Uh, fair warning: more melodramatic than I eeeever intended, but since it's written, ahahaha? (Thanks to Gen for catching my problems with tenses)
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Legolas is no creature of doubt and philosophy; even his hopes, he feels, are strongly grounded in possibility. He can look into the sky and see for miles what is coming, and what has gone – he can smell the deep soil scent of the forests, the traces of leaf-scent and animal-musk in the air and on his skin and under his feet.
In his dreams, yes, he walks the memory of his youth – he remembers his mother, flesh and blood and starlight. But her absence stirs no confusion in him, even when he longs; he knows where she has gone as hard fact, proven by those who have been there and returned.
It isn’t until the first Man he knows well, a young north-man of Rhovanion dies of a sickness in the short two years between his visits, that Legolas faces a sudden quandary: when a Man dies, where does his fea go? He knows only that none know. He takes the sudden question-fear and he bundles it, ignores it, does not let it inform his actions; he is of the sylvan folk, and merry – he shall live under starlight as long as they shine.
Gandalf’s loss is a deep pain, of centuries of friendship and kindness, but a pain understood – Boromir’s strikes back into that fear of him, and living with mortals on this journey he begins to see how much the fear of the unknown drives them (begins to respect, in places he cannot yet acknowledge, how often they throw themselves before danger despite that fear).
It is the death of Aragorn that sends him to seek the lands of Undying. Do not fear, his friend says to him, in the last days, I go where I must.
--
Mayhap it was foolish that it was the journey of Man’s soul that sent him to seek the Undying Lands; fear of mortals’ fate that drove him to bring his truest friend along despite being one of their kin. But if Legolas had always been merry, he had always also been foolish – he embraced it.
He knew where he was going, and every moment he drew closer he knew his path was true.
Legolas: ethereal (NOW WITH HTML)
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Legolas is no creature of doubt and philosophy; even his hopes, he feels, are strongly grounded in possibility. He can look into the sky and see for miles what is coming, and what has gone – he can smell the deep soil scent of the forests, the traces of leaf-scent and animal-musk in the air and on his skin and under his feet.
In his dreams, yes, he walks the memory of his youth – he remembers his mother, flesh and blood and starlight. But her absence stirs no confusion in him, even when he longs; he knows where she has gone as hard fact, proven by those who have been there and returned.
It isn’t until the first Man he knows well, a young north-man of Rhovanion dies of a sickness in the short two years between his visits, that Legolas faces a sudden quandary: when a Man dies, where does his fea go? He knows only that none know. He takes the sudden question-fear and he bundles it, ignores it, does not let it inform his actions; he is of the sylvan folk, and merry – he shall live under starlight as long as they shine.
Gandalf’s loss is a deep pain, of centuries of friendship and kindness, but a pain understood – Boromir’s strikes back into that fear of him, and living with mortals on this journey he begins to see how much the fear of the unknown drives them (begins to respect, in places he cannot yet acknowledge, how often they throw themselves before danger despite that fear).
It is the death of Aragorn that sends him to seek the lands of Undying. Do not fear, his friend says to him, in the last days, I go where I must.
--
Mayhap it was foolish that it was the journey of Man’s soul that sent him to seek the Undying Lands; fear of mortals’ fate that drove him to bring his truest friend along despite being one of their kin. But if Legolas had always been merry, he had always also been foolish – he embraced it.
He knew where he was going, and every moment he drew closer he knew his path was true.