Through Fire and Water (A Legolas Love Story)

Tiny Friends, Big Stories

I wake up again later that afternoon, roused by a nurse who has to change the dressing on my side. She appears to be in her late 30s and is bouncy and smiley, with dark brown hair pulled back into a ponytail and rosy red cheeks. Fortunately for me though, she is also straight forward and honest when it comes to her work. Dad and Legolas try to sugar coat everything she says but I just ignore them and focus on her as she explains the extent of my injuries.

Apparently I’m lucky I’m not dead, which is either comforting or very worrying. She also explains how the wound in my side is very deep, a fact she then backs up by showing me said wound. It’s deep and ragged at the edges where the barbs each cut into my flesh separately. The skin around it is very pale and there is still a small amount of blood welling from it which is not a good sign. However she then comforts me with the information that elves heal faster than humans and there is nothing to suggest I won’t be up and about in no time, although she doesn’t specify what ‘no time’ means.

She then leaves me alone, ending the brief sanity she had brought and leaving me back to the constant surveillance of the others. I say that like I’m complaining, but I guess it’s nice to know someone loves me enough to care. A messenger arrives at the door, beckoning to my father that he is needed. Dad sighs, rather un-regally in my opinion, and goes to talk to them. Unfortunately he can’t think of anyone to pawn his duties off onto and is forced to go and sort whatever it is himself.

It’s just me and Legolas now.

“Alone at last” he says and I laugh.

“Sorry honey, I don’t think you’re going to be getting any action for a while”

He laughs at that, a beautiful sound that makes me smile. He looks at me for a moment, eyes warm and stunning.

“I love you Ana. I will always love you”

“Good” I say, smiling “because there’s no way you’re getting rid of me any time soon”

Then he kisses me. Leaning down and pressing his lips against mine gently. Have you ever been kissed in a hospital bed? I haven’t before, it’s weird, but nice at the same time. Like a breath of fresh, warm, loving air when everything else around you feels kind of cold and scary.

The door opens and I hear footsteps, looking up I see it’s Pippin.

“Ana! You’re awake” he cries, leaping onto the end of my bed. The movement makes my side stab a little but I do my best to hide it, gripping harder at Legolas’ hand to pretend I’m ok. Pippin looks so happy that I don’t want to ruin it for him.

“Well spotted Pip” I say, smiling.

“I kept visiting but every time I turned up you were asleep” he says.

A head sticks round the door, Merry’s. “Hey Pippin, I found them” he says, before seeing me and crying “Ana!” he turns around and beckons to someone I can’t see before emerging fully into the room and bounding up next to his friend. I squeeze Legolas’ hand again as my side pangs. A moment later two faces I haven’t seen in a very long time appear at the foot of my bed. Sam and Frodo.

“Oh my god!” I yell when I see my friends. They look different, really different, and they have clearly been through a lot. But they’re alive. They smile and clamber up onto my bed with the others.

I’m not sure what to say, for what might well be the first time in my life. All I can do is grin. Eventually I open my arms wide and just say “Give me a hug you two. Gently mind”

The two little hobbits throw themselves into my arms, gently as instructed. I hug them tight, clutching at my two friends and remembering everything that has happened since I saw them.

“It’s been ages” I say once I let them go, and then before they can reply I blurt out “You guys did it! You’re amazing!”

“From what we hear, you did some pretty cool stuff too” Sam says.

“We caught them up on what’s been happening to us” Pippin puts in.

“They know everything” Merry says. I look to Legolas for confirmation and he nods.

“They really do know everything” he says “Merry and Pippin spent an intensive session catching them up on every detail of the past months” he pauses for a moment before adding, slightly confused “even things they shouldn’t really have any way of knowing…” he looks at the 2 hobbits who look back at him, feigning innocence, but we can all see the mischief in their eyes.

“What?” Pippin asks, pretending he doesn’t know why we’re all staring at the 2 of them.

Legolas is probably about to say something but I just laugh before turning to Sam and Frodo. “Tell me everything that’s happened to you” I say “and I want every detail, since you apparently know everything that’s happened to me”

Sam tells me everything that happened. From the fateful day by the river when we split, through stinking swamps and across wastelands. He tells me how they met Gollum and made him their guide, how they got lost and were found and how they fought each other. They even got kidnapped by Faramir, it’s such a small world. Frodo hardly talks at all, letting Sam do most of it, but I’m not surprised. We have all been through a lot but I can’t even begin to imagine what Frodo has been through. In doubt he will ever be the same again. These 2 have been to hell and back, literally.

Merry and Pippin listen intently to their story, although I’m sure they have already heard it. Legolas listens too, although half way through he takes hold of my hand and I feel his eyes on me more than they are on the hobbits. Dad arrives back round about when the story had just reached them being released by Faramir and he sits through the rest, listening intently although I’m sure he’s already heard it all.

I find the story fascinating, and heart breaking. This quest has changed all of us, but I think it changed these two the most. They’ve been through more than words can express and I can see it all play out in their eyes as they speak.

Once they’ve finished, I just hug them really, really tight, glad that they’re here and safe again. I beckon for Merry and Pippin to join us and I stretch my arms wide round all of them. They came from a life of peace and joy, and since I met them they have been through more pain, suffering and fear than most of their kind would experience in 10 lifetimes, that changes a person. The change is most visible in Sam and Frodo, they’re quiet now and carry a slightly haunted look. I guess the horror will fade over time, but they will never be the same. Merry and Pippin have changed too, they’re more serious and straight-faced than before and the mischievous glint which used to be constant in their eyes is now a little rarer, although they are still impossible to take seriously. Thinking this, I hug them tighter. My tiny friends, my dear friends, my hobbits.