𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐂𝐫𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐬 ➵︎ [ 𝘭𝘦𝘨𝘰𝘭𝘢𝘴 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘧 ]

25| from greenwood to mirkwood

Amarya sat in the palm of my hand. I was encapsulated by its beauty. It never grew old.

And yet, to perform the simple action of sliding it on my finger seemed like such a foreign concept.

Clenching my jaw, I positioned the ring back inside my tunic. I needed a distraction.

As the mountains around us slowly passed by, Gimli and Éowyn struck up a conversation about the differences between dwarves, elves and men, which led to Gimli finding out that I did not eat meat.

Evidently, vegetarianism did not bode well with the dwarf, who turned to look at me like I was crazy.

"What? No meat?" Gimli spluttered. "Well, no wonder you elves look like a couple of reeds, ready to be blown away by a gust of wind."

I chuckled. "I'd like to see you try."

Éowyn was walking beside me while stroking Aldion's smooth ebony fur. He didn't seem to mind as he slowly padded along with all the horses.

"So what do you dwarves eat?"

Gimli chuckled, as if reminiscing about all the great feasts he had had before.

"Giant chunks of meat fresh from the bone and bread rolls from the roaring fire."

His eyebrows shot up.

"Oh, and gallons of malt beer and ale of course. You two maidens couldn't possibly stomach that."

Éowyn raised her eyebrows.

"What about the dwarf women?" She paused. "Are there even dwarf women?"

I furrowed my brows in thought. "I have never seen one if there are."

The dwarf nodded.

"It's true you don't see many dwarf women," Gimli explained, "and in fact, they are so alike in voice and appearance, they are often mistaken for dwarf men."

Éowyn turned back to Aragorn, who rode beside Théoden, wondering about how one could possibly fail to make such a distinction.

"It's the beards," Aragorn whispered with a smile, gesturing with his hands.

Gimli continued on, and I listened.

Nowadays, it was hard to see such low tensions when elves and dwarves were together. In fact, the days when I did not fear for my life; the days when my heart did not race at every odd noise; those days were scarce and few.

But as Aldion ambled along, the afternoon sun was soft, warm and welcome upon my skin. The clouds were as puffs of radiant joy, ready to disperse into the wind. I watched them eddy, pure reflected rays dappled and swirling with sky, until all that remained was that perfect baby-blue.

"And this in turn has given rise to the belief that there are no dwarf women." Gimli enthusiastically explained, "and that dwarves just spring out of holes in the ground."

Éowyn broke out into a radiant laughter, her blue eyes glittering with the sparkling sunlight.

Gimli chucked alongside her. "Which, of course, is not true."

All of a sudden, Gimli's horse bolted forwards, sending the dwarf rolling off the back of the horse, tumbling to the ground.

As Éowyn's laughter rang out, I smiled for the first time that day. Even in the direst of times of turmoil and strife, warmth and light managed to penetrate through the mirk. Even Aldion's black tail was wagging exuberantly behind him. As I laughed, he turned back to look at me with bright and curious eyes, his tongue lolling from his mouth.