A/N: Thankyou to everyone who reviewed my last chapter. Especially those
who let me know about the *real* origins of Aragorn's ring - eiluj, I'm
looking at you; thankyou for that wonderful summary of the story... I'm
interested in it, now, and am going to read more!
Now, I could be really smooth and suave about my whole huge mistake with this story and say something here like, "Oh, yeah... no I *meant* to write an alternative version of how Aragorn got his ring... yeah, no - *intentional*, like."
But that would just be lying.
So I am here to say that you all have my apologies for writing this in ignorance - but you are *not* to think of me any less of a Tolkien fan just because I haven't gotten round to reading the whole of the appendices yet. It was just a complete mistake that I am sorry for, and I will change my summary to let people know. I am as dedicated to Tolkien as all of you! It's just the ring kept catching my eye in scenes with Aragorn, and a story for how he got it came into my mind and I wrote this without really checking the back story to it, it should have occurred to me that the brilliant Peter Jackson has every single thing covered in his films... nevermind though, eh? Also, I didn't know that the ring was actually two serpents and a flower, so the description in this chapter is a little off - but I'm keeping it that way on principles! Alright, I wrote this whole story without really knowing anything about the real issues behind it - but I'm sticking to my guns now!
In other words, I'm going to continue with this version because it's already all written down - plus, I like it!
Anyway sorry again, but I hope this offering will placate all you 'purists', as Tinania Lindaleriel puts it... and I actually *do* think canonicity is a word - however, I may be wrong about that as well!
Here you are....
............................................................
~FLASHBACK~ (West wing of Mirkwood palace)
Aragorn knocked lightly upon the oak door, but then entered straight away anyway without much more preamble. There was no need, after all.
Sunlight poured into the bright, airy room through the large, open balconies, gauze curtains drifting lazily across the room - the Mirkwood forest always present both inside and outside of the above-ground wing of King's palace. The Sun drenched a figure lying on the large bed in her golden light, illuminating the young firstborn.
~Well, pehaps *lying* on the bed is not the right way to put it~ thought Aragorn with a smirk, for the prince Legolas was technically only half on the bed. The rather eccentric young elf was reading in his usual way - upside down, with his head, torso and arms hanging off the side of the bed, and his bottom half anchored by some Elvish grace (or just pure, practised skill) on the top side.
Aragorn, almost an adult man at the tender age of nineteen summers - all smooth-skinned, innocent and relatively unlined - shook his dark head in familiar bemusement to his best friend's antics and laughed, "You'll give yourself a headache if you keep on at that... why do you persist in reading in such an awkward manner?"
Legolas' fair voice was distorted from the far side of the bed, a product of his stretched and flattened lungs and his position, and he had to angrily blow away some of his golden hair that had fallen down into his mouth before continuing properly, "It improves concentration and helps one imagine and believe the story better - it's the only way to read, Estel, I keep telling you."
Aragron rolled his eyes as he flung himself upon the soft bed, and swung his long legs, boots and all, up onto it, "Yeah, I'll believe that when everyone's doing it... someone other that *you*..."
A page turned nochalantly, completely without worry: "You wait, there'll be books written about this method someday..." The elf paused in his assurance for just a moment, thinking with the book forgotten momentarily, then continued "...which everyone will read whilst upside down... naturally."
The man laughed aloud at his friend's foolish train of thought, and the Mirkwood prince, after putting his book to one side on the floor, sat up easily with a grin - the only indication he had spent the past hour upside down was a slight pinkening of the pale skin of his high cheekbones.
"All packed?" Legolas asked casually with slender raised eyebrows.
Aragorn sighed, his face turning more serious - realising how he would miss his friend when he left the Mirkwood realm again, "Aye, I leave in an hour's half..." He smiled slyly, "I am only a day or so late, so mayhap adar won't be *too* mad at you."
"Me?" Legolas cried, with a small but rather weighty, punch to the ranger's arm. "I will assure Lord Elrond that all blame of tardiness shall fall directly upon your shoulders, as always, mellon nin." As if to prove his point, he then jabbed Aragorn visciously in the ribs with a long finger, grinning as the action provoked the man to jerk away with a small yelp. "You *know* he still believes me more than you anyhow," the prince smiled smugly.
Aragorn grunted at that, but otherwise chose to ignore the comment, and continued on another subject, "I have said farewell to your father and brothers and sisters, and I am free to spend my last moments of freedom here, so... entertain me, elf." He grinned as Legolas grimaced and rolled his eyes, flinging himself back with a flourish to lie on his bed.
