Title: Until We Reach Valinor

Chapter 7: Spiders and Praises

NOTE: This story is sequel to "A Teacher's Duty" and you'll have to read that one first to understand this one. Also, this story does not contain slash, and it is not a romance, despite what the first chapter might suggest.

SPECIAL THANKS to Orlando's Sweetheart for helping me pick the name of the woman, and the title to this story. Your help is much appreciated, thanks a lot.

…

"You have all fared very well," Legolas said, praising the crowd of exhausted teenagers sitting or lying in various positions on the forest floor. "In fact, your batch is one of the only batches who got out without a serious injury, so you should be doubly happy."

There was a murmur exhausted cheering from the prone figures of the nine children who had just braved the spiders. Legolas frowned worriedly; he did not like to see them so tired. "Now, are you quite sure none of you were bitten?" he asked, "Or injured in anyway? Even if it was a small cut, the spider venom-"

"Nooo sirrrr, we weren't bitten; we're soooooo sorry to disappoint you," they chanted in a sing-song voice, making him smile in amusement. Although they were always irritated by it, he could not help but be concerned about them in situations like this.

"Alright," he said a moment later, "Last batch, prepare yourselves, please."

He tried to keep the foreboding tone out of his voice, but couldn't quite manage it. Now he wondered if it had been wise to put Linnor in the last batch. He had done so with the reasoning that by the time the last batch had their turn, there would be far fewer spiders to deal with, making the situation slightly less dangerous for the terror-struck Linnor. But, now that he thought about it, putting her last had meant that she had to hear the screams and yells echoing again and again through the glade, and had to see all the bloodied, bruised and battered teenagers emerge exhausted from the clearing. If that wasn't frightening for a person who was already terrified of spiders, what was?

He watched Linnor closely. Her face was white….with fear? Determination? He could not be sure, and this frightened him immensely. Linnor had always been so… transparent. Not as transparent as Celin, yes, but he could usually tell what was going on in her head just by looking at her face. Now…she was just so blank. As though she had just…shut him out. The thought that she was even capable of doing such a thing sent a shiver of apprehension down his spine.

"Now please remember what I told you, keep your formations and everything should go well." he told the group of children around him, particularly to Linnor. Some were apprehensive, one or two actually had a sliver of confidence sparkling in their eyes, but Linnor, the only girl in the batch, stood out as completely emotionless.

The others had sensed the situation. They all knew how terrified Linnor was of spiders, and how much she was dreading the prospect of fighting them head on, and they were all either exchanging meaningful looks with each other, or trying to get in front of Linnor to protect her, or squeezing her shoulder or making some gesture of comfort in the hope of easing her. But she remained unmoved by everything and stared stonily at the entrance to the forest, making Legolas feel even more on edge. What was going on in that girl's head, he wondered for the millionth time. But of course he would have to wait for the answers.

"Ready?" he said, and nine hands flew to their sword hilts in preparation.

"Set." The silence around the clearing was penetrating.

"And…enter."

One by one, the nine of them plunged into the darkness of the hooded trees. But…what was this!

"Linnor! What are you doing? Have you gone out of your- LINNOR!" Legolas shouted in horror as the girl abandoned the formation the others had formed and plunged herself headlong into a whole thicket of spiders. For a moment he was paralyzed with shocked.

He had expected her to scream, as she had done the last time, he had expected her to cry, or try to run outside, but he had not expected her to throw herself recklessly into the mouth of a cave from which spiders were emerging so fast that he could barely even see them.

His limbs surged into action as he saw the girl's face contort with pain at a bite. Not caring for anyone or anything else, he too dived among the spiders, albeit with a little more grace and skill than she had, and started finishing off the little black monsters surrounding her.

To his utter amazement, she did not move out of the way. In fact, to his increasing frustration, whether on purpose or not he could not begin to fathom, she kept getting in his way and insisting on killing those on whom he had set his sights.

