XXX - A Warm Breeze
A warm breeze flicked strands of hair onto her face. Slowly, the elleth breathed, wrapping her cloak firmly around her shoulders and lifting the hood. How she had come to be sitting outside the halls of Meduseld, her legs thrown over the stone balcony as she listened to the wind echo around her, she did not know.
Neither moon nor stars shone down upon her and she was not surprised when she found little comfort in the pre-dawn light.
It was early, and all the world seemed to sleep.
Well….almost all of the world.
"Do you want me to leave you?" He hummed, stepping beside her silently. Had she not been waiting for him, she would not have noticed his steps and the sway of his cloak as he approached her.
"Do you want to go?" She asked, unsure.
"No."
"Then stay, please… I. think I need you more than you think."
Looking up at him she found that he smiled down at her with more than his eyes. It changed his being and the air around him so that the sun grazing her skin as it slowly began to rise in front of them seemed warmer despite the chill of the wind and the darkness of the lasting night.
"…We've come so far." Mirren mused, turning her gaze to watch the horizon as Legolas stood closely at her back, his knee grazing her shoulder. The red that seemed to flash across the plains reminded her of the fires of Khazad-dum. The elleth noted for the first time that those memories gave her no pain. Mithrandir was alive, and her visions of the Balrog no longer haunted her nights.
"You and I were just a dream when we set out from Rivendell…." She thought aloud, "And in Lothlorien… I thought Aragorn was just saying it because it was what I wanted to hear…"
"…And you did want it?" His voice was low and his question so sincere it made her lips curl into a smile.
"From the beginning." Mirren breathed, ruefully and Legolas thought that it might have been the first time he'd ever seen her shy.
Slowly she stood to stand beside him and he dipped his head to press a warm kiss to her temple, "It is good to know that now… when it is not too late."
She found his hand and gripped it in her own.
"Some things are certain…they cannot be changed."
An orange glow seemed to stir in the east that was not simply the gentle rising of the sun and Mirren tensed.
A whisper of fabric sighed in the wind and the two elves relaxed as Aragorn came to stand beside them.
"The stars are veiled… Something stirs in the East, a sleepless malice." Legolas spoke to their friend lowly, his eyes cast across the plains of Rohan towards Mordor.
"His ally is dead…Now Sauron searches desperately for the ring." Mirren voiced.
"..They eye of the enemy is moving." Legolas agreed, glancing at the ranger, who wearily shuffled his pipe in his hands and grunted.
Suddenly, Mirren felt the air turn cold around her. A strong grip seemed to curl around her heart, pulling her apart. She found she could only gasp and lean heavily on Legolas who grasped her worriedly.
"Wha-"
Gasping for breath, her eyes found his and she knew he understood the source of her pain.
"-He is here!" The ellon exclaimed, grasping her hand and pulling her with him into the Golden hall once more. Aragorn was hot on their tails, feeling too, the presence of evil inside the Keep's walls.
Help! Gandalf!" Merry cried loudly as the trio raced through the halls, following the sound. Mirren's heart ached at his cries and only slowed her pace when Aragorn burst through the door with an outright yell.
"Pippin!" Mirren rushed to the hobbit as he cried out, wriggling on the floor as if flames were pulling at his clothes.
Lunging for him, Mirren could only watch as Aragorn swiped Saruman's seeing stone from the Hobbits hands.
"Drop it, Aragorn!" She called, seeing a shadow of Pippin's pain pass onto the rangers face as he held the stone, aflame in both his hands. Suddenly, his knees buckled beneath him and he collapsed onto the sleeping mats harshly, Legolas rushing instantly to his side.
The Daughter of the Sea's eyes were dragged back to the stone as it fell from the Rangers hands and rolled slowly across the wooden floor.
If she only reached a little across the wood, she could touch it… see it closer…behold the power within it…
Within a moment, Gandalf had stolen the image from her eyes and the elleth panted, her eyes blown wide as she stared at the cloak that had been thrown over it.
"Fool of a took!" Gandalf chastised, waking the few Rohirrim who had not woken during the scuffle. Mirren fell to the side, holding Pippin's shoulder tightly as Legolas was quick to come to her aide, removing her from the floor so that Gandalf could examine the young hobbit.
Mirren's ears rang and she forcibly shook her head to clear her thoughts as Gandalf took one of Pippins pale and frozen hands in his.
