Don't own LOTR, wish I did but don't.
Summary: LOTR never happened, all the characters did but Aragorn is prince in Gondor, and Legolas still prince of Mirkwood, but what happens when they meet in the woods? Will they find something they love in each other or is it just lust?
Rating: R for Slash (m/m relationship) later on
Clue: Aragorn will go by Estel for the first part of the story.
The Story of Estel
Chp. 1: The beginning
The water touched his lips; it was fresh and cool as it went down his parched throat. He dipped his hands once more into the refreshing pool.
"Oi, Estel," cried a voice behind him. The man known as Estel, or Hope, turned slowly towards the voice.
"Quel amrun, Isthilius," he replied when he saw the elf. (Good morning). Estel turned back to the pool and took another drink.
"Your father summons you, my lord," Isthilius said, knowing it would sting if even Estel's friend referred to him as royalty.
"You can tell my father that I will come home after a while," Estel stated clearly.
"Yes, your majesty," and with a mock bow, he turned and left.
Everyone knew of the prince's stubborn attempts to disobey his father. He walked off, further out into the woods. Ignoring the boundaries he was never meant to cross, but today he paid no attention, all that was on his mind was a way to disobey his father. He heard a slight rustle in the leaves.
"Who's there?" he shouted questioningly. He thought that it was one of the palace guards following him, but how wrong he was.
He started walking again, but a bit quicker, thinking he could leave the guard, he had done it before.
He heard a twig crack, Estel trusted his own feet to be silent, and this noise was further back. He slowed and turned around.
"Who's there?" he screamed. All that answered him was rain slowly beginning to fall.
Estel loved the rain, the feeling of it on his skin, cold yet refreshing. He loved to hear it splashing on the treetops. Then came the smell, the smell where everything fresh and clean. Sometimes Estel swore he lived for those moments away from the castle, in the rain.
But as he was enjoying himself in the rain, the footsteps quickened, and hurried along after this trespasser of the forest. The steps slowed and became silent, and as Estel began to sing, it attacked.
Estel awoke, bathed in light. He looked around and saw he was in a glade. He began to sit up, but as he did so, a terrible pain struck him. He clamped his eyes shut, and fell back to the ground.
He heard a loud commotion coming towards him, but there was nothing he could do. He tried to slow his breathing, but the pain was still too great.
"Estel," he heard someone call out.
"I'm ov......," but his words died out, and again he lost conciseness.
The King and his guards walked through the forest, unaware they were being watched.
They kept calling out the prince's name, but there was never an answer. From somewhere deep in the woods, they heard a cry. The four men ran towards the noise, passing the glade, without as much as a passing glance.
"Estel," the King called out, "Where are you, my dear son."
"Here father," he heard a voice cry out.
The followed the voice for hours, and to no avail. They were just led back to the castle each time.
"What is this magic that has hidden my son from me," the King cried out, falling to his knees. "Please, oh mighty lords," he said looking up to the sky, "Bring my son back to me, I beg you."
The guards led the King back to the castle, so he could rest.
Then Estel awoke again, he had been moved deeper into the woods. There was a roaring fire slowly cooking a plump fish. He did not dare look around do to the pain he expected. He lay there, trying to make sense of all that he could remember.
'I walked off into the woods, and then it started to rain, and................' he stopped as a wave a pain came over his mind. He closed his eyes and continued his thought, 'and I was attacked by a wolf.'
'Not just any wolf, you fool, that was Garth.'
"Garth?" he asked himself, "Who's Garth?"
'Don't you remember the Stories?'
"No, what stories?"
'Well I do, it was said he would kill his victims with a single swipe.'
"Then how am I still alive?" he lay there wondering, and as he did so someone approached from the shadows.
"Maybe someone shot the wolf with an arrow, through the throat, before he could kill you?" asked a voice Estel had never heard before. He sat up, but the pain was still there. With his eyes closed to ease the pain, he turned towards the noise.
