(Title)
Introduction
After spending a time in Ithilien, Legolas silently and furtively boarded the ship. It was a grand vessel: dark red wood and white sails, fluttering in the wind that echoed through the bay. To many of his kin, it was a symbol of freedom. To him, it was a cage. He said softly: "Although I remained here to destroy the Ring and return Aragorn to the throne, with every clash of arms I formed my own chains of iron which would drag me away to this ship. So passes my time. Long live the Age of Men."
He leaned over the edge of the ship as it was leaving the harbor. The cool mist sprayed his face: the tears he wept inside for the grief of leaving that which he loved. He wiped the water from his face and looked up to see that the ship sailed swiftly and smoothly over the water, like a knife on the flesh. He turned in dismay to see the harbor shrink in the hazy mist of distance. He was departing Middle Earth forever, never again to see Aragorn or any other comrades he had formed. He broke the bond of fellowship he formed with the Hobbits he had risked his life for. He was leaving the place for which he gambled his immortality. He utterly yearned for song at his lips, but only those of the Shire or of the Golden Hall of Meduseld hovered in his thoughts, and they were too painful to be heard, now only memories, slowly vanishing as they neared Valinor. He seemed to posses a bittersweet sense of his passing into the edge of myth. Suddenly grief smote him like lightning unto a stormy sky. He recalled his song of the sea, and pondered why he was so eager to leave. His emotions wrenched inside him, for the sorrow was overbearing. He thought to himself. No ship can bear me to Valinor: the land which remains evergreen, for my heart truly lies in Middle Earth- in Gondor and Rohan, with all of the friends I hold dear. Farewell, at last. The sea has claimed me, just as the Lady of the Light foretold. The gulls cry at my coming. . .Farewell! He could endure the pain no longer; he swooned in despair.