::elvish style bow:: Hello once again everyone!! I've been trying to update pretty often... and I'm going to try and make this chapter extra long this time!! After this one, my updates might get a little bit less frequent because marching band starts up, but I'll do my best to keep them as close to weekly as possible!
Disclaimer: ::whining:: Do I have to do this every chapter?? I STILL don't own anything having to do with Lord of the Rings, and I STILL wish that I did. Savvy? (Someone has been watching too much Pirates of the Caribbean which I also STILL don't own… (gotta love that movie) humph)
To my WONDERFUL reviewers:
Liquid Dreamer: I know, I didn't exactly mean to start making Haldir THAT demented, but it kind of got out of hand. OOPS! Wasn't me ::hides:: I keep making those little mistakes, and no matter how many times I read over my own work, I keep missing it… I really should get a beta. Anyway, I'm glad to be home and I'll be doing a whole bunch of writing!! ::pokes back::
Lady of Legolas: All will be revealed in time, sometimes a LOT of time:: evil laughter:: MWAHAHAHAHAHAH.. I mean…. And I hope that Haldir lives also, as I'm quite fond of him! On the other hand, killing him would be so much fun to write… ::more evil laughter::
Rdsnd- Glad you like the plot, and I'm putting this one up ASAP...
Mirkwoodmaiden- :: shy bow:: It's really great to have such encouraging reviewers.. I've worked really hard on this story so far, and it's nice to be so appreciated. I still don't understand myself why we torment characters, but we love to so it works. I think it has something to do with creating strong emotions, because I myself love the extremes (angst, or complete bliss) and I think that all writers thrive in an environment where emotions fly high.. It's like a haven for us. As for writing process, I had no idea what I was doing or where I was going when I started this up. One idea just kind of started clinging to another and the story built up to what it is now. I review different possible routes the story could take every once in awhile to make sure I don't lead it into a corner that I can't get out of, but other then that, it could totally and completely go just about anywhere at the moment. Any ideas? For the proofreading, I'm so bad that that stuff. I read it through several time before I put it up, but I'm not critical, and things like that escape my attention. I really need to get a beta or someone to proofread before each chapter goes up. Once again, thank you so much for the wonderful review! Wow... that was a long winded reply….
Courtney: I LOVE YOU COURTEY!!!! Glad you had a bit of time to read this one… did you see the dedication? This one's for you!! I'm gonna miss you soooooo much!! :: One last elvish bow:: Namerie, Monkeyman!
(Don't ask… Courtney happens to be my best friend in the whole world for those who have read the previous reply and are looking askance at the computer)
The Lady of Imladris- Wow... I gave someone chills! I'm really glad you like this… isn't torturing Haldir just so much fun? Three cheers for the Sadistic people club!! Anyway... I will be looking at your fiction as soon as I have a bit of time on my hands. By the way, have you ever wondered what would happen if you mixed a depressed Haldir with a bottle of H2SO4? (Mmmm….Yummy… Sulfuric acid…)
Angelbelle-ariana- Glad you figured it out... don't worry, everyone has their slow moments, but I myself think that this fiction is rather confusing, (I confused myself while I was proofing it) I'm glad you liked this chapter!
Now…
Halo of Tears
Chapter 5
Legolas and Aragorn looked on with horror as Haldir's knees buckled and the elf slid to the ground. Wasting no time, both warriors sprung forward to catch him. The two of them gently picked up Haldir's limp body and put it under a nearby tree, trying to attract as little attention as possible. Unfortunately, most of the company had seen the warden's entrance, and were looking on with increasing curiosity.
"I'll get him comfortable, you settle the rest!" Aragorn said quickly to his companion when they had laid the elf out. Legolas hesitated for a moment, but remember that Aragorn had been taught by Lord Elrond himself, one of the best healers in all of Middle Earth, and a few of the elves that had accompanied the guardian were making questioning noises and beginning to make their way over towards them. Standing up he went over to them to settle things down.
