Title: FOR CONTINUING STRANGE (29) 
Author: Annie Harris 
Email: annie_mouse2001@yahoo.co.uk 
Pairing: Legolas/Gimli 
Rating: R. 
Summary: Gimli meets Galdriel again. 
Disclaimer: The usual: No claims, no pack drill - and of course no 
profit. Just living in the gaps and round the edges. 
Warning: None. 
Archive: Library of Moria; Axe & Bow. 
 
29
 
The King and Queen allowed themselves but three days of seclusion 
follwing their marriage: no wedding journey into Ithilien for them, 
as had been the custom in times long past. Such pleasures would have 
to wait.
 
Meanwhile the city prepared fot the official celebrations, and Gimli 
divided his days between work at city gate and practice with the 
court musicians, and in the evenings worked on the rings or on Sam's 
pans when his eyes grew tired of close work. 

Legolas spent much time with the elves of Lorien and Imladris, who 
wished to hear all he could tell them of the Quest, and Gandalf and 
the Hobbits were likewise in demand. 

Faramir, together with Prince Imrahil, acted as host during this 
time, and was in his own way as delighted as Sam to be in the company 
of so many of the highest Elves in Middle-earth. The principal 
absentee was Thranduil, who had sent with the company of Lórien a 
message declaring Legolas his representative. 

In the early evening of the third day, Gimli went down to the gate to 
see what progress had been made in clearing fallen masonry from the 
area which would have to be excavated before the culvert for the 
underground river could be rebuilt. He saw that the work was being 
done carefully, if no faster than necessary, and felt satisfied. But 
there was much to be done before new gates could be considered. 
Probably it would be necessary to build forges and furnaces outside 
the city. He had seen nothing within the walls that would be equal to 
the task, nor was there space to build. 

He saw long years of work ahead, hard as any battle, but longer, much 
longer ... and Legolas would be in the city, or not ten leagues off, 
in Ithilien. 

He looked around once more at the heaps of stone, now partly sorted 
by quality and size. Much would be fit to use again, but more would 
be needed. And where exactly had the stone come from in the first 
place? And what was it that had been said about the Woses showing the 
men of Rohan a forgotten way called the Stone-wain Valley? Would that 
lead to the source of new stone to match the old? It was something to 
consider, to find out when Éomer came to take the body of Théoden 
home. 

He looked round again, and halted at the sight of a tall grey-clad 
figure stepping towards him among the stones. His first thought was 
of Legolas, but almost at once he saw that the masculine garments 
clothed the form of the lady Galadriel. He was dimly aware of some 
other Elves a little way behind her, but had eyes only for the 
shining presence of her who was to him the fairest of all. 

She wore a tunic and surcoat of softly blended greys, reaching a 
little below the knee, with boots and leggings of the same colours. 
Gimli had not yet learned that in her youth in the distant West she 
had been called Nerwen, 'Man-maiden', but knew at this moment that 
she looked as much a warrior as a queen, and bowed low in greeting, 
thrilled and a little alarmed by her sudden appearance. Unconsciously 
he laid his hand over the place where her gift was hidden inside his 
tunic. 

'Greetings, Gimli Elf-friend;' she said with a smile; - 'It seems I 
have heard truly, that you do not spend your time in idleness.' 

'No indeed, Lady, it is not our way. And I find that the skill and 
knowledge needed here are stronger in my people than in this city.' 

'Then it is well that you were chosen, and are here at the end - or 
the beginning.' 

She ended on a quizzical note, with a smile and a little lift of her 
golden brows. 

'It is the beginning;' Gimli replied, meeting her eyes. 

'I am glad to hear it. Now, tell me what happened here, and how you 
would hope to mend things.' 

Gimli launched readily into an account of all he knew concerning 
Grond and the destruction of the gate, and soon was regaling the lady 
Galadriel with an expansive lecture on the fall of the tower and the 
problem of the underground river. 

'So all was not well built in the first place?' she asked. 

'Well enough;' answered the Dwarf; - 'Yet I would say the work smacks 
of overconfidence.' 

'Ah! Numenor!' she responded cryptically. 

She seemed very interested in the underground river, and Gimli soon 
knew from her questions thatshe had a quick understanding of all he 
had told her. The Noldo love of craft and making were roused in her 
by the Dwarf's enthusiasm for his work, and she seemed so young and 
eager that though he kept telling himself that she REMEMBERED the 
wonders of the first works of the Elves in Middle-earth, he could not 
truly believe it. 

She even lay down with her ear against a rock, the better to hear the 
river below, like the blood of the earth flowing. She had kept, or 
renewed, her delight in the life of Middle-earth, and listened 
attentively as Gimli spoke lovingly of the great works already 
devised in his mind to support a new tower above the hidden stream 
and of the new gates of mithril and steel that would defend the entry 
to the city. 

At last, as they walked about the site, with Galadriel's escort 
waiting a little way off, they saw Legolas coming out of the city in 
search of his friend. 

'Here is one who has missed you;' said the Lady, smiling again; - 
'And the King tells me that this fortunate Elf owes his life to your 
love.' 

'No more than I owe mine to his, for his deeds in Moria, my lady.' 

'Then you are well matched;' she said softly, before Legolas came 
within hearing, and then turned to greet him warmly. 

Once again they walked by her side through the city, and Legolas 
quickly saw from Gimli's confident manner that they would have little 
to fear from her. As they reached the second level, she invited them 
to share an evening meal with herself and Celeborn. 

'It will be our last quiet evening for some time, I think;' she 
added; - 'A very informal affair. Come up as soon as you are ready.' 
 
