The End to the Longest Night
Legolas let out a heart breaking wail, before collapsing on his daughter's silent body. No! No, no, no, no! Please, no! My daughter! Please, oh Valar! Lifting up his daughters head, he put her into his arms and sobbed into her hair.
Not being able to stand the sight of his dead daughter's corpse, Legolas raced from the tent and collapsed on the wet earth, feeling rain fall on him again, just as it had when Alana had seen him again.
It's all your fault. If you hadn't been so stupid, everything would be fine now. You murdered your own daughter! Fool! MURDERER!
Legolas stood up, and turned to face the rays on the sun, signifying that the sun would rise soon. It had been a long night.
***
Alana heard faintly someone screaming 'No!' and felt a sudden warmth all over her body. Ada was back.
Alana had been about to walk in the door of death and let her hide die. But this warmth, this love was drawing her back. She turned from the Halls of Mandos and ran straight back to the door that would take her home.
***
Alana took a loud breath, seconds after Legolas had left the tent in seek of solace. Healers gasped and began running about, checking her vitals and asking her questions.
Alana had enough strength to stand up, and told the healer's to let her leave, that she needed to speak to her father.
It took quite a lot of convincing, but the healers relented, and gave her a dress and leave to find her father.
The dress, as anyone in the streets of Gondor that early in the morning would say, made her look much like ghost, even more then her pale complexion and how the sun made her hair seem almost dew-gold. Her bright blue eyes added to this.
Alana walked with much grace, and most stopped and gaped. Aragorn and Gimli, who had heard of her 'death', ran over to her.
"You're alive!" Gimli said up to her, as she hugged him.
"Yes. Very alive, but I almost visited Mandos."
Alana saw out of the corner of her eye Frodo and Sam step out of one of the buildings along the street, both looking very upset about something.
"And to think, Mister Frodo, that she'd just go off and die on us! What sort of friend…" Sam's voice trailed off as he looked up and saw Alana. "Is she a ghost?"
"Yes. I come to say my farewells." Alana slowly spoke, letting her voice seem heavy.
Sam looked at her, and then pretended to faint dead away on the ground. Alana glared down at him. "What was that for?"
"Your immense ugliness would have killed me." Sam replied.
"You still fight, no matter what. Well that's a good sign."
"How is that a good sign, Frodo." Aragorn asked, hoping not to stop a large brawl between Alana and Sam.
"Well, they haven't lost their sense of humor."
Alana smiled at Frodo and started off down the street again to find her father.
She found Legolas watching the sunrise, and she could see the tear tracks on his face. He looked so different than the happy, bouncy father that he once was, his youth hidden beneath much grief and the look of seeing of much war.
The clouds were breaking at the edge of the horizon to show the red sunrise, but the whole world seemed to still be in rain, which was now lessening.
Alana slipped her hand gently into his. Legolas looked down at her thin hand, and then followed the hand up an arm, and then up until he was looking into her eyes.
"Alana?" he murmured, not believing.
"Ada?" She said, slightly rhetorically.
"Are you a ghost?" Legolas knew that his daughter was dead, so this had to be one.
Alana laughed. "That's what Sam said. Oh, Ada. Do I feel like a spirit?"
Legolas just looked at her. After all this hard quest, and after the Mirkwood fire, he finally was with his little girl again, and they were both alive.
Legolas drew his daughter in a bone-crushing hug. After a second, Alana returned it. She snuggled into her father's chest, and listened to his heartbeat, gentle and slow, just like always. The rain stopped slowly as Legolas held his daughter, and she looked up into Legolas' eyes. A shadow had been taken from his face, showing the youthful face she had once seen. Tears still came down his cheeks, but now they were of joy. It had been the perfect end to a very long night.
"I love you, nin iell, my little one."
"I love you too, Ada."
R/R Collective 'Aww' from the reviewers. Please review! There is a LOT more to come. There are still going to be a bunch of memories, but this story may go on until Legolas and Gimli go to the Grey Havens. (nin iell means 'my daughter' if you remember)