CHAPTER 10 - Spider Web
Queen Imlammthien and Lady Celebrian were walking slowly through the gardens of Mirkwood, taking in the late evening sky and scents from the flowers, unaware their sons were in the middle of a very dangerous game, currently sneaking out of the grounds, very close by. Had they listened carefully, they would have heard the whispered conversation, but as it happened they were not paying attention. Instead, Celebrian had found something to talk about.
"Imlammthien darling, I do suppose you are going to tell them soon," she ventured, as she knelt down by a particularly sweet smelling rose. Imlammthien looked puzzled.
"Dear Celebrian, what are you talking about?"
In the bushes, Elladan rolled his eyes at Nilwethion.
"The way they talk you would think they were sisters," he whispered, so low only the three elves around him could hear. It was all Thellind could do to keep his face strait.
By the rose bush, Celebrian stood up and the pair carried on walking painfully slow. Too slow for their four sons in the shrubbery, having to wait for them to disappear if they had any hope of not being caught.
"It has come to my attention that the size of your stomach is slightly larger than that of the average elven maid. As many here eat exactly the same food as you, or more than, considering today's events, which, may I add, is very brave of you," here both ladies smiled, remembering the face of the king, "So I doubt very much that is has anything to do with overeating."
The lady of Imladris raised a pretty eyebrow at her friend who was now struggling to keep her emotions strait.
"Perhaps we could sit down?" she suggested after it was clear there would be no answer.
In the bushes, the four elven youths winced. This was going to take much longer than they had first though.
"I hope they are not there for long," whispered Elrohir, "I fear there is no chance of me sitting still for much longer at all. I need to move!"
"We all do," muttered Nilwethion, "I want to get this over and done with,"
By this time, the two elven women had just sat down on the beautifully carved oak bench. On the bench were carved various polished small woodland animals. A couple of birds along the back, two squirrels chasing each other on one of the legs, a mouse on the arm and . . . a small spider weaving its web. That one seemed to be moving. In fact, it was. Imlammthien sighed and picked it up gently, and then moved it to a waiting flower. She sat down again, and turned to her friend.
"So Celebrian my dear, what is it we were talking about?"
"Your baby, I believe," smiled the Lady of Imladris. Imlammthien froze for a few moments and then suddenly seemed to find an unforgivable fold in her lavender blue dress. She began to smooth it, as if paying no attention, running her fingers lightly over the delicate embroidery. She sighed and looked back at Celebrian, clutching the fabric of her long dress as if it were a elflings comfort blanket, like the one Oroweth once owned, but now refused to admit had ever existed.
"What does she mean?" whispered Nilwethion, "Calensil is the baby of the family, though she can no longer be counted as a baby, but a small child. There is no other."
Beside him, a look flashed across Thellind's face, though the twins, who were watching carefully, could not tell what the emotion was. Was it happiness or panic? Or perhaps fear or pride? They shrugged it off.
"I think, little brother," whispered the prince carefully, "That they might mean something else. Shush, I am trying to listen,"
The four elven heads turned back to eavesdropping on their unknowing mothers.
"Celebrian my dear, has anybody else noticed?" the tone of the queens voice suggested that she was worried, radiating through the level ness of it.
"I do not think so darling. Not that I am aware of,"
The queen gave a sigh of relief and let go of the dress, not realising how hard she had been clutching it. She smoothed the crumpled fabric, her eyes flitting around the gardens, as if to check for intruders. The four sons in the shrubbery froze, not daring to breath.
"So, is it a girl or a boy?" asked Celebrian, a cheeky smile on her face reminding Thellind and Nilwethion of the identical grin the twins so often had plastered on their faces.
"I am fairly sure it is a girl. Calensil will be delighted, as am I. Come to that, so will my sons. They are besotted with Calensil, and I am sure they will love this little one just as much. Eight children!" the queen began to giggle.
At last the light dawned over Nilwethion as he realised what his mother was talking about. His mouth fell open and he suddenly seemed to loose his voice.
"What will you call her?" it seemed that Celebrian was full of questions about the unborn child, and now the truth had come out, Imlammthien was ready to answer them all. The queen smiled gently.
"I will call her Hollinethir. You know what that means, of course,"
"Holly spy? Why are you calling your child holly spy?"
