Author's note: After having received several reviews from people who do not
like Arwen/Aragorn romance, I have decided to alter my planned plot quite a
bit. Arwen will still have a role, but it will be very different to what I
first anticipated. This will also make this story more AU, but I suppose
this does not matter much – after all I am just borrowing Tolkien's
characters anyway. I will also alter the summary and introduction to the
story to reflect these changes (7/03/04).
So, Geshwen, Yre and eep, there is no need to 'bail out'. I am glad you are enjoying my story so far!
And thanks again to everyone for the reviews, please keep on commenting, it makes a huge difference.
Chapter 6 – To make a choice
They needed to find shelter to stop, clean and bandage their wounds and have some rest. It had also started raining hard. Halbarad quickly surveyed his party. Tharamir could not walk, this would have to be addressed immediately, and Estel had a large but superficial cut in his arm, this needed bandaging soon to prevent too much blood loss.
"Legolas, bind Estel's arm so that he does not lose any more blood. Elladan, Elrohir, help me with Tharamir's foot, you are healer-trained and should be able to tell whether this is strained or broken."
Legolas looked around for their packs. He could not see them immediately amongst the remainder of the battle. Rather than searching and losing more time, he quickly took of his cloak, outer tunic and undershirt, and slipped his outer garments back on again.
Estel looked at him with astonishment. "What are you doing?"
"You are losing too much blood – this cut is not serious but it bleeds freely." Whilst saying this, the young elf cut his relatively clean undershirt into strips that he used to bind Estel's arm.
"We will have to see to this properly later. It needs some healing herbs to prevent infection, and my shirt is none to clean. But it is the best I can offer at the moment."
Estel winced when Legolas bound his arm. He also looked at his partner. "I have just seen that you have some pretty bad bruises yourself. I would like to look at your ribs later on. And your face does not look well at all."
Legolas sighed. It had been inevitable for Estel to see the bruises on his body, and, as he admitted himself, both his forehead and his right upper body hurt quite badly. He had been fighting a large orc with a club-like weapon that had succeeded in hitting him on the forehead. Slightly dazed by the impact, Legolas had not reacted fast enough and the orc had managed to hit him again, this time catching the prince in the ribs, before he managed to kill it. Legolas berated himself for this failure; no orc should get close enough to cause him injury.
Halbarad interrupted. "Elladan says that Tharamir's foot is broken. He has temporarily bound it up, but Tharamir will not be able to walk. We will have to build a stretcher and get way from here. Evil lingers here."
Quickly the twins found two straight branches and used Elrohir's cloak to make a makeshift stretcher. Looking slightly dubious, Tharamir was settled into it, and the small party of elves and men left the battlefield. The elven material held, and Elladan and Elrohir took up the stretcher. The group pressed on through the night. Halbarad knew of some caves several hours march away which provide sufficient shelter for a day or two.
After a while, Legolas noticed that Estel began to stumble more and more often. He grew concerned, knowing that his partner had lost quite a lot of blood, and they had not stopped to eat or drink. He should have had something to drink at least. For his own part, the pain from the bruise on his head had turned into a pounding general headache that left him dizzy and nauseated. However, he had no intention of holding up their party or even to mention how bad he felt. Halbarad was leading and scouting at the same time, the twins, both sporting their own collection of scrapes and bruises, carried the stretcher, and Estel was clearly struggling to simply carry on.
"Estel? Are you alright?"
The concern in Legolas' voice both touched and irritated Estel. He was utterly exhausted, and had focused so much at putting one foot in front of the other that he had not paid much attention to anyone else. Now he looked at Legolas and was shocked to see how bad the young prince looked. The right side of his forehead and right cheekbone were now purple, the eye almost swollen shut, and the other eye's pupil hugely dilated.
Estel just opened his mouth for an answer, when Legolas turned to the side and emptied his stomach violently. Estel quickly stood behind him, holding the elf's shoulders. This could not be hidden from the remainder of the party, everyone stopped. Elladan and Elrohir sat down the stretcher and came to look at Legolas. Elladan took one look at their friend and said: "You were hit hard on the head, Legolas. You need rest."
