Chapter 97: Chapter 97

97 Chapter 97 : Finwe meets Gareth

Elric smiled menacingly at the crackling fires that were spreading further and further out into the wandering woods. There was nothing that would stand in the way of him getting his wife back, he was going to make sure of that.

“Fire!” Elric screamed at the top of his voice.

The men torched their arrows, aimed towards the woods and launched them, gutting the places in large flames. When the fire had spread over most parts of the woods, one of the lycan generals approached the king and bowed to him.

“Your majesty,” he spoke, “the horses will not be able to move through the woods anytime soon because of the lingering heat even after the fires die down, won’t that delay our procession?”

“From here on out we can leave the horses behind,” King Elric responded. “You’re an army of lycans and nosferatu are you not?”

“We are your majesty-”

“Well then what’s the problem?” The silver haired man questioned his general, “any one of you are much faster and more agile than any horse here.”

The king turned around to head to his temporal tent where he would sit and wait for the fires to extinguish. “Tell the men to secure the horses somewhere and prepare to transform,” Elric ordered the general, “we will advance as soon as the fires die down.”

“Yes my king!”

.....

*

Gareth and Melissa were dragged from what they assumed was a carriage or wagon and thrown against a wall.

“Mel!” Gareth chocked when he heard her grant in pain from the impact, “I swear if you’ve hurt her I’m going to skewer every last one of you with my blade!”

The bag over Gareth’s head was roughly pulled off and so was Melissa’s. He turned to her with a worried look on his face that turned angry when he saw the cloth tightly wrapped over her mouth. “Let her go! Take me instead!” The man tried to move but his hands and feet were tightly bound together. “Just take whatever it is that you want and let Melissa go!”

From the shadows, a man with a rough looking face, a thick beard, long messy hair and a scare over his right eye stepped forward and eyed Gareth. “Why in the bloody hell is an elf trespassing in our lands?”

Gareth was taken a bit aback, more by the man’s height than his rough scary looking appearance. Judging from his face this man was full grown but his height was like that of a twelve year old, he was barely three feet tall.

“Well?!” The man repeatedly himself, “why are you here elf?! And with a nosferatu for that matter. What do you want here?!”

“Look we didn’t mean to trespass,” the elven prince responded, “we ended up in this gorge when the bridge collapsed, we’re just trying to get to Cenia, we come in peace.”

“Lies!” This time it was another bearded man of about the same height as the first one that spoke, “you killed our guard and you except us to believe you come in peace?! Bullocks! Let’s just kill them and get this over with captain, especially the girl she’s dangerous.”

“Stay away from her!” Gareth yelled. His eyes glowed bright purple and dark markings appeared on his forehead.

The short men all took a step back and narrowed their eyes at the elf. “Those markings,” the scarred bearded man spoke in amazement, “those are markings of the king of Ervelon...” the man took a step closer and glared at the handsome prince, “who are you boy?”

*

“Finwe.. wait where are you rushing off to?”

Finwe turned to his mother and gave her a respectful bow, “good morning mother,” he spoke, “I have received a rather disturbing message from the dwarves.”

Queen Tauriel furrowed her brows at her son, “disturbing news? What’s going on?”

“They say they captured one of ours trespassing in their territory, and that he killed one of their gaurds.” The man explained.

“Goodness, who would do such a dreadful thing?! We have lived harmoniously with the dwarves for years. All our people know not to venture into their territory without permission.”

Finwe nodded in agreement, “exactly, hence why I’m curious to know who this elf is,” the man added on, “and also there is something else, they say the man travels with a nosferatu.”

Queen Tauriel gasped in shock, what was a nosferatu doing all the way here? And why travel with an elf? For years now there was a silent animosity between the elves and the nosferatu. What in the world was going on?

“I am traveling to Lenora to investigate this with a few of my men,” Finwe spoke, “I will be back here before in time for dinner.”

“Do be careful Finwe,” the queen spoke.

“I will.” The man responded and turned to leave.

