My Twisted Road to Life: Nightmares & Dreamscapes

Disclaimer: (In the spirit of Crimson Starlight)

Haldir and Glorfindel: *poke heads into room to see what Shana and Bess are up to after 18 sequestered hours*

Bess and Shana: *watching A Walk in the Clouds*

Bess: *sniff* He's just so beautiful! *sniff*

Shana: Mmmm… Always drool-worthy.

Hal and Glory: *stare at TV screen with Keanu on it*

Hal: *mutters* You have GOT to be kidding. THIS is quality "me time?"

Glory: *tilts head, considering* He would make a rather attractive elf.

Hal: *whaps Glory on back of head, hisses* Traitor!

Shana and Bessie: *turn in time to watch the now wrestling elves fall into the room in a pile of tangled limbs* Ooooo! Live entertainment!

Hal and Glory: *freeze as they realize their lurking has been discovered*

Shana: Oh don't stop now. It was just getting good.

Bess: Are they gonna get naked?

Shana: *to Bess* It's usually inevitable.

Hal and Glory: *glare indignantly*

Shana: Oh come now boys. You can't deny it. I don't have a single fic where you don't appear naked at some point.

Bess: Shanastay owns nothing belonging to Tolkien. She just does deliciously naughty things with them. *licks lips*

Shana: Hey! You're a married woman.

Bess: I can look can't I?

Shana: Point. *to elves* Well? Come on now. We paid for a show.

Hal and Glory: *huff, clearly annoyed and try to untangle themselves*

Bess: Damn. So much for that. *turns back to TV and Keanu*

Chapter 2: Hanging By a Thread

"You couldn't just let me stay dead could ya?" Jan yelled indignantly to the heavens.

Picking up where we left off…

Perplexed, the elves and Istari below wondered what the woman dangling by one hand from a branch could possibly be yelling and who it was directed at. Legolas actually had an inkling of where the woman's anger was directed. He was getting the sense that something significantly more powerful than all of them was the intended recipient of her rage.

Jan winced, fire racing up her right arm. The pain in her limb eclipsed the throbbing emanating from her broken nose. Her vision began to swim as the injury swelled and blackened, her whole face starting to hurt. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

The redhead held onto the branch with a death grip, knowing full well that if she fell that would be the end of her. She gritted her teeth, her eyes closing as a gust of wind sent her swinging again, the pain washing all awareness of anything else out of her mind.

From the pained expression on the woman's face it was clear to everyone down below that she had been injured when she made that last-ditch grab for a branch. Legolas found himself fighting pain-induced waves of nausea. It took the elf several long moments to regain his focus, consciously segregating the pain to a corner of his mind.

As soon as it was clear her attention was focused elsewhere, both Legolas and Glorfindel flew into motion. The two were a blur, climbing up the tree, the Elda leading. By unspoken agreement the seneschal made his way to the branch from which Janessa hung, the Prince situating himself on a branch beneath her, ready to catch her if she fell again. Slowly the balrog-slayer made his way out onto the branch to where she hung.

Jan swallowed a scream as the branch holding her dipped and swayed. She kept her eyes closed, focused on staving off the pain and retaining her grip. Her eyes flew open as she felt long fingers wrap around her wrist. She looked up to find herself gazing into the aquamarine eyes of the golden-haired elf. He said something to her, but her pain-fogged mind was unable to process the foreign language.

The redhead shook her head, trying to convey her lack of understanding, instantly regretting the move. She squeezed her eyes shut as a wave of black threatened to overcome her. Focused on staying conscious she lost her grip on the branch, Glorfindel immediately tightening his hold on her wrist.

The seneschal took Janessa's tiny wrist in his hand, marveling that she still managed to hang on despite the extreme pain she was clearly in. "Let go," he told her as reassuringly as he could. He held tight as she shook her head, still not understanding him. As soon as she began to move her head he knew what would happen. He supported her weight as she lost her grip, some of the tension leaving her arm.

The blackness receding, Jan registered the fact that she hadn't fallen. He's holding me up. She felt herself being lifted and this time she couldn't hold back the scream that tore loose from her chest.

Once he was sure she had control of herself the Elda began to pull her up. He wasn't prepared for the ear splitting scream she let out and nearly dropped her, gritting his teeth against the shrill sound. He quickly concluded that pulling her up was not an option.

