Notes, Warnings etc
The terminology I use can be misconstrued, but I can't think of a different way of putting it so I warn you now - The relationship between Kalya (Dídauar) and Aragorn is PLATONIC. I do not write incest!
This is more or less a filler chapter, but I need it to introduce varying characters and to establish more of Dídauar's character and her relationship with others.
Chapter Three - Call of the Wild
The twins spent that night together, continuing a tradition that had started the moment they were born, solidified as they grew up and cemented when they rejoined their people, namely sleeping together, sharing space, warmth and allowing their mutual love to temper their turbulent souls. Dídauar had tried to persuade Aragorn that he should spend the time with Arwen but the elder twin was having none of it. He had said as much of a passionate goodbye to the Elf-maiden as tradition and protocol allowed and now he was determined to spend what time he had left with Dídauar.
"Something is worrying you," said Dídauar, rising up on to one elbow so that she could look into her brother's eyes.
"You mean aside from the fact that I am journeying with the Ring of Power?" asked Aragorn cocking his head.
"Why does that scare you?" asked Dídauar.
"What is to stop me taking the Ring and hording it just as Isildur did?" asked Aragorn. "He was thought to be strong yet he fell to temptation."
"He may have been strong but you are stronger. When you face the same evil as Isildur, you will not fail," reassured Dídauar.
"How can you be so sure? Not everything you see comes to pass," said Aragorn. Dídauar smiled.
"I have not seen this, but I do know my brother. Better than he knows himself. You will not fail Estel, because your heart will not allow you to. The mind is easily confused and manipulated but the heart remains true."
"Halbarad and the boys better take could care of you. I will need your sage advice should I become King," smiled Aragorn.
"You will have the daughter of one of Arda's greatest lore masters as your Queen," Dídauar remained, settling back at Aragorn's side. "And I don't think Arahael and Tarcil will appreciate being called boys."
"Your advice has yet to lead others astray," replied Aragorn. "And when compared to us, Tarcil and Arahael are boys." Dídauar swatted his shoulder with a yelp of protest, causing Aragorn to laugh.
"Garo bost vaer, muinthel nîn," he said, pressing a kiss to Dídauar's crown and tightening his arms around his sister before settling down to sleep himself. (sleep well, my sister)
"Garo bost vaer, Estel," murmured Dídauar, nuzzling into Aragorn's side and closing her eyes. (sleep well, Estel)
The plan had been that the company set out at dawn but Sam had seemed have panicked about something and by the time he was calmed and sorted out, it was closer to dusk before they were actually ready to depart, which according to Elrond was better since secrecy was their aim and it was harder to find people in the dark. Merry, who was still not entirely convinced that going on the Quest was a sensible idea, had muttered something about it also being easier to get lost.
Dídauar stood with Halbarad, who had returned with her from patrol, before the Fellowship as Elrond gave a final blessing and words of caution, particularly to Boromir, who had decided it was a good idea to sound the horn he had worn almost continuously since his arrival.
Finally the company saluted their Elven host and, with Gandalf and Frodo in the lead and Aragorn at the tail end, turned and departed from the Last Homely House. Aragorn stalled just as he was about to walk under the archway and his eyes connected with Dídauar's.
"Hebo dirith," mouthed Aragorn. Dídauar smiled and nodded. (be careful)
"Nan lû i agovaded vîn," she replied. Aragorn inclined his head and turning, hurried after the company. (until next we meet)
After watching the Fellowship walk out of sight, Dídauar turned to make her way back to the house when she glanced at Arwen. The Elf-maiden had been standing between her brothers and, until now, had managed to maintain a hold on her emotions but as Dídauar met her gaze, a tear slip down her cheek. Dídauar abandoned her kinsman's side and made a beeline for the Elven Lady.
"Telo na nin," she said, taking Arwen's arm and leading her to one of the spacious glades that surrounded the Last Homely House. (come with me)
"I feel silly," murmured Arwen, wiping away the second tear that had escaped her eye. Dídauar canted her head to her.
"Why?" she asked.
"This is not the first time I have said goodbye to him," said Arwen. Dídauar immediately shook her head, vehemently.
"You are not saying goodbye. You are saying farewell," she said. "You will meet again, Arwen. You will have your fairytale happy ending."
