Hey peeps, sorry for the delay. I got a busy life and even when I try to put aside time to do my fics, something finds the habit of getting in the way.!
My beta is busy at the moment so I posted this after my boyfriend read this over. Any faults – its his fault!ï
The Battle Begins.
Morning came, creeping slowly behind the snow laden clouds as it snowed on a new day. Within the bedroom with its curtains drawn, laid upon the bed with limbs intertwined and sheets drawn up, the faint smell of sweat and sex hung in the air accompanied by two sets of even breathing. Legolas laid there, eyes closed as he daydreamed, drifting in and out of sleep, forever aware of the woman asleep in his arms. His ears picked up the first sounds of people waking and venturing downstairs, the creaks of the floor boards and he whispers of people walking down corridors. Serena stirred in her sleep and sigh. He smiled and opening one eye, looked down at the prone slumbering woman with her dark halo of hair spread about her pillow and the rise and fall of her ample bosom. Perfect. He wrapped his arms round her tighter, relishing the way her body was causing him to react in such close proximity, such a strong heat that seared him from that one spot that betrayed the fact that he was aroused. Serena stirred again, this time with such accidental deliberance that her buttocks moved and pressed squarely against his groin, causing him to buck against her and her to awake.
"What's wrong?" Serena mumbled as she rolled over on her stomach and looked up at him with sleepy eyes.
"Nothing." Legolas smiled.
"Morning." She snuggled up to him, wanting to be enveloped by those long, taunt arms. She stretched lazily like a cat and yawned. She stopped mid-yawn when she felt something and moved her hip experimentally and felt it again. Propping her head up on her elbow she looked down at him, ignoring his innocent face as she rose one eyebrow. His secret was out.
If Legolas our Elven prince and king could blush, he would but he had to settle with a helpless shrug and a grin, "That's your fault."
"My fault?" Serena feigned horror as he too rose up on one elbow, "Yes, your fault. Lying there in my arms and moving against me like you did."
"I was asleep!" Serena laughed as he pulled her down and laid on top of her, the subject of their conversation prodding her proudly in the stomach.
"I only got your word for that haven't I?" he smiled wickedly and decided to make her pay by attacking her exposed neck with kisses. His assault proved right when she moaned and dug her fingers into his scalp.
"Bastard." She whispered when his hands pulled her waist close against his, indicating to her what he wanted.
"Yeah but you love me really." He whispered back into her ear as he entered her in one swift motion.
And that morning the elf made it very clear how much of a bastard he could be.
"Ah finally..." Glorfindel exclaimed then glanced at his watched, "At four o clock in the afternoon you two decide to venture downstairs. Longest record yet." The elf sat smiling triumphantly as Legolas and Serena entered the kitchen, Serena ducked her head and hurried to a seat as Legolas muttered something about Balrogs not completing its job.
"You're just in time for dinner." Cookie smiled as she began laying out trays of vegetables and potatoes.
"Hey , pull my cracker." Glorfidnel waved a gold cracker under Legolas's nose, the elf sigh and obeyed, deliberately losing to the golden haired elf who cackled with glee as he pulled out his prize of a pink plastic compact brush. He settled the paper hat on his head and looked at Legolas who was trying very hard not to laugh. "A brush...how very appropriate." He smiled as the elf known as 'golden hair' hat slid over his eyes whilst he was pouring the gravy, resulting in a minor spillage and a string of curses.
Serena sat across her table, also wearing a paper hat and reading out aloud her joke, "Where does a king keep his armies?"
"A fort?" Legolas shrugged as he served himself two potatoes but Glorfindel was determined to do better, "A barracks? Camp? Castle? In his pants?"
Ignoring his silly suggestion Serena shook her head and read out the answer, "In his sleeves."
Glorfindel laughed as did the others around the table but Legolas only frowned, "Wait, I don't understand that."
"Your sense of humour needs working on...a lot." Glorfindel slapped his friend on his back, sending the brussel sprout that was impaled on his fork to go flying across the table and Legolas to choke.
"Oops." Glorfindel patted his back as Legolas took a few hearty gulps of water to breath again, shooting him some very dark looks.
Somewhere in a nearby hallway, a phone rang. Its shrill call caused Legolas and Glorfindel to rise to their feet simultaneously. "I'll get it." Legolas said and left the room to answer the call. "Hello? Elrond.....?"
A phone call.
That was all it took for the story to take a deeper twist.
A simple thing constructed from fibre optics, plastic and electricity.
Combine that with a few evasive words of order, and a gut feeling. It's a nasty mixture to fall victim to. And unfortunately two elves and one human was at the mercy of this mixture as they hurriedly packed their bags, pulled the car outwards on the road to London and all done in silence.
