Prophet (a LOTR fanfic)

An Unfortunate Bathing Incident

I had forgotten how much god damned travelling there really was in the Lord of the Rings.

Everything hurt.

The only saving grace was that we had the horses, Daugr and Blanche, now.

When night fell and the stars had begun to wheel overhead, we stopped and made camp in a copse of trees on a ridge overlooking the pastures. I collapsed off Daugr as I did almost every night, climbed to my feet, made up a quick fire with Aragorn's tinder box and shuffled closer, trying in vain to warm myself up. As soon as the sun dropped behind the horizon, so dropped the temperature.

We were all quiet as we made camp, Legolas unpacking the horses Aragorn preparing the rabbit he had shot and I collected more wood for the fire. Gandalf tended to Shadowfax, carefully looking him over for the smallest scratch.

There was a spring of water next to our camp that just appeared out from between two massive stones in the ground. It lead down to a pool, the water, murky, from the animals that came here to drink on the plains. Once I had gotten some food in my belly and deemed it dark enough that you couldn't see the pool from our camp, I announced I was going to wash.

"There could be agents of the enemy nearby," Aragorn said, looking stone-faced into the fire.

"I am going to clean myself, I am not showing up at Edoras and meeting Theoden looking like some beggar woman. I am a lady of class," I said, feigning offence. "And for God's sake, Aragorn, its not like I'm going two days hard ride to bathe. I'm going to be just over there." I waved my arm in the direction of the pool, "If you're so worried about these agents of the enemy sneaking up on you- I'll be within shouting distance."

Aragorn's head swivelled towards me, his eyes wide with outrage.

"You-"

I turned on my heel and strode away before he could say another syllable and carefully picked my way over the rocky decline. The last thing I needed was to break my neck. Thankfully, my sight had been improved, so I found the edge of the water when I got to it.

Stripping down, I placed my filthy clothes next to the blanket that was to serve as a towel. without thinking I plunged into the water to my waist and choked back a gasp. It wasn't exactly cold but it was a far cry from bath temperature. My feet sunk in to the sludge at the bottom. I took a deep breath and started to scrub myself with the frigid water.

Once my skin was numb enough that I couldn't feel the cold, I really enjoyed the feeling of being clean again. I pulled my clothes from the shore into the water, scrubbing them and humming a little tune, some rift from a pop song I didn't know the name of. Which soon erupted into full blown singing and dancing. In a freezing pond. In the middle of nowhere.

"Mormeril..? Are you alright? I thought I heard a struggle," Legolas said.

I screamed, dropping my clothes and grabbing at the blanket, trying to cover my necessities while simultaneously sinking further into the water for double the protection. I didn't want his "elf-eyes" seeing anything they weren't supposed to. Of course, that meant I had just soaked my blanket.

My wide eyes met his over the top of the blanket, his mouth gaping open, then shut, then open again. The elf erupted into a fierce blush from the tips of his ears to his collar.

"Goheno nin!"

His long hair whipped around his face as he spun away and stiffly began to march away.

"Wait!"

He stopped as suddenly as he had started.

"You need to get me another blanket." I said, lifting the edge of the soaked wool above the water.

He started walking again, and I thought he wouldn't come back until I saw him hurrying towards me, eyes fixed firmly on the ground, another blanket in his hands. Without looking at me, he bent down and gently placed it at the edge of the pond, just in reach, straightened up, and almost ran back to the camp.

Well that was awkward.

I sat by the fire, trying to dry as much clothing as possible while still wearing it. I felt clean, which was good, but also damp and cold, which was less good. I nibbled on what was left of the bread for tonight and frequently glanced up at Legolas across the fire. Aragorn and Gandalf spoke in hushed tones some distance from the camp, on a ridge overlooking the valley. I wondered what they were talking about.

"Are Merry and Pippin alright?" Legolas asked.

I shook myself out of my thoughts, "You don't trust Gandalf?"

"Of course I do! But our old friend... has been known to err."

"Indeed," I said, biting off some way bread. "They're alright."

"How-"

"I've seen it."

"I have been wondering Mormeril-" he paused, as if he was unsure of his next words. His eyes flickered to me and then at the ground and sighed. "What- what is the nature of your gift?"

I raised my eyebrows questioningly, "what do you mean?"

"Do you possess far sight or do you see shades of the future as the Lady Galadriel does?"

"I'm closer to Galadriel than far sight. I saw the future as it would've happened had I not been here. Now that I'm here, I don't truly know what will happen. The best I can do is to try to keep you on the storyline that I know."

"So you are our prophet- what do we do next?" his voice was grave.

"We save the king of Rohan."