May 10th TA 3019
Gimli watched the she elf carefully for a time. He stood sternly with his arms crossed while the city bustled around him. Oh, it was another elf he was sure, though her cloak was tight about her. She had glided through the gates as an eagle on the wind atop a horse bare of banners and tack. Even now she stood taller than most in the city, and her strange stature was met with many side glances and whispers by its peoples. She turned to her horse and spoke into the ear of the animal, it seemed to pulse in excitement and it threw its wild red head in the air at her words.
The creature turned from her and trotted towards the gate flagging its tale high and letting out a high whinny before taking out to the fields joyously. Then the elf looked around and drew back her hood and breathed in the free air of the city and watched the high white towers glitter in the sun. 'Oh she is far to joyous to be in such a ruined city.' Gimli thought shifting on his feet. But he let his eyes fall onto her as she turned and walked away, and took the road that led higher towards the Kings tower.
"That gold." He whispered taking a step forward to follow her and weaving through the crowd. "I have seen it before, though then it was strung with silver, perhaps the pure sunlight has changed it." Surely, he thought, surely this was Galadriel, come again to see him and his company, though clad in a disguise of green and brown. His feet hurried forward after her and when she had reached the second level of the city she suddenly stopped. Gimli stopped briskly and caught his breath and stroked his beard in a huff. Then she turned and gazed at him, and a smile spread across her face and she bowed low before him.
The dwarfs breath caught and he did not dare speak first, though now he saw that this was not Galadriel at all but a different noble lady.
"You are Gimli a dwarf of Erebor, one of the fellowship." She whispered in his own tongue, and took a step towards him. Gimli grumbled and his nerves overcame him, and suddenly distrust came to his heart and the watched the elf carefully, and lay a hand on his axe. "I knew your ancestors, you look very much like Thorin, though more like your father Gloin in the eyes."
The dwarf scowled and crossed his arms again and took a step towards the she elf. "If you knew them as you say than I have a quarrel with you Green Lady. For they have no elf friends."
Unede smiled at him, and laughed in the summer sunlight and offered the dwarf her arm. "We have no quarrel you and I, and I have many secrets to share if you are willing to hear them, and keep them yourself. I am a dwarf friend if you will have me, for I have heard that you are called elf friend in the south."
Gimli watched her with caution, but at last did her bidding and took her arm. "I go to the high tower to seek out Strider." She said in the common tongue taking a step forward. "Will you take me there?"
"I shall, though what business does an elf like yourself have with the King of Gondor? And how is it that you have come to speak my tongue?" He looked up at her as they walked, ignoring the eyes that drew after them, and the children that skittered behind them in giggles, hiding behind carts in mock secret. "I can see there is more to you than meets the eye, for at first I thought by your hair that you were the Lady of Lothlorien, but by your clothes you seem more northern to me, the silvan type as my companion is."
"You are as curious as a cat my dear dwarf." Silver laughter fell from her lips. "Aye, Gimli, I am silvan, from the Green Wood, though your keen eyes are right, we share some blood, the Lady and I." She smiled at him again and slowed her steps enjoying the banter with the dwarf. He humphed and nodded, but did not cease his questioning.
"Ah, a Green Lady so I thought." He said plainly beginning to enjoy their play of words. "It does not explain your mastery of my tongue though. Tell me how one such as yourself came by such a language."
"I passed through Khazad-dûm as a child." She smiled "But it was my dealings in Erebor that kept by tongue so fluent."
Gimli looked at her scrutiny, but could find no evil in her eyes, or behind her smile. He wondered if she was alike in personality with Legolas, who would offer more information only after a tincture of trust and time were added to the relationship. He scrunched his brow and twisted his lips and decided after a time that it was best to change the subject, lest he scare off the fair lady.
"Is a she-elf all that Mirkwood would send for the lad?" he nudged her and gave a wink.
"Aye it is. Do you think we should have sent more? I have heard he is strong enough with a bow that we two should be able to face the perils of the plains alone." She winked back at him and the dwarf let out a loud laugh.
"That he is, strong and fearless."
"Sooth now, I road ahead of my companions, a company of elves comes south." The dwarf nodded at her words.
The he spoke "Now, fair lady, tell your name as you know mine."
She pondered for a moment, but then decided "I think the name that you would know me by is Nala-Felak, But I have not been called that for a hundred years, and none would know me by it save a few dwarves." Gimli let out another hardy laugh.
