V. A Bump in the Road
Dawn came all too quickly the next morning for our trio. The horse had waked me rather than Legolas. Once we were all up, we made sure to have a quick breakfast before continuing on our voyage to Lórien.
We continued our trek at a nice, slow lope. Legolas was directing the horse once again. I wondered what it would be like to actually ride a horse, to be in command of it. Surely it could not be hard, it looked easy.
As the sun continued to rise in the sky, I let my mind wander. There was so much I could tell someone with my busy, terrible past. I wished I could spill it all to Legolas, but I did not feel I could confide in him fully, not yet. I barely knew him. If I told him everything, what if he turned out to be a different person than I assumed him to be?
The wind blew my hair around me annoyingly, constantly blinding me. I grimaced. I should have pulled my hair back out of my face so I would not have this problem.
I was pulled out of my thoughts by a noise. It sounded eerily familiar to me…like hooves, but they were not ours.
My blood went cold. Oh no. Not now! Even though I told myself repeatedly to not look behind, I did so anyway. I could not even utter a scream, I was too in shock.
One of them had found me. But I guess it was a good thing that only one had found me compared to half of the group or the entire group. Nevertheless, even the sight of just one terrified me, because I was sure he knew who I was. He was probably a part of the group that I had been stuck in for years.
“Can he go any faster?” I pressed Legolas, my voice high in panic.
“What’s wrong?”
“Someone is after us!” I looked over my shoulder again to the rider gaining ground on us. “Please, we need to outrun him!”
“Do you know him?”
“Trust me, Legolas, please.”
It was evident that he did, because our steed’s hooves pounded harder and quicker across the earth. The pounding hooves behind us sounded like they were getting even closer despite us gaining speed. The last thing I wanted was a confrontation right now.
From the corner of my eye, I saw flickers of a brown nose bobbing in the air. How had the horse caught up to us so fast? The rider was not whipping it, Legolas and I would have heard it strike the horse’s hind repeatedly with our acute hearing.
I was ripped off the horse in a quick second, taking Legolas down with me by mistake. I hit the harsh ground first, immediately rolling to be on all fours. Legolas lithely jumped to his feet, standing in front of me, shielding me from the rider who was getting to his feet. The horses continued to run off, but I heard their feet stop.
“Give me the girl,” the rider hissed, his black eyes trying to see past my guardian. I swallowed, slowly getting to my feet. My heart beat furiously in my chest.
“She is not going anywhere with you,” Legolas said coldly. I stared at him, stunned. Here I thought he was not capable of delivering words with a drop of malice in them. Today it seemed he proved me wrong.
“Don’t force me to take her from you, it won’t be pretty.” A gasp escaped me as I saw the rider brandish a bow and arrow. In the same instant, Legolas was armed with his weaponry. The rider looked surprised. I tried not to smirk at him.
“This does not have to end in violence,” Legolas said, his voice rather calm despite the situation. “Lay down your weapon, get on your horse, and leave us.”
“Do you think I’m intimidated by you, Elf?” the rider sneered. “She’s coming back with me, and you won’t be able to do anything about it.”
With that said, the rider released an arrow. Legolas moved out of the way, I had been a fraction of a second too late. The arrow pierced my shoulder, the pain forcing me to have a pratfall. I heard another zip of an arrow. The rider was sprawled on the ground, an arrow sticking out of his chest.
“Nimalia!” Legolas ran to me, dropping his bow on the ground beside him as he kneeled down with me. “Let me get this out.”
“Will it hurt much if you do?” I panicked, shuddering as I felt my blood trickle along my skin.
“It most likely will, but I will try and make it as painless as possible. Do not look.”
I let out a strangled cry as I felt the arrow tip slide out of my shoulder. I bit down hard on my lip, tears streamed down my cheeks. I looked at the dead rider. He had to have been a scout. I did not realize that was how desperate they were to find me.
“Do not worry, we will get this wrapped,” Legolas assured me. He went behind me to open one of the packs I had. He came back around to have dressings with him and a small canteen of water. “It is no expert healer’s kit, but it will have to do until we arrive in Lórien.”
Carefully, Legolas helped me slide the supplies off my shoulders. I blushed bright red when he asked me to lower the gown I wore so he could tend to my wound. I looked away the entire time so he would not notice the embarrassment in my eyes.
I flinched when the water was poured onto my wound.
“Luckily, the wound is not very deep,” Legolas reported. I let out a semi-relieved breath. “Whoever the Man was, he did not have a strong enough shot. Still, I cannot deny his aim was good.” I felt fabric touch my skin—no doubt the dressings. “I am glad I packed this, I was sure we were not going to need it.”
I looked over my shoulder to see our steed, followed by his new brown companion, ambling towards us. Our steed nudged my shoulder, I smiled up at him.
“He seems really attached to you,” Legolas noted.
“And I have only known him for a day,” I sighed.
“Well, since we have got two horses now, you can take him. I will take the other.”
I snapped my head back around to look at Legolas. “Are you sure?”
“We might as well use both horses.” He shrugged. “And since our stallion is attached to you more, I am sure he would love it if you rode him.”
“If you think that is a good idea.”
“Your shoulder is not that bad, Nimalia. We will go at a steady pace that way you will not aggravate it.”
