Leaving Haldir's World

Leaving Haldir’s World
By Sinda

Chapter Seven – Running Out of Time

Elisabeth ran through the woods blindly for several minutes until she had the sense to stop and think about what was happening. She felt the wad of money in her hand and realized that she needed to do something with it before she lost it. It would be necessary for her survival in this world. She tried to stow it in her sock, but there was too much of it and it threatened to fall back out. Finally taking the shoe off, she stuffed the bills into the empty sock and tied a knot in it. Her dress had a small belt and she was able to loop it through the knot in the sock, securing it to herself. She knew that her foot was going to have blisters again the next day, but that was the least of her concerns. Now that the money was secured, she took a couple of shaky breaths and thought her situation over.

The four men were in the same woods she was and would be heading back in the same direction, since she had to get back to town. She had an advantage being elf-kind now, but it was not instinctive for her to use her keener senses. An effort would have to be made to listen to her surroundings and to feel what was happening. If she had been doing this all along, she may have been able to avert disaster, but instead she had simply trusted Rowland to be in charge and that had been a terrible mistake.

They had paid for the room at the inn for two more days and she could go back there, but was that wise? Rowland had the second key and she wondered if that would that lead the authorities to her. It was certainly possible. She would not return to the room but would find a new inn.

She was fairly sure that Rowland was dead and if that were the case, would the authorities be looking for her? She had been seen with him all over the city, so it was likely. If they found her with the roll of money, they might even conclude that she had taken it from him. She would have to not only watch out for the four men, but the authorities also. Of course, she would still be watching for Haldir during this time, too.

An image of Rowland’s badly battered face came into her mind and she let out a small cry. She should hate him and be happy that he was dead for what he had done to her, but she could not bring herself to feel that way. She had become so dependent on the man since they had been in this world that she was not sure if she would even be able to manage without him. Taking another deep breath, she knew that she didn’t have a choice. If she ever wanted to see Haldir again and ever expected to get back to her world, she would have to quit thinking that way. She had been through much more difficult times than this and she would manage on her own. If she could handle battling Orcs, she could survive in this world on her own.

Determined now, she began to walk in a large circle around the cars with the flashing blue and red lights, giving them a wide berth. Getting back into town without being caught would be her first priority. Getting a room at a different inn would be the second thing she would do. That’s all she would worry about tonight and maybe things would look brighter tomorrow.

~~~~~~~~~

Haldir began to run. He was sensing Elisabeth strongly now that he was getting further away from town. She must be heading to the park and had probably gone back to see if he was there. The connection became clouded as he grew closer and he realized that there were others nearby. He stood very still at one point as a group of men walked right past him. He sensed something familiar as they went by and wondered if he should follow, but at that moment a loud siren came from the nearby road, heading towards the park. Something had happened and he suspected that these men had something to do with it. Scared for Elisabeth, he ran even faster now, making his way to where he could see the police gathered around an object on the ground. Haldir had to get closer; he needed to know.

Moving furtively up into the trees, the elf was able to get almost directly overhead without being noticed by any of the humans down below. He could not see what they were gathered around until one of the cops stepped away, providing him with a clear view of the man on the ground. Rowland’s hair and body were easily recognizable, though the mangled face could have belonged to anybody. The man was not moving. Haldir turned his head to watch as a large vehicle with flashing lights pulled up next to the police car. A man and woman wearing uniforms, similar but not identical to those of the cops, got out and joined the others. Haldir noticed that they did not appear to be wearing weapons and he wondered what their purpose was.

Rowland was not Haldir’s concern. The man had deserved what he’d gotten but now Elisabeth was completely alone and that troubled him immensely.

A new sound suddenly caught Haldir’s attention, several minutes before any of the humans below him heard the noise. Looking up into the sky as a light began to shine directly onto him, the whirling noise became even louder. It appeared to be some sort of giant locust, though it did not look organic.

Haldir heard a beeping noise and one of the cops began to talk into something, possibly a phone like Elda’s. Haldir froze, suddenly realizing that he was probably very visible from the air. Sure enough, the cop with the phone slowly raised his eyes to the limb of the tree where Haldir crouched. Within seconds the tree was surrounded by cops; all with their weapons drawn. Haldir didn’t wait to see if they were serious, but took off through the treetops with the locust creature following overhead. There was much shouting and running down below as they tried to get beneath him, but he kept moving. Soon he came to a place where there was a large gap between trees and he knew that it might be too far for him to jump. Pushing his body as hard as he could, he made the leap and everything would have been fine except that the branch he jumped onto was too light and it broke, taking Haldir down with it.

