"Drop them," a grating voice jarred Clulyan back to consciousness. If
that had not done it, then he was sure that the sharp pain from the impact
of his body hitting something hard had.
He grunted at the effort of rolling onto his side. Why couldn't he use his arms? Where was he? What in the name of Middle-Earth happened? His mind clouded, and his vision blurred with the sudden onslaught of pain in his skull. He struggled again and again to turn his body so that he could see something other than the night sky. Finally giving up, he settled for turning his head slightly from side to side.
A rocket flare was set off before his eyes with every movement. Bright stars danced all around his head, and he feared that he would soon pass out again. Ah, but this Dwarf shall not go quietly, he thought with a smirk. He blinked several times and successfully wiped away the colors to find himself staring up at real stars.
A dull thump from his side caused him to jerk his head to the left, sending another lightning bolt to his frazzled brain. He lay still for a moment, then opened his eyes again.
Then everything came flooding back to him in a turrent of flashes. His home. The orcs. The bodies... He squeezed his eyes shut, but the images were permanently scrawled into the back of his eyelids. They'd fought those... things, and apparently, they'd lost. His secured wrists were evidence enough of that. But what about Melime? What had those devils done to her? He looked to his side again.
The Elf was lying on her stomach, her wrists tied tightly behind her back. He could already see that her bonds were rubbing her ivory skin raw. His stomach churned as he scanned the rest of her and took in what he saw. Her right arm was twisted and bent unnaturally. Bruises marred her delicate features, and blood oozed from a gash on her head somewhere in the mess of tangled hair, causing a trail of red to slither down her creamy cheek. One of her incredible eyes had been blackened and was swelling badly.
She must have put up a good fight, he thought ruefully. Doesn't seem like she would give in too easily to much of anything.
A mewling squeak broke his concentration on her. The sound was barely audible, but to those close enough to hear, it sounded like a young child or small animal crying. It seemed that the soft whimpers were coming from somewhere close to the fallen Elf. Leaning his head more toward her, Clulyan realized that it was his friend that was making the pathetic noises.
Melime was lolling from side to side like a snake slithering on its belly. She seemed to be fighting even in her dreams. Her legs scraped against the rocky ground in a feeble attempt to escape this invisible foe.
Steadily, the soft whimpers rose in volume to become loud cries and moans. "No..." Clulyan heard her mumble. "No, Atar... No! NO!"
Without warning, her good eye sprung open, revealing a shimmering blue orb brighter than any star that he'd ever lain eyes on. It darted around furiously before closing, then opening again.
"Melime?" His own voice was foreign to his ears. It sounded gritty and croaky, as though he had indulged in far too much liquor the night before. "Melime?"
He could see now that her eye had morphed from a clear, bright blue to a deep sapphire. She blinked, and a silver tear fell from her ebony lashes and slithered down her cheek, mixing with her blood.
"Melime?" Now he was really worried. It was a well known fact that his father had taught him about Elves that they rarely ever cried, and when they did, the cause had to be something unbearably hard to deal with. What frightened him further was that he had heard that sometimes when they shed their tears, it was a tell-tale sign that they were dying of a broken heart. He couldn't even think of being left alone in the clutches of these foul beings. She couldn't die. He would not let her. She was his friend.
"Melime?" Clulyan's hardly familiar, yet concerned voice called out to her once more. She looked to him and saw his head turned toward her. His small, black eyes locked with her pain-filled ones for what could have been hours.
She was aware that her lip had begun to tremble. Her pearly teeth clamped down on it to keep herself from weeping any more. But it was a battle that she could not win. The things that her unconscious mind had stirred up refused to be contained any longer. Try as she might, she couldn't force them back down, then cork the bottle shut ever again.
A loud sob burst from her throat and her bloody tears stained the ground under her cheek. Everything that she'd held back for all those years spilled from her. The agony of death, the hatred for herself and what she'd done, the anger with those who dared to hurt her- all of it.
Melime's tortured wail sent a shiver down Clulyan's spine. Never in his entire life had he ever heard a sound so heartbreaking. He could hear within that cry all that she had suffered during her existance.
That brought up another question for the already perplexed Dwarf: What exactly had she been through to make her scream like that? That sound wasn't something that just anyone could make. It was more like a feeling that one could experience. It was what he had felt when he had seen the corpses of his friends and relatives lying in the Great Hall of his homeland. What wound to her heart had their encounter with the orcs reopened? He had to know.
