CHAPTER 29 - West Of Mirkwood
As the pause dragged out, Dorlas felt as though he would burst from the tension that was pressing down, making the air around them dark and heavy. He felt as though he would go mad and run along the dirt track back to Dale to escape the madness. Instead, he found that he could not move, as though he was a statue made of marble, like the ones in Dale.
At last, breaking the frozen moment, king Thranduil fell to his knees with a heartbroken cry. It was a long, painful sound that sent shivers down the spine of all who heard it. The elven king brought his pale, shaking hands up to his face and lowered his head as he let out a choke.
King Dorlas looked up at Silnan, who returned the look with distressed eyes.
"My sons," moaned Thranduil, "Oh my sons!"
With his face still buried in his hands, the elf shook his head slowly.
Silnan took a tentative step forward and put a hand on his shoulder, attempting to comfort Thranduil. At that moment, Culkemen jogged up, her hair wild and dark rims under her eyes due to the lack of sleep from staying up to help the healers. Thranduil shrugged Silnan away, and took his hands away from his face. Slowly, he picked up a handful of dry dirt, and he let it trickle slowly through his fingers. When no more of the greyish brown dirt fell, he tipped what was left of it on his palm, still slow, back on to the ground. Clenching his fist tightly, he brought his first down hard on to the earth to vent frustration. Culkemen crept past Silnan and Dorlas, her feet bare, and crouched down, slightly behind and to the right of the king.
"My lord?" she ventured. The king did not reply. She tried again.
"My lord, will you ride after them? Will you bring them back?"
This time, king Thranduil stood up. He stared out in to the distance, over the rolling green hills of Rhovänion. Culkemen stayed crouched on the ground, as she and Silnan held their breaths. Deciding it was not his place to interfere, king Dorlas began to back away, to leave the elves alone.
"No." He said. His voice no longer shook, but it was still full of pain. Silnan and Culkemen looked at each other, shocked.
"But my lord. . ." tried Silnan. Thranduil turned around and held up a hand. Silnan shut his mouth, seeing the look on his kings face.
"I said no, Silnan. Let them go." He looked westwards at the vast forest he ruled, lying like a rug over the earth. "Let them go."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Two months had passed as the elves of Imladris and the six princes traveled through the dark, dingy depths of Mirkwood. At last, rays of light had begun to pierce the canopy of the trees, spilling light on to the path here and there. The elves had reached the western eaves of the forest, and still there was no sign of the king. Elrond and Celebrian had long ago given up hope that he would arrive.
Ahead of them, a glimmer of light signaled the end of the forest, where two great trees stood, one on either side of the path, like silent sentinels. As the party got closer and closer to the gateway, the light became brighter and brighter.
At last, they reached it. The two, giant trees made an arch, leading out of the forest and on to the sunny grasslands. They were covered with brown leaves, signaling that it was Autumn. On the path, more leaves had fallen, crunching beneath the hooves of the elvish horses. Ivy was curled around the bottom of the trees, threatening to reach its way up around the gateway and, given enough time, choke the two proud trees.
Falling in to single file, the elves of Imladris passed through the gateway, and as the warm light of day fell on their faces they began to laugh and sing. At last, the princes and the twins, who had been riding together at the back of the group, reached the trees. The twins, light hearted and glad that they would be leaving the dark confines of the shadowy forest, galloped out in to the fields. The princes, however, halted.
They dismounted and looked around their forest home for what they suspected would be the last time. At last, watched by the elves of Imladris, Oroweth led his horse through the two trees. A whistle of wind blew suddenly, whipping up the leaves on the path. The branches on the trees shook.
Astaler and Nuryävié followed him, holding each others hand tightly for comfort, like little elflings. The bright sunlight caught their faces and lit up their features as it had done many times when they had climbed to the tops of the trees to feel the wind.
After watching his elder brothers leave the forest behind, Nilwethion sprang forwards in to the open air with a laugh of delight. He ran to the twins, suddenly full of energy, and then turned to watch Legolas and Thellind find their way to the sunlight.
