-Dead Inside-

-ElvenHope-

:o:O:o:

Part Two

For the first day they road non-stop, trying to put as much distance between themselves and their father's patrols as possible. They road on over the steep and broken foothills well into the next day - only ever stopping for the horses to rest or drink from the Bruinen which flowed along side the path. The weather was kind for the most part. Though it was dismal and grey and there was rarely any sunlight it had not rained. The winds which were normally fierce over this part of the land, especially at this time of year had died down a bit; but the twins knew that it was only a matter of time before they picked up again - especially when they reached the mountains.

It was early evening when Elrohir finally decided that they needed to stop. They made camp up against some mossy boulders which looked as though they were sinking into the craggy earth as the green fungus slowly made its way up over the jagged rocks, devouring it. Elladan made a fire whilst the younger twin went fishing in the river, which was only a few hundred yards away. Neither was very successful, as trees were scarce in the land which made it near impossible to find fire woodand Elrohir was too tired to concentrate on the fish as they swam futilly up stream.

The horses immediately settled down for the night exhausted. Not only had they been travelling for nearly two days, but the land was extremely difficult to navigate - and it was going to get worse.

Elrohir sighed, throwing the two fish he had caught rather unceremoniously at his brother's feet before collapsing onto his bedroll.

"Oh thanks," Elladan said sarcastically bending down to examine the fish. "Aren't you going to help me?"

"I caught the damned things," Elrohir snapped, too tired to concentrate at that moment. Normally he wouldn't be so worn out by this, elves could go a long time without sleep, but the worry knawing away inside him was both mentally and physically draining. He felt like he had gone an entire millenia without sleep and the idea of sleeping on the hard ground made his head hurt.

Elladan eyed his brother, decided not to argue and wrapped the fish in a cloth from his pack which he had brought with them specifically for that purpose. "I can't be bothered with these tonight," he decided. "Do you want some lembas?"

Elrohir grunted stretching out his hand and Elladan gave his brother the elven bread taking a piece for himself as Elrohir crammed his own pieceinto his mouth.

"You'll choke," Elladanwarnedkeeping an eye on Elrohirwho ate where he lay on his bedroll, his eyes closed one arm resting across his achingforehead.

"I couldn't care less," Elrohir answered through a mouthful of lembas then coughed and sat up retching.

"I told you so," Elladan chided and would have gloated further had he not been so worried and tired. Despite how much he enjoyed bantering with his twin, both of them had lost the will power to do so. There was no time for joking now, everything was far too serious for that.

Elrohir stuck out his tongue at his brother then lay down, wrapping himself in his cloak, turning his back to the fire.

"Elrohir?"

"Yes Elladan?" Elrohir rolled over, watching as the firelight danced across his brother's face, hisgrey eyes catching the light, reflecting it like silver.

"Do you think we'll save her?" Elladan asked staring into the heart of the flames, not looking at his brother. "Do you think we'll get there in time?"

"I don't know," Elrohir whispered. "We have to hope don't we? Hope is a light even in the darkest of places." He couldn't make himself believe in his own words, couldn't find truth or logic in them and so chose to ignore them, laying down on his back looking up at the stars, picking out Ëarendil. "Grandfather's star is bright tonight."

Though neither of the twins had ever known their grandfather, they were glad that they could see some semblance of him and their grandmother in the heavens. It was nice to feel that they were being watched over, even when they felt alone in the world.

"Yes," Elladan agreed. "Sleep well muindor."

Glorfindel waited anxiously outside Elrond's study, knowing that when Elrond found out that he had 'lost' Elladan and Elrohir he would much rather be fighting another balrog. Glorfindel was not an easy person to intimidate, but the magnitude of what he had done was certain to have a frightening effect on his friend.

Elrond had been inside his study most of the day and a patrol was being prepared already for tomorrow. The balrog slayer did not know if he intended to go with them. Glorfindel did, Celebrían was a wonderful lady, always there and happy to help always in a good mood. He dared not think about what could be happening to her, nor did he want to think about how much she would change if she survived. He had to help, even if his friend was not going to; and besides he was the one that had let the twins go, if they were killed he would never forgive himself.

It had been stupid to let them go, they were still young still naïve, and Elladan in particular could be incredibly foolish and pig headed. Though he knew that in the heat of the moment Elrohir could be equally as stupid and stubborn.

Glorfindel knew that he should tell Elrond now and get it over with, but every time he worked up the courage it would fail him before he could knock. Finally, kicking himself for being so stupid he raised his fist and tapped lightly on the door, almost praying that Elrond wouldn't hear.

"Come in,"theElven Lordcalled and Glorfindel sighed pushing the door open and walking in.

Elrond looked up. "Hello Glorfindel, what brings you here? Are the twins alright?"

"Um…" Glorfindel found the words he had thought to say, picked around the subject carefully.

