Oh my God!! Am I really alive??! Yes.. And I am also really sorry that I
have been SO long updating.. I DID have the chapter written.. But.. Well..
Things have been odd and stuff took longer than usual.. Still.. Enough of
that.
Still, once again I got 18 reviews for the babble I dare to call a story, and I was, to say the least, highly surprised! Once again, my dear readers you have amazed me into writing..
Also, I apologise for being lazy, but I really don't have the time to write up that many thank you notes, though, my fantastic reviewers, you do deserve it. And I am very sorry. So, here's a thanks you to..
Yami Meji no Minaraikou, ~Hikari~Silver, Luni Seda, Banshee0, Lilyoda, MJLuvsPolar, Gackt no Hime, Peeps Inferior, eeeeeee, Starlit Hope, Crystal Snowflakes, Sly-chan, Ashen Skies, LadyDragonWolfKnight, *Nicole
In this chapter we are back to Legolas' point of view,
What I shall do is stop my useless natters now and let you finally read the third instalment of Save Me. Long awaited and hopefully not too disappointing.
~*~
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
~*~
"Father. It is of no matter any longer. I shall not accompany you to the Undying lands."
King Thranduils head fell into his hands.
"My Son. Please," He said in a voice choked with despair, and confusion. "Reconsider this notion. You have no reason to remain here. All our people are leaving, why can you possibly wish to remain behind?"
"I have my reasons father. I would not embark on something such as this unless I had proof that it was not folly." Legolas replied, fixing his eyes on a bird singing on a tree branch outside the fort rather than the pain- filled eyes of his father.
"Prey my son," Thranduil questioned. "What is this reason that makes you wish to leave the presence of your kin? Did your time away from us turn your head and heart? Do you no feel you are one of us?"
Legolas sighed as they had begun a much-repeated cycle yet again.
"I shall not say in front of any but you father. There are many here who do not need to know of what has befallen me. But I say once more. I know myself to be one of you. My quest did not turn my head. I am the same person now, here before you, as I was when I left to journey to Rivendell and the council, it is not my person that has been altered.. "
At last Legolas seemed to have gotten his desire for privacy across to his distraught father.
A wave of the kings had sent the remaining elves who had gathered to welcome the prince home, scurrying away.
Once they had all departed the Elven King turned to his son.
"Now my son, tell me why you wish to remain, for my ears long to hear the reason in this seeming madness."
Legolas took a breath and starred into the face of his father.
"Because, Father. I shall not live to see the Undying lands even if we were to leave this day. I do not wish my life to end in a ship or on some lonely shore that my eyes have never once in my life rested upon. I wish to end my days with the trees that have known me throughout their long lives, and the spirits to whom I have listened and been lulled to sleep by their soft voices. Do not deny me this wish Father and do not doubt my words. My life has drawn to its time of conclusion. It shall not carry me any further."
The Kings face was stricken and he had a hand pressed across his heart as he starred in horror at the calm face of his son. Any further words stilled in his throat.
"Dieing Legolas?" He managed at last, in a weak voice. "Why say you this.. We are immortal.. Invulnerable.. Upon my word my son we can not die, we stand apart from the mortals of Middle Earth!"
"Tis not so father. We are not invulnerable to all.. Not to grief. I have been betrayed Father, by one I loved, they have.. Moved on to another and the wound is too great to heal. It is possible that I should have lived had they but thought enough of me to tell me in person that they did not return the love that I had pledged quite openly unto them, but they did not. They never, I am afraid to say, held me in high enough regard."
Legolas paused and took a breath, composing himself once more to continue.
"I know that the time has now arrived when we shall part ways Father, but I am unafraid. T'would do me no justice to cower in the face of that which I have seen so much of in this past year. I had thought that maybe I could heal this wound in time, but too much of that has passed and no improvement have I seen, so Father, I wish to end my days as I choose. I have been proud to live under your rule Father, to live as your son. Allow me my last request. Leave me behind when you depart to cross the sea."