"Why don't you tell her, Thellind? Also, whoever else is in there can come out. I know there are two of you hiding by that holly bush,"
After a moment of shock, Thellind stood up, staring at the ground by Imlammthien's feet. He kicked Elladan in the ribs, gently, but hard enough to make the elf get up. He knew how to take a hint.
"Is anybody else in there dear?" asked the queen. Thellind and Elladan shook their heads quickly.
"No Naneth," the muttered, one after the other.
"Well, are you going to come over here or are we going to have to come over and drag you away from that holly bush, after which your sister is to be named?"
The two elves quickly stepped carefully over the plants, avoiding the prickly leaves dropped by the holly tree, and wandered over to the queen and the lady of Imladris. The two women stood up and eyed their sons. After a moment, Imlammthien plucked a holly leaf from her sons' hair and smiled. She then, suddenly, slapped the side of his head. Celebrian just stared at her son silently with hard eyes, making him blush and fidget.
"Thellind Thranduilion! You know better than to go sneaking around like a low and vulgar spy! Do not ever let me catch you doing that again! You even dragged another along with you! Did you want him to get in to trouble as well? How dare you?"
Thellind looked at the ground miserably with his hands behind his back. He signalled to the two in the bushes to go as the queen continued to lecture him about spying. Nilwethion and Elrohir took the hint and left as silently as possible, leaving their unfortunate brothers to a severe telling off.
The two elves moved like shadows, ducking swiftly and silently behind trees and disappearing in to the night. At last, when they were far away from the dwelling place of the king, the two stopped and began laughing with silent mirth. Although they were well away from the palace and the danger of their angry mothers, and possibly fathers later on, there was still a more deadly threat from the trees. Spiders, wolves, wargs, now orcs and many more besides.
"I have no wish to be in brothers shoes now," sniggered Thellind.
"This is the only time in my life I will be glad to be away from Elladan," agreed Elrohir, then he stopped laughing and looked around. "'Tis very strange without him here. As if half of me is missing," he shuddered and flicked his black hair behind his shoulder.
"Come, we had better be going. We want to get this over and done with before the spiders become over active, and before we are missed," whispered Thellind, dropping his voice again to as low as he had been forced to speak when they were by the holly bush.
Again, the pair moved off in to the deadly silence of the trees, creeping towards the closest spider den. Their hearts began to beat faster and faster as they realised how much danger they were in, and as they realised how alone they were. From the depths of the woods a bird screeched, making them jump. Elrohir grabbed Nilwethion's arm in shock.
"Ow, that hurts," whispered the prince. Elrohir let go, aware of what he had done.
"I'm sorry," he whispered back, "I am not used to being alone,"
"You are not alone," came the almost silent reply
"I meant without Elladan," hissed the Imladris elf. The bird screeched again, but this time it was closer. Perhaps it was another bird. Something scuttled along the floor in front of them, making the lonely twin jump again.
"Just a squirrel," he heard the prince mutter, although the prince sounded scared himself.
The pair crept on, slipping on through the trees, until Elrohir suddenly lost sight of Nilwethion. He stopped dead in his tracks and stared around, peering in to the gloom. His blood raced and a cold sweat broke out on his forehead. The elf wiped it away quickly with his sleeve and drew his dagger. It should already have been drawn.
"Nilwethion?" he hissed, "Nilwethion!"
In an instant, the prince was by his side as if he had been there all along.
"What is it?"
"I lost sight of you,"
There was a moment's silence, and then the leaves of the trees began rustling as if there was a breeze, only there is no wind in forests. The two elves tensed, but nothing happened.
"Take my hand," whispered Nilwethion, "Or most likely we will loose each other. I can see better than you in this darkness, but the trees would block my view," it was true. Nilwethion had spent more time creeping about after nightfall in the terrifying blackness, although usually it was much closer to the elven stronghold. By now the prince knew the way by feel and could have walked the forest with his eyes closed, but he did not want to loose their guest who was so unused to the conditions. The two elves found each other's hands and began stalking off again, daggers at the ready. Again the unseen bird screeched, making them jump. This time it was answered by another, and then another.
As they walked on, the forest became darker and darker and the sounds around them became, while no less scary, a little more reassuring. It seemed many of the creatures were not interested in the two elves, or knew better than to try to hurt them. The birds, for instance, were too small to make much of a difference to the pair. They were far more interested in easy prey, like the mice or the black squirrels.
