The Moonhorse

Dissclaimer;
I do not want or plan to make any kind of profit or money with this story! Nor do I plan to do so in the future. The Works of J.R., like the lord of the rings and such belongs not to me in any way or form nor do I put any claim to them or the rights on them. They belong sorely to their rightful owners!

*First I would like to point out some things here to all who are reading this, I Am Native German. That means my grasp on English isn't the best sometimes and I only write for my own fun and that of any who, who likes to read fan fiction and not for those who seem to make a living of it to harass others into no writing anymore at all…from those we have enough already, thank you. I, myself was a victim of those too and due my illness of my eyes and my low self-esteem I quit several times to write my stories. Please don't make me do so again.

I did write this on a whim. As I often do. When I get an idea stuck in my head, I have to write it down, I hope others enjoy my little insanity too and ask humbly to overlook my errors. I am pretty sure there are allots of them. Since I have no Beta for this, please be kind when reading it. Also I am fairly sure I got some of the names wrong if so, the shame is on me.

Suryallee

The Moonhorse

The voice of the old story teller filled the hall of Meduselt out...

"The moon has its own horse, did you younglings know that? The mare is running along with it on the moons route over the heavens between the stars each night. Neighing its head and trotting sometimes after but running mostly to the fore of the moons path over the heavens. It is a Meara's, one of the old horses of that we Rohirim do ride the descendants of all over the plains of Rohan until today.

In our legends of old, the first one born to the first couple of them was a little mare. Pale as snow and shining with a gentle silver light from the moment of her birth onwards and her name spells Moon-tide in other languages. Other as her later born brethren she always did run after the moon when it hung high in the sky. The Meara was only content when she could follow it over the land. Well knowing that the moon was too far away and that the mare could never reach it. She followed it nether less.

Over the course of years she came to the very ocean that separates the land of Arda from Valinor to find out that she could go no further after her beloved round object in the sky. For a year and a day she did run along the shorelines to search a way over the vast body water and found none. And after the time she jumped into the water and simply swam after the moon. After two days she grew almost too tired to go on and Ulmo the Valar Lord of the waters took pity into the beautiful horse and gave it fins to swim and gills live in the water so she could follow the moon a little longer. The mare enjoyed her stay in the water for a time but then to Ulmo's and all of his water creatures sadness the old call got to her again and she finally stepped on the lands of the fair beings, Valinor.

To follow from now on her old obsession all over the beautiful and us to second born forbidden lands of the first born and the Lords of the West. For a while the mare was content again to just run after the moon.

Varda and the other lords and ladies of the west saw this with sorrow. They did want to keep the Meara with them, so great was the mares beauty and grace that no horse in Arda or beyond could match. But whatever stallion of the Elvin Horses they brought to her, none could hold her interest for longer as a day. Not even the stallion of the great hunter managed it to keep her longer from her track than a few days. The most others she did not even give a glance. Aye, proud are the horses of the kings and she, was no exception of that rule.

And stubborn are they, what is too true too, as the Valar lords had to learn it too in those days, much to their chagrin. Tulkas finally voiced out what all of them thought and said, 'If the horses are already this unruly, how headstrong then will the people of the horse-lords be when they come into the great story of our world?' His words should ring true and to this day our people are often called stubborn, valiant and single-minded from others, just like the pale horse had been who followed the moon to Valinor in her persistence. Even from the people of the white city, Gondor who are our allies in this dark world we are called thus.

One day the mare finally reached the end of even the holy lands of the west and when she could go no further she simply jumped off of the cliffs there out into the vast void that is the sky that holds the stars and the ships of the sun and the moon and the evening star. And the one that is above all else took pity in her like Ulmo before him and gave her white wings so she could follow Ithil and his ship through the heavens each night.

And so, you children, it came to be that one of the Mearas of old runs over the heavens with the moon. Eternally it is his companion on the way over the heavens. And she is fully content to have it this way.