There were tears in the eyes of both prince and King as Legolas finished his speech.
The King rose and enfolded his son in an embrace. "You do your race proud my son. You do me proud. But tell me one thing, for I shall not rest I fear till I know. Who is it that has so captured your heart my son?"
"The Gondorian King Father. Aragorn, Son of Arathorn. But please, Father, do not seek vengeance, for it is by my own fault that things have turned out such. Had I not misplaced my heart I would not be as I am."
The King swore it would be so, that he would not react to this horrific news.
That night, Father and Son wept together for that which had been lost, and that which would never be regained.
~*~
A Week has passed.
(Causing this evening to coincide with the one Aragorn spent thinking of the moon; it is three weeks since the wedding.)
~*~
Standing on the edge of Mirkwood, Legolas watched, with a growing emptiness inside him, his fathers entourage leave.
The Prince had however, not been left alone.
His own attendant, an older elf with dark brown hair and forest green eyes had remained at his side, as had his daughter, who looked nothing like him. Her light brown eyes and fair hair had evidently come from the mother she had lost in an Orc attack some years before. There names were Celithramir and his daughter Eylien.
Celithramir knew of the circumstances of the Princes refusal to leave, and he had refused to desert his master and Prince, who he had looked after and tended for since he was incredibly young, his daughter, despite pleas from aunts and cousins had remained also, not wishing to leave her fathers side.
They had been left with a moderate sized elven boat, both so that they could join their kind across the sea once their task in their homeland was complete, and also in the hope that Legolas may alter his choice and his fate and opt to leave and rejoin his kin.
The sky was turning a dusky orange and Celithramir stood with his hand on his Princes shoulder as the grieving elf watched his father and the remainder of his people vanish into the sunset.
His heart ached with longing to follow them, but also with the longing to make them stay with him. He didn't want them to leave him and forsake their wood to the humans, but it had been inevitable. The reign of the elves was over and he had to be strong.
His time in the world was over and there was no longer anything he could do to prevent it. The one man who could save him was sitting on the throne of Gondor happily married and most likely deciding on the number of children he would have.
Legolas pushed the bleak thought out of his mind and closed his eyes as the last rays of the setting sun sank below the horizon, and his father and all his people finally faded from view.
"Peace father." He murmured. "Peace and a safe journey. Hold me in your heart and my life shall not have been in vain."
"Come." Celithramir said shortly, a while later. Pulling on the princes arm. "It will not do for you to remain, if you keep your mind on other things and away from these dark and sore thoughts you may not leave us. I myself have lost a wife and I am still living. Maybe you can do the same. There is no need for you to fade, you can journey with my daughter and I. We shall take you with us. Your love is not dead. He may return."
Legolas turned sad eyes on his friend. "Oh if only he were dead." He sighed, "That way I would know at least that he had not willingly left and slighted me. I do not mean to belittle your pain my friend, only say that this is pain of a different sort. My pain and grief stem from the fact that all we shared was an untruth.. That all he ever told me was a lie."
He cast saddened eyes around him and pressed a hand over his heart, the pain of his grief rising once more with the flood of memories. With regretful sigh he shook his head and spoke again.
"If he had but been able to tell me of his need to marry, for I do understand it, I should, most likely have still been well, but as it is he gave me no explanation, no reason at all and no news as to whether or not I still hold any place in his heart. Besides. If I am honest, I do not wish to go on alone."
"But surely sire, you could find another? This love that you say was there can be nothing but a falsity if he can discard you with such ease."
"Nay." Legolas shook his elegant head, causing his blond hair to flutter on the light breeze. "No one could take his place. The love, at least on my part, was as true as it could have been, and I will love him ere after. Even if I know that the hope of love in return is a futile one. Though he has discarded me I shall not discard him, my heart is his and his alone. I can not take it back, for whether knowingly or not, he has taken it, locked it in a chest and thrown the key far out of the reach of any who would dare search for it."
