A Rose Trapped Inside a Fist

Disclaimer: I disclaim owning anything of the Lord of the Rings trilogy or The Hobbit. I only own my own characters brought forth from my own wild imagination (Narloth, Erebwen, Rhovan, Dagorast, Belegor, Tindir, and Ashare).

Chapter 5- Breaking the Chains

As we head towards Erebwen's house we are both silent, deep in thought about what Morlyg has said and what Erebwen will think.

When we reach her front door I take a deep breath and knock. I almost hope she's not home but then I hear her footsteps inside and she opens the door. She instantly notices the bruise on my cheek.

"Come in, I'll get some medicine," she says, ushering us inside.

I'm about to protest, to tell her I'm fine but as I move my mouth to speak my cheek stings in pain. I move my hand over it and can tell it's swollen. I probably look terrible.

I sit on the couch and Erebwen puts some kind of herb paste on my face. It feels better almost instantly. That's the kind of care you get when your best friend is a healer. A grim thought enters my mind as I realize that she probably puts the same paste on her own bruises.

"Thank you," I say.

She nods and then asks, "What happened?"

I am about to speak when Rhovan saves me the trouble.

"Morlyg punched her-"

"What?" Erebwen says, shocked. "Why would he punch her?"

"Because I punched him first," I reply sheepishly.

She looks at me in surprise. This is probably one of the last things she would expect me to do. It's not like me to go after someone. Although, being in a situation where my friend is being hurt and having some influence over the one hurting them has never occurred in my life until now.

"I know he's hitting you Erebwen," I confess softly.

She looks down at her hands.

"When I saw him I got so angry that I walked towards him and punched him. We fought and I ended up knocking him out and then Rhovan showed up."

She glances at Rhovan and he explains the rest of the story. She listens without interruption but then she explodes.

"I can't believe you would…how dare you-" she yells.

She is glaring at me. Not Rhovan. Me. I try to think of something to say but I can't think of anything and an apology is not something I'm going to give. I may regret not speaking to Morlyg before acting on my anger but in the end I don't regret a single punch- not if it helped her.

"Get out," she says, seething.

"W-what?" I manage to get out in my surprise.

"Get out. Now." She repeats, straining to stay calm.

Heat rises to my cheeks and I get up, walking towards the door.

"Thanks for the medicine," I say softly as I step over the threshold.

I walk alone down the road hoping Rhovan can get through to her and that I haven't ruined my relationship with my best friend. Tears begin to build behind my eyes but I take control of myself before any of them get the chance to fall. I will not cry I tell myself and walk quicker, trying to escape the threat of tears and to put more distance between myself and Erebwen's house.

I find myself unable to stop thinking about how long Erebwen and I have been friends. I remember how she had comforted me when my Mother died and how she had made me stay at her house for a week after my Father had left because she didn't want me to be alone. She had been there for me and I had been there for her in her troubles. We always had each other.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath and when I open them I find that I have wandered to the practice field. I probably shouldn't be here in case Morlyg is around but my bet is that he's somewhere nursing his wounds and has left.

I reach towards my belt and remove Firefrost from its sheath. Might as well practice and blow off some steam since I'm here.

I swing to the left and a cry escapes my lips. I gasp, wincing and clutching my ribs. Morlyg punched me there, I remember.

I lift up the tunic I'm wearing and see a bruise that covers a third of my ribcage. The blacks, blues, and purples discoloring one of my tattoos, a plain sword pointing downwards towards my hip. I had gotten it when I began swordsmanship there but had only learned a couple of moves before we had had to flee.

I pull my shirt back down and anger rages within me and I swing my sword like crazy.

I am angry at Morlyg for abusing Erebwen, angry at myself for confronting Morlyg with punches rather than words, angry at Erebwen for being mad, angry at my Father for leaving me, angry at my Mother for dying, angry at Gandalf for telling me a prophecy full of riddles and leaving with no answers, anger and sadness that everyone always leaves. Always.

By choice, by ship or by death, everyone always leaves.

The tears come before I can stop them and the more I try to hold them back, the more I can't stop them. So I relent and let them fall.

I crouch down leaning against a nearby tree and try to relax. Crying won't help anything I remind myself. After a few moments I have cried the last of my tears and feel better. Crying is funny that way. It won't fix any of your problems but it makes you feel better. I shake my head and stand back up.

My cheek stings again and I decide to head home.

My neighbors glance in my direction as I pass, probably staring at my bruised face. I ignore them and once inside my house I shimmy out of my clothes, change into a nightgown and use the rest of my energy to pull myself into bed.