To this very day it is told that some of us followed her on her path. That sometimes one of our own is struck by a bold of love or simply obsession so deeply that they follow their own moon to wherever it is leading them and if they have to cross the eternal ice or the ocean to reach them. Nothing will stop those doomed souls until they reach their goal, besides death."

One of the children surrounding the old storyteller on Théoden's court in Meduselt was a young boy going by the name of Haleth. Another beside him was his cousin Eofine with his baby sister Ealfreda in his lap, suckling on her tiny thumb. Both of their fathers where Marshals of the great king of Rohan and sworn brothers through the marriage of Eofine's mother to his father who was the sister of Hama, Haleth's father. The blond haired boy, Eofine with his sparkling blue eyes was a year older as the more silent red haired boy next to him. But since the two had met while being no more than baby's they had been inseparable to any who that had tried. All of the adults were certain that they would be shield brothers when grown and smiled at the two boys with fondness and a certain pride. The two were loved by all of them.

Next to the red head the blond moved when his mother came over and took the baby out of his lap. Protesting a little Eofine finally relented and gave Freda to his mother with a pout. He was known to care a great deal for his new baby sister and carried her proudly around each day with him, much to the chagrin of the adults who loved the little trouble causer all the more for it. Even being just seven right now, Eofine had already gained a reputation to be a prankster. And many feared to be the receiving end of one of his pranks since he had reached the age of fife.

Almost always at his side, Haleth was often the only one who could stop him from getting into trouble. Although many suspected, rightfully, that the most of the duos sometimes devilish pranks had been hatched inside of the, oh so silent and solemn child. It was just…that more often than not, the adults could not provide enough evidence to trace the pranks back to the youth or that he had been involved in them in the first place! And Haleth, he merely smiled slightly and hid his thoughts behind a veil of thick red hair that was so rare under the mostly blond haired Rohirim. Even his parents often told that they could not fathom what was going through the youngsters cunning mind all of the time.

He was already known for it to be smart, cunning and sometimes to be a little bit too wise for his six years of age. Many wondered and mused in silence what was going on inside of his mind and what he would become when grown. A conciliator, of that strangely no one had a doubt. Like his always calm mother was it already, or a great Marshall of the king or his son Theodreth, like Haleth's father.

He had the thick unruly hair of his father and the brown almost golden eyes of his mother. Harvest Moon eyes called Haleth's people this particular shade of brown that was bordering on gold when the owner got the mood, be it anger or happiness. When they had these emotions, they shone often almost golden, like the yellow moon in the harvest month in the end of the summer. Add to it the strange blood red shade that his hair held when the light was shining right he made a stunning sight already just being a child as he was it now.

The ladies of the king's court made already bets on the golden and the fire child as they had duped Eofine and Haleth secretly under themselves of how many hearts they would break when grown up and often giggled like young maids then. Not even Hama had this shade of red being a slight red head himself and often wondered about it from who his only heir had gotten it from. Sure his house was called the fire house of Rohan but never in the history that he could remember one of the members of his house had been born with such a fiery red hair. The tall and broad shouldered man shook his own mob of wild hair and finally uncrossed his arms to scoop the tired looking boy up in them to put him to his bed in the halls of Meduselt.

He cast one look of growing concern at his king on his way out who looked more tired each day. His wife fell in step with him almost immediately and both shared an alarmed look. Theoden was behaving oddly and stranger with each passing day. In the late he only trusted what Hama and his wife had duped the Snake in his counsels and no longer the aging king searched for the wisdom of his wife. Hama saw this all with growing trepidation, he was sure that something fishy was going on but couldn't put a finger to it what it could be, darn it!

Looking down at the child in his arms he noticed startled that the boy seemed wide awake and not half asleep as he had thought. Haleth was staring at the dark man covertly hidden from Hama's tunic that whispered urgently to the lately so old looking king with much too old looking eyes for a six winter old child to have.

"What ails you, Haleth?" Hama couldn't help to ask. The look in his son's eyes was too strange to miss. The boy took his time with the answer but his father and mother were used to this. Haleth always took time with his words, never he said something without to think it over first. When he suddenly looked up, the child's eyes where a haze of gold and brown colors. His child voice seemed to come from far, far away.

