Chapter Three: Take it. No! NOW!! Fine, fine!
Ashley stood near the tunnel, waiting for Lexiss to be dropped back down. She almost expected to hear her new friend giggling as she fell, and then scramble back up, only to be thrown back down again. She pushed her glasses back onto the bridge of her nose, where they rested comfortably for the time being.
"Ashley?" she looked over and saw the little boy that had followed Lexiss up the tunnel. "They're saying she's gonna get caught." He pointed to a group of kids about thirteen-years-old that were talking quickly and excitedly. He looked back up at her. "Is she?"
"Is she what?" Ashley asked, getting down on her knees to look him in the eyes.
"Is she gonna get caught by the Elves and then tossed back down here?" Ashley smiled and chuckled quietly.
"So that's what's bothering you?" he nodded. "Nah, I don't think they're going to get Lexiss."
"Why?"
"Because she's different from the rest of us," she told him. "She has something called ADD. It means she thinks differently and has a little bit more energy than either of us." (A little?! ¬_¬ …yes'm.)
The little boy smiled. "Really?" she nodded.
"Yep!"
"Should I tell the others that they're wrong?" Ashley laughed.
"Let's let them think they're right for now, 'kay, Sam?" The boy nodded. "Great!"
~*~
Lexiss looked down at the plastic bottle in her hand and back up at Legolas. "Please don't make me take this, sir."
He raised an eyebrow. "Why don't you wish to take it?"
"Because I become a very focused person who needs to be doing something to keep from being bored, and is very responsible. Basically, I focus. Don't even try to get away, Eruner. I'm not letting go."
His reply was prompt "Take it. Take it now." (My, isn't he subtle?) Lexiss sighed and opened the bottle with her free hand. She put Eruner into a temporary headlock and grabbed the bottle with that hand. She shook it until a single pill fell into her hand, which she popped into her mouth.
Eruner looked up at his 'captor'. "Please may I go?" she smiled sarcastically and ruffled his hair.
"Oh, but why would you want to go? Do you want to have more fun tripping up the future leaders of America?" he silently looked down. She was obviously still angry with him about trying to trip her up.
"Lexiss," Legolas warned her. She looked up at him. "Let him go. He has done what you have requested, and now you must release him." She raised an eyebrow. "Now." She rolled her eyes and relinquished her grip on Eruner's shoulder. He immediately scampered off towards the castle…I think…
She crossed her arms over her chest in an impatient sort of way, and waited for several seconds. "Okay," she burst out, "I can't wait any longer. Are you going to let us go, or not?"
"I cannot simply release all the children," he said in a calm and practical voice. "If I did, then all the Free People would wish to know why the Elves of Mirkwood have done so." Lexiss nodded in acknowledgement to that statement. "Also, the 'fangirls', as I believe you call them—"
"Yep, fangirls," she agreed.
"They would run rampant and would never leave anyone (and from my experience, especially me) alone."
"That's true…"
"On the other hand," he continued, "that would decrease some of the problems that my people have been having due to escapes and having to ride out to solve a Child problem."
"Okay, I have an idea!" Lexiss said, looking enthusiastic. "How 'bout this? You let us go; we set up a settlement far enough away from all others so that we can't bother you, but if we need help, we can come to you, and only if we need help. And if you do let us set up a place to live that is not underground, I'll deal with the fangirls." A grin flashed across her face for a split-second before it went into a patient blankness. "What do you think?"
Legolas was silent for several minutes. Lexiss rocked back and forth on her heels, patiently waiting for a response. After a minute, she started humming Perhaps by Doris Day and looking around. He looked at her, and she stopped moving and humming. She grinned again, and waited for a response.
"I would have to discuss this with my father, and the lords of the Free People as well." She sighed.
"Does this mean that until we figure out if they'll let us be free, we're stuck in the Pits?" he nodded.
"I'm afraid so." She raised an eyebrow.
"Right…but before you send me back down into Hell, can you show me where all the 'pens' are so I can inform everyone? Please, Mr. Legolas, prince, sir?" He shook his head. "Why not?"
"Not yet, at least. I would rather have you escorted to each of the pens and then back to your own." She glared at him. "You are a Child, and the Elves who have no idea of your plans or of who you are would throw you into the nearest pen."
"Oh." She sighed. "So I should go back now, shouldn't I?" he nodded. "Damn. Okay, but don't you forget about what I suggested!" she walked back into the trees from where she came. Legolas could hear her walking heavily (due to fatigue from running) and began walking in the opposite direction.
He didn't hear her spit out the Dexedrine pill, though.
~*~
Things had calmed down and everyone was unusually quiet. Ashley looked at them curiously. They all knew something was going on, but none of them knew what.
"I'M HOOOOOME!" Lexiss fell onto the leaves giggling. She sat up and looked at them with an alertness about her that almost made her appear serious. The only thing that prevented this appearance was her messed up hair with several leaves stuck in it. "Ash! How's everything down here?" Ashley grinned at her relentless energy.
