For the next seven days Aragorn did all he could to think not of the situation of his personal life. He kept his focus strictly on leading the march to Mordor's front door. There was unfortunately little thinking for him to do of the matter, it was all fairly cut and dry. They would march to Morannen. He would ride forward and demand parley for Sauron's attention. Sauron would send his forces to surround them about the slag-hills. They would fight a bitter fight and hopefully not be defeated before the One Ring fell into the fire of Mount Doom.
On the sixth day out, at the edge of Ithilien while stopped briefly for what rest there could be in the dark shadow they were under, Aragorn looked into the eyes of men nearby. His words to Faramir came rushing back to him and he thought how many men around him were leaving behind ones they loved more than anything.
The elf's hand on his shoulder did little to startle him. "Aragorn, your eyes are filled with compassion. Do you command them to this or do you ask for their courage and aid?"
"If i commanded them to march before the Black Gate i would be a murderer, no better than any orc in that place. As it is, i believe we are enough to do our people loss, are we not?" Aragorn then turned to the masses and bid those who could not bear the terror of Mordor to go and to find their fight elsewhere. Those who remained for the rest of the march did so of free will and thus Aragorn felt at least a little relieved of one of the many burdens he bore.
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Within the City, Faramir refused to remain in bed much longer. He pondered the dream he had whilst under fell influence a thousand times. He wondered at some of the words said to him, particularly by the King.
He was greatly curious as to how Aragorn came to believe that he had the skill of healing. Faramir had never studied healing arts and only knew what herb-lore there was to be learned in the libraries. Nor did Faramir entirely understand why the King seemed so pained at their parting. He said that Éomer and Pippin were leaving dear ones behind as well, but he knew that Éowyn was the sister of Éomer, and Pippin and Merry were cousins, so much had he learned from the loquacious nurses. Who was he to Aragorn but his Steward? For it was from the nurses that Faramir also learned, to quite a mixed reaction, that he was now Steward of Gondor. Aragorn said that he trusted Faramir, and yet they had only met when he revived him.
Faramir decided to put the question to rest, though, and accept the King's fondness for what it was. He was realizing that after all these years under Denethor's fault-finding watch he had become somewhat suspicious of those who showed him real caring.
In the days since the companies rode forth from the city Faramir found Minas Tirith to be a rather lonely place. He had become used to going out with the ride whenever there was a mission to be accomplished. Now there were only women and children left behind and they would not leave their homes. Faramir had taken to spending his night's still in the Houses of Healing, if only to avoid the office of the Steward and to placate the healers.
On a couple of occasions he had used a bit of an athelas leaf hoping to give relief to the heart of Éowyn, which was so greatly sorrowful. He found he was amazed that he possessed a skill he never even knew he had, but he reasoned that perhaps athelas was still so powerful even in the hands of a man lesser than the King.
He also found that though Merry often felt out of place, all his friends having gone to their great deeds, no athelas was required, only food, frequently. Faramir decided to take this opportunity to learn more about Halflings and their Shire. He was incredibly impressed with everything Merry spoke of, for there was very little of anything mentioned about the Shire in anything that he had read. In fact, he only ever heard of one such creature before meeting Frodo and Sam, but he had dismissed the tales as whimsy; after all, how could anyone have the power to disappear and smuggle dwarves out from under the very noses of the Elves of Mirkwood?
Faramir wished indeed that Éowyn would come around that she might tell him the great tales of Rohan, but the Lady remained mostly disconsolate, instead of sharing of her land's knowledge and unique history. Though both Faramir and Merry had wished greatly to be with their friends at this heroic time in history, they were also quite glad to have the opportunity to learn more about Middle-earth's places previously unknown to them. Such things helped Faramir greatly in relieving his mind of the many burning questions he feared he might never have an answer to.
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A/N: I don't make a practice of leaving author's notes often, but i wanted to thank all those who have reviewed thus far. I really appreciate the feed-back, as does any writer. It is a real motivator! One question i did want to address was capitalizing "I." As has been noticed, i don't. I, myself have found no other language but English which puts so much emphasis on the self that the word "I" is capitalized, yet "you" is not. As far as i am concerned, you are just as important as i.
Also, a translation i forget to make from the last chapter:
Hannon le, aratan = Thank you, King (aratan is literally "royal man")
In this case, "le" is correct usage. I have seen the "L" doubled as in Welsh, but i have never seen this in Book usage.
Anyway, the point is: thanks for reading. More to come!
