Hello, people! Thank you for all of the reviews. This one may be shorter, but then again, that is what I have been saying a lot lately. Now, let us continue with the story!
A/N: Also, I was brought aware to the fact that my time transition in the last chapter was not very clear. I have been trying to think of ways to improve this to make it easier to understand, but I have not been very successful. For this chapter, I will just use italics to represent the fact that the part is going back in time. I hope it makes it a little more clearer. If anyone can give me an idea of how to make it better, please let me know!
XXXXXXXXXXX
Chapter 19- Golden Beasts
Aragorn burst through the trees and rushed over to his companions who were still taking care of other matters. He pushed through the brush, nearly tripping on his own feet, then slid to a halt at their feet, quickly catching all their attention.
"Estel, what is the hurry?" Elrohir asked. Estel looked at them all with wild eyes, before finally gasping out.
"Something has happened!"
"What, Estel? What is wrong?" Norui asked worriedly, stepping forward. The human didn't respond though. He just sped off in the direction he came. They all glanced between each other, before speeding off after him.
Not far from their camp did they see Estel stop and kneel down. They all came to sudden stop, eyes wide and mouths agape, when they laid eyes on the sight upon them, or rather, what wasn't there in one case.
"W-What has happened here?" Norui whispered out. He then turned to the wizard who had a troubled look on his face. "Mithrandir, what has happened to Jaimea and where is my brother?" The Maia only looked down upon the elleth, shaking his head.
"I know not." He whispered. No one moved from their spot, all staring at the bloodied Jaimea and Legolas's empty blanket.
"Well, we are not getting anywhere just staring." Elladan said, then knelt down beside the elleth and began his work over again. Elrohir soon joined him. One by one, each member of the group broke off to sit by themselves and think. Norui watched as Lothron glided silently up a small hill and sat beneath a large tree. With a sigh, he strode over to the princess, knowing full well what she was thinking.
Lothron was wide eyed but unseeing as she played with the grass beneath her fingers. She heard her brother approach, but she did not turn to look at him. He sat down beside her and pulled her into his arms, kissing her on the forehead.
"I am sorry, Lothron." He said slowly and gently. She inhaled deeply and she quivered.
"This is all going wrong, Norui. This whole mission has become a disaster. Jaimea has gotten worse, Legolas is gone, we have no horses and Ada is probably near death now." Norui flinched when he heard what had actually happened, despite how many times he told himself that all would work out.
"Do not give up, Lothron, for we need all of the hope we can get. Legolas is strong and so is Ada. They will not succumb to what ever ails them." He assured, giving her a small squeeze and then he brushed away a glistening tear on her face. Lothron smiled and rested her head on his shoulder.
"You are right."
IIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Estel and Arwen broke away from the mourning group and made their way to a quiet, secluded place. They sat down on the soft grass close together and stared out into the night. Estel's hand found the elf's and they clasped together.
"What do you think we are going to do now?" Arwen asked.
"I am not sure. It would be very difficult to track the wargs with Jaimea wounded so." Estel told her and she nodded sadly. "But all will work out, some how. I know it will." Silence took over once more and the couple pondered their own thoughts.
Arwen suddenly jerked up and strained her eyes and ears.
"Estel, do you hear that?" She asked. Estel gazed out into the darkness, but sighed.
"Nay, Arwen. I have not the sight or hearing of the elves."
"Let us get Mithrandir." She said, then stood and ran off down the hill, Estel quickly in tail.
IIIIIIIIIIIIII
The group gathered up together in this grassy area and watched wide eyed as a large dust cloud steadily made their way toward them. They could hear the thundering of something beating against the ground, but it was still too far to get a clear view.
"What is it?" Melyanna asked, but no one responded. The cloud got closer and closer until they could see the shapes of twelve large creatures. One lead the entire group and even from the distance that they were, they could tell it was quite larger then the others.
They continued to stare out at this thing when a sudden high whinny filled their ears. All of the travelers smiled widely when they heard this very welcome sound. Soon, the animals were upon them and they accepted them with open arms.
"It is a miracle that they have come back!" Elladan said happily as he stroked his horse's neck. Somehow, the wounds that the stallion had acquired had healed up, leaving only faint scars.
Each horse wandered to their respecting owners and the master's stroked them lovingly. What surprised them though was that an extra horse was among them. Its coat was of a brilliant gold. Its mane and tail were both jet black and it had deep, black eyes.
