**Authors note: May add more later, not sure yet. Quote at the bottom is by JRR Tolkien, the rest is my own. Hope you enjoy 🙂

Soft he trod the gleaming sand, as he had once trod the snow. The ocean’s roaring was in his ears; he turned his face that he might feel the cool spray on his skin. Deeply he inhaled, closing his eyes as he filled his lungs with the salty dampness.
The night was lovely, as all on that shore are. Even with his eyes closed the beauty penetrated his being. Overhead was a deep sky full of stars like tears. The wind tangled in his hair, filling it with the warm scent of the sea.
He had heard of this place, called the End of All Things. What fear the name had held for him, what bleak terror had the sound of it wakened in his heart. “Not so now,” he murmured as the waves crashed against the shore.
Now this was a refuge, a haven long sought. Not that it was any more familiar or any less melancholy, but the fear was gone. He did not belong here before. The fear had arisen from his ignorance of many things. But now . . . now he belonged.
Softly in his own tongue he began to sing as he walked, songs of beauty and peace found after war.

~*We who have lived long under the Shadow may surely listen to echoes from a land untroubled by it*~

© 2003 S. L. Windsor