Golden Leaves of Lorién

Chapter Seven: Twilight's Breath

________________________________________________________________________________________________

The light of day was beginning to wane and shadows flitted across the canopy of leaves. There was a brooding darkness that rested over everything, Erlyannil could sense, as she neared the opaque home of her kin. It was a home built of flawless birch wood, which shimmered with as much ethereal light as the rest of the city on any day except this one. Across the door was carved a beautiful myriad of branches and blossoms. The girl stopped before it and raised her trembling hand to knock.

She set her jaw and fought against the tears that threatened to overcome her. So much had happened, so much was happening. And there was nothing she could do to stop it, but to stand and watch it all go by. Or at least that was what she wished she could do, for instead of being an onlooker she was swept up in the events, her heart caught up in a struggle that would inevitably end in lament.

Erlyannil's thoughts turned to her childhood friend and could not bring herself to understand why she had risked so much for what seemed like so little. What about Lyndariel's father? That was what had made the girl sick, no doubt, for her heart was torn between the love she held for one and the love and honor of her father's memory.

The door opened and in its place stood a woman, a woman who would not have appeared to be old if it not were for the lines of weariness around her sad eyes. Her face was as pallid as her hair and her eyes were red as though she were constantly weeping.

"Erlyannil," the woman said in a feeble voice, "you have come. It will do her good to see you, though I fear that there is one more she yearns to see but may never be able to…it will kill her, my dear, it will." Lyndariel's mother sighed heavily and Erlyannil knew if she had not spent her tears and energy the previous night, she would have wept even now.

The woman stepped aside to let the girl in. Erlyannil could see the sickness, smell it, and even feel it in the air around her. Lyndariel's two sisters and her mother were all weeping. And the frail girl lying on the bed as though if she were to disappear the bed would not have been affected at all, so thin was she, could not have been Lyndariel. But it was. Erlyannil nearly broke out crying herself but instead she knelt by the bed and smiled, taking her friend's lifeless hand in hers.

"Lyann," the ill girl whispered airily.

"Hi, Ariel," Erlyannil replied. The tears finally could not be held back. The sound of her friend's voice, using their childhood nicknames, as though everything were fine again…

Why?! Erlyannil wanted to scream. Instead, she merely asked quietly, "You wish to see him, don't you." It was more of a statement than a question when it came from her lips.

Lyndariel's eyes closed in reply and then weakly opened again. The beauty in Lyndariel's face, the radiance she emitted just the other day, her wedding day, still lingered on her features but it was a faint presence, something that was in its last struggles before it withered away.

"Why…" Erlyannil began. But she hesitated. Although inside she wanted to scream at her friend for allowing herself to be taken by such a hopeless force, Erlyannil couldn't bring herself to do it. Her thoughts turned to Legolas and she bowed her head so that her forehead rested on the edge of the bed. "Why did you do it. Why do you give everything…" Why does love do this to people? And I thought it should cause happiness, joy, anything but grief. Love only brings grief. It drove my father to insane measures and my mother to think she had no way to live unless she could be with him. I don't understand. I don't understand at all.

Lyndariel's eyes suddenly widened and a fiery life shone through. Her younger sister gasped and came to the bedside. "I fell in love and there was nothing I could do about it. To deny it was to lie to myself and to accept it was to abandon my family and my people… but if I could do anything, anything, to be with him I would do it, just so that you wouldn't suffer."

"We don't suffer!" her sister suddenly cried out, "you think that he is better than your life? He is worth it, to give everything up?"

"Yes." It was spoken with force; Lyndariel's voice was alive and sure though her face said otherwise. She looked to the faces of her mother and her sisters in turn and smiled with tears in her eyes. "I wish none of this had hurt you. I wish I was strong enough to live."

"Lyndariel," Erlyannil whispered urgently, "Galadriel has decided that you and Elladin may stay together. All you have to do is leave Lothlorién and you can be with him…"

Lyndariel's eyes shone with a momentary hope. But she closed her eyes again. "I wish I was strong enough to live," she repeated.

Erlyannil stood and let her friend's mother in her place. She backed up to the doorway and then watched as the tears poured down her face. The tired woman suppressed a sob and then said, "My daughter, I will be happy for you if you just tell me that you have no regrets." Lyndariel smiled at her mother and whispered, "I have none. I'm sorry, mother." weakly.

