Doesn't it piss you off that Legolas is so perky in the mornings?
I thought Thomas deserved to be in the limelight again...;0)
Also this is a bit looong and sometimes OOC - sorry...*tries to look sweet so she will be forgiven and promises never to do it again*
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A Messenger rode through the Castle gates on horseback and dismounted. Thomas watched him from a window, high up in the King's chambers.
He had hardly left King Laertes's bedside in a week. Every once in a while the King would ask for news of his daughter, and regretfully Thomas would have to decline any knowledge.
He hoped and prayed that this was the Messenger he had sent to find Lord Antinous and the search party, come back with good news, but even he knew in his heart that the Princess would not be found that easily.
A few minutes later the doors to the King's chamber opened and the Messenger stepped inside.
"What news of Lord Antinous and the Princess?" asked Thomas, rushing to the courier before he could walk any further in.
"I found Lord Antinous and the search party in a clearing, not ten miles from here. It appears that they had camped there for a few days when one of the party found signs that the Princess had been there before them. There is no news of Princess Edith's whereabouts, my Lord, but Lord Antinous is optimistic of her safe return in the near future."
The Messenger looked at Thomas for any sort of reply that he might relay back to Lord Antinous, his large grey eyes were expectant and his tunic was dirty. He looked as if he had not rested properly in days.
"Go rest and get cleaned up." Thomas said, "I will tell the King the news, and you shall be called when you are needed."
The Messenger bowed and made a hasty exit.
Thomas turned and faced the King with a worried frown upon his face. He opened his mouth to speak, but the King coughed and opened his eyes.
"I heard what was said. I am no fool, I know that my daughter would not be found as easily as Lord Antinous expects. He thinks she is a dear, sweet thing, and that she is. But hide and seek was one of her favourite games when she was younger, and she will not give up quickly." he said, his voice cracking and a half smile upon his face. "I miss her terribly."
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As the day drew on, the sun got hotter and finally it started to sink in the sky.
They came to halt by a large lake surrounded by dark, leafy trees and decided to set up camp for the night by the shore, a little way into the trees so that if anyone came by they wouldn't be seen as easily.
Edie went down to the lake alone to bathe. The water was a dark, clear blue, but there was something slightly sinister in the way that it only rippled ever so slightly, as if there were precious little life in it. She was having second thoughts about getting clean, even though she had been walking all day and the sweat and dirt lay thick upon her skin.
She sighed and stripped off her clothes, leaving them in a heap upon the grass, and walked slowly to the waters edge.
Edie looked around, there was no life, no animals and the light was fading fast. She dipped her toes cautiously into the water, there was something off about this place, she could feel it.
There was a rustle in the bushes behind her and she spun around, trying vainly to cover herself and expecting a wild animal to come crashing out.
Nothing happened, and once again everything was still.
Edie breathed out a long sigh and turned back to the water, nothing had changed, it was still cold and uninviting.
"Godsdamnit." She mumbled and jumped into the water, feeling the frigid liquid wash all over her. She went under and came back up gasping for air, it was too cold and she had to get out of it. She swam to the shore and climbed back onto the muddy grass, shivering and trying to rub the water out of her hair with her hand. She stumbled over to her clothes and pulled them back on over her wet body, grumbling all the way back to the camp.
Legolas looked up from the fire as Edie emerged from the trees.
"How was it?" he asked, idly poking the flames with a stick.
Edie screwed up her nose and huffed. "Terrible!" she said and slumped down by the fire still rubbing at her hair.
Legolas said nothing, but smiled at her. She scowled back at him.
The next morning as the sun rose, Edie woke up in no better mood. Legolas was already awake and ready to go.
"Why didn't you wake me?" she grumbled as she struggled up, still half-asleep and trying her best to scowl at Legolas with her eyes not wanting to comply with her wishes.
"I didn't want to anger you." He said quietly, and before she could reply he looked behind him and turned back to her with a finger to his lips. "Hush! I can hear something."
"The only things that are living and breathing around here are you and I." She said walking over to where the Elf was standing and listening for herself.
Indeed there was something moving around out there, and it wasn't being too subtle about it either. It seemed to be crashing through the trees and rapidly coming towards them.
"We'd better get moving." Legolas said picking up his bow and taking her hand, pulling her through the trees in the opposite direction to whatever it was.
