The Fellowship

Elrond: Nine companions. So be it. You shall be the fellowship of the ring.
Pippin: Great. Where are we going?

#1: Scars

It was probably the most fun any of them had had since…well, since before war had broken out. Gimli pointed to an old hunting scar on his arm. Legolas and Aragorn removed their shirts to show almost identical scars from orc-blades. Boromir took off his boot to show a large burn on his foot from when he'd wandered too close to a forge. Even Gandalf got into the spirit of things, revealing a goblin-inflicted sore on the back of his neck.

Pippin had a wound the size of his leg from jumping too suddenly into a brook. Merry had a nasty-looking gash on his stomach from sparring with a cousin in his youth. Sam couldn't remember where half the scars on his hands came from. And Frodo just took off his waistcoat to reveal the Weather Top stab, stretching across his shoulder, marring skin from his forearm to his chest.

No one really won.

#2: Search and Find

There wasn't really a question about going after Merry and Pippin. Not really. Something inside the remaining three Fellowship members knew that whatever path Frodo had set himself on, it wasn't for them to follow.

And…and Aragorn had seen the horrors that had befallen those captured by orcs. He'd witnessed them, lived them, as had Legolas. And none of the three could imagine leaving the hobbits, young as they were, pure as they were, in the hands of such ugly monsters.

#3: Dynamics

The little alliances within the nine are what made the Fellowship a Fellowship. Legolas and Gimli. Legolas and Aragorn. The hobbits, all four intertwined and yet splitting off into two separate groups: Merry and Pippin, Frodo and Sam. Boromir, grouped, strangely, with the hobbits, a leader, a guide.

Separate but equal. Like an orange, split into sections, each one distinct, individual, each part working to make the full circle.

#4: Cold

One night, they were camping on the side of one of the great Misty Mountains and it snowed.

Aragorn was used to shivering his way through the night. No fire, not even one made by a wizard, could start in a blizzard. Strider might have vetoed the idea anyway. Too easy to attract attention. But Aragorn was used to solo nights while camping, watching with envy as his elvish brothers and, later, his elvish best friend withstood the cold wearing just a vest and some soft boots.

But tonight, when he woke from a thin sleep, he found another small something pushing against his arm, wanting to share what little body heat he could offer. Merry had been kicked out of the puppy-like pile of the hobbits and, searching for warmth, had found one of the most lethal men in the world.

What could he do? He lifted his sleeping blanket for a moment and scooped the Halfling nearer until they were locked together. And suddenly it wasn't quite as cold.

#5: Frozen

One night, they were camping on the side of one of the great Misty Mountains when they were buried.

The avalanche started suddenly and couldn't be stopped. Sam pressed against Bill the Pony, shoving him nearer to the mountain. He looked around in that split second before the snow hit him for his Frodo but couldn't find him. Instead he found Gimli, pushing him against the frozen crevice in the rock, shielding him from the stones and snow reigning down from above. "Hold on, laddie, this is the fun part!"

#6: Frigid

One night, after the avalanche on the side of one of the great Misty Mountains, they lost one of their own.

Pippin was the last and least, the youngest. When they all popped out of the snow, sputtering and stuttering and freezing, there was an automatic headcount. There was Boromir, his arms wrapped around Merry and Frodo, his great shield protecting them all. There was Aragorn and Legolas, the first on top of the snow pile. There was Gimli, pressed against the pony and Sam, looking up at a very snowy Gandalf.

It took a few minutes before they realized that Pippin hadn't gotten up, that Pippin had, in fact, been hit on the head by a rock half the size of his body. It took a few minutes to find him, a hundred yards down in a drift the size of a large house, lips and fingers and eyelids blue but his head where the boulder had struck him an awful, gory red.

#7: Midgewater

There were only five of them on that trek across the marshes, but they were still a Fellowship, if a loosely woven, distrustful one.

In fact, that was when they became cemented as a Fellowship, for Strider saved Frodo's life when the wound would have infected his entire arm and poisoned his body. You had to trust a person after something like that.

#8: Blindfolds

Gimli grumbled about it, for good reason. Here were elves, who had not been in a serious war with dwarves in an age (literally, an age) and he was the one being discriminated against!

It was the hobbits, the wonderful, kind, good hobbits, who asked if perhaps they could be blindfolded too. Pippin sidled up next to Gimli as Aragorn tied the cloth around his eyes and whispered conspiratorially, "Don't worry. They're not being awful to dwarves anymore. Just us short folk."

