Living for Hope
Disclaimer: I don't own it, never have, and never will.
Summary: AU Two-year-old Aragorn is now Estel in Imladris with his mother after Arathorn's death. But something has happened to Gilraen, something that may put a huge hole in Estel's life. Now Elladan, Elrohir, Elrond, and Glorfindel must help the widow and young king through their horrors.
A/N- Please understand that when Tolkien said that Aragorn was raised in the House of Elrond, I took it that Elrond was a sort of foster-father. Also, please note that for story purposes, Gilraen does not live her full life. This is an AU. Thank you.
Chapter One- Rangers and Elves
Gilraen awoke with a start. She had been sleeping peacefully in a tent while the other Rangers kept guard and her child snuggled warmly into her side. It had been a quiet night, the kind you dream about. Now, it was everything but.
The chaos that was going on outside the tent sounded like a full-blown war between Mordor and Middle-Earth. It sounded like the Last Alliance had returned! What could be going on out there?
Grabbing Aragorn, her two-year-old son, she held him close as she tentatively opened the tent's "door". She gasped. Orcs were attacking and they outnumbered the Dúnedain! Clutching Aragorn ever closer, Gilraen looked for her husband.
She blinked away tears. These were men she saw every day being struck down ruthlessly by monsters who cared for naught but blood shed. She heard the sickening thuds! of her friends dropping, dead before they hit the ground. Their eyes were wide, fear and sorrow slowly dying within them.
Looking around, now frantically, for any survivors, and most of all, her husband, Gilraen tripped over a dead Orc body. If it were not for her fall, she would have noticed with satisfaction that it had seemed to suffer before its demise.
Aragorn wailed as his mother's body heavily hit the ground, supporting her weight so that she did not crush the babe. An Orc raced towards the fallen couple, an axe raised in his hand and ready to strike. Just as it began to come down onto the cowering mother, a dark shadow swiftly loomed over them and stopped the blow of the axe with wrath that no human being could possibly possess. Arathorn drove his sword into the body of the Orc and saw, with a smirk of pure pleasure, blood gush out of the now open wound.
"Gilraen, get Aragorn out of here!" Arathorn shouted to his beloved. "Find shelter! Just get Aragorn out!" Arathorn briskly turned around and blocked a lethal shot from one of the Orcs with a dark gleam in his eye.
Gilraen wasted no time in getting her son out of the battle. She dashed between oncoming Orcs and tried desperately not to think of what might happen to her husband, king of Gondor. Trying hard not to stumble over her own frantic feet and to keep a grip on her son, Gilraen dodged into the cover of the overgrowth. Aragorn was still sobbing mildly, cuddling closer to his mother for reassurance. Gilraen tried calm down her son, to keep him from making any noise that could attract foes.
Keeping her wits about her, Gilraen listened closely. The battle sounded as if it were growing larger and even… closer! She got up and picked up speed, since she hardly thought the Orcs were dying and the dead Rangers were springing back to life. Thump! Thump! Thump! The massive footsteps of the Orcs were drawing nearer and there were no sounds of any pursuing Rangers. Choking back tears, swallowing her grief, Gilraen tried not to imagine what had happened to her husband and the father of her baby. She only concentrated on running blindly through the woods.
She heard the shrill cry of an Orc close behind her and she threw herself into a bush, getting out of harm's way for the moment being. Aragorn looked up at her with confused eyes. "Don't worry, honey. Mommy is going to keep you safe," she whispered to him. He nodded, as if he understood her, and they relaxed in the bush. They were in for a long, long night.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
"Elrohir!" Elladan playfully punched his brother on the arm. "You cannot even shoot a fawn!"
Elrohir, smile disappearing, looked around, as if trying to detect some foreign sound. "Shh!" he said. "Can you hear it?"
Elladan concentrated for a moment. "Yes, I can, El." Elladan looked around, but saw nothing. "Where is it coming from. It sounds like…" Elladan's eyes went wide, "like slow breathing. Like someone's injured. C'mon, El, we must find them!" The twin sons of Lord Elrond of Imladris searched for the wounded person.
"Oh no…" Elrohir softly muttered as he pushed aside the leaves of a particularly large bush. "El," he said, breathless, "Come here. Now." When Elladan promptly made his way to the bush, his heart stopped. Gilraen. Arathorn's wife! She was the injured person!
"Gilraen?" Elladan questioned softly, almost not believing his eyes. The twins were very good friends with the Dúnedain and his wife. They hadn't seen him for nearly two and a half years and this was not the way they wanted their last moments together to be. "Gilraen?" he asked again, this time waking the lady in question up.
"El—" she said, softly trying to breathe. "Elladan? Elrohir?" Her eyes fluttered closed for a moment before she forced them back open. "Are you really here?"
"Gilraen, are you having trouble breathing?" Elrohir asked in disbelief. He couldn't imagine the wife of one of his closest friends on the brink of death!