"Why do you sound so depressed when you say that?" asked Arwen, cocking her head slightly. Dídauar blinked.
"I didn't mean to," she said quickly. "Arwen it may have taken us several years to reach this stage but I cannot think of a better wife for my brother or Queen for our people."
"But?"
"You will be one of the lucky ones," sighed Dídauar taking a seat, watching the sun sink completely behind the Mountains and the moon begin to shine in the inky expanse.
"You still sound depressed. What do you know?" said Arwen taking a seat beside her foster-sister. Dídauar smiled slightly as she turned to face Arwen.
"Nothing that you do not," she said. "I am simply being realistic. This War has been claiming lives since the moment the Dark One fell millennia ago. This is simply the crescendo before the ultimate climax. In its wake, families will be left scattered and torn. Including my own."
"But even the darkest night must come to an end," said Arwen, resting a hand on Dídauar's forearm.
"I know," sighed Dídauar. "Sorry, Arwen. This is my life, I should be used to watching warriors marching out and wondering if they will come back. I brought you here to comfort you!"
Arwen smiled. "Simply knowing that my worries are shared by another is comfort," she said.
"What say you to simply wandering around the gardens?" asked Dídauar, standing again and holding out a hand to Arwen. "I leave in two days, I would like some peaceful images. Something tells me we are all going to need them in the days to come."
Arwen accepted the hand and, arm in arm, the two women wandered around the starlit grounds.
Halbarad stood on one of the numerous balconies watching his younger kinsman. He knew the last few years had been hard on her, the ever increasing threat of war causing her visions to increase drastically. They were not a daily occurrence, indeed it was rare for them to occur more than once every five months, but their debilitating nature was an added pressure that Dídauar could really be doing without.
"What has you so interested?" asked Arahael, appearing beside his father with two glasses of wine in hand. Taking a sip from one, he offered the other to Halbarad. The elder man accepted it with a small smile of thanks.
"Your cousin," replied Halbarad, motioning to the two women who were wandering the grounds. Arahael smiled.
"She is going to need us more than ever," said the young man. Halbarad nodded.
"Just don't make it obvious that you are acting as a body guard. You know how tetchy she is about that, especially when it is you and your brother doing the protecting," he said, taking another sip of wine.
"Says the one who is overprotective of anything he can call his own," grinned Arahael.
"I am permitted to be protective," said Halbarad. "Shadow and Strider both know and accept my reasons why. However, to have her younger 'siblings' treat her as though she is made of spun-glass which is threatening to fracture at a moment's notice, will not sit to well with Kalya."
"You don't have to remind me," muttered Arahael, setting his glass aside and resting his arms on the balustrade before him, surveyed the moon dappled land that stretched before them.
"I am going to miss this place," he murmured, watching an owl take off from one of the treetops. "Here, it is so peaceful that it hardly seems feasible that there is a war being waged but a few miles away."
"Now, if I had Tarcil with me, he would be chomping at the bit to return to our people, and to patrol," chuckled Halbarad. "How is it you two are as alike as chalk and cheese yet manage to get along so well?"
"Precisely because we are different," replied Arahael. "He is my strength to my weakness and I am his." Halbarad chuckled at the answer and took another sip of his wine.
"I have heard that response before, and not from you," he said. Arahael shrugged as he continued to watch the two ladies in the garden below.
In the opposite wing of the House, Elrond stood watching his daughters as they meandered in and out the trees, a small smile spreading across his face.
There had been a time where Arwen and Dídauar had been unable to sit in the same room together without one of them passing a snide remark about the other. After their initial meeting in the twins' coming of age, Arwen and Aragorn were parted for twenty-nine years, but Aragorn had been besotted with the daughter of Elrond and continually bemoaned the loss of her beauty. Being subjected to renditions about Arwen's many virtuous qualities for eighteen and a half years, Dídauar had built up quite a resentment for the Elven Lady. When Aragorn and Arwen had become betrothed after meeting again, unexpectedly in Lothlórien after twenty-nine years, Dídauar, who had just departed Edoras and was expected back in Imladris, had vanished, seemingly off the face of the earth, sending Aragorn, the Dúnedain and her Imladrian family into a panic. Only Gilraen and Haldir, who was Dídauar's Guardian from childhood, had known where she had disappeared to but they would not tell, saying only that Aragorn had a decision to make. Eventually, after five years, Dídauar had been found in Gondor, serving under the continued guise of Faerlain, which had been her alias when under Thengel's command. It had been Gilraen's request, made some two years later, that had made her beg leave of Denethor and Finduilas so that she could return to the north. The Steward and his young family had been sad to see her depart, but accepted the promise that she would one day return. Five months later Dídauar later received the devastating news that Finduilas had not made it through to the end of the winter, causing her to retreat to Lothlórien only to be confronted by Arwen.
