Author's Note: Ah, another day, another update. And in case you were
wondering, yes, I love shocking you guys with twists. At least I haven't
received too many death threats over the cliff-hangers yet, though I
believe a few of you fell off the cliff with the last one. Did I ever
mention how much I love your guys' entertaining reviews? 'Cause I really
do. Anyways, as far as I know I'm still not related to Tolkien so I have
no liability to be writing this but, oh well. Enjoy!
Chapter 16
Gimli's breath caught in his throat. He could not believe what he had just heard his best friend say.
Gimli finally took a breath and cleared his throat before moistening his lips and opening his mouth.
"What do you mean you are the killer?"
Legolas' eyes were still unwavering and locked onto the dwarf. He did not answer for a moment and Gimli could only stare transfixed at the elf laying before him, watching idly as the flickering light from the flames of the lamps danced across the contours of his fine face, making his features appear gaunt and more sharply defined.
"I mean exactly what I say," the elf finally replied, "I am truly their killer."
Gimli took a small step back from the stone slab Legolas lay upon and shook his head minutely, as if trying to wrench his will away from some sort of spell. When he looked back at Legolas there was a small fire in his eyes.
"But that makes no sense. I know you elf, whether you like it or not, and you would not kill an innocent in cold blood."
Legolas gave a small nod, as if agreeing politely with what Gimli was saying. "That much is true," he said.
Gimli snorted. "Then praytell explain yourself elf for my patience is wearing thin. You say you are the killer but would never kill an innocent. Which is the truth?"
"Both are true," Legolas answered.
Gimli let out an exasperated sigh and started muttering dwarvish curses but stopped when Legolas continued with his answer.
"I can now clearly remember that first night. After I left you I had intended to retire to my chambers for the evening, but first I wanted to go for a short walk near the trees. Yet when I came close to them, I became aware of some sort of disturbance within them. So I followed the signs in the trees and came upon a small glade. Once there, I saw one man attacking another."
"So then it was not your fault," Gimli interrupted, "you saw someone in need and tried to help them."
"That was my intention," Legolas replied, "but then I stopped."
Gimli's brows furrowed. "Stopped what?"
"Myself, what I planned to do. At first I wanted to simply put an end to the attack, to save the one that seemed like he was being victimized, but then a new thought came to me. What if I ended up saving the wrong one? What if the one attacking had initially been the one attacked?"
Gimli opened his mouth to interrupt again, but then thought better of it and let Legolas continue.
"So I remained hidden in the outskirts of the glade and simply watched. Both men looked equally compatible and had sustained injuries and I found myself wondering which would come out to be the winner. But then my focus changed.
"I saw that one of the men was not as equal as the other. He was slightly slower and maybe less skilled and it was obvious he was running out of strength. His breath was coming very heavy and fast. That was when I finally made up my mind to put a stop to it all. I stepped out into the clearing with only my knife drawn and called out to them to stop. I had come up behind the slower man and he turned around first, perhaps startled at my revealing myself. And that was when the other man attacked and delivered the fatal wound to the throat.
"He immediately turned to run off and I started after him, but I did not choose to trade my knife for my bow and an arrow to cut him down. Then I stopped again. I stood next to the dying man on the ground and could only look down at him. He reached up for me, as if there was something I could do for him. But of course I am no healer and was never trained for thus, I was only trained to kill, and I could not even do that for him. I had let his killer get away."
Legolas' gaze became more distant as he spoke, and Gimli had the feeling that the elf was no longer seeing him though he continued to stare straight at him.
"He was a large man, a strong man obviously. But he began to cry as he felt his own life fading away. All I could do was watch him as he died, I had never seen a mortal die this close up. Even as I felt sad for the man, I found I was also fascinated and could not tear my gaze away.
"Finally, I dropped to one knee and grabbed the hand that he kept holding up towards me. This seemed to comfort him, and his crying stopped. I could not understand how I was providing comfort for him, but I was, so I stayed right where I was, not even thinking to leave him to seek out his killer and avenge him properly."
Legolas paused and blinked and his eyes shifted somewhat and Gimli knew he was looking at him again. "And then he died," the elf finished.
"But that does not mean that," Gimli tried to interject but Legolas kept going as if he did not hear him.
"And then there was the second murder, with the young woman. This one I did try to help right away. She was alone and said she was looking for her brother, she was afraid something had happened to him. She was actually pleased to see me, she wanted me to help her, and I did.
"But then something else happened. Something was out there, waiting for us. I could sense it, and I knew that it meant ill for us, so I turned her around and tried to get her out of there.