"Glorfindel?" Elrond asked brows knitted the papers in front of him completely forgotten, although it did not look like he had been paying much attention to them to begin with. There was a large splotch of ink on the paper where Elrond had been holding an inked quill for some moments as his mind drifted, allowing the ink to drip onto the paper.

"Well," Glorfindel bit his lip, looked down. "I appear to have lost them."

Elrond jumped up eyes blazing. "What?"

"I don't know what happened," Glorfindel replied almost taking a step back before he stopped himself. Elrond's eyes were a mixture of fear and anger and half ofGlorfindel was telling him that it mightbe best to run. He imaginedthe outcome would havebeen much worse if he did not lie to his friend.Despite how much he hated lying he was not about to tell Elrond the truth."I took them down to the archery field, I thought it might help them let off some steam. The next moment they were gone."

Elrond looked at him disbelievingly, unable to understand how the balrog slayer could loose two fully grown elves. His forehead creased and he closed his eyes raising a hand to massage his throbing temples. As though he didn't already have enough to deal with...

"How long ago was this?"

"A few hours," Glorfindel replied slowly.

"And why didn't you tell me sooner?" Elrond snapped. "They could have reached the Bruinen by now!"

"I thought I would find them easily enough," Glorfindel answered hoping that his story would fool Elrond and that the Elven Lord would not look into it any further. "I have been searching."

"You should have told me," Elrond said annoyed. He should have been paying attention to his sons, he should have looked after them himself. He had to get them back, but he feared leaving Imladris. Not only because the power that protected his home would wane, but because he was worried that Celebrían would be returned to Imladris whilst he was not there. What if Elrohir's dream had been incorrect? What if Celebrían was trapped somewhere else, what if the orcs moved her and someone found her, brought her home? Perhaps had already been found, he needed to be here in case she was brought back injured.

"I am sorry mellon-nín," Glorfindel said softly. "I will go with the patrols, I will find them."

The elven lord looked up, and Glorfindel saw suddenly how tired he was - how pale he looked. "Thank you Glorfindel," he sighed rubbing his temples, then sat down,resting his head in his hands. "I wish that I could come too, but I fear that my help is needed here. If Celebrían were to be found and brought here whilst I was searching for her then I would never forgive myself. I pray she is not hurt, I pray she is in Lorien now and was simply held up by the snow, but I cannot risk that. The patrol leaves tomorrow, a patrol has already left Lorien for the pass, I would be grateful to know that you are looking after my sons'."

"We will get her back Elrond," Glorfindel said quietly. A strange knot of foreboding twisted in his stomach as he looked at the letter which lay on Elrond's desk penned in Celeborn's flowing script, marked with the seal of Lorien. He wondered if Galadriel had seen anything, surely she would have if her grandson had seen something. Then again Elrond had not picked up on Celebrían's obvious distress and he had been married to her for years. A sudden thought struck him and he felt ill. What if Elrohir was imagining it? What if they had been too quick to believe the younger twin? What if the pair of them were riding into danger for no reason? He paused, looked Elrond in the eye. "I will make sure of it."

Screams of pain and anguished cries of fury. Snatches of images, places creatures… And then, dead eyes, once a beautiful sky blue hue now turning grey from torment and darkness, a darkness that was growing from inside snuffing out all light from the ethereal being. A wan pale face, dry broken lips, hair tangled and matted lank and dead.

Dead. Those eyes bored into him through him tearing at his soul until he felt his heart breaking.

"Naneth?" Elrohir whispered. She didn't see him only stared out into the darkness from where she sat bound, unable to escape.

A sound came from another passage somewhere close by and Elrohir noticed the flicker of torchlight approaching them. His mother lifted her head, turned to look in the direction of the sounds, her expression never changing.

Elrohir looked around for something, anything to defend her with, he would not let them touch her again.

Orcs entered from an passage at the other side of the room, their gruesome faces distorted by shadows and torchlight.

Elrohir grabbed a rock, made to go forwards between his mother and the orcs, but the shadows took hold of him, coiling around his arms and wrists, pulling him back into the darkness of the cave.

The creatures reached her then, laughing mockingly, their voices echoing faint, saying something Elrohir was unable to understand. He heard the sibilant hiss of a blade being drawn and yelled at the creatures in fright, trying to draw their attention to him.

He tried to move forwards again, but the shadows stopped him restraining him as heattempted futillyto escape.

And then he heard screams again, muffled whimpers and moans and tears burned his eyes and throat as he fell to his knees sobbing, unable to help. "Nana," Elrohir murmured. "Please hold on, please."

She was crying again, the orcs were laughing and he begged them to stop, but no one heard him the shadows drawing him back away from the scene before him. And then something shook him, hard...

"Elrohir!"

"No, Nana!"

"Elrohir wake up!"

