Immortalitui // Faramir 🥀

Chapter Twenty - Journey to the Mines

Word Count: 2,772 words. 

Warnings: None. 

They climbed the mountain. Although the air all but froze around them, each member of the Fellowship were light on their feet. Arathiel and Legolas watched from the front, their footsteps not making indents in the snow. The others trailed behind.

"Why does Mithrandir fear to go through Moria?" the she-elf posed to her friend, casting a glance back to the wizard who moved towards them with his head down. He trudged through the snow.

"I would not question Gandalf's decisions," he replied.

Arathiel stopped him, placing a gentle hand on his arm. They needed to stop for the others to catch up, which gave her the perfect opportunity to pose further.

"I visited the Mines of Moria not two decades ago and I was welcomed with open arms. With both I and Gimli, there is no worry that they may turn us away at the door," she explained.

Legolas sighed, turning his gaze to his friend. "I trust the wizards judgments."

"You do not trust mine?" she questioned, a small stab of betrayal in her heart.

The elf shook his head, placing a hand on the side of her arm. "You are my oldest and dearest friend Arathiel, but you are distracted as of late. That Ring is trying to find its way back inside and you must use all of your strength to stop it. Let me guide you where you must be blind."

Arathiel gave him a friendly smile. "I appreciated that, Legolas and have no hesitate to lean on you my friend, but this is not a decision that I feel Mithrandir has entirely explained. I do trust him Legolas, but fear he is hiding something from me about Moria."

"Frodo!" Aragorn shouted and the she-elf had turned within seconds.

The Hobbit had fallen into the snow he trudged too, Aragorn being quick enough to grab his bag before he could tumble back down the mountain.

"Frodo!" Arathiel shouted, rushing past the others to grab him by the shoulders and turn his face to hers. "Are you alright?" He nodded.

She could see it. The darkness in his eyes. The taint of the Ring, but as she knelt there in front of him, the pull was not as harsh as it should be to take the Ring. It wasn't around his neck any longer.

"Where's the Ring?" she questioned.

He seemed only now to notice that the accessory was gone, hands searching his neck and shirt for where it had fallen. He then began to search the snow around him.

"Boromir," Aragorn's voice rang out from behind the Hobbit, his eyes looking at the Son of the Steward over her shoulder.

Arathiel turned quickly, spotting Boromir, the very Ring they searched for tumbling between his fingers. The elf's heartbeat quickened, both at the thought of that evil in the hands of a man like Boromir and the whispers that called from it.

"Boromir," she tried, standing now. She took a step closer."

"It is such a strange fate that we should suffer so much fear and doubt..." he began, eyes fixed on the golden glare of the Ring. "...over such a small thing. Such a little thing."

He was being pulled in by it, that was clear to Arathiel. She herself knew the strength of its pull and how difficult it is to pull yourself free from it.

"Boromir," she began softly, trying to catch his gaze, to pull it from the Ring. "Give the Ring to Frodo."

His eyes turned up at the mention of the Hobbit, eyes in a trance. Boromir turned to Frodo for a moment before moving the Ring to the tips of his fingers.