Author: Mirrordance
Title: Last Stand
Summary: The battle at the Black Gate leaves Legolas strange wounds that do not heal. He knows he is slowly dying & keeps it a secret, as he tours the fleeting mortal pleasures of the world before his last breath. He finds an unwilling coconspirator in Eomer
*please read the important notes at the end of this chapter :)
* * *
15: Aragorn, Son of Arathorn: A Memory III
(The Worst of My Days, the Hardiest of My Spirit, continued)
* * *
Helm's Deep, 3018
* * *
"Remember I said to you years ago, that you seemed to be wherever I needed you to be?" Aragorn asked him at the beginning of the quest.
Legolas stood by the door of the armory, watching the adan as he outfitted himself with his warrior's garb. Aragorn did not know he was there, just watching. His thoughts must have been running very deeply.
"You're in good company," he had promised Estel at the face of all his doubts.
Guiltily, he thought about how his heart betrayed his friend at this instant where defeat felt as if it was breathing down his neck. His observations were admittedly realistic; he was not so much of a fool to want to change his own mind about their impending fatalities. But Estel would not have been blind to that either. He did not needed it voiced and declared, least of all from a friend, from one who vowed to stand next to him.
Legolas stepped forward quietly, and picked up Aragorn's sword and contritely handed it to him.
Your sword, he thought, That which you always keep reassuringly by your side, that which you draw and depend upon at the first sign of danger. Let me be as your sword is to you…
"We have trusted you this far," the elf said, "You have not lead us astray. Forgive me. I was wrong to despair."
Aragorn favored him with a warming smile. ~There is nothing to forgive, Legolas.~
* * *
The night was long and the attack was fierce, giving more than enough occasions for more unbearable despair, and more fervent desire for forgiveness…
~Legolas, bring him down!~
The elf had heard the constrained panic of Aragorn, and his keen eyes did not have to strain to find the heavily-armed uruk-hai bearing an ominous torch running towards the wall of the fortress...
The first arrow flew from his hand and met its mark, sharp and clean. It broke the stride of the orc for a breath, but it regained its heavy footing and continued onwards, to Legolas's great dismay. Aragorn had seen this as well.
~Kill him!~ hollered the man, his voice mirroring the elf's unspoken but greatly mounting frustration, ~Kill him!~
The second arrow flew. True to its wielder, it met its mark once again, but the orc staggered and still moved forward.
Brows furrowed and eyes widened in disbelief and sudden anger and fear, Legolas leveled his bow for a third effort.
But the arrow didn't fly a third time. It fell to the grounds below limply, a moment after the elf heard the resounding thwok! of an enemy's arrow finding the flesh between his heart and shoulder. Why hadn't he thought about such a thing? Of course the enemy would protect its own interests...
He took a breath and took another arrow from his quiver, blinked to clear his vision, and aimed at the orc with the torch a fourth time. He will deal with the others later...
He couldn't stifle the quiet cry that escaped his mouth when another arrow found him, its force tearing through armor and skin. It threw him back by a step, and his knees buckled beneath him.
He shook his head and tried to regain his feet. There was time still, to stop the orc who had threatened the fortress so, and who had stood up to his twin arrows. There was always time for the quick hands of an elf…
He braced himself against the floor, pushed himself up to his shaking feet, and painfully raised his bow to his target, whom he had found just in time to see the mad orc jump to its death towards a bomb that took down a sizeable part of the outer wall.
The world seemed to burst and shatter with the force of the assault and the severity of his failure. Walls, and rocks, and people flew over his head.
The outermost wall of the massive fortress crumbled and fell all around him. Their chances were poor to begin with, and this breach virtually guaranteed their failure.
The deafening roar of the blast drowned the clamor of battle as the ground shook with its great force. Legolas slid to the floor, shielding his head from the rain of rocks and boulders, his back to the low wall as he waited for the blast and succeeding tremors to still. He used the moment to catch his breath, and take stock of himself.
I failed...
I'm so sorry, he thought miserably, dust and despair stinging his eyes, I'm so sorry…
He shook his head. There was time for such thoughts, later. There was always time for the long life of the elf...
Provided he survived this forsaken battle.
He leveled his eyes on the two arrows sticking out of his body, near his left shoulder. The keep, after his failure, is now more open to the vicious attackers. If he desired to be more useful, he must make quick work of it.
Gritting his teeth, he grabbed the tail of one of the arrows and pulled it out swiftly. His vision swam, and he hissed as he caught his breath. Bracing himself for the next pull, he surveyed his miserable surroundings.
The battle continued around him, orcs and elves and men stumbling and working through a ground that was littered with the dead, their eyes wide and unseeing. The blast created a temporary respite; the enemy was regrouping to invade the fortress by the breach it created, and the humans and elves (and dwarf!) struggled to reclaim their wits about this new and profoundly lethal problem.
Here amongst the bodies of the dead, his eyes glazed by pain and an arrow sticking out of his body, no one seemed to heed him at all. But Legolas of Mirkwood was not one of the dead, not yet.
