Caitlins eyes became wide with shock as gandalf spoke, "under attack" she
heard over and over in her head. This was not supposed to be happening.
Her mind filled with questions, as she reviewed every action, every moment, every breathe she had taken since arriving in middle earth, somehow thinking she might find a time that she had caused this change in the story line. Could she have prevented this?
Was this somehow related to her purpose here in middle earth?
Remembering the battle at helms deep, the horror of blood and steel, and now this awful chain of events. Nothing seemed certain. Nothing was set in stone, or written onto the page as unchanging history. There was no guarantee of success in the coming battles, or even the outcome of war.
Middle earth stood upon the presuppose of destruction, held from the flame of defeat by a thread of hope that lingered faintly in the minds of the citizens who called this their home.
Caitlin glanced a moment down at her leg, bandaged and wounded. She saw the faces of the young boys and men who had died by her side at helms deep. The blood soaked fields of the once proud and beautiful hills of ruhan that haunted her dreams flashed before her eyes, and for the first time in the long months she had fought the demons of mordor, she began to doubt.
This realization scared her more than any orc, more than any enemy, and suddenly she felt very heavy, with the weight this world had placed upon her shoulders.
Hiding her thoughts from even her own conscious mind Caitlin placed a determined look on her face.
"Where is my armor." She said in a low voice. "They must not reach the city gates, we will go out and meet them"
A guard bowed and ran from the room to retrieve her gear.
"You cant...." Said legolas grasping her arm as she began to move from the room with gandalf and the ten or so men who had accompanied him. His words were cut short as he saw the expression on her face.
"CANT...." Responded Caitlin. How could he presume such a thing. this was war, the closest thing to the fires of hell any mortal could conceive of. Her voice was full of anger, anger that legolas could seem so blind to the true reality of their situation. "I don't have time for this. Legolas. Let....me...go." she said, but he did not. Only held her more firmly.
"Caitlin, you are hurt, you cannot fight now, it is unreasonable."
His words enraged her, perhaps more so because of what she had just realized, but still her feelings could not hide themselves. "Legolas, do you think this is a game, this is war, do you not understand that if we don't make a stand we will all die. I know mortality is a thing you are still getting yeust to but make no mistake all mortals die legolas,...I will die..... And it is therefore our journeys through life, not our destinations... that makes it all worth while." Legolas released her his face showing how unexpected her harshness had been to him. She stood their still for a moment. "I-I don't mean to hurt you, but you must understand that we can either sit here and wait for them to kill us, or we can go out and make a stand, have a chance. That is the only two options us mortals have. And I think you know me well enough by now to know that I refuse to sit and do nothing about my own fate, if I am to die, let it be for this, this is worth dying for." Caitlin lowered her head, and began to walk from the room, somewhat ashamed now that her words had been spoken. Hearing them come from her lips fro the first time.
Legolas did not know what to say, never expecting such things from her. He felt that she was right, such a despairing thing, how right she was. "Do you believe you will die..." he said, still reviewing it over in his own head.
Caitlin stopped in her tracks, leaning on the staff, but still facing the doorway. "No legolas, I know that I will, perhaps not today, but someday, I will no longer exist here.... did you forget, all mortals die my beautiful elf, all mortals die." the words were painful to speak to him, because deep down she knew the words meant something different than they did to her.
Truthfully it was painful for him to hear such blunt truth from her, and deep down inside him, he knew he had denied it to himself, her mortality, he had lived every moment with her for the moment, never thinking of just how much their love was eternally doomed. To him, a mortal life was a single day, a season that would pass in moments. Her life, and their love was a mere shadow, a breeze of air through his life.
Oh, valinor, if only her body had the strength of her will, the passion of her heart, she would live longer than any elf...how could she live such a short time, and have such wisdom as he had never seen in any elf. If only his embrace would still the crashing waves of time. If only he could hold her tight, breaking mortality's hold on her.
A great sorrow flooded his heart, and with a chill turning his blood cold. As he watched her standing there. His heart sank further still and the overwhelming despair felt as though it would crush his lungs. Without a word he swiftly walked from the room felling that if he stayed he would never recover.
Caitlin made no move to stop him, knowing that her words had struck a cord with him. And it hurt her to see him like that.
Caitlin watched as legolas swiftly went from the room, and her eye softened, and tears began to well up as she watched him leave, hurt and sad.
