Dawnstar and Friend

Ginny’s POV
It’s light again when I wake, Nyx, Ellie, and Legolas are sitting by the fire, but Amrothos has gone.
I sit up and Amrothos’ warm velvet cloak slips off me. I hold it in my hands, stroking the rich material.
“Where’s Amrothos?”
“He’s gone to change,” answers Ellie. She points in the direction of some tents which had been temporarily set up for people to freshen up in before we moved from the battlefield.
“Amrothos?” I call as I approach.
He sticks his head out of one the tent flaps, eyes widening when he sees me. I follow him inside.
Amrothos stands there with his muscular chest bared. Usually, I would be thinking how very well built he is, but now I feel myself going hot and can’t bring myself to look into his eyes.
“Here’s your cloak... thank you...” I say in a husky voice and pass it to him.
I turn to leave, but Amrothos takes hold of my hand. My heart flutters at his touch.
“Don’t go yet...” He also whispers, it sounds as though he’s pleading. This time I do withdraw my hand.
“I must I... have to help moving the wounded.”
“But you’re wounded yourself.”
“They need as many healers as they can get... thank you again for lending me your cloak.”
I then walk out and away from the tent, trying not to look back as I can feel Amrothos’ eyes on me.
I try to avoid Amrothos as much as I can after that, it’s not that I don’t like him or anything, but I’m just nervous about what will happen, especially after the way I reacted to him before.
At least our task is diverting. Trust me, when you move countless injured and then still more dead, you will not be able to think of anything else.
The injured we took to the more permanent camp on the Field of Cormallen, the dead we buried in mass graves.
It was horrible moving all those dead bodies, especially when we found one of the Grey Company. Whenever I found someone with their eyes still open, I’d try to close them, but the rigor mortis was still too powerful so I usually covered their faces with whatever I could find.
Cormallen is surrounded by woodland and this is where I go that evening. After being surrounded by all that death and suffering, I need somewhere to think.
I soon find a clearing with a stream running through it. I remove my boots and dip my toes into the water. It’s very cold so I soon withdraw my feet and slip them back into my boots.
I then get the feeling that I’m no longer alone. Turning round, I see Amrothos standing a few feet away.
He walks over to me, he comes so close that I can hear his deep breaths – they sound as though he is trying to steady himself. I make to step back, but he catches my waist, holding me fast. I’m suddenly very nervous; I find myself taking my own steadying breaths.
Amrothos leans forward and whispers in my ear,
“You’re not running away this time.”
He looks briefly into my eyes before kissing me full on the lips.
I’m so astonished that I gasp; the action allows Amrothos to slide his tongue into my mouth. He has closed his eyes and is gently caressing my waist and back with his hands.
I, however, remain immobile. My mind is in a whirl, the only thought registering is: ‘huh?’
At my lack of response, Amrothos stops and withdraws his mouth and hands. There is a hurt, questioning look in his eyes. He turns and begins to walk away.
Now the only thought running about my head is: ‘Why did you stop? Come back!’
I run up behind him and catch his hand; he doesn’t turn so I forcefully jerk him around.
One hand I place on his back, the other I bring up to the back of his head and stroke his thick, dark hair. There is complete silence; my heart beats hard and fast.
I stop my hand and bring his head down to meet mine.
With my eyes still open, I tentatively kiss his lips.
A slight pause and then we’re kissing and, this time, it’s long and deep with my tongue doing its own exploring, my hands their own caressing. I lose myself in the moment and want for nothing more.
***
We sneak off quite a lot after that; we’ve also agreed to keep our new relationship secret, at least for a little while. For me this is partly because I just want to enjoy our time together, but it’s mostly because of what I know some, Ellie in particular, would say, especially after I made it quite plain that I was not interested in any kind of relationship with Amrothos.
I do hope I’m not setting myself up for a big fall…
One night, a few minutes after Amrothos has left me in the clearing, I get up to also return to the camp. I wander dreamily through the trees, taking a slightly different path than normal. It’s then that I see them.
