The Wood-elf’s Wisdom

     The rain had stopped and the sun was rising when Aragorn reached the House of Elrond, accompanied by the Rangers and the Elves of Imladris.  Aragorn spotted Arwen standing in the balcony of one of the healing rooms.  Legolas’s room, Aragorn guessed.  She saw him watching her and smiled down at him.  His heart lightened for a moment.

     Erestor came outside and began directing the Men where to go.  Elladan and Elrohir came along either side of Aragorn and carried him away to Elladan’s chambers.  There they gave him a faithful account of the history of Legolas and Arwen.  When they had finished, Aragorn did not quite know what to think.  He knew he was relieved to know that Legolas and Arwen would not bond.  Beyond that, he was far too exhausted to feel much of anything.

     In his own chambers, he bathed and dressed himself in fresh clothes.  His feet then traced the path towards the healing rooms.  The door to the room Legolas lay in was open.  He saw Arwen standing near the balcony, looking out over Imladris.  In the bed to her left, Legolas lay with shut eyes.  His skin was as pale, save for two pink spots high on his cheeks.

     Arwen turned when he entered.  “Mae govannen,” she said with a bright smile.  “I have been expecting you since I saw you ride in with my brothers.”

     Was that smile for him, he wondered, or if she was looking forward to seeing her brothers.  He willed those thoughts away.  “How is Legolas?”

     “He should be waking soon.  My adar was able to identify the poison.  He said that Legolas will be well as soon as the fever passes.”

     “I am glad to hear it,” Aragorn replied.  “He was wounded saving my life.”

     She smiled.  “Legolas would say that it is a part of being a warrior.”  She laughed that beautiful, clear laugh.  “I know, for this is not the first time he has found himself in this bed.”  She threw a fond look at the unconscious Elf.  “He has been known to disregard his own safety.”

     The Elf in question moaned and tossed his head.  “Legolas,” Arwen called softly, kneeling beside his bed.  She ran cool fingers over his feverish brow.  “You are safe in Imladris.”  His eyes lazily drifted open. 

     “Undómiel,” he murmured.

     She hushed him with a finger to his lips.  “Save your strength.  My adar wanted to know when you awakened.  I will go fetch him.”

     It was not until she had left that Legolas noticed Aragorn’s presence.  “Estel,” he said softly.  “You are well?”

     Aragorn nodded.  “Thanks to you.  “I owe you my life.”

     “Warriors do not keep debts,” Legolas whispered.  “I did what was needed.”  He licked his lips and shifted.  “Did the twins tell you?”

     “About you and Arwen?  Ay, just minutes ago.”

     “Good.”  He licked his lips again, then his eyes slipped shut.  Elrond entered at that moment, Arwen behind him.

     “Legolas,” Elrond called, crossing quickly to the bed.  “Stay awake for me, my child.”  He coaxed Legolas into opening his eyes long enough for a quick examination.  At the end Legolas was rewarded with a drink of water.

     When Legolas once more slept, Elrond turned to his daughter.  Touching her cheek fondly, he said, “I suppose you will want me to announce that you and Legolas are no longer betrothed.”  She nodded.  He sighed, but her smile made his lips turn up.  “I am thankful that I did not send the news yet to Thranduil.  He would have my head.”

     “Thank you, Ada,” she said, kissing his cheek.

     Aragorn crept out of the room and returned to his chambers.  Exhausted physically and emotionally, he threw himself into his bed and slept the rest of the day.  When he awoke much refreshed, it was time for evening meal.  Glorfindel, Erestor, and the twins were seated in the dining hall.

     “It is a very fortunate thing that you had your duel yesterday, Glorfindel,” Elrohir said as Aragorn entered.  “For it would be truly embarrassing were you to lose to him now when he is injured.”

     “Ah, Estel!” Elladan greeted before Glorfindel could reply to Elrohir.  “I thought you would never wake up.”  Then to Glorfindel:  “Did you break his nose again.  It looked a bit out of shape.”

     “You ask of his nose, but not of this storm cloud around my eye?” demanded Glorfindel, gesturing at his face.  “But, yes, his nose got in the way of my fist.”

     The meal was merry.

***

     After his meal, Aragorn himself drawn to Legolas’s room again.  Walking down the hall, he could hear voices arguing.  The voices grew louder as he neared Legolas’s room.

     “Out!” Legolas’s voice roared over all the others.  “All of you!”

     Half a dozen voices chimed in at once in protest.  “Legolas Thranduilion!” cried the loudest.  “You are being unreasonable!”

     Louder this time, “Leave me be!  By the Valar, you are making my head pound.”

     Aragorn hurried to the room when he heard a crash.

