Lossarnach

They are sleeping now. Flickering firelight reflects on the strands of sandy hair that fall over her arm. She lies on her side, the newborn curled up against her chest. How silently they breathe. I cannot sleep. Not now. I have to look at them. I have to watch them till I know for certain that I am home and they are safe.

For many years I was a blacksmith as my father had been before me. I wielded the hammer and forged tools and weapons alike. With my body strong and my mind firm, there was little that I feared. Now I know the greatest of all terrors. Those burning homesteads on the Pelennor Fields...

There was a brisk wind from the sea the day I wedded her. Her hair was moving in the breeze as she walked over the doorstep of my house. I was holding my breath, hoping it wasn’t a dream. Ever since that day, this house has been filled with a delight beyond my words. 

I was a soldier for a few gruesome weeks. In sparse armour I rode out with the others to defend the heart of our realm. All too quickly did I get used to the trade of death. Orcs we slew and other foul creatures, but men, too, men from Rhun and from Harad. Strange they were and fearsome, but men nonetheless. This helmet that I picked up on the battlefield must have once belonged to an Easterling. I wonder now why I wanted to take anything home with me other than my life.

Worse than the fighting was the fear on the way home.  The first thrill of victory was nothing compared to the joy I felt when I saw my house unscathed and the chimney smoking. But nothing, nothing can match the bliss of seeing her sitting by the hearth, with our child in her arms. With my hands so large and rough, I was worried I would not muster the tenderness due to one so fragile and small. But the child melted into my arms as if there was no fitter place in all of Gondor.

As I sit by the fire watching them sleep, the grim images fade from my mind. The dread that had possessed our lands has passed.  We shall be a proud people as we were of old and walk with good cheer under open skies. With our city and our king and the bounty of our lands, Gondor shall prosper.

I shall be a father now. I shall teach my child the virtue of hope. I shall be a blacksmith again and forge the tools of peace.