She, sorry they, will be back
Chapter 2
Eleanor's POV
It was eventually decided that a small palace would be built for us somewhere between the lands of Oropher and my father. We stayed with either one while it was being built.
Oropher and Turgon seemed to think the house building was another good way of competing with each other, so I used the same male avoid techniques we had used first in the Dunedan village then with Ginny's, Arwen's, Éowyn's, and Lothiriel's babies.
Though the males were extremely happy about my child and I have absolutely no doubt they would make sure he or she would want for nothing, they most definitely did not want to listen to a bunch of females gassing about babies.
The strangest thing would be that the female Valar decided to join in the baby-talk. Neither Tolkien nor the elves give you a good impression of what the Valar are really like.
They are very much like normal elves, but with far more power.
The male variety acted just like any other males I have known around babies and girl-talk, and the female ones are indistinguishable from normal females in the same situation.
One day, a few weeks after our arrival, Varda and Manwë invited us to tea. Yes, tea.
Not too surprisingly, considering the circumstances, it was mostly Varda extending the invitation and she wanted to talk babies.
Both males present had the looks of people wanting to be somewhere else. I think they had both had had enough of baby-talk.
While there, I decided to start off my little plan.
At one point I made a wistful comment about how I had always though Ginny would be the midwife for all my children.
They asked politely about Ginny and so we told them.
Legolas got the idea immediately and Varda was wearing just the right kind of soppy look on her face about how much we would miss my human friend and whatever.
Phase One complete.
Just before the subject changed, I made a mournful comment about how there was probably nothing that could be done about her humanity and whatever. Judging by the expression on Manwë's face though, I was wrong on that stake.
Purrfect.
Later on the conversation got onto my foreknowledge.
They seemed immensely curious about the elves that had stayed behind. I don't think they knew when those elves would turn up either.
As evening was descending we returned to Ada's house as it was closer and stopped there.
When we asked where Gimli was (Ada doesn't mind dwarves, so Gimli stays at his house) he tells us that Aulë has expropriated him slightly.
Apparently that Vala is interested in the soul member of his own race to actually get to Valinor.
What a surprise.
Over the next few months I begin to appreciate one of the major downsides of being an elf. The pregnancies are an entire year long.
Thankfully, for the latter part we have our own house and so I am at least left alone occasionally.
As I grow to the size of a house, still eating normally I might add; I get grumpier.
One of the joys of being friend with the Valar is when I get those cravings for things from my world they can make them turn up.
Ginny would probably want to kill me; she had to put up with major chocolate cravings, but nothing even resembling chocolate is in Middle Earth.
Eventually someone decides do what is basically the elfin version of ultrasound, making the rest of us wonder what took us so long to think of it.
Well that explains that – 'that' being why I am so big so early on in the pregnancy, relatively speaking.
I happen to be carrying twins. Must be hereditary or something.
The end of my pregnancy takes absolutely forever.
Looking on the bright side though, another thing came at the tail end of my pregnancy.
A certain someone who I had really wanted to meet had been doing business the other side of Valinor when I first arrived and finally returned about two weeks after when I would have given birth if I were a human.
This certain someone would be High King Gil-Galad.
And true to one of my favourite fanfictions, he is a total nutter.
He was very formal at first, but he soon caught some of my more risqué comments (which the better brought up ladies didn't and the males mostly pretended not to while also trying not to laugh) and turned his full sense of humour on me.
We got on like a house on fire and my husband suddenly got very possessive.
Oh well.
It was the presence of the slightly insane High King that made that last month or so bearable as, much to the horror of everyone around me, I went into premature labour.
I wasn't worried, but they were.
I think I shocked everyone when I insisted on Leggy being in the birthing room with me, but there are some things a girl has to insist on and that was one I was not willing to give in about.
I also understand now what Ginny went through with all her pregnancies and why she also insisted that Amrothos be present for all the births after the birth of their first child. Like her, I wanted nothing more than to put my husband through the same amount of pain that I was going through (especially as he was the cause of it).
The first one, a little girl, took forever to be born.
Like me when I was born, she had platinum-blonde hair and pale eyes.
Then, at a marginally faster pace, came her brother.
He had darker, golden-blonde hair and I suspect took after his father more.
I didn't really care who they took after, they were my babies and I was immensely proud of them.
As with the babies I had seen in Middle Earth it took them a few days to get really cute, but when they did, I don't think there has been anything cuter that I have ever seen.
Admittedly, I am slightly biased of my children, but still!
My son is called Valaráto (meaning god's champion) and my daughter is called Valyaceulë (divine renewal). We are not the ones who chose those names, Irmo insisted on them.
