Title & Chapter Number: Elencálë (The Light of the Elves) 10/?
Author(s): - Author's Index
Fandom: Middle Earth/Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Rating: NC-17 Romance/Adventure
Disclaimer:
Warnings:
Betas:
Cast: Legolas/Shu Lien
Timeline: AU - Post RotK
Spoilers: None
Summary: This story takes place about 100 years after the quest of the One Ring. Even after the fall of Sauron, the foul breath of evil can still be felt on the winds of Middle Earth. Some say it is just the nature of the world, the shadow of the light. Some say it is rising and has once again become sentient. King Elessar rules with a just and even hand, but Men throughout the land are falling into darkness, succumbing to greed, hatred and violence among themselves and against the world. The Light of the Elves departs as the Eldar continue to withdraw to the West, leaving darkness in their wake.
Notes: Elves do not close their eyes during Reverie. While I have updated the sexual culture of the Eldar to reflect more modern values (and indeed the fact that I feel that such sensual and advanced beings would revel in such a pass time and consider it natural and pure), the concept that Elves can tell if other Elves have had sex actually is Tolkien's.
Chapter 10
The morning was cool and gray. A silvery mist rose as a whisper from the damp dark earth and a light drizzle answered it quietly from the low, cloudy heavens hanging as heavily as the dripping silence. The effect was a diminishing of the duality between ground and sky: all existed in the imagination of the world. Trees and rocks emerged as shadows and gave the only comforting glimpses of solid reality other than the looming mountains in the distant west. The group moved in the surrealism, each withdrawn into their own thoughts. Leaving Lothlórien was never a joyous affair, the world outside always seemed bleaker, the road longer and the way harder. But the light of Lothlórien went with all who visited that mystical wood.
As they wound northward for the next two days, the group spoke little. Gimli was the first, as usual, to recover his congeniality. By the second day, he began to chat aimlessly about the Lothlórien visit with Shu Lien, who was riding beside him. Her stay in Caras Galadhon weighed heavily on her heart, and she was withdrawn far into herself and her thoughts. As Gimli began to talk to Shu Lien, Elrohir and Legolas, who were riding several paces ahead of them, began to have their own quiet conversations.
Gimli regarded the woman beside him as she graced him with yet another of her restrained, gentle smiles. She was not really listening to what he was saying, of this he was certain. He didn't really mind. She was obviously very upset about something.
He hated to admit it, but he was growing fond of this human. She was kind, attentive (usually) and thoughtful. Her insight and sensitivity saw him as he truly was, accepting him with no judgment, only broadcasting an appreciation for all of his intricacies which were usually lost on others under his gruff and sometimes eccentric facade. In her eyes he saw all of his best and most endearing qualities reflected. It made him feel good to be with her.
He watched her look subtly ahead to the blond Elf riding before her, and then down at her horse's neck again, deep in thought. He never would have believed them if someone had told him he would be spending his days with such confusing and complicated creatures. They were obviously in love, why didn't they do something about it instead of pining away miserably?
He did not like seeing his best friend, or his new friend for that matter, in such a state. He had never seen an Elf move so slowly in his life! Why didn't he just kiss her and have it over with? Of course Gimli knew it wasn't as simple as that, but he was the sort who acted first and figured out the rest later - and it had always worked best doing it exactly in that order.
Gimli was confused by love in general. Dwarves didn't spend a lot of time dwelling on such a feeling. Very few of them married, as Dwarvish females were somewhat of a rarity, and romance was just not a part of the culture. The closest thing he had experienced to the bewildering dance he was witnessing was his infatuation with the glorious Lady Galadriel.
"Did anyone ever tell you that you have a lovely smile, even when it is merely given in courtesy." Gimli finally asked with a grin. "Have you heard a word I have said?"
Shu Lien blushed deeply and looked over to him with an embarrassed laugh. "I am sorry, my friend. I have been lost in my thoughts."
"Yes. Forgive me for noticing, but it seems that your heart is heavier for your visit in the Golden Wood. I thought that it was a crime against all that is fair to be weighed down so after a visit with such magnificence." Gimli continued, cutting his eyes up at her as she rode gracefully, evenly, her eyes meeting his before dropping to her lap a moment.
