New Dawn Rising

A/N This is a flashback scene to the time Phoenix spent with her lover in Harbourtown. This chapter also gives insight into her complicated and dynamic character. This is one of the scenes that gets the “R” rating. To get the effect of this chapter, listen to “My Immortal” by Evanescence. Truly a remarkable song!
A/N Thank you to the positive reviews from Daisy Princess and my first reviewer.

Ch. 3 Calm Before the Storm

“…I don’t want to live - I want to love first and live incidentally.” Zelda Fitzgerald

My life had not been an easy one. I was orphaned on the day of my birth and lost what little family I had to the hands of my sworn enemy in my first year of life. But then again, I was not an ordinary child. I was the daughter of kings and the Eldar. I had the body of a young woman by my first birthday. I was the last child born to a free world, before it became shrouded in darkness. I was the last child born in sunlight; thus my name, Aurora Peredhl.
After the deaths of my grandfather and great-grandparents, I was taken into the care of the tyrant of this once-beautiful world, Sa. He. He re-named me Phoenix Darkstar in order to hide my heritage from me and the rest of the world. But I was not to be deceived. I knew of the tainted blood that ran through my veins and of my powerful lineage. I knew I was princess without a country. Yet I let my adoptive father believe I knew not from where I came. I led him to believe that I thought I was the daughter and heir of Sauron. I did this in order to learn all I could about my enemy when the time came for me to rebel and rejoin my own people.
That time came five centuries later on the eve of my 500th year birthday. Rebel forces had been mobilizing in the west, led by an unknown captain. The night before my birthday, I was called to my adoptive father’s side. He gifted me with my new steed, a mighty horse known as Tempest. He also gave me two twin knives, black as the sky. I was told they were indestructible because they were forged in the very pits of Mt. Doom. Then, Sauron said he had surprise for me.
I followed him into his throne room, a room which looked more like a tomb than anything else. Orcs pushed a hooded figure at my father’s feet. I was told he was the captain of the rebel forces and in the morning, his execution would mark my coronation as the heir to Sauron. I quickly asked to be excused, before I thought I would vomit with disgust.
In my room, I planned my escape. I knew the time had come for me to return and regain what was rightfully mine. I packed lightly; a change of clothes, my armor, my long staff and knives as well as the mallorn leaf I had saed bed before the destruction of my home.
Into the night I stole. I went to the stables to saddle Tempest and then rode across my father’s estate to where the prisoners were kept. Being his daughter did have some benefits as I was able to get anywhere, no matter how heavily guarded it was. I brushed past the guards and into the cell where the rebel leader was being held. With the keys I had swiped from the head guard, I opened the bare cell and approached the captain.
He was greatly injured and horribly malnourished, as the rags that once were his clothing now clung to his thin frame. I sunk to my knees and gently pushed the ragged cloak away from his face. Pale, thin blonde hair fell over a face I would have described as angelic had the look of death not shone in his eyes. And his eyes! Great, swirling pools of blue the likes I have never seen.
Suddenly, the figure jerked out of my grasp and darted into the nearest corner. I moved near him in time to catch his raspy voice murmured, “Are you my executioner?”
“No, kind sir, I am not,” I whispered like a mother soothing a distraught child, “I am the adoptive daughter of Sauron, yet I am as much as prisoner as you. My family was killed long ago and the Dark Lord took me as his apprentice and heir. I play the role of the dutiful daughter, yet inside I have waited for the day when I might rebel and take back that which is mine. I am a princess without a people, a warrior without a cause.”
The man, nah elf as I noticed his pointed ears, finally lifted his eyes to meet mine. He then did something most strange; he reached his bony finger out and slowly traced my face as if making sure I were real. Then, he whispered, “It is you. Long have I sought you out, but all thought you to be dead. You are Aurora Peredhl, daughter of Arwen Undomiel and King Elessar.”
For moments, I could not speak. No one knew of my true lineage, save the dead and a handful of the living. I was almost certain this elf was not among those who knew. “How…when,” I stuttered.
“I fought alongside your father in the final battle. I was not able to make it to him in time when Sauron delivered the killing blow to him. I retreated into the mountains after that slaughter; the only survivor. For two hundred years, I watched as the Dark Lord’s reign destroyed everything I held dear. It was only when I heard the rumors of a chilom mom my dearest friend that I regained the courage to fight again. For three hundred years, I have formed and cultivated the few rebel forces that dare oppose Sauron. But a fortnight ago, Orcs ambushed me alone and I was brought here,” the beautiful elf explained.
