Sailor Elf : Your bazooka can do nothing. You need a scud missile.
Snow Glory : Nope. No secret mission from Thranduil. Sorry. (Now you make Kel sounds as if he is the new James Bond. LOL!)
Irish Anor : No secret. I just eat a bar of chocolate every time I start writing. Hmmm, yummy!
Althelas : Yes, girl, I got your point. winks back at ya!
Ieralonde : Why, thank you so much! Keep on reading and you will know.
Fairylady : I swear to you Legolas is not dreaming. This is real. Keldarion has truly returned.
Elven Lady Nilturiel : You are getting pretty close!
Musicstarlover : You thought right. And, yes, I love torturing them. (Actually, Kel has not been gone for hundred years, only over ten years. Sounds like forever, right?)
Kayo : Kel working in your garden? Dancing together in the sprinklers? Ai! Don't make me jealous!
LegolasLover2003 : Oh my freakin' goodness! Still freak out, aren't you? He! He!
Effigy : Want to know how correct you are? Read on, mellon.
Enigma Jade : No, not the Haradrims. Guess again. (Yes. Please dispose of my boss. He can't stop breathing down my neck!)
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I never sailed to Valinor.
Those words echoed, over and over in Legolas' mind.
For a long moment, neither brother said a word. Keldarion's shocking statement seemed to hang gravely above the lengthy silence. Their heavy breathing, the only sound at current, seemed so loud that their ears throbbed from it.
Legolas was so surprised he couldn't think of any appropriate things to say. His mouth opened and closed repeatedly without uttering a sound, his eyes wide as he stared at Keldarion, totally bewildered.
He never sailed to Valinor. Legolas was stunned.
He never sailed to Valinor? Now, he was puzzled.
And then, he slowly grew angry. He never sailed to Valinor!?!?
"What do you mean, you never sailed to Valinor?!" Legolas finally shouted, his face red.
Keldarion reached out for his brother. "Legolas…"
"Don't touch me!" Legolas slapped at his brother's hand, scooting hastily backwards until he was pressed hard against the tree. "HOW COULD YOU?! How could you play with my feelings this way! Blast it, Kel! I mourned you for months! I've cried and cried until my tears had gone dry but now you tell me you never sailed to Valinor?! What the blazes do you take me for? A bloody puppet?!"
"Legolas, please let me explain…"
"Oh, you're going to explain, all right." Legolas folded his arms across his chest, his eyes glinting with fury as he scowled at his brother. "You are going to explain big time! Just tell me no lies…"
"I won't lie to you!" Keldarion shouted back with a glare. "I never did and never will! But if you want to hear the truth, brother, I suggest you prepare yourself because what I'm going to tell you is not pretty."
Legolas bit his lips and avoided his eyes, disconcerted. With a heavy sigh, Keldarion also turned away, his eyes downcast. "Trust me, Legolas. You are my brother, and I love you very much. It was never my intention to play with your feelings this way. It was hard for me to leave you all those years ago. But things just happened without my consent. I lost control of my destiny the moment my ship was on water, heading for the Undying Lands."
Legolas' lips trembled as he recalled that sad day. He could still remember how terribly painful it had been for him to see Keldarion's departure, knowing that he would never return and…But, wait! Keldarion did return!
"My ship was indeed bound for Valinor, Legolas. But, unfortunately, it never got there," Keldarion softly added.
Surprised, Legolas whipped his gaze back at his brother. "What do you mean? What actually happened?"
Keldarion visibly swallowed before he answered. "Our ship was attacked by a large fleet of Corsair ships. Many of us were killed. Some that were still alive were taken captive, me included."
Legolas blinked, his jaw dropping open. "You…you were…"
"Yes, Legolas. They took me prisoner," Keldarion curtly said, his gaze hardened. "I was so vulnerable, so weak from my wounds and sea-longing affliction that I couldn't fight back. They brought me into their lair and made me their slave. They beat me and tortured me when I refused to submit to them. They forced me into hard labor, putting me in irons and chains so I couldn't escape. It was like living in the very heart of Mordor, only Sauron was not the lord. They made me wished I were dead. Valar. They made me wished I had the courage to take my own life! I was treated like an animal, as if I had no honor and pride. Sometimes I wished I were an animal, so I could not feel anything at all. One good thing though, I gradually forgot about my longing for Valinor. The affliction paled in comparison to the great misery I was put in. I prayed and prayed that someone will come for me, but no one did. For five long years, Legolas, I waited. It took me some time to finally realize that I was alone. All alone…"
Long uncomfortable silence reigned once more between the two brothers.