"I have heard only whisperings of your deeds River Hewer, but if it is your name as you say then I trust you more for it, though you will have to tell me the whole of the tale before we part m'lady." Gimli clapped her hard on the shoulder and they both smiled and became now more familiar with one another. "I never knew it was a lass they spoke of in the story."
"It is always hard to tell with dwarvish names." She laughed, and they came at last to the third level of the city.
The King stood on the balcony of his high tower, and watched the rider come in on a red horse. A messenger, he thought, but not of Rivendell, perhaps Mirkwood. Then he saw her, she pulled back her hood, and he knew who had come to his Kingdom, and he smiled that she thought to grace them, 'late though she was, having missed the coronation.' He thought to make sure she knew of her tardiness. He wondered if Legolas had seen her yet, though if he had the King wondered how their greeting would be.
Aragorn turned and found his friend standing quietly beside the pillar, his face pale and his arms crossed.
"Your wife has come, only just now." Aragorn lifted his arm and gestured towards the city the swirled below them.
"I know." Legolas said quietly. "I saw her come cross the fields. And for all the courage I have, it was spent in the war, and I cannot face her."
"You have faced worse, she cannot hold anger in her heart to long." Aragorn shrugged. "Gimli escorts her now to the high towers. Should we make ready an entrance for her."
"She would not find joy in such reception." Legolas replied and looked over the balcony to see that already the pair were on the third level, laughing together as they made their way up and up through the high city.
"All the better to receive her then, we shall embarrass all the anger from her heart, and all that will be left is joy of your safe return." Aragorn said. The King sought out his Paige and gave orders to have the trumpets ready, and an announcement prepared, and to send word to the kitchens that they would feast tonight among friends and would have need mead and music. Then the King turned back to his friend and found a grief unexpected on his face. "What is it my friend?" he asked and lay a hand on the elfs shoulder.
"When Unede brought the watchful peace she was wounded both in fea and form. For many weeks she healed and was silent." The Prince spoke softly and was quiet again as they watched the pair walk through the city streets. "I did not understand it then, and I was angry, angry that she did not turn to me in her pain, and grief. For a time I thought she did not love me."
"But surely that is not so, for it is plain her heart is yours." Aragorn said encouragingly.
"Aye, it is so, and mine for hers. And I envy the speed with which the mortal heart over comes darkness. For now, I understand the pain she bore and her desire for solitude and silence in her grief. I love her more for it, but I am also ashamed of the anger I felt." The elf bowed his head.
"My friend, you are a hero, a brave elf, one of the fellowship. There is naught to be ashamed of." The King said.
"I am ashamed none the less, that I did not understand her, and that in my grief I found anger. I was foolish. Now I have seen Sauron's evil, and faced it, and finished this quest that I thought would end in death, and I see now the burden she bore. And alas, it was more graceful than I have carried it, for in these weeks my heart has needed quiet and solitude to heal. Yet behold, she carried this weight for a millennia, and took me as her mate half a season after her duty was done. I am not as strong as she."
Aragorn laughed at his words. "All that elleth do will be more graceful than we can deign to perform."
"Indeed, it is so." Legolas laughed a little. "But I hope she does not bear her anger as long as I did."
"In this too, I am sure she will be more gracious than you." And they laughed together at his words, and turned to leave the balcony of the high tower.
"It's a she elf Merry." Pippin whispered. The pair had watched the guard prepare at the gates of the Kings Tower. They held bright swords and trumpets in their hands, and velvet banners of Gondor that shone silver and white as they whipped in the wind.
"Aye." Merry said as they stood by the door. "What has Strider commanded of you?"
"Only to call out the announcement." Pippin whispered and shook in his boots, then held up a scroll still bound with a wax seal.
"She's all covered in mud and muck, what sort of great elf could come so clad to see our mighty King Aragorn." Merry kicked the dirt in front of him and saw his friends gathering by the Kings throne all sharing laughs.
"Well Strider was all unsettled when we met him. I thought he might have killed us a year ago, and now look what we have all become." Pippin whispered and straightened when he saw that the elf and dwarf and come at last across the steps and the trumpets lifted and the guards gleaming swords were drawn in her honor. He gulped as she walked towards the entrance, the brass of the trumpets crying out, and he broke the wax of the scroll with trembling hands. At last she had come before him, and she beheld the hobbit with a gentle smile and encouraging eyes, and he could hardly find his words when he unrolled the scroll.