I nodded. With a careful helping hand, Legolas pulled me to my feet. While he made sure we lost nothing in our supplies, I approached our newly acquired horse. She was a beauty, with a white spot on her forelock. I spoke to her lovingly in my native tongue; her ears were forward, hanging onto my every word.
She stayed still for me as I walked around her, hoping to not see signs of abuse. I saw a few scratches on her legs, but I was sure those were not her rider’s doing. After all, when I had been with them, they did not take their frustration out on their horses.
With care, Legolas helped me onto the stallion. He then jumped onto the mare. We wheeled the horses around, continuing our intended course, leaving a corpse behind us in the dust.
* * *
I had never considered myself a horse whisperer or that I just had a natural talent around horses. I could not help that I bonded well with the animals, because they had been there for me through my hard times in the hands of them.
Speaking of the evil beings, my thoughts drifted back to the rider who had tried to take me away. Had he been a scout, riding ahead of the others to see what was ahead? Had the group been behind him? I swallowed uneasily at the thought. If that were the case, if they were tracking us, by the time the day would be over, they would see their fallen comrade. It would only encourage them more to hunt us down.
My stomach rolled uneasily at my possible scenario. I really wished we had taken the rider’s bow and arrows as well. We had forgotten about them entirely since we were in sort of a rush to move on.
Night was upon us now. Tonight, I did not feel as calm as I did last night. The incident with the rider really shook me. When we settled down for the night, we let the horses roam and rest while we ate. There was nothing to make a fire from, but even if we wanted a fire, I was sure Legolas would not allow it, not after the incident earlier today.
“How is your shoulder?” he asked me.
“I cannot complain,” I reported, rolling it. It felt a little tender, and it throbbed, but the pain wasn’t crippling. I hoped it stayed that way. “Thank you, for saving me today.”
“You are welcome. I am glad you are all right. It is strange…”
“What is?”
“A lone rider finding us, trying to take you.” His brows furrowed. “Something does not make sense.”
“Some people are crazy, they do crazy things,” I said quickly, wringing my hands.
“Did you know him?”
“What?” I stammered.
“Must I repeat myself?”
“No, no, I just—why would you ask me that?”
“The Man looked as though he knew you. Did you two know each other?”
I exhaled noisily through my nostrils. Was this the time to reveal a bit more about my past to him, or should I just block him out again? Well, I should not block him out, because the information he seeks is what can help us in the future should something like this happen again in the future. For the love of everything, I really hoped we had no more episodes like the one we had today.
“In a sense, yes,” I muttered, not meeting the Elf’s eye. “I know the group he belongs to.”
“And which group would that be?”
“One of the many groups of Wild Men that still roam Middle-earth.” My throat became dry.
“I thought they died off after the War of the Ring was done.”
“Legolas, that is like assuming all crime and evil has been rid of in the world,” I retorted. “True, Sauron and his allies were defeated years ago, but that does not mean that evil was demolished on that day. There are still people in Middle-earth who feel it is their job to cause chaos and create panic.”
“I would say so, but I do not understand something still.”
“What would that be?”
“Correct me if I am wrong, but, I assume you were amongst Wild Men at one point in time?”
I nodded. “I was.”
“Why were you with them to begin with?”
“Legolas, that is an entirely different story,” I said evasively. “It is a long one as well, and if I try to bring it up, odds are I will not be able to tell it right.”
“You can just say that you do not trust me enough to tell me, you do not have to beat around the bush about it,” he said gently.
“I did not want to say it because I was afraid I would come off as bitter.” I brushed my bangs back from my forehead. “But what I said was also true.” I stretched carefully, trying my hardest to not aggravate my new injury further. “Someday, later down the road, when I feel ready, I will tell you.”
“All I want to do is understand, Nimalia,” Legolas murmured. “I know you have seen horrors in your past. You have hinted at them, yes, but I knew before you even hinted at them. I could see it in your eyes, because I also have that look in mine.”
“What could you have possibly seen that is so horrible?” I asked.
“It is a rather long story,” he said playfully. “But I will tell you that I have been in many battles during the War of the Ring.”
“I can believe it. It makes sense as to why you carry a weapon with you all the time.”
“I do not take everything with me everywhere I go, Nimalia.”
“Are you sure about that?” I teased him. “You seem like the kind of person who would take it anywhere.”
“Well, I do not.”
“If you say so.” I giggled. “It must be different for you now, since that madness is over with.”
“It is. It may sound odd and hard to believe, but I have not quite adjusted to this—all this peace and quiet.”
“No, I can believe it,” I agreed. “I may not know much about war and such, but I am sure it is common knowledge to assume that such a drastic change takes a long time to accept.” A silence fell between us. “I have an idea.” Legolas looked at me, curious. “You want to know about my past, do you not? If I open up to you—whenever that happens—then you will have to tell me about your past, particularly the horrors in it.”
“Hmm…” Legolas looked to be in thought. “That is a fair trade. It is something I will look forward to as well.”
“How long do you think it will be before we reach Lórien?” I asked him.
“If I am right, we should be there sometime tomorrow, evening at the latest.”
“Good.” My heart lightened at the idea of being back home by tomorrow. “I am sure we will both be happy to be back in Lórien. I will be home, and you will reunite with your beloved.”
Despite all that happened today, I managed to clear my head before trying to escape into my dream for the night.
**So we go a little bit deeper into Nimalia's past. Don't worry, dears, more of her past will come up in later chapters :) And you'll finally get to meet Legolas' beloved!**