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A bird sang a sweet song given to it by nature. Its notes echoed faintly in the boy's head as he felt himself slowly wake up from the dark comforts of deep sleep. He could hear whisperings in the room, hushed but calm. Soft light filtered through his eyelids but his body felt so heavy and warm…
Someone came beside him and he could feel that they knelt down to look at his sleeping figure. A familiar voice called towards them from across the room.
"Aw, don't touch him, Pip," Merry said quietly, "he looks like he needs the rest."
"He's had enough rest." Pippin's light voice was close to him. He kept his eyes shut to feign his sleep.
"Pip, he's going to wake up if you touch him!"
"Well, that's kind of the point now, isn't it, Frodo?" He laughed and gently prodded his shoulder. "Wakey, wakey, Legolas. Time to rise and shine like the crab-ass Elf prince you are!"
Legolas reached up behind his shoulder and grabbed his pillow from beneath his head like he was drawing an arrow. He whipped his arm around and smacked Pippin square in the face. Feathers flew out of the pillow as the hobbit flew onto the floor on his back.
"Ai!" Pippin yelped as he fell. "Legolas!"
"I'm crabby, huh?" Legolas grinned as he sat up with his pillow in hand. He realized he had no top on when a breeze from a window ran across his bare chest. He looked down and saw that his lower half of his torso was bandaged with white linen as well as his left upper arm.
The room they were in was small but very comfortable. Most of the furnishings were made of rich quality but modestly designed wood. The beds that were arranged in a hospital fashion were made of a metal alloy that was welded to mimic the Elvish and Man cultures, both of the past and present. A songbird in a wicker Chinese cage hung by the windowsill near Legolas' bed.
The afternoon sun streamed into the room in a sleepy daze. A light wind rustled the trees outside in peaceful rhythm. Everything was peaceful and quiet with no shadows lurking in the corners.
"Where are we?" Legolas asked as he looked at the rich room. It was a feast for his eyes after being used to images of ruins. He didn't think that there was any place left that remained intact and preserved so well.
"In some chapel connected to St. Francis Church. You know the big one in downtown?" Frodo said as he helped Pippin up from the ground. He had a piece of gauze covering his right eye.
"Are you serious? I would've thought it was destroyed ages ago since it's so big and full of things that reflect Light." He looked around again and noticed that several religious relics were scattered around the room.
The traditional Christian cross of Jesus Christ hung on the wall above the door but it was superimposed on a pagan pentacle. A stone Buddha the size of a cantaloupe sat serenely on a table to the right accompanied with a few Native American model totem poles. A statue of Vishnu stood on a night table on the other side and an ebony statue of an African god Legolas couldn't recognize sat on the table next to it. That room was filled with statues and pictures from religions around the world yet they all seemed to compliment each other. Legolas especially liked the Torah and Qu'ran lying open next to each other on a desk in a well-lit corner.
Someone came in lightly with a metallic rattle. "Didn't I tell you guys to stay in bed?"
A Chinese girl with a blue and gold trimmed linen shirt came in carrying a tray of food and medical supplies. She smiled at them reproachfully as she made her way to Legolas' bed. Her eyes stared at the feathers lying on the floor.
"What happened here?" She spoke English perfectly and asked after she set the tray down and saw that the songbird was fine.
"Legolas hit me with a pillow!" Pippin exclaimed.
"Oh, okay. Good job!" She laughed with them but still carried a touch of a commanding tone when she said, "Get into bed or you won't get any food!"
All four Hobbits dashed into one of the beds and waited patiently.
"And I was just talking to Frodo," she muttered to Legolas with a small grin. She gathered some food and delivered it to the Hobbits. "Don't make a mess again or Galadriel's going to yell at me instead of you."
"You know Galadriel?" Legolas asked, knowing nothing of the current situation. "How old are you?"
"I work for Lady Galadriel, along with about two hundred and fifty others who she rounded up around the world. I think I'm around sixteen or seventeen. I'm not too sure. Somewhere around there."
"I'm sorry," Legolas apologized, "I didn't mean to…"
"It's okay." She smiled faintly. "A lot of people ask me that since I look kind of young but I can use these pretty well." She patted her sabre by he side and the triangular seis that hung on her hips.
Creeping footsteps were heard outside the door and another girl's head slowly peeked into the room. A pair of chocolate brown eyes surveyed the inhabitants as another pair of feet walked down the halls towards the converted chapel. The eyes lit up with they locked on to Merry lying in bed and eating some stew.
"Marty!" Christine, the girl he had freed, ran in and embraced Merry around the neck. "You came back! You came back! I was so worried that I wouldn't see you again!"
