Disclaimer: I do not own LOTR.
Rating: PG-13
Author's Note: I apologize for the delay. The frenzy of US elections left me still delirious and semi-aware of even my own 20th birthday...and I recently tore my completed chapter 3 apart to start it anew. Thank you, wonderful reviewers; I feel like I already received birthday gifts, and it's still a long way till Friday. ;) I hope you enjoy this chapter!
Thank you to Rhys for reviewing many chapters of The Strength of One Green Leaf! Judging from your reactions, I would have much enjoyed leaving you in suspense...sigh. ;) But it is very sweet to receive reviews for that old piece of mine – the one that really got me plunging into the world of multi-chapter stories ;) Thank you so much for your kind reviews, and I was so happy to hear you tell me how you felt about specific parts in the story. Such a joy. Thank you so much! I hope you find enjoyment from my other works as well!
Thank you also to NaughtyNettie for reviewing the Strength of One Green Leaf and Of Elflings and Adolescents! I am gratified to hear that my stories had such an effect on you. I hope my other works don't disappoint you!
Thank you to Erestor for reviewing Beasts of Burden! You really flatter me with such generous words. ;) It was a delight to read how you felt about each part of the story – and it's a relief to hear that my English seems sound! ;) You are right in pointing out that I seem to enjoy crafting sentences – I take delight in that in both of my languages. Thank you for your insightful comments about my characters; they really helped me see my work with perspective. And I share your critical standpoint with Legolas-Aragorn stories. Most of them do tend to follow the vein and fail to bring out the depth of their relationship, and it is such a humble relief to hear that I didn't disappoint you. I am grateful and hopeful that you might read more of my stories – hopefully they don't disappoint! You, my friend, hold up the torch beautifully. Never let bad fanfiction depress you.
Thank you to KeshieShimmer, who reviewed Into the Light! Thank you for dropping by to let me know that you enjoyed it!
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By Kasmi Kassim
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From Twilight to Dawn
Chapter 3: After the Blood-Red Sun
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A gentle breeze was caressing his face when Legolas regained consciousness. He blinked slowly, allowing his eyes to focus, as brilliant hues of gold and red hovered far above. The sky was staining into lavender and dark blue.
With a start, he lifted his body. Nausea hit with violence; the world spun. Startled, he breathed sharply, before falling back onto the soft grass. A hand swiftly caught his shoulders across the back and eased him down.
"Not so hasty," said a soft voice. Legolas let out a weary breath.
"How long..."
"Only half a day." Another hand came up and stroked his forehead. "You almost fell off of your horse. But the drug was weak; it will wear off soon."
Letting out another weak breath, Legolas looked upward. The spinning of the sky was slowing down. Green grass swayed gently around his body, colored orange by the sunset. A distant bird was singing, mournfully, weakly. He closed his eyes.
It was after a moment of silence that the soft voice spoke again.
"Did you mean to hide it forever, little brother?"
Legolas opened his eyes. Sad gray eyes looked down at him. He looked away.
"I'm sorry, Arwen." His voice was a whisper.
A gentle hand stroked his face, over and over again.
"Do not be sorry that I was involved. But I do wish you had told me about your plight."
"It was not..." the voice trailed off, at a loss. Legolas closed his eyes once more. All sensation was lost except for the cool hand that stroked his skin, soothingly. And the soft trill of a bird.
"Did those men do that to you? The injuries?"
He nodded. Arwen did not press further. It was up to him to venture first.
With a deep inhalation, he opened his eyes.
"I met a band of men," he said slowly. "They asked me if I knew where Mirkwood was."
Arwen nodded. Legolas began to pull himself up onto his elbows. Arwen sat by him in perfect serenity, her dark hair a shade of auburn in the setting sun. Her cloak was spread about her, a soft wavering mass on the grass. They were on the crest of a small hill, facing west. Moving slowly as to not aggravate the nausea again, Legolas finally pulled himself up onto a sitting position. He leaned back on his palms.
"When I said I came from Mirkwood, they attacked me."
