Chapter 11
Old Dreams
The three elves and the human rode as hard as they could through the long hours of the dark night. Even their horses seemed to sense the urgency of their mission and ran without pause or complaint until, just a few hours before the sun was to come over the top of the mountains, the horses and riders finally stopped to rest.
As the three elves and the human dismounted, all were quick to note, not only the uneasy feeling every one of them got from the area, but also the absence of any of the natural sounds of the forest. If the horses had not been standing there panting and lathered, the four would have remounted and moved on.
After the horses had been groomed and fed and the fire was crackling and snapping as it burned brightly within the encircling firestones, the four laid out their bedrolls, sat themselves down and for some time thereafter, just sat around the fire, talking softly to one another. Elrohir, as was his custom when camping out, carved his initials in a piece of wood before throwing it in the fire.
Shoving his hands in his pockets for warmth, Elladan felt something strange. When he pulled it out, he found that it was a piece of parchment addressed to the group in his father's handwriting, the elder elf obviously having slipped the letter to him while they were all taking their leave. Breaking the seal of the letter, the eldest twin opened the paper then called for the attention of his brothers as well as the Mirkwood Prince.
"Listen to this. It is a letter from Ada."
The others all became silent, waiting for him to read.
My sons and Prince Legolas of Mirkwood, who I think of as a son,
I cannot be more clear as to the motivations behind my writings to you although I do feel that some explanation and warning are due you as you begin your journey. There has been a terrible happening. Through some device of which we know nothing at this time, a dark and truly evil power has been unleashed upon us all. Good and evil are no longer in balance and while good is steadily weakening, the evil itself is starting to succumb to the chaos he is creating, even though it is his own singular existence that is decaying his reality. I apologize that I can say no more at this time in regards to these catastrophic events although I can, and will, again tell all of you to trust your hearts more than your eyes for the eyes can be deceived while the heart cannot. Be extra vigilant and take care of one another until you can all come home to me once more. Ada
The four sat in silence for a few moments and Elladan read the letter to himself one more time.
"Personally, I think this whole thing is a little bit strange."
"How so Estel?" Legolas looked at Aragorn, waiting for him to speak.
"First, there is this horrible windstorm making the house groan and creak like it is going to collapse on us, and then we are all attacked by giant bats." He shuddered as he remembered the gigantic winged creatures. "And just before that, Grandmother Nin comes out of nowhere and starts predicting doom and gloom and the end of the world as we know it. Now listen to what Ada has just said in his letter. And what did he tell us - nothing more than what we already know!" The young human was just expressing the frustrations the rest of them were feeling.
Legolas stared into the fire for a few moments before speaking.
"Maybe we are not supposed to know everything right up front. Maybe Ilúvatar knew that if we had started out with full knowledge of this thing or this happening or whatever you want to call it, that our minds would not have been able to process it because of the fear it caused us. We might have doomed ourselves by our own inaction."
A loud peal of thunder made the four of them jump.
Elrohir sighed.
"It has to rain - my miserable life is complete for we will now have the privilege of being both tired AND wet! Here we are, Eru only knows how far from proper shelter, and it starts to rain." He sighed again, and loudly, as if to emphasize the gravity of their situation.
They could all smell the rain and even heard it as it began to splatter on the ground around them but though all four put their hoods up over their heads in an attempt to stay as dry as possible, they felt no moisture hit them. They could hear the storm as it raged all around them and listened as the downpour hit their fire, making it hiss and spit, but when they looked to the heavens, all they saw was a clear sky. They looked at one another, puzzled.
Thunder boomed all around them and lightning flashed and though the torrential rains later changed to gentle showers, the fire continued to hiss as the rain fell upon it, yet merrily burned as though it had chosen not to acknowledge the attempts of the moisture to extinguish its flames.
They were all puzzled at the phenomenon and jumped when Aragorn spoke.
"I think it would be safe to say that this is one of the strange things that Ada was speaking of."
The three brothers watched as Legolas stood from his place by the fire, walked to a nearby tree and leaned up against it for a few moments with his eyes closed, trying to listen to whatever story it might have to tell. It was when the blonde prince once more opened his eyes and returned to the fire that the other three could see that he was frowning.
"What story do the trees tell you Legolas?"