Rhovan's POV:

I watch Narloth leave and turn to face Erebwen, to tell her I'm sorry we took it so far, that we care for her and were just trying to help, but nothing comes out. I am speechless and don't know what to say to calm her down. I look down, studying my hands which have become incredibly fascinating all of a sudden and begin to decide if I should wait for her to speak or if I should leave her alone with her thoughts.

When I dare to look back up she is crying, her tears so silent that I hadn't noticed. I stand up and she falls into my arms. I look down at her in surprise and try to soothe her, rubbing and patting her back. She sobs into my shirt, her hands balled into fists, clasping my tunic.

"Shhh,"I say. "We'll get through this."

After a moment her crying stops and her blue eyes look into mine, shimmering.

I tuck a loose strand of her dark hair behind her ear.

"I won't let him hurt you anymore. You have nothing to worry about," I tell her.

She looks at me and coldness creeps into her eyes so fast that I almost step away from her in trepidation.

"No, but he does," she says darkly.

I look at her in confusion. Pondering the sudden change in her attitude.

"He's not getting away with this. It ends…tonight. It's over."

My heart skips a beat. If she truly leaves him she'll finally be safe. But why now I wonder.

"Where is this coming from? Why now?" I ask.

"Because he hurt Nar," she replies.

"But you were mad at her. You told her to leave."

"My anger was misplaced. I didn't mean to take it out on her. I got so angry when I saw that he'd hurt her,"she says. "This is all my fault."

"No, it's n-"

"Yes it is. If I had left him before, if I hadn't been with him then none of this would have happened. He hit her and it's all because I've put myself in this ridiculous situation. Now you're all involved and getting hurt. I won't let him get away with this," she says in anger. "I don't want others getting hurt because I'm too cowardly to defend myself."

"Don't feel guilty or ashamed,," I reply. "None of this is your fault. You've been dealing with Morlyg for almost a year. I can't imagine what kind of courage that took."

She gives me a grateful half-smile.

"It wasn't always like that," she says. "He was kind and I was very happy. He never seemed happy though so I did everything I could to make things better, to make him smile. It was never enough and he began to say unkind things and he started to drink. Then one day I made him angry, I don't even remember what I did but I remember the sting on my face when he hit me. After that it never stopped and I threatened to tell someone, to leave him, but he quit hitting my face and only hit me where people wouldn't notice and he told me if I left him that he would kill those I'm closest to."

I listen to her story and I can't imagine living it. Being scared and abused everyday and being helpless because her loved ones are being threatened.

"Oh no," Erebwen says, her hand over her mouth and her eyes wide with fear. "He'll kill them. Rhovan, my parents are in trouble and Narloth too. After everything that happened today he'll be out for blood."

"You'd really think he'd try?" I ask her. I can't see him being that brazen but she knows him far better than I do.

"I don't want to find out," she replies, heading towards the door.

I follow her outside and she heads towards a bay horse tied to a hitching post.

"You have to get Narloth. Tell her I'm sorry," Erebwen says. "I'll head towards my parents and make sure they're safe. Narloth and I can stay there tonight. You too if you'd like."

She hands me the reins of her horse and I swing up onto his back.

"You'll get to her quicker if you ride."

I nod. If Morlyg were to go after anyone it'd be Narloth…or Erebwen.

"Let me drop you off at your parent's house. Morlyg may be headed this way," I say before she runs off.

"But Nar-"

"Narloth can defend herself. She's beaten him once already and she can do it again."

"That was hand to hand combat…if he goes after her again it will be with the sword," she says nervously.

I don't reply and pull her up onto the gelding, hoping Narloth will be okay.

Narloth's POV:

I awake to the sound of a knock on my door and slowly get out of bed, still groggy with sleep. The sun is starting to set and my "nap" lasted longer than I'd wanted it to.

As I pass my mirror, I notice that my face has swollen even more and has turned black and blue. I grimace at the sight of myself and move towards the door.

The knocks have become urgent and I wonder and hope it might be Erebwen. I look through the peep hole to see who it is but with the setting sun I only see their silhouette and can't make out who it is.

Said person loses all patience and bursts through the door.

I fall backward, landing on my side. The side with the bruise(go figure). I wince and stand up quickly, ready to defend myself against the mystery intruder.

The intruder comes closer and I see him smirking. I'd know that smirk anywhere.

"What makes you think you can just burst through my front door? I know we're friends but-"

"Are we?" He says, still smirking. " You look like you're about to knock me out."

I look at him confused and he points towards my hands. They're raised, ready for a fight.

"I think you can put those away now," he laughs.

"What are you doing here?" I ask, crossing my arms.

