Thanks to all of the people who reviewed. I would love to have more.
Summary: Aragorn got turned into a woman and only Gandalf can turn him back. But there are still many surprises in store of our favourite elf and Ranger before that happens.
ESTEL/ESTELLE
It was well into the night before Estel woke again. Legolas had let him sleep long into his turn at watch. Normally Estel would have been angry or insulted that the elf thought he needed to have extra sleep, but right now he was grateful. He could not remember the last time he had been so tired. He was fully planning on staying abed as long as Legolas would let him, but unfortunately he had to pee. So he gave one huge stretch, cracking every joint in his back before he got up to go relieve himself. That done he returned to the ring created by the soft glow of the campfire. He was grateful for the fire and Legolas's cloak, which he again draped around himself, because even though it was spring it was very early spring and the night had grown quite cold while he had slept. But what bothered the Ranger more than the biting cold, was that he realized in a rush that he was starving. He searched around the camp trying to find where Legolas had put the remains of the rabbit he had caught, hoping that the elf had not eaten it all.
Legolas looked up from one of his new arrows he had been fletching and watched Estel as he bobbed around the camp looking for something. His friend looked much better now than he had earlier, if still a bit tired. Legolas watched as Estel's hair fell every which was as he moved and noticed the way the Ranger kept impatiently tucking it behind his ears. Tomorrow he would offer to put it in braids to keep it out of Estel's way, if for no other reason than to be able to touch it again.
Legolas could not forget the night they had spent together. In the past he had had other lovers, sticky fumblings with chambermaids or even some poor lady elf married to a merchant who completely ignored her beauty. But none had compared to Estel. After the first few moments Estel had caught on rather quickly as to what was expected of him. By the end Legolas had experienced bruising on his hips from the vice like grip of Estel's knees and thighs clamped against them. His friend was certainly no demure elfish lady that was for sure. Legolas had had to be careful for a day or two afterwards so that Estel would not see the scratch marks on his back that Estel had put there during one of his many orgasms. If only he could convince his friend to bed him again. But his hopes were for nothing, Estel seemed to have no attraction to him at all and still no recollection of that night. But worst of all, Estel seemed to have no idea of the effect he had on Legolas. It was torture. Legolas would have to leave Estel back at Rivendell and return to Mirkwood until this whole thing was straightened out.
Legolas's thoughts were interrupted by Estel, "Legolas, do we have anything left from dinner? I am starving." Legolas smiled and handed Estel his yam on a stick just as he heard the Ranger's stomach give a not so feminine growl. The human quickly grabbed the offered tuber and began to eat with a voracious appetite. Legolas could not believe this was the same person who had been ill just a few hours ago.
"What about the rabbit?" Estel managed to say around mouthfuls of yam.
"I haven't cooked it yet, I decided to wait until the morning in hopes that you would feel like eating it then. I see I should not have worried for the return of your appetite." Legolas smiled to soften the jest at his friend. But he need not have bothered.
"I was thinking the same thing. I guess whatever was bothering me earlier was short lived and has left me in peace." Estel yawned at the end of his sentence. "I will take watch for a while so that you may sleep."
Legolas could see that Estel was still very tired. He had dark circles under his eyes and his voice was started to sound slightly slurred. "Do not worry Estel, I can go a night without sleep. You should rest tonight to try and fully purge this illness from you body. We are only a few days away from your home and I would hate for you to still be unwell when we arrive."
"You mean you would hate to listen to Lord Elrond lecture you about taking better care of me." Estel shot Legolas an impish grin, but he curled back up on his bedroll under the warm cloak and was again asleep within minutes.
The next morning Estel did know what woke him. It was a smell. Faint at first, but then growing stronger and stronger until it pulled him from another truly strange dream. It was the foulest odor he had ever experienced. It smelled like rotting flesh and a pigsty to his sleep addled brain. It smelled worse than being trapped in a hall full of dwarves after sausage, cabbage, and bean night. And that smell was quickly making Estel nauseous. He moved to cover his nose and finally woke up fully. It was not until he was fully awake he realized that the offending odor was in fact cooking rabbit. It was a scent he normally loved. He figured once he had identified the smell for what it was it would stop bothering him, but he was wrong. When he had his nose and mouth covered so he could not smell it anymore he began to feel better, but as soon as he could smell it again he felt like he needed to be sick.
After a few minutes of trying to block it out, Estel could not take it anymore. He got up and walked towards a small stream just past the clearing, which was up wind, thinking he was about to loose his dinner. But luckily once he was away from the cooking rabbit he began to feel much better. He took a few deep breaths of fresh air and even a few experimental sips of water and felt almost normal again. This was really strange. He had never had an illness like this before. It made no sense, one minute he felt fine, the next he felt about ready to vomit, then back to feeling fine again.
