An Unlikely Pair *LOTR FanFic*

Chapter 24: Red Sun Rises

The following morning, the pair was greated with a red tinted sun rise. Celeste looked up at it as Boromir quenched their fire. She felt a pit in her stomach, a forboading that she didn't understand.

"A red sunrise, many believe it means blood was spilled the night before." Boromir commented as he took note of her unblinking gaze.

"This is a time of war, should the sun not rise red everyday then?" She asked, "This feels...worse." Boromir wrapped an arm around her shoulders to pull her in for a comforting side hug. She leaned her head on his shoulder and sighed slightly before stepping away and grabbing her pack.

"Celeste, I think you may be right...look." Boromir pointed far off towards the horizon where a large smoke stack was billowing upwards towards the sky.

"That is the direction of our path no?" He nodded, "How long do you think it will take for us to get there?"

"If we move as quickly as we can, we'll probably be there as the sun sets, maybe a little afterwards."

"Onward then, as quickly as we can." Celeste forced a smile, the pit in her stomach only growing stronger as they took off towards the smoke.

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True to his estimate, the companions made it to the source of smoke just as the last rays of the sun dipped below the horizon. The stench of burning flesh engulfed them long before they saw the pile of burnt orc bodies that were still smoldering. Celeste screamed in horror as she fell to her knees in front of the pile. Boromir was quick to make a torch so they could inspect the area further.

"They can't be...please, he can't be. He was alive. He was alive!" Celeste begged as she began searching through the pile of bodies trying to find any distunishing features that might tell her if Dur was amoung the dead. Boromir joined her in the search, looking for smaller bodies that could resemble the two small hobbits. Not caring for the slight burning of her hands as she moved hot armor pieces out of the way, she did not stop till she reached the grass. 

"I'm sure the littles ones weren't in here. Did you-" His words died in his throat as he took in the woman in front of him. She was now covered in soot, orc blood, and dirt, but it was her eyes that made him stop cold. They were lifeless, empty, completely glazed over as she remained on her knees in the middle of a pile of dead orcs. She didn't move, she didn't even blink. Had Boromir not seen her moving a mere second ago, he'd thought she was dead. He climbed over the piles of bodies and kneeled in front of her. "Celeste...Did you find him?" He was almost scared to ask. He was use to violent outbursts of rage and grief, but this was, she seemed to almost sink into herself and that scared him much more. Now closer to her, he could see that her whole body was shaking.

And in an instant, Boromir was pushed backwards by a forceful gust of wind, the pile of bodies they were in the center of, stopped him from getting pushed too from her. He breathed heavily as the air seemed to vanish from the area as Celeste's eyes flashed pure white and her hair floated up and around her head like a halo. The same state she had gone into when she had brought Boromir back.

Slipping into the mind space known as Aether's Happy Place, Celeste was screaming and crying as Aether and Nether ran towards her.

"Celeste you have to calm down!" Nether said, trying to get close to her but even in here, there was a shield of wind keeping them at bay.

"Celeste you're losing control!" Aether screamed as she watched her descendant's left hand that had gotten withered and gray slowly start to turn black once more, starting at the finger tips.

"He's gone! How can he be gone!? If I was stronger, I could bring him back! I need to be stronger!"

"Celeste, you are strong! Loss is a part of life. I'm sorry." Nether tried to force the wind to stop, but Celeste's power was stronger than his, and he still could not get closer to her.