shadows on the stones // FELLOWSHIP

[ash]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style,background-image:url(http://i52.tinypic.com/otj5sn.jpg); width: 390px; -moz-border-radius: 40px 0px 40px 0px; border-radius:40px 0px 40px 0px; opacity: 0.8; border-right: #a17700 15px solid; border-left: #a17700 15px solid;] » they have it out for me « » for the girls and the boys for the broken « The steady beat of his huge wings, cutting through the air as if it wasn't there, wormed its way into Ash's head, making him frown. Beat, beat, beat, beat. It was monotonous. Simple. Boring. On an impulse, he folded his wings against his back and let himself fall, giggling the entire way down. There was something about the feeling of his stomach flying up into his ribcage that sent him into a total gigglefit. At the last second, he spread his wings and pulled up, taking control of his momentum as he skyrocketed himself into the air. He was headed towards the dwarven Mines of Moria, where a bunch of guys were holed up trying to get through. Why, he didn't exactly know, but he knew that he'd been hired to scare them. Again, he didn't know why, but if it wasn't going to end up being fun, he wouldn't do it. As he was about to land near the entrance of the Mines, he frowned and hovered in midair, his tail thrashing back and forth. This entrance had caved in, though for what reason, he didn't know. He didn't know a lot of things, actually. Like the fact that he was disturbing the water with the beat of his wings. The fact that the giant octopus that lived in that water was getting angry. And the fact that there was a tentacle wrapping itself around his hock. It underestimated him, though, as it swung him through the air. He quickly folded his wings against his body in fear of breaking one of them because of the sheer force he was being swung at and struggled, using his mace to bash the other tentacles as they tried wrapping themselves around him as well. The octopus raised itself up, positioning its captive above its beak... and let go. Ash spread his wings and took off, zooming around the octopus and bashing it in the head with his mace. However, he was too focused on beating on the head that he forgot to avoid all of the tentacles, and he was sent crashing into the water. While Ash was the master of the air, the octopus was the master of the water, and so it had the upper hand as it tried to crush him with its tentacles. He weighed his options, frowning to himself as he held his breath. This wasn't good. His wings were pinned, his arms were pinned, and his mace had flown out of his hand and landed on the shore. The octopus practically grinned with glee as it prepared to eat him, this time going to wait until he was actually in its mouth before letting go. However, Ash didn't give it the chance. Using the last of his breath, he shot a jet of flame from his mouth, boiling the water and cooking the tentacles. The octopus recoiled, letting him go, and he swam up to the surface, breaking the surface and immediately taking to the air. Water streamed after him, having collected in his heavy robes, as he resumed battle with the octopus, sending jet after jet of flame at it until it stopped moving and died. He dragged it to shore, retrieved his mace, and tore off the octopus' arms, noticing that a few of them were hurt and healing. Had that been his group's doing? Whether it had or not, the octopus was dead, and there was no way he was going to waste free food. He packed the arms away, then set to work on digging a hole big enough to house the octopus' remains. It took a day or so, but he worked quickly, soon having a good sized hole. He slowly lowered the remains into the hole and covered it up with the dirt, packing it down tight. He picked out a flat stone from the rubble of the Mines' entrance and shoved it into the ground before the octopus' grave, burning words into it. "Here lies Tolothrenc, a Mighty Octopus," he said between jets of flame, then stood up and looked at the massive grave. It was simple, yet effective, and with a bow of his head, he took to the skies once more, weighed down slightly by the many arms of the octopus. He flew for a while before reaching the other side of the Mines, where he left most of the octopus just inside the door. He didn't want it weighing him down while traversing the caves and corridors within the Mines, after all. As he munched on one of the arms and let his quick eyes adjust to the darkness, he felt a gentle pull in a specific direction and a dark whispering filled his mind. He shook off the voices, but he still felt the pull. His mind shifted from the job he was hired to do to finding the source of the pull, and he went off to find whatever it was. In his dark robes, he was barely more than a shadow on the stones. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ » a hock is the ankle on an animal that walks on their toes, like Ash does. the hock is the equivalent of the human ankle, while the actual treading surface is the equivalent of our toes. /anatomy lesson « tagged » - - - - - - leggy 842 - - - - - « words lyrics » - - - - - - dia frampton elevenie - - - - - - « credit

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[legolas]

They stopped… again. This had become sort of a regular routine now and Legolas found himself growing more and more confused with the way men and hobbits could spend as much of their lives resting as they were in motion. He understood their need for it, of course, just not so much as to why. Why were some races created to stand long strains of endurance while others would tire of it, regardless of an effort which he didn’t deny to be in any of his present companions? And in the same respect, was the answer to this question which he would probably never receive the explanation why they may look different or why they may live different spans of life. It seemed unfair that there was such a gap, an incomparable gap, that yet they were forced to be compared by it none the less. Try as he might understand the benefits behind this unequal diversity he found himself wholly incapable.

