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Fifteen: Aegnir


The corridor that led from the room was just as decorated as within. It had painted walls and concrete floors. Only the constant smell of rock and dirt reminded them that they were still within the Mountain. Legolas noted that there were signs of near collapse as well as he glanced at the dust that gathered at the corners of the floor, and the cracks that marred the perfectly sloped walls.

Their pace had increased since they had left the room Tauriel was injured in, their feet now gently whispering against the floor instead of slowly padding against it. Tauriel was slowly stabilizing from her wound, her mind and the adrenaline pumping through her veins pushing the physical pain aside. But it was not enough. They were rounding their third corridor, entering into the familiar sight of rock and darkness, when the vibrations began.

"What is it?" Tauriel whispered. Blue eyes swept over the figure crouched behind him, noting the alertness in her eyes and the wariness of her tone. Legolas knew that the cuts in her hand hurt more than she desired to let them know, but chose to say nothing about her muteness for the moment.

"Footsteps?" she answered herself. She felt the large rocks around them, her movements made stiff by the rough bandages Legolas had wrapped around her hands. "The mountain or…?" Both? went her unsaid question.

All options meant only doom for them all. If they were now being followed, then it would surely be a much larger group than any they had encountered before. They would unquestionably be tracked down, for Tauriel's wounds still bled and left spots on the ground. And what would happen then? They were in no condition to fight a group four times their size.

And if it truly was because of the cave, then that would only mean death in the form of a massive coffin. Oin had assured them it would not fall softly, and the weight of the old mountain would crush them easily.

"There are only three tunnels left. If we hurry, we can make it out to the open and reunite with the others," Legolas offered as Tauriel fell into speculative silence, doubt coloring his every word. The prince once again began to turn to continue their route; they could not simply wait for death.

Tauriel nodded, while Aegnir still kept his silence behind her.

Aegnir.

Legolas tried to catch his eyes, but Aegnir would not look. Again, the blond elf's stomach twisted into knots, worry and fear overtaking his mind. Not only because of the tear in Aegnir's sleeve, so small it was barely noticeable, but also because of what his friend was planning to do. There was a resigned determination that now clouded Aegnir's face, and what it meant, Legolas was uneasy to find out.

They quickened their pace. Aegnir moved to lead their path, the way now familiar to him. He still did not speak, but his hand flew now and then to the split by his arm. Legolas could still clearly remember how he had acquired it.

"Hush," Legolas glared at Meginor.

The berated elf apologized hurriedly. "But do you not think it queer?" he continued whispering to Irima. He struggled to control the volume of his speech. "The dwarf seemed very animated when he spoke about Tauriel. And the way he pleaded with his brother!"

"He owes his life to her, of course he would feel indebted," the frown was apparent in her voice. "These speculations of yours are too troubling to even consider."

Legolas kept his silence, but he felt the pumping of blood through his veins. So he was not the only one who had noticed. Kili's view towards Tauriel was of more than a healer and more than a friend. He would not have minded, but for how Tauriel had responded to him. He had never seen more than worry and friendship in the way she treated the dwarf, but he could be wrong. And she had chosen to stay for Kili, had she not? The thought of it still sent a white hot burst of jealousy through him, and his fists clenched at his sides.

He started when a hand found his shoulder. The darkness was absolute, and he could not see who it was, but the touch had become as familiar as his own hand.

"It is not like you to be so troubled by stories," Aegnir murmured, so only Legolas could hear him.

"I did not think anyone had noticed," Legolas' reply was drowned by Meginor's continuous whispering at their back. Up ahead, he saw the small orange flicker of what looked like candlelight. They were now approaching the main levels.

"A frown has been fixed on your face ever since we departed from Esgaroth. I think it is more of a question how they others have not noticed." He was silent for a while. They continued their descent of the dark passage, and the lights grew larger, their twinkling transformed into a glow more steady and strong. "But I think it is more than Kili. I have seen the way you look at the dwarves...and I tell you that you need not hate them so. They are no more evil than ourselves," he said quietly.