Elladan paled, he had known what his brother was dreaming, but that anguished cry ripped right through him. He himself had woken a few minutes prior, wondering what had startled him only to find Elrohir moving fitfully in his sleep, crying mumbling words he couldn't understand.

And now no matter what he did Elrohir wouldn't wake up. Elladan shook Elrohir again before turning and grabbing a water skin, emptying the contents over Elrohir's head.

Elrohir shouted, jerked upright blinking bewilderedly. "Elladan," he gasped ignoring the fact that his twin had just drenched him and flinging his arms around his brother's shoulders tears wracking his slender frame.

"I had that dream again," he sobbed, his heart still racing. "It was worse this time, I-I was with her and the orcs came and I tried to help her, but I couldn't get to her…"

His words chocked off then and Elladan held his twin tightly fear gripping his heart.

"Did she die?" Elladan asked his mouth dry. "In your dream did Nana die?"

Elrohir shook his head, he would have known even though towards the end of his dream the shadows had blinded him, he would have known.

"Good," Elladan said softly, convincing himself that if Elrohir's dreams were true - as they had been so far - then their mother must still be alive. "It's alright Elrohir, we will find her." Elladan looked at the sky, dawn was coming. "We had better get going if we want to stay ahead of Adar's patrol."

Elrohir nodded again, "I won't sleep again today anyway."

He pulled away from his brother's embrace swiping viciously at his eyes and stood up, moving about the campsite and packing everything away, preparing to leave. The elder twin stood too to help his brother and soon they were riding over the planes again, not knowing where their mother was or how she was coping, but determinedto bringing her back.

The patrol left early in the morning, whilst the land was still in darkness and the birds were only just waking. Elrond followed his friend from the stables as Glorfindel led Asfaloth into the courtyard where the other members of the patrol were waiting for him.

The Balrog Slayer stopped at when he was just out of earshot of those who were waiting, turned to face Elrond.

"I'll find them Elrond," Glorfindel said quickly meeting the elven lord's silver gaze with his own cerulean one, the promise blazing in his eyes. "And I'll bring them back here safe and sound."

Elrond smiled warmly, wishing that he could go with his friend, wishing that he could at least find his sons and escort them back to Imladris. He had stayed up for most of the night thinking about it, pouring over maps, marking out well known caves in Caradhras for Glorfindel and the patrol, should they need it. It was at this time which he had started to wonder if he should join them. After all, if Celebrían was found somewhere in the pass and gravely injured then they would need a healer.

He had discussed the matter with both Erestor and Sidhe, the weapons master - he had been unable to find the balrog slayer, probably because he was getting some much needed sleep. Both of them had understood his problem, but both had answered that he should stay. Elrond had found healers to send with the patrol, healers that were skilled enough in battle to defend themselves.

Half of him still thought that this was a bad dream, and once again he was questioning the Valar's motives. This was twice they had done this to him now, did they hate him so much that they would torture him in the worst way possible. He wondered idly if it was his mixed blood, but dismissed it unable to believe that the Valar could be prejudice against their own creation.

Elrond felt tired, more so than he had in a long time, and the fact that he had been awake for nearly two days now probably didn't help.

"Hannon le, mellon-nín," Elrond said softly. "Noro celeg."

"As fast as Asfaloth will bear me," Glorfindel replied climbing up into the saddle.

Sidhe called out orders for the patrol to move out and Glorfindel followed up at the end of the procession. The Balrog Slayer was the only one of the patrol to have a mount, for he intended to ride ahead on Asfaloth and find the twins. This time he would not let them get away, he couldn't believe that he had been so stupid before.

"Namarie," Glorfindel called back. "Do not worry, we will be back with them soon!" He turned back to Asfaloth as he rode out of the gates, speaking so quietly that only the horse could hear him. "I promise."

After another five days of riding nearly non stop both of the twins were exhausted. They had barely had any sleep, Elrohir's nightmares had become more frequent and stronger than before. He woke up every night after only a few hours of sleep and then no matter how hard he tried couldn't get back to sleep again. If his nightmare had not woken his brother then he would sit and wait for Elladan to wake up. More often than not he did wake up histwin though and then they would ride on again.

By the seventh night Elrohir couldn't even fall asleep the first time, despite how much he wanted to.

Elladan looked at him across the campfire, his tired eyes already falling out of focus.

"We need to catch more fish before we reach the mountains," he commented idly.

"I thought we had enough food for the whole journey," Elrohir said a little alarmed.

"I did," Elladan answered matter of factly. "But we don't know how many times we're going to have to back track through that mountain, or whether one of the horses will get injured." He sighed. "Elrohir what on Arda are we doing? We don't know where we're heading for, but either way we're walking straight into danger."

"We have to find Naneth Elladan," Elrohir said quietly. "We have to find her and bring her back home."