He didn’t exactly have much to occupy himself with in their current setting. Their scenery consisted of, well, rocks. And they weren’t particularly interesting rocks either. Or at the very least, they weren’t in any way interesting to Legolas. After days in the mines the rocks had all began to look very much the same and very much blended together. He was no longer terribly unsettled by them purely for what they were but he certainly would have been glad at something new. And even more glad at something old. They had not come across anything yet that might concern them or please them, though the situation as a whole had left most of them heavily on guard, and Legolas assumed he was supposed to be satisfied by that compared to an alternative. However, it was becoming more frequent that he would hear the sounds made by Gollum following after them. If they kept up pace like this he imagined the others might hear it soon as well. It was not so much the creature he had a personal concern for as was it the ones who would likely be accompanying it.

Undeniably, there were other things in the mines. The creatures that had killed the dwarves may have still lingered in their new-found kingdom. They'd come across an octopus that dwelled by nature already in their entrance, and Legolas would not be surprised to find other beasts slinking about at the edge of the surface either below or above. In fact, for very long now he'd felt that would be the case. He could not place his uncertainties, but they lied within the creatures of this long abandoned place. And so when it was he heard a noise from the direction in which they planned on moving forward, he was in one way wary and stricken but in another largely curious. The sound and the presence of life was undeniable, yet what he heard was not the footfalls of a goblin or orc, and it was not the roar of a large and ancient beast. It was a creature quiet as a hobbit or an elf, but either careless in its steps or in a hurry to get somewhere.

Had he not already been slightly distanced from the fellowship as he surveyed the passes around them he'd have given word, but the noises were brief and scattered and in many ways hardly noticeable at all. How long it had been here and gone without him noticing was the question. Whatever it was, it was close and it was quiet, and he didn't want to risk loosing it's trail while there were still so many unanswered questions. Later, undoubtedly, he would find reason to regret this decision or be in some way rebuked for it, but for now he had little time to consider the consequences of his actions. By sound alone he could not tell exactly where the being was, however it did not take long for him to come to see it gave of an aura in many ways convincing him of it's less than natural nature. He was drawn away from it and yet he continued in the same direction he was going without a doubt, bow in his hand and quiver now positioned so that he could draw fire in less than a moment's notice if need be. And as he got close enough he knew another turn would allow him to see this strange entity, he was not in any way inclined to believe that he wouldn't need it.

[ash]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style,background-image:url(http://i52.tinypic.com/otj5sn.jpg); width: 390px; -moz-border-radius: 40px 0px 40px 0px; border-radius:40px 0px 40px 0px; opacity: 0.8; border-right: #a17700 15px solid; border-left: #a17700 15px solid;] » they have it out for me « » for the girls and the boys for the broken « Ash's tail twitched as he made his way through the Mines. His elven half was absolutely hating the fact that there was no sky above him, but his draconic half was loving the dark coolness of the Mines. The conflict made it a little hard to concentrate and tread lightly, which wasn't hard to begin with, but with all the rocks - and bodies, can't forget about those - it was a little more confusing than he originally thought. What exactly had happened in here? There were Orcs and dwarves all over the place. Had Orcs stormed the place and the dwarves fought back, killing everyone in the process? As he passed body after body, he began to grow a little unsettled. He wasn't afraid of being attacked, no, but death... death was something he'd been afraid of since his first few hundred years. He'd seen the life leave the eyes of his best friend, heard the breath stop, felt the hands go limp, the skin go cold, and he'd cried. He sighed, shaking the thoughts from his head. He had something to focus on now: finding the source of the pull. He'd followed it for quite a ways, and the fact that he couldn't tell whether it was night or day down in the caves made it hard to judge time. The only thing he could figure out about the pull was that it was dark in nature, and as much as he didn't want to keep going towards it, he couldn't help it. It was more than a want, he needed to know what it was. He'd never before been so driven to find the source of something, but now it was almost scaring him. What was this dark object, and why was it so important that he find out what it was? The whispers were back, filling his head, and he leaned against the wall, pressing his fingers into his temples. It felt like the closer he got to it, the worse this would get. But he didn't like this. Why, then, did it want him to find it so badly? He'd put it onto the object now, that it was manipulating him into needing to find it, because the whispers told him so. The whispers, the voices, they emanated from the object, whatever it was, and they told him things. Promises of grandeur, of power, but those weren't things that Ash wanted. He wanted to have fun and have a clear conscience, and doing whatever this evil object wanted wouldn't give him either. With that in mind, he defiantly put the whispers out of his mind, continuing onwards. The desire to find the object was still in the back of his mind, directing his actions as he made his way through the caves. He pulled out another one of the octopus' arms, ripping it into a smaller segment and stowing the rest of it away for safekeeping. He had just over half of the full arm he'd brought with him into the Mines. He'd be fine for a while yet, and he needed to keep his strength up. He had no idea what he would find deeper in. Taking a deep breath, he quickly cooked the segment of octopus he held, being careful to not burn his hand or his robes. The flame died away as he noticed the meat had caught fire and he quickly blew it out before it burned. As much as he was silent like an elf, his appetite was strictly draconic. He would tolerate greenery and things like bread, but if he could get it, he'd take rare, bloody meat over anything else. He was just about to dig into his octopus when he heard something out of the ordinary. Near silent footsteps on an uneven surface, the slightly elevated heartbeat from just around the corner, an uneven back pressing itself against the rock wall. The footsteps indicated either a hobbit or an elf - no other race could walk as quietly - while the uneven back - probably with something there, either a sword or a quiver - indicated that they were likely armed. The heartbeat, on the other hand, told him that whoever it was had heard him and was prepared, though whether to fight or flee he didn't know. So, Ash decided to do the first thing he thought of. He walked around the corner, stopping abruptly when he came within a few inches of an elf's face. He blinked a couple of times, then grinned. "Hello," he said, offering the nearly-raw octopus out for the man to see. "Octopus?" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ » that's probably one of the best endings to a post I've ever written « tagged » - - - - - - leggy 772 - - - - - « words lyrics » - - - - - - dia frampton elevenie - - - - - - « credit