Miriel and Elrohir are standing under a large pine tree, their hands clasped, their eyes locked lovingly. Elrohir seems to be to saying something, something which makes Miriel blush and her ears flutter in the exact same way Naneth’s had when Ada first asked her to dance with him.
As I watch, Elrohir gently brushes some of Miriel’s golden hair away from behind her ear. He then bends down and kisses the ear’s delicate and sensitive point, these kisses he begins trailing down the side of Miriel’s ear and on to her neck and then her cheek. When he reaches the corner of her mouth, Elrohir stops, obviously waiting. Miriel simply turns her head slightly so that her lips brush against his before she kisses him properly…
Pants – it seems like I owe Ellie some money.
We had had a bet on you see. We were betting on which twin Miriel would finally go for. She has been flirting with both brothers on and off for years now and it was only a matter of time before she decided which one she likes best. I’d thought that she would have gone for Elladan, but it seems she prefers the strong silent type.
I make my way back to the fire. Amrothos smiles brightly up at me, but for once, I don’t return his smile, I just take Ellie by the arm and lead her out of Legolas’ earshot – this is a conversation I definitely do not want him to hear.
When we’re safely in our tent, I whisper to Ellie,
“I’ve just seen Miriel and Elrohir in the woods kissing.”
“Really?!” gasps Ellie, her eyes shining.
“Yes! Oh, you should have seen it, it was so romantic! They were holding hands, he stroked her hair, he kissed her ear and neck...” I sigh dreamily.
“Well I’m glad, it’s about time she actually made her mind up on the subject, which reminds me...”
Ellie looks at me cheekily... oh, god, I do hope she hasn’t spotted me with Amrothos.
“... which twin did you favour?” (Phew!)
I don’t let her see my relief; I just tut and roll my eyes before handing her a small bag of coins.
***
Despite my desire to keep Amrothos and I a secret, something in my behaviour must be showing that something’s up. Whenever we girls are together, we quite often attract jokes (not all of them the least bit original) about triple weddings.
Maybe I’m smiling more to myself, smiling in that way women do when we have such a secret. It’s probably because I hardly show any resistance to Amrothos anymore, whereas before I would have made it plain for all to see that I didn’t want to be near him.
Well, it’s so hard when all I want to do is kiss Amrothos whenever he’s around. He always makes up for it later though...
One night, Ellie and I are summoned to a fire – we’re summoned in Quenya. Uh oh, something must be up.
The others around the fire are Gandalf, Aragorn, Miriel, Legolas, and the twins (Elrohir taking great pains to make sure he’s next to Miriel). Ellie and I are then grilled profusely about our foreknowledge. We tell the listeners as much as we dare to without actually letting them know everything.
Aragorn then looks cheekily at me before making some sideways comment about the fact that there is almost 100 years in age between Amrothos and I. I look quickly (probably too quickly) at him, I hope he thinks my red face has been caused by sitting so close to the fire.
I then make a similar jibe at him for his relative childishness when compared with Arwen’s long years.
The conversation continues in this way for quite a while before it becomes even more childish and we all end up with stitches in our sides from laughing so much, even Gandalf.
The next evening, I again sneak off to the clearing in the woods. It looks particularly beautiful tonight, with the sunset lighting up the sky in a myriad of colours, including a particularly gorgeous shade of purple.
A pair of very familiar arms suddenly and sensually wrap themselves around me. I jump slightly making Amrothos chuckle before he plants a kiss on my neck. I then turn around to face him and nestle briefly against his chest before he kisses me properly.
I’m dancing inside. I feel a fire of passion well up within me. I put my hands about his neck and cling on, not wanting to let go...
A sudden and very unexpected cough behind us breaks over me like a jet of water from a fireman’s hose.
We both jump this time and pull apart.
Ellie is leaning against a tree, a meaningful smile on her face, her eyebrows raised.
If Amrothos and my sudden rise in face temperature is anything to go by, then we’ve both gone lobster-red.
