Author: Mirrordance
Title: Last Stand
Summary: The battle at the Black Gate leaves Legolas strange wounds that do not heal. He knows he is slowly dying & keeps it a secret, as he tours the fleeting mortal pleasures of the world before his last breath. He finds an unwilling coconspirator in Eomer
* * *
17: Fields of Gold
* * *
Rohan, 3019
* * *
Eomer stood by the window of his study, Lenne flanking him uncertainly. He just concluded his last appointment for the day. The King looked thoughtfully upon the view of the horse plains of Rohan, graced by the light of a sun that was near to setting. The late afternoon breezes rippled over the tips of the grass, making them dance invitingly. The skies were a clear blue where they were not streaked with wild shades of gold, and red-orange, and the dimming purple of a coming evening.
"You seem troubled, sire," Lenne observed. The King of Rohan did not immediately reply. He seemed to think about the right words to match his thoughts, or if he should even say anything at all.
"Everything is so beautiful," the King said quietly at last, "Do they not know a heart is breaking?"
"Maybe they do," Lenne said simply, looking out upon the fields, "And maybe that's why."
"Hm," Eomer smiled wistfully, "Clever of you to say so."
"I thought your advisors may have relayed some form of trouble," Lenne said, "I guess you are just thinking of Prince Legolas. Is he really dying, sir? I mean really?"
"Yes," Eomer replied tersely, "Really."
"Should we not send for Lord Aragorn?" Lenne asked, "Were they not good friends?"
"He asked me not to," Eomer answered, "And I find it hard to deny a dying friend this request."
The elf in question suddenly appeared by the door, garbed in his old clothes rather than the old robes he's been using the past few days. He had an easy, cheerful expression upon his face.
"Hello sire," he said to Eomer, giving him a slight bow, "Hello Lenne."
"Should you be up, my lord?" Lenne asked, alarmed. His eyes were wide as saucers and glistening.
"Don't talk to him," Eomer advised Legolas, "He might start crying again."
"Informed of my situation, are you?" Legolas asked the young man evenly.
"Yes sir," Lenne replied, "We're all very sad about it."
"I should hope so," Legolas chuckled, turning his eyes toward Eomer. "I dodged your wily healer's drugged drinks. I was hoping you would let me walk around. I desire some fresh air."
Eomer glanced back at his window. The view was tempting. "I think I shall join you."
"You needn't worry about any attempts to escape," Legolas laughed, "You have my word. I'll swear on anything you want. I do not wish to be a bother. I just simply wanted to go outside."
"So do I," said Eomer, turning to Lenne, "Grab the Prince some coats, boy. Evening descends rapidly upon us. He must not be cold."
Lenne nodded earnestly and quickly sped away. Eomer walked apace with Legolas out the door, down the halls and toward the stables.
"We'll have an easy ride," Eomer declared, "Are you up for it?"
"Oh, yes," Legolas replied, his shining eyes hungry.
"No speeding," the King warned, "Or I shall have you justly lassoed and thereafter detained."
"All right," Legolas smiled, stepping into the stables and finding the wild horse from a few days ago tamed and saddled. His brows rose, impressed as he was. "Showing off?" he asked the King wryly.
"Some," Eomer replied wryly, reaching for the reins and handing them to Legolas. The elf took it happily. Eomer settled upon his usual steed, as he and the elf prince awaited for the arrival of Lenne.
* * *
The aide stepped into the elf's room, his eyes roving across the drawers for something thick and warm and suitable. He grabbed three coats, and turned swiftly towards the door.
In his hurry, the stray cloths from his armload of grazed over the nearby desk, sending a flurry of papers to the ground. Muttering a curse, he laid the coats upon the bed and scrambled to pick up the sheets. One of them caught his eye. It was folded neatly and the outermost fold held the words Elessar in the King's graceful and deliberate writing.
Lenne caught his breath as he struggled with his curiosity. Which incidentally always gets the better of him. He read it.
Aragorn,
I like to think of myself a simple man. All things fall in their respective places, abiding by their respective definitions and roles. Sometimes, life unfolds in such a way that I find myself at odds, wondering why life had to be so complicated, and when did I turn my eyes for things to just suddenly change, and spin away from my control and my willing. These are sentiments not exclusive to me, I am certain, and this was harshly demonstrated to me by a visit from a common friend of ours…
His mother always told him, that what made a good servant was when they did not have to be expressly told what their masters wanted, they simply knew, and they delivered. Granted, he didn't always listen to her, but her words often came up in the strangest of times and circumstances (it was a magic shared by most mothers).
"Everything is so beautiful," the King had said, "Do they not know a heart is breaking?"
Were you referring to our guest sire, he wondered now, or to yourself?
Biting his lip in thought, he pocketed the letter, grabbed the coats and headed out the door.
* * *
They let the horses graze freely, and they settled upon the ground. The world seemed so large and so… theirs, out here in the horse plains just outside of Edoras. They had a bit more than an hour before the sun completely set, and Eomer savored the late afternoon breezes with closed eyes and a tight smile.
He could feel the elf's eyes settled on his face, and he opened his eyes to meet the wry gaze with an amused expression.
"What are you looking at?' Eomer asked him.
"Life," Legolas breathed, smiling graciously, "You are so delectably alive."
"So are you…?" Eomer replied uncertainly, making the elf laugh.
"Eomer," said Legolas, looking toward the distant horizon of rolling hills and mountains, "Have you ever loved?"
