Boromir floated down to the sidewalk and beckoned Legolas to come. He nervously looked down the two-story window and saw the drainpipe near the window. He quickly, but neatly, wrapped Boromir's belongings with a cloak and, using a belt from Aragorn's closet, he secured it on his back like a pack.
"Do you want me to show you or not?" Boromir's voice rang through the early morning air.
He jumped onto the windowsill, leapt and grabbed the drainpipe and slid down to the ground. He came up to Boromir and noticed that he was blurred around the edges.
"You never had much patience, you know."
"Well, when the sun rises properly, you won't be able to see me," he retorted anxiously. He swiftly drifted down the street. "That's why I suggest you hurry up!"
"That means we only have about forty-five minutes," Legolas said after stealing a glance at the eastern horizon. He sprinted down the street after Boromir's glow, which was growing dimmer every minute.
The ghost of Boromir floated through fences, buildings and cars to follow an easier, faster path than Legolas'. He led him on a route that the both of them knew much too well.
"It can't be where I think you're leading me," he panted. He sprinted to catch up to him. "You have to be joking."
"I would never joke about something like this." He stopped about a block away from a brown brick box that was once called a building. He directed Legolas to a dense bush for him to hide in. "Dawn is almost upon us. I have to leave you soon, but I have some instructions for you."
Legolas crouched low on the grass and looked at his fading body. He waited patiently for him.
"Spirits that wander the city know things about their home that no mortal can understand now. I have heard from the other ghosts that something of an ancient age is in that building. When I heard about it, I went to investigate. I didn't even need to go closer than a hundred meters to feel a sense of familiarity coming from that building. It's a feeling that I feel right now: the feeling of coming home."
"Are you saying," he whispered, "that the Horn of Gondor resides in that very building in front of me?"
"Yes. But I must tell you something quickly. Once you take the Horn into your hands, the force of Light will grow stronger. For a few minutes, whoever has the Horn will be sending out very strong magical signals. So you might as well have a spotlight on you, as far as the Darkness is concerned. In a matter of moments, an army of Orcs, Neos and Parasite hosts will be on your back. If you're not out of that building before they come, you'll be helping me find spirits of the ancient past."
"Great. So I have about five minutes to run once I get the Horn? Or else I'm a Host or Neo food, whichever."
"Yeah, that's if you're planning on going in there now without anybody to watch your back, which I seriously don't recommend."
"Why not?"
"Look into the windows."
A weak ray of light hit a musty window and illuminated the gangly figure of a Neo sprawled on the windowsill, sleeping. Looking closer, he could see more sleeping bodies faintly stirring in the rooms within. One of the Neos blearily opened a demonic eye and gave a huge hissing yawn, showing its dozens of sharp, glistening teeth and the insides of its mouth to the sun.
"Neos," Legolas muttered. "I loathe Neos."
"Everybody does. Go back to Aragorn and the others. Take possession of the Horn and seek refuge in the forest, but whatever you do, don't use it. The spirits of old get a little... harassed if you try to summon them more than once." Sunlight inched closer and closer. He started to become even more transparent and his voice echoed more. "Until we are summoned to duty, Legolas, farewell."
"Wait!" he cried out, but it was too late. Boromir's spirit had vanished from his sight with a sigh of the wind. He looked at the space where he had stood a moment ago and said softly, "Until then, Boromir."
With one last look at the building, which was becoming steadily more active, he quietly made his way from the yard to the streets. He went through the suburbs to downtown, keeping his stride long and silent. His thoughts were on the Horn and the upcoming doom.
As he started down the street away from the infested building, he was so preoccupied with his thoughts that he didn't see or feel a set of eyes follow him. A set of eyes that didn't belong to a Neo and were luminous.
"Hmm..."
--- ---
Aragorn woke up to the sound of Gandalf cooking in the kitchen. The hobbits and Gimli were still asleep around him on the floor and on the couch. He got up, stretched and went over to Gandalf.
