Dawnstar and Friend

Miriel’s POV
Over the next few days, Aragorn is occupied doing King things.
The morning after the battle dawned rather dankly, though it beat the dawnless days that preceded it.
Ginny, the twins, Legolas, Gimli, and I stayed together.
Part way through the day, Legolas went off to mope while getting us lunch and the twins grinned at Ginny and I and asked us a question which confused our Dwarf friend.
“Shall we tell him yet? It is not like it serves any useful purpose anymore.” My charming human friend gets an evil grin on her face and answers first,
“How about not telling him, but letting him know another way?” The twins seem to think this suggestion is highly amusing.
After we have eaten our lunch, the twins contrive some method of convincing Legolas into going into our tent.
When he goes, we sneak after him, Gimli in tow, now totally confused.
When he enters the tent he stops stock still. Then we hear a cry and him rushing forward.
His reaction to what he finds is more than amusing and we take Gimli off somewhere to explain, not to mention laughing so much that we almost wet ourselves.
Legolas’ POV
Once the battle is over and I have rested, my grief returns again. The only hope is that the end of the war seems near and I will either be able to fade or sail.
After lunch, the twins get me to go to a tent, which they give me directions too.
When I enter I see a young female, facing away from me and wearing only a tunic.
I notice she has very nice legs, and then want to kill myself for noticing her physical features when I have lost the love of my life such a short time ago.
Then she straightens up and I see that she has the same red/gold/brown hair as my beloved, a colour I had thought unique to her.
Then she turns round...
Eleanor’s POV
I had bent over for some reason when I felt someone enter the tent.
I was only wearing my tunic, on the general assumption that Miriel and Ginny would be the only ones entering, and I would not be leaving.
I stand up straight again and turn round.
My jaw suddenly feels the pull of gravity rather more strongly than usual.
In other words, my jaw drops to around floor level.
I am too shocked to pick it up again.
In front of me is my fiancé.
I suddenly have this feeling my friends may need killing slowly and painfully.
Legolas is gaping at me in shock.
When he finally gets over his shock, he almost runs to me, takes me in his arms and spins me round in delight.
When he puts me down, he kisses me senseless.
Eventually he is able to speak and asks the obvious question, what the hell??
So I explain.
I explain to him that what Galadriel had told me not to tell him about the discovery of the other side about me, how it was decided that the only thing possible to do, which would lessen the general loss of life, was to fake my death.
I explain to him how it was necessary for him to believe me dead because he was on the quest, what I was doing once I left Lorien and how I masqueraded as a male again while with the Dunedan, and finally I speculate that those who knew decided that there was no point to him not knowing anymore so obviously had decided to let him know.
Once he knows why he was told I was dead, he kisses me senseless again for a while, before releasing me and making sure I know how much he loves me.
Like I hadn’t guessed already.
Eventually he stops long enough for me to get my leggings on.
He does spend all the time I am dressing giving me appreciative looks though, apparently he thinks I have attractive legs.
We decide that I will remain playing a guy, but he will ride near me, partly because Nyx doesn’t seem to want to leave me again, but mostly because he doesn’t want to let me out of his sight.
He doesn’t make the mistake of trying to keep me from riding to the Black Gate though.
I think he realises that him trying to do that would be a very bad idea.
He does tell me that he would rather me stay in Gondor than ride to the Black Gate. I point out that, if they fail at the Black Gate, Gondor probably would not be safe anymore and that I would rather die beside him fighting than what would befall me if I stayed in Minas Tirith.
We stay together that night, me curled in his arms, though once again we don’t do anything improper, partly because this is also Miriel and Ginny’s tent and they return for the night.
Because all three of us are presently passing for blokes, the fact that Legolas stayed in our tent is mostly unnoticed.
The Dunedan we are with know who we are so we do get a few raised eyebrows from them, though they also know I am engaged to Legolas and the fact that there were two other upstanding females with us most of the time counted as suitably chaperoned, so raised eyebrows was all we got.
Legolas sleeping in our tent got to be a habit as we rode out. We both slept better when we were together, though we never got passed 1st base.
A day or two after we left, Aragorn decided to let the high command in on who us girls actually were, him having been filled in by Halbarad after the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, who agreed with the twins that keeping secret my identity from a select few was not such a good idea.
The high command being Eomer, Halbarad, Imrahil (he looked a lot less cute now), Gandalf, Imrahil’s sons, the twins, and the remains of the Fellowship.
We opted against telling Imrahil and any others there that Ginny had been his midwife when he was born and little details like that. She, after all, did look not even 30, though close.
