Title: The Price of Being King
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don't own The Lord of the Rings nor am I profiting from this
story. Any similarity between this story and other fan fiction pieces is
purely coincidental.
Warning: This portion departs widely from Tolkien's ending to the story so if you only like stories which stick to the book don't read this chapter.
Summary: Life is a series of choices, but every choice has a consequence. The newly crowned king of Gondor must make a choice, the consequence of which will affect Middle Earth for eternity.
Review Responses located at the bottom.
Epilogue
Years and years later a very deserving human king and queen were granted entrance to Valinor where they were reunited with friends and family. One day the human king pulled an elven lord aside to make a confession.
"Ada . . ." the human attempted.
Elrond met his son's uncertain eyes, "yes, Estel?"
Aragorn sighed and looked anywhere but his father's eyes, "I let some people slaughter Roheryn".
Elrond had to hold his tongue as he now knew what was on his child's mind but he also knew that Aragorn had to get this off his chest. "Why did you do that?"
Aragorn took another deep breath, "the people of Poros had run out of food and it was down to hunting the last of the Harad deer or eating the horses. I let them eat the horses and set up a preserve for the deer."
"Did the deer become plentiful again?" the elf lord asked trying to get the story out and cleanse his son's soul.
Aragorn smiled, "Yes, ada just ten years later they were more plentiful then ever and that example caused many more preserves to be created around Middle Earth".
"My son" Elrond said gently, "Roheryn was just a gift, one given in love but still a gift which ultimately served a greater purpose. The greatest gift I was ever able to give you was your love and respect for the natural world. It was that gift which caused you to act thusly and I couldn't be more proud."
Aragorn smiled widely, "You know you were right, the rewards were worth the sacrifices."
Elrond laughed and put his arm around his foster son's shoulders as they walked back toward the colony.
The end
A/N: Since this is the last chapter (sob) I won't be able to respond to reviewers here so if you want a response make sure you give me an email address or sign in to Fanfiction.
Reviewer Responses:
To all who have made it this far – I hope you enjoyed the story. I'm so glad you decided to read this tale.
Katquest– This is two in a row for you, I'm flattered you are spending so much time in this story. I thought it was appropriate that Aragorn got Elrond's horse after all he had just sacrificed his own mount (which was given to him by the elf) for the good of his people. No I don't ride my horse at all, I have luck like that which is generally associated with our favorite elf and ranger and took a bad fall during a horse show. Ever since then I don't have the nerve to interact with her but I do ride other people's horses. Thank you for reading the story I hope you enjoyed it.
Aislynn - You seem kind of irritated you know I get that way too sometimes if I've been drinking coffee and haven't had much water. It is amazing what that can do to a person's personality; a normally polite person becomes very discourteous to those around them. I'm going to assume that is what happened to you and seriously recommend you drink more water and less coffee. Now I admit it I made a spelling mistake as I said I am human I apologize if my spelling in that instance distracted you from the story. As far as there being no "wild watch" (which by the way I have no idea what that is but I assume it is from some random environmental group) in Middle Earth, I thank God for the lack of technology in that world. That is part of the charm of M.E. there isn't the rush for more and better stud that we find in real life. Now in our world conservation existed long before there were people following animals around with telemetry or making genetic studies of population sizes (which by the way is what I do). How did they manage to not run more species to extinction, well they used common sense. If they noticed that the herds were a lot smaller than they once were they looked for food elsewhere until the herds could rebuild. Of course they weren't doing this for the joy of future generations but for their own survival, if the herds disappear you die. As far as why Aragorn would be interested in a deer species dying out, the point of the flashbacks was to show you that throughout this life the importance of every animal had been impressed on him. Perhaps I wasn't able to convey that as clearly as I hoped. I was unclear on what you thought was uncannon, was it my choice of a deer species? I did research on animal species in Middle Earth at the Encyclopedia of Arda and it said that Tolkien had stated there were deer in M.E. Now I did go out on a small limb with Harad deer because I don't know if there were such animals. However a lot of Tolkien's material is closely related to those things found in real life (unlike say the creatures of Star Trek). In our world there are a great variety of deer species including but not limited to: elk, red deer, sambar, Sunda sambar, Philippine sambar, barasingha, Schomburgk's deer, thamin or brow-antlered deer, sika deer, Thorold's deer, moose, caribou or reindeer, Chinese water deer, muntjacs or barking deer, tufted deer, fallow deer, chital or spotted deer, hog deer, Père David's deer, white-tailed deer, black-tailed deer, marsh deer, pampas deer, guemals or huemuls, brocket deer, pudus, and roe deer. Since there are so many deer species in real life I had a feeling there could have been several in Middle Earth as well including some which could handle the heat of Southern Gondor (something like the deer found in China or the Philippians perhaps). I hope that clears up the mystery of the deer for you. Thank you for the review.