"Leg...olas…slow down!" Edie breathed out as they ran along. "We…don't even know…what it is…"
"Okay." Legolas said reluctantly and came to halt. "We're getting quite close to the lake now anyway, and we need to find a way around it."
Edie sat down on the nearest boulder and Legolas looked down at her, apparently he wasn't amused at her lack of physical fitness.
She looked back at him with a small amount of contempt in her eyes, "I'm not meant to run. I don't run. I'm a girl, and I'm meant to spend all my time sitting around waiting for suitors to come and marry me, so don't you give me that look!"
Legolas continued to make hawk-eyes at her anyway.
They sat in silence for an hour, Legolas looking out into the trees with his keen eyes, and Edie leaning her elbows on her knees.
She picked out a small hunk of bread from her pack and started nibbling on it, very soon it was finished and she had nothing to do.
She was bored, the air around the lake was damp and her hair was sticking to her face, she brushed a strand aside impatiently. "Legolas. Can we get moving? We've sat here for who knows how long and there really is nothing out there!" she said standing up with her hands on her hips.
Legolas looked at her silently and raised an unimpressed eyebrow in her direction, and then pursing his lips he said, "Oh, alright." and picked up his quiver, slinging it over his shoulder, and held his bow.
There was a ripple in the still waters of the lake that went unnoticed by them both, even to Legolas's sharp senses.
"There is no need to be like that!" Edie said following Legolas as he stalked off around the eastern shore.
He didn't answer Edie and this angered her even more.
"Leg...!" was all she managed to blurt out, because before she could finish a great tentacle appeared from the waters and wrapped around her leg, whisking her off the ground and onto her front with a loud thud.
Edie screamed. Legolas whipped round and had an arrow pointing at the creature before Edie could draw another breath.
More tentacles came out of the water and another wrapped itself around Edie's waist and started slowly dragging her into the water.
Edie dug her fingers into the muddy ground, but to no avail, her hands were clutching mud and grass, and the creature now had her dangling above the once calm waters, moving towards a great mouth full of sharp teeth that had appeared as if from nowhere.
Legolas let loose one arrow, and then another. He aimed for the creatures eyes, two great glassy orbs of amber glinting in the morning light.
The tentacles were moving madly in every direction and Edie felt as if she were being pulled apart, she saw Legolas shooting at the creature, if she hadn't been in so much pain she would have been quite impressed, the arrows were following the creature as it moved further away from the shore.
Legolas aimed and fired, the arrow left the bow and buried itself in the creatures great head, he swiftly drew another from the quiver on his back and aimed once more for the immense eyes, but the creature moved quite quickly this time and the arrow fell off course and implanted itself in Edie's leg.
Edie screamed once again. She felt pain, lots of pain. Then she saw the arrow in her leg. "Legolas!" she yelled almost angrily, but a lot more pained. Then she passed out.
Legolas gave up with the bow, his forte, he threw it to the ground, drew his sword from its sheath, and waded into the water. He swung the sword and lopped off one of the offending tentacles, the creature roared in pain.
"Princess!" Legolas shouted at her, she was now dangling limply from one of the tentacles high up in the air. The creature wasn't giving up its prey that easily.
Every tentacle that came Legolas's way he hacked down, but there always seemed to be more of the wretched things.
They were disgusting, stinking, dull brown, oozing. They looked like they were rotting away, and whenever Legolas had the misfortune to touch one they felt clammy and generally not nice.
Finally, wet and exhausted, Legolas lunged at one of the creatures eyes, driving the sword through the amber orb. The creature bellowed, a high pitched screeching noise that hurt Legolas's sensitive ears. He winced, and pushed the sword in hilt deep and drew it out again. A deep crimson fluid gushed out, staining the surrounding water. The creature's blood.
It roared again and dropped Edie as Legolas replaced the sword in its sheath and fought against the churning waters to Edie's side. Her limbs were heavy and limp, and she floated in the water as if she were dead. He picked her up and carried her to the shore, struggling against the waves the dying creature was making.
Stumbling to the shore in an ungraceful manner Legolas laid Edie down on the cold, muddy earth, moving the wet hair back from her face.
"Princess." he said to her, shaking her arm.
She lay still. Legolas could see that she was breathing, there was a very slight movement in her chest.
