33Hello again! If you're still with me, thank you! I wish I had the words to tell you all how grateful I am for your follows, favorites and comments - I really am like a dragon on a gold hoard with them, and chortle and love each notification! This is a transitional chapter, so very short, but I didn't want to make you wait. There is more and it *will* be about the actual plot. As always, my biggest thanks to EverleighBain and Ariana, who are honest and tell me when it sucks and needs to be changed, and encourage me to keep going.
"Have...to...stop." Elrohir bent and leant his hands above his knees, willing his weakness away, but the throbbing ache in his head that beat to the tempo of his heart didn't subside. His stomach rolled, threatening worse and he dragged in a deep breath of frozen air that burned his throat and lungs. A cough tightened his throat but he caught the frown on his brother's face and read the hesitation there. "I'm fine." It came out as a wheeze and he grimaced.
His snort was visible as a white puff and Elladan turned away so his sour frown was hidden from his brother. They were moving too slowly. It had taken three times as long as it should have for them to get to the top of the rise. He considered following the river, but there was ice under the snow and a fall into the icy water in the frozen surroundings might kill his brother. "We're not going to make it to the lowlands before sunset."
Straightening, Elrohir waved his brother forward. "Stop flapping your lips and move, auntie."
"I'm serious."
"So am I." Matching the glare with an equally annoyed scowl, Elrohir took the step that brought him up to Elladan's level and met his brother's gaze. "Let's go. We've traveled at night before."
"Not with you -"
"Just-"
A long howl cut their argument short, both automatically moving to guard the other's back. It was distant, but soon a second howl sounded from a different direction. Elladan grabbed his brother's arm and dragged him over to the nearest large tree. The oak still had brown leaves clinging to the branches. They rattled in the wind and one flew loose, soaring past the brothers. Pushing Elrohir to the tree, Elladan dropped his shoulder and caught his bow, scanning the forest around them. The trees were thin this high up, and those that weren't evergreens were skeletons with bare branches that danced in the wind. With every gust of wind, snow swirled around the ground like sprites cavorting before disappearing. "They're above us, probably in the rock fall above the cliffs. I don't think they caught our scent." He strung the bow before turning to his brother. "We can't go back now."
Elrohir had his bow in hand when it was taken from him. He sighed as Elladan strung it before handing it back, but met the grey gaze steadily. "Then we go forward."
The nod was slow in coming but Elladan nudged his shoulder. "Get going. I'll drop back a bit, cover our tracks."
One last assessing gaze and Elrohir turned to begin to walk.
Elladan was taking longer than expected. The sun had set, taking with it any vestiges of warmth, and the wind had picked up as the moon rose. Elrohir stopped and leaned against a towering pine that blotted out much of the night sky, boughs outstretched like arms, embracing the night. Once his breathing slowed, he closed his eyes to listen to the night. There was an owl, soaring across an open space, looking for mice, soft wings making almost no noise as it hunted. The pines rustled in the breeze, whispering of snow and roots that grew deep, deep into the ground. Far away, he heard the rushing of the river that was slowing in the cold, and the cracking of ice that would cover it within several nights.
He did not hear his brother. Quiet as he might be, Elladan did not walk entirely soundlessly on snow, especially when it was this icy. It was a skill that took patience and concentration, a mindfulness of the Music, at least that was what the Silvan Elves said. Elrohir personally thought they just had lighter frames than their Noldorin cousins and so the snow and trees found them no burden at all.
Head throbbing, he shivered as the wind blew, shaking snow from the branches above. What he wouldn't give to be home now, warm in the Hall of Fire. There would be singing and laughter and -
Elrohir snapped out of his light reverie as he heard a heavy footfall on the snow. Dropping to one knee, he brought his bow up and strung an arrow, grimacing at the ache of abused muscle. Elladan would whistle. Any moment now. Soon, he hoped. The throbbing in his head was starting to blur his vision and Elrohir swallowed hard at the pain. His brother was nearby – he always had a sense of that, but what was delaying him? Taking in a deep breath, he whistled the call of a night bird and waited for the answering trill.
The wind picked up, and several pines groaned as they moved in the wind.
Grimacing for his stubborn brother, Elrohir stood and crept around the base of the pine. There was a hollow just large enough for him to crawl into that was out of the wind. Pulling his cloak tightly around him, Elrohir shivered. He was exhausted, too much so to devote any energy toward healing, but he kept an arrow out, bow on his legs.
He heard the sound again and strung the arrow, waiting with his breath held for whatever it was to appear in the opening of the hollow.
