Title: Tên Mûel
Authors: Makiko Igami (makikoigami@yahoo.de) & My-chan (My-
chan@gmx.de)
Archive: http://www.yaoi.rulestheweb.com
http://www.geocities.com/lirimaer8/index.html
http://www.mediaminer.org/fanfic/src.php?auth=58906
http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=1231150
http://www.efanfiction.net/authors.php?no=2916
Category: AU, RPG
Rating: this chapter... PG? May go up soon... *is getting poked by 
My-chan: "NC-17!"* *sweatdrops*
Pairings: Aragorn/Legolas, others as well *glances over to Elladan 
& Elrohir*
Warnings: Slash, OOC (of Arwen mostly), slavery...
Spoilers: A few... not really as I don't remember much of the book, 
just that Aragorn became King of Gondor in the end and that 
Arwen was his Queen.
Summary: After seven years of marriage, the excitement of being 
together has vanished from Aragorn and Arwen's marriage... 
maybe a present might change this.
Disclaimer: You know the deal don't you? J.R.R. Tolkien invented 
them, and if we owned them, we would be related to him, but 
since neither I nor My-chan are... we just play around with them, 
toy with their minds and use them for fun only.
Notes&Comments: This was written by me and My-chan, as a rpg 
and ever since Pretending And Being, a wild mix of German and 
English we have this nearly exhitionistic need for feedback from 
various places. ^^;;  So please be gentle.
Now on to the story itself. I know that this may look like a serious 
Arwen-bashing story, but please be reassured that we don't mean 
to cause any harm to anybody who likes her. The Sindarin we used 
(and transformed for ourselves) we got from a little program called 
Dragon Flame (which I always think that it is this game I don't 
want to play unless I know I am on my own), but since it didn't 
have all the words we needed, we had to make them up. If you 
have any questions feel free to send an email to any of us... and 
hope that we still know what we wanted to say. ^^;;;;
______________________________________________________


Aragorn was a brave man. And he was popular among the people 
of Gondor.

They loved their king Elessar Telcontar who participated in the 
Fellowship of the One Ring that was destroyed in the fires of mount 
Doom in which it was made by Sauron at the dawn of time in 
Middle-Earth, when Humans, Dwarves and Elves had been friends. 
But then again, Dwarves and Elves had never really been friends; 
they just had tolerated each other once until the one felt betrayed 
by the other.

Humans and Elves had been much closer, be it because they were 
about of the same height or because they both cherished the light. 
They loved the fresh air in contrast to the Dwarves who lived in 
caves and tunnels inside of the mountains where they searched for 
gold, silver and the most beautiful gems.

But this changed when Orcs and the One Ring appeared.

Because it was then, in the last legendary battle in which Dwarves, 
Elves and Humans fought side by side against the great Orc-Army 
of Sauron, in which Sauron was defeated that Humans spilled the 
great secret of the Orcs' origin.

Orcs had been Elves once, but they were sold to Sauron by their 
friends, the nine kings, who got their rings from Sauron and were 
controlled in every movement by him. They were his tools and got 
immortality for that but lost everything else.

The hurt and betrayed Elves disappeared in the deepest and 
darkest forests of Middle-Earth, making them even more 
mysterious and creepy than before. 3,000 years had to pass until 
Elves made their next big step onto the stage of history in Middle-
Earth.

Rivendell had been a haven for those who searched Elves and Elves 
who wanted to live closer to the Humans, although the latter was 
rather seldom. Wizards, Humans, even some Hobbits and the one 
or other Dwarf were seen there in all the time and everybody like 
the Rivendell Elves, even though they had hardly ever seen one out 
of the peaceful city.

It was there that Aragorn was raised by his foster father Elrond, 
educated by him, was trained in the skills of sword-fighting, 
archery and hand-to-hand-combat by Elladan and Elrohir, his twin 
brothers and found love in Arwen, Elrond's daughter. She was the 
most beautiful Elf in all Rivendell with her ivory skin, ebony hair, 
eyes as blue as the sky and lips as red as blood.

Aragorn would have been happy to live in the forest for the rest of 
his life, having Arwen by his side and forget about the inheritance 
of the old Kings' bloodline if it hadn't been for the One Ring, which 
found its way to Rivendell in the hands of a Hobbit named Frodo, 
with a soul so pure and innocent that the Ring had a hard time 
seducing him. To Aragorn it was a wonder that none of the four 
Hobbits seemed to feel the effects the Ring had on everyone, even 
Elrond.

But he was sent to protect the Ringbearer from all danger that 
wanted to harm him on his way to Morder, along with Elladan and 
Elrohir, Faramir of Gondor, Gimli the Dwarf and Gandalf the Grey 
Wizard. The journey was hard and difficult and they lost both 
Gandalf and Boromir on their way, Gandalf in the halls of Moria and 
Faramir in a battle against Uruk-Hai that kidnapped the Hobbits. 
Faramir died in Aragorn's arms, acknowledging him as the rightful 
king of Gondor even before he himself did.

It was after Faramir's death that the Fellowship broke apart, the 
Hobbits Sam and Frodo were taking the One Ring to Mordor and 
Aragorn led the others to find the missing two Hobbits, Merry and 
Pippin. They also found Gandalf on their hunt, along with allies in 
Rohan who went with Aragorn and his friends to Minas Tirith where 
the last battle against Sauron's army was fought.

So in the end the One Ring was destroyed as well as Sauron, 
Aragorn was Elessar Telcontar, King of Gondor and married happily 
to his betrothed Arwen.

Arwen was more than happy to come to Gondor. She could now 
live far away from her father, who she didn't quite understand in 
his grief over mankind. In her opinion he was still living in the past, 
didn't go on a day since Isildur died, all those thousands of years 
ago. Being with Aragorn always brought some life into hers, she 
had once said to Aragorn in private, all those years ago, when they 
still shared one bed for other reasons than rejuvenating.

Sometimes he pondered about the reasons for the expiry of the 
heat between them and wondered briefly if it was his fault. He 
gave Arwen all the love he could, but recently he started missing 
something in their relationship, something essential, but he couldn't 
name it. So once again he sat over endless papers that demanded 
his attention when he would rather be outside and practice archery 
and sword-fighting or have a nice pint of ale. Being King was a 
demanding occupation and it wasn't seldom that Aragorn wanted to 
flee from his kingdom and pass it to somebody else. He could 
endure it as long as he was sure of Arwen's love and comfort but 
she had gotten cold. Or maybe it was him. After all those years 
they spent together he had practically searched every bit of skin of 
her beautiful body and knew every crevice by heart and she was 
just the same.

He groaned and buried his head into the papers on his desk. "Why 
me..."

"Estel?"

Aragorn blinked and looked up with a contract on his cheek from 
Rohan about giving Boromir, son of the former ruler of Gondor and 
brother of Faramir, to the Lady Eowyn, one of the many stupid 
requests that needed his approval. Nobody but Arwen called him by 
his Elven name anymore.

"Arwen," he said and smiled, picking the paper absentmindedly 
from his cheek as he stood up and walked over to her. "My 
beautiful wife." She was as young as ever had not aged one day 
since he had first seen her. She was an eternal beauty and he was 
getting older each day, each hour and minute; he could feel it in 
his bones.

She replied him with one of her business smiles and parchments on 
his desk. "Boring matters again?"

"Don't ask," he said and looked for a moment as sheepish as the 
boy she had once found wading through her robes, not even a 
handful of winters old. "Have you come to lighten up my gray 
duty?"

She shook her head, waves of ebony hair floating over her back. 
"Well, yes, but... do you remember which day is today?"

He looked deep in thought. "I hardly remember which day of the 
week it is today, but since you ask, it must be something 
important... Don't tell... I forgot your birthday again!"

She laughed, a full mezzo-soprano. "No, Estel, and even if you did, 
I don't want to be reminded that I will be 3,000 soon. No, my dear 
husband, it's our wedding day."

"Oh," Aragorn said and thought. 'I wonder if I get another horse... 
A nice chestnut haired mare for the dark stallion I got last year...' 
He tried to smile and somehow missed the cheekiness on his wife's 
face.

"Don't worry about your present for me, I already got a beautiful 
necklace from Gimli and gave him a great reward from the treasure 
room. You know how much he loves gold, don't you?"

"Of course I do," Aragorn said with a smirk. "So now that you got 
my present for you without me knowing what it was... what do I 
get? You know I am happy the way it is."

"I know you are, as am I, but I found something on the market 
some days ago that I couldn't pass by..."

He saw her motioning to her maidens and they brought in a 
struggling something with a bright red ribbon around the chest. 
Aragorn blinked than gasped and wasn't sure what to say to his 
wife. "A..."

"Isn't he beautiful? He's a Woodelf! I've never seen anyone of his 
kind before! I mean, Adar told me that there were other types of 
Elves with blond hair, but I never thought that they really existed!" 
She walked a full circle around the blindfolded Elf and then put one 
of her petite hands on his stomach, drawing little circles. "I've 
bought him only for you."

The king of Gondor stared openly at his wife and her "gift". He 
would have never believed that she would support slavery as he 
didn't but Elves were rare these days and those who were lucky 
enough to catch an Elf sold them for a good price to those who 
wanted to pay it. "Sell one Elf and you will never have to work 
again" was a pretty popular slogan in the pubs of Gondor and the 
rest of Middle-Earth.

And this particular one was even able to compete even with 
Arwen's beauty, although he was a male. Shoulder-length blond 
hair, skin as ivory as Arwen's, now hidden underneath a silken tunic 
that was just thrown over his shoulders, rather muscular as 
Aragorn surveyed them more closely, as if he was used to archery, 
held together with a silver belt around his waist.

A black scarf was bound around his eyes, another around his wrists 
and then there was this offending red ribbon around his chest.

"Arwen..." he started, wanting to tell her to set him free 
immediately but she just smiled at him, like a cat that had caught a 
bird and put it before   its master. "No Estel, he's yours and he will 
help you relax."

She waved to her maidens and they set off for the King's 
chambers. "I've ordered a ring put into your chambers where you 
can tie him... He will be in your chambers for your custody alone." 
She floated over the floor over to him until she stood right in front 
of him. "Happy Wedding Day, Estel."

For a few moments, the Elf remained still while the gentle fingers 
drew circles over his stomach, and he shivered slightly. He was 
afraid, yes. But he swore to himself, never to show fear to any of 
these strange and brutal creatures. He still had some of his pride 
left, the men who captured him didn't manage to break all of it, 
and he would never show any of them that he was afraid.

As the Woodelf felt the cold hand grab him again, to drag him out 
of the room, he started struggling again, trying to get free. He 
earned another punch in the stomach, which left him rather weak 
in the arms of his superiors.

Without any farther resistance, he let himself be dragged down a 
hallway into another room. After he was set to the ground, the Elf 
could feel some tugging on his necklace, and he heard a sound 
which seemed to be some kind of steel rings... Chains! They had 
chained him to the wall!

The Elf clenched his fists. This was humiliating. But he didn't 
struggle, he was too afraid to try to escape again. He remembered 
very well, what had happened the last time he tried. He shivered 
again and leaned back, to rest his body against the wall.

He was tired and exhausted, but wouldn't allow himself to sleep. 
Also he didn't think that he possibly could, with all the adrenalin 
rushing through his body. The Woodelf listened carefully, if anyone 
entered the room and concentrated carefully on his surroundings. 
And despite his fear, he soon fell asleep, still resting against the 
wall, blindfolded and tied up.

Aragorn and his wife had talked a bit more but she had left his 
office soon, saying that she had to take care of a few things. 
Sighing, he had concentrated back on his royal duties: Paperwork. 
It took him more than just a few hours to finish them and it was 
pitch-black night when he finally strolled back to his room. The 
request from Rohan was now on Faramir's desk as it was 
concerning only him.

He had almost forgotten Arwen's present until he walked into his 
room and found the Elf sitting in a corner, tied to the wall with a 
big leather  and metal collar around his neck, which was chained to 
the ring Arwen had mentioned. He was lying in a tight ball on the 
floor, arms wrapped tightly around muscular-looking legs, the 
silken tunic had moved everywhere but where it belonged and his 
formerly neatly combed hair was now in a mess. Despite himself, 
Aragorn smiled.

It was the last thing he wanted to call the Elf, but "cute" was the 
only description that came to his mind right now. He went over to 
kneel in front of the sleeping prisoner, to remove the blindfold with 
ginger fingers as he didn't want to wake him.

Under closer inspection Aragorn could see quite a few bruises all 
over the ivory skin, especially where the disheveled tunic revealed 
it. The man felt strange as he let the tips his fingers ghost over 
them.

"What have they done to you?" he whispered silently, his face 
turning into a mask of pity. But he could help but admire the 
beauty of the sleeping Elf... even if it was a male one.

His oversensitive senses snapped in when somebody came closer 
to the room, and sent alarming shivers through the Elf's body, 
causing him to wake up. He could hear somebody opening the 
door, and step in, but he remained unmoving, still hoping the 
person would just turn around and go away.

But his inward prayers died unheard as the steps came closer and 
stopped in front of the captured Elf.

'Go away!' he screamed in his mind, still pretending to be asleep, 
as the creature apparently kneeled down next to him. Hardly able 
to suppress another shiver when his blindfold was carefully 
removed, the Elf's thoughts raced. The adrenalin in his blood 
seemed to have doubled its intensity, and all he felt like doing was 
jerk up, and run away. But he knew he couldn't. He was tied up 
and chained.

From the corner of his eyes, the slave caught sight of the stranger. 
This creature seemed to inspect him, since he could almost feel his 
eyes on his body. And the Elf used the chance to do the same. The 
skin of this person was more tanned than his, and his ears where 
smaller and round, like those of the men who had caught him. 
Those devils… monsters… Humans.

The Elf almost screamed out loud when suddenly gentle fingers 
moved over his bruised skin. He wanted to fly from the touch, but 
he was too frightened to move. And the man in front of him was 
radiating so much power, authority and strength that it was even 
hard to breath for the captured Woodelf.