"Good morning, Aragorn. How do you like your eggs?"
"Morning, Gandalf," he yawned. "Eggs? Oh, I like them scrambled. No, wait, sunny-side up. You know what? Just surprise me."
"If you really want me to." He flipped a few eggs over on the frying pan. "You don't know where our elf is, do you?"
"The elf? No, I have no idea where Legolas is. You know how he is at night." He started going through the refrigerator to drink. "He loves to explore the area. Hell, I'd go with him if I could."
"Your nature as a Ranger combined with the recklessness and impudence of youth is a dangerous mix, Aragorn."
"That combination helps me keep out of trouble."
"That combination, more often than not, is what gets you into trouble in the first place."
He laughed and raised his glass of orange juice. "That's true. Cheers to that, too."
The hobbits and Gimli had already woken up and they were all having some breakfast when a knock came at the door. They all looked at each other, confused.
"Aragorn, you get it," said Merry.
"What? Why me?"
"Because you're closest to the door."
"What-- Oh, fine."
He got up from the table, got his sword from the nearby wall and cautiously went to the door. His instincts told him to be careful because he sensed that whatever that was on the other side of the door was dangerous. His hand slowly inched towards the knob as his other arm raised his sword.
"Could you please just open the stupid door?" Legolas' voice asked impatiently through the threshold.
Startled that his friend's voice called through the door, Aragorn immediately opened the door for him. What met his eyes was not completely what he had expected to find looking back at him.
Legolas was leaning heavily against the doorframe with one hand and rubbing his injured head with the other. When he withdrew his hand from his head, it was covered in red blood. His clothes were dirty and ripped in several places. The front of his shirt was stained with drops of black blood and he was covered from head to toe with scratches and scrapes.
"Legolas!" exclaimed Aragorn. He quickly shut the door after the tired elf walked inside. "What happened? Are you okay?"
Pippin retrieved the first-aid kit as Legolas wearily collapsed on the couch. Everyone else abandoned their breakfast to make sure that he was okay. He handed the pack from his back to the nearest person to him.
"Whose is this?" Gandalf asked as he unraveled the belt from the tangle of cloth.
"Boromir's. I... sort of... ended up back in my old neighborhood."
"What happened, Legolas?" Aragorn asked again. He took the first-aid kit from Pippin and sat next to the bleeding side of him.
"Well, it started with me finding a --- Ow! Aragorn!" Instinctively, he grabbed his wrist, which was very near his head, and pushed it away.
"What?" His hand held a wet cotton ball that was faintly tainted with his friend's blood.
"Just... warn me next time," he answered irritably.
Aragorn simply rolled his eyes and continued cleaning his wounds. As he did so, Legolas told the group what had happened the previous night, starting from finding the Honda Civic to ending up at Aragorn's old home and talking to Boromir's ghost. He paused for a moment to let Aragorn wrap the bandage properly.
"So Boromir and other ghosts also know of the impending doom," observed Gandalf. He was admiring the Gondorian sword as Aragorn and Frodo were bandaging Legolas' head. "What do they say?"
"The spirits? If I remember correctly, Boromir said that they think we're fighting a losing battle."
"How nice," Gimli said sarcastically.
"Aren't they? But Boromir stood up for us and told them off by telling a lot of help is coming. He was a good man, Boromir."
"Yeah, he was," Aragorn said pensively.
"So that was it?" Gimli asked. "You started to head back here after that?"
"Not quite. He told me where the Horn of Gondor was. He led me to where it's supposed to be hidden."
Aragorn and Frodo immediately stopped bandaging at his words. Gandalf dropped Boromir's sword with a loud clang and tremendous shock. Sam and Merry simply looked at him with surprise and open mouths while Pippin nearly spat out some juice. Gimli stood and stared at him with disbelief.
"You're joking," stuttered Gimli. "You know where the Horn of Gondor is?"
"Yep."