“Dinner’s up, you’ve been missed.”
I can’t help a bit of back-chat,
“Not literally I hope.”
Ellie rolls her eyes before indicating that we should walk back to the camp. Great, I knew something like this would happen.
Ellie being Ellie, she can’t help milking it for all it’s worth and telling everyone around the fire what she had caught us doing – in nauseating detail.
Lucky for her that Amrothos senses my desire to throttle her and clamps his arm around my waist, holding me still. He then gives me one of his deepest kisses. This causes a few wolf-whistles (guess who from), but when we break apart, only Prince Imrahil is still looking. He’s beaming from ear to ear.
Right – I’m most definitely not going to tell him my true age.
Fortunately everyone is distracted from the whole Amrothos-Ginny thing when Frodo and Sam finally wake up.
All the healers have been taking it in turns to sit with the Hobbits whilst they were unconscious and I’m on duty when Sam begins to stir.
I take hold of his hand and speak to him gently. His eyes eventually flutter open and I help him sit up. I give him some water to drink while explaining where he is.
Frodo then begins to stir.
It’s all I can do to keep Sam in bed – all that he’s been through has certainly not lessened his love for his ‘Mr. Frodo’.
Luckily, Aragorn hears voices and comes into the tent. He sits with Frodo while I calm Sam down and then begin to prepare something for the Hobbits to eat.
When both Hobbits are nicely settled, I rush to tell everyone the good news. There is much joy and everyone begins to plan the celebratory feast. Unlike in Tolkien, the feast won’t take place tonight – it will take place in a couple of days once Frodo and Sam are well enough.
When Amrothos arrives back in the camp the next evening (he went away a few days ago – he said he had ‘business’ to attend to), I’m so happy that I throw my arms around him and kiss him, not caring that it’s in full view of everyone.
Once Amrothos has finally got me to stand still and be quiet, he takes my hand and pulls me over to the woods.
Soon we’re surrounded by trees and Amrothos turns to me. His face holds a look that I’ve seen before; he seems very nervous.
He kisses me lightly before... getting down on one knee and holding out a delicate silver ring with a single heart-shaped ruby at its centre...
“My Lady Virginia, will you marry me?”
I can’t speak I’m so overjoyed so I simply nod. Amrothos’ face breaks into the biggest grin I’ve ever seen anyone wear. He takes my left hand and slips the ring on to my middle finger. It gleams brightly in the moonlight.
A whole lot of passionate kissing ensues.
I want to rush off to tell everyone, but Amrothos holds me back, his face suddenly serious.
“No, don’t tell anyone yet, Ginny. I still have to ask my father’s and your guardian’s permission.”
I hang my head. Amrothos brings my face up to meet his and kisses me. I smile weakly at him. Amrothos then produces a long, elegant, silver chain and slips the ring on to the end. When he has finished with the clasp, he gives my neck a single kiss before leading me back to the camp.
The next morning, we girls put on the first gowns we have worn in what feels like an age. I’d almost forgotten how the silken, elfin gowns flow around my body. Despite Amrothos, this is the first time I’ve felt truly feminine in a very long time.
Speaking of Amrothos, I feel unexpectedly nervous – this will be the first time he’s seen me in a gown, but I don’t know why that should make me so shy.
All the men are suitably dumbstruck when we emerge oh so regally from our tent. Amrothos in particular is staring, his mouth slightly open. He is only broken out of his trance when one of his brothers claps him lightly on the shoulder.
It is wonderful to be able to welcome Frodo and Sam back.
In the evening, after the ceremony, we all sit around a massive campfire and tell each other of our adventures.
Ellie and I then ask Miriel something that we have been dying to know ever since we dressed this morning.
Miriel blushes before answering very quietly...
It looks like there might just be a triple wedding after all...
Eleanor’s POV
The day after the battle, I woke to see a still exhausted Ginny wrapped in the arms of a slowly waking Prince Amrothos. Murrlin was wearing what looked to be a long suffering look, I think she wanted to get up and do something.
