Hope ↠ LOTR

XIII. Horn

They set off in their boats again when everybody had awoken and eaten their breakfast. They were now floating down the Anduin river in their groups of three. The river was covered both sides by towering white cliff faces that had sections of grass settled atop them. When they moved further down the river two gigantic statues became visible, one arm each was raised in the air with their hands pointing in the direction that they had come from. They had reached the Argonath and nobody in the Fellowship was left without awe in their hearts at the sight, the two Rangers being the most mesmerised in the group for they were staring at their distant kin.

"Who are they?" Gimli asked from beside her, his voice breathless.

Athena turned to face him with a small smile on her face. "They are Isildur and Anárion, the two sons of Elendil. They were brothers who ruled the realm of Gondor together. Isildur is more commonly known for obvious reasons."

"Do you plan on doing the same with Aragorn? You'd be the first named queen in the history of Gondor!"

"No. I am not a leader the same way that he is and to be entirely selfish, I do not wish to become a queen. It's a lot of responsibility and I would not choose to undertake it, I would only do so if it was necessary."

"Aye, I see your point. But I must disagree on one point, I think you'd make a worthy queen," Gimli expressed his opinion, leaving no room for debate with the gentle firmness of his words.

Athena was flattered by his words and patted his shoulder affectionately before returning her gaze to the statues, looking upon their faces in particular while she still could. Their expressions were stern and kingly, noble and not unkind. Soon her eyes were pried away from them when they passed beneath them and continued along the river.

─────────

Upon reaching a waterfall they decided to dock their boats, settling them down on the river bank before clambering out of them. Once Aragorn had deemed that it was safe to make a campfire Athena and Merry disappeared into the woods to collect logs and keep the fire burning that Gimli had initially made.

"You'll go easy on Pip, right?" He asked her when they were away from the others, bending down to pick up a few stray logs.

"Why would I not?" She asked him with furrowed eyebrows, neither of them looking at one another as they were too busy collecting supplies.

"He can be infuriating at times, and so can I. But he means well."

"I have yet to meet a Hobbit from the Shire that does not have a heart of gold. I do not think I could be mad at either of you even if I tried," she responded with a comforting smile.

Merry beamed at her words and nodded, but he had picked up too many logs and the few that lay at the top tumbled from his arms and onto the floor, one of them hitting against his foot and causing a yelp to leave him. He attempted to hop on his uninjured foot before he lost his balance and fell to the ground along with the rest of the wood.

"Merry!" Athena called out when she turned her head once hearing him yelp, widening her eyes when she saw him sprawled across the floor before setting her own pile of logs down and rushing to help him. She knelt beside him and placed a hand on his back to help him sit back up. "Are you hurt?"

"Surprisingly, I'm alright," he responded, shaking a stray leaf from his head with a grin at Athena to ease her worries. "I think the log hitting my foot just startled me is all."

"Next time don't attempt to carry so many logs. Come on," she muttered and aided him in standing up before piling the logs back into his arms, leaving some behind so that he did not overexert himself again.