Faramir Fiction Archive

Elves, Orcs and the Road to Recovery

Written by KC

06 November 2004 | 58662 words

Part 12

After several long moments Thranduil broke the embrace to look at his human son.

"How fare you, ion-nin?" the elven King asked looking at his son intently.

"I am fine, ada," Faramir replied, looking down at his hands. It was then that he saw the ring on the finger of his right hand. The ring appeared to be made of Mithral with a blue stone of crystal clarity at its centre and delicate scrollwork in the metal around the stone, continuing around the ring. The young Ithilien ranger tried to remove the ring but it would not budge. Looking from the ring to his father and back to the ring again he was just starting to feel panic over the situation when…

"Faramir Thranduilion you rapscallion! Get down here this instant!" a familiar voice bellowed from down below.

"Mithrandir!" the Steward of Gondor squeaked and then cleared his throat in an attempt to dislodge the mouse that seemed to have taken up residence there. "To what do I owe the pleasure?" Faramir asked as he continued to tug furiously at the ring trying to remove it but without success as he looked down at Gandalf who was standing between Aragorn and Legolas, glaring up at him.

"Aragorn and I were attempting to keep you out of harm's way. But with your usual skill, you ran headlong into it anyway," Gandalf replied in a gruff tone as he continued to glare at his young pupil. Legolas chuckled earning a glare from his human brother. "Saruman could have killed you boy!"

"Speaking of Saruman. Where is he?" Faramir asked as he tried to screw the ring off his finger, almost breaking it, his finger that is, in the attempt. "And how did you and King Elessar get here so quickly? Finrod has been gone but a little beyond two days."

"Saruman escaped unfortunately, as did some of the Uruk-hai and orcs," Gandalf replied annoyed.

"And I had a dream in which I saw you surrounded by orcs. I knew it to be a vision for I knew that my Steward was incapable of staying out of trouble," Aragorn said as he too glared up at his young Steward. Faramir winced at his King's glare but was somewhat distracted by the growing pain in his finger caused by his continuing attempts to remove the ring. "The army had been mustered by the time Finrod arrived with news of Saruman. We arrived here just in time!"

"For which I am very thankful Estel." King Thranduil said sincerely, emotion clear in the timbre of his voice. "Otherwise I and Legolas might have lost him."

Faramir ducked his head, blushing furiously as he tried to wrench the ring from his now extremely sore finger.

"You can stop trying to remove the ring, young one," Gandalf said in a stern voice softened by a twinkle in his eye. "It will not come off. You well and truly belong to it now. And now that it has found you, it will not let you go." Faramir froze, his eyes widened in growing shock. "Now get you down from there!"

Thranduil assisted his stunned son down from the wall and back onto solid ground. Faramir looked at the stern faces of his father, Elessar, Mithrandir and Maglor and sidled past them to stand on the other side of Legolas who was also facing them. Once past Legolas, with ranger flight instincts, if not mind, fully engaged, Faramir was off and running hoping desperately to reach the horses he saw tethered a few hundred yards away before being caught. The young ranger would have succeeded too if it had not been for Finrod who cut off the panicked human before he could mount a horse.

"I would not do that if I were you pen-neth," Finrod advised in a quiet and serious tone but with what Faramir had termed a Mirkwood glint of humour in the elf's eyes. "You are in enough trouble as it is without adding to your considerable tally thus far."

Taking a deep breath, Faramir turned around only to see two angry Kings and a Wizard bearing down on him. Backing up the young Steward bumped into Finrod behind him. The elf put supporting hands on the young human's shoulder. Faramir, head bowed, wrapped his arms around himself in a defensive gesture that Thranduil recognised immediately. The elven King extended and arm out to each side, stopping Aragorn and Gandalf. The elf approached Faramir slowly and enfolded his distressed son gently into a comforting hug.

"I am sorry, ada," Faramir whispered as Legolas came up beside him to offer his brother some much-needed support.

"It is alright, ion-nin," the elven King crooned in a soft voice. "You have been through much today, tithen-pen. Come, we will take this one step at a time," Thranduil said as he and Legolas guided Faramir away from the ruins and up to the cave where they had camped the previous nights.

Faramir sat down upon a rock just outside the cave in which they had slept. Legolas sat down beside him put a comforting arm around his brother's shoulder. Thranduil went to find some water as he saw that Faramir was still suffering shock from the day's events. Aragorn, who had followed the two elves and human, approached his Steward slowly, crouched down in front him and held Faramir's hands in his own.

"What am I going to do with you, my Steward?" Aragorn asked softly as he looked at the young man whom he had come to rely on and care for so deeply. "Boromir warned me that you attracted trouble like dwarves to an ale barrel, but I thought he exaggerated. I now realise he was the master of understatement," the King related, gaining a tremulous smile from Faramir and a chuckle from Legolas.

