A/N:
I never, ever thought I would write anything strictly movie-verse...but I've done it. It's imperative that Elanor be of an age to speak in this story, which means movie-verse.
There's a musical inspiration for this fic. If you want to listen to the music that inspired me to write this story, go to mp3 dot rhapsody dot com / david-tolk/ in-reverence and click 'In Reverence.'
I haven't been around here much lately. For one thing, I've been very busy with school and life and all the rest, and for another, I've garnered a new obsession which has consumed most of the free time I have. Hence I shall probably continue to not be here very often, though I will return somewhat once summer starts and I have more free time again. So, in case I don't see you all for a while...here's something of a proper temporary-farewell gift.
...You guys know you're awesome, right?
o..o..o
Frodo sat in the garden, watching the sun fade and brighten through the clouds, forming shadows that soon disappeared across the grass, the flowers, and the hole. The back door opened, then slammed, drawing his attention to the little lass who ran down the stone path towards him, her golden hair bouncing behind her. Elanor had come to cheer him up. Frodo sighed, and turned his eyes back to the sky. It was one of his 'bad days,' as the Gamgees called them, and the child had always known when he needed something to distract him from the pain in his shoulder, hand, and neck.
As if in agreement, all three twinged at once, and Frodo grimaced, reaching gingerly up with his good hand to rub first the shoulder and then the neck, his four-fingered hand clenched in a fist as though pressure would help lessen the pain. Ellie reached him a moment later and slid onto the bench next to him. Frodo put his arm around her, feeling the heaving breath flowing in and out of her little body. There was silence for a while as she snuggled into him.
"Uncle Frodo," she said soon after, her piping little voice curious. "What's that way?"
Frodo looked in the direction she pointed, noting that her finger followed the white road outside the hole to the west. His heart rose within him without really knowing why.
"Well, Ellie," he said, thinking, remembering. "Well. You've been to the end of the lane…"
Ellie nodded seriously, then grinned. "To the hole with the biggest roses."
Frodo smiled a little as well, remembering laughing Elanor with the red flower that was her mother's namesake in her golden hair.
"And then come other households, and more roads, and forests and streams and farms…"
He told her a little about each of the major households on the path she spoke of, drawing near-forgotten details from his days of wandering the Shire. Frodo inwardly wondered when he had become unaccustomed to life in the Shire that he could not remember the aspects of his own homeland.
"…and that's where my knowledge fails," he told Ellie at last, feeling that he ought to remember at least one more twist in one more lane before the extents of his knowledge ended, but completely unable to. "If you want to know more we'll have to find one of my uncle Bilbo's old maps."
"I've never met Grand-uncle Bilbo. Where is he?"
Frodo smiled to hear Ellie refer to the hobbit she'd never met as 'Grand-uncle.' "He lives with the elves, my lass. In that place your Da and I tell you about sometimes, Imladris."
"Im-lad-ris." She pronounced the word slowly, feeling the delicate flavor of it on her tongue. "I want to go there some time."
Frodo sighed. "You may yet, Elanorellë, though I doubt it will be anything like when your Da and I went to see it. The Elves are going West, you know, the last of them. Soon there will be none…"
He fell into silence for a moment. Then realization hit him like a lightning bolt.
"Ellie," he said quietly. She looked at him expectedly, and he smiled into her brown eyes. "There's one more place to the west I forgot to tell you about."
"Ooh," she said expectantly, and snuggled closer to him.
"It's the very end of the land," Frodo continued, his voice filled with a feeling neither of them could name, "where you can look out and see nothing but water and sky, all the way to the horizon. The elves call it 'Mithlond,' the Grey Havens."
"Mith-lond…"
Frodo nodded at Elanor's grave pronunciation, her sweet little voice warming the soft word with her homey Gamgee lilt.
"Doesn't it have a peaceful sound to it?"
"Yes. …But what comes after Mithlond, Uncle Frodo?"
Frodo's heart lifted a little more. "Well, my lass, what comes after Mithlond is a very special thing. The elves call it Valinor. It's where they go once they've lived a while on Middle-earth and want to rest and heal. It's where they go when they sail West."
"But if the elves go to Val-in-or, where do we go when we die?" asked Ellie curiously.
"No one knows."
They sat in silence for a while more, and Frodo watched the sunlight dance across the garden. Someone passed by the other side of the hedge, whistling a slow tune to the imperceptible tread of bare feet on a dirt road. Ellie's breathing slowly evened out, returning to its natural speed and volume, and when she didn't speak, Frodo thought perhaps she had fallen asleep, and held her a little tighter, his pained expression softening into a slight smile. But –
"Da sometimes says you're not well, Uncle Frodo."
"Sometimes I'm not, Ellie." His voice was quiet and gentle, but matter-of-fact. He never did believe in sugarcoating, even for children as young as Ellie. She had a sharp mind and feelings just like any other hobbit five times her young age; if he died – when he died – she deserved to know why and how.
"Are you now?" Her voice was concerned, and Frodo stroked her golden hair reassuringly.
"Just having you by my side makes me feel better, Elanor."
"Then I shall stay with you forever more," came her satisfied answer. "And then Da and Ma won't worry and you'll be well always."
"My dear, you will always be with me, and I will always be with you. That's a promise, even if you can't see or hear me anymore."
"Good," said Ellie, unperturbed by her honorary uncle's admittedly ominous phrasing.
Frodo took a deep breath, held it, and then let it loose again in a gust.
"I love you, Elanorellë," he said after a moment, his voice very soft.
"I love you, too, Uncle Frodo," said Elanor, sitting up and putting her little arms around him. "Forever and always."
"Forever and always," echoed Frodo, his lips turning upwards in a smile once more.
She nodded against him and drew in closer, and he bent down to kiss her curly head before standing stiffly and claiming one of her little hands in his.
"Let's go inside and see if we can help your mother," he said, and she obediently followed him down the little garden path and into the hole as it began to rain, gently and slowly, while the sun shone fitfully through the clouds, turning the rain into glittering flashes of light.