A/N: And so to another chapter! Quite a long one for me so.onward!
They reached the nearest settlement after six hours of gruelling hiking through the somewhat oppressive landscape. They were both welcomed in by the wardens; by now so many travellers from the same village spreading the same tale of an attack that it was believed and the people at the place that they had just arrive at were already readying themselves for what seemed to be an imminent battle. Most women and children had already been sent to an area of safety on the coast unless they could help if the worst came to the worst. But there were few healers skilled enough or courageous enough to stay behind. Generations of indoctrination had made them scared and untrusting.
Anna and Aria had been provided a good, dry hut to live in, not unlike the ones they were used to. They were sharing with all the other women who had chosen to stay behind, which were not enough to make the living conditions seem cramped.
"Water?"
"Thank you."
"I'm sorry, Aria, that the little ones aren't here to greet us. It seems all too quiet without them." Her probe at conversation got her nothing but a small nod. "But we will see them soon. After the end. Of the last battle, that is."
"Will it come to this? A collection of men standing against an elite fighting force?"
Anna grasped her sister's hand. "Do not give up. The men all around us won't, and they too have been highly trained in the arts of warfare. It is them who should fear us, not the other way around."
Aria nodded again, already noticing the divide, the 'them' and 'us' phrases her one sibling used. It was as if nobody was going to even *try* to end the conflict with the absence of bloodshed. As if everyone had just accepted death to be the eventual outcome. And by her reasoning, that wasn't right.
"Aria? Will you at least rest now?"
A few sleepless hours later she had stiffened her resolve to do whatever it took to stop the mindless hate careering out of control in a downward spiral of death and destruction. Someone had to try. And she couldn't see anyone else prepared to risk everything.
~*~
"Wake up! Confound you, its important! Rise!" Aria's eyes snapped open to being vigorously shaken awake by Anna, with a frantic countenance.
"What? Have they come?"
"No and yes. The survivors have been spotted traversing the plains to this very camp. Oh Aria, you know what that means?"
Her brain had gone numb. She couldn't comprehend that their home could fall just thirty hours after they had both left. That didn't matter anymore. Nothing mattered except getting to the gates to welcome the person who had been wholly on her thoughts since they had said a teary farewell.
"Tom." She whispered breathily, running out of the makeshift house, down the sandy side roads until she reached the now reinforced security gates. A guard was standing by them, a smile on his face.
"More men. A quarter of the village it is said."
"Aye."
"Is there but one that you would see, perhaps, to have you risen when the sun is this low over the horizon?" He glanced at her, a twinkle in his eyes.
"There is, and I would that he were the first through your gate, but I can not recognise him from such a distance with this pale a dawn."
"He will be glad to see you. Bad were the tidings, according to our scouts, and swift the retreat. But nothing will make a man smile if it not be his pretty lady." Aria blushed at this indirect compliment, easy conversation meandering between the two whilst they waited for the valiant soldiers. The guard drew the door open just as the first approached. Her father, looking as if he hadn't needed to unsheathe his sword. Which, Aria thought cynically, he probably didn't. He glanced at her with loathing in his eyes, then carried on walking nobly through the gates, disdainfully looking at the welcoming party gathered a hundred metres or so behind the gate.
The next few were injured; some too gravely to even comprehend how they managed to travel this far with such serious wounds. She searched their faces, looking, seeking for just one. Just one.
Then there were more, and just a few more. With the great pauses between groups, it was drawing onto nightfall by the time the last huddle of people all but crawled though. Then as the sun was sinking low in the sky creating a fiery path behind it, the gigantic doors were shut and fastened tightly.
"I'm sorry Miss. I had hoped he would have been coming back to you."
"He.he is. He promised."
"I'm sorry. Go home."
Aria shook her head with vehemence. "NO! He may still be out there, he is coming, I know he is! You must stay on this gate and open it when he needs to walk through!"
Her newfound friend rested a hand heavily on her imperceptibly shaking shoulders. "I will stay, if only to guide you through your grief."
"I have nothing to grieve for." She stated, arrogantly, standing tall and trying to pierce the darkness that had descended far, far too quickly.
~*~
"Look! Look! Open the gate, I beseech you!"
"You have the luck of the devil, miss, and no mistake. I'm sorry that I doubted your conviction." The guard began to slowly open the gate, removing all the fortifications. They had seen one last straggler inching up the path, no longer able to walk but clinging to life with all the desperation he could muster just like the dusk had been desperately clinging to the last rays of the sun.
As soon as the gates were drawn back, Aria ran out of them and to the aid of the one man she had wanted to see most. Who, for a few shockingly painful moments she had assumed dead. But wasn't, not yet.