My ears quickly picked up the growing footsteps of the orc guards. “Quickly, we haven’t much time,” I whispered as I broke down the walls of the cell with my magic, “I know of a secret route that leads out of the mountain. My horse awaits.” The elf followed me, albeit a little hesitantly. We mounted Tempest and took off towards the road that would lead us to freedom.
For two weeks we rode with little rest. I could feel my companion slipping away as by nightfall two weeks to the day since our escape, we reached the rebel encampment at Harbourtown. Many ran out to aid their missing leader, but I refused to let him out of my grasp. A kindly old man helped me get him to his room.
I quickly drew him a bath with the hopes of ridding his body of the fever that had plagued him for the past day. Once I had washed the dirt and grim away from his ethereal skin, I wrapped him in a towel and helped him to his large bed. I stayed watch for the night, occasionally bathing his forehead in a cool compress as the fever abated.
By the early hours of morning, my companion’s fever had begun to recede. However, chills still raked at his body. Without a moment’s hesitation, I stripped away my clothes and crawled into bed next to him with hopes of warming him with my body heat.
An hour later I heard a faint murmur. I awoke to find my companion tossing and trashing his arms as if fighting an imaginary enemy. Softly, I whispered words of comfort into his ear and he slowly regained the peacefulness one finds in sleep. Except, my elf did not sleep.
He opened his glossy blue eyes to my own and whispered some form of endearment in his musical language. Before I knew what was happening, his rosebud lips had enveloped mine in a kiss with a fire hotter than Mt. Doom could create. Being new to such a sensation, I responded the only way I knew how; with a ferocity.
His kisses were like heaven; soft and loving. But there was a fire to them that burned me to my very core. Before I knew how, we were both grasping for breath and glistening with sweat. Not one to be outdone, I stroked my elf’s face, committing his every feature to memory.
He was light where I was dark; pale hair where mine was the color of dark honey. I rained a shower of kisses all over his body, from the arch of his foot to the point of his ear. Playing his body like a fine instrument, I spent time on the spots that elicited the sweetest sounrom rom his mouth.
Suddenly, I found myself on my back. I looked into my soon-to-be lover’s eyes and found they had changed from a brilliant blue to a stormy dark; the color of a growing tempest. Before I could utter a cry, he was in me. I felt a momentary pang of pain before it gave way to pleasure as he began to move within in. Soon, I was actively participating in the age-old dance with him; one of love and comfort. As our bodies reached their crescendo, a million bright lights flashed before my eyes before all I knew was darkness.
I awoke to the feathery kisses being places on my neck. My lover was still in me, yet his dropping eyes told of his fatigue. With whispered words of love and devotion, my lover feel asleep in my arms. I followed suit soon after, an unfamiliar peace filling my body as I gave away to sleep.
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My peace was short-lived though. I awoke to a familiar presence; I could feel the eyes of my adoptive father on me. I looked around and saw that he held my lover’s neck in his grasp, a sharp dagger pressed to his throat. With the blink of an eye, that dagger had cut deep and grave wounds across my beloved’s chest, face and throat. His once white and beautiful skin was now marred by ribbons of blood.
I rushed to his side just in time before he fell from Sauron’s grasp. I vaguely heard the hallow laugh of my step-father in my ears, but my blinding anger won out. I remember him saying to think twice before I chose to whore myself out to the first available man who crossed by path. Then, he was gone.
I cradled my lover’s head in my lap, whispering words of comfort and love to him. Within a matter of minutes, I felt his chest fall for the last time as my name was said on his dying breath. For the longest time, I simply stared at the body that had hours given brought me a peace like none I had ever known.
Then, I cried. Not soft, ladylike tears, but gut-wrenching sobs. I cried for those I had lost, those I had loved and my curse; doomed to walk to the earth with no respite until Sauron was dead. For hours, I simply rocked his body back and forth and cried.
Then, I stood up. I wiped away my tears violently and dressed in my lover’s clothes; black breeches, tan boots and a white tunic. I sheathed the dagger which I had stolen away my lover into my new boots and buried my pain deep within my soul. I dragged his body outside and set it to fire. I watched as his ashes were taken by the wind and scattered to the farthest reaches of Middle Earth.
Then, I began to change. I felt my body hardening and my eyes darkening. I made a vow to never shed another tear because crying was a luxury to the happy and I would always be far from that. With confident steps and a shattered soul, I walked back to Harbourtown to gain command of the rebel forces and to begin to build an army against Sauron. My heart could no longer love, so it must with a fury hate.