"Uh hum." He cleared his voice and looked to Gimli for assurance. "If it pleases his Majesty King Aragorn, Son of Arathorn of the house of Telcontar, 35th King of Gondor, 26th King of Arnor, first of his name. Then may I present." He gulped again, and saw the elleth before him shook her head as her cheeks became flush. Gimli stood tall and proud by her side and seemed to grow a little taller. "Her Majesty Itarilde, High Queen of the Noldor, Daughter of Gelmir, and Laurebrian of the house of Finarfin,- Why Finarfin but that's-"
"Keep going lad." Gimi said darting his eyes at Pippin and smiling up at the lady on his arm.
"Uh hum, were was I forgive me gent's eh, my lady."
"Your Majesty." Gimli corrected, but Unede shushed him.
"Let the Hobbit speak Gimli." She said.
"Yes, I see here, Captain of Eryn Galen, Councilor to King Thranduil, known as Arinyaelen, The Morning Star who cast out the deceiver, and in Erebor known as Nala-Felak the River Hewer. Here May I present the Princess Unede of Eryn Las Galen."
The hobbit shuddered and beheld the elf before him, who seemed neither a Queen nor shield maiden, but a road weary traveler, and his mouth fell open and his eyes grew wide, and he could not seem to steady himself in front of the lady. She gave him a wink, and tousled his hair and Gimli lead her forward to greet the fellowship that awaited her. She met them all warmly, and gave Aragorn and Mirthrandir gentle kiss on the cheek, as if she knew them as old friends and familiars. Then bowed deeply to the hobbits and bent her knee to the ring bearers. But the dwarf noticed that Legolas watched the ground, and a heavy despair sat on his shoulders.
"Might I say." Frodo said quietly as she stood before him. "That I was told of your deeds in the north, Aragorn said you drew Sauron's eye and kept his northern allies from attacking Gondor. Kept him….kept him away from Sam and I."
"It was not without help Young Master Frodo." She smiled and looked to Gimli "For the Dwarves of Erebor were instrumental in keeping the easterlings at bay. All I have done was my duty."
Gandalf shook his head and smiled. "Aye, perhaps this is so but there are no titles that could draw his might and fury more than A King of Gondor and A High Queen of the Noldor. Do not be so humble in your deeds my lady."
"How can I be anything but humble when I am before the ringbearers? No, young masters, my people are in your debt." And she bowed again, and kissed their hands.
When at last she came before Legolas, she did not meet him with hello, but stood silently across from him and waited for him to speak. And all the eyes of the room were upon them, and a heaviness seemed to have settled between the fellowship. But then at last the ellon spoke, still unable to lift his head, and it seemed all at once that the group let out their bated breaths.
"I am so sorry, I should have sent word." He whispered in the common tongue. But she lay a hand on his shoulder and smiled at him gently.
"You would not be so foolish as to risk a quest of such great importance just for a letter." She said gently to him.
"No, but it has burdened my heart that for so long no word has come to you." He said even quieter, and the dwarf shifted around him.
"Well Her Majesty, I am sure, is glad you are well, and that quest is done, and now there is glory for all realm. You have brought glory to her kingdom. I say we feast and celebrate." Gimli said loudly, and his words were met with enthusiastic cheers from the hobbits, and a quiet snicker from the wizard and the King.
"It will be so Gimli." Aragorn said, and took Unede's hand. "We will feast together tonight, but I am sure you wish to bathe and don fresh clothes. Please, let one of the maidens of my house help you find rest and comfort before we dine and dance."
"I thank you Strider, you have never lacked hospitality." She smiled again and gave a little bow, and took the hand of the maiden that had come before her and left the company.
Unede ran her fingers over the tree before her its white bark cracked and rippled beneath her fingers, and her heart heaved, for she found no life in its bows and only dried wood. It had carried grief in it and in its mourning its old soul had slipped away and out into the wind and no flowers had graced its bows in many years. It had been a lovely tree, so long ago, and it was a shame that none who lived now in Gondor had seen it in its bloom.
But Unede tried not to let it trouble her soul, for on the wind she felt another whisper, and she knew that Gandalf heard its little song high in Mindolluin. The sapling only waited to be found. It was there on the peak of the citadel that the King found her as she said her last farewell to the third white tree.
"Hail the Queen of the Noldor." He laughed and embraced her tightly.
"Hail the King of Gondor." As she ruffled his hair "Oh cousin, look at you! I can hardly call you little any longer. Alas, is that a gray hair atop your head, has age finally set its will about you!"