Below them every elf, including Legolas, clapped their hands over their ears, trying to muffle the excruciating noise. The Prince nearly lost his balance as both the sound and her pain hit him like a fist to the gut, recovering it at the last moment. Gandalf merely cringed, watching the unfolding tableau high above them, not sure what to make of it.

Glorfindel and Janessa's eyes met, their gazes locked. Within the emerald depths of her eyes he saw something that shook him to the very core. For a moment her eyes flickered with a haunted look that was all too familiar to the Elda. As soon as he recognized it, it was gone, replaced by a dull, lifeless glaze. He remained still as she spoke in heavily accented, but clearly understandable Sindarin.

Having had enough, Janessa let her bow slip from her fingers. Miraculously, Janessa's falling bow encountered no obstacles. The arrow fell straight down, embedding itself in the soft earth at the foot of the tree. Seconds later, Elrohir darted forward to catch her bow, taking a moment to examine the weapon before stepping back to look up into the tree.

Legolas knew something was terribly wrong. The pain he'd been sensing from her receded to be replaced by a resounding nothing. It didn't bode well to the slender archer.

Enough was enough. All the Sindarin she'd learned came rushing back to her. Bereft, she looked into his eyes and uttered a single phrase before bowing her head and closing her eyes.

"Let me go."

Glorfindel simply refused to believe his ears. Her tenacity up to that point had impressed him. He refused to accept that she had simply given up. If this was the woman Legolas had told him of, and of that he was certain, she had already been through much worse and survived. Disregarding her words he called out to the Prince, "Legolas, catch her!"

The elf below nodded, his body tensed in anticipation. He watched the seneschal quickly swing the redhead and let her go. Legolas caught her about the hips. Shifting her around, the Prince got one arm under her knees, the other around her back. Jan's left side was pressed to his chest, her right arm dangling uselessly.

The Sinda could see the silent tears coursing down her face from her tightly closed and rapidly bruising eyes. As carefully as he could Legolas began leaping from branch to branch, making his way down the tree to the ground. Not once through the entire trip did she utter a single sound, though he could feel her trembling in his arms. He could sense nothing from her, the flow of emotions seemingly ceased.

Once on the ground, Legolas moved to place the woman at the base of the tree. Elrond's hand on his arm stayed the Prince's movement. The Sinda held Janessa still as the healer did a quick examination of her, the dark elf's brow furrowed with concern.

Legolas didn't like the look in Elrond's eyes when the Elder finally met his gaze.

"She's going into shock. We must get her to the Houses of Healing NOW!"

The Prince merely nodded before he took off running, Janessa still firmly in his grasp. As he ran he let his mind turn back to that harrowing moment when she'd let go of the branch. He just couldn't believe he'd heard what he thought. Beyond the fact that it had been said in heavily accented Sindarin was the shocking simplicity of it.

As if it were nothing she'd asked Glorfindel to drop her. There is no way she'd say that. He'd lived through all her trials with her. How could she go through all of that and NOW give up? It made no sense. To make it this far and just give up. Something just didn't fit. Either he had heard wrong or he was missing something. She still had not moved or uttered a sound since he caught her.

Elrond gathered up his robes and took off after Legolas, followed closely by Elrohir. The ancient healer was already running through treatment options in his mind, trying to select which one would be most effective. Elrohir went with him in case the Elder required his assistance.

This left Glorfindel at the mercy of the rest of the group as it was clear that he and Legolas knew the identity of the mysterious woman. Elladan and Erestor began firing off questions at the seneschal as they turned to trail the others. The Elda held off the questioners saying only that the woman was the one from Legolas' visions and any further questions should be directed to the Prince or the woman herself.

Far from mollified the group fell into a tense silence, each mulling over their own thoughts and questions.

Glorfindel kept a tight rein on his agitation, not wishing the others to pick up on it. The Elda was deeply troubled by the petite redhead's request of him. He could not fathom why she wanted him to drop her. What he'd seen in her eyes, that haunted look. It was all too familiar. He'd seen that same look reflected back in his own face. Here was someone who had been on the other side and returned. It had a way of changing a person.

He couldn't help but wonder how her experience differed from his and if she remembered anything from "in between." Still, her words nagged at him. Something had driven her over the edge, though he knew not what.

Gandalf hung back from the rest of the group, his attention half on the balrog-slayer, half lost in his own thoughts. The Istari knew something had transpired high up in the tree between the woman and the golden-haired elf. He just wasn't sure what. The Mara wondered idly if Janessa's apparent catatonic state was due to her injuries or something else, something that ran deeper than physical pain.