But then, the Human started to speak, in this strange and sharp 
manner. For a few more seconds the Elf managed to restrain 
himself, before he shot up and backed away as far as possible from 
the Human, as far as the chain would let him. Crawling backwards 
he bowed his head down, staring on his still tied up hands. He 
remained still only when he felt the necklace starting to choke him.

The men had never talked much to him, but when they did, they 
only yelled at him, hurt him and "taught" him. The Elf didn't want 
to be yelled at any more, for those sharp words hurt his ears as 
well. And he especially didn't want this man to get loud, since he 
had a strong voice. He could tell from the few whispered words.

So the slave bowed farther down, quickly licked his dry lips and 
croaked out a clumsy "master". One of the few Human words he 
had had to learn, among many other things.

Aragorn's eyes widened both in surprise and shock. Surprise as the 
Elf jumped up with a start and huddled up in the corner farthest 
away from him and shock as he saw how submissive he moved and 
when that one word slipped out of his mouth. His heart sank and 
he felt the sudden need to strangle somebody, namely the one who 
sold this Woodelf or Arwen for buying him, but quickly regained his 
self-control. The Elf was probably trained to react that way to 
whomever it was that was talking to him. Probably by the same 
people who were responsible for those bruises as well.

'Great, just what I need now after countless hours of 
paperwork...negotiating with a scared Elf...'

Rubbing his temples, Aragorn's mind raced to find the best ways of 
gaining somebody's trust... even if they thought you were Sauron 
himself. Which he wasn't, so he just had to made that clear.

He held out his hands to show that he had no weapons, and 
indicated that he didn't want to cause harm to his present, and 
talked as calmly as possible.

"Don't be afraid... I don't mean to cause you any harm." The Elf's 
pointed ears twitched slightly when the Human started talking 
again. But it wasn't the usual tone. Not the sharp, rough manner 
he was used to. Even though this strange language seemed rather 
harsh, the Woodelf could hear that this man's voice was unusually 
soft.

But still. He didn't understand the words, and maybe he was just 
testing him, if he would behave, and if he didn't…

Not wanting to annoy his master, the Elf remained in his position, 
and kept staring on his tied hands.

"Do you understand me?" Aragorn asked, slightly taken aback that 
he received no answer from the Elf and had to see how he maybe 
just curled up into a tighter ball, staring at his bound hands in 
submissiveness that made the man feel sick in his stomach. Not 
one of his words seemed to seep through to the understanding of 
his ... he didn't want to call him slave, although that was what he 
was...

Trying out another tactic he repeated what he had said in the 
language of the Elves that he had learned from his foster father. 
He tried to keep his voice calm and friendly and hoped that he was 
getting through somehow now.

The Elf's head shot up when he heard the same voice, which had 
only spoken strange, Human language, forming words in a manner 
that sounded so much like his own kind, that he thought he had 
woken up from a dream. But when the blond man looked up, his 
blue-violet eyes met steel blue ones, and he looked into the face of 
a creature that seemed so unfamiliar like anything else he'd seen 
lately. His eyes widened slightly and he stared at the man, not able 
to believe that these kinds of sounds could ever leave the mouth of 
a Human.

Still he didn't really understand what he had said, but his fear was 
almost forgotten. This one was actually trying to talk to him, 
instead of talking at him.

Aragorn smiled when the Elf finally reacted to his attempts of 
talking to him. So when his head shot up, he took the opportunity 
and studied the eyes that looked up at him with a glimmer of hope 
and surprise sweeping through them. But they were gone soon 
enough to tell Aragorn, that the Woodelf had recognized the 
language he was talking to him, but didn't understand the words he 
said. It confirmed what he had heard... Elves had drifted so far 
from each other that they didn't really understand each other 
anymore.

But since his gift seemed to feel much more confident when he 
didn't speak in the tongue of the Humans, Aragorn talked on in the 
Elvish he learned.

"I’m... Aragorn," he said and put his hand on his chest. Then he 
pointed to the Elf. "Ho...?"

The slave listened carefully, trying to understand what the Human 
said. Which wasn't really hard, since his gesture towards his own 
body was unmistakable.

"Em... Legolas", he peeped quietly, in his own language, pointing 
to his own chest with his tied up hands.

"Legolas Greenleaf."

"Legolas..." Aragorn repeated mumbling, tasting the name on his 
tongue like he would do with a new brand of wine and found that it 
left a pleasant feeling in his mouth.

"Legolas, I'm sorry for what happened," he explained, still a bit 
stunned by the brazenness of his wife to buy one of her own kind 
and give it to him like a present...like some lifeless item. "But my 
wife has given you to me, and there is now way I can set you free 
now. It would hurt her and drive her further away from me than 
we already are." He sighed, letting out all the frustration that had 
build up during the past months, almost years. "I'm pretty sure you 
don't understand much of what I say to you." He smiled wearily. 
"I'm sorry."

"Laine", Legolas whispered, after he turned his head away again. 
At least there was one word he was absolutely sure of what it 
meant. Even though he could tell that the Human had said 
something about not setting him free. And there was one other 
word that sounded familiar, but it wasn't possibly true. Why would 
the Human apologize to him? He was his slave after all.

Staring down at his hands again, the Elf swallowed the lump in his 
throat. His master sounded rather frustrated… Most likely because 
of him. And it was his duty to make him feel better.

"Em… em tên… mûel", he whispered, hoping the words would ease 
his master's heavy thoughts.

Aragorn rather guessed than knew what Legolas said to him, 
because the words sounded strangely familiar, but then again quite 
different, as if it was from the same of origin as his Elvish, but had 
developed into another direction. It was quite interesting from an 
etymological point of view, but Aragorn had far more important 
problems at hand.

"Yes... unfortunately," he sighed and let his gaze wander over the 
Elf's body again. "Even if I did set you free... they'd catch you 
again... in your state of health..." He was rather talking to himself 
than Legolas, almost mumbling than talking out loud. The train of 
words was stopped though as his eyes were glued to the offending 
bright red ribbon, that was still wrapped around the Elf's chest and 
the - as he had to admit - rather short tunic. He made a face and 
then crouched slowly towards the being in the corner, who still 
seemed to be frightened of him.

He held up his hands, still indicating that he didn't want to cause 
Legolas any harm and motioned towards the ribbon. "Let me 
remove this..." 

To be continued...
______________________________________________________
As I said... please be gentle. ^^;;;;





Title: Tên Mûel
Authors: Makiko Igami (makikoigami@yahoo.de) & My-chan (My-
chan@gmx.de)
Archive: http://www.yaoi.rulestheweb.com
http://www.geocities.com/lirimaer8/index.html
http://www.mediaminer.org/fanfic/src.php?auth=58906
http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=1231150
http://www.efanfiction.net/authors.php?no=2916
Category: AU, RPG
Rating: this chapter... PG? May go up soon... *is getting poked by 
My-chan: "NC-17!"* *sweatdrops*
Pairings: Aragorn/Legolas, others as well *glances over to Elladan 
& Elrohir*
Warnings: Slash, OOC (of Arwen mostly), slavery...
Spoilers: A few... not really as I don't remember much of the book, 
just that Aragorn became King of Gondor in the end and that 
Arwen was his Queen.
Summary: After seven years of marriage, the excitement of being 
together has vanished from Aragorn and Arwen's marriage... 
maybe a present might change this.
Disclaimer: You know the deal don't you? J.R.R. Tolkien invented 
them, and if we owned them, we would be related to him, but 
since neither I nor My-chan are... we just play around with them, 
toy with their minds and use them for fun only. <insert evil 
laughter here>
Notes&Comments: This was written by me and My-chan as a rpg 
and ever since Pretending And Being, a wild mix of German and 
English, we have this nearly "exhibitionistic" need for feedback 
from various places. ^^;; So please be gentle.
Now on to the story itself. I know that this may look like a serious 
Arwen-bashing story, but please be reassured that we don't mean 
to cause any harm to anybody who likes her. She is just for causes 
of story-telling such a bitch here. ^^;
The Sindarin we used (and transformed for ourselves) comes from 
a little program called Dragon Flame (which I always think that it is 
this game I don't want to play unless I know I am on my own), but 
since it didn't have all the words we needed, we had to make them 
up. If you have any questions feel free to send an email to any of 
us... and hope that we still know what we wanted to say. ^^;;;;

To Verve: Thank you very much for your praise. And we have to 
admit,that we don't know the differences of Quenya and Sindarin, 
but as I said, (I think) we are using a sindarin-dictionary. And the 
words that Legolas uses are only bit modified from those. ^^;; It's 
not really high-educated, we have no idea from Sindarin (at least I 
don't; I'm still trying to learn Japanese). And the reason why we 
"killed" Faramir was that My-chan liked Boromir more than Faramir, 
and since we both know the films better than the movies, it will be 
a little easier for us to describe Boromir than Faramir for he had 
more screentime. And thanks for the praise on the grammar and 
such. It is a bit complicated to use the most beautiful and stunning 
grammar in a story that is written as a rpg by two people, 
especially since each of them has their own style. ^^; I hope it is 
okay though. About the fangirls-comment... I admit, we are both 
fangirls, but there are borders that we don't like to cross... 
*sweatdrops* Oh, dear, I think this has gotten a little long. ^^;; I 
do hope though you like what is happening in this chapter. Have 
fun reading!
______________________________________________________

When the Human moved closer, Legolas automatically tried to keep 
the distance and moved backwards. But the chain kept him at the 
level, and all he could do by retreating was choke himself. So he 
stood still, suppressing another shiver as the man came closer.

But then, he started talking again, and the Elf looked up, since he 
didn't understand the words. The Human was pointing towards his 
chest, towards the tunic...

Legolas' eyes widened and he swallowed. He was pretty sure hat 
his words meant that he wanted to take off his clothes, and panic 
rose in the captured Elf. Not caring anymore, if the necklace 
choked him or not, Legolas moved farther backwards and lifted his 
hands to defend himself. Even though he knew he didn't stand a 
chance against the Human.

Aragorn knew he had done something very wrong as Legolas eyes 
fixed him first in surprise and then widened with horror as he 
inched closer. The Elf's struggle and his attempts to get away from 
him were in vain though, as the chain held him pretty perfectly 
where he was. So the only things between them were the Elf's 
hands, elegant hands as Aragorn noticed while he was trying to get 
his hands on the ribbon. But he was having a hard time getting 
through. So being as frustrated as he was he did what he didn't 
want to do.

"Don't struggle!" He ordered and regretted his words while they 
shot out of his mouth.

Legolas didn't understand the harsh words, but he stopped 
struggling nevertheless. Shivering violently he bowed his head 
down even farther, although it hurt his neck, and closed his eyes to 
hide the tears which filled them. Still holding up his tied hands he 
lifted them a little higher, as if he tried to cover his head.

"Nícaer.... Nícaer..." he whispered over and over again, just hoping 
the Human wouldn't hurt him.

It hurt Aragorn to see Legolas like this. But it was said, he couldn't 
take it back and all he could do now was trying to regain the little 
of trust he had won before his outburst. And he knew that it would 
be much harder than before. Legolas was shaking so violently with 
fear that the question of what those people who sold him did to 
him came to his consciousness once again.

Furious over himself, he leaned forward and undid the knot of the 
ribbon, tugging at one end and watched how it fell down and 
snaked its way around Legolas chest. If the circumstances weren't 
so bad, this might almost look sweet... He paid careful attention 
that he didn't touch the Elf, and moved back the instance the 
ribbon was fully gone from his chest. 'So I did unwrap my 
present...' he thought, but his mind supplied him with the addition 
of, 'well, not completely yet.' He frowned and reprimanded himself 
not to do that at any time. First because Legolas was a man and he 
usually didn't lay with men and although his brothers had a 
different opinion about that, he didn't want to assume that Legolas 
was like them in this matter.

So he just sat there in silence on the stone floor, about two arms 
reach away from the Elf and watched him carefully, waiting for the 
reaction on something that never happened.

Legolas' eyes snapped open, when he felt the band around his 
chest being removed. Panic and fear still rising, he wasn't able to 
move, even if he hadn't been chained to the wall. But suddenly the 
hands withdrew and he could feel the Human backing away from 
him.

The Elf didn't understand what this meant, but he could see the 
man didn't move anymore as he stared down at the red ribbon 
which now lay around him on the ground. Pressing his bound 
hands against his forehead, Legolas closed his eyes again, not able 
to prevent the tears from falling.

"Nícaer," he whispered again and sobbed slightly. He had sworn to 
himself never to show such a weakness to these brutal creatures, 
and he didn't until now, but it was just too much.

He was far away from home, sold as a slave to people whose 
language he didn't understand, who hurt him without him even 
knowing why, and he was cold and tired. If it hadn’t been for the 
chain who didn't allow him to move, Legolas would have curled up 
in the corner farthest away from any of these Humans.

"Nícaer..." Salty tears streamed down his face, unhindered, and 
soaked the cold stone floor.

The pain in his chest increased, and the situation got even more 
awkward than before, and all Aragorn wanted to do was say or do 
something that would calm this Woodelf, make his fear go away. 
But there was nothing he could think of which wouldn't scare 
Legolas even more right now. So the man stood up as silently as he 
could and went to find some food, bread and wine the servants had 
put into his room for a last meal. He poured some of the red wine, 
which tasted excellent by the way, into a chalice and broke off a 
piece of the loaf. Using one arm to hold both of those items, he 
grabbed a spare blanket with the other from his bed and returned 
to his place in front of the Elf.

Somehow all of this felt like he was trying to talk to a frightened 
mare, to let her know that she was in good hands and that nobody 
wanted to cause her harm just that this mare was a beautiful Elf.

He put the chalice and the bread next to him, the blanket into his 
lap and finally tried to say something to sooth Legolas. With a 
glimpse of remorse he noticed that the stones held a little puddle 
of tears now.

"Legolas..." he said as softly as he could.

The Elf's pointed ears slightly twitched when the Human called him. 
Still sobbing quietly, the blond man slowly looked up, lowering his 
hands just a bit, so he could look over them. Legolas shyly glanced 
at his master, and took in the blanket in his lap and the food next 
to him.

Only at the sight his stomach started growling. The Woodelf quickly 
looked away, bowing his head back down, again whispering his 
apology, while the flooding tears slowly dried up.

