AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY
By : mirkwood-elf-2931 & Thala


CHAPTER 9


After leaving the cliff top, Landailyn had landed harshly on a wide rock ledge, but it did not stop there.

Off she rolled to its edge and when leaving it, her good hand found a small over hanging rock underneath and she hung on for as long as she could. It was the only thing keeping her from falling the rest of the way, but it was perfect, for it hid her from Faeroth's view. But when she heard the conversation above turn back to her, a slight feeling of panic began to rise.

They were coming.

Now what could she do? There was no way she could climb back up, not with her wrist in the shape it was, they would be at the bottom and see her before she could ever make it anyway. Apparently, the only way was down, as she'd fallen most of the way already.

And to top things off, her grip was also slipping, the sharpness of the rock digging into her hand as it supported all her weight. Kicking her dangling legs, she tried to get footing on the face of the cliff, but her boots could get a hold of nothing. She needed to decide quickly.

Obviously there was no real way to climb down, not even one handed, she had not the time for that anyhow. Her captors would be there any minute. She looked the direction she was going to head and took a deep breath.

This was going to hurt.

She let go, falling freely for a few seconds, only to hit the slope and roll and slide in the dirt the whole way. Luckily, there weren't many rocks and she finally came skidding to a halt face down at the bottom.

Landailyn groaned, glad there was not a soul around to hear it. At least, she hoped there wasn't.

Slowly, she tried her best to rise, flexing her limbs as she went and wishing she had her sling back on. Nothing seemed broken, except her still healing wrist of course, which screamed at her for being careless. Though in places here and there, there were cuts and more she knew would soon show bruises. Besides all that, she was merely just dusty and smudged with dirt.

Propped up on an elbow, she shielded her eyes from the sun, footfalls and low voices were close, close enough to be just around the corner. A few seconds more time and they would see her. She tried to pick herself up as fast as possible and began to run northwest as if her life depended on it, which it might.

On the way, thinking about Arwen and Thalawen and feeling guilty for leaving them. She would need a plan to rescue them soon; before their secret was found out.

But how soon that would become possible to do, she could not foresee.


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The group of six marched into view of the cliff's bottom at last. They looked up and down the slope. Nothing. Not one could detect a trace of her. How could she have gotten away so quickly from a fall like that?

"Elves." Faeroth muttered darkly. "Come!" He ordered aloud to the armed men. "We must track her down! Spread out! No telling which way she went!"

They obeyed their captain and split up to go in three different directions.

"I guarantee, you will not get away this time." Faeroth quietly promised his escaped prisoner.


*~ *~ * ~ * ~* ~*


At a steady pace, she ran as fast and as long as she could. They had found her at last and did not give up their rain of arrows aimed to wound her. But one look behind to keep up with her pursuers before passing through a wall of thick bushes and SLAM, she ran right into something solid on the other side.

She fell hard on her back to the ground. Moaning softly, as her injured arm and wrist received part of the impact, before squinting up to see what had stopped her.

"Landailyn?!" Exclaimed the twins, who'd only stumbled backward a mere few inches. She had run right into both of them.

Shock filled her entirely for a split second at hearing those voices and seeing these faces, all so familiar to her. "We just keep running into one another, don't we?" She smiled faintly at those she identified as the new king and her prince.

"Are you alright? What are you running from?" Aragorn asked, just as surprised as she and his brothers. He and Legolas helped her up, but there was no time to hear answers. Suddenly, a black arrow shaft flew through the bushes and buried itself into the bark of a trunk not three feet away from the group and then another marked even closer, flying straight between the two identical Elves.

"Run! I don't know how many there are!" She hissed, insisting and waiting for the others to go in front of her. She would not let any of them be hurt by someone who was after only her. And if they were all caught, there might never be an opportunity of escape again.

The five quickly darted into the wood on the other side of the clearing, going soundlessly except for the soft intended silent footfalls of the Dunadan.          


*~ *~ * ~ * ~* ~*


"I think they're gone." Murmured Elladan, letting branches of a tall bush he was peering out from swing back into place. "So will you please explain now, what is going on? Have you seen our sisters?" Asked the anxious twin, wanting to know who she was running from and why. From the clues they had stumbled upon he knew they must be men, but who exactly were these men?

