- Mid-Winter SR 2956 -
The inhabitants of Rivendell had outdone themselves this Mid-winter with Gandalf and Elemir as guests and all the children of Rivendell, including Estel home for Mid-winter. Elladan, Elrohir and Estel were rarely at home for any celebrations now, except by coincidence. Their tasks took them far from home for long periods of time. To make up for these long absences, they had gone into frenzy of planning and preparations. There would be dancing in the terraces; poetry and story telling in the Hall of Fire; and general merry-making in all corners of the House of Elrond.
As the first stars appear on the horizon, Estel dutifully danced the first dance with his mother before surrendering her to Elemir. With a little strategic shuffling, he had managed to claim Arwen for the fourth dance from Elrohir. Though they spoke of little consequence, Estel had extracted a promise from her to meet in the Hall of Fire a little after midnight. Then, he made a strategic retreat and surrendered her to Glorfindel for the next dance.
His duties done, Estel made his way to the banquet hall. Colourful lanterns of wood, wire, coloured cloth and glass hung in every nook and cranny. This year, the lantern theme was flowers. Estel found his chambers had been decorated with little daisy lanterns. The corridors were hung with lily lanterns. The masterpiece, a chandelier shaped like sunflower of crystal and wire, hung in the banquet hall, throwing sparking lights on long tables laden with food.
Under this magnificent rainbow lights, Estel eyed the piles of honey cakes. Though Estel had grown four times taller, Cook still rapped him with her wooden ladle every time she caught him stealing honey cakes from the kitchen. But not before she made sure he had one or two safely tucked into his pockets. Gilraen had complained of the crumbs, but she could not break him out of his habit. Cook had over-estimated his appetite this time and baked three times more than usual. Most of which had survived his predations. Estel loaded a plate with honey cakes, snagged a bottle of wine and made his way to the Houses of Healing.
Gwathdir and Mallor exchanged knowing looks as Estel entered with honey cakes and wine. Estel and honey cakes had become stuff of legends among the Rangers. Gilbarad even claimed that he could tell how long ago Estel had left Rivendell by how crumpled the cakes were in his packs. In his childhood, any Ranger that entered Rivendell had been treated with a cake or two from his pockets for the price of a story. It seemed Estel had not grown out of his childhood tendency. They talked long into the night, mostly news of home and family. Ever and anon, Estel would steer them to this or that Ranger.
Just before midnight, he helped Tirril move the Rangers to the Hall of Fire. As he arranged a pillow under Mallor's splinted leg, he heard a single clear voice rose in song.
A Elbereth Gilthoniel,
silivren penna míriel
o menel aglar elenath!
Na-chaered palan-díriel
o galadhremmin ennorath,
Fanuilos, le linnathon
nef aear, sí nef aearon
As Arwen finished the night's opening Hymn to Elbereth, Estel remembered himself and prepared to slip off. But he was forestalled by Lindir and found himself reciting the Ainulindalë with Arwen and Lindir singing the accompaniments. Even the best laid plans can go astray, he thought, as he resigned to the inevitable. For many hours, Arwen and Estel filled insatiable elvish appetite for music, poetry and tales, amid the good natured teasing of his old tutors testing him on his lessons. He found himself blushing when he sang a part of the Lay of Lúthien which tells of the meeting of Lúthien and Beren; and was glad for the dimness of the hall.
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"Estel."
Estel looked up from the chessboard to find Elemir at the door of the sitting room.
"Excuse us, ladies, I must steal Estel from you for the rest of the evening."
Gilraen smiled and nodded graciously while Arwen eyed Estel speculatively. "It seems I am saved by Lord Elemir this time, Estel."
"My lady, I will have you begging for mercy tomorrow." Estel grinned cheekily.
"Perhaps you will offer unconditional surrender," came the rejoinder. "Until tomorrow."
As they strode down the corridor, Elemir turned a puzzled look to Estel. "What does she mean? She'd have captured your king in 3 moves."
"Yes, but I would have won anyway. She has lost three quarters of her army. But I still have my officers -- generals and knights -- and most of my pawns." Estel gave him a crooked smile. "We play by another rule, my lord. For every two pieces lost, the loser may promote one of his ranks, if there is opening. And it must be done immediately after losing the second piece. Is it not similar in a real army?"
"Would you sacrifice or risk your King so easily?"
"Aye, though in this game, I would lose half my pieces if the King is lost. But the King is also the biggest, juiciest pawn. Such irresistible temptation I shall dangle before my formidable opponent."
For the rest of the night, they spoke of the plans to the South. Elemir had quickly agreed to his suggestions of a party of four and three of his choice of men. Two of them had gone as far as Gondor before and one could speak Rohirric. And for the final choice ...
"I cannot allow this, Estel. It is foolish to tempt fate this way. The Enemy is looking for you, looking for the Heirs of Isildur; and you want to knock on his back door?" Elemir had objected to Estel being the fourth, just as he had predicted.
"I am not so reckless as that. With Gwaithdir and Mallor still recovering, there is no one else. Hallas and Baranor are too young and inexperienced."
"Send for Gilbarad. He would have just left Weathertop."
"He would have left Weathertop a three days ago. It will take two weeks to reach Weathertop and another week or more to find him. If we leave now, Elladan can reach Sarn Ford in two weeks and send Halorn to meet me. Elladan will remain in there until Hallas and Gwaithdir can relieve him. And I can go by Eregion to find the others and continue south to the appointed place in Enedwaith." Estel looked up solemnly to Elemir. How will Elemir oppose his reasoning. Will he propose a more expedient plan that will somehow exclude Estel.
