Go down in flames

Return

" Gandalf?" My voice broke as hope sparked through me. One look at the old mans wrinkled face and I knew it was him. Legolas and Gimli fell to their knees and Aragorn just stood there shocked but I ran forward. " Gandalf!" I called as I threw myself into his arms. I felt tears of joy start to trail down my face and I held on with all the strength I had. " Gandalf.... I thought you were dead." I could not stop the endless flow from my eyes. " My dear child, it brings joy to my heart to see you unharmed." He spoke softly. I felt like a child holding onto Gandalf. He was a father figure to me. At the age of 124 he had taken me under his wing, and he was the only person I knew that was around the same age my parents would have been. He held me at arms length and looked down at me. He wiped my tears away with his frail hand. As Gandalf and Aragorn spoke with each other I remained in a daze. My adopted father was back, and he was alive. Some how he was alive. My makeshift family was reunited. Gandalf my adopted father, Legolas, Aragorn, Gimli, Sam, Frodo, Pippin and Mary my adopted brothers. I was no longer alone when I had the fellowship. It was weird because I had been alone for so long but being with others felt so good. I knew no matter what would happen after the war wether we won or lost if we died or lived, I would always have them. I had Leverin too, some day I would find him again.

We continued on our journey. After hours of trekking we made it to a large clearing. The plain tall dry grass swayed in the light breeze as if they were all part of one large dancing body.

Gandalf took a step forward in front of us. A beautiful sound erupted from his mouth. He was whistling but it was the most strange beautiful sound I had ever heard. The musical tune rose and fell weaving its erie sound through the air. For a moment in time everything was silent, frozen listening to the tune even the birds stopped singing and for that one moment in time the world was at peace and a rest seemed to come over my heart. But as quickly as it started it ended and life went on for everything but us. For a large white horse came galloping over the hill. It's pelt shone like a star and it had a large muscular body. I had never seen a more beautiful horse in my 4386 years of living. It ran up to us and nudged Gandalf's hand. " Are my eyes fooling me at is that...." Legolas broke off. " This is Shadow fax, lord of horses and a friend who has seen my through many troubled times." Gandalf said fondly. I smiled as two other horses came over the hill. The two horses that we had left behind.

Gandalf jumped onto his horse with surprising agility. I jumped on the beige horse and Legolas jumped on behind me, as Gimli and Aragorn jumped onto the chestnut horse. We were riding to Rohan.

Soon the forest disappeared over the horizon as the open plains of Rohan opened up before us. I could not help but feel sorry to see it go. But the free feeling of riding across the plains was so close to the feeling that I get when I fly.

It started as a speck in the distance but as we got closer the speck became bigger and bigger until a city unfolded in front of us.

The city was quiet and tension seemed to hang in the air like a dark cloud casting a gloomy shadow over the lives of the people of Rohan. As we entered I pulled my hood up the silent city creating an uneasy feeling in me.

We walked towards the castle. We scaled the stairs leading to the castle and were stopped by the guards. " We cannot let you see the king with so many weapons." He spoke in a gruff voice gesturing for us to lay down our weapons. If he thinks I'm going to lay down my weapons he is insane! I placed my hand on the handle of my large sword. Anastasia do not make any move to attack the guard. Legolas's voice entered my mind loud and firm. I hissed in frustration.

I pulled my bow and quiver off my back and placed it down on the small table. It almost hurt me to put them down. I pulled my two smaller swords off my back and tossed them down angrily onto the table. Lastly I pulled out the large sword at my hip and put it on the table.

A guard near me raised his eye brows. " Is that all ma'am?" He asked in a non-trusting voice. I laughed like he was joking and stepped forward to go into the throne room. He grabbed my arm ruffly and the whole fellowship froze. " Anastasia...." Aragorn said in a warning voice. I was glaring defiantly up into the stern face of the guard. Even though he was the one looking down at me he seemed uncomfortable. But even his discomfort did not stop him from reaching his hand up my sleeve. Disgusted I tried to yank my arm out of his hand but he had an iron grip on my arm. His hand searched around in my sleeve and grabbed the three daggers in my sleeve. Then he reached in the other sleeve and pulled out the other daggers. He still didn't let go. " You got the weapons let me go." I growled again trying to pull myself out of his grip. The man did not let go. " You heard her let her go!" Legolas said approaching us. " She is now a prisoner for not declaring weapons and an attempted attack on the king." He said starting to pull me away. " When did she attempt to attack the king?" Legolas asked angrily. " She tried to make her way to the throne room with weapons." He said stonily. " Just go." I whispered. " I will be fine."

The man marched me into the castle by a different door. He had tied arms behind my back with a piece of rope. We marched down a spiral stair case. The walls held torches on the walls lighting up the cave like hallways. I saw corridors filled with cells with wooden doors that we could have turned down but we kept going and going deeper into the earth. " How deep are we going?" I asked. The man stopped and pulled out another piece of rope and tied it around my head as a gag. The more I struggled the tighter he tied it. I could not escape because for some reason this man had extreme strength. It took all my will power not to change form and crush him. But if I did that there is no way Rohan would let me in here again and I knew that the fellowship would come and get me.

We reached the bottom of the stair case. The lowest level of the dungeons. We started down the hallway taking turns down new corridors. I tried to keep track of how many left and right turns we took but soon we took to many and I lost track. This place was a labyrinth. We went past old wooden doors with little windows with bars in them. Some were empty and others had occupants. We came to one particularly damp and mouldy hallway and that's where we stopped. He searched me for anymore weapons and found the daggers in my boots. Then he found the one in my hair. As he removed it I struggled and screamed but he took it. " The price for attempted assassination is thirty lashes and life in prison. He tied me to the metal hook holding up a to arch and pulled out a whip. I felt the blood drain from my face as sudden fear coursed through me. I braced myself as the first lash hit. Nothing could have braced me for that. I felt it tear at the back of my dress and then at my skin. I could tell his whip was barbed as I felt the barb drag across my back and then hook into my back, stuck. The guard gave it another hard tug and roped out the barb as well as a piece of my flesh. I screamed as the pain coursed through me but the noise was muffled by the gag. The whip struck me again and again each time seemed to hurt more until around the 21st strike. Then it started to go numb and I started to lose consciousness. Finally after thirty strikes I felt him take me off the hook and carry me into the cell. On the far wall there were chains. In a standing position he chained me up in a standing position. My arms were straight up above me and my feet were right against the wall. I felt his face close to mine. " It is to bad.... to hurt someone with such a pretty face." I heard him whisper just as I completely lost consciousness.

Please read.

Some of you guys are apparently " shipping" Legolas and Anastasia. I would just like to say that their relationship was not supposed to be romantic it was supposed to be more like brother-and-sister-like friends. ( if you understand what that means.)