Tuulo' N'ataya Paturinie By: Jesse Drache
Disclaimers: Legolas, Aragorn and the rest of the Fellowship and otherwise recognizable characters are property of J.R.R. Tolkien and do not belong to me.
Rating: PG-13 but rating may go up with later chapters
Chapter 5: Eska
"Legolas?" Aerin asked when she saw the blonde poke his head through the door and look in the room.
Legolas smiled and stepped in, carefully shutting the door behind him.
"How are you doing?" he asked taking the chair next to the bed.
"Better. I am waiting for Elrohir to return," she said, sitting up with the elf's help and smiling.
"Oh," the elf said, his smile slightly fading, "I will leave you then. I would not want to intrude."
He stood up, turning to leave.
"No, wait," Aerin said, effectively stopping the elf in his tracks. "He has gone to get new bandages and herbs from his father so that he may redress my wound. He will not be back for a while. Please keep me company?"
"Sure," Legolas intoned, reclaiming his seat.
They sat in silence, Legolas hastily glancing about the room, while Aerin gazed at him, a content look on her face.
"Why don't you tell me about your home?" Legolas finally said, hoping to fill the silence.
Aerin nodded slowly and Legolas watched as she closed her eyes for a moment as if calling forth some mental to aid her in her tale.
She took a deep breath and opened her eyes, straightening up slightly before beginning her description.
"Elrohir has been telling me about Middle Earth, so I think that I better start by explaining that my home is nothing like Imadris, at least not anymore," she began. "It is always dark and cold. A curse was placed upon the sky and the sun no longer shines upon us. Sometimes you can feel semblances of what must be warmth coming from above, but that is merely a condition of the spell and only lasts long enough to keep the people from dying of exposure. Nothing grows in the wild anymore, except for some weeds. All the trees have died and are bare, like ghosts of what once was. People don't go outside anymore, unless they have to. All the food is grown artificially in rooms with ceilings that are bewitched to mock the sun."
Aerin stopped when she looked up and caught a horrified expression on Legolas' face before the elf had a chance to mask his reaction.
"Is something wrong?" Aerin asked when Legolas' horror was replaced by disbelief.
"You've never seen the sun?" he barely whispered, as if uttering the words in a louder voice would befall the curse upon him and the rest of Middle Earth.
"Not the real sun, but my mother tells me that the recreations are very close," Aerin answered as if stating something obvious and common.
Legolas was suddenly swept by the desire to drag Aerin out of the room and outside to one of Elrond's gardens where he could show her every single living thing that he had always known, not caring about her present wounded state.
Luckily the thoughts were swept from his mind by the sound of a door opening.
"Good morning," Elrohir remarked cheerfully as he walked in, noticing Legolas' presence by the bed and smiling at him.
Legolas attempted to smile back, but finding he could not, decided to distance himself from the other elf under the guise of wanting to allow him room to work in.
Elrohir swept in and laid the herbs, ointments, and strips of gauze that his father had given him neatly on the table before turning and looking down at Aerin, his face turning slightly pink.
"You will need to remove your robe so that I can get to the wound," Elrohir said, looking away embarrassedly.
Aerin nodded and Elrohir strode across the room to stand beside Legolas. Once both their backs were turned, Aerin begun to arrange her garments and Elrohir turned to Legolas.
"My father told me that, although the herbs are easy to administer and do not require his skill as healer to be applied, they are quite painful when first administered to an open wound. If you do not mind, will you please help me distract her while I redress the wound?" he asked the blonde.
Legolas nodded and turned when Aerin signaled that she was ready.
They turned to find that Aerin had managed to arrange the blankets and her robe in a manner that exposed her wound but to keep as much skin as possible covered.
Legolas moved to the side of the bed opposite Elrohir and sat on the edge attempting to continue their previous conversation.
"How was it that you came to be in the woods where we found you?" he asked and Aerin turned her gaze to him and away from Elrohir who was grinding something into a thick paste.
Aerin was silent for a moment, drudging up memories that she would rather not remember and that had grown slightly hazy since she had deliberately not thought of them in days.