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[legolas]

Legolas did not know what awaited him on the other side of the wall, but he considered himself prepared to handle whatever it may be before it proved a threat to the fellowship. Though certainly far from the most well versed in the group, in his years he had seen much of what the dark forces could produce, and had bested nearly as many. In fact, he really was aptly prepared for almost anything that one would imagine circling around that bend. Anything, that is, except the man with the pointy ears, big grin, and cloak that may as well have blended him into the cave walls themselves.

He had nearly raised his bow up when the light footsteps began moving towards him, but he stopped abruptly as he realized the being was not a creature and was not in fact, at least for the moment, considering attacking him. With even the notion in mind that there may be a living dwarf in the mines other than Gimli, Legolas had not expected any type of peaceful greeting. The word ‘hello’ itself managed to catch him off his guard. He could do very little but stare, and then finally take a step back. “What?”

The octopus certainly did nothing to ease his uncertainty. In fact, Legolas found himself rather repulsed by the sight of the half cooked tentacle and unsure how anyone might consider eating that. He wondered but for a moment if the time in the mines had really began to effect him in a way similar to the men who spent too long in the burning sun, and made him, for lack of better words, completely delusional. He really wouldn’t be surprised at this point. Yet, he could feel the presence of the person of front of him as clearly as he might have his own or that of his companions. He was very much real.

So there was little to do but try to understand more of this strange stranger. At first glance, a man may have mistaken him for an elf, as they saw little beyond the shape of one’s ears. But his spirit was not that of an elf, not his mannerisms and his poise in appearance, and there was a fell nature deep within him that which Legolas could not place a creature for it was there, but dormant, beneath something else he also could not place. He stood taller than Legolas and so it had taken the elf an extra moment to catch sight of the shape bulging slightly from the back of his cloak. He knew not if the.. the whatever it was, was concealing arms or if he was in fact something more peculiar but he was unsettling. And if there was anything Legolas had drawn conclusion about from his time in the mines, it was that things that were the most unsettling and yet need not be vanquished were the most daunting of all.