"I like to think so," the King replied, "Of course I have."
"I mean a woman," Legolas clarified.
"I know you meant a woman," said Eomer mildly, "Give me some credit, elf, I wasn't thinking of a horse."
"What is it like?" the elf asked, stifling a laugh.
"This one woman," Eomer replied, shifting uneasily, although the gold of the fields, the calming breezes and Legolas' open face were quickly disarming him, "I noticed she walked like a queen… like an unhurried, impervious ghost in an empty room. She had an air of palpable and fantastical loneliness about her that mystified and enchanted me."
"What happened?" Legolas asked.
"Just that," Eomer answered, "Nothing else." He chuckled at the distant memory. "Or no, not really. I think I said something about her lovely eyes. How was I to know she was blind? I guess that's why she moved as if she was unhurried. It is no surprise that she didn't like me much, after."
Legolas chuckled, "Was it love then?"
"It must have been," Eomer replied, laughing with embarrassment, "The vision still makes my heart race." He shook his head in dismay and amazement at himself. "Why in the world do you ask?"
"I think about Aragorn and Arwen," the elf replied, "And realize one of my few regrets."
"Not keen on women are you?" teased Eomer.
"You're one to talk," Legolas chuckled, "If I remember correctly, you did rather badly with your 'fantastically-lonely enchantress.'" Eomer's laughing face was flushing, and Legolas decided to quickly spare him the misery, saying, "I suppose you can say I never found the time. Can you believe that? Men can find one or two loves in a single lifetime, I've had ages to try and I still end up with nothing."
"Is that what you need then?" Eomer asked him jauntily, "A woman?"
Legolas laughed. "I think I've figured out that I need a particular kind of rock. One that doesn't die, but can be charming and amusing."
"Is that where the dwarf comes in?" Eomer asked lightly, "They live longer, don't they? Were you trying him on for size?"
"That sounds frigid," Legolas chastised him with sham gravity, "First of all, my friendship with Elessar is its own brand of madness and therefore irreplaceable, and secondly, Gimli was carving his own ephemeral place in my miserable heart. I hate mortals."
"No," corrected Eomer, "You love mortals. You hate mortality."
"A fair assessment," Legolas breathed, letting himself fall sideways to the ground. He pressed his ear to the soil, closing his eyes and relishing its nearness. His glorious hair fanned about him, gold as the barley fields in the light of the defiantly setting sun.
Eomer watched him, and found it was a bittersweet sight; one that was beautiful and all at once lonely, because he knew just how fleeting it was. The elf looked weary, and it already looked as if he was more a part of the ground than of the living.
"How nice it would be," Legolas murmured, "to enrich the soil that has given life and loving to me."
"It pains me," Eomer said with a wince, "the very idea, that I shall hereafter lay you upon the ground. And then our friends shall pass by and admire the flowers and the trees that your flesh helped grow, and it was you beneath their feet."
"Maybe I'll grow weeds instead," Legolas said, opening his weary but persistently teasing eyes.
"You look tired," Eomer said quietly, gathering his feet and offering a hand to the elf, "Let's go back."
TO BE CONTINUED…
THANKS TO ALL WHO READ!!!
THANKS ESP. TO MY REVIEWERS: starlit hope, noone, saz, kit cloudkicker, stoneage woman, MSL, Gozilla, Kelsey, amy, barabara kennedy, deana, halandleg4ever, platy, andruil1043, xiad rusco, miss attitude, LOTRfaith, tychen, narcissa1, AM and shelley leblanc.
To saz: oh wow, interesting question… I guess I never even conceived he would be allowed to leave so I never thought about where he would go. Now I'd have to think about that, haha :) oh and by the way, about lenne… I guess this chapter (the 17th) shows more of this OC's pivotal role, eh? :) I didn't intend on it originally but well, characters take on a life of their own and suddenly they just shape things. You know what they say… if there's a gun in the first chapter, there's a body in the third? I guess if the muses tell you to put a character somewhere, they affect the entire thing along the course of the story even if you don't know it yet :)
To stoneage woman: I don't write about it anymore. But Weiß Kreuz is an anime. It's not a particularly critically acclaimed series, but I got curious and it was more of the ffics of others that suddenly made it more real and alive to me. I don't write about that anymore, but it's the realm where I got really bold and experimental so I owe a lot to that :)
To tychen: oh actually I haven't checked. But I will when I get done with this :) I'm so near but I can't seem to get there, haha. Chapter 20, the final one, is getting too long! Oh well :)
To Kelsey: actually after a bit of restructuring, Estel appears on the 19th chapter, no longer the 18th :) sorry. It won't be too long of a wait, I promise since I'm already working on the last few paragraphs of this fic :) and about the elves dying thing, I'll read up on more than that… I do recall that if they do die they go to the halls of mandos until they are called upon once again by eru? I guess eomer was trying to say that why bother with all the dying bits when he could just leave. It's not so much that he was told to perish elsewhere though I must admit that in afterthought, the sentence does seem to be structured in such a way as to imply that. Sorry :) the 'you need to find yourself a girl mate' bit made me smile though, because I wrote something to that effect and when I saw it, it just mirrored what I put in chapter 17 :)
To shelley: I hope chapter 15 came through for you already! :)
THANKS EVERYONE!!!
THE NEXT POST TAKES US EARLIER IN 3019, AT THE BLACK GATE :) 'TIL THEN!!! :)