Female Warrior
Elenath felt her heart skipped a beat as Aduial's blade slashed down Legolas' back as though it was nothing but thin cloth.
"Legolas! No!" Elenath screamed. Her eyes followed Legolas' figure as he collapsed limply onto the ground like a deflated balloon. Dark, crimson red blood had soaked his pale green top a dark, gruesome colour, while more were oozing out slowly from Legolas' wound, forming a dark ominous pool on the ground.
Aduial smiled and stood in front of Legolas, stopping Elenath from getting to her. He raised his blade and licked the dripping blood off the weapon. As the blood traveled down his mouth, his ruby eyes sparkled even more darkly and dangerously.
Watching her friend fallen, Elenath felt a rising anger within her. It was a feeling that was long forgotten. It was a feeling she had not felt for a very long time. It was a dangerous feeling, as well as a great feeling.
"Are you ready?" Elenath asked calmly. With a flick of her wrist, a sheathed dagger appeared on her palm. Her opponent cocked an eyebrow.
"Are you going to defeat me with that?" he asked mockingly.
Elenath smiled in reply. It was a sweet, heart-capturing smile except for the chilly gaze from her eyes, which was more than enough to freeze boiling water. "To defeat someone like you, I need no weapon." She unsheathed the dagger and held it at her dress. As she pushed the dagger downwards, Elenath made a long split in her dress from between her legs to the floor. The dress instantly became trousers-like.
"It's just to make my life easier, but yours harder," Elenath continued, putting the dagger back into its sheath. As the dagger clicked into a secure position, Elenath swept her hair into a neat bun. With one quick movement, she secured the bun with the dagger.
Aduial snorted. "I would love to see you try to make my life hard."
"With pleasure," Elenath said, clenching her fists. Her knees lowered slightly as she gathered momentum and strength. Her opponent swirled his weapon about his wrist before holding it tightly.
The two opponents stood very still, both waiting for the other to make the first move. Elenath narrowed her dark blue eyes and stared straight into Aduial's. Silence fell thickly between the two warriors and tension weighed heavily on both their shoulders.
Elenath knew she does not have much time. With each passing second, Legolas' life fades. She do not want him to die. Not like this.
'Legolas… please, wait for me,' Elenath thought, glancing at Legolas. 'Do not fade yet…'
"Ready to feed my blade?" Aduial asked, his eyes ablaze with excitement.
Elenath replied plainly. "Ready to be defeated?"
Time passed slowly between the two opponents. It was as though the pressure of the atmosphere had the ability to control the movement of time.
Then, Elenath struck.
With her dress now reduced to two, Elenath can now move with ease and agility. Her leaping jump over Aduial rewarded her with a landing behind him, and away from his blade. Taking the opportunity as Aduial turns around, Elenath ducked and hooked his left leg with hers. Then, with a quick push on his right leg, Aduial ended up splitting on the ground.
With a snarl, Aduial swung his sword towards Elenath's neck. The latter, as though knowing ahead what Aduial was planning to do, she did a quick cartwheel and her toes knocked the weapon off his grip. The blade spun in air and landed in Elenath's grip.
Aduial was furious with humiliation. As he picked himself up, Elenath threw him his sword and got into her attacking stance.
"That was just a demonstration," Elenath said calmly. "Do not belittle me."
Aduial picked up his sword and his grip tightened around it. With a look of pure venom on his face, he raised his sword again.
"I give you two choices. You can leave and never come back, or you can fight me and be defeated," Elenath said coldly.
Aduial snorted again. "I'll stay and fight. Only to see who would be defeated at the end of the day."
"Very well," Elenath replied. As soon as she finished her sentence, she attacked again.
* * *
Legolas never felt so tired before in his life. The last thing he wants when he can finally get some rest was someone banging on the kitchen pots beside him. However the incessant noise would not cease. Instead it got louder.
'Keep quiet,' Legolas thought sleepily. He struggled to open his eyes, but for some reason, they would not budge. He remained trapped in a stage between unconsciousness and consciousness. Not that he minds. How he longed to sleep on. How he longed to stay in the comfortable darkness for all eternity.
