Hi this is the new chapter, actually mine the ol' demoness, not my name sharing person who replaced like five chapters and probably pissed all you guys off.

Hanyou: Well I had to update sometime!! – she just stole the keyboard from me to write that.

Aragorn: Demoness, leave Hanyou alone, she is a sweet maiden compared to you.

What...!?!!

Legolas: You pick a fair mistress to bandy words with.

What do you mean just 'FAIR'!!!!

Hanyou: Ehh, this could get ugly, so I'm leaving the room now...

Aragorn: No lady, NO!!! Please, don't leave me with her, she'll ki- (sound of a thump on the floor.)

Thank you Legolas, you have redeemed yourself.

Legolas: I did not want to become the target of evil doers again.

Oh, well whatever. I don't own, just use illicitly.


AN ESPECIALLY HUGE THANKS TO MORNFLOWER, A FAITHFUL REVIEWER AND NOW MY BETA!!!


Anwering to the Threat

Chapter Nine: The Nightmare, and Confessions from a Distant Heart.


Wind softly rusted green leaves laden with dew that dropped on the unexpecting sentry of camp. He shook his cloak off and glanced around the clearing where they chose to spend the night. He eyed the sky; the stars were the only light in the silent black He knew no danger was near, but the ominous threat hung into the air. As a companion, he had would say, 'A dwarf could tell there was something amiss.' No, that was stretching it.

In the early morning hours, Aragorn had to squint to see his partners. Myliné slept, comfortably and warm under all of the blankets resting against the unfortunate companion, though he was oblivious to his plight. Legolas leaned against a tall weeping willow, his head resting on his chest. Mylin's head had rolled during her sleep onto his thigh.

It should have been the elf's watch two hours ago. But, tired as he was, Estel did not have the heart to waken him. He had watched the night before as the elf wearily attended everyone's needs and wounds but his own. Aragorn winced as he stood touching the bandage around his arm, Legolas had the barest conceivable knowledge of herbs, but he did know how bandage a wound. The elf had pulled the - 'I'm the immortal elf, these mere scratches do not even begin to afflict my all mighty advanced body' - line, though it was not that explicit. But his stubbornness to be treated last remained until he was sure they would live. He assisted the ranger before, holding his own bleeding wounds shut.

Estel knew why the elf was continuing to be so unreasonable, a combination of hurt pride and guilt. Legolas, the debated leader of the group, was responsible for his comrades' wellbeing. The ranger had seen enough at Mirkwood to tell the stress put on commanders of the regiments in control of guarding. They had fierce loyalty and trust in one another. He had heard the captain, who found them with the dwarves, berated for not finding the group faster, even if it was only hours after the attack.

Glancing back to the pair of them from his musings, he wished there were some devise that could capture the moment so he could flaunt before them at a safe distance, very far away. They both looked so nice so, peaceful.

Their horses grazed through the night watching with him, staying well insight as their master had told them, the hint of threat had withered, but had not withdrawn. The malice, as Legolas described it, was masked, asleep. Aragorn wished he knew of what his new friend spoke of. The elf was sorely disturbed. Myliné was convinced, or she said she was, that it was paranoid delusion. Legolas had stated softly that night, "No one thinks you're funny," but he ruined the ruse by turning away to smile.

The two humans were left to watch the elf the night before as he conferred with the trees speaking to them in elvish, a strange mix of the two languages, his words held power. They seemed to linger in the air, and floated onto branches. Myliné had poked fun at him when he had not learned anything. She found it amusing that such a reserved, almost cold, controlled person as he carried on an 'extended conversation with a bush.' He curtly informed her about the need for listening to the nature, for their orders were untainted, straight from the Valar.

Shaking off the memories with a smile, Aragorn glanced around the bush. There was nothing, he had not seen a single sign of life except those that could not move away, the plants. Legolas had considered this, and was even more 'paranoid'. The elf told them, "As soon as the sun rises, we will depart." Estel agreed with him, hoping that the wolves they slew were the only things holding back life, not some greater evil.

The ranger kicked the ground where the much needed firepit should have been. He knew it was a danger to be seen, but he was cold. Nevertheless, he did not need to be told 'it isn't that intolerable' from an elf; who was all but unaffected by the weather. He remembered as a child being fussed over by all of Rivendell, especially his brothers, (that had not changed much) but now he and Myliné were ignored. Which was more irritating, he did not know.