Merry nearly choked on his soup when she suddenly hugged him but greatly appreciated the thought. He chuckled and hugged her back. "Are you okay? You're not hurt, are you?"
She shook her head. "The magic healing girl over there made me all better. See? Bandages all over and a few of them are pretty and colourful."
The girl was now handling a pair of medical scissors. "I'm not a magic healing girl! I gave you a clean-up with rubbing alcohol, Polysporin and antibacterial cream for healing and those funky little Band-Aids because you said you wanted them."
"Yeah, exactly. Magic healing girl."
The girl laughed and pretended to throw a medical kit at her when a brown-skinned, slender girl came in. "Hey, Micah," the Chinese girl said, "What's up?"
"Galadriel's wondering if they're ready to get out of the hospital wing yet," Micah said with a soft, lilting voice. She held her longbow in hand, showing that she was in the trees when the Lair was demolished. To the boys there, she bore a strange resemblance to their classmate Neluni. "Oh, and she said to send them to the altar when you're done, Celebuls."
"All right. But don't call me that; call me Maikaza or Mai or Kaza. I hate it when people call me that."
"Yeah, I know," Micah chuckled. "That's why I call you that. By the way, Sam, Rosie's been asking about you." She grinned and left them alone.
Sam flushed and hid his face from the others with his food. That didn't stop them from teasing him.
Maikaza was gently cutting Legolas' bandages off to take a look at his wounds. To say the least, he felt a little uncomfortable and faintly blushed when she ran her hand across his shoulders. In his mind, he noted that he'd been deprived of the presence of girls for far too long.
"Hey, is everyone here girls or what?" Legolas asked and slowly took his linen bandages off. He was relieved to see that there was no blood.
"You only wish, buddy. I told you before that there're about two hundred fifty people here, right?" She raised herself to put her head on his shoulder. "About twenty of us, not including you guys, are under the age of twenty. It's not very fun because we're not allowed to make stupid mistakes."
"There're like a dozen people here who actually served in some kind of elite army," informed Christine as Maikaza instructed Legolas to read off a chart on the far wall to test his eyesight. "I heard that Domingues was in the Swiss Guard."
"Domingues is this guy who's three times the size of me," Merry told Legolas across the room. "I swear he nearly stepped on me yesterday."
"You've been out cold for a week, Legolas," Maikaza said behind him. She touched his lower sides and saw that his Elvish blood effectively healed his wounds. "That's a good thing since your wounds have completely healed. All that's left are really faint scars and you can barely see them."
"A week?" he repeated. "It's been a week without anything happening like an ambush or something?"
The small chapel rang with laughter.
"Legolas, there have been at least four attacks on this ancient church," said Frodo as he started peeling his eye bandage off. "We're still here because this is a church; there's too much Light infused in the building itself for the Dark creatures to do anything."
"It's a true sanctuary, then," Legolas surmised.
Maikaza hopped down from the bed and went to examine Frodo's eye with a penlight. "Churches, temples and shrines are all places where the goodness and Light of humans generally gather because that is where the force is realized. Anytime the troops of Galadriel needed to find a place to hide out from the Darkness, we just searched for the nearest place of religion."
"Really?" Frodo asked. He sat patiently when she was checking his eye slashes. "Any church or whatever would've worked? Why didn't we think of that and saved us the trouble?"
"Because there WERE no churches or shrines we knew about that were around us," Sam told him.
"Besides," said Maikaza, "we had a rule: the older the place, the better. An older establishment has more human spirituality because more people had worshipped there over the years. Frodo, stop squirming, damn it! You're going to make me jab your eye out!"
Frodo pulled away from her reach and immediately scratched the several itches that bothered him around his eye. Maikaza scoffed and flipped her dark, layered hair back while she waited for him to stop.
"The best places were those really famous religious places. You know, places like Mecca, St. Peter's Basilica… Actually, Vatican City itself was a safe haven in itself." She continued to clean up Frodo's wounds as she talked.
"And you went to Rome, why…?" Pippin asked.
"To find survivors, warriors and the like. Plus, it gave us protection and a home base famous and close enough to here so everybody could gather and start planning. Once there were enough people to come here and attack, Galadriel formed the ranks and announced the battle plan.
"Some of us travelled on foot, others by car or some kind of vehicle. The ones who went by car were scouts that cleared the way and advised Galadriel which roads to take.
"Obviously, not all of us went out at once. The first few groups that went out were in groups of around fifty and they were mostly scouts and people who knew how to fight. I was in the last of those groups so the skill level was quite a bit lower than Special Forces or Special Ops, whatever they're called.
