Chapter 25.
Legolas knew that voice from somewhere. He had heard it before.
"Legolas?" A little hand tugged his sleeve. "Legolas? Are you sleeping?"
It was as if that voice meant something. Like the water, there was something wrong with the water.
"Come on..." another voice interrupted. "You don't want to live. You don't deserve it. You killed you sister. Step into the water!"
The tugging on his sleeve become more urgent.
"Legolas, Come look at what I found. We can swim there too. Swimming is not fun if you are all sleepy."
"Come..." the other voice called. "Join us..."
The tugging on his sleeve stopped. It was replaced by something else. A bite. Something was biting in his arm. His trail of thought was broken.
"LAINFEA! OUCH" he shouted. "What are you doing?" The girl gave him the most innocent look she could muster. "You didn't wake," she said by way of explaining her actions.
Legolas quickly checked his other siblings. They were horribly close to the water, but they had stopped moving forwards. He could see them hesitating, wondering, like he had, what the new voice meant. He nodded at them while rubbing his arm.
"We have to wake them too, and soon."
"I'll do it! I'll do it!"
"No, stop," Legolas stretched out this arm and caught the elfling's belt. "I don't think they would appreciate your way of waking people, Lain..."
She looked at Legolas a bit grumpily. "I tried shaking first..." she said defensively.
Lanthir suddenly shook his head and blinked his eyes. "Lainfea?" he asked, as if he had just awoken from a very deep sleep. He shook his head once more and gazed around. "Lainfea!" he yelled as he spotted his younger sister, and realized his ears had not deceived him. He ran towards her, lifting her up and hugging her as tight as he could, planting a light kiss on each cheek.
Then his voice changed. "Where, in the name of the Valar, did you go? Did you not realize this is a dangerous place? That was very foolish! How could you do that to us?"
"Lanthir!" Legolas interrupted his brother, as he saw tears form in Lainfea's eyes.
"But-" Lanthir started to protest.
Legolas cut him off. "This is not the time, or the place."
"But- "
This time he was interrupted by a loud splash. The argument was forgotten, and all three of them rushed towards the water to get Limloeth out.
It took both Lanthir and Legolas to pull their sister out of the water. Limloeth struggled as hard as she could, but Legolas and Lanthir pinned her to the ground.
"Let me go, Let me go!" she screamed hystericly. "I don't deserve to live. I'm too weak. I'm useless. Let me be of use the only way I can! Let me go! Let...ME..."
"Lim, listen to me, you do deserve to live. Nothing happened. You are not weak. We need you, we can't reach Greenwood without you. " Nothing Legolas said seemed to have any effect. Limloeth kept fighting her brothers, trying to get back to the water. When words didn't work, Legolas tried shaking his sister, but it only caused her to fight harder.
"Let me GO!" she screamed. Legolas felt he was losing his grip. Limloeth tried to pull her body free from his arms. He wouldn't be able to hold much longer. Just one pull, and...
But suddenly Limloeth stopped screaming. "Ouch!" she said. Suspiciously Legolas glared at Lainfea who was sittting on the other side of Limloeth next to Lanthir. The little girl grinned innocently and quickly moved to cover the bitemark on Limoeths hand. Legolas grinned back.
"What happened? Is Lainfea...?" Limloeth asked.
"Lainfea is fine," Legolas supplied. "She is right there, see"
"In fact," Lanthir added, "she is just about to explain why she ran away, isn't she?"
Legolas gave his brother a glare. "Lanthir... place nor time."
"I didn't run away," Lainfea said. "I just went to see the nice man in the water who called my name."
Three pairs of eyes turned towards her in shock.
"The nice man in the water?" Legolas repeated.
Lainfea nodded happily. "First I just followed Skipper, because he said he'd show me his home. But then the nice man talked to me."
"What?" Lanthir snapped, causing Legolas to grin. Now his brother knew how it felt to not get the information he wanted.
"Who is Skipper, Lainfea?" he asked, having learned you had to be specific if you wanted your questions answered.
The little girl reached carefully into one of her pockets and pulled out a medium-sized frog. "He is my new friend. He knows the way. And he is friends with the nice man." She smiled.
