Dabbles In Ink: Lord Of The Rings One-Shots

Maybe They Had Won

Year 2942: One year after the desolation of Smaug.

It was late into the evening. Only the soft clicks of his broken boot heal slapping against the floor disturbed the silence. The calm before the first arrow is fired, the stillness before the wind whips through leaves, tearing them apart amid a storm. 

His arm throbbed, cradled against his chest. He nodded at the healer behind the front desk before scribbling his name down on the sheet of paper she handed him.

The tall doors to the main hall stood open and he slipped inside. Rows of neatly made beds lined the long walls, moonlight, dim and broken by the shadows of swaying branches, spilled in through the windows at the hall's end. 

He breathed a sigh at the emptiness of it. Too often these beds had been filled with solders, their cries of agony blurring the lines between hardened warrior and hurting child. 

But like many of the past few patrols, this one had been fairly quiet. It made his fingers twitch and his mouth dry. Only a handful of spiders were found, but in fighting them off, the leg of a spider had dug into his arm, tearing his flesh. Legolas shuddered as his nerves rushed to relive the moment, the sound of tearing fabric registered in his ears just as rippling pain shocked through his arm and his bow dropped, thudding onto the leaf covered ground. 

Amras, his second in command, had fired an arrow that whizzed above the prince's head. The spider jerked back, seeming to Legolas to take more of his arm with it, as it fell on it's back and curled in on itself. 

Now, he settled himself down on one of the beds. His feet ached as he relived the pressure of standing from them. It was still too soon since the necromancer had been banished to call these peaceful times. They have simply been lucky of late, that's all. 

As he waited, the pounding in his head seemed to thud more and more against his skull. The wall before him spun and though he closed his eyes, he felt like a double-sided leaf twirling in the wind. Slowly he lowered himself down onto the bed. 

His arm ached and the moment his tired body sank into the mattress, blackness darker than sleep washed over him. 

Suddenly someone shook him and he bolted upright, pushing himself up with his injured arm before agony shot through him and he fell back with a groan, holding his arm to his chest. 

"Easy, my prince," a soft voice called. He knew that voice.  His muscles relaxed and he opened his eyes, though still half expecting to come face to face with the hairy framed eyes of a spider. 

"Elhael," he whispered.

"Yes, my lord," she answered. A frown tugged at the corners of her mouth. "Tell me what ails you. You nearly scared me straight out of my skin just now, laying slumped like that!"

"Goheno nin," he said and forced himself up. He held out his arm. "Spider got the best of me."

"I see," Elhael said. She took it gently into her hands and slowly untied the bandages from his forearm to reveal fevered, angry flesh. With careful hands she laid the injured limb back on his chest and swiftly stood, her dress twirling around her as she went to retrieve the things she would need to care for him.

Legolas watched her go as he had many times before, grateful he was the only one she would have to treat this day. Sleep pulled at him once more. His eyes were heavy but he forced them open. He leaned forward and rested his head in his hand. He felt sick. 

Swallowing, he took one deep breath, one after another. He didn't hear Elhael when she came back and only looked up when she rested a hand on his shoulder. 

"Does anything else ail you, my prince?" she asked and Legolas shook his head. "Good. Now, rest. None of your ellyn have been brought me. Its seems you are the only unlucky one this time."

Legolas nodded and lowered himself back unto the mattress. It was soft and he sank into it. His heart eased at the confirmation concerning this ellyn health. It had been many years since he had taken a unit that far south and come back mostly hale and whole. But now, it seemed, the shadow had truly lifted and there were fewer and fewer evil creatures lurking around every tree trunk. 

He closed his eyes as the realization seemed to sink in for the first time. 

The shadow was leaving. 

Maybe they had won.