"He poisons his mind and soul my father." Was all that he told the now bewildered Marshal of the Riddermark. Even his wife looked troubled down at her son. "What? You cannot say such, my son! We may not like Grima Worm-tongue but it is not right to say such without any facts to confirm such words." The youngster just nodded. "I know my father, but you misunderstood me. I didn't mean Grima, he is only a means to an end for the fallen one who is hiding in the shadows and pretends to be white in the light of the day. Where the truly white one is still running around cloaked in grey whilst the truly dark one is laughing at the folly of them all sitting on his throne of fire and tears …" Suddenly the too old looking eyes fixed his father's now horrified gaze with a worried look inside his eyes. Grabbing Hama's over tunic the boy heaved himself up until he could see in the eyes of the man that was his beloved father.

"Promise to me, father! Promise it to me that when the grey one comes one day that you will leave his wood with him when he asks you to enter the king's hall? Please?"

At that Hama could only whisper a yes although he was wondering whilst holding his child's suddenly limp body as near as he possible could, who the hell Haleth meant with his cryptic words. Grey? Black? White? Hama's head did hurt but it was known to him that his and his wife's line sometimes sported seers in them. And as it looked, his son had this curse running in his blood. With one last look back into the hall Hama took his son and wife with him out of it and away from what he would call secretly the snake for the rest of his life. Already thinking of a plausible excuse to the why he would remove them and his brother in law children from the court.

They where no longer safe here with Grima at the side of the king, poisoning his kings mind. Hama cursed powerfully once his son was in bed with his wife and two trusted warriors at their doors. And went to find his brother in law to give him the *News*. Not once the thought crossed Hama's mind to not put trust his child's words of warning. He had seen enough in his life and knew too much to do so. He wasn't keen to talk to his sister's husband with his fiery temper but would try it none the less. But one thing was as certain as that the Elven lady lived in the golden Forrest; Haleth would leave this place first thing in the morning. And if he had his will, Eofine, his sister and Hama's sister would do so too.

All the way down the hall his child's words hunted his steps. Whilst cursing his inability to do something, anything to prevent the darkness that he could deduce would be coming over them all soon.

'Promise to me Father!'

And so, Hama did.

For the next eight years Hama hid his family away from the greedy eyes of the snake whilst doing his best to protect the kings only son and his nephew and nice from the slimy tongued devil in their midst. Often not succeeding in his tries much to his everlasting sadness, it tore at Hama every time he saw the haunted looks in Eowyn's and Eomers eyes.

Then one day, when Eomer, nephew to Theoden, king of the Riddermark brought home the heavily injured body of the only heir of the king on his own horse, Hama knew it somehow that it was almost time. Two days later the well known frame of the wizard named Gandalf entered the doors to the city with three others on horseback and requested entrance to the king's hall for himself, and ranger, an Elf and a Dwarf. On word of Grima, Hama was ordered to remove every possible weapon before giving entrance when he spied the wooden staff of the old man and a flash of white clothing under the always grey cloak.

It hit him suddenly what his son had meant back then with his cryptic description of the white one clothed in grey and he held his given oath to his child and let the old man have his staff with him when he entered the hall.

The child's eyes were it what caught Aragorn's interest when he left the Hornburg's weapons chambers in his rage. He and another youngster who the man identified as Eofine, the boy that had come with his sister to Meduselt to warn for the invading Ork in the west fold was with the red-haired youngster and both couldn't be older as maybe thirteen or fourteen in age. He had seen the boy before, together with the now dead Marshall Hama who was sorely missed here now. From the looks of it, he had to be his son, Aragorn heaved a heavy sigh and went over to the boy's who would fight for the first time tonight in their young life's with near to no hope for survival.

Later Aragorn made certain that both boys would be placed on the tower over the only entrance to the keep. Both had obviously been schooled to wield a bow at their young age, from Hama and his shield brother he had no doubt and with a last prayer to the Vala for them all he focused on the approaching army of Uruk-Hai with the elves that had come to aid them under the command of the elven Lord Haldir O'Lorien.

