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Chapter 11: One Crazy Night

"What do you mean they failed?" asked a heavily armored orc whose skin was a slimy gray and sickly looking, but his bright yellow eyes held malice and anger.

"An elf came into the trees and killed them without much difficulty," said a smaller orc. The first orc shoved the second one forcefully knocking him to the ground.

"Why didn't you go in after them?" he roared his voice echoing throughout the caves they waited in. The small orc scurried to its feet and looked at the larger with fear in its eyes.

"The elf found the stone and took it," the second orc said in a small voice only to earn a loud roar and to have his head removed from his body by the much larger one.

"We travel to Lothlorien! We must get out master's prize!" he shouted to about fifty others that waited with him. They all roared and lifted their weapons in the air, before loud claning filled the air when the orcs began to move under the cover of the night sky.

Ana tossed and turned restlessly in her sleep. The images of those orcs that had attacked her kept filling her dreams. Ever since her encounter with Haldir that afternoon and the fire she saw deep within his blue eyes she had felt unease and other dreams began to plague her.

Ana found herself in a familiar room, one she had not been in since those terrible three days five years earlier. The air was musky and darkness surrounded her. The only light that came into the room was the light from the bottom crack of the door. Ana took deep breaths and closed her eyes tightly willing herself to wake up but failing.

The door opened slowly and Ana squinted from the light. She heard his laughter and soon his face came through the brightness of the lights. There he stood his dark hair cut short to his head and his brown eyes glaring.

"Come now, pet," he said slowly. "Don't look so frightened." He pulled something from his side and the hunting knife glistened in the light. Ana gasped quietly and stepped back only to come in contact with the wall. He smirked and closed in on her and with every one of his steps her heart raced faster in her chest.

Ana took a sharp breath and sat up quickly as she brought her hand to her throat. Sadie sat up from her spot on the floor and looked at her. Ana was sweaty and climbed from the bed. Rumil had left her several hours ago and she once again found herself falling asleep. She desperately wanted a bath so gathering a few towels and a fresh nightdress; she made her way down to the bathing talan.

Galadriel looked at the stone before her carefully. So far, they had not been able to destroy it. "What is to be done with it?" Celeborn asked. "From what you tell me of it, it can still be used. What if it ends up in the hands of the enemy?" Galadriel turned her eyes to her husband and shook her head.

"I do not know. It still can be used, and any other being that forces her to use it will push what knowledge and traits she gained from Haldir completely away. What I know is that drawing from another does not completely take away from her personality. She maintains who she is, but gains from the other. It worries me that if she would be allowed to draw completely from someone that she would completely take their soul into her allowing them to use her and take over her body whenever they wish it," Galadriel said. Celeborn nodded in understanding but watched as his wife's face turned grim. "He did not want her to draw from an orc," she whispered as she stood quickly and moved to look out the window. Celeborn from, stood, and moved over next to his wife.

"What is it?" he asked quickly. Galadriel looked at her husband and shook her head.

"It is not certain, but my worry is that he would try and have her draw from him."

"How? He is but a shadow of his former self." She shook her head and took her husbands hands into her own.

"I do not know," she said quietly, "and that worries me even more."

Haldir paced in his talan angry with himself for the way he had treated Ana. He had no right and no proof for what he had said to her. There was a knock on his door and he called to whoever waited on the other side. "Enter!" he said. He stopped and looked to the door to see his brother, Rumil, walk inside. Haldir sighed and sat down on his sofa.

"I saw your light as I took a walk through the city. I thought I would come and see if I could get an explanation for your rash behavior towards Ana earlier today," Rumil said as he closed the door behind him. Haldir stiffened in posture and took a deep breath.

"I am sorry for the way I acted. I do not know what has come over me. It seems she manages to get under my skin like the tiniest of slivers that cannot be removed." Rumil smiled and sat down next to his brother.

"I have never seen you act as such, brother. Not once in over three thousand years." Haldir sighed again and looked to his brother with tired eyes. "Perhaps she means more to you than you lead the rest of us to believe." Haldir stood then.

"Don't be a fool! Just because she was spun you in her spell does not mean she has done the same to me." Rumil chuckled.

"Haldir, why do you not believe Ana's words? There is nothing more than pure friendship between us. She arises a need in me to protect her, not one of lust or love. She is an innocent and you make her out to be a sorceress." Haldir turned from him and chuckled quietly to himself.

