One Summer in Rivendell
Disclaimer: All characters belong to J.R.R. Tolkien. The theme is based on Much ado About Nothing which was written by Shakespeare not me!
Summery- Legolas and the King return from war with the intentions of having a peaceful summer, things do not go to plan. Chaos, romance, trickery and misunderstanding ensue.
Cold Crystal Tears : Ha ha! You can't fool me, you dodgy person you! Here is more! Now please calm down or I fear there may be accidents!
Cerridwen: Thank you very much for the review! Go read Shakespeare it's great especially Much Ado'! It's my fave, very funny :)
Gionareth: Thank you so much! There will be no dancing as yet though, the course of true love never does run smoothly, especially for Aragorn and Arwen :) More chaos first I think! (he he)
Vikki: No the queen is not like an onion, she is like a cake as they have layers too you know and they are far less smelly which is a bonus for Aragorn! Thanks for the review.
Kit Cloudkicker: Damn those writer block demons! You are not alone there! They also attack me frequently! May I borrow Glorfy the Balrog Slayer and or Gandalf when you are finished with them please?????? Hope you have some inspiration soon! I really want to find out what happens next :)
Chapter 4
In light of his new found happiness and due to the fact that he had behaved in an unforgivable manner towards the King of Gondor the previous day, Legolas had decided that there was a most grievous matter that needed to be dealt with presently.
The King's love life.
He had already informed Boromir and Faramir of his feeble attempt to woo the Evenstar in Aragorn's place. Of course, said cousin's of the King found his tale hilarious and were unable to speak for several moments due to their unrelenting laughter. Legolas waited graciously for them to finish before unleashing unto them his plan.
"It has been agreed." He told them. "Between Lord Elrond, Hero and Myself that the King loves the Evenstar and she herself, feels likewise for him." Boromir stopped laughing.
"This we know." He said impatiently.
Legolas sighed. "I know that you know!" He cried frustrated. "But, it would appear that the King does not know that Arwen is stricken by him and the Evenstar is equally unaware that the King is deeply smitten with her."
Faramir blinked at the Prince's ramble of words. It seemed that Mirkwood's fair Prince was not as articulate as the rest of his kind. "So, do tell us your marvellous plan." He said listlessly.
Legolas stood excitedly. "It goes like this." He began. Boromir and Faramir rolled their eyes. Legolas chose to ignore them and continued with his cause. "Arwen loves to walk in the garden, so Hero tells me. This afternoon my betrothed and her maid Kendra will, within Arwen's earshot, have a conversation about Aragorn and her feelings for him." He said raising an eyebrow. Boromir and Faramir looked flummoxed.
"It is as simple as that?" Faramir asked.
"Yes." Legolas replied defiantly. "We, along with Lord Elrond, shall have a conversation of the same nature within Aragorn's earshot."
Boromir erupted into a fit of laughter. "Do you know?" He said. "We could be beheaded for this." Faramir joined his laughter.
"But it would be worth it do you not think?" He said holding his brother's gaze. "I for one am sick to death of the King skulking around the palace with no companion."
"Indeed." Boromir agreed. "And I am brought to the edge of my wits by his drunken ramblings about love.....It makes me rather nauseous"
Legolas could not prevent the chuckle that escaped his mouth. "Well that is settled then." He said. "This afternoon, we shall procure Gondor it's queen."
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Arwen had become decidedly irate with the constant noise that had accosted her home since the King's arrival in Rivendell. Her only escape, her only haven, was the expanse of Gardens that surrounded her home.
Worn out from the previous evening's celebrations she wearily took a seat on the fountain on which she had shared her encounter with the Prince. She chuckled at the memory of it.
'Are all men so hopeless when it comes to affairs of the heart?' She thought. She was yet to find one that could move her enough to want to spend a mere hour with! She sighed. In truth, most of them were afraid of her. She could not understand why, she would be civil to them, if they were civil to her. Most just never gave her the chance.
She laughed aloud at herself. Why was she thinking about love at any rate? A cold feeling washed over her. The truth was that she had been thinking about love, a lot more than she cared to admit to. Her naive sister Hero, had many times told her that there was somebody out there for everybody, and she was no exception to the rule. Of late she found herself thinking more and more about this elusive somebody.
"Curse you Hero, and your confounded ideas!" She said standing abruptly. She continued to curse and mutter as she quickened her pace. "Some one for everyone indeed! I have survived thus far perfectly well without a husband and I mean to continue to do so!"
It was voices that interrupted her rant. One was unmistakably that of her sister and the other, she guessed, was Kendra, Hero's slightly stupid and ever so annoying maid. Arwen could not stand her.