"I would ride with you to Rivendell," said Legolas, turning a little wistfully suddenly as he spoke to the ceiling, "If not for the fact that adar wants me here to aid Niandias in something involving some of her more wayward pupils - I think my sister's organised a fete of some sort, a grand idea... obviously, I can't wait," he added sarcastically with a head tilt of assurance in Aragorn's direction.
The young man sitting next to him, taking this comment the other way as to which it was intended - he had been, as ever, on the lookout for some slight against his young age - cried out with more than a small touch of indignance to his tone, "I do *not* need a baby-sitter, Legolas; why can't you realise I have nearly come of age! I don't see why you and adar, and Elladan and - "
"Hey!" Legolas sat up quickly, holding his hands out palm upwards in front of him to try to placate his friend's fiery temper, and show he meant no harm, his green eyes wide, "I don't care how old you are, Estel - *I don't care*... I was merely saying how I wished to get out of Niandias' torture session this afternoon... *Why* do you persist in being so defensive all the time?"
It was a good enough question; Aragorn always seemed to be on a quest to *prove* that he was old enough to do things without people watching out for him all the time. Even when he had been a independant young boy of nine, he insisted he was man enough to go out hunting with his brothers, and had always tried to show how well he could do things without supervision - this character trait was only being compounded as he grew older. He seemed to have developed quite a complex about it, actually. Perhaps it was because he had grown up as a human among Elves - with weaker abilities than the firstborn. Couple that with the fact that every member of his foster - and Legolas' second - family were all so much older than him, and all of them looked out for him without consideration, and you had a very annoyed, mature ranger on your hands.
Aragorn only shrugged, but did not answer, his head slightly bowed in embarrassment, shaggy dark locks falling in front of his handsome face. Legolas decided he would take pity on him and drop the subject after a moment, and so smiled suddenly, a happy thought coming to his mind, "Hey, I just remembered that I have something for you."
He reached out ungainly across his green-sheeted bed to the wooden cabinet beside, and pulled a small box wrapped in a dark green ribbon from one of the drawers. He handed it to Aragorn proudly, a huge grin spreading itself from pointed-ear-to-pointed-ear. "Open it!" he urged eagerly, fidgeting about where he sat like some small child at Yuletime, most unlike any prince of a Royal house should behave - but then again, when had Legolas ever behaved the way a prince was supposed to behave?
The young ranger, after giving Legolas his patented wary look, unwrapped the bow curiously, and slowly lifted the lid off the small box. He almost gasped when he glimpsed what was there; for inside the box was the most elegant ring he had ever laid eyes upon. Legolas was giving this to him? Without any apparent reason? Emotion welled within him at the sight of the present, for he felt the affection with which it had been given, and his feelings crashed about his heart like the sea spraying off rocks. He had no idea what to say, and so he attempted to joke as he always did - hiding away his first reactions. He laid a jesting, roughened hand upon Legolas' own pale one lying idily upon the embroidered bedspread, and widened his grey eyes theatrically, "Ohh, and I love *you*, dearest, but I just don't think we're ready for that kind of commitment yet, do you?"
Legolas pulled his hand away sharply, "Get off, you great jessie," he chuckled. Then continued a little sheepishly, "I just thought, you know, you don't come here all that often any more, and you humans seem to change so quickly that I can't hardly keep track of your face when I meet with you after a time, and we all know men do not have the best memories... so, you can remember me by this when you're off on your travels as a ranger." He shrugged with a happy grin, "I made it all on my lonesome, as well - Teltani the Blacksmith showed me the method how and then left me to it... I think he regrets it now, though; I may have broken his furnace..." he trailed off, thinking.
"You made it?" Aragorn asked softly, as his eyes wandered over the beautiful treasure once again, exploring the winding paths and trails, then stared upon the elf's face in slight wonder. The fact that his best friend had wrought the gift himself made it all the more precious to him - it had come right from Legolas' heart.
