WEST WIND OVER EDORAS

Disclaimer: The characters and places here are not mine, all but a few are Tolkein's genius. If it's in LOTR, Silmarillion, Hobbit or Unfinished tales it Tolkien' s. If not it's mine.
No profit in this but the fun of writing and getting to play in Middle earth for a while.

CHAPTER 24:
PROMISE ME FOREVER

LEGOLAS:

I sleep eventually and when I awake stretch my hand along the bed to caress her, but she is gone. This is strange, never before has she wished to leave my embrace and begin a day without me holding her. I open my eyes and find her near the door, already dressing herself in her rohirric clothes, her hair unbound. She turns to me as she senses my movement.

“Haleth is leaving with many of my people this day. I must go and say goodbye,”
she offers in explanation.

I dress swiftly to accompany her. “Are you well?” I ask as we walk down through the cobbled city streets, for her face today is pale and I am concerned she is either suffering from a recurrence of her previous malaise or some new anxiety presses upon her.

“Yes, I am fine, Legolas,” she answers, but her voice is small. An icy band tightens around my heart.

The horses and riders are milling in the lower courtyard when we arrive. Lothiriel is there and Eomer bends over her hand and kisses it with an intense look in his eyes before he mounts Firefoot. He wheels around and passes us as the stallion turns on polished hooves. “Farewell, Rowannen,” he calls softly to her. “If you have taught me anything, then it is not to let life pass by and to seize each moment whilst I can.”
He does not attempt to grasp her offered hand. “Farewell, Eomer,” she replies and draws her fingers away as he trots to head up the gathering lines of horsemen, taking the position of the King.

Haleth comes to greet her then, leading his mount. “I will be to sure to remember you to all the family. Crirawen will want news of when she might see you again. Do you know when that may be? Will you come to Eomer’s coronation?”

Rowannen shakes her head and pulls him into her embrace. “No, I cannot say. I am sorry.” Her voice is wavering on the edge of tears. “Ride well and safely.”

I say my goodbyes at the gate and let Rowannen walk further with her people and the horses. They halt in the distance past the fields, before preparing to ride fast. I see her reach on tiptoe to hold Haleth a moment as he leans from Vingren’s saddle to kiss her cheek. Her steps as she walks back to the city wall are slow, and she turns just once to gaze into the dust cloud rising from many hooves. I can feel her pain and it becomes my own, so deeply am I tied to her now. It is still a strange thing for me as an elf to feel a mortal’s sorrow and I lower myself to the wall and sit, doubt filling me again. I am the cause of it. I, who wished only to alleviate her grief, have brought her much more. Maybe I should never have tried, should never have kissed her, made her my own. If I had not, she would now be at Edoras awaiting the returning warriors with her family, helping Crirawen with the baby. Her grief over Theodred still keen, but with Eomer riding triumphant to heal it. She would be soon married and queen of her country and mother of its future kings. Eru, what have I done? I can hardly raise my eyes to her, as she comes quietly to stand before me. She touches my shoulder, looks into my eyes and sees her pain mirrored there.


ROWANNEN:

Yesterday was so full of newness for me. It seemed as if everything had changed. Legolas dressed as a Prince and attending to official duties as the representative of his realm, a role I had not seen before and yet one he fulfils so graciously and well. I was reminded there is so much I do not know of him still and the thought perturbed me. The arrival of so many more elves in ceremonial robes for the Coronation and this peace among a free people instead of war was overwhelming. Seeing the twins with their family also gave me pause for thought and when Arwen and Aragorn were reunited, amongst the joy I saw Elrond’s grief and loneliness and the concern of the twins for their father and their sister, a skein running through the happiness with a darker thread. A path we too are embarked upon in some measure.

There was no time to talk to Legolas of my concerns and insights for he was much in demand by Aragorn and others of the elven contingents who wished for news and to speak with him. When the night ended I was too tired to face the conversation. I was overjoyed to be with Haleth again but when he spoke of his departure so soon, a dark thread crept into my own mind.

Now as I watch the dust spiral into the distance and the riders of the Mark surround him, I cannot prevent the tears from slipping down my cheeks. Will I ever see my home and family again? I walk back slowly. Legolas is sitting on the low wall waiting and as he finally lifts his head I see the pain there in his eyes. Pain for me. I sit gently on his outstretched knee and hold him, hoping my warmth will comfort him.

