7 Fourth Age: A Cage

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7 Fourth Age: A Cage
Topic Started: 8 Dec 2008, 11:49 PM (133 Views)
Deleted User	8 Dec 2008, 11:49 PM Post #1
Deleted User	It had been hard to know that what she had feared was actually true. That she actually had this sickness that was going around. That there was no cure, nor treatment for it. That those that were getting it died. But The Lord Aragorn was right, she would be better cared for here in Minas Tirith. Here in the Houses of Healing. Here where she had spent time after slaying the fell Lord of The Nazgul. As soon as Aragorn left, one of the healers came in and she was escorted to a room. But while headed there she noticed those that were sick. Some who didn't look all that bad. Others were tossing and turning on a bed and others, hardly moved at all. Was this to be her fate? "Here you are M'lady." The Healer said with a slight smile. Walking into the room, Eowyn could not help but smile. It offered a very nice view of the gardens. But it was all she could hope for. . For there would be no going out. She was not in here for a wound. She was in here for a disease that she could infect others with. "Is there anything that you need?" The Healer, an older woman asked, standing at the door. Eowyn just shook her head, as the healer departed. No, there was nothing that they could bring, save a cure, that she would want right now. This was her cage. . This was the one thing that she, a former shield maiden of Rohan, and now Princess of Ithilien, feared above all else.
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Deleted User	17 Dec 2008, 02:26 PM Post #2
Deleted User	The Hobbit sat on the stone wall in the garden, his short legs dangling over the edge and his eyes trained on the white flagstones. Milo Brandybuck was attempting to process what he had been told when he had come to the Houses of Healing for a simple remedy to ward away the symptoms of a head cold. His fatigue and fever were not the common illness most Hobbits contracted in the winter and early spring. They were the foretelling of a fatal sickness the Gondorians called Thul-in-Gyrth. Milo did not speak Sindarin, and he wished now he had not asked what the name meant in the Common Speech. Milo’s thoughts flicked back to his little house in Bucklebury, the slow flowing of the Brandywine, and the friendly creaking of Bucklebury Ferry moving along the water. The Healer said he would never see his home again. At least, they strongly implied it in the gentle way that Healers did. “Milo,” a familiar voice chided. He looked up to see his sister, Merrick, standing by him with a blanket. “You should not be sitting out here with your fever.” He blinked and Merrick was gone. Milo did not think he had a fever, though he could not deny that he sometimes saw things that were not there. He had seen Merrick, and even Myrtle, a few times on his journey from Ithilien to Minas Tirith. He had thought it was the lack of sleep; the Healers said differently. Milo wondered if this was what the old Hobbits means by “looking for trouble.” He had gone on an adventure—two now—and was about to meet the sticky end his elders always predicted unnatural Hobbits would find. There was never a truly happy end for adventurous Hobbits, Milo knew that well enough, but he’d never expected this. Being called Took-ish maybe, but not death. It seemed a harsh punishment for traveling abroad. Miserable, lonely, and frightened, Milo sat motionlessly on the wall.
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Deleted User	18 Dec 2008, 05:50 AM Post #3
Deleted User	It felt like she had been in here for years, where in all reality, she had only been in here for going on half an hour. The Lord Aragorn mentioned he was going to write to her brother and Husband. . . She could only hope that they did not journey here. They both had their own kingdoms and things to worry about. They did not need to come here and risk getting sick. Looking out the small window that offered a view of the gardens of the Houses, Eowyn noticed someone out there. Feeling rather tired, but curious at the same time, Eowyn walked out of her room and into the gardens. It was then that she was able to get a better look at who was out there. It was a Halfling. . A fact she would not have known except for having seen Master Merry with her Uncle and then having the Halfling ride with her to battle. "Master Halfling, what brings you to this place of sickness?" Could it be that he to had contracted the disease? But what would a Halfling be doing here?
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Deleted User	19 Dec 2008, 04:14 PM Post #4
Deleted User	Hearing a stranger’s voice, Milo mused, was probably the next step in the sickness. He did not pay any attention to the question for a moment, but then caught a flash of gold from the corner of his eye. The Hobbit looked up to see a fair-haired woman standing before him. Something in her posture gave Milo the impression she was a noble Lady. He stood quickly and gave a bow. “My Lady, I apologize for my rudeness. I imagined you were another apparition—or whatever it is the Healers call these episodes. My condition was explained, but not in a way many Hobbits would understand.” Milo supposed he had already answered her question. If the woman was confined to his House the same as he was, then they were both weeks from death. The thought sent a pit of dread to his stomach. “But here I am being rude again, my Lady.” He gave a second bow. “Milo Brandybuck, from Bucklebury, in Buckland within the borders of the Shire, at your service.” For however long I might yet live, he thought silently. He was only fifty-five; it was possible he would have lived another forty yet. Having never been near death before, Milo was unsure if he could maintain this normal countenance for much longer. The ghost of future years he would never see haunted every moment. Fear was spreading through him more quickly than any sickness ever could.
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Deleted User	19 Dec 2008, 07:51 PM Post #5
Deleted User	"No apology needed Master Halfling." Eowyn said with a small smile gracing her lips. The time that she had spend in the company of Halflings had made her see what curious creatures they were. Though the smile was short lived as it seemed that he was in the same boat that she was. "It is a mysterious illness. . One that I have just recently been told that I have." It was so odd that she would come here to die. The one place where she had been saved from death a time before. At his introduction something about his name sounded familiar. "then I to ask your pardon, as it seems that I have been just as rude as you." Eowyn stepped closer to the small, child-like to her eyes, figure. "I am Eowyn." No need to dispense with formalities. This was not the time nor the place. "Forgive me for asking, but I have seen one of your kind before. In fact I have seen four. Sometime ago during the great War of the Ring." Would he know of them?
