What Lies Within

Title: What Lies Within

Authors: Lily Frost and TC angel face ( http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=370422 )

Summary: A darkness older than anyone can remember has awoken in the gloom of Mirkwood, hungry for blood and vengeance. From the shadows it targets the Prince Legolas, and his friends. Soon this evil has wormed its way into their kin, and it looks as if this battle may prove harder than any they had ever fought before.

Canon Notes: Set pre - LotR with mild canon tweaks, including our own specifics on vampire anatomy, as Tolkien gave little detail. Aragorn was raised in Elrond’s home literally, and Elladan and Elrohir are his adoptive brothers. They are close friends with Legolas, and the four have a tendency to get into trouble.

Disclaimer: We own nothing and we aren’t making any money (wish we were), so please don't sue us! All the toy soldiers will be returned to the trunk once we are through.

Author's Notes: A vampire fic? Why the heck not, they are canon afterall. TC came up with the initial idea, but the bunny kind of dragged me away with it. --Lily

Rating: PG-13 for entire story

Warnings: Eventual gore and angst.





What Lies Within

by Lily Frost and TC



Prelude

Mirkwood had once been called Greenwood the Great, for at sometime it had been the greatest of the forests of Middle Earth, or even all of Arda. The trees were wide, and their branches spread far to form a huge canopy. One could feel very small in Greenwood, and even smaller in Mirkwood for the trees had grown into dark presences, havens were dark creatures lay in wait. Spiders had nearly taken over half the wood, save the area guarded by the wood elves. The palace, where the elves resided, was a safe place, a sanctuary whose doors were often closed to travellers who were not elves or elf-friends.

Yet deep within the caverns, where even the daylight was as dark as a shadow, and the shadows pitch-black, fear slept. These were the natural caves that had formed beneath the surface millions of years before, and now something over a millennia old was awakening. Even the oldest and wisest of the elves, the immortals who walked Middle Earth, knew not of the evil that was rousing in the depths of Mirkwood, concealed in the subterranean gloom beneath the earth.

Eyes -- dark, glittering jade orbs -- opened quickly and closed again as dirt tumbled into them. Claw-like hands with long nails reached up through the soft earth, pushing it aside as it drew itself up. Then the figure, male in appearance though exceedingly thin, emerged from the cavern’s soft floor in a shower of dust and small stones, stretching emaciated limbs covered with grey skin. He then gave a great yawn, opening his mouth to reveal a row of pearly white teeth, sharpened to fangs.

‘At last.’ He thought, to himself, carefully examining the sleek, bat-like wings that rested on his back. They were free of the wounds that had marked them so long before, healed by time and rest. ‘At last I am awake again...’

A rough laugh issued from cracked lips, his head tilted forwards so that grimy red hair cascaded before his face as the laugh rose in pitch. Soon he threw his head back and gave a gleeful cackle, the tone rising to manic level. Near the mouth of the cavern, Mirkwood’s giant spiders fled fearfully, tripping over their long legs.