Hi y'all, it is Thursday as I promised. In addition, I am so sorry for the late update. I think I will be limiting the chapters to at the most two view points from now on to make the writing shorter, to update faster because the life of a high school student, is way to complicated with bored teachers. (Who make one's life a homework hell.)
Legolas: You think your life is complicated, try saving the world every other weekend.
I know, what do you think I am writing.
Elladan: A plaguerization of the genius Tolkien's works of fiction, mainly the Lord of the Rings that you do not own.
It is not plaguerized, I know I do not (sob) own anything, and I am sorry.
Estel: Please stop crying, you are getting Legolas' shirt wet.
Legolas: Help!
Answering to the Threat
Chapter Nine: The Intelligence of Horses, and the lack-there-of those who ride them.
Staring into the clearing, he noted moving shapes coming, bodies hurling around among the trees. The poplars were tense, and stifling, the cold fear of hiding from a heartless foe. Legolas tried to ease them, and use the information he tried to gather to gage how many were coming at him at once. He needed to stop them here; Myliné would not stand a chance against them. Trepidation held his outreaching mind captive and he chose to mute his link to the woodland. Paralyzing anxiety held no place in battle.
The head ache that Legolas tried to banish came on throbbing full force with the release of his mind for them. That was another problem, his back still burned, with the leather straps for his quiver and his sheath burring into it, it was painfully uncomfortable. His bandages started to stick to the wound, pulling at the healing scabs. He muttered madly, and reined his horse in to face where the forest.
Legolas, faced the woods, he could hear them. He took his bow and knocked an arrow, waiting for the dread wolves to show themselves. A flash of distant fur growled, air rushed by Legolas' head, a short yelp followed. The anger intensified in the pack, all twenty of them. He shot again, an animal dropped, arrows flashed out of his quiver, and through the air. As many as eight more dropped before reaching the glade, the one that were left, were put out.
Snarls, and low howling filled the air, wolves organized themselves to attack. Legolas made a quick decision; he could not shoot as fast with his horse jumping around. He bounded from her, brushing off the wave of dizziness. "Noro lim, mellon, to the ranger, noro lim!" She snorted, though obeyed, and kicked one who tried to sneak around to surround them, in the head on her way out. Legolas heard the wolf fall and felt a ray of pride wash through him.
He dared on last shot, and threw his bow into a tree, to keep it safe. Several wolves looked at the distraction; those were the first two of the remaining to die. Dark blood sprayed his clothes as he cut the throat of the first, and slid a knife into the ribs of another. He spun and kneeled to dodge the leap of the next, stayong on balance to sink his free blade into the back of the animal's neck, slicing the nerves between the vertebrae. He pulled sharply, but the knife remained stuck. Abandoning it for the second, he bent fast to snatch the other, and brought it up to lacerate another wolf.
The momentum of the animal caught him in the waste. Legolas stumbled back a few paces, ears ringing with pain. The beast's voice rumbled deeply with anger, and two took places beside it. He backed up a half pace, 'They were driving him into the dense forest'. The three of them leapt, a solid wall of fur. He sidestepped, just a bit two slow. Legolas found himself on the ground, the weight of the waist high wolf over his chest. The beast lay there, pressing down on him, grinding his raw back into the rough, rocky ground. His knife found its way into the wolf's ribs. He heaved off him.
Legolas looked up straight into the eyes of the leader of the pack. "Oh, for the love of VALAR!" Legolas sent a well aimed punch into the nose of the animal, and jumped up taking the remaining knife with him. Though his move was quick, the very, big, mad wolf, was homicidal. The nails of the slid deep into Legolas' healing shoulder, and tore there way out. Rolling away from it he felt a blow into his side. A she-wolf howled as she knocked him under the alpha. With her teeth she held tightly onto his wrist, the pressure forced him to drop the blade into the grass.