"I miss Elladan," whispered Elrohir, after the terrified pair had heard a wolf howling, and then the squeals and squeaks of some small, unfortunate animal the wolf pack - wolfs never hunted alone - had labelled "dinner". Nilwethion felt the elven twin's grip on his hand tighten.
"Elladan is fine," he whispered back, "Now stop worrying!"
In the gloom, Elrohir nodded unhappily.
"I'm sorry,"
"Why?"
"Because I keep saying that,"
The prince of Mirkwood sighed. He was glad he didn't have a twin. Were all twins this bad when they were separated? How must Elladan be reacting? On reflection, it was probably a good thing he had been dragged back to the palace by his Naneth. After all, he had no weapons, due to his own dare. When had the dares been placed? Was it yesterday? Or was it only this morning? Everything had suddenly started happening so quickly as soon as the guests from Imladris had arrived.
He sighed and tugged at the elf's hand.
"Come on, we can not waste any more time,"
He tugged on Elrohir's hand again, but the elf was frozen in place. He began whimpering.
"What? Oh . . ."
Surrounding the unfortunate and petrified pair was the pack of wolves. It seemed that whatever unfortunate creature they had just eaten was not enough to satisfy them. Two elves, it seemed, would. Two elves would probably satisfy them for a week.
The two elves in question, however, were not prepared to go down without a fight. In the intimidating gloom of the trees, two daggers flashed dangerously as the elves moved themselves around so they were back to back.
The first wolf pounced with an evil snarl, but was cut down quickly with a swipe from Nilwethion's sharp dagger. The wolves began circling the youths bearing their fangs and leering at them with ugly, yellow eyes. They seemed to be saying, "we will kill you, and we will feast upon your flesh."
"Elrohir?"
"Yes?"
"If we are going to last much longer, you are going to have to let go of my hand,"
"Yes Nilwethion,"
"Elrohir?"
"Yes?"
"You are still holding my hand,"
"You are still holding mine,"
"Oh,"
Another wolf dived, knocking them both to the ground. Elrohir stabbed it through the neck, but more wolves had already leapt forward and he could not escape from under the new corpse. Nilwethion jumped up and whirled his blade, slicing away at the wolves flesh, killing four more. The wolves fell back and began circling again. This time their mouths were stained with blood of their own kind, and of elven kind. Now they could taste it, they were not about to let their prey get away. Nilwethion grabbed Elrohir with his freehand and dragged him out from under the dead wolf.
"I thought I was about to get my throat ripped out," he whispered gratefully, his eyes flicking from one wolf to the next.
"You still might,"
The prince bit his lip, almost unaware that he was doing so. As the wolves circled him, he bit down with more pressure, becoming more and more scared. Suddenly he felt the cold, metallic taste of blood in his mouth. His own blood. Nilwethion winced as he realised he had bitten through his lip unintentionally. Almost without realising he had done so.
One of the wolves howled loudly, standing up on its back legs, it's fur prickling. Others joined it, almost deafening the two elves with their over sensitive ears. In the distance, and from not so far away, answering howls broke through the night, infiltrating the every nook and cranny in the forest.
The wolf that had begun the howling thudded down on to the ground again, its teeth bared, and the pack, as one, advanced slowly on the pair, tightening the circle and completely trapping them. Nilwethion heard his petrified friend whispering prayers to the Valar. He tightened his grip on his dagger resolutely.
"Elrohir, on the count of three bolt right and slice your dagger through that wolfs neck. Do not run through the forest or they will catch you and rip your throat out. You see that tree? We are going to climb up it as high as we can. Wolves can not climb trees. Understand?"
Elrohir nodded.
"1, 2, 3, NOW!"
The elves dived at the wolves, fighting for their lives. Killing three almost instantly the pair bolted to the tree and swung themselves up it in to the high branches, the wolves below them howling angrily and snapping at their heals, tearing at the bark with their claws in madness at letting their prey escape.
"Nilwethion? Are you alright?" panted Elrohir, brushing his hair out of his eyes. The hair refused to be brushed away, and fell back in front of the worried elf's face.
Nilwethion had his teeth clenched in pain, his eyes screwed shut and his hands clasped around his ankle.
