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Disclaimer: I do not own LOTR only the plot and unrecognizable characters.
A/N: Thank you for the all the reviews. Someone asked me about the red eyes and what the heck the creature is. Not telling... You'll figure out sooner or later in this story.
A BIG SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL WHO REVIEWED!
-Chapter Seven-
Another Encounter
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Legolas unwrapped the strip of cloth from his arm. The slash was caked with dry blood and a tinge of green faintly showed surrounding it.
"I think it's poisoned or infected," Estel said staring at the ugly wound. "Here..." He snatched the bloody cloth from the Elf's fingers and threw it on the ground. Quickly, he ripped another sleeve of his tunic and wrapped it around the wound.
"I think we better go," he said, his eyes moving fearfully over each dark tree. Silence lingered in the air and they held their breath as though afraid to breathe. They walked slowly but cautiously, Legolas jumping slightly once and a while.
"What is that creature?" Legolas demanded Estel quietly.
"It used to be an Elf," Estel said breathlessly. "Corrupted by the Silmaril."
"Corrupted?" Legolas arched an eyebrow. "By a Silmaril?" He stared down at the glowing Silmaril in his hand.
"I think it hates the Silmaril but protects it," Estel said shrugging. "There's many mysteries surrounding it."
"I bet that legend isn't the whole truth," Legolas said quietly, picking up a long stick, eyeing the dark bushes.
"But you've seen the greed in its eyes, those blood red eyes..." Estel shook as he remembered the red eyes, the dark shadow.
"Did you hear that?" Legolas asked suddenly.
"Hear what?" Estel asked but Legolas hushed him with the stick he held. They stopped walking and Estel strained to listen.
"They'll calling us," Legolas said brightly. "Lord Elrond and my father! We could follow the voices and maybe it will lead us out of this forest." Estel felt happiness rush through him as he ran after Legolas.
"Yes!" he said excitedly. "Maybe--maybe if we yell back..."
Legolas had thrown caution to the winds and started yelling. "WE'RE HERE! WE'RE HERE!" Estel joined him as they ran aimlessly through the forest.
They paused and listened. There was more voices answering, yelling and this time, Estel could hear them.
"They're near," Legolas said excitedly. "They're going to save us and we can--" He didn't finish. A shadow ran at them, the red eyes staring at them.
"We have no luck!" groaned Estel as he picked up a stick, ready to defend himself from the creature's swipes and attacks.
Legolas backed away from the shadow, the Silmaril slipping from his sweaty fingers. He held his stick tightly in his hand, waving it wildly around.
"Silmaril..." A cold, high-pitched voice hissed, bitterness lacing its words.
"Y-you talk," Legolas stammered.
"Give it, cowards," it hissed. "Give me the Silmaril."
"NEVER!" Estel said mustering up all the courage he had. He banished his stick at the creature.
"Never? I have already injured the Elf... The cunning, sly Elves--they steal, they lie..." it hissed menacingly.
"No, they do not!" Legolas said angrily. "Who are you to judge Elves?" He narrowed his eyes at the shadow, all his fears slipping away, replaced with hot anger.
"I was an Elf." The creature advanced on them slowly, the Silmaril lightly its claws, its grey, bumpy skin stretched over them, its sharp yellow nails...
"No Elf is as greedy and disgusting as you," Legolas said. The creature let out an angry shriek and Estel clamped his hands over his ears, lowering to the forest floor, trembling at the sound, a sharp hiss of pain slipping out of his clenched teeth.
"HOW DARE YOU!" hissed the creature, towering over Legolas, who was on the floor, trembling with fear. "Elves are disgusting, Elves are greedy! I am not an Elf!"
"Yes, you are," Legolas said. "You're an Elf."
"I was an Elf though I was not as disgusting as Elrond," hissed the creature.
"HE'S NOT DISGUSTING!" This time, it wasn't Legolas--it was Estel. He was fuming with anger, squeezing his stick so tightly that his knuckles turned white.
"YOU ARE!" He lunged at the creature, his stick thrown aside.
Legolas watched in horror as Estel punched, bit, and kicked the creature that scratched his arms and face. He looked around frantically and began to throw rocks at the creature and then he stared at the Silmaril and quickly threw it.
Its light illuminated the creature's face. Its red eyes were attached to a grey, bumpy face, its nose crooked, its mouth a thin line, fangs visible. Blood stained its bald head and a nasty slime dripped from its nostrils.
The Silmaril hit it between the eyes hard and it stopped scratching at Estel, who lay motionless on the ground, blood everywhere.
The sweet, coppery smell of blood filled his nose and he watched the creature scream with agony. Legolas ran to it and began pushing the Silmaril against it violently.
"DIE!" he yelled kicking and punching the creature while pressing the Silmaril all over its gnarled body.
Anger burned inside him and he continued to hurt the creature with the Silmaril. He felt blood trickle from his ears but the shrieks of the creature was only faint to him.
And he became weaker and weaker, still clutching the Silmaril in his hands. He glanced at Estel, who was covered with his own blood and suddenly he felt anger rush through him. A wild desire to kill the creature with his own hands lit inside his mind. He pounded it and kicked it but it only shrieked and screamed.
He began to feel all his energy disappear and his head became dizzy. He held the Silmaril in his hands and as he fell onto the ground, he smashed it against a tree, hoping it would shatter into pieces, hoping its light would disappear and fail so it would be all over...
And darkness took over and the shrieks of the creature died.
A/N: R&R please! This story's not quite over yet. A few more chapters to come before ending it though...
