Long Lost Leaves - part II

[feawen]

"Way not just send the rope down and let Hadlis fix him to it down there, we would need the hands to pull him up here?" Nami looked at the others and shrugged. "But i do not know the best course. Master Radagast what would you suggest? If you feel one of us should go down there surely Aelfwine or myself would be the lightest to send down...no offence ment!"

[Earniel]

"Well, I'd rather not send anyone down there if they don't need to," Radagast said, who wasn't too keen on crumbling holes himself. "I suppose", he called down to Haldis, " you don't remember how you got down there? No? I thought as much. Do you think you can get Quickleaf attached to the rope? And.." he paused as he remembered something. "Did you say two Elves?"

[Coffeehouse]

The voice, there it was again! Clear as the water of Anduin, yet heavily accented, an elven maid speaking, and Quickleaf felt comforted for it reminded him of home. It was unmistakeable.. a maid of Lorien, though the words eluded him.

He was confused, the pain.. torment like shards of coal placed in his eyes, from a hotly burning vicious fire.

Black. Pitch Black.

Quickleaf put his hand up to his eyes, and waved it, nothing. He rubbed his eyes, his mind racing fast though he was tired, the chill of the drenching river still laying like frost on his body. Black. Pitch black.

And tears rolled down Quickleaf's cheeks that had not fallen since the deaths of his comrades during the War.

[Midge]

As Haldis stood off to the left, looking up to her friends (who seemed to be discussing what was to become of the three of them in the huge chamber), Aerin watched the new elf - Quickleaf. He was breathing normally, which almost made her think he wasn't passed out now, but awake. He kept trying to move, and seemed to be very distressed.

She had gone through basic healing training during her pursuit of Messenger work, but she didn't know how to tell what was wrong with the elf. She placed her hand on his forehead, a habit testing for fever, really, but at the time, she felt awful doing nothing.

"What can I do?" She wondered aloud. As she spoke, he tensed up, as though he were trying to listen, and it looked as though he were trying to open his eyes. Her one hand still on his forehead, she oh, so gently touched her fingertips to his eyelids. They were freezing, and she didn't realize how cold the river might have been. She took her cloak off her shoulders and laid it over the cold elf.

Aerin looked at Haldis, who looked at her. "Just so you know, this might be a while," Haldis told her.

Looking back at Quickleaf, she realized that the stone floor was not much warmer than the water would have been, added to the cold air and Quickleaf's wetness, he might even be colder now than he was in the water. She edged over and sat down beside him. Slipping her arms under his shoulders, she lifted his head off the floor and slid a spare shirt she found in one of the packs under him as far as she could and set his head back down in her lap. Placing one hand back on his forehead and the other barely brushing his eyes and temples, she began singing a song which her mother had sung to her many years ago. It spoke of the wonder of the beginning of time, of Iluvatar and the Music of the Ainur, of the Spring of Arda and the Two Trees.

Guessing he would probably know the song, she sang to comfort and to relax him, not knowing whether she did good or ill.

[Coffeehouse]

The elven maid sang for him, and Quickleaf's skin was warming, his body up from the stonecold floor. But his soul a gaping blizzard.

His eyes wide open.. Staring vividly at the pitch black above. The high grey ceiling of the hall reflecting in his eyes. "Light" Quickleaf spoke, "Torch".. "Hold a torch up to my eyes"

[Midge]

The elf spoke! Aerin looked down and saw that his eyes were wide open.

"Light... torch. Hold a torch up to my eyes."

Aerin looked around, and saw how impossible that would be for her right now. Haldis held a torch where she was standing under the hole, but she didn't seem to be talking. She was probably listening carefully, but she'd want to look over the elf again.

Aerin sat a little straighter and called out softly so as not to startle the elf more, "Haldis! He's awake! Come here, he wants some light!" The woman turned and held up one finger. "Okay, but hurry!"

She bent down over him again and said soothingly, "Don't worry, a light is coming. You fell down a huge hole, and Haldis (the other woman down here) has the torch. She's trying to figure out how to get us out of this huge deep room and back up with your friends."

[Coffeehouse]

Quickleaf looked to the voice, to the elven maid. His cold, shivering hand, trembling violently, reached up, cheek, chin, lips, up.. forehead, streaking eyebrows, and black. Pitch black.

"I can't see you" Quickleaf heard, to his deep shame, his own voice break. Swallowing hard.. "Can't see anything"

[Midge]

Aerin flinched when the elf reached up to touch her face all over, wondering what on earth he had in mind. The she heard the elf's fright in his voice when he confessed he couldn't see anything.

"You... can't see me?" She herself faltered at this news. She couldn't let the elf despair, though, to which he was dangerously close, that much was obvious. "It's okay. It's very dark down here anyway, and you can't see far even if you haven't just woken up from a very very far fall into freezing water. I'm here, though. I'm not going anywhere." She added in her mind, 'I wouldn't know where to go if I were going somewhere.' Trying to think of anything encouraging, she continued, "I'll stay with you. Your hearing and your touch have not failed you, though your sight has temporarily. Would you like to hold my hand for reassurance that I am here?"

[Coffeehouse]

"I can't see you" Quickleaf whispered, letting his hand fall. "Nothing", his throat searing in pain, as if spears of ice had been plunged into it. But her words comforted, and fear turned into exhaustion. He lifted his hand again, as if to try wave it afore his eyes, but let it fall back, instead asking "Can you see me?" his voice dripping with sadness.

