Cale au Aratar 20

The sun had yet not risen when a lone rider entered the White City, the guards allowed him to pass without complain as they recognised both horse and rider. With sure steps he entered soon after he had passed the first gate a room filled members of all races of Arda. Before entering the adjourning room he allowed his grey eyes to travel over those that were holding vigil: four hobbits, dosing lightly but even in sleep their faces were not relaxed, a dwarf who had looked up as soon as he had entered the room, a group of edain, two kings, a steward, a prince and his children, a Shieldmaiden...and lastly his own people. Proud yet grieving, clinging to the last bit of hope they could find, praying that their prince would survive and lastly an Istar who had been true to them since he had entered Arda millennia ago.

None of them were sleeping, none dared to enter the realm of dreams out of fear their friend, their prince might pass. Slowly Galadriel, Celeborn and Gandalf rose from the chairs they had been resting on. Yet before they could enter the next room Gimlis voice stopped them:

"Is there anything I can do to help the lad?"

Elrond didn't look back at the dwarf as he answered him:

"No-one can enter the room after us! If you must, subdue Aragorn, we can not be disturbed. When he demands an explanation tell him that the Fourth Ring has been found but let him under no circumstance enter the room!"

He knew that his foster son would try to enter the room, would try to help yet there was nothing he could do to help, every interruption would only bring more danger to all involved.

As soon as the door had closed behind the four immortals did Gimli stand up and started to drag his chair as silently as possible next to the door yet before he could take more than two steps the chair was picked up by one of the present elves and carried over to the place next to the door he had attempted to reach.

"There is no need to wake those who are sleeping, Master Gimli, even without the scraping of a chair Estel will wake to soon for your liking."

After a moment of hesitation he continued:

"May I join you, Master dwarf?"

All Gimli could do at that unexpected question was nod and watch as the tall elf carried a second chair to the door. He had barely sat down when the elf questioned him about his friendship with Legolas yet the dwarf was not willing to answer the question immediately even though he had to concede that he was intimidated by the weapons the other carried.

"Now see here!"

he all but growled at the immortal next to him,

"You don't even tell me your name or who you are and expect me to tell you everything I did during the last several months, that isn't very polite, lad!"

A smile settled on the fair features of the elf as Gimli spoke; yes, he had heard of the conversation between the dwarf and his prince when they had first arrived even though he had not witnessed it himself and he was delighted to see that the dwarf did indeed have no respect for them – at least none that he showed, he had heard of the dwarfs infatuation with the Lady Galadriel.

"Forgive me the lack of manners, Master Gimli. My name is Taulë, son of Luimîr. I did not mean to offend or pry with my question, I am simply curious how my cousin came to finally befriend a dwarf."

Sceptical Gimli looked at the elf next to him. If not for the shape of his eyes he would have looked nothing like his friend. Where Legolas had golden hair Taulë had red hair that seemed almost black. His eyes were a warm dark brown and his build was – while still slender like all elves – heavier than Legolas'. No, nothing would have let him guess that this was his friends cousin!

"So you are the lad's cousin, eh. What was he like as a child?"

For mere moments the elf just stared at the dwarf before the smile on his face transformed into a grin, promising many embarrassing stories about the Elven prince.

"Before I tell you anything about Legolas you have to promise me to never use anything of it against him and to never tell him that I was the one who told you!"

Seeing the honest plea in the elves eyes Gimli gave grudgingly his promise and waited for the elf to begin his tale.

"You must know, master Gimli, that I am several years younger than prince Legolas – and though that barely means any difference in the eyes of our people it still means that I was not yet born when the prince was a child. I am sad to say that I therefor missed the prince's first encounter with Gil-Galad – or more precise both of those encounters – though my father who was present for the second of those encounters assures me that it was a sight to see.

