Disclaimer: All characters from LOTR belong to Tolkien. The eventual other ones are from me ;)

DARK IS THE NIGHT FOR HEARTS

CHAPTER 5 - TENSIONS

Aragorn fastened the leather straps around the horse that Pippin and Merry were going to ride. The orcs were still on foot and they might reach them with one or two days at full gallop, if they didn't loose the trail, so visible even during the night. Aragorn was just dreading they had passed a river meanwhile. This would make the reading of their track more hazardous…

Against all odds, he still believed that Legolas was alive. He couldn't explain how, but he had that certitude deep inside of him. He was also feeling that there was an emergency… The sensation that the more the time would flow, the more Legolas would... fade... He couldn't explain yet the meaning of that strange impression, but he had the weird feeling that whatever it was, it has already begun…

Even though a question was burning his lips, Pippin didn't dare to speak with Isildur's heir; the latter had his jaws tight shut and the dark eyes. Pippin was thinking that Aragorn was mad at them for what happened to Legolas, and the guilt grew again inside of him. Slowly, he walked towards Gimli who was sit, taciturn, away from his three surviving comrades, his chin resting on the handle of his axe, scrutinizing the battlefield, searching for a clue, trying to understand…

"Master Gimli", Pippin started softly, which didn't prevent Gimli to startle, pulled from his train of thoughts. He turned to Pippin a face that was radiating with kindliness, in comparison to Aragorn's expression. "I have a question to ask you", the young hobbit whispered, casting an unease look towards Aragorn, still busy with the horses straps. Gimli followed his gaze and understood the origin of the young hobbit's malaise. For the moment, Pippin was certainly thinking that if he ever spoke with Aragorn, the latter would rip is belly open and would strangle him with his intestines in a blink. He brought back his attention on the young hobbit.

"In your opinion", Pippin went on in a low tone, as if he was dreading to wake up some wandering wood-ghost, or some ranger on the verge to explode, "why would the orcs take Legolas away if he was really dead?"

The fugitive expression that passed into Pippin's eyes indicated to Gimli that the young hobbit was trying to persuade himself that the situation wasn't as dramatic as it seemed. He needed someone to tell him that it wasn't really his fault, and that everything would turn out well. After all, he was almost but a child, not used at all to this kind of crisis-situation. Gimli wondered if he had to tell the truth about his thoughts. Since they had discovered the elfish bow covered with Legolas' blood, Gimli hadn't cease to check in his mind all types of scenarios about the elf's fate; none were good, but some had the merit to be more expeditious than others. Gimli had started to appreciate Legolas since their passage at Lothlórien – yet he would happily have cut you into regular slides with his axe, had you mention this openly in front of him – and yet, he wished for the elf to be dead from his wounds instead of falling under the orcs' "playful" minds.

"In the best case…", he started, hesitating on the way to answer the young hobbit; tact wasn't exactly a main virtue for the dwarves, but he did the best he could. "Orcs usually eat human flesh… But they don't have many occasion to feed on an elf, it's not everyday that they manage to kill an immortal… So…"

Pippin wrinkled his nose, an horrified look in his eyes, Gimli thought that he hadn't perhaps used the right words but after all, it was perhaps better for his two younger comrades to get use to the horrors of the war.

"You mean that they… they will… eat him?", Pippin had placed his hand on his face, only his wide eyes were still visible between his fingers.

"You are wrong, Gimli!", Aragorn said in a dry tone and his eyes met the dwarf's. "If you think about the Lothlórien elves, protected by Lady Galadriel's spells, then yes, the orcs are not used to kill elves; but it's not the case where Legolas is coming from!"

Pippin turned his face towards Aragorn and remembered the council of Elrond, when Legolas had given an account of the war against orcs and wolves in his country.

Aragorn brought his attention back to the straps but kept on talking with a harsh tone, "In the forests of Mirkwood, each passing day brings the death of one or several elves. Their number is dropping while Sauron reinforce every day his army of darkness."

Pippin remained silent for a moment, before braving his fear of Aragorn and asking: "But why does Master Gimli seem to mean that it would be better for him to be dead?"

"It's true! He doesn't deserve to meet this end!", Merry interfered at Pippin's side.

Aragorn tightened the last strap in an abrupt gesture that forced a quick-tempered neighing from the horse that the hobbit were about to ride. He turned towards his three comrades, gazing the hobbits one after the other with a hard and bitter look. "Because if Legolas is still alive, the orcs will reserve a fate worst than death for him…" The two hobbits realized that all the colors had gone out of their leader's face. His complexion was even ashy, and that was making his dark eyes more present.