With as much effort as he could muster, Clulyan forced himself to flip over twice so that he was lying right beside her on his back. He nudged her with one of his trapped arms. She had but to look up before she buried her face into his shoulder.
"Clulyan!" Her speech was partially impaired. He guessed that something in her mouth should also be added to her list of injuries. "Clulyan!"
"Hey!" the same rough voice from earlier snarled. "Shut that thing up!" Clulyan looked to his right to see a group of agitated orcs standing and sitting around.
He cocked his head to her side so it rested against hers. His headache had grown worse with all the moving around, but he had to shush her yowling before the leader decided to come over and silence her himself. "Ssshh, it's okay, Melime."
"N-no, it's not... " she stammered.
"It will be." He looked back to see if anything was coming their way before continuing to console her.
"Clulyan, you don't understand! I killed them!" He was about to repeat his previous sentence but stopped. "You what?"
"I killed them! I killed every one of them. And I liked it. I liked it! They hurt us... They deserved to die, Clulyan!" He pushed himself up a little bit more with his bound arms so he could see her face. "All right. Just calm down. Take a deep breath." He felt like a parent soothing a child after a terrible nightmare. And she, like a frightened toddler, complied to his order by inhaling shakily.
"Now, tell me what-"
A sound not truly familiar to Clulyan broke his sentence. It sounded like thunder. Like the sound of the orc army when they charged the two of them, only worse. In fact, he could feel the ground beneath him shudder as though there was an earthquake abroad.
He lifted his aching head from the rocky ground and looked up past Melime's trembling shoulder. His eyes bulged to twice their normal size in surprise.
Men- too many to count- were riding toward them on large powerful steeds. Maybe their captivity would not last forever after all! The Men were heavily armed and wearing what looked to be uniforms of some sort. He waited nervously for what would happen when the two great armies collided.
The orcs didn't seem to be too concerned with the stampede that was charging straight for them. Were they really that confident of themselves? What a shock they would receive when the Men mowed them down like grass!
But it was Clulyan who received the most stunning blow. Instead of increasing their speed into the "camp" the Men slowed the horses down, and the one that appeared to be the leader dismounted and strolled over to the orc that had shouted at Melime and him.
He was forced to strain his ears to hear their voices, but Melime had no problem catching their conversation:
"Well done, Grarg. The master will be pleased."
"Grarg" merely made a growling sound at the Man.
"Hmph. All right, men, take them away!"
Melime stared ahead blankly. That voice... Oh God, she knew that voice...
Suddenly the ropes around her wrists tightened, and she was dragged roughly to her feet. Clulyan was treated in the same manner so that they were standing side by side. But instead of lowering her eyes from her captors, she held her head up. She met every one of their gazes with a icy glare.
"We meet again, my dear." Melime's stomach clenched at the sound of his voice. The man came around in front of her, grinning wickedly. The eyes that haunted her dreams met her cold stare. She let her eyes travel along his face. Thirty seven years later, and he still looked the same. All except for that long scar that's running down his face, she thought with a slight smirk. A scar that she herself had given him.
She forced herself to give him a smug smile, despite the urge to spit in his face and the pain in her jaw. "Hello, Guryn."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Now for my reviewers (love ya guys!):
~thirteen~ Yeah, this is definitely depression-mode story, lol. Anyhoo, here's the continuation... And treat for you from Gaylord!
~kellums~ *shudder* Yes... I actually started writing this when my b/f (lying son of a bitch bastard) left me, so it's got that whole let's make everyone sad and miserable thing to it. Harry Potter is just my way of killing people that I hate in a fun way. This is just the sad scary way, lol. Treat for you...
~Bloom Gurl~ Um, I am not authorized to answer that question... I'm glad you liked the story though. I'll keep adding chapters now that I know somebody's actually reading this crap. :-) Treat?
~pastlemouth~ Not allowed to answer that question by order of my muses... Treat bag's comin' around!
~Radiion-hobbitwarrior~ Yesss, my oh-so-sad-and-serious plot was actually the first thing that I wrote for fanfiction.com, but no one was really reading it, and I couldn't be serious all the time (just when I think of my ex-b/f and all the Valium that they've got me strung on) so I started up my other two ficcies! Anyhoo, I got 2 of my fics updated! That should keep everyone happy for a few minutes, right? :-) Treat for you & everyone else that may be reading this with you!