"Edie!" he shook her more urgently now, and was relieved when she started coughing and even when she vomited up a large amount of lake water and half-digested bread on his knees.
"I'm sorry." she croaked, looking up at him.
Legolas smiled down on her, and was stunned when Edie brought her hand up and slapped him round the face.
"What was that for?" he asked, holding his cheek.
"You festering pile of dung!" she said gesturing to the arrow that was protruding out of her thigh. "You shot me in the leg!"
Legolas placed a hand on the arrow, and yanked, it came out of Edie's leg with a strange crunching noise. Edie screamed for what seemed like the hundredth time in only a few minutes, and grabbed his wrist. "Damn you!" she hissed at him.
"Be thankful it didn't hit the bone!" he said, ripping the bottom of Edie's cloak to make a bandage.
"Be thankful!" she practically screamed. "Be thankful? You shot me! And you're using my cloak to bind the wound!"
Legolas said nothing, but continued to wrap the bandage round Edie's leg which was now bleeding profusely. He tightened it with the same force Edie was still grabbing his wrist.
"Ow!" she squeezed even harder. "Loosen it!"
"No. Not until you let go of my wrist."
Edie reluctantly released her grip on him and sank down to the ground while Legolas loosed the bandage slightly.
"It's still too tight." Edie grumbled and Legolas shot her a look.
"If I make it any looser the blood-flow will not stop." he said, only now looking down at the vomit on his trousers and grimacing.
Edie glared at him and then softened. "I'm still angry with you, but I'm sorry for being ill on you." she said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
"That's alright." Legolas took off his cloak and unfastened hers. "Here, take my cloak, yours is soaked through and mine is not as wet."
He stood up and passed her the cloak, and moved off towards the lake.
The creature had sunk down to the bottom, leaving a crimson cloud on the water. Legolas moved a little way up the shore and jumped into the lake, and when he came up he walked to the edge wiping his hands on his trousers and dripping wet.
Edie sat up slowly. Her face was pale, and there were dark circles under her eyes.
"Shall we start walking again?" she asked Legolas as he approached, and he shook his head.
"We can rest here a while." he said looking at her face with thinly veiled concern.
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Okay, that's all for now, folks. More to come...(as I always say)
I thought Thomas deserved to be in the limelight again...;0)
Also this is a bit looong and sometimes OOC - sorry...*tries to look sweet so she will be forgiven and promises never to do it again*
***********************
A Messenger rode through the Castle gates on horseback and dismounted. Thomas watched him from a window, high up in the King's chambers.
He had hardly left King Laertes's bedside in a week. Every once in a while the King would ask for news of his daughter, and regretfully Thomas would have to decline any knowledge.
He hoped and prayed that this was the Messenger he had sent to find Lord Antinous and the search party, come back with good news, but even he knew in his heart that the Princess would not be found that easily.
A few minutes later the doors to the King's chamber opened and the Messenger stepped inside.
"What news of Lord Antinous and the Princess?" asked Thomas, rushing to the courier before he could walk any further in.
"I found Lord Antinous and the search party in a clearing, not ten miles from here. It appears that they had camped there for a few days when one of the party found signs that the Princess had been there before them. There is no news of Princess Edith's whereabouts, my Lord, but Lord Antinous is optimistic of her safe return in the near future."
The Messenger looked at Thomas for any sort of reply that he might relay back to Lord Antinous, his large grey eyes were expectant and his tunic was dirty. He looked as if he had not rested properly in days.
"Go rest and get cleaned up." Thomas said, "I will tell the King the news, and you shall be called when you are needed."
The Messenger bowed and made a hasty exit.
Thomas turned and faced the King with a worried frown upon his face. He opened his mouth to speak, but the King coughed and opened his eyes.
"I heard what was said. I am no fool, I know that my daughter would not be found as easily as Lord Antinous expects. He thinks she is a dear, sweet thing, and that she is. But hide and seek was one of her favourite games when she was younger, and she will not give up quickly." he said, his voice cracking and a half smile upon his face. "I miss her terribly."
************************
As the day drew on, the sun got hotter and finally it started to sink in the sky.
They came to halt by a large lake surrounded by dark, leafy trees and decided to set up camp for the night by the shore, a little way into the trees so that if anyone came by they wouldn't be seen as easily.
