Disclaimer: Tolkien owns LOTR.
I STAND ALONE
"Well," sighed Naurglahad "I guess were going on foot over Caradhas aren't we?"
"That is our only option" said Legolas "Wed best get our start now"
Naurglahad looked up at Redhorn. It was the month of Hisime, or November, and snow was already falling on the mountains feet. This would make the journey much colder than any journey she had walked before. She had been to Caradhas a couple times, but that was during the summer. In winter, she wasn't sure if shed make it or not.
This wouldn't be a problem for Legolas and Elenwe, as they were immune to the cold anyway [Are they immune to cold? I heard that somewhere, but I had always thought it was disease…] the journey would be long and tiring, but they had no troubles of whether they'd freeze to death or not.
"Cant you just call the other Dragons to come take us over?" asked Elenwe.
"No," said Naurglahad "The whistle is loud, but they wont be able to hear it from almost three-hundred miles away. And I don't want to risk their lives…as I did for
Malta and Ikaika."
"Please don't cry again," said Elenwe quickly.
"Its all right," she muttered, "I refuse to…"
Elenwe looked at Legolas who shrugged his shoulders.
"He wouldn't have allowed me to cry last night. He would've been ashamed to see me show my true feelings."
She quickly fastened her cloak, pulled over her hood, and took off ahead of them.
"Come on!" she called "We haven't the rest of our lives to do this!"
Legolas and Elenwe followed, but they couldn't help wondering: who was 'he'? And why was 'Little Ryunarasu' not allowed to show her feelings? Elenwe had a slight idea, but he didn't want to think about it. It made him uncomfortable.
For the first several hours of the climb, Naurglahad was in the lead. She had her tip-less gloves on, covering her palms with leather, so grabbing onto rocks was not much of a problem. She already had a tight grip, making it less difficult to slip and fall. At 9:30 AM, they had reached the early fallen snow. Naurglahad was in the lead only for one-quarter of this task. They had reached a lower angled surface, completely white with snow. Unlike Legolas and Elenwe who could walk on the flurry, she had to plow through the knee-high snow, eventually falling behind them. Morning turned into noon, and from noon to evening. Storms blew harder and snow fell thicker in the autumn dark. It clouded their vision of the stars and got them quite lost.
"We should find a shelter!" shouted Elenwe through one particularly rough blizzard.
"But where?" called Legolas.
Naurglahad said nothing, but she pointed to an ice covered rock in a far corner of the hill they were walking up. She turned without a word toward the ice rock and began to trudge through the snow to it. Elenwe and Legolas hesitated, but followed.
~*~
Reflections. Hundreds of reflections shone at the three as soon as they had stepped into the cave. It was all ice. Mirrors of all different, shapes, cuts, and sizes were embedded in the icy floor as crystals, hung on the walls, or pointed down at them as icicles. Frosty water dripped from the tips, and splattered on the floor, shattering the silence of the long tranquil cave.
They admired the clean, sparkling ice for a while as they paced around the shelter. In time, they split up alone to scavenge for a dry place to rest in. Legolas turned right, into a straight hall, Naurglahad headed to the left, to climb up a staircase of ice, and Elenwe slid down a ramp to a wide frozen lake at the center fork.
Legolas had no luck. He passed some interesting displays though. There were strangely cut ice blocks here and there, and beautifully smooth walls and floors. It was a very pleasant experience until Legolas came across a tiny inscription, written in Common Tongue saying:
Help me. I cannot get out. I'm stuck. Its coming after me.
Legolas shuddered in reminiscence of Balin's Tomb in Moria. It was eerie down there, and it was starting to get eerie up here when he discovered a completely frozen mumakil in one of the walls. It was iced up in a rather disturbing contortion: head angled in a low position, trunk twisted up high, horns cracked, feet stumbling, and the rider upon the tower on its back, a rotting skeleton. Legolas decided to head back to the center where it was free of preserved bodies.
Naurglahad wasn't having too much of a fun time either. The stairs were completely made of ice, and it was very slippery. Since the walls were so trim, she couldn't climb up the stairs either. Every time she made it up three steps, she slipped back down two steps. There were an exact total of 472 steps on this ladder, so, in utter failure, Naurglahad slid down her achieved climb, 5 steps, and went back to the center.
