DangerdangerdangerdangerFIREBURNDEATHFEAR—
Legolas bolted upright with a shriek. What?! he demanded, but the trees' screams had become incoherent.
. . . . . .
"It is heading southwest, my lord, from the mountains directly north of us." Alagon was one of the few elves who were fully awake and composed.
"Are there any settlements in that direction?"
"One directly in its path, and several others potentially endangered."
The door flew open, and Taensirion rushed in, breathing hard. "What is going on? Are we being attacked?" As a Sinda, especially with his quarters in the depths of the palace, he would have been awakened by the general uproar and not the panicked forest.
Thranduil frowned grimly at the map they were consulting, and said the dreaded words. "Forest fire."
. . . . . .
Kilvara's fist pounded against the door. "There's a fire coming! You have to leave!"
The door swung open, revealing a bewildered she-elf. "It's coming toward us?"
"Yes. Grab whatever you can easily carry and go east until the trees are calm."
DEATH, screeched the trees in their minds. FIREFLAMESCOMINGSPREADINGBURNING—
"Go—east?"
"Yes, east. Hurry!"
The she-elf disappeared inside, and Kilvara took to the branches again, running until she spotted a group of elves lower down, one of many patrols sweeping the area for any elves still present. Silana ran up to meet her as she approached.
"That's the last house," Kilvara called, "but we should do another check."
Silana was already nodding in agreement as she fell in beside her friend and co-leader of the haphazard rescue effort. "They're all so dazed from the trees; I had to send almost a third of my elves home, too."
"Even I can barely think straight. Can you tell your elves to double-check every house, then meet at the rendezvous point?'
"Right."
"And tell them to send someone clear-headed with anyone they find; some of these elves are too confused to find their way out their front door."
. . . . . .
It was like a hurricane in his head, deafening him even though the only sound outside was the rustling of leaves in the hot wind. The forest was much too silent, all the birds and animals having fled when the first traces of smoke wafted through the forest.
BURNINGFIREFIREEVERYWHERESMOKETRAPPEDFALLBURN...
The undergrowth Legolas stumbled among was dry and crackly from the abnormally hot summer, a rare thing indeed in Greenwood, where the thick canopy usually regulated the temperature down below in the warmer seasons. Still, small fires weren't uncommon, and actually they were important for the health of the forest. Those fires weren't a big threat to the Silvan elves, since they rarely reached the high branches where their houses sat, and could usually be steered away from ground buildings—but every millennia or so, one of those harmless blazes turned into a true nightmare: a full-blown firestorm. At that point, there was little the elves could do except evacuate the area and hope the flames died down quickly... and close their minds to the trees' horrible screams.
Stop! Legolas clamped his hands over his ears. Stopstopstopstopstop—
FLAMESDEATHSMOKECHARRINGBURNINGPAINFIRETRAPPED...
"STOP! STOP! STOP!"
. . . . . .
"Silana! Are you all right?" Taensirion checked his daughter's uniform for any sign of burns with the practiced eye of a commander used to deciding if his soldiers were fit to rejoin the battle, as well as the concern of a father.
She laughed weakly. "I'm fine, Ada."
The king stepped between them to regain their attention. "Need I remind you we have no time to waste? Commander Silana, have all the civilians been evacuated from the path of the flames?"
She pursed her lips. "The rescue effort is haphazard at best, my lord. I hope so."
"That is hardly sufficient," Thranduil said coldly. "Make certain every elf is safe."
Silana didn't miss a beat, nodding respectfully and stepping back. "Of course, my lord. I am sorry."
He paid her no more heed. "Come, Taensirion."
Reluctantly, the advisor followed, though not before placing a quick kiss in his daughter's hair. "Be careful."
"You too, Ada."
Taensirion caught up to his king and stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "Where is Legolas?" He should have heard something about the prince's whereabouts right now, and the king was distracted from his handling of the emergency; Taensirion could see it in his eyes.
Thranduil turned away. "His home is safely out of the fire's path. He will be fine." But he couldn't hide the raw fear in his voice.
Taensirion was afraid, too. The prince's uncanny connection to the trees was well known, and he would not be the first elf to temporarily lose his senses from the trees' panic.
. . . . . .
"Legolas? Legolas!"
The prince tried to focus his eyes on the elf who'd suddenly appeared in front of him, but his vision was clouded by phantom visions of flames and crackling wood. BREAKINGCRACKINGFALLINGHEATSMOKE...
"Legolas, can you hear us?" Strong hands gripped him and guided him in a particular direction, interrupting his aimless stumbling. "Feren, take him back to the palace, he's in no condition to be out here."
