Hi everyone! Here is the first update since announcing that we would be jumping around a little bit! This will head off a cluster of chapters at this point in their lives. Enjoy!


Chapter Fifty-Four (Aragorn)

Four Years Later

Guests had been pouring into Minas Tirith for days leading up to the celebration of Mareke and I's tenth wedding anniversary. My councilors had suggested that we celebrate the tenth year of my rule, but I decided that I would rather celebrate my marriage two years later. There would be parts of the celebration dedicated to my, so far, prosperous rule, but I wanted to celebrate my wife and all that she had given to the Realm and I.

"I feel rather useless," Mareke said when I came into our chambers the afternoon of the feast.

I had to laugh. "You have arranged and organized every single event that we have hosted since you arrived ten years ago. Relax. Trust that I can handle it."

She rose to greet me from where she had been sitting at our dining table next to Shuk, who was working diligently on a writing assignment that Legolas had given him.

I rested a hand on his curly head and kissed Mareke soundly on the lips.

Unlike his older brother, Shuk was not easily distracted when he was working on his lessons. He was quiet and dedicated, not nearly as quick to leap at the chance to go for a horseback ride or a session in the practice ring. He enjoyed those things, but he could much more easily be persuaded to tend to his assignments. He knew the order of importance.

"Where are the twins?" I asked.

Mareke sighed. "Lady Belethiel took them to get a bath. Last I saw them it looked as though they had been tunnelling through the gardens. Absolutely covered in dirt."

I tried to suppress a laugh. As soon as they had become mobile, it had become very apparent that the twins were hellions. "Tonight should be interesting then."

Mareke groaned and rested her forehead on my chest. "What have I done to deserve this?"

At that, I had to laugh. She loved the twins more than life itself, as she did Adnan and Shuk, but they tested her like the older two never had done.

"You proved to be too capable a mother so you were given more responsibility."

Mareke shook her head. "I am going to get ready and seize the last bit of peace I shall find today."

"Very well." I kissed her once more and then sat next to Shuk, looking over his work. There were no careless mistakes to be found and so we sat in silence until he finished.

"Do you think Legolas will be pleased?" he asked.

"How could he not be? This is very nearly perfect," I replied, picking up the parchment and looking it over closely.

Shuk gave the smallest of self-satisfied smiles, another difference between the older brothers. Adnan had basked in praise, but Arathorn only allowed himself a moment or two in which to enjoy his accomplishment before he was onto the next task.

"Go prepare for this evening," I bid him before I stood once more and followed Mareke into our bedchamber.

Lady Ioreth gave me a brief curtsy and then left the rooms and it was just Mareke and I. She was in a flowing, light blue dress and wearing the coronet that Gimli had gifted her when she had been expecting Shuk.

"You look beautiful," I said with a small smile.

She just shook her head. "That is probably just habit to say after ten years of marriage and thousands of formal events."

"Well that is just not true," I replied. "But speaking of ten years, I have something for you." I rummaged in one of my bureau drawers where I had hidden her gift.

"You did not need to do that," she said, watching me closely.

Out of a cloth drawstring bag, I drew a necklace that had a sizable, clear diamond on it.

"Aragorn," she said, a hand covering her mouth when she saw the size of the stone.

"You deserve it," I said, stepping behind her as she lifted her hair so I could fasten the clasp. "Gimli had it sent from Moria. The settlement at Khazad-Dum is producing such things once more."

"It is stunning," Mareke said, turning in my arms and smiling up at me.

I took her hand and kissed it, smiling down at the black jewel on her finger. I had never seen her without her wedding ring. I ran my fingers along the three bands, thinking that I should find some way to add to her ring as the original bands had been to represent Mareke, myself, and Adnan. We had since added three more to our family.

"I wish that we could just stay here," I said. "Although perhaps our wedding night was rather a disaster." My brow furrowed.

"Well I would not go so far as to say 'disaster,'" Mareke said with a laugh.

I remained serious. "No it was. Do not defend me. I did not know what I had in front of me all those years ago." I took her face in my hands and looked into her dark eyes. "Luckily I do now. I love you." I kissed her gently, pulling her a little tighter to me as I did so.

I truly did want to linger there with her, but I knew that our guests would be waiting for us and so I pulled away after a long moment. "Happy anniversary."

"Happy anniversary," she replied, smiling up at me before she smoothed the front of her dress once more and looped her arm through mine. "We should remember that perhaps it is a good thing our wedding night was not a success. We would not have wanted to use up all our luck then. We have had a rather successful ten years in many ways."

I kissed her once more, grateful as ever for her grace and optimism, before I led her out of the bedchamber.

All three boys and Lady Belethiel were waiting for us in the sitting room. Once more, I tried not to laugh when I noticed the grip that Lady Belethiel had on the twins' shoulders. She could barely restrain their chaotic energy.

