Zergy: Yes, it would be interesting to write a story that explores the dynamics of the shifting 'age' relationship between Legolas and Aragorn—Legolas years older chronologically but Aragorn becoming 'older' in terms of the conventions governing the stages of life.
Grumpy: I am sure that as we speak (so to speak), Edwen Nana is busily stitching up a spare set of clothes for her little Estel.
Legosgurl: Have you sent the chapter yet? If you have, it has gotten Lost in (Cyber) Space. (Ever so often I receive a message sent months earlier! Computers are great—when they work!)
Dragonfly: Oh, you know where I will lead him—into trouble!
Beta Reader: Dragonfly
Chapter 67: A Blow to the Gut
The day after Aragorn's brief visit to their encampment, the Mirkwood Elves resumed their journey eastward, making for Rivendell, keeping, as they had planned, well to the north of both Hobbit and human settlements. This meant that they were riding through wastelands where they might encounter Trolls and other perils, but they apprehended no danger.
"We are a large company, and well-armed," observed Legolas to Gilglîr. "Besides," the Prince added jokingly, "we are accompanied by Edwen Nana, and she is itching for an opportunity to wreak vengeance upon whomever is unfortunate enough to get in her way."
This was true. Edwen Nana had been highly indignant when she learned that Aragorn had made good his escape. She had actually seized hold of Legolas' ear and hauled him yelping through the camp. The other Mirkwood Elves, all save Gilglîr and Tathar, had watched this performance open-mouthed. No one had ever dared to treat their Prince so. Gilglîr and Tathar, however, had collapsed upon the ground, laughing so hard that each had developed a severe case of the hiccoughs. This of course immediately brought an end to Edwen Nana's rampage, for she knew of several cures for hiccoughs, all of them silly (as such cures generally are), and she immediately proceeded to apply each and every one of them to the two unfortunate sufferers. As Caranlass observed wryly, it was very difficult to believe that there was an Elf among them, so inelegant was their behavior on this occasion.
Now, thinking back on Edwen Nana's wrathfulness, Legolas unconsciously rubbed his ear. Tathar caught him at it, and broke into a grin.
"Legolas, I do believe that your ear is not as pointed as it formerly was."
"Tathar," Caranlass chided her spouse, "you shouldn't tease Legolas!"
"Oh, I am used to it," sighed Legolas, putting on a long-suffering expression.
"Aye, and he can give as good as he gets," Gilglîr chimed in, "as I have reason to know."
General laughter all around, which provoked Edwen Nana, who was ahead of them in the column, to twist around and look at them reprovingly.
"You are all scamps," she called, "and you, Gilglîr, are old enough to know better!"
"Odd," teased Gilglîr, "Mithrandir is quite the scamp, and you don't seem to mind him."
"Mithrandir," retorted Edwen Nana, "is a Man, and therefore allowances must be made for his peculiar behavior. But don't think I'm going to start making allowances for you."
"Pity," said Gilglîr, "as I rather envy Mithrandir the 'allowances' you have made for him."
"Careful," warned Legolas, "or you will be the next one to have your ear wrung!"
The direction the conversation was now taking was causing Tathar and Caranlass to gaze longingly one upon the other. Fortunately, while the Elves had been engaging in this light-hearted raillery, they had drawn nigh to Weathertop, where they planned to camp that night. Soon they stood upon its summit and began to set up their shelters among the ruins, Tathar and Caranlass being careful to set up theirs so that several large blocks of stone stood between them and the other Elves.
The Elves had been hunting as they rode, and one of them had brought down a deer. The hunter skinned and dressed the carcass, portions of which were then delivered into the hands of Edwen Nana, who soon had dinner under way upon a cook fire kindled with the wood that, as usual, had been left neatly stacked by the previous inhabitants of that place, who had no doubt been Rangers. Before they departed, the Elves would of course replenish the woodpile, but it was nice to be able to prepare food at once, leaving the collecting of branches for later, when all were refreshed. It was a good system, really, although it depended upon trust and honesty. Occasionally a renegade Man would shelter at Weathertop, use up the wood, and move on without replacing it. However, this did not happen often enough to discourage those who usually frequented that place from adhering to the custom of leaving wood for the next sojourner.
After enjoying a most excellent supper, Tathar and Caranlass withdrew to their shelter and the rest of company lounged about their campfires.
"Ah," sighed Legolas contentedly, "how grand it is to be well-fed and comfortable, basking in the warmth of a fire, lying upon the greensward, gazing up at the glimmering stars."