"They say the land is merely dreaming of something that happened here long ago." He looked up at them, still frowning. "The trees tell me that the rain is nothing more than the land's dream." He repeated as if the statement might clarify the story shared with him by the trees. "How can this be so?"
Aragorn laid out on his bedroll and covered himself with his blanket, preparing to go to sleep.
"Speaking of dreams," he said, "I plan to do some dreaming of my own shortly. I do not know how the rest of you feel, but, since this rainstorm is nothing more than a dream, then I cannot get wet and therefore, it is safe to sleep and since I am tired and it is safe to sleep - I shall! Good night, or good morning, as the case may be, to you all!" Then the young human rolled away from the brightness of the fire and could be heard shortly thereafter, softly snoring.
"Humans," Legolas said softly as he gently adjusted his friend's blanket, pulling it up higher on his shoulders, "they always need so much sleep."
The three elves laughed as they, also, settled themselves down to rest.
8-) 8-) 8-) 8-)
The sun was well on its way to warming the small glade around the sleeping elves and the human before any of the four began to stir and though none noted the oddity, not one of them had woken with their usual instantaneous level of alertness. All seemed more than a little groggy and sat for some moments blinking their eyes and stretching stiff muscles before any of them got up and thought to get their small camp fire going once more. It was Elladan who noticed that his human brother had not yet woken. He reached over to him from where he sat and gently shook his shoulder noticing as he did so that the human's blanket was soaking wet.
Alarmed, he rose to his feet and quickly moved to his younger brother's side, noting that the ground beneath his feet was sodden, as if it had rained all night. Looking around him, he saw both Elrohir and Legolas looking at each other, seemingly as puzzled as he was.
"How can this be?" Elrohir queried. "The ground is wet and we are dry?"
Legolas just shrugged his shoulders. It was Elladan's small cry of dismay that brought the two of them to Aragorn's bedside as Elladan crouched beside his brother with his hand on the young Ranger's shoulder.
"He is soaking wet!"
Though still asleep, the young human was shivering almost uncontrollably. Gently Elladan shook his shoulder.
"Estel? Estel, it is time to wake up. Open your eyes on this fine morning little brother."
Slowly the young man opened his eyes although by this time, his teeth were chattering from the cold. Walking quickly back to his own bedroll, Elrohir grabbed his warm, dry blanket and while Elladan helped his little brother to sit up, Elrohir wrapped the blanket around him then helped the other two as they rubbed Estel's shivering back and arms, trying desperately to get some circulation going that would help warm him. Between the three elves, they got him, not only sitting up, but to the fire that was now burning merrily away as if it took no notice of the odd things going on around it.
"We must get him warmed up, quickly." Elladan was confused, and rightly so, wondering how the three elves could have remained dry and warm while Aragorn was soaking wet and chilled to the bone, and if he was so cold, why had not he awoken during the night? The logic did not exist that could explain what had happened.
Elrohir hung a kettle of water over the fire to heat water to make hot tea with, for the whole experience was unnerving as well as confusing to all of them and all would benefit from the comfort of holding a hot, steaming cup of tea in their hands. While the younger twin fussed around the fire getting things ready, Elladan and Legolas sat on either side of Aragorn, trying to warm him with their own body heat.
"I do not think I have been this cold in - well - never, now that I think of it!" It was difficult for his brothers and friend to understand him because his words were shaking as badly as was his body.
"Elladan, would you please come here?" There was a note of alarm in the younger twin's voice that instantly brought Elladan to his side.
"What is it?"
"Look at the wood in this fire and tell me what you see for I fear I am seeing things that are not there."
When the eldest twin looked at the fire, he saw nothing but wood burning.
"I see nothing, brother. What is it that you are looking at? Tell me what to look for."
With a long twig broken off from a nearby bush, the youngest twin poked at a particular piece of wood.
"Look closely at this piece of wood and tell me what you see, please brother."
Elladan looked at the piece of wood for some moments then his eyes grew large as he noticed, for the first time, what it was that was so disturbing Elrohir.
"Legolas, come look at this."
The Mirkwood Prince walked over to where the two were sitting beside the fire and looked to where Elladan was pointing.