"Linnor- GET- OUT OF- THE WAY!" He exclaimed as he dodged a rather intimidating set of fangs.

She made no reply, but continued to hack haphazardly at the oncoming flood of little black creatures. Wait, he told himself, it wasn't a flood. He was so tense and worried that it just seemed that way. Look closely at them, he thought to himself; and almost immediately their number seemed to diminish. If he hadn't been so preoccupied, he would have smiled with satisfaction. Now that he was able to think clearly, it would be much easier to exterminate them. In spite of Linnor continually getting in his way, in a few minutes he had managed to drive the last spider back into its lair.

He looked around, breathing hard. He and Linnor were the only ones left in the glade; the others had wisely exited when they had seen what was happening. He was glad they had sense enough to know when not to fight, as if they had, it would have meant more people for him to worry about.

He looked at Linnor. She was panting. Her right hand was fisted at her left shoulder, which was bleeding slightly, and she was battered and bruised from head to toe. But there was a manic gleam in her eye which was distinctly unsettling, making him forget that she had been bitten and needed immediate attention.

"What on earth did you think you were doing?" he said, walking up to her and putting his hands on her shoulders. For some reason he did not have the heart to shout at her, even after what she had done. "You could have been killed!"

She did not reply, just looked at him; and the same gleam shone in her eyes, prompting him to ask her once again, more urgently, "Linnor, what were you doing!"

"Avenging you," she whispered, and before the astounded Elf could even absorb this, she crumpled to the floor in a silent heap.

…

Legolas looked at Elano's taut face with some amount of trepidation. "How is she?" He asked worriedly.

He took a moment to reply. "She's been better."

"Will she be alright?" The teacher asked worriedly.

"That's the part that worries me," The Elf said grimly. "You did everything right. You gave her the tincture. You gave her some poppy juice, but that shouldn't have kept her asleep for long. She should be awake by now. She should have been awake a long time ago, actually. She was only bitten twice, thank goodness, so she should have been up the same day she'd been bitten. And two days have already passed…"

"I know, Elano," He said, staring down at her still form. "I was bitten four times, and I didn't even feel faint. And she…" He stared down at her, hating the terrifying familiarity of the situation. Had he not had this same conversation with Elano last year, in the same place, only then, it had been about Ivana? What was it about these hunting trips; that somebody or other always ended up gravely injured every time he decided to go on one with his class of half-baked teenagers?

Elano glanced at his tired, worried expression, and was reminded that his teacher hadn't had a wink of sleep in the past two days. "I wouldn't worry, sir," he tried to comfort him, and then, at the incredulous look he received, he added, "I mean about her fainting. That in itself isn't surprising. She was terrified to begin with, and those bites must have sent her into shock. What we have to worry about is why she isn't awake yet."

"Is there no way we could wake her up?" Legolas asked, desperate.

"I doubt that would be wise, sir."

There was a pause. The wind whispered in the canopy of leaves and branches around them. The tree house swayed gently, rhythmically, like a ship at sea.

"Elano, she's not dying, is she?" Legolas asked fearfully.

"No. She's not." Elano assured his teacher, though he was slightly little dismayed by his pessimism, "That much I can promise you."

"That's a relief, anyway," Legolas breathed.

"Sir, you worry too much," Elano said earnestly, "Everything does not always have to be a life and death situation. This is not as serious as some of the situations we've been in. At least this time you're not worried about going to prison; you know no one would dream of letting the fact that Linnor got hurt leak out of the knowledge of this class."

"I wasn't even thinking about that," Legolas said, marveling at himself, "I just…took it for granted right from the beginning."

"As you should. After all you've done for me and those children, do you really think you deserve any less?"

"That's what scares me sometimes," Legolas sighed heavily, "You thinking like that. I think all of you care about me entirely too much," He paused and then said in an undertone, "Just before she collapsed, I asked Linnor why she had acted so recklessly."

"And?" Elano asked, his stomach tightening slightly.

"She said it was to avenge me."

