Chapter 3

"If you're going to walk me home will you please walk a little faster? I'm in a hurry," Ellathorn urged Boromir as she sped up.

"I'm worried about Denewyn," Boromir said out of the blue as though it had been on his mind for quite a while. "She has always been a fragile girl. I fear that she is just being overworked."

"Denewyn's a lot stronger than you think," Ellathorn said as she looked up at his worried face.

"You seem to know her quite well. Although my father refuses to see it, I know that you two have been friends for a long time. I also know who you really are. You are the daughter of Arathorn, Isildur's heir. I just want you to know one thing," Boromir stopped and took her by the arm. "My father is the steward of Gondor. If it weren't for him this city would've fallen apart long ago. This city belongs to him, understood?"

Ellathorn pulled her arm away, and began to run. Boromir easily caught up to her. Once again he grabbed her by the arm. "I know that your father is up to something. And I'm going to figure out just what it would be."

"My father is up to nothing!" Ellathorn said through clenched teeth as she tried to free her arm from his tightened grip.

"Oh, is that so? Then why does he remain in Minas Tirith, when all others of your kind still reside in the North?" Ellathorn had no idea of what he was speaking about. "If you're so sure that he's up to nothing then tell me, why would he have faked his own death?"

Ellathorn wondered what Boromir was speaking of. He seemed to be out of his mind. Her father had never faked his own death. She just looked up at Boromir, and shook her head. "Let me go!"

Boromir let go of her arm. Ellathorn took a step backwards, but did not run. She rubbed her arm where he had been holding it, but continued to look up at him.

"You really don't know about that do you?" Boromir felt awful now for questioning the innocent girl when she knew absolutely nothing of the matter. "Look, I'm very sorry. I shouldn't have acted that way."

He took a step toward her.

She took another step backwards.

"You should be sorry. That is no way for you to treat a lady. And all of those lies about my father; do you expect me to believe them?" Ellathorn inquired.

"Ellathorn, you're parents never told you? About when your father 'died' I mean. Your brother was just a baby when it happened..."

"You must be mistaken. I have no brother," Ellathorn was sure that Boromir was thinking of someone else. She had always been an only child.

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I'm sure!"

"Ellathorn, you must believe me. You had a brother. He died shortly after your father was rumored to be dead."

Ellathorn could bare the lies no longer. Boromir had been making up lies to turn her against her family. She stepped forward and struck him on the cheek. She immediately turned and ran the rest of the way home. Although she knew that Boromir was extremely confused, she could not force herself to stop thinking about what he had said. Her father had faked his own death...when her brother was just a baby. Nonsense. That's all it was. She tried to brush it away.

The moment she entered the door to her home she was ambushed by a very worried looking mother. Her mother squeezed her in her arms, and it seemed as though she would never let go. When Ellathorn looked past her mother she saw her dad sitting in the corner. He was smoking a pipe. There was another man there with him. The man was quite strange looking. He had on an odd cloak that he had pulled up over his head. They were deep in conversation. Arathorn hardly seemed to notice that his daughter had returned.

"Ellathorn! Where have you been? Your father and I have been worried sick. The sun went down hours ago. You know better than to wander alone at night!" Ellathorn was in no mood to explain everything to her angry mother.

"Forgive me mother," She pleaded halfheartedly as she glanced back towards her father and the stranger.

Gilraen released her daughter from her tight embrace. She held her out at arms length, and looked at her with tears welling in her eyes. "I was so worried," She said as the tears began to trickle down her cheeks.

Ellathorn had grown up all her life with an over protective mother, and a father who didn't seem to care. She was in no mood now to put up with this. Why couldn't her mother be like everyone else's? She had done nothing wrong. She didn't deserve this. She pulled away from her mother's grip and walked off to her chamber. She shut the door and fell down on her bed. It had been a long day. Denewyn was ill, Boromir had nearly attacked her, and now her mother was treating her as though she was just a child. She was no child. She was thirty-one years old now. Although she still felt like a child at heart, she wasn't. She was old enough to become a mother herself

And her father. Who was that man he was speaking to? Could it have to do with the important news that here mother had spoken of earlier that day? He seemed to care not that his only daughter was safely home. All her life her father had been home. He had never worked. Many of her friends thought it weird that her father would stay home while her mother would go off to work at the houses of healing. Ellathorn had stood up for her father many times. Now, for the first time, she felt ashamed of him. He was supposed to be the rightful king. For all she knew he could be 'up to something.'