Slowly Legolas took a seat on the edge of the bed and reached down and took her hand in his.
Aerin opened, her eyes, not looking at either of them but up at the ceiling before she began.
"I had an argument with my mother. I was so angry," she said slowly, as if the memory of that day were occurring in real time.
Legolas gazed intently down at her face while Elrohir begun to uncover the wound.
"I stormed out of the room, as I always did whenever we argued, and as usual my brother, Aubrey, was waiting for me around the corner. Ready with some story or joke to cheer me up before I did something that I would get someone hurt."
Silence fell upon them for a moment, Aerin's expression growing grave.
"How could a mere argument and some anger hurt anyone? Everyone gets angry, they go someplace and calm down," Legolas said, seeing that Elrohir had unwrapped the bandage and had begun cleaning the wound.
Aerin hissed when Elrohir pressed a cold cloth to her skin and begun to clean off the old herbs and ointments that his father had used to help the wound heal.
"Anger does hurt people. It is just different in some from others. Some people get angry and hit people to feel better, well some people do not need to physically make things happen. When I was ten my mother told me that I had to stop seeing my best friend, Laurel, because her father had been imprisoned as a traitor to the crown. It was a lie, I knew that it had to be. I could see the man who had delivered the false accusations, could see everything about him in my mind as if I knew what he thought. I told my mother and she ignored me. Anger begun to well up inside me until I thought I would explode from it. Then suddenly everything grew quiet and it was as if I had never been angry. I found out the next day from my mother that Laurel's father was free. His accuser had been found dead in house. Apparently his tongue had been ripped out and he had bled to death from the wound, although no one knew who had done it or how the man had bled from a wound that could have easily been treated had he merely gone to the doctor next door."
"That does not mean that it was you. Anyone could have been angry at that man and killed him," Legolas said, his voice sounding reasonable.
"On the contrary, I had everything to do with it. I knew the man had lied, I could picture him in my mind and I wanted him to pay. It had happened before. Often strange things happen in my home because some person may be from a certain bloodline that has strong magic in its heritage and cannot control their actions. But rarely do the things that I make happen occur. Anyone else would have only been able to make his tongue bleed, maybe cause a headache, but because of my lineage, I made his entire tongue disintegrate."
Legolas flinched at the cold tone in Aerin's voice, meeting Elrohir's eyes and finding the same concern there as the elf continued to clean the wound.
"But my brother always sought to calm me down, knowing that I would regret whatever I did. So as I rounded the corner, he stopped me mid-stride and suggested we go outside. So I followed him out of the building to this forest of dead trees that we used to play in when we were kids," Aerin winced and let out small cry, her hand tightening on Legolas' when Elrohir begun to apply the burning ointment.
She took a breath and continued, "But I walked past the trees and into the stables. I made him go riding with me. I wanted to get away. So we rode past the gates, out of the walls were it was safe. While we were out we were attacked by five men on horses and Aubrey was dismounted. I turned around to pick him up, and as we rode back to the gates, they cornered us and I had to turn to the woods. They started shooting arrows."
She rose slightly when Elrohir started to rebind the wound by wrapping strips of cloth her abdomen.
"They tried to hit me in order to dismount me, but Aubrey got in the way, they got me anyway. I tried to ride faster but they shot the horse too. They rounded upon us and I panicked. Aubrey was not speaking and my horse was kicking wildly, keeping the men away for the time being. I closed my eyes, trying to remember lessons from my schooling that had been meant to help me escape situations such as this but the only thing that came to mind was a rare transportation spell that I had read about in a book a long time ago. I closed my eyes and muttered the words. I remember that I felt like I was going to be sick before everything went black. The first thing that I saw when I woke up, was this room." Aerin ended.
"I just want to go home," she whispered mostly to herself.
"I know," Elrohir said, sitting down on the other side of the bed.
"Will you do something, please?" she asked after a moment looking at them pleadingly.
"Sure," Legolas answered, still holding her hand.
"Take me to him. I want to see Aubrey," she said.
Legolas and Elrohir looked at each other gravely.