"Wizard," said a voice.
Caitlin was startled for a moment, turning to see the guard standing there who had gone in search of her armor.
"wizard, I am afraid your armor is no where to be found, lady eowyn sent these down to you until your gear may be located." He held out folded cloth and her belt, which carried on it her dagger and sword, gomaithis.
"thank you" she said, taking the clothing from him.
A few minutes later Caitlin was dressed in a gown similar to the one she had on before, with her weapons.
She made her way out to the stables, in search of asufeld, as all around edoras every person was either bunkering down, preparing for invasion, or readying themselves to go out and meet the enemy on horseback. Entering the stables, was hard enough, with every available horse being tacked up by soldiers and farmers alike. Caitlin's presence did not go unnoticed though, as every person seemed to be staring at her through the corner of their eye as they tacked up their horses.
"May I help you wizard." Said a man who was tacking up his horse next to asufeld.
"yes, thank you..."
"gwain," he said as he lifted her saddle up onto the horse and began to tack up asufeld for her. "my name is gwain. Sir wizard" Caitlin appreciated the help, knowing she would be unable to do the task alone with her injury. Gwain seemed a loyal man, loyal to edoras she noted as she glanced at his armor adorned with every color and insignia of the horse people. He was a large man, larger than any other warrior she had seem among the ranks of edoras before, or any other army. Even the elves, he was tall, and muscular, with a stocky build, and wild unkempt blond dreadlocks that reached below his shoulders. He finished his task of tacking up asufeld, and without any prompting lifted Caitlin up onto the saddle. Gwain reminded her much of the character colossus from the x men, she thought. As he then smiled a wide smile, revealing a large grid of broken teeth to her. perhaps colossus was a bit brighter than this man she thought, but smiled back and thanked him for his help. She took hold of the spear with increased force, and unclasped the leather casing, placing it in the saddle. Then leading asufeld out of the stables, galloped towards the growing party of warriors who stood just in front of the doors to edoras.
An opening formed as she rode up, allowing her to pass to the front of the line, where she found Legolas, aragorn, and eomer, leading them.
Caitlin wondered what type of force they would be facing, how many orcs would it be? It couldn't be a force from mordor, their troops wouldn't make it here so quickly. She thought it could only be reinforcements from souromon but if that were the case, that would mean, merry and pippen were unable to defeat him.
"where is Gandalf?" she asked.
"he has asked us to wait here, he wishes to see the troops for himself before we go out." Said eomer.
"You mean he hasn't seen them already?"
"No a scout spotted a large force moving against us, no one else has seen them."
Caitlin didn't like this, their was something wrong with this situation, why would souron move against edoras before gondor? The city at their doorstep after suffering such a large defeat from helms deep?
Caitlin couldn't figure it out, but the one thing she did know was that gandalf had gone out to face whatever awaited them alone.
She knew he could take care of himself, yet if he should fall now, she feared all would be lost in the coming battle.
"open this gate," she said to Eomer.
"gandalf has said..."
"DO IT...NOW!!" demanded Caitlin. And eomer gave the order. The gate opened slowly, but as soon as it was wide enough to allow her to pass through she took off.
"YAH, GO ASUFELD!!!"
She galloped along the grassy soil from the city gates, heading straight out into the landscape. Hearing another set of hoof prints behind her Caitlin saw through the corner of her eye legolas close by her flank. Galloping with her.
"Oh my god......" she said as they both came to a stop, at the site they saw.
"This, this cannot be true, it has to be an illusion." Said Legolas as he saw with unbelieving eyes.
"Its....the dwarves, they....their must be hundreds of them." Said Caitlin as she peered down the valley.
Indeed, down the valley, Caitlin saw gandalf riding shadowfax, as hundreds of dwarves cam up the hill side beside him.
Caitlin and legolas rode towards them and a single dwarf broke the ranks, coming with delight towards Caitlin and legolas.
"GIMLI!!" Caitlin was so overjoyed to see him. Her friend, she was so worried that something had happened to him.
"The race of dwarves has found much reason to join this crusade, and three hundred of their finest warriors have agreed to fight along side men, and the woman sent from the earth to protect us all." Said gandalf, who seemed very proud to find friend instead of foe on the other side of the edoras walls. "I suspect that many in edoras will be pleased a this change in events." He said.