"How come you upon this change of insight? When last I saw you, you did not favour those creatures any more than I," the prince replied, a touch of bitterness creeping into his voice.

"I have travelled." He began, cutting Legolas a small glance with mirth in his eyes, assuring the prince that his friend had not missed the change in his tone, "And change is inevitably bound with travels, I now believe." Legolas had no reply to that, and instead mulled his friends' advice in his head.

When he glanced at Aegnir again, a small smile was visible in his face. The lights ahead transformed their surroundings into a grayish blur. "We are near." The look vanished from his friends face, Aegnir's tone hardened, and they spoke of dwarves no more.

Their tunnel led into the end of another, one well lit and filled with crates of all sizes. They pushed the boxes away, until a path was made available for them. They crossed through, and when Legolas looked back, he could see why no one bothered to check the ascending passage. It was littered, dark, and narrow, and one could easily assume that there was nothing there but a dead end.

Their first encounter of guards happened as they took a left at a fork. Even Legolas was taken by surprise for though he kept himself wary, he had not heard anything. But the guards did, for each step Legolas and his friends took emitted crunching noises. The arrows flew from the two cloaked beings. "Watch out!" Aegnir called, for he was at the lead. Legolas swerved in time to avoid them, but a groan from behind told him not all of them were as lucky. Before any more of them could get harmed, he and Aegnir loosed their arrows. His embedded itself upon one guard's forehead, while Aegnir's arrow flew to the other's chest.

A thud came from the fallen bodies of the guards, and they all turned to their injured companion. Glines clutched her stomach as she leaned on the wall, face pale and breathing heavily. Irima was bending over her, and she pulled the arrow from her friend's flesh. Glines grimaced, but she looked more perplexed than hurt. "It...it does not hurt," she stared at the small hole in her clothes.

"Small wonder," Irima murmured. She passed the arrow to Legolas with furrowed eyebrows. "It is different," she said.

Legolas agreed, and he frowned as he rolled the slim cylinder between his fingers and studied the weapon. It was thinner than any arrow he had encountered before, and instead of an arrowhead, there was only a sharp point. It was a few inches long, but considerably thinner than the arrow's body. "It may be poisoned," he caught Glines' gaze. "Glines, it would be safer if you—,"

"No," Glines' eyes flashed at him. "I came here to find Tauriel, and I will not be made useless by a simple wound. I told you, it does not hurt." She pushed herself from the wall, and indeed seemed unchanged, if not for the paleness of her face.

Legolas had known her for years, and he knew the capabilities of his friend, as well as her pigheadedness. Sometimes, he had wondered whether it was why she and Tauriel had been such good friends.

Tauriel. They had to hurry.

He nodded. "But you must inform us should you feel anything unusual."

Glines nodded. "Is no one else hurt?" he asked, and the three others shook their head.

"We should go," Aegnir said, and he started moving away, yet Legolas did not miss the tear in his friend's sleeve. Wordlessly, he followed behind. They passed under the glow of the light, and he also saw the wound beneath the slit.

Coming back to the present, Legolas could now see Aegnir's gash clearly. The blood had dried and it looked like ink, but he knew it was the same wound, taken from the thin, venomous arrow. And he could also remember what they had overheard from Adassir's ally. We found a way to make the poison flow directly into the veins. Even the smallest cut would be harmful. As long as the liquid touches the flesh beneath the skin, it takes over the reasoning completely.

"Aegnir," he called out, unable to contain his worries any longer.

His friend ignored him and they turned to the left, entering the tunnel that now housed the empty crates. Even from afar, Legolas could see the dark tunnel hidden at the very end. They were so near.

Before Legolas could speak further, shouts echoed from behind them. They were muffled by the stone and the walls, so they seemed merely a whisper from a distant land, but even the ground trembled from the weight of incoming forces.

"Go. Both of you," Aegnir said, finality in his words.

"What?" Tauriel hissed as she rounded on him, her eyes narrowing.

"Go," Aegnir repeated, unflinching. "The tunnel ascends to the exit, they will be waiting there."

