The Fourth Age (closed)

[KieranSoares]

Dache smirked darkly at her and drew a blade from his side. "On second thought, I think I'll just separate you two permanently." Like lightning, he bolted forward at her, only for someone to get in his way. It was little Merry, he'd forced Pippin to help him reach the fighting group, and now, he stood with his dagger broken in half, having blocked Dache's swordstroke.

"Stupid little hobbit," Dache growled. Merry bolted at him, clawing at his chest feebly. His little hand caught on Dache's necklace, an amber pendant. "NO! DON'T-" The chain broke, and everything suddenly went black and dead silent. It was only when Eruve woke up that she realized some kind of explosion of power knocked her out. She wasn't in the dark hall anymore, she lay in a ray of sunlight at the bottom of some dark cavern. Looking up, it became clear she'd fallen through the floor of the hall and a sunpool had broken, its light now shining on her. There was no other sound anywhere, and there was no visible way back out. However, there was a wall near her that seemed to have collapsed Within, the glow of torchlight dimly shined, and she could barely make out the form of a person, chained to the wall.

 

[queenclaire]

Eruve came to with a gasp. She was face down on a cold, hard floor. She winced as he lifted her head, it throbbed as she moved it. She reached up and felt blood trickling down from a gash. She tried to figure out where she was. She last thing she remembered was yelling for Merry to not attack Dache and then suddenly everything went black. She pushed herself off the ground and looked around. She had fallen through the floor. She started to wonder how to get back out. She wondered out of the light to see if there was a way to escape this tomb.

She paused as she turned and realized that someone else was there. They were chained to the wall. She slowly moved closer hoping it was not some undead thing. She froze as she realized it was Uther. “Uther,” she said softly and then moved to him. She looked at him in disbelief. She cupped his cheeks, they were still warm, he was alive. “Is it really you?” she said to herself as she looked at the chains that held him there.

 

[KieranSoares]

Warmth wasn't really the word for how his skin felt, but it was not the cold of death. He was pale, his form beaten and bloodied. His shirt hung from his weak frame in tatters, ripped apart by what must've been a whip. An area of his left shoulder was blackened and had spread just above the edge of his jaw before stopping. Sitting there on his knees with his hands hanging from chains on the wall, he was motionless until warm hands touched his face.

Lifting his head, she saw cruel cuts like clawmarks extending from his temple, down the line of his jaw nearly to his chin and a nick out of the edge of his ear. But worst of all was the fact one of his eyes was missing, crudely covered over by a dark cloth wrapped about his head made of shreds of his tunic. Elven magic couldn't fix that.

His remaining eye was streaked with glowing amber and it met her face in complete disbelief. "... Eruve...?" He choked out quietly, as if afraid to speak. He feared he was hallucinating.

 

[queenclaire]

Eruve’s eye filled with tears as she looked upon the face she loved. “My love,” she said softly and lovingly, “You are alive.” Even with all that had happened to him, it did not damage the beauty she saw in him. She was scared to touch him, not wanting to cause him more pain. She smiled at him, so happy to see him. “I feared I would never see you again, Uther.” She could not stop her tears of joy as she looked at him.

 

[KieranSoares]

Uther could finally smile in return, and he turned his face into her hand to kiss her palm. "Please don't let this be a dream..." he muttered almost incoherently. "Don't let it be another trick..." Dache had shown Eruve to him twice before and killed an illusion of her on the second visit.

He looked up at her, "How did you get here...? Where is everyone...?"

 

[queenclaire]

Eruve smiled at Uther as he kissed her palm. She was happy he was alive and she was with him. She sighed at his question, “I fell through the floor, I guess. We were fighting and I woke up down here. I am not sure where the others are. I just hope they are safe.” She cupped his cheeks gently, “I want to hug you so badly, but I am scared I will hurt you more. We need to free you.”

 

[KieranSoares]

"It can't possibly hurt more than what I've already gone through," he chuckled humorlessly. "There's no key, it's only magic... I don't think it's very strong, though, Dache knows I don't have any magic in me. He doesn't need much to hold me." Using the chains as supports to pull himself up by, Uther strained to pick himself up, but he was just too weak.

 

[queenclaire]

Eruve laughed softly at what Uther said. She shook her head as he tried to move, “Don’t move, my love.” She moved to look at the chains. She was unsure what kind of magic Dache was using, but she was sure it was dark and most things here did not like light. She thought she would give that a whirl. She looked to Uther, “I cannot heal you completely, but I can give you some strength, you are going to need it.” She did not wait for him to argue with her. She was not going to listen to him anyway. She was going to do what needed to be done. She held her hand up to his chest and a warm glow flowed out of her and into him. She did not want to undo the chains and for him to get injured and fall completely down.

Once she was done she looked at him, “Ok, now the chains. Wish me luck.” She dug down deep and drew up the “good” in her to combat the “evil” here. A bright light came out and hit the chains.

 

[KieranSoares]

The dark chains disintegrated into black sand as the light enveloped them and Uther fell forward on hands and knees. He took in a deep breath as if the magic in the chains had forbade it before. "You're a godsend, Eruve," he spoke softly.

But his freedom was short-lived as a huge undead guard suddenly bolted in and seized him by the throat. Gasping weakly for air, Uther was helpless.

 

[queenclaire]

Eruve stood there as a guard came in and grabbed Uther. She could see Uther was struggling with breathing and she had to act fast. She jumped on the back of guard and remembered that these creatures may or may not actually have the need to breathe. She acted on instinct and put her hands on either sides of its head and use the same power to call upon the light as she did to break Uther’s chains. She just hoped the same magic was used on the guard as Uther’s chains.

