Glorfindel was the first to start towards the chained god. So this was the creator of life, the god punished for loving men and elves too much. Prometheus was so beautiful it almost hurt his eyes. And the look on Tiger's face was pure devotion. Haldir didn't have a chance.
Prometheus took a deep breath and said in a strangely gentle voice, "Greetings Balrog slayer."
"My Lord," Glorfindel said and bowed his head.
"The young one is angry," Prometheus observed.
"He loves Tiger and can not bear the thought of losing her."
Prometheus smiled sadly and gazed back at his most perfect creation. "She is still his for the time being," he said wistfully. Her face on his hand was as close as he would allow her to touch him. Anything else would have been torturous, although he feared it wouldn't be too hard to persuade him otherwise.
"He will appreciate that," Glorfindel replied and crouched beside the Titan. "You know all, so you know why we are here."
"Not tonight," Prometheus said softly, his eyes drinking in Tiger's beauty. The woman Haldir saw was not the woman he saw. Indeed every male saw Tiger differently. She was his perfection. "But I would speak with Haldir," he said.
Glorfindel inclined his head and went back to the waiting group. Nodding at Haldir, he said, "Lord Prometheus wants to speak with you. Don't act like a fool, please."
Haldir raised his chin a little higher in defiance and approached the chained god. It hurt him terribly to see the look in Tiger's eyes as she gazed upon the Titan's face, but there wasn't much he could do about that, was there?
"You wanted to see me?" he asked the god, his voice denying the turbulent emotions in his heart.
Prometheus smiled and glanced back at the proud elf. How could he not love this defiant one. "She is beautiful, isn't she?" he asked gently.
Haldir took a deep breath and held it. He wanted to yell at this 'man', curse him, hurt him, make him suffer, but how could he? Prometheus was already suffering as no other being had ever suffered. "My Lord," he said with a trembling voice, "I love her. I know no other way to say it. How can one not love what their dreams are made of?"
"I know, I love her, too," Prometheus said and turned his clear blue eyes back on her. "She can be whatever you want....whatever you desire." Prometheus stopped, hot tears burning in his eyes. "I have not felt another kind touch in thousands of years. Nor have I seen love either." He paused and looked back at the elf. "I want to kiss her but would not have you angry with her."
"If you kiss her, you will want more," Haldir stated anxiously.
"True, I will,' Prometheus concurred.
"I can not allow it," Haldir decided and turned away. He was suddenly ashamed of his possessiveness, but she was his, and he would not share.
"Haldir," Prometheus said, his voice turning the elf back towards him, "you won't be able to keep her forever. You know that, don't you?"
Haldir's heart turned to ice as he looked at the beautiful creature he adored. "Why can I not keep her?" he asked defensively. "You will come and take her from me?"
"One day I will come for her, but only when there is no other option."
"What do you mean?" Haldir asked, fighting back the shameful tears that burned his eyes. Haldir did not cry.....ever!
"Tiger will not live forever," Prometheus said so softly that Haldir wasn't sure he heard him. "My beautiful Tiger has an immortal soul, but there will be an end to her body."
"When?" Haldir demanded, his proud face fighting to keep the concern at bay.
"Not any time soon," Prometheus assured. "NOt until after your son is born."
Haldir's heart almost stopped beating. "Is she?"
"No, not yet." Prometheus curled his fingers as a way to caress her face. "I love you, Tiger."
Her smile melted Haldir's heart. "Will you let me say good-bye to her when it is time?" Haldir asked softly. "I don't want her to go without saying good-bye."
"I promise," Prometheus said.
"All right then," Haldir replied, the battle within his heart coming to a head. "Tiger?" She raised her head and looked at him. "Master," he began and motioned with his hand at Prometheus, "Master needs a kiss."
Tiger looked at Prometheus with eyes that seemed to glow, and hesitantly, afraid that she was going to be stopped, she crawled closer and bent over him, her tawny hair framing his beautiful face. When no one stopped her, she lowered her mouth to his. And for the first time in nearly 10,000 years Prometheus tasted the lips of his Tiger.