For all eternity…
* * *
After half an hour, it realized that it had all along underestimated Elenath and her skills on the battlefield. Even when unarmed, she could still remain unscathed against fighting an armed opponent. As a matter of fact, it was the one accepting all of Elenath's heavy punches and kicks.
His train of thoughts was interrupted by a fist heading for his face, which he avoided just in the nick of time. Yet, without skipping a beat, Elenath pivoted around the point and elbowed it in the stomach.
'Ah!'
As air rushed past his mouth upon impact, darkness flashed past its eyes. Next he knew, he was falling on the ground.
Elenath, taking the opportunity, grabbed its arm and threw it over her shoulders.
A rush of pain numbed all his cells when it came into contact with the marble floor. Slowly, the numb feeling overtook its arms… its torso… its eyes…
Elenath glared unfeelingly at the partially conscious creature. With an equally cold voice, she said quietly.
"You chose a wrong time to fight with me."
The creature used all of his remaining strength and forced his eyes to look upwards. There, against the dark sky, was a dizzying array of diamond-like stars. Now he knew the reason behind Elenath's otherworldly strength.
"I sure did…" it replied sleepily.
Time… time was all it needed.
* * *
Elenath did not know what to do with Legolas' wound. Given her knowledge of medicine, this wound was beyond her abilities. And she doubt… even Elrond's.
Her eyes traveled along with the inch deep wound that stretched from Legolas' right shoulder blade to his left side. Large amount of blood had caked around the wound, reducing the blood flow as much as possible, however, Elenath doubted it would be enough of an effort.
'Legolas… No…' Elenath closed her eyes, trying to hold back the hot sting of tears in her eyes. Her hand subconsciously slipped into his and tightened around the chilled skin.
"Legolas… please…"
* * *
Legolas saw the light. It was getting brighter and brighter, but what was that crippling pain he felt? Did he step on a nail? No… the pain was coming from his back.
'Why am I feeling so sleepy?' Legolas asked himself, or rather, the growing ball of light.
He felt a warm hand around his. The hand, for some reason, felt as though it was meant to be there. It fitted so perfectly into the shape of his palm, that he was amazed. As the warm hand tightened around him, the ball of light grew larger and even brighter, if it was possible.
'Another good nap… disturbed…' Legolas thought grudgingly. Can't a prince get a good sleep anywhere?
Despite feeling absolutely drained, and not to mention, agonized, he made an effort to close his fingers around the warm hand.
The next he knew, was light shining in his face.
* * *
When Legolas opened his eyes, Elenath was shocked. For she knew it was medically impossible for anyone to regain conscious after losing so much blood.
"Legolas?" Elenath looked down at their held hands, and saw Legolas' chilly fingers barely closing around hers.
He wanted to talk, but he couldn't muster the strength to. Instead, his eyes softened at the sight of her, and his lips twitched slightly upwards.
I'm fine…Are you?
Even without words, Elenath could understand what he was thinking. This needed no astrology or astronomy.
But she also realized something even worse as well.
'He did not know he was going to die.'
"I'm sorry…" Elenath said softly. Even though it was a miracle that Legolas had awoken, his passing was inevitable. What hurt Elenath most was the unknowing innocence in Legolas' eyes.
"So am I!" Another voice spoke up. Elenath looked up and saw a bloodstained blade heading for her. She swept Legolas up with a quick movement of her hand and brought him away from the crazed creature. The least she could do now was to let Legolas go in peace, but not in pieces.
However, with one hand holding Legolas, the fatality of her attacks was no longer a threat to the creature.
'How did he regain his strength so quickly?' Elenath wondered, dodging deftly as the blade sliced through where Legolas' head was a moment earlier.
No doubt she was confident that she could evade all of the creature's attacks, but by doing so, it would only increase Legolas' pain. She needs to get him to a protected spot!
The creature seemed to understand what Elenath was thinking, and attacked her from all sides, denying her any passage to a safe spot. The blade soon was able to touch the hems of Elenath's sleeves. Slowly to the sleeve itself…
Elenath bit back a gasp in pain as the blade finally made its mark across her free arm. Hot searing pain erupted like fire across her right side and slowed down her movements. The wound began bleeding profusely, much to Elenath's dismay.
The creature then directed all its attacks to the elven prince. It seemed as though he was bent on making sure Legolas died in more than one piece.
