Two Days
Legolas, Gimli, Gandalf and I stood in the throne room. We had just been called by Aragorn, though both he and Gandalf conducted the tiny meeting in tandem. "As you know, Frodo has passed beyond my sight," Gandalf addressed, "the darkness is deepening."
Aragorn addressed us as well, sounding kingly. "Obviously we would know if Sauron had the ring, but we must be prepared. He has suffered a defeat, yes, but behind the walls of Mordor the enemy is regrouping."
Gimli was smoking, but abruptly stopped, coughing. "Let him stay there. Let him rot!" He exclaimed.
"We cannot," Gandalf explained, "because ten-thousand Orc's stand between Frodo and Mount Doom." He sighed. "I've sent him to his death." Anticipation grew.
"But," Aragorn interrupted "There is still hope for Frodo. The other leaders and I have come up with a plan. Frodo needs safe passage across the plains of Gogorath. We can give that to him…"
Gimli interrupted him, obviously grumpy from being woken (which I assumed) or growing impatient in the war (as were we all) "Cut to it already. How?"
"A diversion." Legolas's voice rang quiet from next to me. I could hear something had dawned upon him. "We draw out Sauron's armies, and empty his lands. We are gathering our full strength and marching upon the Black Gate, correct?" Legolas asked. He figured that out fast. Just one reason I loved and respected him. But now was certainly not the time for mooning thoughts.
"Exactly Legolas." Aragorn replied. "The plan is that we will gather all our forces and march upon the black gate. Imrahil sends his army with us, the Rohirrim are under Eomer, I am commanding the Dunedain and the Gondorians along with the sons of Elrond, and knights of Dol Amroth are coming to our aid. Of course the Rohirrim also bring some horsemen, so that will give us an advantage. Altogether we have seven-thousand."
This was madness. I had never heard of worse odds than this- never. We could be completely encircled by Sauron's forces- I paused to do the maths- at least three times. He would have over twenty-thousand in Mordor, I had been there. "We cannot win through strength of arms." I voiced. "There are over twenty-thousand Orcs and foul creatures in there, enough to encircle us three times around or more. It is utter madness. Strength of arms will not assist us."
Aragorn sobered. "True; not ourselves. But this is our chance to keep Sauron's eye fixed upon us, giving Frodo his chance. We can keep Sauron blind to anything else that moves."
Despite myself, a scary and almost evil smirk began to make its way across my face. Blinding the enemy- I liked the sound of that. Giving anything Melkor-related a taste of their own medicine gave me pleasure; even if it was only figurative blindness.
"Certainty of death. Small chance of success. What are we waiting for!" Gimli roared, making the others chuckle and myself lessen my smirk to something less scary.
"He will not take the bait," I sidled up Aragorn, whispering "Sauron will suspect a trap." Aragorn's demeanour rapidly changed, becoming serious and noble. He rattled a bag that I had not noticed was by his side until now. Something globular. "Oh, I think he will." The deadly seriousness in his tone scared me. And with that he drew a sword, but not any sword; his sword, Anduril, the flame of the West. "You shall not be sheathed again until the last battle is fought." He proclaimed.
And despite myself I let out a bark of laughter at the crazy hilarity of it all. Seven against twenty thousand: and we were actually going up against Mordor. I had admitted my love: and he loved me. And Aragorn was not going to put down his sword until the battle was fought. I hoped he realised that sleeping was going to be difficult- and eating- and putting on armour- well practically anything really. I let out another bark of laughter, if to just stop tears from coming to my eyes. Eru be with us. He'd better be.
Legolas, Gimli and I were once sitting on the edge of a precipice together. This time it was the high seat of Minas Tirith. The three of us swam deep in our separate but equally melancholy thoughts. I could plainly hear Aragorn, Gandalf, Eomer, Imrahil- and was that Eowyn?-Commanding her, just please don't get on the brink of death again, that was a lot to handle; but I trusted her to command the troops well. I trusted them all, even the ones I did not know so well; they were noble men, and would die for their beliefs. Not always a good thing, but in this case it was.
