Adult-FanFiction.org : Lord of the Rings

Love’s Healing Flame	By : Argleena Category: -Fourth Age to Modern times and beyond > AU - Alternate Universe Views: 947 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: The following work is based on the fantasy world and characters created by J.R.R. Tolkien and I do not own them or profit from this piece of work.

Chapter List
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The frustrations for Erestor started to grow beyond just things going wrong that he was responsible for as part of his working duties. His friends and family also seemed intent on driving Erestor to madness as well. Celebrían, who bless her heart, was like a sister to Erestor, was usually diligent, caring and observant in her interactions with others, but not always with Erestor. Quite often she depended on Erestor to help guide her in fulfilling her duties as Lady of the house. Her latest venture that she came up with was the idea of hosting a Lover’s Day festival in Ninui. While that was still a couple months away, it still required much planning and preparation on Erestor’s part, with the bulk of the planning needing to start immediately, despite Erestor already being neck deep in his own paperwork and duties. For this event, Celebrían seemed to want his input in every aspect of the celebration, even details that seemed insignificant or trivial to him. Erestor himself probably would not even choose to attend the event in a personal capacity, seeing that the festival was designed to celebrate couples and lovers, and Erestor was as unattached as could be. He would most likely be spending his evening shut up in his chambers, with a new book and a glass of red wine.
     The fact that Celebrían was dependent on him for planning events was probably Erestor’s fault to begin with. Rather than throw her full force into her newfound duties as the Lady of the house when she married Elrond just under 300 years ago, Erestor had coddled Celebrían a bit too often and took care of much of the nitty gritty work associated with her position, especially during her two pregnancies. He had started out trying to make her feel welcome in her new home and wanting to give her time to acclimate to her duties, however, in the end he had just made her overly dependent on his assistance to get many things done. Celebrían, because of this, still hadn’t fully fallen into her roles and responsibilities as the partner to the Lord of the realm. Eru help him, if Galadriel were here to see how Erestor had cosseted her only iellig for so long, she would have delivered him a resounding smack upside the head for his enablement. He did his best to be patient and provide his insight and assistance (at this point it was quicker than trying to get her to work independently), but Erestor made a vow to the Valar that if Celebrían approached him for his opinion on which shade of the apparently 136 shades of pink available should be used for the tablecloths and napkins at the celebration (and other such frivolous matters), he would lose his ever loving mind.
     Next up to drive him closer to the brink, it was precious little Arwen. She was a fairly young elfling and she had Erestor wrapped around her tiny little finger. That didn’t mean that she couldn’t try Erestor’s patience. The vivacious elfling had been taking lessons on sewing and embroidery, as well as learning to weave and dye various fabrics. While she loved learning and adored her lessons, she decided she wanted to get some real life practical experience. Most of the robes that Erestor owned were basic black or neurally colored robes, nothing overly flashy, but always well made and perfectly fitting, neat, tidy and befitting of a councilor of his station. He did own a couple dressier robes, for feasts and special occasions, but aside from that, the only truly extravagant piece he owned was a soft grey dress robe which had been gifted to him from Elrond and Celebrían to wear for their wedding day. He cherished this robe, it was precious to him. The robe was of the highest quality materials with meticulous detailing. He saved it for wearing only at the most special of occasions. Arwen decided that she wanted to spruce up a robe for her favorite “uncle.” She wanted to show off all of her new found skills. Unfortunately she chose the worst robe to experiment on, the one that had great sentimental value to Erestor.
       In her attempt to dye the robe a deep red color, a color which looked quite flattering on Erestor, she ended up turning the robe a muddy pink color. She had also made attempts at loosening the flow of the sleeves and adding an embroidered design to the collar often inthe robe. Neither of these alterations went as planned however, and Erestor was left with a muckilly dyed robe with uneven embroidery work and sleeves that were two different sizes. Erestor was devastated that the one piece of clothing that had sentimental value and was precious to him was ruined. He could never break poor sweet Arwen’s heart though, so rather than getting the! overly severe tongue lashing he would have given anyone else (and that she probably deserved), she received a lecture and lesson on asking before you borrow or alter other people's things and “worked” a week as an errand elfling for Erestor to help pay him back for his ruined robe”
Next on the list to unwittingly add more weight to Erestor's already overfilled plate on both a personal and professional level was Elrond. Elrond was usually a very empathetic individual. He has a sharp intuition and felt a strong conviction to help the disenfranchised and suffering. Unfortunately, even elf lords have their limits and the sharpest of elves overlook people and things once in a while. While Erestor had been preoccupied dealing with an overload of work, disasters, party planning and the sabotage of his favorite robe, Elrond was facing similar yet different trials in his own life. He had never felt so busy as he was currently. He was attending meeting after meeting, from dusk until dawn with the diplomats and guests present in Imladris. Everyone was wanting to speak with and negotiate with the Lord of the realm and it felt like it was never ending. He couldn’t catch a break, even with all the help from Erestor, Glorfindel and then rest of his staff. On top of dealing with affairs of the realm, orc attacks in the surrounding lands were increasing in number and severity and any potential free time Elrond could glean for himself to spend with his family was quickly consumed by having to rush to the Healing Halls to tend to the elves, men and dwarves who have been maimed and injured by these vile creatures of Morgoth. Because Elrond had been working so hard, and getting so little rest he started to lose some of his keen ability to use foresight and empathetic vision. He also felt guilty for spending only a sparse amount of time with his wife and children as of late.
     One day, after having had enough of neglecting his wife and children, Elrond decided to shift some of his responsibilities and clear his schedule to make some time for his family. He felt an arrow of guilt straight to the heart each time one of his twin ions begged him to spend more time training them or teaching them medicine and healing or to simply sit and eat a full meal with them. He hadn’t had time to read Arwen even a short story in days. Unfortunately for Erestor, when Elrond needed a break, being second in command, it was his job to shoulder Elrond's responsibilities that could not wait or be put on hold. Elrond was being pushed to the brink of exhaustion to the point of it clouding his peripheral vision, so unfortunately he did not recognize the abnormal amount of distress Erestor has been in lately. He misguidedly chose to clear his schedule in his usual manner, handing some of the the reins over to Erestor to cover for Elrond so he could find some time off to spend with his family. This method usually worked fairly well. Erestor was usually able to find or make time to cover his Lord’s day to day responsibilities or integrate them with his own. Sometimes, there was another higher up elf, such as Glorfindel or Lindir, that could help. Right now though, Erestor could barely keep his own head above water. Walking into his office and seeing a note from Elrond detailing all the extra responsibilities that he would have to take on for the next few days felt like an impossible crushing force bearing down on top of him. He could barely keep himself standing upright under the weight of the expectations placed on him. It was fantastic that Elrond was able to carve some time for himself and spend some time with his family, but wasn’t Erestor an important part of his family too? Couldn’t his Lord see that his best friend and right hand man was slowly sinking and Elrond dumping on more responsibilities would be like tossing an anchor his way that might very well drag him to the very bottom of the pit he is floundering in. He would suffocate under the pressure of an impossible amount of obligations and expectation? If he got anchored to the bottom, there would be no hope of surviving or making his way back up to break through the surface. His usually insightful Lord was making Erestor start to feel like he was invisible. Like his struggles were not important enough to be seen or heard by even his closest friends and colleagues anymore.
Translations:
Ninui- February
iellig- daughters
Vow to the Valar- is equivalent to the saying “swear to God”
“Lover’s Day”- equivalent to our Valentine’s Day
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Love’s Healing Flame