Elrohir added, looking at Estel: "He is not in much better shape. Halbarad, we cannot make it to these caves, it is too far. The stretcher slows us down, and both Estel and Legolas look as if they are ready to collapse any moment. We must take whatever shelter we can find."
Halbarad nodded, he could see for himself that neither Legolas nor Estel would be able to carry on much longer. He had underestimated the severity of their injuries. The twins quickly scouted the surrounding area, and reported back that they found a possible stopping place. It was not ideal since it did not provide much shelter, and they needed to light a fire. After some discussion, they decided to take the risk and light a small blaze under a small overhang of rock to warm up some water to clean their wounds and to heat some food. Once Tharamir was settled as comfortable as possible against the rocks, Elldan turned to Legolas and Estel.
"Legolas, you must lay down and try to get some rest. I would not recommend that you try to eat, your head needs rest, and the headache that I have no doubt you have, will keep you from retaining your food. Rest."
Somewhat to his surprise, Legolas took his bedroll without protest and moved it next to Tharamir. *He must feel pretty bad to give in like this,* Elrohir thought with growing concern. Then turning to his younger brother, he said:" You must eat and drink, and then get some rest to allow your body to recover from the blood loss."
"Will Legolas be alright?"
"Of course. But he needs rest. You know as well as I do what a blow on the head does. There is only one cure – rest."
Halbarad and Elrohir had managed to light a small fire and heat up some water. Most of their equipment had been lost in the battle with the orcs. They had been able to rescue two blankets, their cooking utensils, and a small quantity of food. Almost all their healing herbs and bandages had gone as well as most of their food and water. Halbarad looked at the meagre stores and sighed. The most important thing to do was to clean wounds, and hope that cleaning them would be enough to starve off any infection. For the elves that was almost certainly the case, and none of them had obtained a serious open wound. Halbarad and Tharamir had scratches and bruises which were painful but inconsequential, but Estel's wound needed cleaning and stitches. He just hoped that the boy had enough elven blood to reduce the effects of any infection that might set in.
"Elladan, are you going to see to my arm?" Despite his exhaustion, Estel knew well enough what was in store for him – without their packs, they had no pain numbing herbs to use.
"I am sorry, little brother, you know what needs to be done. I want you to eat and drink, and then I will knock you out. Otherwise the stitches will be very painful, and we cannot afford any screams. And there is no need to be a hero. Do you trust me?"
Estel hesitated. This was not going to be pleasant. But he did trust Elladan, with every fibre of his being. He nodded. "Of course I do."
"Eat now. You will need the strength."
Legolas was fast asleep with his eyes closed, a fact that concerned Estel.
They shared their meagre supplies and then Elladan set to working on Estel's arm. As promised, with a swift blow to the neck, he knocked his foster brother out. He then quickly removed the makeshift bandage, cleaned the wound and stitched the ragged edges together. He then used a clean bandage to cover the wound. They had been fortunate in that both twins carried a small pouch on their belts which contained some basic non-herbal medicinal supplies, including threat and needle suitable for stitching wounds, and a small amount of bandages. The combined contents of both pouches were just enough to cover Estel's wound.
Elladan hoped that Estel would wake up soon. He had not knocked him hard, not wanting to hurt him more than necessary. In the meantime, he used the remaining hot water to clean everyone else's wounds. They were a week's travel from Bree, they could not afford any illness due to infection.
Halbarad gave in to his own tiredness and had just pulled his cloak over himself, when suddenly Elrohir looked up and said, "Listen!"
The others stopped what they were doing, and realised that the forest sounds had ceased. Bar the soft sounds of the falling rain, the forest had gone completely silent. The ever-present sounds of small birds and animals had stopped and the forest seemed to have been gripped by an unnatural, oppressive stillness.
And then they saw the eyes. Many of them, glowing, yellow orbs all around them in the gathering darkness. Wolves, and a lot of them!