Aragorn almost started to chuckle when he heard Legolas' stomach 
speaking louder than the Elf himself, but managed to keep it down 
as a smile. He offered the cup of wine to him, trying to look 
trustworthy...something that worked in counsels and tiring debates, 
but he wasn't sure if it would work here.

After the Elf managed to calm his body down mostly he fearfully 
looked up again. But what he saw there probably shocked him 
even more. The man was smiling at him, actually smiling. Not sure 
what to think, say or do, Legolas stared at his master for a few 
seconds, until he noticed the cup he was handing to him.

He could smell the sweet scent from the shiny red liquid and 
immediately his throat started to hurt, to remind him how thirsty he 
was. But the Elf hesitated to take the offered cup, since it meant to 
move closer to the Human. Legolas swallowed and after another 
few moments of struggling within himself the slowly moved closer.

The pressure from his neck disappeared as he did so, and the chain 
slightly sagged. Finally the Elf extended his still bound and shaking 
hands to grab the offered wine, only to withdraw them a few 
inches before he touched the cup.

What if this Human just wanted to gain his trust to hurt him even 
more afterwards? He could easily take advantage of his thirsty and 
hungry condition, poison him, and watch his pitiful slave writhe in 
pain. With a doubtful look in his eyes, and also shades of fear in 
them, he looked into the steel blue orbs of his master, trying to 
find an answer to his thoughts.

Again it seemed as if Legolas' body decided for him and Aragorn 
extended his hand a little more, so that the Elf could get the cup 
without getting within one arms reach of the man. He looked at 
him expectantly and nodded when he saw that the Elf despised the 
offer, perhaps because he feared that it was poisonous. He had 
expected this reaction and showed him that this man wasn't born 
in slavery and used to live freely with pride.

To show him that the wine didn't cause any harm, he raised the 
cup to his lips and took a good sip from the red and tart liquid and 
tasted how it flowed down his throat. It was in that particular 
moment that he noticed how thirsty he actually was and cursed 
himself for not taking the bottle with him. So he emptied the 
chalice, put it to the floor and stood up to fetch the rest of the wine 
and bread. He might as well get some food as well.

After he sat down in front of the Elf once again, he poured more of 
the wine into the cup and finally offered it to Legolas.

Seeing the Human drinking the wine convinced the Woodelf that it 
wasn't poisoned, and he grabbed the cup with a clumsy movement, 
which betrayed nothing of the Elf's usual grace. Trying not to be 
too hasty, Legolas quickly drank the sweet liquid to ease the 
burning sensation in his throat.  His eyes never left the bread while 
he emptied the cup; neither did they after he set the cup down and 
shove it back into the direction of his master.

The Elf felt like his stomach was torn apart, but yet he didn't dare 
to ask. Aragorn noticed the longing looks Legolas send over to the 
bread on his side and he immediately offered it to the hungry Elf, 
but not without eating a small piece of it himself. Waiting that the 
leaf was snatched out of his hand, Aragorn wondered how long 
Legolas had to starve...He sincerely doubted that he was given any 
food in all the time before he was sold to Arwen.

"Maybe you're lucky to be here..." he said thoughtfully, munching 
on his own piece of bread.

Trying not to look like the strange pink animals which had been 
sold on the marked next so the stage he was on, Legolas stuffed as 
much of the bread in his mouth as he could, afraid it would be 
taken from him again, if he wasn't quick enough. Even though it 
gave him a hard time chewing, the Elf took an almost too big bite 
every time he swallowed down the last one.

"Hinead", he managed to get out between two bites and 
systematically eliminated the bread in his still slightly shaking 
hands. The stuff tasted awful on his sensitive tongue, but the Elf 
forced it down. He was grateful for it, grateful that he got the 
chance to fill his aching stomach. And since he didn't know when 
he would get something to eat again, he ignored the taste and just 
swallowed bite after bite.

Aragorn stared open-mouthed at Legolas eating and almost forgot 
that he should chew on the bite in his mouth. It went so far that he 
closed his mouth only to hide the laughter that was trying to seep 
out. So when he heard a word from between the crumbs in the 
Elf's mouth, Aragorn started to laugh. A full, free laughter like he 
hadn't laughed for ages as it seemed to him.

After he had calmed down a little he offered the rest of his bread 
without second thinking. "Here, for you. But eat a little slower... I 
don't want you to get sick."

Legolas looked up from his bread, scared and startled. Scared 
because of the loud sound and startled when he saw the Human 
laughing. The Elf looked at his master thoughtfully while he chewed 
his last bite and licked the crumbs from his fingers.

He slightly backed away when he saw the man's hand reaching out 
for him, from the corner of his eyes. Legolas looked up and was 
even more startled when he saw the bread held out for him to grab 
it. The Elf could only guess the meaning of the words, but it 
seemed like this man... Aragorn… actually cared for him. Not being 
very trusting in nature though, Legolas snatched the piece and 
withdrew his hands quite quickly.
Anyone could tell that his movements had already changed. 

"Hinead", he murmured again and continued eating, slower this 
time, chewing more carefully.

With an acknowledging nod Aragorn returned to watching Legolas 
and he was almost proud of them both that he was now eating 
slowly, almost evenly, not as hasty as before. It seemed as if they 
could build up a relationship based on some kind of trust, at least 
in some time. But before that, Aragorn had to talk to him more 
fluently. He could see that the Elf understood parts of what he was 
saying, but not all of it. As he didn't every word that came out of 
the other's mouth. But that could wait, at least for now.

Aragorn watched Legolas intently as he ate. His pale skin looked a 
little dull with all the bruises and the bits of dirt that weren't 
washed away by the diligent hands of Arwen's maidens. Legolas 
was thin, a little too thin for the man's taste, but the trained eyes 
of a warrior could see that underneath the battered-looking skin lay 
well-defined muscles, once strong enough to rip out a tree or 
something as extraordinary as that. Looking at Legolas made him 
wonder what the Elf would look like in his natural surroundings, the 
forest, trees, flowers and all you could think of when the picture of 
a deep dark forest came to your mind... well, Aragorn could do 
without the spiders of Mirkwood, but that was something different. 
It was like watching a unicorn... Something as beautiful, although 
that was an Elf thing, as ethereal and magical as this blond man 
was seldom in the world that Humans lived in. And although 
Aragorn would have preferred if they had met under better 
circumstances, he considered himself lucky to have met Legolas.

The Elf ate up the bread entirely and again licked even the tiniest 
crumb from his shaking fingers. He felt better now that he was 
satiated, even though his stomach already started to rebel. The 
strange taste of the food and his earlier hastiness seemed to cause 
his starved body some problems in accepting it.

Legolas swallowed and tried to get the awful taste out of his 
mouth. He was quite sure that the bread would stay where it was, 
if he didn't have the taste on his tongue, which was making him 
want to throw up. He glanced at Aragorn and then looked at the 
bottle with the wine. It was empty. The Elf swallowed again. His 
throat felt dry like dust and it started burning again. Not only did 
he want to get rid of the taste, he was also thirsty again. Staring 
down at his tied up hands he slightly rose his voice: "Puêl en rem?"

"Huh? Of the bread? I'm sorry, but that's the only loaf I had," 
Aragorn said, but then noticed that Legolas had been looking at the 
now empty bottle of wine. He hadn't even noticed how quickly they 
had emptied it... or rather, himself. There was just a bit left in the 
chalice...

Looking into the cup Aragorn decided to give it to Legolas. "You 
can have the last bit. I'm going to fetch another bottle."

With those words said, he stood up, the blanket fell to the ground, 
and he went into the other room, to do what he had said he'd do.

The Elf watched the other man walk out the room. After he left, 
Legolas looked at the cup and the few remaining draughts wine in 
it, obviously offered to him. Crawling a bit forward, Legolas 
grabbed the cup and emptied in slowly.

The cool liquid eased the burning sensation in his throat, but it 
wasn't enough to end it. So he sat down and waited for Aragorn, 
who'd said something about getting more. At least that's what he 
thought he had understood. And he was proven right when the 
Human came back with another bottle in his hand.

Legolas held up the cup in his tied up hands, looking at his master 
with pleading eyes as he waited for him to fill the vessel.

Aragorn almost stumbled backwards as the saw those pleading 
eyes of the color of the night sky. The man hadn't expected such a 
... puppy-like look at this time. He quickly regained his composure 
though.

His hands moving fast from constant training he uncorked the 
bottle and sniffed at opening, checking if the wine was okay, before 
he leaned down a bit and poured the alcoholic liquid into the 
offered chalice. He was a bit concerned though that Legolas might 
get drunk... and that was something he hadn't intended.

"Maybe I should get some water, too..." he said to himself, now in 
the language of the Humans.

The Elf winced slightly when the words touched his ears, causing 
him to choke on the wine, since it went down the wrong way. He 
quickly set the cup to the ground as his body started to shake 
violently at each cough.

"Nícaer," Aragorn exclaimed and fell back into talking in Elvish. He 
didn't mean to scare the Elf again and cursed himself for his 
thoughtlessness. "I'm sorry..."

He didn't quite know what he should do, so he just stood there 
with the bottle of wine in his hand.

Legolas soon managed to calm his body down, but now his throat 
hurt even more and the stabbing pain had watered his eyes again. 
Blinking, the Elf tried to dry his eyes, before he looked up again 
and nodded slightly. "Aranja..." he murmured, and bowed down to 
lift the cup to his lips and empty it. Then again he extended his 
hands and looked up at his master. Still eyeing the Elf with some 
amount of concern he lowered the bottle again to pour some wine 
into the cup. His concern increased as he saw how fast Legolas 
seemed to drink it, almost like somebody who was drowning... It 
would have been okay if it had been water, but wine... even this 
not as strong as the usual ones made quite an impact on those 
who were as light as Legolas.

After the Elf emptied the chalice again, he put it down and leaned a 
bit backwards to show that he had had enough.

"Hinead."

Legolas didn't only feel better now that he was full and had 
managed to get rid of the awful taste in his mouth. He also started 
to feel the heavy liquid running through his body, making it heavier 
and harder to move. Tiredness washed over him, like a huge wave 
and the warm feeling, caused by the wine didn't help much to stay 
fully awake.

In addition to that there was his weakened condition, which made 
it possible for the wine to hit like an explosion. If Legolas were in 
his normal shape, it probably wouldn't have affected him that 
much. But now his cheeks were flushed and he slowly lost the feel 
for his body.

Aragorn congratulated himself bitterly to managing to make the Elf 
drunk. He put the half-filled bottle on a table close-by and kneeled 
down in front of Legolas. Being greeted by the sight of a little pink 
on those pale cheeks and droopy midnight eyes he had to admit 
once again that his wife had a good taste. Only she could find 
somebody as beautiful as this Woodelf. "Are you feeling alright?" 
he asked, his voice full of concern. He didn't want the other to 
think that he did this on purpose.

Meanwhile Legolas had closed his eyes and he only nodded slightly, 
since he didn't want to move his head too much and he rested his 
forehead on his hands to support his head, which seemed to grow 
heavier every second.

For a few moments the thought came to his mind that his master 
made him drunk on purpose, since the Elf felt rather weak and 
defenseless. But on the other hand, why should the Human give 
himself the trouble of doing that? He was superior to his slave 
anyway.

His thoughts soon got blurry, and all Legolas wanted right now was 
to sleep. The Woodelf slowly passed out, his body sinking to the 
side and he would have hit the ground quite hard, if it wasn't for a 
strong arm to catch him and hold him.

Somehow... Aragorn had seen this coming and thus he was quick 
enough to catch Legolas before his head could hit the stones in 
front of the mantelpiece. They were quite sharp and he didn't want 
to see more bruises on that already battered skin.

"I will sleep on the couch tonight..." he said softly and carefully 
picked up the Elf. He carried him towards the bed, which was well 
in reach of the chain and set him down there on the soft cushions. 
Quite too soft for his tastes sometimes, but now he was grateful for 
them. He moved to pick up the blanket and tucked the sleeping Elf 
into it.

With a small smile he leaned down a little and brushed some loose 
blond strands out of Legolas' face. His cheeks were still quite rosy 
and curled up as he was he looked young... very young, although 
that could be deceiving with Elves. Aragorn guessed him to be 
about one of the youngest Elves around, almost the same age as 
Arwen and even that would make him old enough to have seen 
over two thousand years. His thumb caressed one cheek idly while 
he pondered how it was possible for those slave-hunters to catch 
an Elf.

"How did they do it?" he mumbled, still staring down at the 
sleeping figure on his bed. He pondered for a moment to take off 
the shackles around his wrists, but decided against it. The first 
thing he would surely do was an escape try and maybe it wouldn't 
stop him, but at least hinder him from moving too fast. He couldn't 
let him go... not yet.

The world out there was too cruel for somebody like 
Legolas...Aragorn pried himself away from staring down at him and 
went to the other side of room, closer to the mantelpiece again 
where a big and comfortable armchair stood. Under normal 
circumstances he would have preferred his bed, but this situation 
was anything but normal, so he guessed he could be satisfied with 
sleeping in it tonight... he had slept on worse in his years as a 
ranger.


To be continued...






