Disclaimer: Not mine. Just playing with them. Not making money. Got it? Short and crappy. My apologies.
White Starlight
He loved her. He bore the jewel she had given him with pride, with joy, with the confidence that absolute love will give a person.
And still, I knew that he did not love her and her alone. Men could, I knew, but this one did not.
I was grateful. Yet at the same time, I was torn. I loved him, yet she could love him more, give him more than ever I could.
He never removed that jewel. No matter what he said to me, what he did with me, it always stayed there around his neck, a reminder of the woman that loved him, a shining white star clinging to the King of Men, a reminder of the elfmaiden that they called the Evenstar. The most beautiful of her people.
He deserved the best, and that was what he would have with her. The most beautiful, the most protected and loved of her people. Why would he take the youngest son of an Elvish king when he could have her instead?
Yet my heart raced with panic when I could not find him after battle, when the Wargs attacked. When the Uruk-Hai soldier told me that he had fallen over the cliff.
I took the Evenstar jewel from the filthy hand of that soldier. I carried it inside my tunic, next to my heart, with a prayer that he would return, that against the odds, he would survive, he would meet us at Helm's Deep.
But he didn't, and a night passed with us there, with him gone. The jewel seemed warm against my chest as I sat upon the walls of the deep, looking into the night, with only the sparkle of white starlight overhead.
Did I love him, I wondered to the stars above me while all but the night watchmen slept within the protective walls. And I think that I did love him, and would do anything for him, that I would give my life, or follow him to the end. Maybe that meant I did love him.
The stars did not give me an answer. They rarely did. I wasn't used to sleeping beneath the stars, to staring into the starlight. I dreamt, when I slept, of trees and the comforting dark of the forest.
I wondered if he would come back.
Morning came, chasing away the stars. I went back into the keep, to see if I could find suitable food. I heard shouting, and I turned.
He was there, damp, bloody, and exhausted. He strode through the hall, and I met him, stepping into his path.
He looked up at me, surprised.
"You're late," I said, the words rolling off my tongue in my own language. I saw the hint of a smile tug at his lips. "You look terrible."
This time he did smile, and almost laughed. He started to walk away, but I stopped him, reaching out and pressing the Evenstar jewel into his hand. He looked up at me, surprised. I just nodded, trying my best to keep my face expressionless.
"I know what it meant for you to return the jewel to me," he told me later, as we waited to see if death would claim us.
"I will follow you to the end, and my heart says that I must do what makes you happy, even if I must hurt myself." I told him, the words soft. I did not bother with the tongue of Men with him, and for that I was grateful.
"Thank you for that," he said.
No starlight shone on us. Clouds blocked the moon, blocked the stars. It began to rain, and the war cries of the Uruk-Hai army echoed around us.
It was going to be a long night, and already, I was miserable.