Melting a Heart of Ice

The members of the Fellowship were departing from Rivendell. Triina had been given a set of elfin fighting knives to take with her by the commander she had fought before, and also had with her a bow and quiver of arrows. Legolas walked at her side, wearing the gem from her ring as a necklace, since she had altered it for him. “What does it mean?” he asked curiously, examining the large blue gem as they walked. “The gem is filled with water from my home. My people have a very strong connection with water, and use it for a great many things. That water is from one of the temples, and is blessed for protection and healing. The gem itself is for luck.” She answered. “Superstitions of a woman.” Boromir scoffed under his breath, not expecting her to hear him. “Lord Elrond isn’t here to force me to hold my tongue, I suggest you choose your battles.” She warned coldly.

“Triina, do not start this journey with an argument.” Lyle warned. “I won’t, if he treats me with at least a shred of respect. Who knows, we may have to depend on one another for our lives in the near future.” She sighed. “That is a very true statement.” Gandalf agreed. She smiled triumphantly at Lyle, and continued to travel in silence.

Merry and Pippin, the two hobbits that ran from behind the pillars at Lord Elrond’s council meeting, were both lagging behind later that evening. She smirked to herself and fell behind as well to keep them company. “Why is your hair that color?” Pippin asked curiously, unable to contain the question that had been burning inside of him since he first saw her. “I honestly don’t know. It isn’t uncommon for my people though. We have more… I don’t have a word for it… icy, water oriented colors of hair?” she answered with a smile, trying to explain it properly. “What are your people?” Merry asked. “The Til’Arin.” She shrugged. “I’ve never heard of them, are they nice?” he asked eagerly. “Well, some are. Some aren’t. I haven’t spent such a long time there, only a few days here and there to be honest. My mother is nice, and her cook is very nice.” She laughed.

“She has her own cook? What does he make?” Pippin asked excitedly. “Fish… the Til’Arin eat a lot of fish. We are a kingdom based on water, so I suppose fish would make sense, though I can’t say I like it much.” She answered. They continued talking about their homes, and the differences between Til’Arin, and the Shire, telling stories, and laughing together for quite a while.

“Triina,” Pippin asked, taking a drastic change from happy and eager to learn more about her home, to very concerned over something.

“What’s wrong, Pippin?”

“Why were you crying last night?”

She sighed heavily and cringed at the sound of Lyle’s quiet laughter upon hearing that she had cried. “It was nothing, don’t worry about it. If you’re going to worry about anything at this time, make it not tripping over these roots, and falling down the hillside. It would probably hurt.” She smirked, and picked up her pace, pulling the two hobbits with her, to catch up with the others and continued walking in silence.

An hour or so later, she did exactly what she told Merry and Pippin not to, she tripped and stumbled a short way down the hillside. She heard her ankle pop, and felt a shooting pain through her leg before falling to the ground instantly and rolling. To her surprise, Boromir was the first one at her side, followed closely by Legolas, Merry, and Pippin. “It’s fine,” She assured as Boromir and Legolas helped her to her feet. “You can hardly stand.” Boromir pointed out. “It will be fine, I assure you. Just… there is a small creek farther down the hill, can you help me to it?” she asked. He looked at her the same way her father did, like she was a waste of his time, but Legolas nodded and took her to where she asked, supporting most of her weight as she had in fact broken her ankle. Merry and Pippin were going to follow, but Gandalf called them back up to the others, leaving only Triina and Legolas by the creek.

She wasted no time removing her boot and submerging her ankle in water, taking a deep breath as it rushed over the swelling joint. Once the pain subsided slightly, she removed her foot and froze the water around it. “In a few minutes, the injury should be healed completely.” She explained to the elf watching in curious awe beside her. “How?” he questioned. “I don’t know, exactly. If I have an injury I can heal much quicker if submerged in water, or if I freeze the water around it. In the cases where blood is drawn, my body lowers its temperature and slows the blood flow. That is why my skin felt like ice when you bandaged my arm.” She answered. “That is quite amazing.” He muttered, keeping his eyes set on the icy cast that was forming around her ankle, “And you don’t risk frostbite?”

“No, the cold, ice, any of that, it doesn’t bother me. I feel the cold, but not the same way. It would be the same as you feeling the wind I would think. It’s there, even in it’s extremes, but it doesn’t damage you. It could knock you over if it were strong enough, just as I could slip on the ice, but it on its own isn’t going to harm you.”

He nodded and continued watching her, unconsciously reaching out and touching the ice that surrounded her ankle. She smiled, and brought some of the water up in a pillar for him to touch, freezing it and unfreezing it around his fingers before making a small ice statue of him and standing it in the water. “Impressive, you’ve even made him a small bow.” He smiled in amusement. “I can make him move as well.” She grinned; bringing the ice statue to life and making him fire an arrow at Legolas. The tiny arrow turned to water at the last second and splashed him in the face.

