AUTHOR'S NOTE: Just as I promised, here's the next chapter! I'll get the next chapter up and ready as soon as I can... That is if I don't stop eating this amazing banana bread :D ... Oh banana bread you make my tummy oh so happy. Anyway.... To the STORY and Yay for more Legolas and Medlinya :)

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~Chapter Ninteen~

The Men of the White Mountain

The sun hung high above the dusty, eerie canyon of the White Mountains. Giant grey walls of the rocky mountain path loomed over the company of four. No life of plants embraced itself along the trail. A barren wasteland. Aragorn lead the company, mounted on Brego with Gimli just behind the Ranger scoping the view carefully. Legolas and Medlinya, riding on Arod followed silently behind Aragorn also examining the strangeness of the air. Making their up a gloomy canyon, shadowed by black fir trees. The dimmed ridges of the Dwimorberg tower before them. A spooky place, indeed.

Gimli's eyes flicker around him uneasily, "What kind of army would linger in such a place?"

"One that is cursed." Legolas replied as his cerulean eyes observed every rock and tree. The she-elf behind the Prince stared at the back of his head, awaiting an explanation. "Long ago the Men of the Mountain swore an oath to the last king of Gondor, to come to his aid, to fight. But when the time came, when Gondor's need was dire, they fled, vanishing into the darkness of the mountain. And so Isildur cursed them, never to rest, until they had fulfilled their pledge."

Silence surrounds them, there are no birds and no wind. Only the ominously muffled thud of their horse's hooves on the dark fir-needles.

Suddenly, Legolas' voice echoed off the grey rock walls of the White Mountains. His voice was not the normal soft and friendly tone. It sounded as if he was possessed by a darker power.

A breathy strange voice. 

"Who shall call them from the grey twilight?

The forgotten people.

The heir of him to whom the oath they swore.

From the north shall he come.

Need shall drive him.

He shall pass the door to the Paths of the Dead."

Medlinya shifted uncomfortably as Legolas' strange words reached her sharp hear. Although Legolas did not seem unnerved by his sudden change of voice. As if it never happened. Her sapphire eyes spotted Gimli and Aragorn ahead of them. They too proceeded normally. 

Her mouth gaped at this revelation. What had she heard? Who had replicated her Faenod's voice for her to only hear. Swallowing her trembling fear, Medlinya held onto her Legolas tightly. Sensing this new strengthen hold, the Elf Prince immediately knew something had troubled Medlinya. Everytime something distresses her thoughts, her grip on him grows strong. 

'What do you sense, Aier?' [Short one]

Her sapphire eyes flickered to the slightly turned face of Legolas, watching her worriedly. 'I swear I heard your voice. Though you did not say what I heard.' Medlinya explained before she opened her thoughts to what had transpired just a minute before. 

In response, Legolas' expression darkened in confusion. He could not help but wonder, how his Faenod can experience such strange things when he cannot. She saw the ancient black magic swirling around the mountain a day before and now she hears his own voice saying something he physically did not say. What devilry is aiming their interest to his Medlinya? Perhaps the Dimholt Men's curse was, from his knowledge, extremely powerful. Sauron had not ventured his armies here so the Men living in the White Mountain was the only suspect.

To comfort his shaken Faenod he kissed her warm forehead before giving her a gentle reassuring smile. 'Do not fear. I will protect you.'

Medlinya's face brightened slightly although a soft pinch of guilt stirred in her strained sapphire eyes. Legolas gazed down questionably to his sweet love, wondering what she is keeping from him. Though he trusted that what ever those unspoken words were, Medlinya had his well being in mind. Before turning away from Medlinya to focus on the road before them, he naively smiled at her mocking naivety to her guilt. 

Climbing up a dusty narrow path between large black fur trees at the very root of the mountain, a sheer wall of rock towers over the four friends. Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas dismounted their horses before a strange strait deeper into the mountain. Medlinya stayed on Arod as Legolas lead the white stallion by the reins. Aragorn had a grip on Brego's reins as Gimli quietly trekked in between the horses. 

Entering the weird passage, the companionship felt a coldness shiver down their spines. "The very warmth of my blood seems stole away." Gimli frighteningly whispered, voicing the weird chill. The other three friends nod absentmindedly at his words. 

Within the walls, a creepy dark door gapes like a mouth of night. Dusty human skulls adorned the arch way into Eru knows what. The dirt of the path beneath them and bare trees were dark as well leading the abyss darkness within. Signs and figures are carved just above its wide arch on a grey stone slab. Unnerved by the sight, Medllinya quietly dismounted Arod and stepped behind the Elf Prince.

