This is the final chapter. There will not be a sequel because I can't. There may be a prequel. As always review once you have read this. An' please don't kill me! If you disagree with my choice of ending, then email me and I will try to put across my side of the argument.

Chapter Ten: A final goodbye

"Nay Eldarion," Legolas said softly, restraining the prince from kissing him. "I bear bad news, please, let me talk."

Eldarion slumped to the ground again with a disapointed noise and burried his head.

"Eldarion I came to say goodbye. Your father is right, we both have duties and I am not prepared to be nothing more than something on the side to return to, aside from your wife. The line of Gondor must continue, too long as the throne been empty. You will meet a beautiful young maiden and you will hopelessly fall in love with her, and I, ai, I will be forgotten. Just a distant memory of younger years. A remembrance of your naivety and foolishness then."

"No!" Eldarion cried looking up at his one time lover with eyes full of tears.

"Yes. Eldarion I cannot do this. All I offer to you is an apology for wasting your time and upsetting you. Goodbye." Legolas bent down and kissed the prince's cheek.

He turned away and walked back through the glade.

"Now what Legolas?" Eldarion called. "Where will you go?"

Legolas gave a wistful smile. "The sea calls me. I will go to Ithilien and build a boat. Grey and tall with a mast that reaches the stars. My time has come, the call of the gulls is loud and foremost in my mind."

"Go with my love Legolas." Eldarion sighed and turned around. "I'm elfkind, you are mortal. If was a dream, nothing more," Legolas whispered and mounted Arod.

Eldarion watched as the tireless horse galloped over the hills and was gone into the horizon with the rising sun.

"And that day will set for the elves, and rise for men"

~

There was another in the wood that night. King Elessar bit down on his knuckles to stop him from crying out.

"I'm elfkind, you are mortal, it was a dream, nothing more,"

He remembered the words, knowing he had said something very similar to Arwen once to stop her from giving up her immortality. It had not worked. 'And so Eldarion will bear his love for Legolas all his life,' Elessar thought bitterly.

Had he made the right decision?
~
Legolas Greenleaf built his boat in Ithilien and along with Gimli the dwarf, sailed down the River Anduin and out into the sea. He finally answered his heart's desire to follow the cry of the gulls. But he never answered his heart's greatest desire. That remained a burning burden in his heart. And with time he grew to accept the pain and sorrow. It always remained there though.

~

King Eldarion was married to a Rohan maiden named Lillia, they had one son who went on to rule Gondor also. Their marriage was that of politics not of love.

Eldarion never loved another but the golden haired prince of Greenwood the Great: Legolas Greenleaf.
~*~*~

Finis.