Reviews (782)

fliewatuet · 3 March 2005 · Chapter 34: World on Fire

Wow! This chapter was intense, to say the least. You could not get any meaner, could you? You had to separate them! And poor Legolas is not only stuck in a box apparently too small for him, but also believes Aragorn dead. And Aragorn? First you let him freeze to near death, now you try to burn him alive. Fire and ice, or ice and fire? But since this story was not labelled AU and he ist still needed later on, I sincerely hope that he will manage to get out of that burning hut somehow. And I am beyond curious as to his means of escape ... But what about the cat and the horse? I hope you have not planned to burn them as well? And then there is the matter of Ramhar's sword. I dimly recall Legolas mentioning the likeness of Aragorn's pilfered Orc-blade to a sword that had something to do with the death of Legolas' mother. But Legolas does not yet know and Aragorn is not there to tell him. Furthermore, there seems to be a kinder soul among Legolas' abductors. Though I wonder whether he is kind because he is a kind person or just out of some more sinister purpose. Anyway, I absolutely love your story, and there is little that will prevent me from reading a new chapter as soon as I see that it's posted. But I will be patient, yes, preciouss, I will not beg for another update, oh, no ... but I will wait, eagerly ... fliewatuet

Elvenesse · 3 March 2005 · Chapter 34: World on Fire

I've finally managed to catch up with the last chunk of chapters, and now I'm delurking. I'm glad you had them be afraid, it made it much more realistic. That was a very tense chapter, and the pacing has picked up nicely. I can't wait to see how you get Aragorn out of the cottage (maybe Alun or Tarnan?). I like that Ramhar is ruthless enough to kill Aragorn and various minions, it makes him something to fear and is a better match for Aragorn and Legolas. I don't think anyone would like being put in a box, but doing it to a wood-elf is very cruel! I can see that the last chapter must have been very hard to write, but you managed it very well.

Gandalfs apprentice · 3 March 2005 · Chapter 34: World on Fire

Hey, Nightwing! Your story rocks. Of course, I know Aragorn doesn't burn to death, but you put us right on the brink. I felt like I was there myself on the floor all tied up and terrified. And Legolas's despair and struggle made my heart pound. Your villain is wonderfully wicked. My ideas: Someone is watching from the distance and is going to come rescue Aragorn. After all, who were those nice people leaving gifts of food? And I'm sure that Tithlam had the smarts to run away and climb a tree. But we haven't seen the last of her. You can't do that. Master Elrond is going to have a lot more healing to do than Legolas's eyes. With an ankle all messed up like that, Aragorn isn't going to make much of a warrior, never mind all the other bashing. By the way, did you have fun in that forest pool? I've got some ideas for an Arwen story. I hope it knocks your socks off! It might be some time before I can do it, though. I appreciate your time problem, believe me.

Jay of Lasgalen · 3 March 2005 · Chapter 34: World on Fire

Oh Valar, what happened to Aragorn? I know he can't really be dead, but how will you get him out? I can't believe that Ramhar had a sudden attack of conscience and untied him first! Poor Legolas. Alone, helpless, shut in a box - and believing Aragorn has been burned to death :( He must be in utter despair. Jay

Alison H · 3 March 2005 · Chapter 34: World on Fire

Oh my word----poor Aragorn! My heart was pounding before I even started to read this chapter and, by the end,I don't think I was breathing! Well done, this chapter was exceptional.The scream from the cottage was terrible and Legolas is now alone.I feel so bad for our heroes and I cannot wait for the next update. Sorry this review is short but I'm off to work.I'll be thinkinh about poor Legolas & Aragorn all day!! Update soon, please. Ali.

TithenFeredir · 2 March 2005 · Chapter 34: World on Fire

So good to get this next chapter! I think it was an excellent touch that Aragorn had to consciously suppress that desire to plead for his own life--that is realistic and it greatly heightened the tension for him to be truly frightened. And the cries that were heard after the fire began! Just horrible, especially for poor Legolas. As for Legolas, it was so in character for him to go berserk with grief and rage as he did. It was all very well done: the pain of his restraints, the falling into a stupor at times. The one merciful bad guy was just the little bit of relief needed to make the whole thing more believeable. I felt so sorry for our heroes. This was a painfully good chapter. I hope RL allows you to update soon. TF

Faith · 2 March 2005 · Chapter 34: World on Fire

Awww poor leggy...poor estel...*sniff...*sob....its okay...*sniff...*sob....here have some ben and jerrys chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream with chocolate sauce and chocolate sprinkles and all..the cherries in the whole wide world on top, with tons of whipped cream...:Dmmmmmm:D Faith, the slightly obssessed fangirl

