Author's Note: Back again! The wait wasn't so terrible this time, perhaps
this is a sign of better updates to come. I'll keep this short then, love
ya'll for reviews and am not Tolkien.
Chapter 9
The confrontation with Gloin went more smoothly than Legolas had anticipated, even under the wrathful eye of Thror, and it was not long before the elf found himself seated beside Gimli's bed with a plate of hot food. Once again Legolas puzzled over the treatment he was receiving from the dwarves, but pushed it out of his mind when Gimli opened his eyes and saw Legolas.
Legolas leaned forward, putting down his plate, and laid his hand over the dwarf's forehead, smoothing down the rough brows.
"How are you now friend?" Legolas asked.
Gimli groaned and tried to sit up, but Legolas effortlessly held him down with his hand. Gimli grumbled when he saw that the elf was not going to allow him to sit up and relaxed.
"I am well enough to sit up," he said.
Legolas laughed. "I have no doubts of that, but if your father were to come in and saw that I allowed you to sit he would have my head."
Gimli's eyes darkened slightly at the mention of his father. "I have only heard bits of conversation in the hall about what is to be done with the 'accursed' elf. Tell me, how are you being treated?"
"Surprisingly well," Legolas answered, removing his hand and sitting back. "Some of your friends do not seem that enthusiastic about my stay here, but your father has provided nothing but the best care for me."
Gimli lips curved into a small smile. "See, I told you that old grudge was over. My father is more noble and open-minded than that. I am sure you will have a pleasant time here."
Legolas smiled back, but he did not bother to tell Gimli that the relationship between him and his father was a strained one, and that Legolas suspected Gloin's motives had everything to do with the old grudge he had against Thranduil. But there was no point in upsetting Gimli over it, besides, he was being treated well enough.
"Tell me Gimli," Legolas started, "have you remembered anything else about what happened?"
Gimli furrowed his brows and looked away from Legolas, staring at the stone walls as if they would give the answer. "I have been trying, and I do remember a bit more, but there are still large gaps in my memory. I still do not remember the spider attack at all, and our visit to Mirkwood is hazy, though I do remember that we went there now."
"Has anybody else been talking to you?" Legolas asked gently.
Gimli continued to stare at the wall. "My father has been at my side most of the time. He says much, but not about that. He tells me what has happened since I have been gone and that he was sad at the fact that I have been gone for so long. He wanted me here to help defend the Lonely Mountain and build up better defenses. He did not think that I would stay with the Fellowship for so long and he asked many questions about what it was like to be with them."
Gimli paused for a moment, and then continued. "Most of all he has questioned me on my relationship with you. He does not seem to understand how we can be such friends."
"He is trying to peg a motive on me," Legolas said quietly.
Gimli turned his head and stared at Legolas. "No, he just wants to understand where we are coming from. He holds no ill will towards you, believe me. If anything he believes that you were ignorant of the plot against my life."
Legolas felt his back stiffen. "There was no plot against you. Surely my own father would not allow that."
"Perhaps he did not know either," Gimli said. "All I know is what little I remember, and since you say there was a spider attack I will believe your word until the day I die, unless," Gimli trailed off.
"Unless what?" Legolas said. He knew he should not be angry at his friend, but he found his anger raising nonetheless.
Gimli looked away again. "Unless you were poisoned as well so that you hallucinated the spiders while something else attacked us. You said yourself that you did not think there were anymore spiders left in Mirkwood."
Legolas was taken aback. "I did not hallucinate it," he said, "it was real enough. If we go back to the forest the bodies with my arrows in them will still be there."
"It was just a possibility," Gimli said, "but my father thinks it odd that I have at least a little memory of everything but the spiders."
"Do you remember what happened after the attack?" Legolas said. "When I was bringing you back here? If you do not remember that than it is possible that you would not remember the spiders either."
"I think I remember it," Gimli said, "but I have traveled around the mountain so many times that it is possible I could be remembering something similar to it."
"Do you remember my asking you to tell me stories to keep you awake, the gates you brought us to that were locked without a key?" Legolas pressed.
Gimli faltered. "I remember going to the secret passage, but I don't remember there not being a key."