     “You spider!  Legolas!  You moth!”  voices cried.  “Just look what you have done!” 

     Another crash.

     Aragorn entered to find Legolas sprawled on the floor, clutching his hip and groaning in pain.  Wood-elves crowded around him, several covered in one of Elrond’s herbal teas.  The wall behind the Wood-elves also dripped with the liquid.  One of the tea-elves reached for Legolas, but the prince jerked away.

     “I said leave me be!” he cried, face taught with pain.  “I beg of you, let me alone.”

     Aragorn cleared his throat.  Seven pairs of eyes tore through him.  “Lord Elrond wishes me to tell you all that Prince Legolas must be left in peace tonight,” he fibbed.  “You may see him in the morning.”

     “But—“ began a tea-elf.

     “Aerhos, come,” said a Wood-elf, taking the protestor by the arm.  “It is high time you took rest.”  The rest of the Wood-elves followed these two from the room. 

     Aragorn crouched near Legolas.  “Is the floor comfortable?” he asked wryly.

     Legolas scowled at him.  Aragorn felt the Elf’s forehead.  It was still warmer than it should have been.  “Will you accept my help, or should I fetch an Elf?”

     “I am not that proud,” Legolas snapped.  “Your arm is as good as any other.  Better, yet, for you shall not remember it in a hundred years.”  Aragorn grinned and lifted the Elf easily in his young, strong arms.  “Take me to the balcony,” Legolas ordered before Aragorn could set him on the bed.  “I want to see the sun set.”  Aragorn set Legolas on the cushioned settee.  Legolas settled into it with a groan, his face nearly as white as the spotless tunic he wore.  Aragorn’s eye strayed to the bulge bandages made beneath the Wood-elf’s loose trousers.

     “You did not tear your wound falling out of bed?” he asked.

     “I did not fall out of bed,” Legolas corrected.  All venom had left his voice; only humor now remained.  “I merely ran out of space while evading the Mumakil Elrond set as my nurses.”  He shook his head, closing his eyes.  “Nay, my rescuer, the wound remains tightly sewn.”  He smiled into the soft evening breeze that played with his golden hair.  “Anor shall descend soon.”

     Aragorn fetched a blanket from the room, which he draped over Legolas’s lower body.  Legolas looked at him in surprise.  “You are still fevered,” the Man simply said.  “May I watch the sunset with you?”

     “I would be honored,” replied Legolas.  He searched Aragorn’s face for a moment.  “Elladan and Elrohir told you everything?”  Aragorn nodded.  “I wish you luck, then.  Mayhap you shall obtain that which your heart desires.”

     “You puzzle me, Legolas Thranduilion,” said Aragorn.  “I have heard many things of the Elves of the Wood, most of all that they look down upon mortals.  Yet here you are, a Wood-elf prince sitting with me as would a friend and giving hope to my heart concerning the Elf whom I love.”

     Legolas smiled vaguely.  “And would you travel to my home, you would hear many things of the Elves of Imladris that would shock your ears.  Thranduil’s folk are not so wild as the Noldor say.  Less wise, perhaps, for we have not the time or peace for long contemplation and reverie.  We spend our days fighting the Enemy, and what moments we have to spare we give to celebrating the gifts the One has given us.”

     They sat in silence then, for the sun began its decline.  Legolas whispered words under his breath that Aragorn could not quite make out.  The words turned into a song.  Aragorn heard no words in the song, but the melody told a story nonetheless.  The sky splayed the many colors of dusk until it was a deep, dark blue.  Lamps were lit all throughout Imladris as night came.  Legolas sighed deeply as his song ended. 

     “That was beautiful, was it not, Estel?  I rarely have chance to watch two such sunsets as I have these past two nights.  Life outside of Imladris is less than serene.  Yet who is to say that serene is better?”  He threw the blanket off of himself.  “I am afraid I must trouble you again for assistance, my friend.”

     Aragorn helped Legolas to the bed, though he did not carry him this time, only let the Wood-elf lean heavily on him.  Once settled in bed, Legolas asked Aragorn: “Elrond has trained you in healing?  Ah, good.  I wonder if you would brew me a cup of climbing-vine tea.” 

     As the room was used to hold injured people, the ingredients for the tea Legolas requested were in the room.  Aragorn used water from a pitcher that stood on a table.  A kettle stood near the fireplace.  Legolas watched Aragorn move.

     “Do not think badly of Elrond, Estel,” Legolas said softly as Aragorn watched over the brewing tea.  “He loves you.  Do not doubt that.”

     “He knows that I love her,” said Aragorn.  “Without speaking of it to me, he sought to take away any hope I might have held of her.”

