The Wrong One
By Nefhiriel
A/N: Grr…I hate the chapter title…but it was all I could think of at the last moment (little disorganized me just HAD to leave it till then : b ). Some more humor at the beginning here, but I have a feeling you won't be laughing by the end… (eg)
Chapter 21:A Perfect DistractionGrr…I hate the chapter title…but it was all I could think of at the last moment (little disorganized me just HAD to leave it till then : b ). Some more humor at the beginning here, but I have a feeling you won't be laughing by the end… (eg)
They'd been walking for hours. A litter had been made for Aragorn, and now two elves walked, carrying it between them. Elladan and Elrohir had, of course, been eager to carry it themselves, but one "look" from Elrond and they relinquished the task to two warriors. Legolas saw how they faired and decided that Elrond probably wouldn't look any more favorably on him with his wounded arm, volunteering. So the three of them settled for walking beside the stretcher.
Aragorn was awake now, and they were doing their best to distract him from the painful jerking his damaged body was receiving. That was proving to be enough of task to keep them busy. Even the light step and firm handling of the elves couldn't completely steady all movement.
Aragorn was still exhausted, but at the moment his broken ribs and the arrow wound were his biggest problem. Each small pull on his chest sent waves of agony searing through his body. The night of sleep had given him some strength, but with each step forward alerting him to new aches and reminding him of old ones, he was beginning to wonder if it was enough. He understood why Elrond hesitated to give him any of his notoriously "delicious" tea in his half-dead state of exhaustion, it was just too dangerous. But he still wished he could fall into the trouble-free oblivion of sleep. He dozed a few times, only to be brought back by nightmares or more pain.
Legolas could see Aragorn's face steadily becoming paler and paler until it was quite literally as white as a sheet. He leaned over to wipe away the sweat that glistened on his friend's face. He only wished there was more he could do. It was the worst possible torture to watch him suffer. In their numerous misadventures together he'd seen the human wounded and hurt many times, but that didn't mean he'd gotten used to it. He never would.
Next to him, Dolenil walked with as proud a bearing and as immaculate a wardrobe as ever. Legolas sighed with relief. For a while, there, he'd thought he would never get rid of the elf's unwanted demonstrations of his anxiety. It had taken the better part of the morning, but finally he'd gotten Dolenil to quit fussing over his arm. The task was difficult, Dolenil had need to be convinced that, no, he wasn't bleeding to death and, yes, the wound had been properly bandaged. With hindsight, Legolas could look back and laugh at his dignified "guardian's" rather undignified agitation, but at the time it hadn't been so terribly amusing; though the twins had certainly thought it was.
All the while, Elladan and Elrohir continued their hovering ministration on their little brother. That, in itself, was a distraction.
"How are you feeling?" Elladan felt Aragorn's forehead for the twelfth time that morning.
"Elladan," Aragorn groaned in annoyance and weakly tried to swat Elladan's hand away. "it's not like I'm about to die or something. You can quit mothering me."
It was nice to know that someone cared, but sometimes he felt overwhelmed by his brothers' suffocating amount of concern for his health. Suffocating wasn't an exaggerated term to describe their care. With the two of them clustered over and around him often he felt himself developing an acute bout of claustrophobia. Every time he suffered from their "care" he felt a new sense of sympathy for his blond friend's fear of tight, enclosed spaces. He hated being the center of their worries and he hated being treated like an invalid or as if he was on the verge of death—even though occasionally he was.
Elrohir came up, reached over and swept a strand of sweat-dampened hair back from Aragorn's face.
"I think your fever is up again…" he continued to bother over him. "Yes, I'm quite sure it is." Aragorn opened his mouth to protest, but Elrohir cut him off, "Come now, Estel, you can't always complain about how we're 'mothering' you. It's always been a highly exaggerated accusation and now it's becoming highly overused as well. We are not mothering you. What we are doing is simply brotherly concern for a badly wounded younger sibling."
"I wasn't going to accuse you of mothering me, Elrohir." Aragorn said with a happy, although still weak, smile.
"You weren't?" Elrohir asked.
"No, of course not,muindor-nín! I would never accuse you of mothering!" Elrohir looked pleased although slightly disconcerted and suspicious of his brothers sudden good-will. "Mothering is something that only Elladan can do," Elladan scowled and crossed his arms while his twin smirked, but Aragorn wasn't done, "You, my dear Elrohir, have not perfected the art of mothering yet, but you are doing quite well at smothering, none-the-less." Aragorn gave them both a sly grin and relaxed, triumphant, onto the stretcher.
The twins realized at once that Aragorn was "indisposed" and couldn't pay for his crime, so they decided to take it out on each other in a session of "friendly" argument.