I do not know if you are aware what transpired during the first of that two meetings but as I was told Gil-Galad insulted the prince, though unknowingly, as he told him that the bow the prince had picked up was nothing for such a small girl as he was. There is no doubt in my mind that you have heard of the temper of king Thranduil, but it is nothing against Legolas' temper if he is ever angered as Gil-Galad learned that day. Thus insulted the prince fired the arrow he had notched and wounded the king in his left shoulders, slightly above his heart, and told him that he was arrogant and if he wasn't careful the next arrow would pierce his heart.

The next day Gil-Galad and his entourage reached the palace and inquired about the fiery maiden who had dared to shoot their High King. It is needless to say that the maiden was not known to anyone and Gil-Galad had to see his error as he was introduced to the heir of the crown-prince Thranduil. Lord Elrond should be able to retell the tale more correctly than myself as he was present – or you could of course ask the prince himself but he has still to miss a mark with his bow..."

An almost pensive look came over the face of the elf as he paused, contemplating his own childhood and the friend he had found in his slightly older cousin. Would he loose this friend, this brother, in the near future? Was he already lost to him and his other family and friends? No, he could not, would not believe that there was no hope left. He had grown up with Legolas, they had escaped their parents together and also their guards, they had played pranks on those unfortunate enough to fall into their traps... They had laughed and cried together, healed each others wounds before someone else – namely their parents or guards – could see them... And yet here he was, holding vigil at the door of his dying brother. He had not been there when he had been wounded, poisoned, when his heart had been broken by one he called a friend, his best friend. Shaking his head clear of those morbid thoughts he continued:

"The first time the prince took me on one of his adventures, our adventures, was when I was still a child, having yet not come of age. For weeks beforehand had I been complaining about being still treated as a child, which I in fact still was..

To this day I am not sure if he took me along to stop my complaining or to teach me a lesson... or just because he wanted to escape himself. It was not easy to evade all of our minders, our parents, his grandfather King Oropher and his numerous guards as well as my own. The prince must have been planing our adventure for weeks or he was just lucky but we were able to escape the palace in the early ours of the morning long before sunrise the same way your father managed to escape. Of course at that time the palace and the city were still situated in southern Eryn Galen not far from the place where Dol Goldor once was but there was still a trap door in one of the cellars to let the wine barrels down which had to be opened from the inside.

It was only the second day when I asked the prince to return but he wouldn't have it and told me that he would see the northern edge of the realm before he would return but told me the way I had to take to reach the city once more. To be honest with you, master Gimli, I hated the prince for the first days of our journey... and for some days within ... but I dared not to turn on my own. I was terrified of the large woods even though I was born there and am as any elf at ease in Nature, yet as a child the wood was to vast for my liking. I was used to the palace and city, to the people that surrounded us, to the guards that were watching that nothing happened to us – and there I was alone in the woods with my cousin who was barely older than myself exploring the wilderness without anyone to turn to for help.

For one week we managed to evade our trackers completely, the trees following our, or rather his plea to hide us from anyone but each other, but after that time the guards had grown nearer to finding us. Instead of turning back the prince urged me to travel faster, telling me that we would reach the northern border before our trackers. Not once did he let me see that he doubted that we would be able to do it yet as soon as we had reached the border he stopped and made a camp waiting calmly for the arrival of our guard.

His first words when our pursuers finally reached us half a day later were: "It took you long enough, ada!" for it had been our fathers as well as several guards that had followed us. I am not sure if our fathers were more livid at our audacity to travel alone, our ability to do so or relieved to find us unharmed – and the prince still as ... cheeky ... as before we had set out."

While Gimli allowed himself a small chuckle at the imagination of this scene, Taulë allowed himself to remember the result their first adventure had had: for the weeks, no months following their escapade their parents had not let them out of their sight, separating them whenever possible. Their punishment had been to help cleaning out the stables – for on whole year – but it had not hindered them to find new mischief as soon as the year had been over.

Gimli watched the elf after he had stopped talking, noticing after a quick glance around the room that all of the other First Born were looking at them, wistful smiles on their faces. Even though he had seen on his own adventure with Legolas that the elf had quite a mischievous he would have never imagined that he would go as far as ignoring the rules of his father or run away from home taking a child with him! But than, what counted as a child in the eyes of an elf? Was it someone who had not yet completed his twelfth year, or his thousandth? As much as it irked him he had to ask his companion.

