Estel was twenty years of age when his adoptive father, Lord Elrond, informed him of his prestigious lineage and great, albeit far-off, destiny. Thinking on all that he had been told, he wandered aimlessly through the woods of Rivendell, until he realized night had fallen, and began to make his way back to the Last Homely House. Although lost in his imaginings of both past and future events, he was not so distracted that he did not notice the figure climbing down from a high balcony. Moving quickly yet quietly, he managed to come up behind the figure just as they landed on the ground. It was obviously an elf, dressed in sturdy outdoor wear with their dark hair pulled back. Estel coughed. The elf spun around in surprise at the noise, and in turn he was shocked to find himself looking into the eyes of a beautiful elf-maiden.
Unable to discern just what he should make of this, he inquired mildly, "Might I ask what so fair an elf lady is doing out so late in such attire?"
She scowled faintly and replied, "I am Arwen Undomiel, Elrond's daughter, and you are Estel."
"Yes. I am Aragorn, son of Arathorn, Isildur's Heir, Lord of the Dunedain." It was the first time he'd said those words aloud. It felt strange, but a thrill of excitement ran through him. He was not one to mope at the thought of the approaching challenge – he was still too young to know what it entailed.
"You are Estel," she repeated. "And you are the first person in over eight hundred years to catch me, I cannot decide if I find that admirable or annoying."
"Please, walk with me for a while, so that you may have time to consider it," he asked, his eyes shining in mirth.
"I would find you most admirable if you promise not to tell my father."
Now he smiled. "Walk with me, and we'll see."
She took his offered arm reluctantly, and together they walked towards the gardens of Imladris.
"So tell me why it is that you are dressed in such a manner?"
"Well, it's far easier to navigate the trees and the underbrush when you aren't walking around in a dress so fine that it shall tear should you sit down wrong. And before you ask, I am out here because I miss the way I used to wander around when I was a young elfling, before such behavior became deemed improper." She looked at the young man next to her, and said softly, "I just needed to escape it all. For a time."
He frowned, not having learned of this hidden element of elven society, something that could distress so remarkable a maiden. "You are upset with your father's expectations of you?"
She dropped herself down on an intricately carved bench, flopping in a manner that would, indeed, destroy any outfit but the one she was wearing. "It's not just my father, Estel. It's..."
"Everybody?"
She ignored his interjection. "Do you know what happens to a society, when all its members are immortal?"
"It continues on forever?" It was a good guess, he thought.
"And it never changes. People don't die, new individuals don't rise to take their place, so the status quo is perpetuated for thousands of years, unchallenged."
"But wouldn't such a society then be inherently stable, and peaceful?"
"Yes. But along the way, I think it loses something. There are no internal disruptions, true, but there is no positive change either, since change rests in the coming of one generation over the last. All the people who politely turned up their noses at the young tomboy are just as adamant now over a woman's role in society as they were when I was a rambunctious elfling."
"Sometimes I would wonder if Father – Lord Elrond I mean – " here he paused and blushed, "if the elf who raised me is still inherently the same person that he was when he fought alongside Isildur so many years ago. Now I wonder if he looks at me and... sees me to be the same as my ancestor, I suppose."
"His memory is very long."
He shook off the dour thought, and continued, "But human society is much like that as well, as far as I have experienced, in their own way. Individuals themselves do not carry the memories, but the society as a whole does. The beliefs and customs of the parents are instilled in the children at an early age. So I do not think there is as much change as one would think."
Here Arwen smiled at him. "I have never had such a conversation before tonight. Surely I have never spoken so freely on the subject."
"It must be the company, then. A Man living with Elves, I must know everything there is to know between them."
"You are young yet," she said. "You have much to unlearn."
They talked until dawn, remaining next to each other on their bench. When the first rays of sunlight came streaming through the tree branches, she rose, to return to her room and become a fine elf princess once again.
Arwen swore him to secrecy about the night's events. "Father would kill the both of us, so in the future, if anyone asks of our first meeting, you must tell them you saw an elf maiden, regal and proper, and... I don't know, felt like you had wandered into a dream."
Estel watched as she climbed back up to her balcony. "But I did," he said.