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


CHAPTER 19


Landailyn had witnessed only two Hobbits, Arwen and Eowyn enter the inside of the tall stone tower. But she didn't know if anyone else had gone in before or after the little group. She realized they were without any real protection and went northward for the narrow building to check in on them.

The clapping of hooves on hard rock rounded her to find an abandoned, copper brown stallion running from the eruptions of fire in fright

Catching a thick tassel on the horse's decorated armor as it zoomed by, she almost effortlessly pulled herself up into the saddle and steered it in the direction she wanted. Finding that it obeyed easily, she took her hands off the reins and used her bow to take down any Orcs in the path.


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Out of the corner of her eye, Thalawen could see one of the Hobbits. It was Frodo; he had tripped and fallen to the ground, convulsing as if an invisible being was beating him. His screaming was of agony, but she could do nothing to help him in his fear of the creatures that had come. Without warning, the short man jumped back up and ran behind the House walls, out of her line of vision; along with who she thought looked like Sam and Faramir following.

She had not foreseen the arrival of eight Wraiths, especially on wings. The Fell Beasts that they rode upon were the things of someone's worst fears. Small children had bad dreams, scary images, nightmares, but as a child, she had never dreamt of monsters such as these. The beings atop them were enough to make one shriek and run automatically in the opposite direction, but she would fight them, as she had fought the Uruks, to protect her friends; her family.

As a Nazgul rider swooped down she pulled her bow from her back, and knocked an arrow to stop the Fell Beast's master.

The arrow's aim was true and it ripped through the thick black fabric, jabbing, digging its way into the flesh of the being. It cried as it jerked the reins of the beast and it went to soar back up into the sky to circle the grounds.

Orcs on the ground now had their own bows out, letting volleys of arrows fly toward the King's House.

One arrow unfortunately shot past Thalawen's cheek, the feathers cutting a deep gash into the soft unblemished skin, and the force of it made her fall to her knees.

This was not good.

On their way toward the tower, ducking and dodging the sailing shafts, someone on horseback stopped by her side. "Thala!" Landailyn cried above the chaos, reaching down to jerk on her friend's upper arm. "You must get up! Please!" She helped Thalawen to her feet and seeing that she was okay, she rode swiftly on her way to protect Arwen and the rest.

Jumping down from her seat atop the loyal steed, she bolted up the stairs, only to have a massive Uruk-hai leap out in front of her on the very top step.

Turning in a circle, Thalawen saw Legolas a few yards away battling his own Uruk. She scanned the grounds more, wearily looking up to see all eight of the Nazgul atop Fell Beasts, screeching in that horrible manner. She looked again back to Legolas, but something was wrong. He was bending down, doubled over by something.

Panic rushed through her brain and made her run to him, killing Orcs on her way to his side.

When she arrived, she pulled him up. "What's happened, Legolas? Are you alright?" she asked in a rush.

Looking down, she saw his hand covered in blood, the shaft of an arrow going straight through the center; he'd already broken off the tip.

He was about to pull it out, and simply go back to fighting, when he heard a strange sound come from Thalawen. It was so abnormal and it made no sense to him that she should make a sound like that.

But there, she did it again. That same utterance, almost a cry for something, but he knew not what.

He then looked into her eyes, but they were blank, seeing nothing, or possibly seeing everything, as if for the last time. Legolas saw her mouth open a tiny crack; a line of blood escaped the dark depths of that line, dripping down her chin and staining her tunic. It was then her eyes met his and she put her arms around him to stand straight.

And only when he put his arms around her body to stabilize her, did he felt the shafts of two arrows, dug deep into her torso. "No, Thalawen! No!" he screamed.

Two silent tears dropped from her lashes, mingling with the blood on her jaw. Everything around them seemed to progress into slow motion; except for the final exchange of their farewells. She ran a finger into his blonde hair, touched a braid, and traveled its length to the tip. Bringing her hand back up once again, she touched his cheek, down to his lips. "I love you, Legolas."

This time it was he who cried, his tears pouring from his blue eyes.

"Do not cry. Shh, now, everything will be fine," she whispered breathlessly.

At this, he cried more; even in death, she still comforted him, even while she died for him, she still soothed his heart and his mind. She uttered again, "Everything will be fine."

Legolas did not hear the reverberations of the beast's wings as it dropped lower to the earth, as it stretched forth its foot full of talons. Without another word said, Thalawen was ripped out of his arms, high into the sky. He fell to his knees and screamed his anguish as he watched her face, as he watched her eyes watching him.

As the rider left, the other seven followed, seeming that they had finally gotten what they came for.

Seeing the Nazgul leave, the Orcs began pulling back as well.


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Landailyn downed the Orc that stood in her way, its heavy lifeless body rolling down the steps behind her, as she moved onward to enter through the tower doors. But the moment she stepped a single foot upon the landing in front of them, a screaming caught her ears at careful attention. But this loudness was not coming from the Wraiths above, it was a mortal voice, or rather another immortal voice when she finally figured out whose it was, though she failed to realize the exact words that it had formed.

Legolas.

She turned back on a scene that released a strong surge of panic and fear within her. The prince was on his knees, blood covering his hands, an arrow shaft through one of them. "Legolas!" She ran to his side, kneeling and tipping his face up for a look, utterly surprised to see glistening streaks from his eyes drawing lines down to his jaw.

She could tell that his trouble filled gaze was not the pain from his wounded hand, it was something else overpowering that pain and making him act this silent saddened way. Grief. It was the only other thing she could determine coming from within the blue depths.