Title: Tên Mûel
Authors: Makiko Igami (makikoigami@yahoo.de) & My-chan (My-
chan@gmx.de)
Archive: http://www.yaoi.rulestheweb.com
http://www.geocities.com/lirimaer8/index.html
http://www.mediaminer.org/fanfic/src.php?auth=58906
http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=1231150
http://www.efanfiction.net/authors.php?no=2916
Category: AU, RPG
Rating: this chapter... PG? May go up soon... *is getting poked by 
My-chan: "NC-17!"* *sweatdrops*
Pairings: Aragorn/Legolas, others as well *glances over to Elladan 
& Elrohir*
Warnings: Slash, OOC (of Arwen mostly), slavery...
Spoilers: A few... not really as I don't remember much of the book, 
just that Aragorn became King of Gondor in the end and that 
Arwen was his Queen.
Summary: After seven years of marriage, the excitement of being 
together has vanished from Aragorn and Arwen's marriage... 
maybe a present might change this.
Disclaimer: You know the deal don't you? J.R.R. Tolkien invented 
them, and if we owned them, we would be related to him, but 
since neither I nor My-chan are... we just play around with them, 
toy with their minds and use them for fun only. <insert evil 
laughter here>
Notes&Comments: This was written by me and My-chan as a rpg 
and ever since Pretending And Being, a wild mix of German and 
English, we have this nearly "exhibitionistic" need for feedback 
from various places. ^^;; So please be gentle.
Now on to the story itself. I know that this may look like a serious 
Arwen-bashing story, but please be reassured that we don't mean 
to cause any harm to anybody who likes her. She is just for causes 
of story-telling such a bitch here. ^^;
The Sindarin we used (and transformed for ourselves) comes from 
a little program called Dragon Flame (which I always think that it is 
this game I don't want to play unless I know I am on my own), but 
since it didn't have all the words we needed, we had to make them 
up. If you have any questions feel free to send an email to any of 
us... and hope that we still know what we wanted to say. ^^;;;;


When Legolas woke up the next morning, the first thing he felt was 
warmth and a soft fabric surrounding him. He slowly opened his 
eyes and noticed that he was lying in the Human's bed. Startled he 
slightly raised his head to glance around, and found his master 
sleeping in the armchair. Another glance out of the window told 
him that it was still early morning, probably around 4 am. The light 
was mild and no bird was heard. They were still sleeping as well.

Moving soundlessly as he was used to, Legolas sat up and got out 
of the bed. He noticed the change in his body. It wasn't weak 
anymore, didn't hurt with aching need for food and his movements 
regained most of their usual grace. He had to get away from 
here... away from the Humans, and back home.

Looking down at his tied up hands he found that they were bound 
very well, and for a normal being it might have been impossible to 
get free. But not for the Elf. Legolas moved his hands a bit, 
stretched them, and finally simply slipped out of his ties and laid 
them on the ground.

Then his fingers wandered over his necklace and the chain 
connected to it. Soon he discovered the mechanism and opened it. 
It wasn't as easy as getting rid of the ties, but after a few failed 
tries he managed to get free from the chain. Without making any 
sounds he slowly set down the chain, glancing to the sleeping 
Human every now and then to make sure he was still asleep.

After he freed himself, Legolas sneaked to the window and looked 
out, only to find himself being too stunned to move. He was 
looking down at a beautiful garden, which wouldn't have a hard 
time compared to his home. So many blooming flowers and trees, 
slightly swinging in the gentle morning wind, cherry blossoms 
falling like a rain of silk.

Taking a deep breath, the Elf carefully opened the window and 
bend forward, only to find himself in dizzying height. And even 
though he as a Woodelf was used to that, it surprised him and 
made him hesitate for a moment. In his normal condition it 
wouldn't have been a problem for him to just jump down, but even 
though he felt better, his body was still weakened.

In his dreams Aragorn was chasing through the forests, breathing 
deeply and he was the happiest man in Middle-Earth because he 
didn't have to work through all those stupid requests addressed to 
Gondor. He was feeling free and although he liked being King, this 
dream was good. But it was disturbed by a sudden gasp that came 
from the outside realm. 

He stirred, in his sleepy confusion not fully comprehending what 
was going on, and pried his eyes open. He didn't know what time it 
was, but his inner clock told him it was way too early to wake up 
now. Through the small slits that let the outer world into his 
consciousness, he saw somebody blond standing at his window and 
he wondered for a moment who it was. But then he remembered 
the events of the previous day and he groaned. Thanks to his wife 
he was now proud owner of an Elven slave. And said slave was 
trying to get away from him right now, standing at the window, 
looking like he was ready to jump out of it.

All tiredness was suddenly gone from his body, and his mind was 
clear within a second as he felt his veins like they were on fire and 
he jumped up, was at the side of Legolas in an instance and pried 
him away from the sill.

"Have you gone crazy?!"

The Elf stumbled backwards as he was pushed away from the 
window and winced when the harsh and loud words hit him. His 
mind and body weakened from the outburst he sank down on his 
knees, shaking violently. Legolas bowed his head and squeezed his 
eyes shut, expecting the first blow from the Human's hand, which 
came quite late anyway, from what he had experienced, or 
probably a kick, or whatever he felt like. Digging his nails into the 
stone floor the Elf remained silent, in case not to anger his master 
even more, even though he was pretty sure what he'd said. 

Now that the danger was over, at least for the moment, Aragorn's 
blood cooled down again and he allowed himself a sigh. He then 
kneeled down to be on eye-level with Legolas.

"I know you want to be free," he said in Elvish, "but the world 
outside is cruel... I vowed to myself not to cause you any more 
pain, but also I cannot let you go. First of all, it would hurt my wife 
and secondly I don't want to be responsible for any more harm. If 
you go, they will catch you..." His voice faded and he raised his 
hand to Legolas' cheek. He almost winced as the Woodelf jerked 
when his hand touched the pale skin. "In a few months' time... you 
can go... when you gained some weight..." Legolas had slowly 
opened his eyes again, when the Human started talking. He saw 
that Aragorn kneeled in front of him, but he didn't dare to look up, 
and continued to stare on his hands. The Elf didn't understand 
most of what was said to him, but he started to realized, that his 
Human didn't want to hurt him, but that he didn't want to let him 
go as well.

A bit scared when he suddenly felt a gentle touch in his face, 
Legolas slightly backed away and lifted his head to look into his 
master's eyes.

"Naá ú sí laine?" he peeped quietly.

"Why not now?" Aragorn repeated in his version of Elvish, just to 
get it clear. He sighed and put his now empty hand into his lap. 
"Because you're too easy to catch right now. You are weak and I 
don't mean this as an insult." He pointed to Legolas. "...I'm afraid 
you will loose your skin if you start to run."

Nodding slowly the Elf looked out of the window. He understood 
what the Human tried to explain. He was a much too easy to catch 
prey right now, and he mustn't die. Legolas had a responsibility 
back home, and he needed to return.

"En ablis cuinar", he said and looked back into Aragorn's steel blue 
eyes. But this also meant for him to be patient, wait and not try to 
escape, which he was hardly able to. Legolas was still afraid of the 
people surrounding him, even of the one right in front of him even 
though he seemed rather friendly.

But looks deceive, and as much as he knew about these creatures, 
they were good liars, good actors and had betrayed the Elves for 
many, many years ago for their own advantages. So why should he 
trust this Human now?

He didn't, and he was afraid to change it. Therefore he slowly 
started to move backwards, away from the other man. He would 
survive, yes, but that didn't mean he had to stay here. Legolas was 
able to look after himself very well.

For quite a long moment they looked into each other's eyes until 
Aragorn found that he wasn't breathing anymore. He covered his 
next deep breath with a sigh, as he tried to make sense of the 
myriads of emotions he had seen in those midnight blue eyes. 
Understanding, admittance, a single glimpse of longing, 
determination and then the ever present struggle between trust 
and disgust of which Aragorn was sure was only meant for him. 
Legolas' face didn't show much emotion, but his eyes were as deep 
as the caves of Moria.

Aragorn closed his eyes and sighed. Outside it got lighter with 
every moment that passed while the sun sent its first rays over the 
horizon. It was no use going back to sleep now, even the birds 
were fully awake now, betraying the tension in the King's chambers 
with their happy songs, welcoming the next day. And if that wasn't 
enough, Aragorn's stomach let out a protesting growl as it didn't 
get anything to eat last night and he looked at the Elf sheepishly.

He blinked and found that Legolas was now further away from him 
than before and he frowned, knowing that his doubts got the upper 
hand. 

"The servants should come in here soon with breakfast. They are 
trustworthy and listen to my every word, so... don't try to cause 
them harm," he said, still not sure if Legolas believed him or not 
that he didn't want to hurt him. It would have been better if the 
servants saw the Elf in his chains, but he couldn't force himself to 
suggest this right now. Although the last thing he wanted was for 
the Elf to escape.

Legolas' eyes never left the Human while he constantly moved 
away from him. Aragorn had said something about somebody 
coming, so if he couldn't escape through the window, he would use 
the door instead. After some time the Elf could feel the wooden 
surface of the bed in his back and stayed where he was. It didn't 
take long for the said somebody to come, and although he servants 
moved as quietly as they could, Legolas heard them long before 
they even reached the door.

Opening it carefully one of them stuck his head in to see if his king 
was still asleep. As he saw the bed was empty he fully opened the 
heavy door and stepped in, followed by another man. The first one 
was carrying a plate with several sorts of food on it, while the 
second held two bottles of something Legolas couldn't make out.

The Elf strained his muscles, and quickly glanced from Aragorn to 
the other Humans, before he shot up and ran towards the door, 
simply slipping through the surprised servants. They didn't really 
see what happened, because it all happened way too fast.

Once out of the room Legolas didn't stop. He ran down the 
hallway, looking for an exit. What he found though, were stairs and 
he quickly ran down, only to find himself in an even bigger hall. Not 
hesitating he made attempts to cross it when he heard voices. The 
Elf quickly hid himself behind a pillar, panting heavily.

It stunned Aragorn that he wasn't even surprised to see Legolas 
out of the room quicker than he could blink. He was on his feet the 
moment he saw some blond strands whip around the corner behind 
his door. The servants barely made it out of his way as he started 
to chase after the much faster Woodelf. The only advantage he had 
was the fact that he knew the halls of Minas Tirith... and Legolas 
didn't. He could almost sense where the Elf stopped for less than a 
heartbeat in his elopement, having lost none of his skills as a 
tracker in the years of being king.

Meanwhile Gimli, who was staying at Minas Tirith because of 
Aragorn's invitation, walked down the main hall in his pursuit of 
some breakfast. He hadn't seen much of his friend during the past 
few days, since the king's duties kept a hold of him most of the 
time, so he had to spend the days with the Queen of Gondor, the 
lady Undómiel, Aragorn's Elf-wife. She was a pleasant appearance 
and Gimli like her, but he sensed that he wasn't quite the company 
she wished for. The necklace he had given to her was of finest 
Dwarven handiwork and she appreciated and cherished it like every 
woman in Middle-Earth, but well... she was an Elf. As beautiful as 
any gem he had ever seen, but there was something about her that 
he didn't like. He had heard that she had saved Aragorn's life 
several times and that the man loved her with all his heart, but he 
couldn't understand it. He stopped dead in his tracks, right in the 
middle of the large hall when he heard some breathing coming 
from one corner. Looking around he wished for his axe as he 
yelled, "Who's there?"

Legolas winced when he heard the deep voice yelling in the 
language on the Humans. And it was directed to him, there was no 
doubt about that. But how could that be. No Human could possible 
have seen him or heard him.

But as it seemed now they had already discovered him, so there 
was no use in hiding. Trying to suppress the shivers running 
through his body, the Elf stepped out from behind the pillar to face 
the stranger. Legolas was quite startled and let out a surprised 
gasp when he stood face to face with a... Dwarf...

Clenching his fists, the Woodelf calmed his body down. It was only 
a Dwarf, nothing to be afraid of. But Legolas could already hear 
steps coming closer, Humans approaching him, most likely alarmed 
by the yell. Chased as he was, the Elf hastily glanced around to find 
an exit. Gimli blinked. Right in front of him an Elf had stepped out 
from behind a pillar. A blond one as well, so he immediately 
thought it was the Lady Galadriel, the most beautiful Elf he was 
ever allowed to lay his eyes upon. The three hairs she had given 
him when the Fellowship of the Ring was found by the Lothlorien 
Elves were securely in an amulet on his chest. But it wasn't her.

"The Woodelf?" he asked with doubt in his voice. Of course Arwen 
had told him about the present for Aragorn and he had told her 
quite directly that he didn't approve of the idea, especially not 
when Aragorn was involved. The man didn't like slavery or using 
other beings for his own profit, so a slave wasn't the greatest idea 
of a present for him.

He hadn't even spoken the last few words when he heard 
somebody racing down the stairs that led to the king's chambers. 
He turned his gaze to see Aragorn taking three steps at once. The 
man was panting from the long way downstairs and looked more 
like the ranger he used to be seven years ago. The fire was back in 
his eyes compared to the last time he saw him, hunched over 
papers and looking like he hated to whole world for making him do 
this. It looked like he was having the fun of his life chasing after 
the Elf.

"Hoho Aragorn," he laughed, grinning at the Human. "Seems like I 
found something that you lost... or it rather found me."

Aragorn stopped dead in his tracks, his naked feet almost 
screeching on the stone floor and came to a halt between the 
Dwarf and the Elf. 

"Gimli!" His voice sounded shrill to him and Aragorn took a deep 
breath to calm down a bit. "Gimli, this is Legolas. Legolas, meet 
Gimli, son of Gloin."

The Dwarf frowned and looked at Aragorn doubtingly. But then he 
understood. It wasn't like Aragorn to treat a slave like a lower 
being but like a guest, even if he had to chase after him for a 
while.

Again Legolas ears twitched when Aragorn talked in his maternal 
tongue, although the man tried to keep his voice down. He was 
just about to turn around, using the surprise and run towards the 
windows behind him, when he heard something familiar.

Staring at the Dwarf his eyes widened slightly. "Gloin?" he asked 
doubtfully "Iôn o Gloin?"

The Dwarf blinked in surprise and stared openly at the Woodelf. He 
hadn't expected to be addressed directly by him, and although he 
didn't understand what he had said to him, he was able to guess 
the meaning of it, since Aragorn had just introduced them.

Aragorn was just as stunned. He looked at Legolas, eyes wide in 
surprise. "Do you know Gloin?"

Legolas glanced to Aragorn, then back to the Dwarf. Actually all he 
wanted to was to get away from there, but something kept him 
right where he was standing. And that was Gloin, or rather his son.

Regret shimmered in his eyes as the Woodelf looked down at his 
hand, and the ring that wasn't there anymore. A small stripe of his 
skin was paler then the rest, and showed that something had been 
there for a very long time.

"Sû", he whispered. Gloin had forged the ring only for him, and it 
was his duty to wear it all his life, but now the valuable thing was 
gone. The Humans had stolen it from him, most likely sold it, 
without knowing its meaning, magic or might.