~~~~~~~~~

“Rúmil, I’m getting kind of worried. Haldir hasn’t checked in since noon and it’s almost ten O’clock now,” Elda told him.

“He is fine,” Rúmil assured her. “If anybody can take care of themselves, my brother can.”

“I hope so,” she replied, stirring the spaghetti sauce. Rúmil was supposed to be helping to cook dinner, though for the most part he was just distracting her and slowing the process. When the food was ready, they sat down to eat together with a bottle of wine.

Halfway through the meal, Elda sat her fork down. “Rúmil, I think I’d rather take the twenty years with you than to lose you now.”

He stopped eating and stared at her. “You would give up marriage and having children just to spend a few years with me?”

“Yes,” she said, meeting his gaze. “I love you, Rúmil.”

He stood and pulled her to her feet, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her lips softly.

“I could not do that to you, Elda,” he said, “unless you would stay with me until your death so that I could care for you when you grow old and be with you when you die.”

“No,” she said adamantly. “I could not stand to be around you once I grow old. It would be too hard to see myself declining through your eyes. I would have to leave when I felt that it was the right time.”

“Then I cannot agree to it,” he said. She sat back down and he did the same, both picking at their food more than actually eating it.

“We’re right back where we started, aren’t we?” she asked him.

~~~~~~~~~

“What the hell did you get us into, Joe?” Dirk asked, his sweat-covered body heaving for breath. “We were supposed to rough the guy up and have a good time with the woman. You never said anything about killing him.”

“I guess I got a little carried away,” Joe admitted, breathing hard himself. “But remember, you guys were in this as much as I was.”

“Not exactly,” T.J. replied. “You were the one swinging the bar.”

Joe stopped and turned to the others. “Look. We need to stick together on this. If we all vouch for each other, they won’t be able to touch us. If even one of us talks, it’s all over. They’ll know about me soon enough because of the incident at the tavern. Somebody’s bound to say something. As soon as they figure out that I might be involved, they’ll suspect that the rest of you were, too. Everybody knows we hang around together. What if we say we were playing poker at your house tonight, Dirk? Since you live alone, nobody can say otherwise. In fact, we could go there now and make some phone calls just to have a record.”

Joe’s wife had always told him that he should have been a used car salesman because he could talk anybody into anything. He smiled to himself now as the others jumped into the planning, getting themselves in deeper and deeper. By the time they reached Dirk’s house, they had it all figured out and they knew what their biggest problem was; they had left a witness alive. The girl would have to be found.

~~~~~~~~

Elisabeth stopped when she heard the men nearby. Stepping quickly behind a tree, she focused on their voices and what she heard was not encouraging. They wanted to find her because she had witnessed the beating they had given Rowland and if they found her, they were planning to kill her to keep her quiet. It was more than a matter of worrying about accidentally running into them because they would be actively seeking her. This was getting worse by the moment.

~~~~~~~~~

Haldir hit the ground hard and when the cops yelled for him to freeze, he got up and ran. He had forgotten to ask Elda what they meant when they yelled, ‘freeze’. He’d have to remember when he got back tonight; if he got back. A pinging noise reached Haldir’s ear and he felt something fly past his head. He thought it must be an arrow or whatever sort of projectile it was that the cops shot from their weapons. Dodging to the side now, he disappeared into the trees as he heard another of the whizzing sounds zip past his ear. He was safe now, he thought; they would not find him in the trees.

His relief was short-lived as the locust creature appeared above him again, shining a spotlight down. Haldir knew that he needed to move deeper into the woods where the trees were thicker, but that would take him far out of his way. He was anxious to catch up with Elisabeth before she ran into the men he had passed and thinking about it now, he suddenly realized why they had seemed familiar. One of them had been the man he had questioned in the alley. Elisabeth would be in great danger.

