Sorry! I know it's been a LONG TIME since I've updated. I'm not so sure about this chapter-it should answer some questions, but not all. I'm planning on introducing a few new character, one will be minor, the other will be major-hint: we gotta have someone for Legolas, can't have him foolin around with his adopted sister! ANYWAY, I hope you like this one- as always, reviews kick some ass and seem to have this power of making the person that writes them kick ass as well, so if you want to kick some serious ass, put some seriously ass kicking reviews up and I'll love you forever.
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"Oh crap, what the hell did I do now," Sarah mumbled as she swatted at her alarm clock. The pain from her head was unlike anything she'd previously experienced, except for when she'd had that hangover…
"Well, shall we start at the beginning then," said a male voice from the corner.
"Huh?" Sarah said, barely conscious.
"First, you hit me in the bum with an arrow when you were 16, on purpose I might add. Second, you went to Rivendell and, under the tutelage of Lord Elrond himself, became rather learned in the ways of the world. Third, you came back to us and constantly badgered us with talk of "the rights of Men" and how we should hold them in high regard, as we should the orcs, because after all "They're people too". Then you met a man, found him horribly insensitive and brash and thus terribly attractive. You married him and then did what any other Lady of Gondor would have done. You settled down in your beautiful house in the White City, had 2.5 children and protested the lack of opportunity and so called rights amongst the women of Middle Earth. Then, sadly, your husband died. You were crushed but returned to your first home, with us in Mirkwood and then died from a broken heart. That last bit left us all a little depressed I might add," the voice replied quickly.
"WHAT?" Sarah launched herself off her pillow only to have her eyes focus on a strange man, in her bedroom, at 6 in the morning. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HHHHHH HH HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH," she screamed.
"Well done! That was the longest I think I've ever heard you screech," the strange man replied cheekily. Sarah jumped out of bed, having a great deal of trouble with the twisted sheets and bolted her way to her bathroom. Closing it behind her she locked it and screamed a little more.
"I'll call the police!" she yelled through the door.
"No. I know you can be loud but I doubt they would be able to hear your yells all the way down there," he said.
"Shit! I forgot a phone!" she said to herself.
"Come on love, I'm your friend, you just don't remember me. I'm not going to hurt you, I've spent my entire life protecting helpless creatures like yourself," he said from behind the door. As his words registered in her head she felt a surge of anger-one never before experienced.
"What! How dare you call me helpless, I may be at a disadvantage but I am certainly NOT helpless!" Sarah yelled.
"Ah ha! I knew there was some of that fighting spirit still left in you. It's good to know that living in this God awful place hasn't taken everything from Saramae of Mirkwood," the man proclaimed with a humorous tone in his voice.
'Oh shit," Sarah thought. 'Not only is he in my room with less than two inches of wood separating me from him, but he's also TOTALLY OFF HIS ROCKER!'
A sudden panic flooded Sarah's mind and her body reacted by frantically searching for anything that could be used as a weapon. She checked her medicine cabinet and found cold medication, Aspirin, Band-aids and much to her delight, rubbing alcohol. Thinking it might do a bit of good once burning in his eyes, she grabbed it off the shelf and unscrewed the cap but her trembling hands lost control and dropped the bottle. It fell to the sink and released its entire contents down the drain, away from Sarah's desperate fingers.
"Hello?" asked the man from behind the door. Sarah was terrified. She had nothing to fight with, she had no way of getting help and this man probably wanted to rape her or do god knows what else to her. "Saramae? Saramae?"
"What do you want from me?" Sarah asked in a timid voice. Tears sprang into her eyes as she admitted defeat. "I know there's no way out of this-just go ahead and take what you want from me. I give up." She was crying now. Tears fell down her cheeks to her neck and she let a sob escape as she heard the man on the other side of the door let out a deep breath.
In a quiet, gentle voice he said, "Oh my, I do believe I have gone about this the wrong way. Once again I have indulged my own interests and gone about this without making any sense. My name is Legolas, Legolas Greenleaf and I know you as Saramae Greenleaf-my sister…"
"Shut up!" Sarah interrupted, "Don't you dare say things like that. It's not funny to tease someone about their past, especially when they know nothing about it. I don't know you. You aren't my brother because my name is NOT Saramae and because I never went to Rivendell or whatever you said…"
"No, you don't understand!" Legolas yelled as she attempted to push him away verbally. Legolas had patience-ounces of it, but it nearly broke his heart to hear her deny who she was. "You are my sister! I found you when we were children hiding in the trees along our borders. You were near death and so I carried you, me, a 6-year-old boy, carried you to my father and I cried as I waited to see what would become of you. I begged father to let you stay with us and when he brought you to the palace and proclaimed you to be his own I was happier than I've ever been. You lived for 1,000 years. A short time to us but you did more living during your thousand years than the rest of us could do in a million. But you don't remember anything! You don't remember me, you don't remember Mirkwood, and you don't even remember your language. So excuse me if I scare you. Excuse me if I don't know what to say to you!" Legolas yelled in frustration.
Though separated by wood and plaster Sarah heard the frustration, heard the desperation and knew that if she could see it there would be sadness in his eyes. A man frustrated, desperate and filled with sadness could be dangerous, this she knew, but at the same time a man frustrated, desperate and filled with sadness was at the end of his rope.