     To this Legolas replied, “My adar has two sons.  He loves us dearly.  Even so, my sister was the delight of his eyes and the joy of his heart.  Losing her nearly killed him.  Adars and their daughters have a special bond.”

     Aragorn brought the cup of tea to the bed.  “Again you comfort me with your words.”

     “As I said,” Legolas said around a sip of his tea, “we Wood-elves are not so wild as the tales say.”

     Aragorn laughed.  “I would dare to say that you are even wise, a statement for which my elven family would likely disown me.”

     “Bravely spoken, my friend.”  They both laughed.

     Legolas finished his tea and gave the empty cup to Aragorn. 

     “Legolas, how did your duel with Glorfindel begin?” Aragorn asked, helping the Wood-elf to lie down (for he had been sitting against the headboard while drinking the tea).

     “He insulted me upon our first meeting,” Legolas replied.  He smiled sleepily at the memory.  “I challenged him to a duel.  It has grown and twisted into becoming an ugly monster that will not go away.  And though I lost the first three hundred or so times, he has not won these past seventy-odd meetings.”

     “He insulted you?”

     “Ay.  He called me leaflet.  It was not to be born.”

***

     The next day Elrond called Aragorn into his chambers.  They spoke for many hours and both came out with heavy hearts.  Aragorn spent the remainder of the day in the gardens.  Life outside of Imladris is less than serene.  Yet who is to say that serene is better? he thought to himself, remembering Legolas’s words.  This is my destiny, my inheritance.  I shall pass the test before me.  I shall prove myself worthy of Arwen Undómiel.  He encouraged himself with these thoughts.

     It so happened that he found himself standing beneath Legolas’s balcony just as the sun began to set.  Once more raised voices drifted from the room.  He smiled inwardly as Legolas shouted, “Get out, you Mumakil!”  Voices raised in protest.

     “Legolas Thranduilion, get back in that bed!”

     “Valar, stay still!”

     “Mithien, block the door!”

     “Stop shoving me, you moth!”

     “I order you all to leave,” Legolas shouted again.  “So help me, I will demote you all and have you working with the Elflings if you do not go!”

     Less wise, more dangerous, Aragorn laughed to himself, remembering the description of Wood-elves he had been brought up upon.  He went inside with the intention of rescuing Legolas again.  He met the twins on the stairs.  They were laughing at the shouting that could be clearly heard.  The three ended up dragging more tea-drenched Elves from the room.  Elladan and Elrohir hustled the Wood-elves down the hall. 

     With the door safely shut, Aragorn looked for Legolas.  The Wood-elf prince stood in the middle of the room,  leaning heavily on a table as he panted to catch his breath. 

     “I believe that Elrond meant for you to drink the tea, not throw it on your warriors,” Aragorn said dryly.

     Legolas grunted.  “If he did not want me to throw the tea, he would not have given it to me.  It is my only weapon, and he well knows it.”  He limped heavily out to the balcony and sank into the settee.  “Another beautiful sunset, Estel.”  Aragorn followed him to the balcony.

     “I am leaving Imladris tomorrow, Legolas,” he said.  “In my jealousy I did not expect to find a friend in you, but you have left me no choice in the matter.  I wanted to say thank you and farewell before I left.”

     Legolas stared deep into Aragorn’s eyes.  “It will be good for you,” he said at last.  “You are young, even for a Man, yet when I look into your eyes I see great things that you will accomplish.  Know this: should you seek aid from the Wood-elves, you shall find it, as much as we can give.  You have my favor, therefore you have my lord’s.  Still, take care to travel only on the Old Forest Road, for otherwise you shall become lost and may be looked upon as an enemy, for my people are suspicious, and rightly so.”

     The Wood-elf laughed.  “I see in your eyes the same determination that burns in my heart.  I know that to rid my woods of the Enemy, I must fight the Enemy.  I fight it every day until sometimes I forget what I am fighting for.  Then I see the things I love the best: my adar; my brother and his family; even Anor’s setting.  Therefore, I have hope that someday the woods will be cleansed and that my brother’s children, indeed, every child, will dwell in safety.  I have hope that the lines around my adar’s face will smooth away  It gives me strength to go out one more day.  I have hope, and even when my strength fails, I know I will win this fight.  Never lose your hope, son of Arathorn, for then you will lose everything.”

     “Now,” said Legolas, turning his attention to the sky, “pretend you are a Wood-elf and enjoy the sunset with me.”  He began to sing, but this song was not the mournful tune of the previous evening.  It had words and was of the beauty of the gold sunset.

     The next day Aragorn bid farewell to all those within Elrond’s house whom he loved.  Then he departed and went into the wild.  As for more of the tale of Aragorn and Arwen, is it not told in the Annals of the Kings and Rulers?

***

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