Chapter Three: In Which the Feast is Finally Eaten
Disclaimer: These character's and places are all property of Tolkien Estates, Tolkien Enterprises, and New Line Cinema. Not me. So there.
A/N: Just a small side comment, this particular feast is a rather small occasion, merely celebrating the fact that the King of Gondor has old friends visiting. It's nothing particularly huge and spectacular. Elladan and Elrohir are here because they escorted Sam and Co. to Gondor, so they aren't just randomly in the story because I want them to be (even though that's a perfectly good reason as far as I'm concerned ).
"Where is the royal family?" Éowyn asked under her breath as she sidled up next to Faramir, a fake smile plastered on her face for the benefit of the guests.
"I do not know." Faramir muttered back, beaming equally insincerely at all the people milling around the room, chatting and wondering where the King, Queen and Heir were presently.
The hobbits had arrived a few moments ago, Elanor joining a few of the handmaidens who were waiting for their Queen to arrive, while Sam had immediately found the one lord who controlled the lands that supplied more then half of the produce for the main cities of Gondor. Rosie seemed to be happily berating her son, who had the appearance of one whose face had been scrubbed slightly too hard in an effort to make it clean.
"They had best arrive soon," Éowyn said, giving a cordial nod to one of the lords whose lands bordered Rohan.
"I know," Faramir answered. Then his eyes flickered over to the main doors, where Queen Arwen had just entered, bearing her son.
"That's two of them," Elrohir said coming up from behind them. Éowyn and Faramir spun around to face him. "Unfortunately," Elrohir continued, "arriving on time to important feasts was one thing Aragorn was never properly taught, as you may have noticed from earlier occasions."
"Yes," Faramir answered dryly. "It would appear so."
Arwen approached them, a smug smile on her face which reminded Éowyn that Elladan and Elrohir were the Queen's older brothers. "My husband will be here shortly," she said calmly. "He needed to tend to a few last things concerning his appearance."
Éowyn bit her lip to keep from making a comment concerning past events where the King had not been so careful about how he looked. Elrohir grinned, reading the expression on her face. "At least this time he decided that if he arrived late, he would do it presentably," Elrohir remarked, voicing what Éowyn had hesitated to mention.
Arwen opened her mouth as if to defend her husband, then decided it was a hopeless cause. She changed the subject instead. "Where is my other brother?"
"Talking with Imrahil about a certain book in the library. I believe Imrahil is trying to convince him to lend it until it can be copied," Elrohir answered, "Of course, Elladan is fully aware that if he lends it, it is doubtful that he will ever have it back…"
"Why not? Imrahil is a man of his word. If he says that he will return it, no doubt he will," Faramir protested, visibly puzzled.
"No, it is that Elladan knows that the library will eventually have to be emptied, and he is loth to start the process," Elrohir explained, echoing Glorfindel's exact words on the matter.
Before Faramir could nod in understanding, Eldarion, who had been sitting calmly watching these proceedings, decided that it was his turn for attention. He immediately set up a howl that made Éowyn glad that she had left her children in Ithilien under the care of a nurse and a few other energetic volunteers.
"Hungry!" He shrieked, and when his mother tried to placate him with a promise of food soon, it changed to, "Hungry now!" then he went on to a few words in Elvish, excluding most of the room from what exactly he said, but he yelled it loud enough so that all could hear him.
That was the moment the King of Gondor chose to enter the room.
***********
"…and then Rose fell into the pond, pulling poor Goldilocks in after her. Hamfast ran to get some rope, and he, Merry and Pippin managed to pull them out before they came to harm. And that's how I found them, the lads lying in the grass exhausted and Rosie and Goldilocks dripping on Daisy, as she tried to explain as to how she didn't mean any harm."
All the handmaidens laughed at the image of Daisy, who had only been a tiny little thing then, being terrified by her bedraggled older sisters for something that was hardly her fault.
"Of course," Elanor concluded, "when we found out the whole story, Merry and Pippin where punished, having to skip second breakfast and elevenses for nearly two weeks. The hungry lads kept pilfering from the back garden when they believed Father otherwise occupied."