And now he stood face to face to his son, and a wave of guilt 
washed over the slave. He had been careless, and Gimli had every 
right to blame him for loosing his most precious property, the ring 
which would guide his immortal soul to the eternal grounds. Now it 
was gone and his soul would be lost for eternity if he didn't get a 
new one. But which Dwarf would give himself so much trouble for 
such a stupid Elf?

Gimli had no idea what Aragorn and the Elf were talking about, but 
he understood that the Elf... Legolas, knew his father. In fact he 
seemed rather sad about something. The Dwarf's mind worked 
hard to find out something that his father might have done in the 
past for an Elf, but all he remembered was something about a 
journey to Mirkwood, when Gloin had been nothing more than a 
midget. He had to present his first important work to somebody but 
he didn't remember who, just that it was some Elf. Aragorn had 
studied Legolas' face once again, trying to find out what all these 
emotions meant. His look followed the Elf's down to his hand but 
he saw nothing there, just that it seemed as if something was 
missing there to him.

He relaxed a little and took a small step towards Legolas before he 
spoke. "Where do you know him from?"

As soon as Aragorn moved towards him, the Elf snapped out of his 
memories. He automatically took a few steps backwards to keep 
the distance to the Human, suddenly being reminded that he had 
intended to leave.

Something he still planned to do. He well understood Aragorn's 
question, but he wasn't going to answer it. If this Human knew 
who he was, he probably changed his mind and wasn't all that 
friendly anymore.

Taking another step backwards he slowly approached the windows, 
not taking his eyes from the other two men.

As soon as Aragorn had relaxed he tensed up again as he saw 
Legolas moving towards one of the windows. This hall wasn't as 
high as his room and even he might jump out of it without being 
hurt. The impact would be hard, but he could live with it. Despite 
better knowledge he quickly made another two steps towards the 
Elf, offering his hand.

"If you don't want to tell me, it's okay... just... don't jump," he 
almost begged but was interrupted by Gimli.

"Hah! Praise the memory of a Dwarf! Now I remember it!" Gimli 
shot out triumphantly and raised his head to look at the Elf and the 
man. "You are from Mirkwood, aren't you? You must know 
Thranduil!"


To be continued...

This chapter made us wonder about a few things between Dwarves 
and Elves... like Do Dwarves speak Elvish? Well, since the message 
on the entrance of Moria was written in Elvish, but Gimli (obviously) 
wasn't able to read it, we decided that there was a time once, 
when Dwarves spoke the language of the Elves and had good 
relationships with them, manufacturing special items... I hope we 
can explain it a bit better in future chapters. But yet again: 
Feedback is much craved for and we are willing to answer any 
question you might have... ^^;






Title: Tên Mûel
Authors: Makiko Igami (makikoigami@yahoo.de) & My-chan (My-
chan@gmx.de)
Archive: http://www.yaoi.rulestheweb.com
http://www.geocities.com/lirimaer8/index.html
http://www.mediaminer.org/fanfic/src.php?auth=58906
http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=1231150
http://www.efanfiction.net/authors.php?no=2916
Category: AU, RPG
Rating: this chapter... PG? May go up soon... *is getting poked by 
My-chan: "NC-17!"* *sweatdrops*
Pairings: Aragorn/Legolas, others as well *glances over to Elladan 
& Elrohir*
Warnings: Slash, OOC (of Arwen mostly), slavery, angst...
Spoilers: A few... not really as I don't remember much of the book, 
just that Aragorn became King of Gondor in the end and that 
Arwen was his Queen.
Summary: After seven years of marriage, the excitement of being 
together has vanished from Aragorn and Arwen's marriage... 
maybe a present might change this.
Disclaimer: You know the deal don't you? J.R.R. Tolkien invented 
them, and if we owned them, we would be related to him, but 
since neither I nor My-chan are... we just play around with them, 
toy with their minds and use them for fun only. <insert evil 
laughter here>
Notes&Comments: This was written by me and My-chan as a rpg 
and ever since Pretending And Being, a wild mix of German and 
English, we have this nearly "exhibitionistic" need for feedback 
from various places. ^^;; So please be gentle.
Now on to the story itself. I know that this may look like a serious 
Arwen- bashing story, but please be reassured that we don't mean 
to cause any harm to anybody who likes her. She is just for causes 
of story-telling such a bitch here. ^^;
The Sindarin we used (and transformed for ourselves) comes from 
a little program called Dragon Flame (which I always think that it is 
this game I don't want to play unless I know I am on my own), but 
since it didn't have all the words we needed, we had to make them 
up. If you have any questions feel free to send an email to any of 
us... and hope that we still know what we wanted to say. ^^;;;;
______________________________________________________


Aragorn's head whipped from the Elf to the Dwarf in surprise. 
"Thranduil? I’ve heard of him, he's the King of the forest 
Mirkwood," he said to Gimli.

The Dwarf nodded. "My father had to present his first work of 
jewelry, a special ring for the Elves, to him. I think it was for his 
son... At least that's what he told me. He doesn't like the Elves very 
much," the Dwarf added, unnecessarily.

Aragorn stared at Gimli a little longer before his head turned back 
to Legolas. His mind told him that Legolas was missing a ring on 
his finger, but he disavowed it for now. "Thranduil... do you know 
him, too?" he asked, his arm still stretched out towards the 
retreating Elf.

Legolas eyes widened when the Dwarf shouted the name of the Elf 
king. Even though the name sounded very strange in this harsh 
language he recognized it. But this wasn't good. If the Dwarf 
remembered what his father had done for Thranduil then he 
probably knew who the Elf actually was.

The Woodelf looked to Aragorn, staring at him as he asked him 
something about the Elf king, most likely if he knew him. Legolas 
knew that it wasn't of much use to lie and he didn't like lying 
either, but he had to, in case to safe himself, and so he slowly 
shook his head to the question.

Still taking one step after another backwards he soon bumped into 
the sill. He grabbed it for support since he felt his knees getting 
weak, caused by the shivers which were running through his body 
again. Legolas glanced over his shoulder out of the window. It 
wasn't very high and jumping down wouldn't probably even hurt 
him, if it wasn't for his legs to give in. The Elf clenched his fists. 
The fear that they found out who he was controlled his body and 
made it impossible for him to move. Lowering his eyes to the 
ground he squeezed them shut, while he slowly sank to the 
ground.

His master was most likely very pissed now, because he had tried 
to escape, and Legolas expected nothing else but to be punished 
for it. Maybe he even deserved it for being stupid enough to get 
caught. The Elf bowed his head down when he heard more 
Humans approaching and curled up into a tight ball, while pressing 
himself against the wooden surface of the wall, his naked legs on 
the cold stone floor sending even more shivers up his spine.

"Nícaer..." he whispered, while he still tried to hide his fear 
somehow, or at least most of it. "Nícaer..."

Aragorn heard the guards approaching as well but with a snappy 
motion of his arm he told them to stay where they were. He moved 
closer to the curled up Elf and hesitantly put a hand on his back as 
he kneeled down in front of him and the window. He might have 
shaken his head in denial, but his body told him something quite 
different.

"You do know Thranduil, don't you? Are you trying to protect him 
from the Humans? I'd understand this. From me?" He sighed, 
knowing it would be difficult to show him that he didn't want to 
cause him any harm. Rubbing the Elf's back in soothing motions he 
looked up at the Dwarf.

"Gimli, tell Arwen to get here immediately," he asked, in his usual 
order tone though. "Tell her that it doesn't matter what time it is, I 
just want her to face what she has done to him... and me," he 
added quieter, more to himself.

The Dwarf nodded, slightly surprised by the harsh tone towards 
him, a friend, not a subordinate. As fast as his legs could carry him, 
he rushed upstairs and knocked at the Queen's chambers.

"Lady! Wake up! Your husband wants to talk to you!"

Inside her chambers, Arwen was busy putting on her robe, aided 
by her maidens. She blinked and turned to the door. "It's quite 
early, isn't it? I'm not dressed yet."

Gimli sighed and cursed the Elf inside his mind. "It doesn't matter. 
He awaits you in the main hall. Now." He sincerely hoped she 
would listen to him.

Arwen glared at the door. "Does he want to embarrass me in front 
of everyone? And why did he sent you and does not talk to me in 
person now?" 

"Because he is keeping an eye on the slave you gave to his custody 
yesterday," the Dwarf growled in response. "I told you to be wiser 
in your choice of presents for him."

Arwen motioned to her maidens to bring her over-gown to her. If 
Estel wanted to see her now, she would have to go.

Meanwhile Aragorn was still rubbing the Elf's back in soothing 
motions, babbling non-sense. "I'm not mad at you... just worried... 
Not all Humans like to have an Elf as a slave."

Legolas slightly calmed down when he realized that the man at his 
side wouldn't harm him. He still held one of his arms protectively 
over his head though, as if the Humans disappeared when he just 
couldn't see them.

"Naá milui enni?" he asked quietly. He was used to Humans hurting 
him, and he just couldn't understand why this one didn't. Up until 
now he had thought Humans hated Elves and loved to humiliate 
them if they managed to catch one.

Aragorn understood the question quite well, but he wasn't able to 
find an answer at once. He just couldn't say that he just cared 
about the Elf and that this was the reason why he was nice to him. 
But there were other reasons as well.

"Because somebody has done wrong to you and you are in a 
situation that you don't like and don't approve of. I just want to 
help you," Aragorn whispered. "Because I don't approve of it as 
well..."

His words trailed off when he accidentally reached under the tunic 
of the Elf, and was now touching the bare skin of his sides, the 
outline of his ribs undoubtedly distinguishable underneath his 
fingers. He stopped his movements, almost gasping as a bolt of 
some sort struck him that made his hairs stand on end. It wasn't 
the kind of feeling that he had when Orcs were approaching him 
from behind, but a pleasant shudder that he had only with Arwen 
before she became his Queen. He stared with wide eyes at the Elf, 
slightly wondering if he felt the same.

"Estel, why do you have to bother me this early in the morning?"

Arwen's deep, but now somewhat annoyed voice made the king of 
Gondor snap out of his sudden dreamlike state. He jumped to his 
feet, trying his very best not to look sheepish and turned around.

Somehow the innocent expression on his wife's face made him 
furious.

"My dear beloved wife, as you weren't able to answer my question 
last night, I'm asking you again, why did you give me a... slave," he 
asked, barely able to control his anger and was having a little 
problem with the last word. To him, Legolas was a tormented 
being, a person and not some kind of animal or object that you had 
to impress your friends and foes.

"My dear Estel, I thought it was a good idea. Or would you have 
liked another horse?"

Aragorn balled his fists so tightly that he could feel his nails digging 
deeply into his skin. "Yes! More than somebody who was taken out 
of his usual life and sold like some... necklace or earring!" 
Somehow he felt good to see her face contort with surprise and 
even fear. He took a deep breath before he continued.

"But..."

"Enough! He should just be happy to be with me now instead of 
somebody less... honorable who would have done who-knows-what 
to him already!"

Gimli, who had kept silence while the couple was talking... 
debating...yelling at each other, almost gasped in surprise to see a 
fire in the man's eyes, that he usually shot at Orcs before their 
heads were detached from their body. He almost felt pity for Arwen 
who had to withstand the glare directly. But the Elf-woman didn't 
even flinch the slightest bit. She just stood there and let her 
husband's words drop off her. She was so calm that Gimli was 
frightened more of her than Aragorn.

"That's what he was trained to do: to help you relax. The man 
whom I got him from told me he knows various ways to ease your 
tense muscles. Haven't you been complaining about this backache 
for a few years now?"

Aragorn was boiling with anger. He didn't know what Legolas was 
taught before he was sold to Arwen, but by the way he looked and 
how he reacted to every approach of the man, it surely wasn't 
anything educational.

"Arwen," he growled, his voice barely a whisper. "Get out of my 
sight... if you don't want me to hurt you..."

Legolas had listened to the Human's explanation, trying to 
understand the meaning, and blinked when he did. This man was 
different from the others, that much was for sure. But before he 
could spin that thought farther, the Elf was interrupted by 
Aragorn's hand moving slowly under his tunic while he still stroked 
over his back.

The slave shivered as the warm hand touched his cool skin, but 
strangely he didn't mind it. Aragorn had only been nice to him since 
they had met, even though Legolas had tried to escape twice. And 
whether the Elf wanted to admit it or not, the gentle touch felt 
good on his bruised body. They where suddenly interrupted by a 
female voice, talking in... Elvish? Legolas slightly lifted his head 
after the man jumped to his feet, without removing his arm from 
above his head though, just enough so he could see the 
approaching woman.

His heart felt as if it was going to stop beating any second as he 
caught sight of a female Elf approaching them. A beautiful Elf with 
dark hair. Legolas swallowed. It didn't seem like she was a slave, 
but then again... didn't Humans hate Elves?

Legolas' eyes widened and he gasped as he heard his master 
calling her his wife. Everything the Woodelf had ever heard about 
Humans was turned upside down in this particular moment. He had 
thought that what had happened to him was quite "normal" and 
now he watched a Human and an Elf arguing like husband and 
wife, like what they were. And they were obviously arguing about 
him. Curling up even tighter Legolas covered his ears. He didn't 
want to hear their yelling, and he didn't want Aragorn to yell at his 
wife just because of him. Legolas had recognized her voice as the 
one who bought him. But he didn't care; he just wanted the yelling 
to stop.

And even though he knew that his master had no intention in 
hurting him, his fear of him grew with every shouted word. Aragorn 
was so filled with anger, and the way he snapped at his wife made 
it very clear that one word was enough to make him loose control 
over his rage.

Legolas pressed himself against the wall even closer, wanting to 
melt with it as he could feel his master's anger rising constantly, 
until the woman finally turned around and left, and the Elf just 
hoped that the Human wouldn't draw his attention back to him 
now, together with his fury.

Arwen glared at her husband with all her might in return and with a 
rustling of her robes she turned around and stormed back into her 
chambers, not loosing any other word. She was so furious she 
would have hurt her husband even more if she had opened her 
mouth one more time so she rather kept it shut, pressed into a thin 
line.