Gimli couldn't help his smile.

#9: Worry

Sam eyed the river moving so swiftly below him. He looked up at Legolas, then back down at the current. "Legolas?" He murmured, his eyes still on the stream when the prince of Mirkwood looked down at him. "Umm…if we sink…"

"We're not going to sink." Legolas assured him, feeling a sting of annoyance at the accusation.

"If we sink," Sam repeated, "You don't have to worry about me. I don't know how to swim."

Well, after that every time they went over an eddy or through a rapid Legolas thought they were going to sink. And he kept looking at Sam, worrying.

#10: Myths

There were stories, so many stories from their different cultures. Boromir spun tales about great knights and long battles. On nights when they could risk a fire, he would make figures in the shadows, using his hands to make horses, swords, spears. Legolas and Aragorn told the legends of the elves and their stories were filled with beauty and something close to magic. Gimli spoke of riches, of the power of the Earth and the power of the close-knit dwarvish community. The Shirelings never stopped talking about the food, the families, the parties. They stumbled over each other's words and hurried along so they could get to the best parts.

And each was a little jealous of the all the other's individual lives.

#11: Save

It happened in an instant. One second Legolas was on the banks of the Anduin, the next he was face-first in the water. It was disorienting, and he tried to twist around for his knife, thinking he'd been attacked, when he heard a familiar, gruff voice in his ear. "You alright?"

"Fine." Legolas got to his feet nimbly, watching with some curiosity as Boromir picked himself up. "Why did you hit me?"

"Because that deer was about to take your head out and you were too busy looking at the sparkly water to notice." Boromir grumbled, pointing at a buck that was dashing across the shallows.

Legolas felt a wave of gratitude and ducked his head. "Le hannon."

Boromir snorted, already turning away. "You better hope that means 'thank you'. You may be a prince, but insulting me in elvish is only going to get you a good fight."

#13: Coincidence

They were all motherless. Strange, how they stumbled upon that fact at different times, all somewhat comforted to let their grief overwhelm them, if only for an instant. They were nine motherless beings, and they all fought long and hard to make sure that there would never again be a group of nine so afflicted.

#14: Before Departure

Before they left Rivendell, Legolas ran into Boromir.

It was the early part of the morning and Legolas was taking a walk through the woods he'd frequented for half a century when he came upon a clearing, catching the Gondorian standing over a young, fat doe.

The man had looked up at Legolas's carefully smooth face and snorted. "You do not have to look like that, friend. I'm not planning on letting a life go to waste. I was restless and couldn't sleep, but I don't hunt just for fun. This meat will go a long way on our journey, don't you think?"

"Yes." Legolas agreed, taking a knife out of his belt and tilting his head to find the angle to skin the deer from.

A hand was suddenly thrust into his field of vision and Legolas shook it with a smile. "Boromir son of Denethor. I know you're a big player in all this, elf, but I forget your name."

"Legolas." The prince said, thinking that he liked this man who was so forward with his thoughts. "My name is Legolas."

#15: In-Between

In between Moria and Lothlorien, in between the battle with the goblins and the dignity of the elves, in between tears for Gandalf and the dreadful recounting of the story…somewhere in between it occurred to Frodo that what had started off as an adventure and a game had somehow become the most important thing he'd ever done in his life.

#16: Patches

Gimli watched as Aragorn wound a bandage around Sam's head, as Boromir tried to staunch the flow of blood spurting out of Pippin's shoulder, as Legolas found a walking stick so Merry could keep up, and decided to come right out and say it.

"That's it, laddies, you're learning how to fight."

#17: Grudge

It was just a short scouting mission around the caves that they'd be sleeping in all night. Just a short mission, and then it was noise and shouts and pain and Boromir found himself trapped tunnel with the man who just might be the king of the country he hoped to inherit one day.

It was going to be a long night.

#17: Illness

Legolas was the only one who had a big enough family to really understand that if one of them got sick, they all got sick. Which is exactly what happened.

#18: Prayer

Boromir was the only one who did it regularly. Boromir, who had been raised to attend religious services every day at the break of dawn, raised to thank his maker for any act of kindness, would get down on his knees, even if he happened to be kneeling in two feet of snow, or ice, or sharp rocks, and murmur quiet prayers, thanking the maker for another day.

