Disclaimer: I did NOT write lord of the rings (no shit sherlock?!) and this is toootally leaching from tolkiens great idea.
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With her eyes blinded by grief and fury she couldn't really understand what she had done until it was all over. The livingroom was covered in blood, both Johunis..and her.
Gwen kneeled beside her mother and their forheads touched. Even though Gertyth had been dead for almost an hour her skin still felt warm. Gwen cried, and it seemed as if she could never run out of tears. Johuni moaned of pain from the other side of the room, with his left hand cramping at the area where his right arm used to be. Gwen knew, that even though his bodyguards were used to the noises of her drunk father beating up her mum, they would soon notice that the painful moanings came from the wrong person this time. She had to get away, or this would be her last night alive too.
She stood up, and somehow she managed to lift her lifeless mothers body in her arms. She knew she should be too weak, but her body felt numb and she couldnt feel the pain in her muscles when she overstrained them.
"Give it up, you little piece of shit.." Johunis drunken slur came from the corner where he lay. "You won't ever get away. Ever. Do you hear me? I will fuckin' find you and by then you'll WISH you were dead."
Gwen looked at him, and the sight strangely enough made her laugh. And with that as a goodbye, she climbed through the window.
The road to the local inn were too long to carry a dead body. Even though Gwen couldnt bare the thought of leaving her mother she had to face the truth - the time was too short. She dragged the body a bit off the road, where a river rushed, and put down her mothers body at the shore.
"I'm sorry I didn't have time to dig you a grave, mum. But you always said moving water is real freedom, so I hope this will do."
She wrapped her mother in her cloak and fixed it with the elven buckle her mum had given her a long time ago.
"I knew you always said this buckle was too special to ever leave behind, that it's one of the few things grandpa' left you, but I cannot take this with me. It's yours. It always was your dearest memory of him. My cloak and his buckle, we'll always be with you."
And so she pushed the bundle into the river, and after a few seconds it was out of sight.
Gwen wanted to just fall down and cry, to fall asleep to wake up and realise it was all a dream, but instead she started running.
Not at the road this time, because she knew that her fathers followers would be after her at any time, and they wouldnt be on foot. She ran and ran and ran, until she couldn't breathe any longer, she ran until she felt sick, but she never stopped.
Then, finally, she reached the inn. She almost fainted when she reached the backdoor, and when Simon opened the door she literally fell into the room.
"Oh my dear god!" Simon cried. "What happened to you?! Is that blood on your clothes? Are you hurt?!"
"Gwyneth dearest? Is that you?" The old woman had gone blind over the past years, but never lost her sense of what was going on. She sat in her rockingchair next to the stove wrapped in a blanked with her eyes looking around wildly in the room, trying to fix on something.
"Yes Samitha, it's me.." Gwen said between her attempts to catch her breath. "Mum..she's.."
Her sobbing choked her words. "I'm sorry.." she said.
"Gertyth?! WHAT HAPPENED TO HER?!" Simon cried, even louder than before.
"He killed her.." Samitha whispered "Gwyneth, sweetheart. You have to run away. Now. There isnt any time to loose. Simon, help her. I have to gather up my strength.. We will slow them down, dearest. Take Arvak, he's the fastest.."
Simon was already digging in a big chest for extra clothes that he quickly packed in a bag with tears rolling down his cheeks.
"Go out to the storeroom Gwen, take all the foodsavings that's in there." He said and pointed with his arm towards the chair where Samitha was sitting. "There's a bag in that corner over there, fill it with as much as you can."
"But.. your savings? The winter is almost here..and.."
"Don't be stupid Gwen." He cut her off.
Gwen just stood there, speechless.
"It's time, darling" the old woman whispered from her corner. "Simon has lived to see his 117th birthday, and I became too old a long time ago."
"NO!" Gwen's voice cracked. "DON'T SAY THAT! YOU HAVE TO RUN, TOO! HE'LL COME HERE SEARCHING FOR ME FIRST THING, YOU CANT JUST SIT HERE AND AWAIT HIS SOLDIERS!"
"Dearest, there's no time. You have to survive, our days are over. This was ment to be." Samitha said, and even though her age had made her almost too weak to speak her voice was still convincing.
"No.." Gwen whispered. "You don't understand.. you guys are.."
"..All that you've got." Simon interrupted her. "We know. And it's probably the hardest thing one could ever overcome, but you have to do it. We'll always be with you, and you know it. Now, get the food and get back here"
Gwen didn't really know why she didn't refuse to, but her legs had a will of their own. Five minutes later the bag was packed to the rim with bread and salted meat.
When she re-entered the backdoor to the inn the room looked different. The walls where shimmering with a strange, blue light, and threads of light kept feeding them with it. The threads ended at Samithas fingertips, and her skin looked (if possible) even paler than usally.
"Samitha..?" Gwen whispered, but the old woman seemed to be out of reach.
Suddenly Samitha looked up, and Gwen couldn't help but let out a frightened squeak when she discovered that the womans eyes were empty. Where the kind, green eyes used to be where now two black holes.
"Don't worry, she's not hurt."
Gwen shrugged, Simon suddenly stood behind her with his hand on her shoulder.
"Here." He said, and reached out a sword. "I'm sorry it's kind of rusty.. Haven't used it in years.." Gwen couldnt believe it, but despite the situation Simon grinned.
"..Atleast it's some kind of defence." He continued. "Arvak is saddled and ready to go, I attached the bag with extra clothes and an extra knife to the sadle. However, there's one last thing before you leave."
He gave her a letter.
"..Don't open this until the time is right."
"..I don't understand..What do you mean, right?"
"You will feel it..it's when.."
A loud crack interrupted him. Screaming voices. Another crack, and the blade of an axe became visible through the door.
"They're here! RUN! Arvak is waiting at the well behind the Clockmoors house, RUN NOW!"
And then, confused and scared, already tired from overstraining, she ran.
