~ Shortcut ~
By Ola
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A/N~ =) lol, I'm glad so many of you are still reading this, and I apologize for taking some time in posting this chapter. (I do have excuses! I went swimming yesterday, and had to do homework. Although I think you don't really care eh? *grins*). Thanks so much for all the reviews!! I won't spoil the story by writing a huge author's note. There will be another one at the end *lol* . enjoy! =)
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Part 4~ Colder
A cold wind ran over my face. My face…it was the only part of my body I could feel. How strange it felt…as if I was floating in air, feeling nothing beneath my feet, feeling nothing of my feet. I blinked my eyes open, they would not focus for a long while. All I could see were pale gray shapes. The pale gray sky, the barely lighter circle of the colorless sun, the gray-white flatness of …the snow? Yes, snow, all around me. Around? How could I know? I was unable to turn my head back. Actually, I was looking up into the sky…was I lying down then? I do not know. The wind, the wind was the only thing I knew. The wind, with its stinging bite-although I barely felt it-and another, sharper needle like sting near my temple. I tried to rub the inconvenience away…and felt another sting on my hand. My mind slowly focused on it. Yes. My. Hand. I did feel it. Barely.
To tell you the truth, I felt as if I was not myself. That is, I have never felt so…disconnected before. Not knowing where I was, what had happened. Not able to think. Not particularly wanting to think.
Murmurs and soft-spoken words, that I was unable to hear despite my elven abilities wandered through my mind like ghosts. Elven? Ah, yes, I was an elf. An immortal… …so where was I? … …the gray Havens?
No. Somehow, I knew it was not that place. This place was much colder, much sharper. The annoying sting came back. By instinct, I tried to slap it away, as if it was an insect too hungry and too bold for its own good. To my faint surprise, I felt my hand slowly fall back and softly bang against something bigger and heavier. My body? …so I still had one? …this is all so…confusing …so …far away…
I could not bring my mind around to start thinking properly. At least I knew that usually I thought I lot more…coherently than this.
What was wrong with those insects? I thought they did not like the cold; they could not live in the cold. So what was that? I tried to move my head around, receiving a few more stings in the process, and then, something cold and dark recovered my face.
What! Surprise barely registered before I flayed my arms and legs to try to regain the surface, not stopping to think whether I still had those limbs attached to my body. Arms or no arms, I would not go back down there. My head pierced the water, painfully scrapping against something sharp. Ah, so it had been ice. Not bugs. I would have chuckled at my stupidity, but the dunking had returned some sense to my muddy thoughts, and I began to remember what did happen. Yes, I know. And the more I knew, the less I liked it. For a moment, I panicked, looking around, listening as hard as I could for the foul beast that had dragged me down. But there was nothing and no one around. The emptiness. The flat wind swept lake. The w…
No. No. How long have I laid here, my face encased in ice, barely above water level to allow me to breathe? However short, it was long enough. Come on Legolas! You know you cannot stay here! Get a grip on yourself!! A sigh rattled in my lungs. It was so hard to start moving. I only wanted to lie down…to let myself float in the light…
…to sleep…
…forever…
NO!! You cannot! Somewhere above, a hawk screamed. There was still life. Suddenly, I remembered the hobbits. The fellowship. Aragorn!! Was he safe? Did he reach the trees? I clutched the edge of the ice and dragged myself up on more solid ground, feeling heavier than Boromir and Gimli put together. In their full armor. And soaked with water. I had to get back to them. I had to get back to my friends. After catching my breath, I tried to stand up, but my legs buckled and I collapsed, panting heavily. By the time the dark dots disappeared from my eyes, my clothes had frozen still. At least I was not wet anymore, in the strict sense of the word.
But it was so cold…so very cold. I do not remember ever feeling so…cold. Not cool, not annoyed, not indisposed. Cold. It stung my eyes and numbed my skin. Every exposed inch of my body tingled and hurt. Yes, even through the numbing, it hurt. My every muscle hurt from contracting and twitching to give me what warmth they could. It was not enough. It was never enough. Not until I hid from the sharp bite of the wind. But all around, the terrain was flat. Far away, to the left, there were trees. There were more, farther back, to my right and behind me. Where to go? Follow the path I knew the fellowship must have taken? Or escape as fast as possible from this depression and the deadly waters that twisted and snaked underneath the ice? My friends need me. And I need to make sure they are all safe…but I cannot perform my duty by freezing on my way to them. No. although my heart yearns to follow them, I cannot. I should not. I turned my head away, eyes downcast.
I took a breath, and coughed. Why was it so hard to breathe? I was so cold I could not even feel the coldness of the wind infiltrating my lungs…but even in the open air, I could not intake enough of it to satisfy my body. It felt as if a tight band squeezed my chest, preventing me from fully inhaling.
I gritted my teeth and painfully made my way on hands and knees to the closest shore I could see. Healthy, I would have traveled that distance in half an hour without exerting myself. As it was, the sun was a hand span above the dark spikes of the naked trees when I dragged myself over a slight rise and tumbled into more snow, on the other side. I lay there for quite some time, unable to move, and hating this terrible weakness that held me in its claws. This was not me. This was not the proud elf that I was. But then, I had never experienced such an unusual type of bath. As I glanced back the way I had come, I saw the track I had made, clearly visible to anyone who would deign to glance this way. Every instinct screamed in my mind to cover them as quickly as possible. But how, when I could barely stay conscious? With deepening gloom, I realized that I had no way to defend myself. With my bow and arrows long gone, and my knives lying on the floor of the lake, I could not even escape one lone warg, let alone a full pack. Nor could I hunt for food. A terrible sinking feeling clutched my stomach, and I would have cried if I had the strength. Instead, I looked down at myself, wondering how I would survive.
