Nightshade was ambling along the corridor, Nightwing by her side as they searched for the healer-one who they wished to talk to. Nightwing had already taken those pesky bandages off her wing and was ready to leave... but she had some things to discuss first. Neither forgot what Nightshade heard that night when she wandered near his office, and Nightwing wished to confront him. As they were walking along, Nightshade froze.
Nightwing froze beside her, seeing her tense and knowing something was wrong.
Nightshade lifted her nose, scenting the air...
It can't be...
It is.
She wouldn't mistake that scent anywhere.
The memories were still fresh in her mind no matter the years that had passed.
The scent of pine wood, fir, and fresh loam. Aromas of warm milk, dry fur, and damp noses rudely slandered with the sharp, acrid scent of wolf blood... and him.
Howling in rage, Nightshade launched herself down the corridor, screaming obscenities that only Nightwing, hot on her tail, could understand.
"Pup-Slayer! Murderer!"
Her howls echoed through the halls of the dwelling place and she knew that the inhabitants all heard her, they heard her cries and she knew what type of terror that she inspired. She was running as she had not in years, Nightwing was trailing behind her, that same type of grim determination that she had wielded when she slaughtered orcs and spiders.
But Nightshade... oh Nightshade was furious beyond a level that she had ever encountered.
The last time she had met this Pup-Slayer, she was too young, too fragile to fight. Now she was ready and furious.
Beside her, Nightshade heard Nightwing frantically whispering, asking her to quiet her shouts for now their target knew that they were coming, but Nightwing was too fueled with fury for her kin to listen. She continued to howl, exclaiming her rage for all to hear.
"Pup-Slayer! Come face me now! I am a pup no longer!"
The corridor had a sharp corner up ahead. Throwing all caution to the wind, Nightshade raced around the edge, claws scrabbling for purchase on the smooth stone as she careened around the corner and came face to face with the wretched thing that once murdered her entire family.
He was standing, staring at her with shock. His mouth was half open and his traveling clothes still held traces of the mud.
Nightshade squared off at him, raising her haunches, baring her teeth, and releasing a growl that shook the very floor they stood on.
With a snarl she lept forward, claws extended and mouth open, ready to tear into the throat of the one arrogant enough to slay her family as they slept in their den, the liar who broke his promise to Nightwing, the one whose only name to Nightshade was Pup-Slayer.
Evelyn was racing after Nightshade as fast as her legs would carry her. She longed to be on the chase out in the open, where she could extend her wings and pump herself forward as there was no other way to keep up with the fleet legged wolf. She heard what Nightshade said, and she knew that her companion never forgot a smell.
He was here.
Legolas Thrandulion.
When she finally caught up, lungs screaming from the sudden sprint, she was struck still in shock. There before her, just as Nightshade said... it was him.
The straight, silver-blond hair, blue eyes wide with an emotion that she could not decipher- he was unmistakable. Like a waking nightmare, she saw herself in that little cell, her stomach growing ill on whatever poison he fed to her in the guise of a gift. His eyes turning icy as he spat accusations at her.
Spawn of Sauron
You are a Liar!
Her breath was coming in short quick gasps, her heart was thundering in her chest, and yet she remained frozen. Fight or flight... but she could do neither.
Nightshade was not so hesitant however. While Legolas had lied to, poisoned, and broken a promise to Evelyn... he had slayed Nightshade's family in their den. He was the reason why Nightshade despised al elves and called them pup-slayers... he was the reason for her being an orphan.
Before Evelyn could will herself to move, Nightshade lept at the elf- teeth bared and claws extended.
Then, in a moment that felt as if it moved in slow motion, and yet too quickly for Evelyn to even think to move, the elf drew forth his bow, nocked an arrow, and shot Nightshade mid leap.
The wolf crumbled to the ground.
An arrow protruded from her chest.
Evelyn was staring at her... as if still in that dream... that waking nightmare.
Nightshade was on the floor, breath labored, mouth opened in a half formed pant, the arrow protruding from an angle that left nothing to the imagination... it had pierced her heart.
