Life in Death

10. Down the river

Hey there. I know it has been a great while that I las wrote anything. So thank you for staying around for so long. This chapter is a little shorter than I wanted it to be but I decided to make the cut here and put the events of Sarn Gebirn into the next chapter which will be longer again. Hopefully this won't take that long this time but with getting pregnant and now a 6 months old toddler at home, things never work out the way I planned it seems.

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Quickly days of rest turned into weeks and with each passing day I grew more and more restless. I knew that we would be followed. After all, it wasn't that hard to figure out that at some point the enemy would try to gain ground on us, so I didn't understand why we stayed for so long. Each day we wasted was another day we lost on our head start.
"Calm down, lass. You're making me nervous.", Gimli grumbled next to me while pulling the whetstone over his axe's blade and giving me a short sideways glance.
"I can't help it. We should be on our way instead of wasting any more precious time. I don't understand what is keeping us here!" Frustrated, I kicked away a stone and looked up when it didn't hit the ground again.
"Such violence, my lady." Haldir watched me pacing around, holding the stone in his hand. "Aragorn asked me to tell you to prepare. You will be leaving at first light tomorrow." He turned around without another word. I quickly looked at Gimli for confirmation that I heard the marchwarden right.
"Means you can finally stop wearing a path into the ground..." I smirked at the dwarf and then quickly took off after the elf. He had stopped when he heard my footsteps and turned back towards me.
"What happened?" I was curious as to why Aragorn suddenly decided to continue our journey.
"I may not say. He spoke to the Lady Galadriel earlier. Upon returning he asked me to find you since you seemed rather stuck on the idea of leaving sooner than later." I looked up at the seasoned warrior and didn't miss the small smile playing along his lips.
"You know why. Don't you?" He looked at me in silence for a while and I doubted he'd answer at all.
"I have a feeling why you didn't want to stay. I hope for your sake that you succeed in saving your friend. Still, forgive me that I highly doubt you will. Not because of the lack of skill but because it isn't meant to be." I let out a heavy sigh. I feared Haldir was right, that I would fail to save Boromir.
"At least I tried..."
"You haven't told him, I assume." The elf was looking off between the giant like young trees, his face not giving away much to someone who didn't know him. But over the last weeks I had noticed some cracks in the almost perfect mask of indifference.
"How could I? How do you tell someone you saw their death and there is only a one in a billion chance to prevent the inevitable and spare them? I cannot tell him if it will never happen and I cannot not tell him if it might save him."
"Yes, the future is a burden that weighs heavy on those uncertain of it. But knowing sometimes is the greater curse. Maybe it is better to just let it play out the way it is supposed to, in the end fate will always find a way. Even if you manage to save him now, who is there to say what will come of that?", Haldir mused with a somewhat distant look in his blue eyes.

"Who did you lose to fate?" The marchwarden's eyes returned to find mine with a sad smile.
"The woman whose necklace you were gifted." My heart felt heavy at his words and I had reached down to pull the gift off and give it back to the elf.
"No, it was a gift to you. I can see why Glorfindel decided to part from the only thing that is left of his sister. She was much like you. Gentle at heart but fierce in battle. She died the only way she would have chosen for herself, sparing her beloved brother's life." After a moment the elf seemed to regain control over his emotions and his face returned to the usual expressionless mask all elves seemed to wear so well around strangers. Before I could ask him some more questions another elf from his guard came down the path we were on, signaling he needed to speak to his commander and so I excused myself to make my way back to my sleeping place.