Passing an aged hand across the hobbits face, they all relaxed when Pippin gasped loudly, his breaths returning at a heavy pace. Leaning on Legolas to see him better, Pippin gazed at Mirren for a moment with a look of dazed confusion.
"Look at me!" Gandalf called, passing a weary glance over his shoulder towards the elleth.
Focusing his gaze finally upon the wizard, Pippin gasped, "Gandalf, forgive me!"
Legolas wrapped his hand around her waist as Gandalf bent over the Hobbit further.
"Look at me!... What did you see?" He asked, lowly, wasting no valuable time.
"A tree…" Pip began, "There was a white tree in a courtyard of stone-"
Mirren grimaced, knowing that description could only be one place…A place she had seen more than once it her dreams, crumbling and burning.
"-It was dead…The city was burning."
"Minas Tirith?" Gandalf asked, "Is that what you saw?"
The hobbits eyes grew wider, "I saw-I saw him!" He stuttered. Mirren's heart clenched uncomfortably. "…I could hear his voice in my head."
"And what did you tell him?" The wizard asked, becoming impatient when the hobbits eyes glazed over for a moment longer, "Speak!"
"He asked me my name… I didn't answer… He hurt me!"
"What did you tell him about Frodo and the Ring?"
Mirren crouched then at the hobbit's head and passed a soothing hand over the young ones brow. Watching keenly as his shivering began to slow, she nodded slowly in encouragement and felt a little of the harsh and tight grip on her heart subside.
"There was no lie in Pippin's eye." Gandalf revealed, "A fool, yes… but an honest fool he remains."
Mirren smiled a little at the repeated insult of the wizard, but it faded when Pippin winced in the chair they had propped him in. Mirren had looked him over, but found no other wound on him than the one he now had on his heart. Her own cried for him a little, but she knew that there was little she could do now to help.
"He told Sauron nothing of Frodo and the Ring." Gandalf continued and around him, the fellowship gave an audible sigh of relief. Gimli nodded his head calmly, as if proud. "We've been strangely fortunate... Pippin saw in the Palantir a glimpse of the enemy's plan." Gandalf eye glinted slightly at Mirren as his gaze past over her. "As Mirren saw in her visions, it is now confirmed that Sauron moves to strike the city of Minas Tirith."
Mirren winced at the thought of the crumbling images in her minds eye of burning and shattered white stone. Was that truly to be the fate of Gondor's last city?
"But we have already created a weakness in his legions." Mirren offered. They had killed all of Saruman's armies and the dark lord had unequivocally lost a valuable ally.
"His defeat at Helm's Deep showed our enemy one thing, yes." Gandalf agreed, moving his gaze to meet with Aragorn's "He knows the Heir of Elendil has come forth…Men are not as weak as he supposed. There is courage still... Strength enough, perhaps, to challenge him."
"Sauron fears this." Mirren murmured gently, her hand resting on Legolas' shoulder as he stood silently beside her.
"He will not risk the peoples of Middle Earth uniting under one banner. He will raze Minas Tirith to the ground before he sees a King return to the throne of men…"
Thinking of her second dream and the chain of beacons reaching out for aide, Mirren couldn't help but speak up once again, ignoring the annoyed stare from Théoden as her eyes flashed a deep silver, wildly.
"If the beacons of Gondor are lit Rohan must be ready for war."
The King's eyebrows furrowed deeply and he looked past her to Aragorn and Gandalf who looked at him with greater expectation than the elleth. "Tell me! Why should we ride to the aid of those who did not come to ours?... What do we owe Gondor?" He asked, loudly.
"I will go!" Aragorn huffed, his impatience thriving against the King's reluctance.
"No!" The white wizard argued swiftly.
"But, they must be warned!"
Gandalf nodded slowly, thinking for a moment. "They will be."
The wizard beheld the two elves for a moment and saw in Mirren's eyes that she knew more than she had told him. Nodding slightly towards the old wizard; Mirren found that Gandalf also knew more than he had shared with them all.
Slowly, he turned towards Aragorn and spoke lowly into his ear so that only the elves would be privy to his instructions.
"You must come to Minas Tirith by another road. Follow the river. Look to the black ships."
Quickly, the wizard turned round, his plan already beginning, "Understand this, things are now in motion that cannot be undone. I ride for Minas Tirith… and I wont be going alone"
Swiftly, the wizard turned again on his back and exited the hall in a rush of white fabric. Ever the flare for the dramatic, Mirren thought weakly, squeezing Legolas' hand as they parted from one another.
"..Mirren…I don't want to go."