He lingered by the stream cleaning himself up a bit, or at least as well as he could with ice cold water. He did manage to rinse his hair and sat on a rock in the sun finger combing it, because he had no real comb, when Legolas came looking for him. The elf looked worried and Estel immediately felt bad for not going back sooner to let his friend know he was all right. He was about to apologize to Legolas when his friend thrust the left hock of the rabbit into Estel's face with a smile on his face. As soon as the smell hit Estel's nose it was all over. He came within a mere foot of vomiting on Legolas.
Legolas looked disgusted at first, but then helped support his friend as the retching soon gave way to dry heaves. He rubbed Estel's back in small circles and whispered soothing words into his ear. He also held the rabbit's leg in the hand he had on Estel's shoulder. Legolas was worried. He did not think he had ever seen his friend this sick before. He would push them to ride hard today so they could more quickly get back to Rivendell.
Estel greatly appreciated Legolas's support. Without it he would have dropped to the ground like a heap. However, he wished he could catch his breath enough to tell Legolas to move that damn foul smelling hunk of meat away from his face before his body actually did manage to turn itself inside out. But since he could not do that he opted for the next best thing and grabbed the hock and flung it as far as he could. With the noxious fume gone, it did not take him long to get control of his stomach.
Legolas gently helped him over to a large rock along the creek bed and sat him down. He then went to the stream and scooped up some water for Estel to drink. Estel was thankful for it to because he could still feel bile burning in his mouth and throat no matter how many times he tried to spit it out. Legolas brought his cupped hands to Estel's mouth so that his friend could drink the cold water. However, Legolas's fingers still smelled of rabbit, and that was enough to send the poor Ranger into another fit of heaving. Not knowing what else to do, Legolas stood back looking on in concern.
After a few minutes, but it seemed like much longer to the suffering human, the two made their way back to the campsite to pack up. Estel was feeling much better and had started to joke with the elf until they reached the camp and the rest of the uneaten rabbit's stench floated over to him. The young Ranger covered his mouth and nose and moaned. Legolas steeled himself for a repeat of earlier when Estel started gesturing wildly towards their things. The elf figured that there must be something there, which the Ranger wanted to sooth his suffering and he began to frantically search for whatever it was. Every time he thought he had found what Estel was pointing at, the human would shake his head and point again. Legolas was started to get frustrated just about the time Estel left the clearing to be ill again. Legolas worried for his friend and followed him to check if he was ok.
"Are you alright, my friend?" Legolas said with concern while stroking the Ranger's hair. At least one good thing had come out of this morning; Legolas was getting to finger the damp silky locks.
Estel shook his head "yes" slowly, though Legolas was less than convinced. "Would you please get rid of the rabbit, I cannot stand the smell of it." Estel's voice was almost a whimper. Legolas nodded his head and left Estel to go dispose of the carcass. Not long afterwards they were on their way to Rivendell at a gallop.
As the morning wore on Estel began to feel better and even chanced eating a few bites of bread. And as the morning wore on he grew hungrier and hungrier until by the time they stopped for lunch he was about to take a bite out of the elf. Legolas was pleased to see that his friend seemed back to normal, but he saw no reason to slow their pace back to Imladris, he wanted away from Estel if he could not have him.
As the afternoon crawled into early evening Estel was again hungry and wishing it was time to stop for dinner. But not ten minutes after his stomach started to rumble in hunger, it began to churn with nausea. He tried to ignore it, that didn't work. He tried drinking cool water from his water skin, that didn't work either. He even tried counting backwards from then, still no luck. Everything he looked at made him want to be ill. The ground speeding by made his head spin; the white fluffy clouds looked like lumps of grizzle suspended in blue meat; and the slight cracking of the leather of his reigns looked like skin flaking from an infected wound. It was hopeless. He called to Legolas to get him to halt. "Must we, we are making good time?"
"Yes." It was more of a croak than a word, but it got his point across. As soon as the horses had stopped, Estel jumped down and stepped a few paces away. He breathed deeply trying to calm his rebellious stomach and it was working until he looked out over the valley they had entered and noticed that the small mounds of earth looked like boils on green skin. That thought was enough to make him loose a portion of his lunch.
Legolas was slightly annoyed at having to stop. He wanted to push on through most of the night. After all Estel could not claim he was too tired since he had slept through most of last night. He would not have allowed the stop had not Estel looked so pale and drawn. Now he was glad that he had permitted the stop because Estel was again violently ill. The poor human looked so pathetic, hunched over vomiting in the middle of a field. He wanted to gather Estel into his arms and kiss him until he felt better, but he knew that would never happen. So he tried his best to be a good friend since he could be nothing else. "Are you alright, my friend?"
