𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐀𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧 | 𝐋𝐎𝐓𝐑

Chapter 30

The loss of Haldir had wounded me deep in my heart. The fear was still raw also, so many times my family and friends could have died, a death I was not sure that I could bear. I had been singed, like a wild hawk by the sun, a foreshadowing of the grief I would endure if I lose anyone else.

There were so many dead elves out there in the pitiless daylight, some of them with their heads pillowed on the breasts of slaughtered orc, eyes open but unseeing. As I thought of Haldir I had to close my own eyes or else I might have wept. I ached within and without, for the dead, and my own bruised heart. Everyone knew, I was sure of it.

I remembered Aragorn pressing his lips to Boromir's dead brow, remembered too that brave warrior at a sport with the hobbits, teaching Pippin and Merry to wield a sword, and laughing at their ferocity. The man had sacrificed himself for those two merry-hearted souls in the end and it grieved Legolas greatly not only that it should have happened but that they should have been witnesses to it. That race was not meant to see dark things, they were the happy uncomplicated heart of this land for which the rest of them should make a sacrifice that the hobbits' lives should roll on undisturbed.

The failure of warriors had begun when the Nine had made their way to the Shire, and it had been a sad day indeed when such light-hearted creatures as those should witness the death of such a man as Boromir of Gondor and should be forced to see with their own eyes the light go out of his.

I bowed my head and murmured a brief hope that Boromir had found the peace in death that had eluded him in life. For such a warrior I hoped there had been many trumpets sounded on the other side, and feasting in his honor, for I imagined it a robust place where such souls as his found their final rest, one where heroes could still fight and win and leave all their weaknesses far behind.

What was I if not a protector of those not gifted with elven senses or blessed with magic of that of a god, yet I had done nothing to save Frodo and Sam, who now must be struggling on towards Mordor alone, and though I had run until I had thought my heart would burst, Pippin and Merry had been saved through no efforts of mine. In allowing Aragorn to become more than a friend to me, I had become less than a friend myself.

"The fortress is taken. It is over." I turned to form the window to look at the king, who wore a defeated expression. "You said this fortress would never fall while your men defend it. They still defend it. They have died defending it!" Shouts Aragorn as he helps the others to barricade the door.

"Is there no other way for the women and children to get out of the caves?" Ágo asked the king and his followers, but they remained silent. "Is there no other way??" She asked again. "There is one passage. It leads into the mountains. But they will not get far. The Uruk-hai are too many." Adán said, standing in front of us.

"Aesigir will make sure that they are safe!" Acay assures us and Aragorn grabs Gamling by his shoulder. "Send word for the women and children to make for the mountain pass! And barricade the entrance!" The Uruk-hai keep trying to break the door. "So much death... What can men do against such reckless hate?" My cousins gaze at me with their heads down, but I only close my eyes and turn around to see more Uruk-Hai.