This chapter was a little shorter than expected but after receiving one hundred reviews, I was just so happy that I had to post now. Love aiko alima
Her mind filled with questions, as she reviewed every action, every moment, every breathe she had taken since arriving in middle earth, somehow thinking she might find a time that she had caused this change in the story line. Could she have prevented this?
Was this somehow related to her purpose here in middle earth?
Remembering the battle at helms deep, the horror of blood and steel, and now this awful chain of events. Nothing seemed certain. Nothing was set in stone, or written onto the page as unchanging history. There was no guarantee of success in the coming battles, or even the outcome of war.
Middle earth stood upon the presuppose of destruction, held from the flame of defeat by a thread of hope that lingered faintly in the minds of the citizens who called this their home.
Caitlin glanced a moment down at her leg, bandaged and wounded. She saw the faces of the young boys and men who had died by her side at helms deep. The blood soaked fields of the once proud and beautiful hills of ruhan that haunted her dreams flashed before her eyes, and for the first time in the long months she had fought the demons of mordor, she began to doubt.
This realization scared her more than any orc, more than any enemy, and suddenly she felt very heavy, with the weight this world had placed upon her shoulders.
Hiding her thoughts from even her own conscious mind Caitlin placed a determined look on her face.
"Where is my armor." She said in a low voice. "They must not reach the city gates, we will go out and meet them"
A guard bowed and ran from the room to retrieve her gear.
"You cant...." Said legolas grasping her arm as she began to move from the room with gandalf and the ten or so men who had accompanied him. His words were cut short as he saw the expression on her face.
"CANT...." Responded Caitlin. How could he presume such a thing. this was war, the closest thing to the fires of hell any mortal could conceive of. Her voice was full of anger, anger that legolas could seem so blind to the true reality of their situation. "I don't have time for this. Legolas. Let....me...go." she said, but he did not. Only held her more firmly.
"Caitlin, you are hurt, you cannot fight now, it is unreasonable."
His words enraged her, perhaps more so because of what she had just realized, but still her feelings could not hide themselves. "Legolas, do you think this is a game, this is war, do you not understand that if we don't make a stand we will all die. I know mortality is a thing you are still getting yeust to but make no mistake all mortals die legolas,...I will die..... And it is therefore our journeys through life, not our destinations... that makes it all worth while." Legolas released her his face showing how unexpected her harshness had been to him. She stood their still for a moment. "I-I don't mean to hurt you, but you must understand that we can either sit here and wait for them to kill us, or we can go out and make a stand, have a chance. That is the only two options us mortals have. And I think you know me well enough by now to know that I refuse to sit and do nothing about my own fate, if I am to die, let it be for this, this is worth dying for." Caitlin lowered her head, and began to walk from the room, somewhat ashamed now that her words had been spoken. Hearing them come from her lips fro the first time.
Legolas did not know what to say, never expecting such things from her. He felt that she was right, such a despairing thing, how right she was. "Do you believe you will die..." he said, still reviewing it over in his own head.
Caitlin stopped in her tracks, leaning on the staff, but still facing the doorway. "No legolas, I know that I will, perhaps not today, but someday, I will no longer exist here.... did you forget, all mortals die my beautiful elf, all mortals die." the words were painful to speak to him, because deep down she knew the words meant something different than they did to her.
Truthfully it was painful for him to hear such blunt truth from her, and deep down inside him, he knew he had denied it to himself, her mortality, he had lived every moment with her for the moment, never thinking of just how much their love was eternally doomed. To him, a mortal life was a single day, a season that would pass in moments. Her life, and their love was a mere shadow, a breeze of air through his life.
Oh, valinor, if only her body had the strength of her will, the passion of her heart, she would live longer than any elf...how could she live such a short time, and have such wisdom as he had never seen in any elf. If only his embrace would still the crashing waves of time. If only he could hold her tight, breaking mortality's hold on her.
A great sorrow flooded his heart, and with a chill turning his blood cold. As he watched her standing there. His heart sank further still and the overwhelming despair felt as though it would crush his lungs. Without a word he swiftly walked from the room felling that if he stayed he would never recover.
Caitlin made no move to stop him, knowing that her words had struck a cord with him. And it hurt her to see him like that.
Caitlin watched as legolas swiftly went from the room, and her eye softened, and tears began to well up as she watched him leave, hurt and sad.
"Wizard," said a voice.
