Hmmm... I sort of get the feeling you all didn't like the ending of that last chapter too much... ja? Lol!
Mellaithwen; Lol! Well, that was a pretty surreal review there mellon-nin...
YamiTai; Lol! Thank you!
Fawkes2005; Thank you:-) I'm glad you're glad, lol!
Alexandrite; It could be! You'll have to wait and see!
Kitty; Don't worry if you couldn't figure it out; you're not supposed to yet! ;-) As it stands at the moment, the villain could be anyone. Lol, I'm glad it made you laugh; it's what I set out to do! Thank you for reading!
kel; ;-)
Lady Anne H.; Hmmm, you've been thinking about this a lot, eh? ;-) Well, keep up the guesswork, that's all I can say! Thanks for catching that typo for me; I had a pretty bad chapter there for typos. I'm normally very good at catching them myself.
Stoneage Woman; Lol, okey dokey:-) Thank you!
Faerlain; Yup, another one! I'm glad you're enjoying it!
Aldaya of fantasy; He he... I hope you were joking...
TO EVERYONE READING:
Apologies for the appalling number of typos last chapter. I'd especially like to mention that when Thranduil talks about "Umbar hath no fury..." it was SUPPOSED to be Udún. My bad! I'll fix them when I'm able to...
.: Chapter Two :.
Hallataulë opened the door to the bedroom that Legolas and he had shared since they were young Elflings. The room was dark inside, with no light coming through the large window on the ceiling. Only a flickering flame atop a stumpy candle on the side table gave the older prince any light at all to pick his way through the dark bedroom.
Over the other side of the room, what appeared to be a bundle of blankets lay on the bed. Hallataulë however knew that it was Legolas; the younger Elf had a bad habit of cocooning himself in the quilt.
"Legolas?" he whispered softly. "Are you awake?"
"Hmmm?" A barely audible mumble came from the blankets. Hallataulë wandered over slowly and shook his brother's shoulder. There was a groan and Legolas rolled over and peered at the other Elf from under the relative security of the blankets.
"Are you hungry? You didn't eat any dinner..." asked Hallataulë, concerned. Legolas mumbled something again, but it was too muffled for Hallataulë to hear. "Honestly," he said, smiling and kneeling down. "Pull that blanket down from around your head, I can't hear a word you're sayi-"
He stopped abruptly as he pulled the cover off of Legolas slightly.
"Valar Legolas, you look awful!"
It was true; Legolas' face was paler than normal and his eyes puffy. A slight sheen of sweat covered his face and his gaze was slightly glazed over.
Hallataulë started to rise. "I'm going to get Ada, he'll-"
"No," came a small and pitiful sounding voice.
Silence passed between the two Elves as one stared from the bed and the other simply stared back.
"I'll be ok Hal," said Legolas quietly. "Honest. I just... need some sleep..."
Hallataulë looked at him with concern. "I really don't think you're alright. Are you totally sure you want to just leave it?"
Legolas nodded. "Please Hal, I... I'm just really tired." He groaned before sighing. "Please don't get Ada. He'll only fuss... and then... I'll never get any sleep..."
Hallataulë grappled with his conscience. Half of him told him to ignore Legolas and get Thranduil as this was obviously very serious; after all, Elves simply did not get sick. Then again, Legolas was adamant he'd be ok after some sleep, and as though to back up the other argument as well as the first (and he thought this with a wry grin), Elves simply did not get sick.
He finally admitted defeat. "Alright Legolas. I'll let you sleep for now. But you have to promise me, if you start to feel worse in any way, anything at all, you wake me up and tell me. Agreed?"
Legolas nodded slowly.
"You promise?" added Hallataulë, just for good measure.
"I promise..." whispered Legolas.
Hallataulë shook his head and rolled his eyes. "What were you doing today?" He laughed. "You weren't really chasing maidens, were you?"
Legolas grinned; it wasn't as cheeky as usual, but the sparkle in his eyes was still there.
"I just stayed with Miarthan... most of the day. Don't tell Ada... but I drunk some of his new wine... it was disgusting... and then on my way back I was cornered by Oersen... she got me to sort out her reports..."
Hallataulë laughed. "I bet you loved that..."
Legolas laughed a little. "Oh yes... and then I got that wax... all over me... didn't help that I cut my finger earlier..." He yawned and blinked tiredly.