"Do I look alright, you stupid elf?" Estel snapped back at Legolas. What kind of a ridiculous question was that anyway? Of course he wasn't ok, if he were ok he would not be tossing his cookies in the middle of a valley. And now Legolas was looking at him with such sympathy for something he could never understand because elves didn't get sick. He wanted to punch the concerned elf right in the chest and rip out his weeping heart.
Without another word Estel remounted and they continued on. Legolas looked back every now and again to check on his friend. Estel swore to himself if the elf looked at him like that one more time he was going to gouge out his pretty blue eyes. During the rest of the evening they had to stop two more times for Estel to be ill and each time Legolas got more and more worried about his friend. But by nightfall he seemed to be feeling better and was hungry again. Legolas called a halt around midnight to rest the horses and let Estel get some sleep. Even though the Ranger had slept for a long time the night before he still seemed very tired.
Estel did not complain when Legolas suggested stopping to rest the horses. He was so exhausted he felt like he would drop any minute. He couldn't understand why though. He had slept for longer than he ever normally did, but he was far more tired then he usually was. Maybe there was something seriously wrong with him, he didn't know. All he knew was that he wanted to get some sleep where no strange dreams intruded on him. Last night he had had dream after dream about people eating food off of his stomach and even one very vivid dream about being back at home and having puppies and kittens playing on his belly while he lay watching them. It was all quite odd to him. He wondered what it could mean. True, there were not prophetic dreams like he often had, but still quite disturbing.
When Estel dismounted he almost fell to the ground from exhaustion. Not to mention that he again had that annoying ache in his lower abdomen, but now only on the left side. He wanted to cry and the discomfort of his whole situation, but that would be unmanly, even for a girl.
Legolas watched as his friend rode on behind him and began to droop more and more in the saddle. He could see that Estel was in desperate need of rest, but he also wanted to push on. Finally compassion won out and he stopped their travel for a brief rest. He was already thinking of ways to convince Estel to rest while he took watch. Luckily for him Estel was so tired all it took was an offer and the Ranger was curled up in a tight ball against the cold, fast asleep. Legolas watched the stars for a while until he began to hear his friend toss and turn. He would have thought that Estel was simply having a nightmare, but he noticed that the human's eyes had snapped open and were moving quickly from side to side. A sure sign that the Ranger was having a prophetic dream. Legolas always hated when Estel had those dreams. They usually put him in a bad mood for days and he would almost never talk about them. All Legolas had ever gotten out him on the subject was that he had foreseen his mother's death and not been able do anything about it. In his sleep Estel moaned and shivered. Again Legolas unclasped his cloak and draped it over the sleeping human. He knew that Estel derived no rest from this type of sleep so he consigned himself to another night without sleep.
Estel was in a strange place between being asleep and awake. He knew that he was asleep, but he could feel everything as if he were awake. His head felt like it was filled with wet cotton and was slowly spinning. His limbs felt heavy like he was in quicksand. But worst of all was the feeling of seeing something from a point of view that was not your own. When he awoke the only thing he remembered from the dream made no sense. He remembered his foster father, Lord Elrond, handing him a pink slimy newborn girl and telling him that he had a daughter. Estel remembered thinking that she was so perfect and beautiful and wanting to kiss her despite the fact she was covered in some sort of unidentifiable scum. He had no idea what that could mean. Often times his dreams showed him things that would not happen for many years, and he supposed that the child would not be born until he was married many years into the future.
It mattered little to the Ranger right now. All he knew was he could never go back to sleep after he had one of his "special dreams" no matter how tired he was. So he told Legolas to get some sleep and he would keep the watch.
They rested for another two hours before they were again on the road back to Rivendell. Sometime around sunup Estel began to feel ill again and hoped that it would not get any worse. All he wanted was to get home so he could have his Ada (father/dad) check him over and then go to sleep for a day in his warm soft bed. He continued to feel mildly nauseous all day, like he had a case of the stomach flu, and into the evening when they finally arrived home. The two were greeted by Estel's foster brothers Elladan and Elrohir. The two twins mercilessly made fun of Estel for his gender change, calling him names like "little sister" and "wench" until they realized that he was not really responding. They became worried. When Estel let taunts like that go by there was a problem.
"Are you well, Estel?" Elrohir asked as he reached out to lay the back part of his hand against Estel's forehead.
"Not really. Where is Ada?" Estel mumbled as he leaned heavily against his horse so he didn't fall down. He was feeling a bit lightheaded and wanted to lie down more than just about anything in the world.
"He is on a hunting trip with Glorfindel. He should be back in two or three days. Why, are you feeling that poorly? We can send a party out to find him." This time Elladan spoke.