Aragorn quickly loosened the Jerkin that Haldir was wearing, and then grabbed the elf's arm for a pulse. When he felt it, slightly shallow, but running true, he relaxed and began to make minor adjustments that would keep Haldir from hurting any muscles when he awoke. The elf wasn't particularly hurt, and even his head hadn't been much impacted by the fall. He was going to be fine in the morning, save a small headache and a few bruises. The cause of him passing out seemed to be simply from exhaustion. Aragorn had almost finished his inspection when a flash of crimson drew his eyes to Haldir's left wrist. Turning it over, Aragorn was horrified to find that the entire sleeve was red with Haldir's own blood. He gasped in mortification just as Legolas walked back over from where he had been calming the party by telling them that Haldir was sick with grief over something that could easily be fixed. Though the other elves of Lorien knew Haldir well, they could not question the word of a prince, and had held their peace.
"What is it?" Legolas asked urgently, bending down to see what Aragorn was looking at, and then letting out a cry of his own.
"I had thought it was simply exhaustion that caused Haldir's collapse." Aragorn said in obvious distress. "But I believe now that it was contributed to by a great deal of blood loss." Pulling up the elf's sleeve, Aragorn revealed a series of knife cuts running up and down Haldir's arm from palm to elbow, both vertical and horizontal in no particular pattern, making them look like some sort of sinister map. All of them were new, though under them, a few very old scars were visible, though dim against the new gashes. Some were deeper then others, as though the cutter had gotten bolder and bolder with every strike.
"A skirmish?" Legolas asked, not much hope in his voice. Aragorn shook his head.
"They're too neatly cut." He said dejectedly. "And too neatly contained. And there is no sign of struggle. No," he sighed as though he could foresee the number of problems that his next statement would surely bring. "These are self-inflicted."
At that statement, the Mirkwood prince shook his head and mouthed unspoken curses. What had caused Haldir to do something of this nature? What horrid thing?
A knife
Blood
His mother screaming
His father yelling for a healer
No! Legolas shook his head, banishing the incoherent thoughts that rushed through his head. They could not possibly be memories, could they? What if
No! But maybe…
NO! Legolas fought his mind for control of his thoughts. Aragorn interrupted the battle.
"Legolas, get my bag please, the blue one!" he said. Legolas quickly hurried off to do as he was told.
When he re-entered the area around the campfire where everyone was residing and the bags were being stored, he received several questioning looks. He returned them all with a quick, reassuring smile that had no resemblance to how he felt. Then he grabbed Aragorn's healing bag as quickly as he could and returned to the man's side.
Aragorn had already removed Haldir's sleeve carefully, and was trying to stop the flowing of blood. Though elven bodies were usually strong and easily healed wounds, several deeps cuts had caused a great deal of bleeding and Haldir's current physical condition did not merit him any help.
As soon as he received the bag, Aragorn pulled out two rolls of clean linen, a canteen of water, and several herbs, a few of which Legolas recognized as sage and thyme, but others that he had never before seen or identified. Aragorn quickly wet one of the rolls with the canteen and began to wash the blood away from Haldir's wrist as gently as he could. At this moment, it was just as well that Haldir was unconscious, for if he was awake, this would have been a very painful procedure. Even though he wasn't awake, Legolas could hear the older elf moan slightly when the cloth was applied to the open cuts. As soon as it was cleaned out as well as he could make it, Aragorn put some of the sage, thyme, and a few other nameless things on the other roll of linen, and wet this piece. Folding up the cloth, he crushed the herbs inside with the water, and ground the cloth into itself several times. When he unfolded the piece of linen, a greenish paste had been made. He spread this on Haldir's wrist, and then rummaged around for yet another roll of Linen that he used to bind up the lesion, finishing his treatment of the arm.
"The herbs will help stop the bleeding and cleanse the gashes." Aragorn explained to Legolas as he washed his hands with more water from the canteen. When he had completed that, he made a bundle of the dirty linen so that the one that he had used to crush the herbs was on the outside, showing no evidence of blood. This he walked over and threw into the fire (earning several more questioning glances from the party), and then returned to Haldir's side.