Cold. Always cold.
My hands were blue. I drew a pant cuff up. So were my legs. Blue? I looked up at the darkening sky. The whitish sun had sunk behind the horizon, only barely turning a slightly orange color, before it vanished. The moon had not yet risen, but there was still a little light left. Everything was tinged blue, as the snow reflected the heavens. And so did I. As white as the snow, and now, as blue. I rolled my eyes and chuckled.
And started to work.
The warmer I kept myself, the better. A word came to mind. Hypothermia? Yes, that's it. Elrond had used that word. Not elvish. It was in the common tongue. It belonged to men. He had warned me against it for the humans and the hobbits. And the dwarf…
The hole in the bank of snow became a little bigger and I packed the powdery thing that I dug out around the edges.
…He had said it was very dangerous. But not for immortals. Immortals? No, I do not think it is appropriate. We should be called the ageless… we are not immortal, although some of us really believe they are. I shook my head. Silly elves. I had seen enough of headstrong younglings sneaking off to battle, untrained…most of them had came back carried by their peers, barely alive. The others…they did not come back at all. No, we are not immortal. I knew that too well.
I curled myself into my new bed. It kept the wind out.
Warmth slowly reclaimed my body, and although it was much appreciated, it also brought with itself the pain that had been numbed by the cold. My whole body tingled; it has never happened before –perhaps I should end thinking in such terms. Many new and unthinkable feelings and emotions will most likely surface during this little…adventure…-. However, coming back to the real world, I realized I had nothing to help myself heal. And I doubted I could find the necessary herbs in the wild-the fact that they were dead, frozen under a few feet of snow was the least of the problems. So I lay calmly, trying to relax and forget the thousands of little cuts, bruises and scraps, the gash I must have cut on my calf when drawing my knife out, the raw skin on my knuckles and fingers…I could not do anything about that now, even though my heart longed for my body to barge along in search of my friends. I knew I had to sleep and regain some strength, as frustrating as that was. –I would not have confessed those weaknesses to anyone, and I was glad I was alone. Well yes, I was an elf. A proud one.
As darkness fell and I felt myself drifting off to sleep, I wondered how I must look to the outside world. Something curled into a tight ball. Eyes open, glazed. Very cold. Very pale. Very unmoving…very dead.
Maybe I should put a sign out: "KEEP OFF. NOT DEAD." I smirked and entered the dream paths, although I did not walk much that night.
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I woke up to light, unable to tell the time of day. The sun was invisible behind the heavy cloud cover. My stomach made itself known, and I quickly sobered up, remembering my precarious situation. It had not changed. It would only become worse and worse as time went by. I rubbed my eyes, and was startled to see my hand still tinged blue. It was a surprising phenomenon; hopefully not dangerous…I sadly thought back about laxing in my studies of healing. As a youngling, I had thought myself too brave and courageous to ever have to tend to my own wounds –wounds? What wounds? I would be a powerful warrior. Never hurt. Never wounded.- I snorted at the naïve memory, and reminded myself to talk to Lord Elrond.
My eyes then looked over the lake, the trees on the other side sleepily beckoning to me. The slight smile fell off my face. No. I could not. I dared not. I looked the other way. The long way. But the safer one too. I walked away. I felt uncomfortable with leaving my friends alone for such a long time. Yes, yes, I did feel like their guardian. Well, I was the oldest and the most experienced warrior. But another little voice told me: if something happened to one of them, if they fell through the ice…you are too late already. Hypothermia. I sighed; I tried to forget that hateful word. I had to catch up to them. I WILL catch up to them. Before it's too late.
And so I started on my long journey to Lothlorien, where I thought my best chances lay at meeting with my companions.
Pray Eru they are all safe.
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A/N~ you didn't really think I would kill him did you? =) let's just say that he was temporarily lost/dead
*looks at all the reviews and pales thinking about answering them all* I still love you guys! I just think it would be more productive writing the next part of the story. What do you think, eh? =)
-was this one evil enough? =)
-next up will be some more of Aragorn. I'm debating about writing anything about Legolas until he reaches lorien (don't really have ideas. And don't really want to write about him being attacked by a warg. *with no weapons mind you* but if you have more ideas, I'll be happy to wip something up! =)
-s-star- yep, wonderful logic! =) I think I'll take that as an advice!
-S –a cup of coffee? Lol. Maybe in a few chapters =)
-eck- deal! I love your story! See, I updated. Now's your turn! Lol =) and people, go read eck's story! It's amazing! (free advertisement here =)
-evil Snapple pie- hey, I hope I didn't scare you too much (don't worry about Legolas. He's one tough elf! =)
-athene- I don't mind. I actually like criticism! =) and I WILL go back and recheck the errors (when I'll find some time =) but thanks a lot for pointing them out!
Geez, that takes a lot of time. I'm sorry if I haven't answered you. I'm not trying to be mean. I'm just tired (and want to read more stories! So actually if you know of any good ones, feel free to point them out (even if they are you own! =) )
Ok, ok, that'll be it! More's on the way. I promises! =)
~Ola~