...
~ Nine ~
Meanwhile the Lady of Rivendell was borne urgently away by a small team of horsemen. It was not far, and they reached the Golden Wood by the middle of the following night.
There in the realm of her mother and father she was tended in her rest. She seemed out of danger but her grief and injury lay yet perilously heavy upon her, and she remained in a fevered swoon for many days.
Progress in the mountains at least was swift, and by this point more companies of Elves out of Rivendell had crossed the High Pass and were patrolling the eastern side of the mountains further north. The twins pushed on northward to join them, pursuing any Orcs or their friends and spies who had escaped thence.
But there in Lothlorien was the patient tended to by the Lady of the Golden Wood herself. Eventually she woke, yet for long was sullen and weakened. And there she stayed through the winter as her strength slowly renewed.
Beneath the bright yellow eves she would wander quietly, and would stray away from the music and festivities that would cheer the people amid the winter chill. Often she would wander up to the Lady's highest flet and gaze down upon the little world below and find herself peering westward toward the mountains, wishing she could gaze upon the Great Sea.
For the rest of the warm season she remained there with her mother and father. At last when the summer began to wane and the pinks and purples and yellows of spring's bloom faded, the Lady of Imladris felt her strength return enough to undertake the return journey.
The Lady of the Wood dispatched messages through their friends the Great Eagles, and the Pass was doubly scouted and guarded by stout soldiers of both realms through the end of the summer.