Estel shook his head no and immediately regretted it as the stables increased the speed of their spin. Estel clutched at his horse so hard he was sure he must be hurting the poor animal. "No, don't worry. It can wait till he gets back." Legolas was annoyed that Estel was down playing how badly he had been feeling, but he would not tell the twins if Estel did not want them to know, Lord Elrond was another story. He would stay until the Lord returned. But right now he had to find someway to get Estel to go to his room before he fell on the floor of the stable.
"Elladan, Elrohir, would you to take care of our horses for us? Both Estel and I are quite worn out from the journey back." Legolas hoped he would not incur Estel's wrath for this since he made it sound as if both of them needed help. But Estel barely seemed to be paying attention. So before Estel could complain, Legolas grabbed his shoulder and steered him into the house and to his room. Estel put up no fight.
The next three days were a blur for Estel. The nausea had seemed to settle with him and would not leave, nor would the constant exhaustion and lightheadedness. More often than not he had waived off offers of food and stayed in his rooms sleeping. When he did take meals with the other he spent more time playing with his food than actually eating it. Every little thing made him feel like he would vomit and he was about to loose his mind when Lord Elrond finally showed back up.
The others had gone out fishing, but Estel had not had the energy to walk that far. He could tell Legolas and his brothers were worried about him, and truth be told he was starting to get worried too. Sometime after dinner, which Estel opted not to attend, he padded his way to his father's study barefoot and in pajamas. "Ada, can I talk to you for a minute?" No matter how long he would live in Rivendell, Estel would always feel like he was bothering his father when he intruded on him in his study.
"Of course, Estel, what can I do for you?" Elrond could feel the apprehension and worry radiating off of his child like a wave.
"I haven't been feeling too well lately, I was wondering if you could help?" Estel looked down at his feet. He should have put on socks his feet were cold.
"Come over here and sit down and tell me how you feel."
Estel obliged. "I feel bad. Sick all of the time. I have thrown up everyday for the past five days and I keep feeling dizzy. I am so tired I can hardly stay awake all day. And certain smells and sights make me feel like I am going to be sick. I can hardly eat at all. And my back hurts and my stomach hurts down here sometimes." Estel pointed to the lower part of his abdomen.
"That is a hefty list of complaints. Why did you not have me summoned back from my trip?" Elrond asked as he felt Estel for a temperature.
"I didn't want to bother you. I was hoping it would go away." Elrond nodded as he opened up his healing sense to Estel. What he saw there took a hundred years off of his life. He was sure he was mistaken so he looked again, but the result was the same.
"Estel, who have you been with since you turned into a woman?"
"Just Legolas. He is the only person who has been around me? Why?"
"Because, my child, you are pregnant."
"What? That isn't possible, I never, not with anyone, especially not since. Ada, are you sure?" This could not be happening. His father was simply mistaken and it was just a horrible tumor or something equally less frightening than parenthood.
"Yes, I am. Are you sure that you have not had sex with anyone?"
"Yes," Estel was very uncomfortable discussing this with his father. "I think I would remember something like that . . . Wait, right after this happened Legolas and I got really drunk. I don't remember a thing that happened that night except for Legolas taking upstairs to bed."
"I see. Wait here a moment." Estel obliged, being too shocked to go anywhere else. Lord Elrond on the other hand stalked down the hall of his home like a tiger stalking his prey. Outside the calm evening began to boil with a storm as the weather reflected the mood of its master. When he reached the room that Legolas, Glorfindel, and his twin sons were sitting in talking he stormed in almost tearing the door off the hinges. "Legolas!!! What have you done to my child!?!" Elrond's roar would haunt Legolas for many years to come.
Before the sylvan elf could react, Elrond had him around the throat and had bodily slammed him against the wall. Not being satisfied with that he threw Legolas onto a nearby table and began to choke him. Legolas had always thought that the rather bookish Lord Elrond was a wimp, but now he understood why Orcs sang songs about the Lord of Imladris.
Legolas began to see stars before his eyes as he struggled in vain to loosen Elrond's grip around his throat. But Glorfindel stepped in, sensing that if he did not stop things soon there maybe a murder. "Elrond, do let go of the Prince. It is very rude to strangle guests into unconsciousness. And besides, if you kill him you would have to deal with his father, and who wants that hassle?" Elrond loosened his grip and eventually let go.
"You, come with me." He barked at Legolas. Legolas stood still too long for Elrond's taste, so the Lord reached a hand out to grab the younger elf's neck again. Legolas not wanting that to happen ducked, which was just what Elrond was expecting. As the Mirkwood prince ducked, Elrond snatched the long thick braid in the back of his head and began to drag him down the hall by it. Legolas feared if he resisted he would loose his hair. Elrond finally forced him into his study where he saw a very pale Estel sitting on a window seat, staring off into space. "You have got some explaining to do, Legolas."
TBC