~~~~~~~~~

Elisabeth allowed the men to get a safe distance ahead before following them cautiously. As she approached the edge of the forest, she remembered that she and Rowland both had clothes buried nearby, as well as his sword and her knife. Unable to conceal either weapon beneath her dress, she decided that she would have to buy different clothes as soon as possible. One of the cloth bags she had seen people carrying on the street might come in handy, too. Then she could come back for the weapons or at least for her knife. If she ran into the men again, she would be prepared and somebody would most likely die.

From the safety of the trees, she watched as the men walked down the sidewalk, looking around as though they were expecting something. She waited until they were completely out of sight before following in their steps.

~~~~~~~~~

Haldir kept running and was relieved to see the locust-creature move away from him at last. They must have lost sight of him. The problem now was that he eventually had to come out of the woods and would be in the open for a while. He didn’t know how large this forest was but he knew that he needed to move fast before more cops showed up. Approaching a busy road now, he had to turn back to the west, rather than trying to dodge the moving vehicles. Eventually he made his way back to where he had entered the woods and he sensed that Elisabeth had been here not too long ago but so had the men. Haldir hoped that they were not together.

~~~~~~~~~

Elisabeth pulled the money out and replaced the sock. She took a deep breath and walked through the doors of the hotel and to the front desk.

Hiding her fear, she was able to get the room fairly easily with a deposit, as she and Rowland had done before. She walked right past a flyer of herself without noticing, so concerned she was about getting safely to the room. Once inside, she almost collapsed with the emotions of what had happened over the past few hours. She mourned for Rowland regardless of what he had done to her, because she was the only one that could do so.

~~~~~~~~~

Haldir managed to slip into the residential area without being spotted, though the locust creature was moving back and forth over the forest. As he walked along the street, three different cars with the blue and red lights flew by, heading towards the park. Each time, he ducked out of sight until he felt it was safe to come back out.

When he finally lost Elisabeth’s trail, he went straight back to Elda’s apartment. He needed to consult with her about the events that had transpired. She might have some ideas about what to do.

~~~~~~~~~

“How are we going to find her?” T.J. asked. “She sure as hell won’t be going back to the tavern.”

“No, she’ll probably be hiding out somewhere,” Joe said. “Let’s all make a point of watching the news and see what we can find out. Maybe they’ll mention something that will help.”

“My sister-in-law is a police dispatcher,” Don volunteered. “Maybe I can get some information out of her.”

“Yeah, but be careful,” Joe warned. “We don’t want people to remember that we were asking questions, either.”

“No, I’ll buy her a few drinks and get her talking. She can’t keep her mouth shut after a drink or two,” Don laughed.

Joe nodded. “I’m going to jump in your shower, Dirk. Gotta’ get this blood off of me.”

