How did it come to this?
Loyal to her family, her lands and her people, Théadain, the illegitimate daughter of Théoden, King of Rohan, has little concern for the world that lies beyond her familiar grasslands. When all that she loves is threatened...
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Chapter 67
"Frodo!"
The victorious cry rang out clear from Merry as Aragorn staggered, staring into the depths of Mordor in disbelief. He had seen it with his own eyes, the great tower of Barad-dûr had crumbled. He had watched as the Eye flared in what had almost seemed like panic as it had fallen – and then erupted in that great shockwave that had cut through the land. He had felt it barrel into him, swayed against its force as the land was purged of that great power. He had seen the armies of Mordor flee, as the black land they had emerged from had fallen into ruin.
Sauron was defeated. He was gone.
Though what little elation had begun to settle upon him was swiftly snatched away. As quickly as he realised that Frodo and Sam must have succeeded, as quickly as that euphoric elation had come, he saw that the Hobbits could not have survived the completion of their quest. As the mountain of fire had erupted in a vicious blast of heat and stone, the heart of the man had seized in his chest that already ached from his grapple with the troll. A fight he did not doubt he would have lost, had Frodo not succeeded in ending the battle – the entire war.
Yet he could not have prepared himself for the crushing blow he was still to be dealt.
It was Pippin's cry that alerted him, for until that moment he hadn't dared to doubt that she was safe. He could not have allowed himself to imagine anything less. But at the heart-wrenching sob of her name from the Hobbit, panic flared within him.
"Théadain?" The yell of her name was torn from his lips, harsh and frantic in his fear as his eyes searched for her. It was then that he saw the Hobbit desperately trying to lift the body of an orc, scrambling to push it off something. Someone.
He barely felt himself make the wild dash across the battlefield to fall at her side, nor did he fully realise that a second, despairing roar of her name had left his body as his eyes landed on that flash of copper hair, and the bloodstained earth beneath her.
"Théa... Théa!" The desperate cry was all he could muster as he pulled her limp form into his arms. It was the vision from the Palantir played out before him, Sauron's threat, now his final blow against him. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't think. His hand trembled as he cupped her pale cheek, feeling as if his very soul had been torn to shreds as he cradled the lifeless form of his love against his chest.
And then she groaned softly, her brow furrowing in a grimace of pain as she was jostled in his arms.
"Théa?" He almost choked on her name as a breath of indescribable relief forced its way from his aching chest. She was alive.
"She's hurt- Aragorn, her side..." Pippin's panicked tones reached his ears once more as he remembered he was not alone, his eyes darting to where Théadain's hand was resolutely pressed just above her left hip, her glove saturated with blood. His relief at finding her alive was short-lived as he tried to assess the wound, masked by her ruined mail as it was.
