Ah! I am finally back! Sorry for the delay but have been very busy with school and trying to perfect Shadows Within; Darkness Without before posting the next chapter of that up (should be up in the next few days for those that are reading that one. Another long chapter – so far it is 16 pages but will end up as a bit more...)
Anyway, you shall all hate me by the end of this chapter as, while I answer one (or really only half) question, I bring up more.
Thank you very, VERY much for all the wonderful support that I received from the first chapter, I was a little unsure on the story, but you all seemed to like it (well, apart from one fact – the possibility of Legolas dying. *evil smile*) Response to reviews are at the bottom.
OH, and the little bit that appears in the middle, has no really meaning but kinda tells what happened in a shorten way. Did that make sense?
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Everything in Me...
Chapter Two
Invocation
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Two day's earlier...
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Dead, they would all die. It was for sure, a certainty that could not be rationally questioned or argued with. They would be overrun, swarmed, cut down like grain in the harvest by the vile crooked blades constructed from the metal buried deep within the circle of Isengard. There was no stopping it, no way in which to counter the potent blow being dealt to them once the sun set in the west.
True hope was gone; fled into the sinking orange sun and leaving behind only its name-sake.
"Look at them!" Legolas' clear voce rang out of the din within the small armory. Looking from villager to villager, their weather beaten faces all now peering at him with a sense of morbid interest, the Elf took a step forward and turned back to Aragorn; to the supposed hope of a word in peril. Looking to a few of the closest men, Legolas could see the fear playing at the corners of their iris', the colour becoming slightly distorted with the bleak knowledge of their impending doom. "They are frightened...I see it in their eyes." He stated while locking gazes with Aragorn once again.
In truth, it was not just their eyes that bothered him, that spoke of the terror that gripped at their hearts with the claws of a bird of prey. Their essence leaked it, filling the room with a soft vibration – like that which travels up an arrow shaft seconds after it hits its target – that only an Elf could detect. Their breath smelt of it, the tell tale traces of the bile that rose in their throats drifted through the air, informing the Elf of the churning horror in the pits of the humans stomachs.
But he need not say that; need not let on any more then what he already had. Just as knowledge had the ability to hand out power, it also had the will to destroy.
He could feel the entire room tense at his words, all eyes turning to lock onto him in both fear and disbelief.
But why should he care? Let them fear him if they were too confused to see whom the real enemy was.
"Boe a hyn," he said to Ranger in front of him, naturally slipping into his own tongue to better discuss things of a closed manner, "...neled herain dan caer menig!"
Sighing and shaking his head slightly, Aragorn looked around at the men and the surroundings. He could see where Legolas was coming from, see what he was trying to say but what other choice did these men have? "Si beriathar hýn ammaeg nâ ned Edoras." He tried to reason with the blond archer, telling him that it was the best place to be given the circumstances.
"Aragorn," Legolas stated with a slight patronizing tone; it was folly to remain here – anyone could surly see that! "Nedin dagor hen ú-'erir otheri. Natha daged dhaer." Yes, they would all die, Rohan would be annihilated and there was nothing that anyone could do to stop it.
"Then I shall die as one of them!" Aragorn snapped in Westron, alerting the humans to the main topic of conversation. The anger was clear in Aragorn's eyes, burning into Legolas' like a candles flame, and yet there seemed to be a hint of something else. Fear? Knowledge? Remorse? What it was, Legolas could not pick for, other then the blinding fury, not mush else could be differentiated from the man's cold glare.
Both froze; the mistake and slip in tongues obvious as all eyes in the room set upon them with a frightful air. Silence fell in the room, the gathered humans all frozen still while the words they had heard sunk in. Assumptions were made, gaps in the understanding of the speech filled and slowly, but not slowly enough, each person had formed some sort of opinion on what the Elf had said in his native tongue.
As Aragorn turned and walked out of the room, his steps loud and full of purpose, Legolas exhaled a large sigh, trying to ignore the glares while attempting to work out what had made him say such things.
*~~~*~~~*
...Words, words in the dark. Hushed voices full of fear and panic. Faces reflecting the inner struggles held against the feelings that threatened to drown all rational thought in a sea of frantic desperation.
News travels fast in such an area of proximity, each person to pass on the message twisting it to their own means and to satisfy those being told.
Language makes no difference, the tone telling the words that are thought so cleverly disguised between those that are fathomable. The rest can easily be guessed upon – or fabricated then elaborated.
The event gets out while the truth of the matter is extinguished, the pieces picked up and remolded into something with a form of its own...
*~~~*~~~*
Aragorn sat on the stairs leading to the main hall of the mountain fort, his thoughts running away with the steadily blowing breeze. Was Legolas right? Would they all die in this pace of hewn stone and watery mud?
