Chapter Twenty
Ello bounded back into the room and grabbed Pippin's hand.
"My lord, I need Pippin for a minute." Ello rushed to drag Pippin out as Denethor shrugged.
"What's wrong?" Pippin asked, alarmed at the look on Ello's face.
"I can't see him!" she hissed. At Pippin's blank look she sighed impatiently. "Frodo! I can't see Frodo! I don't know what it means! Pippin, the only other person that I can't see right now is Gel, and he's dead!"
"What does that mean?" Pippin asked with genuine confusion on his face.
"I don't know. But something is wrong."
A shadow loomed over them, but when Ello looked up she saw Gandalf standing above her, "Ellora, Peregrin, what is going on? I just saw Faramir..."
"Denethor just sent those men to their deaths." Ello whispered, her voice cracking, "And I can't see Frodo. I'm scared, Gandalf. I just have this feeling, this really bad feeling."
Gandalf put a firm but soothing hand on Ello's shoulder. "If we all acted on bad feelings Middle Earth would have fallen long before now. We have to have faith in Frodo and Sam. Sometimes grief clots the powers of us all, be it your visions, my magic, or even Pippin's love for trouble." Pippin looked up with a slightly hurt look upon his face, but the twinkling in Gandalf's eyes told Pippin plainly that Gandalf was joking.
Ello sighed, scarcely noticing the shuffling of feet as the people of Gondor came nearer.
"You have a song for everything." Said Pippin plainly looking at Ello. "Can you give yourself hope?"
Ello looked at the floor and her mouth began to form the words of a Taylor Swift song, with only a few edits.
"Well it's a sad picture, the final blow hits ya
Somebody else gets what you wanted again and
You know it's all the same, another time and place repeating history
And you're getting sick of it.
But I believe in whatever you do." She took Pippin and Gandalf by the hand staring up at themboth with trusting eyes.
"And I'll do anything to see it through
Because these things will change, can you feel it now?
These wall that they put up will fall down
This revolution the time will came for us to finally win
And well sing hallelujah We'll sing hallelujah" A crowed began to form and as the song continued most of Gondor was listening to the strange song
"So we've been outnumbered, rated and now cornered it's hard to fight when the fight ain't fair
We're getting stronger now find things they never found
They might be bigger but we're faster and never scared.
You can walk away say we don't need this
But there's something in your eyes says we can beat this
Because these things will change, can you feel it now?
These walls that they put up will fall down
This revolution the time will came for us to finally win
And well sing hallelujah We'll sing hallelujah, oh.
Well tonight we'll stand it, all our needs
Fight for what we've worked for all these year
and the battle was long it's the fight of our lives
but we'll stand up champions tonight.
Make this the night things change, look and see it now,
these walls that they put up to hold us back must fall down.
This revolution; throw your hands up and don't ever give in!
Just sing hallelujah! Hallelujah!"
"How can you be so sure?" a Gondorian woman cried. "I have lost both my husband and my son in the past three months. I have a baby and two small children to feed and protect. I do not have time for hope."
"I lost my father and my brother in the last three weeks. My brother only yesterday. I don't know where my friends are. But, if we don't have hope we're hardly going to get anywhere. I actually understand the horror of battle, I fought in the battle at Helm's Deep. believe me, Rohan will come. They will. But we can't just sit here and wait for them to save us." Ello's voice rose steadily.
"But you are obviously not from Gondor. Neither is the Halfling, or even Mithrandir. You tell us what to do in our own city." A young man spat.
Pippin and Gandalf angered but Ello remained calm.
"No. I am not from...around here. I have travelled more than most on Middle Earth to get here. Because Men must not fall. It is not the right time. Why should men fall, if they can fight? For their daughters, wives, sons, family, friends. The list is endless, the things you should fight for.
I come to try and help. If you don't want my help, fine, but are you really in a good position to turn down help, however small?"
The man muttered an apology and pushed back through the crowd which slowly melted away as the three foreigners made way to their quarters.
"Oh, oh God." Ello moaned. Pippin swivelled around in time to see her falling to the floor. Her body began to spasm and her eyes rolled up in her head. Her back arched unnaturally, a sign of upmost agony.
"Gandalf!" Pippin cried, and Gandalf sharply turned himself. Looking at Ello he glanced around and scooped her still twitching body into his arms.
"Gandalf, what's happening to her?" Pippin whispered.
"Not here, Peregrin Took!" Gandalf hissed, but as Pippin recoiled in a hurt way he changed his tone of voice. "I am not sure. I believe it is something that has not been seen on Middle Earth an age. Now, quickly. Her life is in your hands now, Pippin."
Pippin glanced at his hands anxiously.
"Go, Peregrin, get me a bowl of water and a towel."
Pippin returned moments later with what Gandalf requested.
