Chapter Twenty Two

As the sun rose higher in the sky, the minds of the two elven twins and their human brother were busily at work trying to solve the puzzle of why Legolas was dying and Estel was not.

“What is the difference between Legolas and me?” Aragorn finally asked, tossing aside the twig he had been idly twirling between his fingers, seemingly mesmerized by the action of the tiny leaves as they whirled around the spinning piece of wood. He hadn’t asked the question like he didn’t know the answer. He knew it, of course, but he wanted to hear it said back to him, so he could make sure that the answer that was dawning on him wasn’t going to be another dead end.

Elladan and Elrohir looked at him, as if he had grown a second head. At that point, Aragorn would have been happy for that; It would give him another brain to put toward the solution.

Elladan, quickly recovering from the absurdity of the question, said, “You are a human, Estel. Legolas is an elf.”

“Exactly!” Aragorn said sharply. “The only way the bite and the blood would cause Legolas to become infected and me not to is the fact that he is an elf. Therefore, the combination of bite and blood affects only elves.”

The twins nodded. That reasoning made sense to them.

“It must affect only full-blooded elves,” Aragorn continued. “Maybe that is, in part, what has also kept you two from getting sick.” The man couldn’t help smiling at the fact that his brothers were in the clear.

“Ai! Elbereth. “I cannot believe I did not think of it earlier,” Elrohir suddenly said.

Elladan had the feeling his brother had something else in mind besides what had just been speculated on. “What are you talking about?” he asked.

“It is something I now remember studying in our history lessons. The howlers were once Drúedain, who lived among the Dúnedain in Númenór for a time. Do you not see? There may be an unknown connection there that protects you, Estel.”

Aragorn was stunned. “I must have skipped my own lesson the day that was taught.” He thought for a moment and then said, “The problem is the Drúedain were changed into creatures totally unlike humans. They had black blood and leathery skin. Surely whatever connection my ancestors may have had with the Drúedain would’ve been wiped out when they were transformed.”

“No,.” Elladan said. “Elrohir must have missed part of his history lesson. The time when the Drúedain that lived on Númenór with your ancestors, Estel, took place in the Second Age. The war against Morgoth happened int the First Age. So the howlers came into existence much earlier than any connection between Dúnedain and Drúedain would have taken place.”

“You are right,” Elrohir agreed, looking almost sheepish at the admission. “I do remember the facts now.” History hadn’t been his best subject.

Aragorn offered his own theory regarding the twins, “The two of you have human blood that may be giving you protection beyond having bites only. It may simply be mortal blood that counts, and Legolas has only elven blood.”

The man shook his head. “I cannot believe the answer was so simple, and it just sailed right on past me. How dumb is that.”

“Do not be so hard on yourself, Estel,” Elrohir admonished gently, touching the man‘s arm. “None of us thought of all the implications of what is going on. We finally put it all together, and that is the important thing.”

“One of them,” the ranger corrected, his tone becoming even more serious. “And that brings us to the critical question: How does this information help Legolas?”

“Yes. We have figured out why the three of us are not ill,” Elrohir remarked. “So now how do we use that knowledge to save him?” He cast his eyes over to the elven prince, lying still and quiet next to him. He reached down and placed his right palm over Legolas’s heart. He was dismayed to find that the young archer’s chest barely moved under his hand.

“I have no idea,” Aragorn said, making an effort not to sound defeated. It had upset him before that he couldn’t figure out why Legolas was dying. Now that they had the answer, what good was it doing them? They still weren’t able to help their friend.

A burst of fury overtook Aragorn, and the man reached for the nearest little tree branch stacked beside the fire. He yanked it from the pile and threw it into the dead fire pit. The blackened wood that criss-crossed in the pit collapsed in a shower of ashes. For an instant, Aragorn thought of Legolas’s life collapsing into ashes. Oh Valar, this was just too hard.

As if the spent fury had drained the ranger of all of his energy, he sank down to lie on the ground.

“Estel?” came Elladan’s alarmed voice. “Estel!”

Suddenly both of the twins were on their knees beside him. “What is wrong?” Elrohir asked. He didn’t know if his brother’s collapse was due to something ominous, namely a reaction similar to what had befallen Legolas. The idea was worrisome, if not downright alarming.

Elladan put his hand on Estel’s forehead for the second time that morning. It was not cool but neither was it overly warm. He grabbed the man’s injured hand and checked it for infection. There was none that he could see.

When Elladan looked up, he saw Elrohir’s worried face staring back at him. “He is not ill,” was the simple reply.

Aragorn heard the elder twin’s words, but he himself wasn’t so sure that remark was correct. He had suddenly felt dizzy, and he realized, achy all over. It wasn’t a major problem exactly, but it wasn’t something he liked feeling either. The implications were frightening.

When the man tried to sit up again, two pairs of hands held him down. “No, Estel,” Elladan told him in no uncertain terms, ‘You are staying right where you are.”