"Now what do we do?" Legolas asked uncertainly, wondering if they should wake the older elf.
"Let him rest." Aragorn said decisively. "He greatly needs it, and so do we. We shall wake him early tomorrow and see if we can't get something resolved before we start out, though I feel that this quandary in itself is going to take several moons to heal. I did not think it as urgent as it is, but now, we must do what we can to keep more harm from occurring. Legolas simply nodded, completely at a loss for what the situation might been, several different emotions affecting him at once.
"I do not believe that I could sleep after this." Legolas said, wishing to go off by himself and sort out his knotted thoughts.
"Nor I, but we must." Aragorn replied, and then turned back to Haldir. "Though there is one more thing I wish to do." Carefully, Aragorn took another packet of herbs out of his bag, and poured a small amount into his hand. These were a bright mauve in hue and resembled tiny roses. Aragorn crushed the few in his hand, and they easily disintegrated into a lavender powder.
"Hold his head up." He ordered Legolas. The elf looked at him uncertainly, but did as he was told. Gently, Aragorn tipped the powder into Haldir's mouth, followed by a swallow of water. The March Warden started to cough and choke violently, but Aragorn firmly held the elf's nose shut, and so the guardian was forced to swallow unconsciously. The ex-ranger motioned to Legolas that he could put Haldir's head down.
"What was that?" Legolas asked suspiciously.
"Desert's Whisper." Aragorn replied promptly as though forcing herbs down masochistic elves' throats was something he did every day. At Legolas's frown he added, "Don't worry, it's not poison. It will just…loosen Haldir's tongue on the morrow, make him more inclined to talk. It's a rare herb that only grows in the deserts far to the south of Middle Earth. Each pinch of it is worth my weight in gold. Rather nasty stuff, but it can be useful. Helps to extract information. It was a parting gift from Elrond, though I don't want to know how he knew I would have to use it." With that, the two friends headed off toward camp, leaving Haldir in blessed comatose.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Legolas moaned and turned over in his sleep. Somehow the ground that he was so used to sleeping on was hard and inhospitable tonight. Every time he tried to get comfortable, another rock or a root stuck up and forced him to change positions. Why was everything so confusing? Nothing made sense, no evidence connected to any other piece. All he knew was that it had to do with Haldir
And his mother.
They knew each other somehow, but where had they met? His mother went to Lorien often enough, she had been an envoy there, hadn't she? That was strange… It wasn't often that the queen of Mirkwood would be an envoy. Then again, she had always told Legolas before her journeys there that she was visiting family. Wouldn't her family have been in Mirkwood?
But she hadn't been born in Mirkwood. Where was it that she had was came from…?
Lorien
His mother had lived in Lorien!
And then married into Mirkwood.
That was odd. The elves rarely married out of their own nations. Unless…
Some kind of alliance?
No, that was stupid. Mirkwood hardly needed alliances with Lorien. They had always been on fine terms.
Hadn't they?
But still... The possibility…
If he had his dates right, the marriage would have been just before the Great War. A time where alliances were badly needed…
But Haldir had called out his mother's name like a lover calling his lost love.
No! They couldn't have been l- no! That idea was absurd. Or was it?
Legolas was only leading himself in circles, only creating more and more dreadful thoughts, coming to no conclusions. It was useless to think about, yet he couldn't help it. On and on he went, thinking the same things over and over….
Finally, at the first light of dawn, exhaustion took him.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
In what seemed like minutes after he had fallen asleep, Legolas was woken by Aragorn's gentle but urgent shaking.
"Come," he said quietly, as not to disturb the others, "We have but a few hours until we must break camp. The time we have must be used well." Legolas nodded groggily and forced himself to get up. Because of his lack of sleep the night before, the elf was not as sure footed as usual, and stumbled quite a bit before regaining his footing. Silently, the two of them crept over to the still unconscious guardian.