Legolas smiled. He was glad to see the twins were distracting Estel, if unintentionally. Aragorn was now tranquilly resting and listening to the background "music" his brothers were creating. The only thing left to alert Legolas to Aragorn's pain was the slight clenching of his jaw whenever he was jolted. Legolas still wished there was some way for him to help his friend… Distraction. He needed, somehow to distract Estel from his pain. What he could he possibly do that would distract him?
Before he could think of anything to do, something happened to him that he would, unfortunately, remember for the rest of his immortal life. Yes, it was that…Memorable.
Without knowing how it had happened, he found himself staring at the sky—and from an unusual vantage point. He was in fact, lying flat on his back on the ground; though how he'd gotten there remained, for the moment, a mystery. When the full truth of what had just befallen him had finally sunk in he was quick to scramble to his feet. But not quickly enough to elude the curious eyes of at least three people. In that short and overwhelmingly humiliating moment, both the twins and Dolenil had gotten a full look at him. The Prince of Mirkwood, sprawled out on the forest floor, was not a sight they often encountered.
"Legolas, my friend," Elrohir finally choked out, "did you just do what I think you did?"
A dazed, dusty and extremely embarrassed Legolas sullenly ignored him.
"Legolas," Elladan refused to let the subject drop. "I just saw the most amazing thing back there!"
"What? What happened?!" Aragorn demanded impatiently.
Legolas shot him the best imitation of Elrond's glare that his disgruntled wits could produce, but not even "the look" could shut up Elladan at the moment.
"I could hardly believe my eyes!" he continued in exaggerated astonishment.
"Then don't." Legolas suggested wryly.
Elladan remained undaunted.
"Eru and all the Valar above! I could have sworn I just saw a Silvan elf trip over a tree root and land flat on his back! "
"You tripped—over a tree root?!" Aragorn asked incredulously.
"It-was-not-a-tree-root," he ground out between clenched teeth, "it-was-a-rock."
The humiliating thought of him, a Silvan elf, tripping over a tree root of all things, was just too much to be born.
"Oh," Elladan sighed in fake understanding, "I see…"
"Yes," Elrohir joined his brother in mock sympathy, "that makes a world of difference. Estel, did you hear that? Legolas tripped over a rock, NOT a tree-root."
It would have been a miracle if Estel had heard over his own raucous laughter.
"Do give us all the details, mellon-nín," Elladan pleaded, "we would so hate to get it wrong when we tell Ada and Moranuen…"
"Don't you dare tell them!" Legolas threatened, at the same time distractedly brandishing a wet cloth that he'd miraculously retained during his fall. "If you do I'll…" Legolas wracked his brain for something impressive enough to finish his intimidating speech with.
"You'll what?" Elladan stepped into the gap, "Whack us with your terrible 'Wet Rag of Doom'?"
"Oh please, Great Prince of Mirkwood, spare us your wrath!" Elrohir stared fearfully at the rag in Legolas's hand. "We'll do anything, only don't hit us with the 'Rag of Doom'!"
Legolas looked at Aragorn, who was by now helpless with laugher, and shrugged. A dangerous gleam entered his eyes. With a grin and a quick: "You two asked for it!" he brought the cloth with a resounding "whap" across Elladan's face. Before the first victim of the 'Rag of Doom' had a chance to so much as sputter, Legolas had already treated Elrohir to the same horrible judgment.
Legolas looked at Dolenil.
"Anyone else?" the small smile that Dolenil had worn a moment ago mysteriously disappeared without a trace. "No?" he smiled condescendingly at the two very wet faces of the twins and lowered the "Rag of Doom". "I had a feeling that would be the case."
Elrohir brushed back one of the many wet strands of hair that clung to his face, Elladan growled, and Legolas smiled sweetly.
The blond elf smiled down at the laughing human. Silver eyes, one minute full of boundless mirth were the next minute clouded in pain. Aragorn tried no to let the others see the change. He should have known how futile it would be to try avoiding what, in the end, was inevitable. Although at times during their argument the twins hardly appeared to take any notice of Aragorn, their attention was caught and a cessation of hostilities was called the moment his chuckling turned into coughing.
As for Legolas, he saw his friend's eyes cloud in pain and was immediately motioning for the two elves carrying the stretcher to stop. Supporting Aragorn's head until the coughs subsided, he helped him with a drink of water. The ranger fell back, panting for each breath and drained of his last energy.
-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-
Elrond walked back from his position at the head of the procession. He had a feeling that the road would not be dealing kindly with his youngest son's weakened strength and guessed that Aragorn would be needing to rest soon. It was not necessary to push on too strenuously and for Aragorn's sake they wouldn't.
At first he'd thought about suggesting that they stay right were they had been and not risk moving Estel. But he could see that staying in Acharndil's former residence for even one more night would probably not have been pleasant for any of his sons or Legolas. He could tell that they all wanted to be back in Rivendell as soon as possible. And he wouldn't mind getting their hand-full of prisoners delivered into more secure custody, either. For now though, he would leave Glorfindel to keep order in Rivendell and trust the guards to watch their prisoners well. They would take everything slowly and get to Rivendell when they could.
