Seas: Chapter 12
Hello again, boos! This will be a short intro and a long chapter which spans multiple days. ^-^ I hope you all are excited, 'cause I am! I'm SO sorry for the two-week wait; my great-grandmother passed away and her funeral was over the past weekend so I was out of town. Anyway, I was listening to a really weird Youtube playlist while writing this...from Fall Out Boy's "Centuries" to Panic! At the Disco's "Miss Jackson" to Ed Sheeran's "Thinking Out Loud" to Imagine Dragon's "Demons"...so that's what I felt like while writing this. XDD Okay, everything recognizable is Tolkien and Peter Jackson. Enjoy, boos!
WAIT, QUICK WARNING! This chapter does contain some gore but it's as bad as it'll get in this fanfiction so if you're queasy or something, read with caution.
Legolas.
He stared into my eyes and I into his, our gaze not leaving the others' for what seemed like hours, but was only moments. I blinked, feeling tears drip down onto my cheeks. Legolas surveyed my body, taking in the blood and bruises, and tears gathered in his own eyes.
But it was only for a second. The Orcs picked him up again, ripping the cloth off of his mouth and dragging him forward. Our eyes still stayed locked together, and mine widened in horror as I realized that they were dragging him to the whipping post.
"Olórëdes..," I saw him mouth, seemingly unaware of his being dragged towards endless pain. His gaze was ripped from mine when his face was turned towards the pole, and an Orcs tied his hands to the top of the pole with the same type of thick, painful rope that I had been bound with before. The same was done with his knees.
The leader had left, and he reentered the room, maliciously stroking the long, leather whip he carried. I faintly saw a glimmer of metal on the tip of the whip, which struck even more fear in my heart.
The Orc that had kicked me on the back of my head pulled out a rusty knife and slid it down Legolas's back, slicing his top open to expose his back. The beast ripped off the rest of his shirt, and I could see the muscles in Legolas's back tighten in anticipation.
The Orcs then stood back, a few of them leaving, but two and the leader remained. I tried to look away as the leader lifted his arm, and the whip, and slung it forward, but my eyes remained glued to Legolas's form. My own back arched as I watched him stiffen, an angry red welt appearing in his flesh almost immediately after the whip left it.
The Orc raised the whip again, and it connected with Legolas a second time, stronger than the last. He had the same reaction, as did his skin. I could not fathom how painful that this could possibly be for him, or how he was resisting it so easily.
The whip grazed his flesh again, and again, and again, until his entire back was covered in swollen welts. There was no clean place for the Orc to hit. Yet he did not stop. He raised his arm once more, and the whip sliced through Legolas's skin. Blood began to ooze from the open wound, and I clamped my hand over my mouth.
Another lash. More blood. But this time, Legolas grunted. He was breaking under the pressure and pain. He was going to lose his hold on the denial that kept him from snapping right now. I could not watch this...seeing Legolas forced to endure such pain.
"Wearing out, aren't you, Elfling?" the leader cackled. He raised his arm again, farther than ever before. The whip met Legolas's back with a crack, followed instantly by a deafening scream of agony. I slammed my eyes shut and pressed my hands over my ears. I could not bear to hear him in such utter torture.
His cry echoed throughout the walls of the crumbling fortress, then faded into silence. It was answered by the disgusting snickers of guffaws of the Orcs.
Then the yell came again, an increase of the first. I could not let this continue.
I staggered to my feet, slightly strengthened from the while of rest. I gathered all of the energy I could muster and ran towards the leader. I wrapped my arms around his neck, squeezing as hard as I could. Apparently it was not hard enough. At once I felt his assistants' hands grab me around the waist and fling me to the ground.
"Leave her alone!" I heard Legolas yell. "Quiet, you," the leader snarled. The two Orcs picked me up, holding my arms as the leader moved to stand in front of me. He grinned devilishly at me. "So, you don't like him getting' hurt, do you? I guess that means you will not enjoy being forced to watch his torture," he growled. I lunged at him, but was dragged back.
I felt fiery hatred burn in my heart for the monster that was causing Legolas so much pain. "Do not hurt him. Whip me instead," I snarled at the Orc. The beast raised his eyebrows in slight surprise. My gaze shifted to Legolas, his face contorting in horror.
"Do not touch her. She will feel more pain from seeing me in pain than you could ever make her feel physically," Legolas pleaded. I stared at him in shock.
"What are you doing?" I asked in Elvish, assuming the uncivilized monster's would have never learned our language. "Protecting you. I will not stand to let them hurt you once more," Legolas answered. "And I will not stand to let them hurt you!" I almost shouted to him. "Olórëdes, please just let them. I can withstand it, I promise," he murmured.
The leader ignored our foreign conversation and moved to stand behind Legolas once more. "No..," I whispered, watching the Orc raise his arm. "No!" I screamed as the whip lashed across Legolas's back once again, and I lunged towards Legolas, tugging on the grips of my restrainers.
My scream matched Legolas's in agony as well as volume. I felt my shoulder blade slip out of position with the force of my pull against the two Orcs holding onto me. I ignored the pain shooting through my shoulder and watched Legolas, who continued to cringe in pain. He was deathly pale.
The entire area was splattered in blood, his blood. Legolas's pants were soaked through with the blood streaming from his back, a seemingly unending current. The floor was covered. I had never been surrounded by so much blood before, even in the short time I assisted the wounded soldiers in the halls of medicine.