"No, one got me," he moaned. The pair no longer had any need to keep their voices low. The prince let out a frustrated growl of pain as the blood poured from his ankle, seeping through his hands and dropping in to the waiting mouths of the hungry wolves below.
"Look at them, squabbling over getting a taste of my blood!" he cried, "Argh, it hurts so much!"
The pain was, indeed, almost more than the prince could bear. He moaned again and his eyes unfocused, threatening to loose consciousness. Elrohir just sat and watched, unable to move, his fear catching up with him. All he could think was 'I need Elladan, where is Elladan? I need Elladan. Please Elladan, help us.'
Below them, the wolves had begun to feast upon the dead bodies of their own kind, leaving four sitting at the bottom of the tree, staring up greedily at the two elves, snapping their jaws as if teasing them. Elrohir shook his head, trying to clear his mind of all thoughts of his twin. They were desperate, and freezing up was not going to help the situation.
"Think Elrohir, think!" he whispered. Beside him on the branch Nilwethion moaned in pain again, his hands and leggings stained with blood. Remembering the lessons his ada had given him in Imladris, Elrohir ripped his tunic and wrapped it around the princes wound, attempting to stop the blood flow. If he did not stop bleeding soon, the prince would be unconscious, possibly dead, in a matter of minutes. No, he was over reacting.
"I have been in worse situations than this and survived," he muttered to himself, forgetting Nilwethion could hear, "And I will not become dinner for a pack of hungry cannibals!"
"That's the spirit," whispered Nilwethion. He had not meant to whisper, but his strength was rapidly vanishing, as the pain did not die down. He cried out as Elrohir's hand clipped the wound, making it sting with impossible pain. The prince blacked out leaving Elrohir alone.
"Nilwethion? Nilwethion?"
In the pitch blackness the terrified elf couldn't think. Below him the wolves were still snarling and growling and howling. More were gathering, presumably they knew when the other wolves howled. A dry sob escaped his throat and he froze, his eyes locking with those of one of the wolves.
As he stared at the wolf, and the hungry wolf stared back at him, Elrohir let go of Nilwethion's limp body, as if being controlled by the silver hound at the bottom of the tree, it's knife like claws hooked in to the ancient bark of the tree. Nilwethion slide from the branch and fell. The wolf threw back its head, its mouth open and waiting for the elf to fall right in, but the only thing to hit the wolfs mouth was another drop of sweet blood. The wolf looked up again in confusion, and found the answer.
Nilwethion had been caught in a spider web, recently woven on the tree. The long sticky silver strands that had been woven so carefully were hanging on to Nilwethion, unwilling to let the newly trapped, helpless creature be eaten by some other animal. The wolf howled angrily, and then stopped and whimpered.
Suddenly, unexpectedly, the wolf tucked its tail between its legs and ran from the clearing like a scolded dog. The other wolves looked up to see why it had run, and then within a matter of seconds they had all fled howling in to the black night, leaving the half eaten carcasses of their kin lying on the floor.
Elrohir breathed a sigh of relief and began to scramble down the tree, taking care not to be caught in the web like Nilwethion, when he heard a strange clicking sound. Dreading what he was going to see, Elrohir turned his head and saw, not three feet away, a gigantic, black, hairy, Mirkwood spider.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N: HA! Cliffy time again, methinks. **Smirk**
PERSONAL REVIEW THINGY
LEXIE ~~ I am so sorry I forgot to answer your reviews last time. Please forgive me **if you're still reading this).
IMBEFANIEL ~~ glad I brightened your day. Homework should be illegal.
ICED ~~ the rest of the spider web is in the next chapter. Somehow I think that Elrohir and Nilwethion (when he comes around) are going to have their work cut out.
JUKIA ~~ **snigger** Hehe. There was me thinking Gollum was hooked on fish.
DAW THE MINSTREL ~~ to be fair, their Adar's are trying to be firmer with them, it just isn't working. At all.
DOT ~~ I might make one of the dares to go as planned, but then again, I probably won't. This one has certainly gone wrong. It will continue to go wrong for a while. If only they had fixed Lin's ear.