And so the door opened. Sarah carefully turned the handle and moved slowly. Looking down she saw him sitting in a heap on the floor looking quite helpless and not at all the dangerous predator that had filled her mind with images too horrible to imagine. He had his arms balanced on his knees with his head buried in the small cocoon it made and he was shaking. Sarah realized he was crying silently, sobbing actually. 'What have I done?' she thought.
Feeling quite safe and secure, Sarah kneeled down in front of the man who had terrified her only moments before.
"Please don't cry," she said softly. He looked like a little child, or a lost puppy and what woman could resist trying to take care of a man in such a vulnerable position? She reached out her hand tentatively so as not to startle him and touched his arm. "Legolas, that's your name right?" he didn't respond. "Please, Legolas. Look at me," she pleaded with him.
"I cannot," he responded lowly. "You look like her. Just like her," he admitted with his face still buried. He seemed used to her touch and so she moved her hands to his head and began to move his it to look at her. He did not struggle. His face appeared to her and she was struck with what a beautiful face it was. He had perfect skin, strong high cheekbones, full lips, and all that which looks right on a man. Though she had to admit, he was pretty, even for a girl. The thought made her want to laugh. The only thing she could not see was his eyes. He kept them looking down at the floor but she saw the inner struggle turning around his mind. With what looked like every ounce of his strength he slowly looked up moving over her entire face until finally resting on her eyes.
"Hello Legolas," she said kindly and smiled at him. "Welcome to my dorm room," she added casually and with a bit of humor.
"Hello," he responded meekly.
"Hello?" came a voice from the door followed by a knock.
"You have got to be kidding!" Sarah said exasperated. "Who is it?" she called.
"It's me. Sam," said the voice.
"Sam? What on Earth are you doing here…ya know right now is not the best time," she said. Legolas was looking at her with a smirk.
"Oh. I was just checking up on you. You kinda scared me last night. Is it alright if I come in?" Sam asked. Sarah didn't know what to say.
"Let him in," Legolas said quietly.
"What? Are you crazy?" she said in a hushed tone.
"Not in the least. I'm shocked you would say such a thing!" he replied cheekily. "Let him in, don't worry. He knows who I am."
"WHAT?" Sarah yelled.
"Hey Sam," Legolas called, "don't worry you can come on in."
"Legolas? You already talked to her?" Sam added. "Oh god, this is going to be bad." He opened the door and walked in saying a quick "hey" to Legolas who returned it and an adoring look to Sarah who sat on the ground shocked.
"What's going on?" Sarah asked. "What the hell is going on here?" Legolas stood up seemingly recovered from his earlier break down and turned his head to the window. The sun poured onto his face, it swallowed him, held him, encircled him and welcomed him into its glow as though welcoming the ultimate of creation returning to bless the ground it walked on once again.
With a deep breath he turned, straightened and with the sun to his back, began to speak,
"A long, long time ago your world as you know it, Earth, was caught in the beginnings of a complete transformation from simple animals to a new type human being, able to think for itself, work for itself, and create for itself. It no longer would rely on nature such as it had before because although this new human would need water to drink, food to survive, air to breathe and shelter to live, it was at the beginning stages of manipulating nature so it could be provided with these things. Although this new human was advanced in the Animal Kingdom, it had kept its animal instincts. There was nothing that told it not to destroy, nothing that told it not to kill. It was an advanced mind that still lived with animal instincts that told it to survive. You see nature is a fickle thing. Sometimes it is kind to you, other times it will open a torrent upon your head, kill what it wishes with no thought of the consequences. And this proved to be her own undoing.
My realm, in Middle Earth, had been set away for Nature herself. In this place she found refuge. She was forgiving, she was rewarding and she coddled every creature. Because of her kind treatment we accepted her, allowed her into our lives. And because of this we were able to see what she could do for us. That is where magic began. Nature at her fullest is in the form of Magic. My realm was a microcosm of all that Nature had created, combined with all that the heavens had produced. There she kept the weak, the strong, the beautiful, the ugly, the good and the evil, all in one small world. Each of us had our shortcomings, and each of us had our strong suits. That is until Nature paid for her crimes against the outside world.
Outside our walls Man had been tortured by Nature. She had toyed with them, killing, harming, playing her own games with them and they sought to ruin her. And so they did. Our kingdom was attacked. My kind, the Elves, was the first to flee but some stayed behind. Every other creature stayed with them and as tortured Man took over they either killed, or incorporated each kind of creature into their own blood making them blessed by the beautiful creatures of Middle Earth.
From that day forward, Nature was beat down at every opportunity by Man. Her magic disappeared, she began to disappear and Man continued its path into the future where it has become known as the only important creature on this earth. But something was left behind.
Man, you see, goes after the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, it goes after the best, takes it and leaves, not thinking of what was left in its path. In their quest to conquer nature, Man left something that could prove to be their undoing. Evil. Evil was created by Nature as a balance. For everything good, there had to be something bad. And so in Middle Earth Evil was left to gesticulate, to incubate, to wait for a time when it could release itself upon the New Earth."
"Which means what?" Sarah asked.
"Which means," Sam said, speaking for the first time, "there is a gigantic gathering of evil underneath Bavaria as we speak."
"Bavaria?" Sarah asked bewildered.
"Yes, I know. Random isn't it." Sam answered. "Saramae, what this means is that we must stop this evil before it…" Legolas continued.
.