The wind from last night and the early morning had not dissipated. It was slightly hard to believe that it was the same breeze that had woven its way past Legolas and I just in the early hours of this morning. The elation was still there, though it had hidden itself for the time being to come out at a more peaceful opportunity; I knew Legolas had done the same.
Once, I would've felt the lovely breeze and caught it, jumping off the edge and sailing the winds to places unknown. Indeed I had done that before; four times. Now I did not want to, nor could I- glide for a way possibly, but fly anywhere far off there was no chance. Or hardly any. So much had changed, and yet so little, especially in the grand scheme of things. So Sauron was trying destroy Middle-earth and needed the ring back to do it- similar things had happened like that before. I had seen it with my own two eyes. Of course he was a greater foe than we had ever encountered before- but wasn't any? In all of this, nothing had changed. And then there was me. I had learned to love, had lost a love, yet this did not change my essence. I was still Darke. From Lailaith to Darke, and I would stay that way. I had changed yes- but not so drastically I was no longer myself.
And in the grand scheme of things, I doubted any of it mattered. The world would end one day- the Valar would see to that. Maybe Sauron was just their way of bringing it about, or Eru's way- nobody knew, and nobody ever would know until the end. Did any of this really matter?
The answer of course, was yes. If one person cared, even a bit, that was something that mattered. In some way to some person, even if no-one else in Arda believed it to be of any worth. And the more I thought about it, the better I felt about being a part of a cause such as this; maybe Sauron would win and it was the Valar's way of bringing around the end, but it did matter because there were always those who were left. Who knows, maybe with a better leader and an evolved conscience Orcs could be considered 'good' people. The wonders of speculation.
Though of course, all speculation must eventually come to an end. For mine, Gandalf brought it around. I heard the absence of his voice amongst the troops, and later heard the breaths and steps, later heartbeats, as he made his way up the stairwell toward us. He padded over toward us and greeted us. "Darke, I need to talk to you," he whispered amongst greetings "now." I tipped my head to the side a little, my version of a wink. Gandalf stretched, then pulled something out of his robe. It turned out to be his pipe. He lit it, blowing a few puffs out. "How about you men get some lunch?" He suggested to Legolas and Gimli "I would get some myself, but alas there are matters to attend to." He sighed. Thankfully the duo took that as a dismissal and took their leave.
Once they were out of his earshot, he stood up and I followed him. We went through several twists and turns into the tower of Ecthelion. Surprisingly I found myself in what sounded to be a kind of sitting room. I could smell the ash from an unlit fireplace and there appeared to be objects in the middle of the room. I assumed they were chairs. I clicked my tongue, then waited for the echo to come back to me. Definitely chairs. Gandalf had blown out his pipe, thank goodness.
Gandalf took his own chair. "You may want to sit down for this." Gandalf said. I obliged. He sighed again, once of many sighs today. "You know as well as I do that this battle is close to impossible." He said to me at last.
"Yes. I did the mathematics. The only chance we really have is if the Valar themselves intervene." I snorted. "They've done that before, I doubt they'll do it again."
I could sense Gandalf's nod. "Very true."
I raised an eyebrow. "Thinking of how long I've known you now, I guessing you're going to have some explanation on how one person can change the fate many, and so on? You did it for Bilbo. And Frodo. Probably countless others as well." It had been a long time since we had talked freely together, but it was good to be able to do it again. Even if it was just as thousands were preparing to go to a virtually hopeless war.
Gandalf chortled a little. "You know me too well," he said, "but that is not quite the case. This war is almost hopeless, and we know that. But there is still a chance- Aragorn is using the Palantir as we speak to get Sauron's attention. The only problem is that it still may not be enough to blind him."
I nodded. "I know all this, and you know that too. Why are you telling me all this?"
"Darke my dear, you must stop interrupting my wise and probably-to-long monologue. Let me finish."
"We've known each other for far too long."
Gandalf chuckled. "We probably have. I can only imagine how Fangorn must feel." I pulled the knife from my boot.
"You have seen me use this."
"Indeed I have. But really, we must get to the crux of the matter now. We still need more forces, and more men are not going to cut it."
"True."
"So we need other forces, forces more powerful and far greater than what Sauron is typically up against. We need something that will shock him, make him certain he must expend all forces against them. Even get him himself onto the battlefield if that is the case."
