amy. .9: more questions will be answered now!

Ms. Hawkeye:I LOVED your review! It really brightened my day, especially being on call 24 hours for the next 14 days! And, nothing is forbidden in my writing. hahahaha.

discordchick: The Sarhorn will always interfere, but for the right reasons! Poor Linnor. I always had a soft spot for him!

IceDragoness1: EEK! Welcome back! its been SOOOOOO long! daw, I'm so happy you liked it, and are loving the intensity, thank you!

khaitosfren: I always saw Clint as one of those guys who never wanted to be the one people look too, but always ends up getting their attention anyway. LOL

Batghost:YAY!

5mairer: Yes. Yes, i did. But

Fury-Natalia: hahahah! no promises!

The Spoiled Duchess: DAW! Thank you! I'm so glad you liked it!

Chapter 52

"Reylano, please, contain him, I can do no more of my own strength. Rinon, if you do not lie down you will find yourself dead before the sun sets! Faraday, hold your arm. Lirrie? Lirrie, that leg should not be under you, it should be propped on that pillow I have provided! Heho, assist me here before Rellya loses this arm."

Yeyil was an elder elf and member of those who resided in the Untamed Caves in the base of the Blueskin Mountain range. Those elves seeking refuge, healing, and repair gathered in the endless caverns of the mountain Ollu. Hoping to better understand the healing properties of the caves, Bruce Banner once traveled to Alfheimr to study it during a sabbatical. He found the oxygen levels alone rivaled any hyperbaric chamber. Among that were an unquantifiable amount of other factors he had never even seen before which all created an atmosphere geared toward human and elven regeneration.

Rinon held his shattered arm across his chest. Something bled, though he would not let himself be tended to. His only object of interest was the dying Clint Barton. Rinon had little strength with which to stand. All of him shook in the strange visions, both real and memories that threatened to tear his mind apart. Had he possibly accomplished what he never thought he could? Had Rinon finally prevented a death he had been shown? Simply looked at Clint told him he had not succeeded in the least.

Barton lay in a cot, surrounded by no less than a dozen attendants. The bones of his legs protruded from his skin. Something had torn a hunk of bone, organ, and muscle out of his chest. How he had been able to continue to shoot his bow with the near amputation the talons had done to his arm, Rinon would never know. His blood flowed freely across his bare flesh, dropping to the cot and the floor in a steady stream. He'd lost consciousness. His eyes, burned and scared by the blast of his exploding arrow tips, remained open. The ceiling did not return his empty gaze.

Reylano limped toward Rinon and gently caught his leader around the waist. He didn't wait for Rinon to move away of his own accord, but instead forced him as gently as he could. They left the room behind and found another empty one. Reylano let him slip onto the woven bedspread and painfully kneeled beside him.

"We have done our duty to Rellya. He must now decide whether he might live or not," Reylano said.

"Linnor?"

Reylano's eyes closed at the sound of his fellow elf's name. "Fel'ire ria neu." He rests eternal.

"I never considered that I had not seen his death. There are so few I do not know of," Rinon said. He felt no fear when he spoke of his gift to the elf. Reylano knew his secret already.

"You had seen Rellya's."

"I had seen what he would do," Rinon corrected, surprising himself. "I had seen a man jump. I saw that man torn apart. I never saw him rescued. I assumed him killed."

"He may yet be," Reylano said it with trepidation.

The door opened at their back as Heho appeared. He had a few attendants with him who meant to treat the two elves' wounds. Barton was being managed, as well as any man in his state could. It was time to focus their attention on others of their own kind. Rinon, Reylano, Faraday, Lirrie, all of the survivors were heroes in elven eyes. Their names, and their kin, would be remembered for all time.

"Le'Lareme, you must let them see to you." Reylano said. He stepped away to let Heho through. The elven healer knelt by the leader's knees and gave him a cursory exam.

"I wish for Rellya to be treated first," Rinon said.

"We have manpower enough to see everyone. Faraday lies with a gash in his arm from some beast who meant to tear him apart. Reylano, if I can yet convince him, must have himself looked over. You, Rinon, are bleeding from something I cannot see unless you allow me," Heho said.

"I will not resist."

Taking the invitation, another attendant came forward and helped slip Rinon out of his great coat and tunic. The more layers they removed, the paler Reylano became. He was endlessly loyal to the elf who had once been king. When at last his wounds were revealed, Reylano forced himself to look away. One of the serpents must have grabbed the former king, or perhaps the talons of another beast. From Rinon's spine, across his side, and to his chest long, deep stripes split his body. The flesh hung apart like a tattered flag. Along with his crushed arm, the wounds were very serious indeed. Rinon was in a terrible way.

