Thankee to my two reviewers! I love you both lots, especially Missy Miss. *
hug hug * I would not have been able to dust this one off if not for you!
A word on my characters. Thranduil, as well as some other characters I have written, suffer from an affliction I like to call 'humanization'. In plain English, this means they act like mortal men.
Another note-last chapter may have been pulling you who read and reviewed in the wrong direction. Gabrielin neither desires nor has intentions to marry Aragorn. She accepts the fact that he loves Arwen, her 'cousin' (for the sake of writing.)
And now, on to it!
Chapter II
The plains of the Gladden fields sprawled before us, green and golden carpets of grass and stone. I pulled my horse to a halt beside Aragorn. He pointed off to the distance silhouette of Lórien, rising majestically above the plain.
"There lies the golden wood and the river Anduin. And following the river, Rohan. Gabrielin, are you sure you want to do this? Run away from your father, I mean. He only has your best interests at heart."
"But to arrange a marriage? Father is slipping, Aragorn. He no longer remembers Valinor, or the shores of his birth. Sometimes, he reminds me more of a man, or a dwarf, and less like one of the Sindar. His greed consumes him." I looked into the ruffled mane of my horse Silverwinds. To long had my father sat in his vaults, admiring his jewels, when he should have been ruling his kingdom. Legolas was a fine prince, but I wished so that my father could see what his son had done so well. All he saw now was worth, in jewels or use.
"He has forgotten the ways of our people.as has Girion. It pains me, Aragorn. Love I Lórien, and my kinswomen there, and love I still more Rivendell, but to be home now is a sword in my heart." I ran a hand through the horse's mane. "I fear I should die of grief to be home much longer."
"Then do not stay home! Arwen could use a companion; she spends too much time in the company of her grandmother. Much as I love the Lady of the Golden wood, I think your company would be appreciated. By me, and by my heart." His heart.Arwen.
"Aragorn, if it will make the sorrowful frown on your face disappear, then yes, I will go to Lórien to keep my kinswoman's company." I turned Silverwinds nose from due south, and nudged my mount westward, to the house of my kinswoman Galadriel. "Aragorn? Still you ride to Rohan?" "Aye, sister. This sword of mine lusts for something other than practice dummies and the taste of elven steel. In a fortnight, I shall ride with my brothers. "Then fare you well, son of Arathorn. May your roads be blessed. I will carry your heart home in safekeeping to those you know would need it." He raised his hand in farewell, and we departed on our separate roads.
"Gabrielin! Good it is to see you walk these woods again." Haldir and his brothers lowered themselves from the trees as I called a greeting up to the treetops.
"Good it is to see your faces again, sons of the Galadrim. I desire an audience with the Lady. Be you able to take me to her?" The stern blond March warden nodded in his curt, clipped way, and he took Silverwinds' bridle, leading us on paths unseen to the heart of the forest.
"Gabrielin! It not long since you left us.already you desire to see the golden wood again?" I smiled and bowed for the Lady of Light, her presence nearly blinding for the eyes that still needed to adjust to the milky light of the mallorns.
"Nay lady, but there are urgent councils I must take to. I came for guidance." The Lady smiled in her ancient, mysterious way.
"Come then, daughter of Mirkwood, and we will walk and hold this council in my garden."
I have always loved the Lady's gardens, overflowing with delicate niphredil and élanor, and other blossoms from over the sea and across the waters that I could not name. Galadriel saw me looked at an enormous spray of tiny roses, arrayed like a sun, in delicate purple.
"That is the Arosril. It, until a little time ago, grew only in Forochel, in the far north. Strange it is that something that delicate can survive in such harshness. And that, " she motioned to the blooms of gold beside it, " are the golden flowers of Glorfindel's house. Laurelen, they are called." She smiled sorrowfully about her garden.
"All of these I have found on my travels, clipped into careful sprigs, and planted here. Some survive and some do not. But it is a reminder to me that I am also not born here, and to be uprooted from a life long tried is a hard thing." She turned to look at me. "That is why you have come, is it not? Your father uproots you, wishes to displace you like my flowers?"
