These characters and places are not my own, they belong to JRR Tolkien.
The same shot of shining radiance fell on Legolas' face on the morning following the trolls' defeat. Pippin's murmuring urged him to waken but as he came to, he realized Pippin was not there. He arose and saw the hobbit sprinting away. Legolas called out and it seemed Pippin heard as he turned back around to face the elf, but then he continued to run. Lifting his foot to start after him, Aragorn slapped him on the shoulder. Startled and a bit confused, Legolas glared at Aragorn in silent disbelief.
"You did not hear me saunter? Alas, the war with the trolls edged some keeness from you." Aragorn said with a smile. Legolas continued to glare and replied nothing. Magically, without sound or sight, Aragorn appeared. Both the greatest of the elf's greatest gifts, regardless of the talents of Rangers seemed foiled, and this caused a great distress in the elf.
Sensing Legolas' disorder, Aragorn began to explain, "In the midst of the cold night, I heard terrible cries. They roused our Company and we could not sit only to wait for you. Merry, the brave soul, followed me into the darkness to search you out. We came this way through moonlight and made friends at the cottage yonder." He moved his sight over the distance to the welcoming home set in stone, sprouting a working fireplace. "An elderly couple took us in, despite our badgering questions, that we hoped would lead to any sign of our lost companions."
A crinkle tightened the elf's eyebrows, harder and deeper he thought, commanding the exit of haze clouding his head. Then Aragorn said something that shed a clearer light on the matter, "Have you taken food or drink since your battle? Even the most ardent elves suffer when nutrition is lacked. Come, we will accompany our friends who have embraced us." Aragorn walked ahead intending the elf to follow.
"Tell me," Legolas said as he followed behind Aragorn, "where are the others?" He wondered if the Company of Seven reached Eregion after a fortnight of their departure.
"They rest waiting where you bid us to reunite, or have you lost memory of that, too?" Aragorn made light of Legolas' condition. "It has nearly been two weeks that we separated and at long last we will hear of your mighty journey and the tale of the two trolls."
"My heart rejoices to see you, but you must forgive my deficit in speech. I feel my head lagging to respond to this reunion." Not to mention the scratchy dryness in his throat.
"Once you fill with food and drink, all will be well again." Aragorn smilingly assured. "Are you weary with other troubles?" Aragorn asked, aware of Legolas' displacement.
"It escapes me why Pippin should run away. Before we collapsed into sleep, I meant to tell him I felt an eerie presence, murmuring in many soft voices." Legolas recalled little from last night on the road. However, instantly he remembered the morning before when he took the road winding to the trolls' lair without word to Pippin of his leave. Upon his return the hobbit out rightly let his bitterness be known.
"You are safe now and again our Company equals nine." The Ranger solidly patted Legolas, extending the security to no longer worry. "Have you been quarreling amongst each other? Perhaps he is getting even." Offered Aragorn.
Legolas concentrated on this thought of Pippin mal-reciprocating. Not a solitary 'thank you' ever emerged from the hobbit. Legolas certainly earned it. Surely he would be dead by the first night if not for Legolas' skill and strategy. The elf now opinioned that hobbits were an ungrateful and disgusting race, headed by the immature mop-top called Peregrin Took. And, add thievery to the list! All was dawning on him now on this bright day; he finally saw Pippin's mischief that no longer could be trusted. His memory carried him to the night of the wolves, when he offered the lembas to Pippin. Little notice was taken then, but now he realized there was one less of the sweet golden cakes stored for safe keeping in his velvet bag. Obviously, not safe from the grasping paws of hungry hobbits! Though his insides were boiling his played careful not to let his expressions surface.
"The misconduct is minor, Legolas. Pippin is in his adolescent in hobbit-years, he knows little of right and wrong." Aragorn counseled.
The crinkle in the elf's eyebrows returned, but Aragorn was facing ahead of him and did not catch Legolas' expression. All traces of thought cleared from the elf's mind and he blurted loudly so Aragorn was sure to hear, "Lastao! Pedon nin meleth an Arwen!" But Aragorn's carried on and paid no mind to him. The echo of his declaration rang over his mind as he thought of white space and again repeated aloud, "Lastao! Pedon nin meleth an Arwen!"
But once again, nothing came from Aragorn. The wise elf pushed out all thoughts and emotions. Swiftly, in a fluid motion, he lunged for his dear friend, freeing the sword that hilted from the Ranger's waist. Legolas faced Aragorn squarely with the borrowed blade, but Aragorn remained still, lifting the corners of his mouth. The Ranger's palms shielded himself and in a kindly tone he spoke to Legolas, "The comforts of warmth and food and drink lay before us. You are weary, you are tired and I have come to find you and relieve your toils. Return my sword to me, dear friend." He offered his hand out.