"Lord Taulë, what exactly do you call a child, and if you apologise for my curiosity, just how much older than you is Legolas and why do you always call him your prince, is it because..."

At this point Gimli trailed of, casting nervous glances towards the still sleeping Aragorn.

For a moment he feared to have offended the elf as he was looking at him with a closed of expression on his faire face.

"My people call anyone who is not yet of age a child or elfling. On our fifthiest begetting day we reach adulthood and are allowed to train with sharp weapons where beforehand we had to use dull practise weapons which we are allowed to use as soon as we are able to carefully handle them.."

A small smile quirked his lips upward,

"Of course there are those who manage to ... acquire ...sharp weapons when they are only ten years of age..."

Seeing Gimlis questioning face he explained his remark a little bit further:

"The prince stole out of boredom into the armoury when he was only ten and managed to take one of the bows with him without the guards noticing that it was missing. You will have to ask king Thranduil or my father or the prince himself for a more detailed account of that particular tale as the facts were never completely retold to me – at least not to retell the tale.

I am thirty-one years younger than the prince, when we had our first adventure together I was twenty-nine and he therefor sixty years of age, barely a decade after coming of age. Yet the fact that he was of age didn't hinder his parents from giving him house arrest just as mine did to me.

You ask me why I call him my prince... I fear that it is something I have grown used to when not among kin. Even though I am of the Avari as was my aunt, his mother my people came to live in Eryn Galen millennia ago, accepting the house of Oropher as our ruling house. My aunt still claimed the title as Lady of the Avari as does after her passing my cousin yet as he is older than me that means that even among the Avari he is still my Lord whereas my father as well as myself and any offspring I may have will be after him the highest nobles of the Avari. Therefore he is both my Lord and my prince and one day soon he will also be my king."

Hearing this Gimli was even more astounded that Legolas, High prince, heir of Mirkwood – no, Eryn Lasgalen – and Lord of the Avari had deemed him worth to be called his friend and to call him his friend. It had been the elf who had named their unusual companionship of insulting, competing and caring, it had been the elf who had asked to be his friend. So much had changed since they had started their quest all those months ago in Rivendell or even more so since he had left his home the Lonely Mountain together with his father and some of the other elders. He had seen war, had met the great Bilbo Baggins and had become friends to the even greater Frodo Baggins as well as to three other remarkable hobbits. Than there were the two human kings he had befriended, Eomer of Rohan and of course Aragorn of Gondor, last of the Numenorian, chieftain of the Dunadain. He had fought alongside the Shieldmaiden of Rohan, slayer of the Witchking and had come to like Faramir, steward of Gondor even more than his older brother Boromir whom he had been quick to befriend; but than he had met Boromir during a time of perils and he was sure that he would have developed an even closer friendship with the man had he not succumbed to the Ring. He had travelled through Moria where they had – temporary lost their leader Gandalf. They had visited the Golden Woods of Lothlorien, he being the first dwarf allowed to enter since the first fall of Khazad Dum.

Lothlorien, a place full of wonders, the place where he had first lain his eyes on the greatest beauty in all of Arda, the Lady Galadriel. Galadriel, a woman whom he had scorned at the mere mentioning of her name till he had for the first time stood before her. Lothlorien, the place where his friendship to Legolas had formed even though both of them had still refrained to call it thus. Only as they came face to face to a force of darkness so great that their death seemed unavoidable were they both able to verbally acknowledge that what they shared was a deep friendship. A frown creased Gimli's brow as he realised that it had for his friend been more than a fear to die that day. He had known that his death was really coming, that his end drew nearer with every breath, with every move he made, every arrow that he fired. How could he fight when he knew that every movement drove the poison further into his body? How could he stand the pain, the knowledge that his immortal life was so violently ending?