Author's notes: Don't own Tolkien. All spelling and grammar errors in this piece has been done on purpose. This short story idea came from "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall" by Katherine Anne Porter. If you've never read it: read it. It's brilliant. Enjoy.
Dangerous
They have taken everything from me. They have taken my beloved wife, my children, my parents, and my perfect happy home. Before this atrocity occurred, I lived a simple life as a horse breeder. My wife, three children, my parents, and I shared a cozy little home. Sure, it wasn't much but it was home. It was my life. It was my everything.
To see the one who bore you into this world hacked into bits is enough to make the strongest man cry out in anger. But, alas, my pain did not end as shortly after my own father fell to the foul blade.
A father never wishes to live out his children. I had rather hoped I would be long from the confines of this world before death take the ones I helped create. Death, you be a cruel mistress for taking them from me now! My son, my eldest child, falling in front of the cruel blade. He was not that old, only thirteen, and yet you took him away from me! My two twin daughters still in the cradle gone before my wife could save them! And then she falling as well, why has this been allowed to happen?
My home, burned in front of my eyes. The intense heat…the intense misery…the intense regret… regret for my children who were born into a godless and cruel world and who fell in a godless and cruel world.
It is as much to say that I am at fault for their deaths…yes, I. I wanted to marry my beloved wife and bring life into this world. Why should I have been so selfish to do so? But my wife…nay, she was never selfish. She cared only for the ones she bore. Oh, and I as well. She cared for me…she loved me…I loved her…
But, alas, fate be so cruel to allow a simple life to be nonexistent! How could you do this? And how could you let me live to see it…I would rather die a thousand times at the hands of the Greatest Enemy then live to see those I love perish in front of my eyes.
Eyes…
Those empty eyes looking at me yet looking at no one.
Those eyes that showed pain and yet peace at the same time.
Those eyes that were so near and yet so far…so far away indeed.
When I first met her, her eyes glistened like the sun. It was as if the sun took refuge in her eyes…
But now those eyes are cold. A cruel reminder of fate…the sun is gone…
My sun…my son…
My only son…
My first child…
She always said he was like me. I never saw it.
When the girls were born, he helped his mother care for them. He loved his sisters…he would have died for them given the chance…
He did die for them…
But a death of folly!
They say that a man who has lost everything is the most dangerous opponent.
I have lost everything. There is nothing left for me in this world. I have nothing except the will to go on…the will for vengeance. I will find those monsters, I will find the ones who took you away from me and I will have my revenge!
I shall not rest until their blood is on my hands. I will not stop my quest until death takes me.
Now I march for Pelennor. May I find peace on the battlefield? My father once asked me if I ever wanted to be in The Mark. Nay, I replied, let the horsemen ride their horses while I take care of them. Well father, here I ride with the Mark. I will ride and I will fight and I will not stop.
I am dangerous. I have lost everything and I will fight until the bitter end. I am not the same man as I once was. I am nothing by a hollow shell…devoid of emotion… restless…driven…
Dangerous…