A Mother's Love
by Pippin's Sunshine
Chapter 3.
A/N: Most of the information in this chapter came from Appendix A in Return of the King. Possible kleenex warning
The next year was fairly uneventful, Aragorn would have the occasional
bump or bruise, but he was already turning out to be a fine lad even
for only being two years of age. But this year proved a learning year
for all of the Dùnedain. The sons of Elrond, Elladan and Elrohir were
sent to the Dùnedain camp to talk with Arathorn about rumors of Orc
movements and of other enemies.
The twins loved visiting their cousins in the North, but had been
unable to come and see for themselves, until now, the one that was
rumored to be Isildur’s Heir. The boy who would someday bring hope to
all of Middle-Earth. They knew all of the stories for their father,
Elrond, had been there on the day when Gondor fell and the heirlooms of
the house of Elendil lay in Rivendell.
After talking with Arathorn, Elladan and Elrohir made their way to the Chieftain’s tent, but they got waylaid along the path…
Suddenly, both elves turned around for they felt someone was following
them, but it turned out to only be Aragorn. Arathorn had been teaching
him small tracking skills, mostly how to be quiet and sneaky. So
Aragorn took every opportunity to try them out, but he had yet to be
successful.
“Well, who is this?”
“Me Awrgon.”
“Aragorn? We were just coming to see you. My brother and I had a meeting with your father.”
“Really? What are you? Why pointy ears?”
Elrohir laughed. “We are elves. I am sure you will understand someday.”
Taking his new friends by the hands, Aragorn led the two elves to their tent.
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During this visit, Arathorn and some of the other men went hunting with
the sons of Elrond. Arathorn assured his wife and child that he would
be back the next day.
"Take care of momma for me, my little hunter," Arathorn always told
Aragorn this when he had to go. "Goodbye Gilraen. Don't worry. We'll be
fine."
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Later that night as the party was setting up camp, they were ambushed
by orcs. Out of 20 Dùnedain and the sons of Elrond, only seven came
back.
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Arathorn heard the brushes rustling about him as he looked for
firewood. At first he thought it was one of his companions, but the
Dùnedain have more stealth than that...
'YRCH!' he hissed to himself as he saw a flash of sword blade swinging
wildly through the trees. Suddenly, he was surrounded, but before he
could notch his own arrow, an orc had shot him. The arrow had pierced
his eye. As he was dying, Arathorn said, "Goodbye my wife. I love you.
Aragorn, my little hunter, fulfill your destiny. I have fulfilled
mine.”
And so, it came to pass that both of Dirhael’s prophecies came true.
Chapter 4: News
'Arathorn!' Gilraen woke up in a cold sweat. That dream was too real,
something was wrong with Arathorn. Orcs were everywhere and she could
see her husband in the middle of them unable to reach his bow.
Aragorn came running in the room, he had heard her screaming. "Momma, what wrong?" he asked as he climbed up on her bed.
She knew her son was very smart, and she knew he could handle this.
"Momma had a bad dream." She drew him closer to her. He looked up at
her with expectant eyes. "I think something is wrong with daddy. I
don't know what it is, but there's something seriously wrong."
"Oh," he said softly. "No worry momma," he said quietly as he snuggled
up against her. In spite of her worry, this made her smile, it always
made her smile.
"Thank you Aragorn. You can stay in here if you want to."
Gilrean said a silent prayer to Eru to keep her husband and the others safe.
-------------------The Next Morning ---------------------
Gilraen couldn't go back to sleep after her dream, so she just lay close to Aragorn.
When the sun rose, she went outside to look for news of the hunting party. About an hour later, the survivors returned.
One of Arathorn's closest friends, Reneal, came up to Gilraen and
enveloped her in a hug. "I'm sorry. Our camp was attacked by orcs. They
killed Arathorn."
Gilraen collapsed in his arms. Aragorn had heard the conversation and came running out to help Reneal with his mother.
Once they got her inside, Aragorn told the ranger that his mother had had a dream during the night.
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Aragorn had stayed away from their tent all day. His mother’s dream and
what little he understood of what Reneal had said had scared him.
Aragorn ran in search of the sons of Elrond and found them helping tend
to the wounded.
Elladan saw him approach and asked, “Aragorn, where is your mother?”
“Tent”
Elladan and Elrohir exchanged a look. Aragorn looked petrified. He
must have heard something of his father. They quietly took him by the
hand to his tent.
When they arrived, they found Gilrean sitting up wondering what had happened and where her husband and son were.
“M’lady, do you remember when we returned this morning?”
Gilrean nodded. Yes, it was all coming back. The dream last night had been so real then, and now it seemed impossible.
The twins stayed a while longer to ensure that Gilrean would not
faint again. When they thought it was safe, they took their leave to
return to the healer’s tent.
“Aragorn, my sweet, come over here,” Gilrean called her son to her
and he sat down in her lap. As she spoke, she soothed him by stroking
his hair and wiping away the tears. “Aragorn, look at me. Last night
was horrible. Daddy will not be coming back. The orcs killed many of
our people, including your father.”
Aragorn somehow understood. His heart had somehow felt empty in the night.
Neither Gilrean nor her son took any food that day. And they fell
asleep in each other’s arms trying to erase the bad memories of the day.