The door behind Erlyannil suddenly swung open suddenly with a gust of wind. The forest's breath penetrated the entire house and as it came upon the girl in the bed she sighed, and her breath was added to its whispers.

******************************************************************************************

The girl emerged from the small home, her eyes cleared with the unusually strong gusts that blew through the forest. Erlyannil breathed. The scent of the woods was no longer overwhelming as it was during the day, for it had been dissipated with the breeze. And the warm sunlight was just disappearing below the line of the ground, rays peeking through branches that didn't reach the silver city.

Faintly, Erlyannil heard the weeping of the women of the house she had just left. And the city in chorus, the wind howling through trees and a man's voice above all others, crying out, lamenting the death of his beloved. The wind was breaking twigs and leaves off the trees that had not been stirred by such a gale in many years and the leaves became a swirling maelstrom. Erlyannil heard and saw all these things as though she was not a part of them; everything was muted and distant. Her hair whipped around her face and stung just as the twigs that grazed her skin. She walked to the grove.

From a staircase above, an elf's eyes rested upon the young girl walking in a dream-like state. Legolas saw her reach down to pick something off the ground. Her fingers clung to the small golden leaf in a battle with the wind until the breath of the earth won over and swept it away to join its companions in a furious dance. Legolas felt the forces in the air, surrounding him, but in his mind he could only hear the beating of his heart and what it was drawn towards.

********************************************************************************************

The wind suddenly faded, as if it had been drawn up momentarily from its rest in the earth to sweep through in a chaotic whirl and then settle back to its resting place. Legolas heard a footstep behind him and barely turned away from the scene of the shimmering towers and staircases before he said in a lifeless voice, "Father."

Thranduil stepped down and stood beside his son. His young son, just past adolescence, creeping into the early years of adulthood. "Legolas, there is something in the air. Something that I feel and something I also perceive in your face."

His son turned to look at him and Thranduil suddenly saw clearly the thing his gaze had only barely touched before. He knew what it was already but could not help but draw in a sharp breath at the full force of it in his son's eyes.

"This city is above the ordinary valleys and hills of our world, Father. There is something more here, magic at work, the beauty of the Ancient Ones that still lingers here. Being here just--"

"No, my son, it is not this place that affects you, but something else. And you know of what I speak of--you know that I already know the truth. But there is something more I wish to know."

Legolas averted his eyes to stare at his feet. He felt diminished at his father's wise gaze, he felt as though his entire soul were laid open for his father to examine. "What more do you want to know?" he asked softly.

"What you have decided to do."

"There is nothing for me to decide. It has already been preordained before me. I cannot stay nor listen to my heart unless I wish to abandon my life to these forces which we cannot control. I've heard about it, in the story of the one union of our people, and now I have also seen it, felt it, in this place…"

"You want to give yourself up to it, though."

"No, I…" Legolas halted and knew that denying it was pointless. "Yes, Father, I want to. But I cannot."

"My son, you can. You believe the decision already made, but it has always rested in your hands. Just remember, you are my son and you have a duty to our people. They are your people also and will be loyal to you when I pass into the west."

"Then I refuse to listen to my heart. It only leads to grief."

"How do you know?" Thranduil asked quietly. "I cannot even begin to understand why. But there is great joy in giving up life for something so beautiful. There must be, or so many would not have made the decision to let life die in return for it. Even I can say these words yet not know their meaning. I have never been able to understand why one would forsake everything for love. Perhaps I wish you to find out in my stead, for you have the chance that I tossed away. Life is fleeting, and love is perpetual."

Legolas looked at his father with wide, wondering eyes. But before he could say anything Thranduil turned and walked back up the stairs, leaving his son. The air was chilling while it darkened and the last light of day was superseded by a clear night. He looked back down and saw that Erlyannil was still standing in the grove, and she was looking at him now. But she lowered her gaze and looked down and to the side in resignation. The glow of the staircase he stood on faded and Legolas looked up imploringly at the scattered breaches through the foliage. Through a roof of gold and green the first light of a star peeked through a blanket of darkness and silence settled into place.

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________

 A/N: Ooh, the power of symbolism. All over the place aren't they? And I thought I could get away from that stuff during the summer…lol. (brought it upon myself tho…)

Disclaimer: Being a work of fanfiction, the original is property of J.R.R. Tolkien (and Saul Zaentz). Any original characters and plot are the rightful property of me. J Extra comments, questions? Email to: jidai_rinoa@hotmail.com