Gimli saw it as she passed him by, storming back to her chambers 
upstairs. He was quite sure that her lips would see no smile today, 
no matter how bright the sun shone or how delicious the food of 
the Hobbit-cook was. He himself was looking forward to something 
to eat. This had been too much excitement for him and also 
without breakfast.

So now he decided that no matter what would happen next, he 
would go to the kitchen now and eat as much as he could. But then 
there was a raging Aragorn in the hall... all alone with a 
defenseless Elf... who was his slave by the way. Torn between his 
hunger and his natural instinct to protect the Elf, although he 
neither liked him nor knew him, he chose to move slowly towards 
the kitchen, observing how Aragorn treated the Elf now.

Aragorn needed several steadying intakes of breath before he was 
able to face anybody again. His rage over the heartlessness of his 
wife towards somebody, even from her own race, had made him 
more furious than on the day Elladan and Elrohir had vent their 
despair back on that day in Helm's Deep, where they had to face 
an army of ten thousands of Orcs with about three hundred 
civilians. They hadn't understood that Aragorn had to fight this 
battle even for his own sake. He had been ready to die for and with 
the people of Rohan and this was something the Elves weren't able 
to fathom. But he survived and they even won the battle in the end 
with the twins and an army of Elves at his side.

The memory of this day made him calm down finally and he was 
ready to talk to Legolas again without scaring him once more. He 
kneeled down again and offered his hand to the Woodelf, intending 
to help him up if he wanted to stand.

"I'm sorry you had to witness this..."

Legolas slightly backed away and shook his head. The Human 
didn't have to feel sorry for this. It was him who should apologize 
for causing all this trouble. And the Woodelf surely hadn't intended 
to do that.

"Nícaer", he whispered with shaking voice and shyly glanced in the 
direction Arwen had taken off to. But what he caught sight of were 
the Human guards still standing at the exits of the hall and he 
quickly turned his gaze away.

Aragorn stared at the Elf for a few moments, puzzlement written all 
over his face.

"Sometimes I wonder if that's the only word you know..." he 
mumbled. But everything else he wanted to say was interrupted by 
a very loud grumble.

"Oh, eh... sorry," the Dwarf said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his 
head.

Turning his head around, Aragorn looked at Gimli with wide eyes 
and had a hard time hiding his chuckle. "My dear friend, it seems 
as if your stomach wants to tell you something. Just go and get 
something to eat, I think I can handle the situation from here on 
without your much-praised help."

The Dwarf looked at the Human with suspicion in his eyes. He 
doubted whole-heartedly that Aragorn could handle this situation, 
but there were important things than that right now, namely his 
protesting stomach.

"Alright, Aragorn. I trust the Elf to you. Don't cause him any harm."

Having the satisfaction of hearing the man emit a deep amused 
laugh, he finally took off for the kitchen to silence his body.

Aragorn felt lighter in his heart after Gimli left and managed a smile 
when he offered his hand to Legolas again. "Would you like to join 
me for breakfast?"

Legolas just looked up at the man for some moments. Some 
seconds which could also have been an eternity while he looked 
into the steel blue eyes of the Human and searched for... 
something. He wasn't really sure himself. Maybe remaining rage, or 
anything like that. Finding none of that, the Elf finally nodded 
slightly. But he didn't take the extended hand. Instead he moved 
farther backwards, shifting a bit until he managed to get on his 
feet. Once more grabbing the sill for support, Legolas slowly stood 
up, still looking to the ground though, and waited for Aragorn to 
lead the way.

A bit hurt, Aragorn pulled back his hand and moved to stand on his 
own feet as well. He knew he should turn his back towards Legolas 
to show his trust, but the problem was that Aragorn trusted 
Legolas in that particular moment to take the chance and turn and 
run away again. The look in his eyes as he had raised his head had 
been piercing and deep, full of a wish for something Aragorn 
couldn't put a finger on though. But he knew if he found out, he 
would be able to turn his back on the Woodelf.

He stood, his body turned towards the staircase, his arm 
outstretched indicating the way Legolas should go when he wanted 
to join him and his eyes locked on the other's face, letting a little 
amused smile grace his features.

"We're going back to my room. I will show you the way, if you 
haven't recognized it yet."

Legolas almost pouted. Of course he knew the way back. But still 
he looked at the Human doubtfully. He was obviously expecting 
him to lead the way now, something the Elf didn't quite 
understand. And there also were the other Humans, standing next 
to the stairs, and Legolas really didn't want to get near them, even 
though they seemed to do what Aragorn told them.

Aragorn was a little irritated that Legolas didn't move and looked 
back, almost encouragingly as he noticed that the guards will 
standing at the entrances and exits of the hall although he had 
thought he had ushered them away earlier. But he hadn't done 
then, he could do now.

He raised his voice. "You may go now as well."

The men looked at him with raised eyebrows but then left without 
any word of protest.

The King of Gondor turned back to Legolas and waited for him to 
make a step into the direction he wanted to move. His expression 
was still soft and encouraging.

To be continued...
______________________________________________________
I like my Gimli... My-chan does too, because she encouraged me to 
put him in here. ^^; Which gave me stress of playing three of the 
now four main characters... >_<






Title: Tên Mûel
Authors: Makiko Igami (makikoigami@yahoo.de) & My-chan (My-
chan@gmx.de)
Archive: http://www.yaoi.rulestheweb.com
http://www.geocities.com/lirimaer8/index.html
http://www.mediaminer.org/fanfic/src.php?auth=58906
http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=1231150
http://www.efanfiction.net/authors.php?no=2916
Category: AU, RPG
Rating: this chapter... PG? May go up soon... *is getting poked by 
My-chan: "NC-17!"* *sweatdrops*
Pairings: Aragorn/Legolas, others as well *glances over to Elladan 
& Elrohir*
Warnings: Slash, OOC (of Arwen mostly), slavery, angst...
Spoilers: A few... not really as I don't remember much of the book, 
just that Aragorn became King of Gondor in the end and that 
Arwen was his Queen.
Summary: After seven years of marriage, the excitement of being 
together has vanished from Aragorn and Arwen's marriage... 
maybe a present might change this.
Disclaimer: You know the deal don't you? J.R.R. Tolkien invented 
them, and if we owned them, we would be related to him, but 
since neither I nor My-chan are... we just play around with them, 
toy with their minds and use them for fun only. <insert evil 
laughter here>
Notes&Comments: This was written by me and My-chan as a rpg 
and ever since Pretending And Being, a wild mix of German and 
English, we have this nearly "exhibitionistic" need for feedback 
from various places. ^^;; So please be gentle.
Now on to the story itself. I know that this may look like a serious 
Arwen- bashing story, but please be reassured that we don't mean 
to cause any harm to anybody who likes her. She is just for causes 
of story-telling such a bitch here. ^^;
The Sindarin we used (and transformed for ourselves) comes from 
a little program called Dragon Flame (which I always think that it is 
this game I don't want to play unless I know I am on my own), but 
since it didn't have all the words we needed, we had to make them 
up. If you have any questions feel free to send an email to any of 
us... and hope that we still know what we wanted to say. ^^;;;;
______________________________________________________


When the Woodelf saw that the men moved away he glanced 
around to make sure that they were really gone. He was pretty 
sure that Aragorn didn't want to hurt him, but that didn't mean that 
the other Humans shared his opinion.

Still looking to the ground he only saw his master from the corner 
of his eyes, but that quick glance was enough for him to make him 
feel a little safer when he saw the Human's soft gaze on him.

Slowly he took a few steps into the shown direction and when he 
heard Aragorn following him he slightly sped up, walking towards 
the stairs and then moving up to the king's chambers. The Woodelf 
felt awkward, with the Human following him, but he tried to keep 
his pace slow and even, although he felt more like running.

Finally they reached the room he'd been spending the night in, and 
found the doors open and the servants gone. They had placed the 
plates on the table, tidied the bed and put his hand ties next to the 
chain at the wall.

Legolas tore his gaze away from there and looked at the table. As 
soon as he did his stomach started to growl, even louder than the 
Dwarf's had and he quickly turned his head away, bowing it down 
again.

The walk back to his chambers was more uneventful than Aragorn 
had thought. Something that had happened down there in the hall 
seemed to have changed his attitude. If not so much that he 
trusted Humans, but at least so far that he trusted Aragorn a little 
more than before.

As they walked up the stairs in silence Aragorn thought back to 
that tiny moment when he had touched the Elf's bare skin, to the 
tingle that had went through his body. He pondered why he felt 
like blushing when his wife had addressed him afterwards, why it 
felt like cheating on her for the moment this feeling had lasted. 
Legolas was a man and while Elladan and Elrohir might have tried 
to involve him in their "games" when he was younger he wasn't the 
one to look out for men as possible companions in bed. He 
preferred the softness of a woman in his bed, in particular that of 
his wife. But watching the smooth motions of the Woodelf in front 
of him awakened some kind of longing he could only compare with 
his longing for the fresh air of the woods when he was in a very 
long and tiring council.

He only snapped out of his thoughts when he heard a loud and low 
grumbling, coming strangely from the one in front of him. Snapping 
his eyes open, he saw that his servants had prepared breakfast 
during their absence.

Ignoring the low grumble coming from his own stomach he put a 
hand reassuringly on the Elf's shoulder, smirking slightly. "Let's 
start the day with a good breakfast." He hauled the lighter Legolas 
forward and made him sit down in the chair that had its back 
turned towards the hook to which the Elf had been tied the 
previous day. He himself sat down in the chair facing Legolas, 
closer towards the door.

Quite startled Legolas let himself being pushed down to sit in the 
chair, the table with the food now right in front of him, which made 
his stomach growl even louder. The Elf's eyes roamed over the 
plates, trying to make out what all this food was. He saw the bread 
he'd been eating yesterday and quickly turned his gaze away. He 
wouldn't eat it again if he didn't have to, that much was for sure.

Then his eyes caught sight of a bowl with fruits. He blinked while 
he stared at the rather big collection of apples, oranges, cherries, 
pears, peaches, nuts and strawberries. Swallowing, Legolas quickly 
reached out and snatched a handful of nuts and an apple, before 
he leaned back in his chair and drew his legs up in automatic 
manner, to have them as close to his body as possible. Something 
he got used to over the last month. He set the nuts on the table 
right in front of him and took big bite from the delicious smelling 
apple. While chewing the stuff he took one of the nuts in his other 
hand and cracked it with two fingers. Legolas also stuffed the 
crumbs of the nut in his mouth and didn't really notice that the 
Human was still sitting on the other side of the table.

The fruits tasted just too good, and the Woodelf almost felt like a 
king himself, now that he finally was able to fill his stomach in a 
regular manner, instead of getting a little bit to eat every once in a 
while. The man watched Legolas closely how he inspected the food 
in front of him, noticing how he turned his gaze away with a very 
obvious shimmer of disgust washing over his face. He made a 
mental note not to offer this kind of bread to Legolas anymore and 
watched with a silent smile how the Elf made a grab for the nuts 
and the apples, almost beaming like a little child who found a 
lollipop.

Aragorn, who had no objections towards the bread cut of a slice 
and put some butter on it, when he heard the sound of nuts being 
cracked. He looked up, just to see Legolas popped the heart of one 
nut into his already filled mouth.

His eyes went wide with surprise since he didn't expect the Elf to 
have the strength to crack nuts with his bare fingers, especially not 
in his weakened state. It seemed as if he had underestimated the 
remaining strength of the Elf. Which made him wonder once again 
how it was possible for simple Humans to catch an Elf like Legolas.

He poured some milk into his cup, knowing that it came from the 
royal cows his cook was quite proud of. The Hobbit always praised 
the succulence of his precious cattle, especially when he was about 
to prepare a feast with steaks. But they also gave the sweetest milk 
in the whole kingdom and as soon as Aragorn figured that fact out, 
he had made it his favorite morning drink.

The white liquid poured into his chalice and he couldn't wait to wet 
his throat with it. Placing the carafe back to its place on the table, it 
was only a heartbeat until he had the cup on his lips, drinking the 
sweet and still warm milk hungrily. So when he had finished his 
drink, he set the cup down on the table again, letting out a deep 
sigh as he wiped the milk-beard from his real beard.

Meanwhile Legolas had finished his apple, not even sparing the 
core of the fruit and continued cracking the nuts. But the strength 
in his fingers slowly faded and when he cracked the last one, his 
fingers already hurt quite badly. Plus the peel seemed to get 
thicker and thicker with every nut, and this last one was rather 
sharp as well, causing the Elf's thumb to bleed.

"Ouch..." Legolas winced slightly and stuck the red finger in his 
mouth, sucking it carefully. The Woodelf slowly looked up though 
when his nose smelled something sweet. It was unfamiliar, but yet 
it made his hunger rise again. He blinked a few times when he saw 
the origin of that smell. It was a bottle with some white liquid in it. 
He didn't know anything like that, but whatever it was, it smelled 
really good.

Aragorn was about to pour himself a second cup of milk when he 
saw the curious and hungry glance from the Elf at the other side of 
the table. He saw him sucking on his thumb as if he had cut 
himself, but as soon as he saw the amount of broken peels on the 
table in front of the Elf... probably all cracked by his hand... he 
guessed that it was now most doubtlessly cut. Noticing in which 
direction the glance went, Aragorn grabbed the carafe again and 
started pouring some milk into a glass, pushing it over to Legolas 
afterwards. There wasn't another chalice as his servants hadn't 
thought that he would feed a slave like a guest. Aragorn had to tell 
them to bring a set of two breakfast utensils every morning as long 
as Legolas was staying with them.

He looked at the Woodelf expectantly, encouraging him to drink it 
with a nod of his head.

Legolas grabbed the glass slowly and carefully without removing 
the thumb from his mouth though. He lifted it up and sniffled 
before he finally released his bleeding finger and took a small sip of 
the white liquid. After he tasted the sweet stuff and noticed just 
how good it was, he emptied the glass quite fast, licking the 
remains from his upper lip.

Even though it was just a liquid, it was very satiating and made his 
body feel warmer from inside. And he wanted more. The Elf shyly 
glanced at the almost empty bottle, not wanting to take it from his 
master, since it was his food. But he was still hungry, and now that 
he had started eating he had to fill his stomach until it was 
satisfied.