She's dying
He killed her
It was as if that act, the sight of the arrow piercing the heart of her closest friend, her one companion, her champion against nightmares and enemies of the waking world... it was as if that broke her from the frozen state that terror and trauma had pushed her into.
She was now fully awake,
She was now furious.
"Murder!" She screamed, reaching for the bow and quiver of arrows that she had thankfully decided to strap to her that morning. Her clock fell from her back in her haste to grab her bow and her wings, now unbandaged and back to their full might and glory rose up with her fury.
"Crebain?!" he gasped in shock.
Oh yes... you never saw me like this, a small, vicious part of her mind supplied. Nightshade was dying... she was good as dead and it was his fault. He was a murder.
She remembered the way he smiled at her, deceiving her back in her cell.
She remembered the way he shouted, accusations that he had no right to make falling from his lips as she watched her last shred of hope fall apart.
She remembered how he had stripped from her any remaining sympathy, any remaining fantasies that perhaps the elves could be good... that perhaps the misunderstanding could be cleared up.
Now, Nightshade was dying. She could hear her beloved friend, her wolf, her companion gasping for breath, in pain and dying by the hand of the same elf who murdered her family for being wolves...
Tears threatened to fall, but she pushed them back and replaced her grief with rage. Without a second thought, she grasped an arrow firm between her fingers and let if fly. The elf was so shocked by her appearance that he did not move as the arrow sailed directly towards his heart.
A flash of gold,
A cry of pain,
Evelyn blinked in shock.
On the floor was Legolas, but he was unscathed.
Atop him, an arrow protruding from his shoulder, was Glorfindel. He had pushed Legolas out of the way.
Thief!
Further grief, further rage bubbled in Evelyn's heart. Her mind was a mess, torn apart by memories, nightmares, grief, rage, and a betrayal. Nightshade was dying, her murder was standing right in front of Evelyn, and yet Glorfindel robbed her of her revenge, of the vengeance she was due.
Evelyn gave a cry of fury, but the commotion that they caused must have drawn a crowd for suddenly, she felt two pairs of hands on her. She screamed, thrashing wildly in the hold, memories of darkness, of the iron grip of elvish guards as they dragged her to her cell flooded her mind drawing her further into her panic. She looked up and was met with two identical, blank faces... it was the twins.
"Elenya, stop!" Glorfindel spoke and Evelyn snapped her head up towards his voice. "Elenya please... this must be a misunderstanding."
"Promise breaker!" she screeched. Her voice was crackled with pain and overflowing emotions, but there was power in her rage. "You promised! You promised and you lied!"
"Elenya, please-"
"Murder! He's a murder, he's killed Nightshade! Pup-slayer! Coward who kills pups in their den and potions prisoners who he offers friendship to!"
A patter of footsteps down the hall and suddenly, Elrond was upon them. He took int he scene with a single glance- Nightshade on the floor dying of an arrow clearly from Legolas' bow, Evelyn restrained by the twins, Glorfindel with an arrow from Evelyn in his shoulder, and Legolas still on the floor in frozen shock.
"What is the meaning of this?" he demanded sternly.
"Let go of me!" Evelyn screeched, panic and rage warring with each other- each fueling the other.
"Raven, stop," one of the twins, she wasn't certain who, ordered her, shaking her arm slightly for emphasis from where he stood above her. His grip was like that of the Mirkwood guards- cold and impersonal... holding her like she was some vile thing which was tainting his very presence.
"Let go of me, Peredhel!" she spat in anger. "You should've been taken with your mother!"
She heard a sharp intake of breath at her words, but she cared not for rage ran too deeply to be quelled.
"Raven, calm down!" Aragorn, who had apparently been there for some time, yelled as he helped Legolas up off the floor.
He's helping him... of course... they're friends. I was a fool to believe the one man in this wretched place would ever not side with his adopted kin.
"Don't tell me what to do!" she screeched to Aragorn, her eyes blazing with righteous fury. "You have no right to give orders- you who are too cowardly to take up your kingship." Aragorn reeled back slightly at the sting, but Evelyn took no notice.
