Laurëlasse sat by the brook, dangling her feet in the clear, cool water, her hands resting on her belly, her head resting on Thranduil's sturdy shoulder.

"Thranduil?"

"Yes?"

"Do you know?"

"Know what?" he asked looking down at her.

"It is said that the Eldar know…." said Laurëlasse, hesitating.

"Know what?" he repeated.

Laurëlasse looked up, seeing the sparkle in his blue eyes. "Thranduil, you torment me!"

He laughed, stroking her hair. "Yes, I know."

"And are you…..pleased?"

Thranduil stood, raising her up. "Am I pleased? No.."

Laurëlasse's emerald eyes widened.

"But I am thrilled!" He picked her up. "Oh Vairë only knows how happy I am!"

Laurëlasse laughed, clinging to his neck, tears in her eyes. "Oh Thranduil…"

He held her tight. "Hush, hush, love. Why do you weep?"

"Because….." She swallowed, holding on tighter to him. "Because I am so happy."

Thranduil paused, frowning slightly. "I-I see."

Laurëlasse sat back down, holding his hand. "So soon! So soon, we will sit here, and have a child in our arms."

Thranduil nodded eagerly. "Yes indeed! And to watch him grow for an infant in our arms to a child playing in this stream to an Elf who can leap across it with a single bound. So much in the future, love, so much!"

Laurëlasse smiled. "Let us not look to far ahead. He has a long time to grow. For now, I just see him as a little baby, holding out his tiny, perfect hands to catch the dappled sunlight as it comes through the leaves."

Her husband sat down beside her, wrapping an arm around her slender shoulder, and together they stared into the dancing stream, as if it was the River of Time, and they looked into the ripples and saw not their own reflections, but their child.