When we entered the command tent, or HQ as Ginny and I called it, and dropped our hoods the looks on those who didn’t know who we were was highly amusing.
The youngest son of Imrahil, Amrothos I think, looked at Ginny in a way that suggested something other than platonic interest - fat chance mate, she’s a little too old for you; she’s older than your dad, by a large number of years.
I think the men-folk were a little surprised by just how good we were. Aragorn and Halbarad, not to mention the twins, seemed quite amused by the looks of the humans of the southerly regions.
Over the next few days, we help with the battle strategy, the stuff Ginny and I give is slightly tainted by foreknowledge though, not that this is a bad thing.
There is something else to keep us amused though...
I was right about Amrothos, he is definitely interested. He takes every opportunity to flirt with Ginny and spends large amounts of time trying to convince my human friend to show at least some interest in him.
Ginny is obviously horrified by this, something that spurs the youngest Prince of Dol Amroth on in his quest, I am sure.
In the evenings, when we retire, she expresses her horror vocally, much to the amusement of Miriel, Legolas, and I.
“I’m old enough to be his grandmother, for crying out loud!” and variations on that theme are very common. Thankfully all complaints are said in Sindarin, a language that, despite him technically having been taught since childhood, Amrothos hasn’t mastered. There is also the useful fact that the version that the version of Sindarin spoken in Gondor has actually morphed slightly so pure elvish takes a certain amount of concentration for the southern humans to understand.
This results in the fact that Ginny can complain as much as she likes, because the Gondorians and other people we don’t want to understand cannot, no matter how close they are.
After a while, Miriel and I get an evil idea.
Despite Ginny’s objections to the match, we feel like making it happen.
If age is her main objection then she probably will never find a husband, most Dunedan have married by her age and she has known most of them since they were tiny too.
It goes downhill for her after that.
Ginny’s POV
It’s so nice to be able to talk to Ellie again! Though obviously, as we’re still pretending to men, we only do so in private.
I was a little worried that our plan wouldn’t succeed and that Ellie would be killed anyway. However, that is all in the past now and we can get on with our lives.
Our lives at this point being our journey with the Host of the West.
It’s 20th March and we have been riding with the Host of the West for two days; we are currently on our way north towards the Black Gate.
Aragorn has just been told the whole of our story from when we were in Lorien up to the Pelennor Fields. Needless to say, he was slightly miffed at not being let in on the plan sooner, but he also understood when we explained our reasons.
He has also decided that it is only fair that the rest of the high command are also informed of our true identities.
I must say we let everyone know with suitable aplomb – we merely enter the HQ tent behind Aragorn and drop our hoods. For added affect I also release my hair from its bun, letting it cascade down my back.
The bug-eyed, open-mouthed looks of everyone present is matched only by us when we’re introduced to the now-a-hell-of-a-lot-older Prince Imrahil and his three sons.
We girls exchange horrified looks, silently agreeing that we would most definitely not be telling anyone present my real age. It would make life here just a little too awkward, especially as Prince Amrothos keeps looking at me in a very interested way.
I think I can safely say that I won’t be reciprocating those feelings. God, I’m older enough to be his grandmother and, by rights, I should have been six-feet-under years ago. Back in our old world, I baulked at dating guys five years younger.
No! No! Definitely not! It’s giving me the shivers just thinking about it.
Amrothos, however, is very persistent. I spend the next few days trying to avoid and ignore him as much as possible. I’m hoping that the ignore-and-eventually-they’ll-take-the-hint-and-leave-me-in-peace strategy actually works this time.
Consequently, I become very much absorbed by our strategies, staring fixedly at the maps. I also make sure I’m always sitting in between people when next to a fire so Amrothos can’t sit beside me. When I’m with friends, I try to engage them in loud conversation, hoping that Amrothos won’t but in. The so-called ‘friends’, however, seem to find my behaviour incredibly amusing and seem to have taken to almost encouraging Amrothos in his quest, despite my abject protestations.
I’m too polite to actually express my feelings openly during the day, so I wait until night and we’ve all retired to our tents until I let off steam. I also make sure that I speak only in Sindarin at these times.
In spite of all this, I can’t help feeling ever so slightly excited when Amrothos actually succeeds in getting me on my own and talking to me. I mean, it’s the first time since arriving in Middle Earth that I’ve been flirted with and the male has actually meant it.
I would never tell anyone this, but I sometimes lie awake at night and think about what Amrothos has said. It will not be amounting to anything, that you can be sure of. But, for now, I’m just going to enjoy myself. After all, I do deserve it...