"I have been given much to ponder. I fear that even the exquisite beauty of Lothlórien is not enough to lighten my heavy heart in these days." She said simply. She knew Gimli would not press her for details that she did not wish to share.
She looked up again meeting his eyes. "But indeed, in addition to being rude, it is foolish of me to miss out on your stories. For perhaps second only to the splendor of Lothlórien, lies the riotous tales of Gimli son of Gloin in their redemptive and restorative powers to the soul." She smiled warmly.
Gimli blushed in spite of himself, looking around with embarrassment and then clearing his throat. "Have I ever told you the way I capsized the boat when I was with the Fellowship on our way out of Lothlórien, in order to teach a certain Elf a lesson? If you have ever seen a wet Elf, you know that it was well worth every dirty look I got for the next week..." He began with a mischievous grin that was visible even through his beard.
Legolas, who had been surreptitiously listening to the conversation behind him, turned to glare at the Dwarf, but Gimli was not paying attention as he was engrossed in the telling of the tale in meticulous detail. Looking to Shu Lien his face softened immediately as she looked up and met his gaze. Raising her eyebrows briefly in amusement, she grinned softly to him before returning her attention to her friend beside her. Legolas turned back around with a smile still on his face.
~*~*~*~
The day passed quickly as the party made its way north on the western side of the Anduin river.
Legolas peered into the thick blackness of the night. He knew he had heard something. Elvish senses on alert, he strained to catch another clue before waking the others. It was a new moon and the time of night when the darkness seemed bottomless, when the soul felt like it was being siphoned through the eyes at the strain of attempting to find even a silhouette to indicate existence beyond ones' self. Even Elvish vision saw little in the viscous black of the forest.
There it was .... a mass of scurrying footfalls in the far distance, barely audible to Elvish ears. No animals were these, he recognized the weight and gait. Orcs.
He sprang to Elrohir's side, touching his shoulder. His open eyes focused quickly on Legolas' face. "Orcs." Legolas hissed and moved quickly to Shu Lien's bed roll while Elrohir roused Gimli.
He had barely touched her shoulder when her eyes popped open, focused, alert. Her hand was on her weapon and she was sitting up before Legolas could even name their attacker. She stood immediately and went to the fire, beginning to stoke it, so that she would be able to benefit from some vision. Gimli and was heading toward the fire as well. Elrohir then stole to where the horses were beginning to snort with apprehension and sent them away with a whisper. The Elvish steeds would lead the pony with them away from the fray. Elrohir returned to the camp in the middle of a tensely whispered conversation between Shu Lien and Legolas.
"...can you tell how many there are?" Her brow was knitted with concentration and concern.
Legolas paused listening, "Several score." His look was grave as he notched his arrow.
The living sounds of the forest stopped abruptly and the mortals were soon able to discern the rustling footfalls. They seemed to be coming from all directions at once. The orange glow of the fire lit a meager circle of sight in the small clearing, illuminating the surrounding tree trunks like an eerie prison and casting long, sinister shadows. Shu Lien placed herself, back to the fire, and drew her swords, separating the blades immediately. Images of her trek through Mordor were crowding her mind. Orcs, and worse, had attacked every night, the evil in that land loved the night. Trying to stay alive when sight was so limited was frighteningly challenging. As they traveled, they had to start sleeping during the morning hours when things like Orcs did not show themselves. Survival in that land meant constant fleeing. Her mind replayed the gruesome sight of her friends falling to the jaws of the beasts of that violent land.
She shook her head, clearing these images, narrowing into focus immediately so that all that existed was the cool hard handles of her blades, the soothing sounds of her breath and the feel of the earth beneath her feet.
The blackness seemed to converge on them at once and suddenly the forest was moving with the twisted snarling shapes of Orcs, illuminated by the meager orange glow of the fire and glistening off their repulsive mottled skin. Shu Lien sprang forward impaling a figure, slicing another, as her leg kicked an Orc from her side, immediately sporting an arrow buried in its face. Orcs were not intelligent nor skilled warriors, but overwhelmed their victims by sheer numbers. They seemed to pour forth from the forest, it was all Shu Lien could do to keep her head above the fray. She felt the weight of the ring at her waist, she could not fall.
