evandar

Journaling prompt: Be a carnival barker for your favorite movie, book, or show! Write a post that showcases the best your chosen title has to offer and entices passersby to check it out.

Is it lazy to just link to my Snowflake Challenge post about Dog Soldiers?

Probably.

But here's the rant again for those of you who don't want to click it (or who want me to make an effort for some reason).

Dog Soldiers is an absolute banger of a werewolf movie that was released in 2002. It was directed by Neil Marshall and stars Kevin McKidd and Sean Pertwee, who play Cooper and Sergeant Wells respectively.

What's it about? Essentially, it's soldiers vs werewolves.

A group of soldiers on exercise in the Scottish Highlands (the scenery for this movie is gorgeous, btw) are set upon by werewolves. They take refuge in a remote farmhouse where they have to survive until sunrise.

It's brutal. It's gory. I love every second of it. It's got a fantastic soundtrack that, in places, helps bring a stunning amount of emotion. The characters are down to earth, relatable, and have fantastic chemistry. Even characters who don't get much screen time are mourned by their comrades - it's a film about werewolves, yes, but it's also about brotherhood.

Also, the dialogue is hilarious.

And the dog lives.

Creative prompt: Write a fic or original story about a character reluctantly doing something they are hesitant about.

Title: Delay
Author: Evandar
Fandom: Lord of the Rings
Rating: G
Pairing: Legolas/Gimli
Disclaimer: I do not own The Lord of the Rings and I am making no profit from this story.
Summary: Legolas and Gimli take the long road home.

They’ve been wandering north for the better part of a year. They lingered in the caverns of Aglarond, where Legolas admired stars embedded in rock while Gimli found beauty in the wonder writ large upon his Elf’s fair face. They walked the paths of Fangorn, where Gimli listened as Legolas spoke to trees and Ents alike.

He’d even tried straining his ears in the quiet moments of the night, while Legolas rested warm beside him, attempting to hear the language that Legolas swore was in every creak of wood or rustle of leaves.

They’d visited Amon Hen to pause by the falls and remember Boromir; passed under the eaves of Lorien where first they had come to understand each other. After that, Gimli had drawn Legolas back to the foothills of the Misty Mountains. When first they had come to this place, Gimli had shown the Mirrormere to Frodo; this time he watched as his husband peered into the still waters only to find himself crowned with the seven stars of Durin.

They have journeyed long and happily, but now Gimli finds himself hesitating.

He has passed through this forest before, when it was Mirkwood by name. Now, it is the Greenwood again, but the canopy still swallows the light and leaves him feeling cold. When last he walked this path, it was as part of an envoy from Erebor to Rivendell. Now, he returns wed to the son of is King – an old enemy of his people, and the Elf who once held prisoner his father.

It surprises him, a little, how easily he had forgotten the tension between their two peoples.

Legolas’ hand curls over his shoulder, his grip hard enough for Gimli to feel it through his mail. “Come,” he says. “There is no sense in lingering when our presence is already known.”

Gimli looks up at him. There’s a slight smile at the corner of his mouth, but a tightness around his eyes that belies his own anxiety.

“Aye,” he says with a sigh. He doesn’t want to face Thranduil. Beyond that, he’d rather lay siege to Mordor again than see the disappointment he knows will be in his father’s eyes when he returns to Erebor with an Elven husband.

But Legolas is right, and they have delayed long enough. He takes a deep breath and steps forward, following his Elf into the dark woods before them.