ELFAER GILLIEL ~~ **mutters darkly about people missing chapters** well, I suppose the complement makes it better. **Suffers from girly attitude problem, please ignore**
Queen Imlammthien and Lady Celebrian were walking slowly through the gardens of Mirkwood, taking in the late evening sky and scents from the flowers, unaware their sons were in the middle of a very dangerous game, currently sneaking out of the grounds, very close by. Had they listened carefully, they would have heard the whispered conversation, but as it happened they were not paying attention. Instead, Celebrian had found something to talk about.
"Imlammthien darling, I do suppose you are going to tell them soon," she ventured, as she knelt down by a particularly sweet smelling rose. Imlammthien looked puzzled.
"Dear Celebrian, what are you talking about?"
In the bushes, Elladan rolled his eyes at Nilwethion.
"The way they talk you would think they were sisters," he whispered, so low only the three elves around him could hear. It was all Thellind could do to keep his face strait.
By the rose bush, Celebrian stood up and the pair carried on walking painfully slow. Too slow for their four sons in the shrubbery, having to wait for them to disappear if they had any hope of not being caught.
"It has come to my attention that the size of your stomach is slightly larger than that of the average elven maid. As many here eat exactly the same food as you, or more than, considering today's events, which, may I add, is very brave of you," here both ladies smiled, remembering the face of the king, "So I doubt very much that is has anything to do with overeating."
The lady of Imladris raised a pretty eyebrow at her friend who was now struggling to keep her emotions strait.
"Perhaps we could sit down?" she suggested after it was clear there would be no answer.
In the bushes, the four elven youths winced. This was going to take much longer than they had first though.
"I hope they are not there for long," whispered Elrohir, "I fear there is no chance of me sitting still for much longer at all. I need to move!"
"We all do," muttered Nilwethion, "I want to get this over and done with,"
By this time, the two elven women had just sat down on the beautifully carved oak bench. On the bench were carved various polished small woodland animals. A couple of birds along the back, two squirrels chasing each other on one of the legs, a mouse on the arm and . . . a small spider weaving its web. That one seemed to be moving. In fact, it was. Imlammthien sighed and picked it up gently, and then moved it to a waiting flower. She sat down again, and turned to her friend.
"So Celebrian my dear, what is it we were talking about?"
"Your baby, I believe," smiled the Lady of Imladris. Imlammthien froze for a few moments and then suddenly seemed to find an unforgivable fold in her lavender blue dress. She began to smooth it, as if paying no attention, running her fingers lightly over the delicate embroidery. She sighed and looked back at Celebrian, clutching the fabric of her long dress as if it were a elflings comfort blanket, like the one Oroweth once owned, but now refused to admit had ever existed.
"What does she mean?" whispered Nilwethion, "Calensil is the baby of the family, though she can no longer be counted as a baby, but a small child. There is no other."
Beside him, a look flashed across Thellind's face, though the twins, who were watching carefully, could not tell what the emotion was. Was it happiness or panic? Or perhaps fear or pride? They shrugged it off.
"I think, little brother," whispered the prince carefully, "That they might mean something else. Shush, I am trying to listen,"
The four elven heads turned back to eavesdropping on their unknowing mothers.
"Celebrian my dear, has anybody else noticed?" the tone of the queens voice suggested that she was worried, radiating through the level ness of it.
"I do not think so darling. Not that I am aware of,"
The queen gave a sigh of relief and let go of the dress, not realising how hard she had been clutching it. She smoothed the crumpled fabric, her eyes flitting around the gardens, as if to check for intruders. The four sons in the shrubbery froze, not daring to breath.
"So, is it a girl or a boy?" asked Celebrian, a cheeky smile on her face reminding Thellind and Nilwethion of the identical grin the twins so often had plastered on their faces.
"I am fairly sure it is a girl. Calensil will be delighted, as am I. Come to that, so will my sons. They are besotted with Calensil, and I am sure they will love this little one just as much. Eight children!" the queen began to giggle.
At last the light dawned over Nilwethion as he realised what his mother was talking about. His mouth fell open and he suddenly seemed to loose his voice.
"What will you call her?" it seemed that Celebrian was full of questions about the unborn child, and now the truth had come out, Imlammthien was ready to answer them all. The queen smiled gently.
"I will call her Hollinethir. You know what that means, of course,"
"Holly spy? Why are you calling your child holly spy?"