In total, it had taken nearly twenty years for Arwen and Dídauar, largely thanks to Gilraen, Elrond and Haldir, to accept that they had an equally important role in Aragorn's life, be it as a lover or as a companion. From the ashes of their loathing, a fierce fire of friendship had been lit and now, almost thirty years on, it was almost impossible to imagine the two as anything but sisters, be they fostered or not.
"Gell lîn nin echad meren, iell nîn," murmured Elrond. (Your joy makes me joyous, my daughters)
"Talking to yourself is a bad habit, mellon nîn," smiled Glorfindel, as he appeared beside Elrond. (my friend)
"So is creeping up on people," replied Elrond. Glorfindel simply grinned at his younger companion.
"Why are you out here in the chill when there is a pleasant fire burning in your grate?" asked Glorfindel.
"I needed the peace that the night offers," said Elrond sitting down on the shelf that jutted out from the balustrade specifically for such a purpose.
"Why are you so worried? Frodo is a lot stronger than he looks, you should have faith in him," said Glorfindel, crouching before Elrond.
"A Halfling does not have the strength to hold off a Man, Elf or Dwarf should the fancy take them to take his burden by force," sighed Elrond.
"Which company member worries you the most?" asked Glorfindel.
"Can you not guess?" asked Elrond.
"The Gondorian? Elrond, he is going with the company because of your suggestion. Why did you make such a decision if you did not trust him to protect Frodo?" exclaimed Glorfindel in confusion.
"Because he was returning South anyway," replied Elrond, running a hand over his face. "At least this way, there are eight other people to keep an eye on his movements and stop him doing anything rash. If I had sent him home, offended and unsatisfied, then he would have been as dangerous as any of the Dark Lord's servants."
"I still say Kalya should have travelled with them," muttered Glorfindel.
"She will in time, but now is not it," said Elrond.
Two days later, at around the noon hour, Dídauar, Halbarad and Arahael were kitted up and ready to leave the Elf-haven. It may have been the hottest part of the day, and the time least suited for travel, but it was also the safest, Orcs and other servants of Mordor preferring to hunt between dusk and dawn, the sun's rays causing them pain and fear.
Bidding farewell to her adopted family was a difficult task for Dídauar, not knowing if this would be the last time. She held on to the hope that they would meet again, but even as she did so, she could feel the strands fraying within her grasp.
"As the Enemy strengthens in the East, his servants increasingly roam our lands," said Elrond, standing before the three. "May the Valar guide and protect your path so that they bring you no harm."
The three Rangers inclined their heads and saluted the Elf-Lord before turning and departing the haven. Just before they past beneath the archway, Dídauar turned and, throwing decorum out of the window, sprinted back to Elrond, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck.
"I will miss you," she whispered.
Elrond returned the embrace with an equal ferocity before withdrawing and kissing Dídauar's forehead.
"I am with you always," he replied. "We will meet again."
"I will hold you to that," murmured Dídauar, not quite ready to let her foster-father go.
"I swear to you," said Elrond. "If it is the last thing I do on this earth, we will meet again. Now go. Duty is something none of us can escape."
Dídauar smiled and released Elrond before turning back to her kinsmen, the younger of whom was grinning like the cat who had eaten the best cream the Elven kitchen had to offer. Dídauar scowled at him before taking the lead.
"Cheer up," muttered Halbarad, nudging Dídauar's shoulder as they walked along the path away from the Last Homely House. "This is only the end if you make it so."
"Don't start giving me that sort of advice. That is supposed to be my forte!" replied Dídauar, though she couldn't help but smile.
"It was mine originally," said Halbarad. "Come, the sooner we leave, the sooner we can return."
"What did I just say?" exclaimed Dídauar. Halbarad laughed while Arahael rolled his eyes, unsure who was the worse combination – Halbarad and Dídauar or the Dúnedain twins.