"Long story," he replies.

"We're immortal. I'm sure we've got time," I say.

"I'll explain on the ride to Erebwen's parents," he says pointing to Erebwen's horse standing outside.

I sigh and instead of interrogating him with more questions I decide to just go with it and quickly gather what I need into a pack and follow him back outside.

He explains everything as we travel through town and when we arrive I don't bother knocking.

I'm so happy that Erebwen has forgiven me and I race inside, pulling her into a hug and we both laugh, her parents shaking their heads at us, smiling. They have watched the two of us grow up and have always been kind to me.

Rhovan steps inside and clasps shoulders with Erebwen's Father. Her mother pulls Rhovan into a hug and Rhovan chuckles, a bit embarrassed but glad for the warm welcome.

Erebwen must have mentioned him to them.

"You've told your parents?" I ask.

"Yes," she confirms. "They know everything now."

Rhovan makes his way over to us and he puts a hand on Erebwen's shoulder.

"I'm okay," Erebwen says before he can ask.

He nods and we all sit down and snack on some lembas. Erebwen's parents head to bed and we are left to ourselves.

"Now what?" I say.

"It's his move," Erebwen replies.

We nod and eventually we've all fallen asleep, safe and sound.

Sometime in the night I wake to the sound of someone crying.

Erebwen is quietly sobbing, her hands covering her face. When she sees that I'm awake, she wipes her face. I sit up and grasp her hand.

"You've got nothing to worry about. It'll be okay."

She nods, sniffling.

"Remember when we were kids and we decided we were no longer friends and that we hated each other?"

I smile.

"Yes," I reply. "We both crossed our arms and turned away from each other but we both kept glancing behind to see if the other would change their mind."

"And then we made eye contact and started laughing and giggling," Erebwen says, chuckling.

"We made such a ruckus that your parents came in to see what was going on," I add.

She nods and says, "we always were a bit silly."

"You two still are, waking me up with all your giggling," Rhovan says from a nearby couch.

I stick my leg out and push him off. He falls, his body making a thud as he hit's the ground. He tosses his pillow at me in response.

"Shhhhhh," Erebwen whispers, trying to contain her laughter. "I don't want to wake my parents up."

Rhovan mumbles something unintelligent, grabs his pillow and falls back asleep on the couch.

"I'm going to stay at my house, not here tomorrow," she says. "I won't let him keep me holed up here at my parents."

"I'll stay with you," I reply.

"Rhovan's going to stay with me."

I give her a questioning sideways glance. Things weren't possibly moving that fast.

Erebwen rolls her eyes.

"Relax. My Father asked him if he'd stay for a night or two to protect me. He's going to talk to Lord Elrond tomorrow about Morlyg and won't be here. My Mother's going to stay with me too."

Erebwen's Father is one of Rivendell's guards. I hope that after he speaks to Lord Elrond that Morlyg will be arrested or exiled. Something needs to happen.

"Are you comfortable with Rhovan staying with you?" I ask.

She glances at him and thinks about it for a moment.

"I think I don't know him as well as you do but I know you trust him and I trust your judgment on his character. He's been nothing but kind to me and I'm not going to let my opinion on men be ruined by my relationship with Morlyg."

"Good!" I say, proud of her.

She blushes and I hope she gets to know Rhovan over the next few days. Hopefully, he will get the courage to tell her his feelings now.

The next day Erebwen's Father leaves to speak with Lord Elrond and Rhovan helps her mother pack and move her things for her stay.

Erebwen and I go to her house and she gives me more medicine to put on my bruises. They are already healing and will be gone completely by tomorrow.

I watch Erebwen sift through her mail. She comes across a letter and after reading it she chokes out a weird yelp.

"Are you alright?" I ask, concerned.

She doesn't answer and hands me the letter.

It's from Morlyg and he has threatened her family if she refuses to marry him. I want to tear it in half and set the pieces on fire but hand it back to her. I can't believe he's asked her to marry him in a letter- or at all for that matter.

"What do we do?" she asks. Her eyes are wide and desperate with fear.

"Let's see what happens after your father speaks with Lord Elrond."

She nods, breathing deeply, and seems to relax a little.

"Hey," I say, looking at her seriously. "You're safe. There's no way I'm letting him hurt my best friend."

She smiles and says, "you've already proved that. I bet he's scared of you.""Maybe," I say. "I feel bad about not talking to him before I started punching him. Rhovan said it might have made the message of leaving you alone more clear."

"Apparently not," she says, looking at the letter.

There's a moment of silence and then she smirks at me and rips the paper in half.

"Feel better?" I ask, grinning.

"Much," she says.