“Legolas, I know, I have my own pain and doubts at times and this is what troubles you now. But this is not like you. I do not wish to be a cause of sorrow to you. I want to give you joy, please lift your spirit. Tell me your thoughts.”

He takes a shuddering breath. “If you wish to go with them then you must. I will not hold you to our pledge. I feel your sorrow at this leavetaking. If you ride fast you will gain on their pace. I will even ride with you until you reach them. Though my heart will break to see you leave, I would not cause you anguish and take you from your land and family if you cannot bear it. I will think of you with love always.”

“Legolas. No!”

“Wait, hear me, saes! I confess that I hesitated at first, at Edoras when I wished to love you. I was unsure of what I could offer you. I am usually certain and sure of the path to take, so this is all as new for me as it is for you. If I had not ridden to Edoras, or had not touched you, then your future would be again safe and happy. I am heartsick at causing you pain. Your love for me and need to be with me has caused you to lose everything, almost your life. You were so close to death Rowannen. Forgive me?”

I touch his face, willing all the sweet care that is in me to flow across my fingers and soothe his disquiet.

“Forgive? When you given me your love, your body and new life? If you had not come to Edoras my people would have been unwarned and unable to fight freely. Nor would they have survived Helm’s Deep and ridden to Pelennor. The war would have taken a far bitterer turn and you would not have taken the Paths of the Dead, which I see now was necessary. There has been much danger, but there would have been worse otherwise. I may have been killed there and all my family. I went of my own will with you to the Black Gate for it had to be so. I could not be parted from you at such a time. You have caused me no more danger than I may have encountered differently and I have endured nothing that may not have come to me anyway, but instead I have had your healing and your love.

“Legolas, remember the mountain in Rohan when I freed my hawk? There was no going back. We agreed and we made our choice to be together and pledged our love. I have nothing to return to, nor do I wish to, despite this momentary sorrow. You have changed my life and I cannot live without you and wish to be nowhere if it is not with you. And the prophecy Legolas… it is you who assures me we must trust the Valar. Legolas, if you will but love me and be with me always, I can do anything and will. We have already faced much together.”

His heart is beating so fast and strongly against my body and I feel it calm and slow a little as resolve returns to his face and his mind strengthens.

“I can do that, Rowannen, and will. I just needed to be sure and to give you one last chance to change your mind. We must move on, though if the future permits I will take you back one day to see your family and your people if you wish it. For now I have something to ask of you, for I need you so. It will not be an easy thing for you, and maybe not for me. Indeed there will be no going back.”

“Then ask.”

“Not here. Confined in this city is not the place. Let us ride out, meleth.”


LEGOLAS:

Do I deserve such understanding and sweetness? Whether or no, I am grateful for it. She is a blessing to me. How tenderly she puts my fears to rest and soothes my soul. I am strong again in our love and now is the time to ask her what has been on my mind these past days but the setting must be right and here is not the place.

“Let us ride out, meleth.”

She agrees happily and we whistle for the horses. Arod and Feannim come cantering joyfully to the paddock rail. “Shall we ride bareback?”

She nods back at me and twisting her hand into Feannim’s mane springs nimbly astride. We head the horses in the opposite direction to those of her people. Arod is stepping friskily, glad to be out and headed somewhere new. Soon we are away from the city as their stride lengthens.

At first the landscape is cultivated, wheat springing green, orchards dripping with pastel blossoms, dancing gently in a warm breeze full of their perfume. Then the land grows steeper and no longer do we pass workers or travellers, the paths are empty. We slow the horses to a walk and wind our way through rising terraces. Around us are banks of hawthorn, flowering in profusion, the colour of clotted cream and massed like clouds or foam. From deep in their thickets issues the sound of joyous birdsong. I imagine the hidden nests and know that before long these birds will grow silent and flit in and out unnoticed as they sit their eggs and later feed infants. The thought makes me happy. All the promise of spring and new life for everything is indeed being realised. It is a fitting time for this.

We reach an upland meadow above a waterfall, secluded and sunny. I dismount and she follows. We leave the horses to graze and I wonder how to explain to her what I need to say, the hope that is in my heart. We lie on the warm grass staring at the leaves. As the trees march up the hillside, below us there is tier upon tier of new foliage, shivering in the breeze and shimmering in the sunlight. All the leaves are rippling, pale greens and dark greens, merging, diffusing the light.

“It looks strangely like the sea.” I say softly.

“I have never seen the sea,” she replies.