"Oh Elanor, it must be such fun to have so many siblings! Daineth and I hardly had any fun together when we were younger." One of the handmaidens exclaimed wistfully.
Elanor shook her head. "It can be enjoyable, but it is often a burden to have so many small children running about."
A few of the handmaidens exclaimed how that could not be, and how they wished all of Elanor's siblings had come, instead of merely Frodo. Elanor grinned and proceeded to explain what a journey would be like with twelve hobbit-children coming along. All the handmaidens laughed. While Rosie and Elanor had tried to make some effort to eat slightly less and appear more ladylike, both Sam and Frodo had eaten without restraint, clearly showing Gondor how much a hungry hobbit could consume when the mood struck him!
"But Elanor," one of them protested, "surely you could have-"
But before the handmaiden could have presented her arguments for how a large family of hobbits could be housed and fed in Gondor without eating through the larder, a large shriek was heard from the other end of the room. The young prince was seen, informing all within a three-room vicinity that the heir to the throne was hungry, and he wanted food now! All the handmaidens rushed toward their queen.
"Perhaps he has spent too much time in the company of these ever-eating hobbits," someone remarked to Elanor, her face lost in the crowd. As Elanor opened her mouth to laugh at the jest, the king of Gondor strode into the room.
The handmaidens hurriedly stopped their mad dash to the queen, and the room fell silent. The only sound was the young prince, who, upon sighting his father changed his exclamation from "hungry!" to "Ada!" which Elanor had gathered, was the elvish term for Father.
King Elessar strode over to his son, and lifted him out of the Queen's arms. The little boy threw his arms around his father's neck, and, while looking at him adoringly, informed his father that he was hungry.
"Then we must get you some food!" the King exclaimed, mock surprise filling his voice, as if he hadn't heard his son shrieking from three rooms distance.
Aragorn nodded to Faramir, who discreetly signaled the servants to open the doors to the dining hall. As the guests began to spill into the second room, Arwen's handmaiden gathered themselves around the queen and walked in with her. The King was flanked by his brothers, the steward, and Lady Éowyn.
The guests assembled themselves around the table, and began chatting with their seat-neighbors, all of then waiting for the King to sit before taking their own seats. As soon as all of them were seated, they began to quiet, noticing that the food was not being served. As soon as there was (nearly) complete silence, Aragorn stood, waving the guest who immediately began to rise after him. "I would like to acknowledge and greet Samwise Gamgee, one of the Nine Walkers, his wife, and his eldest two children," the king announced, nodding toward the three hobbits sitting near him.
Sam and Rosie promptly stood up, pulling Frodo up with them. Elanor also rose from her seat among the handmaidens, blushing pink with the attention suddenly focused in her direction, although her shade could not compare to her mother's deep red. Sam looked slightly flustered at the amount of respect radiating toward him, but Elanor noted with a sigh that Frodo was already hungrily eyeing the food the servants were serving. It must be hard on him, being a young growing hobbit in a city which only ate three meals a day (or whatever you could pilfer from the kitchen-which turned out to be quite a lot when you were the King's honored guest) but he needn't make a spectacle of himself at every meal!
***********
Elrohir took a sip from his glass, savoring the wine for a moment before swallowing. For a relatively small and unimportant feast, Aragorn had certainly prepared a fine meal. Or rather, Arwen had arranged a fine meal. Elrohir doubted that Aragorn had more to do with the food then perhaps sneaking into the kitchens to snatch a quick taste. Unless he had finally managed to grow out of that particular habit.
Although it was still odd to think of Arwen as queen of any realm. Especially any mortal realm. But she had put out this feast for the benefit of four particular guests, even though two of them were showing signs of visible restraint in an effort to appear more highborn. Sam and Frodo appeared to be making up for them quite well. Elrohir watched as Frodo snatched a piece of meat his mother had been eyeing for the last five minutes, and finished it in a matter of moments, then went back for more. Sam seemed to be able to put away quite large amounts of food while at the same time arguing happily with the lord next the him about the best way to grow large amounts of carrots. And Elanor was trying to distract herself from the food by talking forcefully with the other handmaiden's.