Tauriel's eyes steeled. "I will not run."

"Both your hands are injured and you cannot even hold a blade. Unless you plan to stand uselessly by the side and watch the battle, you will run," Aegnir growled, seemingly out of the patience Legolas had thought was endless in his companion.

Tauriel looked shocked, and even Legolas stared at his friend. Aegnir had never spoken to her so harshly before.

"You will be nothing more than a hindrance," Aegnir continued, his head lifted as he looked down his nose at her before turning his gaze elsewhere.

Hurt flashed through Tauriel's eyes, and she recoiled from his words. Her reaction seemed to shake Aegnir. He dropped his gaze as he deflated, and his voice softened. "Please. You have to go, Tauriel," there was not even a hint of the steely resolve he had showed earlier. There was only gentle, kind, Aegnir. And he looked broken.

She hesitated for only a moment. She walked towards him, until there were but inches between them. "Aegnir," she called out, questioningly.

He met her eyes, and he looked at her pleadingly. He raised his hand and touched her cheek so lightly. His thumb brushed lightly through her skin. Legolas looked away, but he heard his words. "Forgive me for what I said," Aegnir murmured.

Tauriel sighed. "You keep asking for forgiveness, but my answer will remain the same: there is nothing to ask forgiveness from," she whispered.

"Yet will you? Will you forgive me? For my past mistakes, and for all those to come?" he asked her. Legolas dropped his gaze to the floor, his heart beating fast. He feared Aegnir's words, and the reason behind them. The prince's gaze flickered behind them; they were running out of time.

Tauriel did not answer. Legolas brought his gaze back to her, and he saw the same fear reflected in her eyes.

"Tauriel. Will you forgive me?" Aegnir persisted, though his voice was as weak as before.

There was a heavy silence. She looked at his beaten state, and Legolas knew she was still confused. But it seemed that she knew what to do. Tauriel took a step forward, closing the gap between them. Slowly, her arms wrapped around Aegnir's waist. "My answer will remain the same, mellon. Whatever happened and whatever will, there is nothing to forgive. I trust you. Unconditionally."

Despite her answer, Aegnir's eyes closed and his lips curved to a thin smile. For a moment, he seemed the young elf he was once. He reached out and passed a hand over Tauriel's crown. She closed her eyes at the gesture, and he bent down, kissing her forehead. Her eyes snapped open, but he was already pulling away from her, his mask of finality and grimness returned. "Go, then."

"He is right, Tauriel," Legolas forced himself to say through the lump insistently rising in his throat. Tauriel glanced at him, his words seeming to defeat her. She held his gaze, and then finally nodded. One last time, she turned to Aegnir, watching his back with a shadow of doubt still in her face. "Hurry," was all she said, before turning away.

Aegnir kept his eyes on her, even long after she disappeared into the dark passage. Only when the shouts behind them grew louder did he finally turn to Legolas. "You know," was all he said.

"Yes," Legolas answered. The torches bathed their faces into a reddish light, and the illusion dizzied Legolas' mind.

Aegnir smiled at him. "Then I thank you for understanding that I must stay behind."

Legolas shook his head. "You mistake me. I will not let you stay behind. I stayed so Tauriel could get away, and hopefully, us both. If we all had gone to the tunnel, they would have caught up with us. If not in the passage, then outside. I stayed to delay them. So that she could escape," he held Aegnir's gaze. "I will not let you stay behind."

Aegnir's smile faded, replaced by a mask of sorrow. "I could do nothing while Tauriel was attacked. I wanted to move but my limbs would not follow me. My vision blanked, and there was nothing but a void in my thoughts. The she-elf I fought escaped, and I could do nothing."

"Do you think that matters?" Legolas hissed. "We will find you a cure. That will only—,"

"Did you not hear anything Adassir and his allies spoke of?" Aegnir interrupted, a touch of insistent desperation creeping into his voice, "It is only a matter of minutes before it takes over. I can feel it moving beneath my skin," Aegnir looked at his hands.