Just before all went down to the drain, Haleth's mind replayed the story of the Moonhorse in his mind that he and his cousin had heard so long ago. Then everything fell away in a haze of red and sounds that made the blood freeze. Later the boy could never tell how he had survived the first onslaught, neither could his cousin. Both had survived relatively unharmed. If one did not count the now missing half of the left hand of his cousin or the wound on the left side of Haleth's face from a hit he couldn't remember getting. And how he had ended up under a load of stones from the former wall around the keep he also couldn't tell. Somehow he and Eofine had tumbled down from the tower, accidentally thrown or simply lost footing, he would never able to recall. Both had survived the fall only to end up between elvish warriors to then being thrown away again from the force of the explosion when the beasts had practically bombed the keep.

When he had gotten back his bearings, he had seen an Uruk gnaw away on the hand of his unconscious cousin and had slain the beast with his father's sword first and then he had moved Eofine's body into the hole under the former wall he had lain in. Over the course of the next minutes and hours he had bound the wound and then he and his cousin after waking up had begun to systematically move the bodies of surviving elves from the outside to the inside of their little cave under the crumbled wall of the keep. Sometimes succeeding, sometimes not in their now constant tuck war with the ugly beasts about each life they could safe.

In the meanwhile the elves who could still wield weapons had held back the Uruk's as best as they could to aid the two boys. When Eomer finally arrived with his Eored, they had altogether rescued more or less around twenty of the tall and ethereal beings including the body of an elf with an unusual red cloak whose wound was fatal to say at best. Haleth did not think at first that he was still breathing even when he got him literally thrown before his feed from one of the Uruk's in its haste to kill another elf who got away a minute later by sheer luck alone and helped the boy to get the heavy armored warrior into the little hideout of theirs.

It was there that Eofine noted a faint breathing that barely moved the breastplate of the elf. The elf who had heard his words went into a flurry of movements then and Haleth noted that the two looked much alike. He wondered for a second if they where related but then he simply helped him as best he could whilst not believing that the injured one would survive before he went out again to find another survivor.

Eofine's hand had been half chewed off from the fell beast and the rest had to be taken off almost too in the end. But his cousin was lucky and could keep two fingers and the thumb in the end. The rest had been thorn off that badly that he would never wield a bow again with it that much was certain. And since Eofine was left handed to begin with, he now had much trouble to face in the future but the boy did it with a lopsided grin and the persistence that had always made him, him.

Haleth, the healers found out by inspecting his wounds later, had a deep cut on his forehead that had even scratched at the bone of his skull. He also sported several stab and hit wounds, none too serious, all over his body that would scar too. One stab wound had nearly gone through his left leg but in the haze of the fight he had simply bound and then ignored it and gone on. That one had caused him a big blood loss but since he was young and strong he did survive it without a trouble and at the day after the fight he was sent to take a rest together with Eofine and told to drink as much water or tea as he could.

Aragorn was told later from the surviving elves of the two man children who had rescued so many of them and of the red head who had kept so eerily level headed through the entire scenario.

When he went to thank them for rescuing the elves and his best friend that he had thought to be dead, Aragorn found both boys and a golden haired girl, cuddled together in a corner of the keep. All sleeping soundly whilst the children were holding onto each other like they were the only lifelines that they had in their lives now. He had not the heart to wake them and lay his mantle instead over the trio to keep at least a little of the nights chill and rain from them.

Besides of the man the elf called Legolas stood silent and watched this with hunted looking eyes.

The elf still couldn't believe what Rumil, the younger brother of Haldir had told them about the children. Thanks to the boys, their friend had a vague chance to survive this ordeal. Looking left and right Legolas finally asked the question that also nagged on Aragorn's mind.

"Where is the family of these children, Aragorn?" He had earlier seen Eofine and the girl find their mother back, now he wondered where the tall woman was.