Confident after seeing the sudden happiness, Legolas took a step forward, leading his horse gently. He looked around at the dark forest one more time. His eyes fell upon Thellind, who was eyeing the grassy plains on the other side of the trees as if they were a terrible, scary enemy.
"Thellind," said Legolas, quietly. The silent prince looked as his brother almost pleadingly, as if he wanted to stay in Mirkwood more than anything. Legolas held out his hand, and smiled encouragingly.
"Come on!" called Nilwethion, "Everyone is waiting!"
Reluctantly, Thellind let Legolas lead him out from under the eaves of Mirkwood, and shut his eyes. The trees shook their leaves again, as if lamenting the loss of their royal family. Leagues and leagues away, the elves of the woodland realm felt a chilled tremor sweep through the forest from the west.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The elves traveled quickly along the open road, the wild flowers and meadows growing abundantly on both sides of them. One or other of the Imladris elves would always be singing, whether during the days or under the bright stars, sitting by a fire.
When they were two nights away from Mirkwood, and the forest was no more than a dark line on the horizon, the sound of rushing water reached the ears of the elves. Riding further, the party reached a rushing river that gurgled and splashed under the starlit skies.
"This is the river Anduin," Elladan said, as he watched the look of delight on the faces of the princes.
"We have seen it many times on maps," confirmed Legolas, "In our warrior training, we were made to study maps of every land east of the Misty Mountains and south of the Grey Mountains all the way to Rhûn."
"What about the lands east of the mountains? Or north?" queried Elrohir. The prince shrugged.
"We have seen one or two maps of Imladris," Nilwethion remembered suddenly, "Adar wanted us to know where you were from, seeing as you were our guests."
As the elves continued their conversation, they turned southwards, following the wide river southwards.
"So. . . what do you know of Doriath?" asked Elladan, remembering his childhood lessons given by various members of the household, "Surely you have seen maps of Doriath! Or of Eregion!"
"Eregion? Is that not where the rings of power were made?" asked Nilwethion, riding up next to his younger brother. Elrohir nodded. His eyes flicked towards lord Elrond, who was watching them, and decided to change the subject quickly.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Time passed quickly as they followed the river southwards, and at last they came to the large, stone bridge that crossed the Anduin.
When still more days had passed, the elves of Imladris reached the Misty Mountains. As they rode upwards, over the grey slopes, the wind became bitter and cold. Huge storm clouds were always gathered in the skies over the Misty Mountains, rolling around and building up, threatening travelers with blizzards of snow and storms that would make the paths wet and dangerous to use.
Luckily, the bad weather stayed as a threat, and the three day march over the mountain pass remained uneventful but cold. The snow was the cause of fun between the more light-hearted elves, and snow fights ensued, proving to be fun and entertaining.
At last the party came down on the other side of the mountain, and entered Eriador - the lands between the mountains and the sea. They left the snowy mountains behind, and found entertainment in singing songs, or, in the case of the twins, trying to catch the falling leaves.
"They always try to catch the leaves," laughed Aliela on the fourth day in Eriador, "Though I have never heard of them catching one."
"'Tis just bad luck!" protested Elladan, as he and Elrohir rode up, "I always almost catch one, but then the wind catches them, and they drift away. We will catch one eventually."
Legolas shook his head at the twins, as Elrohir reached up to try and catch a red leaf that was falling from the tree at the side of the path. He missed it.
"Why do you try to catch them?"
"Arwen challenged us to catch one when we were pestering her a couple of years ago," explained Elrohir, as he tried to catch the same leaf as Elladan. As always, they both missed it.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N: Look! It's amazing! I, Emerald Queen, have written a *happy chapter*! Well, happy for the princes. Not so happy for poor old Thranduil. All the places mentioned are places Tolkien himself created, not places I came up with. Some of them, like Doriath, are in the Silmaillion though, not Lord of the Rings. Yes, the river Anduin in this is the same one that flows through Gondor and Lothlorien. For those of you who haven't seen the maps, it's a very, very long river.
I'm very sorry, but next week there won't be a chapter because I'm going on a French exchange. Many apologies. There will be one the week after though.
