Dabbles In Ink: Lord Of The Rings One-Shots

Through Windows to find Cradles

Year: 2946 TA

Branches tapped at the window panes like claws trying to scratch their way in. Their shadows danced along the wood floor, paying no mind to the clothes scattered there. 

An ellon lay awake, something had woken him, sent shivers down his spine, made his eyes dart to every corner of the room in search of a threat. 

Nothing.

Perhaps his wife was right. Perhaps he had been on too many patrols and seen too much of the growing darkness. 

Perhaps--

A voice, low and singing, rang just above the noise of the wind. He bolted upright, tossing the covers back and racing out the door. His wife called out after him but he ignored her as he ran for their daughter's room. 

A gust of cool wind swept though the open window to meet him as he flung the door open. Bright, yellow eyes met his and his blood ran cold. The creature, whatever it was, held his daughter up by her leg, her small body dangling above her crib. 

The young elleth began to cry and the ellon reached for the knife he kept on his hip, only for his fingers to brush against the fabric of his nightclothes. The creature grinned and ran its tounge over the cracked skin of its lips, lifting the ellon's daughter above his head. 

The ellon leapt forward, shoving the cradle across the room to get to his daughter. The creature screamed and clutched the baby to itself before leaping out the window. The ellon climbed through after him, jumping from one branch to another in the moonlight. 

The baby let out a pained cry and he called desperately for the creature to stop. Panic thrummed in his veins as the creature ran further up into the tree and he ran after it, his hands scraping across the tree bark.

Suddenly, the creature stopped and the ellon caught up to him. The branches swayed back and forth under their weight. They had reached the top. 

The baby, still held upside down, let out another cry. The ellon inched forward, ever so slowly.

"Give her to me," the ellon said in a whisper. He had no idea if the thing spoke, but it was worth trying. "Are you hungry?" the thought of that with the creature holding his only daughter made him sick, but he had enough dealing with foul creatures not to disregard the idea. "Give her to me and I will give you food." 

The creature tilted its head, then shook it violently. "No!" it said in what sounded to be the common tongue, but the ellon did not speak the language well. "It will try to kill us it will, kill us!"

The ellon wasn't sure the creature understood him so he lifted his hands in a sign of peace, one arm wrapped around a branch to keep from being blown out of the tree as they swayed. The baby continued to cry but he forced himself to focus on the creature. 

Slowly the creature lowered the baby and hope sparked in the ellon's chest. 

"Nînion!" the ellon's wife called out from far below. His heart dropped.

The creature startled and let our a scream before leaping at the ellon, kicking at his chest. Nînion grabbed the creature by ankle, pulling him closer. Then the creature's hold loosened on the baby. The ellon's eyes went wide before quickly unlooping his other arm from around the branch and diving for the baby as she began to fall. 

A breath, a heartbeat, and his arms were around her, too late as he both felt the air rush around them. Nînion pulled her into his chest, wrapping one arm around her as his other fought for purchase. His back slammed into a branch and a crack! sounded as the wood gave way. The breath now gone from his lungs, he forced his other arm around the child as branch after branch broke under their falling weight. 

Then his head smacked into a thicker branch and white light busted across his vision. Just don't let go of her  was his only though as his battered body slipped from the last branch, falling to a heap on the ground. Agony rolled through him but he forced himself to roll over onto his back.

He heard his wife's voice calling him faintly but he couldn't bring himself to open his eyes. Then someone was trying to take his daughter from his arms and bolted upright, jerking her out of their reach. 

He blinked his vision clear. His wife had recoiled, her eyes wide as if stung. His shoulders slumped as he let out a breath that quickly turned to a cough. 

"Forgive... me..." he whispered. 

"What happened? What was that?" her voices seemed more like a scream in his pounding head and he had to resist the temptation to lay back down on the cool ground. 

"I- I don't know," he admitted. He looked at her and then back to the crying child in his arms. He tried to scan the trees for the creature but his vision swam. "Let's go inside," he said. There was nothing he could do about the creature tonight, whatever it was. 

With his wife's help, he stood on unsteady feet and they made their way back inside, bolting the door shut behind them, though as the lock clicked into place, it seemed so small compared to the darkness that had been slowly creeping in for centuries. 

Sooooo I have fallen hard back into the fandom XD I'm somehow back to listening to I See Fire and Legolas' Song of the Sea on repeat and I gotta say, I'm not mad about it!

I started listening to LOTR again and ran across this: "The Woodman said that there was some new terror abroad, a ghost that drank blood. It climbed trees to find nests; it crept into holes to find the young; it slipped through windows to find cradles."  

That is what inspired this. Idk if Gollum would have done the same to the elves, but I figured it would definitely be possible. 

Anyway! Thanks for reading!