"Not much. How'd they get you back down here?" Lexiss's grin grew and she giggled at the idea of them putting her in again.
"They didn't! I came back myself!" she climbed out of the leaves, laughing at their surprised faces. "But I got to talk to someone who might be able to help," she added. Almost everyone looked at her expectantly.
"Really?" a preppy-looking girl ran up and grabbed her shoulders "Who?"
"Legolas," there was an orchestra of sighs from the Legolas fangirls. Lexiss shrugged. "I suggested that we set up a settlement far enough away so we can't bother anyone—" a multitude of groans "—but close enough so that if we really needed them, we could reach them in fairly good time. There is one thing that I promised that I'm going to need everyone's cooperation with, though!"
"What's that?" Ashley asked curiously. Several people nodded in agreement.
"I promised that I'd take care of the fangirls. That means that no fangirls are allowed to go anywhere near Legolas or any other lust objects!" the cave was filled with the angry shouts from enraged fangirls. Lexiss jumped into the tunnel and gripped the wall several feet up and watched them as they tried (unsuccessfully, thank God) to reach her. "…help…?"
"GET BACK! GET BACK!" the stronger people began pulling them away. Lexiss began breathing again.
"Lexiss! Lexiss!" Sam ran up to her and jumped in an attempt to get her attention. She looked down and smiled.
"Hey there! What's up?" she jumped down so he could talk to her. He pulled her down to his height and began whispering in her ear. Her eyebrows went up. "Really?" he nodded. "Thanks, kid." She stood up and walked over to the edge of the Children. She grinned, took a deep breath and shouted: "ELF AT THE GATE!"
There was only one word that described what happened next: STAMPEDE!!! They were all running as fast as they could to see who was there, fangirls in the lead.
Indeed, there was an Elf standing there. When he saw the wave of Children rushing towards him, his eyes grew to the size of dinner plates, his face paled.
"Yee…"* he whispered. Then he ran to the other side of the gate and shut it quickly. And just in time, because the Children in the front ran right into the gate. There was unstoppable shouting. All the Children were calling, talking, laughing, yelling…it must have been terrifying to him.
"Um…I'm looking for Lexiss!" he called out to them. There was a second of silence, and then several girls shouted at the same time: "I'M LEXISS!"
Lexiss (who happened to be in the back) sighed and pushed her way to the front. "I'm Lexiss!" The girls began telling her how she was wrong, and how they were Lexiss, and blah, blah, blah…then she held up her bottle of Dexedrine. "Here you go, mister Elf-dude! Says my name on the bottle! See? Right there: Lexiss." He looked at the bottle, at her, and nodded. "Whatcha need?"
He looked at her up and down, sizing her up. "You don't appear to be very fast, nor do you look that influential." She glared at him.
"Ha, ha, ha. That's nice. Now tell me what you want." He raised an eyebrow curiously.
"I heard that there was a Child here who had managed to talk to Prince Legolas about setting the other Children free, but keeping them under control at the same time." Lexiss nodded.
"That's me!" she smiled a small, but very energetic smile. "It's amazing what you can accomplish if you have ADD, isn't it, Mr. Elf-dude!" he gave her a dirty look. "It's not an insult, it's just what I'm going to call you until I figure out your name…by the way, what is your name?"
"I am called Beren," he replied. "Why do you want to know?" Lexiss shrugged.
"Just curious." She stood there for a few seconds, waiting to see if this Beren was going to leave. When he didn't do anything, she leaned against the wall and began muttering some strange song (i.e. City Hall, by Tenacious D).
After several minutes of silence, Lexiss started talking again. "Do you like chocolate? I like chocolate! Do you have any chocolate?" He shook his head. "No? Oh, okay." She turned around and cupped her hands around her mouth. "DOES ANYONE IN HERE HAVE ANY CHOCOLATE???"
Everyone shook his or her head. Lexiss snapped her fingers and looked at Beren again.
"So! Are you the Elf that's supposed to be showing me where all the Pits are?" the Elf looked surprised.
"He granted you an escort to each of the pens?!" Lexiss nodded. "Why!??"
She sighed. "I talked to Legolas, and he said he'd see about letting us go on the conditions that no fangirls come anywhere near him, and that we aren't close enough so that we cause havoc. Now, I don't know about you, but I think that all the other kids have the right to know, don't you?" He nodded.
"Indeed, but they must be told when the time is right."
"And what better time than the present?" Lexiss argued. "I mean, by the time that 'time is right', it'll be the present again, so it makes absolutely no sense to put it off!" Some of the kids looked a bit confused. Beren looked confused too. Lexiss just grinned.
"Look," she said, "just let me out of here so I can tell the others. Legolas said that I could tell them!" Beren began to look a little uncomfortable; as if he knew something that Lexiss didn't. Her eyes narrowed. "What is it?"
"Legolas is headed with Gimli the Dwarf to the Grey Havens tonight," he confessed.