She looked up around them to see if the path to the House was cleared.

Indeed the enemy seemed to be backing off and were leaving. Done destroying the area. Even the Nazgul were nowhere to be seen.

"Come!" Landailyn helped him up with little effort, finding it even easier when he had not protested in any way. Up the fifteen stone steps, they made it safely into the entrance hall once more. With the Orcs retreating it was safe to be in the building once again.

Sitting him on the bottom few stairs that led to the second level, she ran to find something for his injury. On the way back she heard a half stifled cry, as he tore the rest of the wooden shaft from the small hole now in his palm.

"Let me see it." Hastily she bound around it a cloth three times tightly and tied it off. "That ought to hold it for now, I promise I'll care for it soon. Stay here; you're in shock. I'm going to help Thala and the others outside, alright?"

He shook his head. "Thalawen...you can't...you cannot help her..." He had stopped crying for the moment, trying to catch his breath. "She's...gone." His still unbelieving eyes trailed to the floor in front of him.

Landailyn's wide eyes had changed from apprehensive to just plain horrified. Surely in his state of shock the Elf prince didn't know what he was talking about. "Legolas, look at me...what do mean 'gone'?"

But he only stared at his unwounded hand, knowing it was Thalawen's blood that covered it; not his own. "Arrows. She was shot...in the back, by two, I think...a Fell Beast took her body." With this he looked up at her as if he were a lost, confused child.

The grief she had seen earlier was still there and what he was saying now must be its cause.

Neither realized that the battling outside had completely diminished now, leaving silence, no more of its sounds drifting to their unfocused ears.

The Elf opposite him nodded and inhaled deeply to try and calm herself from the urges her own shocked mind and body were building up inside from the information. "Then...they will most likely be taking her to..." She stopped to think, searching her mind for the places in Middle-earth the Nazgul might have gone from the White City. And then it came to her, the Tower of Black Sorcery, Minas Morgul, once called Minas Ithil in the Second Age, stood leagues across the Anduin within the Mountains of Shadow. "Minas Morgul," She rose from her squatting position. "And if I started now, I could get there by..."

"Landailyn..." He stood swiftly, as she turned to head for the doors, grabbing her left wrist and pulling her back toward him. This was nothing like when she was taken from Mirkwood down to Isengard; this was much different. It was no use to go after her; he knew that Thalawen was dead by now, gone forever. He wrapped his arms around the guard captain, making her rest her head against his shoulder. "I'm sorry." His voice was strained.

"No, I have to find her...!" She choked out, trying unsuccessfully to stop the wet torrents from her eyes. "Legolas, I have to go...!" She tried another attempt to pull away, but it was weak.

"Shhh..."

Realization hit her as to what Legolas was trying to say in not so many words. It was eminently painful, as the teardrops fell harder and harder. Landailyn sank to her knees and Legolas with her; his hold on her becoming tighter, succumbing to his own urge to let his emotions flow freely once more.

Unbroken silence around them had filled the empty hall until now, when Aragorn entered with Gimli close behind. He took in the sight with confusion and rising fear. He stared for a minute, blinking, never having seen this emotion so highly in either of the Wood-Elves before. So what horrible thing could have happened to do this to his best friends?

The Dwarf beside him was even more at a loss, but kept any comments he might have had to himself and let them grieve for whomever it was they were obviously grieving for.

The king hated more than anything to interrupt, listening to Landailyn's heart-wrenching sobs against the prince's chest, but Legolas had looked up at him with sorrow filled eyes and yet said nothing to his friends' questioning gazes. Aragorn wished the Elf would say something, as the sight of drying blood on his hands was beginning to alarm him greatly. "What...?" The man shook his head, trying to understand.

Legolas looked down and then up again; finally his mouth formed the hurtful words, as he swallowed hard. "Thalawen, she is dead."

Aragorn's mouth gaped open. If he lived to be a century old he would never have imagined this and his dejected expression was unlike his Elven friend had ever seen on him before. He nodded slowly, not meeting Legolas' eyes. "I should...go to Arwen." He said quietly, feeling he needed to be the one to tell her if she didn't already know and tore off without another word, leaving Gimli to stand-alone near the entrance.

The stout Dwarf had been leaning on his axe, but eventually walked sadly back outside to sit on the steps there.


TBC ...

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mirkwood-elf-2931 :
Ahhhh! Please don't hurt us! We know it's sad, but it was my co-writer's choice and she wanted her character to be killed off. Sorry about that! Hope no one thinks we've ruined the story now! :( And if you read Thala's long review answering to everyone else's...you might see that she gave a warning to chapter 18 about not hating us...well, that was suppose to be for this chapter! She thought it was 18 that her character died in! :) And that's why we needed the Nazgul, perhaps not all eight though…LOL!
*sigh* And now my character is alone again. Yes, she still has Legolas, Arwen, Aragorn and the twins...but take a look at this from Shadow in the Trees when she gets Ezril for Thalawen:
"I plan on giving him to Thalawen," She said, turning back to give it attention. "I noticed that she did not have a mount and when I saw this one...it was different from the others, like she is." The latter came softer, because Landailyn had never had any female friends back home, none that were like herself that had the interests she did. Even Arwen wasn't and had never been as much like her, as Thalawen was.
See? Hmmm...so now the rest of the story is just going to be my character and mostly me writing it. Thala is gonna write some for Arwen though.