 

[KieranSoares]

Just like the chains, the beast fell to ashes and Uther fell to his hands and knees, gasping, before collapsing entirely clutching his throat and coughing violently. "Gods," he rasped weakly, clearly in a massive amount of pain. He couldn't get up now.

 

[queenclaire]

Eruve landed on her feet as the beast disappeared. "Uther," she said worriedly as she knelt down in front of him. She was so tired of them not catching a break. There was never a light at the end of the tunnel. But she knew she needed to channel that extra energy and she was. She needed to heal Uther. She placed one hand on his chest and the other on the back of his neck and healed him as much as she could. Some of his wounds were too far gone and she could not fix them.

 

[KieranSoares]

Whip slashes healed alongside cut on his face, but with Dache's magic so strong in this place, moderate pain and scars were still left. Slowly, his nearly-broken form relaxed and his breathing evened out. But there was one thing her magic couldn't heal; his spirit. He'd simply lost the will to get up.

 

[queenclaire]

Eruve looked at Uther as he just stayed there. He did not bother to move. “Uther,” she said softly, “we need to go find Legolas and then find the others. We were getting slaughtered out there. We need to hurry.” She honestly could not understand Uther not wanting to fight. She was so angry at the moment, all she wanted to do was fight. She cupped chin and raised his face to look at her. There was fierce determination in her eyes as she looked at him, but there was also deep love for him. “You have to get up, my love. You have to fight with us. You have to fight for us. If we lose this fight, we will all die. And if we all die, I will never get to marry the bravest man I know. Please Uther.” She placed a gentle kiss on his lips.

 

[KieranSoares]

Uther took in a shaky breath when her lips parted from his. "I'm just... so tired... I don't want to fight any more..." he managed to sit up. "I know I swore to finish this... but what can we possibly do against an invincible sorcerer...?"

 

[queenclaire]

Eruve sighed as she remained knelt in front of Uther. She shook her head at him, “You are playing into his hands, Uther. Don’t let him break you. Don’t let him even think that you have given up or he will be one step closer to winning. He is not invincible. He can be taken down, we just have to figure out how.”

 

[KieranSoares]

He looked up to meet her eyes, "How can you hold onto hope so long, love...?" He just couldn't understand it. "I want to hope... I really do... but nothing seems to work. We haven't even made a dent..."

 

[queenclaire]

Eruve looked Uther in the eyes as he spoke. She sighed at his words. He really did seem like he lost all hope. “I hold on to hope because I have to,” she stated plainly, “I cannot fathom why fate would bring us together only to let it end here. So, I hold on to the hope that we will be victorious here and then we can continue on. You were meant for so much more than this, Uther.” She did not know what else to say to help pick him back up.

 

[KieranSoares]

Uther picked himself up slowly, "I only have one thing left I'm willing to fight for... And that's you." He steadied himself on his feet despite how he only wanted to lay down and sleep or die. "If you think we can make it... I'll try."

 

[queenclaire]

Eruve was not sure if she should be happy Uther was still willing to fight, even just for her, or fear the worst because Uther was not willing to fight, except for her. She just hoped she was doing the right thing by pushing him to fight. It was clear he had given up all ready. She stood up as he did. He seemed to still be weak, but he was going to have to muscle through it and continue on. She shook her head at him, “You better not try, you will do it. We will win this.”

 

[KieranSoares]

Uther's faith was not strong in anything but her, but he nodded, "We will." They exited out a small door and found Uther's axe and satchel there. He couldn't carry the satchel over his shoulder because of the whip slashes, but he pressed on with her all the same. "Legolas is down here somewhere... I heard him earl-" Uther paused, hearing the distant crack of a whip, and then, summoning his energy, he ran down to find its source. He flung open a wooden door to find Legolas tied to a post with his back bared to one of the undead guards with a metal-tipped whip. Uther hurled his axe at the monster, severing its head.

Legolas looked up weakly, "Uther... Eruve... Thank the gods."

 

[queenclaire]

Eruve was at least pleased that Uther finally left the cell, it meant there was some hope for him to snap out of this and be strong again. She followed him out as he led the way to where he thought Legolas was. Luckily there were whip cracks and it cut their search short.

She paused as she ran in with him to see what the guard was doing. She ran to Legolas as Uther threw his ax and killed the guard. “Are you strong enough to stand?” she asked as she undid his bindings, “We need to get out of here.”

 

[KieranSoares]

"I am... we have to find the others, I overheard Dache talking about releasing some kind of dragon beast, the King needs to know and prepare."

"I remember a stairwell," Uther commented as he retrieved his axe. They found Legolas' equipment in another room and Uther managed to locate the stairway. As they ascended, the air became thick with smoke and when they exited the stairwell, they found themselves in the familiar hall. Bits of ceiling had caved in here and there, letting sunlight spill in.

"They climbed out," Legolas spoke up, seeing evidence of the men's boots tracked into the ramp-like collapses. Legolas and Eruve could climb out with minimal difficulty, but Uther had awful trouble getting up enough strength after his initial weakness and the burst of energy he'd used to kill the undead guard.

 

[queenclaire]

Eruve frowned as Legolas mentioned what Dache was wanting to release upon their friends. She followed them, bringing up the rear in case something showed up. Both of them were weakened and did not need to be attacked from behind. She climbed up the rubble, and looked back at Uther. “Give me your hand, my love,” she offered to help him out putting her hand out.

 

[KieranSoares]

Uther reached out, and even with her and Legolas, it was still difficult to climb out. Something more had to be wrong with him than just weakness from exhaustion and pain. His body just didn't seem to want to cooperate with him. He stumbled once he reached the top, and managed to catch himself on one knee, gasping for breath in a way he shouldn't have had to.