REVIEW THINGY
DRAGONFLY ~ was his reaction worth waiting for then?
GILRAEN3 ~ as you can see, Thranduil let them go to Imladris. Silly fool. He's really going to regret doing that soon.
COOLIO02 ~ thanks!
MOONMIST ~ *eats cookie* *licks lips* Mm, very nice cookie! Just an hour? This story takes place over a really long time period! I don't think the princes would really appreciate having the body of a Barbie doll somehow. I think they'd prefer the male action figures somehow.
SPARROW GREENLEAF ~ they weren't killing the orcs because they're stupid and smelly, they were killing the orcs in an act of revenge, to satisfy their bloodlust, and because if they didn't kill the orcs, the orcs would have killed all the people in the village.
CADGEDPHOENIX ~ the easiest way of checking to see if I got your reviews or not is to check whether I've answered them or not in previous chapters. I don't think anyone liked me killing Calensil. Heck, even *I* didn't like me killing Calensil.
SARA ~ *hides nervously* um, sorry, I think I just did exactly what you hoped I wouldn't do, didn't I? Who's your sister? He doesn't feel betrayed so much as he just thinks that if he drags them back to Mirkwood they'll hate him even more. He doesn't want that, so he let them go.
LITTLE WITCH ~ don't worry too much about the princes for now, they'll be fine. It's their adar who needs them.
EBONY FALCON ~ sorry, it was quite an action less story again, wasn't it? There *will* be more action, trust me. If not much in this fic, then in the next one, which I already have planned.
MORBID MIND ~ happy with what happened?
LOTRSEER3350 ~ that's fair enough. I would suggest reading the appendix anyway though, because it's really fascinating! Plus you'll find it easier to follow my fics. . .
ORODRUIN ~ Thranduil has the most scary "angry elf lord" face east of the Misty Mountains! He doesn't half know it. Poor Inithil. Don't you just hate being questioned by people with more authority than you? I know it isn't really clear here, but Thranduil did go back to Mirkwood when he found out about his son.
TAMARA ~ Thanks a lot!
As the pause dragged out, Dorlas felt as though he would burst from the tension that was pressing down, making the air around them dark and heavy. He felt as though he would go mad and run along the dirt track back to Dale to escape the madness. Instead, he found that he could not move, as though he was a statue made of marble, like the ones in Dale.
At last, breaking the frozen moment, king Thranduil fell to his knees with a heartbroken cry. It was a long, painful sound that sent shivers down the spine of all who heard it. The elven king brought his pale, shaking hands up to his face and lowered his head as he let out a choke.
King Dorlas looked up at Silnan, who returned the look with distressed eyes.
"My sons," moaned Thranduil, "Oh my sons!"
With his face still buried in his hands, the elf shook his head slowly.
Silnan took a tentative step forward and put a hand on his shoulder, attempting to comfort Thranduil. At that moment, Culkemen jogged up, her hair wild and dark rims under her eyes due to the lack of sleep from staying up to help the healers. Thranduil shrugged Silnan away, and took his hands away from his face. Slowly, he picked up a handful of dry dirt, and he let it trickle slowly through his fingers. When no more of the greyish brown dirt fell, he tipped what was left of it on his palm, still slow, back on to the ground. Clenching his fist tightly, he brought his first down hard on to the earth to vent frustration. Culkemen crept past Silnan and Dorlas, her feet bare, and crouched down, slightly behind and to the right of the king.
"My lord?" she ventured. The king did not reply. She tried again.
"My lord, will you ride after them? Will you bring them back?"
This time, king Thranduil stood up. He stared out in to the distance, over the rolling green hills of Rhovänion. Culkemen stayed crouched on the ground, as she and Silnan held their breaths. Deciding it was not his place to interfere, king Dorlas began to back away, to leave the elves alone.
"No." He said. His voice no longer shook, but it was still full of pain. Silnan and Culkemen looked at each other, shocked.
"But my lord. . ." tried Silnan. Thranduil turned around and held up a hand. Silnan shut his mouth, seeing the look on his kings face.