As she lie there she heard the door close. The strange man had left. Seconds later there came a knock on her own door. She did not answer. The knock came for a second time. Again she did not answer. Slowly she heard the door creak open. She shut her eyes and acted as though she was asleep. She felt her parent's stares burning upon her face. The door shut. She sat up. She heard voices outside:

"Arathorn, please don't leave without saying good-bye to your daughter," she heard her mother plead.

"I don't want to wake the child. Besides, I shall return. And when I do, we will tell her," Arathorn replied to his wife.

"Do you promise?"

"I promise," Arathorn bent down and kissed his wife gently on the head.

She stood up and walked over to the window. She heaved it open. She sat down in front of it and rested her elbows on the open sill. And slowly as the breeze blew through her hair she drifted off to sleep with dreams of a better life.

She awoke to the soft buzzing of a bumblebee just outside her window. She stood up and stretched her arms. It was nearly midday. She had never slept so late. She quickly dressed, and went to the kitchen to help her mother prepare breakfast. She soon realized that her mother was not there. Neither was her father.

At that moment she recalled all the events of the night before. , 'Please don't leave without saying good-bye to your daughter...' she remembered her mother saying. Had her parents really left her? The night before all that she cared for was being on her own. Now she wished that she had her parents back.

After conducting a thorough search of the house, just to make sure that she was not mistaken, she fixed herself a quick breakfast. She tried to think of where they would've gone. She had not the slightest clue. She finally decided that it would cheer her up to go visit Denewyn.

Ellathorn wondered if Boromir would be at the Houses of Healing visiting his sister. She did not want to have to face him today. She must admit that she had been pretty rude to him. Not saying that he didn't deserve it.

When she entered the houses, she saw many patients and their families. The only person near Denewyn was a healer that was trying to convince her to drink a fuming concoction of herbs. Boromir was nowhere in sight, but Faramir was sitting on a bench near the door. Ellathorn thought it best if she waited until the healer was through with Denewyn before she talked to her. She took a seat on the bench next to Faramir.

"How's she doing?" she asked him.

"She's looking a lot better. If only she wouldn't be so stubborn, and just take the herbs that the healers have prescribed to her," he replied. He looked up at Ellathorn. "Rumor has it that you are the one responsible for my brothers black eye." He just grinned.

Ellathorn couldn't help but grin herself, "Yes, that was me."

"No reason to feel ashamed. I've been trying to do that to him for years," Faramir joked. They both had a good laugh.

Ellathorn saw the healer leave Denewyn's bedside. She looked at Faramir. He gestured towards her bed as if to say 'you go first.'

Ellathorn walked over to Denewyn. She seemed to be much more lively than she had the day before. She smiled when she saw Ellathorn coming. Ellathorn didn't smile in return.

"What's wrong, Ellathorn?" Denewyn always seemed to know when something was bothering her friend.

"My parents...they left me!" Ellathorn came right to the point.

"What are you talking about?" Denewyn knew that Ellathorn was wrong.

"Last night I heard them talking about leaving, and when I woke up this morning they were gone," Ellathorn was beginning to get very nervous now.

"Your parents did not leave you..." Denewyn tried to explain, but Ellathorn was just too flustered to listen.

"Oh, what am I going to do?" She worried.

"Ellathorn!" Denewyn finally shouted, using more energy than she had to spare at the moment. She was out of breath and could not finish what she was trying to explain, so she pointed to something on the other side of the room instead.

Ellathorn spun around to see a healer stirring a pot boiling over the fireplace. It was her mother! Ellathorn darted towards the women, and wrapped her arms around her shoulders. Gilraen was quite confused towards the girl's strange actions.

"What is it dear?" Gilraen could not understand why the girl was behaving this way. The last time that she had seen her daughter she had stormed off in an angry mood, and now she was hugging her.

"Oh, Mother, I had a terrible dream that you and Father left me," Ellathorn chuckled to herself over how foolish she had acted.