[ash]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style,background-image:url(http://i52.tinypic.com/otj5sn.jpg); width: 390px; -moz-border-radius: 40px 0px 40px 0px; border-radius:40px 0px 40px 0px; opacity: 0.8; border-right: #a17700 15px solid; border-left: #a17700 15px solid;] » they have it out for me « » for the girls and the boys for the broken « Ash really wasn't sure what he'd expected this... person? man? whatever, this being's reaction to be, but it most definitely wasn't confusion. Giving the man... elf... person a once over, he decided on elf, as the ears and the silent steps would point to either a hobbit or an elf, and the hobbits didn't grow to be as tall as the person in front of him. However, knowing the way elves were used in evil experiments back in the day, Ash never could trust an elf on sight alone anymore. After all, Ash himself looked like an elf at first glance, when in reality, he wasn't just an elf. Still, Ash felt the purity and serenity that exuded from him, and thus classified the person before him with the bow, quiver, dark eyes and long blond hair as an elf. At the elf's confused look, Ash frowned slightly. Was was so confusing about the offering of octopus? "It's octopus," he explained, holding it out a little more. "You eat it." He accompanied the explanation with a friendly grin as he hoped that the confused elf would just take the food so that this awkwardness could be resolved. Ash had always come off as strange, but most of the people he'd interacted with over the past few thousand years were strange as well. Hopefully this guy wouldn't turn out to be one of the normal ones, as that would be weird. "It's quite tasty, you know," he added, then reached into his pouch. "I have more here, if you would rather not have something I've bitten off of." He held out the second piece of octopus, then he remembered that it wasn't cooked. "How do you like your meat?" he asked, completely oblivious to the fact that elves weren't like men, and while men loved all kinds of meat, elves tended to stick to the "purer" foods. "Crispy, bloody, or somewhere in between?" The whispers touched his conscious mind again, and though he pushed them away, he was reminded of the need to find whatever it was that was reaching out to him. "Anyway, I'm looking for something," he said, feeling compelled to ask about his quarry. Of course, his quarry was whatever it was that was trying to get him to find it, trying to take over his mind with its darkness. "Have you seen it?" He tried looking around the confused elf, octopus still in hand, towards the direction he felt the pull from, the direction the elf had come from. "I think it's in that direction," he gestured with the uncooked octopus in his hand, "and you just came from that way. Did you happen to pass..." He didn't know what sort of word to describe it. He couldn't just go telling this elf that it was something dark, because the fact that he could feel it in his head would end up blowing his cover and exposing him as a being of darkness, if in appearance only. He didn't actually know what it was, though, so he couldn't describe it, either. Dilemmas. "it?" he finished, looking back at the elf. Hopefully he wouldn't be too curious. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ » yeah this one felt kinda crappy. « tagged » - - - - - - leggy 529 - - - - - « words lyrics » - - - - - - dia frampton elevenie - - - - - - « credit

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[legolas]

Clearly both Legolas and this other elf-looking creature had different opinions on what may have been seen as an obvious and natural reaction for this situation. The later seemed very certain that this octopus was meant to be consumed. Legolas had not seen that to be so plain. “No, you don’t.” it may have been a question. Now Legolas had known that men would eat very strange things, especially while traveling, but he had not known one to ever eat an octopus and felt that, were he to continue about his life without that information, he would not have been missing out on anything significant. It was not that elves did not or could not eat meat; rather, they simply had no reason to. Men, to Legolas’ knowledge at least, ate it majoridly for its nutritional content. Elves needed no such thing, nor anything so filling, and so many of them saw it as a waste to kill animals for their food source. And many, like him, believed such thing looked to be very far from appetizing. “I’d rather not, thank you.” he tried to remain polite and not appear throroughly disgusted by the bloody, floppy tentacle. It was only when he was forced to look at it he remembered a very similar tentacle which had been a target of his in the very recent past. "Was that the octopus that was in the enterance?"

When the.. uh… he-- When he mentioned that he was looking for something in the direction that Legolas had come from, the elf just avoided making his tension visible. His grip on his bow tightened, but he made sure to keep the guise of confusion. The ring had the ability to effect even men with the purest hearts and he would be lying to say that he did not feel the radiating dark power off the object they escorted to Mordor, though not from this distance. The fact that this he felt it did not define him as evil, but Legolas feared the combination of the ring and the darkness he sensed in the being in front of him. “I have come all the way from the entrance on that side of the mines. There is nothing of particular interest or anything save the rocks. In fact, I would not recommend traveling that way if you have any will to get out. Its now a dead end.” his words were natural and part way true, but the lie was well justified with intent to keep this stranger from the fellowship, especially in this place where there was no escape. He did not understand this strange being. He had never seen a creature of darkness so inteligent, and never heard of one that wasnt Saruman or Sauron himself. Legolas did not believe the evil that radiated from this he was anywhere near such a magnitude to make him consider he was either, but he knew not what other creations Saruman had given birth to besides just those that littered the forests of his home. Was this being a servant of Saruman sent for the ring? If so, he spoke deceptively, pretending to know less than he did, and Legolas wondered if he had caught on to the trickery, Or there was more too it. He would not let whoever this was continue until he ran into their group. It was a matter of whether he could detter him with words or not.