"Anyway, we set up base camp here at St. Francis and waited for everyone to arrive. We all spread out across the city in small bunches to keep hidden from the Darkness but the people who were fighting stayed close to St. Francis. Galadriel arrived and within a week, several scouts were dispatched as her ambassadors to the Ents to rally their help. We knew that her plan was going to work when we received the message that you guys were in contact with them and they were willing to help.
"I don't know how, but Lady Galadriel somehow found out that you guys were already underground when we made our way to the Ents' forest. We were weighed down by the explosive equipment the professional soldiers managed to salvage but we managed to get to the forest by car, explain the situation and start our way to the massive Lair in a matter of two days."
The Hobbits, Legolas and Christine were listening with rapt attention. Her hair shined in the gold afternoon sun as she paced around the room, picking up things knocked down and the strewn bandages. She began untying her weapons as she continued her story.
"The rocket launchers and their personnel drove in their vans and Jeeps and led the vast army of Ents to the Lair across the city. Even though those Ents don't look like much, they can move pretty damn fast." She paused for a moment and turned her back to them. She reached under her shirt like she was unstrapping her bra but instead unbuckled the straps holding her seis in place and put them on a bed nearby.
"Sexy," commented Christine when nobody else did. Her comment brought on a few shy chuckles and coughs. Maikaza laughed, apologized and continued again.
"We stayed in the trees for a whole day or two, preparing ourselves and our weapons for the battle to come. Any Dark creature that happened to see us or get in our way was destroyed either by the marching Ents or a sniper, like Micah, who shot from the branches when the Lair fell.
"The Ents and trees circled around the Lair in the valley while the rocket launchers and emergency task forces stayed positioned on the cliffs surrounding it. The com-radios kept everyone aware of where everything was and what was going on as well as what we were preparing for. Aside from the rockets and com-radios, we used only swords, pikes and archery weapons to fight the Army of Darkness, on Galadriel's request. Something about those weapons being more effective…?"
Frodo quickly explained the theory Gandalf and Galadriel had come up with before. "Since you guys mostly fought after the Master was gone, it was no problem."
"That'd make sense, actually. Anyway, we waited for a while and watched the stars as night drew on. None of us could sleep, knowing that war was so close. Finally, about half an hour before the first light of dawn, the com-radios crackled on.
"'All squads, attention,' Galadriel said into the radios. 'We will be launching the rockets in five minutes. Special ops, you know your duties. Kaza, do it.'
"I did what I had to do and the rockets blasted the Lair's walls open. The dragons went in, terrorized the place, got you guys out and levelled the Lair to the ground."
"That was pretty fun to watch," Christine said with a smile. "The prisoners got out and hid in the trees a bit before the rockets hit the Lair. That guy, Faramir, and his gang were so cool when they fought any monster in our way." She swung her arms around and made noises like she was wielding an imaginary sword.
"Is he cooler than me?" Merry asked her playfully and gave her a dinner roll.
"Yes!" She took the roll anyway and ate it.
They let out a good laugh when she did this and Merry gave her a soft glare that only he could deliver. He smirked and ate his other dinner roll before she could take it.
"So what happened after we got into the forest?" Sam asked. "All I remember are hearing Orcs and other things on the ground and someone yelling before I passed out."
"Not much," said Maikaza. "We got all of you safely into the paramedics' hands to keep you all out of harm's way. A lot of the Army of Middle-Earth went into rest a couple hours after the Lair crumbled but a few very loyal soldiers stayed behind until they were sure all of you were okay."
"And we were transported here for recovery," finished Legolas. He rubbed his eyes to get rid of the last bits of sleep out of his mind. "Any casualties or life-threatening injuries happen in the ward?"
Maikaza shook her head. "I think something that's beyond our understanding was watching and protecting us because nobody had a really bad injury. The worst, I believe, are a broken shoulder and a five-day sleep."
Legolas grinned and the Hobbits booed at him. "Sorry! At least I didn't break anything!"
"We had a DOA, but she was kind of expected," Maikaza said sadly. "To tell you the truth, we weren't expecting her to survive long in our care if she came to us alive. She was just too damaged physically, spiritually and mentally for us to do anything besides more harm."
Before Legolas could ask for identification of the dead girl, Micah came back and burst into the room, strapping on what looked like a custom-made rapier. The metal of the hilt grasped the translucent, pearly royal blue stone that made up the pommel and was quickly covered by Micah's jacket. Her bow and bowstring were in her quiver, already strapped to her back.
"Kaza!" She called to her in a bit of a panic. "The dragons are raising hell and they won't calm down without your orders. Get these guys up to the altar! And why'd you take off all your weapons?"
