Summary:After Aragorn's death Arwen takes comfort in her friend Legolas. No slash or extra pairings. Re-posted

Uich gwennen na 'wanath ah na dhín.
An uich gwennen na ringyrn ambar hen.
Boe naid bain gwannathar,
Boe cuil ban firitha.
Boe naer gwannathach
You are not bound to loss and silence.
For you are not bound to the circles of this world.
All things must pass away,
All life is doomed to fade...
Sorrowing you must go -Sindarin text by Fran Walsh

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Arwen Undomiel. The Evenstar of her people, Queen of Gondor leant in closer to the form of her love. Aragorn lay upon a bed of soft linen. His silver eyes looked up into those of Arwen's. She uttered no words but her eyes spoke volumes. It broke his heart to see them. Knowing the pain he was putting her through. She stroked his grey hair, and listened as he spoke to her.

' "I speak no comfort to you, for there is no comfort for such pain within the circles of the world. The uttermost choice is before you: to repent and go to the Havens and bear away into the West the memory of our days together that shall there be evergreen but never more than memory; or else to abide the Doom of Men." '

The words cut through Arwen's heart. To think that Aragorn thought she could do such a thing. Even if she could go she would not. To see the beauty of the Havens without him by her side, to witness it alone would be worse than any fate she could think of. Except this. Having to watch Aragorn leave her. To die in her arms.

' "Nay, dear lord," she said, "that choice is long over. There is now no ship that would bear the hence, and I must indeed abide the Doom of Men, whether I will or I nill: the loss and the silence. But I say to you, King of the Númenoreans, not till now have I understood the tale of your people and their fall. As wicked fools I scorned them, but I pity them at last. For if this is indeed, as the Eldar say, the gift of the One to Men, it is bitter to receive." '

Arwen could not stop the tears from falling and she let them do so freely.

' "So it seems," he said. "But let us not be overthrown at the final test, who of old renounced the Shadow and the Ring. In sorrow we must go, but not in despair. Behold! We are not bound for ever to the circles of the world, and beyond them is more than memory, Farewell!" '

Arwen's tears broke into sobs as she realised what the last word had meant.

' "Estel, Estel!" she cried, she could not live without him.

"Don't leave me!" she whispered "Come back to me my love."

Arwen knelt next to the bed and cried for many hours, still clinging to his hand. As if by doing so he would stay with her, but she knew, deep down, he had long gone.

Legolas Greenleaf, prince of Mirkwood watched silently from the doorway. Arwen's cries had been heard by his keen elven hearing. His best friend lay dead upon the bed. He recalled them many adventures the two had embarked on in the long time they had known each other. His face as he saw Eldarion come into the world. Laughing, smiling. Legolas closed his eyes and his face screwed up in pain.

He was desperately trying to stop the emotion building up inside but he could not. When he opened his eyes he saw Arwen standing she kissed Aragorn and fled the room. She did not notice Legolas' concerned face. She did not notice him at all. He wanted to go after her but he could not leave without saying goodbye. He walked towards the bed and placed a kiss on Aragorn's brow.

"Namarië Mellonin," he whispered, tears falling down his cheeks, before going after Arwen.

It did not take him long to find her. After searching the palace again and again he heard a melancholy voice fill the air. Soft and yet, full of pain. Legolas recognised the singing voice at once and ran to the royal gardens. Upon a bench, singing her heart out he found Arwen. He listened intently.

"O Lórien! The Winter comes, the bare and leafless Day;
The leaves are falling in the stream, the River flows away.
O Lórien! Too long I have dwelt upon this Hither Shore
And in a fading crown have twined the golden elanor.
But if of ships I now should sing, what ship would come to me,
What ship would bear me ever back across so wide a Sea?"

The last two lines were sung with much more sadness than the rest. And as the beautiful maiden finished her song she wept and wept. She felt a strong arm around her pull her into a soft and caring embrace. She cried into Legolas' shoulder the grief becoming too much to bear. There they stayed until night descended and took comfort from watching the stars, before falling asleep.

Arwen awoke, and left Legolas asleep on the bench. She said Farewell to Eldarion and her daughters and to all that she had loved. On her way out of Minas Tirith she saw Legolas.

"Trying to leave without saying goodbye?" He asked, seeming somewhat hurt. She did not answer. Legolas drew her into a hug, and held her tightly. He then drew back at arm length

"I will be your friend. I would do anything for you. I love you as a brother would love a sister."

"This I know, and I am eternally grateful to have you feel thus, but I must go, please don't make it harder than it already is," she said and faced him with her pleading eyes. He was taken aback, so much despair lay hidden there. She was cold, and grey as nightfall in winter that comes without a star.

"Namarië," he whispered for the second time.

He stepped aside and watched as she mounted her horse and made her way to Lorien.

Arwen 'dwelt there alone under the fading trees until winter came. Galadriel had passed away and Celeborn also was gone, and the land was silent.

There at last when the mallorn-leaves were falling, but spring had not yet come, she laid herself to rest upon Cerin Amroth; and there is her green grave, until the world is changed, and all the days of her life are utterly forgotten by men that come after, and elanor and niphredil bloom no more east of the Sea.'

Legolas then travelled to Ithilien and built a grey ship. He then sailed down the Anduin and so over the Sea; and with him, it is said, went Gimli the Dwarf. And when that ship passed an end was come in Middle-earth of the Fellowship of the Ring.

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Please R&R!