Later the night Aragorn learned a gruesome truth. She had been slain when some of the Uruk's had found a way into the caves that held the woman and children, defending her daughter. What was left was an uncle to the children who seemingly cared not much about them, much to his and Legolas anger. With Hama slain from a warg , Haleth's mother killed by an Ork attack years ago, Eofine's and Ealfreda's father killed in the West Fold defending their families and now their mother slain in the caves, the three turned out to be orphans.

When the other elf survivors asked the fuming Legolas later what was amiss they were shocked to learn this.

A many of the small number of them owned their life to the two children and were not keen to learn that they would now have to fend for themselves. Neither was king Theoden when he learned of this and he promptly assigned Gambling to be their keeper for the time being. Who had been a great friend to the children's fathers and agreed whole heartily to take care of them, having no family alive of his own after the war too.

When the elves departed a week later, Haleth looked after the sorry reminds of the stunning army that had come to their aid. Next to him stood a befuddled Eofine with an equally baffled expression on his handsome face. Both held presents of the proud warriors, given to them this very morning before the elves had departed for the golden wood. To Eofine they had given one of the short swords of one of their now dead brethren and Haleth held a white bow in both hands tightly clutched to his chest. Given to him by the very warrior he had rightfully assumed to be the brother of the injured one, together with a full quiver of white fletched arrows made of elven hands. Little Ealfreda held a dagger and a pedant in her small hands. She had found them between the wreckage of the keep wall and wanted to give them back. Instead she was told to keep both. And so she did.

The elves had loved the little golden one as they had called the little girl that had helped in the healing wing. Always bringing water or tea to the injured shiny beings with a smile on her little face and soft pats of her little hands when someone needed a soothing touch. One night she even fell asleep next to an injured elven warrior in the midst of changing the wet cloth over his feverish brow.

They had adored the little girl.

Gamling looked at the trio with a smile on his face. These children had managed more in their short lives as many of the men he knew of. It saddened him that they had no parents now anymore but he was certain that they would manage to overcome their grief with time. All three were strong and resilient and his best friend's offspring and that alone told to him volumes about their capacity for survival and recovery.

He left them gather themselves in their own time and went to his king to await his future orders.

Then the fight about Gondor came and went and Eomer became king of the Riddermark in the passing of Theoden on the fields. Eowyn slay the Witch king of Angmar the dark Lord was killed from two courageous Hobbits and Aragorn was crowned and Arwen became his queen. The most elves left middle earth a year after the wedding. And for a few years all was well.

Only…it was not.

In Meduselt Haleth was tormented by nightmares about a figure cloaked in dark mist over the course of the following four years. Always it was bend over an ominous book that glowed sickly green written in a language Haleth did not recognize but made his eyes almost bleed to even look at it. In his waking time he hurriedly wrote down what he had seen, even if it made his eyes shed tears of blood when he tried to paint down the signs he had seen. When he told Eomer about his dreams the new king had looked intensely at the red haired boy with the abnormally red colored eyes and had gulped, well knowing about his vision from the past, told to Eomer by the boy's father. He had not liked what Haleth had told him nor how he looked and chosen to keep it to him for the time being.

But in his mind, Eomer kept the warning about evil rising very much alive.

He later told this to Aragorn by the first opportunity he had and both agreed to keep a rigid watch about this and so the years went into the land.

When Haleth turned nineteen years old his mentor had to move to Gondor for a year and Eofine, his sister and Haleth were left in the care of their uncle against Gambling's will. All three hated the man. He had not waited long to greedily reach out his hands for the title of Haleth's house and his parents riches, nor that of Eofine or his sister. But Eomer had put a fast stop to this and since then the man had tried a several times to covertly kill the boy's to get his hands on their fortunes that would rightfully theirs when all three turned twenty one.

And since he was their uncle he could make decisions of their handling too to some extend and did so, most of the time hiding his true intentions from Gamling and everyone else effectively.

He was also a greedy thief.