Elrohir slowly nodded.
*****
Disclaimers: Legolas, Aragorn and the rest of the Fellowship and otherwise recognizable characters are property of J.R.R. Tolkien and do not belong to me.
Rating: PG-13 but rating may go up with later chapters
Chapter 5: Eska
"Legolas?" Aerin asked when she saw the blonde poke his head through the door and look in the room.
Legolas smiled and stepped in, carefully shutting the door behind him.
"How are you doing?" he asked taking the chair next to the bed.
"Better. I am waiting for Elrohir to return," she said, sitting up with the elf's help and smiling.
"Oh," the elf said, his smile slightly fading, "I will leave you then. I would not want to intrude."
He stood up, turning to leave.
"No, wait," Aerin said, effectively stopping the elf in his tracks. "He has gone to get new bandages and herbs from his father so that he may redress my wound. He will not be back for a while. Please keep me company?"
"Sure," Legolas intoned, reclaiming his seat.
They sat in silence, Legolas hastily glancing about the room, while Aerin gazed at him, a content look on her face.
"Why don't you tell me about your home?" Legolas finally said, hoping to fill the silence.
Aerin nodded slowly and Legolas watched as she closed her eyes for a moment as if calling forth some mental to aid her in her tale.
She took a deep breath and opened her eyes, straightening up slightly before beginning her description.
"Elrohir has been telling me about Middle Earth, so I think that I better start by explaining that my home is nothing like Imadris, at least not anymore," she began. "It is always dark and cold. A curse was placed upon the sky and the sun no longer shines upon us. Sometimes you can feel semblances of what must be warmth coming from above, but that is merely a condition of the spell and only lasts long enough to keep the people from dying of exposure. Nothing grows in the wild anymore, except for some weeds. All the trees have died and are bare, like ghosts of what once was. People don't go outside anymore, unless they have to. All the food is grown artificially in rooms with ceilings that are bewitched to mock the sun."
Aerin stopped when she looked up and caught a horrified expression on Legolas' face before the elf had a chance to mask his reaction.
"Is something wrong?" Aerin asked when Legolas' horror was replaced by disbelief.
"You've never seen the sun?" he barely whispered, as if uttering the words in a louder voice would befall the curse upon him and the rest of Middle Earth.
"Not the real sun, but my mother tells me that the recreations are very close," Aerin answered as if stating something obvious and common.
Legolas was suddenly swept by the desire to drag Aerin out of the room and outside to one of Elrond's gardens where he could show her every single living thing that he had always known, not caring about her present wounded state.
Luckily the thoughts were swept from his mind by the sound of a door opening.
"Good morning," Elrohir remarked cheerfully as he walked in, noticing Legolas' presence by the bed and smiling at him.
Legolas attempted to smile back, but finding he could not, decided to distance himself from the other elf under the guise of wanting to allow him room to work in.
Elrohir swept in and laid the herbs, ointments, and strips of gauze that his father had given him neatly on the table before turning and looking down at Aerin, his face turning slightly pink.
"You will need to remove your robe so that I can get to the wound," Elrohir said, looking away embarrassedly.
Aerin nodded and Elrohir strode across the room to stand beside Legolas. Once both their backs were turned, Aerin begun to arrange her garments and Elrohir turned to Legolas.
"My father told me that, although the herbs are easy to administer and do not require his skill as healer to be applied, they are quite painful when first administered to an open wound. If you do not mind, will you please help me distract her while I redress the wound?" he asked the blonde.
Legolas nodded and turned when Aerin signaled that she was ready.
They turned to find that Aerin had managed to arrange the blankets and her robe in a manner that exposed her wound but to keep as much skin as possible covered.
Legolas moved to the side of the bed opposite Elrohir and sat on the edge attempting to continue their previous conversation.
"How was it that you came to be in the woods where we found you?" he asked and Aerin turned her gaze to him and away from Elrohir who was grinding something into a thick paste.
Aerin was silent for a moment, drudging up memories that she would rather not remember and that had grown slightly hazy since she had deliberately not thought of them in days.
