Chapter Nineteen

The lightning bolt had hit a boulder several yards in front of where Legolas and Aragorn stood. The top of the rock exploded in a shower of shards and dust, while the remainder of the stone split in two with a tremendous cracking noise. The two halves fell apart as if they had been cleaved by an ax swung by a maddened dwarf.

Legolas and Aragorn had been so close that if their wet hair hadn’t been plastered to their heads, it would have stood on end. As it was, both elf and human had felt a strong tingle go through them.

Aragorn was hit by the shockwave so violently that he almost fell of the flat rock he was on. He had to reach out and put his hand on the boulder to his right, so he could steady himself. The heat, though brief, was enough to make him decidedly uncomfortable. His ears were ringing from the intense sound, and he shook his head, trying to clear it.

The ranger looked down at the rock he was standing atop and knew that had it not been there, he would have been standing in a puddle of water. If the lightning had hit the ground instead of the boulder, he may well have been electrocuted. He put his head down on his arm and sighed, grateful to the Valar for sparing him.

For Legolas the result was far more devastating. The elf felt the heat and the shockwave as much as Aragorn had. However, his elven hearing was so sensitive that the accompanying sound deafened him and nearly rendered him unconscious. He fell against the boulder whose base he was standing on. It was the only thing that was keeping him upright.

A quick glance told Aragorn that Legolas, whose feet were mere inches above the ground, had escaped the lightning‘s electricity, as well. "That was even closer," the man breathed. "Scary close."

It was then that Aragorn heard the cries and yells of the trolls. These sounds were different from the ones the creatures made during their frantic search. These cries reflected pain and fear. Had one of the trolls been near enough to the lightning to be hit by the charge or burned by the heat?

There seemed to be mass confusion among the creatures. There was no way to tell how long the trolls would be in this disoriented state.

"It sounds like our big, hairy friends didn’t fare quite as well as we did. I think now would be a good time for us to move on."

When Aragorn didn’t receive an answer from Legolas, he scrutinized the elf with a practiced eye. He noticed that not only was the archer’s body leaning against the rock, but so was his forehead. His eyes were closed.

The ranger almost panicked. Had the lightning struck his friend? He knew it hadn’t, but still he couldn’t keep the terrifying thought from forming in his mind.

*~*~*~*

Two of the trolls had been standing beside the boulder that the lightning bolt had hit. They were both flung backward, into another troll, who had been a few feet behind them. The three lay in a heap, but only two managed got up.

The troll, who had been hit, lay motionless, head in the sand and feet in the water at the edge of the river.

Several other trolls came up and stood looking down at him. Not one of them seemed too concerned about his well-being or very interested in offering him any aid. It wouldn’t really have mattered; The creature was dead and trolls did not mourn their own.

Scron had been close enough to the lightning bolt to be affected by all that had taken place as a result, but he was basically uninjured. What he was, though, was furious.

With one dead troll and most of the rest milling around, as if they didn’t have a clue what to do next, the leader needed to get them back on track. Nothing was going to get done until the group regained its focus.

Scron jumped up on a short rock and yelled for the others to shut up and listen to him. It took a few moments of shouting, but the trolls gradually quieted down and looked up at him. "You seen lightning before. It comes and it goes and there’s nothin’ you can do about it. So stop your bellyachin’ and start searchin’ for those captives. I knew they’re here somewhere. Find ‘em!" The last two words were spoken in a commanding voice that got everyone’s attention.

Scron jumped down from the rock and latched onto two trolls that were just passing him. "Git rid of Wig."

Not about to disobey, the two trolls nodded and headed over to the troll body. One picked up Wig’s arms and the other his feet. They carried him farther out into the river and swung him several times between them until they had a rhythm going. Then they let go and watched as Wig’s body was grabbed by the current and sent rushing down the river, bobbing like a cork, before disappearing into a foamy wave and not resurfacing.