Throughout the day we helped move as many of the injured as we could down to the Field of Cormallen, where camp had been set up for us all to recover before going to Gondor for the coronation.
The idyllic setting of those green fields that made up Cormallen was a relative utopia compared with the desolation of Morannon next to the Black Gate. It was a perfect place for the many injured to recover.
After we had moved what must have been thousands of injured, in varying degrees, to the field where men had set up a basic camp, we quickly pitched tents, glad that Ginny, Miriel, and I shared a large one rather than three small separate ones. We then had another gory task.
We had to bury the dead, which were far too numerous. We refused to leave them all on that desolate wasteland as carrion, but moved them only slightly, having to put them in mass graves because there were too many for individual ones.
Whenever we found a Ranger of the North, we would take his personal effects and note who they belonged to. The southern soldiers soon realised what we were doing and called us over whenever they found one of the Grey Company, though, thankfully, this was not too often.
Nine Rangers in all had died and another seven were injured, two disabled for life. Ginny, Miriel, and I took the personal effects and kept them safe to return to the families when possible. It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. Unfortunately we couldn’t do the same for all the soldiers.
***
A few days after the battle, ships began coming down the river bearing supplies for the people camped there.
Those supplies were limited, but we all knew that Gondor was short on things, after the war.
Prince Imrahil turned out to be invaluable because his lands had been much less damaged than Gondor and particularly Rohan. That was where most of the food came from.
As expected, Ginny stopped responding to Amrothos once she had woken up properly, though she was not quite as resistant, I noticed.
Another amusing thing was happening.
After years of skirting round each other, nothing quite happening, but there being more than friendship, Miriel and Elrohir had started to show signs of actually getting it on.
For a long time, Ginny and I had been taking bets on which twin she would eventually go for; I didn’t let her forget that I had won.
The twins, though similar, are actually different.
Ginny felt Miriel would go for the more dominant and outgoing Elladan, going on her mother’s obvious preference for the dominant types, if Thanduil was anything to go by.
I had gone for Elrohir who was the quieter, contemplative one and who tended to think before he jumped, so to speak. I thought that, after growing up with her father’s over protectiveness, she would prefer a less controlling husband.
I love being right.
Aragorn, and anyone not in a relationship of their own, teased the three of us mercilessly.
You would not believe the number of triple wedding jokes made.
Ginny had also taken to calling me Mary-Sue, something I tended to try kill her for. Unfortunately for me, her cat preferred her alive.
Then, one night when we had got Aragorn to stop moving and working or whatever for once, those who spoke Quenya, a language that after years of study I had managed to get at least nearly fluent, if not perfect, sat around our own fire talking.
This was because we wanted the conversation to be private. If you were wondering the aforementioned people would be the twins, Aragorn, Gandalf, (strangely enough considering their heritage) Miriel and Legolas, Ginny, and I.
The originally serious conversation, covering mine and Ginny’s foreknowledge, which we carefully only half filled them in on, fairly predictably descended into silliness later on, not to mention teasing.
Aragorn decided to tease Ginny about the age difference between her and Amrothos, which she countered with a comment on the age difference between him and Arwen. He then commented on the fact that their age difference was small compared with the age difference between me and Legolas, there being a good seven thousand years plus between us.
I, of course, mentioned that though Amrothos was a third of Ginny’s age and Legolas a third of mine (approximately speaking obviously), his is a tiny fraction of Arwen’s. I then finished with a fact that, because of my temporary humanisation, I was mentally much younger than Legolas, actually.
The rest of that night’s conversation was even less mature. You wouldn’t believe that everyone there was very old by human standards at least and the elves at least quite old by elfin standards.
The next day Ginny has disappeared by the time dinner is served. It is sunset and the sky is a range of beautiful shades, including a shade of purple I know Ginny would love.
After a certain amount of looking and speaking to soldiers, I find that she had last been seen walking into the nearby woods.
Strangely enough one of the soldiers noticed Prince Amrothos going in the same direction.