"But we were too late, and I knew it. So I turned and I shot at whatever was behind us, but it was not truly behind us. Whatever it was was able to grab the woman's dagger and stab me in the side without my even seeing it. My senses were reeling and I tried to focus, I tried so hard to bring everything back to center and how it should be and fight off whatever was attacking us. And yet by the time I was finally able to ground myself and focus everything the woman was already down. The attacker did the same thing as before, it went for her throat and then ran off, leaving her for dead.
"I intended to go after him, to finally bring him down, but then the woman called out to me. She too was reaching out for me and crying, saying not to leave her alone. So again I stopped, and I went to her, and did what I could to comfort her. It seems so much to mortals that they not die alone, there is such fear for them. I still do not understand it, they would rather be comforted than see their killer brought down."
Legolas paused in his confession to Gimli and blinked again. "Death is such a strange thing for them, and I did nothing to help."
Gimli could keep himself contained no longer.
"Blaming yourself for their deaths is certainly not going to help," he started, his voice full of anger. "How can you say you are the killer when you did all you could to help?"
"That is just it," Legolas said, his own voice finally breaking out of the cool calm it had been in. Legolas sat up and turned so that he was facing the dwarf in one fluid motion. When he looked down at Gimli, his eyes were glinting in the lamp light and staring with a harsh intensity that the dwarf had thought he had lost.
"I did not do all that I could. I did nothing for the first murder, I even stood by and watched. And as for the young woman, I could not even focus myself to protect her. What kind of hero stands by and watches others die? Not a hero but a killer himself who cares nothing for the victim."
Gimli would not back down, his own frustrations and emotions coming through in his tough and unyielding stance.
"How can you believe that you cared nothing for them when you would stand by their side and comfort them until they did die? Even though you do not understand it, this is the best you can do for a fatally wounded mortal."
"The best I could have done was go after the killer and bring him down so that he could not kill again. That would have been the most benefit so that there would be no other victims." Legolas refused to listen to reason.
Gimli stopped. He knew Legolas' stubbornness well enough to know that this type of argument could go on for a while. He had wished a plague on the stiff necks of the elves before and this time was no different. So instead he opted for a different angle.
"Did you see who the real killer was?"
Legolas hesitated, momentarily thrown by the shift in conversation.
"I did not get a clear look at him. For some reason that did not come to mind the first time I watched and the second time he was gone before I could focus."
"Could you tell it was an elf?" Gimli pressed.
Legolas paused again. "His movements seemed elf-like, and he would have to be extremely fast to be able to get that close to stab me."
"Right then," Gimli immediately replied, "so now we know it is an elf and most definitely not you." The dwarf emphasized the last words of his sentence, but it was lost on the elf.
"I only said it may be an elf, and if it is than it is not one that I know, so he cannot be from Ithilien. And besides that, if the killer is eventually caught and brought to trial than I should be tried along with him as an accomplice."
Gimli growled through his teeth. Oh there were times when he simply wanted to knock his friend's head against a wall so as to rid him of his foolish ideas. Because once Legolas became fixated on an idea, he was firmly rooted in it.
Another thought came to Gimli.
"And what happened to you tonight, why did you leave the room when I left?"
Legolas' brows furrowed momentarily as if he was unsure of what Gimli was talking about before his features cleared. "I heard the woman screaming from somewhere outside, so I went off to help. This time I did not want to lose another person to the killer and I wanted to get there as fast as I could to stop him. But as always, I was too late and once again I could do nothing but try to comfort the woman as she died. After she died the mob of men came, obviously they had heard her screams as well, and I did not wish to fight them, there had been too much death already."
Legolas trailed off but Gimli did not bother to ask him to finish, he could easily figure out the rest of what had happened. It had shocked him when he first came upon the scene to see Legolas succumb to the group of men. Even as outnumbered as he was, he could have easily been able to escape from them unscathed. There was still more to this whole story than Legolas was letting on, but Gimli did not want to press that issue just yet.
As Gimli took in his own assumptions and theories Legolas came up with a question of his own. "Where did you go?"
The dwarf was distracted from his thoughts and momentarily confused. "When?"
"When you went to see Aragorn. Aragorn came with Faramir from the direction of the trees, that much I could tell though at the time I did not care. So where did you go when you were summoned to him?"
"Oh, that," Gimli had almost forgotten that detail when listening to Legolas' revelations. "He was not in his chambers where Bergel had said he would be so I went outside to see if maybe he was in the stables or some other place with Faramir, but they were not to be found and that was when I heard all the commotion and came to see what was happening."
Legolas nodded absently. Something glimmered in his mind at the mention of Bergel's name, but his thoughts were distracted by images of the last dying woman in his mind.
"I think you should send for Aragorn," Legolas said presently, "I have much to tell him."
"I will not go until you get it out of your mind that you were responsible for the deaths," Gimli protested.
Legolas let a grim smile crack his lips.
"So much faith you hold for me," he murmured.
