Faramir Fiction Archive

Human King, Elven King and one Stubborn Steward

Written by KC

05 November 2004 | 20383 words

Part 8

In the company of Legolas, Thranduil carried his newly acquired human son away from the orc carnage to a camp that Maglor had established a fair distance away. The Seneschal had obviously hurried before them and made a bed for the young human in a sheltered section between two enormous roots of a mighty tree. Leaf litter had been gathered and blankets thrown over to make a very comfortable looking bed. On the bed was a pot of healing salve for the bruise on Faramir’s back.

“I do believe my Seneschal has taken to this young one,” the elven King chuckled as he lowered Faramir onto the makeshift bedding and then carefully turning the young man onto his stomach. The King then proceeded to pull up the tunic up to apply salve to the bruise.

“I am not sure that Faramir would agree,” Legolas laughed softly as he covered his human brother with a blanket that had been placed at the end of the makeshift bed, after his father had finished applying the salve and sat down beside him. “You have taken to him too, ada,” Legolas said, looking slyly at his father as the older elf sat down upon a root like a natural stool and with his back braced against the tree, on the other side of Faramir. “I thought you did not like humans.”

“I would have to have the heart of stone, that some believe me to have, not to respond to this young one, human or not, ion-nin. There is so much fire in this one, such strength but also such anguish and hurt. Such depth in a human I have not seen before but for Estel, which I attributed to him being raised by Elrond,” the elven King replied as he looked down upon Faramir thoughtfully.

Legolas sighed as he brushed red-gold locks back from Faramir’s face. “Ada, if Denethor were here, right this moment, I would gut him, for whether the man loved his son or not in the end, he hurt Faramir consciously, maliciously and constantly,” Legolas intoned, deadly serious as he continued to watch the sleeping human.

“Estel wrote that he was worried that the young one had not love for himself. Recent events have proven his concern. We will have much work to do keeping this one out of trouble and teaching him the value of his own life, ion-nin,” Thranduil predicted as he also watched Faramir sleeping.

“That missive Aragorn sent you is sounding more like a book!” Legolas exclaimed softly.

“I do admit that Maglor and I did have trouble deciphering some of its content as it was obviously written in haste, and yes, there were several dozen pages in Estel’s tiny scrawl,” Thranduil chuckled. “You would think that a scholar of Elrond’s stature could have taught Estel to write more clearly.”

Faramir began to moan seemingly in the grip of a nightmare.

“Shhh…muindor tithen…sleep…you are not alone…sleep,” Legolas soothed Faramir quietly as he stroked his human brother’s hair. Faramir quieted and fell into a deeper slumber.

---

The young Steward of Gondor slept all afternoon and well into the next morning.

The first thing that registered with Faramir upon waking was the pain and heat around his hindquarters, nothing new there he thought dejectedly. His head was pounding, also nothing new - blast those damn Gimli’s he thought as a small movement sent painful reverberations through his head. He was outside for he could smell the forest. All the painful events of the last two days came back to Faramir quickly and he groaned.

“One aur vaer (good day) out of you elf and I will strangle you with your own braids,” Faramir groaned knowing that Legolas was sitting beside him and not caring whether anyone else was there or not. Light, musical laughter from more than two elves greeted the surly comment from the dejected piece of humanity lying upon the makeshift bed.

Faramir turned onto his side, carefully, to see the gathered elves. As he suspected, Legolas was sitting beside him, King Thranduil was sitting on the other side and Maglor and Finrod were standing in front of him. All four were grinning from ear to ear. The young Steward of Gondor graced each elf with a son of Denethor glare but to no avail as the silly creatures simply grinned all the more. Faramir sighed in resignation.

“Apart from the obvious, how are you feeling muindor tithen?” Legolas asked in an amused tone but with an underlying seriousness.