But there was more to Elrond's worry. Although Estel's condition was first and foremost, in the back of his mind he still wondered and worried about the escape of Acharndil. Glamdil had reported the disturbing news before they'd left. Three elves followed the man for quite a distance. The only thing they found was the body of a man with a bow—throat brutally cut. Apparently Acharndil didn't take to kindly to his men failing him. But eventually the elves had fallen far behind Acharndil and were forced to give up. The enigmatical human had vanished from their sight, and Elrond could only hope he'd disappeared from their lives as well.
Elrond could tell that the news disturbed Elladan and Elrohir even more than it did him. Beyond frustration, Elladan had glared off into the woods for half the morning, refusing to eat. He pulled himself together when it came time to leave, but Elrond could sense the underlying turbulence in both him and Elrohir.
The Prince had surprised him with an unusual show of self-control. He'd really expected the same response he'd gotten from the twins. In the beginning he could clearly see Legolas struggling for mastery over his angry feelings, but it had passed. Afterwards he'd made himself useful, helping with menial tasks around the camp and keeping himself busy right up until they'd left. Elrond's respect for the young elf had gone up considerably, watching him occupy himself with anything that would keep him mind from the dark paths that it would, otherwise, have traveled. Yes, in just one day his estimation had risen considerably.
"Are you alright now, mellon-nín?"
The instant the words were spoken, Legolas realized how stupid they must have sounded. Of course he wasn't "alright"! Aragorn was going to answer, but before he could Elrond came up beside them. The elf lord put a gentle hand to Aragorn's forehead. Then he motioned for the stretcher to be set down under the shade of a nearby tree.
"Ada?" Aragorn instantly responded to his touch.
"How are you feeling? Tell me the truth, ion-nín, tell me exactly how you are feeling."
"I ache all over," Aragorn answered obediently, "and my head feels light."
Carefully, Elrond peeled back the loose bandage that covered his wound. He sighed when he came to the third layer. Somehow, two of the stitches had been broken and blood was beginning to color the white cloth. It was only a small amount, but Elrond knew it should be re-stitched. The wound itself was red and irritated; however, it didn't look infected. Elrond scanned the weary face of his son with an expert eye and decided that what Estel needed most was another good, long sleep.
"We're staying here for the night." he rewrapped the bandages around Estel's chest.
"But Ada," Aragorn felt the rays of the sun directly above him, falling through any breach they could find in the tree branches. "it's the middle of the afternoon."
"None-the-less, we'll plan on staying here tonight." Elrond said firmly. "Elladan," he turned to his eldest, "please get a fire going."
Aragorn listened as a fire was lit. Elrond left his side and returned in a few minutes. Aragorn smelled the steamy odor of herbs as a hot cup of tea was held up for him to drink.
"Ada, I thought you said you weren't going to give me any tea!" he loudly protested.
"It's not my normal tea, Estel. I tried to remove most of the sleep inducing herbs and put in ones to help you with the pain. It's only slightly sedative, but you still must sleep."
"It may be only slightly sedative, but I'll bet it's still not lost it's disgusting flavor."
In spite of his complaining, Aragorn drank the tea—quickly.
"Nope," he made a face, "still just as foul tasting as ever."
"Sleep now." Elrond ignored the compliment to his famous brew. "You must regain your strength if you wish to be on the road tomorrow."
Elrond was glad to see the furrows of pain recede from Aragorn's brow as he slipped off into a peaceful rest. He waited to make sure he was asleep before unwrapping the bandages, redoing the stitches and then checking his other minor wounds.
"How is he?" Elrohir's gentle voice enquired.
"Very tired and very worn out, but I believe he'll be alright." Elrond ran a hand over his eyes.
"Let's move him closer to the fire." Legolas suggested, taking up one end of the litter.
Elladan took the other and they carefully moved him over to campfire.
"There." Legolas pronounced wearily and slumped to the ground with everyone following suit.
The day, or at least what was left of it, passed. A light breeze sprung up in the West, bringing with it the first hints of the coming Winter and making the warmth of the fire very welcome. Legolas and the Peredhils were content to stay where they were and watch Estel. They took up their normal stations: Legolas and Elrond on one side, the twins on the other.
In a reflex that had become as natural as breathing, Legolas reached out to lay his hand on the ranger's chest, right above his heart. Then he knew something was wrong.
To be Continued…
Reviewer responses:
HarryEstel: LOL, poor Glamdil, indeed... I agree though, it was certainly sweet of him to try to help Elrond - even if the poor guy hadn't the faintest idea how he was supposed to go about it : ) I'm glad you're enjoying it! Thank you so much for reviewing, mellon-nin!
