Iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii'm back!!! (and better than ever! 0_o )

Sorry it took me so long to get back to writing- you have no idea how hectic my life got!!! There was the big formal dance, a funeral to go to unfortunately, and a whole lot more. Now that I have apologized, I must apologize again but this time for something different. It's been a really really long time since I saw the TTT in the theater, and an even longer time since I read the book, and I don't really remember anything. Weep, weep. Although my sister knows what the heck went on in the books, she doesn't exactly know or care about my humble efforts to write a story worth reading. So, in this vein I will present to you the long-awaited Chapter Eight, historical inaccuracies included.

~Chapter Eight

            Slowly my mind shut out the screams of the battle and drifted into a misty dream world. Moist tendrils of smoke whipped against my skin, leaving traces of sparkling dew. I reached out, and my fingers drew against a cold, wet basin, made of a smooth and sturdy stone. I reached into the bowl, and my hands touched a liquid surface. I reached past the liquid, and there was nothing. The bowl was bottomless, a well of emptiness. The mists drew back, as if repelled from the apparition that stood before me- Legolas. Legolas's face appeared on the metallic surface of the bowl, trapped behind the barrier that separated the dream from the myth.

            A smoky figure swam into view beside the elven prince- Théodred. A small smile crept onto my face as I reached out to smooth the fatigue lines from my husband's face, but as the tips of my fingers dipped in to the liquid, Théodred disappeared. He shrunk back into the mists and Legolas was all that remained.

            The apparition loomed closer, and my fingers scuttled over the rim of the bowl and back into the sleeve that draped around my arm. The brows on the face drew together, and his slender lips parted-

            "Niphredil! Niphredil!" My hair cascaded in a curtain around my face as my head tilted forward from the angry shaking. "Wake up!" I slid out of the dream and opened my eyes, aware of a sticky substance smeared across my lower arms and hands- blood. Blood caked into my fingernails, and streaked into my hair. "Wake up!" Éowyn grabbed my wrist and pulled my out of my slumping position.

            "What is it? How long have I been sleeping?"

            "Ten minutes, at the most," said Éowyn as she dragged me through the endless rows of the wounded. "They just brought your husband in, he's wounded. I ran to find you." She led me to our room. Several times I almost tripped over a discarded limb, I stepped on the hems of bloody blankets, and was led over the blood-encrusted weapons. The hallway leading to the room that we shared was strewn with the dead and dying. Still the battle raged on outside the walls of the great fortress, still the whiz of arrows and the clank of metal could be heard through the stone.

            The door to the room was already partially open, and Éowyn banged it open all the way as she pulled me into the room. A doctor leaned over the bed. Théodred was lying on top of the blanket, blood seeping from an open wound onto the rich velvet. "What hurt him?" I demanded. The doctor pointed to two points on his torso. I kicked his upended shield aside and knelt by the bed. I heard Éowyn leave and shut the door quietly behind her as I drew the dagger out of Théodred's sheath. I drew the blade across the seams of his shirt and tossed the fabric onto the pile of discarded mail and weapons. Two angry welts rose on his chest. The doctor produced two arrows from the bedside table. "Orc-made," I said, examining the feathers and the shape. "But only one of them is poisoned." I showed the doctor the two arrows, side by side. One of the tips dripped with a metallic blue liquid. The feathers crushed between my fingers as I looked at my husband's body. His labored breathing filled the otherwise silent room.

            "I think I can fix it," I said, tossing the clean arrow to the doctor. He dropped his bag and caught it with both hands. I rolled the poisoned arrow between my fingers for a moment before whirling around and tossing it at the bulls eye that Théodred kept in our room. The blue dripped over the white fields on the target as I turned back around to tend to my husband. I placed two of my fingers on the smaller of the two wounds. My fingernails glinted in the candlelight as the sun slipped from behind the clouds, taking the last rays of light with it. I tilted by head back and drew the words from the back of my mind as I remembered all the things my mother had taught me about healing. "Palpa i kaila," I whispered, "heal, Theodred, heal, etill morniëet." I watched his still eyelids, waiting for a movement. "Utúvienyes, I've found it, Théo," I said. "I've found you, come back to me, please." A moment passed. "Please." I pressed the base of my palm into the welt and felt the hot blood rise in my cheeks.

            "Come back."

            Théo opened his eyes. They darted around the room and finally rested on mine. He took a shaky breath, and the lids fluttered over his earth-brown irises. The golden flecks in his eyes glinted in the candlelight. I gasped with happiness and wrapped my arms around him as he sat up, I pulled myself up onto the bed, I covered him with kisses. "Niphredil," he whispered hoarsely, his muscles rippling strongly as he held me. A draft passed through the room as the doctor left and shut the door, drowning the sounds of battle.

            The battle. "Lie back down, I have to heal the second wound," I said, unable to wipe the crazed smile off of my face. He lay back down; reddish-brown curls scooting across his forehead as he rested on the pillow. Calmly I rested my palm onto his wound and closed my eyes. The same feeling surged up in me like a tidal wave, drowning everything else. The healing power filled my fingertips and melted into Théo's body. Blindly, my fingers traced the edges of the wound, feeling for improvement. The wound was healing, but slower than the first. The poison was preventing the wound from closing. I opened my eyes, and the wonderful high feeling receded.

            "This wound, this poison, it is beyond my power," I said, my voice laden with sorrow and regret. "I don't know what to do."

            But Théo only thought of the battle. "Are we winning?" he asked.

            "There's no way to tell, not from inside the walls," I said, sliding down the side of the bed and clutching his hands in mine. "There are so many dead, and twice that number are dying. They're piled up in the hallways outside your room," I whispered. He exhaled and squeezed his eyes shut.

            "I must fight," Théo said. "My brothers are dying out there."

            I stood. "There is no way that you can fight, Théodred, not today, not tomorrow. I was able to slow the poison but it is still moving, and if we don't get you help in time…then you'll die. Stay in bed, Théo," I said softly. "You'd be of most use here." I could see that he was discontent with this, but there was nothing I could do. Until he could be taken to wiser elves than I, he would have to stay here.

            "Bring the wounded," said Théo. "There's no use piling them up outside our door when there is so much space here." I smiled slightly.

            "Alright," I said, smoothing the curls away from his forehead. I rested my lips slightly upon his skin, closing my eyes as I felt his hands reach up and tilt my chin down so that I could meet his lips instead.

            "Goodbye for now, darling," he whispered, settling back onto the bed. "I love you."

            "I love you too, Théo," I said, opening the door. The screams and thuds from the battle exploded into the room. I could see the disdain in Théo's brow as I left, and I could imagine his pain. So many were suffering, so many were dying. In my heart I knew I was lucky as I went to find Éowyn. So many wives would be widows this night.

            ~~~

Sorry it was kinda short- longer than the other ones but short nonetheless. Oh well, hopefully I will be writing more often now that summers about to start yay!!! Haha review and spread the word!

P.S.  I saw an author once do this and it was an interesting idea- how old do you think I am?