She was back. Great Falls Montana, her home. On 10th street, right there. The blue hose with white trim, the old wooden door painted green.
Nana! Is she there?
Now seeing her old home; Kali felt a pang of homesickness.
I've just been daydreaming, there is no war. Nana, I'm home! I'm really back… right?
A gentle breeze blew down the street, caressing her cheek just like Legolas used to…
Why am I thinking of a fictional person? This is real life, right now, here. I need to go home.
The apartments, the trees, the chipped sidewalk, her childhood memories; they called to her from different times in her life.
This is what I have been missing, right?
No one walked out on the street, no one at all.
This is what I want to come back to?
Kali walked to the door of her house, she opened the door, it was unlocked. She went in, looking at the familiar coat rack to the left of the wooden door. "Nana, I'm home!"
Silence.
Where is she? She is usually at home now, she works the night shift at the Hospital; she should be sleeping.
Kali put her hand on the painted robin's egg blue banister and started up the creaky stairs. Everything felt strange and familiar, alien and comfortable. Being here was like in a dream, sort of fuzzy on the edges. Opening the door to Nana's room, Kali peered in,
She looks like she's sleeping,
She thought as she tiptoed into the room silently. Nearing the bed she saw her Nana sleeping quietly, white-grey hair curled out on the pillow around her. Kali leaned forward to kiss her Nana on the forehead when she heard the door click closed behind her. She quickly turned and reflexively reached for the knives that weren't there.
A shadow stood there, shifting with the air, in and out of dark corners, folds of the curtains, and under chairs till it reached Kali. She jumped back, it hissed,
"Your precious Nana will never wake, nor will anyone in this wretched world. They are all dead. You left them all to die when you did, foolish girl. Now it's just you… and me."
Sauron.
Kali's mind went blank except for one thing;
"What did you do to Nana?"
Her hand gripped the stiff fingers of her guardian tightly.
"Dead, they are all dead. Everyone died on your pathetic planet while you were gone."
Shock and panic coursed through Kali's mind and body, her heart beat fast.
"Now it's just you and me, forever."
The dark hiss sent a shiver through Kali's spine. She looked up at the darkness and daringly looked it in the two pits it had for eyes.
"You'll have to catch me first,"
Legolas sat at her bedside next to Eowen and Gimli. Faramir had stopped in occasionally with Aragorn, but neither of them had stayed. Legolas had never once left the room, not talking much, not smiling. Eowen had been the same, getting up occasionally to look out the widow listlessly. Gimli was in bad spirits as well, muttering to himself and shuffling about the room.
It had been a day since she had been killed, her blood had dried, and the wound had closed too late, leaving a white scar in her neck where the cross bolt had gone through. Elrond came to stand in the doorway and watched the somber party for a moment. Then he came through and stood next to the head of the bed. No one looked at him, Gimli left the room.
Elrond carefully studied the face of the grief-stricken elf and the unmoving features of the dead girl. She was still alive. Somewhere in her mind, she was still functional, but there was a dark presence controlling it. Elrond stood back for a second then he turned to Gandalf, who stood passively in the doorway, and began to speak.
Kali ran and ran, short of breath, she stopped. She ducked to hide at the back of a dumpster in an alleyway behind a restaurant. She glanced quickly at the way she came and shrank back fast.
It had been following her for a day now, she had run to hiding places she knew around the town, but It always seemed to find her.
A rattle and clank of metal crashing alarmed Kali, she sprang into a dead sprint again; her heart squeezing in her throbbing chest. Her head felt too hot, and her muscles burned, her throat begged for water and air. At last, she collapsed in some bushes next to a brick building and hid, breathing hard. It didn't seem to be following her anymore; she turned away and breathed a sigh of relief. She saw It, then a wordless scream erupted from her terrified mouth, then the gaping maw of darkness of It blacked everything out.
"She can be saved?"
"Yes, patience, young prince."
Legolas followed Lord Elrond through the hallways to Kali's room in the house of healing; for the past hour he had bothered Elrond about the way to save Kali, but the mouth of the old elf was clamped shut. The Lord opened the door to the infirmary and within the chamber already stood Gandalf and Galadriel; they looked at the young Elf with a smile.
Galadriel glided forward and touched the prince's forehead, "With all our help she will be alright, she will need time to heal afterwards, but she will be very much alive."
"What are you going to do to help her?" asked Legolas, his brow slightly unfurrowing from relief.
Gandalf smiled and leaned on his staff, "We are going to convert her into an Elf."
You are human now; there is nothing you can do to stop me! It hissed, drawing closer and closer, the darkness feeding on her fear. She could feel it eating away her soul then-
It drew back and burned at her touch. She was on fire. The flames danced warmly across her skin and lit the world in the beautiful colors of nature. It wasn't like she was trapped in a dirty city anymore; she was back in Middle Earth with Legolas.
Legolas…
She let the flames engulf her and draw her away from that place, as the shadow became nothing more than a shadow falling into the daylight on the pavement below.
When she drifted out of unconsciousness she sat up and took a look at her surroundings; a cavernous ceiling, wobbly walls, and fluttering floor. She swallowed her nausea and lie back down on the bed. She turned to the side and realized that someone was sleeping soundly next to her, with his eyes open.
Legolas…
She lifted a hand and stroked his hair, touching the tips of his ears gently; he could just disappear at any second… She continued brushing over his head for a few more seconds, losing most of her dizziness and started a little when he twitched. He turned and looked at her, her eyes were no longer the radiant amber, but rather a mixture of their original brown and the gold color, he studied her for a few seconds then took a hold of her and held her tightly to his chest.
"I thought you were dead…" He murmured, a tear wetting the shoulder of her nightdress.
"I wasn't dead, I went home." She tried to say, but it sounded wrong coming out of her mouth, as if it were a lie and she knew it.
"I held you dead in my arms Kali, please," he pulled back to look her dead in the eyes, "do not ever do that again to me, ever; as long as we both live, promise never to get yourself killed again."
Kali frowned a little, "But Legolas, I know I'm not dead anymore, I'm just human. You said, as long as we both live, that would be very long in my case, why make me promise?"
Legolas' hand came up and his finger traced the edge of her ear, Kali put her hand up to her ear and she gasped, her own fingers coming up to touch and feel the strange new shape. "We can be together forever, if you will have me," the last words sounded like a question in a near whisper.
"Yes… yes Legolas, forever."
And that's when their lives began.
It's not the end yet! Hang in there with me!