Disclaimer: If I owned them, I'd lock them in my cupboard and I wouldn't need to write fanfiction about them…
Chapter 18: MakingThranduil was none too pleased to hear his son's decision to carry out the risky soul bind, but then again, it was better to have a chance at saving his son. And if Legolas insisted…
Well, he never was able to deny him anything. But there was still that problem of his only son binding himself to a mortal.
Thranduil and Legolas were having a rather heated argument in the middle of the room while Mithrandir and the twins wisely made themselves scarce. Elrond, on the other hand, pulled Estel to a corner after they announced their decision to do the bind and explained all the consequences.
"Are you sure about this, Estel?"
The Human nodded.
"But what of the rest of your lives? Don't forget your heritage, Estel."
"I love him, Ada. And I want to spend the rest of my life with him."
"Gondor needs her King."
Estel sighed impatiently. "I couldn't care less about Gondor! This is the only way I can save Legolas. Please, Ada, you must understand. Have faith in me."
Elrond looked down into his determined eyes, the gaze that reminded him so much of Elros deciding to walk the mortal path, even though his own twin had tried to persuade him otherwise. Finally, he closed his eyes and sighed. "I believe in you, Estel. Do what you must. But make sure you don't regret it."
Estel smiled and hugged his father. "Thank you, Ada."
X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.XThe fateful night arrived at last. Everyone gathered in Legolas' room, waiting for them to perform the soul bind, hoping desperately that it would work, and that they would not lose their beloved Prince. Thranduil paced the room anxiously, worrying about Estel's decision to wait for the Moon to rise before starting the spell.
"Are you sure we have enough time to wait? What if the Moon rises after…"
"Calm down, Thranduil, I'm sure that Estel has his reasons," Mithrandir glanced fondly at the nervous Human. "Don't you, Estel?"
"Well, Hectrix said that it had to be done on a night with a full-moon, so I'm assuming that she meant to wait until the Moon has risen. And I've noticed that there is a slight time lapse between the Moon rising and Legolas leaving the portrait, so we should have enough time," Estel explained, although he did not look very convinced himself. Which, of course, only served to agitate Thranduil further as he added complaints about the Human race in time to his pacing.
Fortunately for them both, the twins drew their attention to the silver edge of the Moon peeking out of the dark horizon. Elrond nodded at his son, giving him a smile of encouragement, his dark gaze sending an unspoken message to his son: Do as you must, and believe.
Heart pounding, Estel readied the dagger he had prepared and approached the still figure on the bed. He leaned forward and brushed a lock of almost transparent blonde hair away from the pale and cold face, whispering into a pointed ear, " I know you can hear me, 'Las. I'm not going to leave you, so now I need you to help yourself, and us, to make this bond work. Alright?"
He threaded the fingers of his right hand carefully through Legolas' left, placing the blade of the dagger between their forearms, the cold prick of the razor-edge sending a shiver down his spine. He closed his eyes and focused his thoughts…
It takes two people, unwilling to be parted even in death, for the soul bind to work.
I love him, and I will do anything for him.
Would you die for him?
I won't leave you, I promise.
I'll find you, no matter what happens.
Have faith, Estel.
I'm right here with you.
Estel's eyes flew open in surprise as a cool hand covered his. He turned to see the blonde Elf smiling at him, with an empty canvas behind him. "It will be alright."
The Human held the Elf's gaze for a moment, before he nodded and drew a deep breath, then drew the dagger sharply across their skin, the sudden bite of steel making him hiss. He pressed their mirrored cuts together as Elrond silently handed him a bandage to complete the exchange of their blood and seal their soul bind.
"May it work," Thranduil muttered as he cast his eyes to the sky, noting absently that the Moon was starting to take on a blood-red hue.
Estel pressed his free hand to his forehead, trying to quell the strange feeling of light-headedness that rose within him. "You came out early," he commented to Legolas, trying to take his mind off his dark thoughts of the soul bind failing. He noticed the red trail of blood running down the Elf's sleeve. "And, shouldn't you do something about that?"
The Elf laughed softly as he stooped and cradled the Human's face, pressing a quick kiss to his forehead. "Stop worrying Estel, everything will be fine. Trust me."
"… I trust you."