"Ok you, enough chatter," said Hallataulë. He pulled the blanket up to his brother's chin again. "Get some sleep. You can tell me all about your escapades in the morning..."
----
Pitch black darkness was what greeted him as his eyes suddenly snapped open. For a moment he didn't understand why he had woken, until he felt it. His chest felt like it was being gripped by an iron fist, the wielder gradually increasing the pressure with agonizing lethargy.
Legolas quickly rolled out of bed, landing on the floor in a heap. His head was swimming and it was with a spike of dread he suddenly realised that he could hardly breathe. Still grasping the blankets around him like a cloak with one hand, the Elf crawled on his knees over to the other bed. Gulping air like mad, Legolas found himself wondering when the room had gotten so big; why did the other bed seem so far away? It felt like hours before he finally got there, but in truth it was only seconds.
"H-Hal!" he gasped. He pulled himself up onto his knees with all his strength. "Hal! H-help!" He grasped the bedclothes tightly in one hand and clutched at his aching chest with the other.
Hallataulë woke to see his younger brother with his eyes screwed shut, desperately trying to breathe. "Legolas!"
Quickly throwing the quilt off of himself, Hallataulë hastily got out of bed. He kneeled down in front of Legolas and tried to get the younger Elf to look at him. He tried to remember what Legolas used to do for him when they were younger, when he'd had panic attacks.
"Legolas..." he said. "Look at me, come on." He caught Legolas' gaze and held it. "Don't look away, just calm down, ok? Just keep looking at me." Legolas' breathing was still ragged, but it seemed to be getting easier. The old tactic was working. "That's right. Just stay calm and watch me..."
It seemed for a moment that things were going to calm down. For a brief few seconds, Legolas seemed to be able to breathe a little better.
But it wasn't to last.
Something happened in his chest again. The grip on his lungs had seemed to ease a little, and Legolas was just beginning to think the ordeal might just be over, when suddenly it returned, worse this time. It almost felt as though his lungs had burst...
Hallataulë caught the younger Elf as he slumped forwards. He panicked as he saw Legolas' wide eyes, full of a wild desperate fear. He was shaking awfully, uncontrollable tremors running through his body.
"ADA!" shouted Hallataulë. He held his younger brother close to him, and in doing so he felt Legolas' heart hammering in his chest.
Legolas couldn't tell what was really going on. Everything around him was spinning too fast for him to focus; the colours were all wrong. Everything was wrong; even him. There was something terribly wrong with him and what frightened him the most was that he had no idea what.
He heard someone screaming. He could feel someone holding him tightly, a distant link back to a normal place and time. He could see shapes and figures before his eyes; he just couldn't tell if they were real or simply figments of his mind which was currently trying to cope with the sudden fever that was setting into his shocked body.
Hallataulë had no idea how to clam Legolas down; the younger Elf's breath was gasping and shallow; he seemed completely breathless. The elder Prince tried to hold Legolas still as he started to thrash wildly in his grasp.
"ADA!" he screamed again. He cared not if he woke the entire kingdom with his hollering – Legolas needed help right now.
And then it stopped. Legolas suddenly went limp and lay still in Hallataulë's arms, eyes closed, not making a sound. The older prince feared the worst and pressed his fingers against the side of Legolas' throat.
Luckily, there was still a pulse; somewhat erratic, but still there, and thankfully still fairly strong.
The door flew open with a loud bang and Thranduil and Sólia ran in. The Queen stopped dead as she caught sight of her youngest.
"Legolas!" She flew to his side, not even knowing what to do. It was simply a motherly instinct, a wild fear that she couldn't shake at all. "What happened! Hal, what happened!"
Hallataulë shook his head, a little dazed. "I don't know..."
Thranduil ran his hand across Legolas' forehead and found it to be somewhat warm. He leaned back and sighed.
"I knew it..."
----
The door to the healing room opened slowly and all eyes in the room looked up. Previously, the tension and silence between the Royals had been almost unbearable as no news about the youngest member of their family came from the other side of the door.
"Well Falasan? What is it?" demanded Thranduil from the head healer. The brown haired Elf looked at his King and then at his Queen who waited behind. He wondered how exactly to break the news...
"It's a poison; a rare one," began Falasan. He paused, guilt gnawing at his being as the Queen sobbed and the King ran a hand through his hair, a look of rage and despair on his face. He debated whether to carry on, but the professional in him won out.