Haldir returned to his horse and uncinched its saddle even as his brothers looked to him for an explanation. There was none to give, none that Haldir wanted to give.
The Sakas seeing divine ritual in everything watched as the woman who had been the mare mated with the god of fire and creation. It all made sense to them.
Glorfindel, joining Haldir, leaned against the horse's back and said, "You are better than I thought."
"No, I'm not," Haldir replied bitterly. "I hate what is happening but can not say no."
"I would have thought you a fool if it did not bother you," the elf lord countered. " And there in lies the nobility of your gift."
Haldir choked back his emotions and met Glorfindel's thoughtful gaze. "He said I won't be able to keep her. And it doesn't matter if I let her go now or later, it is still going to hurt, but he promised me a son if later."
Glorfindel considered it a moment and then said, "I would take your place for one day, if I could. But it was you she bit."
After a long cold night on the mountain top, Celeborn knew he was waiting for something to happen when he drew the opium blub out of his leather pouch. It was nearing dawn, the time when Tiger made her great shape shift. Suddenly he found himself in the company of Selene and her sister, rosey fingered Eos.
"Now! The eagle comes!" Selene told him. "Hurry!"
Eos, bathed in a light of pale pink, turned Haldir towards her and said, "You must get Tiger. She must not interfere."
Celeborn ran to the Titan, whose eyes were already frantically searching the skies. When Celeborn offered him the opium, he said, "Cut it! Please!"
Haldir grabbed Tiger and pulled her back. She was frantic with fear but didn't resist him. Prometheus' thoughts were also pushing her away. Celeborn sliced into the green bulb, freeing the bitter white liquid inside. He pressed the bulb to Prometheus' lips and held it there as the Titan drank as much of the drug as he could.
Celeborn then stepped back and watched as something large and black approached from the north. "We can end this now, Prometheus," he offered.
"No, it must be another," Prometheus moaned. "Oh gods, don't tempt me now!"
Haldir dragged Tiger away from the terrible sight that was about to unfold before their eyes. She was weeping and pleading and trying to pull free. Thinking of no other way to control her, he brought her to the ground and then covered her body with his. He filled her eyes with his face, made her body feel only his body, and when the sounds became her worst nightmare, he whispered over and over how much he loved her.
Some things are too terrible to watch, and some things can not be turned away from. Such it was with Celeborn. If the Titan had asked for relief, Celeborn would have slain the eagle in a heart's beat, but the Titan would not let him. Another was coming in the future to free him, the son of the one who had chained him, and it was important that that one did the deed.
Unable to look away, held by the horror of it, Celeborn watched the demonic bird rip into divine flesh and feast upon immortal meat. Even with the opium fogging his brain, Prometheus felt the pain. And he fought against the chains that held him.
Glorfindel appeared at Celeborn's side and only with great effort was he able to turn his friend from the carnage of one god's punishment. One should never look too casually upon the distruction of beauty, whether of flesh or soul.
Mercifully the dark eagle finished its greedy feast in short time, and Prometheus sank into the sweet oblivion of the opium that was still fogging his brain and easing the pain in his body. Haldir, letting Tiger up, watched sadly as she ran back to the Titan and threw herself on the ground, the side of her face lying in his unmoving hand. Tears fell unheeded from her eyes, and if Haldir had given her permission, she would have been pressed tightly against the golden skin that was now covered in blood. All he could do was sit beside her and wait, his hand on her shoulder.
Prometheus sighed deeply as conciousness returned. He felt Tiger's face on his hand and turned his head to look at her. Haldir, crouching beside her with his back to the Prometheus, looked around and the sadness in his eyes was palatable.
"You grief is premature," the Titan said softly and curled his fingers around her lovely face and drawing a smile out of Tiger. "Haldir is sad. He thinks you do not love him." Tiger sat up suddenly and looked at Haldir, who could not look at her. "I poured all my love into her, and she doesn't know to be any other way," Prometheus explained in the same soft voice. "She loves you with all her being."