As I walk into the wood, I use my tracking skills to find my friend.
Then my senses tell me something else is going on, as do the tracks, which show two people, not one.
I quickly climb through the trees and soon see a certain prince hiding behind a tree. I sit quietly in the tree and watch the interesting interaction between the two.
He carefully sneaks up behind Ginny, who is standing by a stream watching the sunset through the trees, and wraps his arms around her.
She jumps slightly before turning around in his arms and snuggling up to him.
They then engage in some serious snogging.
It looks like she is interested really.
Just as they seem to be really getting into it, I silently drop from the tree, find one closer to them and lean against it nonchalantly.
I cough in the way people use when trying to get someone’s attention.
They jump violently and pull apart, trying to look like they weren’t doing anything.
Well that was a pointless exercise.
I simply raise one eyebrow and smile wryly at them.
They go pink. Then red as I just stand there looking at them.
Eventually I take pity on the blushing pair,
“Dinner’s up, you’ve been missed.”
“Not literally I hope,” Ginny comes back reflexively. That girl has spent too much time round me, that is what I’d say.
I roll my eyes and resist making my own witty comeback.
I then make them walk back to the camp in front of me, I don’t trust them not to try and sneak off again.
They are still a suitable shade of pink when we get to the fire where the food is being served.
When asked what took so long, I take great pleasure in embarrassing the pair terribly by giving a blow-by-blow account.
I am so glad I have both a cat and a prince of my own to protect me at night, for fear of Ginny committing friend-acide.
Everyone is suitably delighted, though those in the know also seem to have something else on their minds other than pure happiness for the relationship. I think it is generally called teasing material.
Imrahil is particularly happy; he apparently thinks this is a suitable match for his youngest son.
It is such a good job he doesn’t know who birthed him...
***
Not too long after that, Frodo and Sam wake up from their injuries.
Due to foreknowledge Ginny, Miriel, and I have actually packed several nice, but very compressible dresses for the various occasions that will come, not to mention some nice bath stuff.
The night before the celebrations for the two Hobbits, we bathe in the river, getting our male-folk to ensure there is a suitably private bathing area for us to use.
I also make sure Legolas bathes properly as I don’t want to waste getting clean by sleeping in the same bed (they have sent us some straw mattresses up with the supplies, apparently someone told them that there were three very important females there) as him.
For the same reasons, I sleep in the little satin nightie I have always favoured, this one a successor of the ones I had made in Mirkwood all that time ago.
Legolas is noticeably appreciative of the skimpy little garment. I shall have to remember to get a special one made for our wedding night.
The next morning we all don our first gowns. They are all in the formal colours of our houses as we are appearing as formal members of those houses, though Ginny’s still swings towards the direction of purple.
All the gowns are of Lorien design so, though they are quite simple and, unlike Rivendell gowns, they do not bare almost everything – much to my fiancé’s disappointment I’m sure.
We also put on the full jewellery kit. I have my circlet, necklace, and the ring, Ginny has the circlet that Erestor gave her and seems to be wearing a long, elegant chain round her neck which drops below the neckline and whatever is on the chain is hidden in her bust.
I think I can guess though...
Miriel is wearing the full royal regalia that is hers: a circlet, an ornate necklace, and she seems to have acquired a silver ring on her finger that is really pretty.
The ceremony is suitably moving and it is wonderful to welcome Frodo and Sam back.
In the evening we sit round a camp fire, the ceremony over, filling our little friends in on what happened in their absence, including my return to life.
Eventually we ask Miriel about her new ring.
She looks at us shyly, before saying very quietly,
“Elrohir asked me to bind with him.”
I don’t think she has ever been so glad of me holding onto her brother as much as she was then.
Once I have calmed Legolas enough, I join in congratulating them, and Legolas joins us.
I think he realises that being anything other than totally happy for her, at least on the surface, is suicidal.
Awww, true love strike again, though in this case I think there is a blonde prince very nearby who would say that it is actually blind love...