The cold woke Gimli from his slumber. A distant, not quite yet working part of his brain registered the fact that dawn was nearing and the nagging feeling that he had fallen asleep during his watch spurred him back in to full consciousness. Looking around, he saw his companions still asleep, which only added to his confusion. He didn't remember it being his turn to stand watch at all.
He remembered his tired bones. He remembered yet another argue with the stubborn elf. He remembered a sudden urge to smack Aragorn. He remembered the old man speaking…
"The old man!" Gimli shouted, looking around for the one he could now be sure, had been an enemy. There was no surprise when he realized that the old man was, of course, no longer in sight.
The surprise came with the fact that his companions had not been alerted by his shout. Or that the elf was asleep at all.
"Aragorn?" the dwarf called, rising to his feet, "Legolas?"
Making his way towards the man, both because he was nearer and seemed to be waking on his own, Gimli helped Aragorn to seat up. The ranger looked as confused as the dwarf had felt minutes before.
"Saruman" Aragorn whispered, barely registering the fact that a concerned dwarven face was half an inch from his.
"Are you feeling alright lad?"
"The old man" Aragorn said, finally focusing his grey eyes on the short companion, "it was Saruman"
"Yes, yes I figured as much" the dwarf said, for now just content that the man had his bearings back and that no apparent harm had come to him.
"Although I must ask myself if all that bloody traitor had in mind was to give us a good night sleep" Gimli snorted as he and Aragorn made their way to the still prone elf.
Neither wanted to put it in to words, but both hearts were weighed down by the fact that Legolas had failed to show any signs of life yet.
"Seems his elven superiority didn't spare him from the wizard's spell, did it?"
Gimli was aiming for humor, but the concerned tone in his gruffy voice robbed him of any such effect.
Legolas eyes were open, unfocused, as was usual when he rested.
It had taken a while for the members of the Fellowship, not used to the ways of the Elves, to come to grips which such a habit, because for all it seemed only logical to shield ones eyes to rest. The fact that elves slept with theirs open seemed to them highly unnatural, not to mention unpractical, as they could not imagine how it was possible to sleep with out the comfort of a black eyelid to cover any disturbing light.
But for the Elves, as Legolas had explained to them one night, what was disturbing and unnatural was to cover the light around them, even if it was merely the shimmering, faint light of the stars at night. So, they allowed their eyes to stay open in slumber, only to close them when there was no other choice.
It was only natural.
What was not natural was the look of sorrow that came across Legolas' eyes when he heard Gimli's voice. Nor the fact that he closed them then.
"Legolas?" Aragorn's inquisitive voice sounded next "What is wrong, my friend?" he asked in elvish.
"I am in darkness"
~''~
Saruman' s howl of rage could be heard in the deepest caves of Isengard.
He could not understand what had gone wrong. His spell was supposed to have affected them all in the same way, yet just the elf had been stricken.
The wizard covered once more the palantir stone, anger making his movements brusque. It irked his pride to not have been able to render the three hunters defenceless as he intended, but, alas, he was sure his actions would still be enough to bring the trio to a failure. He had seen the way the Fellowship protected its members, so now, the Istar needed but to wait and see the fall of the man and the dwarf as they tried to protect the elf and failed.
He had other things to occupy his mind now. The demise of all Mankind was to follow… and he would start by Rohan.
~''~
Aragorn frowned.
"What do you mean in darkness?" he asked "Legolas… look at me!" he said, grabbing his arm in despair and pushing him to seat, so that they stood face to face.
Legolas opened his eyes and looked at his friend.
"There lays the problem, mellonin… I can look at you" he said unblinking "but I can not see you"
Aragorn's frown deepened, worry lines marking his face.
"What?" Gimli shouted, his annoyed tone trying to mask the growing concern, for he was now sure that something was amiss with the elf.
"What are you two talking? What is wrong with the elf?" he asked "and speak in a language we can all understand!!"
Was it not enough that his heart was hammering against his chest in concern for his father's enemy… now they had resorted to speak in that cursed tongue he knew nothing about?!
"What ails the elf?" he asked again, as it seemed that both his companions had lost the ability to speak.
"He is blind" Aragorn finally answered. The words sounded strange in his mouth.
For a split second he was glad that Legolas could not see the look of pity that crossed the dwarf's face.
As soon as it had come, the look was gone from Gimli' s eyes.
"Nonsense! Come on lad, let's take you to the stream, wash the sleep off of your eyes and you'll be bragging again about your superior elven sight in no time!" the dwarf grunted. Grabbing the slacken hands that rested in Legolas' lap, Gimli tried to get him up.
"Nay, master Dwarf… I fear water alone will not be enough to cure me of this illness…" the voice of the elf trembled, melancholy threatening to overwhelm him, "I fear nothing can" Legolas finished in a whisper so soft that it barely reached the mortal ears.
Closing his useless eyes, Legolas leaned against a tree he could feel offering her support and allowed himself to be taken by the forest's sweet song.
~''~
As soon as the old man had approached them and opened his mouth to speak, Legolas had known him to be one of the Istar, but by then it was already too late. Unlike his mortal companions, the spell the wizard had cast over them had not put him to sleep, but had effectively enabled all movement, in a dormancy state akin to a body trapped in ice.
Legolas soon wished to be asleep like the others.