"I think it is terrible, unbelievably awful and preposterous that Aragorn does not have a wife!" She heard Hero say. "And a man such as he? It is almost to ridiculous a notion to conceive. Him... Alone."
Arwen huffed and hid herself out of her sister's view. "If you are so taken with him Sister, why don't you marry him yourself?" She muttered.
"I know what you mean." Kendra said. "It is unfathomable! For he is handsome.... well at least by human standards."
"Oh Kendra!" Hero cried. "He is handsome by any standards! It is an absolute outrage that some fair lady has not snatched him off the shelf he is upon!" Hero laughed briefly before her face fell deadly serious.
"Kendra, as my maid and friend, if I tell you a secret do you promise not to breathe a word of it?" She whispered.
Arwen moved closer, even her elven hearing was strained to hear Hero now.
Kendra nodded vehemently. "Upon my life Miss." She replied.
"It is a story of much woe." She began. "It begins when the King was but twenty years of age, a mere child in our eyes. One dark night, he stumbled into the forest and was met by a light. This light would haunt him forever. It was my sister."
Arwen gasped. "The King has called me a light? But I meant to only provide darkness where he was concerned." She thought. She returned her gaze back to her sister.
"Since that night he has loved none." Hero continued. "For his heart is consumed with her. Legolas said at night he sometimes cries for her love that cannot be his."
"Oh how incredibly sad." Kendra remarked. "How awful!"
"How awful indeed!" Arwen thought, suddenly feeling incredibly panicked. She hadn't meant it earlier when she said she was looking for her somebody. She hadn't!
Hero sighed loudly. "That is not the worst part." Hero added. "For I believe that Arwen loves him also." It was very rare for an elf to guffaw but that is precisely what Kendra did.
"How absurd!" She spluttered. "It is plainly obvious to all that Arwen cannot bear the King."
"Finally someone with sense!" Arwen thought in her hiding place. Her opinion of Kendra was definitely changing.
Hero rolled her eyes. "Do you know nothing?" She said. "Arwen loves him, I will stake my life upon it. She only wishes to reject him before he rejects her, which is a fruitless task because he would not. Both are too stubborn to be the one that gives in!" Hero made a frustrated noise. "And it strains me beyond my wits! That there it is right in front of them. Happiness, and it is as simple as one nice word, one friendly gesture, and joy beyond their wildest imaginations would be theirs!" Hero was so impassioned by her speech, tears had come to her eyes. Kendra offered her a handkerchief .
"Thank you." She said.
Arwen could do little but open and close her mouth a few times. She was in deep shock.
Hero sobbed. "I just wish that she were not so cold towards him." She continued. "And I wish she were not so mean and stubborn!" She cried. "I love them both dearly and I cannot bear it Kendra. I cannot bear to watch them tear their lives apart!"
"I know Miss." Kendra said. "There, there."
Hero rested her head on her friend's shoulder.
Arwen bit her lip. Was it as simple as that? One kind word? She knew it would not be her that gave in first. If indeed, as Hero said, the King did love her then she would require further proof of this. However, it would do no harm to perhaps be a little less mean to him in the mean time.
"I love my sister," Hero continued. "But she is as stubborn as she is beautiful!"
Kendra laughed. "That she is." She replied.
Arwen huffed audibly this time. "Since when has being stubborn been a bad thing?" She thought. "And what does beauty have to do with anything?"
She tiptoed away more confused than ever, but enlightened also. She could not help but smile every time the thought came to her mind. "The King loves me?"
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Aragorn squinted as he aimed his arrow as the target danced before him. He balanced his bow precariously for a few moments before cursing it and throwing it to the ground. It was no good. He simply could not concentrate. Thoughts of the Lady had invaded his mind when all he wanted to do was clear it. He was unbelievably miserable. He briefly pondered his own sanity. He had won the war. He was King of a glorious and promising city. He had little to pity himself for, but he did. He did not wish to seem ungrateful for all that he had but..... he wanted more, so much more. He wanted love. He wanted somebody to share all he had with him. He wanted to share it with Arwen.
He slumped down on a bench and sighed heavily. 'Aragorn you are too old for such wistful thoughts.' He chided. 'Your purpose now is to find a queen for Gondor, it cannot be her' He rubbed his eyes and yawned. It was true that he had many admirers but few were genuine, most of them desired him because of his status as a King. There was one other than the one who's name he dared not to speak, that he would consider for his bride. Eowyn of Rohan. The Lady was brave and almost as valiant as a man. She was loyal and had even dressed as a soldier to help them fight without her uncle's knowledge. She was also very beautiful although, that held little importance, and she seemed rather taken with him.... He shook his head. He did not love her. Their marriage would be a sham and the Lady of Rohan deserved so much more than that.