Legolas glances up at the hieroglyphs above the door, " 'The way is shut. It was made by those who were dead, and the dead keep it. The way is shut.' "

At the moment, a chill wind seemed to rush out of the doorway like an eerie breath. Aragorn stares into the blackness, his hair blowing wildly. The horses whinny in terror as they rear back, before turning from the 'living' doorway and galloped away back to the trails of the White Mountain. 

"Brego!" Aragorn called after his retreating horse. When the two horses disappear from their sights, the Ranger wheeled around resolutely towards the archway. "I do not fear death!" Aragorn steely rectified. 

Legolas, Medlinya, and Gimli watch wide-eyed as Aragorn, with his sword tightly in his grip, disappear into the darkness of the Dimholt.  Before entering himself, the Elf Prince glanced back to the fear stricken face of Medlinya. Meeting each other's eyes, they both nod their head before being following after Aragorn. The Dwarf was left, hesitating, after seeing his two companions get swallowed into the shadows. 

"Well this is something unheard of!" Gimli voiced loudly, fear coating his every breath. "An elf will go underground where a dwarf dare not!" The Dwarf gritted his teeth, "Ooooh! I'd never hear the end of it!"

Following after the others, Gimli plunges into the tunnel of the Dimholt. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Causiously and quietly Aragorn leads his party further inside the Paths of the Dead. The gloomy cave opened space for only three persons across its width. Its length was too far off to be estimated. As Eomer had told the company back in Firienfield, 'No man that had entered ever returned'. Leading the way into the cave, Aragorn held a torch in his left while holding his sword, Anduil, with his right. Legolas and Medlinya stiffly followed after the Ranger a few steps back while Gimli traveled in the rear. 

Carefully stepping further into the tunnel, the light of Aragorn's torch showed a pile of fifty dusty skulls in the corner. 

The Dwarf gulped at the sight, gripping his trusty axe with his small but strong hands. His nervous eyes caught the sight of the unusually unnerved Prince Elf in front of him. "What is it? What do you see?"

Legolas's cerulean eyes slowly scanned their path. "I see shapes of men." The Elf stared ahead before adding, "And of horses."

"Where?" Gimli queried as his voice cracked in trembling fear. 

"Pale banners like shreds of cloud." Legolas continued his description glancing slowly around. "Spears rise... like winter-thickets through a shroud of mist." His eyes widened at a sudden revelation. "The dead are following. They have been summoned."

"The Dead?" Gimli croaked turning around wildly behind him. "Summoned?" His voice squeaked like a child afraid of a campfire horror story. Instantaneously as he noticed his fear in his voice, his composure returned. "I knew that. Very good." Lowering his axe, the Dwarf turned around to see his companions gone. "Very good! Legolas!" Gimli sprints to catch up into the next tunnel.

Upon entering the shaft of new tunnel, misty shapes of arms surround Legolas, Medlinya, and Aragorn, who brush them aside. Along their feet was a cloud of fog like mist that the arms were materializing from. Gimli, who had been already been petrified at the talk of ghost, shakily eyes the white spectral hands and childishly puffs air at the ghosts around him. This continues on for a good half of a minute before Gimli finally waved his hand along with vigorous puffing to stir off the ghosts. 

Aragorn continues to brush the phantoms aside when he catches a glimpse down before slowly looking back forward with a slight disgust face. "Do not look down." The Ranger warned slightly. 

As the Dwarf took a step forward, a snapping resounds off the walls of the cave halting Gimli from his trek. Gimli stared forward, mustering every strength in him to not look down. Though his curiosity got the better of him when the Dwarf glances down. Laid down as a path were hundred of old dusty human skulls. With a small gulp, Gimli continued to make his way out of this tunnel slowly. 

Crack.

-Silence-

Crack.

-Silence-

Crack.

-Silence-

Crack.

For every step, Gimli cracked another skull and for every crack, he winced. If this was a time of no fear or darkness, Medlinya knew she would have burst into laughter at the many faces she had seen from the Dwarf. Having enough of his torment, Gimli took off running out of the room cracking and destroying skulls as he went. 

Running Aragorn, Legolas, Medlinya, and Gimli run into a great underground hall with a large doorway. The hall itself was a wide cavern with a large dark stair to another door. Aragorn lead his company in front of the strange stair, waving his torch through the darkness. For such a small torch, the light given off from it illuminated the total vastness. Behind them a good thirty steps from the staircase was a impenetrable darkness of a ledge. 

Within the darkness, a strange wind blew through the companions. "Who enters my domain?" A phantom voice interrogated. 

The four companions turn to the origin of the voice, the staircase. A ghostly figure steps from the rock walls. The mummified spectre looms before them: his eyeless sockets, rotten teeth, and his pale sickly green glow. Adorned upon his head sat a crown. 