Arwen's sudden glance communicated all that he had expected: alarm, fear, disbelief. He wearily rubbed his eyes. His head still spun.
"I overwhelmed them and held the leader down, and asked him why..." He turned a puzzled gaze toward Arwen. "Elves and men were friends once, were they not?"
Arwen nodded in silence. Ah, how innocent this friend was.
"He said he wanted to speak to me – so I released him. And one of his men shot me with a drugged dart." Legolas slowly reached up toward his shoulder. "I do not remember what happened afterwards."
Arwen did not speak. Birds were singing in a distance, into the last rays of the sun.
When Legolas turned to gauge Arwen's expression, her face was blank, horrified – he could not tell which. Something about her was frozen. He blinked.
"Arwen?" he called.
The elleth quickly shook her head, as if forcing out screaming demons from her mind. "'Tis nothing," she said with haste, and scanned his chest with inspective eyes. "What...situation were you in, when you regained consciousness?" She hastily pushed back a strand of hair behind her ear. Legolas tilted his head.
"I was running – with the marks you saw on me that day."
He was suddenly tired. He closed his eyes. A gentle wind blew across the plains, revealing glimpses of new bandages beneath his collarbone.
"We must leave soon," said Legolas slowly, attempting to rouse himself out of the melancholy weariness. He reached up to feel his hair; the warrior plaits were still there, tight and ready. He took a deep breath.
Arwen turned her gaze toward the western horizon. Her eyes narrowed upon the slanted rays of the setting sun.
"A blood-red sun," she whispered. Legolas nodded.
"Let us travel a bit further before stopping for the night," he murmured. "A shadow is growing."
Arwen nodded in silence. Though she could feel no such shadow in her mind, she did not argue; she had to trust the honed instincts of the Mirkwood prince. She reached to her side and picked up a water skin.
"Drink," she said, handing it to Legolas. "We shall rest a bit longer before setting off."
Legolas obediently brought the skin to his lips. His pale eyes were glassy against the rays of the sun. He put the skin down after drinking his fill, and felt eyes upon him. He turned to Arwen with a questioning gaze. Arwen shook her head, and hugged her knees. She looked out toward the sunset once again. They sat in silence.
It was only broken after a moment with Arwen's quiet voice.
"What do you feel when you are in battle, Legolas?"
Legolas held his breath. Slowly he turned, and found solemn gray eyes looking into his own. They were undemanding, gentle – only a sincere concern and inquiry lay in those depths. She was a good friend. An easy companion. He sighed deeply.
"Nothing in particular." He put down the water skin, and idly fingered the grass.
"Your mind is numbed, then?" asked Arwen once again, and her voice was even softer. She seemed almost afraid – though whether it was fear of asking him to answer, or fear of receiving an answer, he was not sure.
He briefly wondered what it would be like to live a peaceful life. A life in which days were spent in bliss, in which one could study and learn and talk and sing with all the time in one's hands, in which blood and death were a distant tale only told in books and rumors from faraway lands.
He could not imagine such a life. And therefore, he could not read Arwen's searching gaze. Could not understand what she wanted, what she sought. He opted for shaking his head.
"It is not numb." He blinked rapidly, searching for the right words. "My body is so accustomed to battle... that it performs without thoughts to cloud judgments."
Arwen chewed on her lip. It occurred to Legolas that perhaps she was feeling the same way as he; she could not possibly understand what it was like, to fight for survival every day. Could they cross this gulf? Perhaps they could. But he hoped they would not have to. He did not want Arwen to know. It was a bloody, dirty land on this side that he stood on. He preferred not to hold out the bridge to her.
He offered a smile. "Perhaps it sleeps."
But Arwen was not so easily deterred. "But surely you use your head when you fight?" Her eyes were wider now, almost pleading. He pressed his lips together. What did she want from him? What did she want him to say? "You are most creative in our festival hunts."
She did not understand. For that he was grateful; he laughed quietly. "Of course I use my head. I am always evaluating and calculating, Arwen. I just don't..." he bit his lip, realizing that what he was about to say would be, as truthful as it would be, devastating - "...feel."
