Chapter Twelve

Legolas was slowly but surely working his way among the mountain boulders.  Every step he made was painful.  Every breath he took was painful.  It seemed that even the very thoughts that came to his mind were painful, as well.  The elf had suffered numerous  wounds and injuries in his life, but this was different.  The pain came from  punctures that would not have been too bad had they occurred individually, but all together, as was the case now, it felt like the serpent’s teeth were still embedded in his flesh.

The longer he walked, or more accurately, the longer he struggled, the weaker he became.  It wasn’t from loss of blood, he was sure.  His clothes were blood-stained certainly but not overly so.  The nearest thing he could think of to this situation was the feeling he had had from being poisoned  by an orc sword many years ago.

Was the snake poisonous?  He didn’t think so.  Surely a creature so large would have enough venom to kill a few dozen elves.  Yet, not nearly enough time had passed to cause infection from the bite marks themselves.  Perhaps there was poison from rotting flesh on the teeth themselves rather than from venom.  Not a pleasant thought for sure but not impossible.

Legolas shook his head.  He felt too weary to even try and figure out the problem.  He just knew he felt bad in general, hurt worse from the wounds and desperately needed to rest. 

He stopped and leaned against a boulder to his left.  The elf desperately wanted to sit down, close his eyes and let his body gain some strength, but he feared that he hadn’t moved far enough away from where he had been set down by the snake to consider himself safe.  Legolas almost laughed.  He probably wouldn’t be safe from that creature anywhere.  The snake had pursued him and Aragorn from the tunnels under the tower all the way to this mountain.  There was no reason to think that it would turn around and go back home now.

At the thought of Aragorn, Legolas sighed.  Where was his friend?  Was he safe?  Was he dead?  Was he in the same situation the elf found himself in now?  Short of coming across the man’s body or hearing his voice to know the ranger yet lived, there would be no way to know.

Legolas was in bad shape.  That was clear enough to him.  But, unless he survived, he wouldn’t be able to offer Aragorn even the merest bit of help, something he would not hesitate to give his friend, no matter what his own weakness might be even unto his last breath.

The archer forced himself to start again but had gone no more than a few steps when he stopped once more, this time cocking his head to listen.

What came to his ears was a scraping noise.  It was subtle but easily detected by the keen-eared elf.  There was no doubt what that sound was or what was making it.

Quickly crouching down, Legolas held his breath.  The snake was moving nearby.  The elf looked up and in his line of vision, framed by the dark granite rocks and the blue sky, he saw the huge, glistening head,  as the creature passed by.   Fortunately, the snake was looking straight ahead and didn’t see him.  The archer let out a silent sigh of relief.

As his eyes followed the snake’s progress until it disappeared from sight, Legolas almost gasped.  All along the rocks the elf had just passed, were small smears of blood, both high and low.  They might not be able to be seen by a beast as large as this one, but Legolas knew the scent of his blood could easily be picked up by the  searching serpentine  tongue.  Of course, his stained clothes gave off an even greater scent.

No sooner had Legolas completed the thought than the snake stopped and turned its head back toward the archer’s position.  Legolas  had quickly dropped down as low as he could get in an attempt to remain hidden.

The swift movement hurt, and it took all of the elf’s self control not to groan.  He also unconsciously bit down on his lower lip, forcing himself to keep any sound from coming out.

He couldn’t see the snake and was not about to rise up to take a peek.  Legolas shuddered to think what would happen if he came face to face with the creature, staring at it as it stared back at him.  He would just have to rely on his hearing to tell him when the snake started moving again and in which direction it was going.

As Legolas nervously waited, time itself seemed to slow down until it simply froze.  He didn’t dare move until he knew for sure where the snake was headed. 

The elf tried to take a little comfort in the fact that keeping still meant he wasn’t having to struggle.  It wasn’t an entirely successful endeavor.  His body may be still, but his mind was  anything but, and that was quickly leading to tension-tight muscles.  Next to moving, that was the one thing that made his body ache even more than it already did.

The noise of belly scales scraping on stone began again, moving off in the direction the snake had been going before it had stopped.

Legolas didn’t attempt to move until he could no longer hear evidence of the snake’s progress over the rocks.  With his acute hearing, that took a long time.

Finally, the only sound was that of the wind, and Legolas rose up to see the retreating back end of the serpent heading toward the far rocks.  Now was the time for the elf to begin putting more distance between him and the snake.

Just as Legolas took the first step, the world began to spin around him.  Or, was he spinning inside of it?  The result was the same.  The elf lost all resemblance to coherence, as he reached out to grab a boulder in order to keep himself on his feet.

Moving toward the snake on its other side was the ranger.  He, like Legolas moments before, heard the scraping of scales on stone and also like Legolas, dropped down between boulders to hide his presence.

However, unlike Legolas, Aragorn had a v-shaped wedge between the two boulders in front of him, in which to observe the snake without being seen.  It was clear to the man that the serpent was not just wandering around.  It had a definite destination in mind and was headed that way with a purpose.  That the destination would likely end up taking it straight to Legolas made the ranger shiver.