Faramir was just about to snap out a sarcastic reply when he registered the two words muindor tithen - little brother. Faramir eyes widened as he looked at Legolas in astonishment. Thranduil laughed heartily at the stunned look on his human son’s face.

“Your brother Boromir loved you so much that he stayed until he was sure that you were placed in safe hands. Those hands are ours, ion-nin,” Thranduil said gently.

At the mention of Boromir, Faramir’s eyes filled with tears. Tear-filled eyes widened further when the words ion-nin, not directed at Legolas but at him, finally registered with Faramir. The young Steward looked at Maglor and Finrod to gauge their reaction to the Prince and King’s pronouncements. Maglor was still grinning but Finrod seemed as stunned as he was.

“Oh muindor tithen, you look like a startled rabbit,” Legolas laughed.

Faramir, still speechless, moved onto his knees and then launched himself at Legolas who caught him into a hug, laughing and almost toppling backwards. After some moments Faramir released Legolas and looked around to the elven King who was now standing. Faramir rose from his kneeling position with as much grace as he could, given the powerful throbbing in his hindquarters and moved towards the King tentatively. Seeing the shyness, Thranduil pulled the young human into a King-sized hug. The elven King could feel Faramir trembling with suppressed emotion. Thranduil held the young Steward of Gondor until the trembling ceased and smiled at his human son.

“We have dallied here long enough I think. We should return home,” Thranduil commanded.

Faramir thought immediately of the prospect of sitting on a horse and groaned.

“Maglor, do you have something that will numb this young one’s posterior for the ride home?” Thranduil asked sensing what his human son was thinking.

Faramir blushed spectacularly, much to the amusement of the elven King.

“Ada!!” Legolas admonished his father. “I am sorry Faramir. You will get used to his sense of humour in a century or three.”

“That would be all well and good if I had three centuries which I might point out now, so that there is no misunderstanding, that I do not!” Faramir complained as the elves were moving to break camp and Finrod clapped him on the back, grinning from ear to ear, as he walked past.

---

The ride back to the Halls of Mirkwood took five days. Five days too long for Faramir’s liking for even with the salve that lessened the pain in his posterior, if it increased his embarrassment every time it was applied by Legolas or Thranduil, the trip was still painful.

Upon reaching the halls at midday on the fifth day Faramir was able to bathe finally in something warmer than freezing and soak his numerous bumps and bruises. The young Steward of Gondor was still trying to come to terms with seeing his brother one last time and gaining an elven brother and father. After bathing Faramir enjoyed a kip before dinner.

After resting, Faramir dressed for the evening meal and made his way to the feasting hall. Thranduil and Legolas had already arrived and were sitting at the main table. The Steward groaned as he saw the mischievous twinkle in Thranduil’s eyes. Sure enough a pillow graced the chair. Faramir blushed and glaring at Thranduil sat down upon the cushioned chair.

Before the meal began, Thranduil rose and took up his glass of wine.

“I wish to acknowledge publicly, that I have formally taken Faramir, Prince of Ithilien, Steward of Gondor as my son,” the elven King announced to all.

Legolas stood and taking up his glass of wine toasted to his new brother as did all but a few of the elves in the feasting hall. Legolas noted the elves that did not join in the toast, as did Thranduil. Even Faramir who was at once flustered and honoured by the announcement saw that the elf Amras was seething.

---

After the meal was concluded, Faramir made his way to his room next to Legolas’. As the young Steward turned a corner he came face to face with a very angry Amras. Before the elf could say a word, Faramir grabbed the elf’s wrist, twisting the arm thus forcing the elf to turn around, wrestled Amras to the floor and was straddling him when Legolas came running around the corner having heard the commotion. Legolas laughed.

“You might stop with the frivolity brother and help me with this fool,” Faramir said in his normal quiet, modulated tone as he continued to pin the elf to the floor. “And one more word out of you and I will gag you,” Faramir snapped quietly at the vocal, struggling elf.

