A/N: Enjoy! Tell me if I got the Valar/Animal pairings right!
One eye opened.
That was the sum of his total strength, to just open one eye. Above him, a gray-white sky spanned the horizon, a blank easel waiting to be painted by brushstrokes of unnatural beauty. Light flooded his mind and soul, adding to the monumental ache that was hammering in every fiber of his being, washing away all coherent thought. He closed his eye once more, relishing the blessed, blessed darkness. He did not know how long he stayed, prone, on the muddied, frozen banks of the roaring river, but he knew that his strength was bleeding into the ground. cuts and bruises dotted his body, and his body felt tight from the water he had swallowed, but there were no bones broken, or so he could feel. Slowly, he pulled himself into a sitting position, trying to temper the headache that exploded behind his eyes.
Hesitantly, he cracked both his eyes open and squinted into the glaring light, which was dim, but light enough to send him into a spasm of pain. There had been a dream - he remembered Arwen more than ever, her porcelain features, ebony hair, raven locks falling around him in a curtain, the feel of her silken skin beneath his hands...And then it had dissolved into layers of pain. A warm muzzle whuffed at his tunic, tugging it with thick, square teeth, and a velvet nose rubbed along his face. He cracked open his eyes once more and saw the dark, patient eyes of Arod looking at him peacefully. How his horse had gotten down here he did not know, but all he cared about was the life be felt seeping back into his limbs.
He pulled himself upwards using Arod as a ladder, swaying, grasping tightly onto the coarse mane, his numb fingers tingling where he touched the sinewy beast. Painfully, he mounted the gentle horse and leaned against the proud, arched neck, the hard muscles, thick spine cradling him lightly. The horse went a few steps, then stopped, pausing, nose erect, snuffing the air. Aragorn looked around to see what the horse was looking at, and then saw it. At first, he thought it was the corpse of the Orc that had been dragged down with him, but then he realized who is was, lying in the shallows, tangled in a lover's embrace with a soaking wet warg.
Sam lay half in, half out of the rippling river, the warg piled on top of her, hands still clenched in her act of brutal defiance. Her shaggy brunette hair, her stupid, mussed, messy hair, was tangled in a sodden branch, tethering her to roaring river. The brute's maw was dangerously close to her throat, and her dirk was embedded in its neck. Her brown eyes were closed, cheeks pale and chest unmoving. He stumbled from Arod, dragging himself over to his friend, desperately pulling aside her stupid, stupid hair to find her pulse. His fingers pressed down hard on her neck, hoping against hope for the thread of life pulling through her neck.
One second.
Two.
Nothing.
Three.
Four.
Still nothing.
Oh, Valar, save this girl...
Five.
Six.
She needs your help...
A presence caught his attention. His eyes flicked upwards, and his breath caught in his throat. He stumbled backwards, falling on his elbows, backpedaling away from the ghostly apparitions in front of him. Before him, a huge, powerfully built, majestic silver stag stood, neck arched, fine nostrils sniffing interestedly at Sam's body. Beside it, a gigantic golden bear stood, colossal muscles rippling under thick, shaggy yellow fur, large eyes hard as diamonds and large as the Rohirric sky, sparkling with laughter and a deep, passionate flame. Completing the trio was a dusky black wolf, impassionate eyes flat and bored, looking at the dead body of Sam as though it were nothing more then trampled grass. Aragorn felt his heart stop. What was he seeing?
Orome, the stag, Lord of the Hunt.
Tulkas, the bear, Champion of Valinor.
Namo, the wolf, Judge of the Dead.
Three are One.
One is Three.
A debt is filled.
A debt is owed.
Sam's eyes opened.
