*Disclaimer* I live in a box in an alleyway. So unless you need a refrigerator box, suing me will get you nothing, because I don't own LOTR.
A/N: Read on!
"Where are we? I never thought to ask." Tracie pointed to the window.
"The most posh sick ward in Wanderer's Glade, of course. Do you think we'd allow less?" She grinned, knowing she was in Awaren's vast palace on the lake. Nevertheless, she enjoyed the view, so she went to the window. Sparkling blue water of the lake, ringed with snow-fed waterfalls, the intricate workmanship of Elf houses in the grassy sward on shore, the immense trees, not quite as large as mallorns, but still forbidingly huge, that ringed the entire valley built with more work-of-art houses. An overwhelming sense of wonder was surging from Delaney, who had been laying dormant through this all, so strong that it affected her own feelings.
"This is amazing," she said, Delaney's words in her mouth, like she had never seen it before! She sent Delaney a mental message to back off. She responded by lashing out with something she could only describe as a mental whip. Where did she learn to do that? It hurt! Luckily, her friends didn't see anything amiss.
"Good to be alive, huh?"
"Don't you know it. Were you hurt in the battle? How long was I out?" She suddenly found that she had a hundred questions, and Delaney a hundred more. Oh no, she thought, this is my mind, my body, got it? I'll ask my questions, and you stay out of it. There was no backlash this time; she took that as a good sign.
"Nothing major. A gash on my arm, but it was shallow, only about two inches across. These human blades are pitiful next to our work, you know, awful tempering, always going dull...oh yes, injuries. Well, the gash, a broken toe when I jumped on that guy, and one heck of a splinter when I grabbed some scout's spear before it could find me. Any other time I would complain, but you've been out for a week, and I find it in myself to count myself as lucky." Tracie pulled out her knife, Steelsings, that had been in her family for countless generations and twirled it idly between her fingers as she spoke. "So, should we go on and look for Awaren?"
"No need, no need." He walked up to them and took her hand, checking her pulse. "Are you sure you're up to getting out of bed, Rosellyn? How are you feeling? Dizzy? Your chest wounds, are they hurting? I'm more concerned about those than your arm, even though that's no skinned knee."
"Well, my posture is improving...am I going to be able to spin knives with my left arm? Am I going to be able to at least bend it?"
"Oh, you should have waited for me! I was hoping to run into you. With the proper treatment, your arm should be as good as new. Here, let me see your arm." He drew out a vial from his belt pouch and took a gentle but firm grip right above the wound. He unwrapped the bandages around her arm, and she winced at the wound.
"This is taking the training yard's slight mishaps when some idiot walks in front of someone firing those blunted arrows to a whole different level," observed Forest unhelpfully. Tracie looked sick. She couldn't see Legolas's expression; the angle was wrong. Awaren gently dabbed some of the potion in the vial on the cut. It stung for five seconds or so, then the sensation faded. He stoppered the vial and tucked it into her hand.
"Put this on the arm every morning, and you'll slowly regain flexibility. Not much we can do for the chest wounds except wait...oh, here's a souvenir." He reached into his belt pouch and pulled out a tarnished arrow head. "I extracted that from your arm. You'll want to polish it, I suppose. Blood can do funny things to steel, you know." With a smile, he walked off. Forest watched him go with an odd look on his face.
"I never know if he's serious or if he has a sick sense of humor." She rubbed it on some clean bandage and it came away untarnished, wickedly glittering black steel.
"A bit of both, I'd guess. It comes with the job. Should I just throw it into the lake right now or keep it as a...souvenir?" Tracie shook her head so hard her hair went flapping on its ends.
"Do you want to kill the lake? Bury it far from the wood if you don't want it, but I don't trust that black steel is ever completely clean." Legolas's ears perked up at the mention of black steel.
"That's true black steel? Men never use black steel, it's too hard for them to get." Forest gestured at Legolas's sheathed knife.
"What about your knife, then? Black Fury, is it called?" With a fluid motion, Legolas unsheathed it and held it out for examination. While the blade of Rosellyn's knives were both a silver almost bright enough to be called white, Legolas's was made completely out of black steel, darker than pitch, or midnight, with a luster that couldn't be classified. It was neither dull nor the high sheen of obsidian, but something altogether different, and sharp as a razor. It was a knife to be envied among the Elves. She held out the arrow head in the palm of her hand. The two looked exactly the same.