"I must go back." Reylano stood and swayed on his unsteady feet. Flashes of King Haladarrel's death played through his mind. He hated the comparison. The thought of singing Rinon to his death was too much for him to bare. The least he could do was find Fehreh. The last he'd seen of her, she'd boarded the Bethlehem Star. He might take the tesseract again, use it though he didn't know how, and return to that place for her. By now the Asgardians might have returned to their realm and Heimdall at his lookout. The minute he used the tesseract again, the watcher would know.

"Stop him," Rinon whispered.

One of the aids carefully took the warrior and helped hoist him up. "You are in no condition to leave. What of your own life? You own health? Come lie here and be attended to."

"Fehreh must be found," Reylano attempted to explain.

"In good time. Others may be sent for her. You require rest." The guide did not take Reylano's rebuff easily and his fresh strength won out at last. Exhausted, the warrior fell on the cot in a heap and didn't try to rise again.

"Attend Faraday with care. He has lost Linnor to the beasts in the dark," Rinon said.

Heho became very rigid as the other elves paused. Linnor, the great woman loving, swordsman, hawk rider, and outrider dead at a mere age of five hundred. It was a tragedy. He had ridden at Rinon's side since the elf was made king and remained loyal even after the reign ended. Only Reylano had been with Rinon longer. The two fought in the Frost Giant wars together under the previous queen. When Rinon took the crown, Reylano held only the utmost respect for him. Linnor might have been a carouser and polyamorous lover, but he held an utter devotion to his race. Faraday was younger by only a few years. The loss he must feel was immeasurable.

"We will see he is supported. But, please, rest."

"Do not tell Rellya's friends, his family, of him," Rinon instructed. He felt his consciousness failing him and wondered if at last death had come for him.

"Nai?" What? Heho asked, surprised again.

"His friends. Those who love him. The Avengers themselves grieve already. He cannot survive what has been done. Do not cause them pain again. Let him pass, quietly, at last." With his parting order given, Rinon's eyes fell shut and he slumped forward into Heho's arms. Desperately the elves moved to revive him.

:(:):(:):

Still that red-rimmed absent look scrutinized the ceiling above him. It had been weeks since the elves sacrificed their lives to pull Barton out of his tomb and still he never spoke, never woke, and never moved. He hovered in a plain somewhere between life and death. They imagined that his mind had already gone from him, torn away from the lack of blood. They'd set his bones, for all the good it did him, but they didn't appear to be healing. His shoulder, held together in thread and poultices, never mended. There wasn't enough flesh left on his bones to seal his chest wound. They kept it tightly wrapped in synthetic skin hoping by some miracle he might begin to recover. Yeyil and Heho worked endlessly on him. Medicine that acted as a framework for bone was added to the ends of his shattered ribs. Perhaps they might regrow. The synthetic flesh acted like a barrier, but also a graft for Clint's body to recover itself on. If only he would try.

Skydale and Glencove Elves appeared by the dozens to aid in keeping him breathing, the way Haladarrel himself once had. They commanded the air into the fractured remains of his lungs and let it flow out again. Some attempted to reach into his mind, drag his consciousness forward to focus on his own survival, but it was no use. He remained far beyond them.

Rinon wanted to sit at his side and pull the man from his stupor, but his own survival had yet to be assured. Reylano took a turn for the worse, dropping into a fierce fever within the first few days of their recovery. Rinon was not far behind him. Their wounds bled, seeped, and grew toxic with infection. Sleepless nights were intermingling with agonizing days and foggy visions. Nightmares of that abandoned cave plagued their dreams. Faraday risked losing his arm the way Lirrie's leg had to be removed.

Infection spread rampantly. For a week Reylano and Rinon neither ate nor drank. Faraday showed the smallest improvement, though he was desperate to attend his leader's side and grieve the brother he had so horribly lost.

By their second week, Lirrie was dead. A serious discussion began as to whether Rinon's crushed arm could be salvaged at all. None wished to attempt its amputation given the delirious state he'd fallen into. Perhaps, when he was more stable, they might still. Frantic in their fight to save the fallen heroes of the Galactus War, the Elven nation banded together, attending their men day and night.

:( Poor elves! Poor Clint! What will happen next!?