Comes Around Again (Gigolas & Bagginshield)

Interlude: A Shadow in the Greenwood

From behind bushy brows, Radagast peered with one eye at the Elvenking's messenger. The elf was tall, as elves were, with the large ears that marked her Sylvan heritage and shining red hair that hinted at a more complicated parentage. She stood alert, not quite at attention but more like the rabbit in the wood when the fox was nearby.

"I... I'm afraid I don't understand," Radagast said, and the elf focused on him and frowned. "Why does the Elvenking want me? Isn't this the sort of thing Gandalf usually handles?"

"Mithrandir is not here," the elf said, her voice hard, and Radagast sighed. This was why he preferred his hedgehogs; they never spoke harshly to him. "Please," she said, and her voice softened. "My lord king would not bother you unduly. His son is very sick; a malady like that which claimed my lord's wife, though it has come upon his son with a troublesome swiftness."

Radagast chewed his lip, and the sparrow that nested in his hair alit on the brim of his hat. "I'm really not healer..."

The elf's eyes narrowed. "We have healers," she snapped. "They can do nothing; there is nothing physically wrong with him. He suffers from a malady of the mind and --" She stopped, seemed hesitant, and her eyes scanned the forest; he frowned, what was it that put her on such high alert? "The prince is a dear friend of mine. If not for his station, I would not hesitate to call him brother, as he does not hesitate to call me sister. His father does not know of the time I have spent by his bedside." She swallowed and raised her chin to meet Radagast's eyes. "I do not think it a coincidence that Legolas had fallen ill. The giant spiders have returned and grow bolder in their attacks. King Thranduil closes his boarders even more tightly than before and refuses to speak of why. Now, Legolas is ill, and in his fevered mutterings and wild ravings he warns of a growing darkness; the return of The Shadow."

Radagast stilled, his eyes flashing with a power nearly forgotten. "Take me to him."

The elf, Tauriel, that was her name, nodded. "At once." She turned, as if to run, and Radagast stopped her.

"We'll take my sled," he said, and whistled. Tauriel cocked her head and her eyes widened when she heard the thumping rushing towards them. His sled, pulled by his rabbits, burst from the underbrush and stopped before them. Radagast climbed on, then held his hand out to Tauriel. "Hold on tightly," he said. "We're about to go very fast."

Tauriel gingerly took hold of the railing, and Radagast whistled sharply once. "Run!" he cried. "To the Elvenking!"

They sped off with a lurch and Tauriel let loose a shriek of surprise that turned quickly into wild laughter as they disappeared into the Greenwood.

~*~

From the back of the sled, it was hard to see the details of the forest, but that didn't stop Radagast from feeling that there was something greatly wrong with the wood they sped through. There was a darkness, an oppression he hadn't felt in an age. The forest was sick, and the malaise had spread far further than Radagast had known. When they passed the border of Thranduil's kingdom, the difference was staggering. Thranduil's rule still kept his lands free from the gathering darkness, but Radagast could feel it pulsing at the edges of the realm, ever threatening.

"How long?" Radagast yelled into the wind. Tauriel didn't pretend to misunderstand.

"It was slow," she said. "The spiders arrived several seasons ago: just one the first time. It was many months until we saw the next, but there were two, then three. My king ordered us to clear the forest; when we did, we discovered several nests, and set fire to them all. They were back before a full phase of the moon, and in greater numbers.

"Legolas led the hunting parties. It was on one such that he fell ill. It was sudden; one minute he was directing clean up, and the next he had fallen to the floor, wailing for his star." She leaned in closer. "Nobody knew of what he spoke, but his affect was so much like mortal grief. He spends his days and nights as if in trance. If not for the fact that he will eat if prompted, if not much, one would think his fea had fled his body." She stopped and shook her head. "Thranduil closed the borders the very minute he heard, and has been by Legolas's bedside every passing moment, trying to coax his son back to him."