Part 7: The Meeting

[This chappie is written in 3rd person. Things could get teary. Thoughts are outlined with ~]

The moonlight glistened on her skin, making it look almost luminous. Haldir gasped inaudibly when he saw her.

He approached her like a child who has seen a miracle for the first time.

"My Lady, you are like an angel in the moonlight."

Suddenly his shyness vanished. He knew what to say exactly. It was just the two of them. Alone. In a beautiful garden, just the two of them. he forgot about Elrond, Glindir, Lamalas, Arwen. His peers and his problems.

~It was just the two of them~

She turned to him, a small smile on her face.

"Haldir, what are you doing here?"

~It was just the two of them~

He smiled and thought that she looked even more beautiful in the starlight. Almost comparable to the Evenstar, except her hair was lighter and her eyes blue.

"I'm pondering." He said.

"Pondering?"

"Pondering about Love." He said in (what he thought was) a poetic manner.

She looked strangely at him, and then she sat back down on the bench and let him sit beside her.

~The two of them. Alone.~

"I am pondering about Love too." She said, her eyes towards the starry sky.

"Really?!" the male elf became excited though he tried not to show it. He cleared his throat and said in a calm voice, "What is this Love that you speak of?"

"A beautiful yet saddening one." She replied, "I love him, and I know inside he loves me back, but I have not the courage to talk properly of this matter to him."

Haldir's eyes widened.

~She's talking about me. She's talking about me. She's talking about me.~

He coughed again.

"Whom is this man you love so much, may I ask?"

She turned to him and her eyes were shining. She had a cheeky look on her face.

"He is so wonderful. He's handsome.."

Haldir ran his fingers through his hair.

"...a brilliant archer.."

~ She loves me. She loves me. She loves me. ~

"....sooo damn sexy..."

Haldir raised his left eyebrow.

"...AND.."

"Yes?"

"He's a prince!"

Haldir spluttered. His superior eyebrow collapsed.

"I'm not a prince!"

Marien looked at him.

"I didn't say you were."

"But you just said..."

She stared for a moment. Then she said.

"Oh, Haldir, I wasn't talking about YOU!" she said loudly with a hint of revulsion.

Haldir's heart seemed to crumble away into dust.

~She didn't love me at all. She didn't love me at all. She didn't love me at all. ~

"You weren't?" he stammered.

"I love the Prince of Mirkwood. I thought Arwen told you that?"

The emptiness inside him where his heart used to be felt large and sharp. He avoided her eyes and looked down onto the ground.

"Legolas.."

"Yes. That's why I'm going to Gondor. To try and pledge my troth. I KNOW he loves me as well. We are the perfect couple. He loves me..,.."

"I love you." said Haldir in a small voice but Marien did not hear him.

"..but sometimes I worry about him. Fighting in wars and such. Soon we shall be reunited, and bound together, and have children, and we will cross the sea together.."

Haldir was sinking ever lower. He stopped listening and turned his attention instead to a dead bird that had drunk form the birdbath.

~Legolas..~

~It was him she loved, not me.~

Haldir felt rage surge through his veins. Sorrow and anger mixed together until the present no longer mattered.

He stood up suddenly, ignoring Marien's shouts.

He could take no more.

He ran from the garden.

*

Hidden behind the bushes she watched the two. She saw everything that happened. Heard all that was exchanged.

Her heart melted to see him run like that.