"Raven, that is enough." Lord Elrond stood at his full height, he was gazing down his nose imperiously at Evelyn and she wanted to spit in his face. His eyes were accusatory and of course they would be... of course he would side with the murdering scum who was of his own race... never mind that he was part man. He was a hypocrite, a liar as well as the rest for he offered her shelter, promised not to hold her prisoner and yet here his sons where bruising her arms in an effort to keep her hostage. "I understand that you are upset, but we must settle this calmly."
"He killed her! He abandoned me in that wretched cell years ago and now he's killed her as well!" her voice cracked in pain, but a magic sort of glee was bubbling to the surface... perhaps it was the madness that long had lied dormant in her brain... an aftereffect of all that she had lost, culminating in the death of her last friend. "Oh, but you know abandonment well, don't you little fosterling."
"Elenya, please," Glorifndel was attempting to gain her attention, but now Evelyn's focus was locked in on the Lord of Imladris.
"You, who has been abandoned by all who claimed to love you... your father left to sail, your mother jumped off a cliff to escape you, your adoptive 'father' ditched you, your twin chose death over a life with you, and even your wife who you were too weak to save left you!"
An eerie silence filled the hall and Evelyn took the slightest satisfaction that perhaps... just perhaps, she had hurt him. Even if it was a tiny bruise, it was something.
Meanwhile, she could see Nightshade's breath was slowing, the arrow had surly pierced her heart and it wouldn't be long now. She struggled wildly against the grip of the twins, blinking tears from her eyes as her chest heaved with effort. Her wings were beating wildly, buffeting the trio back and forth, threatening to lift all three off the ground.
"Elenya... Elenya please," Glorfindel was standing in front of her. One hand was limp at his side for the shoulder was pierced with her arrow, but the other hand was outstretched. His eyes were wide and pleading, but they met only rage.
"Don't call me that! Don't you dare call me that... promise-breaker."
He flinched, but still approached, steps slow and eyes blown wide.
"I'm certain- I'm certain that there is a misunderstanding here. Please... calm down and we will discuss this."
"I've nothing to say to you, promise-breaker! I should've never stopped those orcs from slaughtering your patrol."
"Elenya-"
"I should've sold you to that slaver like a whore, I should've left you to die at the hands of that orcs and wargs!"
"Please-"
"I should've let the Balrog consume you! I should've stood and watched, laughing as it tore into your flesh and then unleashed itself on those wretched elves of Gondolin. If I could do back now I would do just that! I should've let your people burn!" She was screaming, tears streaming down her eyes in such thick rivets that she did not notice that tears leaked from Glorfindel as well.
The rage, the grief, the pain, and the sharp sting of betrayal was all too much. The grip of the elves on her arms brought too many memories, the image of Nightshade dying on the floor- elven arrow her long delayed end was too much for her. With a mighty cry wretched from the depths of her soul she screamed.
"LET ME GO!"
Suddenly, a burst of bright white light, as pure and blazing as starlight exploded from Evelyn's thrashing form. Elladan and Elrohir were flung across the hall, thumping against the wall instantly unconscious. Glorfindel, Elrond, and Legolas as well were tossed back, hard enough to rattle the sturdy stone and leave them all dazed.
Evelyn didn't know what happened, she didn't know how or why it occurred... but she was beyond caring.
Sprinting forward, she launched herself towards Nightshade, now the only creature in the world to hold her compete focus. She lifted the dying wolf into her arms, cradling it as gently as she could. She spared a moment for the elves collapsed onto the floor around her.
"You will pay for this," she hissed to Legolas who was still staring at her with wide eyes. "Remember this well for I shall not forget it."
Then, she ran.
She didn't look back, didn't hear the cry following her nor the angry shouts of arguments between the elves. She didn't see the look of pure desperation and horror on Glorfindel's face. Her entire world had shrunk to Nightshade's final breaths. She made a sharp turn and lept from the first window that she encountered, spreading her wings and taking off in flight. She had no destination in mind, just far far far away from the elves.
She couldn't allow Nightshade to die surrounded by pup-slayers. She deserved better than that.