#19: Broken

They found the two in the clearing, the two men with hands clasped tight around each other, the heir of Isildur bending over the Steward's son, quietly singing the achingly sad song elves murmured when they found one of their own broken.

Legolas and Gimli approached the two carefully, guardedly. They didn't have to. Boromir was already dead.

#20: Flash

Aragorn threw the dagger before he really processed the scene. It was early morning, and the rest of the Fellowship was catching up on some much-needed sleep. He slipped through the forest, sure that he was the only awake in this misty half-world of darkness before dawn.

So he threw the knife, because of that flash of brown he saw slipping between the trees. He would have sworn on his life it was a deer, but deer don't scream like that when you hit them.

The scream woke up the Fellowship, and they were armed and running in the direction of it in time to see Aragorn kneeling over Sam who had a knife sticking out of his belly.

#21: Later

Years later, Aragorn would still have questions from disbelieving Gondorians who couldn't quite believe the stories. Oh, they had faith in the fact that their king had almost single-handedly driven he Uruk'hai from Helm's Deep, that he had been instrumental in the win at the Black Gate. What they didn't understand was how he could have done it with an elf, a dwarf, a wizard, and four Halflings at his side.

And Aragorn would just smile, because he couldn't explain, could never explain, how exactly a friendship could form among the unlikeliest of people.

#22: Later

Years later, Legolas and Gimli and sometimes Faramir and Éowyn, and once (once) even the King of Gondor himself, their Strider, would visit the hobbits in their slow and sedate Shire.

It was an arrangement that worked for all involved. The visitors got to experience the quiet world of the hobbits, soak up the tasks of doing nothing all day, and the small lives of the Halflings were turned on their heads for a couple of days or weeks or months. Even the hobbits liked to change things up once in a while.

#23: Walking

The first day wasn't so bad, with Rivendell still in view behind and the whole majesty of Middle Earth spread out before them. Even the first week wasn't awful, because the nobility of the quest was still enough to put a spring in their step.

But it was day after day of dreary walking, and eventually the nine members of the Fellowship grew tired of the tedious monotony. That's when they came up with their own ways to pass the time.

#24: Talking

They began to pair up in the strangest configurations. The hobbits were garrulous, curious beings, endlessly fascinated by stories of the exotic places the other members of the Fellowship were from. Frodo found himself often walking with Gimli, comparing notes on Bilbo's story of going to the Misty Mountains and back again – Gimli had heard the dwarf's version, and it turned out there were exaggerations on both sides. Sam found kinship with Legolas, because elves seemed to understand perfectly the serenity a simple plant could bring. Pippin chattered endlessly, flitting from person to person and finally sticking to Boromir. Mostly it was the hobbit who talked, but as soon as the Gondorian opened his mouth Pippin would shit his, a look of surprised happiness passing over his face as the much larger man wove tales of court life, of battles, of his home.

Merry and Aragorn, Strider – they were the last pair, and the least, falling together because of their propensity towards long periods of comfortable silences. They were both watchers – Aragorn protected the whole of the Fellowship. Merry just needed to protect his Pippin.

#25: Reason Why

For Boromir, it was for a moment in time. He and Faramir were children, Boromir barely in his teens, untested and itching for adventure. Perhaps that was why they were exploring to those far misty lands to the South. Later in that same trip, Faramir would slice his hand open on a rock and lose so much blood Boromir was sure he'd die from the shock of it.

But the reason why he was on the quest was because of that moment when Faramir shook his shoulder in the early morning, and the two had to shake the dew-drops off their hair in order to look out into the great wide somewhere that surrounded them, astounded by the beauty of the land they lived on.

#26: Before Departure

Before they left Rivendell, Legolas ran into Merry and Pippin.

They were fishing in the stream that flowed through Rivendell, catching fish so quickly and with such ease that Legolas was sure they must be whispering incantations to the water. And then they'd unhook the fish and throw it back, uninterested in the meat but only the lazy sport of the activity. The two tiny beings chattered contently to themselves and anyone within earshot, unconcerned that they'd just volunteered for the most perilous war of an age.

#27: Story

When it got too dark to walk without tripping over each other, they made camp. In the darkness, a voice would issue, telling old stories that had been passed down for generations, telling about adventures that they had witnessed or been on themselves, and suddenly the darkness wasn't so full of danger anymore. Suddenly the darkness wasn't so dark at all.