Quickly, Halbarad threw more kindling into the fire. The flames shot up, and the eyes momentarily retreated.
"Get Legolas and Estel up. They will have to fight, we are outnumbered badly."
Elladan shook Estel, who immediately came around. "Wolves, you must get up and fight."
Estel realised immediately the severity of their situation and got up. He felt better than he thought he would, although his arm throbbed mercilessly. He grabbed his bow and belted his sword. For a brief instant, Elladan saw the noble warrior his brother was going to be many years later.
Elrohir woke Legolas. "Legolas, I am sorry, but we are under attack and we need you."
Legolas slowly focused his eyes and took in what Elrohir had said. He then got up quickly – or rather tried to get up quickly and doubled over in another fit of dizziness and nausea. Elrohir looked at him with concern, and helped him to stand. Legolas was not fit to fight – but they had no choice, and Tharamir could not stand. Legolas managed to stand. Elrohir quickly helped him to put on his quiver and ready his bow.
All of these preparations had only taken a few moments, and the wolves were yet kept away by the highly blazing fire. The travel companions formed a protective circle around Tharmir's position. Soon the additional kindling had burned.
And then, howling and snarling, the wolves attacked. It was a large pack, and the rangers and elves were hard pushed.
The first few wolves were easily dispatched. The bows sang, and several of the most veracious beasts were killed before they could come near enough to do damage. Legolas' aim was a long way from his normally expert performance, but he still managed to kill most of the wolves he targeted. A few moments later the remainder of the wolves had come close enough to attack, and the fight deteriorated into close combat. For Estel and Legolas, the adrenaline rush of the battle made them forget their wounds and discomfort. Everyone put their swords or knifes to good use, but it was dark and there seemed to be dark snarling shapes hurling themselves everywhere.
After what appeared to be an endless amount of time, the number of wolves finally diminished. Eventually, with a final howl of the leader, the remainder of the pack fled. But victory had not been without a price. Everyone in the scouting party bar Tharamir had sustained additional injuries of some kind, none of them serious, but all bothersome.
Halbarad had a vicious looking bite wound in his left arm, Legolas had deep scratches on his arms, and Elladan had a superficial bite wound in his right leg. Elrohir had a long scratch down the side of his cheek, where claws had ripped, and Estel's chest had been scratched deeply.
In the quite after the battle, they looked at each other, exhausted and weary beyond belief. They had nothing left to treat their wounds.
Legolas had simply sat where he stood, once the adrenaline rush had abated, he was not able to stand any longer. His head was pounding mercilessly, and it took all his concentration not to give in to his revolting insides. Estel did not look much better, and even the twins and Halbarad felt utterly exhausted. They also decided that they could not stay where they were, and needed to move on. Dawn was not far off and they needed to find a safe place to rest.
So Elladan and Elrohir took up Tharamir's stretcher again, Halbarad took the lead and Estel and Legolas supported each other. Legolas was leaning on Estel's 'good' arm, being more dragged than supported by the young man. All six companions would remember this night with a shudder. Weary, injured and exhausted almost beyond the point of collapse, they struggled way from the second battle of the night. They kept moving through the rest of the night. At first light, Halbarad called a stop. They had found the caves they had been looking for earlier.
Halbarad quickly led them to the first of the caves. It was not so much a cave as a shallow indent in the maintain side, but sufficiently deep for all of them to be sheltered from the rain and for a fire not to be immediately visible from the outside. A line of bushes screened the front opening, so that they should be protected from prying eyes.
Halbarad volunteered for the first watch. No one argued, and without further comment everyone flopped down on the floor. The twins huddled together under one of the remaining blankets, Tharamir used his stretcher - Elrohir's cloak - as a blanket, Legolas and Estel curled up together under the last blanket. Everyone went to sleep instantly.
Halbarad was as exhausted as the rest of the party, but he did not believe that he would be able to sleep. He felt incredibly guilty about the events of the night. He was the group's leader, he should have been able to prevent this disastrous turn of events. Although he was not quite sure what he could or should have done differently. He counted himself lucky, it would not have done to lose one of Lord Elrond's sons or King Thandruil's son on a simple scouting mission.