"Ever it has been with him Aragorn," Gandalf chuckled as he walked up to stand beside where Aragorn crouched in front of Faramir. "How he has managed to see out so many years it quite beyond me, and now this!" the Wizard exclaimed as he looked at the ring on his pupil's hand, which Aragorn still held in his own.

"What is this ring Mithrandir?" Faramir asked, as Elessar released his hands so that the Steward could accept the water offered to him by his father as he sat down beside his human son.

"That you will find out in the fullness of time, young one," Gandalf replied in a tone that discouraged further questions.

As always, Faramir ignored his mentor's quelling tone.

"I felt its power in my vision but feel naught from it now. Is it a ring of power?" Faramir asked as he looked from the ring to his old mentor.

"If you mean is it one of the rings forged by the Dark Lord, no. This one is much, much older," Gandalf replied enigmatically.

"Why me? I sense no evil in it but what does it want of me?" Faramir asked, frustration growing at his mentor's evasive answers.

"That you will learn in the fullness of time," Gandalf replied yet again.

"Mithrandir!" the young Steward whined. "I *hate* it when you do that! One time you fobbed me off with that particular platitude it took me twenty frustrating years to discover the answer I sought!" Faramir added with growing annoyance, "only to realise there was no reason you could not have told me when I first asked!"

"I would rein in that temper of yours, my young pupil. You were not supposed to come into contact with that ring for many, many years. Answers will come in their own time and you have current issues that must needs be addressed," Gandalf said alluding to Faramir's current predicament.

Faramir paled and winced as the Wizard's words brought his situation, soon to be painful situation, to the fore of his bemused and confused mind. Legolas' arm tightened around his brother's shoulders as he felt Faramir tense.

"We can deal with this now or later, ion-nin." Thranduil said quietly as he looked askance at his son. "The choice is yours."

"Oh, what a wonderful choi…" Faramir's surly response began only to be muffled as Legolas' eyes widened and he clamped a hand over his brother's mouth, eliciting chuckles and shaking heads from elves, human and Wizard.

"Now, ion-nin?" Thranduil asked as he looked at the mutinous look in his human son's eyes.

As Legolas' hand was still clamped over his mouth, Faramir, sighing in defeat, could only *nod* his response in the affirmative.

"Follow me, ion-nin," Thranduil said as he, stood, turned and walked into the forest beyond. "Estel, Mithrandir, if you will?"

Legolas released his brother's mouth and gave the despondent young human a hug and a pat on the knee and sent his on his way. The young Prince watched his brother disappear into the forest following the two Kings and Wizard.

Maglor sat down beside Legolas both sharing a wry, long-suffering look.

"You were and remain a challenge, pen-neth but I have the distinct feeling that that one will surpass even you," Maglor admitted ruefully as he smiled at Legolas. "And I believe it will take all of our effort to keep our young one from wandering off the path."

"And in the land of the living now that he possesses a ring that is coveted by Saruman," Legolas said as he wondered about the ring and what effect it will have on his brother.

---

In the forest beyond Faramir sat upon a rock that looked not unlike a bench, before the two Kings and the Wizard, as Thranduil explained his son's previous encounter with orcs, in great detail, far too much detail in Faramir's opinion. By the time the story was finished, Aragorn was flushed with anger and pacing, neither an encouraging sign the young Steward thought. The King of Gondor was both frightened and angry over the hair-raising stunt Faramir had pulled in the gully and at the young Steward having received a poisoned arrow wound.

"So, by my reckoning my young Steward, you are owed one discipline session from your father, two from myself and what say you Gandalf, is this one owed one from you?" the King of Gondor asked as he looked not at the Wizard but glared at his pale, wincing Steward.

"Nay, not from me Aragorn. It is true that he has come upon the ring before his time," Gandalf said as he pinned his young pupil with an intense look that made Faramir's mouth go dry, "but he cannot go against his nature and it is I who encouraged his curiosity so am therefore somewhat to blame."

"He is your son, mellon-nin," Elessar said looking askance at Thranduil. "How say you? How should his punishment be metered out?"

Thranduil looked down upon his very nervous son.

"His punishment for causing such anguish at his previous encounter with the orcs was harsh indeed. Although he deserves to be paddled, thoroughly," Thranduil said as he gave his son an intense glare, causing Faramir to pale further, "I cannot in all good conscience allow it. But he should feel our displeasure at his continued actions and so I decree that he will receive a hand-spanking from both you and I tonight and a hand-spanking each night from you and I alternately, for the next four nights."