Pippin frowned, "I'm not sure I understand…". The glance Merry threw to him made him realize that he wasn't the only one in this case.

"It's not a problem, because us, we do understand!", Gimli stated. The hobbit, turning towards him, saw that the dwarf's dark eyes were matching Aragorn's.

"If we hurry", Aragorn said, lifting Merry so suddenly from the ground to put him on the horse, that he forced a cry of dread from the young hobbit, "we can still arrive in time to save him!"

"Follow a trail by night on horses?", Pippin mumbled with a voice he found somehow too acute, as he was lifted in his turn and brutally placed before Merry. Both on the saddle, the two hobbits seemed even smaller and tinier than usual. "But, don't we risk to miss too quickly some clues and to loose their trail?"

"It is a risk we have to take", Aragorn said with a raucous voice, "but if we wait any longer before pursuing them, Legolas…", he glupsed with difficulty, "… will wish for death to come…"

Merry and Pippin frowned, but Aragorn didn't make into the details. Aragorn walked towards his own horse; Gimli, knowing he would have to ride in his company, cast a fierce look on the giant animal. He would have happily accepted to ride with Legolas, for he had discovered that the elf did care for him during their brief talks in the boats. But Aragorn, in his state of mind, would never exactly be the attentive and caring kind. Gimli eyed Pippin's and Merry's horse, vaguely wondering if that animal would be able to bear one more rider. He was imagining his next ride in the company of Aragorn and a journey through Hell.

Aragorn was about to jump on the saddle when he noted Legolas' bow, still lying in the grass, the two elfish blades not very far. He let go the straps of his horse and walked towards the bow. He could still give it back to Legolas if they arrived in time to save him, or use it himself to exterminate his enemies in the other case.

At the very moment he was bending to pick up the bow, his foot hit something hard. He looked absentmindedly what it was before reporting his attention back to the bow.

Just as his hand made contact with the elfish weapon, his mind froze.

-- Oh no… Please, let it not be what I think it is… Everything but… --

And slowly, as his all his articulations had suddenly been frozen by an intense cold, Aragorn turned his head to gaze again the object against which his foot had hit. His three companions, looking at him at that very moment, got the impression that his eyes were eating his face as he was reaching for the object they couldn't see yet.

Aragorn closed his hand around the object and raised it in front of his eyes. At first sight, it looked like the handle of a knife or a short sword. Curiously, the blade had disappeared, like vanished into thin air, as no piece of metal was still attached to the handle. Aragorn observed in detail the handle. He had the feeling to touch something both incredibly hot and incredibly cold. The handle was perfectly pitch-black, and no light could get a hold on its hard surface, exception for some thin runes written with a less intense black. These runes were in the dark speech of Mordor; Even though he ignored that language – it was always dangerous to study an enemy such as Sauron too close – Aragorn understood in a blink the meaning of these runes. He had already seen this type of knife…

His blood froze in his veins.

-- It is a nightmare… It's got to be a nightmare… Please, make it be just a nightmare…! --

"Aragorn?"

It was Gimli. Aragorn realized that the three of them were watching him with puzzled look on their face. He jumped out of his torpor and rushed towards his horse, still holding Legolas' bow in his hand.

"WE CAN'T LINGER HERE ANY LONGER!!!", he was shouting as he was grabbing Gimli's arm and placing him abruptly behind him on the saddle. "But what's happening?!", Gimli protested, not that happy of such a treatment. Aragorn kicked the horse's side and launch it in full gallop on the still bloody trail of the orcs.

"This are more serious than I thought!!!", he said with a dry voice, loaded with worry.

Gimli frowned. How could things be even more serious than the « games » of the orcs?

[to be continued]

*********************************

All right, another chapter :D

Sorry for the delays, but now that I'm in holidays, I'll have more time to translate/write ;-)

Thanks you all for your reviews :,-)…. It really warmed my heart knowing that you liked my story…. :,-)…….
*to much emotion…… cries …….*

And thanx Emmithar for your spelling correction :-)
I therefore corrected the chapter 4 with what you mentioned ;)

Some of you are probably wiling to throw flying butcher knives towards me after this chapter, but I'll say: save them for next chapter ;ppp (those who read the French version know why ;p )

As said earlier, I'm in holidays now, but I won't do one fanfic per day, as I have a movie (Rune) and a few documentaries to prepare for mid-january ^^;
I still need to prepare the storyboards and costumes, so it will eat a little of my fanfic-writing time… YET, you'll see some surprise during theses holidays on ff.net ;-)

Hope to hear from you soon :-)

HUGS ^_____^