Out of breath again, even if this was rare with Elves, the current physical shape that Landailyn's body was in was not the best and caused her to be not so Elven-like. She nodded and took a last deep inhale, sitting down heavily upon the soft shaded grass.

The rest stood in stillness, more than interested to hear what she had to say.

"I was on my way to Rivendell, when I met up with Thala and Arwen on the High Pass," Trying to keep the explanation short and to the point.

"So you do know where they are!" Burst a twin. Aragorn elbowed Elladan, at the same time Elrohir smacked him in shoulder, warning him not to interrupt further. They didn't know how much time they had before they would need to make a break for it again, if at all. 

"Yes, Elladan, I do. They asked me to come with them to Minas Tirith." She silenced and turned her attention on Aragorn and Legolas. "I assume you knew they were coming?"

"Father sent a letter by carrier hawk. And then a second that said they may be in trouble, so Legolas and I set out to look ourselves." Aragorn confirmed.

She nodded and continued. "Well, we reached as far as the Gladden Fields before...before we were attacked by corsairs."

Each Elf and the man's eyes widened, but none said a word and she continued with her story.

"I was scouting and sensed an attack, so I whistled for Arwen and Thala to run, but they unfortunately captured us and we've been on their ship down the Anduin ever since. I guess their plans are to take us to Umbar to be enslaved. How many days ago that has been, I'm not quite sure," She paused again, taking another breath. "But today we found the chance to escape and that's why I'm running. Arwen and Thala have been recaptured, just after a fight between the captain and I, that allowed me to get away. This was about," She tried to recall how long she'd been running before and after the corsairs had caught up. "A quarter of an hour ago. He and his men have been chasing me since."

"Are they alright?" Aragorn asked, seeing as how she appeared before him looking like she had instead spent this whole time with Orcs instead of his own race. Then again, he knew how pitiless this particular kind could be and that catching the Firstborn was most likely rare within their dealings.

She nodded. "Do not worry, they don't even think we know one another, so they don't know they're Elves yet. They're hair and cloaks have hidden those traits...but that was a little different for I." Even if they thought the two not to be Elves, they still treated their Human prisoners badly and since these 'Humans' had tried to escape, she knew what was probably in store for them when they got back. Landaliyn feared greatly for their well being.

"Well, you do not look alright." Legolas spoke up for the first time, not able to get in a word before.

She half smiled up at him. "Thanks," Came her semi sarcastic reply. "I'm fine. It's Arwen and Thala we should be worrying about. We must think of a plan." She stood only to waver a little from dizziness in her weakened state.

Legolas stepped forward to balance her. "I thought you said you were fine?"

Landailyn sighed. "I've been running, have I not?"

"That doesn't matter. Sit." He forced her down again. "Aragorn, will you please?"

"Of course." The king knelt beside her and began digging through the pack he had brought healing supplies in and starting with the cut on her forehead from colliding with the jagged verge of the rock ledge that she'd rolled off of.

"We really don't have time for this."

"Landy," Elrohir quickly put in and she almost smiled realizing he had used her given nickname from Thalawen. "You won't be any good to us or our sisters if you're unconscious or..." The unspoken word hung silently among the five. "Sorry."

Landailyn sighed quietly, eyes in the distance. "It's okay, I know."

The next ten minutes were spent with Aragorn bandaging the she-Elf, who was trying her hardest not to make any kind of sounds, expressions or flinches of pain, as the three Elven lords waited and watched it all. And at the same time were being on alert for Landailyn's former captors.

"Almost done," Said the Dunadan. Then asked her something that was causing his mind to wander, as he looked over her injuries. "Did the captain do this too?" He gently dabbed at the fading criss-crossed slashes on her back and looked up to see the back of her head, as she slowly nodded.

The man said no more as he carried on with his work. He wanted to make whoever this captain was pay, because Landailyn was a dear friend, but if he had laid a finger on his beloved Arwen or sister Thalawen, he would make him wish he had never come across these particular three. "There, finished." He finally said.

Landailyn turned to face him. "Thank you, my friend."

Aragorn nodded and gave her shoulder a squeeze, thankful for her own sake that it was her left.