I smile at her. “One day we will go to the sea together.”

“I would love that, Legolas.”

I am silent for a few moments and then speak again with a soft sigh. “I had never seen the sea until we travelled through Lebennin and came by ship up the Anduin. I was captivated Rowannen. It is as magical and beautiful as a forest and it touched my soul. There are some ways in which is very like to my woodland home. It is a living thing always moving, teeming with life and wild energy. In other ways it is so different, unknowable and mysterious and dangerous. It drew me to it and for the first time I imagined sailing across it, learning its secrets as I made the journey to Valinor.”

I can see that she is uncertain of how to respond. This is a thing that as a mortal she cannot share with me.

“Do you wish to go?” The words have spilt from her lips, before she can prevent herself and her voice is tinged with fear. I roll over onto my side to face her fully and gather her to me. My arms strong as ever, but for instant I sense then tremble.

“No. The pull of it disturbs me at times. ‘Sea Longing’ the elves name it. I had not thought to be drawn by it, and I was taken by surprise. My journey these past months has tested me in many ways. Some a warriors ways, which I expected and met with resolve and confidence, glad to use my skill. Others very unexpected, such as the gift of you and our love, then the call of the sea at a time when I was vulnerable.” I tighten my arms around her. “ But I wish to go nowhere without you meleth nin. As you hold to our pledge, so do I.”

“You are sure?” she answers. We have never spoken of this between us before. The future hurt that both of us deep down have acknowledged would be ours, but has been eclipsed until now by the events of war, rises to the surface now that we have peace and ease and a life before us. It is time to think on it and face what our future will surely hold. I take a breath ready to begin the discussion.

“I have something to ask you which has been in my mind for some time now. I
would ask you Rowannen to travel to Mirkwood with me, to meet my people and more than that… Will you wed with me there, according to my elven tradition?”

Her breath catches in a small gasp. “Legolas, marry you? I love you, but I do not understand. How is that different from our pledge?”

“Despite what we promised on that hillside a pledge may be broken if both parties agree to sundering that bond and I know that you would if you thought it best. An elven marriage cannot be broken. It is binding for eternity and nothing can sunder it.”

She looks at me wide-eyed wishing to comprehend and though she cannot mindspeak as elves do, she is beginning to discern my thought.

“I can enter into that Legolas, for unto my death I will love you, but you mention eternity, what does this mean for you?”

I will the shadow to clear from my eyes and face her with the truth for I cannot keep this from her. “It means I am yours forever Rowannen, even after your death I will be able to love no other and will be bound to you forever and when you die I will live on with an empty space exactly the shape and size of you meleth nin within me forever.”

Her breath stops for an instant. “Then Legolas I cannot, how can I agree, when to do so is to condemn you to loneliness and grief for ever when I am gone? I love you. You cannot ask this of me.”

I bring my finger to her lips. “You are looking at this the wrong way. I will tell you what I know, and leave the reward to you. You may be glad to grant it when you have heard me. I love you now and for all I know, even if we do not marry, then I still may never be able to love another in all eternity. Yet if we do wed then I have some hope. Arwen has given up her immortality to wed with Aragorn, she is peredhil and that is what is required for their union. I will be given no such choice, but the hope I have is different. I hope that the Valar will recognise our bond and love, and they may grant you immortality and allow you to sail undying to Valinor with me. They have that power. I have prayed in the night and trusted that some answer will come and we will find a way for us both to live with this. Please consider and give me that hope. You know I cannot bear to lose you.”

She is staring at me intently, those green eyes full of wonder and love and hope also.

“Shall we start again? Will you marry me, Rowannen?”

For a moment she is still and the sighing of leaves in the breeze and the birdsong is all we can hear and then for an instant it too is stilled. Into that silence comes her sweet voice.

Yes, Legolas. I will.”


ROWANNEN:

The ride here was good. I feel freer than I have done for some time confined within walls. All around us are the signs of Spring, blossom and birdsong. When we reach the height we dismount and lie companionably on the grass and I wait for what he has to say. It must be important if we have come into the wild alone before it can be spoken. He begins by speaking of the sea and the longing he has experienced. My insides curl into a tight knot. We come to it now, the crucial issue between us. His awakened longing for his elven immortal home set against my death. The thoughts I had seeing Arwen and knowing she had given up her immortality to be with Aragorn rise in my mind. For us it is different. What choice do we have? How can we live with it?