Estel stood shaken as a knife caressed his throat. "What, who, what is the meaning of this." His eyes turned towards a long hand holding familiar an ivory hilted long knife.

"In Mirkwood," a noticeably smug voice said softly, "a dreaming sentry means certain death for his party."

Conscious of his friend's knife pulling away a few painful inches from his throat, he said his reply flippantly, "We are not in Mirkwood."

A humph followed, "Near enough."

"I fall asleep, and leave you two alone... We are fine they say. No, we do not need help they say, their brains are addled I say." By that time, Aragorn had perceived Legolas had moved almost all the way over to the horses telling them to sleep. 'Coward... I say.'

"I am going back to sleep and if you kill each other by morning I'll have to clean up the mess. So please don't; I can be very unpleasant." An elvish word floated through the air to him, and he realized its meaning after a second of thought, 'bitchy'. Apparently she heard it too, and recognized the tone, if not the meaning of the phrase. "I hope you live, Legolas, you make a very warm headrest."

The acrimony of her voice bit him. He turned away and pulled at his thin tunic's collar. "Sawr-ry."

"Though you, Aragorn, would actually build a fire so that I would not need a heated pillow but you are so much uglier." If only she was one of his brothers, there would be hell to pay.

"Good night, I will sleep well and dream of the warm desires I seek. Please keep the dying shrieks down to a minimum. Oh just kill each other quickly." She rolled up on the grass folding an arm under her head. They could both tell she was laughing.

"Not very subtle is she."

"She believes that she is funnier than us. Maybe we should show her the true meaning of the word 'merriment'."

"Hold the pranks until your home in Imladris, she could probably kill us both and blame it on the enemy."

"Well said, ever heard of the prank, 'It looks like it might rain.' The old water pail balancing act, usually on a door...?"

Legolas glanced to his grinning accomplice, "I invented that."

"My brothers claimed they did!"

"Oh I am sure they claimed they did, after I 'showed' them on a diplomatic mission when we were elflings."

"I am still awake, and even I, in my remote village, have heard of 'It looks like it might rain.'" Myliné rolled over.

"Well I am very old."

"You don't act it."

"Like you can talk, Human."

"It takes us decades to mature! You have been around for many millennia a still haven't gotten it down!"

Silence followed and seemed to be theme for most of the remaining night.


Myliné lay asleep on the ground

Unbidden images plagued her dreams. The flash of orcs and the sound of horns and pounding feet slaughtering echoed through the night. The smell of them, the rotting meat, sewage, and mud assaulted her senses. Their dark faces contorted into an ever-present sneer of hate. Their slimy skin touched her white hand. The soulless eyes, yellow and as feral as wolves burrowed into her heart and very soul.

And the last attempt to save her from her fiancée. He danced with death to give a chance to run. She could not leave him and was pulled from the tree where she hid. The last of the cruel arrows to plunged deep into his breast. The black fletching haunted her sight.

She saw two figures race to her; a sword sweeping down to cut the head of a creature. An arrow glanced up to take down another archer. The two figures, one dark but not unwelcoming, another shrouded in light walked toward her to help. Twilight obscured them, they vanished leaving the weapons.

She held her love to her chest and cried holding him to his death. He took one last breath and clutched his hand around the amulet he made for her from the bright river stone. A strange sensation filled her, an overwhelming sorrow and need for departure. She cried.

Voices seeped into her sleeping mind, one urgent with sympathy, the other soft, consoling, and unsure.

"Child, do not have troubled sleep in the safety of the woods. It was cold night lighted by the divine stars, and now come greet the warm dawn."

"Myliné, wake up, it's just a bad dream. Come on, it's alright."

She opened her bleary eyes. The light and dark strangers kneeled beside her. The dark one held her hand consoling. The light ones eyes pierced her and looked into her soul. "It does not take the powers of elfkind to know the suppression of feelings that surrounds your heart."

She was at a loss, they had seen her cry. These two honorable men had seen her cry. She, she did not know what to say. She was not weak. She needed to leave, now. Myliné turned her head away. "It was just a bad dream."

"Do not play us stupid, ignorant fools just because have not seen you a full month." Aragorn's voiced softly chided her. She had wept on him, the night the strange blonde elf saved them from orcs imaging her lover's shoulders to be his. His youthful face glowed with wisdom, and understanding.