"Puêl en rem?" he peeped quietly, once again throwing a puppy-
eye-look at his master, without even knowing it.

Aragorn smiled. He didn't know if Woodelves knew cows and their 
milk, but Legolas obviously didn't. And then he was giving him this 
look again, this I'm-a-lost-puppy-take-me-home-with-you-look that 
was able to break the bravest man's heart if he didn't fulfill his 
wish. So Aragorn shared the last bit of milk in the carafe willingly 
with the Elf, and then made a move to call his servants for a new 
one.

The servants had expected a call like that and were already 
carrying a full bottle with them, placing it on the table without 
saying any other word, although they send curious glances towards 
the actual slave sitting at the table. But they ushered out of the 
room as quickly as they came.

One of them wasn't as lucky as the others though and was held 
back at his sleeve by Aragorn. "Bring me another two carafes 
please. It seems that I am not the only one who likes milk..." he 
said quietly and only meant for the servants ears. Said servant 
nodded and was out of the room the moment the King released his 
garment.

Legolas made a mental note what the stuff was called in the 
language of the Humans, even though he was quite sure he'd 
break up his tongue if he tried to say the word. Waiting for the 
Human to fill his glass again, the Elf took the chance to study his 
face more closely.

His expression was soft and his eyes weren't as stabbing as those 
of the other men, the men who caught him. This one was 
completely different. Plus he was speaking Elvish, something the Elf 
would never have expected from one of these creatures.

All those aspects made Legolas feel rather safe in his presence. He 
was still afraid, yes. But his fear seemed to fade away with every 
single moment going by. And then there was something else. His 
name. The female Elf had called him Estel. Hope.

Emptying the glass once more, the slave pondered if he should ask 
or not. This Human was his master after all, and he as a slave 
wasn't allowed to talk without being asked. Well... he had already 
done that, and it seemed like Aragorn didn't mind. And he had said 
something about not liking to have an Elf as a slave, and he didn't 
treat him like one either. Setting down the glass Legolas slightly 
cleared his throat.

"Naá he can Estel?"

Aragorn had just raised his own cup to his lips, savoring in the 
taste of the milk when he heard Legolas ask a question. He was 
quite sure that this had cost the Elf quite some effort as he was 
surely trained not to ask his "master" any questions or even talk 
when he was not asked to. At least if you judged by his previous 
behavior.

He assumed that Legolas had understood the word that was his 
name, and that it was literally eating up inside why an Elf would 
call him - a Human - "hope", as in his opinion Humans were 
probably worse than Orcs. Slowly he set down his chalice and fixed 
his eyes on the Elf.

"She calls me Estel because that is the name my foster father gave 
me...He put his hope in me to renew the friendship of Elves, 
Humans and Dwarves, become King of Gondor... to bring peace... 
restore something of the past..."

He trailed off as his voice got quieter in embarrassment, thinking 
that he didn't deserve being called "hope" for all these reasons. He 
was the hope of the Dunedain, the lost heir of Isildur... but 
although he had accomplished what he was expected, he still 
wasn't sure if everything was as good as it should be.

Legolas tilted his head while he listened to the explanation and his 
eyes darkened. It was wishful thinking to hope that Elves and 
Humans could become close friends again. Probably impossible, 
and even though Aragorn's intentions were pure he sincerely 
doubted that he would manage this.

Not really sure how he should express what he was thinking, the 
Elf slightly turned around and gazed at the chain. As long as 
Humans caught Elves and sold them for a high price, they would 
never be friends again. Legolas turned his gaze back towards his 
master and smiled at him shyly. It would be wonderful if it could be 
like it was thousands of years ago. Without all the fear and hatred.

"Estel," he whispered and his smile widened just a bit, still almost 
imperceptible.

Aragorn looked up from his grim thinking as he heard Legolas' 
voice saying his Elven name. He noticed the faint smile on the Elf's 
lips, along with the wishful thinking he wanted to read into it. He 
too hoped that Elves and Humans could be friends and he knew 
that he was friends with the Elves, but it was clear that his position 
was special... maybe he was hope because of that. As long as 
Humans caught both Elves and other Humans and sold them as 
slaves... there would never be peace at all. He stared back at 
Legolas, studying his features and wondering why he would call 
him "hope", too. He had no reason, too as he was the one who 
held him captive right now. Unwanted, but it was still the man who 
was taking care of him. The question "why" was nagging on him so 
much that he couldn't restrain himself anymore and asked it out 
loud, hidden behind a bit of other curiosity though.

"Are you going to call me "hope" as well?"

Legolas' eyes trailed off while he had another struggle within 
himself. On one hand there was his training, and he was supposed 
to address anyone as 'master' especially the one in front of him. On 
the other hand there was his desperate longing for freedom, peace 
and well, hope.

This Human was his hope, and probably his only chance to ever get 
home again. With him there was a little bit of light that slowly came 
back into his life. And it grew. From second to second.

"Nín estel", he whispered and looked to the ground, somewhat 
ashamed to call his master that, but it was what he felt. This man 
had brought a little hope back into his body.

Said man took his time to study Legolas from where he sat, his 
mood changing from embarrassment over shame to amusement 
back to embarrassment. So he had managed to get through to 
Legolas with what he said, but this was almost a tad too much. It 
wasn't for the fact that he didn't want the Elf to trust him, he just 
didn't want Legolas to place too much hope into him, hope that he 
was not sure if he could fulfill it. Not knowing what he was 
supposed to say, he assumed that he should feel honored, 
although he was pretty shocked right now.

"If you want to call me that... it's okay," he finally said. "I'd prefer 
Aragorn though..."

He was interrupted by another servant who knocked on the door 
politely before he walked in.

"My king, your duties demand you... Boromir wants to know what 
this letter you sent him last night is supposed to mean. He's waiting 
for you in the throne room."

Aragorn's eyes narrowed slightly at the whispered news. He wasn't 
finished with his breakfast yet, and he hadn't even changed his 
clothes, something that he needed to do.

"Tell him I'll be with him in about half an hour. And send somebody 
to get me fresh clothing," he ordered, whispering as well. When the 
man had exited the room he turned his gaze back to Legolas, 
sighing a bit. 

"I have to attend my duties... I'm sorry, but I have to leave 
although I would have preferred to talk to you a little longer, 
Legolas."

The Elf nodded.

"En henio."

Of course Aragorn couldn't stay with him the whole day, and 
somehow Legolas was also glad about that, because he actually 
wanted to be alone and rest. The tiredness already started to creep 
back into his body; one night of sleep just hadn't been enough to 
compensate the enormous lack of sleep during the past weeks.

The Elf held a hand over his mouth and tried hard to suppress the 
yawn, but didn't quite manage. He could have just lain down on 
the ground and slept immediately. But he knew he had to stay 
awake. This was still a strange place and if he was going to sleep, 
then only with his back against the wall, or probably even two 
walls.

His thoughts being interrupted as the door was opened again, 
Legolas turned his head to see who was entering and saw the 
king's servants, bringing new clothes for him, as ordered. One of 
them had another package of clothes and lay them down 
separately from the others. The same servant bowed low before 
the King and said, "These clothes are sent by the Queen for your 
slave, your royalty. She sends her love and respect and hopes you 
have fun with your present."

The rage that Aragorn had controlled and calmed down so that he 
could almost forget it came now back with an almost blinding 
intensity. With a very grim face, he stalked over to the second pile 
of clothes, that didn't look like his. He picked them up carefully and 
watched how a green silken gown unfolded itself before his 
narrowing eyes. It was a beautiful gown and Aragorn remembered 
seeing it on Arwen a few years ago on a banquet for guests from 
Ithilien, when she had her phase liking green. Aragorn raised his 
head again, trying to soften his glare, but he didn't quite succeed. 
"It seems as if my wife has developed a strange sense of humor..."

He threw the gown back onto the bed and stalked over to his 
wardrobe, pushing surprised servants out of his way. After some 
serious and deep roaming through the contents he finally brought 
up a pair of gray leggings and a leather shirt, both looking quite 
outworn.

"You can have those; they might not look good, but are very 
comfortable. Or you can wear the gown my wife chose for you. It's 
your choice."

Legolas could feel the anger within his master rise again and would 
have backed away, if it wasn't for the chair he still sat in, to hold 
him where he was. He didn't understand what the servants had 
told him, but for some reason, the Elf was pretty sure that he didn't 
want to know.

His eyes widened though when the Human lifted up a dress. Not 
that it looked bad, but he could guess that it was meant for him. 
The slave almost winced when Aragorn looked up and when he 
saw his hard features, and said something about his wife that didn't 
really sound nice. He was mad at her again, most likely for sending 
the gown. And Legolas surely wouldn't wear such a thing. He'd 
rather wear a potato bag - like he had to over the last weeks - or 
anything like that.

Watching his master carefully as he walked over to the closet, 
Legolas thought how he could deny wearing the dress, without 
getting himself in trouble because of the disobedience, as he saw 
him searching through his own clothes. The Elf raised his eyebrow 
in question. Didn't his servants just bring him something to wear?

But then he saw him turn around with some old looking clothes, 
offering them to his slave. And without second thinking, Legolas 
extended his arm and pointed towards the leggings and the shirt in 
Aragorn's hands.

Aragorn's anger had cooled down while he had the satisfaction of 
digging through his clothes and he was now calm enough to accept 
every choice from Legolas. But it didn't surprise him to see the Elf 
pointing towards the worn leggings without hesitation.

"Very well, you can have it then," the man said and smirked over 
his little triumph over Arwen, before putting the clothes onto the 
back of a chair and turning back to his servants. "Tell my wife she 
shall get this gown changed... get one of her maidens to re-sew it 
into a tunic for a man if she wants a man to wear it." The servant 
who had delivered the message of Arwen bowed low again and 
nodded in acknowledgement. "I will send her your message. Do 
you need any help changing your clothes?"

Aragorn shook his head no. He was able to put on his suit of armor 
in less time than any of his servants could, thus he should be able 
to change his clothes himself. The servant tilted his head forward 
and ushered the others out of the room, taking one step after the 
other backwards, his eyes never leaving Aragorn's shoes. The man 
was about to ask if he had stepped into something the previous 
day, but that was the way his servants acted around the King of 
Gondor. Seven years and he still wasn't used to it. Sighing deeply 
he started to undo the knots of his over-shirt.


To be continued...
_____________________________________________________
*looks pleadingly at the reader*






Title: Tên Mûel
Authors: Makiko Igami (makikoigami@yahoo.de) & My-chan (My-
chan@gmx.de)
Archive: http://www.yaoi.rulestheweb.com
http://www.geocities.com/lirimaer8/index.html
http://www.mediaminer.org/fanfic/src.php?auth=58906
http://www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=1231150
http://www.efanfiction.net/authors.php?no=2916
Category: AU, RPG
Rating: this chapter... PG? May go up soon... *is getting poked by 
My-chan: "NC-17!"* *sweatdrops*
Pairings: Aragorn/Legolas, others as well *glances over to Elladan 
& Elrohir*
Warnings: Slash, OOC (of Arwen mostly), slavery, angst...
Spoilers: A few... not really as I don't remember much of the book, 
just that Aragorn became King of Gondor in the end and that 
Arwen was his Queen.
Summary: After seven years of marriage, the excitement of being 
together has vanished from Aragorn and Arwen's marriage... 
maybe a present might change this.
Disclaimer: You know the deal don't you? J.R.R. Tolkien invented 
them, and if we owned them, we would be related to him, but 
since neither I nor My-chan are... we just play around with them, 
toy with their minds and use them for fun only. <insert evil 
laughter here>
Notes&Comments: This was written by me and My-chan as a rpg 
and ever since Pretending And Being, a wild mix of German and 
English, we have this nearly "exhibitionistic" need for feedback 
from various places. ^^;; So please be gentle.
Now on to the story itself. I know that this may look like a serious 
Arwen- bashing story, but please be reassured that we don't mean 
to cause any harm to anybody who likes her. She is just for causes 
of story-telling such a bitch here. ^^;
The Sindarin we used (and transformed for ourselves) comes from 
a little program called Dragon Flame (which I always think that it is 
this game I don't want to play unless I know I am on my own), but 
since it didn't have all the words we needed, we had to make them 
up. If you have any questions feel free to send an email to any of 
us... and hope that we still know what we wanted to say. ^^;;;;
______________________________________________________


After the servants had left the room, Legolas slowly rose to his feet 
and walked over to the chair his new clothes laid on. He lowered 
his gaze as he noticed his master was starting to undress himself, 
quickly grabbed the leggings and the shirt and turned around to 
move a couple of steps away. The Elf let the shirt drop to the 
ground and unfolded the leggings. He looked at them for a few 
seconds in thought before he took them on. Pulling them up he 
already noticed that they were way too wide, but it was better than 
nothing.

Legolas removed the belt from his tunic and put it around the 
waistband of the leggings to make them stay on his hips. After that 
he pulled the tunic over his head, revealing a pale back with an 
ugly red mark under his right shoulder blade.

Aragorn was fighting with one of the knots on his shirt. Whoever 
made them the previous day did a very good job on it; there was 
no way he could open them from his point of view. So he sighed 
and concentrated on his trousers instead. Loosening his belt and 
putting it on his bed, he grabbed for the fresh trousers but 
hesitated as he caught the glimpse of Legolas' back. Or rather on 
the red mark there.

He'd seen this kind of marks before, in fact had suffered through 
the wounds that caused them himself more often than he wanted 
to. At least he now had a clue how Elves were caught by Humans: 
with arrows, as if they were hunting deer. He could almost see 
Legolas running through the woods, men with arrows on his track, 
shooting towards his direction, the Elf able to dodge them several 
times until one was lucky enough to send an arrow into his back. 
Weakened he crashed to the ground, not able to get up fast 
enough...

Aragorn turned his head away and stared at his clothes. He felt so 
much shame for his race that he almost wished they never existed. 
The x-shaped weal from whips next to the cankerous wound gave 
him the rest though. He thought he had lost all his motivation to go 
through his daily routine. But just because he felt pity for Legolas 
didn't mean that there wasn't any more work for the king of 
Gondor and since this was him...