"Why don't you tell her, Thellind? Also, whoever else is in there can come out. I know there are two of you hiding by that holly bush,"
After a moment of shock, Thellind stood up, staring at the ground by Imlammthien's feet. He kicked Elladan in the ribs, gently, but hard enough to make the elf get up. He knew how to take a hint.
"Is anybody else in there dear?" asked the queen. Thellind and Elladan shook their heads quickly.
"No Naneth," the muttered, one after the other.
"Well, are you going to come over here or are we going to have to come over and drag you away from that holly bush, after which your sister is to be named?"
The two elves quickly stepped carefully over the plants, avoiding the prickly leaves dropped by the holly tree, and wandered over to the queen and the lady of Imladris. The two women stood up and eyed their sons. After a moment, Imlammthien plucked a holly leaf from her sons' hair and smiled. She then, suddenly, slapped the side of his head. Celebrian just stared at her son silently with hard eyes, making him blush and fidget.
"Thellind Thranduilion! You know better than to go sneaking around like a low and vulgar spy! Do not ever let me catch you doing that again! You even dragged another along with you! Did you want him to get in to trouble as well? How dare you?"
Thellind looked at the ground miserably with his hands behind his back. He signalled to the two in the bushes to go as the queen continued to lecture him about spying. Nilwethion and Elrohir took the hint and left as silently as possible, leaving their unfortunate brothers to a severe telling off.
The two elves moved like shadows, ducking swiftly and silently behind trees and disappearing in to the night. At last, when they were far away from the dwelling place of the king, the two stopped and began laughing with silent mirth. Although they were well away from the palace and the danger of their angry mothers, and possibly fathers later on, there was still a more deadly threat from the trees. Spiders, wolves, wargs, now orcs and many more besides.
"I have no wish to be in brothers shoes now," sniggered Thellind.
"This is the only time in my life I will be glad to be away from Elladan," agreed Elrohir, then he stopped laughing and looked around. "'Tis very strange without him here. As if half of me is missing," he shuddered and flicked his black hair behind his shoulder.
"Come, we had better be going. We want to get this over and done with before the spiders become over active, and before we are missed," whispered Thellind, dropping his voice again to as low as he had been forced to speak when they were by the holly bush.
Again, the pair moved off in to the deadly silence of the trees, creeping towards the closest spider den. Their hearts began to beat faster and faster as they realised how much danger they were in, and as they realised how alone they were. From the depths of the woods a bird screeched, making them jump. Elrohir grabbed Nilwethion's arm in shock.
"Ow, that hurts," whispered the prince. Elrohir let go, aware of what he had done.
"I'm sorry," he whispered back, "I am not used to being alone,"
"You are not alone," came the almost silent reply
"I meant without Elladan," hissed the Imladris elf. The bird screeched again, but this time it was closer. Perhaps it was another bird. Something scuttled along the floor in front of them, making the lonely twin jump again.
"Just a squirrel," he heard the prince mutter, although the prince sounded scared himself.
The pair crept on, slipping on through the trees, until Elrohir suddenly lost sight of Nilwethion. He stopped dead in his tracks and stared around, peering in to the gloom. His blood raced and a cold sweat broke out on his forehead. The elf wiped it away quickly with his sleeve and drew his dagger. It should already have been drawn.
"Nilwethion?" he hissed, "Nilwethion!"
In an instant, the prince was by his side as if he had been there all along.
"What is it?"
"I lost sight of you,"
There was a moment's silence, and then the leaves of the trees began rustling as if there was a breeze, only there is no wind in forests. The two elves tensed, but nothing happened.
"Take my hand," whispered Nilwethion, "Or most likely we will loose each other. I can see better than you in this darkness, but the trees would block my view," it was true. Nilwethion had spent more time creeping about after nightfall in the terrifying blackness, although usually it was much closer to the elven stronghold. By now the prince knew the way by feel and could have walked the forest with his eyes closed, but he did not want to loose their guest who was so unused to the conditions. The two elves found each other's hands and began stalking off again, daggers at the ready. Again the unseen bird screeched, making them jump. This time it was answered by another, and then another.
As they walked on, the forest became darker and darker and the sounds around them became, while no less scary, a little more reassuring. It seemed many of the creatures were not interested in the two elves, or knew better than to try to hurt them. The birds, for instance, were too small to make much of a difference to the pair. They were far more interested in easy prey, like the mice or the black squirrels.