Mareke knelt before them, straightening tunics and flattening curls.

Shuk may have been an exact replica of myself, but the twins looked more like Adnan and Mareke.

"Are you going to behave tonight?" she asked them. Neither one of them would look at their mother and I watched as they instead peeked at each other from the corner of their eyes.

I cleared my throat and they finally looked at Mareke.

"Are you?" she asked again.

They nodded, but did not verbally commit themselves to any certain type of behavior.

Mareke stood with a sigh, glancing at me before taking my arm once more.

Without a word, Shuk slipped his hand into his mother's free one. He had never grown out of his desire to be close to her when he could.

We made our way down the corridor and as we got closer I could hear the crowd inside the great hall before the doors were even opened and when they were, everyone turned in our direction.

Eomer was near the door with his family and he began clapping and cheering very loudly, which caused everyone else to do so in turn.

The twins took the opportunity of Lady Belethiel's hands being occupied to flee to their mischief. Their poor governess looked distraught, but Mareke shook her head. "There is nothing you can do. Just keep an eye on them."

She barely got the words out before she was swept into our group of closest friends.

"Congratulations on surviving a decade with His Majesty!" Eomer exclaimed playfully.

Mareke laughed. "It has been a real trial, Eomer-King."

She looked around the room and then smiled up at me. "This is lovely, Aragorn."

"I hope you shall be pleased tonight."

Mareke's attention was caught by the twins flying around the edge of the hall. Lady Belethiel was giving them chase, though she was trying to be discreet.

I had to laugh when I noticed a few of the guards trying to help her. But my sons were nimble and quick; easily slipping between legs and around outstretched arms.

Faramir caught sight of them too. "My goodness, Your Majesties, you have your hands quite full with those two."

The rest of the group turned to look and everyone broke into laughter.

Mareke covered her face with her hands. "I do not know what we will ever do with them. They are a handful," she echoed Faramir's statement.

"A handful is an understatement," Gimli grumbled. Just as he had with Adnan and Arathorn before them, he and Legolas had taken on the twins to teach them before they were old enough for more formal tutors. Unlike the older boys, the twins were not nearly as well-behaved and my friend would often drop them back in our rooms looking harried and exhausted.

I merely patted him on the back. "You can quit whenever you like."

Gimli shook his head and grumbled louder. We all knew very well that he was not a quitter.

A few of the other children went scampering by.

"At least Rilien and Rainion have not corrupted the rest of them," Vanya said with a shake of her head.

"Not yet anyway," I replied, offering Mareke my arm once more and leading her to the head table.

Shuk, who had slipped off with a few of the older boys, was immediately on his mother's left.

"Should we bring the other two to the table?" she asked.

"The optics would be worse if everyone could see them," I jested. "They will come up when they are hungry."

Mareke merely sighed and laid a cloth napkin in her lap, reaching for her goblet of wine.

We passed the dinner uneventfully enough, with only the occasional sighting of the twins, still being hounded by Lady Belethiel and a few dogged guards.

I watched as they passed the dessert table and almost could not take it when I saw them both swipe a handful of our celebratory cake.

Mareke's jaw dropped as she watched her unruly sons licking icing from their hands. She was quickly on her feet and I saw as she caught each one of them by a shoulder, hanging on tightly. They had been known to slip away.

I could hear Eomer laughing at the nearest table and had to bite my own tongue.

Lady Belethiel took both of their hands and escorted them from the hall, presumably to take them back to the nursery to have their dinner in private and be put to bed.

"I told the serving women that they would have to cut around that part," she sighed when she sat back down, motioning for a young man with a jug of wine to refill her goblet.

"They will grow out of their mischief."

"I hope you are right. If not, I am not sure what we will do with them." She gave me a rueful smile.

We finished our meal, dessert having been served as well.

"Shall we dance?" I asked. "It is our anniversary celebration after all."

I felt Shuk's eyes on me. He had been covetous of his mother's time ever since he was born and I feared he had not quite grown out of that.

"You may have the second," she promised our middle child, kissing his curls.

Mareke took my hand and I spun her onto the floor and into my arms, tight against my chest.

"Did you ever imagine ten years ago that this is where we would be?" I asked quietly against her temple.

"Not at all," she replied. "But I am glad. The last decade has been full of pleasant surprises."

We finished our dance and Shuk took his place. He was quite adept and skilled on his feet. The pair finished their dance to roaring applause.

As the evening got nearer and nearer to coming to a close, my stomach sank.

I had been able to put the news I had received behind me for a little while as we celebrated with our friends, but what would be coming over the next few days would not be pleasant and I was dreading having to tell Mareke.

ooooOoooo

The morning after our anniversary celebration, I arranged for Mareke and I to have a private breakfast together.