Gilraen managed a small, sad smile. "Just a bit." She sucked in a deep breath and a pained look flashed across her face. "Please, you must help us," she whispered. "I've no idea where Arathorn is and I want to make sure we are not injured. Please?" She locked eyes with Elladan and then Elrohir, and her eyes held a pleading look that no one could refuse. And in her state, lying on her stomach and craning her neck to look at the twins, she had an almost childish look about her.
"Of course, Gilraen," the twins answered simultaneously.
"But, Gilraen," the ever-observant Elrohir asked, "Who is this other person? You said you've no idea where Arathorn is." Gilraen smiled and shifted her weight to reveal a black bundle that was shielded by her body. The twins gasped.
"Gilraen," Elladan breathed, "is that a… a baby?"
"Yes, Lord Elladan, it is," Gilraen replied, eyes twinkling. "Yes, he is my son," said headed off the next question about to be thrown at her. "He was born shortly after your last visit." Recovering from their initial shock, the twins noticed that the child was favoring his left arm and Gilraen was still having trouble breathing. They hastily helped Gilraen to her feet and Elladan carried the child, Elrohir steadying its mother.
"Here we are, milady," Elrohir said, helping Gilraen onto his pure white steed. Gilraen looked hesitantly at Elladan before holding out her arms.
"Please," she said. "He will feel more comfortable with me." Elladan dropped the baby into his mother's outstretched arms and she winced horribly.
"What is it?" Elrohir asked, concern etched on his fair face. Gilraen sucked in a breath and looked at her forearm, eyes widening. Stuck inside her arm, almost unnoticeable because of its size and the pain she was already in, was a small Orc arrow. Gently putting down her child, Gilraen showed the Elven princes what she discovered. Anger flashed in their eyes at the wound and they hissed, making Gilraen flinch. She knew all too well about the time their mother had been attacked by Orcs and had to travel to the Havens, leaving her family behind heavily.
Elladan sighed, taking control of the situation as Elrohir's eyes just kept on the wound. "We must treat you immediately." He walked over to Gilraen and grasped her arm, an apology in his eyes. Elrohir picked the toddler up and turned him away from his mother. He would not want to see this. Elladan firmly grasped the Orc arrow and tugged. Hard. Gilraen panted in surprise from the sting that shot through her arm as Aragorn immediately began to fight against Elrohir's firm grip. He jumped to the ground and ran apprehensively towards his mother.
"Mommy!" he said in his childish voice. "You alright, Mommy?" His silver eyes looked right into her blue ones, worry shining above all the other emotions in them.
"Yes, Aragorn, Mommy is fine," Gilraen lied to her son. She then feebly made her way to Elrohir's horse, child in arms. "Shall we go?" she asked, trying to sound as strong as her weak, breaking voice would allow.
"O- of course," Elladan said, still moved by the child and his mother.
"Let me help you, milady," Elrohir offered. Elladan grabbed Aragorn and held him with special care. He did not think that the child nor his mother could take much more of anything today. Elrohir helped Gilraen onto his horse and immediately she asked for her son, although shyly. She knew these two would never hurt her him.
Elladan smiled and handed Aragorn over. Suddenly, his nostrils flared, as if a disgusting scent was suddenly smacking him in the face. He frenetically made his way over to some bushes, but he did not check in them. He pushed them out of his way and made it deeper into the forest, the shadows making him disappear after a few more steps. Elrohir looked from where he saw his brother, as Elven eyes are better than human, and then back to Gilraen several times. Then he held up one finger and pursued his brother, though from a safe distance so that if the mortals needed him, he would be there in a flash.
Elrohir flexed his nostrils, trying to determine what smell now plagued he and his brother. Suddenly, Elladan turned a solemn face on his brother as they both figured out the smell. Death.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
The somber silence that fell upon the brothers scared Gilraen. She could not hear them moving, that was expected, but she could also not hear any rustling in the leaves nor bushes.
Aragorn cuddled closer to his mother 's body. Gilraen rested her chin on the crown of Aragorn's head. This had been a long day for both of them. How much more could they take? Gilraen looked at her son. The child was shaking. She pulled him closer to her, trying to silently pass on some of whatever comfort she had left inside her onto her son. But as she held him tight, he began to shake more. His small frame was shaking with uncontrollable sobs, still shaken from the night before. Her heart was suddenly torn apart as she realized the toll this took on the prince. Sighing, she wrapped her arms more protectively around the small form and willed him to just fall into a peaceful sleep. She began to sing him a soft lullaby.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Sorting through the bushes, Elrohir's heart beat faster and faster with every minute passing. He was breathing heavily, which was unusual for an Elf, but he couldn't imagine what he expected to find. Looking at his brother, Elladan gave him a reassuring glance before they both took deep, strangled breaths and moved ahead.
