The Unexpected | LotR Fanfiction

Chapter 29

Just a warning--writing the end of this chapter was painful

"My lady, please allow—"

Melnare lost it with a snarl. She's tired of the man trying to take the young girl from her. Even more fed up with him calling her 'my lady.' She was no lady, for ladies' frolic around wearing dressing and fawn over young lords. Ladies did not kill, did not fight, did not end up in a wizard's dirty cell. Nevertheless, she refused to give the man—Aragorn, she later learned—her name. Nor would she give her name to the others, despite all their pleas and kind askings. Names have power—Aragorn and Lumornel could testify to that—and her names had power too. She would not give out a single one.

The Ranger-King had been asking for the girl every twenty minutes! Melnare would understand if the elf had been the one to ask, for Lumornel had uttered stories about him every now and then in the prison. It did not take a skilled eye to see the indestructible tether that pulled them together.

But this man! Maybe he requested for the elf who didn't ask. Maybe he asked out of concern. Whatever it was, Melnare wouldn't hand over the unconscious girl in her arms. She didn't trust anyone... although the young girl somehow had earned this.

So Melnare kicked her horse into a trot and rode ahead. Yesterday, Aragorn had scouted ahead and found four horses, his injured arm only hindering him slightly. Melnare would've been content to walk among the grasses, for she had not been free to do so for hundreds of years, but the males refused. So, if she wasn't allowed to walk freely, she would ride the finest horse. Before any of the males could object, Melnare took the greatest stallion—a deep earth brown horse with a rich black mane. The muscles in its legs and chest had rippled when it walked, the horse was fit enough for a king! So, she took it, and the wild animal bent to her will as she climbed upon its high back.

Four horses weren't enough for nine people. Mithrandir rode with Pippin while Gimli rode with Merry. The dwarf looked as if he did not know what he was doing and the halfing was clutching the horse's mane in fright. The ranger and wizard had deemed it unwise to have anyone ride with the immortal, so the pale elf rode alone on a midnight horse. Aragorn had been left to walk alongside the group, occasionally switching with Gimli. And to everyone's surprise, the elf had traded with the man, walking for a full day.

That left Lumornel without a horse too, so Melnare had the wizard hand the unconscious girl to her. She saw the brows crease on everyone's face, she knew they deemed it unwise to have the prophecy-girl ride with a stranger. They didn't trust her, but that was okay for she did not trust them either.

And when the group started to pester her with questions, or just talk in general, she wanted to leave. Melnare wanted to know what had become of Arda. She wanted to lie in the grass in her leisure and feel the sun on her face. And more than anything she wanted to...

She shook her head, no she mustn't do that. There's no telling what he would do if he saw her again.

Nonetheless, the elleth still wanted to take her leave from the traveling bunch. But she would not leave until the girl awoke from her state. Not until she knew that Lumornel would be okay.

In that dark tower, Melnare had taken a surprising liking to the human. Maybe it was because Melnare hadn't talked to another sane person for tens of decades. Maybe because her anger from all those years ago had finally subsided enough that she wanted to amend her mistakes by helping a life, not destroying one.

Whatever the reason, she wasn't going to leave the girl until she knew she was alright. Never again would she leave behind a child.

So, the ancient elleth tightened her arms around the Savior of Middle Earth and prayed that the girl would awake soon. For five days of being unconscious is far too long.