Summary: Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli take Eldarion down the path of the fellowship to teach him of sacrifices made and things forgotten.
Disclaimer: I do not own them, a pity
A/N: This is an AU fourth age fic, the times to get to many places may not be exact.
Chapter 43
Hours and hours the group traveled over the mountains, and each one of them in the now warm sun of summer. Aragorn was glad for the heat of the sun's rays on his back. He was never one to enjoy the cold weather, preferring to sweat in the heat rather than shiver in the cold.
"Come I wish not to linger here too long. There has been more than one occasion when these mountains have made me late getting home, and when I did get there I was bedridden for days."
"That is not the fault of the mountains Estel, but instead your penchance to find trouble in every place you go," Legolas snickered.
Gimli was the one to huff then, and as he turned to Legolas he told them all why the look was on his face.
"I know of at least one elf who also finds trouble, from trying to kill a certain King of Rohan, to finding it amusing as I fell drunken in his halls. It was also you Legolas who helped Haldir hang me upside down from the flet only to fall off of it while laughing. I have not forgotten your misdeeds, and I shall find redemption for them when you least expect it."
Eldarion laughed at the raised eyebrows of Legolas. They reminded him of his own Ada who did it fairly often, and wondered where they had aquired the knack for it, for often Eldarion felt as if his Ada could read his very thoughts when he did it.
They camped for the night but Aragorn was restless. He did not speak of his restlessness until the sun had gone down, and the fire had been lit. Legolas could see something was on his mind, and henceforth asked him.
"My mind drifts to the past as it often has on this journey. I have shown Eldarion where my allies have been slain, I have shown him where friends have fallen, but I have not revealed to him my own demons that haunt me as I sleep."
Gimli stared blankly at him as did Eldarion, but Legolas knew what haunted his friend late at night. He had heard his screams many times before and it was on a night much like this one that Aragorn revealed to him during a torrent of tears what haunted his dreams.
"My friends, Eldarion, I have a place to show you, if you will join me. Never have I shown anyone this place although Legolas knows of it. If you will take the journey there with me I am finally ready to share what I have never before."
None of them spoke as the followed Aragorn through a group of trees, and into the rocky area near their camp. Soon they came to what looked like a well traveled path, one perhaps used by merchants, or someone who made the trip over the mountains often. In a clearing surrounded by rotting trees and ones in various stages of disarray was an area that a single tree stood, and underneath it a gravemarker.
Everyone gathered around the cold slate slab and turned to Aragorn for explanation. It was Gimli who spoke though.
"What does it say Aragorn, for I can't read elvish though I have tried."
"It says adar nin, dannen kallo nin, my father, my fallen hero," Aragorn explained.
Eldarion came and placed his hand on his father's shoulder as he knelt before the stone.
"Who lies here Ada? and why are they here in the middle of the forest?"
Aragorn looked up to face his friends and his son. He could see the understanding in Legolas' eyes as they misted up in tears, years of not knowing finally revealing itself. It was Gimli an Eldarion who waited for him to speak.
"This is where my father lies. Not the father I grew up with, but the one who gave his life for me. This is the grave of Arathorn."
Eldarion only knew of Arathorn from his lessons, and the very little he had been told was next to nothing. Squeezing his father's shoulder a bit, he asked what he wanted answers to.
"Tell me what happened Ada. Tell me why it haunts your dreams, because you are the one who said if we talk about our dreams that they could no longer harm us."
Everyone sat down upon the ground quietly as Aragorn tried to compose himself enough to tell them the tale he had already revealed some of to Legolas.
"I was but a very small child of no more than two summers. All I remember is traveling with the rangers of the north, my father leading them. Your uncles Elladan an Elrohir often traveled with them, but I was little more than amazed at the difference of elves at the time. I only remember my mother sending me to bed that night. She kissed me goodnight and my father came in to tell me a story of dragons and rangers of old. He left out of the tent but not before placing a kiss on my forehead and telling me he loved me more than the moon and stars."
Eldarion gasped at this, knowing his father told him the same thing each night before he fell asleep.
"This is the last good memory I have of my father," Aragorn went on, his throat tightening as he spoke. Legolas scooted over to him and laid his hand upon Aragorn's.
"It is time to put away these fears that you have carried for all these years. Let us help you, please Estel. Have faith in us, the ones who care about you to help."
Aragorn shook his head and went on. "I was woken in the middle of the night to shrieks and the sound of metal hitting metal. My mother came into the tent telling me to not come out for anything, and grabbing her own sword as she left out. As she left the tent flap was opened enough for me to see out. Everywhere there were orcs. The rangers were putting up a grand fight but they kept falling in defeat. One fell upon the tent and it collapsed but I was afraid to move at this point. I was so scared, tears running down my face, but I dared not leave the tent."
Aragorn wiped away the stray tear that had fallen and continued.
"It was not until the blood started to seep into the tent that I dared to look out. The man that had fallen had talked to me that very night, and now his eyes were closed in death. I panicked, and slid out of the tent and into the nearby bushes. The fight was furious, many men falling along with orcs, but it was their dreadful shrills and calls to one another that froze my blood. I was about to crawl from the bushes when I saw my father nearby, but as soon as I gained my feet his body came stumbling back towards me, and then tent that was in front of me. When he fell I saw the arrow that had pierced his eye. My father laid there in front of me, dead, his eyes no longer the caring ones that had tucked me in, but now ones forever frozen in death's cold grip.
I screamed but my shouts were not heard above the battle, and then I crawled underneath one of the bushes and cried myself to sleep. It is said that they thought me dead, but after not finding my body amongest the dead the searched and found me asleep. Your uncles took me and my naneth to Imladris where I was raised."
"Aragorn I never knew," Gimli softly said.
"It is because I have never spoken of it Gimli. I have no memories of my father but the one of him falling dead at my feet. That is not the memory I wish to carry, and I have long since buried it. His death effected my mother, she was never the same and shortly after we arrived in Imladris she left. She could not cope, the memories haunted her till the day she died."
Eldarion wrapped his arms around his father's neck, "I am here Ada, and I will not let you ever forget him. From now on let us remember the man he was."
Legolas smiled at Aragorn, "I am glad you have told us this story, and now maybe you can move past it, and your dreams will be filled with happier thoughts."
Aragorn hoped so, for over ninety years his dreams had been filled with these visions, and now all he wanted to do was sleep again.
"Come let us go back to camp and rest for the night. I am tired, and in need of a night without dreams, or the sound of Gimli's snores to waken me."
"My snores, how are you so sure it is my snoring that keeps you awake?" the dwarf protested.
"Because they are!" everyone yelled to Gimli.
Gimli's face reddened, "I will take first watch tonight," he offered when they got back to the campsite. Everyone else laid down on their bedrolls and Eldarion was almost asleep when his father turned to him.
"Goodnight my son. I love you, more than the moon, more than the stars," and with that Aragorn closed his eyes and fell asleep to his first night of dreamless sleep.
