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Title: Standard Bearer (#4006)
Author: NancyBrooke
Chapters: 1

Archive: Tolkien
Category: Lord of the Rings (Movieverse)
Description: What if Aragorn's Standard Bearer hadn't wanted the job? a triple drabble.
Published: 14 Feb 2009
Updated: 14 Feb 2009
Warnings: minor cussing
Type: General
Characters: OMC


Chapter 1 - Standard Bearer

During a recent viewing of ROTK, I noticed Aragorn's standard bearer for the first time and wondered, "Where did he come from?"



I didn’t ask for this. Haven’t I always been the first to volunteer? Always ready to do what needs doing? Yeah, well, not this time. A promotion, an honor, they told us, but I don’t care. This time I stayed still; this time I stayed quiet.

Maybe that’s what they noticed. Crap.

But I didn’t stay my post, with the homes of my kin and the heads of my kindred falling all around me just to sit here, holding a staff I must not wield.

Well, here I do sit, black banner snapping at my head. Suppose it doesn’t like the waiting any more than I do.

He waits, though, doesn’t he? just beyond the corner of my eye, sitting his horse almost straighter than I do. What holds him up, I wonder? Done a lot of waiting, so it's said; he and his lady who stitched this cloth. Years it must have taken her; I went over it when they gave it me and not a stain or slub to be seen upon it! And stitches so tiny … what kind of faith makes such a thing? How long do you wait for a kingdom?

I’ll never forget how it felt, though, his coming. Holding the third gate all I could see was wood but I felt it, we all did – hope and horror, grief and happiness all impossibly mixed together.

My mates, now, are waiting, too. I can almost feel their eyes on me. Well, at least I’m up here, and not back there, looking up my horse’s ass!

Well, I won’t embarrass them. Fly, little banner, fly while you may, and I’ll stay stitched to the sleeve of this new king. We will see what waiting can accomplish.

For now, ahead of us, the Black Gate opens.
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