[ash]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style,background-image:url(http://i52.tinypic.com/otj5sn.jpg); width: 390px; -moz-border-radius: 40px 0px 40px 0px; border-radius:40px 0px 40px 0px; opacity: 0.8; border-right: #a17700 15px solid; border-left: #a17700 15px solid;] » they have it out for me « » for the girls and the boys for the broken « Ash raised an eyebrow. He would admit that he didn't know much about elven culture, even though he was part elf (the true elves saw him as an abomination, a monster, a corruption, same as they saw the Orcs. He was so much more than a simple-minded Orc, but anyone who saw his body, his deformities, would believe him to simply be a creature of darkness with no will of his own, and they would run. Even some of the more cowardly Orcs would run from him, especially if he started breathing fire everywhere. "You do eat it; it's food," Ash explained, but still put the portion of tentacle away. "Suit yourself, but you're really missing out. It's fabulous." To emphasize his point, he took a bite of the other piece of octopus he had been eating. At the elf's question, he had to think. Where had he gotten this octopus again? Oh yeah, it had been at the entrance to the mines. "Yeah, it was that one," he said, grinning. "Did you face him, too? A mighty octopus, that one. I buried him and did everything properly, so no worries there." When the elf explained that there was nothing there, he frowned. Something was wrong. He could feel whatever it was. Either this elf truly didn't know about the thing, didn't feel the thing's energy, or hadn't seen it. Or any combination of the three. Or, the whispers told him, he could be lying. He could be misleading you. He wants it for himself. Ash pushed the whispers out of his head, but he couldn't deny that they had a point. What if he was being lied to? What if this elf knew about it and was deliberately saying that he didn't know to keep Ash away from it? What if... what if he did just want to keep it for himself? Ash didn't know what an elf so full of light wanted with a dark object such as... whatever it was, but that wasn't exactly what he felt he needed to concern himself with at the moment. He needed to know what it was. To see it. He needed to find it. "I passed by there on my way in," he replied, deciding to bring the more important topic up later. "Was that you? Or was it the octopus that caved in the door? Surely a being of your size wouldn't be able to cave in that much rock by himself, would he?" Of course, unless he had some help from a rock or some explosives or something, then it would be easier to believe, but even Ash wouldn't be able to do that without some help. Still, the fact that the elf was keeping things from him wasn't good. What to do about it, however, was a little hazy. "It's definitely back there, though," Ash replied, frowning. Just because he hadn't seen it didn't mean that it didn't exist, and it sure as hell existed, judging from what it was doing to Ash's mind. This hadn't happened before as a side effect of his strange biology, and he could feel that there was something going on, something outside of him or his control. "So if you don't mind, I'll take my leave and continue on my way." Good handling there, Ash. Really good word choice. He started towards the other side of the mines, behind the elf and in the direction of whatever it was that he felt in his head. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ » more awesomeness with the Ring's corruption « tagged » - - - - - - leggy 584 - - - - - « words lyrics » - - - - - - dia frampton elevenie - - - - - - « credit

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[legolas]

It wasnt food. It was an octopus' tentical. However, Legolas had a feeling that explaining that would be like explaining to a giant spider that a person wasnt food. Finding out that this... he, again for lack of better description-- finding out that he killed this octopus, the same one that attacked the Fellowship as they entered the mines, Legolas couldnt help but be surprised. He had assumed that this being might have had more stregnths than just an amount of physical imposition but now he was certain there was some advanced power or weaponery involved. "I did not know that a proper buirial consisted of eating the deseased's limbs." he mentioned, eyebrow raising similarly to how Ash's had before. It made no sense to him yet he was curious about this being's culture. He did not speak as if he'd been being sarcastic. "And yes, I did face him."

Eyes narrowed in when he said that Legolas could not have possibly caved in the enterance. He hadnt been the one to, of course, but that had nothing to do with incapability and certainly nothing to do with size. Legolas was not particularly fazed by the difference in size between himself and this person in fact. The elves of Noldorian desent tended to be nearly his height and Legolas though very little strange of it. "He would be able to, I'm certain" He was slightly defensive, reminded for a moment very much of Gimli. Though again, he had no desire or reason to have blocked up the enterance. Very much the opposite. "However it was not I nor the octopus who did it." He left out what happened, feeling no need to share any of what may suggest his and his companions' plight to this stranger, however again not directly lying. 

"Theres nothing there," he repeated again, slightly more agitated now that he could see this being was well sure of himself and slightly adled due to the ring's sway. What he was doing was for the whatever-this-was' best interests. However that would be far from recognized. As he went to move around him Legolas took a step forward. "Actually, I happen to mind." he said quickly, though he had no plan for a reason as to why. He would undoubtably give away that he knew something, but that was fine as long as it worked.

[boromir]

All of this resting didn't sit well with the soldier from Gondor. The Ring constantly calling to him wasn't the only problem. Boromir couldn't shake the feeling that there was other evil lurking somewhere in the mines of Moria. He could see that the others felt it too, even if they remained quiet about it and tried to keep stoic faces on. As soon as it was announced that they would be moving on all Boromir had to do was sling his shield over his back to get ready.

But they were one member short. Legolas had gone off to investigate a noise he had heard (and only he had heard, thanks to the keen senses of elves) and wasn't back yet. He had headed off in the direction that they needed to go in but a consensus was reached that one person should go out looking for him and bring him back while the others waited right where they had halted. There was always the off chance that if they all proceeded forward they might miss the returning Legolas in the dark.

