A Monster Like Me ~ Legolas

Dirty Boots and Weary Souls

Legolas awoke to a feeling of warmth that extended from his heart to every inch of his body. He would have leapt from the bed immediately but a feeling of weariness soon washed over him as he attempted to move. He reeked of fatigue, his limbs heavy. He was so tired he could barely think, he was entirely occupied with one thought. She's here.

~*~

"He is weak," Aragorn spoke to Forn quietly as she rested outside of the walls of Helm's Deep. Aragorn promised her Greenleaf was inside. "Eowyn has been caring for him." 

Forn turned her eyes to the walls, searching for something she couldn't see.

Aragorn. Her voice was soft, hurt. I do not trust this.

"What is there not to trust?" 

Forn glanced at the darkness that still plagued her underbelly. 

How do we know the curse is broken? How do we know I will not hurt him?

Aragorn paused. "We don't." He finally said with a defeated sigh. 

Then I must go. Forn readied to launch herself into the sky. She looked at Aragorn. Tell him I love him. Tell him I'm sorry. And with one last sorrowful glance, she launched herself into the sky, vanishing in the clouds. 

"What happened?" Gimli asked and both man and dwarf watched her go. 

"Fear." Aragorn responded mournfully. 

~*~

Legolas' dreams turned sour, his soul burned cold. A woman was screaming, begging for his help. Legolas couldn't move. 

~*~

"She left?" Eowyn was pacing. Her eyes glanced continuously towards Legolas, lying motionless on a bed.  Her brow furrowed as a tortured expression appeared on his face, contorting beautiful features into something nearly hideous. 

"I cannot blame her," Aragorn sat heavily in one of the chairs, Gimli beside him. "We have no knowledge of this type of magic. She fears the curse has not been broken, only stopped temporarily."

"Do we have any knowledge of where she has gone?" Gimli asked, he scratched his bread miserably. 

"None," Aragorn admitted. He looked towards Legolas. "I am guessing quite far away." 

"Can we not get her back?" Eowyn sat in the chair closest to the bed. "He may not recover without her presence." 

"Legolas is our only link to her. She will not come back unless she wants to."

~*~

Legolas tried to tell his body to stop, but his movements did not falter. The man he loved as a brother was stabbed through the chest. Legolas held the knife.

~*~

As much as Eowyn loved her uncle, she stayed far away from the man. They may have ridded themselves of Grima, and send him running back to his master, but Saruman had not been removed from the king. Not yet. 

Some say it was treason to lock the king in the dungeon and many protested the action. But as acting king, Eomer had agreed to it being the best solution. He had kissed her brow and left to find a solution, leaving her in charge of a terrified and angry kingdom as well as a dying elf. Eowyn did not doubt her brother often, but she could not imagine a world where their situation could get better. 

She consulted with Aragorn and Gimli often, but they too left her alone. They, along with groups of her kingdom's men, left Helm's Deep to scout. They were searching for anything. Signs of Forn, of Orcs, of someone who possessed the magic to give the king back his throne. Day after day, they came back empty handed. No solution to any of their problems. Just dirty boots and weary souls.