Chapter Two

Legolas followed Aragorn for three days. He was careful to stay far enough behind him so that Aragorn never knew he was there. If Aragorn had wanted to cover his tracks, Legolas would never have been able to follow him so easily. But luckily, Aragorn’s mind wasn’t on making sure he couldn’t be followed. Toward the end of the third day, Legolas followed Aragorn to a small village. Legolas stopped his horse and watched as Aragorn approached a house near the edge of the woods.

As Aragorn dismounted, a young man of about ten years of age came running from around the side of the house.

“Aragorn!”

Legolas’ acute hearing easily picked up the shout as the boy threw himself at Aragorn. Legolas watched as Aragorn caught the boy, then set him back down and teasingly ruffled his hair. Legolas was far enough away that only keen Elven sight would have been able to make out any details of the boy’s appearance. Legolas drew in a sharp breath as he noticed a marked resemblance to Aragorn. The boy’s eyes were brown, not grey like Aragorn’s, but his coloring and the mop of unruly hair almost convinced him that he was looking at a younger Aragorn.

Legolas looked up as a woman with long brown hair and brown eyes that matched the boy’s walked out of the house. Aragorn smiled at the woman as she walked toward him and the boy. She draped her arm around the boy’s shoulders, and leaned in to accept the quick kiss that Aragorn bestowed upon her cheek. Aragorn spoke quietly to her and she nodded her head in response to whatever he had said. She left the two of them and went back into the house while Aragorn and the boy took care of his horse. Aragorn removed the saddle and brushed down the horse, all the while carrying on a lively conversation with the boy. Once the horse was taken care of, Aragorn picked up his travel bags and he and the boy went into the house.

Legolas turned his horse back into the woods to make camp for the night. His mind was whirling with the implications of what he had just seen. All the while he was preparing for the night, one thought tumbled through his mind. Aragorn had a son. Aragorn had a son that he hadn’t told Legolas about. The thought hurt Legolas more than he would have thought possible.

Legolas heard the words that Aragorn had said to him before embarking on this trip. ‘Perhaps you do not know me as well as you believe.’ Legolas slowly shook his head in disbelief. If Aragorn had truly kept the existence of a son a secret for ten years, then he had never really known the man. The Aragorn that he knew would never hide a son from his friends. He might hide him away to keep him from his enemies, but he would have told Legolas and the twins. He would not have been able to keep such a thing a secret. Legolas pondered the puzzle he had stumbled across. More of his earlier conversation filtered into his mind. ‘This trip is about facing my mistakes.’ Would Aragorn truly ever be able to consider a son a mistake? Legolas thought about what he had seen today. Aragorn seemed to get along well with the boy. He felt sure that Aragorn would never consider a child of his to be a mistake.

Perhaps he had had a falling out with the boy’s mother and losing the two of them was the mistake that Aragorn had referred to. But that didn’t seem right, either. The woman had seemed pleased to see Aragorn. Legolas saw no sign of anger between them. What else could he have been referring to? He had mentioned a mistake and a burden that only he could carry. Maybe it had to do with Arwen? Legolas knew that Aragorn loved Arwen and no other woman. Maybe in a moment of weakness he had gotten involved with a woman he didn’t love, and the boy was the result. It did not happen often among elves, but Legolas knew that men were more prone to act on passing emotions. And ten years ago, Aragorn would not yet have been thirty. He had been rather impulsive at that age. Legolas thought that it might not be unreasonable to assume that Aragorn might have been involved with another woman if he had despaired that he and Arwen would never be able to wed. At that point in time, Arwen would barely acknowledge her feelings for Aragorn. She had been trying to save them both from repeating the tale of Beren and Lúthien. If Aragorn now felt that his association with this woman was a mistake, he might not have told Legolas and the twins in an attempt to keep Arwen from finding out.

That reasoning made so much sense that Legolas found himself nodding as he saw the puzzle pieces falling into place. It would fit the conversation that he had had with Aragorn earlier, and also Aragorn’s moodiness when he was unable to travel here at his usual time.

But then Legolas shook his head in disgust that he would even think that of Aragorn. The Aragorn that he knew would not hide a child away in shame simply because he had gotten involved with the wrong woman. Aragorn was such an open, loving person that he would never be able to live with only seeing his child once a year. Then Legolas heard Aragorn’s voice once again. ‘Perhaps you do not know me as well as you believe.’

He began to doubt his surety that he knew what Aragorn was or was not capable of, and the cycle started all over again in his mind. Throughout the long watches of the night, his thoughts ran in circles, and he was unable to seek the solace of sleep.