Avadis - A legolas story (slow moving!)

Chapter 35 - Whispers in the night

Wake up... Wake up... Wake up!!

Avadis shot straight upwards in her bed with a snarl, bringing her dagger out from behind her pillow and throwing it at a dark mass in the corner of her room in the blink of an eye. Her eyes flashed with a firey glow as the dark brown colour was illuminated by the half burnt out candle she left on her makeshift bedside table. In the corner, her bag fell from it's perch on a chair, her dagger sticking into the side of it. 

"Psst, Avadis! Wake up!" Her head jolted sideways to see Gimli peeking his head into the doorway with his eyes covered by his hand. It was still clearly dark outside, but his whispering had no doubt woken everyone in the nearby tents. She breathed out a shaky sigh of relief and relaxed her shoulders.

"I am awake, what is it?" she whispered back, rubbing her eyes and swinging her legs from her bed and onto the cold cloth laid over the ground. 

"Are you... decent?" He asked, still with his hand over his eyes, obviously extremely uncomfortable to even ask her. 

She chuckled pretty loudly before slapping her hand over her mouth out of consideration for the others trying to sleep around them. "Yes of course I am. Please just come in and tell me what is wrong."

He took his hand away from his eyes with relief, watching as Avadis retrieved her dagger from the side of her bag and tuck it back into it's spot underneath her pillow. "You did know that bag wasn't me...right?" He asked with amusement, looking at the hole in her bag. 

"If I am woken this early in the night there must be a very good reason, otherwise that..." she nudged her head towards her dagger "...would be the kindest way for me to tell you to leave." She crossed her arms and raised her eyebrows at him. 

"I believe Aragorn is planning on taking the pathway through the mountain" Gimli actually managed to lower his voice this time. At the mention of the pathway, it felt as though their shadows cast against the tent walls somehow grew ominously large against the dying flame. A chill ran through the tent. 

"What, now? He wishes to summon them?" She whispered back with amazement. Perhaps this was the reason for his coversation with her just hours before. 

"I am not sure, but he cannot go alone." Avadis nodded in agreement with him and immediately began clothing herself back into her clothes, tucking away any weapons and food she could find into her countless number of pockets. 

"He will not want us to go with him" she remarked as she continued to pack. "If he is leaving so secretly he obviously wants to go alone."

"He will not have a choice" Legolas spoke as he entered the tent, his eyes slightly squinting in the light, his bow and swords tucked neatly onto his back. He had obviously been awoken by Gimli just before she had. 

Avadis finished preparing and stood with her arms on her hips infront of the duo. "And what of Merry?"

Gimli shook his head, "that is no place for a hobbit, even one with the strongest of hearts. Even I do not know if I have the strength." 

Avadis frowned, "so we just leave him here without even a goodbye?"

"If we tell him, he will only follow us. You know this... just as you know that it is better for him to be here." Legolas spoke more gently than Gimli did, obviously understanding Avadis' reluctance to leave the hobbit so suddenly without explanation. 

Her thoughts travelled all the way back to when she had first met him, clinging to Treebeard's bark and yelling a storm at the ents. Gandalf trusted her to care for them both, and she had already lost one. But though she did not like leaving him, she knew deep down that he would be safer here. 

Reluctantly, she nodded "I will leave a note for Eowyn, she will care for him." She quickly tore a page from her notebook and scribbled a message down, folding it carefully and placing it on her bed, addressed to Eowyn. Taking a last glance around, she blew out what remained of her candle and threw the room into darkness.

"He will be fine, he's a hobbit afterall." Legolas said quietly as they left the tent, quickly putting his arm around her shoulders to give her an awkard side hug before the trio left to treck the short distance to the enterance of the pass through the mountains. 

...

The trio had caught him just in time, and as expected he had completely disregarded their attempts to join him until Gimli's dwarvish stubborness finally convinced him. They departed in silence, aware that a small crowd had gathered around them but not wanting to give themselves any opportunity to turn around. The more they walked, the more it felt that the mountain was closing in around them. The crevice became higher and narrower, and while above them the sky continued to brighten, their spirits did not follow suit. Even the wind, which at he beginning had howled and screamed around them had fallen silent. The atmosphere was eerily still and silence save the sounds of the horses' hooves trotting over loose stones below their feet.

Avadis tucked her wings closely by her sides as she walked behind their horses, glancing around her. She did not enjoy the feeling of being trapped by the high mountain walls, and she knew that if danger did come their way, she would have little chance of flying away in a place like this. 

Though there was no breeze, she felt a chill begin to creep down body, and whisps of air flow through her feathers. It grew stronger, the mild wind seemed to only swirl around her as she observed how in front of her Legolas' hair was not disturbed in the slightest. Odd.  Carefully she reached her hand out just as she had been taught as a child and tried to feel for the souce of the wind, with no luck. 

Then, a voice spoke loudly into her ear, with a sound that howled like the wind through the mountain caves...

Leave us alone

...

Author note: 

Hi! Just wanted to say thank you for the love that you are showing my story!! This is literally the first story I have ever written and it makes me so happy that you're getting into it! Sorry that the updates have been infrequent, but I'm back for now so you'll be getting many more chapters coming your way!!

If you're a lotr fan let me know who your favourite character is and maybe they might make an appearance at some point during this story too!! If you've been paying super close attention we might have had some flashbacks to a time with another character I personally love, but no spoilers ofc   ;)

Have a good morning/afternoon/evening/night and don't forget to look after yourself xx