Elrohir had wordlessly took to fighting at Gimli's side and Legolas was desperately trying to cover Shu Lien with his bow. It was impossible to keep her in his sight as the swarming bodies kept obscuring her form and her fighting style was so based on movement. They were definitely focused on her as a target; this attack was not random. Cursing, he kept trying to get closer to her. She was ferociously lethal, but the odds this time were grave indeed. He felt the prickling heat of anxiety rise in his throat. Quickly he squashed the feelings of hopelessness and fear that the mind tried to assert and focused with the cold hard attention of detachment.
Arrows ran out in a heartbeat it seemed, and the Elves were fighting with their blades. Gimli had fallen momentarily and Elrohir had barely managed to give him the time he needed to get up. Legolas had had to help his friends for that brief moment, and when he turned around to continue on his trajectory to Shu Lien's side, she was gone. Fear and adrenaline spread through his veins like flames, burning into his fingertips.
"Shu Lien! Shu Lien!" He slashed at the bodies with renewed fury as he called her name into the black night. He could hear no answer above the yodeling war cries of the creatures around them. He pressed toward the area where she had last been seen. She had not fallen. Yet.
"Legolas!" Her breathless, strained voice was heard above the din of battle off into the woods. He ran, ignoring the few slices he received as he pushed through the creatures brutally.
Shu Lien was enduring her own private hell. Having been pulled by the movement of the battle out of the clearing, she began to be aware that they were trying coax her into the darkness. She had to stop, on the outskirts where there was still some light and, with her back against a large tree for protection, fight in a very fixed fashion. Yellowed jagged teeth, bared by rotting lips gnashed out of the darkness at her, over and over. Dim, eerie light from the fire in the distance amplified the sinister sheen in the bloodshot, lidless eyes, that bored into her with malice from all sides. The smell of putrid flesh and uncleanliness was suffocating, and wafts of foul breath washed over her with every attacking cry of the creatures as they threw themselves at her.
Fighting up against the tree like this with such hampered movement meant that her normal techniques had to be abandoned and static strength and energy extension had to be relied on completely. It was exhausting and extremely difficult. While she was a formidable opponent for her size, the Orcs were almost twice her size. She felt hopelessness began to creep up her chest, spreading its anxious chill throughout her body.
She had been in similar situations before in Mordor... and had survived then. She saw Falmalinnar's face in her mind and thought of her promise and duty. She must endure until sunrise...somehow.
Suddenly Legolas was at her side, slashing and thrusting furiously. Relief warmed the icy hold of despair immediately. Just having him beside her lifted her spirits immensely.
"Legolas." She breathed his name as a grateful incantation.
"I am here." He spoke softly between the grunts of his furious thrusts.
No words were needed for them to intuit a more suitable battle plan. They moved as a unit away from the tree, staying in the edges of the clearing where the trees around them provided some protection from the onslaught, and Shu Lien could move, once more. The hours of training together and their natural affinity showcased itself remarkably. They each instinctively fought in harmony, moving together, protecting each other's back and launching complimenting assaults. The dire situation suddenly became more manageable as their battle dance neutralized their assailants with frightening efficiency.
Shu Lien's breath was desperately ragged in her chest when she first was able to discern the silhouettes of the trees around them. The birds did not wake the sun, for the battle below, but the seeping breath of dawn slowly began to infuse sight into the world. The few remaining Orcs began to retreat back towards the Misty Mountains leaving their victims heaving and very much relieved.
As the beasts fled the light, Shu Lien let her arms drop to her side, her shoulders falling and head tilting back as her breath struggled to catch up. Head raising, she turned to regard Legolas and their gazes locked intensely for a long moment. His eyes were dark and unreadable.
"Legolas! Shu Lien!" Gimli's grating voice called out, no distress evident, just concern for their whereabouts.
"We are here!" Legolas returned not taking his eyes from hers. With a soft smile, Shu Lien took another breath and walked past him, into the clearing, touching his elbow as she passed; communicating that which would not spill forth from her lips.