"Where's Elenwe?" asked Legolas.
Naurglahad rubbed her hands together and put them over her mouth and breathed in an attempt to warm up her lips. Through her cupped hands she said:
"I don't know. Perhaps he's had some luck in finding a safe rest."
There was a short pause.
"We should go check on him," said Legolas.
"Right."
They sprinted down the middle corridor and dropped on the ramp. Snow had lightly covered the long slope. This gave them an idea for competition.
"Ill race you down to the bottom!" exclaimed Naurglahad. Legolas shook his head.
"No, you'll beat me too easily" he replied. Naurglahad grinned.
"Exactly."
"How about we slide down at the same pace," said Legolas "and whoever can make a better pattern in the snow wins"
"Oh goody!" sang Naurglahad "Art education!"
Legolas shook his head, but he couldn't help smirking as he lined up at the edge.
"Ready when you are!" said Naurglahad.
"all right then…go!"
Legolas' pattern was a slick twirl of two lines, weaving in and out. As he accelerated, he added one or two leaves to the twist. Naurglahad's lines were in an unusual shape that Legolas could not figure. First she made a thick cross, then a long plane with looping figures in between.
"Watch out!" called Legolas.
Two medium sized blocks were parked right in front of them. Legolas skated around one, and Naurglahad the other. Behind that, was a series of tinier rocks, placed in random areas, just waiting to trip one of them? It was a close race about the stones. Eventually, they had to leap rows of ice to avoid tripping. Finally, the rocks cleared. Naurglahad turned to Legolas.
"That was close," she said, slightly laughing in relief.
Legolas nodded and smiled, but then his face turned pale. Naurglahad looked forward. There was a sheer drop right ahead of them. Where the fall resulted, neither of them knew.
"Aiiiieeee!!!"
FLUMP!
"Legolas?"
"Ouch. What?"
"…Did we die?"
"No! We're still alive!"
"…Then why does the ground smell like hell?"
Legolas sniffed the air. He was sickened by the foul stench that lingered in the cold atmosphere.
"What is that?"
"See? It smells like Mordor or something."
"Mordor smells like gas. This place stinks of-"
"Dead bodies," said a new voice.
Naurglahad felt someone yank her out of the crumpled heap she and Legolas were in. It was, or course, Elenwe. She dusted the snow off her cloak as he helped Legolas to his feet.
"What pattern were you making?" she asked Legolas.
"Just a braid with leaves on it. What about you?"
Naurglahad shot her hand like a viper at Legolas' waist, snatching one of his long knives.
"I've always liked this knife," she sighed as she examined the intricate writing on its blade. "I want one" she handed it back to Legolas who took it and shoved it back into its scabbard.
"I need both of my knives" he said, "You can go ask the Dwarves for your own tool."
"Speaking of Dwarves," said Elenwe "look what I found."
He walked away and stopped in the center of a frozen pond. Legolas and Naurglahad followed.
"This cave," explained Elenwe "isn't just a cave" He bent down and brushed some snow aside. Under it, the ice solid body of a struggling Dwarf appeared. "Its a tomb."
He pointed outward at the rest of the lake. Tiny dark figures could be seen below the frost, in all kinds of positions and expressions.
"Ooh," said Naurglahad, imitating a sci-fi tone "Its a parallel ice dimension of Moria!"
"But what are an army of Dwarves doing in a cave in Caradhas?" pondered Legolas aloud. "They shouldn't be here…" Naurglahad looked down at the preserved Dwarf bodies.
"These aren't Dwarves."
"What?" said Elenwe "They aren't?"
"No," said Naurglahad, shaking her head "These are Easterlings… Or, well, that's what this one dude told me at Rohan. But I think he was skitzophranic or something. Jumping around madly... and stuff."
"Impossible! What would Easterlings be doing in Caradhas?"
"It seems that they were traveling across this pass when they decided to move out of Rhun, and got caved in or something"
They stood there for a long time, examining the Easterlings clothing and weaponry. It seemed that if you would just prod the ice slightly, it would crack and disintegrate.
