October the Third

Surrounded. And night is falling rapidly.

Here on the hill-top, I have the illusion of falling, myself, into the bowl of the sky as it pales and fades into twilight.

I find my shoulders sagging as their horror-induced dread creeps closer. I straighten with an effort, feeling the aches that assail an old man.

And then, high above, I see the first star, shining faintly in the murk, its inner fire strengthening as it fights free of the surrounding darkness.

I pile broken stones in the centre of the ring; I lift my staff, waiting.

They come.

I am ready.

***

The drabble is based on the following excerpts:

On the top they found, as Strider had said, a wide ring of ancient stone-work, now crumbling or covered with age-long grass. But in the centre a cairn of broken stones had been piled. They were blackened as if with fire. About them the turf was burned to the roots and all within the ring the grass was scorched and shriveled, as if flames had swept the hill-top; but there was no sign of any living thing.

‘I should say,’ answered Strider, 'that they stood for G3, and were a sign that Gandalf was here on October the third: that is three days ago now. It would also show that he was in a hurry and danger was at hand, so that he had no time or did not dare to write anything longer or plainer … for myself, I believe he was here, and was in danger. There have been scorching flames here; and now the light that we saw three nights ago in the eastern sky comes back to my mind. I guess that he was attacked on this hill-top, but with what result I cannot tell.’

--excerpted from “A Knife in the Dark”, from Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien