Title & Chapter Number: Elencálë (The Light of the Elves) 20/?
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 20
vernonya: My husband (Quenya)
The camp was secured and the horses out of harm's way when the first of the Orcs could be heard by the mortals. Soon the yodeling war cries and the stench of rot and filth heralded the oncoming masses of twisted bodies through the forest. Like putrid water, the Orcs seeped through the sentinel trees surrounding the camp.
Shu Lien sprang without pause into the oncoming deluge, deftly beginning her fierce and fluent lethal dance. Legolas and Elrohir stood behind, loosing arrow after arrow into the fray, while Gimli swung his axe with the same aggressive ferocity as his bellowing war cry.
Mu Bai's eyes widened slightly at the sheer numbers of the creatures. He had encountered some Orcs and Uruks in the plains of Mordor, but nothing on this scale. He struck out with his long sword with graceful lethality, bringing his mind instantly to a sharp focus, and overcoming the sensory overwhelm.
Falmalinnar held back a moment, defending against any who approached but not attacking while he took stock of his comrades. His cursory expert assessment told him all were exceptional warriors. The two Elves were obviously both gifted and skilled. Their arrows hit their marks perfectly and effortlessly. They were alert and quick and had clearly seen many battles. Gimli was as practical and forthright in his fighting style as he was with his speech and he threw himself at his attackers with fearless and unadorned aggression.
Mu Bai was an excellent swordsman - though inexperienced in such combat, a fact that showed in an almost imperceptible hesitancy -and had magnificent control of his mind. He was enduring the battle with grace, though Falmalinnar expected that he was somewhat shocked by the brutality before him.
Shu Lien's form held his gaze somewhat longer. Her technique and ability had matured considerably. She had always been one of the most formidable Mandarin he had trained, yet here he saw her experiences had truly made her a fearsome warrior. Her moves, while maintaining the fluid balance of the Mandarin Way, had lost their elegant, luxurious innocence. They were quick, lethal, brutal, powerful, perilous. She was able to effortlessly release her conscious mind and breathe into the space of pure action, drawing on the controlled rage of survival. This place of no-mind was something the Mandarin were always trying to achieve. Such a delicate state could only truly be attained through the perfect intersection of experience, ability and skill; it was a difficult thing to achieve in a mortal lifetime.
Satisfied that his company could hold their own, Falmalinnar joined the fight in earnest.
Legolas and Elrohir nearly dropped their bows in shock and appreciation of the skill being showcased before them. Falmalinnar had sprung forth wielding his long sword and cut down several attackers seemingly at once, while his body moved in perfect concert, leaping and kicking with his feet, landing a strike with his hand. It seemed he had transformed from a solid, corporal entity into liquid light. His movements rolled smoothly with lightning speed from one to the other like clouds being tumbled by a spring gale. Completely in tune, he was the shadowed antithesis to all movement around him. He executed the lithe, pliant, organic moves of their Way deftly and with such speed and strength that, like a rushing river, like the wind through the trees, he took out all in his path effortlessly, registering no resistance in his sinuous movement. While instantly and intensely lethal, he was also pure and controlled. How had the western Elves lost so much?
A crude arrow whizzed past Mu Bai's head. Furrowing his brow, he yelled in Common. "Uruk-Hai and archers approach!" Legolas and Elrohir both gasped in surprise as the larger Uruk-Hai began to join the Orc masses that were being quickly beaten back by the group. Archers sent arrows flying into the clearing where the warriors were fiercely battling. Elrohir and Legolas began sighting and felling the Uruk archers as soon as they came within range.
Mu Bai and Shu Lien had fallen into their usual battle formation, displaying their familiarity with each other in their intuitive and complementary dance. With a frown, Mu Bai noticed Shu Lien's countenance change slightly with the approach of the archers. She moved away from his side toward Legolas, her attention obviously becoming distracted and drawn to the woods around the Elf.
Galadriel's vision of Legolas being pierced by an arrow burned in Shu Lien's mind. As soon as the Uruk archers appeared, she recognized the shafts and immediately sought Legolas' side. An Orc threw itself at her, and with two swift, brutal kicks she brought it to the ground, before impaling it with her sword. Almost absently her foot came up to stomp against the chest of the creature while she withdrew her blade. Simultaneously, she brought her other elbow forward in a bruising strike to the jaw of another face flying at her, the bloodshot eyes of the Orc rolling back into its head with the impact. Quickly, smoothly, she stole its breath with a hissing stroke to its throat with her blade`s twin.
She turned back around from this move just in time to see, in an uncommonly strategic move, an Uruk archer creeping from behind the trees in the opposite direction from the tide of others who approached. Its bow was drawn and pointed at Legolas' unsuspecting back.
A cold fear instantly spread throughout her body. Yelling out his name, with lightning reflexes, she hurled one of her swords as a projectile, aiming for the largest weak point in its armor. The short sword embedded with a sickening thud in the creature's face almost to the hilt, the arrow being released harmlessly into the trees.
At her call, Legolas turned to Shu Lien just in time to see an Orc take advantage of her momentary distraction and launch itself into her, knocking her over, and her other sword from her hand, as it sank its jaws into her shoulder and upper arm. With a guttural snarl, it drew back to get a better grip around her shoulder with its terrible jagged teeth, viciously shaking its head to tear her apart, its claws deep in her side. Her whole form flopped like a rag doll from the strength of the creature.
Intense pain ripped through Shu Lien's body and exited her mouth in a gasping scream.
That scream cut into Legolas' very soul and his emotions blazoned with mind-numbing intensity and then extinguished instantly in the cold hard focus of desperation. The sound of the battle was instantly dowsed and he heard nothing but the even, measured beat of his heart, the creak of his bow as he drew it back, the exhale of his breath before he released it. His eyes narrowed and his face set in severe concentration as he aimed. Two arrows were instantly embedded in the Orc's head and its jaws slackened.
The nearby Orcs were drawn with predatory passion to the fallen victim and they began to swarm towards her. Legolas fired arrow after deadly arrow with impossible precision, taking out each assailant in turn as he moved toward her, focused so intensely that it was if those around him moved in slow motion.
The other warriors saw the situation, and Elrohir covered Legolas with his arrows from where he stood, as Gimli moved to Elrohir's side to fend off attackers while his focus was occupied. Mu Bai tried to thin out those who were streaming toward Shu Lien and Falmalinnar was pushing forward through the fray, sending bodies flying in a frenzy.
Legolas had given Shu Lien enough time to get up, which she did so quickly that for a moment he was hopeful that she hadn't really been as injured as he feared. But the look of severe pain twisting her face and the way she held her arm, coupled with the glistening red stain creeping across her chest, back and down her arm, told the true tale.
Shu Lien had rolled the Orc off of her immediately when she felt it go limp. She pushed herself to get up, pushed through the agony of her body, the gasping breath that tugged on her wound and intensified the pain, pushed through the blackness that was threatening to overtake her vision. She knew that the most important thing she could do to remain alive was to get up. So she did.
Once up, she swayed, fearing she would wretch from the unbearable pain. Her vision was blurring as her body went into shock. She shook her head to clear it, willing herself to accept the pain, to embrace the anguish. She breathed deeply, barely aware of anything around her, and her discipline, her focus took over. She knew Legolas was near, though she couldn't quite focus on her surroundings; she just heard arrows hitting their mark among the sounds of battle through the slow, eerie, rasping of her breath.
She needed a weapon. She held out her hand, gasping Legolas' name. The handle of one of his swords immediately found its way into her hand with a smack and she began to move. All the feelings of her body fell away as she struck out.
Though it seemed like an hour had passed, it was less than a minute and Legolas was at her side. "Shu Lien, you are losing blood," he whispered hoarsely, distraught, as he neared. Having shouldered his bow, he thrust his other long knife up under and through the chin of an approaching Uruk-Hai, twisting it deftly as the pained bellow muted to silence.