With a sigh the older elf led the grieving prince back to the fort. He could see from the lost look in the princes eyes that he did indeed have little time remaining. The journey back from Gondor on foot, for he had left suddenly and without a horse and his continual dwelling on the haunting thoughts of Aragorn, both in times of sleep and wakefulness had weakened his resistance significantly, and shortened greatly the span that his life may have held out.
He had watched his people leave, and had not shed a single tear.
~*~
That night, his daughter shaking his shoulder awoke Celithramir from his peaceful slumber.
"Father." She said urgently as he stirred. "The Prince. I do not know what to do!"
In an instant Celithramir was up, pulling his robes from the hook where they hung and pulling them on. Minutes later he was in running toward the princes chamber.
Legolas' face was sheet white when Celithramir entered, and his blue eyes were rolled back in his head, his breathing was laboured and he was crying out to the one he loved to help him.
The lean body twitched occasionally as it fought the sickness that assailed it for control, the sickness that had no cure. The sickness known as Grief.
Celithramir turned to his daughter. "Eylien." He said in a gentle, yet firm tone. "Ready yourself quickly my child for you must leave. Ride to Gondor. The King must know of this. Be fleet of foot my child; Gondor is not so far when you take a horse. I will look after the Prince.. He does not have much time left, maybe one week hence, ten days at the very most, but that I fear is too much to hope for. Bring the King to him if you can. The King can save him. He is the only one.. The princes only hope.. Hold no prejudice in you're heart upon commencement of your meeting with him. I do not believe that our Prince could ever come to love a monster. Now Be Gone child! Fly!"
Eylien spun to her feet and scant minutes later was urging a lithe dappled grey mare through the forest and toward Gondor.
"Elbereth, Luthien." She breathed quietly. "Please let me make it in time, please let the King journey back with me. Please let me save him. For loves sake let me save him.."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Okay. and there this chapter ends..
I hope it was worth waiting for, I really do!
As with last time the next chapter is written, it just needs reading through a couple more times. Hopefully it will be ready before the end of the week, and I will try and have it up by Sunday.
Leave a review if you want, they are always nice to read, but no pressure!
And Hiya Emms! I KNOW you are reading this! *Grins*
Still, once again I got 18 reviews for the babble I dare to call a story, and I was, to say the least, highly surprised! Once again, my dear readers you have amazed me into writing..
Also, I apologise for being lazy, but I really don't have the time to write up that many thank you notes, though, my fantastic reviewers, you do deserve it. And I am very sorry. So, here's a thanks you to..
Yami Meji no Minaraikou, ~Hikari~Silver, Luni Seda, Banshee0, Lilyoda, MJLuvsPolar, Gackt no Hime, Peeps Inferior, eeeeeee, Starlit Hope, Crystal Snowflakes, Sly-chan, Ashen Skies, LadyDragonWolfKnight, *Nicole
In this chapter we are back to Legolas' point of view,
What I shall do is stop my useless natters now and let you finally read the third instalment of Save Me. Long awaited and hopefully not too disappointing.
~*~
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
~*~
"Father. It is of no matter any longer. I shall not accompany you to the Undying lands."
King Thranduils head fell into his hands.
"My Son. Please," He said in a voice choked with despair, and confusion. "Reconsider this notion. You have no reason to remain here. All our people are leaving, why can you possibly wish to remain behind?"
"I have my reasons father. I would not embark on something such as this unless I had proof that it was not folly." Legolas replied, fixing his eyes on a bird singing on a tree branch outside the fort rather than the pain- filled eyes of his father.
"Prey my son," Thranduil questioned. "What is this reason that makes you wish to leave the presence of your kin? Did your time away from us turn your head and heart? Do you no feel you are one of us?"
Legolas sighed as they had begun a much-repeated cycle yet again.
"I shall not say in front of any but you father. There are many here who do not need to know of what has befallen me. But I say once more. I know myself to be one of you. My quest did not turn my head. I am the same person now, here before you, as I was when I left to journey to Rivendell and the council, it is not my person that has been altered.. "
At last Legolas seemed to have gotten his desire for privacy across to his distraught father.