He strokes my hair very gently and speaks quietly, knowing that he must address the issue, to safely ride this wave of emotion rising between us. I have thought too, I am not trying to avoid what will be. I cannot pretend it does not exist. Our present bliss is powerful, but not so blinding that the consequences of it do not dwell in my thought at times. He sits up and pulls me with him. I know he wishes only joy for me and regrets the pain. He is sorry our love will face hardship and difficulty but we must conquer that. He has held me through the darkness and I love him for it even more. I know he too has experienced uncertainty, grief and despair, has faced this newness laced with sorrow, hope and wonder.

When he asks me to wed with him my heart sings gladly. I can think of nothing more joyful until I realise what this means for him and my love for him stills my thought. I cannot, I cannot cause him such grief. I love him so. Yet he continues to speak and explains his hope for my immortality also to be granted by the Valar. Dare I believe? How can I not? A way to be free of death and to be granted an eternal life with him I love above all. Even if it is a slim chance my heart aches for it and when I see the hope shining from him my choice is made.

“Yes, Legolas I will.”

His smile confirms my choice, for it seems as if the sun shines from within him as well as without and he sweeps me into his arms.

“This is not a sacrifice for me, meleth. It is a blessing. I must be the happiest Elf in all of Arda and have the most hope in my heart,” he says softly before kissing me deeply. The sky spins around us, the leaves and birds are singing and we are caught in the moment.

“’Tis no wonder the twins thought our kiss beautiful, last night.” he whispers, “When you kiss me you are a warmth which seeps into all my being like sunlight itself. You give me life Rowannen. So immediate, so precious, yet fleeting, that when it ends I cannot wait for the next kiss to feel it again. I am overjoyed not to have lost you and wish to never lose you, meleth. ” I squeeze his hands, entwine my fingers with his and draw back to speak.

“When you kiss me it is like the universe unfolding, Las. Trees and growth and far off stars and centuries of time stretching on into infinity. I am lost and found all at once, and I never want it to end for it feels as if it should not.”

He smiles and holds me close and for many moments we lie still and silent.

“ Then we will hope it will not. There is only one way to celebrate this moment,” his voice is low and deep and he moves the fabric from my shoulders with his fingers. “Make love with me, lirimaer.”

Gently he parts my garments and my skin is bared to the spring air, his lips caress down my neck and onto my breast, so tenderly licking and nuzzling against my flesh. His touch is so beautiful, I can hardly breathe. His mouth encloses my nipple and laps with such sweet warmth and as his fingers come to trace the other neglected one, my body rises against him. My hands twine in his hair as I hold him to me and then move to divest him of his clothing for I need him so.

Slowly between caresses we unfasten each other’s garments and slide boots from our feet. I push his leggings down his thighs, my fingers thrilling over his exposed skin and soon we are both naked, lying in the grass, the cool breeze whispering over our us, the sunlight warming us when the wind ceases.

This is so beautiful. He smells of the grass and leaves and the perfume of the flowers mingles with this and rises up to envelop us as we begin this dance of love. His fingers trace my thighs which open for him willingly and his finger slips inside my folds to search for what he seeks. So easily he gains entry and his touch is like light, sending shooting bolts of sensation into my core. He parts me further and positions himself to gain entry with his body, his fingers replaced with his silky hard column. I gasp as he slides expertly into me. Nothing can compare to this ever. His hair a sunlit golden mane as it spills around me, tickling across my breasts as he sighs and begins to move. “Amin mela lle,” he whispers as he hardens further and sweeps into me with strong thrusts.

His fingers trace my face, touch my ears and come again to rest lightly on my breasts as he spirals us higher into a joy beyond the reach of dreams. Deeper he moves now and my whole body is responding, every cell awakened to his touch as his body joins with mine until we are one. My hands come around to encircle his long back and feel the muscles ripple there with his effort. I can no longer tell what sensations come from without and what from within, his movement mirrors the air and the trees, and my body takes all of him into it. I am crying for out for more, even though his shaft fills me so exquisitely. My hips rise to meet him and feel him pressing so close against my flesh that there is nothing between us. We are one.

“Legolas!” I call his name from my wild rapture. He can do whatever he wants with me as long as he does not stop. My legs curl to twine around his taut thighs and the coils of pleasure tighten deep within me until I feel I can no longer breathe. His hands knead my breasts gently in time with his movement. The scent of his desire drifts into my consciousness with each new thrust.

“Legolas!”