While Elrond no longer had any say to Estel's comings and goings after he had come of age, Elemir was his commander. He may have pulled rank as the Lord of the Dunedain and ordered Elemir to allow him to go; but Estel, being Estel, would not invoke his privilege without taking the mantle of responsibility that would make his request impossible. He was a lowly warrior and he would state his case as such.
"And who would see to your duties while you play truant, Estel?"
"My lord, this had been Halladan's duty till you gave me this charge. Surely he had not forgotten in six short months. And he is now in Haremyn, seeing to it that I did not make too many mistakes with my latest assignments. I hope he gives you favourable reports on the level of my competence."
"Estel ..." Elemir was taken aback. He had not realised that Estel might have guessed that Halladan and his other senior officers would assess and report his progress to Elemir. Certainly Estel had not given any sign or spoke of this before.
"Uncle, please. I know I am young and inexperienced. But I am not stupid. I have not walk in the wild alone and failed to learn caution. And I will not fail you in this. The Enemy has no reason to believe the line of Elendil is still alive. And I will give him no reason to think otherwise." Estel hoped that Elemir would not ask him to reduce the company to three. In unknown or hostile territory, the scouts work best in a company of four, working in relays of two pairs. While not impossible, it would bring unnecessary risk to the men.
After what seemed an age of silence, Elemir sighed heavily. He thought back to the long conversation he had with Elrond and Gilraen the night before. Someday, sooner or later, he would have to let Estel go. Into great danger, into probable death. Eriador had grown too small to contain him. Gilraen had resigned herself to his destiny when she had let him ride with Elladan and Elrohir. Like all the women of the Dunedain, she was familiar with the long uncertain absences of father, brother, husband or son. Elrond also, had relinquished his authority over Estel when he reached manhood and came under Elemir's custody. But neither of them have to face the possibility that should Estel die without an heir, Elemir would have to take his place. He would have to allow Estel to go, as he should to any aspiring young lieutenant that came to him with such careful planning. But he was still the Captain and it was his duty to temper such audacity with prudence.
"Very well, Estel. You may go, but with one condition." And Elemir told him his condition. "Agreed?"
"Agreed."
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In January of Third Age 2957, Estel took leave of his mother, Elrond, Arwen and the folk of Rivendell to begin his errantry. Gandalf went with him on the first leg of his journey. And three other Ranger scouts followed him as he crossed the Gap of Rohan and left Eriador for the first time.
- The End -
(Continue in "A wind in the meadow")
Response to Reviewers :
This has be the hardest chapter to write so far. Originally, the story goes from the Council directly to Aragorn leaving Rivendell in two short paragraphs. But I suddenly realised I've been setting up the Mid-winter earlier and have not dealt with the issue between Elemir, Aragorn and his duties satisfactorily. I hope a little light-hearted moments would show some of the life Aragorn is leaving behind as well as establishing his youth and current standing. This chapter seems to have a lot of OCs. Guess I'm just dropping names for now.
Also, to all the reviewers, thank you for your support and feedback.
I have considered Kathira's comments. You're right, of course, I write the original in MS Word and convert it to HTML with links to and from the footnote. But FFnet seems to reject my cool links. I'm rather new at this and haven't quite found a good or suitable format to use. Anyway, I've decided to just list the OCs and conjectures. The list of age and canon characters will be reintroduced as and when we meet them in the story. We'll see how the new format works out.
Kirani, I can't say anything now. Wait till next chapter, ok?
Now, I have come to a dilemma. Continue with Chapter 5 or start a new story? This is the first logical ending, to figuratively get Aragorn out of the door. And originally, this was the ending of Chapter 1! So, I think I should end this story here and start a new story that deals with Aragorn in Rohan. I don't like too many chapters and I estimated that the next section could run between 10 to 20 chapters. Then again, I'm a disorganised writer and I don't really know how many thousands of words it'll take me to the next closure. Don't worry. I know where I'm going, I just don't know how lengthy the road and the detours along the way.
Notes :
1. Although Elrond loved Aragorn as a son and Aragorn looked to Elrond as a father figure, Elrond did not openly adopt him. Changed 'children of Elrond' to 'children of Rivendell'.
2. List of OCs :
Gwathdir - (Shadow watcher), ranger of Eriador.
Mallor - ranger of Eriador.
Gilbarad - (Star tower), ranger of Eriador.
Tirril - Elven healer.
Hallas - (Tall Leaf), young Ranger of Eriador.
Baranor - (Sun-home), young Ranger of Eriador.
3. Conjecture - Gandalf did mention chess in Minas Tirith. But I don't think Middle-Earth have anything called a Bishop in it. Also, got too carried away about A&A setting their own rules to the game. :P
4. Was originally going to have them meet in Tharbad, but the place had been devastated and abandoned. Also flat, fen and boggy. Not a good meeting place.
5. Conjecture - Elemir is currently the Captain of the Northern Dunedain, as well as Acting Chieftain. As Captain, he is Aragorn's commanding officer. While Aragorn is currently on the fast track to Captaincy, he still has to work through the ranks. Chieftain is a hereditary title. Captain is a Military rank. It is customary for the Heirs to work their way to Captaincy. And perhaps retired from active duty when they take up more administrative duties of a Chieftain. Arador and Arathorn's early and close deaths have caused a void in their ranks.
6. Haremyn - (South Hills) One of the Arnorian settlements in the South Downs. Conjecture - The Northern Dunedain lived in hidden secret places. So have chosen area near South Downs, between East-West Road, Greenway and Hoarwell (Mitheithel), where there wasn't any major road, but nearby Rivendell, Bree, Shire, Sarn Ford and Tharbad. Made an error earlier. Fornost in the North Downs is abandoned, though the Rangers go there from time to time.