A sad silence settled between them.
The sun was slanting lower into the horizon. The orange rays were becoming darker, casting long shadows behind the pair. Arwen watched her companion's fair face. The ivory skin and the golden hair were alight with the fire of the heavens. It suited him well; he was beautiful. And as she sat still, watching his slender figure bathed in the blood-red glow from the last fierce burn of the sun, she shuddered with a premonition. The ivory child, the beautiful youth who sat still and watched the grass dance about his feet, held a strangely dark whisper about him. A whisper that followed him despite his innocence. Perhaps innocence would be his downfall. A deep crimson shade of foreboding clouded her vision; her heart scorched.
Shaking her head to shake off the chilling premonition, she blinked. Legolas was watching her now, question in his eyes. She offered a weak smile.
"Do you feel anger at all, Legolas?" A tentative hand reached out and twirled several strands of the fiery blond hair. Without moving, Legolas watched the strands slide around her fingers. At length, Arwen pulled away, turning her gaze back toward the sun. Her eyes were ember, a dying firelight; he wondered what his eyes would look like in a dying sunlight. He would never know. He smiled bitterly, though he could not quite explain to himself why. Perhaps the brilliant flare of the last rays of the sun, the gentle breeze and the soft grass, the peace enhanced by the faraway trill of a bird, was making him melancholy. Perhaps the pain that had remained hidden and repressed was surfacing at this moment. But he refused to think of it further. Arwen deserved better than to witness his moment of doubt and self-pity.
They sat together in silence, until Arwen's soft voice slid into the air.
"My brothers never let me see them fight."
Legolas twirled grass in between his fingers. Arwen leaned forward, hugging her legs tighter.
"'Don't come with us,' they tell me. When I worry for their safety and wish to go with them, they hold me back. 'You will not like what you see.'" She smiled briefly, and the smile held no mirth. Her eyes were distant as she gazed toward the sun, her eyes lowered. "I thought they were talking about orcs. But when I started training as a healer, they took me out and taught me how to kill an orc – it cannot not be the sight of orcs and battle that they do not want me to see." She slowly turned her gaze toward her friend. Legolas' eyes were rooted upon the grass dancing around his fingers.
"They are angry," he murmured. Arwen looked at him sadly.
"Aye, they are angry. Because they wept when she left, because Ada fell ill almost to the point of death, because I spent my youth without a mother."
Legolas' eyes met Arwen's. She reached out; he gently grasped her hand. She turned back to the sun, as did her companion.
"Arwen," he whispered, "they wish to protect you."
"Against what, I wonder?" said Arwen quietly. "Or perhaps they seek to protect themselves. And against what, again I don't know." She sighed. Her breath was heavy, sad. "Perhaps they are the same thing."
Legolas squeezed her hand, sympathy glowing in his sad eyes. Arwen was wise beyond her years. And that was the seed of her sorrow.
Arwen let surface a weary smile. She blinked slowly. "Do you feel the same, Legolas?" Melancholy eyes searched into Legolas. "Do you also lose yourself in fury and vengeance?"
Legolas shook his head. "I am not as alive as your brothers."
He felt nothing – no rage, no grief. His body was a vessel trained for murder. He breathed deeply.
"If you see your brothers' battles, Arwen, you will weep. That is why they don't want you to see."
If you see my battles...you will fear. That is why I don't want you to see.
He kept his thoughts silent. His gaze evaded Arwen's, rooted on the setting sun.
"There is a difference between going off to seek revenge, and being forced to protect one's home."
Arwen lowered her gaze. Legolas released her hand. His eyes were downcast, lashes casting long shadows against his cheeks.
"I know what it is to lose a mother as well," he murmured. "But they keep coming and coming...when you are constantly warding them off, fighting for survival, vengeance grows dim." He smiled thinly. "And I grow weary."
A faint smile grazed Arwen's lips. Legolas smiled as well. "Ai, I sound so old."