"You are weary, full of sorrow, if you wish to talk, you may, your burden does not need to encumber both of our hearts." Legolas was trying to ask politely if she wanted him to leave.

"It was a horrible dream of the night my village was raided." Aragorn remained solemn, Legolas shut his eyes and she saw him whispering in prayer. "Aeren and I, we were out by the river, we were ahh," she stopped thinking of their last night alive. Her heart was dead. Aragorn's eyebrow shot up, a corner of Legolas' mouth twitched, "Talking, gentlemen, only talking. He gave me a gift, this necklace," she pulled it out to show them, the blue stone reflected the early light.

"We were about to walk back when, when they came. Aeren begged me to run. All he had was quarterstaff he had been shaping. I would have, but I could not leave him," she started to cry again. "We both should have run, for we did not need to stay. He did not need to hold them off." She knew that she was just rambling now, no one knew of this save for the orcs who had seen. They were no fair confidants.

"Death, it is the most important part of life, all life. It is what makes the rest worth living. It teaches you to cherish what you have and work harder to obtain what you do not. I have seen many die on battlefields; every death stains my soul, whether it is ally, friend, or even my enemy. There would be no orcs, if not for the elves. They are distant corrupt kinsmen of ours made in the dark ages. Do not think it your fault for his death, in that way; it would be as much yours as mine." Legolas' face remained grim as kept himself steady. He seemed cold now more deeply in thought. "That was something told to me when my mother was attacked and chose to go to beyond the Gray Havens."

"Beyond the Gray Havens? That it is not on Middle Earth?" Myliné knew a soon as she asked for the answer.

It was Aragorn who answered, "No it's not."

It seemed strange hearing such deep sentimental words coming from the distant elf. Usual the only words to come from his mouth were orders or jibes. It felt comforting though. "Did those words help you?"

Legolas looked away from her, "I'm sorry for your lover's soul." His face regained the hard mask of the commanding warrior. "We need to hurry and eat. I feel that we are close to that of what we seek. The malice of the eve 'fore was awakened with us; we must ride hard to escape its wrath."

The two humans walked off to get their horses. Myliné looked up at the ranger, "Thanks."

The man stumbled and his face flushed. She realized he was just as young as she, through all of wisdom. It must be from growing up around ever calm and courteous beings.

"I think he just rants about evil to keep us motivated and moving."

Myliné turned incredulously towards him, "What?"

"The, 'everything will turn against us so we must ride with haste to escape it,' thing." Aragorn looked at her with a small inviting smile, Aeren's smile.

"Yes, we figured out his tricks, now we will go slow and get caught by another one of his 'fantasies'." Myliné laughed, Estel was trying to lighten her mood. It might as well work.

"Probably, well he seems to be the trouble magnet, not you, so you're basically safe."

"What's a magnet?"

"Well it's two rocks that stick together and don't come apart easily because of what they are made of." Aragorn screwed up his face thinking of a way to explain it.

"Oh. I have seen those before."

"What the rocks or people like our 'leader'."

Myliné just laughed. This was going to be the most interesting part of her life.


Hanyou: (nudges Aragorn with a stick) Arriy? Arriy, wake up!! Wak- (thump is heard, again.)

Elrohir: Elladan, you just offed the wrong person.

Elladan: Whadda mean?

Elrohir: That's her sister, not the evil authoress that did not include us this time.

Elladan: Ohh, no biggee.

WHAT!! I NEEDED HER TO RUN THE VCR!!!!

Elrond: (Kneels down), Elladan, Elladan, what have I told you about killing people with their backs turned so you can't see their face. Don't worry she is not all dead, just mostly dead.

(Ever watched Princess Bride, ahh classic.)

Will she be fine by nine tonight?

Elrond: Depends on how many reviews you get.

SUBTLE HINT, HINT, HINT, HINT, HINT, ETC.


Reviewer Responses:

Mornflower: Thanks a lot for the betaing, it was a good help, with you not just checking over my work, but in a few case misunderstanding what I was trying to say so that I could see the flaws sentences.

Deana: I appreciate your total support to my story, I have not been able to read yours because of severe time deficiency issues, in going on a month. Thanks a lot!!

SakuraRangerGrl: Thank you for the support!!!