A Dream Within Words

Chapter Five: Horrible Truths

Summary: A young and very imaginative Legolas soon discovers that dreams are not always formed at nighttime, and that even they can seem unbelievably real and just as dangerous than what they are assumed to be.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything or anyone associated with Lord of the Rings, nor with the Golden Compass. I get no profit from making this fan fiction. This is purely fan made. Also, the characters that I have created (meaning the brothers) are mine (duh), and I take great pride in them. If you so desire to borrow them, feel free to ask. - Large quotes by themselves in italics are words taken from the book, simply used for the dream like sequence. Everything else will be improved (to the best of my abilities). Italics with ' shall be thoughts.

"Roger had a pair of scissors," came the glum response of the very shy and obviously embarrassed figure as he attempted to hide himself from around the corner of a building. He had protested to Rogers idea the moment the brunette rounded on him with the inevitably sharp pair of mini pliers and a look on his face that said he was more than proud of having coming up with this particular plan all on his own. The servant boy didn't need Lyra to come up with all the ideas all the time.

The two boys had fought, that much was obvious due to the black eye Roger now sported and the cut on the elven boys cheek. They booth soon realized fighting with sharp objects in someone's hand wasn't the smartest, no matter how stunningly skilled Legolas seemed to have been in fighting. Then again, taking lessons from a master swordsman (lessons for the young, yes, but they were indeed lessons) didn't seem to match up quit to par to street smart fighting. Hence why Roger was now parading somewhere within Jordan like a proud rooster having accomplished the inevitable: cutting Legolas's hair.

Legolas, on the other hand, was ashamed of himself for both losing the fight and losing his hair. He had tried to tell the other boy that getting his hair cut meant death and torment from his family. Fighting against a pair of sharpened metal was a lot less scary then the possibility of being trapped her, or, even worse: going home with short hair. No, not all of his hair was short. He needed his hair slightly longer in the front to hide his delicately pointed ears, but that didn't amount to much when it only reached chin level for the elf. The rest of his hair seemed to end at a parallel length to his lower earlobe.

Lyra, who at this point had been attempting to get a better look at her friend who kept ducking behind the corner whenever she leaned over to get a better looked huffed and stormed over to him, pulling him out into the open (with much struggle, of course). "Now, now, you look just fine, ya see?" she commented to him, groaning in overly childish exasperation as he continued to fight, shaking his head back and forth rapidly. "I think you look fine, Legolas. I mean…you don' look like a girl now."

At this he stopped fighting, giving her a blank stare. "I never looked like a girl."

"Well, sure ya did. But I mean, you fit in now, righ'?" After a few seconds, the platinum blond gave a hesitant nod, looking to her as if asking if he fit in, rather than declaring an affirmative head nod. Inwardly, he was relieved at her supportive nod. Deeper within him, however, he was still dissatisfied with the loss of hair. He hoped it would grow back before he got home. He didn't want to imagine what his father would think of, seeing the man was so keen on the upkeep of tradition. "Now c'mon. I wanna go show you around town!"

The two shared a grin, the both of them obviously excited about the prospect of going out. Releasing hands Lyra opted to put her hands behind her, pointing out interesting (or what she deemed to be interesting) fixtures among the college. The farther they moved away from the place, however, was when things got interesting. Horses, Legolas had seen plenty of, and shared little bits of knowledge he knew with the girl. The objects of transportation changed rapidly and the elf nearly passed out at the sight of his first ever motor vehicle. The entire concept of the thing confused him and it was almost better if he attempted to block out whatever it was than to understand.

What the two of them didn't realize was that there were some things in this world that were far more advanced than his world was used too and it was far too early for anyone in his land to understand- a good thing, too, for they were rather loud when you attempted to get them start and seemed heartless, rather than a living, breathing creature to have as your companion.

Unconsciously, the elf would go to run his hand through his hair, frowning only in habit now when he didn't feel the long tresses anymore. The topic of conversation seemed to slow for the time being as they walked around together, looking at all the street booths and establishments there. "Lyra, are you a princess?"

The girl looked to him, confused as to what he could have meant by that. She took a look at herself: dirty knees, dirty clothes and her hair a frizzy mess."Huh? No? Where'd ya get that idea?"

"Well," began the elf, looking at her curiously, "the father asked if you missed being around other Noble born children. I wanted to…know if you were a Princess."

The girl laughed, causing him to blush lightly in embarrassment. "No, I en't a princess, silly! Don't worry. My Uncle Asriel is rich and he took me in. That's all. I don't care about hangin' round rich kids like they want me," she pulled a face at that, sticking her tongue out and stomping her feet like some sort odd animal hybrid. Pantalaemon also hissed, feeling the irritation that Lyra felt before the girl smiled reassuringly and started off again, leaving the elf alone for a moment to ponder to himself before shaking his head and hurrying off.

