The ElvenKing [A thranduil fanfiction]

Chapter 12

Greenwood T.A 2048

          I gripped the nearest branch above my head, stopping halfway through my forward motion. I came to a standstill on top of a large branch. My night shift was coming to an end. It had been long and challenging, not to say boring. The weather had brought on a dreadful change. The snow had all but melted away, leaving behind the wet, decaying forest ground covered in fallen, decaying leaves left behind after Autumn had passed.

Everything had changed. I was still getting used to the absence of Rüdhon. I kept expecting him to be there, waiting for me when I returned to the Kingdom, or when I headed out to begin my duties. The first few days after I had returned, I had hallucinated him standing there waiting for me with the same usual smile more than once. It had been weeks since then, and winter solstice had come to pass as well. I had spent that particular day in his old room, pressed up against the corner of the room with the small velvet box in my hands just starring at it, hiding from everyone until Voronwë eventually found me.

He had sat with me until my tears dried up and I had gathered my courage to investigate the box. Voronwë had observed in silence as I uncovered the necklace I knew would be in there. The necklace I uncovered was even more beautiful than I remembered. The star pendant with a single white gem, glowing brighter than any stars in middle earth. I had relayed the story about it to him without him even asking. He had simply listened before helping me get it on.

I still wore it underneath my clothes. It was a heavy burden, but I was happy to carry a piece of Rüdhon with me wherever I went. Without thinking, I reached for the pendant, feeling it under my clothes as I stared at the cairns that had been built over his grave. Rüdhon was not the only one who had lost his life during that battle. Five others had unwillingly given their life. It was an unfamiliar sight, uprooting the forest because elven death was a rarity nowadays. We seldom died from natural course.

Tears clouded my vision, but I didn't hold them back as I lowered my chin and extended the hand that had rested on my chest towards the cairns. I hoped he had found peace in death and was now waiting in the halls of Manwë. Because he had been the last of his kin, and had no children, I had been given the honor to receive his sword after the burial. It now rested comfortably on my back, along the curve of my spine beside my quiver of arrows.

Steady steps hauled me out of my memories. Voronwë, who had been ahead of me when I stopped, had finally realized I had not followed him. There was sorrow in his eyes when he understood where it was that I was lingering. I tried to smile to him, but I couldn't manage through the tears and therefore just lowered my eyes to the ground again.

The branch we were on wobbled slightly as he closed the distance between us. "Come, we have to move, or the spiders will escape us." He insisted but tried to keep the urgency out of his voice as he tugged on my arm. I knew it was stupid of me to just stop but it had been a few days since I had been here to pay my respects, and seeing the cairns again, had made reluctant to move another step. Voronwë tugged again.