Out of Mirkwood
Scribbles-on-Parchment
December 21, 2019
Chapter 24 – To Save a Life
Estel was still in shock. It was obvious his attacker was dead.
He had never seen one of the eldar die before and he knew he did not want to see it again. There was something wrong with it. This was an immortal creature who was meant to live forever.
Maer groaned, bringing the man's thoughts back to the elfling lying in his arms. The already pale skin of the young ellon was now almost white, all the color appeared to have fled at the poison's relentless attack.
"Toron," the voice of his oldest brother brought overwhelming relief flooding into Estel.
Elladan was a great healer; he could save Maer.
"Estel? Are you hurt? What happened?" the older twin looked his brother up and down, his scrutinizing gaze not missing anything.
"I fear that ada's antidote did not work."
The Nodlo frowned before kneeling beside the edan and gently taking the limp form from the man's arms.
Estel was relieved to have Maer's weight out of his arms. Though the elfling was not heavy, the cut on his forearm was beginning to sting and he could feel blood slowly beginning to seep through his leather wrist guard.
"I think he started to hallucinate, then he just doubled over and grabbed his head like he was in pain. Why did it not work?"
"There has to be something else. What did I miss?" Elladan mumbled to himself as he pulled back the bandages on the young elf's arm, "It should have worked; we did everything right."
The young human wiped the sweaty hair from his face, being careful to hide the cut on his arm. He did not want his older brother to notice it. The Noldo needed to focus on Maer, the small wound on his arm could wait.
Looking over at his ada, Estel saw that the elf lord was now talking quietly with Tamír. The Silvan elf looked greatly distressed and almost like he had been crying. However, the edan's gaze shifted as he saw movement. He glanced down the hill and saw Elrohir hurrying up towards carrying Elrond's healing pouch. The elf hurried over to them set the bag down next to his twin before asking,
"Are you well Estel? It is not every human that can say they survived hand to hand combat with an elf."
The young man could see that the Noldo was only trying to lighten the mood, yet he could not even find it in his heart to smile back; there was no laughter left in his heart.
"I need ada," Elladan's voice was full of worry, causing both males to look over at him quickly, "He is very ill and I do not know how to help him."
Elrohir's smile instantly vanished before he hurried over to the Noldo lord.
"What is it? I thought elves could not get ill," the edan frowned as he caught sight of the red and inflamed wound on Maer's arm, "How can this be?"
The ellon did not look up as he continued to search through the herbs in the pouch.
"The eldar are blessed to be able to live long lives without illness, so I do not know why this little one is like this. I am at a loss and I know not what to do."
All Elrond could do was stare down at the lifeless body of the elf. This was Tamír's closest friend? He had never heard the Silvan speak of anyone in this way. And how had the eldar's closest friend become his son's attacker?
"Ada," his son's voice cut through the fog of disbelief that had clouded the elf lord's mind, "Elladan needs you right away. He says that Maer is very ill."
"Ill?" the elf lord's brow wrinkled, "Ion nín, you know as well as I that the eldar cannot become sick. What do you mean by this?"
The frustration was now becoming apparent in elf's voice as he grabbed the Nodlo's arm and began to lead him over to the young Sinda, "I know not, but what I do understand is that if you do not come then I fear that we will be burying two ellyn today and not just one."
"Elladan, pray tell me what has happened," Elrond crouched beside his eldest son.
"The herbs did not work ada. They did not heal the spider's toxin. If anything I think that it has made the effects worse."
The Noldo looked down at the golden-haired elfling. The ellon's brow was cool to the touch and long dark lashes hid the blue eyes that lay underneath, however, what worried him the most were the soft moans that came from the Sinda's lips. This was not the work of any poison that he had ever encountered.
"His wound is infected," Estel added, turning Maer's arm to show the elf lord now irritated and swollen spider bite looked; this eliciting a groan from the elf, "It has not even begun to heal."
Elrond closed his eyes. What could cause such a reaction from one of the eldar? He thought that he had come up with the necessary antidote to combat the toxin; how could it have not at least started to make the young elfling better? It did not make any sense.
Then it hit him; the elf lord's eyes snapped open.
"Elladan, I need you to reopen the wound. Clean it out as best you can for we need to keep any infection at bay. Estel, you need to hold him down. I fear that he will not react well to what I am about to do."
The Noldo put his hand on the elfling's cool brow. Whatever spider had bitten him the Noldo did not ever want to meet, for the strength of the poison was great and tainted with great evil. Mirkwood must have grown very dark indeed to have such creatures living under its once beautiful trees.