He had already thrown his shirt and pants in the washer and hoped they’d be dry by the time he got done cleaning off the blood that spattered his face and arms. When he got home, his wife wouldn’t notice a thing.

~~~~~~~~~

Haldir ran up the steps and into the apartment, closing the door behind him. Rúmil and Elda knew at once that something was wrong by the look on his face. He grimly related the whole story to them.

“What should I do?” he asked Elda. “I know that they must think that I had something to do with Rowland’s death.”

“That would be my guess,” Elda said, turning the T.V. to a channel that should have local news in twenty minutes.

“So Elisabeth is alone now?” Rúmil asked.

“Yes, and I fear for her,” Haldir said, pacing. “She knows nothing of this world.”

“No, but she is resourceful,” Rúmil reminded him. “I have seen her kill Orcs.”

“I know,” Haldir said, “yet I cannot help but be concerned. I know that these men wish to kill her.”

“The problem now is that the police will be looking for you but they might very well be looking for Elisabeth, too. If they make the connection between her and Rowland, they’ll want to find her. It’s going to make it difficult for the two of you to find each other if you have to stay hidden from the police.”

“I will not give up my search,” he assured her.

“Then you’ll have to be careful or come up with a new way to change your looks,” Elda suggested. “Of course if you change them too much, Elisabeth might not recognize you if she sees you.”

“She will sense me as I sense her,” Haldir explained.

Elda walked into her bedroom and came out with a baseball cap. She showed Haldir how to put his hair under it and it changed his looks tremendously. The hard part was tucking his ears in.

When the news came on, Elda motioned for them to be quiet. They missed the first couple of minutes, but she turned the sound up as soon as she saw the picture of the park on the T.V. The reporter was describing Haldir and said that the police were looking for him to question him. They showed an artist’s sketch of him and the elf snorted.

“I do not look like that,” he said, offended.

“Yes you do, Haldir,” Rúmil replied. “It is a good drawing.”

Haldir rolled his eyes. “They said they only want to question me, so maybe they do not think that I am responsible after all.”

Elda laughed. “Believe me, it’s what they always say. They don’t want to scare you away so they make it sound innocent.”

When it was over, they turned the T.V. off and discussed the situation for a few minutes. Deciding that there was nothing that could be done until morning, Rúmil and Elda went back into the bedroom as Haldir tried to get through yet another night without his wife.

~~~~~~~~~

Elisabeth woke early after a restless night and quickly showered before getting dressed. She had left the dark glasses that Rowland had bought her at the other motel, along with the other dress and shoes. Now she wondered if leaving the items in the room was going to attract attention, too. She debated on going back to the other room to collect their belongings, but didn’t know what she’d do with them anyway. She was not planning on staying in this motel another night, either, but would move from one to another, just to be safe. Tucking her money into her sock once again, she headed to the nearest department store and did some shopping.

By the time Elisabeth got to the checkout stand, she had bought jeans and two shirts, a purse, a cap and dark glasses, as well as more bandages. She would look like most of the other women she had seen in this city. She paid for her items then went back to her room where she changed into the new clothes. The money and the spare shirt went into her purse and she tucked her hair into the cap. As she walked outside, she placed the dark glasses on and was amazed at how much easier it was to see. The purse was the type that could also be worn as a backpack, and she did so. Tonight she would return to the park and get her knife, but not until after dark. She suspected the place would be closely guarded for a while.

~~~~~~~~~

The knock on the door came at the most inopportune time. Rúmil gritted his teeth and whispered into Elda’s ear, “Do we have to answer it?”

“Yes, it could be about Elisabeth,” Elda replied, pushing him gently aside. She dressed quickly and went to the door with him close behind. When Elda opened the door, she did not recognize the person on the other side of it. Rúmil did.

“Orophin!” he said, shocked. “What are you doing here?”

“I have been sent on a rescue mission,” he replied, looking Elda over carefully before his eyes went back to Rúmil. “Do you wish to be rescued?”

Rúmil pulled him inside and made introductions.

“Orophin, we have two problems. One, we have not found a way back. Two, we have not found Elisabeth,” Rúmil explained.

“We have a way back,” Orophin assured his brother, “but we need to find Elisabeth by midnight, two days from now. That is when the door to our world is going to open for just five minutes if all goes well. Lady Galadriel has found a way to do this, but the window of opportunity will be very small. If we are not there at that time, we will have to wait another year.”

Rúmil smiled at Elda. “There would be certain advantages to staying.”

“Except that our problems would be no different in my world than they would be in yours,” Elda reminded him.

He nodded sadly.

“Not again,” Orophin said, frowning.

“How did you find me here, anyway?” Rúmil finally asked.

“I saw one of the papers that had a drawing of Elisabeth and Rowland on it. I asked somebody to read it to me and then I asked her where I was supposed to go to and she brought me here. She was most helpful. I am supposed to go have coffee with her tomorrow morning. What is coffee?”

“We need to find Haldir and tell him about the deadline,” Elda said. “We need to find Elisabeth.”