It happened so suddenly, even Elrond and Mithrandir were caught by surprise.
A fierce gust of wind swept through the room, putting out the candles and leaving them in total darkness, save for the Elves' natural glow and the faint red light from the Moon. Legolas' soul body wavered and vanished, pulled violently back into his physcal body by an unseen force. The body on the bed jerked once, convulsively. The frame of the portrait shattered, fragments of wood flying out in all directions as the canvas started to disintegrate.
There was a strangled cry and a faint thud, then silence.
When the twins managed to get the candles alight once more, everyone turned towards the bed to find Estel slumped beside Legolas' body, fingers still firmly entwined, but both barely breathing.
"Estel!"
"Legolas!"
"Stop!" Mithrandir commanded as the frantic King and twins rushed to help their respective kin. "Do not touch them."
"What? But, why?"
"The soul bind worked, that is the only thing that matters now. If you were to try to help them… Who knows what could happen?" The Istar knitted his brows together as he gazed worriedly at the two unconscious figures, "And only the Valar know where both of them are now."
X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X
It was dark. Really, really dark.
Estel scowled at the blackness around him. He had never liked walking around in total darkness. He had a tendency to stub a toe.
He sighed and stepped forward tentatively, arms outstretched, trying to feel something, anything, that would tell him where he was. His skin was crawling with the feeling that any moment now, a horde of Orcs would jump out at him, but the familiar weight of his sword by his side assuaged his fears.
Well, sort of.
Estel cleared his throat, the sound swallowed up by the dark, "Is anyone there?"
No echoes. Just a thick, thick, smothering blanket of silence that wrapped around him and choked him.
He sighed again and started trudging towards the unknown, trying to find a way out of this… place.
Then, he heard a faint voice:
"Let go of me!"
It sounded familiar… it was…
"No, I won't go with you. Estel!"
"Legolas!" The Human shouted. "Where are you?"
"Help me! Est - "
The cry was cut off, ending in a muffled protest. Estel panicked as he sprinted towards what he thought was the source of the sound.
There!
A pin prick of light in the distance, perhaps, it was there…
Foolish little Human.
Estel stopped in his tracks and whirled at the sound of the low voice. "Show yourself!"
A laugh, then the voice purred:
Turn back. He is mine
"You're Danin, aren't you?"
And what if I am?"I won't let you have him!"
Not a chance, he was mine a thousand years ago.
"I don't care. Let. Legolas. Go. Now."
You test my patience, puny mortal. Don't say I didn't warn you.
A sudden blast of bright, white-hot light forced Estel to throw his arms up to shield his overloaded eyes.
He thought he heard a startled exclamation from Legolas, then…
Too late.
X.x.X.x.X.x.X.x.X
TBC
((peeks out from behind Legolas)) Err… hi? Sorry I posted late again… my PC was screwing itself up again… it brilliantly uninstalled Microsoft Word. So I couldn't access my files at all… ((kicks computer)) And then my Office installation disc miraculously took a walk to who knows where, so I'm stuck pecking this out on my sister's laptop. Sigh… my computer is temperamental enough to be pregnant…
Anyway, here's the new chapter at last!!! And guess what? Next chapter is the big explosive (at least I think it is) ending! And after that will be the epilogue! ((bounces excitedly)) Yup yup, so next chapter will be out after Christmas, and I'll hopefully manage to post the epilogue around New Year. ((crosses fingers behind back)) I'll keep to schedule this time…. Really…. I think. ((sheepish grin))
By the way, the part with lots of italics in the middle? It's actually Estel remembering bits and pieces of conversations he had regarding Legolas. And the line in bold is Legolas "mind-speaking" to him. Just in case anyone got confused. ((peace sign))
Ok, on to review replies now!