His long fingers tingle across my skin, his breath is warm against my ear as he murmurs words of love. Never once does he lose his rhythm even though I feel him tighten within me and against me and know he is close to his peak. The soft dust of pale hair at the root of him brushes into my tight curls as he angles himself to bring me more pleasure and I can do no other but let him take me higher and my body arches into bliss. A broken moan escapes my lips as I climax, rushing toward him with all the magical force he has built in me. As I come, falling and spasming uncontrollably around him I feel him pause at the brink, savouring that moment of ecstasy before he too lets go with a cry and spills himself in deep pulses. I can feel his seed hurtling from him, pushing into me in hot bursts as he topples over into blessed relief.

He groans as he collapses onto me spent. He softens within me and eventually speaks.

“It is very special, this which we have, meleth. So precious, we must never jeopardise it, nor let anything come between us.”

“We will not,” I reply. “You are my life now, Legolas and all that I need.”


LEGOLAS:

Never have I felt such joy as I do now at her words. Such meaning is in our kiss. The hope is bursting from my heart as my fingers come to part her garments. I need her as close to me as we can possibly be with nothing between us. There is only one way to celebrate this moment.

My fingers tease at the ties of her soft tunic and draw it from her shoulders, my lips kiss across the skin of her neck and down to her breasts, such beautiful mounds tipped with pink and I nuzzle and suckle there. Her nipple puckers under the ministrations of my tongue and my fingers find its twin and coax the same reaction with their sensitive tips. Her skin is pale as milk and tastes of the breeze flowing over us and of the sun, which warms it when the wind’s draught ceases. Her hair is spread across the grass and the scent of it mingles with the perfume of the tiny blue flowers blossoming amongst the blades. It fills my senses.

Her thighs part easily for my touch and the tip of my finger circles ecstatically into her moist silk, but this is not a time for play but a time to join. I raise myself and cover her with my body. “Amin mela lle.” I quietly enter her, the tip of me singing with excitement as she enfolds me and opens for what I have to give.

Deeper and deeper until sensation is all and we are one. “Rowannen.” She is moaning and her head is thrown back onto the grass and her body rises to meet mine until there is there no space between us. It is ecstasy and I can lift us higher. I move, in and out sliding, pulling back and entering again to the furthest, secret place.

My bones turn to liquid as her arms come around my back and press me closer. Her legs come to curl about my thighs and encourage me deeper still until my sac is pressed intimately against her skin and all of my sex is gripped inside her, feeling the ripples of her ecstasy run along its length. She is warm and pliant as she calls my name in her bliss, her pupils dilated with need as she gazes rapt into my eyes.

“Lle naa vanima, Lirimaer,” I whisper into her ear as she clutches me tightly. I am rising higher toward the point of no return. Please come for me meleth nin, soon, The thought wings across my mind. Her movement beneath me grows more urgent and erratic as I strive to keep a steady pace to bring her pleasure. I shift slightly to press against her clitoris and her moans assure me she is almost there. Then suddenly I am burning like fire within her as she flies over the edge and her orgasm precipitates my own. I come explosively deep inside that soft, dark haven. My eyes close, yet sparks of light are flashing across my mind as my pearly white essense spills in bursts before I lay spent across her sweet body, breathing deeply, a faint sheen of sweat silvering my skin.

We stay joined for a long time, lost in this world of our own making. She is close and warm around me and holds me tight within her and her fingers move to the irregular rhythm of the soft breeze on my skin.

Anor has moved in the sky when I withdraw from her so slowly and she sighs a sigh of sweet satisfaction at our sharing and of disappointment at my leaving combined. I lie against her, my elfhood heavy and sticky over her thigh and rest my head on her breast. She strokes my hair, slender fingers amongst the strands, caressing my head and running down the length. I am satiated. I could stay here forever in this bliss. Valar grant it to me, saes.

The sound of the waterfall grows louder in my senses, seeming to rise and fall with her breathing and I prop myself up on an elbow; she smiles at me with such love. My strength returns, ready now to go on and embrace whatever will come to us. I extricate my limbs from hers and stand naked in the sunlight and offer her my hand to rise.

She lifts from the grass into my arms and looks around at a world the same, yet new. Arod and Feannim still grazing nearby, dappled grey and black as though they are the first horses ever to grace Arda and we, so close in our love as if we are the first lovers ever to find communion and hope. I reach for my clothing, eyes shining.

“Come, let us dress and take our first steps into our future.”