Veiled Stars » LotR [1] ✔️

Chapter Twenty-One: Secrets Unearthed

Aragorn paced the cell.

His heart drummed against his chest and his fingers trembled. He rubbed his forehead, his fingertips ice cold against skin.

Turning, he began his cycle again, only to stop abruptly as a hand placed on his arm.

He looked down at Gimli's sympathetic face.

The dwarf's eyes were soft and although his mouth was buried under his beard, Aragorn could tell he was trying to smile.

"She'll be alright, laddie," Gimli told him softly. "Elle's a fighter, she'll get through this."

Aragorn turned his head, gazing sideways out of the bars. An orc guard watched them from his post a few feet away, a hungered look etched across his lumpy face.

Looking back at Gimli, Aragorn forced a tight nod, trying to swallow past the knot in his throat. Gimli patted his arm once more, before returning to his spot on the floor.

Aragorn looked around the cell, noting Boromir beside the hobbits, and then Legolas, who was slumped in the corner, his eyes trained on the floor.

He padded over to his friend, sliding down beside him.

When Legolas looked over at him, Aragorn caught a strange light in his blue eyes. Written across his face was much more than concern for a friend.

Aragorn realized with a sudden start that Legolas, the most tireless and fearless of the entire fellowship, was afraid.

The emotion was an unnatural look in the elf's eyes, yet perhaps it was because Aragorn had never seen Legolas show a flicker of fear before.

Words stuck in Aragorn's throat as everything he had planned to say fled his mind.

"I couldn't fight back," Legolas's mumble was so soft, it was barely a whisper. "It's just like with my naneth-- another fate I couldn't do anything to prevent," Legolas's voice suddenly broke and he turned his head away, fixing his eyes back on the floor.

Aragorn clenched his jaw, reaching inside his tunic and pulling out the stone around his neck. He slipped the chain around his head, gazing at the Evenstar.

The metal was cool in his palm, a heavier weight than it looked.

Then again, perhaps the weight was all in his mind.

Legolas glanced back, catching the glimmer. His eyes widened, "Agnor didn't take it?"

Aragorn shook his head, closing his palm around the stone, "I would have died before I let him."

He looked sideways at his friend, clasping the chain back around his neck. "She is hundreds of miles away, yet I still feel hope. Because no matter what, there will always be hope, Legolas. Always."

Legolas gave a small smile, "hannon le, mellon-nin."

Yet opposite them, Boromir grunted.

Aragorn looked up to see the man shaking his head, his fingers curling into fists. "Bah, hope. That's exactly what got us into this mess, and this stupid quest."

Aragorn narrowed his eyes, "For some reason, I doubt hope is all that pushed you into accompanying this quest."

"What are you implying, Ranger?" Boromir asked sharply, sitting up.

Aragorn scowled, "I imagined the Ring was a far better goal to you than saving Frodo. After all, what do you care of the hobbits?"

Boromir's face reddened and he shoved himself up, "Don't pretend to know me, Aragorn! I'm going to die here, same as you. Because I came for Frodo, same as you!"