Sielge: Yay! I'm glad you like the concept. As for their reactions, well, I suppose that if it were to have happened in cannon, Thranduil wouldn't have allowed Legolas to do it… what with him being the heir and stuff, but since it's my story… ((laughs evilly)) he has no choice but to agree! XD
Empath89: Hehehe… well, I guess Estel would be too embarrassed to say in front of so many women that he's in love with a male Elf? So it was his indirect way of saying that he was 'truly madly deeply' in love with Leggy. XDXD Hey! That song by Savage Garden can be their theme song!!! XDXDXD
Marbienl: Ooh… you were so close in your guess about my original version! I'll give you a clue, it wasn't Legolas who fell in love. ((wink)) I never really was for the idea of making Estel immortal so he could live happily ever after with Legolas, so it won't be occurring here… ((pats)) don't cry, at least they'll get to go to Mandos and terrorise everyone there together. XDXD Ahem. Yup, Thranduil wasn't very happy about it… I bet he'd sue me for making that happen if he was real. XD I'm being too evil for my own good. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter!
RMC: Hey! Nice one, you managed to predict how it happened!! ((applause)) Wow, got a lot of psychic readers out there… ACK! I'm becoming too predictable!!! But the 'slashy goodness' is coming right up! XD Unfortunately, I won't be writing any Lord of the Rings stories after this for some time… I owe my friend a multi part humour story for her birthday next march, and I've only written the introduction, and the alst time I wrote humour was 4 years ago!! So I'll probably be too busy working on that to get any Leggy angst done…
Dawn: Thank you! Yup yup, they had a nice little reunion (I bet every fangirl out there is dying to know what they were doing until the Sun rose after the chapter ended! XD) Glad you liked the chapter, hope you like this too! ((bounces happily))
Varda's Servant: Well, usually I don't read footnotes, but I thought that I'd be hardworking and read those, and also because there were lots of things that I forgot or didn't know, so I suppose it added to the dizzy factor. But truthfully, if it weren't so coughboringcough, I'd have re-read it without reading the notes. ((whistles)) Actually, this story isn't really supposed to be so fairy-tale-like… it was supposed to be more dark and dramatic, but I guess my sugar overdoses rubbed off too much on my writing! XD
Crazyrabidfangurl01: ((rofl)) Yup, poor little traumatised Estel… going to be eaten by the big bad Elfy King!! XDXD But I'm really glad you liked Hectrix, although I'm not so sure you'd have liked her original self, cos she was a full-blown Mary-Sue. ((bounces happily))
Goldmund: I think the idea of the soul bind came from this fantasy book I read a really long time ago… but it was something about binding a sword's power to the wielder? Can't remember. And it's simple because I err… couldn't think of anything else. Hehehe.
Moonyasha: Thank you! This story has very, very mild slash content compared to my others so far, so hopefully you don't get too put off! Or else you'll (hopefully) get used to it and hop onto the slash bandwagon? XDXD (bad me, corrupting other people who are still innocent… hehehehe)
Blade6: O.o ((is suffering from over-glompage)) Welcome back from exams abd projects! Hope you don't have anymore now, considering that Christmas is around the corner. And… Ooh… SWEETS!!! ((glomps back)) Yay! Now I can go high and I can say it's not my fault! ((does happy dance))
Kylaaa: Yay! Someone who has deciphered Elrond and Galadriel's incoherent ramblings!!! XDXD Thanks for reading and reviewing, enjoy the rest of the story!
Losing Grip: Well, the first part worked, but as for the rest… ((whistles innocently)) Hehehe… did I mention that I really love being evil? XDXD
The-Serious-Padfoot: ((pats)) Nice little environmentally friendly person… We must save more trees SO THAT THE Elfies out there won't be deprived of trees to swing on… and they're starting to sound vaguely Tarzan-ish now… O.o Ahem. Happy printing while I go stuff my rabid fangirl self into a corner!
Grumpy: ((lol)) Oh dear, now I'm starting to see Thranduil as the big bad wolf and Estel as little red riding hood… ((plot bunnies wstart bouncing)) No! I will not write a parody!!! Ack! ((runs away with bunnies chasing madly))
Child of Magick: ((cowers)) I won't kill him! Really! Because I like ny head right where it is. XDXD Are you sure you really want me to pass some ideas along? I get inspired by the weirdest stuff, so I doubt you'd want to have all my hyper/warped thoughts floating around in your head. XD might be very brain-damaging. XDXD
And that's all the reviews! Hope you guys enjoyed reading so far, stay tuned for the next chapter! And in the meantime, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! May everyone get lots of presents and imbibe lots of sugar!!! ((bounces off to the tune of Jingle Bells))