Caitlin was startled for a moment, turning to see the guard standing there who had gone in search of her armor.
"wizard, I am afraid your armor is no where to be found, lady eowyn sent these down to you until your gear may be located." He held out folded cloth and her belt, which carried on it her dagger and sword, gomaithis.
"thank you" she said, taking the clothing from him.
A few minutes later Caitlin was dressed in a gown similar to the one she had on before, with her weapons.
She made her way out to the stables, in search of asufeld, as all around edoras every person was either bunkering down, preparing for invasion, or readying themselves to go out and meet the enemy on horseback. Entering the stables, was hard enough, with every available horse being tacked up by soldiers and farmers alike. Caitlin's presence did not go unnoticed though, as every person seemed to be staring at her through the corner of their eye as they tacked up their horses.
"May I help you wizard." Said a man who was tacking up his horse next to asufeld.
"yes, thank you..."
"gwain," he said as he lifted her saddle up onto the horse and began to tack up asufeld for her. "my name is gwain. Sir wizard" Caitlin appreciated the help, knowing she would be unable to do the task alone with her injury. Gwain seemed a loyal man, loyal to edoras she noted as she glanced at his armor adorned with every color and insignia of the horse people. He was a large man, larger than any other warrior she had seem among the ranks of edoras before, or any other army. Even the elves, he was tall, and muscular, with a stocky build, and wild unkempt blond dreadlocks that reached below his shoulders. He finished his task of tacking up asufeld, and without any prompting lifted Caitlin up onto the saddle. Gwain reminded her much of the character colossus from the x men, she thought. As he then smiled a wide smile, revealing a large grid of broken teeth to her. perhaps colossus was a bit brighter than this man she thought, but smiled back and thanked him for his help. She took hold of the spear with increased force, and unclasped the leather casing, placing it in the saddle. Then leading asufeld out of the stables, galloped towards the growing party of warriors who stood just in front of the doors to edoras.
An opening formed as she rode up, allowing her to pass to the front of the line, where she found Legolas, aragorn, and eomer, leading them.
Caitlin wondered what type of force they would be facing, how many orcs would it be? It couldn't be a force from mordor, their troops wouldn't make it here so quickly. She thought it could only be reinforcements from souromon but if that were the case, that would mean, merry and pippen were unable to defeat him.
"where is Gandalf?" she asked.
"he has asked us to wait here, he wishes to see the troops for himself before we go out." Said eomer.
"You mean he hasn't seen them already?"
"No a scout spotted a large force moving against us, no one else has seen them."
Caitlin didn't like this, their was something wrong with this situation, why would souron move against edoras before gondor? The city at their doorstep after suffering such a large defeat from helms deep?
Caitlin couldn't figure it out, but the one thing she did know was that gandalf had gone out to face whatever awaited them alone.
She knew he could take care of himself, yet if he should fall now, she feared all would be lost in the coming battle.
"open this gate," she said to Eomer.
"gandalf has said..."
"DO IT...NOW!!" demanded Caitlin. And eomer gave the order. The gate opened slowly, but as soon as it was wide enough to allow her to pass through she took off.
"YAH, GO ASUFELD!!!"
She galloped along the grassy soil from the city gates, heading straight out into the landscape. Hearing another set of hoof prints behind her Caitlin saw through the corner of her eye legolas close by her flank. Galloping with her.
"Oh my god......" she said as they both came to a stop, at the site they saw.
"This, this cannot be true, it has to be an illusion." Said Legolas as he saw with unbelieving eyes.
"Its....the dwarves, they....their must be hundreds of them." Said Caitlin as she peered down the valley.
Indeed, down the valley, Caitlin saw gandalf riding shadowfax, as hundreds of dwarves cam up the hill side beside him.
Caitlin and legolas rode towards them and a single dwarf broke the ranks, coming with delight towards Caitlin and legolas.
"GIMLI!!" Caitlin was so overjoyed to see him. Her friend, she was so worried that something had happened to him.
"The race of dwarves has found much reason to join this crusade, and three hundred of their finest warriors have agreed to fight along side men, and the woman sent from the earth to protect us all." Said gandalf, who seemed very proud to find friend instead of foe on the other side of the edoras walls. "I suspect that many in edoras will be pleased a this change in events." He said.
This chapter was a little shorter than expected but after receiving one hundred reviews, I was just so happy that I had to post now. Love aiko alima