Author's Notes: The Grey Company pass through the Paths of the Dead.

March 8, 3019

Torchlight  (Yellow)

The torch in Elladan’s hand flickered, spitting bright sparks but it did little to penetrate the smothering gloom.  Thick, acrid smoke drifted back at him as he walked and he shifted the torch to angle it further away from his face.  Yellow flashes caught the corner of his eye as the flame reflected from flecks of mica, quartz and fool’s gold embedded in the rock.

Far ahead other torches showed as tiny pinpricks of light in the immense darkness, faint yellow sparks that shone fitfully against the black night. 

Behind them shadows clustered, deepening the darkness as the Dead followed.

Author Notes:   The waiting is finally over for a lonely beacon guard.

March 8, 3019

Beacons (Orange)

Far in the East, fire blossomed against the horizon. 

The watcher in his high, lonely post leapt to his feet with a startled oath, peering into the misty distance.  Far-off flames flickered again, and he thrust his torch with a shaking hand deep into the pile of oil-drenched wood.  

It ignited with a hungry roar and he jumped back from the sudden heat as petals of fire bloomed into bright flowers. Flames leapt into the still air, staining the evening sky a deeper orange.  Staring into the distance, the watcher waited.

Far in the West, fire blossomed against the horizon.

Author Notes:   Darkness begins to flow out of Mordor.

March 9, 3019

The Dawnless Day (Indigo) 

Blue-black clouds the colour of a bruise began to well up in the East, an ominous shadow that poured relentlessly from Mordor.  A dying sun lit the cloud base from beneath, casting an eerie light over the darkening land.

The cloud spread, blanketing the sky until only a small patch of clear blue remained through which a single star gleamed like an eye.  A wedge of cloud shaped like a hand groped towards it and closed like a grasping fist, squeezing all light from the sky.

The star glimmered once and was gone, and darkness rolled unchecked across the land.

Author's Notes:  Aragorn's fleet is becalmed at Pelargir.

March 14, 3019

A Wind From The South (Blue)

The ship edged slowly up the long grey firth.  Darkness lay all around, and the oppressive silence was broken only by the slap of water on the bow and the harsh breathing of the labouring oarsmen.  This was not the restful dark of night, but an eerie shadow that seeped from Mordor, smothering the stars and veiling all in blackness. 

But as the sullen gloom pressed down, a soft breeze from the south stirred the heavy air.  Looming clouds parted before the gentle wind and high above the mast a tiny patch of blue sky appeared as the shadows fled.

Author's Notes:  The armies gather before the Black Gate.

March 25, 3019

Banners Before The Gate (Violet)

Flags and banners from every realm hung limp in the heavy air, their once bright colours dull and dusty.   A blood red sun stained the blues of sea and sky in the banners of Dol Amroth and Imladris to drab purples and violets.

As battle surged over the waiting armies the patterns of colour broke apart, mingling and reforming with the tide of fighting in a vast, ever-changing kaleidoscope.

The standard of Anfalas – a field of green beneath the sky – wavered and fell beneath the flood, sinking slowly into the mud as blood stained the sky-blue banner a bitter violet.

Author's Notes:  At the battle of the Black Gate witnesses watch the destruction of Mordor.

March 25, 3019

At The End Of All Things (Rainbow)

A mushroom cloud of boiling black smoke veined with fire climbed high above Orodruin.  As the air shook with thunder rain began to fall; a heavy, ashy downpour that turned the broken land to mud and streaked all with grey.  Still the rain fell, gentler now, cleansing the air; and from beneath the looming cloud a pale and watery sun appeared.

The black plume wavered, groping impotently towards the West before tearing to tatters in a sudden gust of wind.  The air glittered as the sun shone through crystal droplets and painted a brilliant splash of colour across the sky.

Author's Notes:  In the midst of death and destruction, Thranduil finds there is still hope and promise for the future.

April 6, 3019

The Wood of Greenleaves (Green)

Cool green light filtered down through new leaves, dappling the forest floor with spangles of sunlight. 

Singed and bloodied, Thranduil halted in the midst of the forest, breathing the green scent of the trees.  Great swathes of forest had been fouled and desecrated by the darkness that had seeped from Dol Guldur, and countless groves of oak, beech and ash ravaged by fire as battle raged under the trees – yet green glades like this still survived, untouched by shadow or flame.

The trees murmured their welcome as a stray gleam of sunlight peered through the branches, crowning him with gold.

Author Notes:  A year after the battle of the Pelennor, life returns to the land.

March 15, 3020

On Pelennor Fields The Poppies Blow  (Red)

The battlefield of the Pelennor was bathed in blood red, glowing dully in the last rays of the dying sun. 

Here, where one of the mighty Mûmak had fallen, it flowed like a tide of crimson into a sunken hollow where stark, bleached ribs from the great creature protruded from the ground like splintered spokes from an immense axle.  And here, where men of Gondor and Rohan had fought and died upon the plain, a red river poured eternally to the Anduin.

The battlefield of the Pelennor was bathed in red as poppies blew above the graves of the fallen.