"Then what're we waiting for? Let's go and get it!" He eagerly looked around at his comrades. Most of them were seriously considering that option as a course of action.
"I am sorry, Master Dwarf," Legolas said, slightly deflating the happy bubble that appeared in his friends' hearts and temporarily reverting to his old self. "But that would be unadvisable without the proper knowledge."
"Excuse me?"
"Well, we can't just waltz in there, take the Horn and calmly walk out of the building." The teenage Legolas retook control of the dominant part of his psyche. "This requires a bit more skill."
"What do you mean?" asked Frodo.
"That place is currently the happy home of at lease five dozen Neos. And we all know what a single Neo can do, let alone a whole group of them. In the daytime, orcs patrol the streets of that area. They're the ones who usually break into the houses, steal the jewelry and raid the fridges for decent food. Right now, fresh food is running a tad low, so the orcs are on sharper lookout for fresh meat. Their eyesight and the Neos' keen sense of smell combined means that, if we step within a kilometer radius of that place, they'd know of our presence."
"Oh, great. So how're we going to get in?"
"Go during the night?" suggested Sam. "I doubt that they'd keep the same amount of orcs out at night, since they seem to have adapted to the daylight."
"Nighttime would be a little better than in the day... But you guys aren't used to staying up all night."
"We already stay up until three in the morning," interjected Merry. "I don't think that's too bad at all. Plus, once we get some Orcs or Neos running after us, we'll be plenty awake."
"Night it is," said Gandalf with a tone of finality as Aragorn and Legolas started a small fight about a crack Aragorn made about the condition of Legolas' supposed lack of mental agility.
With Legolas firmly pinned face down on the couch, Aragorn brought up a valid point. "Five dozen Neos in one place, not including Orcs and possibly Uruk-Hai? I think we need some more firepower aside from the guns."
"The guns are the strongest things we have," Sam pointed out. "If we're not going to use the guns, what are we going to use?"
"Magically-enhanced guns." Gandalf motioned the young Aragorn to release the helpless Elf so he could ask him something. "I'm assuming that they work, that is. Am I right, Legolas?"
"The hand-helds work perfectly but they'd work even better against the Darkness if you made them a bit stronger with magic," he replied from the depths of the couch cushion. Aragorn had only released his head and upper body, so he was still a hostage on the couch. "Can't be too sure about the long arms, though."
"Well then, I suppose that is what we'll be doing today, boys. I believe we have some silencers in one of those crates over there so we'll have some fun testing them after a good, solid meal."
"Will you be enchanting them after we test them, Mr. Gandalf, sir?" asked Sam. He was hoping to see some of the old magic.
"Of course, Samwise! You don't expect to vanquish a full building of Dark creatures quickly with an ordinary gun, do you?" He then got up and started to resume his breakfast at the kitchen table. Only Sam and Frodo had joined him, however.
Legolas had already succeeded in throwing Aragorn off his back and was currently holding him secure on the floor. Gimli was offering him Aragorn's own belt to tie him to a chair and was desperately trying not to laugh at the straining Man. The two Hobbits, Merry and Pippin, were openly laughing at him and goading Legolas to take the belt.
"You wouldn't dare, Legolas," Aragorn called up to him from the floor.
"Yeah, I would," he laughed. He took the belt from Gimli and fastened Aragorn's hands behind his back tight enough to keep him helpless for a few moments but loose enough so he could get out of the restraints himself. As he settled back on the couch, he said with a grin, "See?"
After a moment of entertainment by watching Aragorn struggle, Pippin furrowed his brow with a sudden thought.
"Hey, Legolas, you never told us where the Horn was hidden."
"That's because you never asked." He calmly watched Aragorn finally rid himself of his belt and turn to him with hostility in his eyes.
"Oh. Right. So where is it, then?"
The next words that came out of his mouth shocked everyone so much that even the enraged Aragorn stopped in his tracks.
"It's in the school. S. J. Carnil."