~Fade Away~ Author: Akai Kuu  kamikazeladybug@hotmail.com 

G  Poetry Dedication: This fic is dedicated to the First Legolas fans, 
who helped him search for the Sun through the Caradhras, sang with him 
by the banks of Nimrodel, kept his tally with a smirk at Helm's Deep, 
strode boldy with him through the Halls of the Dead (although we sorta 
hid behind him at times ~.^), and pined with him for the Sea. 

Let's give our Elf one last hurrah..



~Fade Away~



I came with them, 
The children, the children!
So young as I have never felt, 
Years rolling, and fading away.


I was warned by she and yet 
I heard them, I heard them!
The cry of gulls upon the shore,
Sea rolling, tears fading away.


And now I return to thee! 
Elessar! Elessar!
Boromir and Faramir; brave sons of Denethor!
Forsaken immortality, I come! Arwen Evenstar!
Merrydock and Peregrin, prince of Rohan, of Gondor!
In the Halls of Waiting do you stay,
Or frolic in lands beyond havens grey?


And as I travel, travel over Sea,
Wistfully, silently,
I wonder if you wait for me,
In Eternity, Eternity,
In Valar's lands across Sea,
Do wait those gone years before me?


Gandalf! Great Gandalf the White!
Dear halfling bearer, pure as light!
The gardener, who joined the fight,
Leaving sheers for blade 
Leaving bud for blood.
O, Elven folk! 
A time a time,
Has waited Lady Galadriel,
Now born away from Hither Shore,
To be sung in songs as Nimrodel!
Lord Elrond! Wise and true,
I pray you may now smile again,
For ages now thou hast to view,
How proud and stout the hearts of Men.


Ai! Ai! Companions lost,
My dearest friend 'lone at my side,
When Sundring Seas we then have crossed,
Through boundless fields again we ride?
The wind 'cross Sea blowing to our face,
Our laughter fair in our jestful race.
Boromir! Killed by arrowfire,
Will thyne laughter again rise to the sky,
Aye, and then far higher?
O Pippen! Merry! Gone of old age!
Will I hear your rambling voices proclaim,
Of Toby and Odo and Tooks and Thain?
And with Samwise and Frodo blow smoke-rings again?
Though the skills of the White shall be all of your bane!
Faramir, Aragorn!
Will you be waiting on the shore?
With wives Eowyn and Arwen fair,
Again smooth of skin and dark of hair,
Or will I fall into despair, 
And find myself a-dock, a-dock,
Upon the empty sands?
And still I hold bowknife a-tight in my hands. 
Why do I doubt,
Why do I fear?
I've pined for this journey;
I've held it so dear.
But what if alone
It leaves me?


Nay nay!
I now fear naught!
I scold myself;
Had I forgot!
My dearest friend through everything,
Stout by my side shall stand with me.
Through everything, through age, through age!
To face the wrath of trolls of cave,
To rise, defy mad armies' rage!
And yet we still,
To each proclaim:
'I count two!'
'I count twenty!'
'I count few!'
'I count many!'
As though t'were but a game.

I will not fear to see the shore,
Nor solitude for evermore,
For they shall be standing,
With smiles gay,
I shall not let it
Fade away.