Sheikan · 2 March 2005 · Chapter 34: World on Fire

Ah!Poor Aragorn!! Why are they doing this to poor Legolas? =[ I hope Aragorn wasnt brun to a crisp x.x;; poor things x.x;; :pulls out a pitch fork: Those guys have to pay for hurting those two so much. Weet-Woo! ^_^ cant wait for the next update

Alisha B · 2 March 2005 · Chapter 34: World on Fire

Absolutely loved this chapter! Aragorn's screams from the burning cabin made my stomach jump... I love when reading gives me that feeling. I'm trying to imagine what did to escape since we all know he's not dead. But Legolas doesn't have to know that yet. :-) Maybe he was pulling at his ropes and broke through somehow. And where’s the kitty during all this? Did you mention it? I’ll have to go back and check he last few chapters. I’m sure you’ll tell us what happened soon. I know exactly how it feels to have Real Life demand attention... Hopefully it will settle down. Keep up the amazing work!!

Lamiel · 2 March 2005 · Chapter 34: World on Fire

Elf torture? How about Ranger torture! Oh heavens, Nightwing, they'll be beating down your door after that one. For myself, I will trust that you didn't bring Aragorn all this way just to burn him to death in the cottage. He'll get out. He will. (bites nails nervously) Okay, now for the rest of the chapter. Marvelous, wonderful Elf torture, first rate! Oh, that repeated touching of Legolas' hair and neck, so possessive, so darn sexy... heh heh heh. Oh my word, that was wonderful! And this line, "his voice was soft, yet menacing. The malice of it swept along the elf's skin like the brush of a blade in the night." Heeya! Love it, love it, love it! So Ramhar has an accomplice in this, someone who is evidently of equal rank, or at least well respected. And oh, he doesn't like Elves at ALL, does he? I don't get that delicious sexy vibe from him, just plain hate. Well, we'll see. Now what about this dagger? Huh? What about it? Maybe Ramhar's men, whoever they were, got killed by Orcs and those stole the dagger? And he blamed the Elves? It's a pretty simplistic explanation, but I don't have a lot to work with at the moment. I trust that more will come soon. Please. Please, please let more come soon! What about that scream from the cabin? If Aragorn didn't burn, why did he scream? And what about the cat? The cat had better make it out of there too. Although I guess she ran off during the fight. Okay. I'd say this chapter puts you about fifty points ahead in the angst deparment (burning Aragorn alive is more that I'd expect even of you, but you did give us some hope for Legolas with that sympathetic soldier in the group). It's given me great inspiration to finish the last touches on the new chapter of TPD. I'm afraid that I won't be able to compete on this scale yet, but maybe soon. And my beta is back in town, so if ff.net will behave itself perhaps I can post tonight. I hope, I hope.

OakWolf · 2 March 2005 · Chapter 34: World on Fire

AAAAIIIEEEE!My Gosh!My word! My elf! What are you doing with him!? (Oh and Im worried about Aragorn too-dont kill him please)

daw the minstrel · 2 March 2005 · Chapter 34: World on Fire

OK. I assume they're both going to live, given that they have to save ME a few years down the road, but even given that, this was very tense. You didn't go over the top and that made it all the more realistic.

e_vrouw · 13 February 2005 · Chapter 33: Safe No More

Hi Nightwing, I actually read your story the day you posted it but real-life is catching up. I don't have enough time to leave as long a review as I'd like, or one that's worthy of this chapter. But I would feel guilty if you posted the next chapter before I had reviewed this one. I only have a few minutes so I'll be brief. I love it! The action is portraid beautifully, especially from Legolas' point of view. You really show his reasoning, why he does the things he does. Very well written! As soon as I read the first paragraph I just knew they would be captured. I mean you can't let them die, or something like that. And you already had them seperated earlier (in the forest). And escaping would simply be too easy. I mean, you can't just builed up an entire history of a village where people live in fear and hate one of your main characters and than have those main characters simply walk away, now can you. ;-) Looking forward to the next chapter. e_vrouw Oh... I almost forgot. GO TITHLAM! If I'm not mistaken she's hissing in the corner. Too bad she didn't attack anyone. I can assure you attacking cats are ferocious!! P.S. I hope I don't sound too evil but I want Legolas to return to Mirkwood still blinded. I think it would be interesting to see how he (and his father) deal with that. After all, the plan was to stop in Mirkwood on their way to Rivendell, where Lord Elrond might be able to help Legolas. :-)

