Chapter Six: Into The Fire
The inn crackled and groaned. The air around the three Elves waved, distorting the orange and black surrounding them. It was an ironically beautiful image.
An arrow struck the far edge of the roof and stayed, until the fire claimed it, too. There was the clear, sharp sound of glass breaking as windows shattered, and sparks leaped up to the wooden shingles.
Arod had begun to panic. Asfaloth and Gaernell paced back and forth, unable to get close to the burning inn, and unwilling to leave the Elves.
"Their arrows are nearly spent," Legolas said. His tone was not altogether calm, but he was decisive, and reassured. That was comforting.
"What are we to do, then? I trust you have an idea?"
Legolas glanced at her and nodded. "We cannot safely jump to the ground from here; their roads are stone, else I would risk it. The horses cannot help us from here, but the men can." It did not take long for them to understand the prince's meaning.
Glorfindel stiffened, then actually backed away a step. "No."
Legolas looked at him thoughtfully, but was no less determined than he had been before. "I will distract them with my arrows; I see that many of them do not have swords, and those that do are standing at the back."
Arwen nodded, to Legolas's relief. "Glorfindel, come, we must."
"I know we must. I am not so certain your solution is any better than remaining up here," he muttered.
Legolas smiled firmly and drew an arrow. He fired off four of them before he gave Arwen a gentle push, and she and Glorfindel raced forward.
"When? Where is the edge?" Glorfindel cried desperately, fearful of when the solid rooftop would end, giving way to empty air.
"Now!" she shouted, and they leapt off the edge, through a wall of unbearable heat. Flames licked at their clothing, and a bare second later they were dropping through the chilled, windy night air.
Arwen kept a tight hold on Glorfindel's shoulder, hoping to guide him as they fell, so he would land where he was meant to and not on the street.
The crowd was tightly packed, and they could not hear the Elves running, so by the time they could discern the two figures flying at them, it was too late to move away. Twelve men went down, breaking Arwen and Glorfindel's fall.
Gaernell and Asfaloth raced in before the rest of the mob could realize what had happened. The two horses added to the confusion, allowing Legolas to reach them safely.
Arod was only too grateful to get away from the burning building; it was a struggle to keep him from trampling fallen members of the crowd, as the three rode away into the forest.
********
"How far are we?" Glorfindel was the first to speak since they had left the village.
They had stopped so Legolas could clean out the series of shallow cuts on Arod's neck. He paused to look around and answered, "Perhaps ten leagues out of the village." Legolas checked the slashes again, and was satisfied that they would cause Arod no more harm than they already had. "We should move on, if we can."
Arwen finished untangling glass splinters from Gaernell's long white mane. "Glorfindel, are you well enough to travel?"
"We must get as far from the inn as possible. The sooner we reach Gondor the safer you will be. We ought to hurry." He gripped Asfaloth's reigns and mane tightly, waiting for one of his companions to lead on.
Legolas looked back the way they had come, seeing shadows follow them as they rode.
*********
The night passed slowly and uneventfully, aside from Arod making it a game to see how many times he could swat Legolas with his tail before the Elf would laugh or scold him. Gray morning light came and Arod suddenly stopped, jerked his head back, and pricked his ears towards the soft pre-dawn.
"They are gone again," Glorfindel murmured suddenly, startling his two friends.
"What did you say?" Legolas asked.
"I have heard them for most of the night. When they did not speak, I heard movement, but I cannot identify animals by sound, else I would tell you what else I heard." The fair haired Elf sighed. "It is a relief...I could not help but strain to hear them, and it was more tiring than I should have liked."
"What do you mean?" Arwen demanded, keeping her voice low, either out of reverence for the encouraging dawn or because she grew quieter when angry rather than louder. "What voices do you speak of?"
Glorfindel shifted uncomfortably, something few beings, mortal or immortal, ever saw an Elf do. Especially this one. "Lady Undomiel, I have told you now all there is that I know."
"Very well. But you failed to mention why you waited until now to say something."
"You heard something following us?" Legolas asked.
"Yes, at times," he muttered, looking somewhat miserable with himself. Arwen frowned.