"I didn't expect another pack of demons to come around so quickly!" She shot back at her with indignation and grabbed her weapons and began putting her sword on her hips. She tossed her seis to Micah for her to hold.
"Christine!" Maikaza called to her. "Lead them up to the main altar, would you? Galadriel and Gandalf are waiting for them." She addressed the guys as she drew her seis out of their sheaths and simply put them in her sword belt. "Sorry, guys, but this is where I have to leave you today. Aragorn, Gimli and Boromir should join you upstairs shortly."
"Come on, Kaza!" Micah yelled at her. "Laura's already out there with her giant bow and she needs help!"
"Okay, okay! I'm ready! Let's go!" The two girls sprinted out of the chapel and their footsteps quickly faded away.
Christine got out of Merry's bed and found Legolas a clean shirt from the wooden chest at the end of the room before getting them all out of bed to go to the main altar. She offered the Elf another layer of clothing from the chest if he felt cold but he refused.
"I don't get cold easily," he said, "but thanks anyway."
"Legolas always has to be the gentleman," Pippin informed Christine as they made their way around the big church. "That's why you really shouldn't pay any attention to him. In fact, I think you should tell all your friends that they shouldn't pay too much attention to him."
Legolas put a tight grip on his shoulder and, as the other Hobbits and Christine laughed, he growled, "You just want all these girls to pay attention to you, don't you? That's a pretty low blow, Pip, and I don't think you want to end up in the hospital room again."
"But if I do, I get nursed by girls like Kaza and Micah," he said cheerfully.
"And you'd get washed by the buzz-cut, 6'5", 250-pound Navy SEAL named Sean," interjected Christine. "I'm not kidding. That man comes in sometimes and we tell him to wash the patients. Thank God he has a good heart and does it."
"Does that mean he washed me?" Legolas demanded.
Christine gave him a mysterious smile and said, "We've all got to do what we had to do and Galadriel actually ordered us girls not to give you baths. I think she feared for your safety."
"So she gets a Navy SEAL to wash me. That was nice," he said sarcastically.
Their footsteps were muffled by the carpet laid across the aisle up to the altar of the main hall of St. Francis. A hundred rows of pews softly reflected the light filtering in through the towering stained-glass windows that flanked both sides of the church. Beautifully detailed, spiralled pillars supported the balconies that solemnly watched the events of everything under them. Three deep niches lining both sides contained life-sized statues of saints and the legendary Stations of the Cross hung silently on either side of each statue.
Although many of the rooms in the church had been converted to bedrooms, infirmaries or equipment storage rooms, the main sanctuary was largely untouched. A few of the back rows were heavily damaged, a couple of the statues were missing a hand, a foot or part of their head and a stained-glass window of a saint was shattered at the bottom and waiting repairs but that was the extent of the damage done. No weapons, corpses or anything that would show the touch of Darkness and war could be seen.
Bright sunlight streamed in from high windows and illuminated the white-clothed altar in a peaceful display. Several candles were already there in preparation for dusk and night. The only religious items that were seen around the altar were small statues, representing as many cultures of the past as possible and lit candles on tall stands stood behind. They enclosed the altar in a half-circle, as if praying altogether for a better world.
Galadriel and Gandalf were waiting at either end of the altar. It seemed a little strange now to see two powerful beings together in such an enchanting position in a church when no danger was there.
"You're feeling better, I see," Galadriel said as they approached. Her eyes were full of the stars and wisdom of the past, as always, and her smile was still serene and comforting. But, she looked more tired and worn than she had ever been before and her mortality was now more obvious.
"We're all walking, so that's good," replied Christine with a smile. She bowed slightly to Galadriel and Gandalf. "I get the feeling I should leave. I'll see you guys later!"
Merry felt a strange sense of loneliness when she left. He and the others sat on the steps as they waited for Aragorn and Gimli. They asked Galadriel and Gandalf where they were.
"Aragorn was at Arwen's grave today," said Galadriel. They could see that she was deeply hurt by her death. "Her burial was yesterday, Legolas, and I am sorry that we could not wait until you woke up. We didn't anticipate you waking up so soon. We expected you to be asleep for five more days and I apologize."
"It's okay," he reassured her, "I'll be satisfied with visiting her grave today and tomorrow. I just hope Aragorn will understand and forgive my absence when the rest of the Fellowship was there. Is Gimli with him?"
"Aye, I am. And so is Boromir."
Aragorn, Gimli and the form of Boromir came down the aisle like mighty heroes of war. Aragorn had his left arm and shoulder bandaged and hanging in a sling. Gimli had several bandages plastered on his face because of the wounds caused by the flying Dark shards. Boromir, though dead and in spirit form, looked more like the leader of Gondor's armed forces than he had ever been in this lifetime.
