Laurië Lassi – Golden Leaves by Esteliel

Decisions

Write a story or poem or create an artwork in which a character unaccustomed to acting as a leader must make an important decision.

Decisions

None of them were prepared for war. There was no need for it in Aman, and though for a while they did their best to prepare, forging swords and mail and sparring with each other, the first time they meet Morgoth's forces comes as a shock.

Laurefindil watches, wide-eyed with confusion and fear, as the first men fall, skewered by crude arrows and iron blades. For a moment, everything stops. He sees Arakal and Herentir hesitate as well, frozen for a moment by the senseless brutality. They had come to fight the forces of Morgoth, but they had not thought it would be like this: simple slaughter.

Laurefindil takes a deep breath and all of a sudden, everything seems to speed up around him, showing him all too clearly that if they falter now, the orcs will break through here, while Turukáno far too their left is already so beleaguered that Laurefindil wonders if he will hold, or if this is how they will all die, during their first skirmish on the shores of Endórë.

In the end, it is not a decision he makes. It all happens naturally, as if he were watching a stranger take command. “To me!” he yells, raising his sword like a standard. “Follow me!” He grips Arakal's arm, Herentir's shoulder, chooses three more of those who have followed his call. “To Turukáno! Quick!” he commands, and does not even wait to see if his order is followed, for the orcs are too close now, their lines still faltering, and he rushes at a mad-eyed creature that claws with unholy pleasure at a dark-haired corpse.

Later, shock will return, and he will sit in Turukáno's tent spattered with dark blood, not quite able to follow his friend's words who names him captain and pins a golden brooch to his cloak. Much later, a shame-faced Arakal will come and try to apologize for his hesitancy, and Laurefindil will be too overcome by all that had happened to tell him that in truth, he, too, did not know what to do.