Elano did not speak for a moment. The information was truly a shock, and he did not quite know how he was to react to it.

"Sir," He said finally, "It is not my place to tell you what to say to Linnor, as that concerns you and her alone," He paused, and Legolas smiled gratefully at him for being so tactful. "But I can tell you this much with conviction. As for us caring too much about you, it is nothing, nothing compared to how much you care about us."

"Elano…"

"No, sir. You have endured torture, poison, and a month without sleeping for our sakes. And don't say it was your duty as your teacher," he added as Legolas opened his mouth to protest, "Because that would be a lie. You are also the heir of Greenwood, and the heir of any country would know not to jeopardize his life for some small, insignificant group of children, but you do, because you care about us. The amount you care for us is much more frightening than the amount we care for you."

"That's only because a lot more is at stake in my case, although I would not have it that way."

"With all due respect sir; that's what makes it so frightening."

Legolas was silent for a moment. Then he said, with a small sigh, "Valar knows what I would do without you Elano. Somehow, you always make me see reason. If it wasn't for you, I don't know where we'd all be by now."

"You flatter me, sir," Elano said, mildly embarrassed.

"No, I don't," Legolas said earnestly, "You are the best friend, the best student, and the best confidante anyone could ever ask for. That thing with Celin- I would never have had the courage to say what you said to him."

"Oh, you found out about that, did you?" Elano said, now sounding thoroughly embarrassed.

"Yes. Celin told me when he accosted me with his burnt dinner yesterday. Although it was almost completely unpalatable, the news that he was no longer hurt by my words actually induced me to eat it."

"He told you?" Elano said in surprise.

"Not at first, no, he did not. All he said was that I would not have to worry about him anymore, that he would not behave irresponsibly from now onward. Naturally I was amazed. I asked him what in the world had changed his mind, and he wouldn't tell me for the longest time, but I managed to pry it out of him. The moment he mentioned your name I guessed what had happened. I didn't have a chance to thank you because of the whole situation with Linnor."

"It was nothing, sir. I'm sure you would have done the same for me."

"No, it wasn't nothing, Elano, and you put far too much faith in me. If you and Celin had a falling out, and I had to speak to Celin the way you did…"

"Then you would say and do exactly what I did."

"Maybe so, but not half as unhesitatingly as you. And besides, even if I did have to give him such brutal honesty, I wouldn't be risking losing my best friend, like you did.

"Sir…"

"No Elano, I'll keep quiet after you let me finish what I'm saying, but not a second before. I need to say this, even if you don't need to hear it. You risked a lot talking to Celin like that. If things had turned out only a little bit differently, you could have lost your closest friend. And I know how much that means to you Elano. Promise me you'll never risk something like that again, even for my sake."

"Alright sir, I promise, now can we please get off this topic of conversation?" Elano was getting thoroughly sick of hearing his praises sung.

"If you insist. You know, sometimes I don't think you appreciate yourself enough?"

"Sir."

Legolas was about to say something more when he was interrupted by a movement from Linnor's bedroll. He was by her side in less than a second.

"Linnor!"

He hesitated for a moment; then pushed a strand of hair back from her face with hesitating fingers. He waited with bated breath as her eyes opened slowly.

"Linnor," he said again.

"Sir?" she asked dazedly.

"Yes, yes Linnor, it's me."

"What…?" She looked around confusedly; then sat up so suddenly that Legolas nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Linnor!" He exclaimed, "What do you-?"

"The spiders!" she exclaimed, "Did I manage to kill them? Did I manage to kill all of them!"

Legolas looked from her eager face, to Elano's and then at the wooden floor. "I think it would be best if you gave us a moment, Elano," he said in an undertone. The Elf nodded and disappeared without another word, leaving Legolas and Linnor alone together.

…

TBC…

Many thanks to my wonderful reviewers, and my apologies (again) for the lateness of this update, but I cannot really help it. College is driving me insane, you're lucky to get even this. Please review! Thanks!