"I know," Elladan said softly. "But we should have at least waited and come with the patrol, we didn't really think this through well enough."

"Well you can sit here and wait for them to catch up, but I'm not," Elrohirreplied flatly.

"I wouldn't be able to wait," Elladan said picking at the grass at his feet. "No matter how hard I tried."

"You should sleep."

"Aren't you going to?"

Elrohir shook his head, "I can't, I don't want to have any more nightmares. They're too horrible." Elrohir looked across at his brother, his face pale and drawn, dark rings under his eyes. Elladan imagined that he looked similar to his brother, and sighed massaging his temples in a bizarre imitation of his father.

"You have to sleep Elrohir," Elladan chided. "It will be harder to sleep in the mountains, we may not find a good resting place for a while. We can't even attempt to rescue Naneth if we can't stay awake for more than two minutes."

"I'm not tired," Elrohir protested, but contradictorily he yawned a few seconds later.

"Just lay down and try to sleep," Elladan said flopping onto his own bedroll. "I know you don't want to because of your dreams, I can understand, but please just try."

Elrohir lay down reluctantly, and lay looking up at the stars. He turned to Elladan suddenly, but his brother's eyes were already glazed over, half open as he slept. Elrohir sighed and lay back down again. He was too afraid of his dreams to let himself fall asleep. Every time his eyes began to loose focus he would jerk awake again reminded of what he would see if he fell asleep.

He remembered with some irony that his mother had always told him that dreams weren't real and wondered if she was right. Was he just having these dreams for some unknown reason? Maybe his mother was already safe in Lorien, maybe she had simply been delayed. What if he was just leading Elladan into danger. He sighed, why did everything have to be so complicated?

The younger of the peredhel twins stayed awake for a long time. Half awake, but never fully asleep until well past midnight when he could no longer keep himself alert and he fell into a fitful slumber, surrounded by nightmares.

Glorfindel found one of the twins' camps near the Bruinen a day and a half later. He had rode ahead on Asfaloth as he had planned to. The horse was fast and agile even over the uneven ground and Glorfindel was glad to have him. It would have taken far longer had he been riding a different horse.

He climbed out of the saddle, walking around the camp slowly, trying to deduce how long ago the twins had been there. He was not one for tracking and so found it hard, but eventually decided that he must be only around a days ride behind them.

He climbed quickly back onto Asfaloth, whispered a soft command in elvish and they were away again riding as fast as possible over the planes.

The night was quiet, the silver moon rose up over the tree tops, painting the forest with ethereal silver light. The mellorns rose high up into the canopy, shadowing the flets where most slept peacefully, comforted by the fact that they were well out of reach of any danger. Danger itself was unlikely anyway. A cool breeze blew through the woods whispering of memories long forgotten, sweeping in from the mountains beyond the woodland realm.

Galadriel stood looking out at the forest, the silver moonlight playing on her golden hair. Her hands rested on the railing in front of her, her eyes stared out at the forest before her, but they were not seeing it clearly. The wind played with her hair, dancing about the elven lady and she caught a scent of the terror it had borne from the mountains, the screams she heard on the wind.

A silver haired lord with a noble face and kind eyes walked up behind her studied her from a distance. He knew from her posture that there was something amiss.

"Something is troubling you," Celeborn said knowingly, quite used to his wife's strange behaviour. He moved over to stand beside her looking in the direction she was staring, half hoping to see what she could. "What can you see? Do you know what has happened to Celebrían?"

"I have no idea where our daughter is," Galadriel sighed, blinking away the vision and turning to her husband. "But Elladan and Elrohir have gone after her. They are a weeks ride from Caradhras."

"Did Elrond send them?" Celeborn asked hoping that his son in law wouldn't have been that stupid. He knew that Elrond was intelligent, but sometimes his instincts could get the better of him.

"No I don't believe so," Galadriel said, her voice light and distant as always, her expression vague and impossible to read. "Something is troubling Elrohir."

"Do you know what?" Celeborn asked looking at her, seeing worry clear in her eyes.

"Something is haunting him, dreams - nightmares. I do not know, but they are heading straight into danger." She looked at her husband sadly, tears shining in her ice blue eyes. "One of them will not come out of this alive."

A/N: Thank you for reviewing. This chapter is a bit of a gap filler, but you always need one of them here and there. Anyway next chapter will be up next week (hopefully). This story has been going well so far, but I don't know what will happen with time and all that.

I am sorry for all the mistakes there were in the last chapter - in the first sentence for example, calling Elrohir the eldest twin. I have edited it now and everything should be fixed soonish

One thing that bugs me just that tiny bit, 70 hits for my last chapter and 4 reviews o.O

Reviews are encouraged and accepted with joy. Also critique is encouraged greatly! I really need to improve so be as hard as possible -- as long as the critisism is constructive.

ElvenHope

Last edited: 16/5/06