Legolas followed Shu Lien back into the camp which was littered with the bodies of their fallen opponents. Gimli and Elrohir were already cleaning their weapons. The Orcs had been most focused on Shu Lien and her charge, so they had been spared the brunt of the offensive.
"Well I have had more pleasant awakenings..." Gimli grumbled as he rolled away a body to retrieve part of his mangled supplies. Most of the packs had been hung in the trees and were mercifully still intact.
"Is everyone still in one piece then?" Legolas inquired. Elrohir and Gimli both nodded.
"You two?" Elrohir asked regarding them casually.
"None the worse for wear." Legolas smiled as he picked up a cloth to clean his blade. Shu Lien nodded, cleaning her own blades before sheathing them and heading for her pack. Removing it from the tree, lost in her thoughts, she moved to the river a few hundred feet off by the light of the rising sun.
As she washed the gore from her face and hands and stripped of her outer tunic, her mind saw the images of Mordor. This night had brought it all back. The disturbing blind hatred had been replaced by an empty aching sorrow that hung like lead in her chest. She sat back on her heels and sighed, trying to breath it out of her chest, but it pressed ever closer. She closed her eyes trying to untangle the intense wash of rampant emotion.
She opened her eyes as her companions drew near, bringing their things to the place where she sat on the river bank, so that they might wash as well. Turning, she smiled emptily at them and stood.
Legolas was walking toward her holding out a Lembas that was wrapped in a leaf. She was always famished after exerting such energy, but this morning she didn't have the stomach to eat. She took it gratefully none-the-less, smiling absently at his thoughtfulness.
As she took the waybread from his hand, her eyes snapped to his arm and his sleeve that was soaked with blood. His blood. Letting out a soft cry, she held the lembas in her mouth as both hands went to his sleeve, holding his arm steady as she peered through the torn fabric and to the ravaged skin beneath.
"It is nothing, Shu Lien." Legolas smiled, with slight amusement as she continued to inspect him with concern, finding several other small gashes that he had gotten as he had carelessly charged to her side in the woods. Shu Lien just scowled at him and pulled him down to the ground beside the river. Wordlessly reaching over to her supplies she got her healing pack and some cloth.
"You have some wounds as well..." He said regarding her torn, blood-flecked under tunic and trying to deflect her concern again, even though it felt very good to have her worried for him for some strange reason.
"Mimph war skwamph..." She began, trying to speak around the forgotten waybread held in her mouth, and finally, irritably, setting it beside her. "Mine are scratches, nothing more... not like this..." She scolded, taking her attention from his arm for a moment and meeting his eyes in reprimand. "Elves can suffer infection too, you know. Especially from the filth on an Orc blade. Your knife?"
He pulled his hidden blade from his boot and handed it to her with his other hand, watching her closely. She quickly cut open his sleeve surveying the damage. It was not through the muscle, but was large, and gaping and needed treatment quickly. Were he human, he would have had to endure many stitches, but as an Elf, his skin would heal quickly and seamlessly provided it was tightly bound and well cared for. Dipping the cloth from her pack in water, she began cleaning it gingerly. Her fingers touched the edges of the torn skin and she winced as he sucked in a breath. A sharp pain shot through her arm and body. Taking a breath she stilled herself, as the pain seemed to burrow into her, and then slowly dissipate. After a moment, when it had passed, she continued her work, mentally shrugging.
"What did you put on it?" Legolas looked puzzled, searching her eyes.
Shu Lien didn't look up. "Just water now - I will clean it with Black Walnut and a fine aged Eucalyptus oil I have to prevent infection and finish it with a Comfrey and Calendula balm for healing. Any other suggestions?" She spoke distractedly.
"But the pain has fled..." Legolas said quietly, confused.
Shu Lien paused looking up into his perplexed eyes. She didn't want to process this at the moment. "I do not question a blessing." She said softly and returned to cleaning out the large gash. Her mind was in Mordor.