Thundera Tiger · 4 February 2005 · Chapter 33: Safe No More

For the sake of variety, I'm reviewing over here rather than over on FF.net. I have no idea why. I suppose this is my way of spicing things up. not that this chapter needs any "spicing." It was exciting enough on its own! What I like best is how you've broken up the action. It's remarkable, really. Up until the last section (and even into part of that, too) it's one, big dramatic race. If it's not an outright battle, it's all the tension that leads up to one. That's tough to write, and I'm more than a little envious at how easily you managed to pull this off. Or at least to make it look easy! The changes in perspective were fast and perfectly placed. They broke up the action so well and kept the narrative feeling fresh and new. Which is perhaps one of the most important things to do in a battle sequence. Oh, it was gorgoues! So beautiful! Right, I'll get to the individual sections now. First section! The loss of the bow is what hit me most from this section. It's what seems to hit Aragorn and Legolas most, too, judging from their reactions. But what I like best is how quickly Aragorn moves on. He's angry about it, yes, and he probably realizes it was an accident. But it's still an inconvenience that must be dealt with, so his anger is a natural response. What makes him stand out is the speed with which he moves on to other issues. He evaluates options left and right, discards the useful ones, picks up the practical ones, and gets them ready. Legolas felt a bit too frazzled to help out here, which makes Aragorn stand out all the more. Nice contrast. And nice work on Legolas's part in banking the fire. That was a brilliant touch of inspiration played out very well by the narrative. Second section! The battle begins, and interesting choice for the POV. You let Legolas fight it out without telling us how he's doing it. We can infer a few things based on what Legolas has been doing in past chapters, but by and large, we're as much in the dark as Aragorn is once he douses that torch. Which makes for an interesting time because we can sympathize with Aragorn, who isn't quite sure how Legolas is doing it, either. As for the battle itself, it was fast and furious, and the narrative matched pace quite well. And you kept the actual fight scenes to something of a minimum, which can also be a very good choice. Pages of fighting tend to drag after a while, but you moved us around quickly enough that it was never a problem here. Third section! What fascinates me most about the entire story is how well you manage to describe what is happening using things other than sight. You build a mental picture out of sound and instinct. It's amazing, and you've become quite good at it. It feels entirely natural coming from Legolas now, and I have to keep reminding myself that these aren't visual clues. What's even better is that we don't need visual clues. We don't care about proportions or color or things like that. In Legolas's world, they don't matter, and the beauty of your narrative is that it doesn't matter to us, either. Gorgeous fight scene that went on much longer that the fight in section 2, but that was fine because it was told from such a unique viewpoint completely independent of sight. I very much enjoyed it! Last section! Ah, cliff hanger. Really should have seen that coming. You caught me off guard, but what really surprised me was the Daleman. Points are awarded to Legolas for catching this. I'm trying to figure out if this guy knows Legolas is blind or not. He studied him long enough that I'm a bit concerned. He undoubtedly realizes he's from Mirkwood, but I wonder if he knows he's the prince. Hmmm... Anyway, nice wrap up, even if nothing was quite wrapped up. The nature of cliff hangers, after all. And I eagerly await the next chapter! Hope it's not long in coming!

Timmy2222 · 1 February 2005 · Chapter 33: Safe No More

Great chapter and very good fight description. Wonder if the two heroes will ever get out of trouble! - T.

lwarren · 31 January 2005 · Chapter 33: Safe No More

Ai!!!!! Nightwing!!!!!! The elf...the Ranger...the cat! *wails and runs away to hide until next update* linda (What a marvelous chapter! When I recover from my heart failure, I would dearly like to know WHAT HAPPENS NEXT!) :-) Don't you love slightly demented readers....of your making??? :-)

Gandalfs apprentice · 31 January 2005 · Chapter 33: Safe No More

What a great story! I have been wholly engrossed and looking forward avidly to your next posting. Are you going to have Arwen appear as a character in the story later...I mean aside from Aragorn's memories. I hope so, because I really like the way you deal with their relationship, which too often comes off as very childish in a lot of the stories on the site. I completely agree with you about elves and sex. Legolas's bawdy song was one of my favorite moments. It seems to me elves would be doing a lot of naked bathing in forest pools, and stuff like that. It would be especially nice to see a story that deals with why Arwen loves Aragorn, since Tolkien always says it's because he is just like an elf lord. But she had dozens of them around, so that doesn't seem right. There has to be something about his being a Man that matters. The warmth of mortal love? and perhaps she's bored with being so sheltered? Admires his spirit of struggle? Aside from the fact that he's irresistable! I mean I don't know--play around with it. I'd be interested to see your take. As you can see I'm more of an Aragorn fan than a Legolas fan, but of course I love them both, and I think you get both characters just right. But don't forget that Aragorn is supposed to be very good friends with Gandalf, too. No mistake my screen name.