Urged on by a very angry Scron, the search began anew. It was clear to all of them that their leader was not going to be satisfied until the captives were found. And they knew that a dissatisfied Scron was a dangerous Scron

*~*~*~*

Knowing that once the lightning bolt had disappeared, the electricity had gone with it, as well, Aragorn jumped down onto the water-soaked ground and covered the distance between him and Legolas in three strides.

Aragorn wrapped his left arm around Legolas’s shoulders, careful not to put pressure on the injured one. He put his right hand under the elf’s chin. Legolas was shaking uncontrollably. Aragorn didn’t try to pull him away from the rock. He simply held the trembling elf and spoke his name softly. "Legolas."

There was no response, yet Aragorn knew that Legolas was conscious. Even the rock would not have held him up, if he had no strength in his legs. He would simply have fallen to the ground. The man would wait patiently, if somewhat anxiously, for his friend to gather himself without being pushed to do it.

Legolas’s mind was reeling. His head felt as if it was incased in cotton, and that was in addition to the pounding it had started with. He had been near lightning strikes before, and the noise had hurt, once knocking him to his knees, but never had it weakened him like this. He felt Aragorn holding him and knew his friend would not let him fall.

Gradually, through sheer willpower, Legolas gained the strength he needed to straighten himself up. Slowly his head came up, and he opened his eyes. He tried to smile when he saw the worried look on Aragorn’s face. "I am all right, Estel," he reassured the man.

"Yes, I know. You always are, despite all the things that may be wrong with you." His attempt at humor failed miserably. "Can you walk?"

Aragorn’s words sounded muffled, but Legolas heard them. "I believe I can manage that." The declaration was bold but hardly matched the effort he was able to give to accomplish it. His legs were wobbly and the dizziness he had experienced earlier was back in full force.

There were a number of remarks Aragorn could have made, but he knew how badly Legolas felt, not to mention how badly he felt about feeling so bad, so the ranger kept quiet.

The two made their way as best they could in the small space between the boulders and the bottom of the cliff face.

The sound of the trolls wasn’t receding any, so it was a safe bet that they were spread all along the river. They most likely would remain so, as long as they knew their former captives were in here among the rocks.

Just then, it started to pour down rain again. Once the brunt of the storm had passed, the wind had not picked up, so the large drops were falling straight down, pounding on the heads of the two friends. The world had tuned gray again.

"Great," Aragorn grumbled, though he realized that he shouldn’t really complain. They had just escaped certain death by lightning, and they hadn’t yet been found by the trolls. What’s a little rain? Instead of fussing, he thanked the Valar and hoped their luck would hold.

As Legolas and Aragorn continued to make their way downstream, the elf inwardly shuddered at how near they had come to disaster. He was immensely relieved they had escaped relatively unscathed from one of Nature’s most spectacular and deadly phenomenon. He was not in great shape and needed Aragorn’s help to maneuver, but he knew it could have been so much worse.

Rather than becoming weaker as they worked their way among the rocks, Legolas was gaining strength. His head still hurt, and he also still felt as if his ears were stuffed with cotton, but his legs had become steadier. He turned to Aragorn, "I can walk on my own now."

"Are you sure?" the man questioned, not willing to let go let go until he had satisfied himself the elf spoke the truth.

At times like these, Legolas knew that just saying the words were not enough. He turned his head so that he could look straight into Aragorn’s eyes. Tempted as he was to say the old familiar words, ‘I am fine’, he didn’t think Aragorn would believe them. Instead, he just repeated, as sincerely as he could, "I can walk on my own now."

The sincerity that Legolas’s blue-gray eyes reflected told the man his friend was telling the truth. He also saw the pain that the elf was trying to hide, but he chose not to comment on that, at least not at the moment.

Aragorn slowly released his hold on Legolas and was pleased to see the archer standing steadily on his feet. He rolled his eyes when Legolas gave him a ‘you see’ look.

They hadn’t gone more than a few feet, when a loud shout brought the two friends up short. They looked in the direction the sound had come from, though all they could see was rock.