Legolas regarded her intently as she worked on his arm. As always, having her so near made his chest warm, his heart skip and a soft sadness melt throughout his body. He found he could regard her openly without censure, as she was oblivious to his stare; her eyes were seeing images for her alone. He took the opportunity to examine every detail of her delicate face, trying to commit it to memory. Her hands moved deftly, automatically. A deep sorrow began to seep from behind her liquid eyes. She blinked slowly as she worked quickly. Legolas' heart grew heavy as her profound grief became evident.
"What do you see?" He finally asked her very gently, very softly.
Shu Lien's expression did not change, nor did her eyes waver as she wrapped his arm in clean bandage and moved to clean the smaller wounds. He thought she hadn't heard him, but then she spoke, slowly, quietly and as if in a dream. "I see my dear friend Alfirinë. We met in my training with the Amaurëa many years ago. We practiced much of my life together, she was a gifted warrior. Such a beautiful singer, with a voice like starlight, and a soul to match. She was my Onoone <sister>. I asked that she not come. She was so in love. Her husband, also a friend and warrior came too. I pleaded for them to make the trip to Valinor, but she would not leave me, saying she had always wanted to see Rivendell and could sail from the Gray Havens."
Shu Lien paused drawing a shaky breath, leaving her hand resting on Legolas' bound arm absently. "She watched her husband meet a brutal end as we crossed into Mordor. Her soul was torn from her. Were it not for her dedication to our quest, and our friendship, I am certain grief would have taken her fëa <spirit> to Mandos swiftly."
Swallowing, Shu Lien blinked slowly, stammering as her mind saw the images with brutal clarity even after so many months. "They attacked us every night, just like tonight... others hounded us all through the day. We were the last. We were so very tired. That night ...I saw her fall... I struggled to get to her, but there were so many!" She paused, closing her eyes to the pain, "Their jaws tore the flesh from her bones while she was still screaming. They ate her alive. I will never forget the sound of her voice... her melodic voice... raised in unbridled terror and pain." Shu Lien's voice was hollow and barely a whisper. "I saw my shieldmates, my friends, all leave this world in such ..." Her voice was stolen.
Legolas closed his eyes briefly, feeling her overwhelming grief. He knew there were no words he could offer as comfort, no words to ease her pain. "Shu Lien..." His voice caressed her name softly as he placed his other hand over hers, still resting on his arm. She looked up slowly and met his eyes. His blue eyes were soft, liquid; conveying a message of compassion, of empathy, of sorrow. "There was nothing you could have done..." He said quietly, trying to will his strength into her, wishing he could take the memory from her mind. He had experienced much brutality over the many years, but not like this.
Her mournful eyes darted back and forth between his as her brow furrowed slightly. The morning sun looked like it had pooled in the liquid depths of her black eyes and it glinted off the lone tear that overflowed down her cheek.
"I hate them. I can find no compassion in my heart." She whispered hoarsely, closing her eyes again and bowing her head, "I hate them."
Several more tears squeezed free and fell to Legolas' arm. After a long moment, she took several deep breaths and stilled herself, releasing the memory. She had been taught to dwell only in the present. It was all anyone had. The past was inevitable, the future, unwritten. The only way to avoid suffering was to accept all that simply was. With a sigh, she returned to the feel of the sandy ground beneath her, to the soft gurgle of the lazy river, to the feel of Legolas' beside her. Her eyes regarded their now entwined hands with a sad smile, and gently released him and pulled her hand back to repack the healing supplies. With another breath she had regained her composure and she stood, looking around her, orienting herself with the world once more.
"Let us away. I cannot bear the smell." She said to him louder in Common Speech, looking to Elrohir and Gimli who were finishing their washing a discreet distance away.
Elrohir walked closer to them and met the eyes of each. "We should travel through Mirkwood, do you not agree, Legolas? The farther we get from these mountains and caves, the less chance of another attack we have."
Legolas nodded and rose, grabbing up the forgotten Lembas and handing it to Shu Lien, regarding her with subtle concern. "If we head east, we shall enter the forest by afternoon. I agree it may preserve us from another such attack, though slow our progress considerably as the horses will have to be led for most of the journey."
In agreement, the group packed their bags and went in search of their horses.
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