All alone…
Legolas' tears fell unnoticed. He stared in disbelief at his brother's impassive face, not realizing that he had turned deathly pale himself.
Keldarion suddenly smiled, sadly. "Now I understand what had prompted you to attempt suicide that day, brother. Now I know what kind of horror you went through when those men violated you. Oh, yes. Now I know."
Feebly shaking his head in dismay as he caught Keldarion's meaning, Legolas scooted forward. He tearfully embraced his elder brother, broken sobs bursting forth from his entire being. "I'm sorry, Kel…I'm so sorry. Believe me, if I had known, I swear I had come for you!" Legolas cried out in sorrow. "I would never abandon you that way. Please, Kel, please forgive me…"
"Why should you be sorry, Legolas? It was not your fault." His own eyes glistening, Keldarion hugged his brother in return. "I do not blame you, little brother. By God, you are the last person I would put blame in all this. You didn't know. In fact, no one knew."
"But I should have sensed that something wrong had happened to you!" Legolas' voice hitched as he collapsed in his brother's embrace. "I thought you were happy in Valinor. I even had dreams about you! Valar, what was wrong with me?!"
Both brothers clung to each other desperately, brokenly weeping, sending out love and pain and comfort back and forth. Their sorrow was so palpable that even the sun hid herself behind the clouds.
"You…you said…you were there for five years…" Legolas still sobbed. "But it has been more than ten years now…since you've been gone. Why didn't you come home? Why did you stay away?"
Keldarion sighed and pulled back. He gently pushed his brother onto the blanket until Legolas fully lay down on his side. "I did not stay away. I just…"
"What?" Legolas gripped Keldarion's arm, stilling him. "Did you think we would turn you away if you returned? We wouldn't do that to you, Kel. Believe me."
"I believe you, brat." Keldarion smiled. "I didn't come home straight away because…"
At this he paused and his gaze grew distant. Then he gave himself a mental shake and continued, "That night I escaped from the Corsairs, I've sworn to myself that I will kill every one of them who had violated me. I stopped being an elf, and disguised myself as a Haradrim mercenary, which made it easy for me to mix with the humans. It gave me more freedom to move about and gained me information about the men I was pursuing."
"How many were they, the men that…?" Legolas bit his lips and shamefully looked away.
"The men who raped me?" Keldarion smiled again, this time without humor. "Ten in all. I was like their favorite plaything in that camp, this once noble born elf prince who thought he was better above all creatures, a fallen victim at last."
"You are still a noble born elf prince, Kel," Legolas interjected as he tightened his hold on Keldarion's arm, feeling the tensing muscles there. Keldarion simply shrugged in reply and gently pried Legolas' hand from his arm. He then held his brother's long tapered fingers within his palm, staring regretfully at the chapped and broken nails.
"Ugly, aren't they?" Legolas said with a weak grin. "That's what I get for doing their laundry and washing their dishes. I also worked in the cornfield, can you believe it?"
"They forced me to work in the mine, chipping at rocks and stones with only a pick axe," said Keldarion next.
"They made me chop loads of firewood everyday. I got blisters to prove it."
"I had a piece of bread and plain water for my breakfast, lunch and dinner."
"I was fed once in three days. If I was lucky, I would find some rotten vegetables among the scraps."
"They put me in a cell, and would let me out at dawn before I returned to it at night."
"They kept me locked inside a small hole, the hole that I had dug myself," said Legolas. "Lord, it was so dark."
Keldarion looked down and saw the expression of great terror on his brother's face. He quickly reached over and pulled Legolas back into his arms. The younger prince had started to tremble anew.
"I couldn't breath," Legolas kept saying. "I thought I would go crazy in the darkness. I couldn't stop screaming the entire first night they put me in there. I nearly killed myself then, banging my head over and over against the steel door."
"Oh, Legolas…" Keldarion couldn't stop his tears from falling then.
