First Meetings

“Speech”

// Thought//

Chapter 5

  Aragorn watched as the warg leapt towards him, rolling underneath it at the last possible second, and causing it to fly over him and smack into a tree.  The beast was only stunned for a second, but that was all the time Aragorn needed to grab his sword and take up a defensive stance as the animal attacked again.  This time Aragorn held his ground and plunged his sword straight through the warg’s eye, into its brain.

  Having defeated all of his enemies, the man sank to his knees in relief.  His head was pounding, protesting all of the movement and fighting, and he was feeling extremely nauseous, but he couldn’t allow himself a long rest before looking to see how his Elven friend fared.

*~*~*~*~*

  The wargs encircled Legolas and began to snap at him.  Finally one lunged forward and the Elf was forced to jump to the side to avoid him; unfortunately, that put him within reach of another animal, who took a swipe at the Elf’s already injured side. The creature’s claws tore through the soft flesh.  Legolas instantly pulled away from the beast, caught his foot in some tree roots, and fell backward.  One of the wargs used this opportunity to attack.  It leaped at Legolas, and he had to roll quickly out of the way, thrusting his knife into the creature’s belly and killing it.

  Another pounced but he was able to slit its throat, but the momentum the beast had didn’t allow it to stop and it landed right on top of the Elf.  By the time he was able to get the stinking carcass off of him, he was too tired from his previous injuries and the recent blood loss to get up.  //What’s the point?  I’m too tired to move, backed up against a tree, and there are two hungry wargs staring me in the face.  Now would be a good time for some help. //

  As if Eru had heard his thoughts, help arrived.  Just as one of the remaining wargs was going for the kill, a sword flew out of nowhere and drove itself through the beast’s neck, and at that very moment, the final warg leapt towards the Elf. Legolas braced himself for the oncoming pain. Before he knew what was going on, though, Strider dove in front of him.  The warg clawed viciously at the ranger, but even through the extreme pain he was able to slash his one small remaining dagger through the creature’s jugular vein.

  Strider lay over the Elf’s legs gasping for air.  There were claw marks all over his torso and he was bleeding heavily.  Legolas looked down at him in shock; he immediately leaned over and pressed what remained of his cloak over the man’s wounds.  He wanted to do so much more but he was too physically exhausted.  “Why?” he asked, close to passing out.

  Strider looked up at him will pain filled eyes.  “Couldn’t let a friend die,” he managed to say before losing consciousness.  Legolas smiled at those words before he too fell into the blackness that had been pulling at his mind for the past couple of days.

*~*~*~*~*

  “Hurry up El!” called Elladan as his horse raced through the bushes, “I swear I heard battle noises up ahead.”

  The twins had been sent out by their father that morning to search for Legolas, as Elrond had thought he should have arrived by then, and knowing the young Elf’s ability to get into trouble, he had been worried when there was no sign of him.

  “Do you think it could be the Prince?” asked Elrohir, who was only a few feet behind his brother.

  “It’s quite possible; I mean, who else would run into some foul creature this close to Imladris?”

  Elrohir was silent for a moment before answering.  “Estel.”

  Elladan laughed.  “Those two can find trouble wherever they go. Valar help us if they ever get together!”

  The twins raced on for a few more minutes before coming to the clearing.  Elladan vaulted off his horse and ran to where the Prince was hunched over something.  “Legolas!” He tried to pull Legolas away from the tree, but his legs appeared to be trapped by something.  He leaned the Elf back and let out a gasp when he saw who was underneath.  “El, over here, quick, it’s Estel!”

  Elrohir came racing over with bandages.  “Oh Valar, look at him!  He’s got so many cuts and his temperature is soaring.  We have to get him back to Ada quickly.”

  “Same with Legolas.  What happened to them?  Why won’t they wake?”

  “I don’t know El, let’s just hurry and hope Ada can help.”

  The twins quickly bandaged both Legolas’ and Aragorn’s wounds with the limited supplies they had before Elladan picked up Legolas’ lithe form and carried him to the horses.  Placing the Prince on his horse, he mounted behind and took off for Rivendell, leaving Elrohir to do the same with Estel.

  Twenty minutes later Elladan rode up to the Last Homely House, with Elrohir right on his heels.  They slid off of their horses and carried their charges into the house.  “Ada!” cried Elladan as he headed up the stairs to the room Legolas usually occupied.  “Ada, get in here!”

*~*~*~*~*

  Lord Elrond was enjoying some leisurely reading in his study when he heard Elladan’s desperate cries.  Wasting no time, the Elf lord got up from his seat and dashed to find his son.

  Elrond entered the room they were in, sweeping his eyes quickly over the twins to make sure they were all right, and then looking to the still figures lying on the bed.  “What happened?”

  “We found Legolas and Estel not far from here.  They had been attacked by wargs.  Both are bleeding badly and burning with fever; neither responds to our attempts to wake them,” reported Elladan.

  Elrond quickly examined them both and, deciding that Estel was in the worse condition at the moment, turned to the twins.  “I must see to Estel’s wounds.  Do what you can with Legolas and I shall be back soon.”  He picked the young man up and carried him back to his own room, where the Elf Lord would have more room to work on him.

  Lord Elrond carefully lay Estel down on the bed and then began cleansing and stitching the young man’s deep wounds.  The man had lost a lot of blood and was extremely pale, but as much as Elrond wanted to stay and watch him closely, his heart was telling him to go see to Legolas.  There was no sign of infection in Estel’s wounds so Elrond had surmised that the fever was the result of a cold, and judging by the redness of Estel’s nose and his nasal breathing, his assumption was accurate.  Elrond took one last look at his son before he went to see to the Elf Prince.

  When he entered the room the twins looked up, thoroughly distressed.  “Ada, we treated most of his wounds, but look what we found,” said Elrohir as he indicated the slash in Legolas’ side.  “Judging by the black tendrils we think it’s Morgul poisoning.  We’ve tried to get his fever to go down but it refuses to cooperate.  This wound has to be days old and the poison has spread throughout his body.”

  Elrond carefully inspected the cut for himself and determined that his sons were indeed right.  “His situation is grave indeed and I know you want to stay here, but Estel is sick and I need you two to bring his fever down.  I will stay here and try to help Legolas.”

  The twins nodded and left the room while Elrond immediately went to his study to get the needed herbs.  He quickly mixed them together, then after cleansing the wound applied the paste to the area.  Instinctively Legolas’ body tried to pull away but Elrond held him tight and made sure the antidote got into the wound. It would help not only with the poisoning, but also with the severe infection that had settled in.  Once he was satisfied that the young Elf had gotten a significant amount into his system Elrond released his hold and set about checking the work his sons had done.  The warg slashes had been cleansed, stitched up, and bandaged, as had his head.  There were still bruises around Legolas’ shoulder but they appeared to be healing.  The only real problem left was the fever.  It would be several hours before they knew if Legolas would win the fight with the poisoning but they had to get his temperature down before that.

  Elrond went back to his study to get some fever-reducing herbs and also some cold water and a cloth.  When he returned he eased Legolas up and positioned the young Elf’s head against his shoulder, carefully pouring the contents into Legolas’ mouth, which he instinctively swallowed.  When Elrond was done, he laid Legolas back onto the bed and put the cool, wet cloth against his forehead.  Elrond looked down at the Elfling he considered to be one of his own and his heart cried out.  He wanted to do something, anything, that would help Legolas get through this but there was nothing to do now but wait.

  TBC...