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Chapter 3: Never Ending Sea of Mystery
The being only moved slowly and did not rise from its point in the sea of ash. It appeared to the travelers to be weak or injured. An Ork left over from the great battle which must have raged here perhaps.
As Gimli and Aragorn got closer to their target they realized it was too slender to be an Ork. When everything gave into the dusty light they realized what the being was. An Elf!
Gimli cried out and ran towards the Firstborn, but a mixture of feelings overwhelmed him as he got closer.
An Elf, yes: Legolas, no.
"Master Elf, awaken! Please, speak to me of what has happened here!" Gimli gently shook the Elf and tried to help him into a sitting position. The Elf obviously had been through a lot and was nearly delirious.
Aragorn did not recognize the Elf, but he did notice that this Elf wore the uniform of the guardian forces of Mirkwood. Suddenly, the mysterious stranger began to stir and come back into reality.
"What has happened?" Aragorn knelt down as the Elf slowly sat up.
"I am not sure. There were Orks everywhere, unlike any we had fought before. They seemed to appear out of the darkness and the very light retreated. We were being overtaken. Everything was ablaze and collapsing. They focused their attacks on the palace and the royal family. We could not protect them. The palace collapsed under the weight of this evil. Then the light, this magnificent light! I can't remember fully, all I remember is a light, then nothing more. What followed was a quiet to disturb to deepest places of Middle Earth."
Gimli was quite upset by this tale. "The royal family?"
"Killed, I believe. I did not see them die, but I cannot think of anyway they could have survived this onslaught."
Aragorn had one final pressing question. "Legolas?"
The Elf tried to rise, burns covered a great deal of its body.
"The Prince was not in the palace, for he fights with the guard. The last I saw of the Prince he was leading an attack forward as a desperate try to gain an advantage." The Elven warrior broke eye contact and looked at the ground.
"Is there something you're not telling us?" Aragorn was concerned, but at least Legolas was not in that charred remnant of the palace. Only his entire family, a wound he may never be able to recover from.
Finally he spoke, "I know you are his friends, so it is difficult to speak of such terrors."
"Please," Gimli begged, "please, we must know the truth."
"You must understand Prince Legolas led this charge as a last cry against evil. He was using his last bit of strength left to rise up, for he had already been shot with an Ork arrow. I saw him initially fall, then rise to go down fighting. I can't imagine he could survive this long with that injury. I'm sorry."
Their hearts fell; it could not be true. Their friend could not have died in this attack. However, one thing was true, the actions told to them by this guard did match what Legolas would do in that situation. The Elf was stubborn and we would have made every attempt to keep fighting, no matter what the odds.
Aragorn decided there were more mysteries to be solved here.
"What was this light you speak of?"
"It came suddenly. When all seemed lost, and then the evil was gone. There has been no sign of it. This area was littered with Ork corpses before this power came. Now they are all gone. Everything is gone."
Gimli and Aragorn kept searching and found many more survivors coming back to their wits. All of them spoke of this power that was used and it seemed all of them had blacked out when it hit them. None of them had any clue to its origins and why it had saved them.
The pair of travelers were relieved to see that so many Elves had survived this great attack. Their joy was very short lived when they took a view of their surroundings. This forest had been dark, but beautiful. A home to the Wood-Elves for as long as time was recorded. Now it was destroyed, some people may have been saved, but the woods were left to death.
The numbers of the survivors was disturbing as well. This was the home of a civilization, and for every Elf they found they knew many, many more were gone. None of the royal family could be seen, not even distant relations. Aragorn began to believe that Legolas was killed in this attack. That he had died defending his lands, his kingdom.
They had gathered the Elves they had found into a large open area. Many had moments of great joy when a loved one was found to have survived, but there more many more disappointments as some searched for loved ones in vain.
They formed a strong band and together decided to make for Rivendell. They could not remain here, for there was nothing to shelter and protect them from harm from anything that may come near. The group of Elves left Mirkwood, and for the first time the woods were without the presence of the Elvish race. Something most thought was impossible occurred, the woods seemed even blacker without their light.
"Gimli." Aragorn stayed behind with the Dwarf, in case something was missed. They thought it best to get the Elves out of there before grief began to seep into their souls, slowly destroying them.
"We must get on our way, we cannot linger here forever." Their search of the once beautiful Elven retreat was completed.
"I cannot leave. If we leave, then we believe he is dead. I will not give up so easily."
"Nor I! I wish to keep on searching, to find him alive, but we have looked this whole area over and have found no sign of him. How long would you have us remain? It is obvious they targeted all the royalty of this realm."
"Listen, Aragorn. Many of the Elves said they last saw him charging that way." Gimli pointed to a trail through the stumps of burned out trees. "We did not search that way very far because there was no sign of anything. What if he got farther then we suspected? You know how stubborn that Elf can be when in battle? You remember seeing him jump onto that cave trolls back? I had never seen anything so bold in all my days of battle."
Aragorn smiled slightly on that memory. "Yes, that was something to behold. Very well, friend Dwarf, we shall continue down the road Legolas took. Let us prey we find something to bring a small amount of hope to Mirkwood."
Together they started down the darkened road of ash and demise of a great culture. The road that their friend had blazed in front of them. Their only hope was to find an answer. Any answer to the question of the fate of the Prince of Mirkwood.
Aragorn humored the Dwarf after a while of journeying, he did not believe they would find anything this far away. They had traveled for a great deal of time, and it was the same bleak scene mile after mile.
Gimli kept going. 'Just a bit farther, he would not give up so easily, just a bit farther.' His thoughts kept replaying in his mind. Finally, his thoughts were answered as they entered a clearing.
It was an open place where there were weapons laying around. Some of them still having blood on them. It appeared that this is where the final battle between the Orks and the attack party led by Legolas was concluded.
The pair stood silently, listening for any signs of any moment. Any life, either friend or foe. There were only answered by the sounds of the wind through the ashes. As they searched, Gimli found a sign from the terror which had descended Mirkwood into hell. Among the ashes of the trees lay a two large war drums. Drums in the trees.
Along with the dust and ash in the air flew their hopes.