Unfortunately, by waxing poetical, Legolas set Edwen Nana off again.
"I am glad you are comfortable," she said tartly, "for I am sure Estel is not!"
Legolas winced.
'Here we go again', he thought. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Gilglîr slipping off to another campfire.
'Some friend', Legolas grumbled to himself, 'leaving me in the clutches of Edwen Nana!'
"He is probably huddled somewhere, shivering and hungry," the nursemaid was continuing. "Indeed, I should not be surprised if at this very moment he were suffering the agonies of pneumonia. To let him run off in damp clothes! Couldn't you at least have given him a spare set of yours?"
"Aragorn is heavier and taller than I am, Nana. You know that nothing of mine would have fit him."
"I do not know that," retorted Edwen Nana. "'Tis true the clothes might have been a little tight on him, but at least he would have been dry and warm."
"And I am sure," said Legolas sardonically, "that Aragorn will be delighted to be dry and warm when he finds himself unable to swing his sword freely because his clothing constricts him."
"Do not forget, young sir," said Edwen Nana sternly, "that you have another ear that I have not yet twisted. If I were you, I would not be so flippant!"
Edwen Nana continued to carry on in this fashion. Legolas seemed to be giving her his full attention, but as he gazed raptly at her, his eyes wide open, he allowed his mind to drift off into dreams. Suddenly he jerked back into consciousness. While he had been dreaming, something had drawn near, something evil.
"Be still," he commanded Edwen Nana, although not unkindly. Impressed by the intentness of his manner, she fell silent at once.
"Gilglîr," he urgently called to his Seneschal, "nad nâ ennas! Something is out there!"
"Quench the fires," ordered Gilglîr.
"No! Don't!" cried Legolas.
"Legolas, the fires cast light that will make it all too easy to target us."
"Only if our foes are Men—and they are not. Heap up the fires and stay close to them."
Just then, they heard two cries from without the stone circle—one deep and one higher in pitch.
"Tathar! Caranlass!" exclaimed Legolas. He drew his blades and vaulted over the blocks that stood between him and his friends. At the same time, Orcs came pouring into the camp from between the gaps in the ruined wall. Gilglîr found himself beset by goblins and unable to follow after his young Prince. With no time to draw a bow, the Seneschal seized a flaming brand in one hand and his sword in the other and tried desperately to fend off his attackers. All about him other scouts were doing likewise. There was no sign of Edwen Nana, and Gilglîr feared that she had fallen in the first wave of the assault.
When Legolas had vaulted over the blocks, he found on the other side a smashed shelter and three massive Orcs, taller and heavier than any he had ever encountered. As one, they charged at him, flailing huge swords that were oddly rectilinear, unlike the curved scimitars usually carried by goblins. For all his grace and speed, Legolas was hard put to defend himself from these oversized-Orcs. Keeping his back to the wall, he ducked a blow from the Orc to the front of him while parrying thrusts from Orcs to either side. On and on the combat dragged, one Elf battling against three foes, each taller and heavier than he. Legolas found himself panting.
'They are larger than any Orcs I have ever seen', he thought to himself, 'and they also move more quickly than ordinary goblins'.
He winced as one of the Orc blades
sliced through the sleeve of his tunic, leaving a bloody gash in its wake, and
he found himself hoping that one of his companions would make his way to him. From the clamoring on the other side of the
wall, however, it appeared that it was all his friends could do to defend
themselves. Legolas bit back a cry of
pain as an Orc drove under his guard and slashed his thigh. The Elf staggered a little, and another one
of his foes brought his weapon down hard upon Legolas' hand, knocking away one
of his knives. Now with only one blade, the
Elf confronted three sneering foes.
Confident that they had him, the Orcs began to play, feinting at Legolas
with their weapons and laughing as, weaving, he tried
to fend them off. At last one of them
decided that the game had gone on long enough. With a brutal blow, he knocked aside Legolas'
remaining blade, and then he plunged his sword into the belly of his
victim. For a moment, laughing, the Orc held
the skewered Elf affixed upon his sword, and then he yanked out the
weapon. Legolas collapsed onto the
ground at the feet of his foe.
With a leer, the Orc raised his sword to finish him off.
At that moment, an unseen creature let out a scream that would have frightened a Wraith. The Orc froze in mid-swing, and a figure barreled in from the left, crashing into the goblin. The Orc's head was snapped to the side from the force of the blow, and, his neck broken, he was dead before his body hit the ground. His executioner seized upon his abandoned sword, and, emitting another blood-curdling shriek, charged at the two remaining Orcs. Startled by the apparition, they reacted too slowly. One head went flying to the left, the other to the right, and two goblin torsos toppled over onto the blood-soaked ground.
