Chapter Two
Two days after the 'Ben' incident, Taelyn awoke to the sound of rain pounding on the window. Images and memories flitted through her head, mainly of Aragorn and the Hobbits. Everything seemed hazy to her and she couldn't decipher what was real and what wasn't. Her next thought was of Leilani. How long had she been here anyway?
Searching the room with her eyes, Taelyn saw a monitor beeping away on her left and a bathroom on her right. At the foot of her bed was a tray laden with untouched food. The entry to the room stood opposite the bed. It took her a moment to identify the small red button attached to the bed head and when she did, she reached up a hand to press it.
Almost immediately, a nurse came charging into the room, a worried expression on her face. Seeing that everything was as it should be and that her patient wasn't dying, she came to the monitor to check Taelyn's vital signs.
Taelyn started talking to get her attention.
"How long do I have to stay here?"
"You hit your head fairly hard when you fell and you've been unconscious for two days. You should be able to return to your home in a few days."
"Yeah, well I need to go home to feed my cat."
"The earliest you could get released would have to be later in the afternoon."
"Fine." She replied, hoping that Leilani wasn't starving or worse. The afternoon passed slowly and Taelyn had familiarised herself with every detail of the room. Finally the nurse returned with clean clothes, the clothes Taelyn was wearing when she was admitted, only washed. The monitors were disconnected and Taelyn went into the bathroom to get changed. Once again in her Pizza Hut clothes, she headed out into the corridor and to the elevator, the nurse following on behind. Once downstairs in the lobby, Taelyn was allowed to go and she started the long walk home.
Taelyn entered her apartment and started calling out to Leilani. Searching through the unit, she found her cat collapsed on the kitchen floor next to both her empty food and water bowls.
Fear pumping through her, Taelyn refilled the bowls as fast as she could before crouching down next to her cat. She dipped her finger in the water before holding it out to her cats' mouth.
Moments later, Leilani slowly started to lick the water off of her finger. Taelyn coaxed her to the water and she started to lap up the water greedily. Relieved, Taelyn sat back on her heels and let out a sigh before rising and heading to her bed where she promptly collapsed. Not long after, she fell into a light sleep.
Taelyn stood behind nine menacing figures in billowing black capes who were advancing on four frightened hobbits. Where Aragorn was, she had no idea. She jumped when they drew their swords and held them upright in front of them. Sam, Merry and Pippin huddled protectively around Frodo and wouldn't budge. Taelyn looked around for something to attack with and saw a large stick to her right. She knew her attack was futile but she needed to do something. Pippin spotted Taelyn behind the figures and yelled out to her.
"Taelyn!"
She rolled her eyes and cursed him as he had alerted them to her presence.
"Damn" she muttered under her breath.
Hoping to distract the intimidating beings so that the hobbits could run, Taelyn charged forward swinging her stick wildly. She vaguely aimed for the closest one and hit it forcefully in the chest. Most of them turned to see who the new victim was. Still throwing the stick around madly, she stumbled backwards away from the approaching figures. In the background, Taelyn heard Frodo scream out in pain and, through a break in the monotonous line of black cloaks, she saw him lying on the ground with the ever-faithful Sam at his side. Unknown to Taelyn, she was being forced backwards towards the edge of the tower. With her sight firmly set on Frodo and Sam, she tripped over a slight step and fell down to land painfully on a ledge below.
A/N-Sorry for the short chapter, but it sounded right to leave it there.