"We cannot stop. We will be overtaken." She ground out as she kicked and then stabbed an approaching Orc, even as she gingerly held her left arm to her side, the alarming stain of red ever spreading. "Stay beside me." She hissed quietly as another wave of nausea washed over her.
Legolas was frantic, only his fierce battle focus allowing him to subvert his instinct. He was near scooping her up and running with her away from the fray. If he thought he could actually get them out of the battle, he would have done just that. But she was right. Each of the party was a most impressive warrior, but between the numbers streaming out of the blackening night and her injury, there was no chance for escape. Another arrow whizzed by his head. Elrohir sited the Uruk who had loosed it and felled it immediately. Falmalinnar was finally beside them, Mu Bai closing the distance.
"Legolas, we need your skills elsewhere. Your bow!" Falmalinnar ordered in a strong voice that had shed any trace of its velvet texture.
Legolas did not even blink. "I will not leave her side." He grunted as he leapt into a roundhouse kick to a strike an approaching Orc. Landing lightly, he rammed his long knife in the weak point under the arm of a bellowing Uruk that was raising its sword.
"Legolas we need your bow! Mu Bai will cover her." Falmalinnar's voice descended to an even deeper register that reverberated with command in his chest as he deftly sliced those that dared approach.
Shu Lien did not even look to the two as she concentrated completely on staying upright and landing the next strike. "Go, vernonya …go," she gasped between lunges, knowing that Falmalinnar heard and wishing to speak aloud her love if these were to be her last breaths.
Legolas looked worriedly over to her; her face was very pale, and her eyes glazed, but her brow was furrowed in steely resolve as she continued with her attacks, keeping her balance centered somehow, despite the immobilization of her left side.
With anguished resignation, he drew his bow again and moved several paces away. He must focus. Her life depended on his performance. With the practice of millennia, he submerged his fervent emotions with the strength of his concentration. He had only a few arrows left of this second battle quiver. Looking around he saw that Gimli had already begun collecting more arrows with one hand from the fallen attackers as his axe swung continuously. Falmalinnar was right, he hated to admit it, but as long as there were archers afoot, they needed their bows.
Legolas' body was cold. He was loosing arrows with fierce accuracy and speed, but inside his consciousness had fled. He felt nothing. Detached, he watched as Shu Lien struggled. Mu Bai was an excellent warrior and kept her attackers at a minimum, but she was still left fending off attackers on the razor's edge of her ability, it was clear. The depth of her skill was apparent in the way she was able to maintain her balance and the deftness of her strikes, even though her speed was diminished and movement drastically hampered by her wounds. Legolas kept his eyes on her as much as he could and his heart broke a little more with each of the grazes her slowed reflexes incurred.
Falmalinnar had neared Shu Lien, using his sword to tear a large strip from his undertunic. Lightly, he touched her other shoulder as the bows had again covered them, giving them a slight reprieve and she turned to him with dull eyes. As gently as he could, he quickly wrapped the material around her arm, trying to staunch the flow of blood from her wounds. She winced with a pained groan, her knees buckling as she sank. Falmalinnar steadied her with strong hands.
"Are you well enough..." he asked softly.
Shu Lien turned on him with dark fury. "I must be. Leave me!" she growled, straightening and pushing his hands off her roughly.
Falmalinnar registered no reaction, but stepped back, engaging an attacker almost absently as he regarded her. Her eyes were fevered, her face drawn, and he knew she reacted with such anger only when she was near her breaking point. The red stain of her oozing life had seeped across her entire left side, and started down her hip. The large makeshift bandage was already completely soaked, but it seemed to have slowed the flow somewhat. Nevertheless, she was standing only by the force of her considerable determination.
Mu Bai took the signal from where he had been fending off attackers nearby, awaiting instructions, and moved to her side, exchanging places with Falmalinnar.
As they passed each other, the Elf hissed "She will fall soon! Her wound is grave. It is only her will that holds her now."
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