Winter's Rain.
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: unfortunately I do not own anything Lord of the Rings-y otherwise I would write more of it and force PJ to turn it into movies :D
Summary: Aragorn wishes for snow but gets somehting else that he hadn't even realized he wanted
A/N: Written for the Teitho contest: Winter Wonderland.
Winter's Rain.
The blistering heath of Mordor scorched the backs of both of them and Aragorn looked beside him worriedly, searching for the bright light that was his companion. "Hold on, Legolas" he whispered softly to the fading glow in the darkness. "Just hold on a little further. I will get you out of here, I promise."
As the ranger moved on licking his dry lips he knew he was making a promise he might not be able to keep, as the black sand burned his burned his feet he knew the chances were impossible. But he also knew that nothing of it mattered.
"Hold on Legolas." He whispered once more. "I can see the mountains, my friend. We are getting closer. Just hold on." He could feel the shivering of the body next to him. He could see the red moisture drip down the other's chest. "Hold on…" he repeated softly. "Hold on… we are almost home."
The mountains were miles away, and he had no idea how to cross them. They could not just move through the gates, and Legolas…
"Hold on."
He could hear the steps of the other falter and he moved fast to catch the elf when he fell. "Hold on." He whispered once more, while his shirt was drenched with the blood and sweat of the other. "We will rest for a while here, it is a good place indeed."
It was a bare rock they were sitting on, it provided no cover from either heath or unwanted eyes, but there was nothing better in sight. Maybe it didn't matter. If they would escape this place it would be a miracle anyway.
"We are almost there" he lied to his friend again, feeling his forehead.
The elf was hotter that the Mordor air and yet his teeth where clattering. "Hold on." His friend told him once more, while he wished for water to keep him cool. Wishing for water to clean their wounds.
The mountains were so far away…
He wiped the sweat off his forehead.
"To think that it is winter at home." He softly mumbled as he searched his torn pack for their empty water-skin, hoping to find some last drop inside.
"Winter" he repeated dreamily.
The water-skin was truly empty.
"Can you imagine that, Legolas? That the twins are throwing snowballs at each other at this very moment? That they are all celebrating midwinter in the snow?"
At this point it would surprise Aragorn if the elf could even remember his own name.
He reached out his hand and softly stroked the elf's clammy hair out of his face.
"What a way to spend a Midwinter's night." He whispered softly as he noted the wound on his friend's chest was black with Mordor filth.
"I used to climb onto the roof at Midwinter's night." he whispered softly as he lay next to his broken friend, feeling how the black sand burned his back. "I used to climb on the roof and wish upon the stars that it would snow."
He wished that he had never grown up, that he could have stayed on that roof forever. Anything to prevent this.
"It never did…"
He licked his dry lips and watched the dark, starless Mordor sky. "But Elrond told me to keep on wishing. He said that all my wishes would be saved until one day Midwinter-weather would do as I pleased, and more beautiful than I ever imagined it."
He turned to the beaten body of his friend. "We have to get back on our feet again, Legolas. We have to keep walking." The face of his friend was as white as the snow he once wished for, except for the dark rings under his eyes.
"We have to start walking again, Legolas…" he whispered but neither of them moved.
"Legolas…"
But the ranger could see the elf burn up in the darkness, the sweat draining the already thirsty body and he knew they were lost.
"Legolas, you have to hold on, my friend… You cannot just give up…"
As he crawled closer to his friend he tried to imagine Rivendell under the perfect layer of snow, the perfect midwinter's eve he had wished for all his life. He needed that image, he needed a goal…
But the hot dry air of Mordor ruined everything and the best he could do was image rain. He closed his eyes and imagined rain would fall from every single one of those dark Mordor clouds.
And then… it did.
The sky broke and poured out thick black water out on the two exhausted creatures, cooling their bodies, cleaning their wounds. It filled dried out holes and riverbeds, and an empty water-skin.
And Aragorn knew this was what he had been wishing for all those nights on Rivendell's roof. This heavy rain, this pouring water was the best winter's weather he had ever had.
"Aragorn…?"
"On your feet, Legolas." He answered, helping his friend get up. "Just hold on a little while longer. We are almost at the mountains. We are almost out of here."
It was what he had been saying all this time, and yet this time was different.
The rain had changed it all into something possible.
The End.