What in Eru's name had driven his sons to go in there in the first place? For their actions had now caused a landslide of things that Elrond did not know if he was ready to face.
Estel sat down next to Maer. He gingerly grabbed the elfling's limp arms and held them tight. However, he did not use his full strength for he was half afraid that the young ellon's slender wrists would break if he used too much force. The human watched carefully as his ada put his hands on the Sinda's brow. The elf lord closed his eyes before the usually dim glow around the Noldo suddenly flared, forcing Estel to look away from the bright light.
He had seen his ada do this before, though it had been a very rare occurrence and usually only happened when the eldar was trying to heal someone who was gravely hurt. Elladan had explained to him that this was a way to help transfer healing power to another elf or to assess the darkness in a creature. Either way, it took a tremendous amount of energy and very few eldar held the power enough to manipulate their inner light in such a way.
The light flared again, this time causing the elfling to cry out and arch his back. Startled at the show of pain, Estel felt the elf's arms slip from his grasp. He realized what had happened instantly and lunged forward to grab them again, but not before receiving a blow to the side of his face from the ellon's flailing arms.
What was his ada doing to the young eldar? Had darkness already begun to invade Maer?
The elfling's back arched again forcing Estel to put his full weight on the elf's arms; pressing him into the grass. The Sinda was much stronger than he appeared.
Looking back up at Elrond, the young human saw that the Nodlo's face was tense. His brow was furrowed and he appeared to be concentrating deeply on something. Estel continued to hold the young ellon down for several more minutes until Maer suddenly went limp and the elf lord leaned back with a sigh. The Noldo appeared tired and almost sorrowful.
The edan let go of the eldar's arms and let them fall lifelessly onto the grass.
"Is he dead?"
Elrond brushed aside a strand of dark hair that clung to the sweat that had collected on his forehead.
"No ion nín. He is not dead, merely exhausted," the Noldo offered a soft smile to his son before standing up slowly, "Now excuse me for I must go and speak with Tamír and regain my strength."
Estel was bursting with questions but he could see that something was troubling his ada. As the elf lord walked away a hand on his shoulder caused the human to jerk his head around in surprise. He had forgotten all about Elladan.
"He will tell you when and if he feels that you should know, toron. Let it go for now and just be grateful that the elfling still draws breath. Now come, you can help me finish cleaning his wound again," Estel groaned as the twin said almost defensively, "You were the one to drop his wounded arm into the dirt. This is not my fault."
The young human held the small bowl of water as Elladan slowly and carefully cleaned out the spider bite. After his brother had assigned him to hold the water bowl, he had let his gaze wander. This had been such a long day already and it was not yet over. His ada was talking quietly with Tamír and Elrohir and he knew that whatever was being said would likely never reach his ears. It was all just so unfair.
He glanced down the hill at the dead yrch strewn about in the long grass and Estel let his inner frustration grow even more. He had fought and survived a fight with one of the eldar. Could his ada still not see him as grown up? Would he ever be seen that way?
The edan was jolted from his thoughts by the bowl being taken from his hands. He raised his brow at his older brother,
"Am I truly that bad of an assistant?"
Elladan finished pouring the liquid out into the grass,
"No, but I have finished so there is no need for you to continue to hold the bowl, unless you feel the great desire to," Estel looked down and saw the neat, clean bandages wrapped around the elfling's arm, "Do not worry, I was not in need of your assistance. For you seemed quite lost in your own thoughts and I did not wish to disturb you."
The young man opened his mouth to protest but Elladan cut him off before he could even begin, "And I will leave you to your daydreams. Watch over him while I go and check on the horses."
The Noldo winked before getting gracefully to his feet and walking away. Estel mumbled several choice words after him.
Here he was stuck watching over Maer, again. Looking over at the elfling, he saw that the Sinda's eyes were still closed. All he could do now was to put his chin in his hands and wait.
Elrond was tired and worried. The amount of energy it had taken for him to push back the poison from invading the elfling's mind had been great. Whatever spider had attacked him must have been bred by pure evil, for the toxin was full of darkness and stronger than he had expected. Yet this Sinda was also young; younger than he had first thought. This was why the antidote had not worked and why the poison had attacked him so ferociously, for he did not yet have the full strength of the eldar in him.
He had given Maer much of his own strength as he could until he had felt that the ellon could, at last, begin to heal. It would take time but it would not kill him and that was what mattered.
However what worried him the most had been the amount of anger and guilt he had felt radiating from the elfling and that whoever this young Sinda was, he had gotten on the wrong side of Tamír's now dead friend.
Elvish Translations:
toron – brother (Noldorin)
ada - dad
maer – golden
ion nín – my son
yrch - orcs