III
I stood up and backed into a corner. At first I couldn't believe it. I refused to believe it. Then I saw her laying there lifeless. And then I began to weep bitterly and openly. It was the last time I ever did.
I don't know how long it lasted. I must have fallen asleep though because the next thing I remember was waking up on the floor. My brother was standing above my fireplace. He had moved Lynna's body into our bed. He had also tried to clean things up a bit. But nothing could remove the stain from my being.
Later that morning, Earendur carved a headstone out of wood. He inscribed Lynna's name on it and the year and a short message about her life. While he was doing that, I dug her a grave near a small shaded area not far from our house. All the time I was laboring I could only think about the dark figures who fled my house the night before. All I wanted was to bring about justice for my wife's death.
We buried her body at midday. I could not think of anything to say. In fact, I had said very little about anything at all since that morning. Noticing my silence, my brother offered a few words of comfort to me and then spoke of fond things about my wife. Finally he sang an Elvish hymn he had learned one time when he had visited the forest of Mirkwood and spent time with the Wood Elves that lived there. It was something about the Undying Lands, where the Elves go to live when their time is spent in this land. I only remember part of it:
Nai vili tanalyer
Or i ëar, serë mí
Ilfirini Nóri yassen
Lumbi úmer lanta ar
Úval oi ista naicë
After that I made my way back to my house. Earendur followed me. He told me that he would alert the rangers to look out for suspicious characters and to apprehend anyone who had been discovered to have been out that night. Then he asked me what I was going to do now. I told him flat out that I was going to avenge my wife's death. Then he tried to convince me that the rangers were trained to deal with such things and that he himself would head up the search. But I knew that this wasn't good enough. The rangers did not have the motivation that I did. They did not have a burning desire to enact revenge on the man who had taken not only my wife but my soul as well.
So I grabbed my great-grandfather's sword off the wall and saddled up my horse for the journey. Earendur pleaded and begged me to reconsider my actions. But he did not dare to stop me. He wanted to get that bastard just as much as I did. But as I said before only I had the desire for revenge.
"Don't do it" he said. "You may find you're revenge, but you will only lose yourself."
"Perhaps" I said. "But that does not matter anymore. Nothing matters."
With that I rode away. Just then it began to rain. As I traveled off into the distance my brother stood and watched me until I disappeared over the horizon. As he did, he listened to the eerie sound of the rain falling on the ground.
I stood up and backed into a corner. At first I couldn't believe it. I refused to believe it. Then I saw her laying there lifeless. And then I began to weep bitterly and openly. It was the last time I ever did.
I don't know how long it lasted. I must have fallen asleep though because the next thing I remember was waking up on the floor. My brother was standing above my fireplace. He had moved Lynna's body into our bed. He had also tried to clean things up a bit. But nothing could remove the stain from my being.
Later that morning, Earendur carved a headstone out of wood. He inscribed Lynna's name on it and the year and a short message about her life. While he was doing that, I dug her a grave near a small shaded area not far from our house. All the time I was laboring I could only think about the dark figures who fled my house the night before. All I wanted was to bring about justice for my wife's death.
We buried her body at midday. I could not think of anything to say. In fact, I had said very little about anything at all since that morning. Noticing my silence, my brother offered a few words of comfort to me and then spoke of fond things about my wife. Finally he sang an Elvish hymn he had learned one time when he had visited the forest of Mirkwood and spent time with the Wood Elves that lived there. It was something about the Undying Lands, where the Elves go to live when their time is spent in this land. I only remember part of it:
Nai vili tanalyer
Or i ëar, serë mí
Ilfirini Nóri yassen
Lumbi úmer lanta ar
Úval oi ista naicë
After that I made my way back to my house. Earendur followed me. He told me that he would alert the rangers to look out for suspicious characters and to apprehend anyone who had been discovered to have been out that night. Then he asked me what I was going to do now. I told him flat out that I was going to avenge my wife's death. Then he tried to convince me that the rangers were trained to deal with such things and that he himself would head up the search. But I knew that this wasn't good enough. The rangers did not have the motivation that I did. They did not have a burning desire to enact revenge on the man who had taken not only my wife but my soul as well.
So I grabbed my great-grandfather's sword off the wall and saddled up my horse for the journey. Earendur pleaded and begged me to reconsider my actions. But he did not dare to stop me. He wanted to get that bastard just as much as I did. But as I said before only I had the desire for revenge.
"Don't do it" he said. "You may find you're revenge, but you will only lose yourself."
"Perhaps" I said. "But that does not matter anymore. Nothing matters."
With that I rode away. Just then it began to rain. As I traveled off into the distance my brother stood and watched me until I disappeared over the horizon. As he did, he listened to the eerie sound of the rain falling on the ground.