New Dawn

Chapter 29

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L U M O R N E L
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"We're close, aren't we?"

There were no signs saying that the Western Hope was nearby, that would just be idiotic, but... something about the trees and rocks seemed familiar. It was a stupid thought. The trees and rocks looked just like every other tree and rock we had passed for the last few weeks. But it was more than the landscape that had alerted me of our proximity. The others seemed to pick up speed, though minimal it was, and they seemed to perk up some. I wasn't the greatest at reading people, no that skill belonged to Legolas, though he would just say it came with being a prince—but he would be wrong, it's just who he is—but at least I could tell the difference from their normal travel-subdued mood.

"Yeah, no more than two day's walk I'd wager. You can smell it," Giriad answered, glancing back at Legolas and me with a small, yet very bright, smile. It was almost timid, but hoped to not be.

I smiled back. "Smell it?"

"Yeah, smell it about as well as a hound smells cheese."

...what? I didn't smell anything, other than the natural earthy scents of the soil and trees. And the frigidity of the air. And our own stink, I guess. We all really, really needed a bath.

"Ignore him," Baran said, waving a dismissive hand. "His figures of speech make about as much sense as the moon rising in the morning."

"That," Giriad nodded towards Baran, "is because you are uncultured."

Almost as soon as the words left his mouth, his head jerked in my direction, eyes wide. "Er, no offense meant."

I shook my head, smile wide, though it felt forced. With our arrival being so soon... my stomach seemed to be filled with butterflies. The Western Hope... so close. Trying to live normally again, to not be able to escape... "No offense taken."

After about almost a month of traveling and making painstakingly awkward conversation with the others, I finally had managed a mutual trust. Well, not trust exactly. More like they would actually talk to me. Only a few would sit or walk with me, but it was better than Remar and Nelnor, who avoided me at all costs. Both still gave me hostile glares and they refused to sleep when it was my turn to have watch.

It also helped that Aragorn ignored the others' regard toward me and treated me like a good friend. If Gondor's future king could befriend the great betrayer of Middle-earth, then so could they... maybe. Legolas's relationship with me didn't seem to matter, though. Even though we constantly held hands, always were by each other. Perhaps... perhaps Legolas was too broken before to have gained the same respect as Aragorn.

Tirithan, however, helped immensely. Though he was an elf and therefore different from the men in almost every way, he somehow had earned much respect from them. His loyalty to Legolas and the thing about him seeing my fëa or... something, made him see me as a friend. He often helped pull me into a conversation, which before my death, I would have hated. But with my inadequate social skills and with the fact that I was feared, it helped a lot. I was immensely grateful... especially with how he had, on many occasions, salvages my pitiful attempts at socializing.

I leaned closer to Legolas as we walked, lowered my voice to barely a whisper. "Can you really smell it?"

He grinned and huffed a laugh. "No, Lum. But I'm sure they can smell us."

"We should wait until spring for the streams to unfreeze. Then we can bathe and then return."

He eyed me for a short moment and then as if sensing just how much I was dreading our arrival, squeezed my hand.