"Of course," Gimli replied, "as I said before, I know you are no villain and I will not stand by and watch you destroy yourself with your own grief over situations you have no control of."
Legolas only stared for a moment. Then, "Please send for Aragorn."
And after a few more moments of muttered cursing, Gimli grudgingly replied.
Chapter 16
Gimli's breath caught in his throat. He could not believe what he had just heard his best friend say.
Gimli finally took a breath and cleared his throat before moistening his lips and opening his mouth.
"What do you mean you are the killer?"
Legolas' eyes were still unwavering and locked onto the dwarf. He did not answer for a moment and Gimli could only stare transfixed at the elf laying before him, watching idly as the flickering light from the flames of the lamps danced across the contours of his fine face, making his features appear gaunt and more sharply defined.
"I mean exactly what I say," the elf finally replied, "I am truly their killer."
Gimli took a small step back from the stone slab Legolas lay upon and shook his head minutely, as if trying to wrench his will away from some sort of spell. When he looked back at Legolas there was a small fire in his eyes.
"But that makes no sense. I know you elf, whether you like it or not, and you would not kill an innocent in cold blood."
Legolas gave a small nod, as if agreeing politely with what Gimli was saying. "That much is true," he said.
Gimli snorted. "Then praytell explain yourself elf for my patience is wearing thin. You say you are the killer but would never kill an innocent. Which is the truth?"
"Both are true," Legolas answered.
Gimli let out an exasperated sigh and started muttering dwarvish curses but stopped when Legolas continued with his answer.
"I can now clearly remember that first night. After I left you I had intended to retire to my chambers for the evening, but first I wanted to go for a short walk near the trees. Yet when I came close to them, I became aware of some sort of disturbance within them. So I followed the signs in the trees and came upon a small glade. Once there, I saw one man attacking another."
"So then it was not your fault," Gimli interrupted, "you saw someone in need and tried to help them."
"That was my intention," Legolas replied, "but then I stopped."
Gimli's brows furrowed. "Stopped what?"
"Myself, what I planned to do. At first I wanted to simply put an end to the attack, to save the one that seemed like he was being victimized, but then a new thought came to me. What if I ended up saving the wrong one? What if the one attacking had initially been the one attacked?"
Gimli opened his mouth to interrupt again, but then thought better of it and let Legolas continue.
"So I remained hidden in the outskirts of the glade and simply watched. Both men looked equally compatible and had sustained injuries and I found myself wondering which would come out to be the winner. But then my focus changed.
"I saw that one of the men was not as equal as the other. He was slightly slower and maybe less skilled and it was obvious he was running out of strength. His breath was coming very heavy and fast. That was when I finally made up my mind to put a stop to it all. I stepped out into the clearing with only my knife drawn and called out to them to stop. I had come up behind the slower man and he turned around first, perhaps startled at my revealing myself. And that was when the other man attacked and delivered the fatal wound to the throat.
"He immediately turned to run off and I started after him, but I did not choose to trade my knife for my bow and an arrow to cut him down. Then I stopped again. I stood next to the dying man on the ground and could only look down at him. He reached up for me, as if there was something I could do for him. But of course I am no healer and was never trained for thus, I was only trained to kill, and I could not even do that for him. I had let his killer get away."
Legolas' gaze became more distant as he spoke, and Gimli had the feeling that the elf was no longer seeing him though he continued to stare straight at him.
"He was a large man, a strong man obviously. But he began to cry as he felt his own life fading away. All I could do was watch him as he died, I had never seen a mortal die this close up. Even as I felt sad for the man, I found I was also fascinated and could not tear my gaze away.
"Finally, I dropped to one knee and grabbed the hand that he kept holding up towards me. This seemed to comfort him, and his crying stopped. I could not understand how I was providing comfort for him, but I was, so I stayed right where I was, not even thinking to leave him to seek out his killer and avenge him properly."
Legolas paused and blinked and his eyes shifted somewhat and Gimli knew he was looking at him again. "And then he died," the elf finished.
"But that does not mean that," Gimli tried to interject but Legolas kept going as if he did not hear him.
"And then there was the second murder, with the young woman. This one I did try to help right away. She was alone and said she was looking for her brother, she was afraid something had happened to him. She was actually pleased to see me, she wanted me to help her, and I did.
"But then something else happened. Something was out there, waiting for us. I could sense it, and I knew that it meant ill for us, so I turned her around and tried to get her out of there.
"But we were too late, and I knew it. So I turned and I shot at whatever was behind us, but it was not truly behind us. Whatever it was was able to grab the woman's dagger and stab me in the side without my even seeing it. My senses were reeling and I tried to focus, I tried so hard to bring everything back to center and how it should be and fight off whatever was attacking us. And yet by the time I was finally able to ground myself and focus everything the woman was already down. The attacker did the same thing as before, it went for her throat and then ran off, leaving her for dead.