Frustrated he sat down on his bed and peeled off his old trousers, 
grabbed his new ones and pulled them on rather harshly. All the 
while his shirt was still half-opened and as he stood to bind the 
chord of his pants it was hanging loosely on his body, making him 
look anything but kingly.

Legolas kneeled down to get the shirt after he freed himself 
completely from the tunic. He shivered as he put it on and the cool 
fabric brushed his bruised skin. The shirt was way too wide as well, 
but he didn't mind it. It was soft and warmer than his tunic.

Standing up again he glanced over his back he checked on Aragorn 
if he had finished dressing up as well, and saw him with half 
buttoned shirt, obviously having trouble getting the knots open.

"M... master?" he peeped quietly and turned around fully. It was 
his duty as a slave to do what was needed, and his master looked 
like he could use some help there. "En edra?" he added after the 
Human was looking at him, and pointed towards his shirt.

Aragorn almost hadn't heard Legolas talking to him as he was way 
too frustrated with himself and his inability to open the knots he 
had put onto his own shirt. It went almost this far that he just 
wanted to cut the straps open, not caring that his tailor had to sew 
it back together afterwards. Also, he was still fuming about the 
wrongfulness of his race towards other beings. But when he heard 
the Elf's voice he looked up with almost pleading eyes, pleading for 
somebody - anybody - to help him with those knots.

He studied the Elf's face for a moment, not sure if he had the right 
to ask him to do this, but then he lowered his hands from his shirts 
and just looked up at the standing Elf.

Legolas nodded slightly and walked over to the Human. He kneeled 
down again in front of his master to get a better look at the knots. 
Running his fingers over the top knot he eyed it carefully, until he 
finally grabbed one of the bands and gave a quick tug. It was 
enough to open the stubborn thing and the Elf continued his work 
with the other bands until the shirt was fully open.

Aragorn was sure he had tried this tactic before and that he had 
tugged at the bands with all his might and all the tactics he could 
imagine. He had been sure one had to fumble the knots open with 
high skill and sure instinct, but Legolas worked so easily and 
efficiently on the knots that the man could only stare.

When he was done, he stared at the Elf for a moment longer, 
mumbling an astonished "Thank you" before he shrugged the shirt 
off of his shoulders. Flashing a shy smile at the Human, Legolas 
rose to his feet again, and took the fresh shirt from the bed to hold 
it open for his master so he could easily slip in. He hadn't expected 
the man to thank him, since it was almost natural for him to do 
these things. But it made him feel a little more like a living being 
than the unworthy creature he had been treated as.

After Aragorn had put on the shirt, Legolas slightly turned his upper 
body around and began to button it up with fast and efficient 
movements, ignoring his throbbing thumb.

The man couldn't react fast enough to stop the Elf from using his 
hurt and still bleeding fingers. He didn't care if he had bloodstains 
on his shirt, not much that is, but he didn't want to increase 
Legolas' pain. So as soon as he got the chance, he grasped the 
pale wrist and gently pulled it away from his shirt.

"Thank you. I can finish on my own," he said and smiled. "Your 
thumb is a little more important than the decent looks of my shirt," 
he added, not wanting the Elf to misunderstand his reasons. "Of 
which I can now take care of my own, thanks to your help."

Legolas blinked quite startled when his hand was moved away from 
the buttons, but nodded slightly as he noticed that his thumb had 
started bleeding again. Of course his master had noticed it was 
hurt earlier. Taking a few steps back so that the Human had 
enough space to get dressed the Elf stuck his finger back in his 
mouth and sucked it carefully. Suppressing another yawn, the Elf 
glanced around to make out a spot where he could lie down to 
sleep, preferably next to the wall, or probably even in the corner of 
the room. But the problem was, there was no carpet in the corner, 
and the stone floor was cold. On the other hand, he was just a 
slave and if that was the best he could get, so be it. 

Finishing putting on his clothes, Aragorn followed Legolas' gaze. It 
seemed as if he was studying the escape-possibilities of this 
room... or rather, the interior. And to be most exact, he was staring 
at the floor, so Aragorn guessed he was trying to find out which 
would be his place along with the bed, the chairs and all the other 
items of furniture...

"You can use anything in this room... if you promise me not to try 
to escape again. At least not today. I think I had too much 
excitement for just one day already..." he said, a little sigh in his 
voice. "I'm getting too old for this..."

He adjusted the jerkin with the white tree of Gondor one more time 
and than turned to leave the room.

"Sû", he whispered, the embarrassment clearly audible in the Elf's 
voice. He didn't intend to try to escape again. Not if it stayed like it 
was now. There wasn't much more that Legolas could wish for, 
except his freedom. His master was nice and gentle, he could eat 
as much as he wanted and he even got new clothes.

When Aragorn finally left and closed the door behind him, the 
Woodelf returned to the table to get another glass of milk. After he 
had finished it, Legolas studied the carpets once again before he 
approached one of them, lifted it at one corner and dragged it into 
the corner he'd been sitting in the night before.

Legolas sat down on the carpet, glanced at the door once more to 
make sure it was shut and nobody was coming in and lay down. 
Curling up into a tight ball he pressed his back against the wall. 
The Elf closed his eyes and sighed contently, before he soon slid 
into a light sleep.

The little nagging feeling of concern over the Elf never left 
Aragorn's consciousness as he went to the throne room where 
Boromir was surely waiting impatiently for him. The king imagined 
that the other man had already walked a path into the thin carpets 
there and chuckled silently to himself.

Boromir was quite a firebrand, but he should know how to handle a 
love-letter from Eowyn of Rohan more calmly. It wasn't like the 
woman was a bad catch, in fact she was quite nice and if Aragorn 
hadn't been betrothed to Arwen all those years ago when he had 
visited Edoras with Gandalf, his brothers and Gimli, he would have 
considered taking her as his wife. But he had Arwen and that was 
enough at that time.

His face hardened as he thought of his wife. He had never thought 
that she would betray the Elves' believe of rights for everybody's 
freedom in purchasing somebody of her own race as a slave for 
him. He just couldn't fathom it.

Meanwhile said Elf-woman was pacing over the carpet in her room. 
She was so furious that she couldn't even say HOW furious she 
was. How could Estel DARE to intimidate her like that in front of 
everyone, including their guest? She didn't care about the slave as 
he was just some kind of nice decoration in her opinion, but then 
there was the Dwarf who she had spent a lot of time with since he 
came to visit her husband. And Estel hadn't even had the time to 
talk to HIS friend!

And how he had reacted to her kind, gracious and generous 
present! How could one man be THIS impolite and rude? She had 
only wanted his best and how did he thank her? With a threat!

She felt a serious pout coming to her face, and the only thing that 
stopped her was her fear to get wrinkles. Sighing she relaxed just a 
bit as she noticed that her face had been contorted in such a grim 
expression that even without a pout she would get wrinkles soon.

"How can he do this to me?" she sighed and sat down on a chair in 
front of her untouched breakfast. "I am not even able to eat as it is 
like this..." She was about to heave another sigh, when it knocked 
on the door of her chambers and Ban entered the room. He was 
the head of the royal servants and quite sly, even for a Human, as 
Arwen had to admit. He was the one that told her about the 
goings-on in her husband's chambers, and those were quite 
interesting sometimes... although Estel was an exemplary husband.

Never had he lain with another woman or if he had, he didn't invite 
that slut into his bed, at least not for Ban to notice. Arwen didn't 
even consider the possibility that the king had paid his servants not 
to let slip out a word about this, because Estel didn't have a clue 
that he was watched constantly by everybody.

"My Queen..." the middle-aged man with the fading auburn hair 
and the silver temples said as he bowed before the ageless woman. 
Arwen nodded in response and smiled softly at the man. "Welcome 
Ban. What can you tell me this morning?"

"My lady, I think you would like to know that the King requested 
that you tell your maidens to change the gown you wanted your 
husband's slave to wear." He could see how the eternally beautiful 
features of the Lady Undómiel darkened. "But that isn't what you 
want to hear, is it?"

"No," the Elf said firmly and coldly. "Tell me something more 
cheerful."

"I'm afraid I must fail this... But I can tell you how your husband 
treats his... present."

"I think I know that. I have seen his display of pity and affection 
for him this morning."

The man nodded. "It is worse than you think, milady. He has given 
him his own clothes and treats him like a guest, even better than 
his Dwarf-friend. Last night he allowed the slave to sleep in his 
bed, while he preferred the armchair. He didn't even punish him for 
his attempt to escape."

Arwen's blue eyes widened considerably. "How can he? Aren't 
slaves supposed to be punished if they do something bad? Isn't it 
their duty to obey their masters?"

"It is, but it seems as if the king doesn't know that."

Thinking fiercely, the queen stared at the folded hands in her lap. 
"I think it is us who have to punish him then. How did he get free 
of the chain around his neck? I thought you secured it."

Ban seemed considerably embarrassed. "I did, milady, but I didn't 
calculate the fact that the slave could get his hands free and 
remove the little bolt that held the collar in place."

"Why did you use only a bolt in the first place? Wouldn't a lock 
have been better?" the woman asked in her innocent way of 
knowing things better.

"Oh, how wise you are, my Queen," Ban cringed verbally and was 
pleased to see a tiny blush on his lady's pale cheeks. "I should have 
listened to you before I took measures for the slave's... handling." 
Seeing Arwen wave it off he continued. "I will personally take care 
that the collar around the king's slave's neck will be improved und 
replaced." He bowed once more and started to back out of the 
room.

And stopped, still slightly bowed, when Arwen called him.

"Ban, send somebody with parchment and a quill to my chambers. 
I need to write a letter."

"Very well."

Arwen watched how the bootlicking man disappeared out of the 
room and allowed herself a little smile. He might have had bad 
news for her, but she knew just the right way for playful revenge 
on her beloved Estel. It had been a long time she had last seen her 
brothers. She would go in for any bet to say that Estel missed them 
just as much as she did.


Ban quickly made his way towards the King's chambers, a new, tiny 
lock of silver and mithril in his hands. The Dwarf-friend of the king 
had looked quite surprised as he asked him for an appropriate 
item, but had found it nevertheless in one of his pockets. It was 
fine Dwarven handiwork and Ban thought that not even the 
strongest being in the world could destroy it with its bare hands. So 
it was the right item to use on the slave's collar. 

He didn't even bother to knock at the door and just walked into the 
room where King Elessar spent his nights. He found the Elven slave 
lying in a corner with his back pressed to the wall, seemingly 
sleeping tightly on a carpet. The servant was sure that the carpet 
was supposed to lie quite more in the middle of the room and not 
in an unimportant corner, being the mattress for a slave.

Shaking his head, he walked over where the chain for the slave 
was still connected with the hook on the wall and dragged it over 
to the sleeping slave. He then pulled the chain over to the one in 
the corner and kneeled down. Maybe he didn't even have to wake 
the blond beauty...

Legolas had awakened the moment somebody opened the door, 
and glancing through his half closed lids he saw one of the servants 
entering the room again. A couple of minutes before, three men 
had entered the room to clean up the breakfast table, but they had 
paid him no mind. But still he didn't move and pretended to be still 
asleep, hoping the human would just get or bring something and 
leave without bothering him.

But he didn't. Instead he went over to the chain and dragged it into 
his direction. The Elf winced at the sound but still didn't move, only 
when the man kneeled down next to him he shot up and wanted to 
back away, but he didn't even get the chance to move, since the 
man's hand grabbed his necklace and held him.

Ban had predicted the slave to do something like that, and 
therefore only waited for him to try to escape once he noticed he 
was already awake. But he wouldn't let him get away again. He 
had clear instructions from his queen, and he followed them gladly.

Pulling the Elf closer to him, he narrowed his eyes and glared at 
him. "Our Queen orders you back in chains, slave. And you shall 
not escape again", he hissed and ignored the Elf's struggling while 
he pulled him closer towards the end of the chain. Legolas' 
struggling though only increased when the words hit his sensitive 
ears and he saw the man was about to connect his collar to the 
chain again. He even managed to kick the steel rings out of the 
Human's hand, but only one heartbeat later he realized that it had 
been a big mistake.

Once the chain fell to the floor with a loud chatter Ban lost his 
patience. He had never possessed much of it, thus making it even 
easier to make him really mad. He grabbed the Elf's wrists and held 
them together with one hand, roughly pulling the captured man to 
a stand, before he drove his free fist in his stomach.

"It seems you need to be taught how to behave properly, slave!" 
he almost spit out the words and still held the weakened Elf at his 
wrists, brutally pressing them together. Legolas coughed and sank 
to the ground as his knees gave in, caused by the hard impact. He 
knew he better kept silent and so he just bowed his head down in 
defeat, indicating that he wouldn't struggle anymore.

Ban saw how the Elf bowed his head down, but he wouldn't let him 
get away this easily. He grabbed the slave's chin and pulled him up 
again, only to punch his face, sending the thin figure against the 
wall.

Pain struck him as Legolas hit the wall with his head, shoulder and 
hip and he finally sank to the ground, since the hands holding him 
up let go of his wrists. His sight became blurry and even the 
sounds around him seemed far away. The Elf was hardly able to 
move and he lay there, now fully defenseless and almost 
unconscious.

The servant nodded satisfied. Now he could finally drag the Elf in 
reach of the chain and connect his collar with it, this time making 
sure it was safe and locked. Then he went over to the carpet in the 
corner and put it back where it belonged. Turning around once 
more, he looked if everything was neat and tidy, and nodded to 
himself before he left the room without giving Legolas another 
thought.

Closing the door behind him, Ban smiled as he had fulfilled his 
queen's wishes, and could now continue with his daily chores. But 
before that he had to send somebody with parchment and quill to 
her chambers like she ordered, and he was going to do that now.

After he was sure the Human left, Legolas moaned lowly and 
coughed, blood dropping from his bleeding lips to the floor, but he 
was too weak to wipe it away, and soon he fully lost consciousness.

To be continued...
______________________________________________________
*sweatdrops* Don't hurt us...






Title: Tên Mûel
Authors: Makiko Igami (makikoigami@yahoo.de) & My-chan (My-
chan@gmx.de)
Archive: http://www.yaoi.rulestheweb.com
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