"There was not," Legolas said, "I had to break it myself with your axe, you can have your father or somebody else go check that out."
"Legolas, it's not that I don't believe you," Gimli said. "Wait, you said you used my axe? Did you scratch it?"
The immediate change in the conversation to Gimli's concern over his axe made Legolas laugh.
"Well, did you?" Gimli said, his concern over his prized weaponry showing through.
Legolas sobered. "I am afraid I might have nicked it. A rock would not work on the lock and I figured I had to use a dwarvish weapon against a dwarvish lock."
Gimli grumbled a bit and Legolas felt his lips pulling up into a smile again though he tried to look like he was sorry for doing so. But speaking of the lock made Legolas remember something and he touched his forehead, his fingers finding the healing cut that had been created when a piece of the shattered lock had hit him.
"See?" Legolas said as he lowered his hand, "I got this when a piece of the broken lock struck me."
Gimli peered at the wound. He grunted but did not say anything.
Before Legolas could ask him anything else the door was pulled open and Gloin stepped inside. Legolas stiffened but otherwise did not show anything.
Gloin walked silently over to the bedside and sat at another chair that was at the foot of the bed. "I do not mean to interrupt your conversation," he said, "but I think this would be the best time to question both of you, without others here to add their own assumptions."
Legolas was surprised. He had thought Gloin would relish an inquisition type of questioning where Legolas' every word would be dissected and twisted by countless dwarves.
"First I must ask that you forgive my first treatment of you, the worry over my son clouded my courtesy," Gloin said to Legolas.
This time Legolas could not keep the surprise from showing. He recovered and said, "There is nothing to forgive, I understand what you must have been feeling for I would have felt the same way."
A ghost of a smile passed over Gloin's face before he nodded. "Now, after listening to my son describe his friendship with you, I do believe that it is unlikely that you had anything to do with the plot against his life."
Legolas went to say something at this but Gloin pushed on.
"However I would like us all to carefully go over the events as you remember them and come to a conclusion about what happened."
Legolas waited a few seconds to be sure that Gloin was done speaking. "I do not feel there was any sort of plot against Gimli's life. It was just as I described it, an accident caused by a surprise attack that Gimli then had some sort of allergic reaction to. There was nothing malicious about it, just fate against us."
Gloin raised an eyebrow. "I anticipated such an answer. However, how can you yourself be entirely sure that the spiders were real? Mirkwood was cleansed after the fall of Sauron."
"I can only say that I have never been prone to illusions," Legolas said, "and that these spiders were real. They attacked me as well and the only reason I was able to fight them off was because I noticed them a fraction of a second before Gimli did. If we were to go back I know the bodies of the spiders will still be there with my arrows in them, unless they were carried off by their own kind."
"So there actually is no guarantee they would still be there," Gloin said.
Legolas felt frustrated. "I do not know all the ways of the spiders, but they seem like they might devour the bodies of their own after they have fallen. And as for them still being in Mirkwood, they were farther North than they have ever been, perhaps that was a pack's last stand before being completely driven from the forest."
"Perhaps," Gloin said, "but I still do not like to rule out entire possibilities. And there is still the matter of the drink Gimli was forced to have."
"He was not forced to drink anything," Legolas said.
Gloin held up a hand patiently. "It may not have seemed like it at the time, but according to what he remembers there was some insistence that he drink something."
Legolas began to argue against that when a flash in his own memory stopped him.
'You must first try the wine, I know you dwarves hail your own, but I tell you that you have never tasted wine like this nor will you again.'
He had insisted that Gimli drink their wine.
"I offered him a glass of wine," Legolas said slowly, "and I told him that he had to taste it as it would be unlike anything else he had."
Gloin's brows rose and Gimli was staring at Legolas.
"But I drank the same thing," Legolas said, "and it had no ill effects against me."
"So there was a drink," Gloin said.
"I poured it for him myself, out of the same pitcher everybody was drinking from," Legolas insisted, "there was no way it could have been tampered with, or poisoned. And I have been drinking it for as long as I can remember, so it could not cause me to hallucinate spiders."
Gloin nodded though he did not look convinced. "So now we know what the drink was."
