Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, god knows I want to, but I don't they belong to JRR Tolkien.
Summary: Slight AU The battle of Helms Deep, before and after. Aragorn and Legolas Slash,
Notes: This is my first fanfic and I am really nervous please review this to tell me if you like it, I will probably carry on anyway.
Movie verse.
Warnings: Slash a new relationship, Arwen is marrying someone else.
Some blood for the battle scene
"Speaking"
*thinking*
Chapter 1
The red of the sun as it died was taken over by the moon whose pale face was cold and callous, hiding the speeding shapes that push ever onwards to rescue their fearless friends, onwards they travel no sound was made, no creatures stirred apart for these relentless shapeless shadows.
The shape in front suddenly stopped, stooping down, picking up a glimmering object, that changed tones and colour in the light of the moon.
"What have you got?" boomed the shorter shadow coming up behind the stooping shape. The reply was a quiet and distant "not idly do the leaves of Lorien fall, its one of their Broaches"
The shadow straightened, the moon light dancing across the shadows obscured features,
"They are near I can tell"
"and how are we meant to catch them? huh!!!!. They run as if there is a Balrog behind them"
"we must go on, there is a chance we can save them, I will not give up"
"neither will I" a voice so quiet that it could hardly be heard, another shadow came into the moons cold rays but still shed little light on the creatures face, "I will not stop until I know that they are no longer with us." came the same quiet voice only slightly stronger.
The shorter shadow sighed and wearily said " I am not giving up, but I need rest, can we camp if only if it is for a few hours"
The taller shadows seem to want to disagree, but the thinner one saw the logic in the others statement agreed with the lesser shadow "you both need rest, you have worked much to hard, what use are we to our friend, if we are to weary to fight"
The broader shape angrily span round looking directly at the thinner creature
"and what about you, your not indestructible, are you?!!. I will only rest if you do and you get some sleep, for I know have not slept since we were in Lothlorien"
Drawing back from the outburst the slighter shadow agree without a fight.
The night wore on and the three featureless creatures settled down on the cool open plain, starting a fire was out of the question, so the moons cruel face was not broken by anything but by the trees that cast tendril like shadows on the ground.
"Why do you not sleep? For you are more weary than I am" the musical voice broke the dead silence that had taken residence over the camp,
"we are all to sleep tonight, I am on first watch, with no argument" the gruff voice answered.
There were no arguments from stumper bean who simple lay down and was asleep within seconds, but the thinner shape was not about to give up as easily as before
"Listen to me Human, you need rest, you tell me that I have not slept since Lothlorien, neither have you, I need no rest. I .."
"You will rest Elf, even if I have to force you to lie down"
"You just try it" the slighter shadow exclaim hotly , before turning and stalking off into the trees, leaving the human shape to look after the elven figure.
*I am only worried about, why can you no see that*
Silence descended once more, broken only by the snores of the rock like shape on the ground and the pipe of the human that sat ever watchful, waiting for the elf to return.
Morning broke, with the arrival of the sun and the Elf, walking up to its companions. The human final driven to sleep by exhaustion and the knowledge that the elf was only in the trees around the camp, watching for any signs of danger.
The rock shaped lump on the floor shifted, when the elf touched it, the grey covers unveiled the creature underneath, showing the shape of a short humanoid creature, its face at last seeing the sun, from the long, cold night, that seemed to last for ever.
"I was a wake you crazy Elf." A voice gruff with under use shattered to peaceful silence that the new morning had brought, the voice of that smaller figure woke up the human, that was asleep opposite . The shape shifted and the blankets moved with its body, final the sun lightened the creatures features, revealing that the creature was in deed a human,
"Do you have to be so loud, dwarf. I bet the elf can hear you from the trees"
Booming laughter reached his ears "what?" he turned round to face his dwarven companion, only to be greeted by the sight of two blue eyes dancing with laughter "so you decided to come back did you?" he asked with amusement to the returned Elf.
"No Aragorn, I'm still in the trees, this is only but a dream. Of course I decided to come back" replied the still laughing Elf.
The company of friend packed up their belongings, ate some breakfast and were on their was before the sun had reached the canopies of the tallest trees.
The sun rose beyond the mountain, to tell the travellers that the afternoon had arrived, but still they carried on.
At the back of the three was the shorted being, the sun revealing that the creature was in fact a dwarf, who's tired worn face was covered in the traditional copper tipped beard, braided on either side to show the rank of a warrior dwarf. He was clad in the traditional armour of his kind, with the geometric design that had been craved onto the hardwearing metal.
A few meters ahead was the human, the sun revealing his obscured features, showing a rugged handsome man, his face showing that he had seen many winters and was perhaps in his late thirties, his hair was dark brown, which set off his storm grey eyes. The human, was clothed in simple garments for travel, mainly toughened hide, which appeared to have been mended many times.
Visible on the brow of a hill, a slim and athletic figure could be seen, the raise of the sun reflected off the golden hair, that had been woven into a plait, to keep the hair from veiling the creature, proud and noble features. The features that could only belong to that of an elf.