The prince coughed softly. "You will dislike what I have to say, Arwen, but I also know that you would rather hear it than not. I saw something following us ere we left the second time. There are many animals about, and I nearly convinced myself that was all it was, but now I am not so sure." Legolas wondered if the glare she was giving them was one she had developed over the years specifically to stab guilt into the hearts of those who received it, or if all royal Elves had it, somewhere within them.
"I have much respect and much love for both of you, as friends of mine and friends of Aragorn. But let me speak bluntly with you now. I will tolerate no more secrets between us. What we suspect, what we hear, and what we see, will be told to the others. I know we three have each spent more than a year mostly in the company of mortals, but if you fear someone knowing what is said amongst us, then for the love of the Valar, do not use the Common Tongue! Over the course of a year, you would still not have forgotten the language of the Eldar!"
"I believe she has left us with no excuses, Glorfindel," Legolas smiled uneasily. "My deepest apologies, to both of you. It is indeed foolish and dangerous to keep so much to myself."
"I do not mean to put us in danger. My mind wanders of late, and I struggle to remember what I am meant to be doing. But it is a poor excuse. You will know what I know for so long as we journey together."
Arwen nodded. "I am glad."
"We are nearer the Gladden Fields than I thought," Legolas said, as the sun pulled its way over the mountains. "If we are being followed, we may cross to Mirkwood. It would add time to our trek, but it feels long since I have returned to my father, and I would not complain if we must flee there."
Arwen smiled. "I have not passed through your woods in many years, Legolas. I would very much love a visit to the fair Elves of Mirkwood, if we have need of it."
"If we must," Glorfindel said, "But thus far we do not. For now, I suggest we continue south to Gondor."
********
"Wolves," Legolas murmured.
They had traveled all through the day, with a few brief stops, and now they were faced with the problem of where to spend the night. Arwen and Glorfindel were debating this, the blind Elf becoming more and more withdrawn as she tried to spark some enthusiasm in him, while Legolas stood nearby, peering uneasily into the woods.
"Wolves?" Arwen asked.
Legolas kept his eyes trained in the distance. "In geraif aphad ammen. Derir ir derim. Garir tinc rind os tin iaethath, a ir mae medin."
His sudden change into Sindarin startled them. Arwen searched the darkness for Legolas' wolves. She paused, and then pointed. "Tiradin tellen beleg un."
Standing off in the woods, still as the ground it stood on, was a large round-eared cat. Its fur was like soft white gold, set with paler white rosettes. This made it stand out in its dark surroundings; but the fact that it had not been noticed before was a sign that it was not as easy to track as it would seem.
About its neck was the same polished metal collar the wolves wore.
The wolves moved closer to Glorfindel, for it is in their nature to seek out the most vulnerable in a group. Asfaloth swiftly placed himself between the pack and the Elf ; Legolas pulled Glorfindel into the center, calling to Asfaloth as he did. A wolf's jaws could easily snap the bones in a horse's leg, even those of an Elvish horse.
"Legolas!" He turned to Arwen, and found the white panther closer than any of the wolves had dared come.
Their eyes met as Legolas reached for his bow, and time slowed. It was only for a moment, but in that period, the wolves drew nearer still, at last close enough to bite at Arod and Gaernell, who were cut off from the circle by three or four of the strong gray wolves.
It took seconds for Legolas to break away from the panther's stare, string an arrow, and shoot the wolf out of the air who had dared attack a horse of Rohan. The remaining wolves darted away, and the horses galloped to Asfaloth's side.
Legolas could keep the wolves and the panther at bay as long as his arrows lasted, but he doubted he had enough to kill them all. He had his knife, and Arwen hers, but to protect the three horses as well as Glorfindel would be almost impossible with only two daggers.
Not far off, his sharp ears caught the sound of hoof beats.
"In geraif aphad ammen. Derir ir derim. Garir tinc rind os tin iaethath, a ir mae medin." means "The wolves follow us. They stop when we stop. They have metal circles around their necks, and they are well fed."
"Tiradin tellen beleg un." means "I (am) see only a great beast."
And, because as a child I was completely obsessed with wolves, I'll add here that real wolves don't actually attack people, and consider yourself lucky if you've seen one in the wild. But the wolves in my story are trained to attack, heheh, so they will.