Irmo is strange Vala and it is quite clear that the names 'god's champion' and 'divine renewal' are significant names, as 'hope' was for Aragorn.
Once the healers (including Elrond, much to my annoyance) let me out of bed again, I became immediately active, more than a week in bed is enough to send anyone stir crazy.
Once I had worn off all that excess energy, I got the fun of dropping round the palace of Manwë and Varda for tea and baby-talk.
Manwë seemed rather more interested now there were actually babies there, and he took possession of my son for the entire visit.
Towards the end of the visit when my children had gone to sleep, both Valar got a serious look on their faces. I frown at them, and then Manwë starts to speak,
"I know you have missed your friend Ginny, and in retrospect we both agree it was cruel to make her only a Dunedan when both her companions were elfin, so as a present to you, we have arranged for her a place in Valinor and when she comes here there is a way for her to become elfin. We will arrange that she can become elfin and your three companions shall remain together." He says this all in a bit of a rush and it takes me a minute or two to comprehend what they have said.
Well I thought the plan would take rather longer to implement than that.
Once I have regained my senses I ask them the obvious question,
"How do we tell her she has a place in Valinor?"
Miriel's POV
Ginny is very quiet during those first few days after her children leave, but she keeps herself busy. If it's nice weather, she either goes for day-long rides or works in the gardens; if not, she works in the library either repairing or rewriting the older books.
One day, she comes into breakfast looking very cheerful. None of us say anything, but Ginny's powers as an Empath are still as strong as they were 100 years ago.
"I can tell you're all rather put-out by my suddenly happy demeanour, so I'll put you out of your misery. Last night I decided to take a trip. I'm going to ride to the Field of Cormallen and see what I can find."
The Twins and I look at each other; this is most unlike Ginny. She's never really liked long rides, especially as she got older (I think it stems from our escape from Mirkwood just after she and Ellie arrived in Middle Earth).
"What do you want to find?" I ask tentatively.
Ginny just shrugs in a non-committal way; she begins fingering the chain which holds her betrothal and wedding rings...
A little while later, Ginny arrives back in Rivendell. She's very bouncy and looks quite young again as she nimbly jumps down from her horse and returns my hug enthusiastically.
"You found what you were looking for then." I state rather than ask; Ginny hasn't been this happy in weeks.
"Yes, I did."
"Are you going to tell me what it was?"
"No, not quite yet; there are still one or two things to finalise first."
A few days later, Ginny calls Elladan, Elrohir, and I together.
"It's ready!" she says, her eyes shining. She laughs at our mystified expressions, "Come with me."
We follow her out to the gardens and she leads us to one that is smaller and more private than the others. We stop dead – the garden has been transformed into one of the most beautiful and artistic I've ever seen.
The flower beds are a rainbow of different shades; they are made up of both local and foreign flowers. Gravel paths snake their way around the beds and are bordered by a myriad of different shells – some I recognise from the beach near Dol Amroth.
Elegant statues made of the finest marble pop up every now and then around the lawn.
The whole garden is bordered by some thin wooden boards arranged in a criss-cross shape (trellises Ginny once told me). Woven through the trellises are baby rose buds, which continue their winding way over the gate that closes off the garden.
The centrepiece is a ring of wooden benches which face out on to the garden; peering between them, I see a small sapling just poking out of the ground below.
"That's the same as the tree under which Amrothos asked me to marry him – it only grows in the woods next to Cormallen. This whole garden is a memorial to him – it's what people sometimes did back in England when they lost someone."
"And this is what you've been working on?"
Ginny nods.
"I've also had this made." She brings out a gold plaque; it is inscribed with the words:
In Loving Memory of Prince Amrothos of Dol Amroth.
A loving husband and a true friend.
AMICITIA VERA EST PRAECLARA, ET OMNIA PRAECLARA SUNT RARA.
"The last bit is Latin for 'true friendship is splendid, and all splendid things are rare'."
"It's marvellous, Ginny. Amrothos would have loved it here."
Ginny nods,
"Yes he would."
She then makes for the Last Homely House.
"Don't you want to sit out here for a little while?"
Ginny turns to face me,
"No, I... I expect I'll spend a lot of time here over the next few years... thinking about Amrothos and my children." She smiles at us before making her way back across the gardens.
Ginny was right, she does spend a lot of time in the Memorial Garden, but not always on her own, in fact she's always very happy for someone to be there with her.
Although I do notice that, after she first shows us the garden, she never again mentions Amrothos, her children, or her life in Dol Amroth...