"What gave you a strange idea like that?" Gilraen wondered.

"Well, in my dream I heard you and Father talking outside my door. I heard you say to Father, 'Please don't leave without saying good-bye to your daughter,' and I thought..." Ellathorn trailed off. It hadn't been a dream at all. Her mother really had said that.

Gilraen took a step away from the girl. She glanced up at her face, but quickly looked away. She stared down at the floor. She never imagined it being this hard to explain to her daughter.

"What is it?" Ellathorn could read her mother very well. Something was not right.

"I did say that," Gilraen said looking back up at her face. "Your father, he left."

What? Ellathorn did not understand. Her father had always been there.

"What?" She tried to say, but it was hardly comprehensible.

"Something came up. It was urgent," Gilraen tried to explain without revealing too much.

"That strange man had something to do with it, I know he did," Ellathorn knew better than to trust that man.

"Ellathorn, we will discuss this more later. At home," Gilraen said quietly as she glanced up at Faramir who was listening intently to the conversation.

Ellathorn did not want to wait, but she could sense the urgency in her mother's voice so she did not ask anymore. She quickly turned and walked towards the door. She took a last fleeting look towards her mother who had resumed her cooking over the fireplace as though nothing had ever disturbed her. She walked out into the cool air. She seemed to be in a daze. She began to walk towards the woods. Her mind was blank. Her feet carried her deeper and deeper into the forest. She walked for what seemed to be a quarter of an hour. As she walked her foot caught a root, and caused her to fall flat on her face. She sat up quickly suddenly realizing where she was. But she didn't know where she was. Nothing looked familiar to her. She scrambled to her feet, and looked about. She could not even recall which direction she had just come from. She sat down on a nearby rock. As she thought more of the situation at hand she realized that there was no way out. She was stranded. Ellathorn could not recall another moment where she had ever been so scared in her lifetime. She buried her face in her knees and began to sob.

She lost all track of time as she sat upon that rock. The next thing she knew, the sun had begun to sink below the horizon. She began to panic. She did not know what strange creatures roamed those woods in the dark hours of the night. She did not want to know. She began to hear many strange noises all around her, whether they were in her head or not she did not know. All of a sudden she heard footsteps drawing nearer to where she sat on the rock. These footsteps were not only in her imagination.

"Hello?" She croaked as she scuttled further up the rock. "Who's out there?"

The footsteps continued to draw closer.

"Who are you?" She demanded.

She heard a voice, but could not make out what it was saying.

"Show yourself!" She ordered.

All of a sudden a man walked out of the trees to her right. He was clad all in the armor of Gondor. He held a bow in his hands, which he had pointed at Ellathorn's heart.

"Ellathorn?" He asked as he lowered his bow.

"Who are you?" Ellathorn asked again.

The soldier tore off his helmet. The man in the woods was Boromir.

Ellathorn's heart jumped. She was saved. Boromir would surely help her find her way.

"What are you doing here alone at night?" Boromir asked her, taking a step closer. When he stepped into the moonlight Ellathorn could make out his swollen, puffy left eye. She gasped.

"Did I...Was that...from me?"

"I deserved it," he said as he stepped back into the shadows.

"I didn't mean to, honest, you were just scaring me, that's all," Ellathorn tried to explain.

"Ellathorn, about last night. I don't know what I was saying. I wasn't myself. Forgive me?" He pleaded.

"I shall forgive you only after you help me find my way home," she bargained.

"Follow me; stay close," Boromir led her away from the rock. She could not see where she was going. She tripped, and ran into the back of Boromir. He turned around and took her by the hand. They walked through the dark woods for several minutes. He led her into a large opening of trees. Ellathorn could see her house now. She felt so relieved.

Boromir let go of her hand, and said, "there, do I have your forgiveness?"

"Yes, and I thank you," She said as she turned, and quickly ran towards home. She could see smoke coming from her chimney. Her mother must've waited up for her. How happy she would be to see her mother again. Then maybe she will explain to her exactly why her father left them.

As she ran she realized just how tired she really was. She stumbled, and fell to the ground. Her mother saw her through the window. She stood up quickly and ran to help her daughter.

"Dear child!" Gilraen held her feeble daughter in her arms.