Predictably they caught a chill from their dousing
in icy snowmelt. It started with Meleth sneezing over
her supper. By the next morning Estel and Amin were
also looking rather pink and feverish and by midday
Hallam was coughing and Berya sniffling and it was
clear all five had come down with cold.

   "And what else can we expect with them kept
standing in wet clothes for hours on end?" Nuneth*1
grumbled, moving down the line of boys popping
spoonfuls of honeyed syrup into one obediently opened
mouth after another. "Whatever was Lord Elrond
thinking?"

   "Of the treasure of Elendil spread over the grass I
should think." Grandmother retorted, shook her head.
"Poor Elrond."

   "You have been rather trying recently." Aunt Ellian
told her daughter mildly, as she and Aunt Gilraen
tucked the girls snugly into bed.

   "We don't mean to be naughty." Berya answered.

   "At least not usually." Meleth added honestly,
making her Grandmother laugh.

   "Well they won't be getting into any more scrapes,"
Nuneth said, briskly herding the boys bedward, "not
for a while at any rate."

   They were ordered to stay in bed, with braziers in
their rooms for warmth, and given honeyed syrup for
coughs, which was nice, and willow bark tea for fever,
which was nasty. Uncle let them off lessons but they
recieved a constant stream of callers, bearing fruit
and comfits and cordials, ready and willing to tell
stories, sing songs and play riddle games to the
delight of the children, the resigned amusement of
their Mothers and Grandmother and the annoyance of
their Nannies.

   "Sometimes I think Elves have no sense at all."
Iorwen*2 told Gilraen crossly, arms full of
confiscated treats.

   Estel's mother smiled, a little ruefully. "I know.
We must be patient with them, they're worried about
the children."

   The Elves always worried when the children were
ill, knowing as they did that Mortals sometimes died
of sickness and not quite grasping the difference
between a cold and the plague. Uncle, of course, knew
better but he was only Halfelven and had lived as a
Man long ago when he was very young. But the rest,
even Elladan and Elrohir, were not completely
reassured even though these children, (and previous
generations of Heirs) had survived innumerable minor
ailments in the past.

   It may have been the stories and songs, or the
comfits and sugared fruit, that brought on the dreams.
Berya, shaken abruptly out of hers in the grey light
before dawn, took several moments to remember where
she was and recognize Estel and the other boys.

   "What are you doing out of bed?"

   "Never mind that," said Hallam and climbed up onto
the bed with the younger boys, settling themselves at
the foot. "we just had the strangest dream."

   "The same one," put in Estel, "all three of us."

   "Really?" said Berya, waking up a little more and
becoming interested. "A True Dream?" *3

   "I don't see how it could be." Hallam answered,
frowning. "We were all in it, Estel, Amin and me -"

   "And our father too." Amin put in.

   "And we fought a huge army of orcs outside a city -"

   "City?" this time it was Berya who interupted. "We
don't have cities any more."

   "I know. And we were wearing armour and flying the
banner of the High King."

   "Don't forget the ships." Amin piped up. "We came
to the battle on ships with black sails."

   "And I had a sword," said Estel, looking troubled,
"I *think* it was Narsil."

   "It must have been a battle from the olden times."
Berya guessed. "Maybe from the War of the Last
Alliance."

   "I don't think so." Hallam shook his head. "We were
us, just grown up, and *Father* was there."

   "And Elladan and Elrohir," said Estel, "and an
Elf-lady, I think she was their sister Arwen." he
turned pink. "She kissed me."

   "Who kissed you?" Meleth asked sleepily and the
boys had to tell their story all over again.

   "Why would Lady Arwen kiss you?" she asked her
brother when they'd finished.

   Estel shrugged helplessly. "I don't know."

   "Where would we get an army from? And what city
were we fighting for?" Hallam demanded. "None of it
makes sense."

   "Maybe it's not a True Dream then, even if you all
had it." Berya said. "I was dreaming about a battle
too when you woke me up."

   "Our battle?"

   "No a different one. We were fighting Stone Trolls
and Orcs mounted on Great Wolves, in the Ettinmoors I
think, an army of Rangers - but we were all got up in
armour like the suits from the treasure, and flying
the banners of Elendil and of Rhudaur."

   "Rangers don't fight battles like that." Estel
reminded her. "Maybe *you* were dreaming about the old
times - the wars of Queen Beruthiel" *4

   "Can't have been." she shook her head decisively.
"There were two Men, twins, riding with me and they
called me mother. Beruthiel never had any children."

   "That's even stranger than our dream." said Amin.
"What about you, Meleth, did you dream about a battle
too?"

   "Ye-es." she said slowly, forehead wrinkled in
concentration. "But it wasn't up north, or outside a
city. It was at the foot of the Misty Mountains and
Orcs and Cave Trolls were boiling out of the ground
from a hundred different holes. But it was an army
like Berya's, Rangers dressed up in armour, and I was
riding next to Tithorn *5 under the banner of
Cardolan."

   There was a brief silence as they puzzled over
this. "If they are True Dreams," Hallam said at last,
"It means when we grow up the Dunedain stop hiding and
fight our enemies in the open again."

   Everybody looked at Estel. As Chieftain such a
decision would necessarily be his. "Maybe that wasn't
a good idea." he said. "Maybe the dreams were meant as
a warning."

   "Anyway it's not going to happen for years and
years if I had grown up sons. So get back to your own
beds before you get caught and we all get into
trouble!" said Berya.
    ********************************************

1. Nuneth is Estel and Meleth's Nanny, and was
Gilraen's before that. She's in her nineties, but
doesn't look a day over forty at the most.

2. Iorwen is Berya's Nanny, and was the nurse for Lady
Ellemir's three children as well. She is one hundred
and forty-two and begining to show signs of age; grey
hair, wrinkles, etc.

3. All Dunedain have episodes of fore and farsight, it
is considered quite normal. Sometimes 'seeings' come
as sudden inspirations or sometimes as dreams. A 'True
Dream' is thus a dream that is also a seeing.

4. Queen Beruthiel was the last ruler of the Kingdom
of Rhudaur, and Berya's namesake. She kept the Witch
King at bay for fifty years.

5. Tithorn, 'Little Eagle' is the child name of
Belecthor, Berya's elder brother and Meleth's future
husband.

Note: Estel, Amin and Hallam are obviously dreaming
about the Battle of Pelannor Field, Hallam, Amin and
their father Halbarad are among the thirty Rangers who
come south to aid Aragorn during the War of the Ring.
Elladan, Elrohir and Arwen, (In my AU) are also part of their company.

   Berya and Meleth are having previsions of the
battles that will rage in Eriador at about the same
time. The Dunedain will be called upon to repell
invasions from the former Witch Kingdom of Angmar in
the North and from the Orcs of Mount Gundabad and
Moria.