Legolas disappeared into an empty room for a few moments and returned with a piece of cord used to tie back curtains and the curtain to which it had been attached. The elven Prince proceeded to tie Amras’ hands behind his back with the cord.

“You do realise that we are both likely to get our arses blistered for this,” Faramir said as he caught onto what Legolas intended to do with the curtain.

“Only if we are caught, muindor tithen,” Legolas said as he wrapped now frantically struggling elf in the curtain.

“And how likely is that given how much this fool likes the sound of his own voice?” Faramir asked quietly as he helped Legolas encase the struggling elf in the curtain with just his face showing so the elf would not suffocate.

“Father is already aware that this one listened in when I told him about your past. He is aware how this one then used that knowledge against you,” Legolas said as he looked at the now very frightened elf.

They dragged the now secured elf into the empty room and waited.

---

The next morning, Legolas met Faramir and they both walked to the feasting hall for their break of fast. Thranduil was not there as yet so both Princes sat down at the table. Food and drink was placed before them and they began to eat. Thranduil arrived at the table and looked at his elven son and human son intently. Both Princes maintained impressively impassive expressions. Legolas was used to dealing with his father and Faramir had learned at a very early age, under the tutelage of Denethor, to hide in plain sight. Thranduil sat down between the two Princes.

“There was the strangest occurrence this morning,” Thranduil said in a conversational tone as he proceeded to eat the food that had been placed in front of him. “Amras was found naked, tied hand and foot to the highest wooden rafter in the great hall. Frightened the life out of the poor she-elf who went in there to do some cleaning.”

Legolas had been impressed with Faramir’s climbing skills as they climbed to the very top of the wooden support, which was a high as a tree, with Amras between them.

“That is indeed strange, ada,” Legolas replied.

“He will not tell us how he found himself in that predicament…positively quailed when I asked him,” Thranduil said with a twinkle in his eye.

Legolas did not doubt this for when they had waited in the empty room until most of the elves had bedded down for the night, Faramir had spent the time going into graphic detail, in his normal quiet voice, about the various torture methods used by the Harads and Easterlings and how they could be modified for elven physiology. At that point Legolas felt mildly sorry for Amras, for the elf could not see the twinkle of humour in the eyes of the Steward that belied his very grim and graphic words.

“I really should paddle the both of you,” Thranduil said, shaking his head, as he looked at both the Princes in turn, “but given how much trouble Amras has caused and given that I cannot prove the two of you were involved, I cannot bring myself to punish you.”

Both Legolas and Faramir sighed in relief at the reprieve and went back to enjoying their morning meal.

“I have decided to send the two of you back to Minas Tirith,” Thranduil informed the two Princes. The elven King did not miss the wave of sadness that passed over his human son’s features before the impassive mask returned. “I will be accompanying you though for I want to visit Estel, I have much to discuss with him, and I wish see the site the two of you have chosen for the elven haven.” Thranduil almost laughed the alternating expressions of delight and panic that graced Faramir’s features. Thranduil suspected that the look of panic on his young human son’s face stemmed from the possible topic of his conversation with Estel. And well he should worry for Estel will not be pleased.

After finishing his meal, Thranduil left the table leaving the two Princes to talk.

“What is the matter, muindor tithen, you look pale suddenly. I would have thought you would be looking forward to the journey home,” Legolas said, seeing the panicked look.

“Do you think King Thranduil…ada,” Faramir corrected as he saw ‘the look’ from Legolas, “would tell King Elessar about…” Faramir could not bring himself to say ‘the paddlings’.

“I am sorry, muindor tithen, I cannot lie to you as I know ada. Ada knows that Gandalf entrusted you to Aragorn as well as myself. He also agrees with Aragorn that you put yourself in harm’s way without thought. I am afraid he will tell Aragorn everything,” replied gently as he placed a comforting hand on Faramir’s shoulder.

Faramir whimpered softly as he imagined what Aragorn’s reaction would be.

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