Wow, look it's chapter 4! I really haven't abandoned I really haven't, I'm just quite slow. So so sorry, but this story is continuing and so will the rest of them at some point. I promise. Oh and Cowgoddess, I know there's rule-breaking but there is a line dedicated to one of your greatest fics ever. Does that help? For all the rest of you, enjoy. )
Peaceful Ruin
Somewhere there's speaking
It's already coming in
Oh and it's rising at the back of your mind
You never could get it
Unless you were fed it
Now you're here and you don't know why
But under skinned knees and the skid marks
Past the places where you used to learn
You howl and listen
Listen and wait for the
Echoes of angels who won't return
He's everything you want
He's everything you need
He's everything inside of you
That you wish you could be
He says all the right things
At exactly the right time
But he means nothing to you
And you don't know why
You're waiting for someone
To put you together
You're waiting for someone to push you away
There's always another wound to discover
There's always something more you wish he'd say
But you'll just sit tight
And watch it unwind
It's only what you're asking for
And you'll be just fine
With all of your time
It's only what you're waiting for
Out of the island
Into the highway
Past the places where you might have turned
You never did notice
But you still hide away
The anger of angels who won't return
I am everything you want
I am everything you need
I am everything inside of you
That you wish you could be
I say all the right things
At exactly the right time
But I mean nothing to you and I don't know why
And I don't know why
Why
I don't know
Everything you Want
by Vertical Horizon
Chapter 4 – Everything and Nothing
Legolas' mood had changed. He was excited, leaping from tree to tree in his apparent joy. His laughter rang out clear and strange across the desolate forest. And he was next to impossible to keep up with. Estel raced along the ground, getting vague glimpses of the blond as he cut a line through the empty branches. He felt strange leaving his brothers behind but he'd just pledged himself to Legolas's aid and in that he would not falter. So he followed his friend as he cried in joy, bounding from limb to limb, happy and carefree.
They journeyed for hours and hours until the sun sat fat and red on the horizon. Legolas finally slowed his pace and leaned back against the great trees. As Estel climbed into the branches beside him, the elf regarded him strangely.
"You are still here." The crystal voice held no question. A simple statement of fact. Estel resisted the urge to sigh, so instead squeezed his eyes closed, rubbing them with his hands. Valar, he was so tired. So tired of this black despair that followed him, that had set upon his brothers and his home. In the distance of his mind, he could remember those glorious days he had spent with Legolas in trees and woods such as these. The days would stretch on, long and endless as happiness is in the summer of childhood. They made bonds and oaths that were unbreakable in those moments when friendship was the same as brotherhood. He opened his eyes again and refocused on Legolas. The elf sat beside him, his expression one of blank calm. A void. Estel knew that what he wanted didn't exist here. His friend, his closest friend was nothing but a shadow of his former self but this lie of friendship seemed better at the moment then the truth of his brother's agony. At least it was easier to pretend. So he settled back, the tree bark cutting into his skin even through his shirt reminding him of the painful place that he was in. Legolas was ignoring him now as his body fell into sleep. His eyes open and glazed over with elven slumber.
Night turned to day and back and forth as Estel and Legolas traveled through the forest on the same paths that they had so many times before. The paths were covered over with leaves and weeds but they still existed and Estel felt a strange sense of hope from this. This world was changed but the place he had known was still there, just buried. Maybe the same could be true of his friend, his brothers, so he stayed with Legolas, all the way until the tips of Mirkwood flashed red through the trees and Estel realized with a start that the city was on fire!
He increased his pace, fear pumping into his veins and called out to his friend. "Legolas! We must hurry!" When he didn't get a response, Estel turned and found Legolas was gone. He quickly scanned the treetops for the elf and couldn't find him. So he raced on ahead, concerned for what the fire was doing to Legolas' already shaky mental state.
He ran through the wide-open gates, they hung off the hinges at awkward angles, no longer able to be closed. Half the city before him was ablaze with red-hot flames and the other half lay smoldering where the fire had already done its work. He made his was cautiously through the open courtyard not daring yet to get to close to the flames licking out from the high towers. There seemed to be no sign of life anywhere in the city.