Returning afterwards, they spoke scarcely a word as they descended 
the steep ways of the city in the very last light of the summer 
evening. Stars were shining in a sky lightly dappled with small 
clouds that still caught the faint glow of sunset at the crown of the 
year. 

Cressets flared by doorways and courtyard arches. Many people were 
abroad tonight, in the general mood of celebration. Passers-by 
greeted each other cheerfully; voices, music and laughter floated 
through open doors and windows, and over garden walls. But Legolas 
and Gimli threaded their way quietly through the lively city, too 
full of mingled thoughts and feelings for much speech yet. 

Gimli's mood wavered between dazed euphoria and sadness. He had seen 
the lord Celeborn greet Legolas as a kinsman, with a formal yet warm 
embrace, and had then been greatly shocked to receive the same 
welcome himself, most adroitly managed, he realised later; for 
Celeborn had turned to him as he waited, a little way behind Legolas, 
on the step leading down to the little courtyard where Celeborn had 
been sitting. The the Elf lord had been able to embrace him without 
awkward stooping from his stately height, and Gimli had begun to 
understand his acceptance as an 'Elf-friend'. 

He could have laughed aloud for joy, and yet had often sensed a 
melancholy mood in the Elves, who had given the Evenstar of their 
people to bring light to the new Age of Men. Celeborn and Galadriel 
would see their daughter again, but Arwen had chosen a sundering way. 
During the evening, the Dwarf had seemed to find himself constantly 
the centre of attention, whether the talk turned to the city, the 
coming festivities, or the blackthorn circlet that Legolas wore. 
When Celeborn had sent for lamps partway through the meal, the 
crystal 'raindrops' on the blossoms sparkled and caught Galadriel's 
eye. 

'Does the blackthorn bloom so late in Gondor?' she had asked, and 
Legolas had replied: 

'These blossoms will not fade, for they flowered at the hands of a 
master of craft.' 

Then she had to hear the full tale, though she had learned the bones 
of it from Aragorn, of what had befallen in the lower city, and how 
Legolas had feared that the morgul-stuff would keep him from seeing 
even the last of the blackthorn in bloom. Then she wished to see the 
sprays of blossom, and was surprised by the band that held them, and 
would know how it was contrived. 

So Legolas asked Gimli to remove it, and show it to the lady and her 
lord, and those two understood much from the Dwarf's skilled and 
gentle handling and the Elf's quiet confidence. 

Galadriel had taken the open circlet in her hands and turned it 
about, praising the skill and invention, and asking how the petals 
and dewdrops had been formed and placed. Gimli had explained, knowing 
that she would understand all the craftsman's terms he used, and had 
sensed with surprise how her thought turned away from asking if he 
had made any other such work. Then he knew how greatly she admired 
it, and that she would gladly have a like thing for herself; so he 
too kept his thought from the forget-me-nots now finished and ready, 
and they seemed to conspire silently together to create a welcome 
surprise. 

As their later talk ranged to and fro over the events of the evening, 
Gimli returned again to one thing: 

'The lord Celeborn received me as a friend!' 

'And so you are! A true friend of the Elves. And I hope others of 
your kin may be so too.' 

Gimli wondered how much chance there might be of this, if the Elves 
were soon to leave, but said nothing, thinking that 'soon' for an Elf 
might be late enough for other folk. 

'So;' said Legolas, as they lay at last curled comfortably together 
in their now familiar bed; - 'You have seen your lady again, when 
once you feared you would not, and were full of lamentation.' 

'Aye; for I only knew we were sailing into darkness on that river, 
and neither we nor even my lady herself had any surety of light to 
follow - but we had hope, and hope was enough.' 

'And hope we have still;' Legolas said softly against Gimli's hair; - 
'Having been so well received by the great ones.' 

'So I believe, dear Elf; yet it troubled me to hear the lady make so 
much of what you are learning through being with me - learning to be 
fitted for what you must do in the world of Men. Surely I have more 
to learn of you.' 
Legolas had noticed his discomfort and how he had tried to turn the 
conversation, even saying at one point rather drily: 
'And I have learned to look on blackthorn with an eye to more than 
cutting cudgels and walking sticks for trade.' 

And again later he had made a more expansive attempt to redress, as 
he saw it, the balance between them: 

'It is a wider and fairer world I live in now, with Legolas to guide 
me.' 

But still he sensed that both lord and lady saw things somewhat 
otherwise, and now, lying beside Legolas again, he remembered 
Legolas' words on the the first night they shared a bed, and knew 
what the great ones meant: that the Elves had kept apart from the 
other peoples of Middle-earth so long that they could scarcely come 
together even to say farewell. It was all part of the fading, the 
dark thread woven into the fabric of Arda from the earliest days, 
that entangled all dwellers in the realm. 

But even at this time of ending, he thought, something new could be 
found, the gleam of one precious stone at the end of a worked-out 
seam, the clue to a new vein of the unexpected. And so Celeborn had 
cast away the ancient grief and grudges that had stung so bitterly at 
their first meeting; so he himself and Legolas had crossed a divide 
never bridged before. 

Gimli felt his head spin with the strangeness of it: Galadriel 
attending to his exposition of the problems at the gate; Celeborn 
welcoming him as a friend; Legolas commended for learning from him. 

All he could say was: 
'Either I am dreaming, or this is a new world.' 

'It is a world renewed;' said Legolas; - 'Shedding its skin like a 
snake.' 

'Ah! But a snake remains a snake nonetheless. How much has 
Middle-earth shed with its old skin, I wonder?' 

It was a train of thought he could not follow to any useful 
conclusion. He was simply glad that the new bond of Elf and Dwarf had 
gained the acceptance he most desired.  That one gate had opened 
quite easily. He was content to lie close to Legolas and sleep.