Thanks for the reviews in particular thanks to Aranna Undomiel who reviewed this one as well as 'Rebel fight'. Cheers for that!
"..." is human speach
'...' is elvish
Anyway I know a baby Aragorn might be cute but he's got to grow up quite fast so this may well be the last chapter with his in.
Arathorn looked amazed at the elf who had been living with them for many months now, he could not believe that after everything they had gone through Elrond was proposing that he give up his son to him.
"You can not just expect me to give my son to you, he is the heir to the throne of Gondor and as such needs to be here where his people can see him." Arathorn said.
"Arathorn listen to me, if you do not give your son to me to be raised among the elves till his 21st year then the city will fall to Sauron and all your people will die. If I keep Aragorn with me till he is of an age where he understands more and is able to fight then there may well be hope for your people as Sauron will not dare to move until he can wipe out your entire family in one move." Elrond said bluntly. He looked at the king closely and could see that his words had sunk in.
"What must I do ?" Arathorn sai eventually knowing that he did have no choice.
"Go back out there and enjoy the rest of your sons party, I shall come and take the child when this is over, I shall take Prince Legolas with me as the child seems to like him and it will help to keep him quiet. Do not try and get in contact with Aragorn in the following years but trust me to look after him and raise him as well as I can." Elrond said. He placed a hand on Elronds shoulder and applied a little preasure in comfort. Arathorn sighed and then with a shake pulled himself together and with his smile firmly in place walked out the room.
Gilraen took her son back from the Mirkwood prince not willing to let him get too far from her even among people she knew she could trust. She saw her husband come out of the room he had gone into with a fake smile on his face, to anyone else it would have looked real but to her it was obvious that he was trying to cover something up. She would ask him what was wrong later but for now she was distracted by a group of noble women who wanted a chance to look at the baby prince again, she suspected that some of them were already thinking of who they could push at him when he was old enough.
It was another hour before the party started to draw to a close and it took almost another hour before the royal family managed to escape to their chambers where they found Elrond and Legolas waiting for them both dressed for travelling.
"Gilraen, Elrond is going to take Aragorn with him tonight so wrap him up warmly and put a few spare items of clothing in a bag and let him take our son." Arathorn said.
"Why? What is wrong?" Gilraen demanded not willing to let her son out of her sight
"I'll explain it all to you later but for now we must get Aragorn out of the city." Arathorn told her. The tone in his voice tol his wife all that she needed to know which was the fact that he was not happy with having to do this, but he was going to have to do it for all of their sakes.
Legolas watched dispassionantly as the Queen of Gondor hurried round the room dressing her week old son in the warmest clothing she could find, when the child was fully dressed he stepped forward to take the child from her. She hugged the child tightly before dropping a kiss to his head. Arathorn copied her actions before lifting the child gently from her arms and placing the child in the elven princes.
"Take good care of my son for me." Arathorn said to both of the elves. They nodded and slipped out the room and to the station where Tandil was waiting with horses for the pair of them though he himself was not going to be leaving yet.
'I shall see you in few months in our fathers court.' Legolas said to his brother
'Take care little greenleaf.' Tandil said grasping his brothers forearm. Legolas passed the baby to his brother then swung into the sadle before leaning down and taking the baby back. A blanket that the baby was wrapped in was tied round his waist to ensure that the prince did not fall no matter what happened.
'We must go.' Elrond said and wheeling his horse rode out of the city, Legolas followed behind him. He expected the child to start crying at any time but Aragorn made no sound the entire time they were riding through the city, by this point Legolas had worked out that this was not normal behaviour for a child that young and had to look down to check that he was alright several times.
Elrond and Legolas rode for a further three hours before stopping to feed the baby, Elrond had prepared a formula that he hoped would work on the young prince as an alternative for now.
'Do you really think that Sauron will try and kill Aragorn ?' Legolas asked
'He will not dare to try anything while Aragorn is among our people, hopefully we will have time to start training him before he is required to return home, I just hope that nothing happens to Arathorn before Aragorn is old enough to deal with his problems.' Elrond said. He had not mentioned his belief in Denethors involvement to the king of Gondor or to the Mirkwood prince as that was something that neither needed to know and could cause problems at a later date.
Barad Dur ...
Sauron had been mildly annoyed at the birth of the prince when he had been informed of the fact by his spy in Gondor, the fact that an elf had been involved had been irritating but nothing more than that. Now he was told that the prince had gone from Gondor and had been taken to Rivendell by Elrond where he was going to be looked after by the elves till he was old enough this was going to be a serious problem in his plans as he did not dare move against Gondor while the prince was not there. As well as these concerns there was the hint of the involvement of the youngest Mirkwood child, Sauron had no idea why this one elf worried him but he did and there was no rational reason why. There were also reports of Gandalf being seen in the lands of men again and that was something that did worry him as Gandalf did not have enough power to defeat him yet but it would not take long for him to gain it and then there would be serious problems.
Rivendell some days later ...
Elronds three children were waiting for their father in the courtyard when he dismounted as word of his impending arrival had been passed to them via a series of scouts, his two sons looked delighted to see Legolas again as they had spent time together when they were younger. Their boistrous welcome to the prince was curtailed when they saw the baby in his arms who was looking around with no fear.
'This is Aragorn, I shall be raising him until he is old enough to return home.' Elrond told his children. Arwen had stepped forward to take the child from Legolas' arms and was cooing down at him and making a variety of other noises at the baby. By a supreme effort of will Legolas managed to not let what he thought about her behaviour cross his face. He had been looking after the child for some days now and had not been forced to resort to noises to comunicate with the child.
'Lord Elrond, if I could avail myself of your hospitality tonight I would be grateful then I can return to Mirkwood in the morning.' Legolas said quietly.
'You do not need to hurry away Legolas, my sons will be glad of your company it is many years since you were last together.'
'You are very kind but I need to return to my father, he was loth to let two of his sons depart from his relm for long and will be glad when we are back with him once more.' Legolas replied ' I would be pleased to visit your relm and see how the child is faring whenever I can be spared if that is agreeable to you.'
'You are welcome here any time that you want to be here. I shall let you know how Aragorn fares as well, if you wish me to.'
'Again thank you.' Legolas said before leading his horse to the stables to tend to her.
It was shortly before dawn when Legolas prepared to leave Rivendell, he went into Aragorns chamber and looked down at the child, the hair on his head had already begun to darken, one fist was pressed to his chin while holding a delicate covering over him, stooping Legolas pressed a kiss to his head before leaving the room not having any idea of how long it would be before he next saw the boy again.
There you go part 2. The next bit is going to jump ahead a few years and deal with an older Aragorn as it is a bit difficult to write about a character who cannot talk in anyway.
Please let me know what you think and I'll try and update soon as I am now home for christmas so expect updates a bit quicker.
