...go, rest, please," Tadion croaked. Then his eyes closed and he slipped away again.

"I think you ought to heed your kin," Arwen offered with a weak smile of her own.

"Good to know he is still himself," Legolas muttered though his gaze lost of the heavy burden of worry marring his face. He rose stiffly, taking the wooden crutch provided to aid his limping advance.

"Gimli?" he asked Arwen, the events of the past days a whirl. All he had seen was Tadion, attempting to reach him through their brotherly bond, attempting to hold him to this world.

"He headed to the forge from here."

The elf nodded. "And-"

"She left as well, with the wolf, outside. I know not where."

Legolas had not seen Kal either, though the elf knew she had been near him through the whole waiting ordeal. Yet he could not look her way, could not bear the memory of her deed, her utter disregard for his wishes, nor her words at that time.

Why?

You know why.

With newfound determination, the elf leaned close to his brother and kissed his brow, whispering words of reassurance.

"I will return in a while," he told Arwen, and with that slowly left the chamber.

The elf followed to the outside world, his advance impeded by the yet jarring pain in his leg. He would find her, and needed little to do so with the ever present tug leading him forward. He was astonished to see it was late afternoon, having completely lost track of the time. And his assumption had been correct. As Legolas followed the path he had shown her before, the elf soon descended the terrain and sure enough she was there. Kal was staring out to the sea, standing onto the same strip of shore where the elf had taken her previously. Eron was running to and fro, splashing water and wet sand as she watched.

Legolas advanced until he stood some ways from her, knowing the half-orc had heard him by then. They sat for a while in silence.

"Were you injured?" the elf asked.

She shook her head. "Nothing but a gash to my arm. A nuisance."

More silence.

"My brother will recover," Legolas said then, truly relieved and somewhat eager to share it.

He heard the crack of her fingers as Kal wrung them. "I knew she would save him. His fire burns too bright."

"I did not share your hopeful outlook," the elf said darkly, gaze briefly flitting to her profile, staying the sudden need to reach for her.

"You rarely ever do," Kal replied without bite.

"You both disobeyed my orders, over and above," he retorted. "The cost might have been too high, Kal. Do you see this? Do you have the presence of mind to acknowledge it? Please, tell me that you do."

"I do," Kal replied shortly.

"But," he went on, "I know I have been less than amenable to you since, and for that I... I ask your forgiveness. I am," he sighed wearily, "grateful for what you tried to do, for my brother and I," the elf finished blankly. "As blatantly mutinous and disregarding of your own safety as it was," he snapped. And now here they were. With the brother he could not fathom losing just barely drawn from the clutches of oblivion, because of him. With Aragorn somewhere, possibly, painfully uncertainly, alive at the mercy of their enemy. With looming peril ever before them. With her, so near he could barely stand it. With a life yielding little place for wants and needs beyond those of safety and hiding. No, this was not a time for things such as those which burdened his mind and heart now. And what did he even wish for?

What did he wish for?

I should have been less of a craven, the hopeless thought from captivity struck him then, unrelenting and insistent.

Legolas dropped the wooden crutch at his feet. His vision strayed to a yet silent Kal, who was now also staring out to the sea looking rather despondent, and smothered hurt was rife on her countenance.

Feeling his eyes on her Kal turned her head and met his stare evenly.

"You knew there was little chance of success." Legolas turned fully to her. "And you came anyway."

"I came for you," Kal said passionately, though it all simmered quickly. "And would do so again," she said, the words bare and wooden. Kal shook her head in a mirthless smile. "And do you think I could have done any different?" She bit her lip in hesitation, but what did it matter either way? "You aided me, in so many ways. To escape my past, to attempt a different future. With you I have come to know of values and feelings previously foreign to me. I can never return to the being I once was. Your friendship means much to me, elf," Kal continued despite her mind cautioning a retreat. "As do you."

Was it disappointment? Surprise? No, surely not that. Kal felt him, more aware than she could say. She saw him break their gaze to look beyond the roiling sea. A deep sting of misery rankled as Kal now studied his cold profile, the movement somehow reminiscent of a strike to the face.

"How much?" Legolas asked suddenly, looking her way. The question had been uttered strangely, sounding close to demanding, hurried. His manner also changed in an instant, feral in a way she was not accustomed to. But there lay no threat there. It attuned to her, completely.

"How much?" Legolas repeated, coming closer until they faced each other.

Kal wavered, that damnable beat choosing to renew its assault. "Enough to recklessly throw myself into endeavors with high chances of demise to retrieve you," Kal echoed his words from earlier, and following the silver flickers dancing in his eyes she barely felt the elf reaching for her. Her blood began a furious and flushing race through her veins.

The pressure of strong hands trailed upward along her arms, careful of her injury. "And is it enough, to make you think of me more often than you can spare? Enough for you to fret over my whereabouts when I am out of sight?" He reached and tipped her chin upward. "To leave you yearning, to drive you to question fate and your own mind, your barest of principles? To feel infuriatingly incomplete? Is it, Kal?" he asked swiftly.

She swallowed against the hammering in her ears. By now Kal knew this elf well enough to glean the meaning of his words but to admit to it all so suddenly and openly, that she never thought to see. And she was drawn to him in ways she never felt before, assailed and tensing with his nearness, and all Kal wanted was to lean further into him. And reluctantly, deliberately, she did. She slowly wound one arm around his neck, the side of her face come resting against the hard plane of his collarbone.

"Kal." When she would not meet his stare Legolas spoke her name again, laced with a gentleness which shattered her knees. "Will you look at me."

Golden eyes regarded him warily from under heavy black lashes. She owed him the truth for all they had endured together, for all the friendship she claimed she had for him. "I know not what this is," she tried, irked at the waver in her voice.