Edie went down to the lake alone to bathe. The water was a dark, clear blue, but there was something slightly sinister in the way that it only rippled ever so slightly, as if there were precious little life in it. She was having second thoughts about getting clean, even though she had been walking all day and the sweat and dirt lay thick upon her skin.
She sighed and stripped off her clothes, leaving them in a heap upon the grass, and walked slowly to the waters edge.
Edie looked around, there was no life, no animals and the light was fading fast. She dipped her toes cautiously into the water, there was something off about this place, she could feel it.
There was a rustle in the bushes behind her and she spun around, trying vainly to cover herself and expecting a wild animal to come crashing out.
Nothing happened, and once again everything was still.
Edie breathed out a long sigh and turned back to the water, nothing had changed, it was still cold and uninviting.
"Godsdamnit." She mumbled and jumped into the water, feeling the frigid liquid wash all over her. She went under and came back up gasping for air, it was too cold and she had to get out of it. She swam to the shore and climbed back onto the muddy grass, shivering and trying to rub the water out of her hair with her hand. She stumbled over to her clothes and pulled them back on over her wet body, grumbling all the way back to the camp.
Legolas looked up from the fire as Edie emerged from the trees.
"How was it?" he asked, idly poking the flames with a stick.
Edie screwed up her nose and huffed. "Terrible!" she said and slumped down by the fire still rubbing at her hair.
Legolas said nothing, but smiled at her. She scowled back at him.
The next morning as the sun rose, Edie woke up in no better mood. Legolas was already awake and ready to go.
"Why didn't you wake me?" she grumbled as she struggled up, still half-asleep and trying her best to scowl at Legolas with her eyes not wanting to comply with her wishes.
"I didn't want to anger you." He said quietly, and before she could reply he looked behind him and turned back to her with a finger to his lips. "Hush! I can hear something."
"The only things that are living and breathing around here are you and I." She said walking over to where the Elf was standing and listening for herself.
Indeed there was something moving around out there, and it wasn't being too subtle about it either. It seemed to be crashing through the trees and rapidly coming towards them.
"We'd better get moving." Legolas said picking up his bow and taking her hand, pulling her through the trees in the opposite direction to whatever it was.
"Leg...olas…slow down!" Edie breathed out as they ran along. "We…don't even know…what it is…"
"Okay." Legolas said reluctantly and came to halt. "We're getting quite close to the lake now anyway, and we need to find a way around it."
Edie sat down on the nearest boulder and Legolas looked down at her, apparently he wasn't amused at her lack of physical fitness.
She looked back at him with a small amount of contempt in her eyes, "I'm not meant to run. I don't run. I'm a girl, and I'm meant to spend all my time sitting around waiting for suitors to come and marry me, so don't you give me that look!"
Legolas continued to make hawk-eyes at her anyway.
They sat in silence for an hour, Legolas looking out into the trees with his keen eyes, and Edie leaning her elbows on her knees.
She picked out a small hunk of bread from her pack and started nibbling on it, very soon it was finished and she had nothing to do.
She was bored, the air around the lake was damp and her hair was sticking to her face, she brushed a strand aside impatiently. "Legolas. Can we get moving? We've sat here for who knows how long and there really is nothing out there!" she said standing up with her hands on her hips.
Legolas looked at her silently and raised an unimpressed eyebrow in her direction, and then pursing his lips he said, "Oh, alright." and picked up his quiver, slinging it over his shoulder, and held his bow.
There was a ripple in the still waters of the lake that went unnoticed by them both, even to Legolas's sharp senses.
"There is no need to be like that!" Edie said following Legolas as he stalked off around the eastern shore.
He didn't answer Edie and this angered her even more.
"Leg...!" was all she managed to blurt out, because before she could finish a great tentacle appeared from the waters and wrapped around her leg, whisking her off the ground and onto her front with a loud thud.
Edie screamed. Legolas whipped round and had an arrow pointing at the creature before Edie could draw another breath.
More tentacles came out of the water and another wrapped itself around Edie's waist and started slowly dragging her into the water.
Edie dug her fingers into the muddy ground, but to no avail, her hands were clutching mud and grass, and the creature now had her dangling above the once calm waters, moving towards a great mouth full of sharp teeth that had appeared as if from nowhere.
Legolas let loose one arrow, and then another. He aimed for the creatures eyes, two great glassy orbs of amber glinting in the morning light.