#28: Legolas's Story

As the youngest of seven, it always seems like Legolas was trying to keep up with his brothers. When they went hunting, he did, too, though eleven was an infant in the eyes of elves. He was sneaking up on a bird when his eldest brother, who was millennia older, with fair hair and open, laughing grey eyes, shot him in the leg.

The story ended there, for Legolas was busy staring at the night sky and had slipped into the strange sleep of the elves. Aragorn, who had heard most of his best friend's stories but not this one, touched his shoulder. "What happened then, mi mellon?"

"I learned never to wear green on the hunt."

#29: Gandalf's Story

A long time ago, in a time so old it was really before time, there was a young man from a certain city who belonged to a certain family. He was a handsome, romantic young man, and could afford to be for this was a time before war. He fell in love with a girl he shouldn't have fallen in love with, but there is a peculiar thing about love: it doesn't care about political ties or the borders of nations. These two romantics ran away together, but all was not well and through a series of unfortunate events they died. But their deaths were not in vein! The feud between their peoples was put aside for all time in light of the tragedy.

Which just does to show that out of all black things comes a little bit of light.

#30: Worry

When they were scattered to all corners of the Earth: Frodo and Sam trekking through Mordor, Merry riding with the Rohirrim, Pippin and Gandalf in Gondor, Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli perpetually en route, Boromir on that long last journey to an old wizard's white shores…For that those times that they were apart, each member of their little group thought and worried about all the others. Perhaps that's what the world "Fellowship" really means – even though they were apart, they thought of little else but each other.

#31: Food

The men, the elf, the dwarf, the wizard…they all tried to be stoic about the food situation…the lack of a foot situation…but eventually they started to chime in when the hobbits spoke of second breakfast and tea times, of long parties with much eating. When the small folk lamented their bland diet – when they could get anything at all – the others would remember out loud, and in time they became so good at describing delicacies of their respective lands that a few words would make all of their mouths water for times of plenty.

#32: Healing

There were so many stories to tell when they were all together, stories of battles and victories, sure, but also of those strange people they met on the road. Looters and thieves and hopeful, young, idyllic soldiers. These stories were murmured in the dead of night, remembered on long walks, spoken in front of large crowds. And soon the words that dripped from their mouths, the stories that tripped out, clamoring to be told, were not just tales of a time past, but a strange, cathartic way, a method to heal them all.

#33: Scared

It was after the crows, when they began to realize that their journey was being watched, that some foul, twisted being was drawn to the Ring that hung like a pendant or a noose around Frodo's neck. After that, they were scared. Not of death. Not really. Even the youngest of them understood that there were worse things that passing quietly or gallantly into that dark void. No, they were all terribly afraid of tall towers and the cold, still faces of friends. And they were deeply, terribly afraid of not completing this impossible, hair-brained quest at all.

#34: Fall

There are no words to convey how much walking they did. And with so many hundreds of hours on end of trudging through bogs and snow and sand, people were bound to stumble once in a while. The whole party snickered kindly enough one night when even sure-footed Legolas slipped off moss-covered rocks during a storm.

But somehow it wasn't very funny when the same thing happened to Boromir minutes later, when he slipped from the slick stone and suddenly the dark ground was shining with the eerie inner light of blood.

#35: Boats

Sometimes, you have to make your own fun in the world. Sometimes, something just has to come along to break the terrible monotony. And sometimes this means that grown beings will race down the ancient Anduin River, laughing and yelling and splashing. And somehow, even as winners were proclaimed at intervals, they all won.

#36: Resurrection

You have to remember that they all learned of Gandalf's second life at different times. Merry and Pippin found out first, of cours,e and were delighted at the return of the wizard they'd known since childhood, and even more delighted that this White Wizard wasn't the one they'd been dreading. The man, the elf, and the dwarf stumbled upon Mithrandir just a little while later, and teamed up with him once again.

But the other two little hobbits, the Ring Bearers, the saviors of the world…well, they saw Gandalf for the first time months after they'd mourned his death. It doesn't help that they woke in a white room, that they had been so near death themselves. Gandalf's resurrection stunned these two, scared them, and God bless little Frodo. He looked up, and tears formed in his eyes. How he'd missed this old man!

"Gandalf?" His voice shook, wavered, broke on the single word, but he struggled for more. "Is that really you?"