The children knew this all but could prove it not enough to warrant their uncle getting in custody of the king. They bid their time and tried to survive. Since Aechtolic didn't manage to get the son of Hama killed he instead set out to defile the boy now young man. When he rode out with his own sons the next time to one of his hidden raids, he ordered Haleth to accompany them against his will. He threatened Haleth to lay his hands on Ealfreda whom the boy loved like a sister if he did not do so. The youth obeyed whilst gnashing his teeth in silence. He could wait for his uncle to slip and besides he had been curios for a while now where exactly his uncle got his gold from in the late anyways.

As it turned out, his uncle and his brood and followers had taken to raid the former elven realm of the golden wood.

Since the elves had departed these shores, he had gone there a several times and had stolen what the elves had left to fade with their beloved wood and former homes. Haleth was disgusted and sick from seeing this and did not touch one item or thing that they tried to handle over to him. He still had the bow, now concealed under wraps and felt simply sick whilst watching the thieves defile the former silent place, not caring what they destroyed in their wake. Sure, a part of his brain told him that this all belonged to no one anymore but still he felt it was wrong what his uncle did here, to Haleth it felt like they were robbing a grave of the kings of old.

He had become one of the very best archers of the Riddermark ever with the passing years, winning prices in other realms even with his accurate shoots.

He had also become a good swordsman. He introduced a new weapon to the riders of his homeland. When younger his father and he had stumbled over a southlander one day the man had an odd weapon with him, one his father had seen them use before and he had offered the strangely honorable dark-skinned man a place in return to teach his son how to wield it when he had noted Haleth's interest in it. He had never rued his decision since Haleth turned out to be fairly good with it and the southlander had become attached to his son. So much so that he taught Haleth a lots more as the use of the weapon only. The young man had always trained with him through the years and had gained a reputation to be a master with this type of sword with the years.

Basically it was a long metal staff slightly curved with a blade on both ends. Some of the southlanders even had deadly thorns dipped into poison on them and Haleth had learned from his mentor to wield them all with the years. He wore it always with him and fought almost exclusively with it in fights or ambushes of Ork's that still happened from time to time.

Now the double-bladed sword rescued his life in the middle of the formerly golden wood when his uncle attacked him in his anger. And Haleth's nimble feed helped the youth to bring distance between him and his crazed family members when they tried to kill him to keep him from spilling their secret to the king.

Currently he was hiding from the frantic search party of his uncle under the thick root of one of the Mallorn trees left inside the heart of the old Forrest. Panting slightly Haleth tried to be as silent as one could be and finally darted over to another root to escape from the nearer getting pursuers. He didn't want to commit a kin slaying! And even hating his uncle and cousins he would have to do just that if he had to defend himself from them. So he chooses to hide and wait them out. They had even killed his old stallion!

Fat tears run down the young man's face, he felt horrible.

The horse had bought him time, attacking his attackers when they had attack him. It was unheard off that a Rohirim horse attacked a Rohirim in history! And jet the old stallion had done so and that with vigor already taking down two of his uncle's men before they could kill it. It only proofed what Haleth had known already; they had fallen from grace more deeply as he had thought and he wept for their souls and more so of that of the valiant horse and went to search for a good hiding spot.

He finally found one in a secluded clearing, following the strange whispers of the old towering trees that seem to weep with him. In the very middle of it was a small spring, almost overgrown now from the wilds and a stone that build out a natural basin on its top. The water inside of it looked almost as clear as a mirror to the curios young Rohirim. One a leaf or two drifted over the clear surface of the too still water and Haleth could have sworn he saw swirls inside of the water and that he heard faint laughter coming from the basin.

Looking around, startled he saw no one. Still he couldn't shake the feeling of strong and old magic in the air off of his shoulders. Gulping he dared it and stepped down delicate steps until he reached the bottom of the natural clearing to look for a hiding spot for the night. He found one just in the nick of time, right under the basin in the stone foundation it was sat upon. Haleth pressed his body into the breach that must have occurred after the elves had left. In here it was dark and the space narrow but he managed to hide completely from view whilst vines covered the entrance. Not a moment to early, right after he had hidden inside his uncle run down the steps in his fury to not find Haleth and looked around the small clearing. Somehow the youth felt like his uncle and his men where defiling this place and another tear run down his checks.

