Disclaimer: If I owned any of this "Lord of the Rings" stuff, I wouldn't be sitting here, writing fanfiction. I own Arwith. Steal her for your own use, and I'll send small, furry animals to eat your socks.
It was a tired and disheveled looking lot that returned to Minas Tirith. A few of the footmen were no longer with them and others had left to inform their kin of their loss. The girl who had run away was once more taken down to her cell, even if it was simply because no one was quite certain what else to do with her. Up until now, she had been considered hostile. But her actions from before...
Many of their comrades had been found in one of the many rooms throughout the castle. Arwen was watching Eowyn and a young girl with light orange hair and a face like a pumpkin take care of two youngsters. There was a laughing, pudgy baby boy with ash blonde hair and a cute face and a four-year-old girl with dirty blonde hair and a blanket around her shoulders. Eowyn was following a pattern of bouncing the baby on her knees, first very softly, then harder, and finally sending her knees in two directions at the same time, causing the boy to shriek with laughter. The two girls were strutting about in a circle, all the while talking and curtsying with a feigned, exaggerated regality. Arwen sat back, holding her belly every time she laughed at the children's antics. Merry, Sam, Pippin, and Frodo were on the other side of the room, deeply involved in what appeared to be a game of cards. They glanced up only occasionally to grin at the children playing and to remove another few slices of the many, many meats that were scattered atop the table.
This was how it was when Aragorn and Faramir walked in. Despite the bitterness they had been facing, the sight before them made them smile unconsciously as they made their way over. Legolas and Gimli were standing in the doorway, arguing. Gimli seemed positively indignant. "That last one did not count! He was half dead already!" "Not unlike the one you beheaded? You know, the one with six arrows through his chest?"
Every head at the hobbits' table popped up at the sound of the two. "Oy!" Pippin shouted. Elf and dwarf stopped for a moment to look at him. Pippin continued when he had their attention. "Who won?" Legolas looked at Gimli and didn't bother trying not smile. His expression practically screamed "Go on. Say it. I simply must here you say it." Gimli glared at him and grumbled under his breath for a while before muttering in a just barely audible tone, "The pretty, prancing pixie." Legolas grinned smugly while Pippin's and Sam's lips curled. "I believe we won." Merry and Frodo grumbled and each shoved a large ham in the victors' directions.
Legolas and Gimli wandered over and watched as the hobbits continued their game. "Right," Sam said, "Who's turn was it?" Pippin, who sat to his left, glanced to his own left at Merry. "It's supposed to be Merry's but he won't decide on anything." Merry stared at his own cards. "I'm still thinking. We're not going anywhere." Frodo, who sat across from Pippin, swallowed whatever he was eating. "Ante up or fold, Merry. It's all as simple as that." "Wait your turn, Baggins." The two observers watched this with interest and had just noted that the players were using stacks of meat as wagers instead of money when Merry answered, "All right, Pip. I'll see your leg, double it, and raise you three wings."
The little girl with the "cape" wandered over to Legolas. "Hello." she said from somewhere near his knees. He looked down to see her staring up at him inquiringly. "Are you an elf like Miss Arwen?" He nodded. "Yes, I am." The little girl cocked her head to one side cutely. "Do you have pointy ears like Miss Arwen?" He tucked his hair behind his ears, showing off the tips. "The last time I checked." The little girl's eyes grew exceptionally wider. "Can you speak elvish like Miss Arwen?" Legolas chuckled and nodded. The older girl called over to her. "Mella! Don't bother him." The toddler ignored her and leaned forward hopefully. "Can you say 'Mella'?" The elf raised an eyebrow and his lips began to curl. "Yes." Mella smiled and her eyes grew to an enormous size. "How?"
"Eh, Legolas," interrupted Merry, suddenly looking smug, "How do you say 'Full house'?" Frodo and Pippin groaned and threw their cards on the table frustratedly. Sam, however, continued staring at his cards. After a moment, he looked up to see the three hobbits looked at him questioningly. "Well?" Frodo asked. Sam turned to Merry, his face still rather expressionless, and raised his brows. "Royal flush?"
