Dawnstar and Friend

Dawnstar and Friend Chapter 42
Ginny’s POV
I awake the next morning on my side, Amrothos is behind me, his hand laid gently over my stomach.
I have no idea what time it is, but, looking round, I see that someone has already been in – our clothes have been put away. A sleepy voice answers my movement,
“Good morning.” I turn right around to see Amrothos looking lovingly at me.
He pulls me towards him and kisses me; I think back to last night – now I am truly married!
We stay there for a few minutes before getting out of bed; he puts on his leggings, whilst I slip into my new negligee. I had it made along with my wedding dress – it’s not quite as skimpy and revealing as the ones that Ellie wears, but it still leaves little to the imagination, especially my husband’s!
There’s a soft knock at the door, Polly enters.
“Good morning, Your Highnesses; I’m afraid you’ve missed breakfast, but I’ve put a tray with some food on in your sitting room,” then turning to me, “When you’re ready, Your Highness, I’ll help you take a bath and then help you dress.”
“Dress?” Polly looks a little nonplussed,
“Why yes, it is what I shall do every morning.”
“You mean you have bathing and dressing rituals here?”
“Of course; well, for a lady of your station, it’s required, it’s...”
“Tradition?”
Polly nods happily.
Great – now I really am a Princess, it looks like I too will have a morning ritual for the record books. I hope to God that Ellie doesn’t find out; I’d never live it down. Although, knowing my luck, she’s probably already guessed.
***
Pretty soon afterwards, all the elves leave; my family travel back to Rivendell, Ellie and Miriel go with the other Mirkwood elves to set up their colony in Ithilien.
I feel quite desolate after they’ve all gone – I think it’s the first time since coming to Middle Earth that I’ve been without any elves at all, but I suppose that that is what it will be like once all my friends and family have sailed...
***
The next months are a perfect roller coaster of emotions for me. Firstly, the Dowager Princess of Dol Amroth (Imrahil’s mother in other words) dies. Everyone in the royal household and probably the city is very sad at her passing – she’s was a very popular lady.
Being midwife at Imrahil’s birth aside, I’d hardly spoken to his mother, but the few times I had made me like, nay love, her whole-heartedly.
She died happy though, she passed away during the night after I’d announced that I was pregnant.
Yes, I’m pregnant! Back in England I was planning on waiting for a couple of years after I got married until I had a baby, but, seeing as contraception is an unheard of concept here, that really isn’t an option.
Naturally everyone is delighted with my news; my husband and Ellie especially. Amrothos has taken to kissing my stomach on a regular basis and Ellie just can’t seem to keep away; not one month throughout my pregnancy passes without her visiting at least once.
My mother wasn’t lying, you really do go through all the emotions when you’re pregnant – I also seem to have begun to moan constantly. Well wouldn’t you if you found that your freedom has been drastically curtailed? I’m now no longer allowed anywhere near a horse – both Imrahil and Amrothos put their foot down there.
This means I can’t go with Ellie when she visits Arwen who’s also pregnant.
Cravings don’t help either. My all time favourite food is chocolate – can’t get enough of the stuff. In actual fact though, I’ve barely thought about chocolate during all my time in Middle Earth, but now I can’t stop thinking about it... it’s bloody annoying.
My elfin family come to stay during the last month of my pregnancy; I’m also moved into the birthing room – let the countdown commence...
***
To tell the truth, I don’t actually remember all that much about the birth – seriously.
I guess it’s true about when they say that, after a woman has given birth, the body releases some kind of chemical to dull the memory of the birth and basically makes the poor woman not mind going through it all again. Pretty good strategy really, otherwise the population of the Earth would be rather miniscule.
Don’t ask me how it works though, however much I love children, Gynaecology and Obstetrics were never my strong points.
One thing does stick in my mind though: the fact that all men (yes, including Amrothos) were barred from the birthing room; the only people allowed in were the two midwives and Naneth.
Why this sudden gender segregation? Guess...
I swear the head midwife was as zealous for the tradition as Imrahil; it is this that has convinced me that she is not a mother herself.
We actually got into quite an argument about it – when I wasn’t more occupied with giving birth that is. It was only when I started shouting obscenities at her (again I don’t recall what, but apparently one of them involved both horses arses and Imrahil), that Naneth took control of the situation and marched off to fetch Amrothos.
We call our little girl Rosetta – I think it rather suits her, what with the red tint to her hair and everything.
During my lying-in after the birth, I begin to see a different side to Imrahil. I no longer see the rousing leader in battle, the Prince of Dol Amroth, the overzealous traditionalist; all I see is man who dotes over his grandchildren.
It’s true; when Elphir brings his young son Alphros to see the newest addition to the family, Imrahil begins to play enthusiastically with the little boy, bouncing him up and down on his knees and swinging him up into the air.