"Yes, that's black steel, but I said Men never use it, because they don't have a friendship with the Dwarves that mine it. If they have enough to be using them on arrow heads, which they will most likely lose, something's wrong."
"I'm sure Awaren knows that, Legolas. If he didn't tell us, it's because he knows we'll figure it out on our own, or he didn't want to panic us."
"Panic? Why would we panic?" Tracie wanted to know. Her twin didn't take this outlook, however, and the color started draining from his face.
"What do you mean, why would we panic? Trace, this is bad. It means that some of the Dwarves have either betrayed us or they're double dealing. Do you know what this could mean?" Tracie scoffed.
"It isn't like there's only one Dwarf tribe that mines black steel..."
"Don't you see, though? No, of course you don't. These younger children today just don't grasp these fine details..." he ducked as his sister took a swipe at him and took off as she chased him down the hall, screaming as she went:
"It's only sixteen minutes, do you hear me? Sixteen minutes! Come back here!" They watched them streak down the hall, both fast as Elves go, screaming at the top of their lungs, earning disapproving looks from the older Elves as they passed. Then they glared at Legolas and herself, as if they had started this. She watched them go wistfully, knowing she couldn't run until her chest had completely healed. That might take awhile, those cuts were deep, some of them...
It then hit her that the hall was deserted. She and Legolas were alone. She suddenly became very nervous, and looked at the ground. Luckily, Legolas was still looking after where Tracie and Forest had gone, and didn't notice her sudden rush of adrenaline. Then, just as rapidly as it came, it left her even more drained than she had been before Tracie and Forest left. She sat down, exhausted. Legolas was immediately squatting down beside her, the picture of concern, as he had been when she first woke up. Delaney had been up until then silent, so restive that she had even forgotten someone else was inside her head. But with Legolas so close, and with them alone, Delaney made an attempt to resurface. Frantically she beat her down, scared silly what she might do. She really was getting better at this; Delaney slid back. A whisper reverberated through her mind, something she never experienced before. ~Please?~ What was this? She tried to send another message to Delaney. Were they actually communicating, for the first time? Intriguing. -No. He's mine.- Laughter, no more than an echo in her mind. At least it wasn't loud. ~Well, you've got a funny way of proving it.~ She remembered what Delaney had done to her earlier, a mental whip? She imagined a whip, a whip made of the finest cord, and gave her a light lick with it; any harder would have seriously hurt, and since Delaney was trying to take over her body, she really had to think about these things. She didn't realize her feet weren't touching the ground until after she was finished wrestling with Delaney inside her mind.
"Legolas? What?" He was carrying her, she realized.
"Hush. You nearly fainted. You're in no position whatsoever to walk." If this felt so nice, why did she always try to get out of being touched by Legolas? ~Because you're a wimp,~ said Delaney tartly. She decided to ignore that.
"I'm an Elf, and thus I have perfect balance...put me down." Legolas laughed.
"You're being silly, that's what you are. You've lost a lot of blood, you've completely over-done yourself, and you're not in any condition to even stand. I think your balance is taking a few days off."
"Please don't take me to Awaren," she pleaded, "or I'll never see the outside again." He looked down at her with faint amusement written on his features.
"Fear not, my fair maiden. Outside is exactly where we're going. Thou shalt see the sparkling water, and feel the kiss of sunlight on thy skin once more." Legolas could really go into the over-dramatic category when he wanted to be. Satisfied that she might escape Awaren's house, pleasant as it might be, she snuggled in and let him carry her. She might as well make the most of it, right? Speaking of kissing... Delaney stirred a little at this, but didn't try another take over attempt. If anything, she seemed a little pleased and contented, emotions that Rosellyn didn't usually associate with her odd companion. It was probably lucky that they didn't meet anyone on their way to the platform, but she wished that someone could see her like this. Not Tracie, though. Tracie would just have more ammunition to tease her about. Tracie was just not affected by Legolas's grin and laugh as badly as she was. No one came down this hallway, though. Only the younger crowd remembered there was a platform here, and it was the prettiest spot on the house. It was a shame that the elders should miss out, but a non-crowded platform had its advantages. Peace and quiet would be welcome. Plus a chance to be out in a pretty setting with Legolas. She felt an immediate change when they finally got out side. Mirkwood always had an aura of contentment about it, and it contributed greatly to the healing process of the mind. Men from the friendlier nations often brought patients here to recuperate from devastating injuries, and the Elves were more than happy to assist. She squirmed around.