"I'm not leaving—"
"You're almost as pale as he is. That wasn't a suggestion—go!"
Another elf ran over. "Uncle Heledir!"
"Tairen?"
"My goodness, he's in bad shape. Still—I have an idea, but you won't like it."
Legolas couldn't take it anymore. He threw his hands over his ears and screamed to make the noise stop, drowning out what Tairen said as a side effect. "GO AWAY!"
The other elves were arguing. Legolas squeezed his eyes shut, but the fiery pictures burned through his eyelids, orange dancing flames licking up everything in their path... he opened his eyes, and the elves in front of him blurred in and out of focus, surrounded by fire. The trees burned, the grass burned, the air burned, the elves burned...!
He was being pulled, and the smell of smoke went from mostly a hallucination to totally real. Other elves were shouting and crying around him, but not as loudly as him. Someone—Tairen—was in front of him, saying something over and over, and other elves held him on the sides.
"Listen to me, Legolas. You need to tell the trees to pull in their branches, do you hear me? So the fire can't cross the river, understand? Pull in the branches."
Pull... branches...
"That's right. Pull in the branches. Stop the fire, right? So it doesn't get to the houses. Pull in the branches. The river's just wide enough if the trees pull in their branches."
Pull in branches, Legolas repeated along with him. Over and over. Pull in branches. Pull in branches.
The trees screamed.
Pull in branches. It was a chant now, with other elves repeating it in their minds and out loud. Pull in branches. Pull in branches.
The trees rustled. Real fire mixed with the flames in Legolas's mind.
Pull in branches. Pull in branches.
FIREFIREFIREFIRECOMINGFIREBRANCHESPULLTUCKINPULLINBRANCHESHIDENOFIRENOTCROSSPULLINBRANCHES!
Legolas ran out of breath to scream with, and he never saw the ground rushing up to claim him.
. . . . . .
"Legolas? Can you say something, show me you'll be okay?"
"Firesmokehurts..." Legolas gasped, and his head lolled to the side.
Thranduil inhaled sharply, but Felrion tapped the prince's cheek to get his attention. "Legolas. Who am I?"
Legolas strained to focus his eyes. The phantom flames were still there, but fainter now. "F... Fel... rion..." he slurred.
"Good." The healer laid a wet cloth against the back of the elfling's neck; Legolas was sitting with his back against a tree, or at least, that was what his eyes told him. His body thought he was slowly turning upside-down and back again. "Do you remember what happened?"
"I... don'... ev'thing... fire... wha' happened?" Legolas looked to his father for clues, but Thranduil's lips were pursed and his hands were folded tightly behind his back.
"The fire stopped at the river, Legolas, partly thanks to you. Tairen is brilliant." Felrion turned to greet Silana, who was approaching with concern. "How's Feren?"
"Tathor says he'll be okay. Ada's with him." The she-elf knelt next to Legolas. "How is he? A lot of the Silvans are starting to get their wits back now."
"He'll be all right in a while, but it's best if he avoids stress for a few weeks." Felrion met Thranduil's eyes. "He will be just fine, I promise. The worst I've seen elves end up with from a firestorm is the sort of trauma you can get from battle, and even that usually resolves itself in a few centuries."
Thranduil closed his eyes for a moment and nodded.
"Thank goodness," Silana remarked. "And Felrion—before I forget, I wanted to put in a good word for Tathor. He was very calm even though everyone else was freaking out because Feren couldn't breathe."
"Was it just smoke in his lungs?" the healer asked absently, holding something to Legolas's lips. The young elf swallowed the stuff, hardly tasting it through his daze.
"Yeah, he helped put out the one spot where the fire got across. Heledir got some smoke, too, but not as much."
"Good, and I'll remember to mention what you said to Tathor later; he'll appreciate that. Thr—my king, you can take him now. I gave him a sleeping draught, and he'll be in his right mind when he wakes up."
"Are you certain?"
"Yes. Just keep him away from the burned part of the forest for the first few weeks and fire in general for a handful of days, and he shouldn't have any problems. Legolas, can you hear me?"
"Y...es..."
"You can sleep now. You're safe, and your Ada will take you home."
The imagined fires were gone now, and his eyelids were drooping. "Okay..."
Legolas slipped into a peaceful sleep as his father's strong arms lifted him.
Want to see more of a certain character? More Avari/Storm? More dark Thranduil-y stuff, or happy Legolas-Tathor-Firith? Leave a review with your request; I need filler chapters.