3003 and later – a fixture of the period are Aravir's military and domestic policies. He continues to recruit in the north of Arnor, among the Haladin - the volunteers typically are younger cousins of those who had already served the son of Arador. The veterans – released after six or seven years - are offered land in Little Dunland, and often settle down there. The plan to seek out candidates for "Dunedainisation" is dropped, there no longer being a need for it – the Great Trek of 2985 had repopulated the Angle.
Now the majority of recruits come from Little Dunland. There it is perceived as a prestigious service, no longer something for the desperate - like it still often was among the Haladin. Not only the veterans received land at mustering out but had been given arms training and field craft skills beyond those normally available to the Exiles. This made them sought as chief's retainers. After Gwion - in the 2990's - placed two of his grandsons with Aravir, such service tempted even eldermen's sons.
There were ten to fifteen such men at arms at all times. The lower figure might be brought about by losses, mustering out, or by the recruitment of boys who needed more than a year of training and thus were held back from field service.
Additionally Aravir also took in a chief's and eldermen's sons as fosterlings. There always were two or three such lads around, learning military and estate running skills. "Courtly graces" were taught at level appropriate to Little Dunland.
Aravir's company, led personally and usually with his sons, often ranged in two separate units across Eriador. It cooperated with the Rangers in protecting the land and its inhabitants from Orc or Mannish bandit raids. His elder daughter Pengyril also participating in the Company's patrols. His two younger sons in particular were eager to go on Ranger patrols and occasionally this could be arranged, if the patrol's leader was an old comrade of Aravir's. Common in the late noughts', by the middle of the next decade patrols of the two younger sons with Rangers had petered out.
Additionally the Dunadan's Lords men at arms and sons took part in inter-clan fighting in North Dunland, on the side of the co-belligerent (allied would be too large a word) Three Arrows against the Three Fangs. Aravir's company – or part of it – fought alongside the men of the Broken Bone clan from Little Dunland supporting their relatives from the Three Arrows.
Aravir particularly liked to involve his force in that conflict when there was an opportunity of intercepting the Wise Man's tithe gathering columns. By now their schedule was more or less known and their appearance predictable. Clashes with orcs from the mountains with their own agenda were also part of the confusing, multi-sided conflict.
3003
The first major event in the Aravir household after Ashtuzual's death was the marriage of Thiriston and Angarad the next year. The couple immediately had twins – Haston and Dageth. In time, after several miscarriages and stillbirths, these were followed by Megilagil. This was the last child Angarad could have.
3004
After several years of alternating between Sirbrith and the Tarkil estate Indis announced that she wanted to live in Krikayrau.
Her mother looked at her quizzically.
"There's a boy in this, isn't it"
The younger girl flushed.
"Which one is it." Inzilbeth reeled off the names of Aravir's sons, then of some of the Dunlending youths she heard her daughter talk about.
Indis, with head low and hair over her face, just shook her head at each of the names.
Once her mother finished - and feeling her eyes boring into her – she squeaked:
"Uncle Aravir."
Inzilbeth sat down. Now everything came together nicely. Her youngest had never, ever, been sweet on any boy. If she ever idolised any men, it was her father and "uncle Aravir". She never showed any interest in courtship, regardless of looks or station of the man. She dismissed them all, forbidding her parents to accept any proposals – be these of courtship or marriage. Inzilbeth wrote this off as a case of "late bloomer" but apparently she had been wrong – her daughter had decided upon one man already. Even if that was her "uncle" – happily, no blood ties there. Eru be praised Indis did not feel un-natural urges. And she feared that of all her children it was Indis which inherited the most of her single-mindedness.
"Isn't ... isn't ... he a bit long in the tooth?" – she asked the first of the very many questions whirling in her mind.
"No. he is about seventy. That's just perfect for a woman like me." She lifted her head and looked at her mother.
"Mother, I'm like you. I'm no Dunadaneth. I may look like one, but I'm not. I'm like you or those women in Breeland or like the Dunlanders." Here her mother's lips twitched with inbred contempt she had been trying to overcome for the last ten years.
"My womb will dry up at forty and I'll die of old age at sixty."
The ex-Rohirr, now fifty three years of age, did not need reminding of how she looked. Nor of her life expectancy. Almost all her hair was white and she had deep wrinkles lining her face. Tarkil, on the other hand, looked like a man in his thirties. Or well aged forty. Her daughter continued.
"Aravir will probably live like grandpa Aithon – some one hundred twenty or thirty. That's fifty to sixty years from now. He would outlive me ... "
The older woman could not reject this logic.
"Does he know of your ... affection?"
"No." came a whispered answer.
"What will you do?" – she asked with some worry
"Just watch. Make him happy. Pray to Yavanna that someday he will think of me as a woman."
"Child, you'll be killing yourself. You'll be unhappy ... " - Inzilbeth drew her youngest daughter into an embrace.
"I'm unhappy away from him." – sniff - "Better to be unhappy where I can at least be near him." – sniff – "I tried keeping away – I felt bad about thinking about Uncle Aravir that way, I felt bad about being in Aunt Lothi's place. That's why I stopped going to Krikayrau after 3000, remember. You didn't know the reason, but now I can tell."