"No, but akin to what you say, milady. He wanes in his blood.the elf inside supplants itself, while his feet remain rooted in his golden hordes and this good middle earthen dirt. He would have me marry against my wishes."
"And what are your wishes, Gabrielin?"
"I.do not know, milady. I have seen what men think of me, but.have not found the right one." The lady laughed.
"Then it is good that you wait. Sometimes love is a strange thing, easily lost but never easily forgotten. You would be wishing to stay here, then?" she saw my answer in my eyes, and nodded, ever serene.
"I will send messengers to Mirkwood.your father will wonder what happened to you. And we will talk of my cousin. Come, daughter." She took my hand, and we walked, neither of us having to say a word on the beauty of nature's splendor.
Later in the evening, when the sun had quit her lofty chair and nightingales joined us at our music making, Rumil, the brother of Haldir, pulled me aside for a few words. "My brother is glad you are back." I frowned inwardly to myself. Rumil wanted to speak on his brother's behalf, then? I would hear him out, in the least.
"I am glad to be back in the company of the Galadrim." I tried to sound confused.
"Gabrielin, I hate to be so forward, but I fear I must convey what my heart tells me. Haldir is not generous with his love, and I am afraid he will waste ere his love is not returned. I know you like him not, but please, give him at least the chance to tell you his adoration." I smiled. Rumil was young yet in the eyes of Lórien, but I could see that for his limited years, countless accounts of wisdom lay behind his thoughtful blue eyes.
"I will speak with him.but I can promise nothing." In the depths of my heart, I could feel something stir.something I mistook for fear.
I put off talking to the March warden for a day, and another, and still another, the fear of such an encounter weighting me down. Truth to be told, he found me.
"Milady Gabrielin? Might I have the pleasure of a few words?" I was in the garden, reading a book by the faded light of the midday sun. Putting the tome aside, I motioned for him to sit.
"Certainly! What was it you wished to speak of?" The elf appeared uncomfortable, as if I had rubbed salt in an open cut. He swallowed.
"Has my brother spoken to you lately?" He knew.
"Yes. I should have found you sooner. I meant to speak to you of it, but.I was afraid."
"Afraid of what?"
"That question is easier asked then answered, I am sorry to say. I know not what. Perhaps.perhaps it is better to say that I fear love." He looked inquisitively at me. "I know not how to explain such a thing, only that it is because I have seen what love can do, and it has, in my eyes, only hurt those who have it. I fear the yoke of marriage.I fear childbirth." I cast aside my eyes. It was well known that my mother had died when giving birth to Girion, the child that even the saintly Galadriel swore behind closed doors was haunted by some demon or device of Dark lords unnamable.
"Only a servant of Morgoth would be able to kill your mother, Gabrielin. Strong she was in life and yet having birthed two children with out complaint, the third was her doom. No good will ever come of Girion." she had told me once. Haldir took my hand, and turned my face towards his. Today his eyes seemed less severe, and more accepting.
"Think you I would force something like that? I care not for children, and well you know this. Please, I beg you, princess, consider me." He got up and left, leaving me to contemplate my feelings in peace.
"Gabrielin, cousin mine! Good it is to see you again!" The raven beauty I knew as Arwen rushed, unladylike, to greet me as her entourage arrived at Caras Galadon.
"My sister! It is a gift from heaven to hear your voice again." I pulled her close, being the taller of the two of us. I whispered in her ear.
"Aragorn sends his greetings." Old greetings, having waited nearly a month to be given, but they were the only word she would have had from him in months. I could hear a tiny gasp.
"We will speak later." She looked into my ice blue eyes, a hidden smile in those pools of gray.
Once inside the talan reserved for the use of the Princess of Rivendell, and the Granddaughter of the Lady, she nearly exploded with questions.
"When last did you see him? Still thinks he well of me?"
"Arwen, a stupid question to ask of the man who would die for you. Still he thinks you above all creatures that walk this earth. When last we parted, he had ridden to Rohan. To seek the service of the horse lords." At the scared look on Arwen's face as I told her of our parting, I could not help but turn from the tale to ask a question.
