XI. Another Journey

            I should have known better than to argue with Legolas when it came to my protection. I was not a good debater; it was a good thing I did not aspire to go into politics. He had so many points against me that there was no point in pointlessly arguing with him for hours on the matter.

            We were to set off today. While I waited, I stayed with Thalias, muttering to him how ridiculous this all was, wishing how I could turn back time and change my past. If only all of them had been destroyed during the War of the Ring. I shook my head in dismay.

            Some beings on this earth deserved a dagger to the heart.

            “It is time.”

            I grimaced at hearing his voice. I did not look at him.

            “You said you wanted to leave as soon as possible. You have not changed your mind, have you?”

            “No,” I spat sharply. I cringed, realizing Nikita was with him. How could I have forgotten she was coming along as well? They were the ideal couple: where one went, the other followed. They were so loyal to each other; it made me a bit envious of what they had.

            “Mount, and we will leave,” Legolas said calmly.

            With a dark cloud over my head, I jumped onto Thalias, adjusting myself on his back. Like many times before, I was to go on this journey bareback. Legolas did not share my love for the riding style and did not want to risk Nikita any harm, so he decided to get them both a saddle. Sadly, another horse could not be spared for Nikita, so she was to ride with her husband-to-be. At least the horse would not be crushed by their combined weight.

            A little moody, I kicked Thalias out of spite, causing him to leap forward.

            “Sorry,” I whispered to him. “I should know better than to take my anger out on you. You have done nothing wrong.” I patted his neck. I fell mute when Legolas matched his mare’s pace with Thalias’.

            From the corner of my eye, I saw Nikita throw me a pitiful look. If anything, I felt bad for her more so than me. If it was not for Legolas, they would not be carrying me as baggage. Why did he think to take care of two things at once by traveling there?

~*~

            “So it is true,” Nikita told me. “You are leaving.”

            “Yes,” I confirmed. “I would rather lead the danger away from home.”

            “I do not understand why they insist on having you.”

            “They are not well in the mind, who knows why they do what they do.” I shrugged. “D-did Legolas mention the plan?”

            “Oh yes, he told me all about your disagreements.” She sighed. “He did talk to me about it. I am not happy about agreeing with his plan, but sadly, it is hard to say no to him.” She smiled to herself.

            “I told him it was wrong of him to go with me and leave you here.”

            “He told me that. However, he might have failed to talk to you before you came to me, because I am coming along.”

            I paled. “Why?”

            “Well, on top of your safety, Legolas persuaded me to come so that I can finally meet his father.” She looked down at her feet, wringing her hands.

            “You mean we are traveling to Greenwood?”

            “Yes. In all honesty, you would be safer there. The Elves here are not as fierce as those in the Woodland Realm. I have not seen anything to prove that, but I can take Legolas’ word on it as he is one of the said Woodland Elves.”

            “Is your wedding to be moved to Greenwood then as well?”

            “If we are leaving, it would seem so. It would be pointless to go there and then make our way back to Lórien. Besides, I think it would mean a lot more if his father was present for the ceremony.”

            “But you have never met him.”

            “I know. That is the only thing that worries me about this voyage,” she admitted. “I should worry about those Men tracking us down, but, I will not. I know we will reach Mirk—Greenwood.” She shook her head. “It is strange to use the old name again.”

            “You are sure you are comfortable with doing this?” I asked cautiously.

            “Where he goes, I go. I can see if we can get some weapons for us, that way Legolas is not the only one armed and ready to fight. It takes care of everything in one swoop: we get you in better protection, I get to meet his father, and, hopefully, we will wed in Greenwood.” She sighed dreamily. “That is if nothing gets in our way. I feel there will be a few snags in our road there, but they will be nothing we will not be able to handle.”

            At least somebody could be optimistic about this trip. I was apprehensive about it. What if Nikita ended up being kidnapped along with me if things went horribly wrong? What if Legolas lost his bride-to-be to death because of me?

            Nikita had no reason to worry, I was doing it for her.

~*~

            We never did acquire weapons. Oh well, let us hope that our journey will not require us to fight.

            “Once we find the river, it is a matter of crossing it and finding the gate.”

            Legolas snapped me out of my memory and thoughts. Our horses trotted at an even pace. Lovely. Water. Though a river did not sound so deep, I still remembered what went on in the water. It had brought many people death.

*        *        *

            The first day of our journey went without incident. We let the horses rest a few times so that neither of them collapsed from exhaustion under us. According to Legolas, the trip was to take a few days’ time. I was fine with that. As long as we got to Greenwood safely undetected, I would endure those days.

            Sadly, while we were riding alongside the river, there was only open land. We had to camp out in the open, at high risk of being hunted down if the Wild Men picked up our trails. The nagging worry always remained at the back of my mind.

