Scars Chapter 20- The Ships Have Come…
Disclaimer: This story is being written for enjoyment only. I do not own any of Tolkien's characters.
Author's Note: Thank you all once again for your continued kind words and interest. Both are most appreciated. I hope you enjoy this next chapter. :) I will issue a small warning that it does contain one scene which might prove disturbing in its content. I hope this does not prove to be the case.
Cresting a small rise, Aragorn stared down at the familiar encampment below him. Looking upward at that same moment, Elladan rushed forward to greet his descending brother, his grey eyes shining with welcome relief at the sight of both Aragorn and the Ranger accompanying him.
"Estel," he breathed as he met up with the Human at last, forgetting any continued need for protocol. "The water from the well, it must have been tainted!"
Aragorn listened grim-faced as Elladan went on in explanation pointing at last to the patch of once thriving earth beneath them left devastated by the contents of the earlier spilled bucket. "They must have laid poison to the well while ransacking the village. They sought to annihilate everything in their wake; their malicious intent was that no life should ever flourish here again."
"And in using the water from the well to aid the wounded, Elrohir and Legolas were exposed to the deadly toxin. Great gods!" Aragorn exclaimed suddenly while bowing his head in shame and resignation. "It never crossed my mind that the water from the well could be tainted, or that I would be endangering their health further by using it."
Extending a hand forward to lift up his Human brother's crestfallen face, Elladan responded. "Now is not the time to chastise ourselves for our shortcomings, Estel, for such a notion did not pass my mind either. Why would it? No precedent has ever been established for such vile and inhumane behavior until this very moment. Mass extermination; the very idea is incomprehensible!"
For a short second, Elladan felt a heat coming off his brother's flesh with their brief contact. But just as quickly, Aragorn backed away causing the Elf to drop his comforting hand. Elladan's concerned grey eyes then swept his brother's pale features, but Aragorn's immediate response left him little time to wonder about his unusual findings, leaving the Elf to attribute the Human's unnatural warmth to the Ranger's heightened emotions.
Turning to his companion beside him, Aragorn implored, "I must ascertain what toxins were used within the well. Halfdan, please! Make haste! I shall need a sample of the water to make such a determination. You must be careful my friend!" His Chieftain warned as the younger Ranger prepared to embark upon such a mission. "We know that any contact with damaged flesh could possibly prove fatal. Do not allow yourself to become contaminated as well, but take care lest you should have any exposed wounds. I do not know yet the properties or strength of this agent, but we do know it to be fast acting. I cannot predict with any certainty yet how it will affect the Race of Men, but I do believe it will prove destructive as well with the location of its placement."
His dark-haired companion only nodded; the seriousness of his leader's words reflected within his harried gaze as he set off at break neck speed to recover the sample that Strider now required.
Keeping his eyes trained upon the departing back of his comarade until he fell from sight, Aragorn at last turned to his Elven brother uttering sadly, "I have done them more harm than good."
"You were not to know that, Estel!" Elladan retorted. "None of us were! Do not stand here heaping blame upon yourself. Good may still be done! Elrohir has been resting more comfortably since I bathed his wounds a second time. Perhaps, Legolas will react the same. We cannot lose hope!"
"No, we cannot…" Aragorn answered tightly while his eyes turned at last to the figures of his fallen friend and brother. The sight awaiting him tore his heart asunder with its severity. Elrohir did appear to be resting more comfortably than before, but Legolas lay unnaturally still, too still in fact, while his once serene countenance appeared pallid and riddled with pain. "No…" The Ranger breathed as his bleak eyes noted the rapid deterioration that had continued to take place within his friend while he was away.
Elladan tried to remain stoic as he witnessed his Human brother's rising despair, but still the Elf felt his lips begin to quiver and his eyes well up with tears. Even if a toxin could be identified, its discovery would most likely come too late for Legolas to benefit from it. The Silvan Elf's life dangled too close to the edge already for any concrete hope to be held out that he could be successfully drawn back from its veil. The devastating poison had run its course wreaking havoc to the Elf's once strong body. It was only a matter of time before it would finally claim his life.