Pippin spoke once the others had left the hall after the wizard, weary once more that Mithrandir was leaving them to their own devices.
Looking towards the Hobbit, Mirren found that the voice he had used was even smaller than him and smiled sympathetically. Her heart continued to clench when he looked up at her, his eyes scared, fear evident in them as he knotted his hands together.
"Pippin.." She breathed, kneeling so she could look at him in the eyes, "Do not be afraid…. There's light yet you haven't felt.. and sunrises yet to dawn."
Something about her beauty entranced the Hobbit for a moment and he could only stare at the blueness of her eyes and the soft curl of her lips as she spoke almost heavenly.
"There are dreams we have not yet dreamt.." She continued quietly, reaching up her hand to wipe a stray tear from his cheek, "..and days we haven't lived. Flowers that are yet to grow… Hope remains, even if sometimes we cannot see it."
"How do you know?" The hobbit breathed, helplessly.
"Have you not yet learnt that elves are magic, Peregrin Took?" She grinned softly now and pulled him towards her for a warm hug.
"You said long ago that you have seen the White City… In Isengard.. You said it burnt-"
"That is but one possibility, Pip." She offered, "If you can help Gandalf as best you can.. Who can say what will come to pass?"
The hobbit seemed comforted by her words at least and, for a moment, Mirren felt proud of herself. If she could go in his place, she knew she would have done. The hobbit's did not deserve to be split up now after all the wizard had dragged them through. But the elleth knew she would have to follow Aragorn… into the place of the dead and the shadow of the mountain before they joined the fight of men for Middle Earth.
The way is shut.
The words still beat heavily on her mind when she closed her eyes.
Gently, she encouraged the Hobbit to follow her from the hall, seeking the rest of their company. Finding the air outside the Golden hall colder than it had been when they had waltzed in.
"Run, Shadowfax show us the meaning of haste!" Gandalf shouted as the brilliant mearas reared and galloped out of Edoras. The white horse not only carried the wizard but the youngest of the hobbit's as well, Pippin holding onto Mithrandir's white robes with an iron grip.
"Merry!" He shouted, looking behind him even as the doors of Edoras were shut.
In the yard, Merry ran from where the Fellowship had gathered to see them off with the elleth hot on his heels.
The watchtower was not very far but Mirren had to take two steps at a time to catch up with his frantic run.
Reaching the tip, her heart cried at the expression on the hobbit's face. Not only had he been split from Frodo and Sam, his kinsmen from the Shire, but now Gandalf rode away from him, whisking off his younger cousin towards another unknown and dangerous realm of men.
Before them, Shadowfax galloped into the distance.
"He's always followed me everywhere I went…since before we were tweens... I would get him into all sorts of trouble, but I was always there to get him out."
The elleth managed a smile at his reminiscent tone. The hobbits, like her, were so far from home. But, she mused, the world was a bigger place for them afterall.
"Now he's gone." Merry continued sadly, looking up at her. "Just like Frodo and Sam."
"One thing we've all learnt about Hobbits from this journey, Merry, is that they are most hardy folk." She told him, grasping his shoulder with a warm hand.
"Foolhardy, maybe." He grinned at the thought, "He's a Took!"
Mirren smiled, "Gandalf knows what he's doing…he'll keep him safe for you…"
She prayed then to the valar that her words of comfort would ring true.
Once Gandalf and Pip had left, they spent the rest of the morning training. Legolas, seeing Mirren strain her wounded hand whilst shooting, took it upon himself to work her as hard as they had trained when they had been wardens together in the Greenwood.
Gimli and Merry joined them, the dwarf showing the hobbit a few tricks like aiming for kneecaps and weak spots in orcish armour. At one point Eomer came down to the training grounds and sparred with the dwarf to settle a bet with his men.
All in all, It distracted her and she was thankful. Besides.. She enjoyed seeing Legolas a little carefree again, the curves of his smile ignited her own.
And she always appreciated seeing him train. There was something intense about the way he moved that forced her to look at him for too long. She caught him smirking at her and she knew her stares were obvious and spent half the day blushing awkwardly.
Mirren reminded herself that He loved her.
That thought, at least, gave colour to days that might otherwise have passed in shades of grey.
Now all they could do was wait… Soon she was sure the beacons of Minas Tirith would be lit and they would have to convince King Théoden to go to war.
A/N: Wowe CHAPTER #30 ! Who would believe it !? Crazy Stuff, hope y'all keeping safe :))