"Imagine my surprise," Nellglind drawled, "when I returned to life only to be confronted with an entire forest of Wood-elves I had never met before who wished to adopt me, while the Noldor and the Vanyar kept trying to convince all of us that I ought to be calling myself their king."
"But that is not true at all," Angmeril laughed. "You returned to life almost two thousand years before I was forced to Sail here, and there was no Greenwood in Aman before that. You seemed to be quite happy living among the other Sindar of Doriath before you came to our woods."
"If you wish to be strictly accurate about the order of events, then yes," Nellglind allowed, "that is how it went. But you must admit that it was a shocking thing to learn that my own husband had become a king of a people I had never met, regardless of how long I had to digest the story before there were any of you here on these shores so that I might see the results myself."
"Well, I am glad that you came to see them, regardless of when it happened," Oropher said. "And that you have learned to love them, too."
"Of course," Nellglind scoffed. "How could I not come meet my own daughter-in-law the moment I heard she was on these shores? And of course I fell in love with her immediately, for how could one do otherwise with such a charming elleth?"
"That is also untrue," Angmeril said, laughing harder than before. "You found me to be absolutely irksome when first we met, and we both know it. There is no call to pretend otherwise now."
"True," Nellglind shrugged, "but I found Oropher irksome, too. Being irked is how I fall in love."
Oropher laughed very loudly, and pulled Nellglind in close to kiss his ear, and said, "That is true indeed, fortunately for me!"
Gimli had not been able to keep from snickering at that. Legolas shooting him a scowl that said he knew exactly why Gimli was laughing had not helped, and he had to press his mouth into his beard to try and stifle his amusement.
"You can be irksome too, you know," Legolas muttered.
"True," Gimli said, still chortling. "But this is one contest in which I fear you shall always best me, my dear Legolas!"
Legolas muttered something very vulgar in Sindarin in response, and Angmeril laughed so hard that her mother frowned in concern and told her to be careful she did not fall from the log on which she sat and roll into the fire.
That, of course, had only made them all laugh harder.
Then Oropher had asked his husband, "Have people really been pressing you to declare yourself king of the Greenwood?"
Nellglind responded with a grimace that was almost as eloquent as Legolas's cursing and said, "Yes. It is the most nonsensical, irritating—"
"They do the same to me," Angmeril said, scowling.
"At least you have actually been to the forest whose echo they now want us to rule," Nellglind griped. "I have never even seen the original Greenwood!"
"These Noldor do love their crowns," Oropher snorted. "Perhaps if they had ever learned to love their kith and kin as highly, they would not have been so quick to spill elvish blood in the pursuit of jewels and power."
"We are not going to get into all of that," Nellglind declared firmly. "You have only just returned from the Halls of Mandos, and this is a night for joy. Not for dwelling on our losses and our sorrows."
"My sorrows are all abated now that you are at my side once more," Oropher declared, his sharp eyes softening with warm affection. Then he frowned and glanced at Gilthawen and asked, "Is not your husband here as well?"
"No," Gilthawen said, her voice very quiet.
"He was not here when I disembarked," Angmeril told them all. "Whatever happened to my father after he left the Greenwood, he did not make it to Aman."
Oropher reached over and took Gilthawen's hand. "I am sorry," he said.
Gilthawen mustered a smile. "I am sorry, too. But we parted long ago, and by his choosing. I will not waste my days mourning him now."
"Quite right!" Oropher declared, and stood to pour them all more wine.
