Disclaimer: My name is not J.R.R. Tolkien. Result: I do not own any characters that belong to him.
Chapter 3: The White City.
Legolas travelled over the Old Forest Road to the Anduin. He got a boat and followed the Anduin to the Gladden Fields and further to the eaves of Lórien. He passed the North and South Undeep; seeing the Brown Lands to the east. They were a forlorn country where it was said that once the entwives lived.
During the daytime, the beauty of nature on his journey settled his restlessness.
But often late at night he would found himself gazing at the stars by a dead fire, shivering. He knew this could not go on any longer; the mere feeling of shivering was not common to elves. They did not feel cold the way humans did. 'This feeling will kill me in the long run' Legolas thought.
Every time the sun rose he would think back to that morning in Mirkwood when the wind whispered 'loved one' to him. Legolas did not understand: there was no loved one, or was he the loved one? Whose?
When he travelled the lower part of the river Anduin, Legolas was reminded of the journey with the Fellowship. This was the part of the river that they travelled after their stay in Lothlórien. He saw the Argonath again and landed on the banks of Nen-Hithel, the lake just before the Falls of Rauros. At Amon Hen he visited the place where Boromir was killed by the Orcs and stayed there for a night. In the morning he got up and went his way on foot, over the plains of Parth Galen. He found his way through the mouth of the Entwash. This delta was a very wet area with lots of birds and animals in it. There was a large variety of plants. For man it was an area almost impossible to cross. But for an elf it was easy. Legolas jumped over pools and streams, did not sink into the marshes and could sometimes travel in the branches of the willows that grew here.
After the Mouth of the Entwash he could see the peaks of the Ered Nimrais: the White Mountains of Gondor. He used the Nardol as a beacon and finally came to the Great West Road. This he followed for two days* until he reached Forannost, the North Gate in the wall Rammas Echor around the city. The guards lent him a horse and Legolas rode to Minas Tirith.
In the grant hall of the Palace King Aragorn II Elessar was holding audiences for the people of his kingdom. These audiences were public and accessible to anyone who wanted to talk to the king. Legolas looked around and saw a man in palace-clothes who was tidying books and some sheets of parchment from a table. He approached the table.
"Good day to you sir, I'm so sorry, but if you want an audience with our king I'm afraid you are too late. There is another one next month, I could put your name down for that one if you like"
"Maybe, maybe, tell me first: how many audiences still to go?" Legolas answered.
"This is the last one sir, the clerk is just taking the last minutes of this afternoon"
"What I have to say to your king is not much, and I've travelled from far..."
"I really am sorry but..."
"And if I just greet your king, to let him know that I'm here?"
The man was an attentive servant, Legolas thought, eager to protect his king's time.
"It is noble of you to watch over his time," Legolas continued, "but all I'll do is greet your king."
The man contemplated for a moment but was persuaded and nodded to the throne that Aragorn was sitting on. Legolas approached.
"Vedui Elessar, taur o Gondor" (Greetings Elessar, king of Gondor) Legolas said.
With a serious but slightly tired glance Aragorn looked up. He started to smile.
"Mae govannen, Legolas, ernil o Eryn Lasgalen" (Well met, Legolas, Prince of Mirkwood) [A/N: Mirkwood was renamed after the fall of Sauron into Greenwood the Great, but you probably knew that already].
With these words Aragorn rose from his throne and came down the few steps towards Legolas. Both men spread their arms and they embraced thightly.
"It is a pleasure to see you again my prince," Aragorn said, putting his hands on Legolas's shoulders and looking at him with a grin on his face. "The feeling is mutual king Elessar".
They both turned their heads at the sound of falling books. The servant who had been talking to Legolas dropped his pile of books and papers when he saw and heard his king's reaction to this man. "Oh, my Lords, I'm so sorry, I did not know, I..."
"It is alright," Legolas said, "as I said before I think you are a very dutyfull man."
"But, I almost sent you away..." the man continued when Aragorn cut in: "If Prince Legolas wanted you to treat him like a Prince, he would have let you know his full title, Seraph, it's alright."
"Come with me Legolas, we have much to talk about".
Aragorn left the hall and lead Legolas to a beautiful hallway that ended in two broad stairs descending to an open colonnade that boarded a garden. From the top of the stairs through the open asymmetric arches you could see the trees and flowers in the garden. Around the stone bannisters and the pillars there were vines sculptured, that were repeated by real vines in the garden.
"I see, that you did 'some' redecorating," Legolas said.
Aragorn gestured around: "Well this part of the palace is based on Lothlòrien, Arwen was responsible for this" he said.
"It's beautiful, " the fair-haired elf said, "Speaking of Arwen: is she well?"
"She is, she has a visitor and when the two of them start talking: you don't want to be around as a male be it elf, man, dwarf, hobbit or maybe even orc."
"Sounds like the answer to the new rising troubles with orcs!" Legolas said with a snigger.
Aragorn laughed: "You are very close to the truth even if your life could not be save if she heard you!".
Legolas arched his eyebrows in wonder. Aragorn continued: "They will be at dinner, so you will see for yourself , that is, if they have time to stop talking and eat!".
A/N: I've used the beautiful pages of the Encyclopedia of Arda for the description of Middle Earth and as a general reference. I strongly recommend a visit!
* I've made a guess (and I'm bad at that) of the time it would take an elf to travel from Nardol to the Forannost. Please correct me if I'm wrong!
27/2/03 only changed a bit from the greetings of Aragorn and Legolas.
14/08/03: Last edits after finishing the whole story!