At first glance, the dread of his findings spread like wildfire throughout Aragorn, but the grieving Man would not allow himself to become ensnared by it. Reaching toward the ground beside him, he lifted the brimming bucket. The burden of its weight reawakening the torrent of pain stemming from his side, but its strain shown as little more than a slight tightening about his mouth and a small, yet inaudible hitch in his breath. Upon closer inspection, one might have noted an increased sheen of perspiration that shone upon the Ranger's set features, dampening his grim countenance. But such evidence could easily be attributed to his earlier exertions within the hinterland or to his now determined efforts at healing those in front of him.
Kneeling beside his friend, Aragorn removed the last of the wet cloths Elladan had employed to lower Legolas' raging fever. Lowering his palm towards the Elf's smooth flesh, the Ranger felt the unnatural rise of heat still claiming his friend's body. The infection had undoubtedly spread. Pushing aside the light covering draped over his midsection, he noted an unusual mottling of the flesh fanning out from Legolas' abdomen along with the slight distension surrounding his liver and spleen. Either the infection or poison had reached the Elf's bloodstream, possibly both, and were affecting the internal organs needed to purify his blood. Using the utmost care, he gently turned his friend over onto his belly to examine the burns he suffered upon his back. Legolas uttered a small moan at the procedure, and Aragorn halted his actions briefly to offer some reassurance to his friend, while stroking back his long, golden hair..
"Be at peace, mellon-nin. I will do my best not to cause you any further pain, but I must take a look at your wounds. They have become infected. Rest easy, my friend."
Legolas' shaky, sweat dampened hand reached outward towards Aragorn. As the Ranger extended his forth to clasp the archer's, Legolas weakened voice cried out inarticulately.
"I am sorry," Aragorn answered. "I cannot understand what you are trying to tell me."
"Estel," the suffering Elf muttered incoherently. "Estel…do not leave me!"
"I shan't." Aragorn vowed tightly, his voice raw with emotion as his own grey eyes now filled with tears.
"Do not leave me…" The fevered Elf cried out again. His sweat soaked head tossing back and forth with the effort, until he fell once more into an uneasy silence, except for an occasional moan of pain as Aragorn attempted to resume his prior efforts at healing.
Replacing Legolas' outstretched hand, Aragorn hestitated briefly turning his face away from his friend's to blink away tears of pain and anguish. He noted that Elladan was once more by their brother's side as well doing his best with the water Halfdan had provided to lower the Elf's still elevated temperature. Elrohir groaned beneath his gentle touch.
Then moving his mournful grey eyes towards the brightening skies above them, Aragorn invoked a harsh appeal to grant him aid.
"Please be with them. They need you…I need you. Keep my hands steady and my mind sound, so that I may help them. Do not allow me to falter, when there is so much at stake. They suffer so…" he finished; his voice breaking with his final words.
Carefully then, he drew back upon the dressing covering Legolas' back. The sight of the now putrid wound brought the rise of bile to the Ranger's throat. "Sweet Elbereth," he uttered. Desperation soared within his breast once again as the enormity of what he must now face off with impacted squarely with his psyche. The affected flesh appeared ten times worse than it had mere hours before when he had first tended to the burned area. What vile poisons had the filth of Mordor created that could cause such rampant deterioration to take effect so rapidly? He could not even employ the herbs he had gathered earlier until he learned of its properties, for fear the combination of their effects would prove lethal to the Elves.
Any learned healer would have just replaced the soiled bindings with fresh linens realizing the utter hopelessness of the case now in front of him, while continuing to ease his patients' suffering to the best of his abilitiy until at last death made its ultimate claim upon them. But no, no! He would not give up upon his brother and friend so easily until he had employed every last measure known to him. He would not release them to the somatic call heralding from beyond the veil. And taking up an unused length of cloth, Aragorn dipped it into the cool water beside him and began bathing the diseased flesh upon Legolas' back again. Meticulously his hands moved above the cloth doing his utmost to draw out the purulence and poison without further damaging the flesh beneath it. Though gentle, his actions still caused his suffering friend to cry out beneath him at his renewed ministrations.