"I intended to go after him, to finally bring him down, but then the woman called out to me. She too was reaching out for me and crying, saying not to leave her alone. So again I stopped, and I went to her, and did what I could to comfort her. It seems so much to mortals that they not die alone, there is such fear for them. I still do not understand it, they would rather be comforted than see their killer brought down."
Legolas paused in his confession to Gimli and blinked again. "Death is such a strange thing for them, and I did nothing to help."
Gimli could keep himself contained no longer.
"Blaming yourself for their deaths is certainly not going to help," he started, his voice full of anger. "How can you say you are the killer when you did all you could to help?"
"That is just it," Legolas said, his own voice finally breaking out of the cool calm it had been in. Legolas sat up and turned so that he was facing the dwarf in one fluid motion. When he looked down at Gimli, his eyes were glinting in the lamp light and staring with a harsh intensity that the dwarf had thought he had lost.
"I did not do all that I could. I did nothing for the first murder, I even stood by and watched. And as for the young woman, I could not even focus myself to protect her. What kind of hero stands by and watches others die? Not a hero but a killer himself who cares nothing for the victim."
Gimli would not back down, his own frustrations and emotions coming through in his tough and unyielding stance.
"How can you believe that you cared nothing for them when you would stand by their side and comfort them until they did die? Even though you do not understand it, this is the best you can do for a fatally wounded mortal."
"The best I could have done was go after the killer and bring him down so that he could not kill again. That would have been the most benefit so that there would be no other victims." Legolas refused to listen to reason.
Gimli stopped. He knew Legolas' stubbornness well enough to know that this type of argument could go on for a while. He had wished a plague on the stiff necks of the elves before and this time was no different. So instead he opted for a different angle.
"Did you see who the real killer was?"
Legolas hesitated, momentarily thrown by the shift in conversation.
"I did not get a clear look at him. For some reason that did not come to mind the first time I watched and the second time he was gone before I could focus."
"Could you tell it was an elf?" Gimli pressed.
Legolas paused again. "His movements seemed elf-like, and he would have to be extremely fast to be able to get that close to stab me."
"Right then," Gimli immediately replied, "so now we know it is an elf and most definitely not you." The dwarf emphasized the last words of his sentence, but it was lost on the elf.
"I only said it may be an elf, and if it is than it is not one that I know, so he cannot be from Ithilien. And besides that, if the killer is eventually caught and brought to trial than I should be tried along with him as an accomplice."
Gimli growled through his teeth. Oh there were times when he simply wanted to knock his friend's head against a wall so as to rid him of his foolish ideas. Because once Legolas became fixated on an idea, he was firmly rooted in it.
Another thought came to Gimli.
"And what happened to you tonight, why did you leave the room when I left?"
Legolas' brows furrowed momentarily as if he was unsure of what Gimli was talking about before his features cleared. "I heard the woman screaming from somewhere outside, so I went off to help. This time I did not want to lose another person to the killer and I wanted to get there as fast as I could to stop him. But as always, I was too late and once again I could do nothing but try to comfort the woman as she died. After she died the mob of men came, obviously they had heard her screams as well, and I did not wish to fight them, there had been too much death already."
Legolas trailed off but Gimli did not bother to ask him to finish, he could easily figure out the rest of what had happened. It had shocked him when he first came upon the scene to see Legolas succumb to the group of men. Even as outnumbered as he was, he could have easily been able to escape from them unscathed. There was still more to this whole story than Legolas was letting on, but Gimli did not want to press that issue just yet.
As Gimli took in his own assumptions and theories Legolas came up with a question of his own. "Where did you go?"
The dwarf was distracted from his thoughts and momentarily confused. "When?"
"When you went to see Aragorn. Aragorn came with Faramir from the direction of the trees, that much I could tell though at the time I did not care. So where did you go when you were summoned to him?"
"Oh, that," Gimli had almost forgotten that detail when listening to Legolas' revelations. "He was not in his chambers where Bergel had said he would be so I went outside to see if maybe he was in the stables or some other place with Faramir, but they were not to be found and that was when I heard all the commotion and came to see what was happening."
Legolas nodded absently. Something glimmered in his mind at the mention of Bergel's name, but his thoughts were distracted by images of the last dying woman in his mind.
"I think you should send for Aragorn," Legolas said presently, "I have much to tell him."
"I will not go until you get it out of your mind that you were responsible for the deaths," Gimli protested.
Legolas let a grim smile crack his lips.
"So much faith you hold for me," he murmured.
"Of course," Gimli replied, "as I said before, I know you are no villain and I will not stand by and watch you destroy yourself with your own grief over situations you have no control of."
Legolas only stared for a moment. Then, "Please send for Aragorn."
And after a few more moments of muttered cursing, Gimli grudgingly replied.