Warning: This portion departs widely from Tolkien's ending to the story so if you only like stories which stick to the book don't read this chapter.
Summary: Life is a series of choices, but every choice has a consequence. The newly crowned king of Gondor must make a choice, the consequence of which will affect Middle Earth for eternity.
Review Responses located at the bottom.
Epilogue
Years and years later a very deserving human king and queen were granted entrance to Valinor where they were reunited with friends and family. One day the human king pulled an elven lord aside to make a confession.
"Ada . . ." the human attempted.
Elrond met his son's uncertain eyes, "yes, Estel?"
Aragorn sighed and looked anywhere but his father's eyes, "I let some people slaughter Roheryn".
Elrond had to hold his tongue as he now knew what was on his child's mind but he also knew that Aragorn had to get this off his chest. "Why did you do that?"
Aragorn took another deep breath, "the people of Poros had run out of food and it was down to hunting the last of the Harad deer or eating the horses. I let them eat the horses and set up a preserve for the deer."
"Did the deer become plentiful again?" the elf lord asked trying to get the story out and cleanse his son's soul.
Aragorn smiled, "Yes, ada just ten years later they were more plentiful then ever and that example caused many more preserves to be created around Middle Earth".
"My son" Elrond said gently, "Roheryn was just a gift, one given in love but still a gift which ultimately served a greater purpose. The greatest gift I was ever able to give you was your love and respect for the natural world. It was that gift which caused you to act thusly and I couldn't be more proud."
Aragorn smiled widely, "You know you were right, the rewards were worth the sacrifices."
Elrond laughed and put his arm around his foster son's shoulders as they walked back toward the colony.
The end
A/N: Since this is the last chapter (sob) I won't be able to respond to reviewers here so if you want a response make sure you give me an email address or sign in to Fanfiction.
Reviewer Responses:
To all who have made it this far – I hope you enjoyed the story. I'm so glad you decided to read this tale.
Katquest– This is two in a row for you, I'm flattered you are spending so much time in this story. I thought it was appropriate that Aragorn got Elrond's horse after all he had just sacrificed his own mount (which was given to him by the elf) for the good of his people. No I don't ride my horse at all, I have luck like that which is generally associated with our favorite elf and ranger and took a bad fall during a horse show. Ever since then I don't have the nerve to interact with her but I do ride other people's horses. Thank you for reading the story I hope you enjoyed it.
Aislynn - You seem kind of irritated you know I get that way too sometimes if I've been drinking coffee and haven't had much water. It is amazing what that can do to a person's personality; a normally polite person becomes very discourteous to those around them. I'm going to assume that is what happened to you and seriously recommend you drink more water and less coffee. Now I admit it I made a spelling mistake as I said I am human I apologize if my spelling in that instance distracted you from the story. As far as there being no "wild watch" (which by the way I have no idea what that is but I assume it is from some random environmental group) in Middle Earth, I thank God for the lack of technology in that world. That is part of the charm of M.E. there isn't the rush for more and better stud that we find in real life. Now in our world conservation existed long before there were people following animals around with telemetry or making genetic studies of population sizes (which by the way is what I do). How did they manage to not run more species to extinction, well they used common sense. If they noticed that the herds were a lot smaller than they once were they looked for food elsewhere until the herds could rebuild. Of course they weren't doing this for the joy of future generations but for their own survival, if the herds disappear you die. As far as why Aragorn would be interested in a deer species dying out, the point of the flashbacks was to show you that throughout this life the importance of every animal had been impressed on him. Perhaps I wasn't able to convey that as clearly as I hoped. I was unclear on what you thought was uncannon, was it my choice of a deer species? I did research on animal species in Middle Earth at the Encyclopedia of Arda and it said that Tolkien had stated there were deer in M.E. Now I did go out on a small limb with Harad deer because I don't know if there were such animals. However a lot of Tolkien's material is closely related to those things found in real life (unlike say the creatures of Star Trek). In our world there are a great variety of deer species including but not limited to: elk, red deer, sambar, Sunda sambar, Philippine sambar, barasingha, Schomburgk's deer, thamin or brow-antlered deer, sika deer, Thorold's deer, moose, caribou or reindeer, Chinese water deer, muntjacs or barking deer, tufted deer, fallow deer, chital or spotted deer, hog deer, Père David's deer, white-tailed deer, black-tailed deer, marsh deer, pampas deer, guemals or huemuls, brocket deer, pudus, and roe deer. Since there are so many deer species in real life I had a feeling there could have been several in Middle Earth as well including some which could handle the heat of Southern Gondor (something like the deer found in China or the Philippians perhaps). I hope that clears up the mystery of the deer for you. Thank you for the review.