Returning From Council
Coming into the chambers that he shared with his young daughter, Gil-Galad sighed heavily as his shoulders sagged slightly as if the burdens of the coming war physically bore a weight upon his physical being. With a heavy sigh, he walked over to a small table and poured himself a goblet of spring wine and drained it quickly. With his nerves once more steady, he came over to speak with Elrond but became troubled once more when he saw his beloved daughter asleep on Elrond’s lap instead of being in her bed.
“Please do not be cross with her,” Elrond said as Gil-Galad lifted the sleeping form of his child. “She woke from a troubling dream that had her heart and mind greatly troubled and thought I was you. I am concerned though about her dream. For I have had troubling dreams of late myself. Part of which might correspond to her own.”
“Once I get her settled in for the night I will tell you of the council and discuss with you these dreams,” he said entering Amala’s room.
Once he was sure that she would not awaken immediately, he returned to the sitting room and took a seat in the chair beside his dear friend.
“The forces of Isildur will join us in this fight so once more we will have an alliance of men and elves which will greatly aid us in defeating Sauron’s amassed army of orcs and goblins. I just pray that that will be enough,” Gil-Galad said staring into the fire. “We will meet up on the battle field outside the gates of Mordor With our people starting out on the long journey tomorrow at dawn. With that said, Erestor will be amongst those of us fighting as well so out of fear of a possible attack on Imladris while our forces are away I have decided to take Amala with us as far as the halls of Lord Thranduil until the battle is over and we return from battle. At which time we will bring her home to Imladris with us.”
“Gil-Galad,” Elrond said furrowing his brows “that was part of her dream. She saw herself in the halls of Thranduil only she referred to his as the Spider King. Amala saw herself waiting there for our return only we were brought lifelessly into his great hall on boards. My head was cloven in half and your heart had been ripped out of your chest by a foul beast and devoured. Thranduil then ordered our lifeless forms to be fed to the spiders and when she tried to stop that happening, she too was thrown out to be devoured. She awoke extremely frightened at the point when a spider descended from the trees above.”
“By the Valar,” Gil-Galad whispered in shocked disbelief. “My friend, none buy myself, Mithrandir and those from Greenwood the Great know what I am about to tell you. As the shadow started to form, a darkness began to fill the wood and turned it to a place of fear and dread. Those that remain there in the halls of Thranduil and outsiders call it now the Mirkwood and the darkness that is there as well as the source of the death of both creature and vegetation are giant spiders that Mithrandir says are the children of Ungoliant. Even Radagast will not venture there. So tell me…how could she know of this?”
“I fear that like myself she has the gift of foresight,” Elrond sighed. “Between hearing the talk being done by the warriors and her closeness with both yourself as her only parent and myself as her teacher, she has a deep set fear of losing us. When she learns that she is going to be taken to the halls of Thranduil her heart and mind will be filled with constant fear and dread.”
“Elrond, that is why you must swear to me now that should I fall, you will do what you can to get out of the battle alive or at least send Erestor back to retrieve her from the Mirkwood and get her back to Imladris. Should I fall, you will take my stead as High King. However, once she is of age, it will be Amala’s choice if she wishes to take a place as co-ruler with you or does not wish to rule at all but follow a different path,” Gil-Galad said with stern urgency.
“I promise to do what I can,” Elrond said as a loud boom of the thunder echoed in the valley and made the buildings tremble from the vibration of its echo.
“ADA,” the blood chilling cry of Amala came from her room as the dreams once more haunted her and the noise from the storm added to her terror.
Running from her room and climbing onto his lap, she clung to him as her body shook and she began to cry nearly inconsolibly.
“It’s alright my child,” he said calmly stroking her hair with his hand as he held her close. “I am here. You are safe. Tell me my daughter…what did you dream of that has you so perplexed?”
“I saw myself in the halls of the Spider King,” she said frightened. “Only this time, it was not a foul beast of war that stole your heart from you and devoured it. Ada…it was the Spider King. He is the one that did that to you. Please…ada…don’t make go there to him. I don’t want you to die.”
Fearful and heartbroken, Amala began to weep anew. Although she understood that outcomes of battle are never truly predictable nor was the amount of survivors, she feared that if even one part of her dreams were to come to pass, she might lose the only ones that meant the world to her. She had already lost her mother but in her heart she believed that without her father, she too would not be long for this world.