His hand shaking, he put the first arrow he had taken from his body into his quiver-- he might need it, later. The next he gripped tightly and pulled out, gingerly this time for the manner by which he had removed the first did not agree with him.
He caught his breath slowly, and steadily gained his feet. This battle is not over for Legolas Greenleaf. He would not allow it to be so. The outer wall had fallen. The nightmare will only get worse. He was needed more, now.
Grabbing a fallen orc-shield, he laid it on the floor and rode it down the steep flight of stairs. Bow in hand, eyes sharp, will strong... he dove into the fray.
* * *
As surely as the sun shone brighter surrounded by the darkness, these many occasions for despair gave rise to greater occasions for redemption.
Aragorn's legendary luck held for the night and straight into the morning toward a definitive victory. As Rohan settled its wits about them, Legolas of Mirkwood was one of the first to stand before the breached Deeping Wall, contemplating his perceived failure.
Aragorn came up beside him and stood quietly for awhile, waiting for the elf's thoughts to calm and for him to say the first words.
"I'm not having a very good day," Legolas commented, struggling with a light tone.
"It's not your fault," Aragorn told him evenly, "Do not be foolish. How are your wounds?"
"They heal," Legolas replied, morosely thinking that the pain he still felt was almost comforting, as if it was punishment deserving of his failure.
"Your luck held," he told the adan with a slight smile.
"Are you still surprised?" Aragorn asked him, winking.
Legolas shook his head in sham dismay, and made a move towards helping a group of Rohan soldiers who were making quick work of temporary repairs.
Aragorn put a hand upon his shoulder. "It's not your fault. You do not have to punish yourself, or struggle desperately to make up for what you think you failed to do."
"It's not that," Legolas lied, "The breach must be blocked in case of another attack."
Aragorn rolled his eyes, easily seeing through the pretensions. "Come. Let's greet Gandalf."
"You're just trying to distract me," Legolas said, wrinkling his nose and seeing through this pretension.
"Does this mean we're both terrible liars?" Aragorn asked him, ushering him away.
"I wasn't lying," Legolas said evenly, "Although you apparently just admitted."
Aragorn thought about what to say to that. He didn't bother, after a moment. He had the elf precisely where he wanted him; away from the exertion that he desperately wanted to immerse himself in. Aragorn didn't bother with a retort to the admittedly clever barb; he could always live with a silent victory. He led Legolas away from the ruins and towards the Keep.
"I hate failing you," Legolas said suddenly as they walked.
"You hate failing, period," Aragorn teased, chuckling.
TO BE CONTINUED…
THANKS TO ALL WHO READ!!!
THANKS ESP. TO MY REVIEWERS: earthdanser, silvertongue, miss attitude, kirsten, gissela, gollum's fish, sodalite, tychen, gozilla, amy, amthramiel, grumpy, stoneage woman, knight Kenobi of eryn lasgalen, elessar*lover, barbara kennedy, LOTRfaith, starlit hope, platy and dragonfly.
To silvertongue: don't worry about it, haha. I'm just so grateful that people actually read my stuff to begin with!!! :)
To miss attitude: oh well :) i can assure you that after this flashback, there's just one more :)
To kirsten: don't regret not discovering me sooner, haha, because hopefully I'd have more to offer :)
To tychen: oh wow, am I emotionally disturbed for writing something like this? haha. I know what you mean though. I'm still smarting from the dallas mavericks loss yesterday and I keep thinking if I just didn't watch the end maybe I can pretend they won, haha :)
To stoneage woman: oh they're actually very intense and nice eyes which I like, haha :) I just had the elf call them spiteful because he did not feel wanted or welcome :)
To platy: you always make me smile :) I want to thank you for the creativity you infuse in your reviews. I suppose it's effortless for you to be humorous but I keep thinking if it were me I'd have to think really very hard about it :) thank you :)
SOME IMPORTANT NOTES:
The bulk of this chapter is from a fic of mine called "Battles." It was the first LOTR fic I ever wrote. As I said before, I'm just a big sucker for movie gap-fillers. I was writing an all original one for this chapter, but I remembered "Battles" and then I just didn't feel at all satisfied with what I was doing. So I cut up that entire part and put in a clip from battles instead, which I thought would fit this tale. The clip is, however, not the entirety of "Battles" and if you are intrigued, go ahead and look it up although you must be warned that it was my first LOTR post and not as polished as those that followed it. I posted two chapters at the same time (this and the one that immediately follows it), so I hope you read both :) I did this precisely because of note#1; I know that people wait for fic updates, and check often. I don't want anyone who ever waited for my updates to feel cheated because they've read most of the new post before (for those who've read "Battles"). So I hope you guys enjoy Chapters 15 and 16 :) I'm almost done with this fic!!! I'm midway through writing chapter 20, the very last part :) so I guess I'll see you guys at the next few posts!!! :)