Yup, it's me again; Queenie! ^_^ Any questions about Chapter 2, don't ask me! That is Estel's job... ^_^
Just so you know, I got a serious case of writer's block doing this; I wrote up to when Legolas walks forward, the rest is Estel's, of course with some minor changes by me...
I'm really sorry for not adding this chapter sooner, but there's been a lot going on at the moment and I just haven't had the time. Sorry!!!
Reviewer Replies
Deana; Thanks! We're enjoying writing it! ^_^
Jamie; Thanks!
websterans; Thanks very much!
LOTR Chic; Both Estel & I adore the Twins, and naturally we have a soft spot for Aragorn & Legolas too... ^_~
elfmage; Oh no, we've already built our army!!! =) They tried to run, but our specially bred Orcs caught up with them anyway! Lol, motto is- Never spoil the plot! Otherwise you'd all just walk off without reading, eh? Thanks for reviewing!
lulu bell; Jeez, your reviews are as long as my average chapter length!!! ^_^ Woah, that is one nasty sounding teacher!!! =S Our exams? Well, our government likes to pile the pressure on us, so we get them when we're 7, 11, 14 (plus any extras that the schools want to give us) then GCSEs when we're 16 (have to study for 2 years for them!) then if we want to carry on our education we do A-levels then go to college or university... more exams there!!! Phew! It's a lot, but we have to get by! I like it here in England (not sure what Estel thinks though) ; I'm a Londoner, so it's cool here in the city, but what I really love is the countryside. I adore going there; it's just like the Shire when you look at it! What is the US like? I'd love to go...
LazarusZ; Thanks!
Ellie in ElfPajamas; It's ok, we know we can't please everybody! Thanks for reviewing anyway! ^_^
Kyliah; Thanks! ^_^ We both love reading your reviews!!!
randomramblings; Lol, living up to your name now, aren't you! ^_^ Thanks for the review!
So, the story... you were wondering why this was a Drama fic? You'll find out now...
Chapter Three
So far, it had all gone exactly according to plan. The four 'poachers' had snuck away a few hours earlier, dodging the watchful gaze of Elrond by leading their horses up the well worn path by the falls, heading west towards Amberley.
They had, as Estel had suggested, gotten a good hard gallop towards the little settlement, and now, as the Sun began to reach its peak of midday, they had arrived at their destination.
Opting not to actually enter Amberley, for the people there, though they had seen Elves before, may have been curious as to why three had left the haven of Rivendell and their own appointed hunting grounds to come to theirs, and why they were travelling with a teenage human. There was also the fact that they were poaching; they didn't want to bring unwanted attention to themselves...
A wild boar slowly trotted along in the muddy meadow, its pig-like nose close to the ground, sniffing noisily, making a gruff oinking noise.
The unsuspecting creature didn't notice the four pairs of bright eyes stalking it from a nearby bush.
"It sounds like Estel when he's sleeping!" whispered Elrohir. The young man scowled and punched him on the arm.
Elladan sighed. "Shut up, both of you!" he hissed angrily. "You'll scare it off!"
Silence fell once more between the four. The boar slowly foraged around, stopping to chew at points on some sort of interesting meal it had found; most likely worms or the like.
Legolas leaned over slightly. "Estel, get your arrow ready."
Estel complied obediently. The arrow was loosely nocked onto the string, before Legolas shuffled a little closer. "Now aim... concentrate!"
The youngster squinted his left eye slightly, concentrating hard on his target. The tip of the arrow pointed directly at the boar's thick neck. He drew back, and...
"Legolas!" he hissed.
The Mirkwood Elf, who had been watching over his friend's shoulder to make sure he was aiming correctly, looked at Estel, who had turned his head sharply over his shoulder.
"What? What's wrong?" he asked. Estel had been doing everything perfectly well, wonderfully well...
"Stop breathing down my neck!"
Legolas swallowed. "Sorry..."
Turning back, Estel squinted again and re-aimed. He drew back his right arm and shot...
Without warning, a bitter wind blew from the North. It stung Estel's eyes just as he released his arrow, causing the brown shaft to sail gracefully off course and land just by the animal's hind foot. It squealed noisily and took off across the meadow, heading for the woods.
"Get after it!!!" cried Elladan.
Had anyone been passing by, they would have received quite a shock as three Elves and a human burst from the foliage and began chasing the wild boar, which grunted and squealed as its stout legs carried it across the mud and grass.
"Quick!" shouted Elrohir. "If it gets in there, we'll lose it!"
Estel, not quite as fast as his brothers and friend, gradually began falling behind. Legolas shot a look back and slowed slightly.
"Dan! Ro! Wait!" he called. Estel soon caught up with him.
"Why are you... slowing... down?" asked Estel, pausing to breath.
"I've got an idea," replied Legolas as they reached where the twins had paused.
"What's wrong?" asked Elladan.
"Nothing, nothing," said Estel. "Legolas says he's got an idea."
"So that's what is wrong," Elrohir commented sarcastically.
Legolas glared at him before beginning. "I'll go into the wood and I'll flush it out, while you three wait out here to shoot it."
The others thought it over for mere seconds.
"I like it!" said Elladan. "We wait here, nice and peacefully, not to mention clean, while our dear sweaty, muddy Prince here has the joy of running after an insane boar in an attempt to get it to turn around."
Elrohir grinned. "The perfect plan..."
~*~*~*~
The trees were tall here, the gold and red and brown leaves fluttering like feathers towards the ground. The forest floor was littered with the remains of summer been and gone, the odd squirrel climbing hastily up a strong trunk bark. The scene was tranquil... calm...
"Get back here you beast!" roared Legolas angrily. The boar thundered through the woods, darting between various trees and dodging the increasingly annoyed Elf.