"I said no, Silnan. Let them go." He looked westwards at the vast forest he ruled, lying like a rug over the earth. "Let them go."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Two months had passed as the elves of Imladris and the six princes traveled through the dark, dingy depths of Mirkwood. At last, rays of light had begun to pierce the canopy of the trees, spilling light on to the path here and there. The elves had reached the western eaves of the forest, and still there was no sign of the king. Elrond and Celebrian had long ago given up hope that he would arrive.
Ahead of them, a glimmer of light signaled the end of the forest, where two great trees stood, one on either side of the path, like silent sentinels. As the party got closer and closer to the gateway, the light became brighter and brighter.
At last, they reached it. The two, giant trees made an arch, leading out of the forest and on to the sunny grasslands. They were covered with brown leaves, signaling that it was Autumn. On the path, more leaves had fallen, crunching beneath the hooves of the elvish horses. Ivy was curled around the bottom of the trees, threatening to reach its way up around the gateway and, given enough time, choke the two proud trees.
Falling in to single file, the elves of Imladris passed through the gateway, and as the warm light of day fell on their faces they began to laugh and sing. At last, the princes and the twins, who had been riding together at the back of the group, reached the trees. The twins, light hearted and glad that they would be leaving the dark confines of the shadowy forest, galloped out in to the fields. The princes, however, halted.
They dismounted and looked around their forest home for what they suspected would be the last time. At last, watched by the elves of Imladris, Oroweth led his horse through the two trees. A whistle of wind blew suddenly, whipping up the leaves on the path. The branches on the trees shook.
Astaler and Nuryävié followed him, holding each others hand tightly for comfort, like little elflings. The bright sunlight caught their faces and lit up their features as it had done many times when they had climbed to the tops of the trees to feel the wind.
After watching his elder brothers leave the forest behind, Nilwethion sprang forwards in to the open air with a laugh of delight. He ran to the twins, suddenly full of energy, and then turned to watch Legolas and Thellind find their way to the sunlight.
Confident after seeing the sudden happiness, Legolas took a step forward, leading his horse gently. He looked around at the dark forest one more time. His eyes fell upon Thellind, who was eyeing the grassy plains on the other side of the trees as if they were a terrible, scary enemy.
"Thellind," said Legolas, quietly. The silent prince looked as his brother almost pleadingly, as if he wanted to stay in Mirkwood more than anything. Legolas held out his hand, and smiled encouragingly.
"Come on!" called Nilwethion, "Everyone is waiting!"
Reluctantly, Thellind let Legolas lead him out from under the eaves of Mirkwood, and shut his eyes. The trees shook their leaves again, as if lamenting the loss of their royal family. Leagues and leagues away, the elves of the woodland realm felt a chilled tremor sweep through the forest from the west.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The elves traveled quickly along the open road, the wild flowers and meadows growing abundantly on both sides of them. One or other of the Imladris elves would always be singing, whether during the days or under the bright stars, sitting by a fire.
When they were two nights away from Mirkwood, and the forest was no more than a dark line on the horizon, the sound of rushing water reached the ears of the elves. Riding further, the party reached a rushing river that gurgled and splashed under the starlit skies.
"This is the river Anduin," Elladan said, as he watched the look of delight on the faces of the princes.
"We have seen it many times on maps," confirmed Legolas, "In our warrior training, we were made to study maps of every land east of the Misty Mountains and south of the Grey Mountains all the way to Rhûn."
"What about the lands east of the mountains? Or north?" queried Elrohir. The prince shrugged.
"We have seen one or two maps of Imladris," Nilwethion remembered suddenly, "Adar wanted us to know where you were from, seeing as you were our guests."
As the elves continued their conversation, they turned southwards, following the wide river southwards.
"So. . . what do you know of Doriath?" asked Elladan, remembering his childhood lessons given by various members of the household, "Surely you have seen maps of Doriath! Or of Eregion!"
"Eregion? Is that not where the rings of power were made?" asked Nilwethion, riding up next to his younger brother. Elrohir nodded. His eyes flicked towards lord Elrond, who was watching them, and decided to change the subject quickly.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Time passed quickly as they followed the river southwards, and at last they came to the large, stone bridge that crossed the Anduin.