Slowly Legolas took a seat on the edge of the bed and reached down and took her hand in his.
Aerin opened, her eyes, not looking at either of them but up at the ceiling before she began.
"I had an argument with my mother. I was so angry," she said slowly, as if the memory of that day were occurring in real time.
Legolas gazed intently down at her face while Elrohir begun to uncover the wound.
"I stormed out of the room, as I always did whenever we argued, and as usual my brother, Aubrey, was waiting for me around the corner. Ready with some story or joke to cheer me up before I did something that I would get someone hurt."
Silence fell upon them for a moment, Aerin's expression growing grave.
"How could a mere argument and some anger hurt anyone? Everyone gets angry, they go someplace and calm down," Legolas said, seeing that Elrohir had unwrapped the bandage and had begun cleaning the wound.
Aerin hissed when Elrohir pressed a cold cloth to her skin and begun to clean off the old herbs and ointments that his father had used to help the wound heal.
"Anger does hurt people. It is just different in some from others. Some people get angry and hit people to feel better, well some people do not need to physically make things happen. When I was ten my mother told me that I had to stop seeing my best friend, Laurel, because her father had been imprisoned as a traitor to the crown. It was a lie, I knew that it had to be. I could see the man who had delivered the false accusations, could see everything about him in my mind as if I knew what he thought. I told my mother and she ignored me. Anger begun to well up inside me until I thought I would explode from it. Then suddenly everything grew quiet and it was as if I had never been angry. I found out the next day from my mother that Laurel's father was free. His accuser had been found dead in house. Apparently his tongue had been ripped out and he had bled to death from the wound, although no one knew who had done it or how the man had bled from a wound that could have easily been treated had he merely gone to the doctor next door."
"That does not mean that it was you. Anyone could have been angry at that man and killed him," Legolas said, his voice sounding reasonable.
"On the contrary, I had everything to do with it. I knew the man had lied, I could picture him in my mind and I wanted him to pay. It had happened before. Often strange things happen in my home because some person may be from a certain bloodline that has strong magic in its heritage and cannot control their actions. But rarely do the things that I make happen occur. Anyone else would have only been able to make his tongue bleed, maybe cause a headache, but because of my lineage, I made his entire tongue disintegrate."
Legolas flinched at the cold tone in Aerin's voice, meeting Elrohir's eyes and finding the same concern there as the elf continued to clean the wound.
"But my brother always sought to calm me down, knowing that I would regret whatever I did. So as I rounded the corner, he stopped me mid-stride and suggested we go outside. So I followed him out of the building to this forest of dead trees that we used to play in when we were kids," Aerin winced and let out small cry, her hand tightening on Legolas' when Elrohir begun to apply the burning ointment.
She took a breath and continued, "But I walked past the trees and into the stables. I made him go riding with me. I wanted to get away. So we rode past the gates, out of the walls were it was safe. While we were out we were attacked by five men on horses and Aubrey was dismounted. I turned around to pick him up, and as we rode back to the gates, they cornered us and I had to turn to the woods. They started shooting arrows."
She rose slightly when Elrohir started to rebind the wound by wrapping strips of cloth her abdomen.
"They tried to hit me in order to dismount me, but Aubrey got in the way, they got me anyway. I tried to ride faster but they shot the horse too. They rounded upon us and I panicked. Aubrey was not speaking and my horse was kicking wildly, keeping the men away for the time being. I closed my eyes, trying to remember lessons from my schooling that had been meant to help me escape situations such as this but the only thing that came to mind was a rare transportation spell that I had read about in a book a long time ago. I closed my eyes and muttered the words. I remember that I felt like I was going to be sick before everything went black. The first thing that I saw when I woke up, was this room." Aerin ended.
"I just want to go home," she whispered mostly to herself.
"I know," Elrohir said, sitting down on the other side of the bed.
"Will you do something, please?" she asked after a moment looking at them pleadingly.
"Sure," Legolas answered, still holding her hand.
"Take me to him. I want to see Aubrey," she said.
Legolas and Elrohir looked at each other gravely.
Elrohir slowly nodded.
*****