Gandalf looked at all the young men that were gathered around the altar in wonder. They were almost completely unrecognizable from the first time they met with Galadriel. They were older, more learned and wise in life as well as physically more mature. It made him remember how old he was but he felt proud to see them like this.
"Aragorn's the broken shoulder," Frodo told Legolas. "How come you two can never keep out of trouble?"
"Speak for yourself," Aragorn fired back. Days of grief and mourning had taken a toll on him and he carried his sadness on his shoulders. However, being with his friends was helping him greatly and he was thankful for that.
Boromir bowed low to Galadriel as a great sign of gratefulness and respect. "My Lady, I've been asked to tell you that the dragons are agitated again but the proper people are taking care of it."
"Thank you, Boromir," she said warmly. "There is not much more I can do about those dragons. I have no control over them."
"You're not going to kill them?" Legolas whipped his head around to her. "You can do that! They saved our lives!"
Gimli put one of his heavy hands on the Elf's shoulder reassuringly. "Don't worry, Legolas. They're not going to kill or hurt the dragons in any way because they're on our side, not the Darkness'. Although they are pretty wild, like their handler."
"Let's just say Maikaza's… special," Gandalf said, choosing his words carefully. "Aragorn and I agree that you would find her most interesting."
Galadriel looked at the Fellowship with a warm smile. The coloured light from the windows and candles splashed gentle patterns on her scuffed white jacket she wore over her shirt and jeans. She wore no stars on her brow or any crown of any kind but her presence was unmistakably Lady Galadriel and her aura varied little from when they first met her.
"We stand here together again," she said softly but proudly, "as representatives of Middle-Earth. This time, we are here not just as Men, Elves, Dwarves, Hobbits and Wizards but as triumphant soldiers of Light after a most challenging eighteen months.
"When we began this journey, I saw you as young men walking paths that were not meant for your feet. We were all brought back for a reason and for our destinies. This War was part of it because we left the War of the Ring and too many people behind us. It untied the Nine Holders of Light from the Fellowship of the Ring and brought the entire world under one shadow, forcing all people to work together and bring an end to all things."
She stepped from the altar to look at all of them and touch them.
"You're all so young and it is sad to know that you had to endure such hard times. But youth brings strength to overcome trials, especially the loos of a loved one."
Aragorn lowered his head when Arwen flashed across his mind. His heart still cried out for her even though he knew she would never come back. He was startled when he felt Galadriel's comforting hands rest on his shoulders and he found himself looking into her eyes.
"You will move on with time, Aragorn," she said reassuringly. "It's a horrible cliché, but it's true." She put a hand on his cheek and wiped one of his tears away. "Be sad and mourn for her but do not dwell your life in the past or you will become fixed in it, unable to move forward and help others.
"That is our destiny," she addressed to all of them. "We need to help this shattered and scattered world rebuild itself into something better than our past.
"I cannot lie and say that we'll try to build a world without pain, suffering and sins because we cannot escape the nature of life. Without pain, we cannot know comfort. Without suffering, we cannot know contentment. Without sins, we cannot recognize good.
"Instead, we must try and build a world where we help each other recover from all the evils done to us so that we can live in the Light even though we suffer from the Darkness.
"The Shadows will always be in this world as long as there are Beings and Light. But we must learn to work and live with them and only then will our destinies be fulfilled."
With the relics of humankind's faiths gathered around them and watching over them as she spoke, her words came from the wishes of every living being in the universe. Each statue or token symbolized so much but, at that moment, they reflected the different faces, emotions and capabilities of humans around the world. Despite all their differences, they gathered with each other peacefully and were living together. Some were with suffering and pain and all were with sin but they sat together in harmony.
They all went outside and in the distance they could just make out the shapes of three dragons flying around in the afternoon sun.
"Those dragons are trying to restore the equilibrium of the world," Gandalf told them. "They detect the stray creatures of Darkness and their instinct is to destroy it so balance is restored. They're very useful when the odd demon group tries to attack us."
A young man came sprinting down the street and up the stairs to meet Galadriel. He was flushed and out of breath but he managed to deliver his message.
"Lady… Galadriel," he panted, "I was… told to tell you as soon as we were done that the project is finished. We just need you to come and make sure everything is as it should be to your requirements."
She nodded and took her leave from the Fellowship with an apology. "I'm sorry but I really need to do this. Don't be afraid to look around our… reestablishment because this is now your home."
No sooner did Galadriel leave when Merry and Pippin heard Boromir whisper in their ears like he had little energy left.
"I'm sorry, guys, but my time's up. Tell the others, will you? Farewell…"
They whirled around to look at him but he had already disappeared into the sun.
