Disclaimer: I own nothing of The Lord of the Rings except Carnëanor, Luinrân, Milo, Violet, and Hilei (thanks Becca for that one.) And many other elves later in the fic.
Note: I strongly urge you to at least read the timelines in the Appendixes concerning the events after the fall of Barad-Dûr.
The Lord of the Land
A Lotr Fanfic.
The ship both Legolas and Gimli created sailed off into the distance and with it the last members of the fellowship of the ring parted from Middle Earth. Hidden amongst the grass, unbeknownst to Gimli or Legolas, was an elv of the harshest nature. His long coal black hair swayed in the ocean breeze; hair which held the starkest contrast to his pallid complexion, a symptom inherent of a life long lived in shadow. Midnight black pupils focused with anticipation on the vessel, which grew steadily smaller as it sailed over the horizon. A smile swept across Cánodôr's face as he watched their departure, "At last the only remaining foes of my master have left the land he sought to conquer; the land which I will soon hold dominion over." And having said that he turned round and headed northeast, following the path laid down by the river Anduin, towards Mordor…
"Goodbye Legolas Greenleaf, may the sea bid you safe passage to the lands of the west." said Hilei as she mounted her elegant mare Lintálwi. Her startling black eyes peered, seeming to lack pupils, over the watery plain where the river Aduin spilled out into the ocean. The waves lapped about Lintálwi's hooves as she trotted in the setting sunlight. Hilei gazed into the horizon as the ship passed from view, a tear descending her cheek and falling as yet another drop in the sea. She dried her face and continued up the coast until she reached the bridge leading into Telfalas where she was to meet Carnëanor and Luinrân.
As they crossed, the rhythm of the mare's hooves upon the bridge of stone brought memories of her beloved prince surging back into her mind.
"Why must you go to Rivendell? Why must you leave while the shadow grows over your father's realm and the times turn ill?" Hilei tearfully exclaimed.
"I go because I've been summoned by Elrond of Rivendell, to represent our people at a great council…" Legolas replied. "…they say it has been found."
"The ring of power? Why, it has been lost for ages! Oh the times are darker still if men have found the ring. It is only a matter of time before the shadow consumes all that oppose him! Until he claims absolute lordship over Middle Earth!" she said with despair.
"This is why I must leave Hilei." He solemnly answered. He held her hands in his as she began to weep. "It may be a long time ere we see one another again but, do not despair for one day the sun will rise again upon both our faces…" her eyes opened to meet his gaze. "…even if I must hoist it up over the distant horizon."
She smiled against her tears and for a moment Legolas had assuaged her fears. Then Legolas stepped back, turned and began to walk away, but stopped short of the chamber door. "Legolas, I love you beyond your comprehension and I know that I will never receive your feelings in return save our friendship together…" she paused, turned, and then gently removed the silk cloth from the package lying on her bed. " Will you accept this gift for your journey abroad?" she said as she handed him a pair of gauntlets. "My father wore these during the great wars of the past, may they bid you safe passage across the lands he sought to defend as you seek your own part in the tale that lies ahead."
He bowed in thanks. "Namárië, until our next meeting." He said as he walked through the doorway.
"Namárië." Said Hilei with a sigh as he passed from view.
She awoke from her memories to see a figure in the distance, not across the bridge but up the river's shore a ways inland. Her elven senses told her that the figure was that of an elv but her heart questioned if he still was. The elv turned round and though she knew nothing of him, save his gender for his garments were black and had a masculine quality about them, she felt the resurgence of a fear she had not felt since the days of dark lord. She gasped and even Lintálwi froze for a moment, for the figure had vanished with the passing of the wind.
Hastening her horse's pace over the bridge, Hilei soon arrived on the isle of Telfalas where Carnëanor and Luinrân stood with the last rays of the day upon their broad shoulders, rather curiously as it was for they both had seen her pause over the bridge in her moment of fear. "Few things bring such terror over the face of Hilei." said Carnëanor, first of the twin brothers and often quickest to act in any situation.