"And that it has nothing to do with foul play," Legolas said. "Besides, you cannot fake the marks on Gimli's neck, he was bitten by a spider."
Gloin nodded again. "The marks are true enough. We were simply trying to pinpoint what would make Gimli react so to the spider poison, a healthy dwarf should hardly be affected enough that he almost dies and then has no memory of what happened. Believe me, I would know."
Legolas held his tongue against what else he had to say. He felt shame filter through him. Gloin and his party of dwarves along with Bilbo had been attacked by spiders while in Mirkwood forest. And the elves had done nothing to help them.
"It renders one unconscious, yes," Gloin said, "but not for long and with lasting or fatal effects."
"Maybe Gimli is allergic to the spider's venom," Legolas said, "so much so that he would have a much different reaction than what would be normal."
"Maybe," Gloin said, though once again he did not look convinced.
The three sat in silence until Gloin stood.
"This has been most informative," he said, "but I must ask that you return to your room so that Gimli may get some more rest."
Legolas stood smoothly. "Of course." He gestured to the plate of uneaten food. "Should I dispose of this first?"
"I will have it taken care of," Gloin said. "Thror will show you the way back to your room."
Inwardly, Legolas rolled his eyes. Of course Thror would be forced to be his personal guide, and probably guard.
After bidding Gimli good-bye Legolas followed Gloin outside to where Thror was already standing.
"Show our guest back to his room," Gloin said.
Thror nodded before eyeing the elf. "Come on then," he said turning and taking heavy strides down the hall. Legolas almost winced at all the noise the dwarf was making and followed him silently.
Halfway down the dark hallway Thror turned back around and stopped abruptly to prevent himself from running into Legolas who had been following closely behind. Thror took a few steps back. "Just making sure you were following," he said gruffly before turning again.
Legolas smiled to himself. Gimli had grown used to his silent and 'annoyingly elvish' ways, but he had to remind himself that these dwarves were not used to elves at all. The thought amused him and he worked to make his already silent gait effortless so that he was following very closely behind the dwarf. He saw the dwarf's shoulders stiffen even in the dim lighting and then the dwarf's steps quicken.
Legolas swallowed his laughter. Maybe his time here was not going to be so horrible after all.
Chapter 9
The confrontation with Gloin went more smoothly than Legolas had anticipated, even under the wrathful eye of Thror, and it was not long before the elf found himself seated beside Gimli's bed with a plate of hot food. Once again Legolas puzzled over the treatment he was receiving from the dwarves, but pushed it out of his mind when Gimli opened his eyes and saw Legolas.
Legolas leaned forward, putting down his plate, and laid his hand over the dwarf's forehead, smoothing down the rough brows.
"How are you now friend?" Legolas asked.
Gimli groaned and tried to sit up, but Legolas effortlessly held him down with his hand. Gimli grumbled when he saw that the elf was not going to allow him to sit up and relaxed.
"I am well enough to sit up," he said.
Legolas laughed. "I have no doubts of that, but if your father were to come in and saw that I allowed you to sit he would have my head."
Gimli's eyes darkened slightly at the mention of his father. "I have only heard bits of conversation in the hall about what is to be done with the 'accursed' elf. Tell me, how are you being treated?"
"Surprisingly well," Legolas answered, removing his hand and sitting back. "Some of your friends do not seem that enthusiastic about my stay here, but your father has provided nothing but the best care for me."
Gimli lips curved into a small smile. "See, I told you that old grudge was over. My father is more noble and open-minded than that. I am sure you will have a pleasant time here."
Legolas smiled back, but he did not bother to tell Gimli that the relationship between him and his father was a strained one, and that Legolas suspected Gloin's motives had everything to do with the old grudge he had against Thranduil. But there was no point in upsetting Gimli over it, besides, he was being treated well enough.
"Tell me Gimli," Legolas started, "have you remembered anything else about what happened?"
Gimli furrowed his brows and looked away from Legolas, staring at the stone walls as if they would give the answer. "I have been trying, and I do remember a bit more, but there are still large gaps in my memory. I still do not remember the spider attack at all, and our visit to Mirkwood is hazy, though I do remember that we went there now."
"Has anybody else been talking to you?" Legolas asked gently.