"Did the nice man try to pull you into the water, Lainfea?" Limloeth asked, concerned.
"No," she said, almost angry. "He is nice. He gave me a present!" She reached into her pocket again, carefully placing the frog back and pulled out something else.
Legolas stared in shock at the object in the little girl's hands. It was a silver necklace, with a beautifull round pendant. An elven insignia. Legolas swallowed. He knew that insignia, for it was the house of Oropher's and he had once worn it himself.
"Where did you find this, Lain?" he asked with a hoarse voice.
"The nice man in the water gave it to me," she repeated slowly, like she was explaining something to a very young child. She didn't really understand why they just didn't get it.
Legolas looked at Limloeth. "Can you walk, Lim?" he asked her. She nodded.
"Run if you have too?" Another nod.
"I want to know where that came from," she said, nodding at the pendant.
Legolas stood up, pulling Limloeth up as well.
"Lain? We would really like to meet that nice man in the water."
"We do?" Lanthir asked, confused, but Legolas ignored him and continued. "Can you take us there?"
Lainfea nodded and led the way.
The girl danced across the swamp, ignoring the dead bodies in the water , until she reached a large pool.
"There he is," the elfling said, and pointed at an elven body in the water.
Legolas swallowed. He recognized the elf.
Lanthir's eyes grew wide. "Legolas?" he whispered. "Is that...? Is that Ada?"
Legolas slowly shook his head. "No..." he said. "It's Oropher. Our grandfather. Come on. Let's go," he said. The mystery was solved. Now they would have to get out of here, before something happened. He could see Limloeth shivering.
Limloeth hesitated. "Shouldn't we do something? He is our Grandfather. Shouldn't we at least sing a lament for him or something?"
"Why?" Lanthir said. "We didn't even know the guy. Let's go."
"But he is our grandfather, Lanthir. Imagine to be stuck here forever. Can't we sing a funeral song ? Maybe it will help his soul to rest..."
"A song!" Lainfea said happily. "We will sing you a song, nice man. All of us Thranduils will sing you a song. Then you can stop calling for us!"
Legolas looked at his little sister in confusion. Calling for us? What did she mean? And then he heard it too. The dead body of Oropher was humming the same name over and over again. "Thranduil. Thranduil. Come back.You can't leave me here, Thranduil..." It was a continuing song almost too soft to hear, and it sent shivers through Legolas spine.
"We are leaving" he said, and turned around. On his way he picked Lainfea up from the ground and carried her. Lanthir followed close behind.
They walked a few meters until they realized Limloeth was not following.
Legolas turned. "Lim?" he said. "We are leaving, are you coming with us?"
The girl turned around.
The colour of her eyes had changed from brown to bright blue. Legolas had seen those eyes before. In his father's study had been a portrait of Oropher with those same eyes.
"I will come with you," she said, though her voice had changed beyond recognition. "In fact; I will lead you. Move."
TBC...
Nessa Ar-Feiniel: OR she can hear them, but makes nice new friends.. (even though they are a little dead..)
Randa-Chan: He! glad to see you are back, and I didn't lose you on chapter 7.. I was actually a bit worried.
I'm sorry.. but for three reasons i will not use your feedback though i duid apopreciate it.
The first reason is, I have justfinished chapter 38.. the one before tha last..
The second is.. that I've read many stories where Elrond's heaaling power is descriped as something like Limloeths, so it does n't seem so very out of place in the LOTR universe to me.. (and I know that Elrond has a ring and he is part Maiar and everything... but still: the elves of Mirkwood have no rings, but Magic this: their palace doors, the enchanted stream.. That's got to come from somewhere, right?)
And as for Lainfea.. I'm sorry to hurt your faith in humanity, but girls of tat age can kill. I have read enough real life stories of countries in war not to know.
There are children on this world of that age who carry machine guns and are not afraid to use it.
Don't get me wrong.. I would never approve violence in RL.. But it does happen.
And as for bad dreams and insanity.. She will be bothered by this later in life, of course. .. Thranduil will just have to do the best he and to prevent it..
I hope I didn't lose you now..
Moriarwen: waking up their dead grandfather, that is what they are doing!
Karone Evertree: GRIN
Rutu: I updated again today!