Faramir was about to protest the severity of his father's decree when he was pinned by the equally intense glares of his father, King Elessar and Gandalf. Teeth making an audible sound as his jaw snapped shut, Faramir chose the very wise course of remaining silent.

Thranduil held his hand out to his son and hauled him to his feet when Faramir took hold of his father's proffered hand. The elven King pulled his son into an embrace as Aragon sat down upon the rock where Faramir had been seated. Ending the hug the elven King turned his son around to face his King and moved back a few paces.

Sighing a tremulous sigh, Faramir loosened the ties of his leggings, pushed them down to his knees and leaned over Aragorn's lap. The King pulled his Steward's over tunic up to the young man's waist.

"What is this punishment for, young one?" the King asked. Faramir felt his temper rising and was doing his best to maintain control over his mouth. "I am waiting for an answer, my Steward," Aragorn added after several long moments, as he landed the first stinging whacks to his Steward's buttocks.

"For losing Denethor's love when I was but five, thus failing Boromir and robbing you of the better Steward of Gondor!" Faramir spat out and then gasped at the words that he had spoken, wondering where they had come from and why he had spoken them.

Aragorn growled as he landed blistering slaps to Faramir's posterior.

"Denethor *did* love you but was incapable of showing or expressing that love until the end. You did *not* fail Boromir and you *are* the better Steward of Gondor!" Aragorn all but bellowed emphasising each point with several searing whacks to Faramir's ever reddening buttocks. Both Thranduil and Gandalf were surprised that Aragorn was able to bellow. It was not something that the King of Gondor was prone to do.

"If I had not …lost… Denethor's love," Faramir spat out between gasps for breath and stinging blows to his posterior, "he would have…trusted me…to go to Rivendell…and Boromir…would not… have died. I… am… to… blame!" the young Steward wailed out between sobs. "Mithrandir… what… is… happening…"

"It is the ring Faramir," Gandalf explained as Aragorn continued to blister his young pupil, concentrating on his Steward's thighs. "You are saying what is in your heart but, through your own stubborn nature, remained unspoken except through your reckless actions. The ring understands that you must give these thoughts voice so that you can deal with them and move on with your life."

"I did… not… ask for this. It… is… not… fair," the young Steward wailed.

"No, young one. But it is necessary. Do not blame the ring for it knows the hurt in your heart and wants you to heal," Gandalf said with quiet compassion.

Aragorn stopped the chastisement, pulled up his Steward's leggings and gathered the sobbing young man into his arms.

"You were and are loved, my precious Steward," the King of Gondor crooned as he rocked Faramir, tears welling in his eyes. "You did not fail Boromir, Denethor did. Boromir would have agreed that you are the better choice for Steward. I will keep telling you until you believe me, which could be a long, long time as we both have the blood of Númenór coursing through our veins."

Thranduil, also with tears in his eyes, sat down beside Estel and took his son from the human King's arms. Sensing his ada, for he could distinguish little through the tears and sobbing, Faramir put his arms around his father's neck and sobbed into his father's shoulder.

"Oh, ion-nin, this has been an unpleasant day for you. I cannot bring myself to add to your distress. Consider the debt paid this evening, tithen-pen," Thranduil said as he continued to rock his distressed but no longer sobbing son.

"What… of… tomorrow night?" Faramir asked between hitched breaths, with perversely, a devious look in his teary eyes.

"That debt you will pay in full, ion-nin," the elven King chuckled, again marvelling at the resilience of the human spirit and his son.

"I am very tired ada," the young Steward sighed in a hoarse whisper as he relaxed into his father's arms.

"I have no doubt that you are, tithen-pen," Thranduil said as Gandalf leaned over Faramir placing his hand over his young pupil's face.

"Sleep," the Wizard commanded and Faramir fell instantly into a deep slumber.

"Thank you, mellon-nin," Thranduil said as he looked at his son's peaceful expression.

Gandalf inclined his head in acknowledgement of the elven King's thanks.

"You know the ring and what it heralds for our young charge?" Gandalf asked enigmatically.

"Yes I do, mellon-nin," Thranduil replied smiling from ear to ear, the familiar twinkle in his eye at full force. "You have lifted a great burden from my heart but I do not think this young one will think so. I predict that my son, when he realises, will throw a tantrum worthy of a son of Thranduil."

Gandalf chuckled whilst Aragorn looked perplexed.

"You will find out in the fullness of time," Gandalf admonished, seeing the myriad of questions that the King of Gondor wanted to ask, all but written in Aragorn's face. The King rolled his eyes and sighed for he knew that he would be able to get no further answers out of the Wizard. "But we all, especially my wizardling here, are in for some interesting times indeed."

Aragorn's eyes widened and his eyebrows went skywards at the Wizard's words.

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