Avadis - A legolas story (slow moving!)

Chapter 39 - Finally Some Fun

"Quick, hide your wings" Aragorn whispered over to Avadis. The group stood alone at the edge of the riverbed, watching as the ships grew closer towards them. Avadis tucked them tightly behind her body, using Legolas' height to hide what she could from the ship's view. Of course, the plan was not simply to 'invade the ships' as their new ghost friends had tried to suggest. True to form, if they were going to have to invade them, they would need to have some fun in the process. 

"I claim that ship on the right, you take the rest," she said knowing full well the ghosts could hear her. She felt their presence all around them, and this time it was a comfort to them all. She scanned the decks, counting the numbers of men that she could see. They were alert to their presence, several of the men stared back at her through eyeglasses trying to decide whether this strange combination of travellers was worth killing or not. "... And actually, I'll take the middle one too." She had seen a collection of particularly strong men who were still cleaning the blood from their weapons. The sight was enough to make her own blood begin to boil.

"You cannot seriously be fighting over ships with a group ghosts" Legolas sighed from next to her, looking down at her with amusement, his hands crossed over his chest. 

She laughed and poked out her bottom lip, "aww, you're only upset that you'll have to stand here and watch us have all the fun." 

"I will be fighting, only... from a distance" he retaliated, making Gimli chuckle from next to him before Aragorn elbowed him gently. The ships had arrived, and their captains had emerged, squinting into the sunlight to assess their new enemies. 

"You may go no further!" Aragorn called over to them in a loud voice. The men on the ships all turned to look out at them, some laughing, others frowning. "You will not enter Gondor!"

One of the captains spoke up, "who are you to deny us passage?" 

Aragorn turned slightly, "Legolas, fire a warning shot past the bosun's ear." He drew his bow from behind him and aimed. 

"Mind your aim!" Gimli whispered to him, glancing behind Legolas to flash Avadis a cheeky smile. She smirked, knowing exactly what he was about to do, but also not at all wanting to stop him. Just as Legolas prepared to fire, Gimli tapped the bottom of his bow, sending the arrow flying directly into the man's chest. He stumbled backwards and fell from view, the men around him yelling with alarm. 

"Oh!" Gimli exclaimed, covering his mouth to hide a small smile. The elf glared down at the dwarf, before turning and frowning at Avadis who desperately tried to hold back a laugh. Aragorn crossed his arms and raised his eyebrows at the pair before turning his attention back to the ships.

"That's it! Right, we warned you! Prepare to be boarded" Gimli called across, eagerly leaning on his axe with obvious excitement for the fight ahead. 

"Boarded? By you and whose army?" The captain jestered, many of the crew smiling with amusement. 

Aragorn smiled at them, his eyes darkening with anticipation. "This army."

On his signal, the army of the dead rushed through their bodies from behind, gliding over the waters of the river with ease. Avadis pushed her wings out to their full extent and flung herself high into the sky, her sihouette blocking the sun from the men's faces as their eyes widened in fear. Though she did not enjoy being seen as an evil demon, she would never tire of the inexplicable amount of fear she created in the faces of her enemies. 

As soon as the ghosts reached the first ship, she drew out her two swords and dived down to the deck of the middle ship. The men were a mess, grasping for weapons or anything they could use to defend themselves. She easily wiped them from the main deck, using the power of her wings to push them to the ground before finishing them off with a neat swing of her sword. Some of them put up a fight, which she gladly accepted, dodging and weaving around them, using her wings to disorient them from her quick movements, swinging at them one by one until they fell. Her eyes were ablaze with a raging fire behind them, glowing a deep amber in the afternoon sun.

 Once the deck was cleared, she moved to the mast beam, balancing there as she fired arrows down onto anyone who emerged from the cabins before storming the ship in search of any who remained in hiding. They pleaded with her, begging for mercy. But she did not grant them any mercy besides the sweet taste of death upon her swords. 

A mass of ghosts joined her on the ship. "This one is cleared" she told them, "push the lifeboats out to the others so that they may join us." They nodded to her, obeying her direction as she pushed herself back into the sky. There, she hovered a moment to catch her breath, pulling her bow out and firing down a wave of arrows onto anyone that she could spot. The ghost army had cleared the majority of the ships, with only a few remained which were not completely swarmed by the green mass of death. With one last cry, she landed on the deck of the last remaining ship, drawing her swords and killing one after the other until it fell quiet. 

"You fight well" the King of the Dead emerged infront of her. 

She smiled at him and the mass of soldiers around them, "as do you. Thank you for your aid."

This seemed to please them, and they nodded at her before quickly fading away. "We will be here until our king calls us" she heard them say. The heat of battle quickly wore off and she turned back to the shore to see them paddling towards her in one of the lifeboats. She threw a rope down into the water, which they caught and used to climb up onto the deck with her. She would need all the hands that she could muster, because the deck had become a tangle of bodies, weapons and debris, and if they were to travel in this ship all the way to Gondor, she was certainly not going to do so with corpses roasting in the sun. 

"That was quite the spectacle" Aragorn chuckled, slapping Avadis gently across the shoulder before making his way towards the ship's main cabin. "I will keep us sailing towards Gondor! I would rather this than walk" he called back to them as he disappeared into the doorway. 

"Did ya see any food while you were doing your purge?" Gimli asked Avadis, somehow totally oblivious to the numerous bodies and weapons that lay across the deck.

She shook her head, "No, funnily enough looking for food is not my main priority when I'm fighting for my life. However, I think for now we should probably begin to clean away the..."

"Well, you need to get your priorities straight then!" He grumbled and walked down into the hull of the ship. She raised her eyebrows over to Legolas, who gave a small shrug and a smile.

"Well, unfortunately I cannot think of an excuse as my friends here have, so I suppose I will help you in cleaning up this deck." He placed his hands on his hips and surveyed the area. "But on the plus side, you are certainly a clean fighter. This should not take long." 

She smiled at him before neatly tucking her hair up into a clip and bending down to remove an arrow from a nearby corpse. "This is not my arrow" she raised her eyes in amusement, holding it out towards Legolas who was not able to hide his pride. 

"Did I not tell you I would also be fighting?" He chuckled as he made his way to another corner of the deck and began to throw bodies over into the waters below. She smiled at him, they were both incredibily stubborn about these things, but she admired his determination and strength. Avadis knew for a fact that she would not have made it this far along her journey if it had not been for him.