"The name of it is pryalin; a beautiful sounding name for something so dangerous. The first symptoms are the most dramatic – sometimes they result in death, more often they don't. Legolas has already been through these; the first is tiredness and loss of appetite, then a few hours later difficulty with breathing and seizures. However, people often wonder what's worst, these or what comes afterwards."
Thranduil looked at him darkly. "And what would that be?" he asked slowly.
"A fever. It begins fairly low, just a slight temperature, but as the days pass it gradually increases until at last the victim's body overheats and they die."
The silence was unbelievable. Nobody wanted to say anything. They'd all known that this was more than serious, but the concept that Legolas might die... that had never occurred to them at all.
"Is there nothing anyone can do?" whispered Sólia quietly.
"There is a cure," said Falasan. "But it's been so long that this poison has been used for anything that none of the healers, including myself, can remember it. Rest assured though, we're doing everything we can to find out."
Hallataulë had listened to the entire conversation between his parents and the healer from a dark corner of the room. He'd not really been taking it in though; what was weighing on his mind was who had done this.
Legolas was with Miarthan most of the day, apart from when he was walking home and was with Oersen for a little while. That was all he knew; there could be more, but he'd cut Legolas off before he could finish. His mind pulled up so many thoughts about what might have happened... had Miarthan seen anything? Had Oersen? Perhaps that wine was the cause, or the wax? Maybe even just the cut on Legolas' finger... who knew?
He rose silently from his chair and headed for the door.
"Where are you going!" yelled Thranduil. He didn't mean to shout, but stress and confusion had driven him to the end of his tether.
"I just need some air," replied Hallataulë quietly. The door opened silently and he stepped out into the corridor.
Home suddenly seemed so cold... the corridor was bathed in a ghostly blue light as the pale moon shone weakly through the skylights above, and there was utter silence. There was no-one else in the corridor.
Or so he thought.
"Is Legolas alright?"
Hallataulë spun round to see Miarthan standing behind him, leaning against a pillar. It was quite a shock; the prince had been sure he was alone...
"Well... they say he is. For now anyway," he replied tiredly. Miarthan looked at him with sadness in his eyes.
"It's bad then?"
Hallataulë nodded slowly. He was surprising himself; he'd not expected to be so calm when it came to telling someone what was happening. Then again, the idea that Legolas could be dying hadn't really settled in even for himself yet.
Miarthan approached slowly. Once he was close, he placed a hand on the prince's shoulder. "I want to help."
"With what?"
"Well, looking for whoever did this of course!" replied Miarthan matter-of-factly. Hallataulë blinked; he hadn't even thought about actually seeking out and finding the culprit yet, only about who it might have been.
"But-" he started.
"No!" interrupted Miarthan quickly. "No buts!" He paused as he calmed slightly. When he spoke again it was much softer. "Hal, think about this. Legolas might die because of this person's or people's selfishness. But if we start looking for them now, we might catch the poisoner... before he, or she, becomes a murderer..."
----
Back inside the healing room, a mother's heart was breaking.
"I want to see him."
Sólia wrung her hands and stared with tear filled eyes at the head healer Falasan. It was a demand no person with a heart could refuse. The Elf nodded and opened the door for his Queen. She rushed in, stopping dead as she saw her youngest child lying lifeless.
Legolas' eyes were still closed and his blonde hair spilled out over the pillow, framing a once cheerful face which was now pale. One hand lay across his chest, which rose and fell slowly as he breathed.
The tears spilled over and ran down her cheeks. Sólia pressed her fingers, curled under into a fist, to her lips as despair and that sense of simply not knowing settled in and showed no signs of leaving at any time soon...
Valar this chapter was hard to write! Up until the point when Legolas fell unconscious my fingers were flying but the second Thranduil and Sólia stepped in the room it was like, 'Blip! Brain Temporarily Offline!' Anyone else ever had that? -sigh- Ah well. The unbelievable number of Mary Sues spurred me on to continue writing. There's a point when it just becomes a stupid amount... and I bet there's a few of you out there who agree with me, right? –double sigh-
Oh, also... someone asked me about the skylights. I believe their question was: "Why whenever you mention rooms in Mirkwood do they never have windows but always windows in the ceiling or skylights?" Well, the answer to that is this. Mirkwood is underground, so I believe that they have large windows in the ceiling to let light in. I'll draw a picture of Legolas and Hal's room and post it soon so you can see what I mean. ;-)
Till next time!