He’s obviously far less rough with Rosetta, but you can still see the pride and light in his eyes when he holds her.
***
When Rosetta is about six months old and Eldarion five months, we all attend the wedding of Lothiriel and Eomer.
That caused a bit of familial tension as Imrahil wanted his only daughter to get married in Dol Amroth, but Eomer, being the King of Rohan, wanted the wedding to take place in Edoras, especially as the people of Rohan have slightly different marriage traditions.
They did eventually reach a compromise, the ceremony took place in Dol Amroth, but the feast afterwards took place in Rohan (after a Rohirric blessing).
To be completely honest with you, I didn’t really enjoy the ceremony as much as I would usually have because I knew that September was fast approaching and that this would herald the Last Riding of the Keepers of the Rings, not to mention the sailing of my elfin family.
Ada had taken me aside one day; you didn’t need to be an Empath to be able to read the sadness in his eyes, and told me simply that he, Naneth, and Vanlanthiriel would sail along with Elrond.
I can’t really describe how I felt, but, in a weird way, I don’t think it was sadness. Think about it – both Ellie and I know the timeline to Lord of the Rings inside out, so I knew this day would come eventually. I think I felt emptiness more than anything else.
The fact that I was about to lose my family all over again didn’t stop Imrahil refusing to let me go – he didn’t want Rosetta travelling so far at such a young age; he conveniently forgot that she had already travelled to Rohan for her aunt’s wedding.
At least we know he loves his granddaughter.
I think everyone was rather taken aback when I didn’t flare up at Imrahil’s refusal; I simply curtsied demurely and walked off to my quarters... revenge is a dish best served cold.
Whilst everyone else wheedled and whined and argued, I sat down and wrote a letter to Aragorn.
He sent his reply back pretty sharpish... I don’t think I’ve ever seen a man’s face drain so quickly of colour before...
***
Why did the elves who originally founded the Grey Havens make them so... so... so haven-like??
It makes it rather hard for those of us who are saying goodbye; all the time we’re looking around this little spot of paradise whilst trying not to let the tears overflow.
They did overflow when the time came for us to say our goodbyes. I hug everyone else before I get to my family, who are standing a little way apart.
I hug Naneth and Vanlanthiriel first and then turn to Ada.
For once Lord Erestor, the chief-councillor of Rivendell, is completely lost for words – he goes to speak, but only gets as far as opening his mouth before stopping abruptly.
I don’t fling myself into Ada’s arms, instead I walk up to him and nestle into his chest, the way I had when we were galloping away from Mirkwood all those years ago.
Ada lays his head on mine – I feel the top of my head begin to dampen.
When we break apart, I notice that all the others have diplomatically turned their backs towards us.
Ada then walks up to Amrothos whose holding a sleeping Rosetta in his arms and plants a gentle kiss on her forehead before boarding the ship.
As it begins to move off, I take my daughter in my arms and Amrothos wraps his around me.
We all stand there watching as the ship and our families get steadily smaller until eventually, they’re gone...
Eleanor’s POV
The next morning we all went to a larger eating area where all the residents of the Dol Amroth palace ate.
The Prince was nothing but civil with me, but nothing more either.
I don’t think he liked that comment last night.
Oh well.
Not too long after that the elfin contingent leave with Faramir, who came to see his cousin married off and so he escorted us to Ithilien where the elfin colony would be set up.
Though I have a certain grasp of architecture I decided to let my husband deal with tree architecture.
He seems very happy to do so.
While the males are off ensuring there are proper shelters for the ladies, we sit in that pretty cave/stronghold/thingy and prepare the nice things for our soon-to-be homes.
Well the proper brought up elfin ladies do, Miriel and I (who are not exactly the authority on anything feminine) practice with our weapons. Once then men stationed there have got over their shock that there are two elves who can fight, they join us and we get some very fun battles going, though we do make sure that it stays so only the sheets need sewing.
It does not take long for the basic structure of the Talans (Legolas was apparently impressed by those) to be built and we were soon brought over to there to help furnishing.
While most of the female elves we had spent the last few weeks with fussed over niceties like curtains and boring stuff like that we helped carve out comfortable furniture.
I am not sure who was most shocked by our presence for this more masculine skill, but when we explained about our house up in the Angle, they gave up arguing about what we wanted to do for our settlement.
Our homes were not palaces yet, but I don’t think either Miriel or I could ever get properly used to living in a palace permanently again.
Shortly after we have finished setting up our little settlement, Legolas, Miriel, the Twins, and I have to leave for a short while again.
This is for Faramir and Éowyn’s wedding.
This is held in Rohan in deference to her status as sister of the King, but as soon as was possible, they moved to the home Faramir had been preparing in Emyn Arnen.