The group watched on in wonder as this new horse trotted gracefully up to the Crown Prince of Mirkwood with its head held high. Urúvion, Norui's stallion, took one glance at this magnificent horse, then bobbed his head and backed away calmly from his owner and the golden horse took its place by the ellon's side.
Norui glanced between his horse and this new one in confusion. He whistled for his stallion and tried to move closer to him, but Urúvion never responded and the golden horse wouldn't allow him to move closer. All of the other comrades watched on from their mount's back.
The horse then locked eyes with Norui's, never faltering in the staring contest. The elf noticed a small glimmer in the mare's eyes and he set a hard face, then reached up and grabbed a fistful of the black mane.
"Norui, what are you doing?" Lothron asked with a sense of warning in her tone. The Crown Prince then leapt nimbly off the ground and gracefully landed upon the horse's back. She nodded her head and whinnied.
"You can not ride her! She is a wild horse!" Lothron hissed at him, but he ignored her and grabbed more of the mane between his fingers.
"Is this what you want?" He asked, though he knew he would not get a response. Without even doing anything, the mare started forward and turned to the others. They all watched him handle this new horse for a moment, until Melyanna spoke.
"Norui, we do not even know where to start looking." She informed him, "It is dark and we will not be able to follow the warg's trail. Plus, Jaimea is wounded." Norui nodded.
"Yes, I know. But I feel we will be able to find the wargs quite easily. The trail would be quite heavy with so many wargs." He said. Mithrandir nodded.
"That is true." He said thoughtfully. "But do we know the wargs took him?"
"Of course, we do! Where else could he have gone?" Estel then said. "Let us make haste!"
"Well, then!" Norui burst out, hope restored in him suddenly. "Let us retrieve Lady Jaimea and then set out to find Legolas!" Grinning at their friend's enthusiasm, the twins put their hands to their foreheads in mock salute.
"Yes, sir!" The two exclaimed in unison, then cantered off down the hill.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Within moments, Jaimea was set in front of Elrohir and they were preparing to set off. Estel and Elladan weaved their horses around, trying to pick up the trail. Once they had found it, they called out and Norui smiled.
"Come now! Let us hurry!" He cried. With a loud neigh, the new mare started beneath the elf and galloped over the plains, the others quickly in tail.
IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI
Legolas awoke with a jolt as his face slammed onto cold, wet rock. The first thing that he noticed was that his whole body hurt. When ever he would take a breath, a sharp pain filled his chest. Through his half-opened eyes, he could make out the blurry paws of the wargs that had taken him captive moving around him. He heard the beating of their feet disappear into the cave and then all was silent around him.
He tried to think of what had happened, but all he could remember was when he was flying through the air from the blow and how terrified he was. He tried to place why he was so scared, but the painful throbbing in his head made it impossible to do so. He was about to try the task of sitting himself up, but something stopped him.
He could feel a hot breath against his slender neck and it send shivers down his spine. He could hear the soft breathing as it made its way down to his back and he gulped, though it irritated his parched throat. Then to his surprise, a gentle, wet nose pressed up against him. It prodded him lightly, as if it knew he was injured.
Legolas dared to look back and he blinked a few times to clear away the fog over his eyes. Turning back as far as he could without being noticed, he saw in the dark a dirty, golden-brown warg with golden eyes. It sniffed up and down his back, raising his tunic over his waist.
When the cold, wet nose made contact with the elf's pale, clammy skin, Legolas inhaled sharply and flinched. This caught the warg's attention.
'That can't be good,' He thought, 'I felt the coolness of the beast's nose.'
The warg then trotted up to his face and sniffed his golden hair. Legolas closed his eyes tightly as the warg searched all over his face. He could feel his heart racing in his chest when he would occasionally feel the smoothness of the beast's teeth brush against his skin.
But his eyes sprang open when he felt the rough tongue of the warg rub gently over his well-chiseled face. Legolas would not let this display lower his guard and he slowly buried his face in his arms.
'This creature is acting like the dogs back home!' He thought, but that did not mean he trusted the warg. He tried to brush the warg away from him with his hands and that seemed to work well enough.
The warg snorted and moved back to his torso and began nudging him in the side with its long snout in an attempt to roll him over, but Legolas prevented it from doing this. The beast snorted again. Determined to get the elf on his back, it knocked him on his side with its paw as gently as it could.
