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


CHAPTER 12


As soon as she caught sight of him, Arwen tried to warn Landailyn of the danger she was about to be in. But a second later, thin sharp metal was pressed against Landailyn's throat and larger, stronger arms twisted her own behind her. She cried out at the pain this caused in her healing arm and wrist and struggled to free herself.

"Faeroth...I-I thought..." Arwen stammered, greatly surprised to see he had survived the destruction of his ship.

"I was dead? Thought you had killed me, eh? Sorry to disappoint you." The smile he held was more evil than ever before. "Let's see, you won't be needing these..." He began to unbuckle Landailyn's newly mended quiver straps with one hand, while still keeping his dagger tightly in place with the other.

The princess opened her mouth, just barely started to turn her head and draw in a breath, when she was instantly caught in the act and interrupted.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you!" He'd looked up from what he was doing and threw his prisoner's quiver to the ground between them. "Warn your friends and I kill her right now, got it?" Spittle flew from his mouth in his rage.

Perhaps it wouldn't have been a smart move, but what else could she have done? Let one of her friends be taken again? Arwen slowly turned back, eyes wide with fear. "Please, don't hurt her."

"Don't worry," his quiet laugh filled with madness that the moonlight showed twinkling in his eyes. "She's safe with me."

Arwen looked to Landailyn's face. Her eyes were skimming the small vicinity trying to find something that would be of help, but there was nothing. Finally, these eyes landed on the princess. They seemed to plead with her not to do anything else that could possibly get her killed, Landailyn still never worrying about herself.

"Well, it's been nice seein' ya again, Elf." He nodded to Arwen with a smirk. "But this one and I have to go. We have a little...unfinished business to take care of. And don't think about movin' till we're gone." He began backing up and dragging Landailyn away with him, never taking his eyes off of Arwen, who stood perfectly still, glaring at his retreating form.

The second they were out of sight, she picked up the quiver and sped off in the opposite direction.


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The blackness of the night seemed to swallow everything that was more than three foot in front of her. The cold dark trees swayed in the unforgiving wind. She'd had a dream like this once before, but knew it was not the same. Somehow, she had a feeling this dream would be much more menacing.

Just as she was about to make herself wake up, she saw a faint glowing light, almost as if there was a blaze ahead behind a clump of bushes.

She walked forward, cautiously. Creeping closer, she bent down and peered over the foliage and saw, in the middle a crackling fire. Sitting beside it was Landailyn. With a sigh of relief, Thalawen jumped up and walked toward her, but she did not seem to know that she was there.

Thalawen sat down beside her and looked across at her friend. Her white-blonde hair shone like a beacon in the fire's glow. Her skin was the same; a faint glowing erupted from the surface. Thalawen still could not believe that she had once almost killed Landailyn, her new best friend, for Prince Legolas. How could she ever have wanted to hurt a single hair on Landy's head, she thought to herself as she sat gazing at her.

Just then, the sound of a twig snapping made them both turn to look behind them. Landailyn got up quickly to investigate, no weapons on her person; she went unarmed. Thalawen did not know what was behind the bush, but was definitely not expecting what happened next.

Suddenly, the scenery around her changed and Thalawen was at the bottom of a cliff. Looking up to the top, she could see two figures in the middle. "Landy!" She could hear her voice alone, screaming for her friend.

A man was holding Landailyn by the throat, he had plunged the long blade of a dagger into her stomach. But this was not just any man; it was Captain Faeroth, a corsair. But he was dead, wasn't he?

He turned his menacing grin toward her, as he ripped the blood soaked knife from the blonde Elf. Landailyn fell forward onto the grass in front of him, where she did not move again. Thalawen could no longer see her friend; she was at the bottom of the hill and could do nothing to reach the top fast enough. Then, without warning, Thalawen shot up through the air, landed on the cliff's edge, and looked down into the fallen Elf's face.

Her blue eyes, as blue as the sea itself, were staring straight at her, still open in death.

Thalawen sat up, gasping and wildly looking around. She was in camp and had not moved from her bedroll. It had been a dream, but it had felt entirely too real.

"Thala?" Elladan asked from his spot somewhere behind her. "Are you alright?"

She shook her head, not really listening to him. She was too busy wincing inwardly from the slashes marking her back, while trying to figure out what she'd witnessed. It had been Faeroth, she knew for sure. But they had killed him. No one had come out of the firey black ship. "Landailyn," she mumbled aloud, looking around for the girl within the area, not seeing a single trace of her.

Elladan listened with raised brows, wondering what the Silvan she-Elf had to do with anything.

"She was...dead. I saw her..."

Legolas had had his back to her, standing on the edge of their camp, but at that broken utterance he jerked around to adorn her with a startled stare. "What?" he asked fearfully, hoping he hadn't heard exactly what he'd thought she'd said. He came to kneel in front of her, as did Elladan.

"Faeroth, he...he killed her," she went on.

"Thala, what are you talking about? Faeroth is dead you know that. Landailyn's fine, she's with Arwen. It's okay, it was only a dream," soothed the eldest twin, resting a comforting hand on her shoulder. Perhaps what they had all went through the past couple weeks had worn on his older sibling and it was an induced dream of what she thought could have happened.

"It was a nightmare," she replied to her younger brother, but she was looking up at Legolas wishing him to understand.

He started to say something, but a familiar form came crashing through the trees in their rush to reach the circle of the campfire.

"Arwen," Elladan rose at her entrance. "What's...?"

"Faeroth! He's alive! And he's taken Landailyn!"


TBC ...

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mirkwood-elf-2931 :
So, were any of you expecting that? That it would be Faeroth back for more? And guess what we now know that Thalawen has… LOL Well, chapter 13 won't be up for a little while, really sorry guys, but I'm going camping and won't get back till Saturday the 4th, but I promise I will finish and post it that afternoon as soon as I get home! But that's like four days from now…hope you all won't be too mad at me! :)