Please see disclaimers in chapter one.
Chapter 44: Unexpected Tidings
It was over.
Frodo's momentous task of destroying the ring had miraculously been completed. The Ring and Sauron had been destroyed. Most of the foul creatures had been driven from the Kingdom of Gondor. Many of the free peoples of middle earth would drive the surviving orcs and other foul beings to death or imprisonment over the coming months.
The great war of the third age was over.
There was much to rebuild; settlements across Middle Earth and the lives of those left behind . Much of Gondor was in pieces. Osgiliath was barely inhabitable. Both were shells of their former glory. There was much to do in the white city before Gondor would crown their king next month.
Before Aragorn accepted the crown, he wanted families' to have the chance to bury their dead. The losses were substantial.
With King Theoden of Rohan dead, Eomer would soon become King. He planned for he and his men to help rebuild Gondor for several months before they returned home.
With Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin, Gandalf, Aragorn, Gimli and himself all safe at Gondor, Legolas could hardly wait to reunite with Kaitlyn. It took him a great deal of patience not to ask to ride to Edoras that first week after the destruction of the ring. He wished to bring his beloved to Gondor to see Aragorn crowned King Elessar.
Other tasks came first and the Mirkwood Elf waited patiently. His heart sang with the joy that the war had ended and there would be peace. There was talk that the fellowship would travel to Edoras in a few months for the burial of King Theoden and the crowning of Eomer.
Legolas did not know if he could wait any more months to see Kaitlyn. It has been over three months since he had last seen her. The battles had made those months seem like decades to him. He was anxious in a way he had never been anxious before. He desired to have her by his side.
He watched the friendship of Eowyn and Faramir blossom into love before his and his friends' eyes. It made him long for Kaitlyn all the more.
The second week he learned that Gandalf had ridden from the white city. None knew where he had gone or for how long he would be gone.
The white wizard returned two weeks later and rumor through the city was that he had traveled to Rivendell and Rohan and that a woman accompanied him.
Legolas had not seen the wizard since he had left on his journey. The Mirkwood Elf's impatience grew as two days passed and there was no word. He desired to know if Mithrandir had brought Kaitlyn back with him to the White City.
Finally on the third afternoon, he was summoned to join Mithrandir in the upper tower and was told to bring Gimli with him.
He felt like an Elfing, as he bounded up the many sets of stairs to the tower.
"Slow down, my friend! These short legs of mine cannot travel the stairs as fast as you." Gimli laughed from below. His brown eyes crinkled with mirth for his elven friend.
Legolas could not stop himself as he was overcome with great anticipation. Had Mithrandir brought Kaitlyn back with him to the city? Would he at last be reunited with his beloved? His heart nearly sang aloud with joy.
He waited for Gimli at the tall heavy wooden doors which two guards of Gondor opened for the Elf and Dwarf.
The Mirkwood Elf's heart nearly stopped within his chest when he saw Ammora of Edoras standing beside the white wizard. She wore a tattered brown traveling cloak. Her head was tipped down and her eyes were cast to the floor. She appeared thinner and frailer than he remembered.
"Ah, here they are now." Gandalf greeted but his voice held no emotion.
He looked first at Gimli and then his eyes fell upon Legolas. His expression was guarded.
"As you can see I have traveled to and returned from Edoras but I have not arrived alone."
"Gandalf, why is Ammora here?" Gimli blurted the question. This was no time for the wizard's riddles. He had spoken aloud the very question Legolas was thinking.
"Where is Kaitlyn?" Legolas asked. The patience had finally fled his body. He wanted answers and not riddles.
A soft feminine sob filled the air and Legolas felt his heartbeat quicken.
"Ammora came to help heal the injured," Gandalf explained. "She has also brought something for you, Legolas."
The older woman stepped forward at the wizard's nod. There was a brown leather satchel with horse motifs in her hands. Her whole body was trembling. Her eyes were downcast and she would not look at anyone in the room.
She fumbled with the clasp of the satchel and withdrew a book.
Legolas would have recognized it anywhere.
It was Kaitlyn's sketchbook.
He swallowed hard.
Gimli gasped, recognizing it as well. The book of her sketches had helped open up communication between Kaitlyn and the fellowship.
"Kaitlyn became a champion for the people at Edoras. Will you explain, Ammora?"
Legolas did not miss the past tense use of the word 'became' and yet he still clung to hope.
