Chapter 3
The sound of birds chirping filled his ears as he woke up.
He opened his eyes and sat up. His throat was completely dry, and his stomach was painful with hunger.
He couldn’t quite remember how long it had been since he last ate.
Turning to the river he drank to quench his thirst and fill up his stomach, hoping it would be enough to tide him over for a while.
He stood up and started walking along the river.
Hopefully there’d be some people nearby, and hopefully they’d be near enough to the river that he would be able to see them.
The river flowed into a forest so he left the open fields, holding on to the hope of finding people along the river.
He had been following the river for a long time, it felt like hours, when his legs gave out.
He fell to the ground, scraping his hands and knees in the process.
He could feel tears welling up in his eyes out of pain and frustration.
Using his arms he managed to crawl over to a couple of boulders and sat with his back against one of them.
He wasn’t sure how long he had been sitting there, he kept dozing off for various amounts of time.
The sun moved positions in the sky, it must have been at least a couple of hours of him sitting against the boulder when he heard it.
There was something big moving amongst the trees, and it sounded like it was coming towards him.
He scrambled around the boulder as quickly as he could, to try and hide a bit just in case it was something hostile.
Not even 3 seconds after he had gotten behind the boulder a creature burst through a bush.
He had never seen a creature like that before.
It was a humanoid figure, with grey skin and a disfigured face.
The creature was quite a bit taller than him, but considering that he’s small right now that didn’t mean much, it might have been about the average height of a human, but he wasn’t sure.
He had only just taken in the appearance of the creature when a tall man came leaping after it.
The man was tall, much taller than the creature, had long dark hair and seemed to be wearing some sort of medieval armor.
The man also had a bow in his hands with an arrow ready to go.
Harry determined that the creature and man was most likely hostile, at least towards each other.
Taking no chances he quickly ducked his head down, in the hopes of not being seen.
He heard a squelching sound along with an inhuman roar/groan sound that he decided must have come from the creature.
Feeling an uncharacteristically childish urge, he pulled his knees up to his chest and his face in them.
It was overwhelming, the pain mixing with the fear, he was trembling because of it.
Despite his best effort he couldn’t keep a whimper of pain from escaping, he just hoped the man was too distracted to notice.
He didn’t hear anything for quite a while, so he thought it might be safe to move.
As he lifted his head to cautiously look around he got a shock.
The man was right in front of him!
The man was crouched down so his face was at the same level.
He was speaking in some sort of foreign language, one that Harry couldn’t understand.
The man had very pretty grey eyes.
Harry couldn’t stop looking at the man’s eyes.
The man noticed that Harry couldn’t understand him, he got a sad and worried look on his face.
The man lifted his hand and placed it on his own chest;
“Elladan” The man said, and then pointed at Harry.
Harry understood almost right away, the man was telling his name while asking for Harrys.
He wasn’t sure what to do, should he tell the man, Elladan, his real name or maybe a fake one just in case.
After a bit of contemplation Harry slowly lifted his own hand up to his chest;
“Harry” he said quietly, carefully watching Elladan for a reaction.
Elladan smiled at Harry and opened his mouth to say something else.
Harry startled as what sounded like Elladans voice came from behind him.
He hissed in pain as his wounds were agitated by the movement.
Unlike with Elladan before, this time Harry could understand what was being said;
“Elladan, you’ve taken quite a while, did the orc give you any trouble? What are you doing crouching by a boulder?” The voice, that sounded like Elladan but wasn’t, said.
Elladan stood up to greet the bearer of the new voice;
“Brother, the orc gave me no trouble. But I found a child, I’m trying to find out why he’s here but he doesn’t seem to understand Westron. He seems to be hurt, and I’m trying to figure out the best way to deal with it.” Elladan spoke in a quieter voice than the other one, the one he called brother.
It seemed as though he was worried that if he spoke louder he might scare Harry.
Elladan turned his attention back to Harry and crouched back down.
After a few seconds a man identical to Elladan entered Harrys field of vision.
The new man crouched down next to Elladan;
“He’s so tiny, do you think he was abandoned out here, or maybe kidnapped? Should we bring him back to Imladris? I’m sure adar will know what to do.” The man seemed to be speaking to Elladan, even though he was facing Harry.
Harry decided that these two men were friendly enough, and thought he should probably try to get some more information from them;
“Um..What is Imladris? And, do you know how far we are from England?” He hesitantly spoke up.
The men both audibly gasped.
“You speak Sindarin! Oh little one Imladris is our home, it is a peaceful haven for all who need it. To men it is known as Rivendell, and some call it the Last Homely House.” Elladan answered, a confused look on his face.
“I do not believe we have ever heard of a place called England though. But maybe some of the more travelled elves in Imladris have heard of it.” Said the other man, whose name Harry still didn’t know.
“First! What’s your name?” He said while pointing at the man.
“Oh, right I have yet to introduce myself. My name is Elrohir, it is nice to meet you little one” The man, Elrohir, had a kind smile on his face as he spoke.
“Hullo, I’m Harry. I think I’m very far from my home. You said there were people that might be able to help in that Imladris place right?” He mumbled the first part and was looking more at their shoulders than faces.
“Yes, if you come with us to Imladris then we will do what we can to help you.” Elladan spoke eagerly.
Harry figured that he wasn’t going to get a better chance at help, and nodded his head;
“Okay, I’ll come with you. But I don’t know if I can walk…” He mumbled a bit at the last part, not wanting to seem weak in front of strangers but knowing it to be the truth.
Elladan and Elrohir looked at each other, and seemed to have some kind of silent conversation.
“If you are alright with it little one, I could carry you there?” It was Elladan again that spoke, but they both looked worried and saddened.
Harry frowned but nodded, not wanting to be carried like a child but not really having a choice.
Elladan carefully put one arm around Harrys back and the other under his knees.
He slowly lifted Harry and stood up, agitating the wounds despite his best effort.
Harry cried out in pain, his wounds had gotten way more painful, it was excruciating.
The pain was so bad that his vision was turning dark.
The last thing he saw was Elladans worried face, then everything went black.
Phew, this one was a pain. I had a really hard time writing this for some reason, so much for getting it out in less than a month, life is a pain sometimes.
Anyway, it's out. And first contact has been made!