Title: Luthien's flute
Author: B-witched83uk (bwitched83uk@aol.com)
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Aragorn, Arwen and the family travel to Lothlorien after receiving a mysterious letter from Celeborn.
Disclaimer: I do not own The Lord of the Rings. The whole of Middle Earth belongs to Tolkien
Chapter Two
The Long and Winding Road
"Will you stop pacing up and down? The stone floors are only so thick." Faramir had arrived with Eowyn from Ithilien three days ago. The brave King he had sworn to serve was now a worrying reck.
"I know there will be at least one thing I have forgotten to inform you of." Aragorn went through the list in his head. The two men were in Aragorn's study, preparing for the Royal family's absence. The whole palace was in an uproar at having so much to do in so short a time.
Arwen was the happiest he had seen her in a long time. She glowed at the thought of spending time with her family in a place she had once thought of as her second home. How different would it be now though with Galadriel gone? She loved to talk of her family with her children, they were always asking to hear stories from her past; to Arwen it was important to keep the Elvish memories alive as long as she could.
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Galadwen was in the stables when Eldarion found her, happily singing to herself whilst brushing Nimras, her own trusty mare.
"You look happy," Eldarion and his eldest sister were very close and had always been so through childhood.
"Of course I am happy dear brother, just the six of us, together riding through the wilds." To Galadwen her family had seemed so broken up of late. They hadn't done anything like this in such a long time.
"Yes the six of us, and 15 or so companions," he mocked, "If it were just the men of the family we would have been able to travel alone, but not with women in tow. You need attendants and guards seeing as you can not possibly protect yourselves."
Eldarion turned from his sister, a smile playing on his triumphant lips. He bent to reach for the horse's hove but was stopped by a cold metal blade against his throat.
"What's this? The future King caught off his guard?" Galadwen had drawn her blade from its sheath that rested at her side and pulled it on her brother. They were always play fighting and competing. It was a part of their every day.
Eldarion laughed whole-heartedly, he had to give his sister her due, she was certainly good, not like so many prissy young ladies he had met at court.
"I yield dear sister, I yield."
"You are right though, about one thing Eldarion" he noticed the mischievous gleam in her eye as she released him from her blade.
"How is that melyanna seler?"
*Sister dear*
Galadwen smiled sweetly. "Men are stronger then women."
Eldarion turned to face her, a little shocked by her statement. She steeped toward him graciously and whispered, "But women are cleverer."
Eldarion did not notice the cold troth of water behind him until he found himself sitting in it. She had pushed him in with her own triumphant smile.
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The next day the whole entourage was waiting and ready to go.
"Melindo, Faramir knows what he must do, now wish him well and let us be on our way."
*lover*
Aragorn's constant worrying was starting to drive the Queen mad. Aragorn shook Faramir's hand and mounted his horse behind Luthien. She was still too young to handle a full sized horse, and if they wanted to reach Lorien in good time then she had to ride with him. Luthien minded not, she enjoyed her Ada's company and was quite content being so close to him.
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As the party rode north and the day began to give way to night, Aragorn gave the orders that they would settle for the evening. The tents were up, the food was cooking, and Luthien and Celebriel were singing about an old drunken man who lost an eye to entertain them all. Aragorn silently cursed Merry and Pippin for teaching them such things. Everyone's spirits were high, they had made good time this day and food and song ran freely. Everyone, Galadwen noticed, except Eldarion.
Eldarion had separated himself from the party and was sitting in solitude on the outskirts of the camp in the near by forest. Making her way toward him, she picked up an apple.
"This is very unlike you. Ada always insists that you have the appetite of a hobbit." Galadwen handed him the fruit and perched beside him. She waited for him to speak, to tell her what was troubling him, yet he did not.
"You always said you could tell me anything," she gently reminded her brother.
"The night before last, Ada's adviser, Lord Holanar, called me to him." Silence then took him, as he tried to remember his exact words. "He told me that I am of an age now where I should begin searching for a wife." He did not look at his sister, but stared intently at the ground.
"Eldarion, I know not why you worry. Ada and Naneth would never wish you to marry for ought else but love."
"Yes, but perhaps Lord Holanar is right. I am of age; I should be thinking more King like, preparing for the future." He did not wish to marry just yet, but perhaps it was his duty.
Galadwen sat there as still as cold stone. She reached her hand out to cover his. "Have you spoken to them of this?" She nodded to where her family was.
"No, I have not, but I have agreed to meet with the lady that Lord Holanar has selected as suitable once we return."
Galadwen could not believe what she was hearing. When did her brother become so clinical, thinking of marriage as a duty? She knew not what to say and so stood slowly
"Perhaps we should join the others and talk more of your decision when we wake."
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Eldarion made excuses of a headache and went to bed soon after, though sleep did not claim him and he lay there restless. Arwen sat comfortably in her husband's arms, surrounded by all the people she loved
"Are you tired Mela?" He stroked his wife's long dark hair suggestively.
"No love, I am not tired as yet," Arwen had completely missed the point her lover was trying to make. With his free hand he stroked lazily up her leg, under her dress, causing her to breathe in with a gasp.
"Perhaps you misheard me. I asked if you were tired?"
Smiling, she looked into her husband's warm face and bent gently to dance her lips with his. "Actually, I think we could both do with an early night." Arwen, now getting the point, stood and held out her hand to beckon him.
Once without their parent's supervision the two youngest girls played games of chase, and to their guard's horror kept running out of the camp. They were constantly trying to bring them back and settle them down. Galadwen tried to join in with the cheer that surrounded her, but found her heart heavy by her brother's admission. She walked toward the edge of the forest and didn't even realize she had entered its darkness. Her thoughts were so full that her feet were on auto pilot. She was just three years Eldarion's junior, would she soon be expected to marry? She had once shared a kiss with Faramir's eldest son but that was when they were children at play, she had never thought of men in ways of marriage before. Well except for a certain family friend she had not seen in years but that was just a childish crush long since passed.
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Inside their tent Aragorn and Arwen lay spent in each other's arms, completely relaxed, completely at peace.
"Happy mela" he asked as he placed a single kiss upon her brow.
*Love*
"Blissfully indonya."
*My heart*
The shrill screams of their daughters from outside the tent ended there peace. Aragorn reached for Anduril and his breeches. Outside the camp a battle was going on between man and Orc. Eldarion had also come out fighting and was hacking in to a particularly disgusting beast as he held his two youngest sisters back with his free arm.
Arwen too, now dressed and armed was fighting with all her might. A soldier of Gondor screamed out as his leg was torn into by a Warg the Orcs had ridden in on. Aragorn tried to defend his men the best he could, but he was more worried about his family. One by one, the Orcs and their beasts were slaughtered. And the men instantly started patching up the injured. Aragorn looked around at what had just a few hours ago been a happy camp, filled with laughter. As he surveyed the scene something dawned on him. This was too easy, not even Orcs would be stupid enough to think they could take the King and his men with so little recourse. Then as Arwen's words were out it hit him.
"Where is Galadwen?"
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Aragorn had insisted Arwen stay behind with their youngest two and the guards he trusted most, whist the rest searched for Galadwen. He silently thanked his former life as a ranger as he tracked his beloved daughter's tracks. Eldarion was blaming himself. If he hadn't dropped such a bombshell on her, perhaps she would not have felt need to wander into the forest, a thing she always did whilst she thought things over, an Elven trait for sure.
A shawl, a hand woven shawl caught Aragorn's eye. It was hers it was his Galadwen's. He closed in on it and saw that it had blood on it. He smelt it, it was human. With a simple look at Eldarion he told his son all he needed to know. It was Galadwen's blood.