"What about Tauriel?" Legolas asked quietly.

"She knows," Aegnir said. "Not what I will do, nor the poison. But she can feel it. Her grief will come, but it will be short. She will find strength, as she has done so many times before," he glanced again at the dark passage. "You saw me earlier, at the brazier. When her back was to me. Legolas, I was walking towards her... with the intention to kill her," his hands shook and his face contorted in anger. "I was filled with a lust to finish the task that Adassir had left. I could have hurt her Legolas!" he pounded on the wall behind them. "And I will also hurt you," their eyes met. "It would be better for me to leave this Earth, then to stay with a mind that is not my own. If your blood falls because of my hands... I would never forgive myself. It would be a torture greater than any other."

Legolas watched him, his heart heavy. He knew no words could sway the elf in front of him, but he had to try. He had to attempt to save the life of his childhood friend. "Please, mellon. Do not do this," he pleaded now.

Aegnir did not answer immediately, instead, he walked towards Legolas slowly and placed his hand on Legolas' shoulder, like so many times before. But Legolas knew this was the last. "I must," Aegnir said, simply. The voices grew louder than ever. They were running out of time. Aegnir stepped away, and faced the passage behind them. He raised his bow. "Go. Tauriel needs you, and the promise you gave me years ago, it still stands."

"No," Legolas pulled his bow as well, standing beside his oldest friend. "I will fight with you, until the end."

Aegnir's jaw clenched, as if he wanted to argue farther, but he bit his words. "You call Tauriel pigheaded, yet you fail to notice how sometimes you can be even more stubborn than her," he sighed. He pulled the string of his bow, knocking the arrow into place. The sorrow was now entirely erased from his eyes, and a resolute expression took his face. Yet he smiled at Legolas, the warmth of it a perfect replica of all the smiles he had easily worn, when the days were simpler and more joyful. For a moment, peace filled Legolas, and he smiled back. "I am glad to be fighting by your side, even now." Aegnir spoke.

There was a deadly silence as they waited, and Legolas was brought back to a moment so long ago, and a wish Aegnir had shared with him. "Aegnir..." he whispered, his voice loud in the tense atmosphere that clouded them. "You spoke of beauty, many years ago. Despite everything... did you find it?" he asked, needing to know.

When Aegnir glanced at him he was smiling, though it was one that masked a heavy sadness. "Yes," was his quick answer, before he looked away. The ground started to tremble-a sign of the nearing doom. "But it was not mine to keep."

The shouts grew louder and the footsteps deafening.

Both elves brought their full attention on the tunnel ahead of them, waiting for enemies in black to curve the bend and come in sight.

It was only a matter of seconds.

Their cloaks may have hid them in the dark, but under the orange light of the torches, they were as clear as the targets they had practiced on in the fields of home. Arrow after arrow flew, each marking the chest, throat, or forehead, points that yielded immediate death. The elves fell as easily as leaves, falling upon each other to form a barricade of corpses. Some struggled to cross, stumbling over the bodies that littered their path. When they came near enough, Legolas and Aegnir dropped their bows, taking instead in their control the familiar touch of their blades.

Adassir's betrayal. Tauriel's wounds. Aegnir's ultimate choice. They all twisted within Legolas, feeling him with a rage that made it so easy to dance through their attackers, slashing and cutting with his daggers.

He was breathing heavily when finally, it was only he and Aegnir left standing. "Eleven," Aegnir counted. "There will be more—agh!" he exclaimed.

Legolas turned to him, alerted by his friend's cry of pain. When he saw Aegnir, he was forced to pause. Aegnir was on the ground. His eyes were clenched tightly shut, while his hands were on the sides of his head, pressing to his skull. His sword lay on the ground beside him. His very image reminded Legolas of another elf he had seen in the cells of Mirkwood. Gobelion.

"Aegnir!" he rushed to his friend.

"Leave!" Aegnir recoiled from him, his arm sweeping out to brush the prince away. He forced his eyes open, and they looked at Legolas pleadingly. "I will hold back the others that are coming. But I do not know how long it will be before I lose myself. Legolas, go!"

