1541 by the Shire Reckoning, the Fourth Age of Gondor.
'…on March 1st came at last the Passing of King Elessar. It is said that the beds of Meriadoc and Peregrin were set beside the bed of the great king. Then Legolas built a grey ship in Ithilien, and sailed down Anduin and so over the Sea; and with him, it is said, went Gimli the Dwarf. And when that ship passed an end was come in Middle-earth of the Fellowship of the Ring.
The sea was grey and white with spray and foam as the two stood side by side staring back at their country. It was dusk, and the first stars were appearing in the sky like diamonds, still fogged and misted by the setting sun which cast flaming wreaths over the ocean.
His sea-longing finally assuaged as their voyage started even Legolas admitted to a feeling of sadness and nostalgia for the many-hued land they left behind.
"Aye," said Gimli, his hand fumbling arthritically for the haft of his axe. "Yet more than the stones of The Glittering Caves are on my mind this eve, or even the tree of Fangorn.The King Elessar, many friends." He finished with a cough, hunched over momentarily.
Legolas glanced down at his companion, his face as youthful and unlined as it had been during the War of The Ring, only his eyes giving away his age.
"Yes. Merry and Pippin, for two, Ernil i Pheriannath both of them" The elf spoke lightly, trying to disguise his sadness.
Elvish laughter filled Gimli's ears and he turned, suddenly fearful that this enchanted journey was over- yet how could that be possible when they had not moved? And it was not, but Lord Celeborn standing easily beside him, his garments shining white and his long silver hair falling over one shoulder. A smile was on his face, and laughter spilled forth from his lips as he spoke:
"A wind by night in Northern lands
Arose, and loud it cried,
And drove the ship from elven-strands
Across the streaming tide
When dawn came dim the land was lost
The mountains sinking grey
Beyond the heaving waves that tossed
Their plumes of blinding spray"
He stopped and laughed again, and said "Master Gimli, son of Gloin, those words are a part of a lament of my people, and yet I say them here in gladness." Behind the elf lord Gimli could see Legolas waiting patiently, his eyes fixed on the stars. "For," Celeborn continued, "At last comes the time when a ship will bear me to she whom we both love." Strangely, Gimli felt no embarrassment at this thought, or at this Lord knowing of his love, and his awe.He bowed low and respectfully in the dwarf-fashion, and Celeborn nodded at him. "Go to your friend, and know that we are honored to share ship with such as you."
The two stood in silence once more, as the grey evening darkened and the veil from the stars was lifted. In silence the ship started to move, born by the waves and the wind out into the bay, and through the channel that led to the sea. Legolas turned to Gimli under the light of a million hitherto concealed stars, and to his companion it seemed that those stars now adorned his friends' hair like precious gems.
"Be not sad Master Dwarf," he cried aloud, a great joy in his voice. "Together we go over the Sea, as I promised one dark night in Lorien, in Laurelindórenan, when all hope seemed lost. Long-lost friends to find, and peace for all out hearts!"
And Gimli's eyes filled with tears and he raised hisown eyes to the heavens, and then he reached down and drank from the sea, and it was clear and pure, and sweet, and he felt for the first time the sea-longing and the star-longing that an elf feels.
He turned back to his friend and the stars he saw in the elf's green eyes were reflected in his own, though he could not see them, and a great joy fell upon him. His beard, which had been before, and for many years, as grey as the robes of Saruman in his downfall, was now the red-brown of his youth, and without thought or hesitation he embraced his friend as he had never dared do in all the long years of their friendship.
"Ah Master Elf, I am happy. Happier still will I be when I lay eyes on this far, fairland that I can feel in the air, and on the forms of our friends, of Samwise and Frodo, and the Lady Galadriel."
Silenced in respectful awe for a long moment,Legolas lifted a slenderhand and pointed westward.
"White shores, and a far green country under a swift sunrise…" he whispered, though all on board heard him, and silently the ship took them to where all hearts long to go, in this age, in past ages, unto the ending of the world.