Legolas felt the fresh evening air winding its wispy song around them before soaring to the grey, burgeoning skies. "While in the Uruks grasp, certain I would meet my end, I thought of many things. I thought of my life in its entirety, with all its joy and misery, and in a way I would have welcomed a respite from it all. But as I kept trying to come to terms with my end, do you know what frayed rope kept me yet tied to this world? What stubborn, intrusive, unrelenting thought pulled me back?"

"Elf-" her breathing caught when he brought his forehead gently to hers.

"You. I thought of you," he wrapped his arms around her. "And how I had not been brave enough to tell you what you meant to me. And I know, that there are many seemingly unconquerable differences between us. Our very origins, our early years, the manner of our lives so far." He smiled and shook his head. "I have walked this world for so long I thought I had lived through it all. Until you," he frowned lightly. "A child of twilight...," he met her eyes, "who released me from my prejudice."

Kal shivered with his soft breath feathering her skin. She held him tighter, led by that unseen calling at a level beyond known reality. Something of himself, enveloping her, lulling her essence into a sense of safety, protection and...

It happened as a swift flash of lightning, the way he tilted his head and pressed his lips to hers.

Kal stilled then drew away, the act and feel of him so sudden and unexpected.

The elf merely watched her, so alight in the gloom surrounding them.

Kal raised her chin until their lips were nearly touching again, and driven by that same pull she could not, would not withstand any longer, she mirrored him, bursting into flames and purring at the taste, even better and sweeter now she had more. When she felt his response Kal withdrew slowly to meet his darkened gaze, her vision straying to the light set of his parted lips.

"Again," the elf hedged, his eyes fluttering closed.

Heart beating wildly, Kal obliged with the eagerness of a rapt and impassioned apprentice as he allowed her to explore, patiently following. The pressure of him was maddening, stirring her in ways she was only beginning to understand. The rise and fall of her chest smothered against him brought a swirling array of sensations to the surface, akin to scalding waters bursting from under a coat of unbreakable ice. Unbelievably good. Unbelievably incomplete.

Kal sighed longingly when he led her deeper, for this was new as well but so filling, so pleasant. Fresh and burning, and the shift and growing desperation she sensed about him unhinged her own. Meaning flew astray with the gentle swirl of his tongue against hers. All and any fears, the confusion, the unforgiving emotions and states of thought in his presence. The danger of his self-imposed mission. Her worry. Her hands, hungry for him. His face, his skin, she needed to feel all of him and the burning quality of those lips everywhere, surrendering to the war drum of his heart; seeking for more, deeper. She clutched at his hair and he would not relent his possessive grip either, bringing her ever more into him.

A sharp hiss made Kal pull away, her eyes widening at the sight of the thin sliver of red softly trailing down from the corner of his bottom lip.

"No biting," Legolas said breathlessly, his thumb brushing over one of her fangs. Kal realized she had gone too far and gently licked the thin ribbon of red, following back to his mouth. She tread with more care but then he took the lead again, and the world faded away into nothingness.

Kal knew of the deadly strength he harnessed. She remembered quite well the bruises his fingers had once left. The full, careless brunt of his force when the elf had beaten her to the ground, his gaze haughty in the face of her defeat.

This was different. His roughened hands felt fluid and silken as they roamed with a surety which was ruining her. It was as if he treaded with care for fear of breaking her, his fingers gentle across her back, reaching through her hair, bringing her closer, closer, closer...

The winds had grown stronger, and thunder rolled in the distance. Powerful gusts lashed at their figures yet none felt the chill, holding to one another even as the wailing sea grew louder, and rain began in a heavy pour over the world.

"Legolas...-" she briefly tore away, finding they were slowly but surely being soaked by the falling torrent.

"I know," he reassured with a smile and soon they were hurrying together from under turbulent skies, seeking shelter farther away from the shore until they reached a copse of trees on higher level terrain. Eron followed closely behind, though the wolf seemed to not mind the downpour as much.

They glanced upward to the swaying boughs and falling leaves, then at each other. With sweeping grace the elf brought Kal to him again following her raw, honest and consuming smile.

And she watched him, his youthful allure, his own beaming features. He appeared renewed, in a strange and wonderful way. Kal tucked an escaped silvery strand behind his ear, her smile wider when the elf closed his eyes and grinned, taking her breath away.

They listened to the falling rain for a time, attuned to its steady song as it mingled with both the writhing sea, and their own inner rhythm. "Now you know how much," Kal spoke, seeing his face gain a new light.

"Now, we both do," came the words before Kal felt warm fingers tilt her chin to him, and she was lost again in a haze of freshness and warmth.


A/N:

Well... Romance says "Hi".

As I was writing this, a tune came along and it somehow led the process: Slipknot - Vermilion Pt. 2 (Yes, I am a true sap)

Tolkien fic of the day is:

The Treachery of Maeglin by DaughteroftheValar1701

Source: Silmarillion

If you know the character of Maeglin, I think you may enjoy this piece.

Update:

As before, I have been asked what Kal looks like. She is only half-orc, folks! In my headcanon she is similar to elves in stature and appearance with some orcish traits. There is a digital art piece out there which sort of visualizes how I'd picture her in her bloodlust (yup, completely different fandom and character, but it's the image which counts). If curious, search for Sebastian Horoszko falka art . But this need not be your thought! I've given vague physical characterization throughout the fic (pale skin, golden-amber eyes, slim frame, black hair etc) just for that reason. Let your imagination roam free!

Also, this is an M rated romance/adventure, and if you're one familiar with any of my other fics you may already know what to expect. But that will not become the central theme of this fic - we've got Aragorn to find, darn it!

Until next time,

R