Wraiths on Wings :
"It's gone. You can get out." the faraway and faint voice of Gandalf reached Frodo's ringing ears, but the words didn't make any sense to him. His eyes were closed. He felt the soft ground under him and wanted nothing else but to lay on it.
"Mister Frodo ! Wake up !"
Frodo felt a pair of hands carefully lifting him from the ground. The young Hobbit groaned. No ! He did not want to get up, he didn't have the strengths to go on. Yet the young Hobbit's eyes were forced open when the hands on his shoulders began to shake him.
"Sam ?" Frodo's voice croaked in recognition of the head bending over him.
"Back with us young Baggins ?" Gandalf's face suddenly appeared in his line of vision.
"I guess." was the Hobbit's flat and weary answer. He felt so weak... Why had he accepted to go on this journey ? He just wanted to go home, to sit in his soft armchair in front of a fire and sleep. Alas he couldn't. The way was still long to go.
Sméagol groaned when it saw the Wizard's nasty old face staring at it from over the bush.
"Time to get out." he told it with a suspicious look on his face. Sméagol didn't like that stupid Wizard. He hard hurt Sméagol. Very much. But Sméagol had no choice. Or else the Wizard would destroy its Precious. And so, slowly, reluctantly, groaning, Sméagol began to lead the way to all the stupid people through the Marshes.
Sméagol did not want to go on, though. This silly Precious-Wraith on the flying beast had scared poor Sméagol so much. It was looking for the Precious, it wanted to steal It and take It back to the Evil Place.
Gollum felt a shiver running through his spine at the remembrance of what had been done to him back there. No ! Sméagol could not allow the stupid Precious-Wraiths to take It there, because Sméagol would have to follow them if he wanted to retrieve the Precious.
From now on Sméagol would protect the Precious-bearer from all His silly nasty scary creatures. And maybe if Sméagol was a good protector, he would be able to convince the Precious-bearer to give It to Sméagol as a reward. The Hobbit had been nice with poor Sméagol, maybe...
'Or we could try to sssteal it, couldn't we my Preciousss ? The Precious-bearer is weak...'
Argh ! But the nasty old Wizard and all the stupid fat Hobbitses would never allow it. Sméagol needed to find a way to get rid of them too.
'No no ! It is too dangerousss ! The old grey man will hurt usss again !'
'There is always a way, my Preciousss... Gollum ! Gollum !'
Eventually, after at least an entire day of exhausting march, the six companions put their feet on the hard ground once more. It was over. They had crossed the Marshes. Gandalf was feeling completely worn out. His strengths were slowly beginning to leave him. First, there had been the Balrog, then the Nazgûl... The Istar truly hoped he would not have to use his magic too soon again, or this he feared this might be the death of him. Literally.
"Where are we going now ?" the curious voice of Pippin interrupted.
"Now..." the Wizard began hesitantly, trying vainly to find another path they could take, but alas, he saw none, "Now we head to the Black Gates."
His voice was only followed by a loud swallowing from the four Hobbits. Apparently and unsurprisingly, they hadn't been looking forward to this.
"No ! No ! You can't go there !" the desperate voice of Gollum echoed, "Do not take us back to the Evil Place !"
"I did not say you needed to come with us," the Istar simply stated, raising an eyebrow in surprise at the creature's reaction.
"No no no ! This is a terrible, terrible place ! The nasty Orcs are everywhere, they hurt us ! You can't go, the Precious would be lost !"
The Grey Pilgrim bit his lip. He knew that was way too risky. But there was no other way... If only the others had been there... But alas, the chances of their survival were nearly inexistent. That thought was tearing the Istar's heart apart more than he would never admit. He had known young Boromir and Faramir for such a long time...
"Sméagol knows a way." the malicious voice of Gollum interrupted his thoughts. Gandalf lowered his head to face it. He did not like the evil look in the creature's face.
"And where is it ?"
"Cirith Ungol."
Gandalf closed his eyes and sighed. That wasn't really what he had wished for. Yet, this seemed to be not their best, but least bad option. Alas, this also probably meant the Hobbits would have to finish their Journey alone...
The Banishment of Éomer :
"Why didn't you tell us before, Faramir ?" Aragorn's gently asked, grabbing the man's shoulder, "Why carrying this burden alone when you can share some of its weight with us ?"
"I... I don't know... It's just that... My Father has somehow taught me to keep this kind of things he would have considered as shameful for myself. He... For him, it had always been a proof of weakness, and I wasn't allowed to show it. Old habits are hard to kill." the man answered sadly, forcing a smile on his lips as he spoke the last sentence.
At his words, Legolas let out a deep breath and came to stand by Faramir's side.
"I know how this feels, mellon-nîn. I know it is very hard, and I am very sorry you have had to go through this. I promise you I will do anything in my power to help you get over it."
This time, it was a bright and true smile that appeared on the young man's lips. 'Mellon' ? Had Legolas, Prince of Mirkwood, called him 'mellon' ? There was no word to express how he was feeling at the moment.
"Hannon-le, m-my friend." he answered, eyes shining.
"So now you call him 'mellon' too, uh ? Then why do you keep calling me 'Master Dwarf' ?!" the hurt voice of Gimli rose, addressing the Elf.