As they drew closer to London and the darkness of the night falling, the silence growing unbearable as Legolas drove, his eyes always fixed on the road. Glorfindel absently looking out at the window despite it being dark. And Serena sat in the back, chewing her finger nails which was a bad habit of hers when she was nervous.
All unaware they were being followed by the most unholy creature to originate from Sauron's army. It flew with its fingers unfurled, eyes empty and blood cold. Never stopping and always gaining.
If only Legolas for once took his eyes off the road to look in the mirror.
For what a mirror could tell...
A single picture is worth a thousands words..........
And all of those words spelled one thing....death.
Legolas slowed the car as he pulled up to the traffic lights. Somewhere along the journey Glorfindel turned on the radio and it was now playing some classical music. The dark night was heavy and the hazy red light of the traffic light was mocking him as those seconds he waited became hours...
A startled gasp caught his attention and both he and Glorfindel looked over their shoulders back at the woman who sat confused as she stared out the window.
"What?" he asked.
"Nothing...thought I saw something...probably nothing." Serena shook her head but didn't turn to look at him, her eyes remained fixed as she scanned the view for any signs.
Both Legolas and Glorfindel exchange a glance and both knew they were thinking the same thing...she did see something. They both gasped simultaneously as a great wave of the purest fear swept through their bodies.
"You felt that." Glorfindel looked over to his friend to see him sitting ram rod straight in his chair, fingers gripping the steering wheel and his eyes screwed shut. He reluctantly opened them and nodded. "Its been a long time since I felt something so raw like that."
"What? What's going on? What's out there?" Serena voice becoming more shrill as she looked at the two elves buckle in fear.
This time she too felt it, an unseen force that lifted her stomach and dropped it, causing her heart to hammer and adrenaline to pump furiously in her blood.
"Oh....my....god." she breathed, her chest restricted as she closed her eyes.
"Its not god I tell you that." Glorfindel looked over his shoulder as if to see what was it behind them. "It's a Nazgul...a ring wraith."
"And not any Nazgul...it's the witch king." Legolas looked over at his friend who nodded in confirmation. Their memories recollecting the pure fear eradiated from the creature, being close in his presence along was torture enough, but to die in his hands...unspeakable.
"What are we waiting for? Drive!" Serena yelled, her voice echoed in Legolas's mind as he numbly acknowledged it with a squeal of tyres and the roar of the engine, ignoring the red lights and hurling round the roundabout at such a speed that the back wheels refused to correspond with those that were leading. Legolas handled the car like a rally driver, no sooner had he straightened out the car in one lane has he turned it sharply into another.
"Where is he?" Legolas barked at Glorfindel who looked into his mirror, "It's too dark!" he wailed, his hair whirling round him as he looked behind them over his seat. As if on cue, there was a thud on the roof of the car and Legolas's driving momentarily faltered as all eyes stared at the roof. They could see it slowly curling and rumpling like a crisp packet, the feelings of horror and death shuddering their nerves and souls as Glorfindel sharply elbowed Legolas and whispered, "Drive!"
Serena was thrown back into the seat as Legolas catapulted the car down the motorway, the shrill beeps of vehicles whirling past in a blur were lost on their ears as the roof suddenly caved in, pinning Serena to her seat and blocking her view of Glrofindel and Legolas.
"Serena!" Legolas scream rattled her ears as she stirred, the huge indention had trapped one of her legs against the metal roof and what made it worst....she could hear it. Hear it scrapping it nails against the metal, forcing it to give way....
She could smell the putrid smell of age, of dust and of fear, bringing forth the bile in her stomach.
She could see his robes spilling free of the metal cocoon that held him away from the safety within the car, then his gauntlet clad hand complete with blade like nails and then the shroud like hood that concealed the most blackest of black shadow where his head should be.
Through the din of the car grinding to a halt, two sets of heavy thuds on the windows accompanied by two series of calls, Serena whispered, her eyes never leaving the creature who pulled the metal apart in one final motion. "Leg...Legolas?"
"Greenleaf....ring walker." The creature hissed and twitched its head at the recognition of the name, it slowly turned and looked out the window to where Legolas was pounding on the door.
"No!" Serena screamed as the creature took a lunge at Legolas who froze outside the window, his eyes wide and mouth dropped open. And she did the only thing that she could think of. throwing herself despite the hindrance of her trapped leg, in front of the creature as it smashed the window.
It was weird as to how the darkness smothered her yet caress her wearies away. She was floating, suspended somewhere between consciousness and deep slumber that even claims immortals. She blinked, staring up at the light sky as the waves of contentment lapped around her, she turned her head to look around her to see a small star dancing on the horizon, glimmering like a beacon.