Worried that his reassuring words might not reach Legolas in the mindless chasm he had slipped into, Aragorn did the only thing known to him that might bring his friend some comfort. Softly he began to hum a tune from his childhood, one which his father or brothers must have sung to him. As the familiar strain of its melody reached Elladan while he worked over Elrohir, the raven-haired Elf's breath caught in his throat as his chest constricted painfully. Blinking rapidly back a new rush of tears, the Elf could not fathom why of all the melodies Aragorn had been exposed to while growing up in Rivendell that he would call upon this particular one. For it held custody to so many unguarded memories between the two of them. Though his hands still trembled beneath its resonance, Elladan could not allow his brother to continue on alone and his voice rose up to meet with the Ranger's. The sweet clarity of his inflection only adding to the soothing peacefulness of the refrain being sung.
Slowly the beauty of their harmonies began to take hold reaching and then awakening another as Elrohir's grey eyes began to blink open in concordance with its euphony. Until at last his fevered gaze met with his brother's and a small smile of recognition played upon his face. "Elladan," he muttered weakly. His elder brother's voice only broke slightly with the continued melody as he took but a moment to place a kiss against his brother's heated brow. His dark eyes shining with thankfulness that his younger twin appeared at last to be returning to them.
The same, however, could not be said for Legolas. For though the Silvan Elf's tortured movements stilled beneath Aragorn's healing touch, the Elf couldn't be more further away from making a return. Instead, his attentions were now drawn in another direction entirely.
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The heinous being which embodied Aragorn's previous stance, held his friend's limp form within his clutches. The once robust Human, no longer in his prime, was now but a broken child hanging lifelessly within its feral grasp.
"NO!" The Elf clamored as he struggled with all that he had within him to come to the Aragorn's aid. "No!" He shouted once again. "I shall not allow you to harm him!"
But Legolas could not move. He was paralyzed. He could not offer the child before him any protection as he looked on in utter torment. The cruel demon possessing Aragorn began to laugh.The shrill peal proved deafening as the heinous creature's gnarled claws reached out to tear into the boy's defenseless flesh. Suddenly blood began to drip from the limp child's body forming a scarlet pool upon the ground. Slowly it grew in proportion as life seeped from the Human. Until at last a small river of red began flowing forward to dampen Legolas' enfeebled flesh. Its crimson oppressiveness stung the impotent elf with its touch as his face burned deeply with the shame of his inactivity.
"No please!" he uttered causing the demon before him to only howl further in pleasure until his menacing voice rumbled.
"You cannot not save him! No one can! He is mine now! He is lost to you!"
"No!" Legolas lamented while turning his eyes away from the violence of the now lifeless child hanging within the monster's unrelenting grasp. "No!" the Silvan Elf cried again as he felt the slickness of his friend's blood wash over him once more. "Please no!" His desperate voice appealed as a roaring filled his head.
He was drowning; drowning in Aragorn's blood or so he thought until his gaze moved outward to at last discover the actual origin of the thundering echo within his head.
He immediately found himself upon a beach. Far from the disturbing sight of only a few, short seconds before. The rising tide was rushing in to greet his weakened flesh, washing over him. Taking with it the stain of Aragorn's previous blood and renewing him. Suddenly he was able to stand again. His body no longer paralyzed and needy, but replenished by the growing surf. Above him the sun shone brightly while white birds circled in the azure sky. The dissonance of their heralding cry was drowned out by the massive sea sprawling in front of him. The cooling mist of its retreating waves rose up to wet his flushed face finally offering the promise of long sought after comfort. While his sparkling blues eyes continued to gaze outward at its growing expanse, he spotted the approach of a tall sailing vessel upon its horizon…
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Legolas gasped beneath Aragorn's touch; his blue eyes opening at last. Aragorn paused briefly in his song to smile down at his friend. Legolas' mesmerized gaze, however, did not meet with his own. The Elf's fevered eyes were looking past him towards something that the Human's earthbound eyes could not see. A look of utter joy filled Legolas' sapphire depths, brightening his previously pallid complexion. The same feeling of rapture was not to be shared by his friend as Aragorn's anguished heart twisted painfully within his breast. His frantic actions had been for naught, for the Ranger had witnessed this very same expression a handful of times before during his brief lifetime. And each time had only brought him pain.
TBC
Author's Closing Notes: Well, if you've reached this point, then thank you for reading chapter 20. I hope you enjoyed it. :)
Until next time :) – Sue a.k.a. Quickbeam1