He swore, pain pounding with the fast beats of his heart. His fist came up to punch the wolf somewhere soft, like the eyes, but a feral move stunned him, and made him drop his arm to his side. The wolf grabbed at his throat, but did not bite down hard. Legolas could see the animal watching him, and his hand out of the corner of the male's eye.
He needed to stop them, now. He remembered something a dying warrior had told him after a orc attack. "It takes only one to carry a message." He was ready now, if it would save more lives. The second last wolf he had killed with the white handled blade sticking from his neck was practically lying under his hand. If he left only six for the ranger to kill it would make better odds for them. His the last of his speed he stole and hurled the blade into the female. The leader of the pack already bit down on his neck.
Warm blood ran down off of him, while he tried to figure out what was going on. He heard a cry, and a black handled knife slid into the throat of the alpha. The jaws slackened leaving preciously little space beside the important artery and vein. The wolf fell on him, pressing down onto his chest, restricting his breath. He blinked lazily at the sun, not having the coherency to move the wolf. He suddenly felt the need to get up and help, someone... He could not figure out what was wrong. It seemed a nice day. Cool, and, and... The trees still reached him; he felt their pain, concerned worry, and fear. Fear for, for what?
Legolas could hear his mother lecturing to get out of bed, she was the one who taught him to be an early riser. His father taught him to be a nightowl as well, interesting mix. The voice still reached him though. "Get up, now, wake up..." The voice seemed wrong somehow, he tried to ignore it. "Please, I leave you alone and look what's happened..." Legolas heard the frightened whisper again, "Please mellon nin, I can't lift you to your horse. Please help me. I can see your mind, you know you can hear me, help!" Something stirred in him, and fell short. He felt a hand slap at his face gently. "Breath dammit, the wolf been off you for two bloody minutes."
Legolas took in a sharp breath and winced at the pain. His eyes focused. Estel, he was kneeling over top of him frowning with, oh his head. "Legolas, hold your kneck wound, while check for other injuries." He took the hand that threw the knife and place it over top of the bite. The disorientated elf held tightly down. "Good, I'm just going to see what's wrong, anything bothering you?"
"That fact that I'm on the ground, after a battle again..." Legolas sighed wistfully.
"Anything else," Aragorn held up Legolas' wrist gently probed around the wound, "besides this? And your shoulder, I can see the swelling and stiffness from here."
"I we are to continue with this examination, I suggest that we hurry. you are not all well yourself, and I don't want to tarry, the blood will have predators seething for a league." Legolas shifted and tired to get off his back, where a branch of one trees was burrowing itself into one of the welts. Estel, gently helped him to sit, the world that he wished to be ignorant to crashed into his pounding head. Legolas' eyes saw the shoulder of the man's tunic and said simply, "That looks bad."
Estel glanced down at his shield arm, and grimaced. "I will be well," Legolas stared down the human, "Huh, after I finish seeing to you."
"Nothing else is a problem, and you can't do any more for me if I needed it. You have no medical supplies with you." Aragorn looked away, and nodded. He started undoing the laces on his shirt. Legolas knew he had been to rough with the ranger. "Good they don't look as bad as I thought. They've even stopped bleeding." He tried a friendly smile, and the ranger raised a sardonic eyebrow.
"What do you thick Myliné will say when haul ourselves back to her. I departed from her three quarters of a mile away, and that young gelding you gave her kept up the easy trot. She'll be fine." Legolas masked his annoyance.
"I told you to go father than that. She could have been caught." Legolas started to rotate his shoulder.
"If I had tarried longer, you would have been dog food. Or don't elves need throats." Aragorn grinned when Legolas did not say anything. What he did not know, was that Legolas debating whether or not to call horse down on the ranger.
In the end after they had both finished jibing at the other, Legolas called the horses, the mare, and the tall gelding. They both came running up straight to the elf, who remained seated on the ground. Estel pushed himself up, with his right arm, and glanced at the elf. "Is my assistance not required, because if I ask if you want help, you will either, insult me, or point out the passing birds in the sky, say your hawk coming is flying around up there."
"He is not a hawk, he is pure falcon."
