An Acceptance

Despite what Raina wrote in her journal seventy-eight years ago, that was the only entry she made. Now she sits here, tears glistening her eyes once more, holding the cold dying hand of a loved one.

Her eyes glaze over as she thinks about how things were, all those decades ago.

She had three children with Faramir: Lani, Frodo, and Boromir. Lani was to inherit the Stewardship and Ithilien, but she wanted none of it. She was like her mother, and could not stay in one place. When she was sixteen she left home with her parents blessing (although she would have gone with or without it) and traveled all over Middle Earth, simply to meet new folk. She had married an Elf boy around her age, who had ended up becoming mortal for her, and they really hadn’t seen much of her since.

Frodo also did not want the inheritance, but he did stick around. He simply did not want to be in any place of power, for he was too humble for that. Boromir had the exact soul of his name’s sake, and accepted the responsibility with eagerness.

As for Raina, even though she loved her home, she would leave for periods of time, her favorite run-aways being Fangorn Forrest and Legolas’s colony, where she was welcomed as one of their own. She visited Lorien as well, just as she promised herself she would. A few Elves still lived there, carrying on life in absence of everyone else.

Once, Raina rode out to Edoras once more on Hamson’s back. She met Èowyn there, who had served her country as an advisor to her brother, whom was doing a lovely job at ruling. She was also in the reserve, if there were to be another war in her lifetime, although everyone was quite sure that there wouldn’t be. She had married a high ranking officer in the Riders, and they were starting a family together. Raina left them feeling like she had achieved much more closure.

Merry and Pippin visited often, and wrote to her plenty, so that she was caught up on the going-ons of the Shire. She would meet them every year or so in Fangorn, where all three of them felt like they belonged, as if part of their souls were attached to the place.

Raina also kept close contact with Samwise, but only saw him once more in his life. It was exactly twenty years ago that he had sailed to the Undying Lands, and Raina had made the journey alone to the Shore to say farewell, although it was not nearly as big of a deal or as emotional as when Frodo and Gandalf left. She bid him goodbye with the message to Frodo that she planned on following soon enough, for she was growing weary of being immortal. She felt that she had said too many goodbyes in her unnaturally long life.

And lastly, Hamson died after a long life, one which he spent his best years with Raina. She made sure to have a grand funeral for him, one fit for a great soldier in battle, as he had been for her during the War of the Ring.

And so here we are, at the end of all things, or so it seems to Raina. The love of her life is only mortal, and she knew that this day was to come to pass eventually.

She gazes down at the dying figure of her Prince, who had just become too old for this world. He had aged gracefully, and the only way you could tell his age was by the greyness of his hair and beard, and the wisdom in his eyes as he gazes back into his wife’s young face. She was still just a girl on the outside, but her eyes told that she carried the weight of the world on her shoulders as her tears slip down her cheeks.

“You knew this day would come,” he says, not a bit of sadness in his face. “It is my time. I can almost see the silver shores; almost hear Boromir calling me home…”

Raina gasps for breath, gripping his hand in hers as she listens. “Tell our Boromir that it is his time. He will be a great ruler.”

“Do you remember the first time we met?” he asks her.

Raina gives a small laugh, brushing her ears with her fingertips instinctively. “You made fun of my ears, as I recall.”

Faramir nodded. “But it was also when I figured out I loved you. After you ran, the sinking feeling I had told me I knew you from somewhere, and I could not let you go again.”

“But here you are, letting me go.”

Faramir nods. “It is for the best. Go, live with your brothers in Minas Tirith, for I think it will be too painful for you to stay here. From there, go to the West. I wish you a wonderful second life. Farewell, princess.”

Raina’s chest heaved with sobs as she cried her dead lover’s name, for too long for her to be able to remember.