We stopped a short time later and Nuindacilion removed his hands from my eyes. The sight that greeted me as I opened was beautiful beyond anything I had yet seen. We were in a cave, with a deep pool of the purest water in the middle. The white marble walls glistened as the light played off the reflection of the surface of the water. The sheer beauty of the cave took my breath away.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Nuindacilion asked me softly as I gazed in dumb wonder at my surroundings.
“There is not a word to describe it.” I whispered. “It astounds me. What is this place? ”
“As I said, another one of my secrets. It is one of the few places in Mirkwood that has never fallen to evil in times of darkness. I believe in days of old, when Mirkwood was just beginning to succumb to the Dark Lord, People used to come here for many leagues away and pray to Elbereth for their homes and possessions. They said it was she herself that came down and put the water in here. Gath-Uin-Gilgalad, It was called, The Cavern of Starlight. I just happened upon it one day. As with my Archery Field, no one knows about it but you and I.”
“Well I’m not about to tell anyone.” I said indignantly.
Nuindacilion shrugged and sat down beside the water, gazing intently at it.
“Some also say that this water wields power very much akin to the Mirror of Galadriel, the power of seeing all that happens in Middle Earth, although I myself have never seen anything but star-strewn water.”
I sat down next to Nuindacilion, intrigued by his tale.
“Maybe you need something to unlock the power, Like Galadriel and Nenya?”
“Perhaps, but what exactly? I own nothing that has any particular power.”
He sat in thought for a second, then, obviously having struck upon an idea, his eyes lit up.
“My clasp!” He exclaimed, “I really am thick-headed! Why did I not see it before? It was enchanted by Galadriel to bring you here, and even my mother before that said it held some kind of magic, although she never explained exactly what. Perhaps this is what she was talking about!”
Without explaining further, Nuindacilion undid the clasp from his tunic and held it in his hands. I looked at it, and a shadow of foreboding swelled in my mind, yet for some reason I kept silent. Nuindacilion gently placed the clasp in the water.
For a split second, all light failed and we were surrounded by darkness. Then the water began to glow. Faintly at first, but getting brighter at every passing second. I watched in amazement as images began to form on the pool’s surface.
The first thing I saw was rolling green countryside. There was a small, bustling village. I could see people going happily about their daily lives, looking at stalls in a market place, gathering vegetables from abundant fields, and blissfully unaware of the dark shadows in the sky. One person in particular caught my eye. He had bright blue eyes, curly brown hair and a mirthful looking face. Come to think of it, he looked strangely like Elijah Wood. ~Know what I’m getting at? ~. He was sitting in a tree reading and smoking from a long clay pipe.
The image faded and the pool turned dark green. I could make out the shapes of trees. They were dark and menacing, and the breeze flowed strangely through them, whispering. There was someone amongst them. An Elf riding a silver-coloured horse. He was clad in green and brown, and carried with him a bow and a quiver of arrows. He looked familiar.
“Legolas.” I heard Nuindacilion whisper from beside me.
I nodded
“But why is he out in the forest?”
Before my question could be answered, the light disappeared again. All was black. It had suddenly become cold, like some evil force had entered the cavern. I shivered. Nuindacilion put his arms around me. He was shaking too.
The pool now looked like an abyss of unknown depth. No light glistened off the surface, or off the walls. Then I saw it. The Eye of Sauron. Very small at first, but growing. The cavern filled with a terrifying red light. Cat-like it was, blazing yellow and red and wreathed in flame. I stared at in horror, unable to take my gaze off it. I knew something bad was going to happen. Something very bad. I noticed the clasp was still floating on the water’s surface.
“Get the clasp!” I said hoarsely to Nuindacilion, who had his eyes transfixed on the water as if he were in some kind of trance.
He looked up.
“Get the clasp!” I repeated to him.
Hesitantly he reached out his hand made a grab at the clasp. He gave a shout and reeled back. The cavern suddenly returned to normal.
“Hot!” He gasped haggardly “The water…was boiling. It was the Eye that made it so.”
“Try it again.” I urged him.