She didn’t realize she was letting her guard down until their eyes met, and she felt something jump inside of her. “I think it’s healed.” She announced quickly, melting and dismissing the water she had frozen and standing up. He nodded and offered to help her back up the steep hill, but she refused him and ran back to the others.

“About time you two returned, we were starting to worry that you had drowned.” Gandalf joked, earning a smirk from Aragorn as she rejoined the Fellowship. “I apologize deeply, I won’t let it happen again; I’ll watch my footing more carefully from now on.” She promised. “It’s all right, it was nice to sit for a while.” Frodo smiled as they continued their trek.

Triina refused to even glance at Legolas, knowing his eyes were on her, feeling his eyes on her. It was almost maddening. “I shouldn’t have done that, I shouldn’t have let this happen.” She murmured to herself, walking up at the front. “Shouldn’t have let what happen, if you don’t mind my asking?” Aragorn questioned. She shook her head, knowing that someone would have heard her spoken thoughts. “I will answer that question, but not at this time. When we stop for rest, I will answer.” She replied. “Of course.” He nodded, taking notice of her quick glance to Lyle and Boromir. He knew she didn’t like Boromir, he knew that from the first words she spoke to him at the council meeting, but Lyle he thought was like a brother to her. He would have to ask her about him as well, but another time. It was clear she wasn’t going to speak to him now.

By the time they finally did stop, Triina was exhausted. The hobbits were just as tired, Lyle was but refused to show it, and Legolas was still watching her. “We must hold this course west of the Misty Mountains for forty days. If our luck holds, the Gap of Rohan will still be open to us. From there our road turns east to Mordor.” Gandalf announced as they made themselves comfortable on the rocky hilltop. Triina nodded and watched in amusement as Boromir began teaching Merry and Pippin about sword fighting.

“To answer your question, Aragorn, it was allowing myself to interact with Legolas the way I had at the creek, that I shouldn’t have let happen.” She muttered, sitting beside him as he smoked his pipe and watched the sparring match. “Interacting with him is a bad thing?” he asked, keeping his voice very low, so that no one else heard their conversation. “No, not if it were the same way I am with you. There is something when our eyes met that I can’t allow. A change in my heart, that I don’t wish for.” She sighed, it was harder to admit than she thought. To say the words “I am afraid to love him.” Would be impossible, but he understood and nodded with a slight smile.

“Move your feet!” he called out, giving the hobbits advice on their lesson before turning back to their conversation. “I have no advice to give, other than you have only two options. Accept what your heart desires, and risk heartache, or deny it and ensure a lifetime of it.” He sighed. “Ah, but my heart cannot ache for what it never experiences.” She smiled, deciding to keep herself safe within her walls of ice.

“It will. Even now I can see in your eyes, you find no truth in those words.”

“And what words would that be?” Lyle asked, sitting down beside her with his own pipe. “Nothing of importance really, we were only having a conversation on their technique.” He lied before she had a chance to stutter, nodding his head to the hobbits and Boromir. “And what did she lie about?” he questioned. “I believe it was the quality of Pippin’s footwork, I’m not certain. It could have been Boromir’s stances. Perhaps both.” He smiled. Lyle immediately lost interest and went back to his previous activity. “Thank you.” She breathed, not realizing that she had been holding her breath since Lyle sat down. “You’re very welcome, Triina. It is evident this isn’t something you wish the others to know quite yet. Think about what I’ve said, and what your decisions will lead to.” he nodded as she stood to speak with Gandalf.

“What’s that?” Sam asked, looking in the same direction Legolas was watching. Though instead of curiosity, as Sam was, he was full of concern. “It’s a cloud.” Lyle dismissed, as if Sam were the stupidest of creatures for asking such a question. “No,” Triina frowned, not knowing what it was, but positive he was wrong. “It’s moving fast… against the wind.” Boromir said quietly, as if thinking out loud.

“Crebain from Dunland!” Legolas cried. “What?” she asked quickly. “Hide!” Aragorn ordered, shouting to the entire fellowship, and pushing her into Legolas. “Hurry!” Boromir added as she was pulled down from the rock Legolas had been standing on.

Legolas pulled her under a bush with him as the rest of the Fellowship hid themselves, along with any trace of their presence. In a fast burst of darkness, the hill was swarmed with a mass of black birds. Once again Triina was overcome with the emotions of the others around her, which was mainly fear and worry. Adding that to her own, she was terrified. “Don’t move,” he whispered into her ear, pulling her closer to him as the cawing mass of feathers circled the hill. She held her breath and closed her eyes tightly, focusing on two things: keeping silent, and Legolas’ steady breathing, as he somehow remained calm. By focusing on him, she was able to keep herself calm as well. At least a little bit.

