Work Text:
Fenrir was surprisingly good company.
At first, Arondir didn’t seek the warg out intentionally, but the uruks moved Fenrir around the village depending on where he was needed the most. Arondir might take the same path three days in a row and never see the warg, only for Fenrir to appear on it on the fourth day.
When this happened, the warg never tried to attack Arondir. For the most part, the warg ignored him, focusing instead on guarding whatever Adar and the uruks had set him to guard. Nevertheless, Arondir was unable to forget the sight of the warg’s teeth tearing into his comrades’ flesh as they struggled to escape. He would always change his route to bypass the warg.
Then, one day, Arondir was lost in thought, letting his feet carry him in no particular direction. He rounded a corner…and came face to face with the warg.
Arondir only just managed to keep himself from jerking back, well aware that running could make the warg chase him. Fenrir was only been about a yard away, close enough for Arondir to smell his breath. The warg didn’t attack or growl. He simply looked at Arondir out of dark, soulless eyes.
Arondir took a hesitant step backward, only for the warg to step forward. “Easy…” He murmured softly, as he would to a dog.
It was then he noticed that the warg wasn’t chained. Grach!
He remembered that Adar had told him Fenrir wasn’t always restrained, but he had assumed the uruks only released the warg when they needed him to hunt. Apparently not. Arondir recalled how Adar had stroked the beast’s head and how Fenrir had seemed to like that.
Slowly, Arondir raised a hand and held it out for the warg to sniff. It leaned forward, and for a moment, Arondir was sure it would tear his arm off. But it sniffed, then gave the hand a lick. Relaxing slightly, Arondir reached forward to scratch the warg behind the ear.
He decided to try to leave, but Fenrir followed him. Arondir walked backward for over ten minutes, afraid to turn his back on the warg, until he finally realized Fenrir had no intention of leaving. So Arondir sat on the ground, and the warg plopped down next to him, placing his head in Arondir’s lap and staring up at the elf until Arondir resumed petting him.
After that day, whenever Fenrir was unrestrained, he would often track Arondir down and sit next to the elf, letting Arondir pet him until the warg was called away.