"Find them captives or two of you go in the river!"

Legolas and Aragorn looked at each other and said in unison, "Scron." His voice was the most distinctive of all the trolls they had heard speak, so it was easy to pick it out among the group.

"I wonder what happened to Pickett?" Aragorn couldn’t help wondering. He spoke softly, not wanting to betray their position even though the driving rain was hitting loudly against the rocks, and the roar of the river seemed to be increasing.

"Perhaps there was a change in the power structure," Legolas offered, speaking equally as soft. He shrugged and said, "I do not care to stay and investigate. Do you?"

"No, let’s go."

A couple of minutes later, when Legolas disappeared around another boulder, Aragorn tried to follow but made a wrong turn. The light-colored rocks and the rain made the whole world look gray.

Still thinking he was following Legolas, Aragorn was soon facing an enormous rock wall, though it was clearly not the cliff. To his surprise, he found himself staring downward at a black triangular-shaped spot that made itself more visible through the driving rain, as he moved nearer to it.

Legolas had passed several boulders, when he looked behind him and saw nothing but rain-covered rock. There was no human in sight. He dared not call out to Aragorn, so he turned back to look for the man.

It didn’t take long to locate his missing friend, who was standing still and staring at a huge pile of rock, far larger than any they had yet encountered. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Would you look at that."

Legolas followed the line of the ranger’s pointing finger to see what he was talking about. As soon as his line of sight landed on the spot Aragorn was indicating, Legolas came close to letting out a groan. "I do not believe this," he sighed. "A cave - of sorts."

He then looked upward to the top of the cliff, raising his right hand to shield his eyes from the rain. "It isn’t a true cave," the elf stated. " A large section of the cliff broke away and toppled down. It must have broken into pieces when it hit the bottom here. They are leaning at such an angle that they form...".

"A cave," Aragorn finished, grinning broadly.

"Not exactly, but it is certainly a shelter."

"Let’s give it a try." Aragorn didn’t wait for Legolas’s answer. He bent down and crawled into the narrow opening.

Legolas had to remove his bow from its place on his back before he could move inside without hindering his progress or more importantly, hitting the weapon on a rock and possibly damaging it.

It quickly became obvious that the giant slabs of rock had hit together at the top, forming a tent-like structure below. It was also quickly noted that there was no way anyone was going to be able to stand upright inside the confined space.

On the positive side, the area was much too small for a troll to get into. And the slabs were much too large for even the combined effort of a group of the creatures to move.

The back of the cave was the cliff wall itself. With the rocks jammed hard against it, no one was going to get in that way. Of course, that meant that Legolas and Aragorn couldn’t get out that way, either, however, neither was thinking of that at the moment.

The two crawled all the way to the back and sat down with their backs against the wall. It was a little tight for them to sit side by side, but they weren’t overly crammed together. They were just glad that they were at least able to stretch their legs out.

Unfortunately, the top of the little structure was jagged with gauges and missing chunks, and thus did not fit together very smoothly, so the rain was not hindered in its effort to reach the ground. Some ran down the inside walls of the rock slabs in rivulets, while the rest was left to come dripping down on what or, in this case, whoever was below.

Aragorn decided not to grumble about the one disadvantage there was to this shelter, so he decided to be positive about the situation. "We’ll be safe here. I doubt the trolls can even get back here through the regular boulders to find this place." He smiled. "I guess now we can wait them out," Aragorn offered.

Legolas nodded but did not comment. They had not found this shelter a moment too soon. He was beginning to feel bad again. Or perhaps now that he and Aragorn were relatively comfortable, his aches and pans were making themselves more noticeable.

Crawling even the ten feet or so into this shelter had put a strain on his left shoulder. The elf knew he could hide that pain well enough, but his body, already weak from the effects of his proximity to the lightning strike, was shaking.

With luck, Aragorn would be too preoccupied thinking about the trolls and the rain dripping on his head to notice.

TBC