            While Legolas mainly took care of camp, with Nikita helping him every so often, I wandered towards the edge of the river. I sat just in front of it, curling my legs to my chest. I shuddered, hearing the faint cries of the lost lives in the water. I cringed at hearing the frantic splashing the victims made just before they were murdered. I closed my eyes to try and will the awful noises anyway, but it only made things worse, as I saw what happened behind my eyelids.

            Death. Murder. Families being torn apart. Men unleashing their wrath on those who did not deserve any of it. The victims were caught in the middle of the dark times, with no way to escape them. They were unfortunate casualties of evil.

            I jumped as a light hand touched my shoulder. My eyes focused on the calm waters before me. I had a bad feeling about where this conversation was going.

            “You look uneasy,” Legolas noted. He took a seat beside me, taking the same form I was in.

            “I am.” I forced the bile back down my throat. “It is the water; it holds bad memories for me.”

            “Do you want to talk about them?”

            “I have a feeling you will press for details if I do not tell you right away. I guess now is as good of a time as ever.” I collected my bearings before I opened up. “The Men like to destroy things, rip families apart. They rampaged through several villages, tearing them to pieces. You had those who did only that, and then you had those who were so deranged that they went further. Those were the killers. You were lucky if you did not catch their eye, you would be safe from them.

            “Some were not so lucky to escape those killers’ gazes. I was being watched by a few around the time they were attacking a village. I watched helplessly as some of the Men dragged men, women, and even children towards the water. They dunked them repeatedly, holding them under. You would see the victims flail around for only a few moments before the water took them. It was eerie when the water stilled.”

            I cleared my throat. “But that is not why I truly fear water. A few of the Men forced me to act like them. T-they wanted me to kill innocents too. It was a lot of shoving to get me to even handle someone, and they practically shoved us into the water. They barked orders at me, telling me that if I did not drown who I had, I would suffer the consequences. Normally, I would have given in easily and drowned who I had. That would have been the old me, the one who had only just begun being under their care.”

I fiddled with one of my sleeves, not taking my eyes off the water. “But I had been under those Men for ages by that point, and I wanted to show that this was pushing me too far. I did not kill the person, I instead helped them up. It was a big mistake, because they ended up killed anyway. I was pulled away as one of the Men proceeded to finish what I could not do.

“And do you know what the worst part about that was? They had asked me to drown a child. A little girl. Someone who barely understood life. And I let them get away with it.” Tears prickled at the corner of my eyes. “I am no better than them, Legolas. In a way, I am a killer too. I let them get away with it. I could have saved her life. I tried to, but I failed in the end. I did not do enough like I could have—like I should have.

“The torture for me that day did not end. Since I did not go through with the murder, after we settled down for the night, I was held and whipped until I learned my lesson. Even after I said repeatedly that I would listen next time, they did not believe me. I cannot tell you how many took the whip and struck at me, there were too many. I think it lasted until dawn of the next day.”

“You do not know why they are still after you?” Legolas finally asked.

“No.”

“I think I do.” I looked at him. “You rarely disobeyed them until recently. You ran off, which is the ultimate disobedience to them. They want to find you so that they can kill you. If these Men are as evil as you say they are, then that is the only reason I can think of as to why they would still be pursuing you to this day.”

I laughed lamely. “Why did I not think of that before?”

“You have a lot of other things on your mind.” There was brief silence between us. “I might as well keep up my end of the deal, should I not?”

“What deal?”

“You forgot already?”

“I have had a lot of things on my mind.” I shrugged. “What deal are you speaking of?”

“If you opened up to me, I in turn was to do the same. And if I remember correctly, you wanted the horrors in my past, which is fair considering what you have just told me.”

“Oh, that!” I shook my head. I looked over my shoulder at our small fire, the horses, and Nikita. “I feel kind of bad for excluding her like this.”

“She was the one who wanted me to talk to you,” Legolas explained.

“Really?”

“She would have herself, but she had a feeling you would be more open to telling me what was wrong instead of her. She is right, I can relate to you more than she can. She has not endured a grueling time like you and I have.”

Legolas then dove right into his experiences. There was the time before Sauron became a threat again. He had recalled encountering Dwarves in the forests of Greenwood—back then called Mirkwood—as the Dwarves were traveling back to Erebor, their home, to take back their kingdom from a treasure-hungry dragon. Of course, these Dwarves had brought on much trouble, as they had had some Orcs coming after them.

Legolas did not touch on that part of history so much as the time during the War of the Ring. He really did not tell me just horror stories: he delved into how the Fellowship of the Ring was formed, how it was fractured, and the many obstacles it faced along the way. He only mentioned his experiences specifically, as that was part of our deal.

Hearing how many battles he had gone through and survived gave him a newfound respect from me. I was glad to be escorted by him to Greenwood. If I had to have someone by my side through this, it would be Legolas. Aside from being rather fierce and precise with a bow and arrow, he was a very good listener. We sort of had more things in common than I had expected.

I just hoped Nikita was not an easily jealous Elf. 

**And now we're off to Mirkwood! :D**