He was sprawled on the muddy ground, face downwards when she approached.
"Oh thank the lord. Tom. Hold on, just hold on. I will get you to safety."
He lifted his face and she blanched. "You're.You're not." Everything around her went blurry, except the excuses running through her mind why Tom could not possibly, in all her wildest nightmares be dead. It just wasn't possible.
"Nay. I was one of his comrades though. I am James son of Hélon. Do you not recognise me?"
"You were a childhood friend of my Tom." Suddenly her world seemed to come into a slightly sharper focus. "We must get you inside. My sister is an esteemed healer. She will be able to help you." James nodded. "Can you stand? Here, lean on me."
Together they made slow progress to her living quarters, James drawing harsh and rough breaths as if each one was going to be his last. Silently, Aria prayed that it wouldn't be. Too many had lost their lives already, never to return to those awaiting who still held them tenderly in their hearts. The dead were reluctant travellers, never returning to the ones who missed them, never showing their faces again no matter how many tears were cried.
"He." a gasp for air "he fell bravely, Aria." Another shaky breath.
"Just concentrate on walking. The tale will still be the same in the morning." He shook his head at her absolute denial of facts. He had to get through to her. He owed that much to Tom at least. Only with acceptance could she find grief, and only with grief could she heal.
"He.was leading a diversion, a counter attack so that many could flee the camp unharmed. He was.*is*. a true hero."
He felt her falter slightly and wondered whether she would understand. He doubted it.
"Anna!"
He just about saw a delicate, graceful woman come running out a hut to aid Aria with him, when his loss of blood and severe injuries made him collapse in a dead faint.
Anna searched Aria's eyes as she guided the now unconscious man into their home.
"What of Tom?"
~*~
Anna vaguely recognised the young man in her care, but his grave injuries caused her to stop trying to place his face in her memories and to just tend to him. He had a long, curved cut along the length of his stomach, which was fortunately not very deep although there was a high risk that it was infected. What bothered her more was his left leg, which had a muscle almost carved off the bone and was still bleeding. It would be hard work to keep life within him for the night, but should she manage, then he would have a good chance of survival.
After working solidly with stitching and cleaning for several hours, she collapsed to the floor, exhausted and drained both physically and mentally. She knew she should go look for her sister, but she was torn in two. If this man had a fit, woke up disorientated, or if she had missed an injury.it could kill him. However she knew very well that acute grief could also lead to death. She laid her head down on the floor, intending to puzzle things out in her mind. But her eyes just closed of their own accord, her body shutting down.
~*~
"What? NO! Run, RUN!" Anna awoke with a start, her muscles protesting loudly. Her ward was thrashing around violently in his bed, crying out. Quickly she roused him, his dark grey pupils dilated and scared, his chest rising and falling rapidly. She smiled reassuringly at him.
"You are safe now. Fear not. I have tended your wounds. You will live."
"But for how long?" he whispered in a barely audible voice. "Anna, I have to tell you something. Confess." She didn't stop to wonder how he knew her name - her role in her previous community had been that of a Princess. It went with the territory. She just nodded at him.
"Your sister, Aria. I lied to her about Tom."
~*~
Her sister had fled into the all-encompassing darkness, hot tears raging storms behind her eyelids as she tried so hard not to cry. A warrior never cried. But there was a terrible feeling behind the grief something that frightened her more than anything. Rage. She felt that if she saw an elf, be it male, female or just a child, she would kill it with no thought for her actions. And that loss of control was simply alarming.
"You promised, Tom. You promised" she sobbed to the darkness, as if expecting an answer to come.
But none did.
~*~
"You lied?!"
The man winced at the harsh tone used by such a graceful woman. "I told her he died. Died a noble, heroic death. When really, he was scared. Running for his life."
"Go on." Anna's voice was shaky and she wasn't quite sure if she wanted to hear how a most loving man was murdered.
"He...ran, and was cornered by an elf with the most bright and terrible eyes. He raised his two long white knives to cut his throat, then stopped. And said something to Tom."
"What? How do you know this?"
"I.I was injured, hiding behind a bush, waiting for the battle to pass. Believe me, cowardice was not the way I wanted to go." He didn't seem to like the thought of being branded a coward.
Anna took his hand and softly said, "the only heroes are dead heroes. And what use are they then?"
Her companion nodded. "But this elf spoke softly to him, and this is the strangest part; he mentioned the princess Aria. He asked him whether he was the one who cared for her. He, of course, was startled, and answered the question directly."
"What then?"
"The elf told him to run. To flee and he would not attempt to kill him. To escape to Aria."
Anna's eyes widened. "But.He's still dead."
