~*~Chapter 14~*~
"But!" the human continued, "you were delusional and as a healer you would know the consequences of all that."
Elrond sighed, "I know this well… but…"
Aragorn immediately cut him off, "You continue with this and I'll tell them all the story the twins told me when I was younger."
Elrond frowned slightly, wondering what his youngest was speaking of.
"You know… the one that happened when they were young… when you were out helping the twins with their archery skills…"
The elf-lords eyes widened, "Estel!" he hissed, "I did now know they told you that!"
Aragorn smirked, thinking, - I have now something over my father and I've gotten the twins is trouble…- his smirk grew.
Elrond mumbled something before laying back and ignoring the human.
Aragorn sighed and looked up, wondering how much longer he was going to have to stay under here.
Legolas saw his chance and poked the man on the top of the head, "That's for poking me the entire way here!"
Elrond glanced at his son, one eyebrow raised, "And he's always saying he's an adult…"
Aragorn hissed under his breath, glaring at the blond archer.
Legolas just smirked.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Aragorn was grinning, it was finally dark out and the blanket had been taken off. The three of them all wore their elvish cloaks to keep them better hidden.
They had been sitting and whaching the fireworks for a while now, all of them fully enjoying the display.
Legolas and Elrond stiffened slightly and Aragorn gave them a questioning look before he paused, hearing it as well, a crackling sound, but not the sound the fireworks were giving.
Aragorn looked wide-eyed over at the two elves before silently hoping over the side of the cart and moving it the direction the sound came from. Elrond quickly followed him with a slight scowl and of course Legolas would not be left behind.
The human gulped slightly, something had set the trees on fire. He figured one of the wizard's fireworks had gone off course and no one had noticed.
The flames were spreading quickly and Aragorn glanced at his father before looking over to Gandalf.
Elrond came to a stop in front of the fire before turning, "I will try to calm this, one of you get Mithrandir."
Aragorn had already been moving towards the wizard so Legolas simply hung back, nearly hopping as the glanced worriedly between the other three.
Everything froze when the tall figure ran silently into the crowd of hobbits. Gandalf spun around and gave the man a glare but it quickly disappeared when he saw the glow in the background.
Aragorn glanced down, the hood of his cloak hiding his face, at the small hobbit-child who had come up and pulled slightly on his cloak.
Aragorn looked to the wizard, "Lle noro dari i-bregedur an ada." // You go stop the fire with dad. //
The wizard smiled slightly at the human, from any other he would have been annoyed with one telling him what to do… but him as the reluctant future king, unknowingly giving orders and looking much the king he would be… the wizard made an exception and moved quickly to the fast growing inferno.
The large group of hobbit stared at him in fear. As the human's kingly stature melted away they calmed though they were still uncomfortable in his presence.
The small hobbit looked up at him, frozen in his place.
Aragorn looked at him and smiled, "Well met young one," he said quietly, leaving the elvish accent in his voice to hide the fact that he was human.
The small being whimpered in obvious fear.
Aragorn smiled slightly, "Calm yourself, my friend is going to go and put out a fire. He will be back in a while. Until then, I will need all your help," he spoke loud enough for all to hear.
They knew not why but they all found themselves willing to comply with this hidden being. Within moments they were all back with buckets of water.
Aragorn took one of the buckets and instructed the hobbit in what they were to do, simply wet the dried grass with it so the fire would slow when or if it got that far. Despite the time of year it was quite dry.
By the time they had the ground between them and the fire wetted, the fire was slowing.
The hobbits were even more freaked out when they found that there were two more of the big folk nearby.
Aragorn started as he realized that the small hobbit that had been hanging around him for some reason had left and his eyes darted around quickly, searching for him.
Terrian noticed a dark spot against a part of the flames; which were separated from the rest of the blaze. He tugged frantically on the humans cloak and pointed in that direction. Aragorn glanced in that direction and hissed; the flames were surrounding the dark object, which he barely recognized as the one that had been by him the whole time.
Without a second thought he leapt forward, Terrian to scared to get any closer to the flames.
Elrond yelled at him when he noticed what he was doing but was unable to go, as he was busy with helping keep the flames back.
Legolas, knowing he was of no use here, gave the elf-lord a glance before racing through the smoke to find the human who had foolishly run into the midst of the flames.
Elrond hissed at him as well… knowing full well that Thranduil would kill him if anything happened to his son and he couldn't bear it if anything happened to him either.
Aragorn found after but a moment that he was unable to see, he brought a corner of his cloak up to his face to cover his mouth and nose, now happy that it had gotten wet a while ago. He moved carefully but quickly through the flames and smoke.
The smoke burned his eyes as though someone had just dumped a handful of salt into each of them.
Legolas ran as quickly as his feet would carry him. His elven eyes stinging harshly but he ignored it; bring his cloak around his face.
Elrond continued to push back the flames, forcing his mind to concentrate on the task at hand even though it screamed for him to go after his son and the Mirkwood prince.
Gandalf noticed the conflict in the elf's watering eyes; the elf had tears running down his face although they were only there because of the stinging.
Terrian, now that the man had gone, turned and pushed the hobbits to get more water, extremely surprised when they obeyed immediately, each and every one of them willing to do anything to save their homeland.
Bilbo stood next to the younger hobbit and he helped him make sure everyone heard what he or she was to do. He glanced in the elf and wizards direction before looking worriedly in the direction of his younger friend and the blond archer.
Surely being in there this long couldn't be good.