All fell silent. It was the stunned silence that there is when you know you've just been had. You could have heard a pin drop somewhere in that cave, and Beren was beginning to get a little bit frightened (and I don't blame him!).
"He's—he's going where?" Lexiss whispered dangerously. "Did you say he's going to the Grey Havens tonight?" There was a glint in her eye that made Beren all the more scared. Here was a child that would never stop for something that she was truly dedicated to. She would fight all adversaries…to the death, if necessary.
"Yes, I did," Beren replied, automatically wishing that he'd never said anything.
"When?" she asked in that soft voice.
"About midnight, I should assume," he said, becoming more nervous by the second.
Lexiss' hand shot through the bars and grabbed the front of his jerkin, pulling him forward.
"You get out of here and go see your prince." She said through gritted teeth. "Tell him that he lied to us, and we won't let him get away with this! We'll follow him to the ends of the earth if needed. He's not going to get away unscathed! I PROMISE." She let him go and pushed him back.
The others swarmed to the bars and began reaching their hands out in hopes of catching him as he passed. But the Elf was too quick for them (thank his lucky stars), and moved out of their range. No one saw Lexiss pull out a dexy, and actually swallow it.
"Okay," she said, moving away from the crowds, "let's get out of here!"
~*~
"Sir?" Legolas looked up and saw Beren standing there, looking quite shaken. "I told them."
"Thank you, Beren." He smiled (every girl reading this: sighs). "You have done well."
"Are you sure this is wise?" he asked, picking up a nearby bottle of wine. "Why test their strength? What is the point of this? They have the numbers and the motive to kill us all!"
"No, Beren, this was not wise on my part," Legolas replied, looking his companion in the eye. "But I will take the fall for it. The Children may be a nuisance, but if they wish to be freed, they must have the motivation to keep going, and we will need to prove that they deserve to be freed."
"Sir, this will not bode well," Beren said, looking around nervously, half expecting a child to come out from behind the door and stab him to death.
"For whom? The Children, or the Free People?"
"Both." Legolas sighed and put his hand to his forehead.
"I am tired of having to take care of these problems, Beren. They are wearing me down. I have felt pity for them ever since I saw the first Child thrown down into those pits!"
"That first Child was a nuisance sent by Saruman," Beren reminded him, but Legolas just shook his head.
"No, Beren, that Child was innocent of all charges placed upon her. Her only crime was being sent here, and unintentionally provoking the peoples of Middle-earth." He looked out the window in the direction of the Pits. "It may not bode well for either of them but they should get the chance to be free."
~*~
Lexiss had gathered all the Children of Eighth Hell around the tunnel to outline her plan.
"Okay, first thing we got to do is get out of this place. We'll take the tunnel up, and then go off in small-ish groups to find the other Pits. You've already got your groups together. If you see any Elves, bash 'em over the head with a rock or with anything nearby that'll render 'em unconscious. Then throw them down here. They think it's justice being put down here? Wait 'til they see what it's like!" Several of the Children grinned in anticipation.
"There are approximately twenty-one more pits," Ashley added. "They'll be scattered around in this general vicinity. Look for anything that seems slightly suspicious: a branch that's hanging from a tree at a crazy angle, a rock in a bird's nest…anything like that!"
"How do you know?" Lexiss asked.
"What, you think most of us have spent the whole time living in this one pit?" Lexiss grinned and looked back at the rest of the Children.
"The four that I've chosen to come with me will head for the castle and head off Legolam." Several of the Children chuckled at the Bored of the Rings reference. "When we've got him, he's mine to deal with, got it?"
They didn't seem too happy about it, but they nodded.
"Good." She looked down and saw Sam standing there looking up at her. "Hey, how many little kids are there?" she asked him.
"About thirty-five in here alone," a boy about twelve replied. Lexiss looked at him out of the corner of her eye.
"Thank you." She crouched down and called Sam over. "Do you think you could watch out for the others?" she asked him seriously. "I don't want any of you to get hurt, and I'm afraid that might happen if you go out there with us."
Sam nodded. "I can do that." Lexiss smiled and hugged him softly.
"Thanks, kid!"
"Sam."
"Thanks, Sam!"
~*~
It was quiet that evening. No one suspected that soon a stampede of angry Children was going to break loose and wreak havoc on their captors.
Slowly, Lexiss crawled out of the trunk. She pulled the top off and threw it away. She began helping pull the other Children out of the trunk, one at a time. Eventually, they were all out of the Pit and in their groups. She looked around and saw a sea of faces looking at her. She silently nodded and they spread out until only her group and the smallest Children were there. She knelt down next to Sam.
"Here's what I want you to do," she whispered to him. "I want you to take the others and find a safe place to hide, okay?" he nodded. "Great. We'll meet up with you by morning." She stood up and looked at her group. "Let's go!"
A/N: Yay! No more Writer's Block! I'm sorry to all those people who've been waiting for me to update. School's been getting in my way. I hope you like this chapter!
*Eep…