"She is a sorceress," he said as he turned to face Rumil. "She can draw from others by a mere touch." Rumil rolled his eyes and stood next to his brother.

"She can only use the stone to draw from others, and that has been destroyed. You cannot honestly tell me you feel nothing but hate towards her?" Rumil asked. Haldir's gaze flicked from his brother's eyes to the window that faced the tall tree Ana's talan rested in. His sharp eyes caught movement and he had to force himself to stay where he was and not go and check on her. "You don't do you?" Rumil asked with a smile. Haldir looked back towards him and scowled.

"Other than feeling responsible for her because she is my charge, I feel nothing else."

"Honestly?" Rumil asked with a raised eyebrow and Haldir sighed heavily.

"Honestly." Rumil nodded and looked about the room.

"Well, I will let you rest then." He left Haldir who looked to Ana's talan again. He sighed and once he was sure, his brother had made his way home he too slipped out his talan and walked across the glade to Ana's talan oblivious to the laughing blue eyes that watched them.

With every step they grew closer to their target. "We'll never make it to the trees before the dawn!" shouted one orc. The large gray orc sneered and stopped causing every one of them stop. He turned and looked to the orc that had spoken.

"We will take cover in that cluster of trees, and then when the sun sets we make for the elf city," he hissed. "If need be we will slaughter every guard," he said quietly as he turned back around. "He will have her."

They continued on all the while their leader sneering at the large forest that laid ahead of them.

Ana sighed as she emerged from the hot water after rinsing the hair tonic from her hair. She loved the smell of flower used in the tonic, and silently hoped that if she ever found her way home, Galadriel would let her take some with her. Ana swam to the edge of the bath before she climbed out and wrapped herself in one of the soft towels. She smiled at Sadie who had joined in on the bathing talan and finished drying off before she pulled on the cream colored nightdress and towel dried her black hair as she walked back up to her talan.

She walked down the corridor and stopped when she felt that someone was in her house. She slowly walked into the sitting room and looked at Haldir with a raised eyebrow.

"What do you want?" she asked bitterly before she turned and walked into her bedroom. Haldir sighed heavily and followed her. She brushed her hair out and looked at him in the mirror. "Well?" she asked as she continued to run the brush through her hair. As she did, the sleeves of her nightdress moved and revealed the bruises he left on her upper arms. Thankfully, the bruises seemed to have faded already, he figured it was from what she had drawn from him. He walked over to her silently and touched the faded bruises. She jumped and dropped the hairbrush with a clang onto the vanity. He held onto her arm gently and she looked at him with wide eyes. "What the hell?" she asked and Haldir met her eyes. That time she was surprised to see that he was not glaring at her.

"I am sorry," he said gently and she was rendered speechless for a time. "If I am to watch over you, I should learn to control my temper." He lowered his hand and Ana looked at him like he had two heads.

"Okay, who are you and what have you done with Haldir?" she asked before she stepped back from him. Haldir didn't now why, but he stepped closer to her and pushed the hair on her left side over her shoulder. Ana swallowed hard but didn't move as his finger touched the faded scar.

"This did not come from me, nor the orcs," he said slowly. Ana pushed his hand away and walked around him and grabbed the silken robe that rested at the foot of her bed. She wrapped the material around her and looked at him. Eyes that were once warm were once again cold.

"I don't get you," she said quietly and Haldir huffed. He was angry with himself for coming to her talan and with her for completely brushing his kindness, something he shared with very, very few, completely away when she openly accepted Rumil's.

"There is nothing for you to 'get' as you say," he said firmly and Ana raised an eyebrow.

"Okay, there's the Haldir I'm used to," she said with a smirk and his glare only doubled.

"I don't have to explain myself to you," he said as he left the bed chamber. Ana rolled her eyes and followed him.

"Haldir, I didn't mean to upset you," she said with a quiet laugh before she grabbed his arm before he could leave. He didn't look at her, so, she turned him around. "Look, Rumil and I were talking and I told him that I'm tired of our arguing. We're stuck together, well, you're stuck with me, so can't we be friends?" she asked. Haldir met her eyes and saw that she truly did want to try to be his friend.

"Maybe," he said quietly before he pulled his arm free from her grip and made his way out of the talan and down the stairs. As he did so, he rubbed at the slight tingling sensation her hand had left on his arm. Little did he know, Ana was doing the same thing. She rubbed at her scar where his fingers had barely touched, but left a lingering feeling there, one that both excited and unnerved her at the same time.