Half-Way

Eleniel: 14

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Glorfindel asked with a smile as he bent down to speak to Eleniel. The elleth grinned in response.

"Of course," she replied.

"Okay." He was still a little hesitant, nevertheless he stood up again and walked backwards a bit. He observed the young elves before him, all of them wearing excited smiles and chattering happily to each other. He then turned his head, and gazed across the field at the hundreds of elves watching a little way off. It was summer, and with summer came the annual tournaments. All kinds of activities were organised and competitions held. Thranduil and Legolas came from their kingdom, and Celeborn, Galadriel and Arwen arrived from Lothlorien. Gandalf even often dropped by for some of the event, and it was one of the most exciting times of the year for the Rivendell elves.

This competition was one for the younger elves. It was nothing too hard – just a race around the outside of the field. The first to cross the finishing line was the winner, and everyone was eager to be off. But Glorfindel felt himself heave a barely-noticeable sigh when his eyes landed on Eleniel. She was looking just as keen as the rest of her friends, except for the fact that she had a broken leg and was in a cast. Elrond had strongly advised her against running the race, and was extremely close to forbidding her from doing it at all, but even the stern healer didn't have the heart to keep the young elleth away from the summer tournament. Eleniel was as ready as she could ever be, despite her leg. She didn't care about it, and she would be happy even if she came last.

Glorfindel counted them down, and then with a loud, booming voice, shouted "GO!"

And they were off. Like arrows from a bow they zoomed past him. All except one. Glorfindel watched with a pitiful smile as Eleniel hopped past, a look of concentration on her face as she followed after the others.

"Go on, Eleniel!" came a shout from the crowd, and Elladan stood up, Elrohir, Estel and Legolas following his lead. The four of them wore encouraging grins as they shouted motivation at her, yelling at her to keep going, and letting her know that she was doing a fantastic job. Even Elrond and the adults couldn't stop themselves from joining his sons and the Prince at times.

Eleniel scrunched her face up into a pained expression as she stopped and lifted her leg up for probably the fifth time already. She had thought this would be at least a little easier than it was! The cast was heavy, and her whole body was aching from the discomfort. She had been encouraged by her brothers and Legolas shouting at first, but now the pain was just drowning everything out. She looked up and realised that more or less everyone had already crossed the finishing line.

"Come on, Eleniel! You are half-way there!"

The elleth turned to see the balrog-slayer run up to her.

"I can't," she said, "it hurts too much, Fin!"

Glorfindel put on a determined face and, in one swift motion, bent down and scooped Eleniel up, immediately taking off in the direction towards the finishing line.

"Fin!" Eleniel yelped. "What are you doing?"

"Helping you win!" the balrog-slayer told her with a grin.

The crowd's cheering increased enormously, everyone shouting happily at the balrog-slayer and their lord's daughter. As soon as they crossed the line, and Glorfindel fell to the floor with a laugh, making sure he cushioned Eleniel as they went down, everyone stood up, clapping and whistling for them both.

Eleniel laughed and jumped at Glorfindel, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing his cheek.

"You finished the race!" he said, a huge grin gracing his lips.

"No," Eleniel corrected him, "we finished the race!"