Dawnstar and Friend

Eleanor’s POV
After the wedding there is a two week long festival of the royal marriage.
They might not have had a honeymoon but still...
During the little festival all sorts of things happened.
Firstly, a couple of days after the wedding, Amrothos and Ginny announced their own engagement.
Never thought that would happen.
Everyone was very happy for them, even Erestor. I thought that he would have reacted far differently given his rather over-protective and, to be brutally honest, very possessive attitude towards Ginny.
She, however, confided to me later that Erestor had already taken Amrothos aside for a ‘friendly conversation’.
Then there were the Hobbit kitchen raids, aided and abetted by the twins and Faramir (when he wasn’t working).
The people of the Gondorian court soon learned to be wary of our cats as, when they tried to monopolise us into talking to Aragorn for them, we all adopted the Ginny approach to court butterfly control.
You have no idea how many uses there are for three very live giant cats.
Aragorn carried on working through the holiday (kingdoms don’t stop because of marriages) and eventually, Arwen, Ginny, Miriel, and I decided he was overdue a break.
We quickly enlisted the help of the other elves, Imrahil (who has a really evil sense of humour we have discovered), his children, the Fellowship, and Faramir.
Imrahil and Faramir clear out a day for him to be gone while the rest of us organise what will be done on that day.
An hour or so ride out from Ramas Echor is a beautiful waterfall in the wood, not unlike the ones we bathed in just before that explosive reunion with Thanduil.
I have to admit this choice of place has an ulterior motive.
No doubt everyone will want to swim in the pool...
Anyway, we set up a picnic for the day and nick Aragorn.
We leave around dawn, having an amusing moment when several people get to see the dawn happen in my necklace, something the humans were not forewarned about.
We all gallop until we can no longer see the wall and only slow when we are within the woods.
When we have sorted out our horses and things after we have arrived, the men notice what we were hoping they would notice.
They start suggesting that swimming would be a good idea, though most of the females present decline the notion in favour of watching as they don’t want to get their dresses wet or something like that.
Ginny, Miriel, and I quietly disappear behind some trees however.
On our world trip, Ginny and I had brought swimming costumes with us, as well as sarongs, and I had actually brought two of each for some reason (once again, don’t ask me why).
While behind the trees we changed into the costumes, both of mine being one piece halter necks with one turquoise, the other forest-green, and each with a matching sarong.
We walked back to the waterfall, and got several interested looks. They had never seen an outfit quite like the ones we were wearing and really were quite interested.
The expressions of their faces, particularly the males of assorted species, was entertaining, to say the least.
That got even better when Ginny and I (Miriel was still a little shy) dropped sarongs and dived into the water. I don’t think any of them had ever seen females wearing so little outside of bedrooms.
Once they had got over their shock, the men joined us, wearing only leggings.
This left several nice bare chests, all dripping wet, for us to ogle at.
Suddenly our men-folk seemed very possessive, not that we minded – it meant they were topless and in the water with us.
Seeing how much fun we were having, Miriel joined us.
I thought the look on Thanduil’s face when he saw her in that Rivendell dress was amusing.
It just got outclassed.
Waaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy outclassed.
Anyway...
We spent the next few hours running around, having fun in the water, and generally mucking around.
The highlights included Celeborn and Thanduil somehow getting into a water fight that soon spread and even Galadriel got splashed at one point.
There was also the diving contest from the top of the waterfall, which Glorfindel won – not too surprisingly. This was particularly amusing because the contest was between the guys of various species and each was championing a certain female. Glorfindel, being my Knight, was fighting for me so I won too.
Madam, as I had taken to calling Erestor and Silva’s daughter, was at her cutest best as well, though she did nearly give everyone a heart attack when she nearly got herself drowned in the water trying to swim too ambitiously for someone of her size.
Imrahil was the one who saved the day there, thank heavens.
I think Legolas, Elrohir, and Amrothos were disappointed when we turned down their offers to stand watch to make sure no one looked as we changed out of our swimming costumes back into those really covering Rivendell dresses.
Stop anyone from looking at us my arse, they wanted to watch themselves!
After that entertaining day, we rode back to the city and arrived around dusk, though it was fully dark by the time we got up to the citadel.
It was only a couple of days after that when the big wedding celebrations ended.
About three days after that Arwen is able to take Frodo aside and tell him that he can go to Valinor in her place.
I am glad Elrond is not around to hear that conversation as I don’t think he is quite ready to be reminded of her mortality.
Three more days after that Ginny, Miriel, me, our families, and our fiancés go down into the main city to go shopping.
It is quite fun and we also get to visit the slowly blooming gardens of Minas Tirith. Though Legolas has not settled anything finally, he and his elfin kin have already started work in reviving the greenness to the white city.
Part way through the afternoon, we get some sweet rolls off a market vendor and go stand on the walls of the city to eat them.
As we are watching the grass we suddenly see a large party coming across the Pelennor Fields.
Knowing the timeline, Ginny and I have our suspicions as to who that group are, but those around us are much more curious as they don’t know.
As they get closer we can see the long blonde hair of the riders and the plumed helmets.
Soon everyone watching from the walls realises it is the Rohirrim riding over the fields.
We dash up to the citadel to get ready for the arrival of the horse-lords, excited at their return.
I can’t wait to introduce them to the elves!
Before disappearing off to change I remember to send a messenger to Aragorn to forewarn him.
Eomer has arrived!
Ginny‘s POV
I wonder if the festivities after my own wedding will last as long Aragon and Arwen’s will – I doubt it though.