How they did not see him was a miracle to Haleth!

More than one time he had been sure that he was discovered but a voice, faint and strange had told him to keep still, to not move a muscle to be still and most importantly to not leave the narrow space and all would be well. Haleth had listened to it, had done its bidding and not even moved when Ungalinth, his uncles second had looked right at him without to see Haleth at all.

Half an hour later all were gone from the clearing and silence filled the place once more.

He stayed in there until the moon and his pale horse rode over the heavens again. Only then he dared to leave the narrow hole in the stone on unsteady feed from the long crouching inside. Looking at the sky in all its splendor Haleth was reminded on the old myth again and he gave the first timid smile of the entire day up to greet the pale horse in the sky with it.

For a moment he could almost see it and the youth was feeling better because of it.

Suddenly there was the voice again in his mind. The very one he had chalked up to his imagination or a leftover magic of the elves. It told him to look into a mirror? What mirror? Haleth scratched his head in confusion until his golden eyes fell onto the basin again. He now noted that it wasn't a part of the under stone part as he first had thought it to be, more it looked like having lain upon the pillar. The water still looked like a mirror to the youth and so he shrugged after a minute and did what he was told. Inside of the depths lay a small golden band. With a white stone inlaid into a leaf design that reminded Haleth on the leaves of the Mallorn trees around him.

Curios he wondered again why the others had failed to see it and he let it stay where it was.

Inside of the water basin, right in the very middle of it the ring lay. He had no need for things that didn't belong to him. On nearer observation he saw that it wasn't exactly gold as he had first thought but rare mithril instead the ring was made of! Why wanted the voice him to see it? Looking around oddly he shrugged again, wondering if it could be one of the famous elven rings. As if on cue the surface of the water suddenly gave way and instead into water he suddenly looked into a strange vision.

Haleth could see a land he had never seen or been told of before rush at him like it was coming to meet him.

Deep emerald green Forrest's as far as the eye could see covered an enormous landscape. Mountains with snowcaps, beautiful beyond any words could tell run out into beautiful looking dales that held sometimes great cities and sometimes only a few houses. And elves. Everywhere were elves! Haleth wished shortly his cousins Eofine and Freda could see this too. Suddenly his strange flight seem to come to an end in a great haven, made of white and grey and bluish stones with exquisite ships that looked like the legendary swan ships out of tales of old. There was a busy coming and going from what he could tell and he slowly wondered to what this vision was leading…somehow he felt that he shouldn't see all of this at all.

Suddenly it all seems to spiral down to four elves standing near a small river that run into another natural basin to then run out on the other side to end into the ocean near the ships. Three were male, as far Haleth could tell and one a female, beautiful beyond any imagination all of them, with a light in their eyes that no human held inside of theirs. And all were looking inside of the basin and at him as it looked to the startled youth.

A question was in the eyes of the female and then in Haleth's mind.

Why hadn't he touched the ring?

It wasn't his, he heard his soul answer, what felt utterly strange and alien to Haleth who still tried to come to grips with this all. He was certain his confusion must have shown in his face. He noted that he knew two of the male elves.

How? Seemed the voice to ask and unbitten his memories tumbled backwards to Helms Deep to the fight, the elf in the armor and his Brother whose names Haleth had never learned. He was certain she had seen his memories.

The one who had been injured asked the female a question Haleth couldn't hear and she seemed to answer it without him none the wiser in high elvish. He had a voice that the boy liked instantly. The other one of the duo looked at him wonderingly with a slight smile on the handsome face also saying something in their musical language that Haleth didn't understood.

So he shrugged simply his shoulders to show that he didn't understood what seem to make the elf sad for a second. The third one held age and wisdom in his eyes. Tall was he even taller than the others, like a tree and his hair was like spun silver, Haleth was reminded on the stories of the former lord of these woods Celeborn had been his name as he remembered suddenly.

Celeborn of Doriath.