"Hey guys?" asked Naurglahad.
"Yeah?" said Legolas and Elenwe simultaneously.
"Do you think that that blood all the way down there," she pointed deep under the ice "spewing from that decapitated body would still look that fresh even after about three-thousand years?"
Legolas peered at the figure. Its head was off, but it didn't look cut. It looked like it was bitten off.
"No…I don't think so…"
Suddenly, booming noises were heard. The ice around them started cracking a bit. This creature had two legs, and was obviously, very, very big. Then, a vast shadow was cast over them and heavy, searing breath came down their backs. Naurglahad twitched.
"There's a Snow-troll living in this cave, isn't there?"
They turned around.
One, giant, hairy Snow-troll stood there with an ice club in one hand and a slaughtered Easterling corpse in the other. Blood was smeared all over its lips and long teeth.
"Oh look!" said Naurglahad gleefully, pointing up at the Troll "Its the abominable SnowMan!"
She reached behind at her pack and got out a black contraption with a shiny glass lenses on it. She pushed a button at the top of it, and out came a bright flash. The Troll stood there paralyzed for a moment, and then it roared in anger, starting to swing its club about and stamping madly.
"What did you do that for?!" shouted Legolas over the Troll's snarling, "You'll get us killed!"
The Troll stomped hard on one section of the ice, causing it to crack. The crack made its way around it and the others, loosening it from the rest, and sliding across the frozen lake. The ice plane slid across the surface banging off into walls, jostling its passengers, and going everywhere. Naurglahad cheered.
"This is fun!"
"We're going to die!" screamed Legolas.
"No were not!"
Then, the ice planes smashed into another wall, breaking it open revealing a steep slide. Their level was tipping over at the edge. In its ignorant panic, the Troll scrambled off the plane and slammed itself firmly on the ice. Unfortunately, the Troll was too stupid to know that you should never slam four tons of weight onto a thin sheet of ice. The Troll cracked it and fell into the water beneath, just as the plane fell forward down the slide.
"Noooow," drawled Naurglahad, "were going to die."
I STAND ALONE
"Well," sighed Naurglahad "I guess were going on foot over Caradhas aren't we?"
"That is our only option" said Legolas "Wed best get our start now"
Naurglahad looked up at Redhorn. It was the month of Hisime, or November, and snow was already falling on the mountains feet. This would make the journey much colder than any journey she had walked before. She had been to Caradhas a couple times, but that was during the summer. In winter, she wasn't sure if shed make it or not.
This wouldn't be a problem for Legolas and Elenwe, as they were immune to the cold anyway [Are they immune to cold? I heard that somewhere, but I had always thought it was disease…] the journey would be long and tiring, but they had no troubles of whether they'd freeze to death or not.
"Cant you just call the other Dragons to come take us over?" asked Elenwe.
"No," said Naurglahad "The whistle is loud, but they wont be able to hear it from almost three-hundred miles away. And I don't want to risk their lives…as I did for
Malta and Ikaika."
"Please don't cry again," said Elenwe quickly.
"Its all right," she muttered, "I refuse to…"
Elenwe looked at Legolas who shrugged his shoulders.
"He wouldn't have allowed me to cry last night. He would've been ashamed to see me show my true feelings."
She quickly fastened her cloak, pulled over her hood, and took off ahead of them.
"Come on!" she called "We haven't the rest of our lives to do this!"
Legolas and Elenwe followed, but they couldn't help wondering: who was 'he'? And why was 'Little Ryunarasu' not allowed to show her feelings? Elenwe had a slight idea, but he didn't want to think about it. It made him uncomfortable.
For the first several hours of the climb, Naurglahad was in the lead. She had her tip-less gloves on, covering her palms with leather, so grabbing onto rocks was not much of a problem. She already had a tight grip, making it less difficult to slip and fall. At 9:30 AM, they had reached the early fallen snow. Naurglahad was in the lead only for one-quarter of this task. They had reached a lower angled surface, completely white with snow. Unlike Legolas and Elenwe who could walk on the flurry, she had to plow through the knee-high snow, eventually falling behind them. Morning turned into noon, and from noon to evening. Storms blew harder and snow fell thicker in the autumn dark. It clouded their vision of the stars and got them quite lost.