"See what I mean," Aragorn pulled the elf to his feet, and braced him, ask he got his balance. Legolas saw his mare walking around snorting and kicking at the wolves. She turned and saw him staring, and started to lope back to him. She nosed his hair, and put her ears back at the ranger.
'Good girl.' Legolas smirked; a horse was the truest form of an empath in the earth. Estel held his ground and reached to calm the animal. Legolas muttered a quick hold command in vexation before the ranger somehow had his foot stuck under her hoof. "We should go find her before nightfall." 'And she gets to far.'
Legolas pulled himself with both hands up on her black back, and waited for the ranger. He seemed to have mild difficulties getting up with out using his left arm on the saddle horn to brace himself. Estel pulled himself up finally, and shifted in the saddle. Legolas mumbled for his horse to go meet her foal and started at a gentle trot. Estel pulled in front. "I know the way to her."
"Are you insinuating that I can not track her!" Legolas made his horse go faster and take the lead. The animals started to red their riders' enthusiasm to hurry, and pulled against the restraint to a fast trot.
"Slow down, we can not afford to fall off our horses. You look horrible already." Yet the ranger cut off the elf and kept the stupid pace in the thick wood. The looming trees were feeling, was it ridicule and maybe disdain, as the two rode through. Legolas shifted his vision from the forest floor to the upcoming trees barely missing the hanging branches.
The darkness ahead was looming, a shadow of threat hung again, it was less distinctive yet there, something was wrong. 'Don't the heroes ever get a break?' "Aragorn something overhangs the serenity of the forest, again. Is it that all shadowspawn hath come here rest for the night."
"Myliné and I departed here, we must hurry if what you say is true." They rode on in uncomfortable silence. The horses grew as agitated as their weary masters did. Every noise in the forest seemed to fill them with apprehension.
Legolas nudged his horse faster. "I feel as though we ride into an ambush." He, passing the ranger, caught his eye.
The ranger nodded grimly, "Well, the sooner we enter the trap, the faster we get out of it." Legolas had to chuckle; it did make sense, in a sad, irrelevant sort of a way.
"Aye, Myliné I wonder, is she privy to our knowledge for her steed's tracks do slow with our passing? They also head for a river, I doubt that this was her idea for they, the hoof prints, have been in a relatively straight line for the past mile." Legolas glanced about. "I do not believe she should be far," he grunted softly, "nor is our mysterious peril."
"Ride hard, and we shall find her first. You say she is near a river, I sure could use a bath." Estel's voice was quieter than before, Legolas looked around. There was nothing obvious about, he was sure.
"Estel, ha mae? it's alright?for now.." Legolas slowed his mare to the easy trot. She was being look around as well, her stride being to falter. "I do not see naught but shadows."
"That is well, for that must be what the three of us see too." Aragorn chuckled, and pointed ahead. Legolas focused his eyes and fought the pounding discomfort. A human woman sat against a tree. A horse lay beside her. He could hear the river running by.
"Estel, I believe that you said that you needed a bath."
The sounds of orc's yells of rage commanded the night. The shouts of the human commanding them shrouded in cruel thoughts and intention. Noisy feet ran under them, through the inky blackness. The trees gave off to the hiding elves the aura, that they could only pick up faintly, of warning. They stayed still, hidden in the trees that held them, and wished that the orcs, in their characteristic stupidity would not look up, or dismiss them as branches.
Elrohir, propped against the tree meditated, he could not do anything further. If you can not walk you can not fight, if you can not think clearly you should not fight. Elrohir knew faintly that the injury, and the combination of herbs given to help him, had released his capability to do both of those abilities, especially for battle. Pain was numbed, though he saw his brother's worry was not.
Elladan was in another tree higher up, to decrease the chances of being seen. He also had an arrow nocked in a beautiful compact bow he had borrowed from Legolas. If you want quality, take one of his. The Mirkwood elf was fully aware of the fact Elladan had lightened his little armory, though it was true that Legolas had lost Elladan's best knife into a warg that had a thick neck and ran off before it died. It did not matter that that incident neared seven hundred years ago.
