Authors notes: Oh Heavens this chapter took SOOOOOOOOOO long to get out. I'm seriously beating myself up over here about it!!! *runs into a wall* I can not BELIEVE how long this stupid thing took!! *runs into another wall* UGH! *runs into a third wall which just happens to be a window and flies through it* Umph!!!… Er… Grrr! *climbs back into the window and continues typing* Um, please pardon my idiocies….. *Cough cough* Well, like I said, major writers block PLEASE ppl I need Idea's!!! All Comments and suggestions are welcome and severely needed! Please post them if you've got 'em.
Ok nuff of that. Enjoy! ^_~
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Chapter 8: "Of Battle Wounds and Untimely Troubles."
The arrow struck home.
Biting down through tunic, and cloth and mail, the fierce momentum of the blow causing the body struck to stumble to the ground in surprise and pain.
Aragorn blinked in stupefied shock, his breath coming quick as he stared wide eyed at the tall now fully nude Elf crumbled atop his pillar perch and despite himself a small crimson flush rose to his cheeks at the sight he was presented. It was his own foolishness that had caused the blond to fire he knew that, but the shock of it was still rough.
Frodo gasped at the blunt force behind the arrow, sitting up silently he yanked the long elvish shaft from his clothes prodding the new whole in his coat. His mail shirt flashed in the moonlight, his chest beneath heaving in dwindling fear.
Again he silently thank Bilbo for the dressing, that was the SECOND time it had saved his life!
"Are you hurt Mr. Frodo?!" Sam asked, falling to his knee's next to his young friend. Frodo shook his head, his shirt falling farther open.
Sam smiled with a sigh despite himself at the sight of the beautiful mail. "No Sam, I am fine." The darker haired hobbit responded, looking towards Aragorn as he neared, still fighting off all the wayward Orc's he encountered. "What is Legolas doing out here? He should not be fighting." He asked, standing quickly rubbing his sore tail end and picked up sting, holding it at ready.
The Ranger shook his head, looking the little hobbit ring bearer over satisfied that he was not injured as he reflexively sliced through another fell being. 'No, The elf shouldn't be fighting. Stubborn creature! Stars, I knew I should have looked in on him before leaving the inn!' Aragorn cursed himself all kinds of a fool, slowly fighting his way towards his blond companion, stabbing Anduril into and through anything and everything he encountered.
'I should have know that he would run out here the moment he heard fighting!'
"Aragorn!" Strider turned at his name tearing his angered and embarrassed eyes from the heavenly shape of his friends form, searching out his dwarf companion instead.
"I'll hold off what I can of these stinking creatures, you look after that fool of an elf and the little ones!" Gimli called, cleaving his ax into the skull of a bluish tinged Orc, a hot yellow liquid oozing about the blade before he pulled it free and pushed the body away. Strider nodded silently turning back as another stray Orc charged him from behind. He raised his mighty blade.
Legolas moved down from his perch swiftly feeling along the ground for his towel, the cold night breeze blowing harshly upon his exposed flesh.
Again he heard footsteps, this time off to the right, the foul stench of an Orc preceding its attacker. Without so much as a thought the blonds hand flew to his back, shocked then suddenly at finding no more arrows in his quiver. 'Blast it, I must have dropped them when I fell!' He thought, his hand again flying over the ground his bow arm releasing the now useless wooden weapon, joining the other in its search.
The Orc was now nearly atop him as his slim fingers found the hilt of his long-knife, turning quickly, he spun the blade in his hand and jammed it into the offending beings gut as it pounced on him. Blood gurgled in the Orc's throat its yellowish cat eyes wide in surprise as it pitched forward onto the tall, pure being.
Legolas could not hold in the gasp as his back slammed into the dirt ground and the knife the offending creature had been grasping stabbed deep into his shoulder.
"Legolas!" Frodo and Sam yelled as one, rushing as quickly as they could towards their elvish friend, jumping over and running around the dead bodies of the Orc's lying in their paths. "Strider, Legolas is hurt!" Sam yelled over his shoulder at the ranger, having seen the black beings blade glinting in his slack grasp before he collapsed on top of their friend.
Aragorn screeched to a halt, throwing his head viciously around, his eyes firing wide at the sight of his lovely Elf trapped beneath the dead Orc its sticky murky blood leaking onto the blonds bare stomach and chest. 'Legolas!' He screamed silently, ramming his blade to the hilt through another Orc before pushing him away and running also towards his friend. 'Oh Valor I should have been watching him! I said I would watch him! I should have been watching him!!!…'
Legolas pushed at the body of the fell thing atop him feebly, his arms shaking with the strain it took.
What's wrong?!
This should be easy!..
He pushed again and again, his bare arms now all but pinned against his blood slicked chest. The body wouldn't move.
Come on, come on! M-mo~ove!-…He choked, a small stream of the disgusting dead beings blood trickling into the Elf's open mouth and burning down throat.
I..I can't BREATH!!The blond gasped his heavy breaths now, his chest heaving against the trapping weight of the Orc, his own arms and body becoming heavy and weighted as he continued to push none the less.
By.. by Valor please move!
His shoulder with the Orc blade still pinned through it and his bruised abdomen where the handle of his own blade hand slammed screamed in protest to his efforts.
I- can..t…
It was no use, however. He couldn't move it and that worried- frightened him, terribly!
Legolas' limbs weakened increasingly fast, with in moments even, no movement outside of his intense quivering could be produced, no matter how hard he fought, or tried, or screamed inside for them to do something, anything!