"Okay, put me down. I think I can stand now." He complied this time, and she stood, if a bit unsteadily, on her own.
"Try walking." She did, a few tottering steps, as though she was an infant again. She didn't walk very far, but walk she did.
"Okay." He sat down, watching her intently. She caught the look he gave her. "Really. You know how the air helps." He nodded.
"That I do. I've never had these little sicknesses that Men are always complaining about. It must be horrible to live in the realms of Men."
"If they're so mighty, how come they can't even hit 100?"
"Exactly." He laughed. Then he reached up and pushed her down next to him. "Now sit. Air or no air, you still need to rest." She stuck her tongue out at him, but sat.
"You sound like Awaren."
"He makes sense, you know. Rest really is good for the body that's recovering from serious injuries."
"I thought you never listened in the class." He looked comically hurt.
"What ever would give you that idea?"
"Hm, it would have to be the loud snoring coming from the back of the class in your general direction."
"Don't let that fool you. I really don't listen." She laughed. It felt good to laugh on the inside, even if it wreaked havoc on her outside. She shimmied up to the edge of the platform and dipped her toes in the lake. The water was powerfully icy, as usual, and refreshing. Across the way, younger Elf children played on the shore, all equal to the cold, swimming and playing. Her Elf-eyes caught the shine of droplets as two little Elf boys, they couldn't be more than 700 years or so, splashed each other, screaming happily. "You miss that, don't you?" He whispered, catching sight of what she was looking at. She nodded wistfully, at the same time feeling giddy. Hey, he was whispering right into her ear. It tickled, and she liked being this close to him.
"Yeah. I do. They're so young...they never got ambushed by Rider spies. They don't even think the Riders are a threat, if they know about them at all." Legolas leaned forward, getting a better look at them. As he did so, a strand of hair fell across his face. She resisted the urge to tuck it back behind his ear, and just settled for taking advantage of his preoccupation to just gaze at him. She was suddenly tired of resisting urges. The next one that came along, she gave into it, and shoved him in the water. Off balance, he toppled in head-first. She collapsed on the platform, laughing helplessly. He surfaced, treading water and looking like he couldn't believe what just happened, grinning like a maniac.
"What was-! What did you do that for?" She grinned back.
"Come on. The way you were sitting? You were just begging for it. Need help up?" He shrugged and swam over, grabbing her outstretched hand. "I'm warning you now: If you pull me in and the water messes up whatever potion Awaren used on me, I'll use what remaining limbs are left to me and make sure you have less. Got it?"
"You know, you just have to go and ruin everything, don't you?"
"Do you want up or not?"
"All right, come on, help me up." With a heave, she got him out of the water up to his waist. He grabbed on to the platform with the other hand and hauled himself out. "Thanks. It's cold right about now. It feels...odd." She frowned.
"How so?"
"You know how Tracie was talking about how that arrowhead of yours would kill the lake?" She nodded slowly.
"Like that." She leaned forward, then stopped.
"Promise not to push me in?" He nodded.
"I promise. In fact, if you fall, I'll help you up." Without saying anything to that, she stretched out flat on her stomach and reached out a hand, sinking it in the icy blue water. Cold, yes, but not colder than normal...but there was something there, like a film of invisible oil, tainting the water.
"Black steel." She drew out the arrow, and held it over the water. Like a magnet, it pulled itself towards the water. She gripped it tightly, thwarting its intentions. Undaunted, the water leapt at it. Startled, she jumped back just as Legolas yanked her back more forcefully than he probably intended. The water slid back, leaving no evidence that it had just refuted everything they knew about the behavior of the substance. Without a word being spoken, they got up and went back inside.