"I miss Elladan," whispered Elrohir, after the terrified pair had heard a wolf howling, and then the squeals and squeaks of some small, unfortunate animal the wolf pack - wolfs never hunted alone - had labelled "dinner". Nilwethion felt the elven twin's grip on his hand tighten.
"Elladan is fine," he whispered back, "Now stop worrying!"
In the gloom, Elrohir nodded unhappily.
"I'm sorry,"
"Why?"
"Because I keep saying that,"
The prince of Mirkwood sighed. He was glad he didn't have a twin. Were all twins this bad when they were separated? How must Elladan be reacting? On reflection, it was probably a good thing he had been dragged back to the palace by his Naneth. After all, he had no weapons, due to his own dare. When had the dares been placed? Was it yesterday? Or was it only this morning? Everything had suddenly started happening so quickly as soon as the guests from Imladris had arrived.
He sighed and tugged at the elf's hand.
"Come on, we can not waste any more time,"
He tugged on Elrohir's hand again, but the elf was frozen in place. He began whimpering.
"What? Oh . . ."
Surrounding the unfortunate and petrified pair was the pack of wolves. It seemed that whatever unfortunate creature they had just eaten was not enough to satisfy them. Two elves, it seemed, would. Two elves would probably satisfy them for a week.
The two elves in question, however, were not prepared to go down without a fight. In the intimidating gloom of the trees, two daggers flashed dangerously as the elves moved themselves around so they were back to back.
The first wolf pounced with an evil snarl, but was cut down quickly with a swipe from Nilwethion's sharp dagger. The wolves began circling the youths bearing their fangs and leering at them with ugly, yellow eyes. They seemed to be saying, "we will kill you, and we will feast upon your flesh."
"Elrohir?"
"Yes?"
"If we are going to last much longer, you are going to have to let go of my hand,"
"Yes Nilwethion,"
"Elrohir?"
"Yes?"
"You are still holding my hand,"
"You are still holding mine,"
"Oh,"
Another wolf dived, knocking them both to the ground. Elrohir stabbed it through the neck, but more wolves had already leapt forward and he could not escape from under the new corpse. Nilwethion jumped up and whirled his blade, slicing away at the wolves flesh, killing four more. The wolves fell back and began circling again. This time their mouths were stained with blood of their own kind, and of elven kind. Now they could taste it, they were not about to let their prey get away. Nilwethion grabbed Elrohir with his freehand and dragged him out from under the dead wolf.
"I thought I was about to get my throat ripped out," he whispered gratefully, his eyes flicking from one wolf to the next.
"You still might,"
The prince bit his lip, almost unaware that he was doing so. As the wolves circled him, he bit down with more pressure, becoming more and more scared. Suddenly he felt the cold, metallic taste of blood in his mouth. His own blood. Nilwethion winced as he realised he had bitten through his lip unintentionally. Almost without realising he had done so.
One of the wolves howled loudly, standing up on its back legs, it's fur prickling. Others joined it, almost deafening the two elves with their over sensitive ears. In the distance, and from not so far away, answering howls broke through the night, infiltrating the every nook and cranny in the forest.
The wolf that had begun the howling thudded down on to the ground again, its teeth bared, and the pack, as one, advanced slowly on the pair, tightening the circle and completely trapping them. Nilwethion heard his petrified friend whispering prayers to the Valar. He tightened his grip on his dagger resolutely.
"Elrohir, on the count of three bolt right and slice your dagger through that wolfs neck. Do not run through the forest or they will catch you and rip your throat out. You see that tree? We are going to climb up it as high as we can. Wolves can not climb trees. Understand?"
Elrohir nodded.
"1, 2, 3, NOW!"
The elves dived at the wolves, fighting for their lives. Killing three almost instantly the pair bolted to the tree and swung themselves up it in to the high branches, the wolves below them howling angrily and snapping at their heals, tearing at the bark with their claws in madness at letting their prey escape.
"Nilwethion? Are you alright?" panted Elrohir, brushing his hair out of his eyes. The hair refused to be brushed away, and fell back in front of the worried elf's face.
Nilwethion had his teeth clenched in pain, his eyes screwed shut and his hands clasped around his ankle.
