Chapter Twenty Six

“Let me help you sit up,” Aragorn said, not willing to let Legolas lie still long enough to fall asleep or pass out completely.

Between the two of them, they found the strength to raise Legolas to a sitting position, but he was unable to remain that way without leaning against Aragorn’s shoulder.

The ranger was well aware of his own injuries and the exhaustion that plagued him, but he was not prepared for the extent of the weakness he found his body surrendering to. And all he had done was help Legolas sit up.

The elf was in worse shape than he was, so the man was forced into realizing for the first time since the whole terrible ordeal had begun that they were both in deep trouble.

In the past, the two friends had always either saved each other, or, if both were hurt, they had possessed enough strength between them to persevere until they could recover on their own or find help. Now Aragorn had to wonder if either option was even possible. Had they finally encountered a situation that was too much for them? Had their incredible luck, despite all the trouble they often found themselves in, finally deserted them?

The ranger certainly didn’t want to admit defeat and just give up, at least not until he and Legolas drew their last breath. Both he and the warrior prince were strong-willed people, so that was what they had to rely on now.

Aragorn’s dark thoughts were interrupted when he heard Legolas say, “It is cold.” The elf was unable to suppress a shiver.

He regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth. He knew Aragorn was already worried about him, he didn’t need to hear it expressed. Nor did he need to see it in his friend’s eyes, so he kept his own eyes averted.

Rather than responding with the concern he felt, Aragorn forced a laugh. “I thought elves didn’t feel the cold.”

“We do not feel it as keenly as mortals, but we do feel the extremes of any weather. I have told you this before, human.”

The attempts at humor was appreciated by Aragorn, but he knew Legolas was engaging in the banter mostly to ease the man’s concerns.

“How badly are you hurt? And do not minimize it, Estel,” Legolas warned his friend. “I felt you wince when you helped me sit up.”

Knowing that, as usual, any effort to deflect the seriousness of any injury would be met with stubborn insistence on the truth, Aragorn sighed. “I smashed into a rock and broke several ribs on the right side. My left foot has decided to let me know it’s not doing well, either.” The mere mention of his injuries seemed to start them aching even more. “Satisfied?”

“That depends. Is that everything?” Despite his condition, the elf was still able to fix his friend with a piercing stare.

“The big stuff, yes,” the ranger replied firmly. “The rest of the tally is minor by comparison. You have some lovely bruises, by the way.” The smile the man offered couldn’t quite hide the concern in his eyes.

The pair’s problems, which needed immediate attention, had to come ahead of any further discussion of aches and pains, as bad and annoying as they might be.

“We have to find shelter for the night.”

Legolas was fighting the urge to give in once again to pain, exhaustion and the cold and seek shelter in oblivion. It took him a moment to figure out what Aragorn wasn’t saying. He nodded slightly. “Are we really in any shape to be moving.” It was a flat statement with no real inflection in his voice to indicate it had been a question. The elf doubted he could get very far, even if he had spotted a troll coming their way.

Though his voice didn’t sound as strong as he wanted it to, Aragorn said, “We have to try.”

“I would expect nothing less,” the elf replied. “What do we do?” Legolas’s normally nimble mind was too weary to think the problem through.

“Crawl?” Aragorn offered, realizing that the answer may have been said in jest, but it was nonetheless a very distinct possibility.

Legolas didn’t take the answer as a jest. It was a very real possibility to him, as well. He was facing the river, so he asked, “How far is it?”

“Not too far to the edge of the trees,” he replied, trying to sound encouraging.

While the trees themselves would offer a measure of shelter, they would have to move a lot farther into the forest before they could hope to find and real protection. They really needed an enclosed place with a roaring fire, but that seemed an impossible dream, at this point in time.

The elf closed his eyes and sighed. Did he have it in him to get that far? Did Estel? Did they have a choice?

“The longer we stay here, the worse we’ll feel, and the harder it’ll be to get where we need to go.” Aragorn was too tired to feel the least bit proud of his logic. Besides, he knew it was really just basic common sense. Another sign he was losing his ability to function, the man thought grimly. It was time to move.

Knowing that the two of them might very well end up crawling, Aragorn was not quite prepared to start out that way, despite his earlier reasoning.

The odd and unexpected thought struck him that he would rather die on his feet than simply fall over from the position of being on his hands and knees. He was glad that he hadn’t said that out loud because it was too close to the truth to be funny. It didn’t occur to him that being on his hands and knees would be a testament to his determination to seek safety no matter what.

Somehow, and he couldn’t have said from where it came, he found the strength to get himself and Legolas to their feet. The elf helped as much as he could, but the bulk of the energy had come from the ranger.

Although he knew Legolas could now see the forest right in front of them, Aragorn felt a crazy sense of accomplishment when he gave voice to the obvious. “That way.”

Legolas smiled. Even that seemed to take more strength than he wanted to spend. His attempts to straighten up and take a step were met with resistance from his over-taxed body. But he did it.

The move was not wasted on Aragorn, who also had a smile cross his face. He matched the elf’s step with a step of his own - right foot, then left foot. The elf did likewise and before long they were walking, or more accurately, stumbling forward. But, they were moving.

*~*~*~*

It took almost twenty minutes for Legolas and Aragorn to make it to the edge of the trees. They almost fell a number of times on the short yet arduous journey to reach them, but each time they managed to stay upright. Had they hit the ground, crawling would definitely have been next, because getting to their feet again wasn’t going to happen.

