by Cuthalion
I�ve always been dreaming, my entire life. I�ve dreamt of the great wave, rising to drown N�menor, again and again over the years. I dreamt of my brother the day he fell from his horse and broke his left arm, and I saw him passing by on the river Anduin, lying slain in an elven boat. I dreamt of my mother the night before I lost her; she stood on a wide beach, her feet buried in soft white sand, like on the shore in Dol Amroth, her home she so bitterly was missing.
I watched her from a distance, from a dune overgrown with marram grass, and I saw her walking down to the water, until the sea rose to her knees and washed around her waist. And then she vanished under the surface and I heard myself screaming her name with my high boy�s voice� until someone jolted me out of my restless sleep. It was my nurse, and her eyes were red and swollen, and when I asked for my mother, she burst into tears again and gathered me in her arms, and I lay without crying and without any surprise, for I knew with painful certainty that my mother was gone.
I dreamt that fatal dream of the Halfling and Isildur�s Bane, and though I know that I couldn�t have changed anything, there are still days when I wish I had been silent; or that I had not been burdened with this strange gift� to see things that others don�t.
Last night I dreamt again.
*****
I was waiting in the gardens of the Queen; the last roses filled the air with their sweet, nearly desperate fragrance, and the elegantly laid out beds were flaunting with an abundance of autumn asters. While I sat on a marble bench, I saw them approaching� two tall figures, hand in hand, looking as if they�d stepped out of the frame of an ancient painting. But they were quite alive; I saw him leaning down to whisper something in her ear, and I heard the sound of her laughter, bright like music, warming the cool day.
I rose from the bench and bowed.
�My King Elessar��
�My Lord Faramir��
I saw the twinkling in his eye as he bowed his head in response, and again I was reminded of the fact that this great ruler had spent uncounted years wandering in the wilderness, sleeping beside a small campfire, hunting to still his hunger and often enough having not enough food at all. And sometimes I had the nagging suspicion that he would have liked to enjoy at least a glimpse of those old times again, and that the pompous court ceremonial unnerved him.
�Prince��