He could feel it too, perceive the ambiance of fear that pumped through the veins of the humans that surrounded him. They busied themselves with the sharpening of swords that should have, by all right, long since been added to the scrap heap, melted down to re-forge a stronger, sharper blade.
"What is your name?" Aragorn asked of a young boy that wandered past, a distressed look plastered across his childish features.
"Háleth, son of Háma, my lord." He replied softly with a slight quiver is his voice.
"Give me your sword!" Aragorn commanded. Reaching down, he took the weapon in his hands and looked down the slightly bent blade. It was old; the carvings on the metal long since ruined with scratches, each an account of past battles. The sword itself was slightly light, a sure sign of the corrosion of the metal over time and suggesting that it would not be able to take much force upon it without shattering in the boys hands. The leather of the handle was worn and prickly in it's over handled state while the main area of grip was slick with the sweat of past users.
Sighing, Aragorn spun the sword over his palm, feeling the slight imbalance that the bowed blade created in the equilibrium of the object. Continuing on with the momentum, he swirled it around the air once more, the velocity creating a small gush of wind that was left in its wake.
Finishing his test of the blade and looking to young Háleth, he gripped the base of the blade and handed it back to him.
"This is a good sword," the man told him with a false smile. It was not a lie, only a reassurance. A mere twist of words to comfort those who could not otherwise be calmed. Besides, if all went well, then that boy would never have to fight an opponent face to face.
"The men are troubled," Háleth said quietly, his voice reflecting his young age while he took the sword back and leant it against the steps. "There is talk..."
When it became apparent that he was not about to say anymore without prompting, Aragorn crouched down so that he was eye level with the lad. "Talk of what?"
"They say that we will not last the night, that dawn shall not rise and that...that we are cursed." Aragorn's brow creased in the middle, his frown reaching even his lips as he chewed the inside of his cheek – a habit since childhood.
Leaning closer to the Ranger, the boy looked furtively about him, making sure that no one was listening in. "They say that he brings it, that he is the cause. They want him gone."
"Who? Who do they want gone?" But in his heart he already knew – how could he not?
"The Elf!" the boy hissed, his own voice dripping with a malice that startled even Aragorn. "He brings bad luck," he continued, "They say that he can see the future, that he saw our destruction." leaning closer still, he peered deeply into Aragorn's eyes; his own wide and full of questions. As he began to speak again, Aragorn could see a definite streak of fascination pass through the boy while his words became rushed and full of curiosity. "Is it true that he once served under Saruman? That he was trained in the magickal arts by the White Wizard himself?"
It took a moment to register, to realize what the child was telling him about his long time friend. Legolas a sorcerer? How had such a preposterous notion crept into the minds of the men?
"Legolas is no sorcerer," Aragorn offered with a smile. Masking the sudden jolt of fear that passed from his heart to the rest of his body.
"But he saw it; he saw our destruction. That is the work of magick! The men do not like him...they say that he is a wielder of the dark arts; a spy and that he should be trialed as one."
"I assure you," Aragorn argued with Háleth, "he is no spy and has no knowledge of the power that they speak of."
"How can you be sure?" the boy asked, his eyes still wide and darting from shadow to shadow.
"Because he is my friend!" Aragorn started. Yet as soon as the words left his mouth, his mind was questioning the reasoning behind it. Were they still friends? Even after what had been said, after the way that Aragorn had just walked out on the Elf?
"But he openly defied you," the boy pushed, speaking as if he were reading the Rangers mind. "You are to be king and yet he challenged you."
"I am to be king, but not of him or his people," Aragorn tried to explain to the questioning child. He could see that the boy did not quite understand what he was saying and that with each new reason that Aragorn supplied, he only seemed to be getting even more confused. For the briefest moment the thought of telling the boy that Legolas was a prince crossed his mind but he quickly banished it. It had been a long standing agreement between the two to never give away their identities to anyone when outside of completely loyal territory and from the way this conversation was heading, this place seemed neither loyal nor welcoming to the Elf.
Nodding his understanding, a thing that surprised Aragorn immensely, Háleth crocked his head to the side and looked the man right in the eyes.
"I do not believe them." He stated after a long staring contest. "He seemed nice; quiet but nice."
To Aragorn, it seemed as if the boy held wisdom far beyond his years; he seemed to understand things that even Aragorn struggled with at times. Maybe it was a child's awareness, maybe they were able to see the world in a way that adults could not, a way that the older of the world had long forgotten.
Whatever it was, Aragorn was never to find out.
"Háleth?" a motherly voice called out over the din of the crowd. "Háleth, where are you?"
Looking to the completely confused ranger, Háleth turned and walked off to find the caller without so much as another word.