A wave of the kings had sent the remaining elves who had gathered to welcome the prince home, scurrying away.
Once they had all departed the Elven King turned to his son.
"Now my son, tell me why you wish to remain, for my ears long to hear the reason in this seeming madness."
Legolas took a breath and starred into the face of his father.
"Because, Father. I shall not live to see the Undying lands even if we were to leave this day. I do not wish my life to end in a ship or on some lonely shore that my eyes have never once in my life rested upon. I wish to end my days with the trees that have known me throughout their long lives, and the spirits to whom I have listened and been lulled to sleep by their soft voices. Do not deny me this wish Father and do not doubt my words. My life has drawn to its time of conclusion. It shall not carry me any further."
The Kings face was stricken and he had a hand pressed across his heart as he starred in horror at the calm face of his son. Any further words stilled in his throat.
"Dieing Legolas?" He managed at last, in a weak voice. "Why say you this.. We are immortal.. Invulnerable.. Upon my word my son we can not die, we stand apart from the mortals of Middle Earth!"
"Tis not so father. We are not invulnerable to all.. Not to grief. I have been betrayed Father, by one I loved, they have.. Moved on to another and the wound is too great to heal. It is possible that I should have lived had they but thought enough of me to tell me in person that they did not return the love that I had pledged quite openly unto them, but they did not. They never, I am afraid to say, held me in high enough regard."
Legolas paused and took a breath, composing himself once more to continue.
"I know that the time has now arrived when we shall part ways Father, but I am unafraid. T'would do me no justice to cower in the face of that which I have seen so much of in this past year. I had thought that maybe I could heal this wound in time, but too much of that has passed and no improvement have I seen, so Father, I wish to end my days as I choose. I have been proud to live under your rule Father, to live as your son. Allow me my last request. Leave me behind when you depart to cross the sea."
There were tears in the eyes of both prince and King as Legolas finished his speech.
The King rose and enfolded his son in an embrace. "You do your race proud my son. You do me proud. But tell me one thing, for I shall not rest I fear till I know. Who is it that has so captured your heart my son?"
"The Gondorian King Father. Aragorn, Son of Arathorn. But please, Father, do not seek vengeance, for it is by my own fault that things have turned out such. Had I not misplaced my heart I would not be as I am."
The King swore it would be so, that he would not react to this horrific news.
That night, Father and Son wept together for that which had been lost, and that which would never be regained.
~*~
A Week has passed.
(Causing this evening to coincide with the one Aragorn spent thinking of the moon; it is three weeks since the wedding.)
~*~
Standing on the edge of Mirkwood, Legolas watched, with a growing emptiness inside him, his fathers entourage leave.
The Prince had however, not been left alone.
His own attendant, an older elf with dark brown hair and forest green eyes had remained at his side, as had his daughter, who looked nothing like him. Her light brown eyes and fair hair had evidently come from the mother she had lost in an Orc attack some years before. There names were Celithramir and his daughter Eylien.
Celithramir knew of the circumstances of the Princes refusal to leave, and he had refused to desert his master and Prince, who he had looked after and tended for since he was incredibly young, his daughter, despite pleas from aunts and cousins had remained also, not wishing to leave her fathers side.
They had been left with a moderate sized elven boat, both so that they could join their kind across the sea once their task in their homeland was complete, and also in the hope that Legolas may alter his choice and his fate and opt to leave and rejoin his kin.
The sky was turning a dusky orange and Celithramir stood with his hand on his Princes shoulder as the grieving elf watched his father and the remainder of his people vanish into the sunset.
His heart ached with longing to follow them, but also with the longing to make them stay with him. He didn't want them to leave him and forsake their wood to the humans, but it had been inevitable. The reign of the elves was over and he had to be strong.
His time in the world was over and there was no longer anything he could do to prevent it. The one man who could save him was sitting on the throne of Gondor happily married and most likely deciding on the number of children he would have.