"Well, I think the seating arrangements worked out quite well," Elladan remarked.
Elrohir nodded, noticing that nobody seemed to be in any serious arguments. "I suppose they have learned from past mistakes," he replied, remembering a certain incident involving a cow, a field of corn, two missing prize studs and six different lords. "But who is the lady sitting next to Rosie?" he asked, trying to figure out who it was, as Rosie seemed to quite enjoy conversation with her, none of which Elrohir had quite been able to catch.
"Lady Sreiya," Elladan answered, "a good choice. They both have had more then ten children, I believe. I'm sure they found many things to complain to each other about."
Elrohir caught his brother's eyes and grinned. Rosie had spent much of the journey relishing the experience of being able to breath without having to cater to the needs of twelve different children. She also had expressed sympathy for her family, her family-by-marriage, Meriadoc and Peregrin, all of whom volunteered to watch the other children until Sam and Rosie returned. According to her "they had no idea what they said they'd do, and I wasn't in the mind to tell them!".
"How are you enjoying the meal?" Arwen queried, sitting in the abandoned seat next to Elladan, holding Eldarion on her lap.
"Absolutely delicious, O sister dearest. The taste of the stewed quail complemented the taste of the fried leg of lamb impeccably," Elrohir said with a perfectly serious face, "and the vintage wine went splendidly with the broiled chicken and sauce of-" Arwen threw a napkin at him, which he caught expertly in the air, folded and placed on the table. Then he grinned at his sister. Elladan laughed.
"I am sure the hobbits enjoyed it" Elladan said, answering the question that Arwen had meant, even if she had not said, "and none of your subjects would dare insult a meal prepared by you, even if you had burnt half and left the rest raw."
Arwen smiled, "Well, I haven't prepared quite that terrible a meal."
Elrohir leaned forward, "Arwen, 'tis only food. Rosie and Elanor have not allowed themselves to eat enough to taste, and Sam and Frodo have eaten so much I doubt they could recall good from bad. And this is supposed to be a happy occasion. Enjoy yourself!"
"We'll take Eldarion," said Elladan, lifting his nephew from his sister's hands. As Arwen started to protest and take her son back, Elrohir stood up, came around his brother's chair and pulled his sister to her feet.
"You know, there was something Rosie wanted to tell you about Eldarion," He said thoughtfully leading his sister to her husband.
"What?" she demanded, maternal instincts alert, trying to discover some secret plot against her son to save him from.
"I believe she said something about how Eldarion seemed a bit young for such a late party, and something about how men can't be trusted in the care of small children" Elrohir said, "or perhaps something about surprised she was that Eldarion rarely gets entrusted to his mother's brothers and how she can't understand how such trustworthy elves as us seem to be suspected of trying to run off with the prince."
"And nearly managed to do it," Arwen said, as they approached her husband's seat.
"We were only going to take him out for a ride." Elrohir protested, "We hardly had the gear to travel back to Rivendell with him."
Arwen was coming up with an answer for that comment that she could say in front of her subjects without destroying their respect for her, when they reached her husband, who stood to greet his wife from her brief journey down the table.
"Shame, Estel" Elrohir admonished his brother. "Your wife was so bored she had to resort to going to her brother's to find some entertainment."
Aragorn blinked, then comprehension filled his eyes. He grinned, "Music?"
"Something more exciting then a listing of the kings of old would be perfect."
"That will not be too difficult." Aragorn said with a smile as he turned and clapped for some of the minstrels to come forward and perform.
Elrohir seated his protesting sister with a practiced ease, then returned to his seat to listen to some good music (he and Elladan had given Estel his taste in music, it was guaranteed to be good) and play with his nephew until enough people either passed out from too much wine or wisely left for bed that Aragorn declared the feast to be over. Yes, Elrohir thought as he sat down and lifted Eldarion from his brother, as feasts go, this was certainly not a bad one.
A/N: The wonderful feast that I spent 2 ½ chapter's building up to was over in a few pages. Oh well. After this I have to speed up the story a bit or one year in Gondor for Sam will take eons of writing for me!