One very good thing to come out of the festivities is that I can finally talk openly about my engagement.
Imrahil readily gave his consent when Amrothos formally asked him. Naturally, Ada was a little hesitant about doing the same, but, as he had already had his ‘friendly conversation’ with Amrothos and if Naneth had hinted to anything, I think he must have realized that something was on the cards.
Anyway, the consent was given and, when we had found a secluded corner, Amrothos immediately took the chain from around my neck and slipped the ring on to my finger.
It was already quite late at night (moon and stars shining – very romantic!) so we didn’t properly announce our engagement until the next morning at breakfast.
I specifically didn’t wear red as I knew I’d be going virtually the same colour myself, not that anyone really notices as they’re so preoccupied with congratulating us.
***
Not for the first time in his life Aragorn is supremely grateful for the presence of our cats – he has enough on his plate without wheedling courtiers fawning over him all the time.
I’m sure not many kings would be quite so happy for three very large, very playful cats to go running around on their own.
Not that they always go around on their own. I, for example, always make sure Murrlin is nearby when there are any Councillors in the immediate vicinity. You have no idea how amusing it is to see very dignified men suddenly jump up as though their velvet robes are on fire whenever Murrlin pads sedately into the room.
The situation is even funnier if Murrlin has managed to do a bit of hunting and comes in with half her kill (sometimes still oozing blood) dangling from her mouth, almost always depositing it by the feet of whom so ever happens to be nearest the door.
***
One thing I will say for Amrothos, at least he won’t have the insanely huge and complicated task of running a kingdom when we’re married, so we’ll be able to spend most of the succeeding days together as much as we want.
That’s certainly what I read in Arwen’s face whenever she sees us alone. Poor Arwen – she’s evidently thinking about what she could be doing with Aragorn if he weren’t so preoccupied.
It is this that sets us girls’ minds ticking and we set about trying to think of some way we can distract Aragorn from his duties.
Accordingly, we enlist the help of all our friends. It is eventually decided to have a day out in some nearby woodlands. The area we plan to visit also has a large waterfall and pool that are ever so conveniently close by...
It seems the male varieties of all species are just as predictable as each other – guess which gender took the most effort to point out the pool.
Most of the females decline the idea of a swim; Miriel, Ellie, and I (much to the delight of three certain fiancé’s) are not quite so coy.
We disappear behind some trees and re-emerge wearing some rather elegant and somewhat revealing swimming costumes, though our bottom halves are covered by sarongs.
Naturally mine is purple; it also enhances my cleavage in a manner not all that dissimilar from a certain ball gown and has an elegant back which, though not too exposing, still manages to show off my tattoo to perfection.
The men are suitably speechless when we re-join the party – I suppose we are wearing something that could barely even be classed as underwear.
While we’re still being goggled at, Ellie and I throw off our sarongs (probably causing several mouths to drop in the process) and dive expertly into the water.
“Come on, boys! The water’s lovely,” we call teasingly.
I don’t think there is a male in the world who could resist such temptation – the ones present certainly can’t.
There is probably only one thing that out ranks a man in a uniform in terms of ‘phwoar!’ and that’s a man with a bare chest (muscular obviously), especially when wet. As you would expect, Ellie and I can’t help but sneak glances at all the men now in the water with us.
It’s probably this that causes our fiancé’s to swim over and pull us into warm embraces.
It’s surprising how quick Miriel’s embarrassment disappears after this and she also dives into the water, causing her fiancé to swim over for their own embrace.
Out of the corner of my eye I see Legolas immediately pull away from Ellie; won’t that elf ever leave his sister alone?
I splash him hard and fast; the water covers not only him, but also several others. This results in the first of many water fights throughout the day.
The exposure of so much skin (male and female) seems to have made our men-folk very possessive and eager to show off all of a sudden – can’t think why though...
Accordingly, they begin to have swimming contests and always champion a certain female.
There is also a diving contest, which Glorfindel wins (surprise, surprise), although personally, I think Amrothos was by far the best, but then I am somewhat biased in that department.
The only downer during the day was when Vanlanthiriel nearly drowned. I say downer, but we all nearly had simultaneous heart attacks. I think she was trying to impress Elladan; now that Elrohir is off limits, Vanlanthiriel seems to have become fixated by his twin brother.
I was over the other side of the pool when it happened and instantly struck out for them when I heard the commotion. Fortunately, Imrahil was far closer and pulled Vanlanthiriel to safety – that man will never know quite how happy and grateful he made three of the party.
We didn’t spend all day in the water though; quite often, I’d look around and notice that we were missing a couple or two. Aragorn and Arwen seemed to disappear off the most.
Thanks to Vanlanthiriel’s little brush with death, Ada has become suitably preoccupied so I’m able to sneak off more with Amrothos than would usually be allowed.
***
Our day out in the woods occurred on 10th July. It’s now eight days later and Ellie, Miriel, and I are sending the stall- and shop-holders into transports of delight as we are shopping not only with our fiancé’s, but also our families – we’re making quite an impression as we pass through the city.
As the day wears on, I think all the men-folk are beginning to regret their offers of help – we can barely see some of them from behind all the bags and boxes that they are carrying for us.
Eventually, we take pity on them and get a bite to eat, which we all munch happily as we stand upon the walls of the city – Vanlanthiriel being kept as far away from the edge as is physically possible.
Suddenly, a large party of men all on horse-back comes galloping into view over the horizon. I catch Ellie’s eye – I think I know who they might be...