The prince ignored the flash of red hair that clouded his mind at that moment. A thousand emotions rolled over him. Panic at what was now happening to his friend, dread at what was going to round the corner, but sadness engulfed all emotions almost entirely. Aegnir would never see Tauriel's smile or hear her laugh again. He had given Aegnir his wish, but at the cost of Tauriel's happiness. If she lost one she could lean on the other, but never again with them both…

And Legolas would have his most trusted friend no more.

Seconds passed, while Legolas stood, the conflict in his mind clear in his sky blue eyes.

The Aegnir he knew was slowly disappearing.

"Very well," he choked, surrendering. Even then, it was difficult for Legolas to fathom that this was the end. He had thought that they would return to Mirkwood after all was done, and hunt the forest together, as they did before. He thought that they would revisit his home, when peace was returned and time generous. How wrong he was.

Aegnir, who knew things about Legolas before he knew them of himself; who was quick to smile, and quick to laugh; who had loved Tauriel, as deep and as pure as Legolas had. "Tauriel..." the mention of her name recoiled Aegnir. "...shall I tell her?"

"No. No, she must not know." Aegnir gasped between his words. He paused for a moment, then managed to give Legolas a small smile. "My love for her is a secret for only us both." Aegnir struggled to his feet, again pulling his bow. With what seemed like the last of his consciousness, he faced Legolas. "I will see you again in the halls of Valinor. Novaer."

There was a pause, as they stared at each other. Then they moved as one, hands rising to their chests, and to each other.

It was Legolas' last image of his friend, for he immediately walked away. "Novaer, mellonin." His voice was broken and as weak as the heart within him.

When Legolas disappeared into the dark tunnel, the shouts were again only seconds away. He realized with a heavy heart that, in the long years of their friendship, it was the first and last time they had said goodbye to one another.


It rained dust when Legolas was halfway through the tunnel, and by the time the silver light of the moon shone through a crack ahead of him, the mountain was crumbling down. The wind of the open world tugged at his cloak and whipped his hair, but it did not drown out the cries of those who greeted him. Of the eight who ventured the mountains womb, only six had made it out. Ignes' face was wet with tears, but she clutched Legolas' arms as he stumbled out. Filarion, Tiatha, and Meginor stood by the side, watching him with relieved faces. The dwarves seemed to forget him, and their eyes were trained at the roaring mountain.

And then, Tauriel. She was a few paces before him, hand reaching out, but never touching him. Her gaze darted to the collapsing tunnel behind him and her hand dropped. Her eyes grew clouded in comprehension and denial.

"You made it," Ignes said, stealing his attention.

He could only manage a nod. "Where are the others?"

"Glines and Eloen—," her voice broke as the tears fell again.

They had not escaped. Legolas eyes' shut and he looked away. They would suffocate and die under the weight of the mountain.

"—and Aegnir?" Ignes' question stole his breath. "Tauriel said he was with you... did he... what—,"

"Why?" Tauriel's voice was strangely calm. Finally, Legolas raised his eyes to hers. There were no tears, but the pain that lay behind her green eyes reflected the anguish in his own heart. Neither one moved, and they held each other's gaze, accepting the grief shared from the loss of their friend. The ground trembled beneath them, and even the greatest rocks fell prey to gravity. Thunderous booms echoed from the tunnel behind them, until the cave was there no more.

When he looked back, Tauriel's face was turned to the heavens. Her eyes were closed, as if the images around her only brought back that which pained her heart.

"I never even said goodbye," Tauriel whispered.

She had known, Legolas realized. Without thinking, he took a step forward, wrapping her in his embrace like so many times before. Trying to protect her, trying to take her pain as his own.

Trying, trying, trying.

And failing at every turn. Tauriel stiffened and clenched her eyes shut, but surrendered to the sorrow and fell into his arms.

END OF CHAPTER


A/N: This is the only chapter named after a character. And it is also the second to the last chapter.

Tell me what you think?

Much love to everyone!

Vee