fliewatuet · 30 January 2005 · Chapter 33: Safe No More

Wow! This chapter was well worth the wait. Not that I intend to sound impatient. If the outcome is like the latest chapter, take all the time you need. My absolute favourite part was the description of the fight from Legolas' POV. The way you managed to give each of his opponents his own distinct sound and what Legolas deduced about their personalities from that sound was simply terrific. There was just one thing I wondered about (apart from the obvious question who the attackers were and whether Alun had betrayed them), namely whether Aragorn had time to get dressed or whether I should feel all the more sorry for him since he's sitting around in the snow in nothing but his nightshirt ;-P

sayre · 30 January 2005 · Chapter 33: Safe No More

Oh no! Don't hurt the cat!

Legolass · 29 January 2005 · Chapter 33: Safe No More

A long chapter, as you promised, and another brilliant one! Thank you - and please let the wait for the next one be less agonising. :-)

OakWolf · 29 January 2005 · Chapter 33: Safe No More

AYE!Nightwing, my word when you write you positively throw your readers into the snow and the fray-as always well done!!

Muinthel · 29 January 2005 · Chapter 33: Safe No More

....wow...you did a wounderful job in discribing the fight and the fear of Aragorn and Legolas. "Through the soft sighing of the southern breeze he blocked out the conversation and listened to the sounds that rode on the air around him,..." the language you use here is so much "elflike". For me it does discribe Legolas so much and underlines the way he fights. I also like it that he kind of falls back into his selfreproaches for losing his bow. He is not himself yet again (not the elf we all love and you will hopefully bring back to us at the end).....and this shows also so much in his fear of letting these men know that he is blind. You are doing a good job in telling so much inbetween the lines. Since I always have to read it twice (translation work and enjoying the second time more, because then I hopefully catch all the finesses) I have more choices in interpreting. I would love to sit with you and a nice glas of wine and talk philosophical about our heroes ;-))) ! And Dale....hm...Dale.....what a cliffie! Muinthel (...always hoping you get what I mean) Ps:....the boys love their brother....and he is having allready his share of Middle-earth, sleeping on my belly while I read FF on the Computer or watching LotR! Well...he might be a ranger one day :-) !

Firnsarnien · 29 January 2005 · Chapter 33: Safe No More

Hmmmm, it seems each cliffy is worse than the last! But wow, I'm truly impressed with Leggy's ability to fight blind! He sure is awesome isn't he? ;) For a moment, I thought they'd get away, then I realized the sheer number of men meant they couldn't possibly. Then I kept hoping that Alun would show up to help, somehow. But alas, that too was not a possiblity. So here we are, poor Leggy and Aragorn, captive. What do these men want? That man from Dale? Who is he? What's happened to Tithlam? The old horse? Where is Leggy's bow? Will Aragorn heal? Will Leggy be ok? Whatdaya mean his eyes are clouded? He feels strange, odd, dizzy? Ai! So many questions left unanswered. I can't believe we will have to wait for the next update! This was a most horrible cliffy! ;P Well, do hurry with another update though, will ya? I can't wait! :)

elf-girl · 29 January 2005 · Chapter 33: Safe No More

Please update soon!!! It was so great. I am going to cry though I don't know why...I know it's imposible but if you can please write a new chapter before January ends!!! In February I'm going to the beach and there are no computers!!!! I don't know what I will do whitout reading another chapter!!! And if you can't update for February 2nd at least tell me if Alun trully betrayed them...because I liked the guy, so I wouldn't have believed that he could betray Legolas and Aragorn until I read:"Please, do not let me learn that Alun has betrayed us." after that I see him with another eyes. But I went to the conclusion that maybe they tortured him or something and then he told them. Because if he did betrayed Legolas and Aragorn, then he wouldn't had any problem in telling these men that Legolas was blind. Anyway...update soon. Elf-girl

daw the minstrel · 29 January 2005 · Chapter 33: Safe No More

Well, that was a surprise ending. A man from Dale. What's he doing here? The fight was very exciting. You did the detail very well so that I could follow it and get swept up in it. I thought Legolas's ability to function in the dark might come in handy but they were so overwhelmed. I agree with his decision not to tell the men about his blindness. You never know what might come in handy.