"We should find a shelter!" shouted Elenwe through one particularly rough blizzard.
"But where?" called Legolas.
Naurglahad said nothing, but she pointed to an ice covered rock in a far corner of the hill they were walking up. She turned without a word toward the ice rock and began to trudge through the snow to it. Elenwe and Legolas hesitated, but followed.
~*~
Reflections. Hundreds of reflections shone at the three as soon as they had stepped into the cave. It was all ice. Mirrors of all different, shapes, cuts, and sizes were embedded in the icy floor as crystals, hung on the walls, or pointed down at them as icicles. Frosty water dripped from the tips, and splattered on the floor, shattering the silence of the long tranquil cave.
They admired the clean, sparkling ice for a while as they paced around the shelter. In time, they split up alone to scavenge for a dry place to rest in. Legolas turned right, into a straight hall, Naurglahad headed to the left, to climb up a staircase of ice, and Elenwe slid down a ramp to a wide frozen lake at the center fork.
Legolas had no luck. He passed some interesting displays though. There were strangely cut ice blocks here and there, and beautifully smooth walls and floors. It was a very pleasant experience until Legolas came across a tiny inscription, written in Common Tongue saying:
Help me. I cannot get out. I'm stuck. Its coming after me.
Legolas shuddered in reminiscence of Balin's Tomb in Moria. It was eerie down there, and it was starting to get eerie up here when he discovered a completely frozen mumakil in one of the walls. It was iced up in a rather disturbing contortion: head angled in a low position, trunk twisted up high, horns cracked, feet stumbling, and the rider upon the tower on its back, a rotting skeleton. Legolas decided to head back to the center where it was free of preserved bodies.
Naurglahad wasn't having too much of a fun time either. The stairs were completely made of ice, and it was very slippery. Since the walls were so trim, she couldn't climb up the stairs either. Every time she made it up three steps, she slipped back down two steps. There were an exact total of 472 steps on this ladder, so, in utter failure, Naurglahad slid down her achieved climb, 5 steps, and went back to the center.
"Where's Elenwe?" asked Legolas.
Naurglahad rubbed her hands together and put them over her mouth and breathed in an attempt to warm up her lips. Through her cupped hands she said:
"I don't know. Perhaps he's had some luck in finding a safe rest."
There was a short pause.
"We should go check on him," said Legolas.
"Right."
They sprinted down the middle corridor and dropped on the ramp. Snow had lightly covered the long slope. This gave them an idea for competition.
"Ill race you down to the bottom!" exclaimed Naurglahad. Legolas shook his head.
"No, you'll beat me too easily" he replied. Naurglahad grinned.
"Exactly."
"How about we slide down at the same pace," said Legolas "and whoever can make a better pattern in the snow wins"
"Oh goody!" sang Naurglahad "Art education!"
Legolas shook his head, but he couldn't help smirking as he lined up at the edge.
"Ready when you are!" said Naurglahad.
"all right then…go!"
Legolas' pattern was a slick twirl of two lines, weaving in and out. As he accelerated, he added one or two leaves to the twist. Naurglahad's lines were in an unusual shape that Legolas could not figure. First she made a thick cross, then a long plane with looping figures in between.
"Watch out!" called Legolas.
Two medium sized blocks were parked right in front of them. Legolas skated around one, and Naurglahad the other. Behind that, was a series of tinier rocks, placed in random areas, just waiting to trip one of them? It was a close race about the stones. Eventually, they had to leap rows of ice to avoid tripping. Finally, the rocks cleared. Naurglahad turned to Legolas.
"That was close," she said, slightly laughing in relief.
Legolas nodded and smiled, but then his face turned pale. Naurglahad looked forward. There was a sheer drop right ahead of them. Where the fall resulted, neither of them knew.
"Aiiiieeee!!!"
FLUMP!
"Legolas?"
"Ouch. What?"
"…Did we die?"
"No! We're still alive!"
"…Then why does the ground smell like hell?"