Boromir had gladly opted to go after Legolas. He needed some time alone, no matter how brief that time alone was going to be, after the conversation he had had with Frodo a mere hours ago when the halfling had wandered off on his own. And he was sure that the rest of the Fellowship would be grateful for some time without his presence, especially the wizard. Boromir followed in Legolas' footsteps, not sure if he would even find the elf. After all, there were many passages off to the sides in the mine. What if the noise had come from one of them and Boromir walked right by Legolas without even knowing it?

His eyes had already adjusted to the dark as best as they were going to. Boromir didn't know how long he had been walking before he finally did spot the figure of the elf up ahead. When he was only a few yards away, he said, "Legolas, we..." Boromir stopped in mid-sentence because he saw that Legolas wasn't alone. There was a tall...elf? Possibly. There was a tall elf standing by him and that wasn't the least of it; the elf was holding what appeared to be pieces of tentacles from the creature that had attacked them at the front gate. One of Boromir's hands wandered down to the hilt of his sword ready to take it out just in case. "Who are you?" he demanded to know.

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[ash]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style,background-image:url(http://i52.tinypic.com/otj5sn.jpg); width: 390px; -moz-border-radius: 40px 0px 40px 0px; border-radius:40px 0px 40px 0px; opacity: 0.8; border-right: #a17700 15px solid; border-left: #a17700 15px solid;] » they have it out for me « » for the girls and the boys for the broken « Ash grinned sheepishly. "Well, no," he said, slightly embarrassed. "But when one lives on the road, the simple fact is that one never knows when one will be able to eat." It was true; he'd been out of food a lot of times, and he'd had to go days, at the most a week, without any sort of sustenance. Of course, he was made of hardier stuff than most, and so it didn't hurt him as much as would have a man, for example, but he hadn't been in tip top shape for a couple of days after that. Of course, stuffing his face made everything better. "After living this type of lifestyle for a while, one finds food in the most..." He paused, grasping for the right word. "unorthodox places." The grin came back to his face, trying to seem as innocent as possible. He didn't want to be judged for the life he led, of all things. As he stepped forward, the elf did so too, making him stop. Ash was thinking more and more that the elf was lying to him, and he knew exactly where the object was. "If there's nothing back there, like you say," he started, frowning. "then why do you mind?" It was a confusing mentality he was in right now. As much as he wanted to see the best in people, he had to face the fact that this elf's words and actions made it painfully obvious: he was lying. He knew where it was. The only question Ash had was why he was keeping it a secret? Did Ash just come off as untrustworthy? Was he protecting something? It was times like these that he wished reading minds was part of his repertoire of powers. Then, of course, he would get into the fact that he'd hear everyone's thoughts, including the ones that he'd really rather not hear. "Monster." He quickly clamped down on those thoughts and brought himself back to the situation at hand, just as another person - a man, from the look of things - came around the corner. "I am Ash," he said, introducing himself with a bow of his head. "And who, may I ask, are you?" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ » oh god it's short D: I'm sorry « tagged » - - - - - - leggy, boromir 371 - - - - - « words lyrics » - - - - - - dia frampton elevenie - - - - - - « credit

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[legolas]

And so the being was a traveller. Legolas attempted to discover more about him with the information he newly revealed. Clearly he was more than a mere traveller though. He appeared in no way undernourished and yet carried nothing on him to show he may aquire meals through hunting or purchace. Even travelling light, had he come from a city, he would have been donning some sort of a pack. And there were no cities near by which he may have been recently departed from.  It appeared that his external habits were as unidentifiable and contradicting as what Legolas felt inside of him, and he could not linger in thought or observations as to leave himself off guard. 

"Because-" he started off strongly, but paused when familiar footsteps approached them, turning his head away from Ash for only the briefest moment. There were quite a few things that Legolas never thought he would say, but one of them was thank the Valar for Boromir. Of all the people to look for him, he'd ecpected this man one of the last, and frankly he'd assumed that he'd have not been followed by anyone. He knew not what he would have done without the tinely interuption however, despite the fact it contradicted the statement he'd spoken about being alone, and so he was grateful. 

"And what are you?" Legolas could not help but ask when Boromir requested his name, something the elf had not even thought of. He was curious as to what the being would say but yet did not expect much a semblance of truth. He, of course, knew exactly what Ash was not. And... Ash. He could tell right away that the name, the harsh sylobal, was of the black speech. Its meaning in the common tounge was not to be translated to a name. He gave the man of Gondor a very purposeful look, one that conveyed there were many things he wished to say but could not do so. He would mean to warn that they were not to speak of the fellowship or the ring and he would mean to warn that there was something about this being.. something very unnatural and suspisious. He did not know how much of that was obvious to Boromir but between the two of them they would need to make a descision.

[boromir]

Boromir had no way of knowing if the name the creature had given him was his true name and, if it was, Boromir didn't like it. 'Ash' could conjure up nothing but images of Mordor in his head. Would it be out of the question that Sauron had sent Ash looking for them? Saruman had forced them to take the path of the mines and maybe his partner in his evil deeds had decided to send someone after them to trap them inside. That surmise alone was enough to keep Boromir from giving his name in return.