The offending form was all of a sudden lifted off of him as Aragorn and the Hobbits pulled the body away, careful of the blade still in his flesh. "Mr. Legolas, are you alright?" Sam asked, his eyes wide at the two shades of blood smearing across the blonds torso. Legolas' mouth quivered, falling further open as he gasped and tried in vain to respond. 'Oh God…' Frodo grasped his cold stiff hand reassuringly, tiny beads of liquid collecting on his long eyelashes as he looked down at his hurt friend in fear and worry.
"I-I can no-t m-ove.." He stuttered vaguely in reply managing an almost understandable sentence, his hands and body shaking terribly now. Sam gasped, looking up at Aragorn for a solution.
Silently, with knitted eyebrows, Aragorn examined the wound. He bit his lip as he swiftly looked his terrified, wounded companion over, his own usually steady hands shaking.
Lighting.
A sudden thought struck him.
'The Blade!'
His eyes suddenly shot wide, and he ripped the blade free of its pale white fleshy sheath. Legolas bit back a scream as his friend mercilessly pulled the dagger from his body, his bottom lip trembling in pain as he squeezed his dead eyes shut. Strider winced at the force he had used, sorry beyond all the words that failed him, however he knew it was necessary.
"Strider?" Frodo whispered, looking up confusedly at his friend blinking to clear his tear blurred eyes.
Strider starred for a long moment, then turned to the empty dirt beside him. Using the knife, Aragorn quickly carved a single word into the ground.
'Poison.'
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"NAE!!!!!"
Galfin's body suddenly convulsed in Cirabethe's tight, frantic grasp.
Gasping venomously for breath, his eyes shot wide and his back arched, lightning pain lacing up his rigid spine. "Master Galfin?!" his dark haired companion asked frightened, looking up to his brothers suddenly pale pain stricken face.
"Master Galfin!!!?!?!" He screamed, the smaller brown haired boys body jerking back viciously from his warm grasp, slamming sharply into the floor. Head cracking against stone.
Red bloomed like a deadly flower from beneath Galfin's golden brown locks, entwining into the thick sandy hued strands, streaking down his cheeks as well. His tiny white fists clenched tightly, his long nail digging thin little half moons in his palms as his back again arched lifting from the cold ground. "NAE!!!" Galfin screamed once more a thin sheen of blood melting over his wide-open eyes.
Boromir scrambled over to the two boys, falling hard to his knee's next to the convulsing child, uncurling Galfin's clenched fist and squeezed his fingers into it instead. "Whad happened?!" He asked Cirabethe, pushing the paper and pen gracelessly towards the shaking ebony haired boy. "I-I don't know!!" He yelled in response, moving closer towards his poor master. "Whad happened? Pleade write it, I can'd hear." Boromir responded, trying and failing at reading his swift lips.
Cirabethe shook his head sharply and took up the pen scratching out a short reply. "AH!!!!" Galfin screamed again his body arching unnaturally high, his banshee wail ringing back on the walls. His shaking form slammed back into the ground, stilled suddenly of all motion.
Galfin's blood smeared eyes flicked closed then slowly reopened glowing now with a fierce red light.
"Whad in Middle-Earth?" Boromir whispered, leaning over the grounded boy, starring into his unfocused eyes.
Galfin's slim mouth fell open and a heavy deep voice, threaded with a hundred more, slowly began to rise from his throat. A voice that was suddenly all too familiar.
"What once was nine, now is eight,
The time has come to test your fate,
One must now prove his worth,
And reveal his strength to rule the men of Middle-Earth…"
"Your trial now begins with the blood of three,
And shall only it end with a selfless victory."
"Fa-Fallon de'tin!" Cirabethe gasped falling to his knee's, bowing low, praying in a steady string of his melodic language, his voice shaking in awe and fear. Boromir blinked looking quickly between the bleeding child and the praying one, confused and curious. "Whad? Whad did he say?!" He asked, reaching over to the dark haired boy and grasped his arm pulling him up. "Wha'd happened? Whad did he say?" he repeated, starring at the boys blank expression.
Galfin gasped, his body arching one final time, a thick trickle of blood slowly oozing out of his ear. His body fell back against the stone floor once again, his chest heaving with his frantic breaths. Both of the men looked back at the Judges Vessel then back at one another, the unanswered question still lingering in the air.
"He said-" "Wride id please." Boromir stressed, pushing the paper again back to the ebony one, squeezing Galfin's hand gently as the boy continued to breath heavily and regain his senses. Cirabethe nodded and quickly scratched out what Galfin, or rather the Judge had said; Boromir's eyebrows knotted.
"Whad does id mean?" He asked.
"One trial of you three has begun." Galfin whispered, squeezing the Son of Gondor's hand gently as he tried to sit. The two men simultaneously shot forward and helped him to move. "Trials?" Boromir asked, ripping a length of cloth from his tunic and pressed it to the back of Galfin's head.
Galfin nodded, swallowing hard and wiped at the blood in his eyes. "Told you I did, before you were branded," Galfin paused running his fingers gently over the woven band around Boromir's waist causing the man to shiver and pull back. "Told you I did of three trials, face one each you three must." The brown haired boy looked to Cirabethe who silently wrote out what his Master spoke.
"Believe I," he said with another shuddering breath. "That this, the first.. it be Aragorn's."
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TBC
That's all for now I know its short I'm SORRY!!! I've got SERIOUS writers bock still and I'm just playin' this by ear. Hopefully I can get another chapter out before I leave again! UGH!! And I know this chapter sucked! Grrr… The Frodo thing was stupid I know originally I was gonna have Aragorn get hit with the Arrow but that was too bloomin' obvious and besides I needed him well for the next chapter. N E WAY! I hope you enjoyed it otherwise. I might just take this chapter down and rewrite it all over again I don't know what do you think.
Please review and tell me what to do, I'm STUCK!
Sankyou for readin' NE how. (will post more soon hopefully)