Legolas did roll over on his back due to the extreme pain that had caused him. Unfortunately, rolling did not help either and an even stronger pang of pain shot through his entire body and he gave out a small yelp. The golden warg stopped immediately and then made its way up to his head again. Legolas looked up at it, fear in his eyes. The warg, seeing that he appeared to be alright now, sat down at his head and stared down at him. The corners of its mouth seemed to be turned up into a smile.
'But that is impossible. Creatures cannot make expressions. My eyes must still be cloudy.'
The prince, after much hesitation, began to reach up to touch the warg and it showed no response to him. Just as his shaking fingers intertwined with the creature's dirty coat, a long howl sounded from somewhere in the cave. The 'friendly' warg sprang up, its gold eyes staring into the darkness and its ears twitching every which way. Legolas looked on worriedly as the sound of their footsteps grew nearer and nearer to them.
The golden warg then shoved its tail between its legs and darted towards the mouth of the cave, but it paused and looked back at Legolas. The elf watched on nervously, waiting to see what was going to happen. It began to prance hesitantly as if trying to make a decision.
The approaching wargs growled and cried out once more and Legolas snapped his attention to them. When he saw they had not yet come, he looked back to the golden warg, but it was gone.
Three wargs stopped at the head of the prince, one reddish in color and the other two were brown. Legolas dared against his better judgment and looked up at them. They bared their teeth and snarled. Legolas gulped. The reddish one suddenly leaped forward, slamming its heavy paw onto the elf's chest.
All breath left Legolas and excruciating pain coursed through him and his head swam. The brown wargs stepped forward and grabbed his arms in their strong jaws, grinding hard enough for him to cringe and bite back a yell.
Before letting go, the red warg smashed its paw on his chest again. Still not having gathered his breath from the last impact, Legolas lurched forward and lost himself to the darkness once more.
IOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOI
The companionsrode on through the night. The moon was beginning to face, allowing the sun to take her place in the sky. Much to the surprise of the riders, the tracks were still visible and remained clear the whole way.
No matter how much they wanted to stop, only to take a few moment break, they could not. The horses would not stop no matter hard they tried to pull them to a halt. The horses would always follow this new horse that strode proudly in the front.
The golden horse was constantly pumping its strong legs to maintain its incredible speed. It never faltered and was always staring straight ahead. Norui noticed that he was not even controlling the horse. She seemed to know their purpose and where to go. This amazed the prince. He looked down at the ground flying beneath him. They were moving so fast, it made his emerald eyes water.
'If only Legolas were here to see this.' Norui thought, 'He would d it. It feels as if I was flying and he always said he wanted to fly when he was younger.'' A small smile graced his lips. He closed his eyes and laughed to himself, feeling the crisp morning breeze stream past his face. 'I wonder if this is how Espenshade feels when she flies.'
At the thought of the Peregrine Falcon, he frowned and stared up into the sky to find that the bird was absent. Normally, she would have been flying high above their heads, but not this time.
'Oh, Legolas will kill me if Espenshade is missing!' He shouted to himself, then stared back out ahead with a determined look set on his fair face.
XXXXXXXX
There! I am done! This one is definitely shorter, but I hope you like it. Not my best chapter, but oh well. I am very tired and I need to sleep! Here are the reviewer replies. Sorry if they are short.
butterfly-elf- I am sorry it wasn't done well. I hope the italics helps a little, but I will try to refrain from doing such things in the future. Could you give me some suggestions on how to make time transitions clearer? I hope you liked this chapter. Thanks for reading!
Gemini969- I hope this was quick enough for you, but I have a feeling it wasn't…sorry. I am being bogged down with school work and it is taking its toll on me. I will try to update sooner in the future. Thank you for the compliments! They are greatly appreciated! Thanks for reading!
Lasien- LOL. Thanks for the two reviews! Good thing you will live! I don't want you to die! Here is your update. I hope you liked it. Not very action-filled, but it is an update.
Legolas's Girl 9- Your hot elf? Oh, puhlease! He is mine! MUAHAHA! And YES, he is gone! Do you think I would actually let him be okay? Phbt, in your dreams! But thank you for reading and reviewing!
xnaya- Thank you for that! I love your name by the way, very original! Thanks for reviewing and reading!
Well, that is about it. Namarie, everyone!
Until Next Time,
Manwathiel