"Well," She stood again, with Legolas eyeing her incase she needed help as before. She looked behind her and around, listening. "It appears we've lost them or they've given up. Which I can't see happening so easily, but as I said, we must come up with a plan quickly. The ship will be heading out again soon, if they have given up on me. We may follow them, but from what we could tell it sailed fast and who knows when it will be before they stop again. So far they've left them alone, but I know not how long it will last before they find out they too are Elves."

Then she stood silent, only now realizing. What was Faeroth going to tell her friends when he didn't bring her back? Most likely that she was dead, but would they believe him? She decided to say nothing to her new companions. And if they don't believe it, they're counting on me to come back for them and that's exactly what I'm...what we're going to do, she told herself.   

"Oh, here," Elladan said, as he and Elrohir moved to take dark colored objects off Asfaloth. "I believe these belong to you," She soon recognized them as her bow and quiver, her most important tangible possessions. "We found them in a wood within the Gladden Fields."

"We fixed them too." Added Elrohir.

She smiled. Ever since that night, she had been feeling a bit lost without them. "Many thanks." She said, but soon realized she could barely move her right arm and merely stared down at her belongings. She would hate admitting this, but it could not be helped if she did not want to further damage her body. "Could you set them down for the moment, please?" She motioned toward the ground. "My shoulder is too painful..."

Surprised, the twins did as directed, propping them up against the base of a thick tree.

Aragorn and Legolas both had taken note of the way she was acting, thinking it odd until now, and of a thick grayish cloth whose edges stuck out from the end of her vambrace. "It was dislocated, wasn't it? And your wrist?" Aragorn queried.

"Broken. It's Arwen's cloak. She fixed it tightly, it should be alright."

He nodded, but still wanted to take a look at it himself. "Let me see."

Landailyn sighed again, but consented and took off the arm guard, smiling a little to herself.

He lifted her arm slightly for her and unwrapped the cloth, gently pressing and feeling around, and even sliding up her tunic sleeve and checking farther down. "How many days ago did you get this?"

"Two. In that time I got rest from the shackles we were in, but I keep landing on it, so I doubt it is even healing."

Aragorn shook his head. "It does not feel like a break that's been healing, it feels broken in..."

"Three places?" Finished Landailyn. "That's what Arwen said."

The Human continued to shake his head. "Your wrist is, yes, but I feel another small break down here." He showed her about three inches down her forearm. "It hurts right...here," He poked a little harder than before at the area. "Doesn't it?"

"It does, now that you've gone and handled it." She agreed and knew that it wasn't that Arwen had missed this vital part in examining her condition, she had just recently broken it and hadn't realized it yet.

He chuckled, next checking her shoulder. But thankfully it was not dislocated again; it was healing, just slowly and rather painfully. "Try not to move either of them much. There could be permanent damage if your wrist is broken too long." He wisely advised, rewrapping Arwen's cloth and added extra bandage from his medical supplies to keep it straighter, then added more for her forearm.

She nodded, carefully slipping everything back on and tightening her quiver strap with her left hand, then drawing a single knife with it and having Legolas put on her vambrace and re-tie its strings. "Thanks," It went to both of them, as Aragorn also finished tying together a new sling, putting it around her neck and easing her arm into it. "And I'm trying, believe me."

"When we met up with Elladan and Elrohir I did not expect to find you had also gone missing, mellon nin."

Almost taken aback, she returned the strong hug that Legolas had just pulled her into, careful and gentle with her injuries. "I certainly didn't expect to find you here either. The twins perhaps, but you and Aragorn..." She shook her head. "By the way, congratulations, my lord." She referred to the Human, as he too pulled her into an embrace, glad she was alright now.

Aragorn grinned. "Thank you."

"Yes indeed, brother. We have been so caught up in this 'she-Elf problem' that we have forgotten to felicitate you on your becoming a king. How does it feel?" Elladan put an arm around the man's shoulder.

"I guess in a way, I don't feel much different..."

"Really? I thought it would. It certainly..."

Clearing his throat, Elrohir interrupted his twin's next choice of words, whatever they would have been. "If you will excuse us then, we have two more important people to rescue."

"Right," Elladan nodded curtly, as Elrohir rolled his eyes. "Anyone have any ideas for a plan?"

Landailyn looked up slowly from the ground she'd been staring at. "I do."


TBC ...