Falling

        Chaos. Chaos everywhere. Aragorn was decapitating orcs left and right, Legolas was fighting like a true madman, even Sam was in there, hacking away at their ankles. Elliott, meanwhile, was preoccipied with one orc. Yep - one singular orc. He suddenly wished he had had the courage to ask Gandalf for those lessons, because what good would a glowey bracelet do him now? He backed off, dagger held out in front of him. The orc grinned, its face looking like a melted doll, and stuck. Elliott squeaked and parried, squeezing his eyes shut. That was most definitely a bad idea, but for some reason it didn't get him killed immediately. Rather, his other senses sharpened and time seemed to slow as he somehow defeated the thing like a boss. 

        How?? He had no time to ponder the muscle memory that HE certainly didn't remember, before another orc was coming at him. He froze up this time, mind racing too fast to let muscle memory take over, and he, like an idiot, instinctually threw his hand out in front of him. The nearest five orcs all got propelled backwards in a bright burst of white light.

        This would have been a great, if not astounding, addition to his power set if it didn't blast him backwards as well. He went flying, eyes wide, and fell right into the hole that Pippin had pushed the skeleton into. Cries of shock and horror followed him down, though none fell from his own stunned lips. Elliott felt his head hit a rock, and a blinding pain, then everything went dark.

        Who knows how much time passed, and he woke. It was dark, and he was covered in something sticky. He couldn't see anything. Elliott sat up, and a blinding pain in his face made itself known. There was no time to worry about that though, he had bigger issues. He felt around for the wall, and strained his ears to hear any sounds from his group. Nothing. Holding back tears, he sniffled and felt around for anything to help him climb back up. Again, nothing. With a shuddering breath, he placed his hands on the wall and walked.

        There was no way of keeping track of time down there, but it felt like hours before he heard the fellowship again and hope bloomed in his chest. He hurried as much as he was willing to, hand on the wall and feet feeling for any chasms in front of him. Slowly, a light appeared in front of him and it felt as if he was going uphill. He ran towards the light.

        The cavern he was in was large, and had multiple statues of dwarves. He could no longer hear the others. At least he could see, though. Partially. For some reason, the right side of his vision wasn't working. Maybe it had something to do with the stickiness on his face, but Elliott deluded himself into thinking that was tears. He sniffled once more and vowed to stop being such a crybaby. 

       Looking around produced no results. The cavern was large, yes, but it was occupied only by the statues and numerous skeletons. He gulped, heading for the nearest doorway. What was it Gandalf had said...? When in doubt, always follow your nose. He sniffed that doorway, and scrunched his nose. Nope. It reeked of death and decay. Moving to the next door, he took another sniff. This one was musty and the air was old. That was okay - there were four doors left. The next door proved enterable, as he was hit with the smell of fresh air and - he might just be delusional - a slight breeze. 

        He hurried down that hall, taking no time to sightsee, though his surroundings were pretty cool. He chuckled when he thought that. Gimli would crack a nut if he heard it; he could almost hear the dwarf yelling, 'Pretty cool?! This is the hall of my ancestors!'. He sniffled again and sped up.

        He was proven to be sane when he felt a stronger wind rustle his hair and... brush against his tongue? His mouth wasn't open though... Maybe he was delusional. Elliott quickened his footsteps, and ended up at a dead end. No worries, he paused to feel where the wind was coming from and crawled through a crack on the side of the wall. It was insanely uncomfortable, feeling as if his body was almost crushed beneath the mountain, but he made it out of the mines at long last. He was on the side of a mountain, wind making the right side of his face sting. All around him were pretty yellow flowers.

        He picked a few to give to the others, then made his way down. Now if only he had any clue where the others were. With a huff of breath (that made the right side of his mouth feel cold and sticky and exposed, and he didn't want to think about that) he headed towards the river he could see. Hopefully his vision would clear up soon, his depth perception was fucked.

        It took about thirty minutes to reach the river, which was actually faster than he was expecting, and he leant down to look at his reflection and clean all the sticky... tears... off himself.

        His eye - eye! singular! - widened in shock as he looked down at himself. His hair was matted and filled with dirt and blood, his skin was covered in blood, and there was a large wound on his face. It stretched from just above his right eyebrow and trailed down in a jagged line, cutting through his right eye and slicing a small section of his lips off, revealing a few teeth - about two, top and bottom. That would be why he was so covered in blood.

        Elliott took in a deep breath, closed his eye, and put it out of his mind. Now that he was focusing on it, the pain seemed to amplify, so he just tried to forget it. What wound? That was tears, because he was sad and anxious that he lost his friends. Right. He nodded and looked back down at his reflection, humming and ignoring the fugly right side of his face as he cupped his hands and colected some water to sip. Water dribbled out the slice in his lips, and he calmly wiped it off his chin. Wow, he was a messy drinker, huh? There was zero reason for him to be dribbling that much water, silly Elliott!

        With a shuddering intake of breath, he - perfectly healthy and whole - stood and clamped his hand over his right eye, which was leaking tears, not blood, and started following the river up, hoping to find his friends.

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Sorry this is late. Not actually LATE late, but usually I post them in the AM and last night i was too tired to write. I'll update this tomorrow morning as well to make up for it :P