Aragorn was having trouble breathing by now but he was determined not to give up. His eyes were near useless. He could swear from the darkness he had been blinded. He had been in here too long and he knew it. He yelped as he tripped over something, catching himself barely on weakened arms and turning, he picked up the bundle he knew to be the young hobbit and stood.
Legolas could see a slight outline a little ways away from him. He nearly sighed in relief.
His relief didn't last long for a couple seconds later the being fell over not to rise.
He rushed forward and lifted the man, the hobbit with him. He winced somewhat under the weight before taking off in the direction he had come from.
Elrond looked up when he noticed the form running towards the hobbits, his fear heightened when he noticed Legolas carrying his son.
Not again. Could that human not travel anywhere without injuring himself?
Gandalf looked in the direction the elf-lord was staring and sighed, not looking surprised in the least, "That human is going to get himself seriously hurt one of these days."
Elrond ignored the comment, to worried to reply.
"Go," the wizard said, "check him, I can handle this now, thank you for your help my friend."
Elrond shot his long-time friend a grateful smile before taking off towards him.
Legolas looked up when he noticed the Noldor running towards him.
"He was in there too long…" the Silvan murmured weakly.
"So were you," the older elf observed, "go to sleep."
Legolas looked ready to protest.
"I am going to make you something that will help get the smoke out of your lungs and you are to go to sleep," he repeated the command.
Legolas sighed and nodded, "Alright…"
Within half an hour Elrond had the tea made and Legolas was finishing it. In fact he was nearly asleep now.
He had managed to get his son to drink his as well, though it had taken a while.
With four hours, everyone was a ways away from the hobbit's homes and were sleeping, already headed back to Rivendell.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Legolas woke the next morning with his chest and eyes still burning some… his chest more so. He yawned and glanced around, noticing that everyone was up except his human friend.
He stood and walked over to the human and glanced over him, he had many burns though none were bad. They would still bug him for a while to come. What startled him the most was the deep scar that stretched down from his left shoulder to disappear under his pants by his right hip.
His tunic and undershirt had been removed since they were burnt and his father had changed his pants while Legolas slept the night before. He watched as the human shifted, waking, getting ready to lecture him about hiding wounds like that from their knowledge.
Aragorn's eyes opened slowly, though the elf was confused when they stared blankly ahead. The human shifted uncomfortably and blinked a couple times, a deep frown appearing on his face, which quickly turned to fear when he realized something, he couldn't see. His eyes were open and he could not see and inch in front of his face.
He'd gone blind.
A/N
Elven Kitten: Muahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so evil!!!!!!!!!!
Aragorn: *Smacks E.K. upside the head* evil is an understatement!!!
Legolas: *Laughs and points*
A: Oh shut up…
L: Make me.
A: *Rolls eyes*
Elf Side: *Frantically* Onto replies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
mascara freak- Is okay! Really. Lol 'bout yer sis… at least she had her own… I gotta share ours with them… -.-… not fun… ^_^ I wont forget! And yes… your Pepsi Max… you seriously like my dragon don't you!? ^_^ lol yeah, more Legolas being worked in… figured it would look funny if all of a sudden there was a ton of him huh? ^_^
grumpy- Yes… that is true… it would be tough huh? Poor Estel… *Huggles him* And no, Elrond shouldn't feel guilty but I'm sure you would too if you shot someone… even if you weren't in the right state of mind. Glad you're looking forward to it! ^_^
Viresse0- Meh!!! *Huggles* I'm sorry!!!! Really!! My e-mail was all muddled at the time and it's possible I accidentally deleted your review along with all the doubles it had given me! *Huggles again* sorry!! ^_^ I wanna see Hidalgo too… *Pouts* you lucky being… ^_^ lol.
Kandice- Lol. Downright hilarious??? You know what? There's no point arguing with you… lol! ^_^ It's funny yes… in many ways… but I don't think the fact that Aragorn is hurt is funny… the rest is though! ^_^ lol.
SilverKnight7- Lol! Yes master! ^_^
vampy2k- So glad you love the story! ^_^ and sorry it took so long to post this chapter…
Tychen- Yes… and a very interesting little cat it was! ^_^ lol. Legolas will not get away with it! Although I can't say when it will happen…
leggylover03- Glad you loved the chapter! ^_^
Macilwen- *Grin* So what? You base your stories on things that have happened to you or your friends? ^_^ Wow… it's like… embarrassing two people at once when that certain friend reads the chapter! ^_^ … and… head-hangings? A little violent??? That's the understatement of the year! ^_^ lol.
Pippin the hobbit-elf- Yeah… it would be kinda cool! I'm in B.C… We went to the Kiwanis festival. And I'll keep your ideas in mind! ^_^ the archery thing has been used a bunch… but it's one of my favourite embarrassing stories I've seen yet! ^_^ Thank you so much for the complement! A brilliant imagination? ^_^ Thanks! ^_^
Hobbit Side: Well that's all! Thanks for coming and reviewing!
Gollum Side: *Mumble mumble*
E.K.: Oh shush. I'm sooooooo sorry for taking so long!!!! I'm trying to speed up but now that the festival is done we've started getting ready for marching and I have to memorize our piece. But hopefully all will go faster now!
E.S.: We don't intend to neglect our stories and along with the band we also have hit a bit of a writer's block…
E.K.: So I painted it pink and got over it! ^_^ all will get better now I hope… of course… not that I've gotten over the block I realize this is going to longer than I expected… It'll probably be 3 or more chapters… ^_^
E.S.: Well… we'd write more… but we're going to work on our story some more! ^_^
Namaarie!
~*~Elenmeoi~*~