*****
Yet another scornful look. Yet another whisper from behind that the humans so foolishly thought Legolas could not hear.
Legolas sighed as he wandered almost aimlessly through the stone halls of the fort, half in search of Aragorn half in search of somewhere quiet and away from the accusing glares.
He had spoken hastily to his friend, to the one person that he had no reason to ever doubt and, for some reason, it seemed to play heavily upon his heart – more so then he would have thought.
He seemed to have this lingering fear, a sense of apprehension about this place and the people that it held, that could not be shaken or forgotten. It seemed as if the fear wanted to stick to every thought, resurface every time he managed to finally forget it. The Elven prince had no clue as to what was causing such a confused thought to nibble away at his mind but he knew that it could not be brushed aside. He would just have to find a way to work out what his instincts were trying to warn him of.
Either way, he was just looking forward to getting this battle over and done with, no matter what the outcome.
*****
Two day's later
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"Damnit!" Aragorn was the first to speak and break the silence that had befallen the room. "You cannot do this! You. have. no. evidence!" Aragorn sounded out slowly as one would if they were talking to a small, somewhat dimwitted child.
"We have all the evidence that we need. You yourself witnessed two happenings!" Théoden retorted. At the confused look that passed over Aragorn's face, Théoden took it upon himself to explain. "Were you not there, Aragorn son of Arathorn, when this Elf foretold of all our deaths?"
"That was a mere statement made in despair!" Legolas shouted. He had finally managed to drag himself from the state of shock that he had slipped into at the announcement of his sentence. "Anyone could have said such things at that moment; in fact, I know for sure that many of the men were already saying the same thing. Doubts were strong!"
"Do not seek to attempt to prove your innocence by condemning others, Elf!" a sly voice practically hissed from the darkness of the far corner of the room. All eyes in the room turned to see whom the new speaker was and how it was that they claimed the right to speak at such a formal state of affairs. A few shocked gasps came from those closest while the others in the rest of the room strained their necks to see through both the crowd and the shadows.
Leaning across the accused bench, Legolas narrowed his eyes and peered into the corner, having for more success then most others, including Aragorn.
As soon as he was able to get a clear view of the newcomer, Legolas' top lip curled back, his teeth shown through his utterly unusual snarl while his eyes flashed a darker blue in his hatred.
"Gríma..."
*****
Tbc...
Hehehe, I know I am evil, but he had to come into it somewhere, so it was just fitting that it should be there. But I can assure you, there is no way that you will work out what is going to happen/has happened...
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Response to reviews.
UnReal: Is it slash? I am going to do one of those, 'it is up to the reader things'. I mean, there will be no making out, no kissing, no declarations of love or anything, but it could be read that way if one really wanted to. I have done this with another story before and it worked quite well, so there shall be no reason to run! *smiles*
Karina: while I am not going to give you a direct answer, I hope this chapter cleared up part of some of your questions. All will be revealed as the story goes on. I want to do it all in flashbacks and whatnot so that I can have both sides of the character show through in places. The before and after... and all the questions are fine and actually helpful to me as it makes sure that I go over everything and make it all make sense.
Elflover: like I said above, I want to do it this way as I get a good contrast in the characters as well as I can have both parts running at once. That way it is not all the trial at the end and all the before stuff at the beginning. It makes it a bit more of a challenge and I think a bit better read as it reveals things as it goes...keeps the twists coming.
Linis: I think it sounds kinda fun as well! Lol, but I am evil!
Flick: no, I have not read "The Crucible". Our class at school got screwed out of it by another so we go stuck with some story about a guy who was a mortician! Lol. I have wanted to read it due to the obvious obsession with all things witch and Salem related, but have never gotten around to it. I am glad that understand some of the deeper reasons for the characters actions; it is good to know that others do in fact see what I am trying to get across. *big smiles* glad you like the plot, and, as promised, I do not think that it shall reveal itself before the set time. Also, thank you for your lovely complements! I try my hardest to make it as real and as close to the actually characters as possible, so it is wonderful to hear that I have succeeded. Thank you!
Dragon-of-the-North: like I have been saying, all will be revealed in due time. *evil cackling*
Eilonwy: yes I do have a copy of it. It was a gift from a lady that I have known all my life and who is a practicing Pagan. It is a great book! Due to being busy at school, I have not yet had time to choose a winner for the contest, so yes, if you want to, you can still enter – that goes for everyone. Just send it along and I will put it with the others to read when I have some free time.
Alright, I really have to go now, so I am very sorry to anyone that I did not get to personally thank, but please do not feel that your wonderful replies are not appreciated. They are and I only hope that you enjoy this as much as you seemed to the first chapter.
Minka.