The stranger laughed, and said, "Why were you away from your castle? I have seen you before but always well behind the Big Oak." By the sound of the voice, this stranger was a man, and an Elf at that.
"I was wandering off. I was forever trapped behind those invisible walls, like baby bird within its nest, those invisible walls of air. I was choking in that city, and even that I could not wander about. I was confined to the castle and its courtyard. My friend help me convince my father to let me go out of the city just this once, and now I've run off and don't plan on going back," he made his case clear and to the point. He didn't know why he trusted this man, he had not even seen him yet, much less knew anything of him. Estel he felt he could trust him, even with all the misgivings in his life. It might have been he needed someone to confide in, someone he could trust. And seeing how this man had most likely never been in the city, knew little of its occupants.
He slowly opened his eyes and there was no one there.
"Hello?" he asked, a bit confused to where the stranger had gone.
"Hi," he said, "I am by the fire incase you were wondering."
He turned and was stunned at how beautiful the he-elf was. It was not his appearance that Estel noticed, but the fact that he glowed like the moon in dead of night.
"Why won't you go back?" he asked, breaking the awkward silence.
"What?" Estel asked.
"Why won't you go back to your home?" he asked again.
"Oh, twas my fathers doing. He would not let me go out into the city, much less the woods. I hated being inside the castle, so I ran away."
"And left your father to greave over you, to lose his only heir?" the Elf asked.
"Yes, he did not care for me, why should I care for him?" Estel said.
"Because he is you father." Estel turned his head away. Seeing that the prince did not want to go further into this topic, he changed the subject. "I believe we haven't met properly. I am Legolas; Prince of Mirkwood.
"I am...."
But he cut him off, "You are Prince Estel Ellesar, son of the King. Yes, I know who you are."
They talked for several hours, of the past, of the present, and even of the future. Deciding what would become of them if they each ran away from their duties.
While Estel was getting things off of his shoulders, Legolas was just getting him to realize that he had to go back, that the kingdom depended on him. He knew what would happen if this boy was to leave his duty behind, and wander into the wild. It would lead this world into uterus chaos, that Man would not be able to pull it self out of. And if he were to stay, as far as she could tell, everything would remain peaceful, and the Kingdom would thrive. Yes, it all depended upon Estels choice, even if Legolas had influence over him.
Late in the night Estel drifted off to sleep. His dreams were troubled of a glorious kingdom falling into darkness. It was always cloudy and mostly rained. People fought and murdered in the streets, laws were tossed aside, since even the ones trusted to enforce them paid no heed to them. Shades roamed the streets. And the thing all the peoples of this world feared, night. Night with no moon to illuminate the sky, and no stars to make it shine all the brighter.
Estel woke from his troubled sleep early the next morning. The fire had been doused, and everything put away.
"If you wish to go back we must leave now, I shall take you to the city wall," said the Elf, whom Estel had grown to like.
They walked at a brisk but silent pace through the woods. Both were silent, each for their own reasons, Legolas for it was his Elvin way to be silent, and Estel was admiring the beauty of this elf (particularly an area below the waste).
They passed the glade he had been in the day before, and then where he had been attacked. The scavengers had followed the rules of nature, and picked the Wolf carcass clean.
They soon reached the castle wall, where Legolas turned to Estel.
"Now our journey separates, Estel. However short it may have felt, it still continues into the day you and I meet again. Always remember that Estel, be what you were named for, be not only your fathers or the peoples hope, be your hope. Remember Estel," he said, and slowly disappeared into the shadows.
Estel turned towards the castle and walked back to his own future, and now he knew the way. As he approached the gate, the guards screamed out a cheer and opened the gate.
But even with the elf's thoughts in his head, he could never forget that beautiful creature. And the thought of being away from him was unbearable, but maybe he wouldn't have to.
That's all. I spent a lot of time writing this, but know that I have the plot and stuff in my head, everything should come out quicker. This is my first story, much less a slashy one, so please be kind to me, and please review.
