Shadow Hunter-LegolasxOC

41: Awaited Return (Edited)

She had promised both Legolas and Ruindoldir that she would not stay idle until their return. Oh, how marvellously she was doing to keep that promise.

Once she had recovered enough to properly walk by herself, she went to work. While she was no expert in construction—Faramir, as far as she could tell, was doing that job nicely—Varilerin was certainly skilful in healing and combat. She spent her days and nights cooped up in the House of Healing with Ioreth and her healers, changing bandages on soldiers, cleaning the chambers, brewing herbal remedies, or anything remotely useful just to occupy herself. She taught the healers everything she knew about healing, from hundreds of years of knowledge accumulated, so that when something like this happen they would be more capable with dealing with the injured.

When she was strong enough to wield her swords without tumbling, she visited the barracks, where the uninjured soldiers resided, and instructed them to do a revision of their sword training and archery practices. As expected, the city soldiers were sloppy in their stances and helpless in their aims. Denethor's rule in his later years had done nothing but slackened Minas Tirith's soldiers—a direct contributor to their great losses during the siege. And so Varilerin implemented a strict training regiment for the soldiers to follow, even though they would not expect a siege as before soon with all the enemy forces scattered. You can never be too careful, she constantly reminded herself.

Aragorn occasionally jumped in her training regiments, though his work was more concerned on reorganising the city's administration and overseeing the restructuring of the military. It was strange to be in the position of power, to actually lead. They respected her because of her accomplishments in the war, but she wondered whether it would be the same if she were just a random stranger.

I am not meant for this after all.

Roughly a month before the coronation, guests began to flood the city. The first of them were Eomer and his people. Eomer was garbed in a grand armour and magnificent cloak, befitting his title. Eowyn was with him, her eyes never leaving Faramir as they streamed into the streets. The next were the Dwarfs, from all over Middle Earth. Varilerin could recognise several Dwarfs from Erebor, including Gloin himself. Their arrival drew many people's attention, though there were no bad rumours in the taverns.

Varilerin wondered when the Elves would arrive. She had received messages from Legolas through her friendly bird acquaintances, noting that their march to Dol Guldur had been successful, but he did not specify when they would return to Minas Tirith. He also mentioned that Ruindoldir's feat in the battle had been known to the rest of the Elven army, much to the ellon's despise—he, like Varilerin, disliked fame and attention quite fervently.

The Dunedain Rangers arrived two weeks before the coronation. They wore their customary six-starred brooch on their grey cloaks. Many of them she recognised from Bree; those who helped her, particularly. But their presence seemingly attracted attention from more civilians, for their names had been only in stories of old. Aragorn greeted his kin warmly and, much to her surprise, told his kin her story as well. Several of them managed to recognise her mother, and told her how kind she was in life.

It was weird. In the span of several weeks, her friends introduced her to more people than she had introduced herself to in decades. At first, she was overwhelmed by the company and the incessant questions about their journey, but slowly she began to appreciate their curiosity. It made things less lonely.

Aside from helping Aragorn, she also occupied herself with Merry and Pippin's mischievous tendencies. While their adventures had made them less subdued, they still planned some dangerous mischiefs which could risk Aragorn's face in the advent of so many important guests. Perhaps, she also intervened some fights which the drunken Dwarfs instigated. Either way, she managed to busy herself with the smallest of things, which was a breath of fresh air given how so far she had always concerned herself with life-changing problems.