The man nodded slowly. "Another elf approached. Mentioned betrayal and the punishments for it. The elf went pale, but stood his ground, every now and then urging Tom to run. So the second elf drew an arrow faster than I could follow and shot Tom in the leg, who crumpled with a strangled cry. Then he just hissed at the first elf to show him mercy by ending the pain. He then rejoined the battle and the first elf shut his eyes and drew his sword across Tom's throat in one swift movement. He turned, eyes still closed. When he opened them there was so much pain reflected deep inside them, so much misery and coldness that the colour seemed to bleed from them leaving them lifeless, just as Tom was bleeding his blood to the earth beneath him, leaving him lifeless. I will never forget that image, Anna, never, of that elf's eyes, betraying his emotions so clearly that it cut like a knife through my flesh too. Never, even if I live a thousand years from hence. It will always haunt me." He seemed to have come to an end in his tale, his eyes briefly flickering shut.
She ran out the house and retched.
~*~
Aria wanted to slay the creature that had taken her love away from her arms, deprived her children of a father. Her hand strayed unbidden to the belt of weapons she would never put down. She took deep calming breaths, standing by the edge of the river, trying to let the sound of the restless water soothe her. Legolas and Haldir would never do that she thought. Maybe there are a handful of people wanting to harm, but the others.weren't the lives of those others worth fighting for? Her encounters with Legolas and Haldir had cemented that in her mind, that everywhere, even in the midst of war there were a few that could help return faith - she had trusted the two elves. They had not harmed her.
But that blind trust had lead to the annihilation of her life.
She crumpled to the ground, sobbing just as an announcement was being dictated loudly from the main square in the village.
"The elves have been sighted. They will arrive at our gates in three days. Communication will be made in neutral territory."
And that was it. No talk of it being the last stand for men, no hope or thoughts of glory to sustain the soldiers. Aria knew more than to think that the 'communication' would be centred around peace - it would more likely be threatening words about prisoners of war, terms and conditions. There were rules to war, a concept she still found very odd. Why have rules about who you can kill and can not? She pushed it from her mind. She needed to prepare herself for war. Nothing, *nothing* would stop her fighting.
A/N: and so to the end of another chapter.its getting ominous! The next should be out far quicker.I know I always say that! Thanx for all the reviews prodding me to get a move on and giving me enthusiasm.Any more on the way?! ;-)
They reached the nearest settlement after six hours of gruelling hiking through the somewhat oppressive landscape. They were both welcomed in by the wardens; by now so many travellers from the same village spreading the same tale of an attack that it was believed and the people at the place that they had just arrive at were already readying themselves for what seemed to be an imminent battle. Most women and children had already been sent to an area of safety on the coast unless they could help if the worst came to the worst. But there were few healers skilled enough or courageous enough to stay behind. Generations of indoctrination had made them scared and untrusting.
Anna and Aria had been provided a good, dry hut to live in, not unlike the ones they were used to. They were sharing with all the other women who had chosen to stay behind, which were not enough to make the living conditions seem cramped.
"Water?"
"Thank you."
"I'm sorry, Aria, that the little ones aren't here to greet us. It seems all too quiet without them." Her probe at conversation got her nothing but a small nod. "But we will see them soon. After the end. Of the last battle, that is."
"Will it come to this? A collection of men standing against an elite fighting force?"
Anna grasped her sister's hand. "Do not give up. The men all around us won't, and they too have been highly trained in the arts of warfare. It is them who should fear us, not the other way around."
Aria nodded again, already noticing the divide, the 'them' and 'us' phrases her one sibling used. It was as if nobody was going to even *try* to end the conflict with the absence of bloodshed. As if everyone had just accepted death to be the eventual outcome. And by her reasoning, that wasn't right.
"Aria? Will you at least rest now?"
A few sleepless hours later she had stiffened her resolve to do whatever it took to stop the mindless hate careering out of control in a downward spiral of death and destruction. Someone had to try. And she couldn't see anyone else prepared to risk everything.
~*~
"Wake up! Confound you, its important! Rise!" Aria's eyes snapped open to being vigorously shaken awake by Anna, with a frantic countenance.
"What? Have they come?"
"No and yes. The survivors have been spotted traversing the plains to this very camp. Oh Aria, you know what that means?"
Her brain had gone numb. She couldn't comprehend that their home could fall just thirty hours after they had both left. That didn't matter anymore. Nothing mattered except getting to the gates to welcome the person who had been wholly on her thoughts since they had said a teary farewell.
"Tom." She whispered breathily, running out of the makeshift house, down the sandy side roads until she reached the now reinforced security gates. A guard was standing by them, a smile on his face.