"No, one got me," he moaned. The pair no longer had any need to keep their voices low. The prince let out a frustrated growl of pain as the blood poured from his ankle, seeping through his hands and dropping in to the waiting mouths of the hungry wolves below.
"Look at them, squabbling over getting a taste of my blood!" he cried, "Argh, it hurts so much!"
The pain was, indeed, almost more than the prince could bear. He moaned again and his eyes unfocused, threatening to loose consciousness. Elrohir just sat and watched, unable to move, his fear catching up with him. All he could think was 'I need Elladan, where is Elladan? I need Elladan. Please Elladan, help us.'
Below them, the wolves had begun to feast upon the dead bodies of their own kind, leaving four sitting at the bottom of the tree, staring up greedily at the two elves, snapping their jaws as if teasing them. Elrohir shook his head, trying to clear his mind of all thoughts of his twin. They were desperate, and freezing up was not going to help the situation.
"Think Elrohir, think!" he whispered. Beside him on the branch Nilwethion moaned in pain again, his hands and leggings stained with blood. Remembering the lessons his ada had given him in Imladris, Elrohir ripped his tunic and wrapped it around the princes wound, attempting to stop the blood flow. If he did not stop bleeding soon, the prince would be unconscious, possibly dead, in a matter of minutes. No, he was over reacting.
"I have been in worse situations than this and survived," he muttered to himself, forgetting Nilwethion could hear, "And I will not become dinner for a pack of hungry cannibals!"
"That's the spirit," whispered Nilwethion. He had not meant to whisper, but his strength was rapidly vanishing, as the pain did not die down. He cried out as Elrohir's hand clipped the wound, making it sting with impossible pain. The prince blacked out leaving Elrohir alone.
"Nilwethion? Nilwethion?"
In the pitch blackness the terrified elf couldn't think. Below him the wolves were still snarling and growling and howling. More were gathering, presumably they knew when the other wolves howled. A dry sob escaped his throat and he froze, his eyes locking with those of one of the wolves.
As he stared at the wolf, and the hungry wolf stared back at him, Elrohir let go of Nilwethion's limp body, as if being controlled by the silver hound at the bottom of the tree, it's knife like claws hooked in to the ancient bark of the tree. Nilwethion slide from the branch and fell. The wolf threw back its head, its mouth open and waiting for the elf to fall right in, but the only thing to hit the wolfs mouth was another drop of sweet blood. The wolf looked up again in confusion, and found the answer.
Nilwethion had been caught in a spider web, recently woven on the tree. The long sticky silver strands that had been woven so carefully were hanging on to Nilwethion, unwilling to let the newly trapped, helpless creature be eaten by some other animal. The wolf howled angrily, and then stopped and whimpered.
Suddenly, unexpectedly, the wolf tucked its tail between its legs and ran from the clearing like a scolded dog. The other wolves looked up to see why it had run, and then within a matter of seconds they had all fled howling in to the black night, leaving the half eaten carcasses of their kin lying on the floor.
Elrohir breathed a sigh of relief and began to scramble down the tree, taking care not to be caught in the web like Nilwethion, when he heard a strange clicking sound. Dreading what he was going to see, Elrohir turned his head and saw, not three feet away, a gigantic, black, hairy, Mirkwood spider.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N: HA! Cliffy time again, methinks. **Smirk**
PERSONAL REVIEW THINGY
LEXIE ~~ I am so sorry I forgot to answer your reviews last time. Please forgive me **if you're still reading this).
IMBEFANIEL ~~ glad I brightened your day. Homework should be illegal.
ICED ~~ the rest of the spider web is in the next chapter. Somehow I think that Elrohir and Nilwethion (when he comes around) are going to have their work cut out.
JUKIA ~~ **snigger** Hehe. There was me thinking Gollum was hooked on fish.
DAW THE MINSTREL ~~ to be fair, their Adar's are trying to be firmer with them, it just isn't working. At all.
DOT ~~ I might make one of the dares to go as planned, but then again, I probably won't. This one has certainly gone wrong. It will continue to go wrong for a while. If only they had fixed Lin's ear.
ELFAER GILLIEL ~~ **mutters darkly about people missing chapters** well, I suppose the complement makes it better. **Suffers from girly attitude problem, please ignore**