I collapsed, whimpering as the Orcs refused to allow some give for my shoulder. Suddenly the headache that had faded in my fear for Legolas reappeared with a vengeance, and I began to feel the aches and pains all over my body.
I could not handle such agonizing pain. I felt darkness creeping into my vision, and heard Legolas yell my name over the sound of the whip hitting him again and again. Then my eyes closed, and I felt nothing more.
Until I did. Suddenly I felt soft grass underneath me. I blinked my eyes open in confusion, squinting as a bright but soft light crept into them. I was in a peaceful clearing surrounded by forest, with a babbling spring and white flowers. It was our clearing. I sat up, surprisingly unable to feel any of the wounds I had received. I put out my arm and noticed that the cuts and deep purple bruises that had speckled them before had vanished.
I was not wearing the clothing I had been. I was now clothed in a violet dress, graceful and smooth. I had never worn clothing as beautiful and royal as this before. Suddenly, a soothing voice rang out in the clearing, and I looked up in response.
"Olórëdes...," the soft female voice called. I looked around me in confusion. My eyes widened as I took in a figure with long, red hair down to her knees, beautifully braided around her head. She wore a shining white gown that seemed to give off its own light. Her eyes were a bright green, glowing with radiance and innocence.
"Who..are you?" I asked. She walked to me, her feet never seeming to touch the ground. She knelt before me softly, staring into my eyes. "I am Tauriel," she murmured. I stared at her in shock and wonder.
"But...how? Tauriel...you...died in the Battle of the Five Armies..," I froze, not breathing and feeling my heart skip a beat. "Am I dead?" I whispered. Tauriel looked into my eyes, her own tearing up slightly. She took my hands in her own. "No, you are not. Now is not your time. That is why you can see me now, Olórëdes," she murmured, smiling slightly. "You are, however, ever so close to death. I have already passed on to Ilúvatar's lands, but you must not, at least not yet. Legolas needs you to be with him in this time of pain. If you go, he will have no more reason to continue suffering the pain he is now. Legolas is trying to keep their eyes on him so they do not hurt you," Tauriel said wistfully.
"You are so much like I was. Innocent and beautiful, but thrown into the cruelty of the world and seeing the worst of what Melkor mutilated into being. You do not deserve to suffer so..but many do not. However, I have been watching you, Olórëdes, because of your similarities to me. Legolas loves you. I know now that he did not truly love me..," she murmured.
I stared silently at her as she gave her monologue. Each sentence seemed to stretch endlessly. Suddenly Tauriel gave a wide smile. "Go now. He needs you. Remember that I will always watch over you, and that you belong with Legolas. Goodbye," Tauriel murmured. He placed her hands on my cheeks and slowly leaned forward, closing her eyes and pressing her lips against my forehead. "Awake now," I heard her breathe, and with those words she and the beautiful clearing vanished.
My eyes squinted open into a dull light. I blinked, my eyesight blurred and fuzzy around the edges. After many moments of disorientation, I finally was able to look at my surroundings. I was lying on a soft bed, covered in white sheets, and the room glowed with the faint light of the medicine halls. I moved to sit up, but fell back against the pillows with a sharp cry of pain as my shoulder, ribs, legs and entire body protested my movement.
Just moments later I heard footsteps rushing down the hallway outside the door to the room. Soon the door opened and there stood an assistant healer, my father, and none other than Lord Elrond himself. My eyes widened as I took him in.
I had never seen any of the Elves from Rivendell before, yet the descriptions I had heard from others came fairly close to the real thing. Elrond had dark eyes and hair, a pointed nose, and a look to his face that reflected both the youthfulness of the Eldar, but also the weariness of ages of history.
He swiftly came over to the bed, sitting softly on the side and placing his fingers on my wrist. "Olórëdes..? Are you able to speak?" Lord Elrond asked gently. I suddenly realized my mouth was sickeningly dry, and I mouthed 'water' to the assistant healer. She quickly poured water from a pitcher into a bowl and came over to the bed, handing the bowl to Lord Elrond. He assisted me in moistening my lips enough to speak. "Yes, I can speak," I said quietly.
"How do you feel?" Elrond asked, looking deeply into my eyes. "Alright, I suppose. I hurt almost everywhere though," I murmured. "I should think so. The Orcs cracked the back of your skull, dislocated your shoulder, broke multiple ribs, and snapped your left leg. Not to mention the internal damage they caused you; for the first two days you continued to cough up blood," Lord Elrond said solemnly.
"It is truly a miracle that you lived. I had almost given up hope, in all honesty," he added, giving a sad smile. My eyebrows crumpled in confusion. "Two days..?" I questioned. Lord Elrond nodded. "You were continuously unconscious for the past four days, at least from what we can distinguish. We shall have to wait for Legolas to wake as well before we begin to ask the two of you," he answered. My heart skipped a beat at his name. "He is unconscious as well?" I asked worriedly. "
"Indeed. He was barely holding onto life when we found him, as were you, but you had already fallen asleep. I am assuming he knows more of the tale than you because of this," Lord Elrond responded. I stared at the foot of the bed, a question forming in my mind.
"What happened?"
Another cliffy, I know, I know. At least it's not as bad as the last ones. The next chapter will be story time! I hope you all liked this one; putting Tauriel in was a split-second decision, and I think I portrayed her alright. Tell me any opinions; I can always go back and edit this! Chapter 13 should arrive in a week unless something unexpected happens (like dwarves appearing at my front door xD). Review, follow, and favorite if you feel the need! I love you guys so much!