Nice reviews everyone! Thanks! Yes, 'cliffie' is my middle name! Sorry for keeping you all hanging!
@DiamondD : Diari Romeo? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The movie was so…I don't know…terribly cliche!! It was a 'sad' one! And the people there also thought I was going to watch that movie! God, please, spare me the headache! I came to watch POTC for the 3rd time, okay? Oh, about the Empire mag, I'm looking for it too. There's a stall in Central Market that sells one, I think. I haven't checked the stall yet. Maybe tomorrow.
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"Let's put him on the bed and tie him up," Celeborn said stoically. Galadriel nodded. Arwen also bent down to help her grandparents.
"No! Don't do that to him!" Legolas struggled feebly in his father's arms.
Thranduil tightened his hold on his youngest child. "Hush, Legolas. It has to be done. He is a danger to us and himself."
"But it's Kel! Please, no!"
Arwen and his grandparents looked on sadly as Thranduil quickly carried his son out of the room. Turning back to her task, Arwen gently laid Keldarion's head onto the pillow. His eyes were closed and his face looked so serene as if the entire alarming incident had never happened.
When she looked up, Arwen saw Celeborn holding his right chest with a grimace. His once immaculate tunic was now bloodstained. "Grandfather, you're hurt," she stated, staring in concern at his injury.
He smiled back at her. "Not to worry, dear Arwen. I have received much worse."
Galadriel took out a blanket from a closet nearby and cut it into several long strips. Then gently but firmly, she wound the strips around Keldarion's wrists and tied them to the bedposts. She did the same thing to his ankles. Arwen picked the fallen coverlet off the floor and covered him with it, tears flowing freely off her eyes. "Forgive us, Kel. We have to do this."
Straightening up, Galadriel turned to her husband. "Let me tend to your wound, my lord."
Celeborn shook his head. "I'll be fine. Arwen can help me." He looked down at the unconscious prince. "Keldarion needs to be watched closely. The evil soul might return. We require some answers."
Galadriel sat down beside Keldarion and tenderly brushed a stray hair out of his pale face. "This is Keldarion, yet he is not. Another being has taken over him. I should have known something is not right when I saw him at dinner."
Celeborn stared closely at his wife's ethereal face. "You know what it is?"
She was silent for a moment as he placed her palm on Keldarion's cheek. Her eyes were wide opened but unseeing, using instead her ability to look far beyond sight and mind. A while later, she turned back to look at the Lorien lord, her eyes glinting with sadness and anger. "He has returned."
"Who?"
"Jakarran."
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On his way to his chamber, Celeborn paused at Legolas' door. He entered after giving a brief knock, Arwen's arm wrapped around his waist for support.
They found both the Mirkwood royalties sitting on the bed. Legolas was facing the wall in stoic silence as Thranduil plucked at the glasses from all over his body. His skin was marred with bleeding cuts and nicks, and his blood smeared all over the bedspread. The worst looking injury was the three-inch cut on his left cheek, but it was not too deep.
As he gently tended to his son's wounds with a damp cloth and salve, Thranduil looked up at Celeborn. "How is he?"
Celeborn sighed softly as sat down on the bed near Legolas. "He hasn't regained his senses. My lady wife is watching over him."
Hearing that, Legolas lowered his head and stared at his clenched fists on his lap.
"Legolas?"
The prince looked up at Celeborn's voice. The elven lord was saddened at the lost look on the younger elf's face. He was about to reach up to touch Legolas' shoulder when the prince spoke, "It's my fault. I did this to him."
Their eyes widened at that. "What are you talking about?" Thranduil asked.
"It's the bottle I picked from the river. I showed it to Kel and he pulled out the stopper and…something…like a red mist, came out. I thought it was smoke at first because he went into a fit of coughing afterwards. But he told me he was fine!" Legolas lowered his head once more. "I knew something was wrong when I healed him of his headache before we got down for dinner. Forgive me, father. I should have told you sooner."
Celeborn gazed steadily at the prince. "This bottle, was it dark in color and round in shape?"
"Yes. How do you know?" Legolas asked, surprised.
"Where is it?"
"There. In the top drawer of that chest." Legolas pointed at the said furniture across the room. At her grandfather's signal, Arwen went to it and pulled out the drawer. Then she returned with the small bottle and gave it to Celeborn.
Thranduil stared at the bottle. "Is that what I think it is?"
"Yes," Celeborn answered, his face grim. "Jakarran has returned."
"Jakarran? Who or what is he?" Legolas was perplexed.
"He is a nash'kah, a demon, descended from the ancient darkness since the first Barad'dur," Celeborn explained to the prince, gazing at the bottle as he spoke. "He had been terrorizing this Golden Wood many thousands years ago, killing elves at his will and drinking their blood for longevity. I was recently married to Galadriel at that time and I feared for her safety as well as my people. So I ordered him to be captured and killed, but he did not die. When he was imprisoned, he had somehow killed the guards and escaped. I gave chase and managed to corner him near the River Anduin. We fought and I had severed his neck, but his soul still lives on. Vapors of red started to come out of his nostrils and I knew that he was not dead. So I grabbed the nearest container I could find, which was this bottle that once held my lady's scent water, and put it to his nose. It was a miracle that none of the vapors hit me or any of my warriors nearby."
If he was his usual self and the situation was not so tense, Legolas might have teased the lord of Lorien about Galadriel's bottle of scent water that Celeborn had obviously brought along with him like a talisman of some kind. But Legolas' heart was too heavy with grief and fear for his brother that the idea never even crossed his mind.
"Forgive me, my lord. I shouldn't have taken the bottle," Legolas said softly.
Celeborn shook his head and placed a comforting hand on the prince's stoop shoulder. "No need to apologize, Legolas. You didn't know. I'm also surprised to see this bottle myself. I never thought I would come across it again. They had cast it far into the sea."
"I wonder how it got back here?" Thranduil voiced out loud.
"He's a demon, and he had thousands of years to push the bottle against the current back into the river. I should have known that he would return to haunt us once more." Celeborn stopped speaking then, clutching at his wounded chest and grimacing slightly.
Legolas saw this and instantly cursed himself for his tactlessness. "My lord? May I?" he asked, already offering his hand.
"No. It's all right, Legolas. Arwen can tend to it. Besides, you are hurt yourself," Celeborn replied.
But, stubborn as he was, Legolas ignored him. Without further words, he placed his palm over Celeborn's bleeding chest and began to heal the injury there. It took him no longer than a minute to finish as the bleeding finally stopped and the wound closed up without leaving any scars.
The elven lord smiled gratefully at the prince. "Thank you, Legolas. Your ability never ceases to amaze me."
Legolas looked sadly at his healing hands. "But it is still not enough. How I wished that I could exorcise the demon out of Keldarion only with my touch."
TBC…