"Legolas! Legolas, are you here?" Estel yelled at the top of his voice. It was possible that the elf had run back into the woods, fearing the sight of his home burning to the ground. "Legolas!" His calls were met with no answers. In fact, he was just turning to head back to the woods to search for him there when a glint of blond hair caught his attention.
He raced forward, "Legolas! Legolas, it's Estel! Where are you?"
Suddenly, strong hands grabbed his arm and spun him wildly around. For one split second, Estel thought it was Legolas but then realized he was face to face with his father, Thranduil. The powerful blond elf stood taller than Estel remember, towering almost over him and wilting him down with a glare of such incredible intensity that Estel felt weak.
Thranduil's voice was tight and loud. "Why do you call that name?"
Estel looked around, now frantic for his friend to appear. If his brothers and Legolas were so changed from how he knew them, then surely Thranduil would be also and that thought scared him more so than any other. "He was with me. We traveled here to –"
Thranduil dealt Estel a vicious blow to his stomach that doubled him over. "I don't care for liars in my city." Thranduil paused, then gave a cold, short laugh. "Such as it is."
Gasping for breath, Estel looked up into the eyes of his best friend's father and allowed himself to shudder at the death he saw written there for him. "I'm not lying. I met up with him near Imladris." Estel struggled back to his feet just in time for Thranduil to knock him down again with a strike across his face. It occurred to Estel then that the great king was playing with him while trying to decide how to kill him.
Thranduil then bent down and grabbed Estel across the waist and began to carry him. Estel was alternating between breathing ragged breaths and spitting out blood. This seemed to amuse Thranduil, as he carried him through one of the doorways into the burning palace. "I always forget how fragile humans are, after all we scarcely get visitors here. So, liar, you'll have to forgive my manners, I had hoped you would live to burn to death, still…" Thranduil threw Estel down in an enclosed courtyard, the flames lapped on the edges of the stone, waving to him to come to the fire. Thranduil continued "dead is dead. What do I care anymore anyway?"
He started to turn, his hand on the lock to leave Estel to his death when he froze. His eyes fixed on a point just out of Estel sight from where he could barely breath on the ground. The heat was closer now, stinging his eyes and making them tears. The thick smoke spiraled up from the ground blacking out the sky. But Thranduil's entire being was bent on the object he was fixed upon and Estel knew that Legolas had found his way to his father. Relief flooded into him and he staggered to his knees as a wall of smoke hit him blocking his ability to breath. He tried to call out to his friend but end up just choking and coughing violently in the inferno.
Legolas stepped up to his father, both elves oblivious to the fire, eyes only for each other. Thranduil's expression softened and he suddenly embraced his son so tightly that Estel was sure he would crush him. "You're back."
Legolas' eyes were closed, his face blissful and calm. "I'm home."
Thranduil led him into the garden where Estel lay dying on the ground. He sputtered out "Lego- please," Legolas turned his head, gave Estel a questioning look then turned his entire attention back to his father. "Legolas" sobbed Estel and he lay down on the melting ground. The fire licked at his back and he could no longer see. Legolas was letting him die, Thranduil had forced him here to die and neither of them cared. He would have screamed if he had a voice. He would have run if he could move but his hope had died with that look of confusion that Legolas had given him. He didn't understand why Estel would have called to him. Estel cried and shook with grief, with betrayal and with pain from the smoke, which was weaving its way through his lungs. The world swam out of existence for him just then as Thranduil and Legolas stopped in the corner of the garden.
Thranduil bent down and ran his hand lightly over the dark ground. His words were soft and filled with memories. "I was standing right here when they brought you to me for the first time. I held you in my arms and you looked up at me with those blue eyes and I knew then that no matter what happened, no matter what you did that I would love you until then end of the world." Thranduil stood up and held his son to him. Legolas' eyes were still closed but his body was relaxed. "Here were are at the end of all things and I still love you as much as I did that first day."
Legolas let out a small cry, a cry of joy of a type he had not felt for a very long time. He spoke finally, his voice quiet and serene. "I will never leave again."
Thranduil smiled and held his son tighter as the flames surged forward. "Neither of us will, my son."