Finally the flock returned south, and left the hiding Fellowship members. “Spies of Saruman! The passage south is being watched. We must take the Pass of Caradhras.” Gandalf announced as they all left their hiding places. Triina followed his gaze to a large, snowy mountain. “Are we prepared for such terrain?” Lyle questioned. “We have no choice, so I doubt it matters if we are or not.” She sighed. “I was asking the wizard, Triina.” He frowned. “Forgive me, I was only trying to help.” She sighed. “Your help was not needed.” He replied flatly as they made their way to the mountain.

Triina was lost in thought as they climbed the mountain. The hobbits were all shivering, and having the most trouble. She envied Legolas’ ability to walk on top of the snow, instead of sinking into it, but could tell that he was still feeling the bitter cold. She however, felt it as a gentle cool breeze instead of the sharp icy winds there were.

She was pulled from her thoughts as Frodo lost his footing and rolled past her towards Aragorn. As Boromir lifted the ring from the snow, after finding it had fallen from Frodo’s neck, she felt his temptation like a physical wave through her. “It is a strange fate we should suffer so much fear and doubt… over so small a thing. Such a little thing.” He mused. “Boromir!” Aragorn said sternly, resting his hand on his weapon. Boromir looked up at him, being pulled from his slight daze. “Give the ring to Frodo.” He ordered. “As you wish,” he replied, returning it to the hobbit, who snatched it from his hand, “I care not.” He added, ruffling Frodo’s hair before walking away. She relaxed slightly, but was still on edge for quite a while after.

The snowstorm on the mountain raged, as Legolas ran ahead to stare through it. For what, Triina couldn’t figure out. “There is a fell voice on the air!” he announced over the whipping winds. “It’s Sarumon!” Gandalf yelled. Triina’s stomach tightened as the atmosphere around the Fellowship changed. Lyle’s eyes narrowed and he clenched his teeth bitterly at the very sound of his name. “Lyle,” she said softly, reaching a hand out and gently touching his shoulder. He silently shrugged her off and ignored her as he watched Gandalf and Legolas.

Suddenly many rock slabs and boulders fell from the mountain, echoing loudly around them. “He’s trying to bring down the mountain! We should turn back!” Aragorn announced, but Gandalf disagreed and stepped out to counter Sarumon’s spell.

Triina was too focused on the conflicting spells, to notice the lightning strike the mountain, sending an avalanche of snow to cascade down and bury her completely. She felt something shifting beside her, and grabbed it, not knowing whom, or what was buried beside her. Using her powers over water, she moved the snow and unburied herself and Legolas as she pulled him up with her. “Are you all right?” he asked as the other Fellowship members dug their way out from the snow. “Yes, thank you. Are you?” she asked, scanning the others for any missing persons. “Yes.” He nodded.

“Lyle!” she called out, realizing that there was only ten of them standing in the snow now. “LYLE!” she gasped, rushing to where she saw the edge of his cloak sticking through the snow. As soon as she unburied him, she did everything she could to revive him, but it was Aragorn who got him to respond. Once again, she was ignored as he thanked the ranger and went on about his recovery by righting his clothing and weapons, and stepping away from where he had been buried.

“We must get off the mountain! Make for the gap to Rohan, and take the west road to my city!” Boromir shouted. “The gap of Rohan takes us too close to Isenguard.” Aragorn protested. The rising tension in the group was getting to be too much for Triina, who was already on edge to begin with, and after thinking she had lost Lyle, only to be ignored by him when he was revived, she was near her breaking point. “Triina,” Legolas said quietly, sensing something was wrong. “I’m all right, Legolas.” She assured, feeling his concern stronger than the others’ emotions.

“Are you sure, your eyes are troubled.”

“An arguing fellowship, is a troubling sight.” She replied with a forced smile. Vaguely acknowledging Gimli’s suggestion that they go through the mines of Moria, and Gandalf’s look of doubt.

“I believe it is more than that, but I will ask you no further.” He frowned. “Thank you, Legolas.” She smiled, for real this time and turned her attention fully to the others. “Let the ring bearer decide.” Gandalf announced grimly. “We cannot stay here! It will be the death of the hobbits!” Boromir shouted over the storm, holding both Merry and Pippin close to himself. Both of them were looking pale and shivering violently. It pained her to see them that way, when they were so full of life hours before. “Frodo?” Gandalf pushed. “We will go through the mines.” He decided. “So be it.” Gandalf sighed as the Fellowship changed its course once more. Triina gave her cloak to Merry, and her vest to Pippin, before removing her over shirt and giving it to Sam, who immediately handed it to Frodo. “You can’t possibly do this, you will freeze to death!” Boromir protested. “No, I won’t.” she smiled, and continued walking.