Immortalitui // Faramir 🥀

Chapter Twenty - Journey to the Mines

"As you wish," he muttered, holding it out. His hand extended past her, eyes watching the Ring carefully. Frodo took it from him and Arathiel let out a sigh of relief.

Boromir turned without another word, continuing his trek past Legolas and further on. The blonde elf of Mirkwood watched him intently and Gandalf's worried glance the man's way did not escape Arathiel attention.

He is tempted, she told Gandalf, communicating with him only in their own minds.

The wizard sighed, turning his gaze to meet hers as he replied. We are all tempted.

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The snow was falling heavily, entirely too heavily for even the eyesight of Arathiel to see clearly. Legolas led the charge, his pure Elven blood the only advantage they had in this storm.

She did not feel the cold like the Hobbits did, their small fragile bodies too weak to survive in these conditions for much longer. She hung near the back of the company, making sure to keep an eye on the four small creatures.

Although she worried for Merry, Pippin and Sam, she feared more for Frodo. Not only did the cold and the steep nature of the mountain they climbed weaken him, but she knew that the burden of the Ring had become heavier in recent days. Arathiel could see it in his steps, in the way he slurred his words and in the distance daydreams she often found him in, twirling his fingers around the Ring that hung by a chain on his neck.

She worried even more for what Mithrandir had said about all of them being tempted. He was right. The Ring was a simple object but infused with the darkness and evil that was and is Sauron. It will do anything to survive and the closer they got to destroying it for good, the more it will fight back. The more it would fight to live.

"Arathiel," it whispered.

Frodo was at least three men up from her, but she could pick him out even in this weather. She still walked on top of the snow, not sinking into its cold, but as the darkness touched her every one and a while, she would begin to feel the cold in her feet and in her face. 

"Take me Arathiel. Take me to him."

"There is a fell voice on the air!" Legolas shouted over the wind, alerting the she-elf to trouble ahead.

She skirted around the side of her comrades, completely adverting her gaze as she passed Frodo and approached her Elven friend. Blocking out the temptation of the Ring, she could hear it now. A curse was being cast, one that only a wizard would be strong enough to know.

"It's Saruman!" Gandalf screamed as rocks from the mountain above fell to hit them.

Arathiel dodged one, hand grasping the hilt of her sword with no hesitation. She was not sure what she would be able to do with her weapon, but her mind felt more focused now that she had it in her hand.

"He's trying to bring down the mountain!" Aragorn added.

"And he will succeed!" she returned. "We must find another way Mithrandir! We must turn back!"

"No!" he refused, lifting himself up from the snow and approaching her side. "Let me use the power of your Ring."

She shook her head softly. "Of course, but what good will it do against Saruman? He will bring this mountain down."

Arathiel could feel him pull on her power to speak to the wind, telling Caradhras to return to his slumbers, to not attack. Despite his strength, she could still hear the White Wizards voice on the air. Gandalf was not strong enough.

There was a loud rumble from above them and looking up, she spotted piles of snow fall from the mountain's peak, tumbling towards them.

"Watch out!" she screamed with only mere seconds to pull at Mithrandir's arm and pull him to the walls of the mountain. Her body slammed against the stone, head hitting it harshly.