A/N: I'm trying to update a chapter a day, maybe more, but if I'm late, I have a darned good reason. Enjoy!
A/N: Read on!
"Where are we? I never thought to ask." Tracie pointed to the window.
"The most posh sick ward in Wanderer's Glade, of course. Do you think we'd allow less?" She grinned, knowing she was in Awaren's vast palace on the lake. Nevertheless, she enjoyed the view, so she went to the window. Sparkling blue water of the lake, ringed with snow-fed waterfalls, the intricate workmanship of Elf houses in the grassy sward on shore, the immense trees, not quite as large as mallorns, but still forbidingly huge, that ringed the entire valley built with more work-of-art houses. An overwhelming sense of wonder was surging from Delaney, who had been laying dormant through this all, so strong that it affected her own feelings.
"This is amazing," she said, Delaney's words in her mouth, like she had never seen it before! She sent Delaney a mental message to back off. She responded by lashing out with something she could only describe as a mental whip. Where did she learn to do that? It hurt! Luckily, her friends didn't see anything amiss.
"Good to be alive, huh?"
"Don't you know it. Were you hurt in the battle? How long was I out?" She suddenly found that she had a hundred questions, and Delaney a hundred more. Oh no, she thought, this is my mind, my body, got it? I'll ask my questions, and you stay out of it. There was no backlash this time; she took that as a good sign.
"Nothing major. A gash on my arm, but it was shallow, only about two inches across. These human blades are pitiful next to our work, you know, awful tempering, always going dull...oh yes, injuries. Well, the gash, a broken toe when I jumped on that guy, and one heck of a splinter when I grabbed some scout's spear before it could find me. Any other time I would complain, but you've been out for a week, and I find it in myself to count myself as lucky." Tracie pulled out her knife, Steelsings, that had been in her family for countless generations and twirled it idly between her fingers as she spoke. "So, should we go on and look for Awaren?"
"No need, no need." He walked up to them and took her hand, checking her pulse. "Are you sure you're up to getting out of bed, Rosellyn? How are you feeling? Dizzy? Your chest wounds, are they hurting? I'm more concerned about those than your arm, even though that's no skinned knee."
"Well, my posture is improving...am I going to be able to spin knives with my left arm? Am I going to be able to at least bend it?"
"Oh, you should have waited for me! I was hoping to run into you. With the proper treatment, your arm should be as good as new. Here, let me see your arm." He drew out a vial from his belt pouch and took a gentle but firm grip right above the wound. He unwrapped the bandages around her arm, and she winced at the wound.
"This is taking the training yard's slight mishaps when some idiot walks in front of someone firing those blunted arrows to a whole different level," observed Forest unhelpfully. Tracie looked sick. She couldn't see Legolas's expression; the angle was wrong. Awaren gently dabbed some of the potion in the vial on the cut. It stung for five seconds or so, then the sensation faded. He stoppered the vial and tucked it into her hand.
"Put this on the arm every morning, and you'll slowly regain flexibility. Not much we can do for the chest wounds except wait...oh, here's a souvenir." He reached into his belt pouch and pulled out a tarnished arrow head. "I extracted that from your arm. You'll want to polish it, I suppose. Blood can do funny things to steel, you know." With a smile, he walked off. Forest watched him go with an odd look on his face.
"I never know if he's serious or if he has a sick sense of humor." She rubbed it on some clean bandage and it came away untarnished, wickedly glittering black steel.
"A bit of both, I'd guess. It comes with the job. Should I just throw it into the lake right now or keep it as a...souvenir?" Tracie shook her head so hard her hair went flapping on its ends.
"Do you want to kill the lake? Bury it far from the wood if you don't want it, but I don't trust that black steel is ever completely clean." Legolas's ears perked up at the mention of black steel.
"That's true black steel? Men never use black steel, it's too hard for them to get." Forest gestured at Legolas's sheathed knife.
"What about your knife, then? Black Fury, is it called?" With a fluid motion, Legolas unsheathed it and held it out for examination. While the blade of Rosellyn's knives were both a silver almost bright enough to be called white, Legolas's was made completely out of black steel, darker than pitch, or midnight, with a luster that couldn't be classified. It was neither dull nor the high sheen of obsidian, but something altogether different, and sharp as a razor. It was a knife to be envied among the Elves. She held out the arrow head in the palm of her hand. The two looked exactly the same.