Back arched, one guttural breath. Air rasping through cracked, dry lips as her eyes shot open. She heaved a mouthful of water, spat it onto the grass, fingers loosening their deathly grip on the warg's broken body. She felt her wounds healing, aches disappearing as she twisted from underneath the weight of the dead wolf. She staggered to her feet, nearly falling into the bear, and then caught herself. She did not seem at all surprised as she regarded the stag, the wolf, and the bear. Her golden-brown eyes were firm and unemotional as she looked at the stag, the liquid black eyes meeting hers.
You heard me.
A debt is filled.
What debt did I owe you?
It was not to you, maiden, and it is not for you to question. Accept our gift.
I will.
Aragorn was frozen with shock, mouth dry, eyes wide as the animals melted before his eyes. Sam's body shook, a tremor passing through her body all at once, and then she collapsed, eyes closing. Aragorn's muscles loosened and he jerked to her side, turning her over and smoothing her wet brown hair away from her face. She blinked, the color flushing her cheeks, and looked at him. "Hey," she croaked, voice dry. "I'm alive."
"Elbereth," Aragorn breathed, eyes still wide. "By all that is sacred, Samantha, what happened?"
"I fell off a cliff, what do you think happened?" Sam snapped, getting to her feet unsteadily. She steadied herself against Arod, and met Aragorn's eyes once more. "What?"
"You are blessed," Aragorn whispered. "Blessed by the Valar."
"I know that," Sam said irritably. "It's not every day someone falls off a cliff and lives. Now, c'mon, we need to get to Helm's Deep."
"Do you remember what happened?" Aragorn said, swinging himself into the saddle, still in shock. "Do you remember what you saw?"
"Do I remember falling off a cliff? No, I try to forget things like that," Sam said sarcastically. "Yes, I remember that I fell off a cliff! What are you trying to do? Test my brain? Yes, I remember my name. I remember two plus two. Now can we get on with this?" She pulled herself onto Arod, who backed up a step in protest. Aragorn gripped the reins, puzzling over what happened. Had he imagined it? Had Sam?
He didn't know how to answer these questions.
09
Amy held the young boy close to her chest. He was fast asleep, worn out from his crying. Eowyn was settling everyone into rows, putting mothers with their children, keeping them in groups of ten and fifteen. A distant part of Amy's mind admired Eowyn's organizational skills, but she knew that the shieldmaiden was operating purely on frantic, frenzied energy. Amy was surrounded by weeping women, clinging to their children as stone-faced soldiers swept through and began examining the strongest, likeliest looking boys and teenagers. Amy was horrified at the youth of the boys. Some of them looked twelve or thirteen years old. She hugged the boy closer to her and shook her head fiercely when a soldier approached her, concern knotting his brows.
A familiar face broke through the crowd, well-known blue eyes searching for her. Amy's eyes met with Legolas, who approached her rapidly, weaving through the crowds. He crouched before her, looking at the slumbering, fitful orphan who was cradled in her arms. He reached out and caressed the child's head, and the boy stirred. Legolas cupped Amy's face. "Amy, little warrior," he whispered. "You must be strong."
"What?" she asked, panicking as she saw the sorrow in his eyes. "What is it?"
"Aragorn...fell. He, an Orc, and a warg fell from a cliff." He took a breath, waited, scraped up the courage to tell her. "Amy, Samantha fell with him."
No.
She saw in his eyes it was true. Horror gripped her. No. No. No. "NO!" She shouted, startling the boy awake. He began to cry. "NO! You're lying!" She shot to her feet, the boy crawling to one side. "NO!"
He held her as she shrieked and sobbed, body taut as a broken spring, fists clenching handfuls of his tunic as she screamed her grief to the heavens. He held her as she broke in his arms. He held her as she died, little by little, inside, as her world around her was crumbled into nothingness, blackness, a dying, deathly pallor that bleached life from her soul and her heart. She would never be pieced together, never be whole again. Her heart broke inside her, never to be repaired.
Because Amy was now alone in the world.
A/N: Okay, question to answer: What debt do you think Orome was filling when he healed Sam? The right answer will get a one-shot dedicated to them, any genre!