Chapter 7: Forever is a long time if you are immortal (Haldir/OFC)

Helm's Deep, 3-4 March 3019 TA

With an annoyed smile Haldir allowed Aragorn to hug him. He had nothing against Aragorn, for a human he was bearably but that did not mean he wanted to be touched by him. Looking around he acknowledged Théoden with a nod, before his eyes wandered over men who surrounded them. He could not help the disgusted sneer that covered his face at what he saw. What had Galadriel been thinking, when she sent her Galadhrim here? Instead of a well-equipped army and battle-hardened soldiers he saw mostly common men, dressed in poorly fitting armour. Fear was written clear over their faces and the way most of them were clutching their weapons showed him that they were not familiar with them.

He would die here, they all would. And what for? For the sins of mankind. Had Isildur been stronger and destroyed the ring when he had a chance to do so, they would not be here today. Mankind was the root of all evil in his mind.

Haldir hated the race of men. He hated their rude behaviour, their narrow minds, their questionable morals and their laughable short live spans. But most of all he hated that fate made one of them into his soulmate. A soul destined to be reborn again and again until he found her. But regardless how often they crossed paths, he was doomed to lose her in the end. Haldir had gotten tired of fates cruel game a long time ago:

The first time he met her was early in second age. It was a cold winter that year. Even in March the snow was knee high in some parts of Lorien and guard duty was exhausting and difficult. When he found her, she was more dead than alive. Her frozen little body was covered by a fine layer of fresh snow and had it not been for his sharp eyes, she would have died alone and forgotten under the white blanket. The moment he touched her he knew who she was, his soulmate. His second half. Haldir was so shocked that he was unable to move for a moment. It was his brother, Rúmil, that reminded him of her condition. Covered in his thick woollen coat he had carried her back to Lorien where the healers tried their best to rescue her. But after a few weeks of frail hope she died in his arms. All that was left, was the memory of a weak, timid woman that had not even realised who he was. Her name was Mabella.

The second time they crossed paths was only two or three hundred years later. A blink of an eye in his life. Her name was Enali, a beautiful redhead with intense green eyes that had him in thrall as soon as she looked at him. She was one of the Dunedain and had it not been for her husband and two children, they might have had a chance. This time the pain he felt was more intense. It was much easier to live with a dead soulmate than with one who was alive and untouchable. The longer he stayed with the Dunedain to see her, the more painful it got. Haldir never told her who he was or what she was to him, but he saw her watching him, seeking his presence and detaching herself from her family. He could not let that happen, he was not so selfish even though he wished he was. So, he left.

The third time was at the beginning of the third-time age. Haldir met her when he and his brothers were passing through a small village near Lorien. She was old. Very old and fragile. Her eye sight had left her years ago, and her hearing was not much behind. Haldir did not stay, he did not even try to find out her name. To what use? Just another name to haunt his dreams.

When he met her the fourth time, two centuries ago, he wanted to turn around and spare himself the misery. But she was neither married, old nor about to die. She was just fifteen summers and had run away from home because her parents wanted her to marry a man she despised and got lost inside the forest. She was called Liléa, a plain and pale slip of a girl. But she was his and for the first time since he met her, nothing stood in their way. He loved her with everything that was in him and her -helpless against the bond loved him back with equal intensity. For a while they were happy and Haldir's heart swelled with love and happiness every time he heard her carefree laughter, ran his fingers over her milk white skin or looked into the eyes of their daughter that had the same colour as Liléa's, a stormy blue-grey, just like the sky after a thunderstorm.

But he should have known that fate was a cruel mistress. With every passing day, he was forced to watch helplessly as her hair faded from a midnight-black into grey and her silk like skin wrinkled more and more while he stayed as young and virile as the day they had met. One fateful morning he awoke next to her dead cold body and his heart broke, but it was not until a couple of years later, when their daughter died in childbirth, together with the babe, that it truly shattered.

Nothing of her remained in this world, while he was forced to live in it. However, the worst part was knowing that he would find her again. She would look different, smell different and feel different but she would be his soulmate. But other than him would not be able to remember him or the life that they shared.

Haldir was unwilling to meet her again. He wanted to die. How else would he escape his fate? Maybe Helm's Deep would finally allow him to find peace.

When his time to die finally came, it was not like he expected. Not that he had a specific notion in mind how he would die, but this here felt wrong.

Ever since Liléa's and his daughter's death he had become more reckless, often finding himself in dangerous nearly hopeless situations. He was ready to die and playing with fire every chance he got, but now that he felt the blade stabbing his back he suddenly felt an emotion he had not expected: Fear.

Haldir always thought he would feel relieved or at least content at his very end, but never in a million years had it crossed his mind that he could be afraid. Fear was irrational, was it not? He was finally getting what he wished for: Freedom.

"Haldir," Aragorn's voice suddenly reached his ears, but it was such a faint sound that he barley heard it. His back and chest burnt like fire and he had trouble finding his breath, while he tried his best to calm himself down. With little success.

"You are dying, dying. You will drown in your own blood." His mind screamed.

Dizzy with pain and the loss of blood he looked around wildly and once again heard his name. Blinking he tried to find the source of the voice but his vision was already blurred and he had trouble to focus. All he could see were dark strands of hair. Dark like Liléa's.

"Haldir!"

His name again. Too far away. Everything seemed suddenly far away.

"Haldir!"

Liléa, he thought. It was his wife who was calling him. Suddenly the pain in his chest lessened and he could breathe easier again.

"Liléa," he whispered nearly inaudible. Finally, he would be with he again. This time forever. With a smile on his face Haldir, Captain of the Galadhrim, died.


At the same time, the exhausted screams of a young woman inside the thick walls of Helm's Deep lessened and the lusty cry of a child filled the air, though both were drowned by the battle voices outside.

The babe was a boy.

He did not know it yet, but he was one half of a fated pair and this time his chance for a happy ending looked better than ever.