The King of the Dead.

Aragorn steps forward towards the ghostly figure, unflinching from the snarling voice of the Dead King. "One who will have your allegiance."

The King of the Dead's sockets stared at Aragorn. "The dead do not suffer the living to pass." He retorted in a hiss. 

"You will suffer me!" Aragorn declared bravely. 

The King threw back his rotted ghostly head back as his malevolent laugh echoes throughout the chasm. The fog suddenly rolls back, forming a retreating wall of grey vapor. From the mist, a once invisible city emerges from the wall of the bottomless darkness below. Slowly, rank upon rank of ghostly warriors are revealed marching from their dead city. Their ghoulish faces... their rusting weapons... and their tattered banners. From the circulating fog, thousands of phantoms surround the company ruthlessly. 

Aragorn paid no attention of the forming ranks of warriors, rather he stared grimly at the King of the Dead. The King stared back with an unnerving evil smile upon his lifeless green lips. No matter how skin-crawlingly sinister the King was, Aragorn held his gaze.

"The way is shut." The King of the Dead chilling voice echoed as he moved relentlessly towards the Ranger. "It was made by those who are dead. And the dead keep it." Medlinya shuffled closer to Legolas, shakily holding her own swords in her trembling hands. She hoped deep in her heart that Aragorn's power within his sword will be enough to control these heartless souls. The eyeless sockets of the King stared at the Ranger, holding his ghostly in his grasp. "The way is shut. Now you must die."

The King continued to approach Aragorn as did his phantom army. As the approached closer and closer, the army separated the four from each other. Medlinya did not like the fact she was separated from her Faenod. She could see her Legolas through the ghostly bodies, although the bodies were like windows they were still in existence. Unnerved, Legolas shoots his arrow at the King, but the arrow passes right through the ghost's head. This caused Medlinya to gulp nervously, knowing that all their hope to live now lies with the Ranger. 

Aragorn advanced towards the King, his eyes locked with the King's sockets.  "I summon you to fulfill your oath." The Ranger voiced, almost sounding desperate.

The King of the Dead snarled at such command and raised his deadly sword before his raspy voice yelled, "None but the King of Gondor may command me!"

With a terrifying shriek, the King of the Dead sweeps his sword towards Aragorn's head. Aragorn raises his sword in answer. A low whistle as it sweeps through the air. 

Clang!

The blade of Anduril clashes with the spectral sword. The shear ring of the metal resounds through the vast cavern. The King of the Dead stared at Aragorn in disbelief. "That bind was broken!" His phantom voice was now coated in fear instead of the evil hubris of his undead state. 

Aragorn instantly holds the throat of the ghost king with his blade's edge pressed against his neck. This earned the Ranger the King of the Dead to gasp for air. "It has been remade." 

The Ranger throws back the Dead King, releasing him from the edge of his blade and grasp. Aragorn turned to the undead warriors around him. "Fight for us, and regain your honor. What say you?"

Ghostly faces stare hollow-eyed at Aragorn.

"What say you?" The Ranger yelled. 

Silence ensued after his question.

"What say you?" Aragorn repeated lowly. 

The Dwarf holding his axe nervously, observed the view of the thousands of warriors surrounding him. "You waste your time, Aragorn! They had no honor in life, they have none now in death." 

Aragorn continued to rally up the army of the dead with an unblinking stare. "I am Isildur's heir. Fight for me and I will hold your oaths fulfilled!" The Ranger held out his sword around to the soldiers than finally to the King. The Ranger locked the gaze of the King unafraid. "What say you!" 

The entire muster of Aragorn, the King of the Dead's lifeless lips were smirking at the words of the Ranger. Unexpectedly, the King again threw back his head laughing his malicious laughter as all of the army starts to disparate into thin air. Above the rock-cracking echoes of the disappearing warriors, the King's laughter continued. Stepping forward desperate for this army, Aragorn musters a yell over the loud echoes, "You have my word! Fight, and I will release you from this living death! What say you?"

Gradually the companions stand by another again as their eyes study the last reminisce of the last standing soldiers as they disappear into the rock faces of the cavern. "Stand, you traitors!" Gimli barked, angry at the retreating undead army. 

The ground shakes beneath them, as a wind whistles through the cavern mysteriously. The tremors of the ground caused debris of rock of the ceiling to fall along with some skulls.  More and more dead human craniums roll on the floor at their feet. A deafening crack resounded behind the company. Slowly Aragorn, Legolas, Medlinya, and Gimli turn to the breaking doorway to see thousands of skulls flowing like a raging river out of the stone. 