"More men. A quarter of the village it is said."
"Aye."
"Is there but one that you would see, perhaps, to have you risen when the sun is this low over the horizon?" He glanced at her, a twinkle in his eyes.
"There is, and I would that he were the first through your gate, but I can not recognise him from such a distance with this pale a dawn."
"He will be glad to see you. Bad were the tidings, according to our scouts, and swift the retreat. But nothing will make a man smile if it not be his pretty lady." Aria blushed at this indirect compliment, easy conversation meandering between the two whilst they waited for the valiant soldiers. The guard drew the door open just as the first approached. Her father, looking as if he hadn't needed to unsheathe his sword. Which, Aria thought cynically, he probably didn't. He glanced at her with loathing in his eyes, then carried on walking nobly through the gates, disdainfully looking at the welcoming party gathered a hundred metres or so behind the gate.
The next few were injured; some too gravely to even comprehend how they managed to travel this far with such serious wounds. She searched their faces, looking, seeking for just one. Just one.
Then there were more, and just a few more. With the great pauses between groups, it was drawing onto nightfall by the time the last huddle of people all but crawled though. Then as the sun was sinking low in the sky creating a fiery path behind it, the gigantic doors were shut and fastened tightly.
"I'm sorry Miss. I had hoped he would have been coming back to you."
"He.he is. He promised."
"I'm sorry. Go home."
Aria shook her head with vehemence. "NO! He may still be out there, he is coming, I know he is! You must stay on this gate and open it when he needs to walk through!"
Her newfound friend rested a hand heavily on her imperceptibly shaking shoulders. "I will stay, if only to guide you through your grief."
"I have nothing to grieve for." She stated, arrogantly, standing tall and trying to pierce the darkness that had descended far, far too quickly.
~*~
"Look! Look! Open the gate, I beseech you!"
"You have the luck of the devil, miss, and no mistake. I'm sorry that I doubted your conviction." The guard began to slowly open the gate, removing all the fortifications. They had seen one last straggler inching up the path, no longer able to walk but clinging to life with all the desperation he could muster just like the dusk had been desperately clinging to the last rays of the sun.
As soon as the gates were drawn back, Aria ran out of them and to the aid of the one man she had wanted to see most. Who, for a few shockingly painful moments she had assumed dead. But wasn't, not yet.
He was sprawled on the muddy ground, face downwards when she approached.
"Oh thank the lord. Tom. Hold on, just hold on. I will get you to safety."
He lifted his face and she blanched. "You're.You're not." Everything around her went blurry, except the excuses running through her mind why Tom could not possibly, in all her wildest nightmares be dead. It just wasn't possible.
"Nay. I was one of his comrades though. I am James son of Hélon. Do you not recognise me?"
"You were a childhood friend of my Tom." Suddenly her world seemed to come into a slightly sharper focus. "We must get you inside. My sister is an esteemed healer. She will be able to help you." James nodded. "Can you stand? Here, lean on me."
Together they made slow progress to her living quarters, James drawing harsh and rough breaths as if each one was going to be his last. Silently, Aria prayed that it wouldn't be. Too many had lost their lives already, never to return to those awaiting who still held them tenderly in their hearts. The dead were reluctant travellers, never returning to the ones who missed them, never showing their faces again no matter how many tears were cried.
"He." a gasp for air "he fell bravely, Aria." Another shaky breath.
"Just concentrate on walking. The tale will still be the same in the morning." He shook his head at her absolute denial of facts. He had to get through to her. He owed that much to Tom at least. Only with acceptance could she find grief, and only with grief could she heal.
"He.was leading a diversion, a counter attack so that many could flee the camp unharmed. He was.*is*. a true hero."
He felt her falter slightly and wondered whether she would understand. He doubted it.
"Anna!"
He just about saw a delicate, graceful woman come running out a hut to aid Aria with him, when his loss of blood and severe injuries made him collapse in a dead faint.
Anna searched Aria's eyes as she guided the now unconscious man into their home.
"What of Tom?"
~*~
Anna vaguely recognised the young man in her care, but his grave injuries caused her to stop trying to place his face in her memories and to just tend to him. He had a long, curved cut along the length of his stomach, which was fortunately not very deep although there was a high risk that it was infected. What bothered her more was his left leg, which had a muscle almost carved off the bone and was still bleeding. It would be hard work to keep life within him for the night, but should she manage, then he would have a good chance of survival.
After working solidly with stitching and cleaning for several hours, she collapsed to the floor, exhausted and drained both physically and mentally. She knew she should go look for her sister, but she was torn in two. If this man had a fit, woke up disorientated, or if she had missed an injury.it could kill him. However she knew very well that acute grief could also lead to death. She laid her head down on the floor, intending to puzzle things out in her mind. But her eyes just closed of their own accord, her body shutting down.