#37: Worst Case Scenario

After the war was over, after they'd won, Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli took off before the Ring Bearer and his faithful servant could wake up. They rode to Isengard, because none of them could imagine facing the remaining hobbits without at least a few answers.

They all found themselves hoping, on the terribly long ride to the beaten city, that the hobbits were dead. Better dead, they all thought secretly, each hating themselves for it, but it was true. Better dead than tortured for months on end. Better off dead.

As if they were ever that lucky. It was Gimli who found Merry, naked, beaten, broken. He picked up the small being, now emaciated, weighing no more than a babe, and a single cracked word fell from this thing's lips. "Pippin?"

Legolas was holding Pippin at that moment. The lad was cold, nearly frozen solid in the dungeons. He whispered soft words in elvish, and eventually the sobs subsided. Aragorn could only watch as these two broken creatures were brought together, could only watch as the sight of the other made the hobbits -with broken, twisted bones, with permanent disfigurements, with so much badness that had happened to them – light up, as if nothing had happened at all.

#38: Before Departure

Before they left Rivendell, Legolas ran into Samwise Gamgee. Literally.

"Begging your pardon, sir. I didn't see you there." Sam said, though bumping into Legolas had caused the hobbit to fall, not the other way around. He lifted his soft brown eyes to Legolas's and crowed happily. "Why, you're an elf!"

"You're in an elfin city, Halfling, I would imagine you have seen a good many by now." Legolas said with a small smile.

Sam smiled bashfully. "I guess you're right, sir, it's just that I've always wondered about elves and now they're all around me – you're all around me and…" his eyes got wider, if that was possible. "And you're going with Mr. Frodo and us on the journey to get rid of the Ring, aren't you, sir?"

"Call me Legolas." Legolas said, his slim hand encompassing Sam's tiny, eager one. "And yes, I'm going on the journey."

#39: Secret

The secret? Sometimes they found themselves liking this awful, terrible quest with danger and blood and death and destruction. Sometimes, each and every member of the Fellowship found themselves liking it a lot.

#40: Reunion

Boromir had been waiting for Frodo and Gandalf when they stepped off the boat onto the White Shores. Then it was seconds, of years, of lifetimes, before Sam, the last Ring Bearer, came in search of his old master and his lost love. In an eon, or a heartbeat, were Merry and Pippin, coming in so close together it was nearly simultaneous. Legolas and Gimli sailed over on a gorgeous boat, and Gimli looked younger with every step her took on the white shores.

Aragorn, Strider, heir of Isildur, good King of Gondor, was the last to join the Fellowship on those shores, but when he came with his mortal wife on his arm, he greated his old friends. They were complete now, and all were ready for this time to be together. This time to rest.

#41: Fight

The only real argument that split the Fellowship four ways – elf, man, dwarf, hobbit, with the old wizard tisking at the folly of youth – was over what place of Middle Earth was most beautiful. The row ended after a night's rest and the breaking of their fast, but no race ever gave in to the others, each holding their home as the best in all the world.

#42: Defender

On the journey home, Gimli, the hobbits, and Legolas stepped into a tavern on the outskirts of Rohan. It was there that they encountered the anti-Halfling sentiment for the first time.

A group of men, drunk ex-soldiers who'd lost friends and family at Helm's Deep and the battles that followed, surrounded Merry in one of the dark corners. They'd only gotten two punches in before Legolas and Gimli arrived, yanking the tiny Rider of the Mark from the drunkards' clutches before turning on the men, fists clenches, eyes burning with fire.

#43: Conversation

"Merry, wake up."

"What's the matter, Pip?"

"There's something in the forest!"

"Then wake Strider and Gandalf. Let me sleep."

"But Merry -"

"There is nothing in the forest, is there, Pip?"

"It is very dark, and there are noises -"

"It is merely the sounds that accompany sleeping in the middle of a forest, my very young cousin. Perhaps it is possible you wish for company on your watch?"

"…Perhaps…"

"Isn't Boromir on watch with you?"

"Please, Merry."

"Your mother once told me that if I keep giving into you it would be the death of me one day." But Merry did get up, and he did join his cousin on the watch, and that was enough for Pippin.

#44: Conversation

"Laddie, what is that poking its nose from your pack?"

"A rabbit, master dwarf. She'll make a mighty good supper on these sold nights. Not much meat, but it flavors stew goodly enough."

"Aye, but wouldn't a dead rabbit do better?"