"Out!" Aragorn cried.

Fear struck the she-elf's heart enabling her to move from her terrified stance. 

The company sprint for their lives as the raging skulls continue to thunder down the slope. Legolas clutched Medlinya's hand, through the cascade of skulls. The craniums smashes into the four, almost sweeping them off their feet. Stepping carefully as the skulls continuously rolled off their shoulders down into the ledge of the abyss. Medlinya struggled to keep on her feet as the floor of skulls moved swiftly beneath her. With a crack, the she-elf slipped sideways towards the darkness below, her heart dropped as the natural gravity of the earth's core began to pull her down like the skulls. Although with the strong hold of Legolas' strong hand clinging onto her hand, the Elf Prince steadied his Faenod to her feet.

Before them was a archway of another path along a narrow piece of rock. The skulls curved like a waterfall, behind a falls was a path. With the strength of their hold on the other. Aragorn lead his party into the path as Legolas followed after with Medlinya and Gimli trailing behind. The Elf Prince hastily turned to his slower comrades when he pushed the backs of the two forward as he ran at the rear. When Legolas gave her a slight shove, Medlinya sprinted swiftly after Aragorn. Her breath was hitched and her eyes were widened with fear and adrenaline. Behind the retreating company, rocks fell blocking the entrance of the Hall of the Dead. Without looking back, the Ranger lead his terror-stricken companions to an open doorway. 

The band of friends emerge from the doorway in the mountainside with their hearts till ramming against their chests. Medlinya sat on the grassy ground as sweat moistened her body. Breathing in deep breaths, her eyes flicker down the hillside to the sight below. At the foot of the mountain laid a large river. Medlinya quickly rose to her feet as she took in the sight of black ships along the river. Smoke rose from burning cities that the black sails had sacked for their own. 

To her right, Aragorn, who had also seen the sight, fell to his knees in despair. His strong facial structures had fallen into sorrow. His strong blue eyes moisten as his shoulders began to quiver. Legolas approached the crest-fallen Ranger and mutely clapped his hand on the Man's shoulder. Despairingly Aragorn lowered his head down avoiding the sight of his failure to protect his people. Medlinya quietly made her way to the side of her Faenod, watching the Ranger with heartbroken sapphire eyes. 

Silence weighed on the company of four.

All their eyes watched the black ships with a grave forlorn expression. 

Behind them a soft breath echoed.

A familiar sound that caused them to turn around towards the mountain. From the rock face of the White Mountain, the King of the Dead's ghostly figure materialized. His eye-less socket stared seriously at the startled Aragorn. "We fight!" His voice resounded boldly. 

With a bow of the Ranger's head, the King disappeared from sight. Medlinya sucked in a deep breath before she placed her forehead against the Elf Prince's shoulder. Instantaneously, warm arms enfolded the she-elf into an embrace. The cozy warmth of her Faenod's hold of her tiny frame, welded up tears into her eyes.

Medlinya had never been so afraid in her entire life. For she had a brink of death through wars. But in those moments it was different. She could do something about it. Medlinya knew how to feign attacks and use her powers bestowed to her by birth to protect herself. Tripping over thousands of skulls tumbling at her continuously was not anything she trained for during her 2,970 years. If it were not for Legolas and his strength, Medlinya would have fallen this day. 

Her sapphire eyes spilled out her tears of terror as she nestled her head into the chest of Legolas. The she-elf's shoulders shook as her stifled cries strengthen. Legolas immediately glanced down to the crying she-elf in his arm, pulling her in a tighter hold.

"Shh." The Elf Prince softly coaxed in a gentle whisper. "I will protect you. Shh."

Aragorn and Gimli wheeled around to the cries, worried. 

'What happened, Legolas?' 

The Elf glanced up to meet the royal blues of Aragorn. The Ranger had yelled it in his mind, over the cries of Medlinya, in order of the Prince to hear him. The cerulean blue eyes of Legolas were struggling to keep his composure, hearing and feeling the overwhelming terror of the she-elf in his arms. 'Medlinya almost was swept away by the skulls.' The Elf muttered as fear dripped from his voice. 'If I had not grabbed her hand before we started running... She would have fallen.'

Aragorn stared speechless at Legolas' words and then nodded seriously. Approaching his two friends, he sat a hand on the trembling shoulder of Medlinya. A sapphire eye blinked open to meet the face of the Ranger smiling at her. "I had once mentioned before that you have the best protection Middle Earth has to offer." 

