B2MEM 2019 Double Drabbles by eris_of_imladris

N44 (plus a special note)

Summary: The eldest child of Aragorn and Arwen considers her role in history.

Prompts: self doubt, daughters of Arwen.

No warnings.

Special Note: This ficlet is particularly special for me to write. This daughter of Arwen was my first OC, and I have been writing her life story since I was nine years old. Writing her story helped me figure out so much about myself, and even though most of my words never found their way to a page, she is still my oldest and favorite creation, even after almost two decades. She does make an appearance in another, unfinished fic of mine, but this is the first time I am ever writing in print exactly who she is. I hope you enjoy!

Historians doubt that she existed, and sometimes, so does she.

It was her choice, she knows, but she wonders what it would be like if she hadn’t gone. If she stayed, resigned to the role history would have confined her to. If she was content to be the woman she was born to be.

Early historians write, Aragorn and Arwen had a daughter.

She paints a picture in the ears of anyone who will listen. She sits in an alcove, young, her fingers brushing over the pages of an old tome, the ends of her hair mark her page. The book shuts as her father arrives and she leaves it behind to run into his arms. Where did that just-a-girl go?

To rule, he always told her, meant to put others above herself.

She has not forgotten that. But she has also not forgotten Minas Tirith in the sunlight, dew on the White Tree’s blossoms, the smell of them even in the deepest of winter when her breath is a cloud she can touch. Even when it has forgotten her.

Eons pass, and history is written. Aragorn and Arwen had Eldarion. Some who believe in fairy tales add a daughter.