The great city, alight with fire, glowed and flashed one final time in the woods of Mirkwood. It was a last beautiful farewell, violent and sudden. One lone elf watched it burn and let the sorrow wash through him at its demolition. At his feet, a young human abruptly returned to consciousness. The elf took a step forward and helped the human to sit up.
Estel looked at Elrohir in amazement. "What happened?"
Elrohir gestured to the city. "Thranduil has destroyed his kingdom."
Estel looked down at his hands, they were dark with soot. "We-," He coughed a few times, trying to rid his body of the smoke. Elrohir looked down at him with a look close to sympathy as Estel forced out his sentence. "We have to stop him"
Elrohir laughed hoarsely at this then looked out into the distance. His eyes found Elladan, who watched the fire eagerly but from a safe distance. His eyes on his brother, he spoke again. "Mirkwood died years ago, this is just its ashes blowing away in the wind."
Estel was about to say more when the coughing fit hit him. He doubled over, fighting to get his breathing back to normal speeds when he felt Elrohir's hand on his back. Elrohir gently began to press on his back where his lungs were until Estel could feel his breathing returning to normal. After some time of just enjoying being able to breath again Estel finally stood up. His mind started to put events together and with a wave of fear he noticed that he was alone.
"Where's Legolas?"
Elrohir's eyes narrowed at this question. "He perished with his father in that courtyard where I found you, I expect."
Estel's whole body went cold. "No, that can't be. Thranduil wouldn't- We have to go back!" He began forward towards the door that Thranduil had dragged him through. Elrohir wrapped his arms around his body and threw him to the ground suddenly.
"Are you insane! Go back? Why would you go back?" Elrohir's anger seemed pitched with hurt. "You'd go back for him? The one that left you to die there? Do you still not understand? You are not in that place where there is joy. There is no love, no loyalty and no honor here!"
Estel had rarely seen Elrohir so upset but he knew his brother and he knew why. "There's you, Elrohir. You saved me when he didn't, when he couldn't. You may not know yourself, but I know you, even here and you have honor." Estel felt the tears falling from his eyes and didn't care. "You can cut off your braids if you want to but I know your heart." He turned his head to where Elladan stood over him "and I know him too."
Elrohir knelt beside him, his anger cooling down, replaced by emotions he hadn't dared let himself feel in years. "Who are you?"
Estel shook his head, unsure how to answer and afraid to mention Elrond again. "I am Estel, raised in the house of – raised in Imladris. Son of Arathron."
Elrohir's eyes widened slightly, "That's not possible, Arathorn's son died with him less than 20 years ago."
"It is possible, Elrohir. Where I'm from we were raised as brothers. I grew up with you both."
Understanding was filling Elrohir's face and he nodded. "I was preying to the Valar to bring us hope when you first arrived here. They brought me you because this whole thing started with you in the first place."
"Roh, what are you talking about?" It was so easy to fall back on nicknames, Estel was feeling more at home with Elrohir and was forgetting that although he had just saved his life, this was not the brother he grew up with. Elrohir's hand flew to Estel face but he stopped his strike mere inches from Estel's cheek.
Shocked, Estel flinched and backed away and Elrohir stood abruptly with a strange mixture of guilt and fury on his face. "Don't call me that name."
And with that, all the ground Estel had gained fell apart in his hands. Still, Estel swallowed and plunged on. "You know why this world is different from mine, don't you?"
Elrohir turned his back to him then, watching his twin, who had now grown tired of the fire, tear down trees near the gates. Elrohir's voice was quiet. "Yes, I know."
Estel came up beside him and they both stood in silence, watching Elladan. Finally Estel, brave in his grief, gathered his courage. "My friend is dead, my brothers are in agony and my home is destroyed. Please, Elrohir, tell me why this has happened. Maybe we can change-"
It was a pointless request. "This can not BE changed! Why do you persist in trying to do the impossible?" Elrohir's anger was back. "If you really must seek out the reason this world is what it has become perhaps you should go to Lothlorian and ask the one that is responsible for it to begin with."
Estel became very still. "Who? Who did this?"
Elrohir's eyes pierced into his. "Elrond, our father."
