The anguished scream cut across the harsh din of the battle and time seemed to slow down to a crawl as Elladan Peredhel watched his brother fall. As an answering scream tore through his own throat, he knew he would never reach his brother in time to stop the orc from delivering a killing blow.
" Elrohir!"
Even the noise around him came to a sudden stop. Elladan could see, in perfect detail, the cruel smirk twisting the orc's already hideous face as it raised the black sword in a two-handed grip over its head.
" Elrohir!!!"
The tableu held for one more impossible second, then time began again as the orc swung the sword in a poweful downstroke. But the blow meant to end the inmortal life of Elrohir Peredhel, did not connect with its intended target. Elladan had just enough time to see the blurry streak of something very large plow into the orc, before he was once again engaged in a desperate struggle for his own life. The following moments were filled with the clang of sword against knives, grunts, shrieks and hair-raising roars then suddently, an eerie quiet. Twin blades dropped to the gore- splattered ground as Elladan rushed to his brother's side.
" Elrohir!..Ro!...Saes gwenneth, saes...open your eyes!...saes meleth nin..."
Elladan craddled his twin, muttering desperately in his fear for the one he loved above all else. Then, like a dousing of cold water, his training as a healer came to the fore and Elladan quelled the mounting panic inside himself. He had to save his brother... He just had to!.
With fingers that managed not to tremble, he undid the damaged over vest and then the soft undertunic, exposing Elrohir's torso. Once again, time disjointed for Elladan and he had a brief, but intense vision of the last time his brother had lain half undressed and disheveled before him. Then, the sculpted chest had glistened with anticipation as Elrohir softly pleaded to be kissed, to be touched, to be...
He came back to himself abruptly. His brother's chest now glistened not with desire but with sweat, intermingled with blood oozing from a long jagged cut below his heart. The wound was deep. Deep enough to see the stark evidence of broken ribs jutting out at odd angles.
Elladan knew bitter despair.
The wound was far too severe to be treated by field medicine. Elrohir urgently needed the care of their father. But the outer borders of their home valley of Imladris lay some five days hard ride from their present location and their horses had been the first casualties of the attack. There had simply been too many orcs and now, not enough time to save the critically injured younger twin.
Denial and rage boiled inside Elladan, followed by a numbing sense of finality. His beloved Elrohir would perish in that orc-strewn field and Elladan would quickly follow him into the Halls of Mandos, for he knew he could not continue to live without the other half of his heart and soul. He bowed his head, his eyes releasing pent-up tears like so many raindrops upon the broken earth. He knelt down beside his unconscious twin, taking a limp hand between his own blood-encrusted ones.
Elladan's striken mind did not at first register the thing that suddently appeared before his downcast eyes. To his watery gaze, it looked like some huge, wavy... paw?.
Deadly-looking silvery claws came to rest but a few hand spans from his knees. He wondered, detachedly, if his mind had snapped from the grief or if, perhaps, this thing was some sort of sign from Mandos. Yes, he decided, Mandos had sent a huge sharp-clawed paw to tear out what was left of his heart, so his brother's spirit would not have to linger unnecessarily in wait for him to die of the heartbreak.
Huge paw....
{ Would'nt a huge paw be attached to a huge beast? }
His warrior's inner voice cut through the grief fogging his mind and Elladan saw again, in quick succession, the orc swinging the sword-blow intended to kill his brother and then... and then... he saw the orc being knocked down by a...
With his heart hammering in his chest, Elladan's eyes travelled upwards, even as his hands left his brother's to reach for the knives kept sheathed at his back. The very knives he had dropped in his haste to reach his fallen twin. Just as Elladan was hit by that chilling realization, his eyes finally alighted upon the face of the beast.
TBC...