"So do be kind and enlighten us on just what it was you saw." finished Luinrân the second and more reserved of the two.
"Something I thought no longer existed. Someone with the power to evoke the spirit of the dark lord as if he himself were Sauron." replied Hilei. Their masculine eyes of sapphire were both terrified and worried for the treat of Sauron had been alleviated for some time, over one hundred years actually.
"Are you sure of this?" questioned Luinrân.
"As sure as I am that I will never see the prince of Mirkwood ever again." She replied with solemnity. They both were silenced by this, knowing how she felt for Legolas.
Desiring a change in the flow of the conversation Carnëanor said this "Why then do we sit idle whilst the lingering darkness is abroad; why not spread light where the shadow hides."
"It would be of no use now; he disappeared in the passing breeze."
"Well, we should ride on nevertheless for you need to be in a town known as Bree within the month. There you will meet Isilmë; she will have tidings of her mission in the west. Do you know where Bree is?" asked Luinrân as both he and his brother mounted their horses.
"You doubt my knowledge of the geography of the Halflings realm?" Hilei replied as she took hold of reins.
"I'll receive that as a yes."
"We shall accompany you to the borders of Lorien, there we will split paths." said Carnëanor while steering his steed forward.
"Let us go then, we will inform you of the details on the way." said Luinrân.
* * *
One month later in the village of Bree.
"Could you pass me the broom Milo?" said Violet to a fellow with golden hair and eyes the color of maple syrup.
"Which one?" he replied.
"The one we use for the dinning room, with the cedar handle." She said as she hung her dripping coat up to dry.
"There you are." Milo said as he passed the sweeping apparatus to Violet. Her normally bouncy red curls were dampened by the torrential downpour she had to walk through on her way from the stables; her eyes of jade were beacons in the darkness. Every night she would check on the customers' horses (or ponies and on rare occasions one might find mules or even donkeys resting in the stable of the Prancing Pony) feed and on this rainy evening, to see if the roof had begun to leak. Noting her continuance with the evening's chores Milo had assumed that the ceiling lacked anything closely resembling a trickle.
"You'll want to bring the mop n' bucket, someone had a run in with some of Grandle's more robust ales and I'm afraid the ale got the best of him." Milo reluctantly put the mop in one hand and the bucket in the other and followed Violet into the parlor.
The rather dismal lighting matched both their moods as they went from table to table ushering the remaining men from their drinking posts with their typical 'Sir, don't you think its rather late?' or 'Off to bed with you now, Oh, and by the way your in room 14, second level.' And Milo's personal favorite that he often reserved for the less sober fellows 'Had a bit of Ale have we?' which he had just used on a man whom answered:
"'Ow old are you?" said the gentlemen in his drunken inquisitiveness.
"Not even in his tweens!" Violet giggled.
"I'm thirty two and that's close enough!" Milo retorted. "Which is old enough to tell people its past midnight and they need to hit the sack."
Violet, who at the time was thirty six, took the man's arm and guided him toward his room. "Could you clean up the mess?" she said between giggles.
"Where?" he said as he surveyed the area for the tossed biscuits.
"In the corner by the window." Her voice coming from the hall. Milo acknowledged the corner and went to fill his bucket. He returned mop and bucket at the ready and proceeded with caution. Looking under the tables (which wasn't very hard, he wasn't much taller than they were) and scanning the floor for the muck that must be cleansed from Grandle's establishment. His nostrils sipped the air in quick little intervals and soon found what they had been searching for. One step, quick peek under the tables then looking just in front of him as he took his second step, yet another peek under the tables and as he took his third… nothing but wooden planks.
"Well, where is it then?" he questioned the room as he looked around his hairy feet and took a step back with his right. Cold, wet slime assaulted his trademark hobbit sole and a cringe swept across Milo's face for he had found the tossed biscuits. " Ack! Oh, how nice…" now filled with sarcasm "… biscuits n' beans with a side of rice!" Indeed his word was true and as it was the pile was ripe with the aforementioned contents.