Legolas sniffed the air. He was sickened by the foul stench that lingered in the cold atmosphere.
"What is that?"
"See? It smells like Mordor or something."
"Mordor smells like gas. This place stinks of-"
"Dead bodies," said a new voice.
Naurglahad felt someone yank her out of the crumpled heap she and Legolas were in. It was, or course, Elenwe. She dusted the snow off her cloak as he helped Legolas to his feet.
"What pattern were you making?" she asked Legolas.
"Just a braid with leaves on it. What about you?"
Naurglahad shot her hand like a viper at Legolas' waist, snatching one of his long knives.
"I've always liked this knife," she sighed as she examined the intricate writing on its blade. "I want one" she handed it back to Legolas who took it and shoved it back into its scabbard.
"I need both of my knives" he said, "You can go ask the Dwarves for your own tool."
"Speaking of Dwarves," said Elenwe "look what I found."
He walked away and stopped in the center of a frozen pond. Legolas and Naurglahad followed.
"This cave," explained Elenwe "isn't just a cave" He bent down and brushed some snow aside. Under it, the ice solid body of a struggling Dwarf appeared. "Its a tomb."
He pointed outward at the rest of the lake. Tiny dark figures could be seen below the frost, in all kinds of positions and expressions.
"Ooh," said Naurglahad, imitating a sci-fi tone "Its a parallel ice dimension of Moria!"
"But what are an army of Dwarves doing in a cave in Caradhas?" pondered Legolas aloud. "They shouldn't be here…" Naurglahad looked down at the preserved Dwarf bodies.
"These aren't Dwarves."
"What?" said Elenwe "They aren't?"
"No," said Naurglahad, shaking her head "These are Easterlings… Or, well, that's what this one dude told me at Rohan. But I think he was skitzophranic or something. Jumping around madly... and stuff."
"Impossible! What would Easterlings be doing in Caradhas?"
"It seems that they were traveling across this pass when they decided to move out of Rhun, and got caved in or something"
They stood there for a long time, examining the Easterlings clothing and weaponry. It seemed that if you would just prod the ice slightly, it would crack and disintegrate.
"Hey guys?" asked Naurglahad.
"Yeah?" said Legolas and Elenwe simultaneously.
"Do you think that that blood all the way down there," she pointed deep under the ice "spewing from that decapitated body would still look that fresh even after about three-thousand years?"
Legolas peered at the figure. Its head was off, but it didn't look cut. It looked like it was bitten off.
"No…I don't think so…"
Suddenly, booming noises were heard. The ice around them started cracking a bit. This creature had two legs, and was obviously, very, very big. Then, a vast shadow was cast over them and heavy, searing breath came down their backs. Naurglahad twitched.
"There's a Snow-troll living in this cave, isn't there?"
They turned around.
One, giant, hairy Snow-troll stood there with an ice club in one hand and a slaughtered Easterling corpse in the other. Blood was smeared all over its lips and long teeth.
"Oh look!" said Naurglahad gleefully, pointing up at the Troll "Its the abominable SnowMan!"
She reached behind at her pack and got out a black contraption with a shiny glass lenses on it. She pushed a button at the top of it, and out came a bright flash. The Troll stood there paralyzed for a moment, and then it roared in anger, starting to swing its club about and stamping madly.
"What did you do that for?!" shouted Legolas over the Troll's snarling, "You'll get us killed!"
The Troll stomped hard on one section of the ice, causing it to crack. The crack made its way around it and the others, loosening it from the rest, and sliding across the frozen lake. The ice plane slid across the surface banging off into walls, jostling its passengers, and going everywhere. Naurglahad cheered.
"This is fun!"
"We're going to die!" screamed Legolas.
"No were not!"
Then, the ice planes smashed into another wall, breaking it open revealing a steep slide. Their level was tipping over at the edge. In its ignorant panic, the Troll scrambled off the plane and slammed itself firmly on the ice. Unfortunately, the Troll was too stupid to know that you should never slam four tons of weight onto a thin sheet of ice. The Troll cracked it and fell into the water beneath, just as the plane fell forward down the slide.
"Noooow," drawled Naurglahad, "were going to die."