The Same Woman

By Rose-Arwen-Padme

I Was Dead

Arwen felt completely out of touch with reality. One moment Glir had sent her unprepared body to the hard ground, the next he was whispering evil things in her ear, and now…. Valar, now Aragorn was with her, kissing her and telling her he loved her. She couldn't take it if this was just her imagination— running wild after a stressful encounter with Glir. Accepting that was too good to be true, she found the strength to aggressively push him away. Caught off guard, Aragorn stumbled backwards very ungracefully, wonder and shock mixed upon his wet face.

"Cruel are the gods to make my dreams come true like this!" Arwen shouted desperately, her tears clouding her eyes. "They know I have dreamt and wished and prayed for my dead Aragorn to return to me! Now they insult me by sending an illusion to break my beaten heart all over again!" She collapsed on the floor, her legs finally giving way beneath her.

Aragorn rushed to her level on the ground, kneeling beside her. He was anxious to sooth her unnecessary fears. He acted upon the first idea that materialized in his mind, quickly leaning in to grasp her face with his hands and vigorously pressing his lips against hers in a scorching kiss. By the end of it, both of their lips burned like fire.

Still maintaining hold of her pale cheeks in his gentle, yet firm, hands, Aragorn pulled back enough to look into her wide eyes. Such pools of beauty... "Would an illusion kiss you with such passion? Such ardor? Such love?!"

The unwelcome intruder called silence made itself present. Her quietness to his heartfelt pleas troubled him. She only stared at him with an unsettling dazed look upon her face. "Arwen, say something. You must! My frantic heart can't take your stillness much longer!"

As slowly as the sun rises, but just as assuredly, the eerie immobility in Arwen's eyes transformed to awareness. Aragorn let out a sigh of relief, but to Arwen, although some bit of reality had gripped hold of her, this was still somewhat unbelievable. Her beloved had been presumed dead for months, ruthlessly torn away from the world and lost to her heart, and suddenly he returned on the approaching tide of the moment when Glir had struck her and shattered what was left of her heart? Doubt refused to give up residence in her tired soul.

"Y-you…..you died," she finally whispered, her voice shaking. "They said you were dead." She tilted her head to the side slightly, the sheer impossibility of it all amazing her.

Aragorn looked at her solemnly. "I was dead."

Arwen closed her eyes and bowed her head in misery as another rush of tears overwhelmed her. So it was true. This form of Aragorn was just a ghost. He had just said it himself, hadn't he?

Then she felt two soft fingers guide her chin up so Arwen was looking into Aragorn's eyes again. "I was dead," Aragorn continued, "but onlybecause I was away from you. There is no life when you are not with me. There are many forms of death, dear Arwen. One must not have to stop breathing in order to die."

Arwen blinked away her tears. "I know," she whispered, as she raised her trembling hand to place it on his damp cheek. She began to stroke it tenderly as she spoke quietly. "I know because I have been dead like that as well these past months."

A small smile caressed Aragorn's features. "Then, for you as well as me, we are finally alive again today."

Arwen smiled for the first time then, and the stunning sight nearly had Aragorn loosing his footing underneath himself and falling backwards. "Yes," Arwen responded. "And it is truly wonderful to be alive!"

Aragorn watched, transfixed, as the darkness around her eyes seemed to lift till it was barely there. Her natural rosy color returned to her cheeks, and the twinkle came home again in her eyes, shining more glamorously than all the stars in the sky and mithril in the Dwarf mountains combined.

"Arwen, you truly are the most beautiful woman on our Middle-Earth."

A light shade of red painted Arwen's cheeks. "Beauty is nothing. Love is very much enough."

Suddenly he felt her arms swinging tightly around his neck and tears of joy greet his shoulder, dampening it as she flung herself into his ready arms.

Although her voice was muffled a she spoke, since after all Arwen's face was buried in his shoulder, Aragorn heard her words and hugged her tighter. "Not that it matters, because you are here now, love, but oh! It does matter! Where were you? What power in Middle-Earth caused you to leave me for so long? Without warning? Without any word at all?"

Aragorn sighed. "I merely have to say one word, one…name…and all is answered. But I fear for your reaction. Shall it be of immeasurable sadness? Rage and fury that will alter your kind sprit forever?"

"Tell me, Estel," and Arwen hugged him even closer. "I must know. And I have experienced my two great sadnesses of my time, and it is told that every elf knows two great sadnesses during their existence. My mother has left, gone to the Undying Lands, and then you, my beloved, died, and no sadness will ever match those! And as for anger, do not despair! I have you in my arms—therefore all I know is love and light, not hate and darkness!"

"Arwen…"

She cried loudly into his shoulder, "Estel, I must know. I must! What cruelness kept you out of my arms, and me from yours? What evil separated us, making us experience our own emotional death?"

There was a long pause, a heavy sigh, and then the one word passed through Aragorn's lips meekly.

He felt her entire body tense in his arms. They remained there, on their knees, Aragorn waiting for Arwen to further her reaction. Soon, she pulled back to stare at him.

"Glir?" The name passed from her throat like she was being choked. "Glir? I knew he was evil, but this…." Arwen closed her eyes; all the foul names that her father had taught her never to speak were running through her mind like Rohan horses in a stampede.

She turned her hand to the side and dropped her arms; they no longer clung tightly to his arms, insteadhung weakly at her sides. She pressed her lips together and shut her eyes for a long time. Aragorn anxiously waited for her reaction. He knew he had received it when two single tears escaped from her closed eyes, one from each lid. Those two tears, which glittered in the light like falling jewels, pained him more than all the ones he had watched drop earlier that day. Like waves of sorrow, ache spread throughout his body, ending up in his heart with a gut-wrenching SPLASH! Arwen's sadness was never something he was able to cope with. He grasped for something to bring any sense of tranquility to her.

Angels should never cry.

"Arwen, I am going to fight him." He paused, swearing this oath to both himself and to Arwen. "To the death…and my love, not even you can prevent me."