Suddenly the implications of what he was seeing and what was currently happening hit Haleth hard and with sheer willpower he tried to get away from the mirror of water that did show him things he shouldn't see!

That got the attention of the female elf that he now identified as Galadriel, back to him instantly. Seeing his fright she smiled reassuringly at him. He needed not to fear, she told him somehow. That she did now know thanks to him what was going on in her former home and that she did put no blame on him for this too. That she knew also that he hadn't wanted to be there at all and that he had not laid a single finger on their things left there. That she felt that Haleth was an honorable soul in need and wouldn't he do her a favor maybe in return?

Now he was confused even more…what could he possibly do for her?

She looked a long while just into his eyes before her voice sounded again in his mind. There was the ring he had seen she told him, Haleth nodded and assured her immediately that he would tell no one about it. It made her smile. She told him that she had never understood why she should leave it there before but that she now did… but this all did not concern him and Haleth just nodded. His quick mind already turning gears to make sense of her cryptic words at the same time what seem to amuse the elf lady much.

A quick mind he had she told him and her musical laughter filled the young man's soul for a while and made him smile softly back at her what seem to make her smile even wider back at the human youth. That was part of her wish she told him, not to tell anyone and he nodded. That wish was easy to comply. This was not something that anyone had to know about. After all, the ring belonged to her and not to a human being. Another two elf's joined the others silently. One had jet black hair, the build of a warrior or a smith and eyes like fire. He was nodding sagely at Haleth's reply to Galadriel as if he had heard him too while the other one was pale, tall and golden as the two he had seen at Helms deep and looked like them, a third brother he mused? But Haleth shook it off, not his business.

Her voice brought his attention back to Galadriel.

Yes she told him the ring wasn't made for his people. The other part of her wish was to please go back into the hole he had hidden inside and to take the package hidden in the earth there and to bring it to her granddaughter, Arwen and her husband in Gondor as fast as he could if he would? And that she was fully aware that she was asking much of him.

At that Haleth had not to think for long, he assured the elven lady that he would do so immediately with a smile.

Already he thought about it from where he could get a new horse to do so as quickly as he could. Suddenly her voice sounded stern and urgent. Under no circumstances, she warned him, he should look at what was inside the pack! She looked sternly at him, it was too dangerous for him and that only Aragorn could handle it, Haleth gulped and swore in silence to never ever open that cursed package then.

With that she released him from the spell that held him but not before the youngest looking from all the elves had told her something what made her smile and repeat it to Haleth in a tongue he could understand.

If he still had the bow she asked and the youth nodded with a genuine smile, yes, he still had it and he showed it to them, warded as it was for protection from greedy eyes. Good she told him and that he should keep it with him, that he would need it in the future to come. If he would keep another thing out of his uncle's greedy hands for the one that she called Rumil? Haleth nodded. Sure he told her. Aware of it how odd the one called Rumil looked at him in the meanwhile the others seemed to tease him in their tongue.

An armlet, she told Haleth, one like the one he was wearing. She pointed at the one Rumil wore on his bare left biceps and Haleth nodded in slight confusion. It looked like made of silver but he wasn't sure. She told him where he would find it and the connection dissolved. He was back in the clearing again, still under the nights moonbeams and his horse that seem to wink at him from out of the sky.

Scratching his head Haleth finally shrugged and bend to search for the pack.

Later he searched at the designed spot for the hidden armlet and found it inside a small wooden box with elvish runes carved onto it. Not knowing what else to do to hide it he put it on his own right shoulder and shrugged his leather tunic back over it to hide it from view. At that moment a strange vision came over the boy. He saw the elf now sitting on the deck of one of the ships from before. He was smiling at the boy with a strange fire in his blue eyes. The armlet on the elf's arm gleamed shortly in the moon's light.

Whilst he unexpectedly blacked out, Haleth heard him whisper faintly in his overwrought mind.

*We will take it all back, human child. We will take it all back and this time we will keep it, you will see. And even more, as it was promised to us from the Lords of the West. The Dark one will pay, as will all others too who aided him for their crimes against the Valar and the One themselves!*

End of part one.