“I’m all right,” Aragorn declared to the two fair faces above him. “I just...”

“You just what?” came Elrohir’s slightly demanding voice. “You are not as well as you would like for us to believe.”

The ranger sighed. He knew better than to try his brothers’ patience. “You can poke and prod me if you want, but you won’t find anything amiss. I have no fever, and my hand looks just as it did, when it was checked earlier. It doesn’t hurt any more than any other scratches normally would.”

“Then why did you nearly pass out just now?” Elladan had an eyebrow raised. Aragorn though again of how much the look imitated Lord Elrond‘s. He almost laughed but stopped himself in time. Elladan was seriously worried, and it would not do to make light of him at the moment. They all sometimes used humor to deflect an overly serious moment, but this didn’t seem to be one of the times to do that.

Elrohir stared down at the human. “Tell us how you feel. And,” he added, holding up a warning finger, which was pointing right at the man‘s face, “you had better tell us the truth.”

The ranger knew that no amount of double talk was going to be successful in evading the younger twin’s question. “I felt dizzy for a minute, but it’s gone now, and that’s the truth.”

“And?” Elladan asked, knowing there was more.

“And I kind of ache all over.”

“Kind of?” Elrohir didn’t need to ask more than those two words to get his meaning across. He knew Estel understood perfectly well.

“It isn’t bad,” Aragorn protested. “Honestly. I mean it’s not like I was really hurting bad. It’s just an annoying ache more than anything.”

The eyebrow again from Elladan. “Kind of,” he said, mockingly repeating what Elrohir had said.

“Yes. Sort of...” There was a touch of teasing in his voice that he couldn‘t hold back.

“Estel, you are most exasperating. Elrohir and I are worried about you.”

“I know you are,” the man admitted contritely.

“So if you have no fever and no sign of infection, why did you get dizzy? And why do you ache?”

Aragorn was ready to throw his hands up in the air. He would have, if he hadn’t been lying flat on his back, one hand still held by Elladan and the other pinned to his side by Elrohir’s knees. More questions, concerned though they be, frustrated him, because he, a healer, couldn‘t answer them. Besides, he was not the one his brothers should be thinking about. Legolas was the one in need of their attention.

“Rest,” Elladan commanded. “Hopefully, you will feel better before too long.”

“If I rest, you must promise not to worry about me and take care of Legolas.” The ranger tried to push away the gnawing idea that keeping the wood elf comfortable was all they could do for him.

He didn’t intend on staying down long, but he knew Elladan and Elrohir well enough to be certain they weren’t going to take no for an answer. He would have to rest.

~*~*~

When Aragorn woke up, the fire was blazing, and the sun was halfway on its descent into the West. He blinked several times, each time trying to focus more clearly, so he could calculate how long he had been asleep. He soon realized his head hurt too much to do any kind of calculations. He also noticed that his body shook slightly.

Elladan noticed the ranger’s open eyes and moved over beside him. “You are awake,” he stated.

“I never could fool you, could I? I think it’s the fact that I sleep with my eyes closed, so having them open is a dead giveaway that I’m no longer asleep.”

Usually a tease like that would usually cause the eldest twin to smile, if not outright laugh. The serious look on Elladan’s face made the man’s heart skip a beat. 'Legolas! He’s died while I slept.’ The thought caused another missed beat, and a moan from deep within the man’s throat. “Please, tell me he isn’t...”

When Elladan had seen the color drain out of Estel’s face, he began to shake his head, effectively stopping the completion of the man’s plea. “Legolas still lives.” ‘Though barely,’ he added to himself.

Aragorn forced himself to sit up. He waved off Elladan’s reaching hands to try and stop him. No one was going to keep him from seeing his friend for himself.

Just then, Elrohir’s frantic voice caused both Aragorn and Elladan to look his way. They both scrambled over to where Elrohir sat trying to hold Legolas down. The archer was in the throes of convulsions, and they were bad. His body jerked violently, and moans escaped his lips. His eyes were squeezed tightly shut.

“How long has this been going on?” Aragorn asked, as he jumped over to Legolas’s left side and held his flailing left arm down. It was the movement to his wounded shoulder that was adding pain to what was happening, but the healer in him knew that wasn’t what was causing the convulsions.

“This is the first time it has happened,” Elrohir replied, trying to keep the blond elf, who had raised his head, from slamming it back down against the ground. He only partly succeeded, getting his fingers mashed in the process.

After several moments of the desperate attempts, mostly unsuccessful, to settle the wood elf down, he finally calmed, though there were small tremors running through the elf‘s body. The fiery pain in his shoulder resulted in the low moans that continued until finally he was once again still and silent.

The twins sank down to sit on the ground. Despite Legolas’s bad shoulder and his general weakened condition, he still possessed a great deal of the upper body strength developed through years and years of working with a longbow. It was easily enough to bring about what would soon develop into deep bruises on the three brothers. Elladan, for one, was rubbing his left arm and his left thigh, where Legolas had kicked him.