The tip grazed past Legolas' chest just as Elenath pulled him away from the blindly maneuvered blade. Holding him tightly lest he falls to the ground, Elenath looked for a place of sanctuary. Desperation was slowly reducing her choices to nothing.
In a final bid, Elenath suddenly let go of Legolas, allowing him to drop limply onto the ground. At the same time, she raised her wounded hand to stop the creature's blade from cutting through her neck. Without hesitation, Elenath used the same hand and twisted the creature's hand, thus loosening the grip on the blade. As the blade began to fall, Elenath kicked it high above them. Then, she pulled the creature's arm mercilessly, dislocating its shoulder and slamming him onto the ground.
The blade landed squarely in Elenath's hands. Before the creature could move, she held the tip against its throat.
"Leave!" Elenath commanded.
The creature started laughing. The creepy laughs starting bouncing off the walls, echoing eerily about them.
"Look behind you," it said, finally using its original, raspy voice, instead of Aduial's. With her heart skipping a beat, Elenath turned around. The moment her vision was on Legolas, a dagger shot out of the creature's uninjured arm and struck Legolas squarely on his side!
"No!" Elenath exclaimed. But the dagger did not disappear as she wished it would. Blood began dripping off Legolas' side, and one could hear faint gasping sounds from him.
"NO!" Elenath screamed and crushed the hilt. As the hilt splintered into tiny pieces, the elven blade, too, instantly shattered into pieces, as though made of fine glass. With the atmosphere around her sizzling with a murderous aura, Elenath pulled the creature to its feet and punched him in his ribcage.
The creature yelled in pain as its ribcage shattered, just like the sword, upon impact. Without any more strength to retaliate, the creature allowed Elenath to plant more punches onto his body. In any case, he is immortal, and would never die that easily. All his injuries would heal by itself again once he drink more blood.
With her anger taking the better of her, Elenath lifted the creature up and threw him out of the window. That was something that creature had expected, and as soon as it was out the window, it swung from a random window and landed in the trees of Mirkwood.
'Wonderful… Now… I know what to do…'
Elenath panted heavily and collapsed onto the ground once she vented all her murderous feelings. Without any regard of her arm wound, she rushed to Legolas' side, hoping against hope that miracle would once again happen.
She gently laid Legolas against her body and removed the dagger. There was no more bleeding.
"No… Legolas… No!"
Her fingers stroked the cheeks of the elven prince, hoping he would wake upon her touch. But as her skin touched the iciness of his face, her heart seemed to have sank to the depths of the world.
"Legolas… Please… wake up!" Elenath choked, burying her head in his soft blond locks. It was the first time she was this close to him, but she did not want it to be the last.
"Please…" Elenath's pleas began fading as the cruel truth began to knife into her heart.
Legolas is dead…
* * *
Hello everyone! Happy to see this chapter? Or have you started to sharpen those knives of yours after you finished the chapter? ^^;;; I do hope the fighting scenes are up to everyone's standard, mainly because this is my first time plotting a LOTR fighting scenes. Usually I plot scenes for Chinese Martial Arts (CMA) stories. So… you can see some essence of CMA in this scenes… did it sucked? Is it good? Please leave comments!!!!!!! Please!!!!!!!!
And one more thing! You can stop sharpening those knives/blades/arrows/daggers/parangs of yours. Whether or not you want to kill me, you can decide when the next chapter is out, ya? _^
Preview for next chapter:
Go back into Legolas' teenage years and experience the life of a young elven prince. What are teenage years without sword trainings, archery lessons, cheeky tricks, good friends and… first love?
A few thousand years ago, the oldest granddaughter of Lady Galadriel,* elder sister of the Evenstar, Arwen, visited the forests of Mirkwood, and made long-lasting friends there before leaving for the Undying Lands, Valinor. What will happen when she returns to look for old friends… and her first crush?
**Wanna know more about Legolas' past? Then stay around for An Elven Story's chapter 9: First Love
Androme (Does it sound like a TV ad? =P)
*Purely fictional and not any of Tolkein's creations.
**Purely fictional and not based on any of Tolkein's works! So… please don't mind… But if you guys really don't want to see my own fictional version of Legolas' past, you can just tell me, and I'll change the story plot… ^^