At the End of All Things [LotR / Legolas] Book 3

XXIII

XXIII

You guys are so amazing! I had the most difficult time choosing who to dedicate this chapter to! In the end I landed on BloodVampireprincess - thank you for your unbelievingly sweet comment! I am happy my story has kept you reading through the three books!

Ára watched in amazement as the Rohirrim gathered to ride down the small slope towards the white city. Though she knew he was not riding with them, her eyes still travelled along the riders – searching for long blonde hair and keen blue eyes.

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"What is it? What do you see?"

Gimli moved closer to Legolas, his eyes wide as he tried to see anything with help of the flickering light of Aragorn's torch. The floor was littered with human skulls, but as Aragorn moved on Legolas stayed put, his eyes following the pale shreds of clouds around them – "I see shapes of men and of horses."

"Where?" Gimli stepped even closer, his fingers tightening around the hilth of his axe as his eyes widened even more. Aragorn too had stopped, his eyes glancing around in concern.

"Pale banners like shreds of cloud," Legolas said softly – his eyes flickering around as they continued walking. "Spears rise like winter thickets through a shroud of mist. The dead are following. They have been summoned."

Spinning around, Gimli's eyes searched the darkness for the shapes that Legolas was describing, but the eyes of the Dwarves are not as keen as the eyes of the Elves, and cannot be compared.

"The dead?" Gimli said, his voice on the brink of being shaky. "Summoned? I knew that! Huh." He turned around slowly, "huh, very good. Very good." In his inspection of the shadows around him he had not realized that the other two had moved on and startled as he noticed it, "Legolas!" With a yell, he ran after them, catching up to them quickly.

Legolas paused, looking at the thin arms that stretched up towards them from the fog-like clouds lingering around their waists. As the hands writhed to reach them – ethereal in their apperance – Gimli tried desperately to blow them away with his breath, wafting his hands around himself to make the hands disappear. Biting down a smile at his friend's frantic huffing and puffing, Legolas moved on – his eyes continuously catching new shapes in the twisting smoke.

Crackling was heard as Aragorn stepped forwards and his eyes moved to his feet in surprise – "Do not look down," he commanded, his eyes filled with horror as he looked back up. Legolas had already seen what littered the floor underneath them, but his feet still made no sound as he walked on top of the skulls – an Elven ability he very much appreciated in this moment.

Gimli paused behind him and looked down – immediately seeing the human skulls on the floor. Stepping forwards gingerly the skulls crunch beneath his heavy feet. With a pained expression on his face he hurried forwards, the crackling and breaking of the skulls underneath his boots seemingly echoing through the tunnel.

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Ára scaled down the wall agilely. Her eyes scanning the battling going on around her.

"Stop the towers!" she yelled to some men, "aim at the trolls!"

Though the men managed to stop some of the siege towers a great deal of them made it all the way to the wall. As soon as it reached the wall a door fell open – smashing into the top of the wall it created a lot of fragments and dust to fly up into the air – momentarily blinding the soldiers. Soon the Orcs were storming out of the tower, surprising the men – many of them taking several steps back.