~~~~~~~~~

As soon as it was dark, Elisabeth went to the park and dug up her knife. She felt a moment of sorrow as she touched Rowland’s sword, but she chased those thoughts away as she covered the weapon with dirt and patted it back down. She had no place to hide it. Chances were it would remain in this spot for a long time.

Cleaning the dirt off the knife, she strapped it onto her ankle beneath the jeans. It would not be easy to reach under the pant leg, but she didn’t know where else to put it. She made her way back to the center of town and walked the streets, trying to sense Haldir. When she gave up for the day, she decided that it was time to find a motel, but gradually became aware of footsteps quietly trailing her. It sounded like one set of feet, but that didn’t ease her fears. Concentrating on using her elvish senses had paid off once more and again she regretted not doing so earlier. Maybe Rowland would be alive today…no, she wasn’t going to do that. Rowland would be alive today if he hadn’t brought her here in the first place. She was not going to take the blame for his death.

Turning down a side street, she listened to see if the footsteps followed. Unfortunately, they did. She had the knife but would have to stop and retrieve it to be able to use it but maybe that wasn’t a bad idea. She stopped suddenly and bent down to free the knife, turning her head slightly to look behind her. A rather small, thin man was alone on the sidewalk behind her. He seemed to hesitate when he saw her stop and that meant that he was probably not out for a stroll. Slipping the knife against her wrist so that he couldn’t tell what it was, she gave him a hard look before turning back around and continuing to walk. She would not run and she would not show fear because either thing would be an invitation to him. When she heard his footsteps increasing in speed, she readied the knife, knowing that she would use it if she had to. When she sensed that he was about to grab for her, she spun around and flashed the knife at him.

“Do you really want to die?” she asked him, calmly.

“Hey lady, just give me your backpack and I won’t hurt you,” he said, wiping his nose on his sleeve. She noticed that his eyes were glazed and that he didn’t look healthy. She didn’t know what was wrong with him, but he didn’t scare her. If it became necessary, she could probably even outrun him if she had to. Instead she moved towards him and swung the knife at him. The man jumped back, surprised at the attack.

“Hey, lady, watch it!” he said. “You’re gonna’ cut me.”

“Oh, but that is the plan!” she said, stepping closer. “I am not a very happy person at the moment and you picked the wrong time to confront me!”

He staggered backwards a few more steps and caught his foot in the gutter, falling. She quickly closed the distance and held the knife under his chin. She liked being on this side of the knife much better.

“Either you will go away right now or I will cut your throat, do you understand?” she asked, spitting the words.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll go,” he said, fear in his eyes. She stepped away and watched as he got up and took off down the street, looking for easier prey. Elisabeth smiled and tucked the knife inside a pocket. That had felt good.

~~~~~~~~~

Haldir walked into the apartment and thought that he was seeing things. “Orophin?”

“Finally!” Orophin said. “Rúmil and Elda have been searching for you all day!”

When his brother finished updating him, Haldir looked aggravated.

“Why did they not give us a week or a month? Why such a short time to find her?” he asked.

“For one reason, they did not know that you would have to find her. You disappeared right after she did so I think we all assumed that you would be together. Besides that, it has something to do with the lining up of the stars. Lady Galadriel needed the exact right conditions to reverse the portal. If we miss it, we will have to wait a year for the next time.”

“I will not go back without Elisabeth,” Haldir said firmly.

“I did not think you would,” Orophin said. “So we now have just over twenty four hours to find her.”

“And chances are she is asleep somewhere by now. I cannot sense her when she is sleeping.”

“Then I suggest you get a few hours of sleep yourself and we all go out early in the morning to start searching.”

The phone rang just then and both elves stared at it.

“What is that noise?” Orophin asked. “It has been doing that almost every hour.”

“It is a telephone,” Haldir stated, lifting it from the coffee table. He held it to his ear but did not hear anybody talking.

“I am supposed to be able to talk to somebody on this,” Haldir told Orophin.

“Haldir?” Elda’s voice said. “Hello?”

He held the phone the way he had seen Felicity do it and spoke to Elda.

“Thank goodness you’re all right!” she said. “I told Orophin we’d check in every hour but he hasn’t been there and we were getting worried.”

“I think that he has been here but he does not understand about the telephone,” Haldir reminded her.

“Oh. I didn’t think about that. We’ll come back now.”

The phone went dead and Haldir continued to hold it for a minute until he realized that Elda had gone away. He sat it back down on the coffee table.

