Disclaimer: don't own Lord of the Rings. You know I don't, I know I don't. Happy? I'm not...
Hey, just decided to write this, because I adore Lord of the Rings so much... just to tell you, this is based on the movies. And don't tell me I'm wrong on something. I have read the books... thrice! But because the movies have all the fun Aragorn and Arwen fluff, I'm following them awhile. Cheers!
Song of Evenstar
Chapter 1: The Road Goes Ever On
Time passes with the wind, and yet she cannot die. The shores have gone and passed have they, yet she shall not go on...
It was a long night. The longest she'd ever seen. And Arwen had seen many.
It was the wait, the fear that grew heavy in her heart. It was the knowledge she did not own, the one question that had bothered her since she'd met him.
Will he survive?
This was the greatest war Middle-Earth had ever seen, perhaps the greatest it would ever see, Arwen hoped.
Aragorn was a born warrior, an heir to the throne of Gondor. Would he accept that fate? And what was she to do here but wait for the war to end, wait for Aragorn to return? Or for the news of his death...
Arwen glanced out her window, gazing at the stars. It was a clear sky tonight; the Evenstar shone brightly in the center of the cluster of stars.
She prayed silently to the Evenstar for Aragorn's safe return.
Aragorn – Pellenor Fields
Dead. Dirty, stinking, rotting flesh. The pungent aroma of death, disease, blood. And fear.
Orc bodies lay scattered about, like mice after a fierce storm. No one cared to bury their bodies; no one cared to cremate their remains.
But the men of Gondor were to be respected. The elves that had come to help were to be prayed for.
Digging through an immense, stinking hill of dead orcs, Aragorn spotted an elf. He lay sprawled beneath the carcasses, a calm expression on his dead face.
And as Aragorn examined the carcass closely, he caught a smile tracing the dead elf's lips. He almost dropped the body. They wanted to die. They wanted to be mortal. They thought of their own immortality as a curse.
He closed his eyes and swallowed. Immortality... the only thing that kept him away from his Arwen. Yet she had given it away, had accepted mortality... just to be with him.
Aragorn opened his eyes and gazed at the stars.
The Evenstar around his neck glowed from the light of the Evenstar above.
"Thank you, Arwen..."
Elrond
His kindred were leaving across the sea. His wife awaited him there. Yet his daughter chose to remain with that mortal of hers... Did she not realize he would die and she would live? Yes, she did. She'd given Aragorn her immortality.
She'd given away her Evenstar.
Oh, how Elrond had tried to convince her to leave, to sail across the sea. He'd begged her; he'd tried to force her. But Arwen remained firm. She wouldn't bend her mind in the direction Elrond wished.
Her love for Aragorn was simply too great.
He'd long ago surrendered to her, letting Arwen choose her own fate. And she had.
She'd almost died, almost faded from life. Elrond had ridden to Aragorn, given the warrior his sword. But Arwen wouldn't eat. She wouldn't sleep. She remained in her room all day, stroking Aragorn's ring, and gazing at the Evenstar on clear nights.
He'd forced some food into her yesterday, but she scarcely ate any.
She was fading.
Arwen
Her hands were cold.
She felt the cold snowflakes land on her extended hand, and she marvelled at their coolness, at how they did not melt upon her frozen hand.
Footsteps behind her brought Arwen whirling around to face the intruder upon her silent serenity.
Her brothers.
Frowning, they came to their beloved sister, cuddled her between them as they had when Arwen had been but a child. Elrohir and Elladan loved their sister dearly, but now... now something was wrong. It was her coldness, her sudden awareness of the cold. Her hands were frozen, her expression of ice. Arwen scarcely moved from her place these days... she just stood, gazing to the east, hoping, wishing...
They knew she spent every waking moment thinking of Aragorn, of Estel... of their friend. They had come to love Estel as a brother, but this... this was too much. He was killing their dear sister slowly, taking away her meaning of life bit by painful bit.
"Sister..." spoke Elrohir, stroking Arwen's hand. "You cannot spend your life here... you cannot put your chances aside, cannot push away all chance of glory and valor..."
"Come with us, sister..." muttered Elladan softly, taking Arwen's other hand. "Leave Estel... There is nothing for you here..."
Arwen looked up, and gazed at her brothers. It was said she wept then, and gazed in longing at her home. But her heart wept harder, torn to shreds of her choices, of her chances, of her fate...
At length she spoke, dark eyes cast down, tears frozen on her pale cheeks, ebony locks limp from her exhaustion.
"Father has tried once to change my way of love," said she to Elladan and Elrohir, "But he failed that quest. Now you, brothers, have placed yourself between my love and me. I shall repeat myself, brothers, as I spoke to our dearest father in his hope. I have made my choice." Her voice was firm, set, and strong despite her weakness. Arwen's brothers knew there was no opposing her now. She was lost to them, lost forever.
Aragorn
The halls of Gondor... stone pillars, statues of kings long past. The simple beauty, elegance of this divine yet subtle house became a home to his heart. He loved this land, loved its people.
And it was his. He had but to claim it, but to reach out and grasp it... and he would be king.
King of this land.
King of men.
He didn't want to rule over a country, and yet he wished for the glory. No. No glory. Glory drove mortal men mad. Glory was the reason for this war, the reason for this bloodshed...
He didn't want to cause more pain.
And yet... would there not be more pain if he did not accept his fate and take the throne? Would Gondor then not fall, without a just ruler? Faramir would not take as the steward. Not when the heir was alive.
He sighed, and turned his thoughts away from the throne as he awaited the others to arrive.
What of Arwen?
She was fading, dying... Elrond would not have lied to him, would not have rode all this way to give him the restored shards of Narsil in the new blade, Anduril... He would not have lied.
So Arwen was dying...
This was his fault. He shouldn't have left her. No... he would have either way. He shouldn't have loved her. Shouldn't have stolen her heart, shouldn't have met her...
What was he thinking?
He wouldn't have lived then, not truly. Aragorn shook his head then, and gazed for long at the windows. They had been thrown open, for the wind blew softly from the west, bringing with it whispers of the sea. Of the gulls that called and the horns that sounded, and of the last ships leaving these dying shores...
She should have left.
She should have gone away, and lived in bliss with her people for her eternity. He would have been a pain in her heart for a while, but slowly, as the ages passed and Aragorn passed through the earth in his grave, she would forget him...
And live in peace with no worries and no despair.
The heir of Isildur sighed then, and his woe was felt, a tremor in the subtle changes of the tide, long leagues away, through the walls of Gondor, cross the plains and forests to a certain house within the wood...
Arwen
Her brothers had left, in despair, still searching in their minds a way to cheer her, to bring a smile once more upon her lips...
Did they not understand?
She would not smile, could not, until at last she saw Estel again. Until at last she heard his words, felt his love... Until she felt him near her, saw him smiling to her...
Until they were together, she could not smile again.
A soft whisper gently touched her ear, and she marveled at the shiver it sent down her spine. It was a soft wind, a subtle caress from the east... and the whisper...
It was a woeful sigh.
Something inside her told Arwen this was no ordinary sigh. It was the sigh of a heart in woe, a warrior before death, a king unable to grasp his rule...
It was the sigh of lonely Aragorn, far away, in woe and longing for her touch.
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So press it, and see what it does...