"I know how you feel when you say no one came for you, Kel," said Legolas as he gazed sadly at his brother. "I also waited that night, hoping like a pathetic being to be rescued. In the end, I spent one tormenting month with the Easterlings. But you've spent more than that in your own harrowing nightmare. How did you survive, Kel? I know I wouldn't."
"But, Legolas, I survived because of you," Keldarion claimed, touching his brother's wet cheeks. "Remember that day, on my departure? I told you to stay alive, no matter what. I told you I want to see you there, in Valinor. Then how could I ask you to stay strong if I myself did not? From the first day they captured me, I did everything I could to run away. But most of all, I tried very hard to stay alive, even when I sometimes found the beckoning of the Hall of Mandos more and more pleasant each day. It's because of you that I'm still here."
Legolas sniffed and closed his eyes, resting his head against his brother's shoulder. "I'm so glad you survived, Kel. And I'm very glad I found you again, after all these years."
"So am I, Legolas. So am I," Keldarion responded, gently rocking his brother.
After a long companionable silence afterwards, Legolas voiced out, "How did you know I was in the Easterlings village?"
Keldarion released his brother and got to his feet. He grabbed the waterskin and took a swig. "I heard the men talking about you in a nearby town," he then replied and sat back down next to his brother, offering Legolas the waterskin. "Obviously, some people from the village who visited the town liked to gloat about their success and couldn't keep their mouth shut. I wasted no time in getting here."
"You came just in time, big brother," Legolas said after he took a long drink. "I didn't know how much longer I would last hanging from that pole. They had great fun putting holes all over me."
"Yes, I know. I saw what they did to you. I watched the village for two whole days, working out my plan to get you out of there." Keldarion's eyes were bleak, and he looked slightly guilty. "I'm sorry I couldn't stop them from hurting and humiliating you, Legolas. And I'm sorry for treating you like traded goods, but I had no choice…"
"I understand," Legolas cut him off with a smile. "Hey, it works. I'm now free. But I feel bad that you have to part with your treasure of gold…"
"You mean, this gold?" Keldarion took out a pouch from inside his shirt.
Legolas blinked before he burst out laughing. "You stole it back from Gervas! Serves him right!"
Keldarion grinned. "Funny. I never thought much about gold and money while I was a prince. But when I became a mercenary, everything changed. I need these things to buy me food and supplies, to keep a shelter over my head…"
"Then why didn't you just come home?" Legolas pressed again with pleading eyes.
Legolas' gaze was so intense that Keldarion had to look away. "My mission is not finished," he said, staring at a pair of butterflies flying about their makeshift camp. "I've killed all the men who destroyed me saved for one. I still need to find him before I can rest easy."
His eyes never leaving his brother's determined looking face, Legolas steadily reached up to grip Keldarion's right hand. "Count me in, brother. Let me join your mission. And let me use my blades to cleave him in two."
Keldarion opened his mouth to respond but Legolas quickly interrupted, "Don't you dare tell me this is not my concern! I'm involved in this as much as you are! Those men took ten years out of our time together, and I will not permit them to get away with it! Either you take me along with you or I will trail after you wherever you go, mark my words!"
The two brothers glared at each other. And then Keldarion broke into laughter. "Lord, you are still as stubborn as ever!"
"You got that right!"
"Peace, brother. I've put my mission on hold until I've seen you to safety. Which means, I'm taking you home—to your wife," Keldarion said, still grinning. "I know you have gotten married to Narasene. In fact, I've heard a lot about you the last few years. You are a lord of your own keep now, aren't you?"
Legolas blanched. "Ai Elbereth. Nara. I almost forgot about her." He stared at his brother with wide, panicked eyes. "She's expecting, you know? Our first child. She's due to give birth any day now."
Keldarion's eyebrows raised and he smiled with pleasure. "Really? Then congratulations. I can't wait to be an uncle."
"We have been trying for years, but only now did she conceive. Estel's elixir has helped a great deal and…uh…well, I'll tell you about all of it later," he said, blushing.
Keldarion laughed again. "I can see that she makes you happy."
"Very," Legolas said, as he squeezed his brother's hand. "But I would be much happier if you are home with me."
Keldarion did not reply, but he squeezed his brother's hand in return. And that was more than enough for Legolas.
His elder brother was coming home, he would see to it—even if he had to drag Keldarion along by his pointed ears!
TBC…