Gimli continued to stare at the wall. "My father has been at my side most of the time. He says much, but not about that. He tells me what has happened since I have been gone and that he was sad at the fact that I have been gone for so long. He wanted me here to help defend the Lonely Mountain and build up better defenses. He did not think that I would stay with the Fellowship for so long and he asked many questions about what it was like to be with them."
Gimli paused for a moment, and then continued. "Most of all he has questioned me on my relationship with you. He does not seem to understand how we can be such friends."
"He is trying to peg a motive on me," Legolas said quietly.
Gimli turned his head and stared at Legolas. "No, he just wants to understand where we are coming from. He holds no ill will towards you, believe me. If anything he believes that you were ignorant of the plot against my life."
Legolas felt his back stiffen. "There was no plot against you. Surely my own father would not allow that."
"Perhaps he did not know either," Gimli said. "All I know is what little I remember, and since you say there was a spider attack I will believe your word until the day I die, unless," Gimli trailed off.
"Unless what?" Legolas said. He knew he should not be angry at his friend, but he found his anger raising nonetheless.
Gimli looked away again. "Unless you were poisoned as well so that you hallucinated the spiders while something else attacked us. You said yourself that you did not think there were anymore spiders left in Mirkwood."
Legolas was taken aback. "I did not hallucinate it," he said, "it was real enough. If we go back to the forest the bodies with my arrows in them will still be there."
"It was just a possibility," Gimli said, "but my father thinks it odd that I have at least a little memory of everything but the spiders."
"Do you remember what happened after the attack?" Legolas said. "When I was bringing you back here? If you do not remember that than it is possible that you would not remember the spiders either."
"I think I remember it," Gimli said, "but I have traveled around the mountain so many times that it is possible I could be remembering something similar to it."
"Do you remember my asking you to tell me stories to keep you awake, the gates you brought us to that were locked without a key?" Legolas pressed.
Gimli faltered. "I remember going to the secret passage, but I don't remember there not being a key."
"There was not," Legolas said, "I had to break it myself with your axe, you can have your father or somebody else go check that out."
"Legolas, it's not that I don't believe you," Gimli said. "Wait, you said you used my axe? Did you scratch it?"
The immediate change in the conversation to Gimli's concern over his axe made Legolas laugh.
"Well, did you?" Gimli said, his concern over his prized weaponry showing through.
Legolas sobered. "I am afraid I might have nicked it. A rock would not work on the lock and I figured I had to use a dwarvish weapon against a dwarvish lock."
Gimli grumbled a bit and Legolas felt his lips pulling up into a smile again though he tried to look like he was sorry for doing so. But speaking of the lock made Legolas remember something and he touched his forehead, his fingers finding the healing cut that had been created when a piece of the shattered lock had hit him.
"See?" Legolas said as he lowered his hand, "I got this when a piece of the broken lock struck me."
Gimli peered at the wound. He grunted but did not say anything.
Before Legolas could ask him anything else the door was pulled open and Gloin stepped inside. Legolas stiffened but otherwise did not show anything.
Gloin walked silently over to the bedside and sat at another chair that was at the foot of the bed. "I do not mean to interrupt your conversation," he said, "but I think this would be the best time to question both of you, without others here to add their own assumptions."
Legolas was surprised. He had thought Gloin would relish an inquisition type of questioning where Legolas' every word would be dissected and twisted by countless dwarves.
"First I must ask that you forgive my first treatment of you, the worry over my son clouded my courtesy," Gloin said to Legolas.
This time Legolas could not keep the surprise from showing. He recovered and said, "There is nothing to forgive, I understand what you must have been feeling for I would have felt the same way."
A ghost of a smile passed over Gloin's face before he nodded. "Now, after listening to my son describe his friendship with you, I do believe that it is unlikely that you had anything to do with the plot against his life."
Legolas went to say something at this but Gloin pushed on.
"However I would like us all to carefully go over the events as you remember them and come to a conclusion about what happened."
Legolas waited a few seconds to be sure that Gloin was done speaking. "I do not feel there was any sort of plot against Gimli's life. It was just as I described it, an accident caused by a surprise attack that Gimli then had some sort of allergic reaction to. There was nothing malicious about it, just fate against us."