"Yes, that's black steel, but I said Men never use it, because they don't have a friendship with the Dwarves that mine it. If they have enough to be using them on arrow heads, which they will most likely lose, something's wrong."
"I'm sure Awaren knows that, Legolas. If he didn't tell us, it's because he knows we'll figure it out on our own, or he didn't want to panic us."
"Panic? Why would we panic?" Tracie wanted to know. Her twin didn't take this outlook, however, and the color started draining from his face.
"What do you mean, why would we panic? Trace, this is bad. It means that some of the Dwarves have either betrayed us or they're double dealing. Do you know what this could mean?" Tracie scoffed.
"It isn't like there's only one Dwarf tribe that mines black steel..."
"Don't you see, though? No, of course you don't. These younger children today just don't grasp these fine details..." he ducked as his sister took a swipe at him and took off as she chased him down the hall, screaming as she went:
"It's only sixteen minutes, do you hear me? Sixteen minutes! Come back here!" They watched them streak down the hall, both fast as Elves go, screaming at the top of their lungs, earning disapproving looks from the older Elves as they passed. Then they glared at Legolas and herself, as if they had started this. She watched them go wistfully, knowing she couldn't run until her chest had completely healed. That might take awhile, those cuts were deep, some of them...
It then hit her that the hall was deserted. She and Legolas were alone. She suddenly became very nervous, and looked at the ground. Luckily, Legolas was still looking after where Tracie and Forest had gone, and didn't notice her sudden rush of adrenaline. Then, just as rapidly as it came, it left her even more drained than she had been before Tracie and Forest left. She sat down, exhausted. Legolas was immediately squatting down beside her, the picture of concern, as he had been when she first woke up. Delaney had been up until then silent, so restive that she had even forgotten someone else was inside her head. But with Legolas so close, and with them alone, Delaney made an attempt to resurface. Frantically she beat her down, scared silly what she might do. She really was getting better at this; Delaney slid back. A whisper reverberated through her mind, something she never experienced before. ~Please?~ What was this? She tried to send another message to Delaney. Were they actually communicating, for the first time? Intriguing. -No. He's mine.- Laughter, no more than an echo in her mind. At least it wasn't loud. ~Well, you've got a funny way of proving it.~ She remembered what Delaney had done to her earlier, a mental whip? She imagined a whip, a whip made of the finest cord, and gave her a light lick with it; any harder would have seriously hurt, and since Delaney was trying to take over her body, she really had to think about these things. She didn't realize her feet weren't touching the ground until after she was finished wrestling with Delaney inside her mind.
"Legolas? What?" He was carrying her, she realized.
"Hush. You nearly fainted. You're in no position whatsoever to walk." If this felt so nice, why did she always try to get out of being touched by Legolas? ~Because you're a wimp,~ said Delaney tartly. She decided to ignore that.
"I'm an Elf, and thus I have perfect balance...put me down." Legolas laughed.
"You're being silly, that's what you are. You've lost a lot of blood, you've completely over-done yourself, and you're not in any condition to even stand. I think your balance is taking a few days off."
"Please don't take me to Awaren," she pleaded, "or I'll never see the outside again." He looked down at her with faint amusement written on his features.
"Fear not, my fair maiden. Outside is exactly where we're going. Thou shalt see the sparkling water, and feel the kiss of sunlight on thy skin once more." Legolas could really go into the over-dramatic category when he wanted to be. Satisfied that she might escape Awaren's house, pleasant as it might be, she snuggled in and let him carry her. She might as well make the most of it, right? Speaking of kissing... Delaney stirred a little at this, but didn't try another take over attempt. If anything, she seemed a little pleased and contented, emotions that Rosellyn didn't usually associate with her odd companion. It was probably lucky that they didn't meet anyone on their way to the platform, but she wished that someone could see her like this. Not Tracie, though. Tracie would just have more ammunition to tease her about. Tracie was just not affected by Legolas's grin and laugh as badly as she was. No one came down this hallway, though. Only the younger crowd remembered there was a platform here, and it was the prettiest spot on the house. It was a shame that the elders should miss out, but a non-crowded platform had its advantages. Peace and quiet would be welcome. Plus a chance to be out in a pretty setting with Legolas. She felt an immediate change when they finally got out side. Mirkwood always had an aura of contentment about it, and it contributed greatly to the healing process of the mind. Men from the friendlier nations often brought patients here to recuperate from devastating injuries, and the Elves were more than happy to assist. She squirmed around.