Legolas lifted Haldir's head once again, and Aragorn splashed some water into his face, while allowing some into the unconscious elf's mouth. They waited a few moments, and as Haldir started to choke on the water, his eye-lids fluttered as he began to wake. The elf's eyes were unfocused and he seemed extremely disoriented, but Legolas and Aragorn waited patiently for the older elf to sort himself out.
After about five minutes or so, Haldir blinked and stared up at the two figures squatting next to him.
"What?" he whispered, his voice weak, confused, and raspy. "Where? Who?"
"You stumbled into camp last night exhausted." Legolas said shortly. "Then you passed out." Haldir blinked thickly for another moment and then a realization and remembrance dawned over him, so obvious that Aragorn and Legolas could see the dread spread across his face. Quickly he tried to sit up, but a spinning head and Aragorn and Legolas's restraining arms kept him down.
"We have a few questions." Aragorn said, a glint of determination in his eyes.
"Questions that need answers." Legolas added darkly.
~*~*~*~
AHAHAH I COULD leave you here at this point…:: looks pleased with self:: aren't I evil? But because I love everyone so much, I'll do a double feature this time…
Note about the herbs: As far as I know, Sage and thyme are not medicinal in any way. I love to munch on fresh sage when I have allergies, but part of that is because I like the taste of fresh sage (my family thinks that I'm nuts for eating it). Mostly I just used sage and thyme because I enjoy cooking with them (thyme is REALLY good in spaghetti sauce, and sage makes a wonderful tea) but anyway…just didn't want to be giving any herb lore lessons that sage and thyme should be put on open cuts, because they probably shouldn't! Also, I made up desert's whisper, so as far as I know it doesn't exist (because if it did, you would think that people would make use of it)
Now… without further ado… The extra long chapter 5…..
~*~*~*~*~*~
There had been blackness…. Cold, unfeeling dark that could not be penetrated. Haldir had welcomed it, because no feelings meant no pain. It was a quiet, entire and dark. But now it was gone, torn away from him by the eyes that would forever haunt him. Slowly the elf opened his eyes, pulled by soft voices that called to him.
Haldir looked up at his two temporary captors, for that is what they were, trapping him between his memories, and his pain. Aragorn wore a steely expression as though he didn't want to know what he was demanding Haldir to tell him. Legolas's face was unreadable, but his eyes were stormy. Closing his mouth, the March Warden shook his head stubbornly. He would not talk.
"I am fine, and I need not answer any of your questions!" However something felt strange. Against his will, his mind seemed inclined to speak; to pour out everything to the man and elf staring at him, to purge the poison of his thoughts. Haldir quickly clamped his mouth shut, but found that it opened again, regardless of what he wanted it to do. Neither Legolas nor Aragorn looked surprised at his strange behavior of opening and closing his mouth in quick succession. Realization dawned on him harshly and he mouthed soundlessly with rage at the two figures above him that he had thought were allies.
"Desert's whisper!" He said when he could find the strength to speak. Aragorn smiled without humor. "I see I am not the only one trained in healing here." He said, as though making casual conversation. His tone was far from casual.
"I will not stand for such treatment! I am a guardian of Lorien, and am offering you aid against my better judgment with that evil ring following you through here, and this is how you repay me?" Aragorn simply shrugged, but Legolas spoke up, sounding oddly young and shy.
"Haldir, you have to understand. We are repaying you. You NEED help!" He gestured slightly to Haldir's left wrist. The older elf turned to look at it, and jumped slightly in surprise to see it tightly bandaged. He felt a dull throbbing in it, and in a few eye blinks remembered what had happened.
"I scraped myself again a tree on my way back to camp." He said weakly. Aragorn shook his head, the humorless smile that was more like a grimace back on his face. Legolas looked ready to cry.
"This…this has something to do with me and my mother." The young elf said softly. Then, with a little more vehemence, "I am not stupid Haldir! You have been hiding something from me, something that concerns me, and it's destroying you!" His voice was now on the edge of hysteria. Haldir shook his head again, causing it to ache harder then it already had.
