A slightly alternative ending to Book 2, Chapter V of The Fellowship of the Ring.
Prompt: Light
Rating: PG
It was more than the light of Gandalf's wisdom they had suddenly lost to the depths of Moria; it was the light of his staff as well. Aragorn stumbled through the blackness and took the brunt of the hidden obstacles as he led the little band, running for their lives, towards what he hoped was an exit.
His heart grieved and he wished to slump to the ground and mourn, but he would not break down before the doughty dwarf or the scornful Man of Gondor. Nor would he willingly fail the hobbits who so bravely pitted their tiny strength against such enormous evil.
"Are you all right back there? Frodo?" Aragorn whispered over his shoulder.
"Just… fine…" panted Sam, but there was such strain in the small voice that as soon as they rounded another corner, the Ranger called a halt for catching their breath. His fist clenched unconsciously against the damp stone wall and his head drooped.
A strong slender forearm wrapped around the Ranger's waist. "All is not lost," Legolas told him softly, firmly. "The Lady of the Wood will give us aid, and we will honour his memory with our victory."
Aragorn turned his head slightly, so that the fragrant Elvish breath brushed his cheek. "Glawar-nín [my sunshine]," he murmured. "Always you see light where others do not."
"That is why I am here," replied Legolas with a sad smile in his voice. "Look up and to your right - do you see a glimmer?" Aragorn squinted, but he could not see it.
"I trust you," he replied, and he stole a brief kiss in the blackness. Then gathering up his diminished fellowship, he once again led them running, towards the glimmer, towards the Great Gates, towards the grieving dawn.
finis
Note: it is no ordinary compliment Aragorn gives his Elf; there are, as you'd expect, many words for "light" in Sindarin, but he uses not lim (clear, sparkling), nor galad (glittering, reflective light), nor gail (bright light), nor even aur (day, sunshine, morning), but a word that is nearly holy, referring to the sunlight and radiance of the great Golden Tree.