TBC – Please review! Your reviews make my day and encourage me to carry on.
So, Geshwen, Yre and eep, there is no need to 'bail out'. I am glad you are enjoying my story so far!
And thanks again to everyone for the reviews, please keep on commenting, it makes a huge difference.
Chapter 6 – To make a choice
They needed to find shelter to stop, clean and bandage their wounds and have some rest. It had also started raining hard. Halbarad quickly surveyed his party. Tharamir could not walk, this would have to be addressed immediately, and Estel had a large but superficial cut in his arm, this needed bandaging soon to prevent too much blood loss.
"Legolas, bind Estel's arm so that he does not lose any more blood. Elladan, Elrohir, help me with Tharamir's foot, you are healer-trained and should be able to tell whether this is strained or broken."
Legolas looked around for their packs. He could not see them immediately amongst the remainder of the battle. Rather than searching and losing more time, he quickly took of his cloak, outer tunic and undershirt, and slipped his outer garments back on again.
Estel looked at him with astonishment. "What are you doing?"
"You are losing too much blood – this cut is not serious but it bleeds freely." Whilst saying this, the young elf cut his relatively clean undershirt into strips that he used to bind Estel's arm.
"We will have to see to this properly later. It needs some healing herbs to prevent infection, and my shirt is none to clean. But it is the best I can offer at the moment."
Estel winced when Legolas bound his arm. He also looked at his partner. "I have just seen that you have some pretty bad bruises yourself. I would like to look at your ribs later on. And your face does not look well at all."
Legolas sighed. It had been inevitable for Estel to see the bruises on his body, and, as he admitted himself, both his forehead and his right upper body hurt quite badly. He had been fighting a large orc with a club-like weapon that had succeeded in hitting him on the forehead. Slightly dazed by the impact, Legolas had not reacted fast enough and the orc had managed to hit him again, this time catching the prince in the ribs, before he managed to kill it. Legolas berated himself for this failure; no orc should get close enough to cause him injury.
Halbarad interrupted. "Elladan says that Tharamir's foot is broken. He has temporarily bound it up, but Tharamir will not be able to walk. We will have to build a stretcher and get way from here. Evil lingers here."
Quickly the twins found two straight branches and used Elrohir's cloak to make a makeshift stretcher. Looking slightly dubious, Tharamir was settled into it, and the small party of elves and men left the battlefield. The elven material held, and Elladan and Elrohir took up the stretcher. The group pressed on through the night. Halbarad knew of some caves several hours march away which provide sufficient shelter for a day or two.
After a while, Legolas noticed that Estel began to stumble more and more often. He grew concerned, knowing that his partner had lost quite a lot of blood, and they had not stopped to eat or drink. He should have had something to drink at least. For his own part, the pain from the bruise on his head had turned into a pounding general headache that left him dizzy and nauseated. However, he had no intention of holding up their party or even to mention how bad he felt. Halbarad was leading and scouting at the same time, the twins, both sporting their own collection of scrapes and bruises, carried the stretcher, and Estel was clearly struggling to simply carry on.
"Estel? Are you alright?"
The concern in Legolas' voice both touched and irritated Estel. He was utterly exhausted, and had focused so much at putting one foot in front of the other that he had not paid much attention to anyone else. Now he looked at Legolas and was shocked to see how bad the young prince looked. The right side of his forehead and right cheekbone were now purple, the eye almost swollen shut, and the other eye's pupil hugely dilated.
Estel just opened his mouth for an answer, when Legolas turned to the side and emptied his stomach violently. Estel quickly stood behind him, holding the elf's shoulders. This could not be hidden from the remainder of the party, everyone stopped. Elladan and Elrohir sat down the stretcher and came to look at Legolas. Elladan took one look at their friend and said: "You were hit hard on the head, Legolas. You need rest."