[Willow Oran]

"Yes, of course we can see you, you silly elf!" Haldis answered, having broken off talking to those above in time to hear Quickleaf's question, "You hit your head on the way down, your sight ought to return as that heals. Now hush and be still while we figure how to get out of this."

Handing Aerin the torch she went back to stand under the hole and called up to Radagast, tone a tad more cranky than intended, "Aye, I said two elves. There's Quickleaf and a lass who was wandering lost down here. Now he's having a bit of trouble with his head, and she's got a bad ankle. Lower the rope and I'll see if they're amenable to being hauled up. Not that it matters if they aren't," she finished, muttering, though the acoustics of the cave carried her words upwards. Stepping back a safe distance, she waited for the promised rope.

[Midge]

Haldis came over after what seemed like many many years with that torch. When she replied to the elf's question sensibly, Aerin shook herself. She couldn't believe that she'd let the elf wallow so much; Haldis explanation of what happened made so much more sense than water flooding his eyes and blinding him for the rest of his long years (which is what Aerin had been thinking). She was ashamed of herself for giving in to emotion so much, but the horror of the thought had taken over her mind, which was considerably weaker than normal, thanks to her long living in the belly of Dol Guldur.

Shooting Haldis a look of something similar to thanks, she chuckled. "Yes, of course we can see you. How else would we have been able to fish you out of that river if we couldn't? It's not like you were wearing a Ring or anything!"

Haldis handed Aerin the torch, who took it and propped it up in a relatively small but deep hole in a rock, and walked back to the group.

"Now they'll be deciding our fate. Wonder what that'll be. Are you going to sit up sometime soon, or are you just planning on using me as your pillow for the rest of forever?"

[Coffeehouse]

Trying hard to sit up Quickleaf drifted in and out of unconsciousness, his head occasionally falling back and his hands grasping for thin air, trying to take a hold, get himself up.

The words of the elven maid came out like murmurs, unhearable to Quickleaf's deadfrozen ears, deafened by the shock of cool water.

Blood began trickling in a slow and steady stream out from the corners of his eyes, a tiniest piece of Isalien falling out and down on the stone floor.

[Midge]

As the elf began attempting to sit upright, Aerin wondered if that had been the wisest of suggestions. She was still sitting close to him, and caught him four or five times as he got to a vertical position and passed out momentarily, hands grabbing at nothing.

"My goodness, you ARE in a bad way, aren't you?" Aerin muttered, looking him over for any more bruises. "Are you hungry? I've got a bit of lembas here; it might help you regain your strength."

She looked at Haldis, then back to the Lorien elf. He looked as if he were in pain, with tears of blood coming from his eyes, and not all of it was physical. What could she do but wait?

With that, she noticed a sparkle in the air beside the torch. 'Dust does NOT sparkle,' Aerin thought, and leaning down to investigate, she found the slightest piece of glass on the floor of the cavern. Taking it up carefully, she wrapped it in a scrap of cloth and stuck it in her pocket.

[orithil]

Hedrim swung the rope down towards Haldis. Hedrim steadied himself held the rope ready to pull them up.

[feawen]

Not being able to see what was going on in the hole was making Nami nervous. Above all she wanted to know if Quickleaf was ok. All though of her being mad at him left as she wondered at the harm that fall could have done. Bending over the edge, before grabing hold of the role with Hedrim, Nami called down to Haldis.

"How is Quickleaf? Is he hurt much?"

[Coffeehouse]

Quickleaf's bloodied eyes stung with pain, his cheeks a red river.

Feeling helpless he tried to sit up, but it was exhaustive, paralyzing and so he sat down again and resigned himself to the elf maiden.

Quickleaf looked in the direction of her voice, putting his hand on her shoulder, asking her name although he spoke very low and he did not know if she heard him.

[Midge]

The elf seemed to give up on sitting up and leaned over, bracing himself with his hand on her shoulder. He said something very quietly, which Aerin would not have heard had they not been sitting in a huge echoing cavern.

"My name is Aerin, and I am an elf from Lothlorien, a Messenger of the Lady. You are also of Lorien, are you not?" She watched him very carefully in the flickering torchlight. "Would you like me to wash the blood off your face?"

[Acalewia]

Aelfwine took hold of the rope as well, in front of Hedrim and behind Nami.
"How is Quickleaf? Is he hurt much?" Nami asked. She, too, was worried about Quickleaf. He seemed to be getting himself in the oddest predictaments as of late. She wanted to call down to Quickleaf, but with the fact the the floor had fallen away under an Elf's feet, she didn't want to risk her voice causing a cave in and burying him, Haldis and the other Elf. Aelfwine remained silent and waited.

[Coffeehouse]

Quickleaf nodded silently. His eyes were drenched, his face burning. "Are my companions nearby?"

[Willow Oran]

"We're nearby," Haldis confirmed, coming to see if he could make it over to the rope, "The others have thrown down a rope, Quickleaf, can you-" she broke off abruptly, seeing the blood, "Ai! Aerin, why did you not call out? Is it his eyes bleeding?" Haldis hardly paused for an answer as she knelt next to them, catching Aerin's hand as she was about to clean the blood off his face, "No, do not wipe it off, you will make it worse... Fetch some water and splash a little at time over his face. If there is something sharp in his eyes that will be the safest way to flush it out. Quickly now. This complicates things greatly."

Haldis saw to it that Aerin was obeying her directions and then hurried back to the foot of the rope, "Radagast!" She called, "Sending Quickleaf up just got a bit trickier... just tying him onto the rope might be a bit too rough and he's more conscious than I'd like for that."