Milo now balanced on his 'clean' foot and began to hop towards his pail of soap and water. "Oh he's barely even of age" sang Violet retuning. Surprised, Milo lost his balance and was swaying to and fro like a drunken scallywag.(while on one foot to be sure.) "To be so full of soapy rage." And like a drunk he tripped, fell and landed with a thump and a splash of sudsy water, bottom first, into his bucket. "When you ask him of his years, his eyes flood with those soapy tears. But in the end he laughs it off because…" She stopped her performance just in time to see Milo, limbs hanging over the side like a flaccid flower arrangement, stuck in the mopping bucket. "… He's gone and gotten himself stuck in a pail of water!" She finished with a hand clasped over her mouth attempting to block a flood of hysterical laughter.
"You know I never really had that problem, mopping the floor, it's really rather simple. I could give you lessons if you want." She said jokingly and still trembling with mirth. "How did you get in this situation anyhow?"
"I had a bit of help." He said wiggling the toes of his right foot to call attention to the clinging goop.
"So you did manage to find it." She said between smiles.
"Eventually."
"Here, take my hand." Violet extended her hand and hoisted him out. The two stood at about the same height, Violet just an inch or so shorter than Milo.
"You should go change. I'll fix the two of us a light snack before we attempt to read our eyelids." Said Violet. Milo then dunked his foot into the water, swished it around a few times and extracted a foot of the cleanest nature. He then took the rag normally used for cleaning the tables and rubbed his foot dry, the hair on his foot a bit more fluffy than the other, and made his way towards his bedroom. Violet however made her way towards the kitchen.
The kitchen was extremely substandard in Violet's opinion. There were never enough pans to go round, (the Prancing Pony could get very busy at times) the room itself was not even close to what she was used to back home in the Shire, and it was just far to masculine as a whole. In the beggining, just a few months ago, when she and Milo had traveled to Bree to work for old Grandle, she would sometimes bring in flowers in an attempt to feminize the kitchen a bit. Either from lack of water or Milo's habitual clumsiness the flowers would often be discarded, and after a few failed attempts she finally came to accept the kitchen for what it was: a chaotic, catastrophic attempt at a kitchen.
Her tender hands rummaged through the contents of the smallest pantry she had ever seen and she managed to pull from its pathetic store a few slices of salted pork, a chain of sausage, an assortment of potatoes and squash, and the remains of the mushroom hoard.( all seven of them)She then took her selected ingredients and went into the kitchen and began fixing a hobbit style supper for the two of them.
Meanwhile, after Milo had finished from changing his soaked drawers and into a fresher pair of pants, he smelt upon the air the sweetest fragrance to waft in any hobbits nostrils… The smell of a freshly cooked meal and judging by the aroma Milo discerned the ingredients of the supper meal. Salted pork-definitely. Milo thought to himself. Let's see, sausage links with potatoes… his mouth began to salivate. Squash and…oh it can't be… he sniffed the air once again to make sure. "Mushrooms!" and before he had even finished the second syllable he was off. Down the hall, around the tables and chairs of the parlor, and finally into the kitchen where Violet stood before two plates full of the meal he had smelt from afar.
Without a word spoken between the two of them they both sat their plates down on a nearby table and began to climb up onto their seats, one next to the other. Once they had both made it up and onto their chairs the only sound that came from that table was that of pleasant chewing.(although Milo was more ravenous than pleasant)
Until the echo of someone rapping upon the door of the inn interrupted the sweet harmony of hobbits at meal time. They both exchanged nervous glances, for it was very odd indeed for anyone to come in at such a late hour. The rapping sounded against the door again and the hobbits grew even more uneasy.
"Ew cou hat be?" Milo asked through a mouth full of food and half a sausage link hanging from his lips. Violet shrugged, got off her stool and went for the door. Milo was frozen with terror and his sausage fell down to his plate. Violet reached the door and began to unhitch the lock when the steady beat came again against the door.
She gave the door a quick tug and it flung open revealing a towering figure clad heavily in black.