It flitted and she smiled, one hand outstretched in an attempt to grasp it and draw it close but when her fingers came upon contact the most unholy scream shook her ears and she felt herself thrown dizzily towards the light, hurling at full force and nausea swept over her.
She stirred to feel the cold, wet tarmac beneath her. Alert at once, she sat upright to see the car in front of her suddenly blow up as the ringwraith slammed full force into the vehicle. As the car spun around from the force of the explosion, the creature gave a shrill cry and flew up into the night sky in a ball of flames. She watched it writher and hiss as it flew high into the night sky till it disappeared. She winced in pain as she started to stand upright to only realise she had glass embedded in her hand and tiny shards were lodged in her hair.
"Serena!" a cry echoed dully in her mind as she fought the strong, compelling waves of nausea and dizziness. She saw the blazing glow of the flame-licked car and as she blinked, the image sharpened to reveal Legolas and Glorfindel frantically searching the car, trying to avoid the flames that cackled dangerously.
She went to call out to them that she was fine, that she was behind them but a sight left her speechless as she watched with eyes wide in horror. The ring wraith has come back, oblivious to the flames that burned his robes, with fingers unfurled and outstretched for Legolas. Like a huge eagle with deadly precision, the wraith grabbed Legolas round his throat like a limp doll and flew upwards, shaking the elf as he screamed and kicked frantically but in vain. In one desperate rescue attempt, Glorfindel grabbed a piece of the burning wreckage of the car and waved it around, trying to scare the wraith into dropping its prey but the creature flew out over the moors where a cry of pain was heard. Serena screamed at the prospect of Legolas being injured, torn apart from limb to limb. Tears stung her face and driven by some unseen force that some could call love and devotion, she started running blindly in the general direction taken by the wraith.
A loud explosion caused Serena to throw herself on the grass and cover her head, she looked up to see someone was firing at the wraith with missiles. She scrambled to her feet and saw that on a road half a mile away were several military looking jeeps with what looked to be men armed with rocket launchers positioned on their shoulders.
"Noooooo!" she screamed helplessly as she realised that although they had good intentions, it may kill Legolas – that if he was still alive. Helplessly, she watched the wraith try to dodge the missiles that exploded in orange balls of fire. Illuminated by the light of one such explosion, she saw with a sick feeling, the wraith has dropped Legolas who fell for what seemed forever and even from a far distance, Serena heard the sickly crunch of his body impacting the ground. With a scream she started running, ignoring the wet grass soaking up jeans, the sting of the gorse bushes she fell into and the painful jarring of her ankle as she stumbled over what was a rabbit hole. She ran, lungs screaming, voice whimpering and heart breaking to find him, wherever he was.
Serena's search wasn't carried out alone. After a brief reconciliation with Glorfindel who wouldn't let her go, they encountered the force that were firing at the ringwraith. They were elves, specially trained combatants that dealt with various situations that were far evolved for the normal military to cope with. When they heard that Legolas was missing, they revealed to Serena that Legolas was their comrade and officer and the search was renewed with vigour. No stone was left unturned and the elves combed the area in the dead of the night, each aware that they need to find Legolas or otherwise he would be most certainly dead by the morning. The search wasn't made easy by several sightings of the wraith nearby and thus a watch was set up, so that upon a sighting an alarm will sound. Serena, the only mortal there, despite exhaustions and her own injuries from what she learnt were sustained from when she was thrown out the car window by the wraith, carried on searching relentlessly.
Tears came and went, and it wasn't until the sky has broken and the velvet of the night faded away to reveal the first on the mornings rays did Serena buckle down and cry. She sobbed, hoping that some one will comfort her, will tell her he's still alive and they must carry on searching but no one came. She looked up to see Glorfindel held his head in his hands, sitting some feet away. Even the officers searching stopped still and began murmuring prayers as the sun slowly rise. Hope was lost and Serena slowly stood to her feet, tears running down her face as she carried on searching, aware of the elves staring at her.
What drove Serena to search alone for the man she loved, the elves could never understand. Although they were beings that loved to an overwhelming passion in comparison to humans, they knew when to stop, they knew when to let go despite what will become of themselves. It was in this selfless act of continuing her search by herself that the elves saw what they saw in one such being all those years ago and that was where they began recalling the similarity in strength between Serena, a mortal unknown woman to the mortal King Elessar or otherwise known as Aragron. Such startling similarities made the elves witness there and then that in Serena, the strength of men still existed. Even after all this time. After all the allegiances that were broken. After all those great cities succumbed to ruins and rubble.
There arose a single source of hope that ties will be renewed, that a great force will awaken to defeat the enemy once again and the world will open their eyes to see that those fairytales were in fact reality. And all seen in one frail, bloodied and tear streaked woman weakly calling out for Legolas, the last ringwalker.
