Betrothal To An Elf
Part 7
Posted: August 17, 2007
Title: Betrothal To An Elf
Author: Inwë Sáralondë
Summary: Glorfindel gives Erestor a gift.
*****
Stopping momentarily to watch a leaf as it floated to the ground, Erestor returned to the task at hand. “How can I have possibly accumulated so much *junk*?” he muttered as he knelt down to start sorting through the pile.
“Very easily,” Glorfindel said as he entered the room. “I am afraid I share your propensity for keeping things even though they have little use any more.”
Erestor sighed. “The difficult thing is to decide what to keep, and what to throw out or give away. So much of what I have here are a keepsake of one form or another.”
“The worst things to try and sort. I know that all too well.” Kneeling down next to Erestor, he placed what he had been carrying on the floor. The darkling elf stared.
“A kitten?”
“Aye. Were you not aware that the stable cat had given birth? This is one of her litter. Is she not beautiful?” Glorfindel smiled as he stroked the kitten, his large hand almost engulfing it.
“Is it old enough to leave its mother?” Erestor asked, watching in fascination as the kitten began pawing at piece of parchment.
“I would not have brought her here if she were not.” Glorfindel turned and looked at his lover. “I thought you might like to have her.”
Erestor smiled as he watched the kitten, which was a beautiful smoky-grey colour with white paws. As if she felt Erestor’s eyes upon her, she turned and sat down demurely, returning the advisor’s gaze unwaveringly.
“She is like a little princess,” Erestor said. “I think I shall call her Aranel.”
“A pretty name,” Glorfindel replied. If truth be told, he was surprised that Erestor was willing to accept the kitten. He had been expecting an explosion of some sort from his betrothed. But watching Erestor gently stroking the kitten, he found that a weight had been lifted from him.
“You do not mind?” he asked curiously.
“Mind? Mind what?” Erestor asked.
“That I gave you a kitten.”
“I have nothing against animals as pets, Glorfindel. It is just that I have never had one before. And she is more precious because you gave her to me.”
“She will be good company for you when I am away on patrol.”
“Must you go on patrol?” Erestor queried, still stroking the kitten.
“It is part of my duties, melethron – you know this,” Glorfindel replied, wondering where this was going.
“But now that we are betrothed, surely there is less need for you to do so. There are other elves who could take your place.”
“Other elves? Of whom do you speak?”
“Those who are not attached,” Erestor said. His voice was deceptively casual, but there was something else there, and the warning bells that had quietly begun ringing in Glorfindel’s head gradually became louder.
“You worry that something may happen to me,” he surmised. There was no reply from Erestor, but his hand stilled briefly before resuming his stroking of Aranel. “You have nothing to fear, melethen,” Glorfindel said quietly, “though I do not blame you for worrying. Dark times begin to approach once more, but what happened to Gil-galad will not happen to me, I promise you.”
“How can you promise such a thing?” Erestor’s voice was anguished.
“Because I do not think Námo will want to have me in his Halls again.” Glorfindel met Erestor’s puzzled gaze with a smile. “I am afraid I beat him once too often in chess; he will not want me back for that reason alone.”
“Is he truly that bad?” Erestor asked, a glimmer of a smile on his face.
“Worse.”
*****
Elvish translations:
melethen – my love
melethron – male lover
‘Aranel’ is taken from the Council of Elrond website.
*****
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