A big sniff.
"And after Aunt Lothi was murdered I felt rotten - some part of me was happy that he ... he was free. I felt so awful!"
Wipes nose into sleeve.
"I tried to keep away, to punish myself for such thoughts. To stop thinking about him. But I still do."
Inzilbeth comforted her daughter, thinking how to pass this by her husband. Krikayrau wasn't the place to send a daughter in search of a suitor, unless one was interested in alliances with Dunlending chiefs in exile – she curled her lips in distaste.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
It was the first time she saw her uncle's bared arms. She brought her hands to her face.
"Elbereth!" she gasped.
Aravir noticed what she was looking at and made a difficult to decipher face.
"Uncle! So many scars! What happened? Was it orcs?"
This elicited a small, sad smile.
"Yes, orcs."
"But how did they bite you in combat? Were you ... tortured?" she asked, hesitantly, not fully sure if he wanted to talk about it, or did she want to hear the answer.
"No, not exactly. " Aravir was beginning to show signs of merriment.
"Actually, it is Ashtuzual's doing ... "
GASP and again hands to her face, with eyes widened in horror.
"When you quarrelled ... in anger ... she bit you?! You shielded your face?!"
Now the ranger chuckled.
"No, not in anger and I was not shielding my face. Your aunt bit me ... out of happiness. She did that to show me how happy she was. It's ... it's an orc thing." He was grinning, with a shade of sheepiness to it.
Indis mulled this newly acquired piece of information about her aunt and uncle.
"How sweet of you! It must have hurt you a lot! You were such a honey!" she giggled.
Putting a finger to her lips she asked
"Did your children bite you when they were happy too?" She asked.
The son of Arador assumed the colour of beet root.
"Noo ... no. It was a little husband and wife thing ... just the two of us." Aravir heroically tried not to stammer.
It was only a day or two later that Indis recalled Aunt Ashtuzual's comment on a girl's half-absent look and grin plastered to her face – "hubby earned a bite or two last night, I see". She went very red and fanned herself.
3005
Gwion dies. Three new villages were added to Little Dunland as the "originals" were full, at over sixty houses capacity. Some of the latest comers were living in huts outside the palisade. The new settlements were established to the east and south of existing ones, one just to the south of the Great East Road, the other two six miles to the south of it. This changed the pattern of villages from a triangle to a rectangle. The settlers were a mix of those in Little Dunland since 2991 - or their descendents – and for some reason unhappy with their lot at their present location. The chief contribution, however, was made by the constant trickle of refugees from Dunland seeking a new home, with a sprinkling of land hungry Big Folk Breelanders and a few Haladin brought in by their cousins.
3006
Hadril marries Ityld, Gwion's grandson. First fostered at Krikayrau he later served as one of Aravir's men at arms. The brideprice (plus some father's assistance) is used to establish a new village to South East of Krikayrau, where Ityld becomes chief. Marriage contract allows an Underwife only if Hadril is barren and if she approves of the candidate.
()()()()()()()
"Daughter. I'm worried".
"Then don't be. There's nothing wrong with me."
"But you are eighteen ..."
"And my brothers are over twenty ... "
"But time flows differently for men and women ... "
"Then think of me as a fourth son. I'll become a babohlop."
"WHAT?"
"Yes. I'll follow the Dunlending custom and lead a man's life. I'll foreswear marriage and motherhood. I've seen enough births, with Ma or Hadril. Not for me." She looked at him with her light amber eyes.
"Ada, please, let me be."
Aravir never questioned the affection his elder daughter had for Gudrun. The two seemed to be inseparable, like mother and daughter, whenever they were both in Manor. Pengyril had been very close to her mother and considering the long lasting and close friendship between Gudrun and Ashtuzual, it was quite natural for the dwarrowdam to serve as sort of surrogate mother.
AN:
babohlop- Google for "burnesha". I thought it is cool and appropriate for a society with clans and blood feuds. And a fantastic security valve for girls unhappy with the traditional woman's role in their society.
()()()()()()()
After two years of living at Krikayrau Aravir and Indis made a surprise visit at Inzilbeth and Tarkil's home...
Indis launched herself in to her mother's arms, saying that she had proposed and Aravir had accepted. They hugged and wept a few happy tears over the upcoming elopement. Screams of YOU MUST BE OUT OF YOUR MIND YOU HORSE FUCKED PERVERT indicated that the bride's father was just beginning to wrap his mind around the idea of making their father in law – son in law relationship reciprocal. And that Tarkil had acquired his wife's prejudices.
Tarkil was furious about his best friend Aravir taking a SECOND daughter off him. He had grown to consider Ashtuzual a daughter while Aravir was still considering giving her a push into the Lone Lands to go back to the orcs. And then he was powerless about things developing between them when he wasn't there. Could not be there with her. But that was water under the Last Bridge by now. What was happening now was that his innocent baby was planning to elope with Aravir. And knowing him, he feared to ask his daughter of her "condition". He feared of succumbing to the red fury which led his father to filicide if the answer was what he feared. And his wife was against him!