"I have a right to my own knowledge and secrets. It is none of your business!" Haldir nearly shouted, surprisingly not waking up any of the sleeping company. Without warning he leaped to his feet, fighting the extreme dizziness that came over him. He stumbled for a moment, then caught his balance and, ignoring the pain that came from such a sudden movement, began to sprint towards the heavy foliage away from the clearing. However, Aragorn had been expecting a move like this. With near elven reflexes, he jumped up and then dived at Haldir, catching him unaware and tackling him to the ground. Legolas followed soon after, and, strong as he was, Haldir was no match for the combined strength of the former ranger and the warrior prince of Mirkwood.
"Let me go!" Haldir demanded when they had pinned him to the ground. "Or I'll shout, and when my company wakes, I'll claim that you were attacking me. They will be quick to my aid!" Legolas quickly solved this potential problem by clamping his hand over Haldir's mouth tightly, muffling any sound that might come out. Then, the two allies gently but firmly lifted Haldir up and made for the forest.
After walking for about ten minutes, when Legolas was satisfied that they were out of ear shot of anyone from the fellowship and could detect anyone who would follow them, they put Haldir down up against a tree. Aragorn took a bit of rope from one of his many pockets and lightly bound the elf's wrists and ankles, careful of his wounds from the night before. Legolas let out a cry when he saw Aragorn take out the ropes, but was silenced by a look from the man. Only when they were secure did the elf remove his hand from the mouth of his captive. Haldir simply glared. However, a tinge of uncertainty crept into his features when he examined the clearing. It was…familiar. A little too familiar. His examination was interrupted by a voice that made it even more so.
"I'm…really sorry friend." Legolas said, looking regretfully at the bound elf. "But you left us no choice."
"How dare you call me friend?" Haldir spat, pure rage in his tone. It was enough to cause Legolas to blanch back. Aragorn was less affected.
"It is no use to resist us." He said simply, his voice harboring no emotion.
"Can you not wait until we are in Lorien?" Haldir asked, suddenly docile.
"No." Aragorn replied simply. "For when we are in Lorien, you shall run off somehow, and avoid us until we are gone. This problem must be resolved now.
"What business do you have in this anyway man?" Haldir asked, venom back in his tone. "Elven commerce does not concern your race!"
"This problem involves Legolas, and as he is my friend, I aid him in his trouble. Besides, I am a healer, a service that you have been in need of lately." Only someone very good at detecting emotion or a friend or Aragorn's would have noticed the undercurrent of frustration and anger in the man's voice. Legolas was able to.
"I sought Aragorn's help in the matter." He said with more confidence then he felt.
"I have no wish to speak to either of you." Haldir said, knowing his comments would do no good, but hoping to stall.
"Unfortunately, you don't have a choice in the matter." Aragorn said, an edge to his voice. "Desert's whisper is very effective, especially with the dosage that I gave you. You will only be able to fight it for so long." His tone was not malicious, but it seemed so to Haldir. The guardian let out a colorful string of curses in several languages, some that Aragorn recognized and some he didn't. The elf finished with,
"I will fight it to the last." As though his fight against the drug was a noble yet hopeless cause.
"We have several hours until the others wake." Aragorn replied simply. Legolas wondered if the man was enjoying this treatment of the other elf. He had a shrewd feeling that he was, in a faintly perverse way.
The three of them sat in silence for several minutes, Haldir occasionally struggling against his bonds, or Legolas closing his eyes in trepidation.
This would have lasted much longer if a shadow hadn't suddenly darted out from behind the tree that Haldir was leaning against, striking swiftly and silently.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Hmm… now that's a proper cliff hanger, don't you think?
I made this chapter extra long, and put it up early because I have time on my hands... I hope it makes up for the previously short ones that I've been posting.
I'm not quite sure how I'm going take it from here, but I promise that there's going to be much more angst, mystery, strife, and then perhaps a little peace for our poor, tortured characters. And peace comes in many forms::: evil laughter::
Once again, thank you so much for all your wonderful reviews!!
Wind to thy wings,
Lady-Daine