He grunted at the effort of rolling onto his side. Why couldn't he use his arms? Where was he? What in the name of Middle-Earth happened? His mind clouded, and his vision blurred with the sudden onslaught of pain in his skull. He struggled again and again to turn his body so that he could see something other than the night sky. Finally giving up, he settled for turning his head slightly from side to side.
A rocket flare was set off before his eyes with every movement. Bright stars danced all around his head, and he feared that he would soon pass out again. Ah, but this Dwarf shall not go quietly, he thought with a smirk. He blinked several times and successfully wiped away the colors to find himself staring up at real stars.
A dull thump from his side caused him to jerk his head to the left, sending another lightning bolt to his frazzled brain. He lay still for a moment, then opened his eyes again.
Then everything came flooding back to him in a turrent of flashes. His home. The orcs. The bodies... He squeezed his eyes shut, but the images were permanently scrawled into the back of his eyelids. They'd fought those... things, and apparently, they'd lost. His secured wrists were evidence enough of that. But what about Melime? What had those devils done to her? He looked to his side again.
The Elf was lying on her stomach, her wrists tied tightly behind her back. He could already see that her bonds were rubbing her ivory skin raw. His stomach churned as he scanned the rest of her and took in what he saw. Her right arm was twisted and bent unnaturally. Bruises marred her delicate features, and blood oozed from a gash on her head somewhere in the mess of tangled hair, causing a trail of red to slither down her creamy cheek. One of her incredible eyes had been blackened and was swelling badly.
She must have put up a good fight, he thought ruefully. Doesn't seem like she would give in too easily to much of anything.
A mewling squeak broke his concentration on her. The sound was barely audible, but to those close enough to hear, it sounded like a young child or small animal crying. It seemed that the soft whimpers were coming from somewhere close to the fallen Elf. Leaning his head more toward her, Clulyan realized that it was his friend that was making the pathetic noises.
Melime was lolling from side to side like a snake slithering on its belly. She seemed to be fighting even in her dreams. Her legs scraped against the rocky ground in a feeble attempt to escape this invisible foe.
Steadily, the soft whimpers rose in volume to become loud cries and moans. "No..." Clulyan heard her mumble. "No, Atar... No! NO!"
Without warning, her good eye sprung open, revealing a shimmering blue orb brighter than any star that he'd ever lain eyes on. It darted around furiously before closing, then opening again.
"Melime?" His own voice was foreign to his ears. It sounded gritty and croaky, as though he had indulged in far too much liquor the night before. "Melime?"
He could see now that her eye had morphed from a clear, bright blue to a deep sapphire. She blinked, and a silver tear fell from her ebony lashes and slithered down her cheek, mixing with her blood.
"Melime?" Now he was really worried. It was a well known fact that his father had taught him about Elves that they rarely ever cried, and when they did, the cause had to be something unbearably hard to deal with. What frightened him further was that he had heard that sometimes when they shed their tears, it was a tell-tale sign that they were dying of a broken heart. He couldn't even think of being left alone in the clutches of these foul beings. She couldn't die. He would not let her. She was his friend.
"Melime?" Clulyan's hardly familiar, yet concerned voice called out to her once more. She looked to him and saw his head turned toward her. His small, black eyes locked with her pain-filled ones for what could have been hours.
She was aware that her lip had begun to tremble. Her pearly teeth clamped down on it to keep herself from weeping any more. But it was a battle that she could not win. The things that her unconscious mind had stirred up refused to be contained any longer. Try as she might, she couldn't force them back down, then cork the bottle shut ever again.
A loud sob burst from her throat and her bloody tears stained the ground under her cheek. Everything that she'd held back for all those years spilled from her. The agony of death, the hatred for herself and what she'd done, the anger with those who dared to hurt her- all of it.
Melime's tortured wail sent a shiver down Clulyan's spine. Never in his entire life had he ever heard a sound so heartbreaking. He could hear within that cry all that she had suffered during her existance.
That brought up another question for the already perplexed Dwarf: What exactly had she been through to make her scream like that? That sound wasn't something that just anyone could make. It was more like a feeling that one could experience. It was what he had felt when he had seen the corpses of his friends and relatives lying in the Great Hall of his homeland. What wound to her heart had their encounter with the orcs reopened? He had to know.