This time he managed to get it. The clasp sparkled in his hands, unaware of the Darkness it had summoned. Nuindacilion put it back on its tunic and sighed.
“I believe we have stumbled upon something terrib- what was that?”
He stopped mid-sentence, listening intently. I stopped too and listened. Many harsh sounding voices wafted in with the breeze. They seemed to be coming closer.
Orcs.
Lots of them.
Nuindacilion stood up and went towards a thick curtain of Ivy. He moved it silently aside and peered cautiously into the blackness. The voices were steadily becoming louder. He turned to me with a look of fear on his face.
“They are going in the direction of The Halls.” He said quietly, “They will attack my father.”
He stepped out through the ivy curtain and looked over his shoulder. I stood up and followed him. We dashed through the forest, hoping against hope that we would be in time to warn Thranduil of the coming attack. We had not run long when we came into sight of thousands of glistening lights. Nuindacilion veered right and led me through the door we had come out of not an hour ago.
The celebrations were still very much an event, but were considerably louder than when we left them, most likely because of the staggering amounts of fine Mirkwood wine and high-quality Pipe Weed that had been consumed. Thranduil himself seemed to be throwing himself heart and soul into the celebrations, and was standing up at the head of the massive banquet table vehemently making a speech about the shortcomings of Men in Middle Earth. Nobody was really listening to him, but he seemed to be enjoying himself just the same, and he beamed whenever he heard someone from the crowd cheer or comment. Legolas was sitting quietly beside him with his head in his hands, looking utterly mortified at Thranduil’s drunken behaviour.
“He’ll be suffering a rather large hangover when all this is over.” I mumbled to myself.
Nuindacilion sighed.
“I suppose my father’s too out of it to listen right now.” He said, “He’s always been rather partial to wine and pipe-weed. But perhaps Legolas can help.”
We battled our way through the crowds, bravely ignoring the drunken letching and suggestive comments people were making at us until we came to where Legolas was sitting. He looked up and an evil grin alighted on his face.
“And where have you two been all this time?”
Nuindacilion glared at him.
“Probably not doing what you and a ‘certain handmaiden’ would like to be doing right now.” He said scathingly.
Legolas’s jaw dropped.
“How did you know about me and…?”
I rolled my eyes and decided it was time for me to put my word in.
“Can we PLEASE leave the family bickering for another time?” I said, raising my voice over the two brothers, who looked at me in astonishment. “Right now we have more important matters to attend to. Legolas, a band of orcs is headed for the Banquet Halls, fully armoured and ready to attack. There is no time to explain more fully.”
Legolas looked shocked at this news.
“I think it needs a bit more explanation, princess” Said a sarcastic voice behind me. I turned around to see Rainiel standing there with her hands on her hips, looking smug.
“His Majesty’s halls have never been attacked,” She continued. “I believe you may need to think of a better excuse to lure the Princes away to your bed, because you most certainly aren’t needed here. I do not even see why they should have a feast in your honour, when it is plainly known that I am the fairest maiden in Mirkwood, and you are just someone Nuindacilion found in the forest.”
I just laughed. Her whole tirade was incredibly stupid and witless.
“I have one word for you,” I said sweetly “One word. Whatever. You believe what you want to believe, but when you have an Orc arrow sticking out of your ass, don’t come crying to me. In fact, don’t even bother approaching me, cuz I’ll be too ‘busy in bed with Legolas and Nuindacilion’, probably getting more action than you ever will. You skank.”
Silence.
Dead silence.
Rainiel looked at me blankly before turning away and wafting off in a huff. She barely got halfway across the hall when the main doors burst open. A flood of heavily armoured orcs thundered down the stairs and into the hall. Pandemonium broke loose. Drunken Elves were running everywhere screaming blue murder.
“Get the soldiers! Arm the halls! Give them some pipe-weed!” King Thranduil bellowed over the din. I looked around, spying Rainiel standing still in the middle of the hall screaming. The idiot, I thought to myself. She’ll certainly get shot in the ass with in arrow if she keeps on standing there screaming like she is. Oh well. She deserves it.
I looked around again.
Nuindacilion and Legolas had disappeared.