The tentacles were moving madly in every direction and Edie felt as if she were being pulled apart, she saw Legolas shooting at the creature, if she hadn't been in so much pain she would have been quite impressed, the arrows were following the creature as it moved further away from the shore.
Legolas aimed and fired, the arrow left the bow and buried itself in the creatures great head, he swiftly drew another from the quiver on his back and aimed once more for the immense eyes, but the creature moved quite quickly this time and the arrow fell off course and implanted itself in Edie's leg.
Edie screamed once again. She felt pain, lots of pain. Then she saw the arrow in her leg. "Legolas!" she yelled almost angrily, but a lot more pained. Then she passed out.
Legolas gave up with the bow, his forte, he threw it to the ground, drew his sword from its sheath, and waded into the water. He swung the sword and lopped off one of the offending tentacles, the creature roared in pain.
"Princess!" Legolas shouted at her, she was now dangling limply from one of the tentacles high up in the air. The creature wasn't giving up its prey that easily.
Every tentacle that came Legolas's way he hacked down, but there always seemed to be more of the wretched things.
They were disgusting, stinking, dull brown, oozing. They looked like they were rotting away, and whenever Legolas had the misfortune to touch one they felt clammy and generally not nice.
Finally, wet and exhausted, Legolas lunged at one of the creatures eyes, driving the sword through the amber orb. The creature bellowed, a high pitched screeching noise that hurt Legolas's sensitive ears. He winced, and pushed the sword in hilt deep and drew it out again. A deep crimson fluid gushed out, staining the surrounding water. The creature's blood.
It roared again and dropped Edie as Legolas replaced the sword in its sheath and fought against the churning waters to Edie's side. Her limbs were heavy and limp, and she floated in the water as if she were dead. He picked her up and carried her to the shore, struggling against the waves the dying creature was making.
Stumbling to the shore in an ungraceful manner Legolas laid Edie down on the cold, muddy earth, moving the wet hair back from her face.
"Princess." he said to her, shaking her arm.
She lay still. Legolas could see that she was breathing, there was a very slight movement in her chest.
"Edie!" he shook her more urgently now, and was relieved when she started coughing and even when she vomited up a large amount of lake water and half-digested bread on his knees.
"I'm sorry." she croaked, looking up at him.
Legolas smiled down on her, and was stunned when Edie brought her hand up and slapped him round the face.
"What was that for?" he asked, holding his cheek.
"You festering pile of dung!" she said gesturing to the arrow that was protruding out of her thigh. "You shot me in the leg!"
Legolas placed a hand on the arrow, and yanked, it came out of Edie's leg with a strange crunching noise. Edie screamed for what seemed like the hundredth time in only a few minutes, and grabbed his wrist. "Damn you!" she hissed at him.
"Be thankful it didn't hit the bone!" he said, ripping the bottom of Edie's cloak to make a bandage.
"Be thankful!" she practically screamed. "Be thankful? You shot me! And you're using my cloak to bind the wound!"
Legolas said nothing, but continued to wrap the bandage round Edie's leg which was now bleeding profusely. He tightened it with the same force Edie was still grabbing his wrist.
"Ow!" she squeezed even harder. "Loosen it!"
"No. Not until you let go of my wrist."
Edie reluctantly released her grip on him and sank down to the ground while Legolas loosed the bandage slightly.
"It's still too tight." Edie grumbled and Legolas shot her a look.
"If I make it any looser the blood-flow will not stop." he said, only now looking down at the vomit on his trousers and grimacing.
Edie glared at him and then softened. "I'm still angry with you, but I'm sorry for being ill on you." she said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.
"That's alright." Legolas took off his cloak and unfastened hers. "Here, take my cloak, yours is soaked through and mine is not as wet."
He stood up and passed her the cloak, and moved off towards the lake.
The creature had sunk down to the bottom, leaving a crimson cloud on the water. Legolas moved a little way up the shore and jumped into the lake, and when he came up he walked to the edge wiping his hands on his trousers and dripping wet.
Edie sat up slowly. Her face was pale, and there were dark circles under her eyes.
"Shall we start walking again?" she asked Legolas as he approached, and he shook his head.
"We can rest here a while." he said looking at her face with thinly veiled concern.
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Okay, that's all for now, folks. More to come...(as I always say)