"Oh, I'll kill her. It's only that she's mighty warm and soft and.."

"You got a big heart, laddie." Gimli just hoped that Sam's heart would be as big after this journey.

#45: Conversation

"It will take us two weeks to reach the base of the Misty Mountains."

"We'll do it in one."

"Really? It seems a mighty long distance to travel, especially with these Halflings and their short legs."

"One week, and you'll be able to touch her craggy sides."

"I'll take you up on that wager, friend." Boromir ended up being right. Aragorn conceded a week and a half later. The tiny hobbits and their legs, not to mention the sheer distance, made Aragorn smile ruefully at the Gondorian as the other man let out a long, barking laugh.

#46: Nature

When they were at their lowest, when Gandalf, the mentor, the guardian, fell, and all hope seemed lost. When the tears were still fresh on their faces, grief still banging in their hearts, that's when they saw the doe standing at the base of the mountain with two fawns cowering behind her.

This glimpse into the rest of the world – not just hobbit or dwarf or man or elf but those other creatures that they shared ht world with, didn't alleviate their sorrow, but it did give them the strength to keep pressing forward, the will to go on.

So, really, some of the credit for saving the world should go to the deer.

#47: Peace

Merry, who had grown up on the bands of the Brandywine, was used to fishing in streams, and he taught the others how to tie a line so it drifted through the water, enticing the fish to it. He taught them to reel it in and how to wrestle the fish into a sack without capsizing the boat, or when to give the fish back to the river. He taught them how to cultivate peace.

#48: Friendship

It was jumping into battle when the odds were against you for that hope of saving another. It was giving up blankets or food or sleep or quiet in order to keep one of the others from reaching the end of their rope. It was protecting them from enemies, from elements, from insanity. It was songs and stories and stews and secrets. It was reminding everyone what they were fighting for.

And, for them, friendship was the eight other people in the world that they were really risking their lives to save.

#49: Alternate Universe

In a different world, the Ring stayed hidden with Golum under the Misty Mountains. Frodo's parents never drowned and he never went to live in Hobbiton with his rich uncle Bilbo. He never became friends with Sam the gardener and never really got close to his younger cousins, Merry and Pippin, instead opting to hang around his older family members. Frodo eventually married and fathered nine children. Sam still married Rosie Cotton and remained a gardener all his life. Merry and Pippin knew each other, were each other's best friends, but never married.

In Rivendell, a Ranger with a strange past flitted in and out and pined for the elf girl that grew up there, but he was a man of little consequence and less means, so who was he to take a princess from her palace?

He still knew the youngest Prince of Mirkwood, though, and Legolas and he remained best friends until Aragorn's eventual death – later than other humans but far, far earlier than the immortality elves possessed – drove this youngest prince nearly to madness. He sailed to the Grey Havens when an old grey wizard found he'd had enough of this world, too.

In his caves under the mountains, Gimli tried and mostly succeeded in bringing about a Golden Age for dwarves. He became king, a good, just king, beloved by the people. His biggest accomplishment was reclaiming the mines of the Misty Mountains from the goblins, and making a treaty with the nearby elves of Mirkwood that basically said that if they didn't bother the dwarves, the dwarves wouldn't bother them.

Gondor, which had been sick the same way Denethor was sick, regained some of its splendor under Boromir and his most trusted advisor Faramir. They never did stop the sieges from Isengard and Mordor, though, and one day the younger brother rode out to battle and didn't return. The Steward was never the same after that.

All nine moved through the world in their own way, insignificant to the vast times of history. They never knew of the impact they could have made if only for a Ring with the power to turn the world on its head. Now that destiny, in this universe, was for someone else.

#50: Love

How do you measure this relationship between nine beings, between four races? There were so many steps, sores, saves, arrows shot at the right moment, words whispered for strength. There were jokes exchanges and stories told and promises made and remembered. There were bonds of loyalty formed, friendships that would become tales for the ages. There were lives given willingly so others could live. There was all the laughter, all the blood and tears, all the work and sweat and small smiles and strong, comforting clasps of the hand.

There was so much love within this Fellowship that by the time their journey was over, and even when some were gone, the nine would remember the battles and the wars and the pain. They would remember the roads and civilizations and armies. And they would remember that love that bloomed in spite of it all, because of it all.

And that love made all these other moments, all these other strange, beautiful, terrible flashes of time, worth it.

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