Haldir allowed himself to look at her. "But you will take her from me when you are free," he said, wishing he could not look into those exquisite golden eyes and see all that he desired.
Prometheus sighed heavily. "When the time comes, Haldir, you will give her to me. Give her to me to save her. I will not take her before then, even if I am freed tomorrow. Therefore I have made two promises to you concerning Tiger. And that is all I can do."
Then Prometheus said something that surprised Haldir. "Everyone with a bow needs to dip one arrow into my blood. That includes the Sakas. Just one."
Haldir and Tiger didn't ask why, they just relayed the information to the others which brought Celeborn and Glorfindel running back towards Prometheus. "Lord Prometheus, where do we find this balrog?" Celeborn asked anxiously on his knees at the Titan's side.
"And slay it," Glorfindel quickly added while kneeling on his other side.
Prometheus looked at the balrog slayer and said, "There are many ways this can end, the choice is yours in the end." Haldir returned with all the bowmen, and each one, elf, man and woman dipped one arrow in the cooling blood beside the Titan. "Haldir, one more," Prometheus said. "You will be joined by another, and he will need one as well."
"Are the Sakas coming, too?" Celeborn asked the Titan.
""You will need them," Prometheus said, "and it is their land the balrog terrorizes."
"I thought it was a village," Elladan spoke up and held the blood dipped arrow away so it could drip on the ground.
"Men live all through the Saka lands, but they are the ones who suffer the most. You will find them useful allies."
"Tomy will not drug us again?" Elrohir asked and gazed suspiciously at the warrior priestess, whose face was a mask against her thoughts.
"Who is joining us?" Rumil said and carefully placed the bloody arrow back in his quiver.
Prometheus smiled and explained, "You helped a centaur named Melanippus. His mare and foal survived. He now has a blood debt to pay. You will find him waiting when you leave the mountains."
"The centaur?" Orophin asked curiously. "I wondered about him."
"We are turning into quite the little cavalry," Elladan observed. Elrohir nodded in silent agreement, not that he minded.
"You will need them all to slay the balrog and live," Prometheus warned. "Even Tiger has her part to play."
Prometheus silently watched them as they readied to leave. To be alone again after even this short visit gnawed at his heart. Tiger, sitting on the horse behind Haldir, suddenly slid off its back and ran to him. She kissed him as if her very soul lay in his mouth, while tears spilled from her eyes and fell on his face.
"You must go now," he told her, his voice choked with emotion.
"Tiger does not want you to stay here like this," she wept.
"I know, but it must be for now, and you must go with Master." Tiger looked back; they were waiting for her. "Tiger," Prometheus said in his gentlest voice, "you must go with Master. Not long from now he will give Tiger a cub." Tiger looked down at Prometheus with surprise in her eyes. He knew she had not been paying attention when he had talked to Haldir, and this was the one thing Tiger wanted more than anything. "Go on now; I will see you again."
Tiger sniffed back her tears and looked around. She always looked around when conflicting emotions warred in her breast. Making her choice, she turned away from Prometheus and walked back to Haldir, who gave her a hand up. Wrapping her arms around his waist, she laid her cheek against his back in the space between his quiver and bow. As the horse moved down the trail, she raised her head for a moment and glanced back.
The centaur stallion rose from the ground and looked up as the elves and men rode slowly out of the mountains towards him. They looked as if they were expecting him, and one of the elves even grinned. With not much daylight left, they decided to make his camp their camp.
The Saka warrior priestess took one look at the centaur stallion and got such a strange look on her face that Elrohir thought it wise to have Tiger tell the stallion not to drink anything the priestess gave to him.
"But that part of him is a horse," Elladan stated, unable to visualize such an encounter.
"Yes, but that is the look of lust," Elrohir said. "If she can find a way to mate with him, she will." The priestess looked at the twins as they looked at her. They looked away first.
