The Prince's Visions

Chapter nineteen

The door opens, and the laughter around me dies down a bit. I look up, my breath catching in my throat in excitement and wonder. Aragorn enters the room with a grin on his lips. After him enters a very tall, elderly man with a long white beard that matches the white color of his robes. Gandalf. He is just as I imagined he would be. His eyes filled with infinite wisdom and mirth dance about the room, and he smiles widely at the elves and men in the room.

"Mithrandir!" Galadriel exclaims joyfully. She stands from her seat beside me and makes her way over to him. She wraps her arms around him in a warm hug in which he returns easily.

"My lady," he replies as she pulls away, "It is wonderful to see you again."

She leads him over to the large table we are sitting at and he sits down beside Lady Celebrian. My head snaps back to the door when I hear more voices. A grin pulls at my lips when I see the hobbits enter the room. I spot Frodo out of all of them with his black hair and bright blue eyes. The room turns into an uproar of greetings and laughter and people getting out of their seats in order to greet the newcomers.

"My dear hobbits," Arwen addresses them over the sound of everyone speaking at once, "Please take a seat and make yourself at home."

"Lady Arwen, it is wonderful to see you again," Gandalf says to her with a kind smile.

"How are you, my dear Gandalf?" she asks him.

"I am well," he replies and looks down at Frodo who sits beside him.

"It is great to be back, my lady!" one of the hobbits exclaims happily as he looks at Arwen, "It just feels right to be back in the company of our friends."

There is a ripple of voices agreeing with the hobbit.

"Where are your wife and children, Sam?" Galadriel asks the hobbit sitting beside Frodo.

"They are in our guest room. Rosie was tired, as were the children," he replies with a tender smile, "But they will join us for dinner, I am sure."

Galadriel nods and smiles at him happily.

Queen Nithroel looks at Gandalf with a mischievous grin on her lips. "Gandalf, how wonderful of you to join us! You are just in time to hear all about my son's wedding," she says, and I cringe slightly. The others at the table burst into laughter once again, but the hobbits look confused.

Legolas sits back completely in his chair, slumping slightly in defeat.

"Wedding?" Gandalf asks in his deep and rumbling voice, raising his eyebrow. He

seems to have caught on that it is a joke because he does not seem shocked or surprised.

Legolas glares at his mother from his seat beside me. "There was no wedding," he states, "I am not married."

Gandalf ignores him and turns his deep blue eyes on me. "Ah! And who might you be?" he asks in a kind, grandfatherly tone of voice. He smiles tenderly, and I get the feeling that despite the fact he asked, he knows exactly who I am.

"Well," I reply with a mischievous grin, "To everyone at this table, I am apparently Legolas's wife, even though I do not remember a wedding at all, but you can just call me Eilonwy."

Laughter erupts around the table at my remark, and I see Legolas from the corner of my eye as he looks at me and smirks.

Gandalf chuckles deeply, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he grins. After a servant pours red wine in his glass, he lifts it up in the air. "A toast to Legolas and Lady Eilonwy," he says and the others raise their glasses, stifling their laughter, "For enduring what must be endless teasing from their loved ones."