He sighed, grateful that had managed to steal a few peaceful moments away from his family and Legolas.
Or so he thought.
In truth his friends were now entering the training grounds with the intention of deceiving him greatly. For his own good of course.
Aragorn opened his water bottle and drank. It was the same one that his mother had given him before she died. Every time he looked at it, it reminded him of her. The only woman who had cared for him.
It had been his mother who had persuaded him that his love for Arwen was not entirely right. It was not the way of things. "Elves are not for humans." She had said. "Set your sights on somebody else, lest your poor heart should break."
But his heart had broken.
He sighed again. In many ways he was relieved that Arwen behaved the way she did towards him. If she were kind to him, it would only make his situation more difficult. He should at least be grateful for that.
"I told her many years ago, as I have told all my children..." Elrond began, waking Aragorn from his melancholy and causing him to jump up and hide. He really did not wish to speak to anybody at that moment. He concealed himself behind the bench he had been sitting on.
"I told her..." Elrond continued in a bellowing voice. "Arwen, your heart is yours to give to whomever you choose. Be it Elf, man, dwarf, or even hobbit!" He laughed and so did his companions who Aragorn discovered were his cousins and Legolas.
"I do not understand." Legolas said. "Why it is that she has not yet found a husband."
"Ha!" Boromir interjected. " The lady is too fussy!"
"No," Elrond said. "That is not it." He added. "There is one that she loves."
"There is," Legolas agreed. "Hero told me of it."
Aragorn felt his heart sink. It had already broken but if he had to watch her marry somebody else he feared it would disintegrate.
Elrond nodded. "I have been witness all these years to it. I have watched love blossom in her heart from a small bud into the beauteous rose it has become." He said sighing. "In truth, Boromir and Faramir, My daughter loves your cousin."
Aragorn gasped. "The only cousin that Boromir and Faramir have is me!"
"The Lady loves Aragorn?" Faramir asked. "Nay it can not be so! She is positively hateful to him, is that not so?"
Boromir shook his head. "Brother, they do say that love and hate are two very similar emotions." He said.
"Aye that's the truth." Elrond said.
Aragorn collapsed from his crouching position to the floor. He was completely dumbfounded by what he had heard.
"Arwen, grace of the elves and of this Earth, is in love with....me?" He whispered, and a cold feeling washed over him. "All these years I have wasted......all these years."
He turned back to his friends who were now deeply immersed in conversation.
"It is truly very sad that both are stuck in the habit of being unnecessarily unkind to each other to shield their love." Legolas mused.
Boromir and Faramir nodded whereas Elrond sighed deeply. "All I wish is for all my children to be happy." He said. "Hero has found a fine match in you Legolas. Arwen would be a great match for Aragorn. I doubt it not." He said. "But my daughter has sentenced herself to a life in chains! Bound by her own stubbornness and disdain. Why, Hero told me that Arwen wishes to cast aside this mask of hers and show her true gentleness." Elrond cried.
Legolas pulled him aside and whispered. "Perfect. Perfect. He will fall for this hook, line and sinker."
Elrond stifled a chuckle and continued. "Hero said at night she weeps." Boromir and Faramir made sympathetic noises. "She cries and falls upon her knees at the very sound of his name!"
The group fell silent.
A smile spread across Aragorn's features as he sat down in disbelief. This happiness was short-lived as his mother's words came back to him. "Elves are not for Humans." He muttered.
If he allowed her to fall in love with him, he would break her heart.
He would die and he would break her heart.
He closed his eyes to prevent tears falling from them and bathed in the sunlight for a while until a dark shadow blocked the warm rays out. He opened his eyes ready to reprimand whoever had stolen his precious light. It was his Lady and his Love. Lady Arwen of Rivendell. She stood with a deep frown imbedded in her features and her hands on her hips.
"My sister and your companion the Prince, have sent me against my will to find you and inform you that they wish to eat dinner with you." She said grimacing.
"I will be there in a moment." Aragorn replied, offering her a weak smile.
"Well, hurry it will get cold." She said, her tone a little softer, she smiled at him. She actually smiled at him, before she turned and walked back towards the house, her dress trailing behind her.
Aragorn smirked. "Lady Arwen does nothing 'against her will' as she so says... It is clear she cares for my well being by informing me of dinner." He frowned. This was going to make things so much more difficult.
