A Moment Between Friends
by Dinledhwen
Aragorn knew he was in trouble the moment he finished speaking when he
saw Arwen’s blue eyes fill with tears before she got up from her chair
and ran from their small private dinning room in Minas Tirith where
they were having dinner close to sunset. Soon afterwards he heard the
faint sound of a door being slammed shut and no doubt locked so he
couldn’t follow her into their bedroom.
Mentally he kicked himself before throwing his napkin down angrily on
the table and getting up. Well there was no use in trying to explain to
Arwen now what he had really meant since she was to upset to listen. So
he wandered out of their private quarters and out into the new garden
that Legolas and his people had planted for them. There to his surprise
he found his elvish friend still at work inspecting a recently
transplanted sapling.
“Why are you working so late my friend? Surely this can wait till the
morning,” Aragorn asked trying to sound as if everything was just fine.
“True. But I have the time to do it now so why wait?” Legolas replied
while not looking up as he knelt down and carefully checked to make
sure the sapling was firmly in the ground which it was since it didn’t
move when the Elf shook it by its slender trunk. Then he straightened
up and turned his full attention to the King. “There is something that
is bothering you,” he said. “I can hear it in your voice.”
Aragorn sighed. “Yes there is a BIG something of my own creation which
I’m hoping that I can explain to Arwen once she calms down.”
Suddenly there came the sound of breaking glass from inside.
“If she calms down,” Aragorn muttered under his breath while he flopped down on a nearby stone bench.
“So what was this BIG something you created,” Legolas prompted when the
King remained silent and stared at the flagstones before him.
“Apparently a big misunderstanding my friend between her and me. During
one of our breaks for rest while all of us were on our way to Helm’s
Deep, the Lady Éowyn had offered me a bowl of stew she had made.
Well it didn’t look all that appealing and tasted awful but I pretended
to like it so as to not hurt her feelings. As it turned out she had
given the recipe to Arwen and apparently told her how much I had
enjoyed it. So tonight Arwen made that stew and I decided to tell her
my true feelings about it. Somehow she misunderstood and thought her
cooking was bad not Éowyn’s,” Aragorn replied gloomily.
“Then you will have to explain to her that she has simply misunderstood
you and that her cooking is better then the Lady Éowyn’s,”
Legolas said confidently echoing Aragorn’s earlier thought just as
there came the sound of more glass breaking. “But I don’t think I would
try now,” the Elf hastily added.
“Legolas how is it that you never married? Surely your Father would
have expected you to so the family line would continue,” Aragorn
suddenly asked than added quickly “If you don’t mind my asking.”
Now the Elf smiled kindly at his friend. “My Father did in the
beginning. He even tried to be a matchmaker. But in the end he said I
was hopeless and stopped.”
“Hopeless? I don’t understand,” Aragorn replied his curiosity now at
the full. “I wouldn’t think someone like you would have a hard time in
finding a wife amongst the eligible daughters.”
“Finding them wasn’t the problem. I couldn’t go anywhere in the settled
areas of Mirkwood back then without being stopped by a parent and
introduced to their daughter,” Legolas replied light heartedly.
“So why are you hopeless?” Aragorn pressed.
“I have never had the desire to be married,” the Elf simply replied.
“Why is that?”
By now the sun had set and a deep purple twilight had settled over the
garden. Light from the nearby small window spilled out in a golden
rectangle illuminating the green grass there. Then before Legolas could
reply it was joined by a larger golden rectangle with Arwen’s shapely
shadow in it after she had opened the door. There she hesitated on the
threshold when she saw that Aragorn wasn’t alone her eyes slightly
swollen from crying.
Only a blind person would have missed the expressions of yearning on
the King and Queen’s faces and that it was time for them to be alone.
So Legolas quickly excused himself and left. But he paused in the deep
shadows to look back and saw Aragorn and Arwen in each others arms
kissing passionately before they finally broke apart and went inside
with Aragorn closing the door behind them.
And the Elf smiled again although somewhat sadly this time. “The reason
why I have never married was that I have never found that special
someone like you have my friend. And now with the sea calling to me
there’s no point in searching anymore,” he said softly to himself
before leaving the garden.