Instead of more tears, a smile appeared on Medlinya's face as she tearfully chuckled at the memory. Hearing that chuckle was a sound that lifted the Elf's heart in happiness. The she-elf strained her neck up slightly to meet the cerulean gaze of her protector and flashed him a moist smile. The she-elf's face had been dirtied from the musky air of the Dead Hall and the tear stains running along her smooth cheeks were made that much noticeable. No matter how grimy she was, the Elf knelt down and kissed her dirty forehead. 

Unblinkingly her sapphire eyes locked with his under a gaze filled with pounds of gratitude. Medlinya was not trusting her actual voice at the moment and instead tapped into Legolas' mind. 'Thank you.' Her soft voice echoed inside his head.  

'It is my heart's desire to keep you safe, A'maelamin." Legolas replied with a gentle smile. [My beloved.]

A brighter smile manifested from her lips at the endearment he had called her, than a thought flickered past her eyes leaving the smile to fade. The she-elf glanced around to her companions. "I must tell you all of what I had learned from Lord Elrond." Her serious eyes gazed up to Legolas' with guilt residing in them. "What he has foreseen."

Aragorn's eyes inspected the face of Medlinya as the Dwarf made his way over to his companions with interested eyes. Her eyes went to Aragorn, as he was summoned to see Elrond in Theoden's tent. "Lord Elrond had seen different visions of my possible future. In the Pelennor Fields, he had seen my fall by a hand of someone who he cannot identify." Her eyes then moved to Gimli at her left,  Another vision showed that I was barely alive but survived the attempts of the same hand. I asked what I could do in preventing my death." Medlinya than gazed up to the speechless Elf holding her close, "He told me that I have to stay close to you, Legolas. Somehow this hand that is after my life cannot draw near when we are within reach of the other, our Faenod bond prevents the hand from coming."

Her eyes stared into Legolas' as they burn with sincerity and guilt. "I did not want to tell you - any of you this, because I do not want any one laying their life down to save me. But- ..." Her head lowered to avoid any eye contact. "But- when I almost fell..." Her voice cracked as she began to speak of her absolute death. "I... I knew that I had to." 

Legolas' stared at the she-elf with a shocked expression of the secret she had been holding from him. Deep down he was angry that she did not inform this to her own Faenod, but rational thinking too control. Medlinya was only protecting not only his mind, but his life. The Elf Prince mutely squeezed the she-elf into a secure embrace. 

"I'm glad you told us, Medlinya." Aragorn replied with a comforting smile.

The Dwarf leaning on his axe, bobbed his head in agreement on her left with an unusually gentle smile of his own. 

Above her Legolas had a twinkle in his eyes as he smiled down upon her. "I promised to protect you from anything, Medlinya. Lord Elrond's visions are not set in stone. Time fluxes and changes. I know for certain that we will never let you fall. Just promise me this." Her sapphire eyes flickered to the cerulean orbs of her Faenod above. A gentle grin played from his lips, "Never leave my side." 

A smile brighter than the sun appeared on Medlinya's face as she nodded. 

~~~~~~

Along the shore of the great river Anduin, the corsairs of Umbar sail upriver. At their passage stood four strangers at a narrow beach. Stiff and imposing Aragorn, Gimli, Medlinya, and Legolas stand alone on the shore watching them.

"You may go no further." Aragorn bidded loudly as the black ship drew closer. A corsair rises to his feet at such a demand. "You will not enter Gondor." The Ranger added cooly with his sword resting against his shoulder. 

The gang of corsairs on deck bursting into a cackle over the command. "Who are you to deny us passage?" A ruffian questioned with a smirk ridden on his face. 

Motionless, Aragorn stared at the ruffian. "Legolas, fire a warning shot past the bosun's ear." 

The Elf notches his arrow into his trusty bow, aiming at the speaker of the corsairs.

"Mind your aim." Gimli whispers over to the Elf beside him.

As Legolas fires, Gimli nudges Legolas' bow with his axe's handle, causing the arrow to struck a pirate square in the chest.

"Ah!" The pirate shouted before dropping to the floor dead. 

Gimli covered his mouth in shock, "Oh!" Legolas glanced down to the Dwarf confused. "That's it. We warned you. Prepare to be boarded."

The sailors laugh at the threat as their black ship flows smoothly by the four company.  "Boarded, by you and whose army?"

Aragorn smirks at the question. "This army."

The King of the Dead manifested himself running through Aragorn, leading his men in a charge to the black ships across the water. The sailors recoil and yell in terror at the sight of the army of the dead. 

Black ships against an undead army? 

Victorious victory for the Fellowship.

(End of Chapter Nineteen)

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AUTHOR'S NOTE: OKay! Next chapter coming up! I do not know when it will be posted. It depends on my classes. Cross your fingers for hopefully soon!

Until next time <3