"Boromir!" Pippin cried out. Even though he and Merry hadn't spent much time with him in this lifetime, he felt detached and a bit of loneliness by Boromir's departure. "Boromir!"
"Forget it, Pip! He's gone," Merry said with a strained voice. The others heard and looked out into the sun while they took a moment to remember him. "I don't know how, but I can feel that he's really gone."
"But… but… there's so much I wanted to talk with him about," he said sadly. "I can't believe he's already gone. I wanted to thank him for letting us out sometimes when he stuffed us into our lockers. Remember?"
Merry smiled. "I remember, Pip. But don't worry about it. I'm sure he knows that we're thankful for everything he's done for us and to us. Otherwise, how else could we have started being friends with weird guys like them?" He kicked Legolas and Aragorn from behind.
The two of them turned sharply and looked at the two Hobbits.
"He did it." Merry pointed at Pippin.
"What the fuck? You lying bastard!" He chased Merry around the square yard and through the streets of the area.
Gandalf led the remaining members of the Fellowship into the little stone-paved square that sprawled in front of St. Francis Church. Here, several groups of people gathered in peace to talk, share and even trade. A woman's laughter gently carried over the wind and everything was almost like it was in the past.
Mostly for Legolas' sake, Gandalf pointed out the key places in their little makeshift town. Everything was spread out from the park that was in the middle of downtown but the people who came back discovered that an Islamic mosque, a Buddhist temple, a Judaic synagogue and a Catholic church, St. Francis, were all in almost exact distance from each other and from the middle of the park.
"For this reason," Gandalf was saying, "many have come to believe that the park is a protective ground where no more violence should occur."
"Are we still calling this city by its old name?" Legolas asked.
"See, this is where it gets kind of weird," Aragorn said. He, Frodo and Sam had sat down on the edge of the fountain and he was readjusting his sling. "Everyone was calling it this and that, I've heard. One person would call it 'home base' when another would call it 'New Revolution'. Galadriel wanted to call the place 'Atain' from Quenya but I think she was joking.
"Anyway, the rumour goes that someone had a dream. A lot of people think that either Micah or Kaza had the dream because they hang around the dragons. I don't know. Either way, someone had a dream and someone was telling them to call it a 'Gray Haven'."
"You're kidding me," Legolas laughed. "This place is being called the Gray Haven?"
"It fits," Gimli said, "doesn't it? It's pretty safe here but it's been destroyed by the Darkness. All the people here have been touched by its black magic. But together, we're slowly going back to living without anything like it. So between white and black…"
"… is the Gray Haven," finished Legolas. "Pretty fitting since the original Gray Havens was a port for the Elves at the end of the Third Age."
"We suggested the town should be called the New Shire," Frodo said and scratched at his eye, "but we obviously got shot down horribly."
Gimli and Gandalf went down the street to get some drinks for all of them and left Aragorn, Frodo, Sam and Legolas at the fountain. They passed by Merry and Pippin, who were still trying to keep each other pinned to the ground, but paid them little attention of their roughhousing now the danger had passed.
A little girl holding a handmade bunny plushie with button eyes kept looking at the boys around the fountain ledge. She looked like she wanted to say something but was too shy.
"Hello there," Sam said merrily to the little girl. The rest of the guys turned and smiled at her.
"Hi," she said shyly. She held her bunny tightly and crept closer to them along the fountain ledge. She picked up her skirt and climbed up to stand on the ledge and look at them eye to eye.
"Whoa, careful there." Legolas kept his arm behind her to keep her from falling in.
"Are you the Fellowship?" She asked sweetly but through her thumb in her mouth. She had big, brown eyes and curly hair like a Hobbit child.
"We are," Frodo answered with a smile. "There are only half of us here, though."
"Oh." She nervously looked back at the couple sitting at a café table on the other side of the square. They gave her an encouraging nod. She opened her mouth to say something but said nothing when she saw Gandalf, Gimli, Merry and Pippin returning with drinks. She climbed down from the fountain.
"Hello, Nadine," Gandalf said warmly to her as he handed out the drinks. "How are you and Narya?"
"Hi, Gandalf, sir," she said quietly. She held onto her bunny tightly and climbed onto Frodo's lap. She held out her bunny plushie for Sam to see. "Me and Narya are good. But Narya wants to tell you something."
"Oh, yeah?" Sam took the bunny's paw and shook it. "Nice to meet you, Narya. You can't tell someone something without introducing yourself first, you know."
Nadine took a deep breath. "Narya says… She says…" She held the plushie high so the whole Fellowship could see. "Narya says 'thank you for everything you've done!' But I want to thank you, too, 'cause I… I get to spend more time with Narya and Chester and Sakura over there because of you."
