Nînthel believes that mortals who have died become ghosts, and that their ghosts return to their own kind of Aman, where they regenerate and return to their homes just like elves do. She says that there must be a place just like their Undying Lands that can be inhabited by mortals; a place the living can visit for small holidays or adventures to see old friends or family who are also ghosts. She thinks that everyone else functions the same as an elf.
Legolas likes the idea of seashells far better. He does not want to think that Aragorn is stuck in a place that he cannot find and has not heard of. He finds comfort in the telling that the man is just beneath the surface of the water, listening. This is another reason he likes walking on the seaside. He thinks it is possible that Aragorn is in the line of the water's tide, swimming next to his pointed boots as he walks. Every day he speaks to the water. Every day he searches for a shell so he can know he's been heard.
It still has not quite hit him that Aragorn is dead. He knows he will never see him again, yet there is still this detachedness from the idea of it. He does not feel pain from it, but rather confusion and emptiness. His lack of understanding holds him back from experiencing grief the way mortals do. He envies this about those who naturally die. They know what it means to leave; to become the earth. They mourn heavily and quickly, and they get over things faster. They can heal because they can let go.
The elf does not know how to do this. So he sticks to talking to the water and pretending that his dear friend is smiling beneath it.
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Passersby ➵ ONC 2021
Fanfiction➵ With his days anything but numbered, Legolas finds himself the keeper of far too much time. ➵ As his dear friend Aragorn has passed at the age of 210 and all reason to remain in his kingdom has followed, the immortal elf ventures away from his la...