"Good, good. As I thought." Gandalf looked Pippin firmly in the eye. "This is bad, or it could be good, I do not know. All I know is that Ello has found someone who her soul is firmly linked with. It may be a soulmate, or something slightly less serious. Soulmates were an old age concept, often in a romantic relationship or strong friendship, but it is so strong that they can sense each other, do things others cannot. It may just be friendly, though. The other soul, whosever it is, has given up. They are hopeless, and Ello unconsciously feels she must comfort them." Pippin did not understand this talk if souls but he listened and nodded anyway. If Gandalf thought he was keeping up that was good. Pippin just wanted to see Ello back safely awake, and looking okay.
But Ello was far from okay.
She was outside suddenly. The cool wind caressed her face as she drew a deep breath. He needed her. He needed her, now. He was going to die. Ello felt herself fly forwards and her head rushed. She felt strangely disjointed, and she glanced over her shoulder. A strange glimmering white shape was lying behind her. Shimmering white light misted Ello's view of everything, but the white shape she could see. Squinting into the mist Ello almost retched in horror. It was a body, small, and feminine with long hair and chillingly familiar face. The body was her own. Ello surged forwards, but a strange magnetic pull tugged her in the opposite direction. Her importance of her own life evaporated as she swept in the other direction. Another shape was lying in the distance, but it was shrouded in a whirling grey shadow. A frown deepened in Ello's mind and she willed herself forward. It took mere seconds to cover what was the many leagues between her and the figure. Seeing the figure on the floor caused Ello to overflow with emotion. Frodo's motionless body flickered between what Ello could see and reality. She dropped down next to his head, and her soul began to take a shape.
Frodo's head rolled up and his vision was filled with Ello's glowing form. She softly stroked his hair and face, as the tears cascaded down her own. For an lingering moment they were still. Ello rose, and took Frodo's hand in her own. Come on, Frodo, her mind murmured. You'll be okay. You have to do this. You've come so far; don't give up now. Frodo's jaw stiffened, and the tears welling in his eyes ceased to be. Tightening his grip on Ello's hand, Frodo took a deep breath. Ello smiled through her tears and pulled him up.
Frodo was hauled into the present. Ello's form left his eyes, her innocent eyes fading from him for the last time.
Ioreth needed no persuasion in taking the twins into her small tent. It was just as well, so Jam thought, he was in enough of a hurry. Théoden would not miss him. He would be too busy organising the men, he had apologised to Jam about it beforehand. The soft hobbit-like pitter-patter of Jam's dainty feet seems as loud as drums in his ears. He found himself facing the crevice that Aragorn had disappeared into, but all his instincts screamed at him to go back. He turned, and saw Merry staring at him with shock and sorrow on his face.
Grimacing apologetically he held up Aragorn's sword and forced his feet to step inside the tunnel like mountain path. Immediately his instinct overwhelmed him. Gandalf had explained to him that instinct was his gift many times, and that he should harness it many more. Jam wheeled in terror and bolted forwards. Scents of his quarry filled his nose and he veered off to the left, following the scent. He ran even faster than his sister, at the speed of an arrow from Legolas' bow. Fear consumed his mind to the point of blindness. Suddenly he hit a small tree and fell over backwards with a yell. There was a startlingly loud whinny, and he realised that the 'tree' was in fact the leg of Aragorn's horse.
Legolas bow was immediately in his hands, but he quickly lowered his bow.
"Jam!"
"I thought I told...oh..." Aragorn silenced as Jam held out his sword to him, wheezing as he did so. "Thank you, Jam. It was good of you to come after me. How I forgot...?" Aragorn reached down and swung Jam onto the back of his horse. "It is too late to go back now."
Ello shuddered and drew a deep breath, and Pippin exhaled with relief. Gandalf rose sharply from his chair and moved over to Ello. She was puling herself into a sitting position with the same dead expression that she had held when Gandalf had first seen her in Denethor's hall. Tears were threatening in her eyes, but for the moment they did not spill.
"What did you see, Ello, what did you see?" Gandalf ordered, and as he did so, a single tear trailed down Ello's cheek.
"Everything looked shrouded in a milky white mist, but I, I could see my...body" Ello retched and paled but continued "And, I saw... I saw Frodo... He...he was alone and lying motionless..."
Pippin's eyes rounded and he surged towards her. "Alone! Where was Sam?"
"I don't know. I don't know. I tried to comfort him...I think he saw me, and then I helped him up and he was gone." Ello stopped trying to hold back tears and let them fall freely down her cheeks. She hung her head and Pippin and Gandalf exchanged hopeless glances.
"I don't know what I saw. I don't understand what happened. I just know it did. Gandalf, it was no dream-" Ello's eyes widened to bigger than Pippin's and she grasped Gandalf's hand in a desperate bid to make them understand.
"I believe you Ello. I just am struggling to hope." Gandalf assured her. Then he added in an undertone. "I sent him to his death."
Pippin and Ello looked up simultaneously in slow horror. Gandalf turned and smiled weakly. "There was never much hope. Only a fool's hope."