What was that sound? Blast the wind anyways! Elladan shoved his hood back and strained to hear. Had it been his brother whistling or just the wind through the rocks? The wind was starting to howl, blowing snow from the ridges and trees into a blinding sting of white that hit his cheeks and face and effectively blinded him. Staggering to a boulder, Elladan crouched behind it and pulled his hood up again. Blowing on his fingers, he cursed the weather that had been so unpredictable and unseasonable. Couldn't they get one break? He knew where they were, that was one thing going right. Glorfindel used to bring them up to the peak in the fall to see the trees and watch the Eagles hunting over the lake. Not the Great Eagles, but they had been magnificent regardless and he had sat for hours watching them soar and dive to the lake to snatch a fish out of the water.
A sharp spike of fear jolted Elladan to his feet and he whirled, heart pounding. Elrohir! He wrapped the hood of his tunic as tight around his face as he could and pushed his way through the blinding snow. He had to reach his brother.
He found Elrohir's bow and the imprint of his body in the snow at the base of the tree and picked it up with a snarl. There was no blood, just the sense of shock and that tingling jolt of surprise.
Turning in a circle, he blinked as snow was blown at him, hitting his skin like icy bites. The moon and stars were behind the clouds, and the night was a vault of black around him.
Elrohir was out there, somewhere. Elladan closed his eyes, concentrating on the connection that had been with him since his first heart beat, his first breath. When he caught a faint hint of direction, he shouldered his bow, gripped his brother's bow in his hand and began to push his way through the bitter cold snow.
"Ada?" He didn't understand why his father wasn't there. His father was always there. Where could he be? Everyone knew he rarely left the haven. So why wasn't he there? Peevish, he called again. "Ada!" The call ended in a racking cough that made his back and chest ache and he whimpered, curling into a ball.
So cold. Why was it so cold? "Nana? Can you close the window?" He shivered, feeling as though he was both burning up and freezing. How could it be that no one was there with him? "Adi? Adi!" He wanted to get up and go find everyone, to see what they were doing. Maybe they were all in the Hall of Fire, listening to that group of Dwarves who had come through Rivendell. He wanted to hear the Dwarves! They sang deep, harmonic songs that vibrated in the bones, and sometimes told tales of their people. Struggling to push himself upright, he yelped in pain and curled up again.
His head felt like it was going to split apart any second.
"Ada, please," he begged, hot tears running down his cold face. Maybe this was a punishment? But where was Adi then? And where was his mother? "Please..."
But he heard only the howling of the wind as an answer.
"NO!" Elladan staggered, going to his knees as pain ripped through his chest and head. He swallowed the hot bile that rose in his throat and struggled to push past the agony to its source: Elrohir. The connection was faint, barely a sluggish trickle of awareness, and Elladan fought his panic.
Pushing to his feet, he tried to let the panic pass as Galadriel had taught him. Breathe and concentrate on your heart beat. Let it pass through you, but do not let it ruffle your calm. Breathe. Be as still as the water in this basin. The panic is but a wind, ruffling the surface of your calm. Do not let it create waves.
He gulped in a shaky breath, trying to calm the frantic beat of his heart as he reached for the awareness that was his brother. It was weak, so faint and tremulous he could barely sense it. Elladan fisted his hands and pushed past his panic to grasp at the thread binding him to his brother. "Hold on, Elrohir. I'm going to find you, just hold on!"
But where was he? Elladan looked around the dark woods, faint shadows now that the moon was hidden, with gnarled arms that rattled in the gusting wind. These trees were asleep, hibernating in the winter freeze, and would be no help. He was up too high still, where only the toughest of trees managed to survive the winter.
In that moment it hit Elladan that he had never been so alone. Practically cut off from the one constant in his life, Elrohir, stumbling through a frozen wilderness that might yet kill him, he walked as if in a daze to a clearing and looked up.
The stars were hidden, veiled from his gaze, but he searched the sky anyways. It had to be there. It was always there. It was his lodestone, the blazing star that stood for hope and something that he had never admitted even to Elrohir; a connection to something larger.
"Grandfather," he began, and stopped, feeling stupid, as if was a child of ten again, begging for reassurance that the darkness pressing in and chasing him was not going to swallow all that he was. He valued knowledge, wisdom and the strength of a sword. Things that could be touched and proven.
He was desperate and desperately afraid for his brother. Elladan closed his eyes and calmed his mind. "Please, please hear me. If you have any love for us, any love for your children's children, help me now. Help me find Elrohir."
Breath held, heart pounding, Elladan waited, biting his lip so hard he drew blood. He didn't care. Blood was a small sacrifice to finding his brother. He would give so much more.
Everything.
A howl echoed against the rocks above him, and was quickly answered by another, this one somewhere in the dark woods behind. Elladan opened his eyes and pushed aside the ache in his heart.
So be it. If he had to fight to find Elrohir, then he would kill every wolf pack in the Hithaeglir! He pulled his sword and raised it to the night sky, in a salute, in defiance and the sudden parting of the clouds, the brilliant silver gleam of moonlight caught the blade and reflected upon it like silver flames. "Elbereth Gilthoniel!"
Thanks so much for reading! Also, thanks to MistressOfImladris for the spelling catch. :)