Trees were still black from where the fires set by Orcs had died out and arrows were everywhere, but they were not man-made. Elladan plucked an arrow out of a tree, this one about five times larger than the one that was removed from Gilraen, and showed its tip to Elrohir. The fire in their eyes, smote by the fear of what they would find, returned wholly when they saw the poison on its tip. Now there was no doubt in their minds that this was of Orc kind. With a new adrenaline, the boys flew on their heels and took in the campsite. They immediately wished they hadn't.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
After ten minutes, Aragorn's body stopped trembling and his breathing evened out. Finally Ilúvatar had taken pity on the couple. A soft breeze brushed Gilraen's cheek and, she didn't know how or why, but she felt her husband in that breeze. She felt his spirit and she could feel his gentle touch. Her heart sank. She loved the feeling that she got from that breeze, but it left little hope for Arathorn's well-being.
A small groan brought Gilraen back to the world of the living. Aragorn was awakening, his eyes still sleepy and looking a bit disheveled, but Gilraen could not understand why her son would've awoken so quickly after he had fallen asleep moments before. "Daddy?" his small, childish voice inquired. Tears were forming in his mother's eyes, but she refused to let them fall.
"Daddy is not here, honey," she said she said in a feeble, frail voice, her nerves already more shot than she could endure.
"He is out hunting?" Aragorn pushed the subject. "He is in another part of the for'st? He's gonna come back soon?" Aragorn's huge orbs stung painfully with a desire to hear his father's voice. Gilraen could not bare to share what she felt in her heart with her child. She could barely even lie to him, but to tell him the truth… that was not currently an option. Around the newly formed lump in her throat she answered, "Yes, he is in another part of the forest." Not completely a lie, but definitely not the whole truth. 'Please go back to sleep, my child,' Gilraen silently pleaded, but Aragorn would have none of that.
"When he comin' back?" he demanded.
"Oh, Aragorn," Gilraen said tenderly, running a loving hand through his unruly hair. "My child…"
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Elladan closed his eyes at the scene before him. His insides were retching, he was going to be sick. How any living thing could wreak such havoc on anything, anyone else was a mystery to him. He felt bile move its way slowly up his throat, but he forced it back down. He would have to deal with himself later. He placed a comforting hand on his brother's shoulder as he could clearly see Elrohir experiencing exactly what he was. With an almost-smile, the two began to move across the bloodstained ground and bodies littered everywhere for anyone alive. It seemed so hopeless.
Mentally cursing the foul creatures that had done this, Elrohir shifted stiffening and stinking corpses around in search of any living. None! There were no living Men here. It broke Elrohir's heart to see many Dúnedain that he had been friends with or had hunted with in such a manner. He tried to steady his breathing as he looked into the large eyes that he knew would never look at him (or anything for that matter) ever again. Looking at all the slain, helpless-looking Rangers, the twins found nothing. They knew that the Orcs would return and that no one was now with Gilraen and Aragorn, so they must leave and, unfortunately, leave the bodies too. Feeling useless, especially because they knew nothing of how their friend Arathorn faired, they returned to the queen and prince of Gondor.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Gilraen didn't know what to say to her son, she couldn't bare to make him suffer more than he has to as of yet, but he seemed to be able to read the unsaid answer in her eyes and his lower lip trembled. "Aragorn, do not lose hope," Gilraen tried to comfort him.
"Milady?" a small, quiet voice interrupted the mourning pair. Gilraen turned around quickly, aggravating her injuries, which seemed everywhere, and grimaced in pain at the two Elves.
"We bare unfortunate tidings," Elladan (yes, Gilraen had long ago learned to tell the two apart) said. Gilraen sucked in a deep, painful breath as Aragorn, sensing that this had to do with his father, especially by his mother's reaction, bit his lip hard. Elladan looked to Aragorn, as if deciding whether or not the child should hear the news, then suddenly found the ground at his feet very interesting and looked at it guiltily.
"We found no trace of Arathorn," Elrohir said in a mere, but carrying whisper. "I'm sorry. We checked all those slain that we could find and no Arathorn among them. We know not of his whereabouts." Elrohir looked as if he wanted t say something else, like what he thought the odds were that Arathorn lived, but decided against it. 'Perhaps it is best.' Elrohir decided in his head.
Gilraen looked at her son who was also finding the ground particularly interesting as he absorbed this new information and tried to figure out just what it meant. Elrohir felt Elladan's gaze upon him and turned to be proven right. Nodding to his brother slightly, Elladan mounted his horse and Gilraen, seeing this gesture, moved over to allow Elrohir to do the same. Spurring their horses, they went with a quick canter.
o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o
A/N- Thank you to everyone who has read my one-shots. I truly appreciate all the tips and flattering reviews you are giving me! I hope this story doesn't let you down in your expectations, you all seem to think that I'm a good writer! Well, here's the first chapter of Living for Hope. Tomorrow I'll put the second chapter up (no it's not a one-shot! believe it or not) There are five chapters in all (including the epilogue) and I hope to get one up every day, as it's all written already. I tried to go back and make sure that since this was written a long time ago if I could change anything and found nothing, so I do hope you enjoy! And remember, R&R!!!!