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50 Passages Ficlet (35, Claim 1)
Aug. 4th, 2006 01:37 amI think my muses are back! Woot!
Title: Left Behind
Author: Tuxedo Elf
Characters: Rúmil
Prompt: 035 He felt as if the whole dark world was turning upside down.
Word Count: 345
Rating: PG13
Summary: The aftermath of the battle of Helms Deep.
Author's Notes: Movie-verse!
***************
The desolation before him stretched for miles, dark, torn earth, stained with blood both red and black. Strange shapes littered the land, twisted, deformed remnants of things that had once been living beings. Those that had been Orcs he did not care for – but some had been Men… and some had been Elves.
As if in a dream he walked amongst them, the smell of death still fresh on the air. His heart died a little more with every body and every face he recognised.
By the body of an Elf he paused, fighting back tears as he gazed upon the torn body of one who he’d long called friend. With a shaking hand he knelt and removed an ornate clip from the bloodied hair, determined to bear it back to his friend’s family.
Standing again, he uttered a soft prayer before moving away, continuing his lonely walk. So many had been lost and he felt as if the whole dark world was turning upside down. Nothing would ever be the same again – it could not possibly be.
A flash of colour caught his eye – a strip of red fabric caught on a rock. He froze, reaching out for it, pulling it from the rock and letting it rest in his hand. Then the tears did fall, the magnitude of his loss hitting him like the crumbled wall of the keep. He knew Haldir was dead – he had seen the broken body, borne away by some of the other surviving Elves. They would return him to Lórien, lay him to rest in the land he loved.
But he had not found Orophin and discovered that he feared to do so. Feared to find what was left, to have another memory stained by a desecrated body. Better not to know, to remember his brother as he had been not long ago – alive, vibrant and laughing.
Yet, as he stood alone in the carnage, seeing nothing but bodies from horizon to horizon and feeling the dampness on his cheeks, he wondered if it wasn’t already too late.
END
Title: Left Behind
Author: Tuxedo Elf
Characters: Rúmil
Prompt: 035 He felt as if the whole dark world was turning upside down.
Word Count: 345
Rating: PG13
Summary: The aftermath of the battle of Helms Deep.
Author's Notes: Movie-verse!
***************
The desolation before him stretched for miles, dark, torn earth, stained with blood both red and black. Strange shapes littered the land, twisted, deformed remnants of things that had once been living beings. Those that had been Orcs he did not care for – but some had been Men… and some had been Elves.
As if in a dream he walked amongst them, the smell of death still fresh on the air. His heart died a little more with every body and every face he recognised.
By the body of an Elf he paused, fighting back tears as he gazed upon the torn body of one who he’d long called friend. With a shaking hand he knelt and removed an ornate clip from the bloodied hair, determined to bear it back to his friend’s family.
Standing again, he uttered a soft prayer before moving away, continuing his lonely walk. So many had been lost and he felt as if the whole dark world was turning upside down. Nothing would ever be the same again – it could not possibly be.
A flash of colour caught his eye – a strip of red fabric caught on a rock. He froze, reaching out for it, pulling it from the rock and letting it rest in his hand. Then the tears did fall, the magnitude of his loss hitting him like the crumbled wall of the keep. He knew Haldir was dead – he had seen the broken body, borne away by some of the other surviving Elves. They would return him to Lórien, lay him to rest in the land he loved.
But he had not found Orophin and discovered that he feared to do so. Feared to find what was left, to have another memory stained by a desecrated body. Better not to know, to remember his brother as he had been not long ago – alive, vibrant and laughing.
Yet, as he stood alone in the carnage, seeing nothing but bodies from horizon to horizon and feeling the dampness on his cheeks, he wondered if it wasn’t already too late.
END
