Anneth has long clung to her dreams, though sorrow has threatened to murder them again and again. There was a time when sorrow made her hopes only sweeter, but as Sauron grows yet stronger in the East, she feels everything she has ever held dear fal...
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
- Matthew 16:25
Behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver; I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction.
- Isaiah 48:10
I have sought but a kindred spirit to share it, and I have found such in thee.
- Walter Scott
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She was stiff, her muscles ached, and everything in her begged for sleep and rest. And more food.
She could not recall the last time she wished for sustenance so, and was so incredibly tired.
Who could tell that physical exertion could bring so much discomfort? Anneth swore never to indulge in it again, for the soreness in her legs was truly a pain, and regardless of what she did, it would not leave. Why, she could scarcely walk with the horrific tightness of her calf muscles!
With disdain, she watched as Voronen easily glided along, showing no sign of fatigue or weariness. Blasted strong ellyn with their better gifts in physical strength.
Then again, Anneth should rather have intelligence than strength, though this goes not to claim that Voronen had no intelligence. Unless that was according to his sister, who then would say that Voronen was the most daft, idiotic, inane dolt ever to walk Ennorath and set foot in Imladris.
Pained groans were uttered each time she attempted to walk from one place to the other, and one might believe the elleth was diseased and nearing death, for it took all her might to merely walk and all her strength to carry on routine activities. 'Twas rather like an elderly human that she walked and felt, and that was quite humiliating. In that moment, she would be angered when Voronen told her, but later, the time would come when she turned back and looked upon this occurrence as wonderfully amusing and quite hilarious, yet when it was her reality, it was not so.
Anneth never imagined that such agony could be felt in the depths of her muscles, and in sense, it was slightly invigorating, for she knew that when the pain left, she would have been stronger than before, better.
Thought it was a minor and superficial happening, it was this day she understood more what having one's character refined was. To refine silver, one must burn away the dross, and to burn away the dross, one must put the silver through fire, destroying it, before once again making it whole. In order to strengthen muscles one must work and endure the pain that exertion brings. And to refine a character and a heart, one must face tribulation and hurt, pain and suffering. Only through this can one be changed.
And yet, some face tribulation and change, and then return from whence they came, return to same way they lived before they were tested and tried. They forget what they have learned, what they had changed, and the pain they endured. These are the foolish souls, the ones that are lazy and do not seek to better themselves and change that which is unsavoury in their being. These are the ones that never do see great happiness, never do they know joy in its truest and most wondrous form, and these are the ones that shall never leave any lasting memory on those they have met, for with disdain some will see them, with pity others shall weep for them.