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Deleted User	22 Dec 2008, 10:45 AM Post #6
Deleted User	Milo did a double take. How could he not? Burdened down as he was with the weight of impending death, he was still in the presence of a hero of the War of the Ring. What was more, she was a dying hero. The sadness in the Hobbit’s heart redoubled, not only for himself and Eowyn, but for all of Middle-earth. “I have heard, my Lady, of your heroic deeds from my fourth cousin, Meriadoc Brandybuck.” He felt the need to explain that he was not brave like Merry, and that he would not have been any help against the Witch-king of Angmar like Merry had been, but he didn’t know how to say this. These great events his new acquaintances had taken part in so far surpassed anything he would ever see—or would have ever seen, if he had lived a natural life. “I know Pippin Took as well. I attempted to persuade him to visit Gondor again, but now I am glad that he has stayed in the Shire to do his duty as Thain. I have met, but am not well acquainted with Mayor Gamgee. I never did know Frodo Baggins, which seems a great shame to me now. His cousin Bilbo, however, I was a great admirer of. It was his stories that persuaded me to leave the Shire.” The Hobbit wondered, if he had never heard Bilbo’s stories, would he have left? His heart told him yes, eventually he would have grown weary of drawing the same maps and illuminating the same genealogies. This fate was not Bilbo’s fault. “When I spoke with Pippin, he was eager to hear about the goings on in Gondor. He asked about Prince Faramir and King Elessar and all his friends here. It is too late now to tell him in person, but I thought I might write a letter before …” … I slip into delirium. Milo could not finish the sentence aloud. Instead, he simply cut off his thought midsentence.
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Deleted User	26 Dec 2008, 02:09 AM Post #7
Deleted User	So this Halfling did know of the one that rode with her to battle. But alas, her deeds did not mean anything now. For this disease did not pick up on deeds and whatnot. But it did seem that in this garden, she would be making a new friend. "I dare say that without your cousin I could not have done the deed that you have heard about. For it was his blade that struck the fell beast first giving me the opening." It was good to hear that their friends were doing so well for themselves at home. The Lady Arwen had told her what had become of the Ring bearer, and his faithful friend. Alas they could not still be here to celebrate what was their doing in the first place. But the hurt was to much and she knew that. "I know my husband would be happy to see Master Pippin again. I believe that he is still a guard of the citadel here. And I know that I would like to see the Halfling that saved my husbands life." Though true, at the time they were not married, and in a sense didn't know much about that yet. But because of Pippin, Faramir had escaped the pyre that his father had set him on and ended up in these very houses. "I think that writing a letter sounds like a wonderful idea. I too have people that I should send one too." Even though the Lord Aragorn had mentioned sending one to Faramir, and Eomer, she to, wished to send her husband and her brother something.
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Deleted User	27 Dec 2008, 06:17 PM Post #8
Deleted User	The nobility of Hobbits was a curious thing. Milo had always thought of their bravery as the willingness to continue on in spite of insurmountable odds. Merry and Pippin had confounded his assumptions by showing the same courage any warrior might have. It had been frightening to see his cousin return home taller, adorned in gifts and weapons, and ready to lead a rebellion against Sharkey’s men. Stranger still was to hear that Hobbits had become part of the legends of men, for surely Eowyn’s defeat of the Witch-king would be remembered in epic stories for generations to come. “I will tell them both so when I write to them, my Lady.” The garden was not an ideal place to write letters, but Milo was loathe to leave the fresh air. Being inside reminded him that soon he would be confined to his bed, deep in a feverish sleep that he would never again awake from. “Perhaps we can call for some parchment and ink to write to our friends and families? I would like to write letters now, but also remain in the open air a little longer.”
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Deleted User	28 Dec 2008, 07:11 PM Post #9
Deleted User	It was good to see that the Halfling was in such spirits. For Eowyn had seen some of the people that lay in the Houses with this debilitating disease. But she also knew that the Lord Aragorn was doing everything in his power to find a cure for it. "I think that Parchment and Ink would be found somewhere." Though she wasn't sure if the healers would have time for such a task with the sick that needed tended to. "I think that they would have no objection to you being out here at least for a while longer. This was my favorite place to be when I was here after slaying the Witch-King. I would come out here and just sit watching things around me. After while I even had a companion out here with me. So you see, even in dark times, there might still be friendships formed in the strangest of places."
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Deleted User	30 Dec 2008, 09:10 PM Post #10
Deleted User	Eowyn’s words gladdened the Hobbit, even if only a little. To have a friend with him, now at the end of his time in this world, was a comfort. It was no small thing to know his life had intersected with another’s even at the end of his days. “Your companion then, my Lady,” Milo began, “You do not speak of my cousin Merry, do you?” The Hobbit realized, as he usually did a moment too late, he had asked a very private question to a very great Lady. His cheeks flushed scarlet. “Begging your pardon, I should not have asked that. I should have said that you are right and friendships might be formed wherever. I heard many tales in my youth about adventuresome Hobbits with friends is many unlikely places – the Lonely Mountain and Mirkwood, the Gray Havens and the Misty Mountains, and even Isengrim Took who sailed the Sundering Sea with men.”
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