Aragorn crinkled his nose and threw back his head in a laugh. "Aye, and as luck would have it there, I see it, the faintest of wrinkles graces your forehead, what shall the younger elves say!"
They smiled at these pleasantries, for it had been many years since they could jest and joust and bat at words without a shadow hanging over their heads and hearts.
"I thank you though, for what you did Unede, I know that title is not a sacrifice you wished to take, I know you do not desire to bear this crown."
But she shrugged at his words. "The time had always been coming, and now it has come, and passed, and the good that was needed from its bearing has been done, and the armies defeated in the north and his eyes drawn. Let your heart be light and let no trouble come about you, old family feuds be damned, I'll not have ancient grievances come between us at such a glorious time as this."
"Aye it is a glorious time, and I should wish to heal any grievances my father has against you, especially if you are to come to Ithilien!" He smiled mischievously.
"Ithilien you say!" her surprise went unhidden on her face.
"Aye, as Legolas would have it, and as I would have it. He means to bring elves there, and to help me rebuild my gardens and my city."
She crinkled her nose and looked out over the land. "And you would have the dwarves too, I suspect, for all of the stone work. Need you for me to slay you a dragon for all the riches we are to gather in this city?"
"Aye if luck be on my side the Gimli shall bring the dwarves, but I think the last of the dragons is gone."
Unede tipped her head "It is a fair land."
"And it could be made fairer cousin." Aragorn set her hand on her shoulders and let out a sigh. "The land would sing if the elves would only return to it."
"It whispers to my ear even now. Though I cannot see what it could be come, for it has been so ravaged and razed over centuries past."
"Then look." Aragorn whispered. "Look and see, and behold what it could become under your care." And in his hand Aragorn offered Unede the same green stone she had seen two thousand years before. The emerald gem wrapped in silver eagles glittered in the afternoon sun and called for her fingers to raise it to her eyes. "Take this, it is your birth right, and lay aside whatever anger your heart still holds. Look into it and help me rebuild. You had a dream once that was Middle earth and the home for all the elves, and men and beings great and small. You whispered it and hid it in your heart. But look now cousin, for the time is ripe for us to bear that dream and make the land hale and greater than it was before. Take the elessar, as a sign of peace between men, and elves. As a sign of our families unity."
Unede touched the stone and gazed long at it. For her heart had desired it for many centuries, and she had long wished the carry it on her breast, and use it to protect and strengthen Eryn Las Galen. She lifted it to her eye, and saw there in green hues a vast city, filled with trees and flowers and flowing with a happy hale peoples. And beyond she saw the land of Ithilien, grown and green and renewed in spirit. There she smiled, and found she could not part the grin from her lips and she turned to the King and took his hands and spoke.
"It is all I have wanted. Alas, what strife I have caused over a stone. Yet Behold, my Kingdom is safe, my peoples protected, my duties done. Oh, but to see what this land will become. I will help you Aragorn, I will come to Ithilien with those elves who would follow Legolas and I. But keep this stone. You are their hope, and our Grandmother knew that your people would need to look through its eye, and see what you would make of their land. Let all the people gaze into the elessar and see, let them see what their King will build for them."
Aragorn smiled at her words and squeezed her hands, and lay a kiss on her forehead. "I would be honored to bear it, and to use it. But know Unede, you never needed magic or gems and jewels. Galadriel knew this, she saw your strength, and all that it would bring to Eryn Las Galen. There was no slight in its passing to me."
But Unede only smiled and nodded, and thought of all the beauty of the land before her, and how Green Wood the Great and Ithilien would bloom each spring, and how rivers of gold would slip through the trees each fall and her heart was made whole and happy again.
She did not look the part of a Queen the dwarf thought as she danced and drank with the hobbits. Her hair bounced with each step and a joyous smile was all about her face as they sang together of the Shire and the Green Dragon. He watched as they tipped back mug after mug of dark brew, and added logs unceremoniously to the fire they clamored around.
Then she took the hand of the King, and danced with him for many songs, interrupted only by a blushing Pippin, with a hearty pint. Gimli drank deeply of another beer, and sang another song, and stood up uneasily but found his feet and sought another drink. There at the tap he found his companion gazing quietly at the dancing Green Lady.
"Aye Legolas, it's a joyous day, drink with me." And so they did, and Legolas offered him a smile as the fire burned high and the candles low, and merriment was made.
