The way to Gondor (Aragorn and Legolas fanfic)

Alone with Arwen

Arwen POV

I met him at dawn by the stables. When he walked up to me I felt so precious, so lucky to have found a man whom I could adore. He gave me a smile as we saddled our horses, but we didn't say a word. It was a comfortable silence, only interrupted by my horse Asfaloth and a dark-brown mare Aragorn borrowed. It was called Astaldar, which means strong or valiant in elvish. I chose her for the man from the north, because I believe him to be the same.

"Híl-me (Follow us)", I almost whispered. 

He showed me he would, by whispering something in Astaldars ear, that made the mare start walking, but only so far as that she was standing beside me and Asfaloth. This was the sign for me to set off. I watched Aragorn once more, before I drove my horse to ride in full gallop down to the river. 

After a while I turned around, to look if he was able to follow me. Surprised, he rode just behind us, seemingly easily holding the pace. I wondered where he got that connection to horses from. But I slowed down anyway, because I wanted to show him the landscape.

We had now reached the riverbed and where riding in the sand of the shore. Beside us where green hills, and behind that the mountainsides. Rivendell was located in a side arm of the Misty Mountains, and thus surrounded by mountains. The valley was the more beautiful. Especially now in autumn, when the leaves started to grow all red and yellow and brown and the forest turned into a colossal painting. 

"Do you like it?", I asked him.

He looked around him with bright eyes.

"I love it!", he said.

We followed the river until the valley ended, then rode back upwards again until we reached the mountainhead. And on the way we rode into the forest, into the wide flower meadows, and into the sunset.

Legolas POV

It was a boring day, and it made me a bit sad. Aragorn was away alone with Arwen, and I felt uneasy about that. It wasn't that I didn't trust him on not doing something stupid, but I was not a blind elf. I had seen the glances the princess had given him the previous days. I just hoped she left it at glances. Right now, I couldn't think of Aragorn being with someone else, not after what we had done yesterday. I knew it would just be a matter of time for us to part, but in this time I wanted him to be with me. Back in my head I knew anyway, that he would end up with some beautiful woman on his side, me being a noone, left behind.

Elrond had advised me and my father to form alliances with the other elf kingdoms. It was an advise we could take, but the problem was, that nobody from our tribes had interfered in anothers problems before, as long as I could remember. And I didn't know how well a bond would be taken from them. But my father would surely know what to do, now that I had interrogated Elrond about it.

At lunch I sat only with Elrond. We ate in comfortable silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Until he asked:

"Have my daughter and Aragorn not returned yet?"

His face was suddenly dark and unsettled.

"No, my lord. They have been away since the sun rose this morning."

I tried to read his facial expressions. He seemed upset about something, but I couldn't detect what it was. But seeing him so uneasy made me worried too. Not about that something could have happened to them, but about what Arwen had done. 

"If they do not return before the night settles itself and the sun disappears behind the mountains, I will send riders to find them. I will inform you when I summon my riders and you will be one of them. If you wish to, that is", Elrond said then. Now he looked more tired than anything else, but he seemed to have closed this matter of worry.

"Of course I will join your riders, it would be an honor", I answered immediately. He just nodded. My answer had been clear for both of us even before he had finished the question.