Legolas pushed the bleak thought out of his mind and closed his eyes as the last rays of the setting sun sank below the horizon, and his father and all his people finally faded from view.
"Peace father." He murmured. "Peace and a safe journey. Hold me in your heart and my life shall not have been in vain."
"Come." Celithramir said shortly, a while later. Pulling on the princes arm. "It will not do for you to remain, if you keep your mind on other things and away from these dark and sore thoughts you may not leave us. I myself have lost a wife and I am still living. Maybe you can do the same. There is no need for you to fade, you can journey with my daughter and I. We shall take you with us. Your love is not dead. He may return."
Legolas turned sad eyes on his friend. "Oh if only he were dead." He sighed, "That way I would know at least that he had not willingly left and slighted me. I do not mean to belittle your pain my friend, only say that this is pain of a different sort. My pain and grief stem from the fact that all we shared was an untruth.. That all he ever told me was a lie."
He cast saddened eyes around him and pressed a hand over his heart, the pain of his grief rising once more with the flood of memories. With regretful sigh he shook his head and spoke again.
"If he had but been able to tell me of his need to marry, for I do understand it, I should, most likely have still been well, but as it is he gave me no explanation, no reason at all and no news as to whether or not I still hold any place in his heart. Besides. If I am honest, I do not wish to go on alone."
"But surely sire, you could find another? This love that you say was there can be nothing but a falsity if he can discard you with such ease."
"Nay." Legolas shook his elegant head, causing his blond hair to flutter on the light breeze. "No one could take his place. The love, at least on my part, was as true as it could have been, and I will love him ere after. Even if I know that the hope of love in return is a futile one. Though he has discarded me I shall not discard him, my heart is his and his alone. I can not take it back, for whether knowingly or not, he has taken it, locked it in a chest and thrown the key far out of the reach of any who would dare search for it."
With a sigh the older elf led the grieving prince back to the fort. He could see from the lost look in the princes eyes that he did indeed have little time remaining. The journey back from Gondor on foot, for he had left suddenly and without a horse and his continual dwelling on the haunting thoughts of Aragorn, both in times of sleep and wakefulness had weakened his resistance significantly, and shortened greatly the span that his life may have held out.
He had watched his people leave, and had not shed a single tear.
~*~
That night, his daughter shaking his shoulder awoke Celithramir from his peaceful slumber.
"Father." She said urgently as he stirred. "The Prince. I do not know what to do!"
In an instant Celithramir was up, pulling his robes from the hook where they hung and pulling them on. Minutes later he was in running toward the princes chamber.
Legolas' face was sheet white when Celithramir entered, and his blue eyes were rolled back in his head, his breathing was laboured and he was crying out to the one he loved to help him.
The lean body twitched occasionally as it fought the sickness that assailed it for control, the sickness that had no cure. The sickness known as Grief.
Celithramir turned to his daughter. "Eylien." He said in a gentle, yet firm tone. "Ready yourself quickly my child for you must leave. Ride to Gondor. The King must know of this. Be fleet of foot my child; Gondor is not so far when you take a horse. I will look after the Prince.. He does not have much time left, maybe one week hence, ten days at the very most, but that I fear is too much to hope for. Bring the King to him if you can. The King can save him. He is the only one.. The princes only hope.. Hold no prejudice in you're heart upon commencement of your meeting with him. I do not believe that our Prince could ever come to love a monster. Now Be Gone child! Fly!"
Eylien spun to her feet and scant minutes later was urging a lithe dappled grey mare through the forest and toward Gondor.
"Elbereth, Luthien." She breathed quietly. "Please let me make it in time, please let the King journey back with me. Please let me save him. For loves sake let me save him.."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Okay. and there this chapter ends..
I hope it was worth waiting for, I really do!
As with last time the next chapter is written, it just needs reading through a couple more times. Hopefully it will be ready before the end of the week, and I will try and have it up by Sunday.
Leave a review if you want, they are always nice to read, but no pressure!
And Hiya Emms! I KNOW you are reading this! *Grins*