Greenleaf nodded gently, smiling at his best friend and the man's touching reaction. After a pause, he murmured, "It's also to remind you that I *don't* care how old you are..." Aragorn looked up at this, surprised, "...I'll still be looking out for you when you've had eighty-five year's worth of experience walking this earth, and then again at one-hundred and fifty - you can't think that when you come of age I'm just going to stop it and lay off you, that's just not the way best friends work, at least not in my book." Legolas grinned at Aragorn's half-rolled eyes, but knew that the young ranger understood by the way his grey eyes misted suddenly. "It's to remind you that no matter how tough things get, however bleak the future looks, the dawn is just behind those clouds - and I'll always be watching out for you, Estel - I'll know when you need me, and if you ever find yourself facing a storm, I will always, *always* be at your side, facing it with you... you'll never be alone, never walk alone. Got that?"
Aragorn couldn't speak, his throat was too tight - a painful knot of emotion, but the silvery tears that rolled silently down his cheeks and into his stubbly beginnings of a beard as he nodded in understanding spoke volumes for him. And so Legolas wordlessly pulled him into a brotherly embrace, pondering absently how he would miss this man when he left him.
A song began to escape his thin lips, capturing his whirling thoughts and weaving them skillfully into a beautiful tale that tried to make - and succeeded in making - Aragorn realise just how much he meant to the elf. The words he sang became a sort of anthem between the two friends, something they both would sing softly under their breath or in their minds whenever they found themselves in danger or in the darkest of times, whether alone or together. The song held as much meaning as the ring, for they were both bound together... just as the two friends were...
"When you're down and troubled, and you need a helping hand. And nothing, oh nothing, is going right.
Close your eyes and think of me, and soon I will be there, to brighten up even you darkest nights.
"You just call out my name, and you know wherever I am am, I'll come running, to see you again.
Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall, all you got to do is call, and I'll be there...
"You've got a friend.
"If the sky above you should turn dark and full of cloud, and that old North wind should begin to blow.
Keep your head together, and call my name out loud, and soon, I'll be knocking upon your door.
"You just call out my name, and you know wherever I am, I'll come running, to see you again.
Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall, all you got to do is call, and I'll be there...
"You've got a friend."
The young ranger managed not to bawl like a little girl into Legolas' shoulder during the song, and even succeeded in swallowing the lump in his throat when the song was finished, but it did take him a moment before he could whisper with a small smile into his best friend's soft golden hair, "Thankyou, mellon nin, thankyou..."
Legolas just chuckled and hugged him all the tighter.
~END FLASHBACK~
............................................................
The song is 'You've got a friend' by the seventies legend James Taylor... and no, it's not that one off Toy Story. This is superior in all ways.
Another chapter to come... Review this one, though!
Now, I could be really smooth and suave about my whole huge mistake with this story and say something here like, "Oh, yeah... no I *meant* to write an alternative version of how Aragorn got his ring... yeah, no - *intentional*, like."
But that would just be lying.
So I am here to say that you all have my apologies for writing this in ignorance - but you are *not* to think of me any less of a Tolkien fan just because I haven't gotten round to reading the whole of the appendices yet. It was just a complete mistake that I am sorry for, and I will change my summary to let people know. I am as dedicated to Tolkien as all of you! It's just the ring kept catching my eye in scenes with Aragorn, and a story for how he got it came into my mind and I wrote this without really checking the back story to it, it should have occurred to me that the brilliant Peter Jackson has every single thing covered in his films... nevermind though, eh? Also, I didn't know that the ring was actually two serpents and a flower, so the description in this chapter is a little off - but I'm keeping it that way on principles! Alright, I wrote this whole story without really knowing anything about the real issues behind it - but I'm sticking to my guns now!
In other words, I'm going to continue with this version because it's already all written down - plus, I like it!
Anyway sorry again, but I hope this offering will placate all you 'purists', as Tinania Lindaleriel puts it... and I actually *do* think canonicity is a word - however, I may be wrong about that as well!
Here you are....
............................................................
~FLASHBACK~ (West wing of Mirkwood palace)
Aragorn knocked lightly upon the oak door, but then entered straight away anyway without much more preamble. There was no need, after all.
Sunlight poured into the bright, airy room through the large, open balconies, gauze curtains drifting lazily across the room - the Mirkwood forest always present both inside and outside of the above-ground wing of King's palace. The Sun drenched a figure lying on the large bed in her golden light, illuminating the young firstborn.
~Well, pehaps *lying* on the bed is not the right way to put it~ thought Aragorn with a smirk, for the prince Legolas was technically only half on the bed. The rather eccentric young elf was reading in his usual way - upside down, with his head, torso and arms hanging off the side of the bed, and his bottom half anchored by some Elvish grace (or just pure, practised skill) on the top side.
