Syah's Tears

The forest was angry, she felt it through the next few days. Something was happening and she did not know what. She wanted to follow the trees that had walked passed her but she did not, she stayed where Gandalf had told her to stay. She missed her friends greatly. There was a part of her missing for each of them. Ever since the dream with Boromir, she had felt their absence stronger everyday. Especially Legolas. It was as if her soul was slowly letting them in. Slow enough so it did not frightened her. She wondered if Boromir had something to do with that.

She was sitting under a tree, by the edge of the forest, when she heard hoof beats drawing near. She stood up and soon could see a horse. He was solely white and beautiful. Syah held her hand out and it nudged it lightly. “So, you are my horse?”

It grunted softly.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” she laughed. She picked up the small bag that Gandalf had given to her and took one more look at the forest. She was going to miss it...She sighed and mounted the horse. “Well boy, take to where I need to be.”

The horse took off in the same direction that Gandalf had told her to go, as if it knew exactly where it needed to go. The wizard had given her directions but she was glad that the horse knew the way too. This was still a foreign land to her after all. She rode hard for hours, stopping only to rest the horse once and to go to the bathroom. She rode through the night and the next day. Finally, on the third day, Syah stopped to take a dip in a river and to take a nap. She was tired from the riding, though, strangely, she was not as tired as she should have been. Why was that?

As she bathed in the river, she also thought on the changes her body was going through. She noticed that she did not need to rest that often and she still had yet to get her period even once since Rivendell. And she did not need to go to the bathroom that often either. Something was happening to her body and she didn’t know what it was. She had never felt this way before. It was as if it was awakening for the first time. She also noted the changes in her hearing. She had always had excellent hearing but now it seemed more clearer, like she could hear even better. She sensed things more, the slightest movement and she heard it. What was wrong with her?

After a short nap, Syah was riding again. It was chilly so she wore her cloak around her. She did not have her small pack with her, not since the attack, so she had only the clothes that she had on when she arrived in this time. She wished she had clean ones.

It took more than a week, or so she guessed, but Syah finally arrived at the mountains Gandalf was speaking of. She would have been happy to stay at the bottom but the horse thought it prudent to take her to a high ledge. There was an entrance through the mountains, but she was so tired from her endless riding that she fell to ground and fell asleep. The strange sensations she got from these mountain could wait.

She slept for hours, until she felt someone shaking her. “You must wake up, Syah.”

Syah slowly woke, opening her eyes warily. She realized that there was no one around her. She looked at the horse and gave it a glare. “Were you talking to me?”

The horse just stared at her like she had gone mad. Syah laughed at herself. It must have been Boromir...

She ate a little bread then stood and stretched her limbs. It was gray in these mountains this morning. She felt a tugging sensation in her gut. She turned towards the mountain and that is when she noticed the entrance in the mountain. She walked to it, but did not pass through. There was something in there...

“This must be the haunted path that Gandalf was speaking of.”

She could not see far into the entrance but she could feel something. This place was not at rest. It yearned for something. Some type of relief...no, not relief. Release. Something wanted out, in a bad way. She sensed death through that entrance. Many deaths. But it was calling to her, something was calling to her to enter. She didn’t realize that she was walking in until the horse grabbed her hood and yanked her backward. Syah shook the trance away and found the horse stomping its hooves and shaking its head furiously.

“It’s okay. I will not go in,” she said as she turned away from the entrance.

Syah spent the next few days walking about the mountain. Up and down. It got to the point where the horse was looking at her strangely with its head turned to one side. One morning, when she had stood from the ground, she looked out from the ledge she was on. She squinted her eyes, then rubbed them. She could see something in the distance...oh, by the gods! her head shouted. She was seeing men. Hundreds of men! They were a day or two away from her. How could she see this?

And she felt them; Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli. She could feel them! They were alive! “How is this possible?!”

Syah was beside herself, she did not know what to do. She paced the open ledge until the horse grabbed her sleeve and made her sit on the ground. She looked at the horse, not knowing what it wanted. Her mind still reeling from what just happened. The horse sat down beside and laid its head her lap.

“I guess I’m just supposed to sit here,” she chuckled as she pet the horse.

When darkness fell, and the light of the moon was high, the horse stood up. Syah watched it, not knowing what it was doing. Her mind was still trying to grasp at all the new things she was experiencing. Her hearing, her sight, even her empathy was growing. The horse nudged her head, until she was facing the entrance. A smoky haze began to form then, a few moments later, a woman appeared and walked towards her. She looked so much like herself...

The woman smiled as she sat down in front of Syah. “Do you know who I am?”

“No,” Syah said softly, not knowing what to say.

“I am truly here,” the woman said. “This is not a dream. Boromir felt it was time to put some of your questions to rest.”

“I can feel him inside of me.”

“Because that is where he is. His soul, or spirit rather, filled a hole inside of you. It enabled you to heal.”

“Why...why are you here? Who are you ?”

“I am the woman that you remind everyone of,” she said, still looking into Syah’s eyes. “My name is Sierra. I was sent here once also. During the first War of the Ring.”

Syah looked at her, shocked not only by the resemblance but also by this new information. “We have the same eyes.”

Sierra smiled. “Of course we do. I am your great, great, great, great grandmother.”

Syah’s eyes grew wide. She was speechless.

Sierra laughed. “I know this is a shock, but there are things you need to know.”

“But...why now? Why not when I woke in Mirkwood?”

“Because that was not the right time, Syah. Now is the right time. When Boromir came to you and your soul began to heal, it opened a gate. A gate for me to be able to reach you.”

“What do I need to know? What can you tell me? Many things are changing and while they don’t necessarily frightened me, they make me uneasy.”

Sierra sighed, still not breaking eye contact with Syah. “Before I came here I was engaged to a man. He was a good man and I did love him. But while I was in this time I fell in love with another. Fell completely. His name was Rumil, he was from Lothlorien. I was not meant to stay in this time but I gave myself to him before I left. I found out that I was pregnant a few weeks later. I had my daughter nine months later. She was half-elf but I never told her or my husband, by then, about anything. When I was in this time I also found out that my father was from a line of Kings. The Kings of the Mark, whom you shall soon meet.”

Syah digested this new information. “So, I am part elf and have the blood of Kings, as Galadriel told me?”

“Yes.”

“No wonder Rumil, Orophin and Haldir felt so familiar to me...”

Sierra nodded, sadness filling her. “I...you were meant to be in this time. As were all the children born to my daughter, Lorien. But you, Syah, you were meant for this time. Out of all of our line, you are the only one who houses all of our blood inside you. You have the spirit of the forest. You have the elf-blood. You have the Kings of the Mark. You have the empathy. All of these traits are inside of you. You carry them so strongly that I mourned your birthing.”

“What?”

“I knew, Syah, I knew that you would carry the weight of our blood and more. You would feel the heaviest loss, the mightiest pain, the unbearable loneliness. I, in part, did this you. And I am sorry.”

Syah felt tears, hers and Sierra’s. “But Galadriel said there was more to me than that. She couldn’t name it but it was there all the same.”

Sierra suddenly went still. Her eyes went blank and Syah could feel...something like fear coming from her. “You were blessed by the Eldar.”

“Pardon?”

“When I died I went to the Halls where all the souls of the dead go. The Valar watched over my family because of their unique blood. They sent me back to this time, and now they have sent you. In your blood, Syah, lies the heart of Arda. Your blood is the blood of Kings, of elves, of forests, of life. Don’t you see what you are?”

Syah shook her head, fear filling her.

“You are Arda.”