Elrohir almost wished that he was back there, reliving the vivid memories. Almost, for he did not have his new brother then, and now Estel was one of his best friends, and he would miss him. He also knew that he was a son of Elrond, and the gift of prophecy was an inevitable inheritance. At their departure, both sons experienced extreme sorrow, and that night his mind walked the paths of elvish dreams. He saw the human, beaten, but alive, with him, a bloodied golden head, and faint apparition, he was sure it was a woman, but elven or humankind he knew not. She wore a necklace, a smooth stone was all he could make out. It seemed the only thing constant about her, anchoring her to the dream.
His mind saw that now, though details were becoming more apparent, in everything but her. His brother's left arm was slashed, he could see the faint outline of a bruise on his jaw. The bloody head, raised defiantly, was probably Legolas, the elven body hunched over hiding wounds, but blood ran freely down tunic. The three of them always had the worst fortune when they were young, and Legolas seemed to still have bad luck. 'As well as I, I suppose.' He quietly shifted his leg, bringing it in more to relieve the bruised muscle.
He heard an owl cry in the night, and smiled. The single short harp was the signal for, 'Stop what you are doing, or you will be caught.' One long and one short spaced two seconds apart was returned call meant, 'All's well, so quit your whinnying.' The ending fraises were not officially what the calls meant, but every elf knew the implied message.
Elrohir waited patiently the rest of the night, sleeping at intervals, until dawn broke and the foe was hours gone. He hoped, for the message need to be carried to the Goldenwood. He knew they would have to find horses, and hurry. He would be a liability now, to the safety of the elves. He wished the Valar would give him a tiny break, just one.
Elladan pulled himself onto the flet, and handed his brother water. "The orcs should be long gone. I believe it is safe to continue if we purchase a horse from the village. What say you?"
"I think that would be best, but consider that we can not go very far today, especially in the direction that the orcs were heading." Elrohir took a grateful gulp of water, he almost did not taste the herbs. His brother was getting better at this.
"I see your point, they did head straight to Lothlorien, I hope that the border guards are paying attention." They both laughed and shook their heads, nothing by an occasional fly escaped the notice of the elves in their realm.
A noise, wholly unexpected came from the base of the tree. Two elven animals, stood there, and neighed in annoyance and greeting as the two elves sat astounded. Elladan helped his brother down and grabbed their supplies. The horses were tired looking but otherwise fine. He suddenly remembered, most Mirkwood horses, that were not battle trained, were supposed to in the lack of other command, hide and return after the skirmish, to carry the wounded home.
Elrohir glanced at his brother, "I believe I just used up the last break we are going to get."
"What?"
Thanks for all your support my thankful readers. I am happy that you all are still with me even after my difficulties with updating.
Please review, anything excepted, save for flaming. I want as much constructive criticism as I can get.
BETA WANTED IF AVAILABLE!!!
It has come to my attention that there are a few mistakes throughout my work that I could not see, and it was 'a distraction'. Thank you to who pointed that out kindly and I will try to edit better in the future. I will not tolerate flaming, and I will say, 'don't like, don't read.' Simple as that.
Thanks
Reviewer Responses
Deana: Thanks again for the review, and sorry from the lack of them on my part, I have been really busy, and I haven't even read your last two yet.
Mornflower: Thanks for the reviewer, where is all the crazy person stuff, I missed it. I understand the whole school thing.
Shadowfaxgal: Thank you for all your compliments, they are the reason I keep writing this. Thanks for the idea on the twins, I try my best. I won't kill, but suffering is nice.
A READER: I appreciate the fact that you were honest with me, and do you know of any good Betas?
San: Thanks a lot for you support.
xkuroxshinobix: I honestly tried to email you the stuff, but it would not work for the life of me, if you could give me a different email address I'll resend you the stuff.
Navaer Lalaith: Thanks for everything!!!!!
