Immortalitui // Faramir 🥀

Chapter Twenty-One - Khazad-Dûm

Word Count: 3,031 words. 

Warnings: None. 

It was odd. How quickly someone could jump to action when another was in trouble. How easy it was to leap at danger without thinking it through. Spontaneity was an inherently human thing. The inability to think or to regard the situation with more than a second. To take the time to lay out your options, your plan. Perhaps that was why humans so often fell in battle. They ran with their head held high, their hearts leading them, their guts instructing their movement, their heads only kicking in when faced with imminent death. Their minds only realising the mistake they had made when the consequences of that action befell them.

That what Arathiel had done. She was angry, so incredibly angry at the fallen friends in the mines behind her, so distraught by the speed at which Frodo had been taken, that she paid no mind to what it was that was attacking, to who it was that was in the most danger. All she knew was that she would not lose another friend that night.

The tentacles of the beast lifted the Hobbit into the air, leaving him just out of reach as Arathiel, Boromir and Aragorn rushed into the water to attack. Legolas took his bow from his back and aimed it, firing shots at the monster.

Its face erupted from beneath the water as it dangled Frodo above its mouth. It lashed out at the elf and she dogged, spinning in the air and falling back down to slice its skin. It shrieked.

The water splashing, her hair soon became soaked through and there was water gathering in her boots the further in she walked, but fear blossomed in her mind and in her heart as she watched the Hobbit get closer to the beasts gaping mouth.

"Slice it's arms!" she screamed at the men, instructing them with the best thought she had.

They did as she said, Aragorn first releasing one and then Boromir doing the shame. It shrieked again, this time the pain overbearing and it dropped Frodo.

"Get into the mines!" Gandalf screamed from behind them.

Arathiel ran for the Hobbit, taking him roughly by the arm and wading them both out of the water as the beast recoiled. Their attack would not kill it, but there was no time to ensure it would not return.

Boromir and Aragorn continued to slash at it as she rushed Frodo towards the cave, handing him off to his friends before turning on the beast again. Legolas fired again, but it was no use as they filed further away. It would not be able to fit in the mine, but Arathiel would make sure of it.

She embraced her elven power, channelling through the ring she wore as she spoke. The beast still hurried towards them, now on the bank of the lake.

"Arathiel!" she heard someone scream from behind her. "Get back!"

"Dant- a beri-," she muttered, the ceiling and walls of the entrance crumbling under her fingertips. Before the monster could reach them, rocks tumbled in front of it to cut it off.

She let out a nervous breath, taking a small step backwards. It had been a long time since Arathiel had used her power. A long time since she had called on the ring for help. She could feel him as she did, feel his power wrapped up in it. Closing her eyes, the she-elf could almost see him smiling at her. She used the ring against him and yet it laughed at her.

"Arathiel." It was Aragorn's voice.

A hand on her arm, he regarded his friend with a careful expression. His hair, like hers was drenched in water and his clothes not far off. The cold of the mines they were in were sure to cause them to shiver, but neither did. He only cared that she was well.