They did not do that before both Ginny and Arwen simultaneously announced their pregnancies though.
I have never been so delighted in my whole life.
I was going to wait until at least we had truly finished setting up our home in Ithilien and then probably until we got to Valinor to have children, but Ginny had no control over her pregnancy times and I was delighted she would be having a child.
I was also delighted that she was not that far from me so I could go visit.
I have to admit that I spent a large amount of the next seven or eight months (she was about a month gone when she announced it) commuting to Dol Amroth, taking occasional trips to Minas Tirith while we were there to visit Arwen and have more baby-talk.
Lothiriel’s and Eomer’s betrothal is announced about halfway through Ginny’s term and the date is arranged so that Ginny and Arwen (no one knows how long her pregnancy will be due to her mixed blood, but we are betting on under a year) have ample time to recover from their births before the wedding in 3021 of the Third Age.
Ginny’s baby is an absolutely beautiful little girl with her father’s dark hair, but a slight red tint which she got from her mother.
I have to admit I do go particularly goo-goo over this one as it is my best friend’s child.
Shortly after that, by about a month (give or take), Arwen gives birth to a son who is called Eldarion.
Not that we didn’t know that was going to happen, did we?
The wedding of Lothiriel and Eomer is suitably moving and they soon announce Lothiriel’s pregnancy.
They didn’t take long, did they?
Though we liked Ginny’s sister-in-law, we didn’t go quite as mad about her pregnancy as we had about Ginny’s.
Shortly after that little bombshell we had something else to occupy us though.
Ginny and I knew that the elves would be sailing to Valinor and we wanted to see them off.
Three of the aforementioned elves were Ginny’s family, another was mine, and the rest we were very fond of. Frodo and Bilbo, two of our favourite Hobbits were also going.
Imrahil first said no, his grandchild was not travelling that far so soon after its birth.
Only after much arguing, cajoling, royal behaviour (from us elfin princes and princesses), and finally a royal command from Aragorn did Imrahil relent.
He then insisted on providing us with a boat to sail round the coast to the Grey Havens in.
He wanted to join us, but we took one look at him and stopped him from doing so. I have a feeling that if we let him come he would never come back.
That tiny bit of elfin blood in him had got the sea-longing.
Oops.
I personally was not that opposed to the idea of letting Cirdan’s folk deal with him for the rest of eternity, but Ginny pointed out that the people of Dol Amroth would never forgive us if we misplaced their Prince.
You have no idea how much faster the travel is by boat. Or how much easier it is either.
For reasons largely pertaining to his sea-longing, Legolas let me go alone for this trip.
I could not blame him and in a small way was glad; this was something I wanted to do without a Sindar input.
Celeborn was there to see off Galadriel and Miriel had come with her husband as she had almost become part of our little family in that period of wandering before the War of the Ring, but bar that, it was a totally Noldor party, albeit a rather depressing one.
When they arrived, we hugged everyone senseless and I think they were all shocked we had not only got there, but got there before they had.
Then we had the thoroughly depressing job of saying goodbye.
I always hated farewells.
The Twins and I hug Elrond senseless and make promises to him to come along soon, in my case telling him that Legolas and I would come along when Aragorn died. Judging by his expression this just brought up thoughts of Arwen.
I also made him promise to carry my love to my parents and the members of my family I had yet to meet. I might not know them, but I did not want them thinking that I had forgotten them all the same.
The Twins sent their love to their mother and we handed over some letters from Arwen both for Elrond and for people in Valinor.
When we saw the ships off, we were all a little red eyed and since Elrohir and Miriel were preoccupied with holding each other as were Ginny and Amrothos, Celeborn, Elladan, and I curled up in a hug together.
We all grieved a little that day, but I think Ginny was the worst as she almost certainly would never see her family again, unlike us.
Unless my plan worked out of course, but that would have to wait until I got to Valinor...
Instead of sailing home, we sent the sailors back with a message for Imrahil explaining where we were and some others, like one from me to Legolas, as well.
Instead we all went to that little house in Eriador and stayed there to grieve.
Somehow all the house work of clearing the place up and the fuss of the women over Ginny’s baby helped more than anything in those big cities and palaces could.
It was one of those times that I was extremely glad for our little stints we had with the Grey Company.
While we were there, we also delivered to the families the personal effects of the Rangers who had died in Gondor fighting at the end of the War of the Ring.
It was a little overdue really, but it still helped those families.
Just before we left, for old times’ sake, we went out on a relatively pointless patrol – without our spouses. The patrol was pointless as there was little to patrol for anymore; though there were still very small numbers of Orcs about, there was nothing serious to worry about.
Somehow, it seemed to me to be a passing over point in our lives.
Apart from anything else, the Fourth Age, the Age of Men, would start next year.