The elf had never felt so helpless as then. He could see the wizard opening his cloak, revealing his white robes and a silver dagger, as he approached his friends.
Recognizing Saruman, Legolas prayed to the Valar to keep Aragorn and Gimli safe, for he could not.
The white wizard bent over the sleeping form of the dwarf, dagger held in his right hand, the moonless night hiding the look upon his face.
Ai! How Legolas wished to be able to close his eyes then, for he did not wanted to see his friends murdered so. The memory would be too cruel to bear even for the few minutes that would pass before his own death arrived.
Death, however, did not claim the dwarf. Legolas was surprised when he saw Saruman rising, his hands not bloodied by murder, but holding the pouch in which Gimli kept the strings of hair that the Lady of Light had offered him.
Next, the wizard approached Aragorn, covering the man's form from the elf's view, the knife once more at work.
Legolas could feel the iron wrist of dread taking hold of his heart once more. What if Saruman had finally discovered the secret that the Elves had kept so well hidden? What if this was but a plan to murder Isildur's heir? To rob Men of their lost King?
The Istar rose, holding in his hand one of the arm protections that Aragorn had taken as a remembrance of Boromir… and the elf was confused. Why would Saruman want these tokens, so important to his friends but utterly useless for any one else?
Legolas could not see what the wizard did when he came near him, for Saruman was shuffling through something at his back and then, as suddenly as he had come, the thief was gone, leaving Legolas staring at the dying fire, his mind trying to figure out what the Istar meant by his actions.
'Gandalf would have known' the thought came unbidden to him, along with a jolt of pain in his heart. Some memories were still too fresh to be stirred.
Time passed slowly as Legolas waited for the stiffness in his limbs to ebb away, finding this condition strangely similar to the effects of the spider' stings, in his home forest.
Realizing that he was regaining some control over his movements, Legolas shift his body so that he could gaze upon the stars, their light a smoothing balm to his tormented mind.
This night, however, the starlight seemed dimmed of its usual brightness, shimmering in the dark sky until they disappeared all together.
At first he thought that some cloud might have moved to cover them. But the sky had been clear this night, and Legolas couldn't smell rain in the air.
With a growing suspicion, the elf looked around him, searching the light of their burning fire, his companions, anything that might prove his suspicions wrong… but the only thing that greeted him was darkness.
A darkness so thick as Legolas had never before experienced in his long life. Not even in the darkest areas of Mirkwood, not ever in his father's caves… not even in Mória...
… for this darkness was more than the total absence of light, it was the absence of sight itself!
Legolas' heart stopped.
This was certainly some illusion… for sure a trick his mind was playing. Struggling to raise a shaking hand, Legolas moved it in front of his eyes.
Nothing!
There was nothing there, except for the feeling of something passing by! How could this be?
Legolas blinked. With mounting fear, he closed his eyes, send a pray to the Valar and reopened them… only to be faced with the same darkness as before.
"Ai, Elbereth!"
The heart that had stopped before was now thundering against his rib cage, threatening to get out, his breath coming in short gasps, cold sweat covering his ashen face.
Legolas panicked.
Blind! He could not have lost the use of his sight!
In Legolas mind, such thing made no sense. Elves did not fell sick, nor did they lose their senses, any of them, in such way, so how had this befallen him?
Then he remembered Saruman's visit upon their camp… could the wizard be responsible for this?
The elf realized that it could be no other.
And Legolas heart sunk deeper. Did this mean that his friends had lost their sight too?
He had no way of knowing until they were awake. In his panic, he couldn't even tell where they were.
The elf was lost in a world of blackness and, with his sight, all of his other senses seemed to abandon him.
He could smell nothing but his fear.
Taste its vile flavour in his mouth.
Hear the thundering of his heart hammering against his ears.
Even the earth where he lay seemed harder, unwelcoming.
His existence had been reduced to darkness, and Legolas could feel his inner light, the light of the First Born, being torn from him. Amidst the despair that was threatening to engulf his soul, a memory came to him.
Light was back in to his eyes, colours painted his world again. He was still an elfling.
His elder brothers had teased him in to playing a new game, challenging Legolas to find their hiding place with a blindfold upon his eyes. They knew about young Legolas' fear of the dark, they were expecting him to say no, but the elfling was too stubborn and proud for that.
The older elves guided him in to a part of the forest that he did not know, a part their father had forbidden them all to go. They placed the blindfold upon his eyes and left to hide.
Legolas was bravely fighting his fear of the dark, ignoring the lack of his sight and trying to use his other senses to track his older brothers, reminding himself that outside this dark, the world was still bright with light and safe, patiently waiting for his return.
But then the spiders came.
When his brothers returned, wondering why it was taking Legolas so long to start his search, their sibling was already unconscious, bitten by the spiders' poison, and being carried away by the vile beasts.
Legolas' brothers were able to rescue him, for the spiders' party was small and the elder elves were lucky. With their father, however, their luck had not hold much ground.
The thought of loosing his last born had spurred such wrath from King Thranduil that he had banished Legolas' brothers to the border patrols with instructions to not return until his anger had subsided.
And that did not happen for a long time.
Legolas remembered how a light used to be left to shine, at night, in his room for many years to come after that adventure.
Eventually the wood-elf outgrew his childhood fears, but his uneasiness in dark places had never entirely vanished.
And now darkness was all he had.
~''~