"Because," answered Legolas in a light tone, "I am afraid that being called 'friend' by an Elf, and above all a Woodelf, would hurt your pride, wouldn't it Master Dwarf ?"
Gimli rested his chin on his bandaged hand and began to grumble about the dilemma before muttering an answer in his beard.
"Fine, call me however you want to, Master Elf."
The three others chuckled at the reply.
"Anyway," said Aragorn, coming back to the main subject, "Faramir, please, the next time He tries to get in, please try to find a way to let us know. And if you cannot, I beg you, tell us about it right away. I swear you have absolutely nothing to fear or to be ashamed of."
"I will, thank you."
Faramir could not help but notice that, the more they journeyed, the more Aragorn acted like a king would with his subjects.
"Yeah, don't be ashamed about this, lad," Gimli spoke, patting the Faramir's upper leg, "In a way, we can say that this saved our lives."
Suddenly, the Healing Ward's door burst open and a crying Éowyn rushed in, hurriedly closing behind her before sliding to the floor. Faramir was at the Lady's side less than a second later.
"Lady Éowyn, what is the matter ?" he asked gently but worriedly.
Éowyn did not answer right away, trying to catch her breath and ease her sobs.
"É-Éomer... Éomer has been banished from Rohan."
"What ?! By who ?" one of the Rohirrim's outraged voice rose from behind Faramir.
"Gríma..."
The room fell silent. Everyone, healers, soldiers, were in complete shock. Surely they expected their Lord to be arrested, but not banished... It was madness. His entire Éored would be following him.
"H-He..." the weak voice of Éowyn broke, "He will head to Isengard... He wants to destroy Saruman... But he stands no chance... And I can't... I can't go with him and abandon my Uncle... I don't want him to fall into complete madness while I am away... I didn't think he was able to let his councillor to banish his nephew and Lord of the Mark."
"I'll go with him," one of the injured members of Éomer's Éored stated, trying vainly to get up before falling back on his couch, groaning in pain.
By now, Faramir had sat next to the young Lady and had gently pulled her trembling body close to him. She was clearly under shock and the young man knew how difficult the situation was for her. He had been told the Lady of Rohan had always dreamed of fighting for her lands. But this was indeed hardly the right time to leave King Théodred alone seeing what this Wormtongue seemed to make him do...
Aragorn was pacing in the large room (or in this case, mostly limping), looking deep in thoughts.
"I will come." he finally stated after a long silence. Every face turned to him in surprise and disbelief.
"Estel !" said Legolas, hurriedly grasping the man's forearm, "Mellon-nîn, ech harn ! E natha i gurth-cîn !" [My friend, you are wounded ! It will be the death of you !]
"Iston, mellon-nîn, iston [I know, my friend, I know]. But think," he continued in Westron so that everyone, especially Faramir and Gimli, could understand his reasons, "Even though we are not part of the Fellowship anymore, for all we know, the Orcs are surely still pursuing our friends. And these Orcs come from Isengard."
"But..."
"I am not asking you to follow me," Aragorn's words echoed dramatically in the Wards. Legolas, Gimli and Faramir stared at him in shock, "But I cannot abandon these lands or our friends to their fate when I have the chance to do something, however thin this chance is."
Legolas looked at his old friend with a look of complete understanding.
"And this, mellon-nîn, is the reason why I am coming with you."
Aragorn stared at his friend as if he was about to argue, but he could not forbid the Elf to come with him. Not after what he had just said
"And I am sure you will need someone to have your back, Master Elf. I am coming too." the cheerful voice of Gimli stated, coming to stand right next to the Elf.
Faramir, he, carefully released Lady Éowyn and came to sit back next to his unconscious brother.
Accompanying his friends would also mean leaving Boromir behind, leaving him to face the mysterious illness on his own, not being here to help him. Faramir put a hand on his brother's forehead and winced. He did not like the darkness emanating from him. This was no simple disease.
"Faramir ?"
The man lifted his head to find his friends standing right in front of him. Lady Éowyn had got up too and remained a few steps behind, a sad smile on her lips.
"Do not feel forced to come with us."
Faramir shook his head and pressed his lips into a thin line.
Alas, even if he would have preferred to remain at his brother's side, he knew perfectly that Boromir wouldn't want him to do this. He would have told him to go, to do what he needed to, to do his duty.
'Do not worry about me, little one, I'll be fine.' he could practically hear him whisper.
"I... I will follow you." he told the others, voice hesitating slightly.
"Are you sure, lad ?" Gimli asked.
"Yes. That is what he would have wanted me to do."
The three gave him a sad smile and grabbed the young man's shoulders. Even Éowyn came to kneel beside him and gently took his hand.
"He will be fine. I will watch over him. I promise."
No doubt the young Lady perfectly knew how hard it was to get separate from a brother.
"You have my thanks." he told her, squeezing gratefully her hand.
And so, their stay in Edoras ended. Less than a day after it had begun.
There you go ! I hope you liked it !You may have noticed that I have updated some of the titles of the chapters, because I decided to give each of them the name of a music score of the movies (there's only one chapter for which I haven't found a title in the albums)... Again, don't ask me why...I hope you are all well and staying safe !