With as much effort as he could muster, Clulyan forced himself to flip over twice so that he was lying right beside her on his back. He nudged her with one of his trapped arms. She had but to look up before she buried her face into his shoulder.
"Clulyan!" Her speech was partially impaired. He guessed that something in her mouth should also be added to her list of injuries. "Clulyan!"
"Hey!" the same rough voice from earlier snarled. "Shut that thing up!" Clulyan looked to his right to see a group of agitated orcs standing and sitting around.
He cocked his head to her side so it rested against hers. His headache had grown worse with all the moving around, but he had to shush her yowling before the leader decided to come over and silence her himself. "Ssshh, it's okay, Melime."
"N-no, it's not... " she stammered.
"It will be." He looked back to see if anything was coming their way before continuing to console her.
"Clulyan, you don't understand! I killed them!" He was about to repeat his previous sentence but stopped. "You what?"
"I killed them! I killed every one of them. And I liked it. I liked it! They hurt us... They deserved to die, Clulyan!" He pushed himself up a little bit more with his bound arms so he could see her face. "All right. Just calm down. Take a deep breath." He felt like a parent soothing a child after a terrible nightmare. And she, like a frightened toddler, complied to his order by inhaling shakily.
"Now, tell me what-"
A sound not truly familiar to Clulyan broke his sentence. It sounded like thunder. Like the sound of the orc army when they charged the two of them, only worse. In fact, he could feel the ground beneath him shudder as though there was an earthquake abroad.
He lifted his aching head from the rocky ground and looked up past Melime's trembling shoulder. His eyes bulged to twice their normal size in surprise.
Men- too many to count- were riding toward them on large powerful steeds. Maybe their captivity would not last forever after all! The Men were heavily armed and wearing what looked to be uniforms of some sort. He waited nervously for what would happen when the two great armies collided.
The orcs didn't seem to be too concerned with the stampede that was charging straight for them. Were they really that confident of themselves? What a shock they would receive when the Men mowed them down like grass!
But it was Clulyan who received the most stunning blow. Instead of increasing their speed into the "camp" the Men slowed the horses down, and the one that appeared to be the leader dismounted and strolled over to the orc that had shouted at Melime and him.
He was forced to strain his ears to hear their voices, but Melime had no problem catching their conversation:
"Well done, Grarg. The master will be pleased."
"Grarg" merely made a growling sound at the Man.
"Hmph. All right, men, take them away!"
Melime stared ahead blankly. That voice... Oh God, she knew that voice...
Suddenly the ropes around her wrists tightened, and she was dragged roughly to her feet. Clulyan was treated in the same manner so that they were standing side by side. But instead of lowering her eyes from her captors, she held her head up. She met every one of their gazes with a icy glare.
"We meet again, my dear." Melime's stomach clenched at the sound of his voice. The man came around in front of her, grinning wickedly. The eyes that haunted her dreams met her cold stare. She let her eyes travel along his face. Thirty seven years later, and he still looked the same. All except for that long scar that's running down his face, she thought with a slight smirk. A scar that she herself had given him.
She forced herself to give him a smug smile, despite the urge to spit in his face and the pain in her jaw. "Hello, Guryn."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Now for my reviewers (love ya guys!):
~thirteen~ Yeah, this is definitely depression-mode story, lol. Anyhoo, here's the continuation... And treat for you from Gaylord!
~kellums~ *shudder* Yes... I actually started writing this when my b/f (lying son of a bitch bastard) left me, so it's got that whole let's make everyone sad and miserable thing to it. Harry Potter is just my way of killing people that I hate in a fun way. This is just the sad scary way, lol. Treat for you...
~Bloom Gurl~ Um, I am not authorized to answer that question... I'm glad you liked the story though. I'll keep adding chapters now that I know somebody's actually reading this crap. :-) Treat?
~pastlemouth~ Not allowed to answer that question by order of my muses... Treat bag's comin' around!
~Radiion-hobbitwarrior~ Yesss, my oh-so-sad-and-serious plot was actually the first thing that I wrote for fanfiction.com, but no one was really reading it, and I couldn't be serious all the time (just when I think of my ex-b/f and all the Valium that they've got me strung on) so I started up my other two ficcies! Anyhoo, I got 2 of my fics updated! That should keep everyone happy for a few minutes, right? :-) Treat for you & everyone else that may be reading this with you!