"What is it Legolas?" Aragorn asked once he had caught up with his foreign friend.
"I can see horse men on the horizon. I didn't know if you wanted to talk to them" replied the Elf.
* why are you asking me? I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do.*
"I will go and meet them, you and Gimli stay here, stay out of sight"
"No, take Gimli with you at least, you will not go with out some kind of backup" command Legolas " or I will come with you."
"NO!! you stay here, they might not be friendly to your kind" replied Aragorn hastily.
Legolas was not going to back down and they continued to argue, ignoring the dwarf that was slowly but surly catching up with them.
"your the most stubborn Elf I ever met, you know that" exclaimed the irate ranger.
"and you're the stupidest human, I've met, and that is saying something" came the answers from a equally frustrated Elf
"Will you both shut up, if you haven't noticed the horse people are coming towards us, they have seen that there are three of us, so there is no use in hiding" came the voice of the dwarf sounding like a scolding parent.
Sure enough the sound of beating hooves coming toward them could be heard, the Human was exasperated at the way the Elf had won the fight, the Gods seemed to be against him.
* That Elf is the baine of my life, why do I like his so much, he is insufferable, yet I could not live without him there by my side. The way he say my name…Aragorn. Aragorn*
"ARAGORN"
"ummm"
"You are with us then Estel, you see something you like on one of those horse, that happen to be heading straight for us, or are you thinking of the fair Arwen"
"I was just thinking of what to say to the men that approach"
"What ever you say Lad" the dwarf said in a knowing voice.
Any further conversation was cut of by the arrival of the band of men.
"What a strange group of travellers that are in the Mark, who are you and what is you business here?" the man who seems to be the leader of the group demanded
Before Aragorn could answer the dwarf cut in "Give me you name man, and I will give you mine"
"I would have your head, dwarf if it stood a bit higher"
the dwarf bristled at this, but all were shocked, when the leader of the group found the business end of an arrow pointing towards him, with a furious Elf on the other side
"you would die before you could raise your sword" the furious creature spat
The band of men final realising that their leader was being threatened, raised their armies against the Elf.
Aragorn reached forward and push the arrow away from the other human face, and answered the original questions that had been asked.
"My name is Aragorn son of Arathorn, this is Gimli son of Gloin and lastly this is Legolas of the Woodland realm, we are friend to the king of the mark, we only hunt a band of Orcs that ran this way"
"there is no need to continue on the chase, there are no more Orcs in Rohan, we just killed the last band" snapped the leader.
"were their anything other than the Orcs there, they were hobbits, half lings, child like in their appearance, did you see them" asked a worried Gimli, concern ringing in very word.
"No other creatures were found, we burned the remains of the foul beasts about 500 leagues to the south, you can look for yourself, we saw no Children among the dead" the leader answers almost regrettably. "there is nothing that I can do, the king of the Mark does not recognise friends, not even his own kin. I am Eomer the kings Nephew"
The leader lifted of his helmet to reveal a man a little younger than Aragorn, his long hazel hair falling round his shoulders, his face was grim as he told the company about the fact that he had been banished by his own uncle, and was destined to roam the plains of Rohan to protect his city.
"My King was not the one to banish me though, it was his adviser Wormtongue"
he finish with the saddest voice that Legolas had ever heard. Before he could say anything to the younger human. Aragorn spoke out.
"we better be on our way, with you leave to find our friends, if their bodies are not in the burnt pile, them I will believe that they are alive" a determined tone in his voice.
"then I will lend you these horse, I hope they will bring you more luck than their other riders, mind the white one, Arod, he can be very wild and does not behave at times, the other is very well behaved and will be good to you"
Two men walked forward, one holding a chestnut horse, the horse was a fine example of the Rohan mastery of horses, the man leading the fine beast was a weathered man of many years.
A younger person struggled forward, pulling a very reluctant horse behind him, whining and nickering and pulling away from the boy.
Eomer turned towards Aragorn looking apologetic
"We are sorry, but these are the only horses we have, you can leave this one with us if you…"
The whining and nickering suddenly stopped and their was yelp, laughter erupted from the men surrounding the area, Aragorn and Eomer turned round, to see what was wrong, the sight that greeted them was unrepeatable, there stood the elf and the misbehaving horse, standing silently together, the picture of innocence and an angry looking dwarf, glaring at the to former creatures,
"what happened?" Eomer asked confused.
"That blasted elf made that horse bite me" replied the angry dwarf.
"I did no such thing" the Elf replied trying to look innocent and offended and the horse neighed in agreement.
"I think you've found an owner for that horse of yours, they are just right for each other" exclaimed the amused ranger.
"yes, they both deserve a good hiding." The anger in Gimli's voice filtering out into humour.
The indignant look on the elf's face coursed another bout of laughter from the men.
The laughter died down and the company split up, to go their separate ways, one group to roam the plains, the other to look for friends.