The couple, presumably Chester and Sakura, waved at them when the Fellowship looked over. Chester called to them, "Nadine, you have to tell them about your dream."
"I'll bet it was a pretty dream since you're such a pretty girl," Sam said with a smile. After his adventures, he loved kids because they had that sense of innocence and purity that couldn't be found anywhere else.
Nadine giggled and nodded but said nothing else.
"What was it about? Was it about… kittens? About Narya, here?"
"No!" Nadine giggled at Sam's friendliness. "Well… Narya was there at the beginning of my dream and she talked to me." Still in Frodo's lap, she stood her bunny up and posed her. "She talked to me like this." Then, she pointed to the bell tower of the church. "And we were up there."
"Wow," Gimli muttered to Legolas. "I wish I could be easy with kids like Sam is. It'd make things so much easier."
"Not possible. Unless you somehow make yourself less scary-looking than you already are." He looked at Gimli's belt. "Of course, it never hurts to disarm yourself of your axes."
Gimli just muttered incoherently and shrugged. They caught each other's eye, laughed and clinked their cups. "Cheers, friend."
"So you can't remember anything about what she said?" Sam was asking the little girl gently. "Nothing? She was just talking?"
"Mmm…" She closed her eyes tightly as she tried to remember. "She said… something about the Fellowship and the sunset. Maybe something about the sunrise, too. I can't remember. It's all fuzzy. But it felt like Mommy was there with me again, watching over me when I was dreaming."
"Then she was," Frodo said and bounced her on his knee. "Never have any doubts about that, okay, Nadine?"
"Okay!" she chirped.
"It's almost sunset," Merry said. He looked up at the lofty bell tower. "How long did it take us to get up there a couple days ago, Pip?"
Pippin took a sip from his drink and looked up as well. "I'd say a good half hour. We were taking our own bloody time, though. What, you want to get up there? Now? Ten minutes before sunset? I can't do that!"
Gimli was looking up at the bell tower and considering going up there but he felt like he had enough experiences with heights and falling for the time being. "Like hell I'm going up there. We Dwarves are sprinters, not long distance runners! I wouldn't make it up there in time."
"But me, Frodo and Legolas can!" Merry said. "I'd say Aragorn, too, but he has a fu… banged-up shoulder and you can't run with a banged-up shoulder like that," he said, catching himself before he cursed. "That Sean bloke wouldn't like seeing you in the infirmary again with the same injuries as last time."
"Be fast about it," Gandalf told the three runners. Frodo gave Nadine to Sam and the other two set their drinks down. "If there's something up there, like Nadine's dream says, then we should know about it. Now, run. Run!"
Legolas, Merry and Frodo looked at each other for a moment and, all at once, raced into the church. Merry led the way through the halls, past glowing candles and decorative tapestries to the stairs up the bell tower. They climbed the corkscrew staircase, which was accented with small stained-glass windows that shot coloured beams of light onto their path. But around halfway up the tower, the Hobbits called to slow it down to a walk.
"And you guys made it to the cross-country team?" Legolas asked incredulously but was a little out of breath himself.
"Since when was cross-country about going up the stairs of a bell tower?" Merry asked back with a grin. He led the way up at a quick walk.
After a moment of catching their breaths, Legolas asked them something that he had on his mind for a while. "I thought I fell. What caught me?"
"You didn't figure it out yet?" Frodo called behind to him. "You're slow after you sleep for five days. It was Kaza and her dragon."
"Kaza has a dragon…?"
"Yeah. We were shot full of drugs at the time so we couldn't really understand what Galadriel was talking about but, from what I gather, Kaza controls the dragons but doesn't remember a thing from her past. Her memory's wiped clean."
"Huh," Legolas muttered, "I could've sworn I met her before. Can't ask her anymore, can I…?"
"Ask her anyway," Merry said and fumbled with the trapdoor latch. "We were pretty high on drugs so we don't know for sure. Here we go."
They climbed out of the trapdoor and breathed in the fresh air the wind brought them. The city surrounded them in all direction in ruins but the warm air brought with it the coming of spring and new growth. Even in the setting sun, they could see that plant life was gently pushing up from between the cracks of the asphalt and foundations to reclaim the land. By the end of the season, they would see that half the city ruins would have twining vines in and out of their walls and nature would already be rejuvenating itself.
In the east, they could see the flowering park that was central to the new Gray Haven. The mosque, temple and synagogue landmarks stood out amongst the crumbling backdrop like beacons and were indeed exactly the same distance from each other and the centre of the park.
