(Small Authors Note that I accidentally deleted the first time i uploaded this lol: The two 'parts' go in reverse orders in time. The Italics tells the story of them going to the Border between Greenwood and Dol Guldur and the Non-Italics tell the story of them coming back from it. Its meant to be a bit disorienting)
He couldn't look away. He couldn't even blink.
He wasn't even aware he couldn't do any of these things.
All he could do was stare forward at the great wall of light and sensation that drew every part of his heart and soul in like some sort of everlasting dark hole.
Heat blasted against his face, magic seemed to singe his skin.
Thousands of colors in sparks and sensations exploded in front of him. More magic than he had ever felt at once.
He couldn't look away.
The magic pulled him in. The beauty was a vortex.
The hate was just beyond that.
Waiting for him to step beyond that barrier. Into its arms. Into his unknown.
It whispered.
Something pulled at his chest.
The rope that Avaleina tied around his waist and chest was so secure it walked the borderline of being painful. Around him, Legolas tied a similarly tight rope around Elladan and Farlen to Radagast. If the wizard allowed it, Elrohir supposed he wouldn't argue with the percolations.
They had asked to come alone, after all. They had left Estel at the stronghold, at everyone's immediate insistence.
Avaleina checked the knots again, and Elrohir asked, "Is it really going to be that bad?"
"Yes." Legolas, Farlen, and Avaleina answered as one. Lord Ferdan remained silent.
Elrohir swallowed and exchanged a look with his twin. Perhaps their curiosity would finally be the end of them.
Lord Ferdan broke the silence, as he finished dipping all his arrows in poison, "Thranduil won't let us get lost."
He never did ever remember the minutes of leaving the border between Greenwood and Dol Guldur or starting the journey away from it. He never remembered the last few minutes before he reached the border either.
He vaguely remembered stumbling away. Tipping over a root.
A lingering whisper in his mind, but he couldn't remember what it had said. His body could never forget how enticing it was.
He remembered Avaleina's hand in his, pulling him along. Part of him remembered that he couldn't hear anything. Most of him didn't want to.
His legs almost weren't his own.
He didn't remember what came after
They had stopped outside some invisible line. Elrohir could feel it pulling at him like some sort of giant magnet. The forest ahead of them seemed almost deadly silent.
It probably was.
Most of the patrol that had come with them stayed behind now, only the seven of them would go on.
"Whoever forgets the most, buys the first round once we wake up," Legolas announced, offering a hand, "The Twin's don't count. They wouldn't stand a chance."
Handshakes were exchanged between the Greenwood warriors going forward; the twins couldn't help but just look forward to the trees stretching out ahead. As various 'deal' was muttered by those participating.
"The second place buys breakfast tomorrow so we aren't sick. Including a cup of wine." Farlen specified, and there were more sounds of general agreements.
Air and sound struggled back into his mind. Everything seemed to be going three times faster than him, while his mind went two times slower than normal.
The forest and the ground passed in a dazed blur, the world around him and the voices that surrounded him blended togeather.
His legs moved without him.
Had they gone to the border yet?
If his mind had been under his control, he probably would have regretted insisting on being curious to see the border.
No part of him could remember the last time he heard a noise. A voice. A sound of any kind.
He just felt the pull of Avaleina's hand on his. Vaguely he registered she still had a weapon in hand.
He didn't have one in his, maybe he had dropped it?
He didn't remember what he had dropped.
He couldn't hear anything.
Something pulled him in, but a hand kept a strong grip on him, pulling him away.
Color and sound and light slammed back into him like he had been asleep for days, or underwater against his will.
He gasped and blinked and jerked with surprise. There was still a rope around his middle.
His brain felt like it had been removed from his body and shaken thoroughly. Perhaps beaten against a tree.
No part of his mind could even begin to put the pieces together of how he had gotten here. It felt like it had been twenty years since anything had made sense.
He tripped over something, maybe a root?
He seemed to float the last distance to the border.
What a beautiful sight, awash with colors and power.
Unique and deadly.
The kind of sight no eyes were meant to see once, and especially not twice. And probably not remember.
Radagast gathered a plant near his feet. Elrohir couldn't remember why he needed to do that.
His eyes burned with the force of magic and emotion and power.
He couldn't blink.
He woke in a bed, safe within the halls of Greenwood. In what appeared to be the healer's ward. The sensations that assaulted him were worse than any handover Elorhir had ever experienced. He tried to think back to the last thing he could clearly remember.
It was sitting around the fire discussing what would likely happen to him after going near the border between Greenwood and Dol Guldur. He could vaguely recall a warning about disorientation and memory loss. They had guessed he would sleep for several days after returning; he and Elladan had just assumed they were exaggerating.
Then there was something about a rope.
Everything was too hard to get in the right over, all his memories seemed fabricated or horribly patchy. They flickered in and out of his mind like a candle flirting with the wind.
Nothing made sense. It was all a jumbled mess.
"Ah, good morning." A pleasant voice said above him, undoubtedly Legolas, "It is a good thing we did not include you or Elladan in our bet for we never would have had our first round, nor our breakfast the next day. A week is a very long time to wait for breakfast."
"I've been asleep for a week?" Elrohir demanded, to the protest of his throbbing headache.
"We warned you about the effect of being Border Drunk but you didn't believe us, not my fault."
.0.
Okay, so, we're getting very close to 100 chapters. So I present you with a choice. I'm going to write and extra-long piece in celebration, BUT, would you rather:
Offer suggestions for a part 2 of a past chapter in the reviews for this chapter and vote on them until chapter 100
OR
Have me surprise you?
