The dialogue and the development of the pairing in this story are simply lovely. I enjoyed your Faramir who ‘knows his duty and has no qualms about his means’ and your Aragorn who finds ruling a very different job from being a Ranger. And I loved your use of nicknames! I agree with the other commentors about the fascinating look you provide into post-War dealings with orcs. All in all, a brilliant story.

Also — I don’t generally comment on LiveJournal, since I don’t have an account, but your stories over there are also brilliant. I’m so glad you’re posting your Faramir fiction over here as well!

As you know, I adore your writing, and as Eora says, this was both simple and lovely. But what amazed me this time was your writing of the orcs and the Men of Mordor come to Gondor. Elessar’s handling of them was masterly, as was your handling of the handling. I’m hoping to see more of your view of Mordor someday!

Please prepare yourself for a gigantic comment because oh my. When I sent in my request I never expected to recieve such an utterly beautiful story like this. Thank you, so, so much, and I really mean that with all my heart. This is completely perfect :)

There are so many things I want to comment on that I don’t know where to start! Firstly, I can’t hold back my delight at your absolutely gorgeous prose- the language and style is so poetic, so lush and vibrant and descriptive, I took so long to read this because every paragraph, every line was wonderfully wrought. If I could write even half as prettily as you then I would be very happy indeed! Seriously, I have not enough words to describe how much I adored simply reading this from a technical viewpoint. Your love of writing is clearly abundant in this story, and it was a joy to read.

And as for the story- I loved it. Totally, and completely. The meeting between the different peoples was an inspired idea, I had never thought to consider that the orcs could be anything other than a pest, a dwindling enemy to be hunted down, so I really do love the idea you put forth here (and I think I want to taste some of this orc-wine now!)
The scene in the clearing- sublime. I could feel the misty rain on my skin and smell the night scents as I read. I love the contrast between the slow, subtle build-up to their tryst (“Aragorn’s hands drew Faramir to sit beside him, and then light as thistle-down, one cupped the back of his head.”) and the loss of pretence, their willingness to take joy in the act itself (”…they hauled each other close, hip to hip, with hands, lips, legs, all mutual in their sudden urgency.”)
The ending too, I found delightful; open-ended, leaving the reader to decide whether or not this is the beginning of something special…but I do like that both Aragorn and Faramir seemed willing to explore their new sudden closeness in the wild without the trappings of City-‘morality’. An escape from the city and an escape from rules, for at least one evening- with lovely results!

Thank you again, so much. This was an absolute delight to read and to receive, I love it so very much :)