"Okay, put me down. I think I can stand now." He complied this time, and she stood, if a bit unsteadily, on her own.
"Try walking." She did, a few tottering steps, as though she was an infant again. She didn't walk very far, but walk she did.
"Okay." He sat down, watching her intently. She caught the look he gave her. "Really. You know how the air helps." He nodded.
"That I do. I've never had these little sicknesses that Men are always complaining about. It must be horrible to live in the realms of Men."
"If they're so mighty, how come they can't even hit 100?"
"Exactly." He laughed. Then he reached up and pushed her down next to him. "Now sit. Air or no air, you still need to rest." She stuck her tongue out at him, but sat.
"You sound like Awaren."
"He makes sense, you know. Rest really is good for the body that's recovering from serious injuries."
"I thought you never listened in the class." He looked comically hurt.
"What ever would give you that idea?"
"Hm, it would have to be the loud snoring coming from the back of the class in your general direction."
"Don't let that fool you. I really don't listen." She laughed. It felt good to laugh on the inside, even if it wreaked havoc on her outside. She shimmied up to the edge of the platform and dipped her toes in the lake. The water was powerfully icy, as usual, and refreshing. Across the way, younger Elf children played on the shore, all equal to the cold, swimming and playing. Her Elf-eyes caught the shine of droplets as two little Elf boys, they couldn't be more than 700 years or so, splashed each other, screaming happily. "You miss that, don't you?" He whispered, catching sight of what she was looking at. She nodded wistfully, at the same time feeling giddy. Hey, he was whispering right into her ear. It tickled, and she liked being this close to him.
"Yeah. I do. They're so young...they never got ambushed by Rider spies. They don't even think the Riders are a threat, if they know about them at all." Legolas leaned forward, getting a better look at them. As he did so, a strand of hair fell across his face. She resisted the urge to tuck it back behind his ear, and just settled for taking advantage of his preoccupation to just gaze at him. She was suddenly tired of resisting urges. The next one that came along, she gave into it, and shoved him in the water. Off balance, he toppled in head-first. She collapsed on the platform, laughing helplessly. He surfaced, treading water and looking like he couldn't believe what just happened, grinning like a maniac.
"What was-! What did you do that for?" She grinned back.
"Come on. The way you were sitting? You were just begging for it. Need help up?" He shrugged and swam over, grabbing her outstretched hand. "I'm warning you now: If you pull me in and the water messes up whatever potion Awaren used on me, I'll use what remaining limbs are left to me and make sure you have less. Got it?"
"You know, you just have to go and ruin everything, don't you?"
"Do you want up or not?"
"All right, come on, help me up." With a heave, she got him out of the water up to his waist. He grabbed on to the platform with the other hand and hauled himself out. "Thanks. It's cold right about now. It feels...odd." She frowned.
"How so?"
"You know how Tracie was talking about how that arrowhead of yours would kill the lake?" She nodded slowly.
"Like that." She leaned forward, then stopped.
"Promise not to push me in?" He nodded.
"I promise. In fact, if you fall, I'll help you up." Without saying anything to that, she stretched out flat on her stomach and reached out a hand, sinking it in the icy blue water. Cold, yes, but not colder than normal...but there was something there, like a film of invisible oil, tainting the water.
"Black steel." She drew out the arrow, and held it over the water. Like a magnet, it pulled itself towards the water. She gripped it tightly, thwarting its intentions. Undaunted, the water leapt at it. Startled, she jumped back just as Legolas yanked her back more forcefully than he probably intended. The water slid back, leaving no evidence that it had just refuted everything they knew about the behavior of the substance. Without a word being spoken, they got up and went back inside.
A/N: I'm trying to update a chapter a day, maybe more, but if I'm late, I have a darned good reason. Enjoy!