Title: A Month
Prompt: #9 - Months / Mellon Fic 100
Author: TrinityTheSheDevil
Rating: G
Genre: General
Characters: Mainly Estel/Aragorn and Elrond
Disclaimer: Not mine, at all.
Summary: The world in months.
Warning(s): None really. Just avoid the corny writing. g

A/N: This is something different. I'm not really pleased with the way it turned out, but my muse is currently sitting in a tub full of ice trying to cool down from the summer temps. I blame the weather.

--

It was when Estel, then known as Aragorn, was seven months old that Elrond had first met him. The baby was a wide-eyed wonder child, curious of everything, and as mischievous as his father had ever been in his youth. Arathorn had held the boy up proudly, with love shining clearly through his grey eyes.

They had stayed for a while in Rivendell, under Elrond's roof. Aragorn was into everything he could reach and some things he couldn't. By the time the family had left, Erestor was at wits end and Glorfindel still carried a disgusted look brought on by stepping barefoot in a dirty diaper.

--

Only a few months after the boy had turned two years old, he was brought to Rivendell. Elrond immediately took him and his distraught mother Gilrean in, letting it be known that he would foster the child until he became a man. And so from then on he was known as Estel, not to be called Aragorn again until many years later. Elrond had often thought on the situation, wondering if he was doing what was best for the child. Surely, taking him away from his true home, among Arathorn's kin, would not be good for him in the long run?

After a month of looking into Estel's grey eyes though, Elrond realized that his heart had grown attached. There was simply no way he could turn the child away now.

--

When Estel was two months past eight, he received his first bow. It was a small thing that was thought harmless, as surely Estel did not have strength enough to release the arrow with such force to hurt anyone.

It took Glorfindel three months to heal from his wound, and to this day he still cannot sit right.

--

Estel was only four months past his tenth birthday when he got his first training sword. After learning quite a bit from the bow fiasco, his trainers - otherwise known as Elladan and Elrohir - were very careful with the boy. Within six months, Estel could parry, block, strike, and move with a fluid ease that most humans lacked. He had impressed his brothers and his father so much that when he turned eleven, he was gifted with a real sword, made just for him.

The wooden one now hangs in Elrond's room, a tribute to the childhood innocence that graced Elrond's halls for such a short time in the span of Elrond's life.

--

It took almost a month of searching to find Estel when he ran away just before he turned fifteen. The boy had been tired of being called names, of being different from everyone else in Rivendell. Indeed, it had not been an inhabitant of Rivendell that had found him, but one from Mirkwood.

Estel was found perched on the back of Legolas' horse, riding into Rivendell while talking animatedly with the Mirkwood prince. Legolas listened on with great patience, taking in every word the other had to say, and responded in a serious manner that pleased Estel.

In the nine months that Legolas stayed in Rivendell, the two had forged a friendship that was unbreakable.

--

Aragorn came home three months after he turned twenty to apologize to Elrond for his harsh words. Elrond smiled and wrapped his arms around the man, telling him that there were no words needed, and nothing to forgive. His destiny accepted and now thankful that his father wasn't angry with him, Aragorn promptly fainted in Elrond's arms, the arrow wound on his back oozing blood and a suspicious black liquid.

It took five months until Aragorn was deemed healthy enough to be allowed back onto a horse.

--

Many, many months later, Elrond sat at a council of elves, men, dwarves, and most surprisingly - hobbits. He gave his son a look of pride, much like the look that Arathorn had when Elrond had first laid eyes on the baby brought into Rivendell. Aragorn was now a man, one who was slowly but surely making a difference in the world.

And Elrond knew that Aragorn was meant for greatness. He had known it the first time he locked eyes with the baby who was to become his son, all those months ago.

--

End