Chapter 12: Elessar
"Well, sire?" Gimli's face was the picture of pride. "What do you think?"
The recently crowned King Elessar surveyed the new gates of Minas Tirith with a warm smile. The mithril embedded in the tall wooden structures gleamed in the midday Gondorian sun, and he nodded slowly.
"An excellent job, my friend."
The dwarf beamed at the team of his kinsmen he had directed in building the gates. "And that is high praise indeed." He turned next to the figure stood beside the King. "What do you say to that, horse-master?" he asked of the young man soon to be crowned King of Rohan.
"Very impressive, I confess," he replied with a smile. "I had not believed," he said to Elessar in explanation, "That they would be quite so special as the Dwarves claimed."
"A typical man of Rohan," Gimli muttered, but the King of Gondor simply smiled at him.
"My lord!" They looked up as one of the armour-clad guards above the gates called down to them. "A party of riders approaches!"
Elessar turned quickly to look in the direction pointed by the guard, and a wide grin spread across his features as he recognised them. "Elves!" he exclaimed.
"Of Lorien?" Gimli asked quickly.
"It is very likely." The King glanced at his Rohirric counterpart. "I believe you stayed in Lorien?" he asked.
Theodred nodded with a smile. "Indeed I did, sire."
"Then there will, no doubt, be some among them who will be glad to see you again."
"I hope so," the younger man replied quietly.
Before long, Lord Elrond could be seen riding at the head of the column, and Lady Galadriel and Celeborn Theodred recognised by his side, magnificent smiles on all faces. One dark-haired female rider was bearing a banner of the White Tree of Gondor, and, had he been paying attention to him, the Rohirric prince would have seen Elessar gazing at her in awe. There was only one face he was looking for, however, and she he could not yet see.
"Greetings, Elessar, King of Gondor," called Elrond as they grew near.
The addressed bowed courteously. "And welcome to you, Lord Elrond of Rivendell, and to Lady Galadriel and Lord Celeborn of Lothlorien."
The elegant visitors began to dismount and the leaders greeted the Gondorian monarch. Theodred stood a little behind, feeling humbled not for the first time by the kingly, gracious man in front of him.
"Strange, aren't they?" Éomer was standing just behind him, and muttered a comment in his ear. "They seem unearthly, like ghosts."
"Or angels," Theodred murmured in reply. His cousin gave him a strange look, but the soon-to-be king was oblivious. He had picked out who he had been looking for.
"Theodred!"
A slender Elven figure detached herself from the main group and ran towards him before flinging herself into his open arms. "Oh, Theodred, you won't believe how much I've missed you!"
He didn't say anything, only kissed her lovingly, there where all could see.
Both Éomer and Elessar stared at the couple in amazement and disbelief.
"Mithra." Theodred whispered her name as they parted.
"Cousin?" Éomer asked, gazing at the Elf-maiden Theodred held in his arms.
His cousin simply laughed. "Yes, Éomer. There's something I didn't tell you about my time in Lorien." He looked back to Mithra, smiling widely, before saying something softly that only she could hear. "There, I fell in love." And he kissed her again, her clinging to him desperately.
"And if you ever leave me again, you'll regret it," she warned him softly.
Elsewhere, Elessar was sharing a similarly romantic reunion with Arwen Evenstar, and the Gondorian onlookers clapped and cheered. Any of their northern neighbours that happened to be present were too dumbstruck to do so for their own monarch.
"Well, Rohan," Elessar said to Theodred later as they walked up through the city to the halls of the King. "We seem to have yet more in common than I had suspected." He smiled at the Elf-woman that walked hand in hand with him.
"Rohan?" Mithra repeated. "You are King now?"
"Not officially," he told her quietly, "I have yet to be crowned, but my father was killed in the battle."
"I'm sorry," she murmured, "I had not heard."
"Theodred!" The Gondorian King called suddenly. "Before I forget, I have something of yours that must be returned," and he led them away into a building Mithra quickly recognised as the stables, to the stall of a remarkably tall, fine war horse.
"Brego!" Theodred exclaimed.
Elessar smiled as the young man rushed to the animal's side and it nuzzled his hands affectionately. "I have ridden him since my time in Rohan," the once-ranger told him, "And he is a most fine and faithful beast. I return him now to his rightful owner."
"He's glad to see you," Éomer said with a grin.
Mithra watched her lover in amazement. There was a look of relief and fondness on his face that she only seen before as she'd fallen into his arms outside the city gates. The Elves had a great liking for animals, but the love the Rohirrim had for their horses would always astound her.
"And I can see Theodred is happy to see him," she said to Éomer, a man to whom she had only minutes ago been introduced.
Theodred glanced up at her with a smile. "I most certainly am."
"I love you, Mithra. Did I tell you that?"
Mithra smiled at the young Rohirric man as she stood hand in hand with him at the very end of the courtyard overlooked by the halls of the King. "Several times within the hour," she replied, "Sire."
He grinned at her. "I do apologise."
"That's quite alright, my lord."
"Would you pleasecall me by my name? I am not king yet."
"You will be, though, as soon as you arrive in Rohan."
He reached up a hand to gently touch her cheek, tracing patterns on her skin with his rough fingertips. "And every king needs a queen."
Mithra froze, gazing into his dark eyes.
"Will you be my queen, Mithra?"
She said nothing, but leant forward and let her head rest on his shoulder. Theodred's face fell.
"What's wrong?" he asked quickly in concern.
"I had hoped you would leave longer before asking that question," she muttered in a voice so low it was barely audible.
"Why?"
"So I can put off answering it for as long as possible."
She lifted her eyes to look into his and he saw that they were filling with tears. "Of course," he said slowly, realising the reason for her grief. "There is the matter of your immortality, and my being a mortal man."
She looked down again. "I don't know what to do."
Theodred sighed bitterly. "A certain poem comes to mind," he said, "A song that I recited to you when we first met."
"Beren and Lúthien," she said softly.
Neither Man nor Elf said anything following this, but Theodred held Mithra close to him. He had asked her to marry him on the spur of the moment, putting no thought into this choice that followed for her, and now he regretted bringing such a decision into her mind.
Slowly, softly, he began to chant the words of the poem Mithra was so familiar with:
'Again she fled, but swift he came.
Tinúviel! Tinúviel!
He called her by her elvish name;
And there she halted listening.
One moment stood she, and a spell
His voice laid on her: Beren came,
And doom fell on Tinúviel
That in his arms lay glistening.'
A/N: I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it! And you didn't really believe I'd kill off Theodred, did you? Please write me some more of the encouraging reviews I love getting (or some not so encouraging ones, if you really want to), and I'll upload the final two chapters for you! Thanks again for reading!
the green lama :-)