Disclaimer- None of this is mine, it al belongs to the wonderful J.R.R Tolkien.
My native language is not English. While I try to do my best, there are bound too be some mistakes in this storie.
This is my second LotR fanfic, it does not follow on 'Going Home'. This just kind of popped into my head last night.
He couldn't breath, he was suffocating. Why was it so dark? Where was the light? Please, let there be a light, just a tiny spot of light. But there was none. He couldn't see anything beyond this blackness. He was slowly spiraling down a whirlwind of emotions. What hope was left when everything was so dark? How could he possibly find his way back? Nay, there was no hope, nothing left. Only shadows. Whispering to him, seducing him. Why fight? For what? This darkness was haunting him, following him. He was so tired of running. Stumbling over every little bump, for in this abyss he could not see.
A terrible, mind numbing fear came over him. He was afraid, so afraid. Of what? Of him, he was afraid of himself. Afraid of what he was and what he would become.
Uncertainty. That was the worst of all.
He didn't know. He didn't know who he was, what he would become or what the future would bring. He was waiting, waiting on the storm that he was certain would come, but knew not the outcome of. What if everything he feared would come to pass? What if he let his friends and family down? What if he let himself down? Maybe he wasn't different from any other men and he would succumb to evil just as easily as others had. As so many of his kind had done before him.
The dark around him thickened even more and the despair could be smelled in the air surrounding the young man.
He had fought so many times already. Against foes of the real world, as well as foes of the mind. And against himself. That one was the worst. Fighting against himself. For how could you do that? You couldn't pick up your sword and beat it in a physical battle. Neither could you beat it in a battle of wills and drive your foe off. For that would mean he would drive a part of himself away and then he would be only a shadow of who he was before, but wasn't that what he was now? Where was the child that laughed at the antics of his brothers? The child that cried after a nightmare and would creep to his fathers sleeping chambers, too let his Ada sooth him and chase all his fears away.
He was away. Not gone, but buried somewhere deep inside his soul, where he couldn't be reached.
Yes, so many times he had fought already, climbed up the stairs that would lead to a door, a door of which he knew deep down there was light behind. But every time he was almost there, when he was reaching for the handle, his foot would slip and he would fall back again.
He was so tired of it all. Of the fighting and the dark, but he saw no escape. The door was out of his reach. No way out.
He remembered he wasn't someone to give up. No, he had never given up before. When he had tried learning too climb trees, he had fallen again and again. But he hadn't given up. He had kept trying until he could keep up with his brothers and the other elves. When he was learning archery he hadn't stopped until he could land the arrow exactly where he wanted it to land.
But now… he had tried and tried, but it didn't work, he was all alone and it was so dark. Ever the oppressing dark. He couldn't do this on his own.
He was drowning.
'Estel, mellon nin?' A soft musical voice reached his ears. Legolas appeared in front of his eyes, his hand out stretched to pull him of the bed he was lying on.
'Come on Estel, you have lain there long enough, the day is beautiful, waiting for us to come and enjoy it.'
In a moment his decision was made. He grabbed Legolas' hand and felt a warm feeling spread to his body. As Legolas pulled him of the bed, he felt himself being lifted from the darkness and back to the light.
For there can be no shadow without a light, no darkness can linger for ever.
And friendship, can cure anything.
And so Aragorn, son of Arathorn, Estel to the Elves, foster son of Lord Elrond of Imladris, foster brother of Elladan and Elrohir and most of all friend to Legolas Greenleaf, left the darkness behind him this time, as he walked out the door and into the garden, side by side with his best friend.