In exchange, Aragorn felt the blade on his skin as it severed his head from his neck. Before the body dropped, Legolas was off to the house in the hill.
It is this time when Pippin witnessed the death of his beloved Merry and trembled for his own life. Not a demonstration of despair or guilt came from the sword-wielding elf; he seemed satisfied of his crime. Thoughtfully, he looked upon the hobbit, certainly this was tragic indeed, and he moved to Pippin baring a sorrowful regard over his brow. Pippin shuddered. Legolas minded the blade still in his grasp and cast it to the floor.
"You are not in your right mind!" Pippin burst into tears, overcome with a maddening fright.
"It is not clear to you because your mind sleeps though you feel you are awake." Legolas said sternly. "Cast under a spell of the witching gnomes we are and serve as slaves to their pleasing."
This evil race Pippin barely recalled from songs told at fireside, used to scare hobbit children from gallivanting too far and long into places unknown. As the tales goes, wearied travelers caught in to a deep slumber fell easy victims for witching gnomes who preyed on minds kept unguarded. With your own dreams they devoured you. Pleasantly you sleep, for hours and days, while you slowly succumb to starvation and their will.
The once inviting house took on the feel of a death trap. The warm painted walls and sun-filled windows melted away and exposed the dank rock underneath them. All elements of the house faded: food, furniture and all, leaving hobbit and elf in the pitch of dark.
With a gasp and covered in perspiration, Pippin sat up wakening from the awful, awful nightmare. He recovered consciousness inside a cave. Gnarled roots of large trees tangled above, the space was no bigger than he stood high. A soft light flickered from three lanterns placed on the dirt floor, moving the shadow of the elf behind him.
"We were enveloped in imagery, Pippin." Legolas knelt before this frightened hobbit, speaking in a calming tone. "Our reality is in this deep cave underground, we laid sleeping while the gnomes secured over us and impersonated our dreams. Though how long we're been under, I cannot tell. Strong are their powers to read minds as well as their skill to expel all knowledge from you, gathering your inner thoughts and using them to keep you content, unaware of your prolonged suffering. Your cousin, Merry, is alive and well, as far as my wakened mind can tell. His likeness that I beheaded lies here." Over his shoulder he pointed and turned to reveal a headless gnome. Pippin gulped at the lifeless body. In the shadow, there lay another gnome corpse flat on his back.
"There is another slain." Pippin said blankly then looked to Legolas again. "Who did he play act in your imaginings?"
Legolas answered, "Aragorn son of Arathorn." He sank down and commenced in the telling of his dream.
The recount was awful as the images played on the hobbits' mind. He could not escape the gruesome images of Merry's and Aragorn's death, though imposters indeed they were. Pippin felt his queasy stomach churn as the elf completed. After a thoughtful and selfish moment he shouted defensively, "Wait now, I never stole any lembas!"
Legolas went further to explain, "My thoughts were an open book and I conjured those 'thoughts' to lure a trap. No truth lies behind my rantings. They were a folly mind game, merely a test for my theory." The elf caught on to the likeness of Aragorn's ulterior motive and quickly deduced they were bewitched by gnomes.
All became clearer to Pippin now, the events in the house were discord, nothing added up to reason. How did he not see it at the time? So eager was Merry to feed Pippin and draw the tales from him, it came back to him now that Merry didn't eat a single bite or share any tales of his own, both contradictory behaviors for Merry and hobbits alike. "When you wiped your mind clean of all thoughts the gnome had no answers for you. He did not understand what you were saying for Elvish is not a language widely known to gnomes!" Pippin exclaimed brilliantly. Legolas nodded in agreement. "I wonder, what was it that you said to Aragorn in your tongue?"
"I harkened him to listen, for I spoke of my love for Arwen."
"You…"
"Nay, 'twas another trap." Legolas replied shaking his head, "I trust Aragorn's response to be quite different than to plainly ignore my words." He said bending his lips to a half smile.
"My heart was taken by the hands of another." Pippin looked intrigued. But Legolas deflected the question before it was asked, "Her name will never pass through my lips till the end of my days. But no more talk of our prior tragedies. Our chief concern is to free ourselves of this doorless prison."
++Thanks for your patience in waiting for this chapter and I hope y'all aren't too upset at me. Otherwise, you can blame it on my witching gnome. Also, I disclaim my attempt at Sindar, so please keep your flames on low.++