The Daughter of the Moon Volume I

Chapter 14 : Fall

*Just before*

But suddenly the arrows began to fall again and they wanted to avoid them.

Elenwë swerved and found himself dangerously close to the edge. She lost her balance and fell.

Legolas, who had looked in her direction, felt her heart stop.

He ran to the edge and screamed:

-ELENWË!

His heart got excited and a deep anguish overtook him. His eyes began to sting and become moist.

He realized at that moment that he really cared about the young elf.

He began to panic when he heard:

-I'm here! I'm here! I'm here! I'm here! I'm here! I am here! It's all right!

Legolas leaned over, hoping he hadn't imagined that voice.

He saw the young elf looking down at him, holding on to the roughness of the rock. She was glued to the wall, her eyes raised towards him.

-I'm having a little trouble holding on. Could you help me?

Legolas reacted and reached out his hand to Elenwë.

She grabbed the elf's hand and he lifted it up.

-Hannon him. she said, smiling faintly at Legolas.

When both feet were on the horizontal surface, he suddenly grabbed her by the arm and pulled her away from the edge.

Once he was at a respectable distance, he wrapped his arms around her and sighed.

Elenwë felt Legolas' muscles relax.

-Watch out! You gave me a fright.

Elenwë felt sorry to take advantage of this moment to fill his nostrils with the smell of Thranduil's son.

But she stood there, wrapping her arms around the elf's torso.

Eventually they separated when they heard a loud creaking sound.

They turned towards the bridge and saw it break just at the foot of the Balrog, and the stone on which he was standing collapsed into the abyss, while the rest of it remained balanced, trembling like a tongue of rock thrown into the void.

The Balrog fell into the darkness.

The Company breathed.

The Orcs resumed their arrows and Gandalf, who had seen the Balrog fall, was still standing there, on the side of the ark that remained above the void.

At that moment, everyone thought they were going to escape. But... the Balrog's whip slammed in the air and grabbed the magician by the ankle.

Unbalanced, Gandalf dropped his sword and staff into the chasm.

Driven by the whip that was pulling him down, Gandalf began to fall and caught up with himself on the edge of the bridge.

Elenwë walked away from Legolas and rushed towards his oldest friend.

Gandalf watched her walk across the bridge and shouted:

-Run away! Poor fools!

And he let go.

With the loss of Gandalf, Elenwë's heart fell into his chest.

-MITHRANDIR! No!

-Gandalf! shouted the others.

But it was no dream.

Alas, alas.

Elenwë came to the shore again. Perhaps it was not as deep as one might think? Gandalf must have survived, he can't die like that.

The bridge made an ominous creaking sound.

Aragorn screamed:

-We must go on! We must go on! Let's go!

He caught Frodo struggling and ran to the upper floors. The other hobbits followed, as did Boromir and Gimli.

Legolas grabbed Elenwë's hand and dragged it to the exit.

They ran breathless for several minutes.

Finally, light appeared at the end of the corridor and they finally went out into the open air.

The hobbits collapsed to the ground, crying their eyes out.

Elenwë, whose hand Legolas had let go of his hand, moved away a little and fell on his knees on the rocks.

A flood of sadness and anguish overwhelmed him.

She struggled in vain against her emotions but felt her blood boiling.

She was about to sink.

Aragorn, making an effort to keep his voice firm cried out:

-Legolas! Boromir! Lift them up! We must go back!

-Have mercy on them Aragorn! We all need to recover. Protested the man from Gondor, his voice ready to break and his eyes shining.

-If we stay here, we will not survive the night. Regiments of killer whales and organs are patrolling the area. Come on! Get them up!

Boromir and Gimli raised the hobbits and Legolas approached Elenwë.

He reached out his hand and lifted it up.

She looked at him and whispered:

-He is... was my oldest friend. I had known him for many years. Deep is my distress.

-I know it is. But we have to move on.

He pushed the young elf slightly behind her back, forcing her to move forward.

She took a deep breath, trying to calm her pain.

Legolas next to her wasn't far ahead of her either. He too felt his heart swelling with sadness.

The elves rarely cried. In fact, almost never.

It only happened to them when something happened to the person they loved deeply.

If Legolas could have cried, he would have.

But he was thinking about the incident earlier.

He had thought Elenwë was dead. He had been so scared that the tears had started to rise.

He looked intensely at the young elf.

Did he like her so much? He hadn't realised it was that much.

But did she...?

No. He had to stop thinking about it. She couldn't love him. With an even bigger heart he moved away from Elenwë a little.

She stumbled and caught him on the arm of the Black Forest prince.

-Díheno (Pardon)

Legolas smiled as he saw her suddenly move away from him and blush slightly, a little embarrassed.

So... there might be something there? He gloats, full of hope.