Legolas could barely see it but something was being erected in the middle of the park. Frodo was looking at the park as well as Merry because they, too, sensed that something was going on in the park. A flash of a white jacket between the trees told them who was there.
"Galadriel," said Frodo. "She's overseeing something in there. I heard it was a project she vowed to complete if we won the War."
"Wonder what it is," murmured Merry as he craned his neck to try and get a better look.
Legolas leaned against the ledge and just looked out over the horizon in the east. A full moon was rising directly in front of them though the oncoming dusk and a couple stars blinked at them. The light of the setting sun drenched them in some warmth and cast a long shadow across the trees. Out of the corner of his eye, Legolas saw something odd from the top of the mosque. It shimmered oddly like… ithildin?
"A full moon…" he whispered.
The sun was setting behind him but the full moon's light was shining on him, mingling across the sky with sunlight. He looked down, between his legs, at the stone and chuckled. "Lady Galadriel… you will never cease to amaze me."
Frodo and Merry turned to look at him when he spoke and instead saw faintly shimmering Elvish writing written on the stone in ithildin.
"It's pretty new for it to reflect moonlight this easily," muttered Frodo as he knelt down to look at it. "You think she put this anywhere else?"
"Whatever's in the middle of the park, definitely," said Merry. He was leaning against the ledge with this back to the rising moon. "What does it say?"
Legolas knelt down and read out loud the inscriptions. All of them felt renewed by the power of its message and looked forward to helping the new world change for the better. After the sun disappeared under the horizon and beyond the sea, they went back down to the church square and told the rest of the Fellowship what they saw and the inscription on the stone. They felt their hearts lift when they heard the message and all of them vowed then to always work towards peace and prosperity.
However, the peace they worked towards was bought with a high price. Many of the survivors had lost their families around the world and were left with nothing but the clothes on their backs. The Darkness had taken the world in a sudden attack and had left it torn apart and divided.
But the entire world was left with the chance to renew itself and become invigorated by the inscription that was thought to have been written by Galadriel. It inspired all the people that heard its message to bring the Golden Age of Peace that had never happened and spread across the world like the winds.
The Fellowship was honoured and revered across the lands as the Saviours of Light and their stories were passed down the generations and became legends. The spirit of Middle-Earth was reborn through the deeds of the Fellowship and the New Age was ushered in by them.
This Golden Age prospered in balance with nature as humankind set out to repair the damage it did in the past. The world had peace that balanced the war but senseless destruction and hate were kept at bay. As time drew on over the centuries, the race of Humankind finally discovered themselves as the caretakers of their world and it lived with nature and the Earth, nurturing it as well as taking from it.
Out of the ashes of the Past, the Golden Age lived on for centuries and millennia. The Fellowship of the Ring and the Saviours of Light, though known now only as stories and not as fact, still echoed their tale across time and were never forgotten.
It was discovered soon after the Fellowship heard the inscription that Galadriel never etched the poem into the four buildings but she used it so the destruction caused by the Darkness and hatred would never happen again.
Here is what appeared to be handed down from the heavens:
Here the Heart of Darkness was beating,
Here did it sleep.
Here the Shadows ruled the lands,
Here its control it did keep.
Nine Warriors of Light and power,
Those who fought for the world in the past,
Fought and died
But Time put over their faces a mask.
From out of the depths of Time
Nine springs of Light were reborn.
For years the floated in the world,
Waiting for their fates to be formed.
Piercing the Darkness, they fly
With flaming souls, arrows that sing,
Axes that thunder
And swords that ring.
With them come Hope,
Diligence, Loyalty, Strength, Dependency,
Courage, Wisdom, Faith,
And Purity of the Soul.
Together, they stand side by side,
Like an eternal chain of honourable links,
Since the Beginning of Time
To the End of All Things.
The End
A/N: Look at that, it's finished and almost exactly two years after I first started it, too. Isn't that something?
Hantas to all! Especially the SJCS readers with codenames Aaron, Marty, Pete! hantas go out to everyone who had the patience to read this fic and special hantas go out to Cloud-123, Tears of Eternal Darkness and Mooncinder!
It's done! It's done! It's done! Oh, god… it's done.
But, I have a little side fanfiction project going on and it explains the dragon-girl, Maikaza. This new fic, The Jade Dragon, is going to take place entirely in Mirkwood with Legolas and a bit of Aragorn but absolutely NO ROMANCE and this fic is going to be under a constant editing process so it'll change slightly over time.
There is little or no romantic interest between Legolas and Kaza! … Unless I get reviews saying I should. But right now, I am not planning any romantic stuff between any characters.
Thanks again for reading my fanfiction The Search For Darkness and I hope to see all you readers again!