"My sister.a question. How do you do it?" her brow creased, not catching the spider web thin string of question I asked
"I understand you not."
"While Aragorn is gone.how do you stand it?" She smiled, a world-weary smile for one of the Eldar.
"I do not.I hope against all hope that he comes to his inheritance, and my father grants me to him full willing when the time is ripe for marriage." She looked into my face, sensing my inner turmoil at the mention of 'marriage'.
"Haldir has asked you, has he not? I can see it in your eyes. There is unrest. I will not judge your words. What is said says with the sky." I tried to hold it back, the floodtide of fears, but it overwhelmed.
"I love.oh gods in Valinor, do I wish for love! And he offers it in open hands, and how can I refuse? But I fear.I fear my father, and I fear love and consequence.what if I love him not? I would rather sail to Valinor. There I know my love would be held true." I did not realize I was weeping. Arwen laid a hand around my shoulder.
"I think love has found you, sister. But I think Haldir should try harder to win his ladylove. You cannot see this love he claims, and that is what mocks you from opening your heart's doors. Come sister, and we shall see my grandmother. I know she desires to speak with me.
I had lived in the woods for unspeakable years with the Lady, as time as the real world knows it matters not to the immortal elves, never wishing to go back to Mirkwood, when my brother paid me a visit some time later.
"My sister! I had once more taken you for gone. Home has lost it's light without you, Gabrielin."
"I could not bring myself to come home, with Father.as he is." I trod upon the ice of my father's condition with dainty feet. I didn't know how my brother would take my words, but his eyes showed the knowledge he wished he did not have; he saw it too.
"I came not to return you. I go to Rivendell on the morrow for councils.there is a matter I must tell the Lord Elrond of." He lowered his voice. "Gollum has escaped." I held back a gasp. Even though the creature itself was not to be feared, it seemed that this would forebode evil beyond reckoning.
"Then.Isildur's bane calls it? The bane of men has been found?" Legolas nodded, his look grave.
I begged leave from the lady to ride with my brother on these councils.
Right now, the council of Elrond scene is in the process of being typed. Please read and review!
A word on my characters. Thranduil, as well as some other characters I have written, suffer from an affliction I like to call 'humanization'. In plain English, this means they act like mortal men.
Another note-last chapter may have been pulling you who read and reviewed in the wrong direction. Gabrielin neither desires nor has intentions to marry Aragorn. She accepts the fact that he loves Arwen, her 'cousin' (for the sake of writing.)
And now, on to it!
Chapter II
The plains of the Gladden fields sprawled before us, green and golden carpets of grass and stone. I pulled my horse to a halt beside Aragorn. He pointed off to the distance silhouette of Lórien, rising majestically above the plain.
"There lies the golden wood and the river Anduin. And following the river, Rohan. Gabrielin, are you sure you want to do this? Run away from your father, I mean. He only has your best interests at heart."
"But to arrange a marriage? Father is slipping, Aragorn. He no longer remembers Valinor, or the shores of his birth. Sometimes, he reminds me more of a man, or a dwarf, and less like one of the Sindar. His greed consumes him." I looked into the ruffled mane of my horse Silverwinds. To long had my father sat in his vaults, admiring his jewels, when he should have been ruling his kingdom. Legolas was a fine prince, but I wished so that my father could see what his son had done so well. All he saw now was worth, in jewels or use.
"He has forgotten the ways of our people.as has Girion. It pains me, Aragorn. Love I Lórien, and my kinswomen there, and love I still more Rivendell, but to be home now is a sword in my heart." I ran a hand through the horse's mane. "I fear I should die of grief to be home much longer."
"Then do not stay home! Arwen could use a companion; she spends too much time in the company of her grandmother. Much as I love the Lady of the Golden wood, I think your company would be appreciated. By me, and by my heart." His heart.Arwen.