If she didn't like noble children then that was okay…he wouldn't be a noble child around her. He'd be himself. He didn't like keeping secrets from those he liked…but if it was necessary then he would have to live with that ideal.

x –

Just when all the ideas of Gobblers being in Oxford had run out, news ran around about a child going missing. Not only that, but it was about someone young Lyra knew. Seating along a slight wooden out posting, the young girl and towns children she had befriended all watched the bustling of the town. Legolas, escaping the smell and the horrible gut churning feeling he got when around the object called a cigarette was a few paces away, looking at the boats with interest and the sea with wide excited eyes. His ears picked up snippets of conversation from the other group of children while the rest of him focused on the odd world around him. The smell of horses, sweat, and the water filled him with elation, enough to lull him into a false sense of security.

Until a woman with a blow horn for vocal chords bellowed, distracting him and nearly making him fall into the water. Level himself out he looked over to where the ruckus was being held before returning back to Lyra. Not having yet been…initiated among the other more 'hard core' youths he was content to stay far from them, watching as one of the boys picked up a rock, obviously ready for a fight to break out. The girl stopped him before he did anything, thus proving to the elf still how odd things were around here. Never had he met such…'battle ready' people.

"Where is he? Where'd my boy go?" demanded the dark skinned woman, ready to lay a beating on a man who protested against her, telling her just what she didn't want to hear: Idunno! He wasn't holding my horse when I returned. Lazy sod musta run off in the middle of the job."

Wrong answer, and a good portion of the children along the fence line winced as the woman lay a beating into the man. "What happened?" asked the girl, speaking to an egiptian child who was lingering nearby, also watching what happened.

"Her son Billy got took'd by them Gobblers. At least, that's what we 'cpect."

At this, the foreign elf and human girl shared a glance to one another. The servant boy, the noble girl, and the angel like creature that Legolas was agreed that he was the farthest thing from a Gobbler, although Lyra and Roger did like to pretend that the pretty elf was a Gobbler not yet. It was a lot more fun to play when your enemy looked as friendly as possible until you found out they were horrible baby killers. Legolas never really liked that game and often sat down and ignored the other two until they got bored and switched to another game, including him all three of them forgot he was mad at them.

It wasn't long before other children seemed to arrive, all with smug faces. Lyra, accepting the silent challenge threw the butt of the horrible object down into the ground and stood at the ready. The dæmon of the children were also ready, morphing into the closest thing that could induce 'fear' in anyone, jumping, squawking, growling and hissing.

Yet, before anything could happen, the dark skinned woman (who was called Ma Costa by the locals, it seemed) came over to Lyra.

"You seen him?" she demanded of Lyra. "You seen Billy?"

Lyra shook her head. "We en't seen Billy for a good while now," informed the young girl, her eyes uneasily going to the woman's bird dæmon in the sky, watching as it continuously scanned the air for the missing boy. The woman, fear struck for her child stumbled off, still bellowing for her boy, not noticing the silent truce she left in her wake among the children.

"Was it them?" asked one of the kids. "Was it one of them Gobblers?" a murmur of fear ran through each child as they looked to one another, half expecting some demon to pop up out of nowhere. Legolas, envisioning a Goblin, Orc, or Spider shivered before shaking his head. This was a different world. Those creatures didn't exist here…right? Well, if he had made it here…

Reaching out hesitantly to the girl, his hand was slapped away for the time being, a look of silent frustration passing over his face before it settled to uncertainty in which he downcast his eyes to the ground. Let them talk. He would be able to speak with Lyra later about the Goblins.

Of course, plans changed and the more the children talked about the Gobblers, the more they were intent to look for them. A white truck. Rumor among the group said they were in a white truck. Only one person had 'seen' them, but it was better than nothing, right? Each child soon took off, partly in sport and in game, partly serious. Of course, they stayed in groups, not wanting to get separated and 'eated up' by the Gobblers that roamed the vicinity. Or supposedly did.

"Bet they probably won't be comin' here," Lyra mentioned to a certain boy named Simon Parslow as himself, 'Len' (as all the children halfheartedly called Legolas, not really knowing the boy and fully keen on welcoming him just yet), and Lyra walked around the area, losing more and more hope as they simultaneously lost the light from the sun.

"S'pose not," muttered Simon, looking among the two before adding, "but Jessie Reynolds from the market went missin' yesterday."

Lyra stopped, causing the other two to as well, looking at her quizzically. "How come I never heard 'bout that?" She called to him, stomping her foot on the ground and putting her hand on her hips squarely.