Aragorn had remained on his knees where he was beside Legolas. He was placing Legolas’s right arm across his stomach, when he noticed that the vambrace that protected the elf’s right wrist and lower forearm had tiny holes in it. He leaned over and examined the leather more closely. He did not like was he was seeing.

Without saying a word, the man unlaced the vambrace and set it aside, so that he could examine his friend’s wrist. Immediately, it became apparent that Legolas had been bitten here, too. Tiny holes formed a semi-circle in the elf’s flesh just below the base of his thumb. It looked no where near as bad as the shoulder wound, but even so, Legolas’s wrist was red and slightly swollen. The combination of things that had created the illness in the elf’s body was causing another infection, and it would only add to the poison already in his system.

When Aragorn had checked the elf over earlier while they were still on the mountain, he had obviously missed this wound, a fact that upset him. He took healing seriously and had always prided himself on being very thorough during any examination. He also took being a ranger seriously and likewise prided himself on his observational skills. He wasn’t used to missing things in either pursuit. Aragorn sighed deeply and shook his head.

“Estel, what is wrong?” Elladan asked. For some reason, he didn’t think it had anything to do with the convulsions Legolas had just suffered.

“I just found another bite wound.”

There was a note of concern in Elrohir’s voice. “You were bitten a second time?” The younger elf quickly moved over beside Aragorn, grabbing his arm. “Where?” he asked almost frantically. One bite had seemingly affected Estel with dizziness and body aches, so two bites just might become a major problem.

Aragorn shook his head. “Not on me. On Legolas’s wrist. I’m sure it happened during the fight with the howlers. It isn’t bad as bites go, but knowing what we know, it could hasten...”

Elrohir couldn’t hide a groan of consternation.

Shaking his head again, Aragorn pointed to his pack. “Hand it to me, Elrohir. I will clean and bandage the wound.”

“No you will not.” When Aragorn stared at him, Elrohir softened his voice. “I will do it. You do not look well, and before you object, Estel, I know you do not feel well, either. Lie down and rest.”

There had been a distinct command in the last sentence. The younger twin was trying hard to balance his relief that Estel had not sustained another bite wound and apprehension at the knowledge that Legolas had.

No amount of arguing was going to change the younger twin’s mind. One glance at Elladan told the man that he would find no sympathetic support there, either.

Elladan’s words soon confirmed that idea. “No argument, Estel. You have to rest, or you will end up in worse condition than you are in now.” Elladan’s admonition echoed his twin’s. “We will tie you down, if necessary.”

“And you know we will do it,” Elrohir warned, sure Estel knew the truth of that statement.

Aragorn nodded, and after looking over at Legolas, he reluctantly moved away but only far enough to allow his brothers easy access to Legolas, Then he lay down. He was determined that he was not going to go to sleep this time. That he was sure of.

Elladan saw the stubborn set of Estel’s jaw. It was plain to see that the ranger would do what he was told, but it was just as plain that he was determined not to give in to the demands of his brothers to rest. They had both seen Estel do it many times during his upbringing. With his ire up, they knew their human brother was just as likely to lie there and grit his teeth in defiance.

The twins looked at each other and shrugged. Their brother was at least lying down, so they hoped his body would soon take over and pull him into the arms of sleep.

Elrohir turned back to Legolas. Joined by Elladan, the two Rivendell elves examined the newest bite marks that stood out starkly on the younger elf’s right wrist.

Elladan frowned. It was true that the bite wound was small, but in Legolas’s already worsening condition, it could not be ignored, though what they could do about this one escaped them as much as it had regarding the large one on his shoulder.

Whispering so that even Aragorn, only a few feet away, could not hear, Elrohir said, “Is there any chance we can save Legolas?” He looked earnestly into his twin’s eyes.

“I do not think so,” Elladan replied sadly. “Not unless we discover something completely new that will destroy what is destroying him. Look around you, Elrohir. How much chance do you think we have of doing that?”

Elrohir knew the answer was none, but he chose not to voice that negative response. He looked down at the frowning face of his friend. Even in unconsciousness, Legolas felt the pain that wracked his slender body. “Is there anything we have not thought of?” Elrohir knew the question was a ridiculous one, born of desperation, but he still couldn‘t stop himself from asking.

“If there is, I have no idea what it could be,” Elladan replied. He was also staring solemnly at the blond elf.

A few moments of silence settled over the little clearing, as Elrohir cleaned the bite wound on Legolas’s wrist and then wrapped it in a clean bandage.

When he was through, he turned to Elladan and searched his brother’s face. In a voice just short of tears, Elrohir asked, “How will we help Estel when Legolas dies?”

With equal sadness, Elladan replied, “We will have to find a way to help each other.”

TBC