~*~
"What? NO! Run, RUN!" Anna awoke with a start, her muscles protesting loudly. Her ward was thrashing around violently in his bed, crying out. Quickly she roused him, his dark grey pupils dilated and scared, his chest rising and falling rapidly. She smiled reassuringly at him.
"You are safe now. Fear not. I have tended your wounds. You will live."
"But for how long?" he whispered in a barely audible voice. "Anna, I have to tell you something. Confess." She didn't stop to wonder how he knew her name - her role in her previous community had been that of a Princess. It went with the territory. She just nodded at him.
"Your sister, Aria. I lied to her about Tom."
~*~
Her sister had fled into the all-encompassing darkness, hot tears raging storms behind her eyelids as she tried so hard not to cry. A warrior never cried. But there was a terrible feeling behind the grief something that frightened her more than anything. Rage. She felt that if she saw an elf, be it male, female or just a child, she would kill it with no thought for her actions. And that loss of control was simply alarming.
"You promised, Tom. You promised" she sobbed to the darkness, as if expecting an answer to come.
But none did.
~*~
"You lied?!"
The man winced at the harsh tone used by such a graceful woman. "I told her he died. Died a noble, heroic death. When really, he was scared. Running for his life."
"Go on." Anna's voice was shaky and she wasn't quite sure if she wanted to hear how a most loving man was murdered.
"He...ran, and was cornered by an elf with the most bright and terrible eyes. He raised his two long white knives to cut his throat, then stopped. And said something to Tom."
"What? How do you know this?"
"I.I was injured, hiding behind a bush, waiting for the battle to pass. Believe me, cowardice was not the way I wanted to go." He didn't seem to like the thought of being branded a coward.
Anna took his hand and softly said, "the only heroes are dead heroes. And what use are they then?"
Her companion nodded. "But this elf spoke softly to him, and this is the strangest part; he mentioned the princess Aria. He asked him whether he was the one who cared for her. He, of course, was startled, and answered the question directly."
"What then?"
"The elf told him to run. To flee and he would not attempt to kill him. To escape to Aria."
Anna's eyes widened. "But.He's still dead."
The man nodded slowly. "Another elf approached. Mentioned betrayal and the punishments for it. The elf went pale, but stood his ground, every now and then urging Tom to run. So the second elf drew an arrow faster than I could follow and shot Tom in the leg, who crumpled with a strangled cry. Then he just hissed at the first elf to show him mercy by ending the pain. He then rejoined the battle and the first elf shut his eyes and drew his sword across Tom's throat in one swift movement. He turned, eyes still closed. When he opened them there was so much pain reflected deep inside them, so much misery and coldness that the colour seemed to bleed from them leaving them lifeless, just as Tom was bleeding his blood to the earth beneath him, leaving him lifeless. I will never forget that image, Anna, never, of that elf's eyes, betraying his emotions so clearly that it cut like a knife through my flesh too. Never, even if I live a thousand years from hence. It will always haunt me." He seemed to have come to an end in his tale, his eyes briefly flickering shut.
She ran out the house and retched.
~*~
Aria wanted to slay the creature that had taken her love away from her arms, deprived her children of a father. Her hand strayed unbidden to the belt of weapons she would never put down. She took deep calming breaths, standing by the edge of the river, trying to let the sound of the restless water soothe her. Legolas and Haldir would never do that she thought. Maybe there are a handful of people wanting to harm, but the others.weren't the lives of those others worth fighting for? Her encounters with Legolas and Haldir had cemented that in her mind, that everywhere, even in the midst of war there were a few that could help return faith - she had trusted the two elves. They had not harmed her.
But that blind trust had lead to the annihilation of her life.
She crumpled to the ground, sobbing just as an announcement was being dictated loudly from the main square in the village.
"The elves have been sighted. They will arrive at our gates in three days. Communication will be made in neutral territory."
And that was it. No talk of it being the last stand for men, no hope or thoughts of glory to sustain the soldiers. Aria knew more than to think that the 'communication' would be centred around peace - it would more likely be threatening words about prisoners of war, terms and conditions. There were rules to war, a concept she still found very odd. Why have rules about who you can kill and can not? She pushed it from her mind. She needed to prepare herself for war. Nothing, *nothing* would stop her fighting.
A/N: and so to the end of another chapter.its getting ominous! The next should be out far quicker.I know I always say that! Thanx for all the reviews prodding me to get a move on and giving me enthusiasm.Any more on the way?! ;-)