EverKitsune: I'm so glad that you liked the little break from all the angst! Hehe, I love writing humor. Probably why it keeps insisting on squeezing in even in my angst stories... Yep, LOTS of twins and Elrond in the next story. If I ever manage to finish it, that is. I've had a SERIOUS case of writer's block lately, and I can't seem to write anything : P LOL, good to hear that I'll have at least one reader when I finally get my brain to cooperate again ; ) Thank you so much for taking the time to review!
polingly: Ok, I know you won't be getting this till after you've gotten back from your vacation, so first of all - welcome back! Second of all, I MISS YOU!!! (sobs) YAY! I'm so glad you like the way I write Elrond! I really like him too, but he can be really hard to write, because he's just so... wise and noble and... complicated : ) Especially when he's dealing with as many emotions as he is now, it can be really hard to get him to stay in character : P Looking forward to e-mailing you in AZ - by the time you read this, we'll probably be on the road driving down there. Thank you so much for reviewing, gwathel-nin!
elvingirl3737: I'm SO happy to hear that you like the way I write Elrond! I really like him, but trying to write him was pretty... intimidating, to say the least : ) A gold star! Ooo, pretty, shiny things... (stares vacantly into space) (blinks) Ahem! Um, that is... Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the fun break from the angst! I LOVE writing humor, so it's pretty much inevitable that some will find its way into every story I write : ) Thank you so much for taking the time to review, mellon-nin!
Tinorial Peredhil: (jumps up and down) Suliad, mellon-nín! I missed you a LOT! But really, I just assumed that R/L had taken a nasty turn for the busier ; ) And I completely understand how computers can be…grrr… But I'm glad to have you back, it was wonderful to have THREE whole reviews to read from you – in ONE sitting! I always enjoy a paragraph by paragraph review : ) ROTFL! I loved your little "journal" of "The Latest Tales of My Guard", you really had me laughing! I'm glad the two of you are having so much… fun… together. (g) Glad you liked the mention of Kaldur. Yeah, it was fun to FINALLY be able to have Dagron getting a little bit of what he deserves. (eg) LOL, I had a lot of fun writing chapter twenty with Glamdil trying to comfort Elrond. Oh thank you for pointing out my misspelling of Ilúlvatar!!! It helps a lot! If I ever post this on another website I'll have to remember to change that… I'm really at loss for how those mistakes got passed the finial edit…(shrugs) Oh well. Sorry this is rather short...I have a bad back, and right now it's beginning to give me a lot of pain when I sit for too long : b Now the stupid website has deleted parts of your reviews (at least I can't seem to find them), and my stupid alerts didn't send me your reviews either…Well, at least I got to read them once : b Sorry I can't write a better answer, I'm afraid I can't remember the entire reviews – with my memory, and all that's been going on here lately, I sometimes think it's a wonder I can remember my own name ; ) (huggles) Hannon le, mellon-nín!
silvertears630: LOL, yeah, poor Glamdil... I'm glad you enjoyed the little humor break after all the angst there's been lately : ) I' love writing humor, so I'm really happy that you found it so funny! Hmm, one warning though, you do know that they could take away your lurker's license if you keep up all this reviewing - bad for the lurkers' reputations, you know. Keep on like this, and pretty soon they'll be expected to leave reviews too! And from then on, to quote The Princess Bride, "It's nothing but work, work, work!" LOL, Thank you so much for taking the time to review - even at the risk of you reputation as a professional lurker ; )
Lizzie Blakeney: Don't worry, I know how it is, you ask a question and then promptly realize that you already asked the question before…It's always so embarrassing! Anyways, I'm glad you're not bored of the story : ) Thank you for reviewing!
Naesse: Hehe, yes, it sure is fun to see the perfectly confident, in-control soldier finally finding a situation that makes him nervous, isn't it? LOL, unfortunately, I'm afraid even a concentrated elven stare isn't quite enough to make Dagron simply disappear, though he would probably wish he could! I'm sure it would be enough to give even him a nervous breakdown, though, which might be almost as amusing to watch as him just disappearing : ) Thank you for reviewing, mellon-nin!
Drylith: I'm so glad you enjoyed the little break from all the angst. Yeah, Elrond's sense of humor is wonderful, isn't it? Of course, it's probably the only thing that's kept him sane all these years too : ) More humor in this chapter too, though I rather suspect that everyone found that ending anything but funny... Hehe, oh well : ) Thank you so much for reviewing!
Heh heh, hey, you didn't think all those non-cliffie chapters could last, did you?
Ok, I'll try to have the next chappy up Fri. or Sat. It's called "Freedom and Escape".
Please review!
- Nefhiriel
Vice President and Co-founder of the SNWCG and member of the F.F.F.F.F