"This is perhaps more romantic than our celebration last night," she said when she came into the dining room to join me.

Shuk had gone to his tutors and Legolas and Gimli had both of the twins with them.

"I am afraid it is not, Mareke," I said solemnly.

She sat down slowly and looked at me. I could see how she hesitated. "What do you mean?"

"I have terrible news and I am not sure how to tell you."

"Is it Adnan?" she asked quickly.

"No," I responded just as fast, not wanting her to panic about her eldest even for a second. "He is healthy and safe." I sighed. "But I am afraid you will not be able to travel to Harad for his fourteenth birthday next month."

"Why not?" Her brow furrowed. "I have never missed a visit and he has never been unable to come here."

I took a deep breath. "The Easterlings in Rhun are bound and determined to wage war. They are not prospering and they have no love for the united front that Gondor, Arnor, Harad, and Rohan have shown in recent years, though I have offered alliances and trade agreements to them over and over. They feel they were wronged after the War and that it is our fault. They intend to remedy that."

All of the color drained from Mareke's face.

I hated to land the blow that I had to. "I will be leading our men." My tone brokered no room for a discussion, but I knew that Mareke would not protest. She had been the wife of a general in another life and what I was doing would protect Adnan.

Harad was the weakest in our alliance as they had lost the most men over a decade earlier. It took time to rebuild an army. Mareke knew all of that.

"Faramir will bring men from Ithilien and I am hopeful that your father and Eomer will do the same. I have summoned a council later on with Legolas, Gimli, Faramir, Eowyn, Eomer, and Lothiriel."

Without touching any of her food, Mareke nodded and stood, disappearing back into our bedchambers.

I did not follow her. There was nothing I could say or do to make her feel better.

ooooOoooo

I was sitting in my council chambers waiting for everyone else to arrive. Mareke was the first, dressed in a more formal, dark blue gown. Her face was still drawn and she sat silently to my right.

The only thing I could do was squeeze her hand briefly before everyone else filtered into the chambers.

"This seems rather solemn for an anniversary celebration," Eowyn said, sitting next to Mareke.

"I am afraid it is."

Everyone turned their attention to me as they got settled around the table.

I elaborated on what I had told Mareke that morning.

None of us had expected peace to last forever, but it seemed we had not expected times of strife to arrive so soon.

I saw Lothiriel and Eowyn shoot worried looks at Mareke when I elaborated on the danger that Harad was in. They were not very close to Rhun, but if we did not act fast enough, the Easterlings could travel south and attempt to knock out their weakest enemy.

"I will lead men from Gondor and Anor. Faramir will help." I looked around the table. "I will be writing to King Hashad. He will need to muster what forces he can, though they will be used more for protection on their northern border than joining our forces and bringing battle to the Easterlings."

"Rohan will go."

Lothiriel silently took her husband's hand on the table. Normally, the women would have refrained from any displays of affection in the council chambers, but that day was different. That day we discussed matters of life and death.

While we all worried for Mareke, my family was not the only one with much to lose. Neither Faramir, Eomer, or myself had gone to War the last time with a family at home. The stakes were higher. As I sat there and talked, I realized for the first time that I did not relish the prospect of going to battle. Before, it had been a way to prove myself and to claim victories and demonstrate that I was alive.

But being alive no longer felt like wielding a sword or beating an enemy. Being alive felt like playing with my sons, making love to my wife.

I turned to Legolas and Gimli. "I will not ask you to join us. You and your people have already sacrificed much to ensure the well-being of Men."

"Nonsense," Gimli blustered. "I will not be left behind."

"Nor will I," Legolas said with more tact. "We are with you in all things, Aragorn."

My chest tightened with gratitude and so I could only nod.

"Faramir and I will meet you in the Brown Lands and then we will ride East," I said to Eomer. "We cannot waste time. I want to be on our way in early September to head them off from moving South."

Eomer nodded.

"We have much more to discuss before you all leave, but I think that is plenty for right now."

ooooOoooo

And so for three months, I prepared. I wrote to Hashad. I mustered men from Gondor and Arnor and oversaw the training.

I hated to step on Pelennor Field to see the drilling every day, but I knew it was necessary. Many men had not seen a battlefield in over a decade and the younger ones had never experienced such a thing.

Throughout it all, Mareke was stoic. She tended to her duties and cared for our children, but it was as though she were a body walking around without its spirit.

I tried to reach her, but I knew there was nothing I could say that would ease her discomfort and worry.

We hardly spoke of anything besides the Realm. With most of my councilors going with the army, she would be my regent. I knew she was up to the task, but it broke my heart to see her in such a state. I could not help but remember how devastated and lost she had been when she arrived in Minas Tirith after losing Jibran.

My wife had sent a husband to war before and he had never returned.