Finwe was a tall, well built man with long slick blonde hair and hooded violet eyes. He had a chiseled jawline, broad shoulders and high cheekbones, he was an incredibly handsome man. Despite his different color of hair, Finwe looked a lot like his older brother Gareth, who unknown to him, he was about to meet for the first time.

The man waved his hand to two of his men came to his side almost immediately, “prepare a portal to Lenora immediately, we have some very important business to attend to.”

“Yes your grace, at once.”

*

Gareth rubbed Melissa’s hands between his in an attempt to keep her warm. After the confrontation with the short hairy men, for some reason they had released their bonds, though they still had them locked up in the tiny room.

“Where are we?” Melissa questioned the man, “do you think those men were dwarves?”

“I believe so,” Gareth responded as he continued rubbing her hands in his, “we must be in Lenora.”

“What are they planning to do with us?”

Gareth shook his head and squeezed Melissa’s small soft hands gently, “I don’t know, but whatever the case I’m going to get us out of this situation somehow, so don’t worry yourself.”

The redhead nodded her head in agreement. Suddenly the door to the rooom Gareth and Melissa were being held swung open and the short men walked in. This time they were followed by three other men who were much taller.

It didn’t take long for the duo to see that the other three men were elves judging from their pointy ears and soft features. Melissa was especially taken aback when she caught sight of a blond elf who resembled Gareth tremendously, one could almost mistake them for brothers.

“Is this him?” The Gareth lookalike asked one of the bearded short men who nodded in agreement. “Alright then, leave us. We’ll get to the bottom of this.”

The dwarves gave their prisoners one last look and then turned to leave the room whose door was shut behind them. The blond elf with violet eyes stepped towards Gareth who had secured the beautiful nosferatu behind him protectively and couched down next to him.

“I’ve never seen you before,” he spoke, “who are you and what are you doing here?”

Gareth sized up the man before locking eyes with him. It was completely absurd how these two men could not see that they were literally looking at a mirror image of themselves. “Who I am matters not. Just let me and Melissa go and you’ll never see us again.”

“Melissa?..” Finwe cocked his head to the side and saw the beautiful woman who was safely tucked away behind the dark haired elf. It was the first time he had seen a nosferatu up close and he had to admit, she was strikingly beautiful. Her blue eyes looked like they could see inside one’s soul, her red Cupid’s bow lips looked like they had been tinted with cherries, and her long flowy ginger hair made a beautiful contrast with her caramel skin.

“Why are you traveling with a nosferatu? What are you planning on doing here?” Finwe questioned the man.

“We just got a little sidetracked,” Gareth responded, “now like I said, let me and Melissa go, and we won’t cause you any trouble.”

“Oh but you already have,” Finwe responded with a slight grin, “you’ve trespassed into sacred dwarve territory, killed one of their gaurds and to top it all off..” Finwe’s violet eyes moved to Melissa, “you’re moving around with a nosferatu. Someone of her kind isn’t allowed here without a proper permit, and the punishment for that is death.”

The blonde elf gave a signal to his men who moved towards Gareth and yanked Melissa from his arms.

“Hey! Let me go!” The blue eyed woman yelled

The elven prince was about to get up and reach for Melissa when the floor beneath him took form and locked his legs and hands into place.

“Settle done trespasser,” Finwe, who had bended the earth to capture Gareth spoke, “we’ll deal with you after we slaughter the girl and feed her to the orcs.”

Gareth growled angrily and the makeshift shackles that were holding him broke. He stood up and marched towards the goons dragging Melissa and waved his hand at them. With that gesture, parts of the floor cracked open and giant roots shot out and wrapped themselves tightly around the guards who were holding Melissa and the blond elf as well.

Finwe watched in shock as the dark haired elf pulled the woman to his side. He had just used high level magic so effortlessly. The blond’s mouth almost fell to the floor when he saw the dark markings on Gareths forehead.

“Gareth?..” the blonde muttered in awe, “Prince Gareth is that you?”