That night with Tiger acting as interpreter, Scopias told the elves stories of the Saka people, with many of them revolving around their beloved horses, something that pleased the laconic centaur. Scopias told them how the first rain spotted horse was born from the mating of a dragon and a mare. There were three rain spotted horses in their remuda.
"A Chine dragon," one of the Galadhrim said.
"No doubt," Orophin agreed and smiled at Tiger, who smiled back.
One of his recently deflowered virgins told the story of the white mare and the spotted colt, how the mare had given her life to save the colt from savage beasts that sounded a lot like wargs to the elves, and how the colt grew up to be ruler of all the steppe horses.
"I'm guessing they like spotted horses," Elrohir said as the young female warrior fixed him with eyes that said she wanted more of what she had had the previous night. It silenced him in a purely male way. None of Scopias women were plain, and he didn't seem to care that they were looking at other males for company. Didn't they like their own men? "Tiger, ask Scopias why he takes women with him?" Elrohir ventured, the heat of the young woman's gaze starting a small fire in his own body.
Scopias answered the question with words and a shrug. "They must kill a man in battle before they can marry," she answered. "These men are their fathers and brothers." The young woman who was flirting with Elrohir removed the gortys from her belt and laid it on the ground beside her. She then removed her bow from it and crawled towards him. When she was in front of him, she offered him the bow. Scopias said something and Tiger translated it. "She wants your company for the night. If you accept her bow, it means you will mate with her."
Elrohir looked at the young face staring at his, at eyes so green they looked like the first leaves on spring trees, at a mouth that was only learning how to kiss; he took the bow and set it behind him. The woman child eased herself into his arms and was content to stay there, her body curled against his, her head on his shoulder. Elrohir did not know if he had been the one to first take her, but it moved him in a way he could not readily explain. This beautiful young creature who nestled against him, whose body was only learning about love, had killed her first man in battle. Like making love to a lioness, he thought.
Tomy stared at Melanippus most of the time, but the centaur seemed impervious to her interest. Offering to take the first watch, there being dangerous animals about, he shouldered his bow and picked up his spear. Scopias made one of the Saka men go with him. And in what must have made Tomy's blood boil with desire, Melanippus offered the Saka a ride into the shadows where they would stand watch.
"Melanippus needs to be careful," Glorfindel mused, "or Tomy will be putting spurs to his flanks."
"I know she is giving it considerable thought," Celeborn agreed. The warrior priestess's eyes were lost in introspective thought. If she could find a way to have sex with the centaur, she would do it.
Haldir awoke at first light to find Tiger clinging to him with tears in her eyes, but the terrible misery that had marred their last morning together was not there, nor was the dragon ring. When he asked her about it, she said Prometheus had made her take it off.
Haldir kissed the top of her head and smoothed her hair away from her damp cheek, assuring her that Prometheus was going to be all right.
Tiger nuggled against his breast until movement outside of the tent told them it was time to start preparing to leave. And Elrohir called her name.
Poking her head outside the tent, Tiger looked up at Elrohir and his Saka lover. "What is it?" Tiger asked.
"What is she saying?"
Tiger asked the question and got the answer. "She says that she knows a god such as you would find the offerings.." she paused and asked the question again..."that a god such as you would find her offerings plain, but if she pleases you, she would like to be yours while we are here."
"She is in love with you," Rumil stated with a smile for the lovely young horsewoman. "As long as she knows you are going back to Mt. Olympus, what harm can it hurt?"
"It would be poor taste to use her and then abandon her," Elladan said and not without some jealousy in his voice. This tasty little treat was the prettiest one of the group with auburn hair and a sun browned face that was at once innocent and passionate.
"It would be impolite to refuse," Orophin reminded him.
"And elves are always polite," Tiger added.
"What is her name?" Elrohir asked curiously.
Tiger asked. "Aslin."
Elrohir smiled down at Aslin and touched a hand to his breast and said, "Elrohir." Aslin smiled. She then went to get her horse ready for the ride. "Not one to get overly emotional," Elrohir mused as he went to get his own horse ready.