in which the witch of the wilds has spent her whole life avoiding the prophecised true king of gondor until he shows up on her doorstep with four hobbits, an elf, a dwarf, a warrior and an old wizard with a sparkle in his eyes and asks her to join t...
SO MUCH TO DO TODAY: KILL MEMORY, KILL PAIN, TURN HEART INTO STONE, AND YET PREPARE TO LIVE AGAIN
- anna akhmatova, the sentence
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THREE DAYS of this heart pounding, lung burning running. Over arching hills of beautiful greenery, across rocky mountainside. Hiding behind shallow graves of people left behind by the shadow Sauron's eye casts upon the world.
Three days of following the trail left behind by the Uruk-hai. The stench that clings to them. The pain that echoes in their bodies, screaming to be set free, the knowledge of being made only to kill and kill and kill. They have Merry and Pippin. Yseult will not calm until the hobbits are safely in her arms again.
They have stopped for a moment. For the first moment in three days. Aragorn rests the side of his head against the ground to hear the rumbling of feet getting further away. Legolas stands tall on the rock above him, eyes scouring the picturesque landscape stretching in front of them. Yseult and Gimli lean against the stone, hands clasped on their knees, begging for air to fill their lungs without the ache of fire alongside it. She detests running.
But, when they are running, she does not have time to think.
She does not have time to think about Merry and Pippin stuck to the back of two Uruks, heads lolling as death slowly tries to reach for them and cannot quite touch them yet. Plays with them. Makes them believe they are seeing the light that will get them out of that situation. Maybe they are being tortured for information, forced to feel pain that will scream out their answers as soon as it gets too much for their little bodies.
She shakes her head and her ginger curls fly free of their ribbon. She catches it before it can fly off in the wind.
She runs her fingers through her hair to tie some of it back. And her mind, as she tries to keep it in place while tying the ribbon around it, runs straight to Frodo and Sam. All by themselves. Do they know how to reach their destination? Even if they do, can they make it? The ring is powerful and destructive and deadly. It is poison spreading through the mind. It will tear them apart. It might even kill them – or, force them to kill each other. Gooseflesh rises across her skin.
She secures the ribbon in place. It is no use worrying for them. There is nothing she can do this far away from them. She had begged Aragorn to let her go with them. To protect them. And he had simply ignored her pleas, telling her they should stick together, that Merry and Pippin were their priority. She knows he is right and yet her heart still aches for the young hobbits outwith her reach.