Elrohir added, looking at Estel: "He is not in much better shape. Halbarad, we cannot make it to these caves, it is too far. The stretcher slows us down, and both Estel and Legolas look as if they are ready to collapse any moment. We must take whatever shelter we can find."
Halbarad nodded, he could see for himself that neither Legolas nor Estel would be able to carry on much longer. He had underestimated the severity of their injuries. The twins quickly scouted the surrounding area, and reported back that they found a possible stopping place. It was not ideal since it did not provide much shelter, and they needed to light a fire. After some discussion, they decided to take the risk and light a small blaze under a small overhang of rock to warm up some water to clean their wounds and to heat some food. Once Tharamir was settled as comfortable as possible against the rocks, Elldan turned to Legolas and Estel.
"Legolas, you must lay down and try to get some rest. I would not recommend that you try to eat, your head needs rest, and the headache that I have no doubt you have, will keep you from retaining your food. Rest."
Somewhat to his surprise, Legolas took his bedroll without protest and moved it next to Tharamir. *He must feel pretty bad to give in like this,* Elrohir thought with growing concern. Then turning to his younger brother, he said:" You must eat and drink, and then get some rest to allow your body to recover from the blood loss."
"Will Legolas be alright?"
"Of course. But he needs rest. You know as well as I do what a blow on the head does. There is only one cure – rest."
Halbarad and Elrohir had managed to light a small fire and heat up some water. Most of their equipment had been lost in the battle with the orcs. They had been able to rescue two blankets, their cooking utensils, and a small quantity of food. Almost all their healing herbs and bandages had gone as well as most of their food and water. Halbarad looked at the meagre stores and sighed. The most important thing to do was to clean wounds, and hope that cleaning them would be enough to starve off any infection. For the elves that was almost certainly the case, and none of them had obtained a serious open wound. Halbarad and Tharamir had scratches and bruises which were painful but inconsequential, but Estel's wound needed cleaning and stitches. He just hoped that the boy had enough elven blood to reduce the effects of any infection that might set in.
"Elladan, are you going to see to my arm?" Despite his exhaustion, Estel knew well enough what was in store for him – without their packs, they had no pain numbing herbs to use.
"I am sorry, little brother, you know what needs to be done. I want you to eat and drink, and then I will knock you out. Otherwise the stitches will be very painful, and we cannot afford any screams. And there is no need to be a hero. Do you trust me?"
Estel hesitated. This was not going to be pleasant. But he did trust Elladan, with every fibre of his being. He nodded. "Of course I do."
"Eat now. You will need the strength."
Legolas was fast asleep with his eyes closed, a fact that concerned Estel.
They shared their meagre supplies and then Elladan set to working on Estel's arm. As promised, with a swift blow to the neck, he knocked his foster brother out. He then quickly removed the makeshift bandage, cleaned the wound and stitched the ragged edges together. He then used a clean bandage to cover the wound. They had been fortunate in that both twins carried a small pouch on their belts which contained some basic non-herbal medicinal supplies, including threat and needle suitable for stitching wounds, and a small amount of bandages. The combined contents of both pouches were just enough to cover Estel's wound.
Elladan hoped that Estel would wake up soon. He had not knocked him hard, not wanting to hurt him more than necessary. In the meantime, he used the remaining hot water to clean everyone else's wounds. They were a week's travel from Bree, they could not afford any illness due to infection.
Halbarad gave in to his own tiredness and had just pulled his cloak over himself, when suddenly Elrohir looked up and said, "Listen!"
The others stopped what they were doing, and realised that the forest sounds had ceased. Bar the soft sounds of the falling rain, the forest had gone completely silent. The ever-present sounds of small birds and animals had stopped and the forest seemed to have been gripped by an unnatural, oppressive stillness.
And then they saw the eyes. Many of them, glowing, yellow orbs all around them in the gathering darkness. Wolves, and a lot of them!
Quickly, Halbarad threw more kindling into the fire. The flames shot up, and the eyes momentarily retreated.
"Get Legolas and Estel up. They will have to fight, we are outnumbered badly."