Merry groaned and his eyes rolled upward. He fell forward and began banging his head against the table. Sam laid his cards on the table and leaned forward to collect his winnings when Frodo grabbed his arm. Looking skeptical, Frodo picked up Sam's cards and laid them face-up. He stared at Sam's cards, then at Sam, his face the epitome of utter disbelief. "All you've got a pair of twos!" Merry's and Pippin's exclamations of displeasure mixed with Legolas's and Gimli's laughter at this discovery.
Several minutes later, when Merry had finished sulking and Sam had meted out his meat, several other teenagers entered the room. The eldest was a tall, thin girl with flaxen hair and freckles on her nose. Judging from the way she and a boy who was shorter than she with mousy brown hair, it appeared she was arguing over some petty matter with her brother. A second boy, just older than Mella, with auburn hair and a large, mahogany-colored birthmark on the left side of his neck left them behind and ran for Eowyn, who had traded charges with the pumpkin-faced girl.
The lad bickering with his sibling ignored her and made a beeline for Faramir, who seemed to recognize him. "Hello, Chorim." "Hello sir. How did your search go?" Faramir smiled. "It went quite well." Chorim looked deeply impressed. "I saw a few soldiers taking someone down to the cellars. Is she the one you were searching for?" Faramir nodded solemnly. "Yes, it most certainly was." Chorim appeared quite confused. "But why would she be with Sauron? She's too cute!" He was promptly slapped upside the head by the tall blonde who rolled her eyes and continued spinning around with the baby boy on her hip. Chorim was too busy squawking indignantly to notice he was receiving several exasperated, disapproving frowns from the men in the room.
Mella came bounding over to Eowyn and Arwen. "Miss Arwen, Miss Eowyn," she called in a sing-song-y voice, "Guess what, guess what! The other elf knows how to say my name in elvish!" The two women smiled as the young blonde girl handed the now-dizzy baby boy back to the redheaded girl and turned Mella. "Mella, have you shown them how queens walk?" Arwen, who appeared particularly delighted by this question, asked, "How do queens walk?" Mella wrapped the blanket tightly around her like a cloak, threw her head back so that she was staring at the ceiling, and walked around without bending her knees. Arwen and Eowyn snorted and tried not to giggle too loudly.
The blonde baby boy, who was still stumbling around dizzily, crashed into Arwen's knees, flopped onto the ground, and began to sniffle cutely. The redheaded girl picked him up and tried to make him laugh while Mella climbed onto the shoulders of the boy with auburn hair. Eowyn turned to the bespectacled blonde. "Isn't your mother expecting you soon?" "Yes, ma'am. She also said she'd like to speak with you and Miss Arwen when you were both available." Eowyn helped Arwen stand up. "We're available now. I'll see later on, Faramir." Both husbands stood to give their wives a kiss and chortled when the two women followed the procession of youngsters by, as Mella had put it, "walking like queens."
Gimli, Legolas, and the four hobbits had moved over to where Aragorn and Faramir sat. Aragorn sighed, looking somewhat shocked. "And to think- soon, I'll have one of my own." He sighed again, heavily, and ran his fingers through his hair, away from his face. Gimli grumbled. "Let's just hope it's a bit wiser about folks than that older lad. 'Too cute...'" Added Pippin philosophically, "It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness." This remark received him several curious stares from his companions.
When the initial shock of Pippin's out-of-character comment had worn off, Merry leaned forward. "Speaking of folks and goodness, how did your search go? Well, apparently." Faramir and Aragorn glanced wearily in each other's direction. "Would you like to relate the tale, or shall I?" Aragorn motioned in other's direction. "By all means. Relate away." It was with no small amount of exasperation that Faramir then explained what had occurred earlier in the day. When he recounted the girl's scene, everyone looked first rather sickened, then surprised and confused. The ending was met with silence and contemplation. "That's got to be one of the most gruesome things I've ever had described to me." Pippin nodded in agreement with Merry. "Aye. And you've had blood poured down your throat." All gave Pippin a disgusted look, clearly signaling that blood being poured down someone's throat was relatively far down on their list of things they cared to visualize.
The atmosphere continued in such an uncomfortable strain, with everyone churning over their own thoughts. The unpleasant mood was becoming somewhat unbearable when Legolas turned toward the door expectantly. Moments later, Gandalf burst through the doors. The company popped up at his arrival. He looked more unshaven than usual and was wild with excitement. He stood huffing in the doorway while everyone else in the room waited for him to speak. The wizard took a deep breath and announced with vigorous resolve, "I've found it!"