In Memorium

A/N: Am thinking of Beregond today, for some reason. This is too long for a drabble and too short for a story, and unfinished at best, but...

In Peoples of Middle-earth J.R.R. Tolkien writes that Beregond had another son besides Bergil, who was alive during the Siege of Gondor, and so this story, which takes place between "The Last Debate" and "The Black Gate Opens", reflects that.

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'Captain Faramir said you wished to see me,' the man who might be King said with a quizzical look at the man in plain black-and-white who stood before him. 'Make fast the tent flap behind you, that our words might go no further.'

'Sir, thank you, sir,' Beregond stammered, complying, and the silence stretched between them until he took courage to speak again. 'If I might be allowed to go out with the armies of the West when you march...'

'But your place is here,' Aragorn said in patent surprise.

Beregond shook his head. 'I was a guardsman of the Citadel,' he said, 'but that no longer, and marked for death in any event, whether this War be lost or won. If I might go to the battle...'

'And leave your sons behind...?'

The man's face twisted briefly before he regained himself. 'It seems that I must leave them whether I will or no,' he said, 'and this is the better way. Better for them to think of their father dead in battle, than hanged in disgrace.'

Aragorn studied the man before him. Proud, as all the men of Gondor were, and yet humbling himself, for the sake of his sons' pride... Not quite begging, but...

'If my Lord please,' Beregond said, his hands fisting by his side, 'let me bear a burden, if need be; I'll walk with the pack-beasts...'

'That won't be necessary,' Aragorn said with a firm nod. He trusted Faramir's judgment in this and other matters.

[Bergil] was also downcast; for his father was to march leading a company of the Men of the City: he could not rejoin the Guard until his case was judged.