"Necessities of life, dear brother." Arwen rose to her feet, and dusted herself. The sad thoughts and emotions seemed to be shaken off with her vigorous movements. "Let us get going before it gets too dark."
Taking Arwen's outstretched hand, Legolas pulled himself up to his feet as well. Turning to whistle to the horses, which were doubtlessly grazing somewhere nearby, he turned to cast a last glance back at the crimson sunset. He could not see the future, but he felt it more keenly than any seer.
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Twilight.
When they heard the arrow, it was too late. Arwen turned her horse wildly, only to have another arrow whiz past her ear. Horses neighed and bucked, panicking.
"Run!"
She needn't have been told.
The two broke into a gallop, desperately trying to outrun their pursuers. Human arrows did not fly far. If only they could run a bit ahead, then –
"Arwen!"
The scream tore into her ears. A violent pain burned into her side, and she was falling.
"Arwen! Arwen!"
The cries came nearer, and she was being supported by a strong arm. Rhythmic hoof beats pounded against her ears, eight legs aligned side by side. She distantly felt the body next to her turn, and she knew that Legolas had reached for his bow and arrows. She smiled faintly. So reliable, this naïve brother.
They had not run far in that position. The horses were uncomfortable being so close while galloping, but Legolas did not allow either horse to break away from each other. Continuing to hold up Arwen's failing body with his horse, he turned around, shooting arrow after arrow. And soon, he was turning toward her, reaching out toward her. And Arwen faintly felt her body being lifted, carried into strong arms, and heard comforting whispers in her ear. And then, blackness.
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Legolas glanced around as his horse continued to gallop. Night was falling. As much as he longed for the safety of the trees, Arwen's injury could not be neglected in the darkness. He had no choice but to abandon the comfort of the woods.
He led the horses out of the cover of the forest. Looking down at the limp body in his arms, he whispered another encouraging murmur. Pulling his unconscious friend close, he urged his horse to go faster. The human village was coming near.
It was pitch dark by the time the horses arrived. Pulling the reins, he leaped off of his horse, the limp body still in his arms. Deftly swathing Arwen in her dark cloak, he stormed into the middle of the town, and hastened toward the wooden multi-story building that stood out as an inn. The two horses trailed behind faithfully, as the townspeople turned to stare at the golden-haired stranger who had appeared with a heavily cloaked body in his arms.
When the innkeeper turned at the sound of the door, his mouth fell open. All banter and talk in the pub ceased as if frozen. A stunned silence hung in the air; all eyes were upon the radiant creature that stood at the entrance. The men in the town had never seen an elf before.
Eyes resolute, Legolas strode toward the innkeeper. "I need a room," he said quietly, urgently. Dumbfounded stare still riveted on the fair face of the elf, the innkeeper nodded. His hand reached out mechanically, palm upturned. The beautiful creature fumbled underneath the load in his arms, and took out a gold coin. He placed it on the table with a resolute gleam in his eyes.
The innkeeper stared blankly at the coin. Gold! He had never seen gold more than three times in his long years of inn keeping. He quickly snatched the coin, putting it away, and raised a trembling voice. "Galo!"
At once, a small, dark-haired boy poked his head in from the corner of the stairs. "Yes?"
"Guide this guest up to a room upstairs," instructed the innkeeper, curious gaze falling onto the body swathed in dark cloth. But almost instantly, pale hands tightened around the burden, pulling the body closer. The guarded blue eyes of the golden-haired creature met his gaze, a dangerous gleam burning in the frigid blue. A warning.
The innkeeper quickly stepped back, in a silent show of acquiescence.
The stranger followed the boy upstairs, and after a long moment of silence, the men began to talk again. And this time, their talk – gambling, women, ale, trade – was of nothing but excited whispers regarding this fair youth.
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To Be Continued
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Rede: Wow, I didn't expect that! I'm excited now; thank you! I do hope I didn't disappoint you with this chapter!
Mornflower: Haha, what do you think now? I love being evil. Hehe. Thank you for the review!
KissTheRainGirl12489: Haha, really? I go well with cliffies huh? I never thought of that. Hehe. Thank you for the review!