Elladan shook Estel, who immediately came around. "Wolves, you must get up and fight."
Estel realised immediately the severity of their situation and got up. He felt better than he thought he would, although his arm throbbed mercilessly. He grabbed his bow and belted his sword. For a brief instant, Elladan saw the noble warrior his brother was going to be many years later.
Elrohir woke Legolas. "Legolas, I am sorry, but we are under attack and we need you."
Legolas slowly focused his eyes and took in what Elrohir had said. He then got up quickly – or rather tried to get up quickly and doubled over in another fit of dizziness and nausea. Elrohir looked at him with concern, and helped him to stand. Legolas was not fit to fight – but they had no choice, and Tharamir could not stand. Legolas managed to stand. Elrohir quickly helped him to put on his quiver and ready his bow.
All of these preparations had only taken a few moments, and the wolves were yet kept away by the highly blazing fire. The travel companions formed a protective circle around Tharmir's position. Soon the additional kindling had burned.
And then, howling and snarling, the wolves attacked. It was a large pack, and the rangers and elves were hard pushed.
The first few wolves were easily dispatched. The bows sang, and several of the most veracious beasts were killed before they could come near enough to do damage. Legolas' aim was a long way from his normally expert performance, but he still managed to kill most of the wolves he targeted. A few moments later the remainder of the wolves had come close enough to attack, and the fight deteriorated into close combat. For Estel and Legolas, the adrenaline rush of the battle made them forget their wounds and discomfort. Everyone put their swords or knifes to good use, but it was dark and there seemed to be dark snarling shapes hurling themselves everywhere.
After what appeared to be an endless amount of time, the number of wolves finally diminished. Eventually, with a final howl of the leader, the remainder of the pack fled. But victory had not been without a price. Everyone in the scouting party bar Tharamir had sustained additional injuries of some kind, none of them serious, but all bothersome.
Halbarad had a vicious looking bite wound in his left arm, Legolas had deep scratches on his arms, and Elladan had a superficial bite wound in his right leg. Elrohir had a long scratch down the side of his cheek, where claws had ripped, and Estel's chest had been scratched deeply.
In the quite after the battle, they looked at each other, exhausted and weary beyond belief. They had nothing left to treat their wounds.
Legolas had simply sat where he stood, once the adrenaline rush had abated, he was not able to stand any longer. His head was pounding mercilessly, and it took all his concentration not to give in to his revolting insides. Estel did not look much better, and even the twins and Halbarad felt utterly exhausted. They also decided that they could not stay where they were, and needed to move on. Dawn was not far off and they needed to find a safe place to rest.
So Elladan and Elrohir took up Tharamir's stretcher again, Halbarad took the lead and Estel and Legolas supported each other. Legolas was leaning on Estel's 'good' arm, being more dragged than supported by the young man. All six companions would remember this night with a shudder. Weary, injured and exhausted almost beyond the point of collapse, they struggled way from the second battle of the night. They kept moving through the rest of the night. At first light, Halbarad called a stop. They had found the caves they had been looking for earlier.
Halbarad quickly led them to the first of the caves. It was not so much a cave as a shallow indent in the maintain side, but sufficiently deep for all of them to be sheltered from the rain and for a fire not to be immediately visible from the outside. A line of bushes screened the front opening, so that they should be protected from prying eyes.
Halbarad volunteered for the first watch. No one argued, and without further comment everyone flopped down on the floor. The twins huddled together under one of the remaining blankets, Tharamir used his stretcher - Elrohir's cloak - as a blanket, Legolas and Estel curled up together under the last blanket. Everyone went to sleep instantly.
Halbarad was as exhausted as the rest of the party, but he did not believe that he would be able to sleep. He felt incredibly guilty about the events of the night. He was the group's leader, he should have been able to prevent this disastrous turn of events. Although he was not quite sure what he could or should have done differently. He counted himself lucky, it would not have done to lose one of Lord Elrond's sons or King Thandruil's son on a simple scouting mission.
TBC – Please review! Your reviews make my day and encourage me to carry on.