"Aragorn, if it will make the sorrowful frown on your face disappear, then yes, I will go to Lórien to keep my kinswoman's company." I turned Silverwinds nose from due south, and nudged my mount westward, to the house of my kinswoman Galadriel. "Aragorn? Still you ride to Rohan?" "Aye, sister. This sword of mine lusts for something other than practice dummies and the taste of elven steel. In a fortnight, I shall ride with my brothers. "Then fare you well, son of Arathorn. May your roads be blessed. I will carry your heart home in safekeeping to those you know would need it." He raised his hand in farewell, and we departed on our separate roads.
"Gabrielin! Good it is to see you walk these woods again." Haldir and his brothers lowered themselves from the trees as I called a greeting up to the treetops.
"Good it is to see your faces again, sons of the Galadrim. I desire an audience with the Lady. Be you able to take me to her?" The stern blond March warden nodded in his curt, clipped way, and he took Silverwinds' bridle, leading us on paths unseen to the heart of the forest.
"Gabrielin! It not long since you left us.already you desire to see the golden wood again?" I smiled and bowed for the Lady of Light, her presence nearly blinding for the eyes that still needed to adjust to the milky light of the mallorns.
"Nay lady, but there are urgent councils I must take to. I came for guidance." The Lady smiled in her ancient, mysterious way.
"Come then, daughter of Mirkwood, and we will walk and hold this council in my garden."
I have always loved the Lady's gardens, overflowing with delicate niphredil and élanor, and other blossoms from over the sea and across the waters that I could not name. Galadriel saw me looked at an enormous spray of tiny roses, arrayed like a sun, in delicate purple.
"That is the Arosril. It, until a little time ago, grew only in Forochel, in the far north. Strange it is that something that delicate can survive in such harshness. And that, " she motioned to the blooms of gold beside it, " are the golden flowers of Glorfindel's house. Laurelen, they are called." She smiled sorrowfully about her garden.
"All of these I have found on my travels, clipped into careful sprigs, and planted here. Some survive and some do not. But it is a reminder to me that I am also not born here, and to be uprooted from a life long tried is a hard thing." She turned to look at me. "That is why you have come, is it not? Your father uproots you, wishes to displace you like my flowers?"
"No, but akin to what you say, milady. He wanes in his blood.the elf inside supplants itself, while his feet remain rooted in his golden hordes and this good middle earthen dirt. He would have me marry against my wishes."
"And what are your wishes, Gabrielin?"
"I.do not know, milady. I have seen what men think of me, but.have not found the right one." The lady laughed.
"Then it is good that you wait. Sometimes love is a strange thing, easily lost but never easily forgotten. You would be wishing to stay here, then?" she saw my answer in my eyes, and nodded, ever serene.
"I will send messengers to Mirkwood.your father will wonder what happened to you. And we will talk of my cousin. Come, daughter." She took my hand, and we walked, neither of us having to say a word on the beauty of nature's splendor.
Later in the evening, when the sun had quit her lofty chair and nightingales joined us at our music making, Rumil, the brother of Haldir, pulled me aside for a few words. "My brother is glad you are back." I frowned inwardly to myself. Rumil wanted to speak on his brother's behalf, then? I would hear him out, in the least.
"I am glad to be back in the company of the Galadrim." I tried to sound confused.
"Gabrielin, I hate to be so forward, but I fear I must convey what my heart tells me. Haldir is not generous with his love, and I am afraid he will waste ere his love is not returned. I know you like him not, but please, give him at least the chance to tell you his adoration." I smiled. Rumil was young yet in the eyes of Lórien, but I could see that for his limited years, countless accounts of wisdom lay behind his thoughtful blue eyes.
"I will speak with him.but I can promise nothing." In the depths of my heart, I could feel something stir.something I mistook for fear.
I put off talking to the March warden for a day, and another, and still another, the fear of such an encounter weighting me down. Truth to be told, he found me.
"Milady Gabrielin? Might I have the pleasure of a few words?" I was in the garden, reading a book by the faded light of the midday sun. Putting the tome aside, I motioned for him to sit.
"Certainly! What was it you wished to speak of?" The elf appeared uncomfortable, as if I had rubbed salt in an open cut. He swallowed.
"Has my brother spoken to you lately?" He knew.
"Yes. I should have found you sooner. I meant to speak to you of it, but.I was afraid."