And then Legolas asked his question. Boromir had assumed the creature was another elf but clearly Legolas didn't believe that was the case. His fellow Fellowship member had a lot better eyesight than he did in the dark. Boromir couldn't make out the cloak hiding Ash's deformities. Whatever Ash was, Legolas had just given Boromir another reason to be wary around this creature. The Gondorian hadn't had much hope of this quest succeeding from the beginning but he also hadn't thought that it would fail so soon--stopped by one creature in the Mines of Moria.

He caught Legolas' glance and nodded, almost imperceptibly, back to the elf. Boromir knew something wasn't right here, and Legolas should have been very thankful that of all of the members of the Fellowship to come looking for him it had been Boromir; if this man was looking at trying to get the Ring back to Sauron, then Boromir would do whatever was in his power to stop him, having not given up hope that he would be able to convince the others to let him bring the weapon to Minas Tirith. "And what are you doing here?" he inquired, throwing one last question Ash's way. "This is a dangerous place for one to be wandering by themselves." He had said words along a similar mind to Frodo not that long ago, although that case was different. At least Frodo had friends in the mines with him. This creature was all alone...hopefully.

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[ash]

[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style,background-image:url(http://i52.tinypic.com/otj5sn.jpg); width: 390px; -moz-border-radius: 40px 0px 40px 0px; border-radius:40px 0px 40px 0px; opacity: 0.8; border-right: #a17700 15px solid; border-left: #a17700 15px solid;] » they have it out for me « » for the girls and the boys for the broken « This man was this elf's friend, by the look of it. He'd said Legolas; was that the elf's name? Legolas was definitely a Sindarin word, meaning "green leaf." Name? Plausible. At least he had something to refer to the elf as, which was a good thing. "The elf" was getting really old. However, now he had two things to worry about. Instead of just trying to get around Legolas, he had to worry about this man as well. Of course, if it came down to a fight, he'd easily be able to dispatch the both of them - a sideswipe at their legs, resulting in a couple of crushed bones, would do nicely, the whispered voice in his head suggested - but if he could help it, he wanted to avoid a confrontation. One of his main concerns was to prove to people that he wasn't a monster, that he was actually a good person. If they distrusted him and he hurt them, they'd attack him and judge him like any other elven mutation. He didn't want that at all. So when the elf, Legolas, asked what he was, he hesitated. If they figured it out, they'd hate him. He wouldn't be able to befriend them and leave on peaceful terms, which is all he wanted to do. However, from the looks on their faces, he could tell that they suspected him to be something other than an elf. A half-truth couldn't hurt, right? "I was once an elf," he replied, smiling sympathetically. "and that's all I'm going to say." If he told them the rest, about how he'd been created by Morgoth as an experiment to see if he could combine an elf and a dragon, they'd only see him as a creature of darkness, under the control of whoever was the current force of evil in the world. Was it Sauron, Morgoth's apprentice, still? He'd never paid much attention to the world around him, but last time he had, he'd heard that Sauron had been killed and that Middle-earth was safe. "I'd rather not tell my life's story to those I don't call 'friend,' you understand." Because if he didn't call them friend, they'd simply attack him without a word, regardless of how he'd acted towards them before. It was a consequence he'd lived with for over ten thousand years now, and it wasn't one that was going to get any easier. These people were just full of questions, weren't they? "I'm looking for something," he said, forcibly keeping the smile on his face. Look as nonthreatening as possible, so they won't hate you on sight. It was a lesson he'd learned a long time ago, when he'd been run out of a settlement because he'd come in looking like he was going to tear someone to shreds. Of course, he'd just lost his first friend, had watched her wither away and die before his eyes, when he'd stayed the same. He'd had a reason for looking like that, but still. "As I explained to your friend here, it wasn't back the way I came, so it must be further on ahead." Not to mention the fact that he could feel it up ahead, but he didn't want to tell them that. Dangerous? Hah. "I could be saying the same to you," he replied. Ash could handle himself easily, but an elf and a man? Sure, they'd be able to fight off Orcs and such, but they'd be hopelessly outnumbered by the goblins that called Moria home. Not to mention the fact that the dwarves that lived here were suddenly wiped out roughly a thousand years ago for a reason that nobody could figure out. What if there was something else lurking in the ruins of Khazad-dûm? Something capable of destroying a civilization overnight isn't something an elf and a man by themselves would be able to take care of. "I can show you the way out, if you like." Then they'll be out of your way, the whispers told him. You'll be able to find me without any interference. But why not just kill them, save yourself the trouble? But that wasn't what Ash wanted to do. He wanted to get out peacefully, without hurting anyone. Just because they were lying to him and suspecting him of being a dark creature - which he was; he wasn't going to deny that - didn't mean he had to kill them in order to get them out of his way. He shoved the whispers out of his mind again, now intent on resisting them. They were dark in nature, and while he was also dark, his heart was that of the light. He wasn't going to just let it twist them to its will. He was stronger than that. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ » i made up for the short! :D « tagged » - - - - - - leggy, boromir 802 - - - - - « words lyrics » - - - - - - dia frampton elevenie - - - - - - « credit