The boar was leading him deeper into the forest. The sun was casting longer and darker shadows across the ground, making the whole place darker.
"Maybe I should give up," thought Legolas. "There's got to be more game around than this problematic creature..."
The branches of the tree spread out further here, sometimes snagging on his clothes, forcing him to stop and untangle himself. He heard a snuffling noise and turned back to where the boar had been barely seconds ago...
"Darn thing's gone..." he groaned. He finally pulled his cloak loose from the twigs and walked forward.
Even with his keen elven ears, he could only faintly detect the scuffling sounds of the triumphantly escaping boar as it disappeared through the trees. Legolas sighed. Losing boars he could deal with; telling Dan and Ro? That was a completely different matter altogether...
Readjusting his cloak on his shoulder, he turned and stalked his way back through the forest. Perhaps he would find something on the way out? Oh yes... a squirrel; that'll impress them, a sarcastic voice in the back of his head droned... just imagine; Legolas, Prince of Mirkwood, spending the entire afternoon chasing a cursed squirrel through the woods...
The icy wind that had earlier hit Estel began whistling once more through the leaves, whispering and murmuring at him. Frowning at the unusual song the autumn leaves were sighing, Legolas inadvertently picked up his pace, and shivered slightly at the brisk cold. When he realised he was doing it, his frown deepened... He shouldn't be feeling the cold... come to think of it, he'd never felt the cold before in all of his long life...
The mumbling in the trees grew louder as the bone-chilling wind picked up, faster and faster all around him; his hair whirled like leaves caught in an updraft and his cloak whipped around his legs as he blindly stumbled on in what he thought - or rather, had begun to hope was the right direction. Unreasonable and illogical fear set up a faint residence in his heart - he had never become lost in woodland before, nor had he ever felt the biting weather as he did now - where was that meadow?! Shouldn't he be there by now?
All at once, he found himself no longer harassed by the branches on the trees, and as the wind died down a little, he saw he had wondered into a small glen through which a bubbling brook merrily ran, and continued as a glistening stream, winding a path through the trees and out onto -
"The meadow!" he cried happily, and as the dying red sun lighted him with her last few rays, he grinned to himself; honestly, being afraid of that... No, he hadn't really been afraid... See? Even now, he was forgetting it all... in fact, peering through the trees, he could actually see three dark and distant figures on the other side of the meadow, waiting anxiously. By some fluke, he had rounded them, and come out on the other side of the grassland. He sniggered to himself; oh he could have some fun with this alright.
He made to follow the stream down through the gaps in the trees, and scare his companions with - oh, say silently sneaking up them? It would be easy to do this to Estel, and true, it would be a little more difficult to scare Elladan and Elrohir, but Woodland Elves like himself were known to be able to far more silent when stalking than their Noldor cousins. The looks on their faces would be classic.
Except, that plan was never followed through. He never even reached the trees.
Stepping forwards, he felt the icy wind blow like a tornado around him, concealing him in a tight cocoon of swirling dusty air and dead leaves. He tried to call out or even cough, but only succeeded in drawing debris into his lungs; he choked and stumbled blindly, his sense of elven balance gone as he uselessly waved his arms around in an attempt to pull free of the unknown phenomenon.
The wind literally tore through his tunic and shirt, and caused great gashes in his skin, and as the crimson liquid seeped through his clothes and a cold, the like of which he had never felt before gripped his heart and pulled and squeezed, as if trying to rip it from his chest.
They say that before you die, you will see... something. A light at the end of a tunnel; a host of angels; maybe even Eru himself... Well, if idle mortal tales are to be believed, then the being Legolas saw swimming in front of his eyes was a minion of Morgoth himself. Glowering red eyes pored into the Prince's, his shadowy, inky face dancing and twirling and reaching out towards him with icy, vice hazy arms...
In that moment, Legolas slowly began to feel strength ebbing away from him. It may have been the cold - but bit by bit, it felt as through something was tearing his heart, his soul, his very essence from its physical binding to claim for its own demonic purposes. And to his own horror, Legolas felt his will to fight seeping away like the blood from his wounds, and as every second passed, his resistance grew weaker... and weaker... and weaker...
In a last ditch attempt to save what he knew was his life, Legolas screamed. A high pitched, spine chilling scream, that echoed around the small valleys for miles; children in Amberley went running to their mother's arms; the husbands grabbed swords and axes and prepared for a terrible battle; animals scattered and fled in pure fear; for the sound of a soul being ripped from its body could not be even imagined in Middle Earth. Across the meadow, three figures froze in terror, and slowly turned to face the sound. Past all the pain, the agony, the grief... they recognised that voice.
In an instant, it was over. The winds disappeared with a swift sharpness, leaving him numb and cold. The world around him seemed old and worn and grey, like a fading painting in the failing castle of a dying King. Breathing deeply, he tried to pull himself together and shaking, he gradually pulled himself onto his knees and using a nearby branch for support, heaved himself to his feet just as Estel, Elladan and Elrohir came bursting through the trees by the stream.
He looked up at them and smiled weakly, expecting a bombardment of questions to which he did not know the answer... But they weren't looking at him. Estel's young dark silvery-blue eyes, shot full of fear, were not resting upon the Prince, and nor were the ancient grey eyes of the twins. They were fixed to a spot on the ground just behind him. Legolas gulped nervously and closed his own eyes in despair. Keeping them closed, he wished and prayed with all his might that it was all just an awful dream...
Spinning on the boots of his heels, he turned to face what caused his friends such horror... and saw his own body, lying sprawled on the floor, deathly pale, unmoving, empty glassed eyes staring at the sky.
~*~*~*~
So... what did you think? =)