"I see a piece of wood with Elrohir's initials carved ..." His voice faded away as he finally realized the importance of what he was looking at.
"Is that the same piece of wood from last night?"
With wide eyes, Elrohir nodded.
"You did not do this just now? Look, there is no char on the wood, it has not been burnt at all. Is this some kind of jest?"
"I swear to you Legolas, I have put no new wood on the fire. This is the same wood from last night, the same but for some small kindling I put there a few moments ago to get it going again."
"But are these not your initials that I see carved into the wood?"
The youngest twin nodded his head.
"But how ..." Legolas found himself more than a little confused. He was not understanding how the piece of wood that Elrohir had carved his initials into the night before could be sitting in the burning camp fire looking like it had just been placed there.
Their conversation about the wood was interrupted when Aragorn sneezed, reminding the three elves, as they rushed to his side, that they had completely forgotten about the young man.
As Elrohir fixed hot tea for all of them, Elladan and Legolas did their best to dry and warm the now-squirming human.
"Leave me alone - both of you. I am not an elfling, and I am perfectly capable of getting warm all by myself without the two of you hovering over me like a couple of mother hens!"
The small confrontation ended, for the moment, when Elrohir placed a cup of steaming hot tea into the shaking human's hands, his own hands lingering for a moment, making sure that his little brother would not accidentally spill the hot contents on himself. All of them sat in silence, sipping their tea and trying to rationalize the strange occurrences. Occasionally, one of them would open his mouth to speak but would find his words inadequate and would then close his mouth without having uttered a word.
When Aragorn sneezed again, Elladan retrieved his brothers pack, rummaged inside until he found some dry clothes, then handed them to his brother who had drawn the blanket up over his head trying to get warm.
"Estel, change into these dry clothes then we will take you home before you get any sicker."
"No, I am not going home, and I am not sick!"
"Estel ..." the twin began.
"Elladan, I am only sneezing. If I start to feel unwell, I will inform you immediately and do not raise your eyebrow at me, brother, for you look just like Ada when you do that." Aragorn shivered at the thought. "We have an important mission to accomplish - not three of us - but all four of us so I suggest that we break camp and get on with our journey. Besides, the sun will warm me in no time once we leave this place."
"Did any of you have any strange or disturbing dreams last night?"
All the bickering stopped and all were silent as they looked at Legolas who was standing with his hand on the trunk of a tree and staring up into its branches.
"Well, now that you mention it," Elrohir began, "I dreamed that I woke up during the night and when I looked over to where you were all sleeping, you were gone - your bedrolls, everything, just gone. I tried to get up to search for you but could not and so I just laid on my bedroll, calling your names. You would answer me, but you would not return to the camp."
"Ai. That is bad." Elladan tried to remember his dream, and finally after he had, told the others what he was remembering.
"I remember having a very odd dream where I was awoken by the sound of voices and when I opened my eyes and looked around me, I saw these people walking through our camp carrying bundles and walking beside horses pulling carts. These people looked as if they were on some kind of long journey."
Unconsciously, all four of them looked at the ground around them but could find no tracks of any kind other than their own faint footprints.
"Legolas? What about you - what did you dream?"
It was a moment before the Mirkwood archer spoke from where he was still standing with his hand on the trunk of the tree.
"I dreamed that Mirkwood's trees were all dead." When he spoke no more, the others did not press him for they all knew how much he loved the trees in his homeland and also realized how even dreaming of such an event might have affected him.
Aragorn sneezed again, effectively ending the tense moment.
"The only thing I dreamed of was that I was wet and cold. Then I woke up and found that I was wet and cold. How surprising!"
The others laughed and now that the young man was sitting beside the fire in dry clothes, albeit with the blanket still wrapped around him, they all began to break camp, eager to be out of a place that was becoming more and more frightening and confusing to them the longer they remained in it.
"Estel, are you sure you are well enough to travel on to Naur?"
When Legolas saw the glare the young ranger was sending his way, he laughed, ruffling the young man's hair as he did so.
TBC
DesolateAznVamp: Yes, the towns of Nen and Naur are both mine as well as a third town that will be introduced later. There is a specific reason the towns are named what they are but you won't find out what that reason is until later. Let's just say, for now, that the mystery as well as the ghost story, have begun.