Aragorn, almost an adult man at the tender age of nineteen summers - all smooth-skinned, innocent and relatively unlined - shook his dark head in familiar bemusement to his best friend's antics and laughed, "You'll give yourself a headache if you keep on at that... why do you persist in reading in such an awkward manner?"
Legolas' fair voice was distorted from the far side of the bed, a product of his stretched and flattened lungs and his position, and he had to angrily blow away some of his golden hair that had fallen down into his mouth before continuing properly, "It improves concentration and helps one imagine and believe the story better - it's the only way to read, Estel, I keep telling you."
Aragron rolled his eyes as he flung himself upon the soft bed, and swung his long legs, boots and all, up onto it, "Yeah, I'll believe that when everyone's doing it... someone other that *you*..."
A page turned nochalantly, completely without worry: "You wait, there'll be books written about this method someday..." The elf paused in his assurance for just a moment, thinking with the book forgotten momentarily, then continued "...which everyone will read whilst upside down... naturally."
The man laughed aloud at his friend's foolish train of thought, and the Mirkwood prince, after putting his book to one side on the floor, sat up easily with a grin - the only indication he had spent the past hour upside down was a slight pinkening of the pale skin of his high cheekbones.
"All packed?" Legolas asked casually with slender raised eyebrows.
Aragorn sighed, his face turning more serious - realising how he would miss his friend when he left the Mirkwood realm again, "Aye, I leave in an hour's half..." He smiled slyly, "I am only a day or so late, so mayhap adar won't be *too* mad at you."
"Me?" Legolas cried, with a small but rather weighty, punch to the ranger's arm. "I will assure Lord Elrond that all blame of tardiness shall fall directly upon your shoulders, as always, mellon nin." As if to prove his point, he then jabbed Aragorn visciously in the ribs with a long finger, grinning as the action provoked the man to jerk away with a small yelp. "You *know* he still believes me more than you anyhow," the prince smiled smugly.
Aragorn grunted at that, but otherwise chose to ignore the comment, and continued on another subject, "I have said farewell to your father and brothers and sisters, and I am free to spend my last moments of freedom here, so... entertain me, elf." He grinned as Legolas grimaced and rolled his eyes, flinging himself back with a flourish to lie on his bed.
"I would ride with you to Rivendell," said Legolas, turning a little wistfully suddenly as he spoke to the ceiling, "If not for the fact that adar wants me here to aid Niandias in something involving some of her more wayward pupils - I think my sister's organised a fete of some sort, a grand idea... obviously, I can't wait," he added sarcastically with a head tilt of assurance in Aragorn's direction.
The young man sitting next to him, taking this comment the other way as to which it was intended - he had been, as ever, on the lookout for some slight against his young age - cried out with more than a small touch of indignance to his tone, "I do *not* need a baby-sitter, Legolas; why can't you realise I have nearly come of age! I don't see why you and adar, and Elladan and - "
"Hey!" Legolas sat up quickly, holding his hands out palm upwards in front of him to try to placate his friend's fiery temper, and show he meant no harm, his green eyes wide, "I don't care how old you are, Estel - *I don't care*... I was merely saying how I wished to get out of Niandias' torture session this afternoon... *Why* do you persist in being so defensive all the time?"
It was a good enough question; Aragorn always seemed to be on a quest to *prove* that he was old enough to do things without people watching out for him all the time. Even when he had been a independant young boy of nine, he insisted he was man enough to go out hunting with his brothers, and had always tried to show how well he could do things without supervision - this character trait was only being compounded as he grew older. He seemed to have developed quite a complex about it, actually. Perhaps it was because he had grown up as a human among Elves - with weaker abilities than the firstborn. Couple that with the fact that every member of his foster - and Legolas' second - family were all so much older than him, and all of them looked out for him without consideration, and you had a very annoyed, mature ranger on your hands.
Aragorn only shrugged, but did not answer, his head slightly bowed in embarrassment, shaggy dark locks falling in front of his handsome face. Legolas decided he would take pity on him and drop the subject after a moment, and so smiled suddenly, a happy thought coming to his mind, "Hey, I just remembered that I have something for you."
He reached out ungainly across his green-sheeted bed to the wooden cabinet beside, and pulled a small box wrapped in a dark green ribbon from one of the drawers. He handed it to Aragorn proudly, a huge grin spreading itself from pointed-ear-to-pointed-ear. "Open it!" he urged eagerly, fidgeting about where he sat like some small child at Yuletime, most unlike any prince of a Royal house should behave - but then again, when had Legolas ever behaved the way a prince was supposed to behave?
