Hope in the Darkness

Hope in the darkness Part 12

The sun rises quickly and Meduineth groans a little as she rolls over to avoid it waking her up and snuggling back into her blankets.

"Come melamin, we must prepare to leave," Aragorn's voice washes over her and she can't help the sigh of contentment that escapes her at his words and that feeling only grows as she opens her eyes to see him crouching beside her, his face and eyes light and happy and filled with such love that her looks years younger and it makes her flush with her own happiness.

"Good morning," she murmurs eventually and he smiles even more widely making her heart stutter slightly.

"I wish that I did not have to pull you from your dreams melamin but it is time we were leaving," he replies his fingers straying to play with loose strands of her hair, before moving to grasp her own and pull her up to a standing position.

"Do you think we shall ever see Imaldris again?" she whispers as he helps her to strap her weapons to her.

"I do," he says quietly after a moments pause, "I believe that when we are together we can achieve anything, one day we will go back and you will see your brothers and sister and father again," he is speaking earnestly but she can tell he is as much attempting to convince himself as he is her.

"And our swing?" she asks with a little smile, thinking that lightening the mood slightly would be for the best and she is rewarded with another smile and then a sudden kiss which steals the breath momentarily from her lungs.

"Yes and our swing," he murmurs into her lips, secretly praying that they would make it through this so that he might take her back to their swing, where this all began and ask her to spend the rest of her life with him.

It is late into the afternoon when they stop to make camp and Meduineth cannot escape the uneasy feeling that continues to build within her, this was all wrong and it made her very uncomfortable. They were too conspicuous traveling with so many and being surrounded by so many men made her feel even worse. It had been true what she had said the Aragorn when they arrived, she was nervous about being around all these men and the worst of it was that Aragorn seemed distracted. Too distracted to notice, it was something that Legolas also as he watches his two friends. Meduineth knew that Aragorn loved her, that she could trust him but all of these feelings were new to her and it scared her the way white hot rage built in her every time she saw him speaking with Eowyn, making her smile or laugh.

"What is troubling you my little friend?" Legolas asks crouching beside her as evening falls,

"Why would you think that something troubles me?" she asks offering him a smile that she knows doesn't convince him of anything.

"You are sitting as far away from everyone as possible and glaring at Aragorn as if you wished he would burst into flames," he answers making her almost giggle as she sighs heavily.

"Men make me nervous, this situation makes me nervous, Aragorn... he hasn't even noticed that I am nervous. Usually he is always aware of where I am and what I am doing but since Eowyn arrived he, he hasn't even looked up or tried to find me in hours," she breaks off and sighs again before looking up at Legolas with confusion painted across her face. "I know he loves me, I know that he would not... I don't understand why when I know these things I still feel..." she trails off again and buys her head in her hands as she lets out a little growl of frustration.

"Be patient Meduineth, this will soon be but a distant memory and you and he will look back and laugh at this but know that he is only a man he makes mistakes,"

"You mean he will... stray?" she asks her voice filled with hurt and anguish at the very thought and he quickly places a hand on her arm to still her frantic thoughts.

"Never child, he loves you too strongly for that, but he will occasionally forget to focus on you I think such is his desire to make sure we win this fight," Legolas seems unsatisfied with the conversation and he has a horrible feeling he may have made the situation worse but she stops him before he can say anything else and claims she needs to rest.

The next morning he can feel the hurt and insecurity rolling off her in waves and he becomes increasingly frustrated that Aragorn doesn't seem to notice as he laughs with the King and Gimli and Eowyn. Shaking his head Legolas turns his attention back to scouting, determining to sort out the issues between his two friends later this evening before it could become something that would hurt either or both of them, they would be in Helm's Deep by then and so he could make sure they had a room in which to sit and talk things through. Before he has the chance to think any further though a shout catches his attention and he draws a quick breath as he sees two scout Orc on Warg's.

"Legolas what is it?" Aragorn's voice suddenly shouts and he turns to see him galloping towards him and so takes off at a sprint to meet him.

"Scouts, we are under attack," he yells before turning again and readying his arrow as Aragorn rushes back to the rest of the Rohan people.

"Aragorn what is happening?" Medunieth shouts running forwards as he reaches the king,

"We are under attack quick," is all he says but it is enough and she leaps effortlessly up behind him her bow already in her hand and being readied as he uses her legs and the absolute trust in Aragorn to keep her from falling. All thoughts of him and Eowyn gone as she knows in this moment there are bigger things to deal with.

"Aragorn, I love you," she whispers, not sure whether he can hear her but knowing that if things went badly she needed to have said it, if only to reaffirm the idea in her own head.

"I love you too tithen-pen, be safe," he replies as we crest the hill and see them approaching us, I feel his fingers briefly close around her thigh before they grip his sword and pull it out, letting out a battle cry as they race into the fight.

The clash of metal against metal, metal against skin and bone, the screams of those dying or wounded were not unfamiliar to her anymore. The crippling fear however, that was different to the way it had been before. Yes she had been scared in the mines and at Amun hem, terrified even but she had not forgotten to fight. Now though, it was like her entire body was numb and she could remember nothing, not even how to breathe and before she gets the chance to try she and Aragorn are both thrown from their horse, landing heavily on the ground. He is instantly on his feet again cutting down the enemies that approached them while she continues to lay there, breathless and disorientated, panic and fear coursing through her as sounds became blurred and echoey around her.

"Meduineth," the shout of her name is not what draws her back, more the absolute terror in the voice and as she blinks and looks up it is just in time to stand and cut down an Orc that was about to strike her.

"I am okay," she manages after another second and is almost impressed by the steadiness that she is able to push through into her voice.

The fighting is quickly reduced to pockets as Meduineth attempts to not see the violence around her, the death the blood the destruction of what had been a wild and beautiful piece of countryside and was now the graveyard of those she had come to know as well as the enemy. Seeing Aragorn battling a particularly brutish Orc she has an idea and somehow manages to mount a Warg pulling down and killing the Orc on top of it and charging towards the beast fighting Aragorn.

"Meduineth, what the...?" his question is cut short however as the Warg turns and charges him and she screams in fear as she struggles to detangle herself from the harness that was wrapped around her wrist.

"Aragorn," her cry is pitiful as he races towards her and she screams again as she hears his cry before there is a feeling of falling, her stomach not being able to catch up with the rest of her and it briefly reminds her of the time when she had fallen out of a tree in Rivendell when her brothers had been training her and after two hours her legs had become so numb that she had fallen. She had broken her arm and her brothers had been so filled with guilt that they had weighted on her hand and foot until it was healed. She is quickly brought back to the idea that this was not like that though as the falling continues and she feels sure that she would not survive this fall, she had left him and would be separated from him forever and her heart shattered.