CHAPTER FOUR: Under The Stars
Arwen tossed restlessly in her bunk, sleepless in spite of the gentle rocking of the boat and the soothing sound of waves. During the day she generally kept to her cabin, wishing to avoid both the curious stares of the sailors and the disturbing sight of their scarred, tattooed, heavily-muscled bodies.
The nights were different. When she slipped on deck in her boots and breeches Arwen didn't bother to conceal her womanly curves or pin up her long black hair. Aside from the sailors on watch, only old Trill the navigator was awake at this hour. And he knew her secret already.
"I'm not afraid to fight the brutes, if it comes to that," Arwen told him, when they were both seated by the tiller. Trill kept his hammock here in all but the foulest weather, so that he could check the ship's course at all hours. It was also less hot and stuffy outdoors. "I've faced creatures far more horrible than a few smelly, hairy sailors. It's just that . . . I don't want to tempt them to their own destruction. I know how the beauty of an elven queen can sometimes turn a man's head, make him crazed or irrational. It even happens among us sometimes," she said, with a nervous laugh.
"Elves and men might be very different, my lady, but the folly of youth is always the same," Trill replied, in his soothing, musical voice. "What you want to do is take things calmly, not rush to find disaster at your door each day. Remember, things are never as dire as a house on fire."
"Exactly!" Arwen felt she could relax and be herself around wise old Trill. "My true love Aragorn is the handsomest man in Middle Earth," she confided, covering up a great big yawn. "A girl would be crazy to want anyone else."
"Sometimes we want what we've been told we can't have," Trill said quietly. "And sometimes we chase after things we don't want to prove we're the same as everyone else. Of course, when I was your age, I never chased after anyone. And that's the greatest folly of all."
"Ah, yes. Poor Trill." Arwen had spent hours chatting with the gentle navigator. She knew he had never married. "Still, you have your nephew's family to care for," she said brightly. "They have a new baby, didn't you say?"
"They do," the navigator said proudly. "I'm knitting a sailor's cap for him right now. Just wait right here, I'll show you."
Arwen smiled as she watched her friend go below decks. Of all the men on the ship, Trill was the only one she had really gotten to know. It was hard to believe that in just a few more days they would reach Zin Zaraboob. Would she be ready?
Climbing into Trill's hammock, Arwen gazed up at the stars. She had put many miles of blue water between herself and Galadriel, yet she still wondered why the golden-haired queen had warned her about temptation. It was hard to imagine anything more tempting than simply lying under the stars on a night like this, dreaming of her beloved Aragorn. Arwen let herself drift and dream. Soon she was fast asleep.
The pirates attacked at dawn, their screams and war cries rousing the tall elf-maid from her stupor. She groped for her boots, she groped for her sword, yet nothing was close by. Foolish! She had failed again. With her mind on love and Aragorn, she had forgotten all about her quest, her mission, and even her friends. Poor brave Trill was one of the first to die, for she saw him try to protect her only to be cut down.
"Who are you, my beauty? Are you someone we should spare for now, and sell for a very high price ashore?" The pirate captain was tall, with bronze skin and oily black hair tied back in a tight braid that fell down his back like a snake.
"I am Arwen, of Rivendell. And you are going to die."
With her bare hands, Arwen tried to choke the life from the scarred bare-chested pirate leader. He was laughing, his hands still covered with her friend's blood. But Arwen would not give up. The captain stopped laughing. He slapped her, but she still would not release her hold on his throat. Then someone hit her from behind, and everything went black.