"Was only yesterday!" informed Simon in defense of himself, holding his hands up as if trying to block the verbal rocks that were being flung at him. "She could've come back by now. You don' know."

"Well neither do you!"

A small scuffle was on the verge of starting before a voice called out to Lyra, telling her she was to come inside.

Fat chance of that happening. To show her indignation to the woman, Lyra quickly grabbed Legolas's hand and sped off with him, telling Simon that they would meet up later. Laughing, the two came to a stop, leaning over and breathing heavily. "She en't gonna catch us," the girl muttered between breaths.

"I just hope Roger finds us," replied the elf, catching his breath and leaning against the wall of a building. Sure, Legolas liked Lyra and he liked her friends but…it was obvious they knew something was off about him and didn't …trust him as well as they did Lyra. They found he was too weird and he found they were too loud and needed to wash up and brush their teeth. Maybe if they cleaned up better they'd lose the weird slur in their speech like they had something constantly stuck in their mouth.

After a few seconds the two sat down on the ground, playing with the dirt on the ground before the young girl spoke up. "Where is Roger? How come he en't here yet?"

"I don't know…he said he'd be out later…he had to do floor scrubbing," an activity in which the elf understood. Thank heavens Roger wasn't an engineer or anything of the silly sort.

"Well it's later," pouted Lyra, sitting there innocently before a sense of dread filled the two. It was unlike Roger to be this late. Sure, he missed out on stuff but the kitchen staff generally let him out when he finished his scheduled cleaning. The two slowly looked up at one another, springing to their feet immediately. They had been so caught up with the discussion that they didn't bother to think…

Immediately the two began to ran, not needing to share any form of information. "I'll go check around the school," assurd the elf, turning and beginning his search around the gardens. The tree's here, he found, were lonely and more than willing to talk. At night, when he felt out of place and completely alone he would sit at Lyra's window and listen to the whisper of the tree's. Maybe they would know Roger and help them. Lyra, meanwhile, ran into the school like a terror and into the kitchens.

"Where's Roger?" she demanded fearfully, her eyes darting around in anticipation as the color drained from her face when she didn't see her treasured friend.

"Haven't seen 'em. And boy is he gonna be in trouble, too -" started one of the servants who was soon cut off as the girl immediately left the vicinity, effectively knocking over a stack of silver plates and letting them crash to the ground, ignoring the angry yells that followed her out the door.

She ran. The girl ran as fast as her legs could carry her, Pantalaimon not two steps behind her as they ran up the stairs and into her room. Dragging a chair to the window she clambered out and stood ontop of the roof, screaming her lungs out in anguish and despair before sinking into a sitting position. Pantalaimon too rose up a lot of noise, turning into a bird and circling, his and Lyra's pain one and the same. Silence followed after that and time passed as the girl sat up there, staring bleakly out at the sky.

Legolas, having achieved nothing and heard the scream waited momentarily, feeling guilty. Roger couldn't be gone. They would…they would find him. They'd just have to have hope is all. If that meant he needed to have hope enough for the both of them, then he would. That was what his race represented, right? A form of Hope. A beacon of light in the darkness. Maneuvering easily, the young elf scaled the building (for it was far easier to climb this type of building than his own home) and silently moved over to Lyra, sitting next to her and wrapping his arms around her after a moment in a companionable hug.

"We'll find him, Lyra. A si i-Dhuath ú-orthor." Murmured the elf as the girl relented into his hug before hugging him back. The moment of peace was disrupted and the elf let go gently. "Someone comes," he whispered to her before crawling a few paces off, out of the line of sight of anyone there.

"Lyra! Lyra, you get over here right now." Mrs. Lonsdale, the Housekeeper beckoned. Lyra, still staring out whispered to her elven friend. "It'll be dangerous, but we'll get him back. We can't let them eat him or nothin'." After a few moments the girl slid down and soon found herself entering the window, leaving her elven friend alone once more. After she found out whatever the noisy lady wanted, they would all talk in her bedroom. Her, Legolas, and Pantalaimon.

A/N: I feel this started off with promise before dwindling. I was hit with massive writing inspiration but…the more I seemed to type this, the harder time I had getting stuff out. I hope it's just my laryngitis and not my creativity.

I'm going to be making a mini series about Legolas and Aragorn when they're younger, not at all related to this if anyone is interested. For now, I'm simply going to rest.

R&R if you so desire. I love hearing from people.

And I'm sorry it took…yikes, a year to update. Please don't hate me D8

Inwe

Oh, and I give thanks to those who had reviewed my story and still seem eager for more. I don't remember who it is and I'm too tired to look, but it means a lot 33 Much love to you.