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I don't have a clue about elladan and elrohir's whereabouts so I just start asking around for my favorite lorien guardian, haldir, hilde in my words.

Hoping just to knock into him somewhere I run aimlessly through all the halls of rivendell (which is a considerable walk for one day) but haldir is nowhere to be seen.

In the end I walk to the stables, maybe he's been riding to somewhere or is tending to his horse, who knows what pleases the twisted weird mind of a lorien elf. Riding out in the rain is not something anybody but a lorien elf would do.

At the stables there is a huge crowd clamoring and yelling ceaselessly. Obviously the guest who came for the wedding do already wish to depart. I wonder why, rivendell is such a nice place with such a nice lord as it's leader. Heck no, I really can't blame them for leaving. Probably they all saw the stuff in lord elronds dressers.

It's chilly outside and I'm happy that I wear my thick blue cloak. The wind biting and tucking on my braids like it would want to rip them out and it started raining. The sky overhead does not promise anything but more rain and a nice thunderstorm in the evening. Jeez, I LOVE this place but I really wonder why this valley hasn't already been turned into a lake.

It takes a long time until I find one of the stable boys who is not occupied.

'Excuse me ,' I say, very grown up. 'Is hilde out today ?' I blew it again. Darn it.

'Excuse me ?,' he asks, too, big question marks in his eyes. (Note : I don't know if there are question marks in elvish writing but there better be because there are some in that guys eyes.)

'Oh, sorry. I would like to know if Haldir, Marchwarden, Guardian of Lorien is out with his horse today.'

'Oh, Haldir. Yes, he was the first one to get his horse this morning.'

My heart is plunging. 'He's been leaving already ?'

'No, sir. He told me he would only be riding for an hour or two but he's still not back. At least he didn't bring in his horse.'

'What does his horse look like ? I'm going to look for him and a horse is easier to spot than the rider.'

'Oh, wait a minute. It's a wicked horse. Doesn't obey anyone but him. It's white and huge like a war-mare with a long gray mane and tail.'

'Thank you. Is there any of rivendell's horses to be taken out immediately ?'

'Yes, sir. You can take the one right over here .' He gestured to the stand of a dark brown horse with no white markings at all. 'His is unelman and he's as fast as the wind. Lord elrond received him as a gift from Rohan.'

'Thank you.' I take the horse out without saddle or reins and lead it out into the rain. If there is one thing I can do it is controlling horses. I guess even that steed of hilde's wouldn't be past my skill to handle.

I start out slowly. The wind has become worse and the rain comes down in heavy drops. It's another stupid thing to do to go looking for hilde in this weather. He might think this is important to me.

Even as I thought the storm peaked already some time ago the weather is steadily growing worse. My horse doesn't seem to mind, it is just as willing and reliable as my own horse.

After riding around in the forests for a while I notice that I'm already late for a meeting with glorfindel. Darn it !

I lead the horse back over a grassy hill and suddenly I already hear the voices from rivendell.

Or not ?

It sounds like the strom wind lamenting. But still there is something in it . feeling ?

I look around. There are some huge boulders, stones and chips not far to the right and just grass and trees in all other directions.

Has it stopped ? No, there is the voice again . It sounds like somebody panicking but I can't see anything around me. And I'm already late for meeting glorfindel. I could go looking around but . if there was nothing I'd be late and upset glorfindel in vain.

What would be the grown-up thing to do ?

I decide to go at least looking for somebody in the woods around me to make sure there is nothing wrong or somebody in serious need of help.

I just want to turn to looking around for a second when a horse comes galloping up the wet green hill. It's a white one with a gray mane but without a rider in sight. It's tossing its head and neighs.

'You want me to follow you ?' I ask and notice I'm completely out of my mind asking a horse a question.

The horse neighs again and starts descending to the huge assembly of stones. I gingerly follow. There might me orcs or goblins involved if somebody was in trouble. And I didn't want to get into that much trouble just for helping somebody out.

To my great surprise there is nothing I can see when I carefully look around the boulders. No orcs, no bodies, no reason to come here at all. But the white horse is nudging something on the ground. As I come closer I see that it's hilde, lying splayed on the muddy ground, obviously unconsciousness.

A litlte pool of blood is around the area of his shoulder and I know that I would need to dress the wound a little before I can leave him. Or I have to get him to rivendell into the healers house. But I'm already late for my date and it doesn't look as if he needs help badly. Maybe he just cut himself on a branch or something and went off his horse unconsciousness. He'll wake soon anyway and I can still make it in decent time if I hurry.

It would just be too much effort to care for him now. I don't even know him and my date is in danger of not happening. But he's bleeding . and I'm late.

Well, I gotta make a decision.

In the end, I turn my horse around and in no time it's galloping back to rivendell.