I had seen too much to promise that I would make it back home. I knew how fragile a human life was, how easily it could be taken. There was nothing to say that even the greatest of warriors could be protected from a stray arrow they were not prepared for.

The time for my departure came all too soon and before I knew it, it was the night before I was to set out.

I was on a sofa in our sitting room when Mareke emerged from the nursery, having finally settled the twins.

Shuk knew to some extent what was happening as he was quite shrewd, but the twins only knew that I would be gone for a long while.

"Sit with me," I said quietly, patting the sofa next to me.

Mareke did so and I wrapped my arm around her rigid shoulder.

"I need you to do something for me," I said. I reached up and pulled the Ring of Barahir from my index finger, holding it out to her in my palm.

Mareke was immediately shaking her head and scooting away from me.

"You have to take this and you must keep it safe."

"Aragorn," she said miserably. "You have never been without it."

"I had no son to leave it to the last time I went to war," I replied. I took her hand and deposited the ring there.

Her head was bowed as she studied the green jeweled eyes of the intertwined serpents.

The ring had belonged to Elendil and then to Isildur and then to the Kings of Arthedain. After it was stolen by the Snowmen of Fossoth, it had been recovered by the Dunedain and taken to Rivendell for safekeeping.

It was given to me when Elrond revealed my true identity and I had not taken it off since.

I gently turned Mareke's face to mine, two fingers under her chin.

"I do not want that lost in Rhun," I said quietly. "I want you to give it to Arathorn if anything happens to me. It is his heritage. I had no one to leave it to before," I repeated.

My wife rose and went to our bedchambers. I followed her and watched as she dug a long silver chain from her jewelry box on the vanity. She carefully slipped the ring onto it and then hung it around her neck.

"I will keep it with me while you are gone," she said. She did not beg me to promise to come back. She of all people knew I could not do that.

We prepared for bed and slipped under the covers quietly.

I do not know if either of us slept, but after midnight and before the sun rose, I reached for her in the dark.

We were on our sides facing one another. I buried my face in her neck and kissed from there to her jaw to her lips.

I wanted to consume her before I left, to take a part of her with me. She met my hungry lips with her own desperation, clinging to me. Neither of us knew if that was the last time we would touch one another.

Mareke pulled her nightgown around her waist and I hitched her leg over my hip, still not moving from facing one another. I wanted to be as close to her as I possibly could even if that meant my movement was hampered.

I nearly sobbed as I pushed into her, clutching her leg and burying a hand in her hair.

Mareke gasped, but then went back to kissing me hungrily as I moved slowly within her.

I tried to push the thought of leaving away. Even more so, I tried to keep my mind away from thinking about never returning, never having Mareke in my arms again, never seeing my sons grow up.

As I reached my climax, it was a small death. My entire life with Mareke flashed before my eyes. I saw our wedding, the countless times we had lain together, finding her broken body in Harad, holding Arathorn and the twins for the first time, all of the celebrations. I cried out as Mareke clutched me tightly to her, stroking my hair and back until I fell asleep in her arms.

ooooOoooo

Early the next morning, I woke and began to prepare. I was lost in my own thoughts as I did not hear Mareke get up and slip into her robe.

Without a word, she tied back half of my hair and began helping me to tie my armor on.

"These were Boromir's," I said, slipping into the vambraces with the silver etchings of the White Tree. We had spoken of him a few times, but it was still difficult even after all of the years that had passed.

Mareke traced the designs. "I shall beseech him to look after you when I cannot," she said quietly and without looking up.

I took my face in her hands and kissed her deeply.

She slipped from my embrace and went to change. I tended to a few more things and then when she was ready, we left our bedchamber.

I was surprised to see that Shuk was waiting for us in the sitting room. We had agreed that we would not wake the boys, but there my heir stood. Mareke merely held her hand out to him and we all made our way to the stables.

Legolas and Gimli were already there and the horses were packed and ready to go.

I rested a hand on Shuk's head and looked down at him. "You are to take care of your mother in my absence. Help her with the twins and anything else she may need, alright?"

The boy nodded silently and then threw his arms around my middle, hugging me tightly.

When he released me, he stepped back and I turned to his mother.

"I love you," I said simply, not having any other words or promises to make.

I kissed her deeply once more and felt her thumbs wiping the tears from my cheeks.

Pulling away, I looked down at her. She still did not cry, but I could see the pain in her eyes.

I felt the same tightness in my chest and knew I wouldn't be able to say anything else. I kissed her forehead and turned to mount my horse, heading onto Pelennor Field to be at the head of my men, and then to ride East.


There you go! I hope you loved it! Please let me know what you thought! Also, as we jump around don't hesitate to let me know what you would like to see at any point in this family's future. I've got some good ideas and a few of you provided ideas in your last reviews, which was amazing! Keep it up!

Happy reading,

Avonmora