~~~~~~~~~

Detective Ford left the tavern with the flyer in his hand. This case was getting more peculiar all the time. The man in the flyer was almost certainly the same one who had been beaten at the park. He and the woman had been to this tavern together on more than one occasion. The woman’s husband had also been in the tavern, looking for them, and he fit the description of the man they’d chased at the park. It seemed probable that the husband had caught up with the couple and had beaten the man. The fact that the woman was nowhere to be found was not encouraging and the detective wondered if her husband may have done something to her.

What complicated the situation was what the bartender had told him about the man named Joe who had caused problems with the couple one night. The man had a rap sheet that included several violent crimes and he wasn’t the type to just let something go. It was possible that he was involved, too, and maybe had even been hired by the husband.

For now, the best lead they had was the address and phone number on the flyer. He thought about calling but decided that it would be better if he just showed up at the apartment with backup. He liked to see how people reacted physically when he questioned them.

~~~~~~~~~

Elda and Rúmil walked in and collapsed onto the couch. It had been a long day of walking and there was still no sign of Elisabeth.

“I am afraid that she’s hiding somewhere and we may not find her in time,” Haldir voiced what they had all been thinking.

“What else can we do?” Elda asked. “She hasn’t seen the flyer, obviously or she would have contacted us by now.”

She turned on the news to see if they could learn anything. Orophin gasped as he watched the people speaking from the box. Elda changed back and forth between three channels until Rúmil said, “Stop! There’s Haldir!”

“It looks just like you, Haldir,” Orophin said.

“It does not. My nose is not that big,” Haldir told them.

His brothers both looked at him but did not say a word.

There was a collective gasp around the room as the flyer was now displayed on the screen. Elda didn’t hear anything else that was being said.

“We’ve got to get out of here, right now!” She grabbed her purse and went for the front door, but could already hear car doors slamming outside.

“The window! Hurry!” she said, leading the way to her bedroom. She opened the window and looked down.

“It’s a long drop,” she told them. Rúmil told her to wrap her arms around his neck and he easily lowered them both to the ground. Haldir and Orophin were close behind. They had only gone a few steps when the elves sensed people coming and moved over towards the pool where they hid in the shadows. They watched as two cops came around the back of the building and one began speaking into a radio.

Very quietly, Elda and the elves slipped away. She had hoped that she’d be able to take her truck, but that was no longer an option. The cops would undoubtedly have the description anyway.

“Where do we go now?” Rúmil asked when they were halfway down the street.

“We’ll get a room for tonight and start searching tomorrow. I need to get money from an ATM first. I don’t dare to use a credit card.”

Haldir was entranced by the machine that spit out money and he wondered aloud why everybody in this world wasn’t rich. Elda explained, also telling him about credit cards and banking in general. It killed some time while they walked the dark streets, so she didn’t mind answering his countless questions. When they got close to the motel, she made Orophin and Haldir hide outside, walking in with just Rúmil; his hair tucked into a baseball cap.

She got a room with two double beds and went back out to tell the others. Not wanting to walk through the lobby, she led them through a side door and down the hall. In most of the newer hotels, there would be cameras watching their movements, but she had specifically chosen an older one for that reason.

They went inside but Haldir was restless, pacing the room and getting on everybody’s nerves. While the others watched a movie on the television, he decided to go for a walk and nobody tried to stop him. No sooner had he stepped out into the hall, than he heard somebody moving towards him. He ducked his head so as not to attract attention, but suddenly his eyes flew back up. Elisabeth’s eyes met his at the same moment and for a few seconds they were both too stunned to react. She flew into his arms as he scooped her up and held her tightly to his chest. Capturing her mouth with his, he kissed her like he’d never kissed her before. She didn’t want to ever let him go.

~~tbc~~