Gloin raised an eyebrow. "I anticipated such an answer. However, how can you yourself be entirely sure that the spiders were real? Mirkwood was cleansed after the fall of Sauron."
"I can only say that I have never been prone to illusions," Legolas said, "and that these spiders were real. They attacked me as well and the only reason I was able to fight them off was because I noticed them a fraction of a second before Gimli did. If we were to go back I know the bodies of the spiders will still be there with my arrows in them, unless they were carried off by their own kind."
"So there actually is no guarantee they would still be there," Gloin said.
Legolas felt frustrated. "I do not know all the ways of the spiders, but they seem like they might devour the bodies of their own after they have fallen. And as for them still being in Mirkwood, they were farther North than they have ever been, perhaps that was a pack's last stand before being completely driven from the forest."
"Perhaps," Gloin said, "but I still do not like to rule out entire possibilities. And there is still the matter of the drink Gimli was forced to have."
"He was not forced to drink anything," Legolas said.
Gloin held up a hand patiently. "It may not have seemed like it at the time, but according to what he remembers there was some insistence that he drink something."
Legolas began to argue against that when a flash in his own memory stopped him.
'You must first try the wine, I know you dwarves hail your own, but I tell you that you have never tasted wine like this nor will you again.'
He had insisted that Gimli drink their wine.
"I offered him a glass of wine," Legolas said slowly, "and I told him that he had to taste it as it would be unlike anything else he had."
Gloin's brows rose and Gimli was staring at Legolas.
"But I drank the same thing," Legolas said, "and it had no ill effects against me."
"So there was a drink," Gloin said.
"I poured it for him myself, out of the same pitcher everybody was drinking from," Legolas insisted, "there was no way it could have been tampered with, or poisoned. And I have been drinking it for as long as I can remember, so it could not cause me to hallucinate spiders."
Gloin nodded though he did not look convinced. "So now we know what the drink was."
"And that it has nothing to do with foul play," Legolas said. "Besides, you cannot fake the marks on Gimli's neck, he was bitten by a spider."
Gloin nodded again. "The marks are true enough. We were simply trying to pinpoint what would make Gimli react so to the spider poison, a healthy dwarf should hardly be affected enough that he almost dies and then has no memory of what happened. Believe me, I would know."
Legolas held his tongue against what else he had to say. He felt shame filter through him. Gloin and his party of dwarves along with Bilbo had been attacked by spiders while in Mirkwood forest. And the elves had done nothing to help them.
"It renders one unconscious, yes," Gloin said, "but not for long and with lasting or fatal effects."
"Maybe Gimli is allergic to the spider's venom," Legolas said, "so much so that he would have a much different reaction than what would be normal."
"Maybe," Gloin said, though once again he did not look convinced.
The three sat in silence until Gloin stood.
"This has been most informative," he said, "but I must ask that you return to your room so that Gimli may get some more rest."
Legolas stood smoothly. "Of course." He gestured to the plate of uneaten food. "Should I dispose of this first?"
"I will have it taken care of," Gloin said. "Thror will show you the way back to your room."
Inwardly, Legolas rolled his eyes. Of course Thror would be forced to be his personal guide, and probably guard.
After bidding Gimli good-bye Legolas followed Gloin outside to where Thror was already standing.
"Show our guest back to his room," Gloin said.
Thror nodded before eyeing the elf. "Come on then," he said turning and taking heavy strides down the hall. Legolas almost winced at all the noise the dwarf was making and followed him silently.
Halfway down the dark hallway Thror turned back around and stopped abruptly to prevent himself from running into Legolas who had been following closely behind. Thror took a few steps back. "Just making sure you were following," he said gruffly before turning again.
Legolas smiled to himself. Gimli had grown used to his silent and 'annoyingly elvish' ways, but he had to remind himself that these dwarves were not used to elves at all. The thought amused him and he worked to make his already silent gait effortless so that he was following very closely behind the dwarf. He saw the dwarf's shoulders stiffen even in the dim lighting and then the dwarf's steps quicken.
Legolas swallowed his laughter. Maybe his time here was not going to be so horrible after all.