"C'mon, so in his bachelor days he could not keep it in his pants if there was a whorehouse within half a days distance? And he slept with a dozen widows in the Angle?" – Inzilbeth shrugged, absolutely unruffled.
"Did he harm the wenches? Any beaten up and bleeding windows in his wake? No? Then get over it. I've seen men do much, much worse, as you know."
"For what we know he was a good and faithful husband to Lothiriel. I, for one, have no worries that OUR daughter will find anything besides love and dedication in his house! She loves him, never considered anybody else, I wish to see her happy. Get over it, I say. They have MY full support!"
()()()()()()()()()
GROAN
"Aravir, when you began to show interest in Ashtuzual THAT could be kept quiet. Later, when you eloped, those who knew kept their mouths shut. You kept out of public view and I helped with that. But – GROAN – there is no way we can keep Lord Helgon's kinswoman's marriage out of the public eye. And I've put so much attention on the Tarkils' over your adoption of Inzilbeth that gossips are all over them." Aragorn put his elbows on the table, his head between his hands and looked at his uncle with pain and hurt in his eyes.
"Can't you even go to the privy without causing a scandal? Can't you marry like all other people?! First an orc and now your own grand-daughter... " Aragorn winced and then moved to a dynastic issue.
"Your renouncing the ... "
"No, no change. That stays. I'd be the lowest cad if I changed that. My line is cut off from succession - don't even bring this up, please."
()()()()()()()()()
Questions were raised at Aravir's side as well. Reactions of his children ranged from the ugly to the pleased. The ugly came from his firstborn, Thiriston – accusing him of dishonouring Ashtuzual and treating his children like filth. That apparently he was ashamed of having sired a bunch of non-presentable half breeds with an orc and now wanted to sire "proper Dunedain brats" with a real woman to make up for it. Aravir's assurance that Indis' children will be treated same as that had been fell on deaf ears. Hastogur and Gronguron had to drag the two eldest males of the family off one another. The pleased reaction came from Hadril, who was happy that father will no longer be lonely but will be loved and love in return. And that the step mother was somebody she knew, somebody she liked and considered a sister. The reactions of the others fell somewhere in between.
Nonetheless after Indis wed Aravir the household got along reasonably well. Thiriston grudgingly accepted Indis, thinking about her more in terms of "sister" (they had grown up together) than "mother".
3007
The Chief Padrau and his brother in law, now the well off and respected elderman Rys, making use of the fact that there was a Lady of the Manor again, send a daughter each to Krikayrau for fostering. These girls probably will be the first Dunlander women to be able to read and write Common and Sindarin.
3008-17
Nothing exciting. Children are born, young people marry, old folks die. Little Dunland, with all its eight villages grows in population and prosperity. In the East the Shadow deepens, Gandalf asks for Aragorn to strengthen the watch around the Shire.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Timeline of sorts:
? - Elrond, the Twins, Arwen "cradle snatcher" are born
?+1 – dirt invented
2770 – Smaug takes Erebor
2799 – Dain slays Azog at battle of Azanulbizar
2864 – Aithon born
2911 – Fell Winter
2920 – Thannor son of Aithon born
2926 – Tarkil son of Aithon born
2931 – Aravir and Aragorn born, Arador, Aravir's father, dies
2933 – Arathorn, Aragorn's father and Aravir's brother, dies
2941 – Thorin's Company retakes Erebor; Bolg kills Thorin and dies at hands of Boern
2951 – Inzilbeth born, Aragorn begins 30 years of travel
2966 – Tarkil helps Inzilbeth escape Rohan
2968 – Inzilbeth is adopted by Aravir and accepts offer of marriage from Tarkil
2972 - Ashtuzual born
2981 – fun begins; 50 y/o Aragorn engaged to c.2700 Arwen "cradle snatcher" Undomiel, finally assumes Chieftainship
2983 (?) – Angarad born
2984 – Aravir and Ashtuzual marry, Aithon banned from Angle for filicide
2985 – Ear/Gurun marries Tygil Irongrip – with issue
2983 – Angarad born – half-orc girl adopted by Aravir and Ashtuzual
2986 – Thiriston born
2986 – Gronguron born
2987 – Hastogur born
2988 – Pengyril born
2989 – Hadril born
2992 - Little Dunland established, initially with three villages; becomes Broken Bone clan
2992 - Krikayrau Manor, dwelling of Aravir and family, established
3002 - Ashtuzual murdered by elves
My head canon has half orcs/honkers aging at human speed +25%, i.e. 18 year old Hadril would be 22 and a half in mind and body in human terms. Normal human, not Dunedain terms.
TarkilInzilbeth's children:
Almarian (2969), Numenor princess with blue eyes
Elwing (2972), curvy lass with Numenor face, blue eyes and blond hair
Miriel (2980), posterchild for "this is how the Rohirrim look like" information campaign
Indis (2983), Numenor all the way, but wavy brown hair
Valandil (2985), Dunedain height, Rohirr round face with grey eyes, blond head
Earendur (2989), medium height, slightly stocky build, mixed facial features, blue eyes, raven hair