He still didn’t know what his friend’s condition was.  He doubted that the snake cared whether its dinner was alive or dead.

Once the snake moved off far enough so that it wouldn’t see or hear Aragorn behind it, the ranger began moving to follow the creature.  How he would be able to get to Legolas and snatch him from the serpent’s jaws, the man had no idea.  Now, however, was not the time to stop and form a plan.  He would just have to make it up as he went along, depending on the circumstances he found himself in.  It was something he and Legolas often had to do when facing an  enemy whose strategies and fighting abilities they knew little about.

The boulders on the right side of the snake were taller than those on the left and would offer Aragorn more cover should the creature turn to check around it.  The man headed that way, crossing the snake’s trail a good distance behind it.

Luckily, he was heading toward the rocks where Legolas was located.  Unluckily, the elf was moving away, though at a much slower pace.  It only remained to be seen whether the ranger would go far enough to the side to come upon him before turning to again follow the snake.

Aragorn was just starting to turn into a parallel path to the snake’s, when he heard a noise off to his right.  He stopped to listen, not sure exactly what it was he had heard.

When the noise came again, he almost gasped.  He knew exactly what that sound was.  It brought both relief and dread to his heart, because it was the sound of a wounded person, in this case, a wounded elf.

Without hesitation, Aragorn headed for the place where he was sure he would find Legolas.

Aragorn tired to run but couldn’t manage that while among the boulders, whose bases often touched each other, forming a v shape that didn’t allow him to put his feet firmly down on a flat surface.  He also had to keep in mind that if he stood up straight, he could be spotted by the snake.

Deciding a half-crouch was his only option, he made his way through the boulders as fast as he could manage.

Just as the ranger found himself blocked by a particularly large boulder in front of him, he turned to his right.  Pulling up short, he stared, blinking rapidly to make sure he was really seeing what he imagined he was, though in honesty, he hoped it was a trick of the light amid the rough stone.

An instant later, he was sure the image was real.  What he saw was a pair of soft, brown leather boots, boots that he knew all too well.  Lamentably, they were not upright but rather lying on their sides.  Legolas was down.

Rushing around the boulder, Aragorn found the elf lying on his left side, his head resting on his outstretched arm.

The man called Legolas’s name but received no response.  There was no room to move up beside Legolas, so Aragorn wedged his feet on either side, straddling the prone body, and bent down,   placing his fingertips against the elf’s neck.  Though the pulse they detected was weak, it was there, and that, of course, was the important thing.

Aragorn moved his feet back a little and bent down again, this time reaching around and under the elf’s body.  Once he had a solid grip on his friend, the ranger pulled up until Legolas was upright.

His grip tightening, Aragorn looked up and around to make sure the snake was not nearby, at least not close enough to be seen from the man’s lower vantage point.  As far as he could tell, he and Legolas were alone in this area.

With Legolas’s back against his chest, Aragorn turned around and began to make his way backwards through the rocks.  It was awkward but there was no other choice.  He was afraid to carry Legolas over his shoulder for fear of hurting him further, since he couldn’t be sure of the extent of the elf‘s injuries.

Not able to see where he was going other than to glance down behind himself, Aragorn moved as carefully as he could, half carrying and half dragging the unconscious elf as he went.  He didn’t want to fall, although if that did happen, at least Legolas would land on top of him, rather than the other way around.

Moving as slowly as Legolas had earlier, when he had been alone, the ranger was gradually covering ground.

Aragorn was concentrating so hard on maneuvering himself and Legolas, that he didn’t notice the rocks around them were getting shorter.  When he looked up and realized that he could see all around him, he stopped.  There was a gap of about thirty yards where the boulders were barely taller than half his height.  Farther on they grew tall again, but how was he going to get Legolas and himself across that expanse without being exposed?  The answer was simple; He wasn’t.

Setting the elf down to lean against a boulder, Aragorn looked up along the walls of the huge depression they were in, hoping to find a way to get across this area and still remain hidden. He studied the solid granite above. Then he saw it.

It had one thing on It’s mind: dinner.  It had left the one prey being among the rocks, and now It was going to get what It had been waiting for since leaving It’s home.

When It reached the area among the rocks where It had left the being, It found nothing but stone.  It’s sense of direction wasn't all that good, but It was sure the small creature had been deposited right here. 

Rearing It’s head up as high as It could, It stared down at the empty rocks.  Then, It looked around.

Even though it was true that this whole place looked the same from just about any angle, It was sure It could not have gotten lost.

Flicking It’s tongue, It clearly detected the scent of the prey here.  This was the right place.

It screamed in It’s way at the thought that the prey could have escaped yet again.  Such a situation was unacceptable, and It was furious.  The being was almost dead, so how could it have left?  Where could it have gone?

Turning It’s head to look over the rock-strewn ground, It spotted what It was looking for.

Far up on the slope was - both of the prey beings!  They were moving higher, seemingly toward the top of the depression.

With a loud hiss, It began to move over the rocks as fast as It could go.  This time, they were not going to get away.  This time, once and for all, they would die!

TBC