Prism: I am guessing that you have read some other stories by this lil' amateur here. ;) Thank you for popping up to leave me a review! What a delightful surprise.
Megan: Haha, did I make some things clear in this chapter? I hope you enjoyed! Thank you!
Unsung Heroine: Ooh, I am excited to hear that you are excited! ;) Thank you for the review!
Deana: Oops, this wasn't so soon – but I hope it was somewhat worth the wait! ;) Thank you!
elvingirl3737: Oh, so happy to hear that you are excited with the fic! ;) Thank you for telling me what you liked about the chapter! It is so helpful. ;)
Brazgirl: Oh, you came back to get through with the reviewing for me? How sweet of you! (hugs) Was that chapter different from my other stories? Thanks for pointing that out! ;) Now, I am off to rack my brains over how that happened...;) Anyway, the twins are off on their usual happy orc hunt. Hehe. Thank you for reviewing!
merrymagic26: Haha, did you get some answers now? Or did I further confuse you? I feel evil...;) Thank you for reviewing!
Beling: You and your overgenerous praises. ;) You are giving me such a big ego which I am sure I don't deserve. ;) It is so delightful to see you picking up subtle hints of relationships and personal turmoil in this story. I'm glad you like my Arwen! I become so nervous with these female characters and original characters - it's a relief to hear that they are not turning into...unwanted fandom characters, if you know what I mean. ;) Anyway, I thank you for your kindness once again. My classes are going well for me, and I am very much enjoying them all this quarter! ;) Liberal Arts and Literature have the power to open up new worlds and make you see the world more in perspective – but I am going off on a tangent here, so I'll stop. Thank you so much for being there mellon nin, you don't know how much it touches me to see your words. Take care of yourself!
K'lara7: Haha, don't worry. The prologue wasn't meant to be deciphered until later on anyway. I'm glad you like the story! Thank you for reviewing!
Coolio02: Good to see you again, my dear! Thank you for coming to review even with your busy schedule! Isn't school evil? ;)
Templa Otmena: Oh dear, your patience is amazing. ;) And you know that I want to say 'thank you' again for writing me another one of these long reviews despite the mean internet...;) I am happy to hear that you saw my revelations of danger so keenly. I was never very confident about action especially. ;) You always reveal to me what I do and what I mean before I realize myself what I had actually done. I suppose being the writer, I can never get a good perspective or a clear picture. ;) Thanks muchly. And as always you manage to fly back to my previous stories and their themes, and dig out the Universal that is ever on my mind...;) I wonder how your place received the news of the election? Northern coastal states are more liberal, probably due to the interaction with other cultures from abroad (the exposure to other cultures are probably what makes liberal arts students so open in their perspective of the world), and the history of northern support of abolition of slavery and cultural openness...but as for the inland states... ;) Thank you for your concern...sigh, I am now busily looking into ways to avoid getting drafted (the powers above tell us that will not happen, but...you know.) while keeping up with my studies and working on my musical repertoire which I must play at a wedding soon. Hence the late update...sorry I couldn't keep my promise to update during the weekend! Anyway, let me know about your trip abroad! It would be delightful to go on such trips...;) And as for your job, I first off congratulate you on getting the job! ;) And as for leaving...well, I can't criticize your choice because you didn't tell me what it was about the job you hated so much; but don't stress about it mellon, if you were so unhappy in there that you left so soon, it must have been the right decision. I had been pining away for an art class for my whole freshman year but when I miraculously got in this year, I quit after three lectures because I hated the professor. So I said bye bye to my art career, at least for the next few years, but I believe it was worth being free from the professor. Your mental health comes first, mellon nin! Never give yourself less than the best of treatment! And weekly pays by hand? Hmmm, you could have gotten ripped off anyway. Think about the possible bad things you freed yourself from, and be happy! ;) I'm happy for you! I think you made a healthy and self-respecting choice! (Bounce Bounce Bounce) Take care, mellon nin! I fervently wish you safe and happy! ;)
