Lament - by Cunien.

It's a marathon writing session! I'm trying to write and post another chapter this morning because I feel so guilty that I left you on chapter 6 for ages! Please forgive me!

Summary: Legolas decides something needs to be done.

Disclaimer: Things I Would Do If I Owned Lord Of The Rings -
7. Invite everyone who reviews to come and party with me in Hobbiton - because you're all such sweethearts and I'm 18 in two weeks - an adult! yes! Responsibility!....responsibility..........
ahem....reponsibility..........


.....dagnammit!

Chapter 8 - Dreams and Prayers.

Aragorn was lost for words. He finally saw and accepted everything that Legolas was telling him.

This was what he was meant to do.

The time may come when all this was ended, if he was still standing amongst the ashes and dust, when he would take his rightful place.

And if Minas Tirith was but a smoking ruin, then he would be it's proud King.

If he thought he had unbearable responsibility now, then how could he ever be a ruler, responsible for countless lives and livelihoods?

Aragorn smiled, the understanding dawning on him even as the sun dawned on Middle Earth.

It is our choices that make us who we are.

*
When Aragorn had gone to see how Sam was doing, Legolas smiled contentedly. It occurred to him then, that like Aragorn he had not slept for some time, and the weight of sleep pulled on the edges of his mind until he felt as though he was beginning to sag from the inside out.

he muttered quietly. I knew I had forgotten something.
Legolas rested his back on the trunk of a large tree, it's smooth silver bark comforting and cool beneath him. He could feel the living tree, almost hear it's heartbeat, ancient and quiet. Legolas listened intently to this, his own heart beat in time with the phantom pulse of the tree.

He let himself relax.
Then ever so quietly, rushed and like the beating of a moth's gossamer - membraned wings, whispered words slipped from his barely moving lips.

Este I beg of you Lady Este give to me that which some of my kind posses let your healing hands guide mine give me the strength to help him show me how.....

Then sleep took him and his eyes became glazed and unseeing.

And he was an eagle, mighty and graceful, soaring high above the woods of Lothlorien. For some time his mind was that of an eagle - he saw in nothing but air - the currents, the up-drafts and thermals were his world. His soul free-wheeled joyously, content and free as the north wind.

The land below shone with a light as bright as Rana, the wandering moon. It was so fair to look upon.

But one tiny point in it's midst was dull, and pulsed darker as he watched.
Lying down there, almost forgotten to Legolas in his ecstasy.

Legolas' mind battled to detach itself from that of the eagle.

The wind through his wings (his small body wracked with fever ) wheeling higher with the thermals (dark clouds surrounded him ) the rising sun bright on his feathers (pain that blossomed in waves inside ) spinning joyously down and down ( pain, fear ) dancing in the air, rising now with an up-draft (pain)

Pain?

Then his mind pulled away from the eagle's, and he was as a passenger riding in it's soul.

That was Sam down there, suffering. He must not forget. The little one's heart was a shinning light, a clear silver note, almost drowned out by the darkness and chaos that surrounded him.

It prowled and stalked like a great black warg, looking for a way in.

The light of Lothlorien seemed to grow, spreading outwards so that the Sam's tiny beacon and the darkness he battled with was swallowed up.

And Legolas was in a garden, such as he had never seen before. It was night, but the flowers open in shining silver and gold. He had never thought that there could be so many different hues of those two colours.

Two trees, on a small rise in the middle of the garden dazzled him, their gold and silver blossoms raining soft light down on the garden. They were as the sun and the moon, the beginning and the end, the most wonderful sight that he had ever seen. Legolas' tears fell and mingled with the fragrant dew underfoot.

And he knew what he must do.
He just did not know how.

TBC...