As soon as they came even with one of the large oak trees right inside the forest, Legolas reached out to touch the dark, rough bark. He pulled away from his friend with a smile of gratitude and leaned against the trunk, as did Aragorn, though for a very different reason.

Aragorn simply needed something strong and solid to keep himself from doing what he wanted most to do: sink down to the ground and rest.

Legolas needed that as well, but his main reason for embracing the tree was for communion and consolation. It was at times like these, when he was at his lowest, that Legolas appreciated the comfort of the forest, whether it be from one tree or many.

It didn’t take the elf long to realize that this tree was not like the ones he was used to. It did not sing its ancient song to him nor did it offer any kind of solace to his weary soul. His disappointment was profound. “We are still in troll country,” the elf said, his voice tinged with sorrow.

Aragorn’s heart sank at the news. He had so hoped that they had been swept far enough down the river to have escaped any chance that they could be pursued once again by those disgusting creatures.

He didn’t doubt the elf’s words nor did he have to ask how Legolas knew. He remembered that the trees of the forest near the troll camp were not responsive to the elf, a fact that still puzzled him. The ranger had grown up thinking that all trees responded to wood-elves, but Legolas had told him that unfortunately that was not always the case.

Legolas needed the comfort of the forest not the disappointment of being ignored, which would only drain more of whatever reserves the elf had left. “Does it speak to you at all?”

“No. I believe that it, and all these trees, have been affected by the cruelty of the trolls that live here. The tree does not offer me any ill will. It just does not speak. None of them do.”

“I’m sorry, Legolas. I know how much they mean to you.” Aragorn may not have been able to hear the trees, but he loved the forest as much as any man could.

“It is not their fault,” the elf began in defense of the trees. “The air hums with the brutality of creatures that do not appreciate the magnificence of the forest. The trees have been in this hopeless situation so long that they have shut themselves off from the negative vibrations around them. They do not even know that there is someone here who cares for them.”

Aragorn had complete faith that given time, Legolas could have reawakened the essence of the trees’ nature. However, there was not the time to spare for that right then. He and the archer had to reach shelter before the cold night wind sapped any more of their energy.

Reluctantly, Aragorn said, “Legolas, we must go.”

The man wished he had turned away before he saw the melancholy on the elf’s face. He almost gave in and told Legolas he could stay, but he knew he couldn’t. They had to move and move now.

Legolas understood when Aragorn gripped his arm and gently pulled him away from the old oak. He had also felt that given time he could have broken through the tree’s wall
of silence. The elf said, “Perhaps we can return later when our precarious circumstances have changed for the better.”

Aragorn was thinking the exact opposite. He believed that once they left this accursed land, they should never set foot in it again. However, he wasn’t sure he would be able to convince Legolas of that, so once the two had started on their weary way again, he asked, “Do the trees suffer?”

“I do not think so. They simply go through the seasons of life without contact, even with each other it seems.”

“Then it’s like they’re sleeping.”

“In a manner of speaking, I suppose so.”

Aragorn didn’t comment on that answer. He was sure this conversation wasn’t going to go away, but it would have to be continued later. Legolas would have to be disappointed when he could better handle it. Then the ranger almost laughed. He was Legolas’s friend, not his keeper. He could no more stop the elf from doing something he wanted to do than he could stop the river that churned and roared behind them.

The air was cold, but the trees blocked the worst of the wind, so both elf and ranger only shivered sporadically. However, it was still bad enough to make traveling more difficult. It seemed that their legs were getting stiffer by the moment and moving was getting slower. Aragorn’s sore foot, which caused him to limp, certainly wasn’t helping matters any.

As the two friends continued to drag themselves along, the forest closed ever tighter around them, intensifying the darkness within.

Aragorn was straining to see the few feet ahead of them, so they wouldn’t trip over any tree roots. He couldn’t completely rely on Legolas’s sight, since his head injury had dulled that normally keen elven sense. The man was beginning to wonder if they would be able to spot a yawning cave entrance if one appeared before them. ‘If that happened, I guess we could stumble blindly straight into it,’ he laughed to himself. It was not a humorous laugh. ‘I’ll take it any way I can get it,’ he added, as he gripped Legolas just a little tighter.

“Estel?”

“Yes, Legolas. What is it?” The ranger was hoping to be told that the elf had indeed spotted a cave or an equally secure shelter.

“Why are we here alone in the forest at night? Did we escape the trolls’ camp?”

Aragorn was so shocked and so dismayed, he almost let his grip on the elf slip. Apparently, Legolas’s concussion had caused further amnesia, and he had forgotten not only their harrowing trip down the river but everything that had happened since.

Forcing his voice into a steadiness he did not feel, Aragorn said, “Yes, my friend. We have escaped the trolls and are looking for shelter.”

“There is a hill rising up ahead of us. Perhaps, there is a cave or overhanging rocks there.”

It didn’t help the ranger’s concerns that Legolas had casually mentioned finding a cave to seek shelter in. That was usually the last place the elf wanted to end up in. Legolas’s words seemed to be a mixture of logic and confusion. At least, that was the way Aragorn thought of it. Whatever the reason, the ranger was happy to hear that shelter was possibly close and headed for it.

TBC