The Orcs having been dispensed with, Edwen Nana knelt by Legolas' side. The prince groped for her hand, seized it, and held it tight. "Nana," he whimpered, suddenly an elfling once more. "Nana." The nursemaid smoothed his hair with her other hand and spoke soothingly.
"You must be brave, Laiqua. You must let go my hand, for I shall need both hands to tend to you."
Legolas nodded slightly and relaxed his grip enough for her to gently slip free her hand.
"Now then," she said, in calm voice meant to reassure him, "I must dress the most serious wound first, the one in your belly. I shall have to put pressure on it to stop the bleeding. It will be painful, I am afraid, but then I shall spread a numbing salve upon it and bind it securely. Do you think you can bear up?"
Legolas nodded again, now in too much pain to speak. Edwen Nana tore a length of cloth from her gown, wadded it up, and pressed it against the gash in his belly. He flinched and moaned a little, and Edwen Nana blinked back tears. This was no different, she told herself, than those times when Laiqua was little and she had had to hide her own sorrow and fear lest she frighten the young one. "I must be brave," she told herself. "I must be brave, for only then can I help him."
On the other side of the wall, the sounds of battle were dying down, the Elves having at last gained the upper hand. Suddenly Gilglîr came vaulting over the stones. Appalled at what he saw, he dropped down upon his knees beside Legolas. Edwen Nana, however, did not let him long remain in that position.
"Gilglîr," she said briskly, "you must fetch my pack, for in it are bandages and medicinal salves and herbs. And order that water be set to boiling, a great quantity of it. And when you have seen to that, have a litter constructed, for we must convey Laiqua to Imladris as quickly as possible."
Gilglîr arose at once and did all that she bade. The pack he brought to her at once, and then he returned again with a camp kettle of boiling water.
"My scouts are gathering the longest branches they can find for the construction of a litter," he told her, again kneeling by the side of his friend, who had fallen into a stupor. "Is there anything more I can do?"
By then the wound in Legolas belly was no longer bleeding, and Edwen Nana had also put pressure on the less serious cuts. She had put temporary dressings on all his injuries to stop the blood; now she removed the dressings and began to tend to the injuries with greater thoroughness, washing them and applying salve. She pursed her lips as she worked.
"I shall have need of more boiling water," she said. "And see if there are any more bandages to be had. If you can find none—I know others beside Legolas have been injured!—take the cleanest garments you can find and rip them into strips. And have you any more athelas? I have only a few leaves left."
Gilglîr arose once more and went in search of these items. When he returned, Legolas had roused a little.
"Gilglîr," he gasped upon seeing his friend. "Gilglîr, are Tathar and Caranlass uninjured?"
Ashamed that he had forgotten all about those two, Gilglîr approached the shattered shelter and peered into it. It was empty. There was no sign of blood. He turned and studied the ground. Something had been dragged off. He followed the trail for awhile, until he saw Elf footprints amongst orcish ones. Tathar and Caranlass had been pulled to their feet and were being marched away. He returned to Legolas.
"Be comforted, my friend. They are alive."
Legolas gave a small sigh and slipped back into his stupor.
'Not really a lie', said Gilglîr to himself. 'They are alive. Legolas doesn't need to know that they have been taken prisoner'. To Edwen Nana, however, Gilglîr softly explained the truth of the matter.
"Nana, I am going after Tathar and Caranlass. You I leave in command of the company. Lead them south at once, to the Great East Road. Once you reach it, send my horse on ahead. When he reaches Imladris riderless, Elrond will know to send out warriors to escort you the remainder of the way."
"You are going on foot?"
"Aye. Against these foes, that would be best."
"And alone? Surely that would not be best."
"Nana, I do not wish to reduce Legolas' guard more than necessary. There may yet be foes standing between you and the Great East Road."
Edwen Nana's eyes glistened as she looked upon the Seneschal. She found herself incapable of saying anything other than a rather gruff, "Stay well, Gilglîr."
The Seneschal smiled. An Edwen Nana left speechless was an Edwen Nana who felt deeply indeed! He gave an appreciative nod.
"I have every intention of staying well, Nana. I have no desire to face your wrath if I do not!"
Still smiling, albeit a trifle thinly, he disappeared into the shadows.