Once Upon A Time

[Elessar]

"Once upon a time I knew how everything was supposed to go. I knew how it would end up. I knew there was always someone there I could turn to when I was in need. Once upon a time I knew everything would be okay. But now, now I know nothing."

A storm was coming. For the moment only the slight rumble of thunder could be heard over the hills, it's sound carried by tendrils of wind that buffeted the Tel'Ranaemyn Inn and whipped back the golden hair of the lone figure sitting on it's roof.

Elessar Minyatur shivered at the onslaught of the cold winds, drawing his cloak tighter around him. Under normal circumstances he would not be here, out in the open and vulnerable but what was normal anymore? He honestly did not know. In ten short months his world had been turned upside down and he had no one to blame for it but himself. Because of one moment of weakness, one moment where he'd made a fatal promise he'd changed his entire world. And dear Eru above it was killing him.

The smell of rain hung heavy in the air moments before the first of the droplets started to fall. Cold, pelting, it fell upon the roof and it's lurker like an overturned bucket and yet Elessar did not yield. Perhaps he was punishing himself, or perhaps he simply just did not care anymore. In the end it was neither of those as he closed his eyes, face turning upwards toward the torrent.

It had been raining that day. He can still hear it, even above the downpour he is sitting in. The rain had sounded like the beat of a drum, pounding endlessly upon the twisted metal roof and leaking through the numerous cracks. It dripped down the walls to finally end in ever-growing puddles upon the bare stone floors.

He distinctly remembers the panic in her voice as the water spreads across her cell floor, but there was nothing he could do. The water is rising in his own cell, but he's not overly concerned about it. This isn't his first experience with it and if experience has taught anything it's that the cells are tilted, and while the water may cover the floor now it will eventually run out between the bars. He tried to tell her this, to think of the most soothing thing he could, but it was to no avail. There is nothing he can do, there's no way to escape, and even if there was it wouldn't do either one of them a bit of good. There's a large gap of simply nothingness separating their cells and he doesn't have a clue on how to work the bridges. Instead he reaches through the bars of his cell, as she does the same, and tries his best to sooth her. It's in this moment she asks him to make the promise, and he remembers thinking of how odd it was to promise such a thing over a bit of rain, but nevertheless he agrees.

That's one of the last things he clearly remembers. The next remembrance comes when he finds himself waking in his own bed with Armandeus' voice and face swimming into view above him. He has survived, again, but this time it doesn't feel like such a victory. Not a single day has passed since then that he doesn't think about her, though now he has to wonder if she did not have a bit of her brother's ability after all, and wishes he could save her.

The rain is growing stronger, and colder. It's this combination that snaps Elessar back to reality and into action. Lightening flashes overhead and he half stands and half crawls towards the edge of the roof. The climb down the side of the building is fast and he nearly slips twice in his haste, but he arrives the ground safely and gives one last look to the sky before heading inside.

"Once upon a time I knew how everything was supposed to go. Once upon a time I met a girl who would change my life forever. Once upon a time was a long time ago, but I will never forget."