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[legolas]

Questions questions and more questions. With Boromir now here they seemed to roll from the depths of their mind and into the open. Yet even with their bombard of inquisitions as if they held owndership of the mines, there was still so much about this being and this situation Legolas could not understand. He did not feel as if they were being told the truth, yet he did not feel as if they were being lied to. The more he allowed himself to think into Ash's nature the more he found himself tangled in dead ends and questions. In the end, he supposed it didn't exactly matter, so long as he wasn't posing a threat, but they were in no particular position to judge whether or not that was true without an explanation of what they were up against.

And so he asked. It was in good forune that the being did not claim he was an elf in entierty as Legolas would have wasted not a moment in exploiting his fraud. What he did, however, was not particularly better. In a manner similar to their innitial meeting he felt as if he'd been thrown into the one situation he wasn't prepared for. When he heard Ash explain what he was, Legolas deliberatly pulled himself back from his analysis, wanting nothing to do with what had only a moment before been the subject of his curiosity. He was uncertain of what he was supposed to be thinking or feeling. Uncertain whether it was natural or warrented that he harbored an amount of sympathy for Ash, who was not by fault for what he was. Or slightly concerned now, for Ash, if he was the foe they considered he might be, was bigger than Legolas, likely stronger, and probably equally as agile.

Mostly though, he was overtaken by anger towards the thing, the monster that did this to him. Despite being young in age for the standards of an elf, Legolas was not unaware of the practices that had at one point been rather common to those of this people who found themsevles at the mercy of dark forces. They were not entierly uncommon today, and he would know, having seen many of his kin in their own homeland meet a similar fate. The word expirement to him had never been more than a synonym for torture, oft ending only with the subject's death. He had not known an attempt to be sucessful, save the origional orcs and uruk-hai, and now this being in front of him.

He'd said nothing in responce, though he'd imagined his reaction wasn't entierly unreadable. He regained his voice once Ash answered Boromir's second question, one that had them spiraling back in circles. "And as I explained to you, I'm afraid to say that you're clearly mistaken." A certain sharpness took to hid voice, evendently trying to end the discussion, because the fact of the matter was that Ash was not, especially after this, going to be going off on his merry way, and certainly not in the direction of the company. Knowing Ash was well aware there was something there, and well aware he was equally as aware, he spoke again. "There are some things that are best left unfound. It would do good for you to leave it be."

He was not terribly surprised by the rebuke of the 'dangerous' comment because Moria was in fact, very dangerous, possibly more than any of them yet realized. None the less, he, Boromir, and the rest of the fellowship was capable, with a reason, and without much a choice. Ash appeared to be very confident in his own abilty. "You over-estimate yourself," he noted, with an amount of casualness that was not meant to be an insult as much as a fact of observation. "That's more dangerous than any mine. We're fine on our own."

[boromir]

Boromir didn't feel sorry for this creature in front of him. It wasn't in him to feel sorry for anyone he felt was hindering their mission. They had already had far too many delays inside the mines; the last thing they needed was some part elf creature hindering them further. And Boromir couldn't help but think that no one who was sane would ever wander into the mines of their own free will unless they had a purpose. What was Ash's purpose? Why was he here? It couldn't be anything as simple as he had thought the mines of Moria would be a fun place to explore.

That left only one possibility, which Ash's words confirmed. He was looking for 'something.' It didn't take Boromir a great leap of imagination to realize that that 'something' was the One Ring. Boromir knew the great power that the Ring was always exerting but how far away had Ash been before its influence started to work on him? What other creatures was the Ring going to start calling to itself?

He didn't want Ash to know that there was anything up ahead; he would have told himself that he was mistaken--that Ash would find nobody but a few of their friends that way. But, before Boromir could speak, Legolas answered Ash. Boromir couldn't help but wince at Legolas' words. The elf might as well have told him straight out that the Ring was up ahead. Telling someone that something should remain unfound was only going to want to make them find it all the more.

Boromir could think of one way only to end this situation, albeit not very satisfactorily but it was the only thing they could do. "The others will have expected us back by now," he told Legolas, "We cannot leave him--" He gestured towards Ash. "--here. He has to come with us from now on." Boromir didn't think that he needed to state that if they let Ash go instead the part elf would, no doubt, follow after them. The call of the Ring wasn't going to let Ash go.

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