"You don't speak enough lad, where has all your joy gone, usually I can not still your tongue for jokes and laughter." Gimli said prodding his friend and filling his mug again. He staggered back to their table and sat down heavily spilling a frothy brew on his red beard. Then he followed his friends gaze and found it still rested on the dancing elleth.
"Oh lad, I see it now, your jealous of all the dancing with the King and the Hobbits and me self." He said a slur at last coming to his voice. "I know those eyes." He said. "Your heart sick for that one aren't ye."
At these words Legolas laughed and a little joy came to him at last. "Aye my friend, alas my fea sings for her, and I cannot quell its melody."
"Well do not just let her dance with an unwed King!" Gimli said loudly and buried his tongue with beer. "You ought to tell her, or dance with her at least."
"No." Legolas said quietly. "Let her dance with Estel, for they have not many more years in the lives of elves to know each other, and it brings me much happiness to see her joyful with friends. Anyway, I do not think she would be keen to dance with me."
"Oh I see, I see." Gimli said. "You have told her then." He grumbled at Legolas in his own tongue and drank his beer.
"Well she is a great lady, even in dwarvish circles it would be hard for such a noble one take up a courtship with a lad lesser accomplished." Gimli spoke. "But I am sorry for saying it, I don't like to see my friends sad with a love unrequited. Is that why you went on this quest lad? To get some deeds after your name to impress that noble lady." Gimli let out a hearty laugh.
"No." Legolas said simply and drank again and thought back to the oath he swore long years go.
"Well if ya are to give her your heart it best be soon, for I saw her with Aragorn, in an embrace just before sunset, holding hands and what not and he tried to give her jewels- green as I have ever seen come from the earth, as if out of an ent! But let your heart be light, for she would not have them, and that may be as good a sign as any if you'll have it."
And Gimli saw a light come to Legolas's eye, and his lips parted and his head tipped for he thought for a moment that his ears had deceived him. And Gimli mistook his expression as both jealousy and hope, and made to correct his fumbling of words but before he could begin the King stumbled over and took the drink from Legolas and finished it with a grin.
"It seems your cup has emptied Legolas, I shall fill it for myself, and you can dance with Unede." Aragorn laughed and found that Gimli had refreshed it with brew, and he drank again as Legolas blushed and took a nervous step towards Unede where she danced with the Hobbits had in hand.
"Don't give him a hard time Gimli." Aragorn said nudging the dwarf and taking a heavy seat.
"I only mean to spark his courage Aragorn." Gimli grumbled.
"He has courage enough." The King said.
"Aye well, if he would dance with her, and tell her all that fea singing nonsense then perhaps there could be more to all his pining and sulking."
Aragorn chuckled and looked at the dwarf then with a curious gaze. "Aye, after all the evil they have seen they deserve a bit of joy if any of us do." Aragorn said into his mug.
"Darkness, aye, but a lass like that of light and gold, surely she has not seen peril, nothing should burden a soul like hers." Gimli said decidedly with a drunken nod.
"Do you know why they call her Arinyaelen?" Aragorn asked, and the dwarf shook his head and took another drink. "Because Sauron once resided in their woods, and she fought him and drove him out just as a bright dawn arose, golden in color and bathing the forest in light. Then her people said they needed not beauty, nor silver stars, nor white gems in their green wood, but rather strength and valor at dawn. And so they named her Morning Star."
Gimli was quiet again as he pondered the words of Strider and then said at last. "I am glad that elven kind is so resilient. And I do wish that she above all would be happy, but alas our laddie said he told her of his love, but I think it is unreturned."
At these words Aragorn let out a loud laugh and drank from his mug and clapped the dwarf hard on the shoulder, and could not find his breath for joy had overtaken him.
"My dear friend, he has told her of his love, and behold, she wed him." Aragorn laughed again loudly.
Gimli yelled, spilling the rest of his beer as he stood quickly, and looked to the pair who danced close together by the fire in an amber haze. He looked back to Aragorn and spoke louder than he meant to "She wed him! wWhat do you mean she wed him?"
"Aye Gimli." Aragorn said again with a toothy grin. "They wed a thousand years ago, and now I think, now that the ring has been destroyed, and the shadow on middle-earth has eased, that indeed their ending will be happy, and that we shall live to see it."
The End…
Thank you for reading A Golden Dawn, I hope you have enjoyed it! I have a few chapters that were 'deleted' scenes that will be coming soon, and eventually I will post an 'in order' version in its entirety, as this was an experimental entity.
Until we meet again 3 UnedeofMirkwood
P.S. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far, it means the world to me, you are all incredible.