"Afraid of what?"
"That question is easier asked then answered, I am sorry to say. I know not what. Perhaps.perhaps it is better to say that I fear love." He looked inquisitively at me. "I know not how to explain such a thing, only that it is because I have seen what love can do, and it has, in my eyes, only hurt those who have it. I fear the yoke of marriage.I fear childbirth." I cast aside my eyes. It was well known that my mother had died when giving birth to Girion, the child that even the saintly Galadriel swore behind closed doors was haunted by some demon or device of Dark lords unnamable.
"Only a servant of Morgoth would be able to kill your mother, Gabrielin. Strong she was in life and yet having birthed two children with out complaint, the third was her doom. No good will ever come of Girion." she had told me once. Haldir took my hand, and turned my face towards his. Today his eyes seemed less severe, and more accepting.
"Think you I would force something like that? I care not for children, and well you know this. Please, I beg you, princess, consider me." He got up and left, leaving me to contemplate my feelings in peace.
"Gabrielin, cousin mine! Good it is to see you again!" The raven beauty I knew as Arwen rushed, unladylike, to greet me as her entourage arrived at Caras Galadon.
"My sister! It is a gift from heaven to hear your voice again." I pulled her close, being the taller of the two of us. I whispered in her ear.
"Aragorn sends his greetings." Old greetings, having waited nearly a month to be given, but they were the only word she would have had from him in months. I could hear a tiny gasp.
"We will speak later." She looked into my ice blue eyes, a hidden smile in those pools of gray.
Once inside the talan reserved for the use of the Princess of Rivendell, and the Granddaughter of the Lady, she nearly exploded with questions.
"When last did you see him? Still thinks he well of me?"
"Arwen, a stupid question to ask of the man who would die for you. Still he thinks you above all creatures that walk this earth. When last we parted, he had ridden to Rohan. To seek the service of the horse lords." At the scared look on Arwen's face as I told her of our parting, I could not help but turn from the tale to ask a question.
"My sister.a question. How do you do it?" her brow creased, not catching the spider web thin string of question I asked
"I understand you not."
"While Aragorn is gone.how do you stand it?" She smiled, a world-weary smile for one of the Eldar.
"I do not.I hope against all hope that he comes to his inheritance, and my father grants me to him full willing when the time is ripe for marriage." She looked into my face, sensing my inner turmoil at the mention of 'marriage'.
"Haldir has asked you, has he not? I can see it in your eyes. There is unrest. I will not judge your words. What is said says with the sky." I tried to hold it back, the floodtide of fears, but it overwhelmed.
"I love.oh gods in Valinor, do I wish for love! And he offers it in open hands, and how can I refuse? But I fear.I fear my father, and I fear love and consequence.what if I love him not? I would rather sail to Valinor. There I know my love would be held true." I did not realize I was weeping. Arwen laid a hand around my shoulder.
"I think love has found you, sister. But I think Haldir should try harder to win his ladylove. You cannot see this love he claims, and that is what mocks you from opening your heart's doors. Come sister, and we shall see my grandmother. I know she desires to speak with me.
I had lived in the woods for unspeakable years with the Lady, as time as the real world knows it matters not to the immortal elves, never wishing to go back to Mirkwood, when my brother paid me a visit some time later.
"My sister! I had once more taken you for gone. Home has lost it's light without you, Gabrielin."
"I could not bring myself to come home, with Father.as he is." I trod upon the ice of my father's condition with dainty feet. I didn't know how my brother would take my words, but his eyes showed the knowledge he wished he did not have; he saw it too.
"I came not to return you. I go to Rivendell on the morrow for councils.there is a matter I must tell the Lord Elrond of." He lowered his voice. "Gollum has escaped." I held back a gasp. Even though the creature itself was not to be feared, it seemed that this would forebode evil beyond reckoning.
"Then.Isildur's bane calls it? The bane of men has been found?" Legolas nodded, his look grave.
I begged leave from the lady to ride with my brother on these councils.
Right now, the council of Elrond scene is in the process of being typed. Please read and review!