When still more days had passed, the elves of Imladris reached the Misty Mountains. As they rode upwards, over the grey slopes, the wind became bitter and cold. Huge storm clouds were always gathered in the skies over the Misty Mountains, rolling around and building up, threatening travelers with blizzards of snow and storms that would make the paths wet and dangerous to use.
Luckily, the bad weather stayed as a threat, and the three day march over the mountain pass remained uneventful but cold. The snow was the cause of fun between the more light-hearted elves, and snow fights ensued, proving to be fun and entertaining.
At last the party came down on the other side of the mountain, and entered Eriador - the lands between the mountains and the sea. They left the snowy mountains behind, and found entertainment in singing songs, or, in the case of the twins, trying to catch the falling leaves.
"They always try to catch the leaves," laughed Aliela on the fourth day in Eriador, "Though I have never heard of them catching one."
"'Tis just bad luck!" protested Elladan, as he and Elrohir rode up, "I always almost catch one, but then the wind catches them, and they drift away. We will catch one eventually."
Legolas shook his head at the twins, as Elrohir reached up to try and catch a red leaf that was falling from the tree at the side of the path. He missed it.
"Why do you try to catch them?"
"Arwen challenged us to catch one when we were pestering her a couple of years ago," explained Elrohir, as he tried to catch the same leaf as Elladan. As always, they both missed it.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N: Look! It's amazing! I, Emerald Queen, have written a *happy chapter*! Well, happy for the princes. Not so happy for poor old Thranduil. All the places mentioned are places Tolkien himself created, not places I came up with. Some of them, like Doriath, are in the Silmaillion though, not Lord of the Rings. Yes, the river Anduin in this is the same one that flows through Gondor and Lothlorien. For those of you who haven't seen the maps, it's a very, very long river.
I'm very sorry, but next week there won't be a chapter because I'm going on a French exchange. Many apologies. There will be one the week after though.
REVIEW THINGY
DRAGONFLY ~ was his reaction worth waiting for then?
GILRAEN3 ~ as you can see, Thranduil let them go to Imladris. Silly fool. He's really going to regret doing that soon.
COOLIO02 ~ thanks!
MOONMIST ~ *eats cookie* *licks lips* Mm, very nice cookie! Just an hour? This story takes place over a really long time period! I don't think the princes would really appreciate having the body of a Barbie doll somehow. I think they'd prefer the male action figures somehow.
SPARROW GREENLEAF ~ they weren't killing the orcs because they're stupid and smelly, they were killing the orcs in an act of revenge, to satisfy their bloodlust, and because if they didn't kill the orcs, the orcs would have killed all the people in the village.
CADGEDPHOENIX ~ the easiest way of checking to see if I got your reviews or not is to check whether I've answered them or not in previous chapters. I don't think anyone liked me killing Calensil. Heck, even *I* didn't like me killing Calensil.
SARA ~ *hides nervously* um, sorry, I think I just did exactly what you hoped I wouldn't do, didn't I? Who's your sister? He doesn't feel betrayed so much as he just thinks that if he drags them back to Mirkwood they'll hate him even more. He doesn't want that, so he let them go.
LITTLE WITCH ~ don't worry too much about the princes for now, they'll be fine. It's their adar who needs them.
EBONY FALCON ~ sorry, it was quite an action less story again, wasn't it? There *will* be more action, trust me. If not much in this fic, then in the next one, which I already have planned.
MORBID MIND ~ happy with what happened?
LOTRSEER3350 ~ that's fair enough. I would suggest reading the appendix anyway though, because it's really fascinating! Plus you'll find it easier to follow my fics. . .
ORODRUIN ~ Thranduil has the most scary "angry elf lord" face east of the Misty Mountains! He doesn't half know it. Poor Inithil. Don't you just hate being questioned by people with more authority than you? I know it isn't really clear here, but Thranduil did go back to Mirkwood when he found out about his son.
TAMARA ~ Thanks a lot!