In the dark there lay a man and a woman. They were not in their home, for the night air was filled with warmth, and something more: a preciously fragile moment of their own.

It had been only two nights ago that he rode up on that warm, rainy night, and already he would be gone from her side again with the dawn. He was not here for respite or pleasure alone and his days were occupied with working with his family. But his nights at least had been spent in her loving arms. Though many had often commented on her beauty, she never felt as truly beautiful as she did in his strong arms.

He knew better than to wish for this night to end not, it was for the best that morning would arrive when it always did. There was nothing they could do for it as it was, and both understood that these moments would not be so treasured with the long months, sometimes years, apart.

Day came and he rose unwillingly, she with him. His departure was simple and clean, there was no 'goodbye' said, only a promise that he would communicate with her later.

She lingered there for perhaps an hour, unable to leave the hallowed space. This was a place apart, one that they had claimed for their own, where no one else they knew ever came. It was one of the few things that either could call truly their own. Finally, pulling herself to move, she took up the few things she had brought with her to share with him. By the time she climbed onto her mount to ride home she was weeping silently of the pain of their parting for who knew how much longer this time. It had been five years the last time. To call it weeping did not do it justice. She keep her sobs to herself, but did nothing to hinder the tears that wracked her.

And yet the pain, she knew, spoke only one truth: her love for him would survive, come what may. Turning as she rode home, looking at the place that to any passerby would go unnoted, she looked about the lush autumnal valley as her tears echoed the rain on the night he came to her. She would have been missed at home, yes, but the closer she drew, she knew she had missed nothing and all the more she was certain that she would give all of it up to follow him.

---

I will leave it up to my readers to decide who this ficlet is about (though there is one couple that is pretty obvious).

This was actually based on my own experience back in October of this year. I spent the most magical weekend of my life across the state. Just two and a half days out of the last 1,825. But i could never rightly describe the intensity of those beloved moments.

Mel-nín... im meleth le.