Let there be Light challenge, Torchlight - To His Northern Fields Never Returning
Author: AzalaisTitle: To His Northern Fields Never Returning
Character: Halbarad
Source: RoTK
Rating: G
Warning: foreknowledge of character death
Disclaimer: Middle-earth belongs to Tolkien and his heirs: I wander there for fun, not profit
I will catch up, I will catch up...
To His Northern Fields Never Returning
Hour after hour, eyes fixed on the dim flicker of Aragorn’s torchlight ahead; steady clopping of hooves, horses’ unnerved snorts, and at their backs an endless rustling whisper…
I have seen my death.
He had known it, in sudden cold shock, as he stood before that threshold; inescapable. Why then flee? For I do not, truly, fear to die; only that he may fail…
Thinking of Ithilwen’s grief, the children’s faces, wrings his heart. But he grasps the thick dark cloth of his burden, strapped in its bindings below his saddle; I will keep faith. With him… and with her.
~~~
“'This is an evil door,' said Halbarad, 'and my death lies beyond it.'” The Return of the King, LoTR Book 5, Ch 2, The Passing of the Grey Company.