"She hunted food for us…she kept the city fed. She rode out everyday, checked her traps and snares. Several days in a row something stole the bait from her traps near the forests at the base of the white mountains. She went out to investigate…and never returned."
Legolas felt his mouth go dry. His knees felt weak. He put a hand on Gimli's shoulder to steady himself.
"What happened? Please, where is she?" Legolas pleaded softly.
He looked to Ammora, but the woman had put a hand over her mouth. Tears streamed down her face as she continued to stare at the floor. He looked to Mithrandir but could not read the wizard's expression.
"She was attacked by orcs hiding in the mountains and forests around Edoras." Gandalf explained when Ammora did not speak. " No doubt it was they who stole the bait from her traps. They were perhaps remnants of Saurman's great army after we purged Isengard."
Legolas inhaled so sharply it felt as if his lungs were on fire. Pain spread through his chest.
"There was a boy with her when the attack happened." Gandalf continued in a quiet tone. "The boy said Kaitlyn fought like a warrior and saved his life. She killed all seven orcs with sword, bow and dagger but not before one plunged a blade into her back."
Legolas felt the room spin around him. He tried to calm himself and forced himself to take even breaths. Surely she was healing this moment from the attack. It would explain why she had not come to Gondor.
"The boy attempted to ride to Edoras for help but her horse Hasufel would not return. He galloped hard and swift to the north, carrying the boy away from the city. By chance, the boy met a party of Elves from Lorien. They traveled with him to retrieve Kaitlyn and brought her to Lady Galadriel. She sent for Lord Elrond who did his best to heal her."
Gandalf paused and gave a deep sigh. He looked carefully at Gimli and then Legolas. Her eyes were full of sympathy.
"Her injuries were severe. Kaitlyn Westerly has passed from this world."
The world felt as if it stopped for a moment before everything spun rapidly around Legolas in a burst of color, sound and light.
"I love you, Legolas." he heard her voice clear in his mind. He saw her before him, dressed in her green tunic, brown leggings and her cloak from Lorien. Her beautiful green eyes shone with her love for him. He reached for her but her image faded and he was left alone in darkness.
Legolas fell to his knees on the white stone floor. He fell forward, one hand palm down on the cold stone. His other hand clutched his heart. The pain was so severe he thought his heart might burst in his chest. The pain grew and spread through him like a blast of dragon flame. White hot, it consumed him. He could not breathe. The sound of an animal wailing filled his ears and he realized the sound came from his own mouth.
He felt strong hands on his shoulders and he gazed up with blurry vision to see Gimli trying to comfort him. The dwarf had tears in his eyes.
Legolas heard sobbing and saw Ammora had tears streaming down her face. She watched him now, her eyes full of their own pain and sympathy.
"She had become like a daughter to me, " she choked out the words through her tears. "She found a purpose feeding us and helping me while she waited for you. Her love for you never wavered. She told Ramma to get word to you that she loved you. It is why I wanted to come. To tell you myself as hard as I know that task would be. I know she would have wanted you to have her things. I am so terribly sorry."
Legolas lowered his head, his blond hair fell like a curtain hiding his pain from the others in the room. He wanted nothing more than to lay down. Never before had he wished for death but he wished for it now. This pain was greater than anything he had ever felt.
This was not how it was to be. The ring was destroyed . Sauron was destroyed. The war was over. He was to marry Kaitlyn and live happily.
How could she have passed? Surely, someone was mistaken.
He looked around him to the somber faces, to Mithrandir who leaned heavily on his staff, his head bowed and eyes closed and realized there was no mistake.
The mortal woman his heart had chosen, was dead and gone from this world.
His blue eyes closed and tears streamed down his cheeks.
Author's Notes:
Yes, evil cliff hanger. I felt awful doing this to poor Legolas.
As always, I am so very grateful to those of you who take the time to leave a review. They all mean a lot to me.
I also am aware that in many of the earlier chapters, the elvish translations to several conversations did not come through in the chapter. I was able to easily fix most of the translations over at Archive of Our Own (AO3), where I also have this story uploaded. To fix the chapters here on will take a bit more effort as I have to delete the affected chapter files and reupload a new file for each chapter missing the translations. I plan to do that, I just don't know when. But it will be done at some point. I have to make sure I don't botch that up and mess up the story format!
While I have several more chapters written, I need to edit them and with Thanksgiving coming up here in the USA, it may not be until the beginning of December before I get chapter 45 uploaded. I'm cooking and hosting this year and I have lots to do to get ready!