The young ranger, after giving Legolas his patented wary look, unwrapped the bow curiously, and slowly lifted the lid off the small box. He almost gasped when he glimpsed what was there; for inside the box was the most elegant ring he had ever laid eyes upon. Legolas was giving this to him? Without any apparent reason? Emotion welled within him at the sight of the present, for he felt the affection with which it had been given, and his feelings crashed about his heart like the sea spraying off rocks. He had no idea what to say, and so he attempted to joke as he always did - hiding away his first reactions. He laid a jesting, roughened hand upon Legolas' own pale one lying idily upon the embroidered bedspread, and widened his grey eyes theatrically, "Ohh, and I love *you*, dearest, but I just don't think we're ready for that kind of commitment yet, do you?"
Legolas pulled his hand away sharply, "Get off, you great jessie," he chuckled. Then continued a little sheepishly, "I just thought, you know, you don't come here all that often any more, and you humans seem to change so quickly that I can't hardly keep track of your face when I meet with you after a time, and we all know men do not have the best memories... so, you can remember me by this when you're off on your travels as a ranger." He shrugged with a happy grin, "I made it all on my lonesome, as well - Teltani the Blacksmith showed me the method how and then left me to it... I think he regrets it now, though; I may have broken his furnace..." he trailed off, thinking.
"You made it?" Aragorn asked softly, as his eyes wandered over the beautiful treasure once again, exploring the winding paths and trails, then stared upon the elf's face in slight wonder. The fact that his best friend had wrought the gift himself made it all the more precious to him - it had come right from Legolas' heart.
Greenleaf nodded gently, smiling at his best friend and the man's touching reaction. After a pause, he murmured, "It's also to remind you that I *don't* care how old you are..." Aragorn looked up at this, surprised, "...I'll still be looking out for you when you've had eighty-five year's worth of experience walking this earth, and then again at one-hundred and fifty - you can't think that when you come of age I'm just going to stop it and lay off you, that's just not the way best friends work, at least not in my book." Legolas grinned at Aragorn's half-rolled eyes, but knew that the young ranger understood by the way his grey eyes misted suddenly. "It's to remind you that no matter how tough things get, however bleak the future looks, the dawn is just behind those clouds - and I'll always be watching out for you, Estel - I'll know when you need me, and if you ever find yourself facing a storm, I will always, *always* be at your side, facing it with you... you'll never be alone, never walk alone. Got that?"
Aragorn couldn't speak, his throat was too tight - a painful knot of emotion, but the silvery tears that rolled silently down his cheeks and into his stubbly beginnings of a beard as he nodded in understanding spoke volumes for him. And so Legolas wordlessly pulled him into a brotherly embrace, pondering absently how he would miss this man when he left him.
A song began to escape his thin lips, capturing his whirling thoughts and weaving them skillfully into a beautiful tale that tried to make - and succeeded in making - Aragorn realise just how much he meant to the elf. The words he sang became a sort of anthem between the two friends, something they both would sing softly under their breath or in their minds whenever they found themselves in danger or in the darkest of times, whether alone or together. The song held as much meaning as the ring, for they were both bound together... just as the two friends were...
"When you're down and troubled, and you need a helping hand. And nothing, oh nothing, is going right.
Close your eyes and think of me, and soon I will be there, to brighten up even you darkest nights.
"You just call out my name, and you know wherever I am am, I'll come running, to see you again.
Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall, all you got to do is call, and I'll be there...
"You've got a friend.
"If the sky above you should turn dark and full of cloud, and that old North wind should begin to blow.
Keep your head together, and call my name out loud, and soon, I'll be knocking upon your door.
"You just call out my name, and you know wherever I am, I'll come running, to see you again.
Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall, all you got to do is call, and I'll be there...
"You've got a friend."
The young ranger managed not to bawl like a little girl into Legolas' shoulder during the song, and even succeeded in swallowing the lump in his throat when the song was finished, but it did take him a moment before he could whisper with a small smile into his best friend's soft golden hair, "Thankyou, mellon nin, thankyou..."
Legolas just chuckled and hugged him all the tighter.
~END FLASHBACK~
............................................................
The song is 'You've got a friend' by the seventies legend James Taylor... and no, it's not that one off Toy Story. This is superior in all ways.
Another chapter to come... Review this one, though!