I was quite shocked myself at the last sentence. "Sauron on the battlefield would cause no end of death and destruction. He kills around ten with every swing of his mace! It would be massacre!"
Gandalf's voice was full of sorrow. "I know. But all the same it must be done if we are to have any chance at winning this."
"So what do you suggest?" Gandalf was making me curious on purpose, and although I knew this I was still falling into the trap.
"We get the Eagles. We get Gwaihir and his flock to come to our aid."
"Olorin," I came close to snapping, using Gandalf's true identity to get his attention. "am I correct in thinking that you are abandoning us to get the Eagles? You know as well as I that you will never make it in time, and we need you. You are a beam holding this ramshackle shed up. Without you, chaos will ensue."
"I know," Olorin said with hardly any hesitation, "that is why you must do it."
I sat there in stunned silence. One, two, three, four, five, six… no, he was still there and I had not hit my head on something. I think. Maybe I hit my head during battle and that was what was causing all the crazy events of late, though I doubted it a lot.
"You must be joking." I spluttered at last.
Olorin sighed, and keeled over. Probably putting his face in his hands. "On the contrary," he finally said, "I am more than deadly serious. You know Gwaihir, and are his good friend. He will listen to you."
"You're forgetting that just like you, he is a Maia under Manwe just as you are. Are you forgetting your own rules my friend? You cannot use your gifts to directly intervene with the affairs of mortals unless in situations where the worlds balance may tip."
"And this is one of those situations." The numbing, shocking truth of those words washed through me. Middle-earth's balance was about to be tipped. Without the Eagles, in no positive way. It could be the end of pure life as we knew it.
"Alright," I agreed. "but can you not just summon a moth or something?"
"It would never get there in time."
"True, true. But even so, how am I meant to find them? I have no clue where they are currently residing."
"You will have to find Radagast. He will summon them and they will come with speed. The Eagles may be Maia, but they are also in animal form."
"Where is Radagast? He has been all over the place since the battle of five armies. He could be almost anywhere."
"I don't know."
"Gandalf, please admit it. I am for this idea as you are, but it seems impossible."
"Improbable- not impossible."
I groaned a long drawn out groan. This is how children must feel. Or kings listening to their advisors. I pitied both.
"There's always Tom." Gandalf eventually suggested. "I don't know him personally, but you do. You can get him, to get Radagast to get the Eagles. It seems far-fetched, I realise, but it's the only way."
I was surprised. "You mean Tom Bombadil?" I asked confounded.
"Yes."
"You hate him."
"I do not hate him, I simply disapprove of his ways. Anyway, any friend of yours is an acquaintance of mine."
"That's almost correct."
"Never mind that, could you convince him?"
"Certainly."
"Good."
Gandalf sighed and sank back into his chair, the poor chair groaning and squeaking. "Now, we may have a chance." He sighed. And the sigh reminded me. The breath of air reminded me of the greatest obstacle, not the distance or the people, or where to find them. The obstacle was myself. I could not fly there. I couldn't fly much more than- well any distance. I could only glide, and despite all the probable and improbable happenings of this day and age, it was one-hundred percent, undoubtedly impossible to get there. Not unless I had a spare pair of lungs, which I obviously didn't. This great plan, foiled by something such as an old injury. It saddened me.
"Gandalf," I murmured at the realisation "you know I cannot make the distance, let alone the speed I would need for such a journey, don't you?"
Gandalf sighed. I can't read facial expressions, but his pulse had gone slow. Melancholy. Plump-drop-glop, plump. Plump-drop-glop, plump. "I know." He stated simply. "I'm not sure whether this war is impossible or merely highly improbable. But we must try."
I nodded. "I suppose we must.
How long until we get to Mordor?"
"Two days." Gandalf replied. "Aragorn has already sent some forces, but all will be there within two days. We plan to rest for half a day after that, then immediately launch the attack."
I swore. And swore. And cursed. Then swore some more. You wanted impossible Gandalf? You got it. At any normal rate it would take a month. Two, kranning, rithy days. Valar be with me, because I would sure need them.
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