AUTHOR'S NOTE You may recognize some of the movie lines in here…they're from when Theoden and the warriors first arrive at Helms Deep. Thank you Caudex for reviewing! Poor Marek…he's neglected *tear*

DISCLAIMER Yep…still don't own Tolkien's characters.

Helms Deep was impressive. After we arrived, Éowyn had taken refuge in what appeared to be a royal chamber just outside a passage into the mountainside. "You are welcome to keep your belongings in here," she offered. "I assure you they will be quite safe."

I bowed my head. "Thank you my Lady."

Éowyn laughed slightly. "Please call me Éowyn." With a smile, she added, "It is strange to be called 'my Lady' by an Elf."

Her comment, though made completely in friendship, stung. The ghost feeling of betrayal that had haunted me from my dreams finally surfaced. But I just smiled and nodded.

"You are free to walk about the fortress if you like," Éowyn said. "Nothing will happen today."

"Thank you, Éowyn," I replied. She left to tend the several children who had arrived parentless.

I put my pack down and opened the top. Lying on top of my other provisions was a dark red gown cut in a simple, non-restricting pattern. I found a private corner to change and refastened my cloak over the gown after I had changed. The traveling tunic and pants I laid in my pack.

Wearing a gown, I felt like a maiden again. Only the warriors who'd traveled from Edoars were still absent, so Helms Deep was filled with men, women, and children from all of Rohan. I wandered through the fortress, surrounded by refugees. Human refugees.

Éowyn had made me realize the root of that horrible haunting guilt. I spent all of my childhood wanting to be something I wasn't. All of my energy had been focused on wishing I were an Elf. I knew some about Men and Galadriel had taught me about their culture and such, but I never embraced it. I guess part of me never wanted to be human at all.

But now, surrounded by hundreds of humans, I felt horribly guilty: guilt over my transformation and over a lifetime of turning my back on my people. It's a strange feeling to identify with a group only after they are no longer your people.

Everywhere I walked, it seemed like all I saw were in families. I tried hard to find some deep memory of my real family, but all I could remember was a warm feeling. I knew just from that that my parents loved me very much. This knowledge only added to my misery.

I continued to walk along a high ledge that ran against the top of the fortress. As I gazed down on the refugees, a revelation struck me: any of these people could be my kin. Long lost relatives who will never know that one of their own escaped a cruel death only to find a new life among the First Born.

The ringing of distant clattering horse hoofs reached my ears and broke my inner lament for a lost life before the guards even looked up. To me, the riders were just tiny specks on the horizon, so I knew no one else had or even could see them yet.

I turned and ran toward the chamber where I had last seen Éowyn. She and the children she watched were just where they had been before. "Éowyn!" I said breathlessly as I entered the chamber.

"Raélowen!" she cried, stumbling over my name less than I expected. "What is it?"

Before I could answer, a cry rang through the Deep. "Make way for Theoden! Make way for the King!"

Éowyn stared wide-eyed at me for a moment. I nodded. We both rushed out to the stairs that led to the gate. When the gate was opened, I dream my hood around my face and shrank into a shadow. I did not want Legolas to see me, nor did I want to be around anyone should he not return.

"So few!" Éowyn said to her uncle, the King. "So few of you have returned!"

I did not care to hear the King's reply, as I had caught sight of Legolas. The strength of his grief was such that I felt it like a physical blow. I knew something was horribly wrong.

"My lady." I turned at the gruff voice that addressed Éowyn. Legolas passed them by, pausing on the stairs halfway between Éowyn and where I hid.

Éowyn glanced frightenedly over the survivors. "Lord Aragorn," she asked in a tearful voice. "Where is he?"

The dwarf Gimli answered in a voice more filled with sorrow than I have ever heard. "He fell."

His words threw me into a state of utter shock. Memories flooded my mind of Legolas speaking of his friends in the Fellowship. He never said as much, but I could tell that he regarded Aragorn as one of his closest. I glanced at him with guarded eyes. He still stood on the steps, shedding silent tears.

Éowyn stared at the distraught dwarf, trying to register the horrible news. Something about the way she'd spoken of Aragorn on the journey had betrayed her closely guarded, deep affection for the Ranger. I wished there was something I could say that could ease her loss, but there was nothing.

"Hiro le hîdh ab'weneth," I heard Legolas mutter softly before starting up the steps toward me. I knew there was nothing I could do for Éowyn, so I left my hiding place as Legolas passed me.

Shrouded by the shadows of my hood, I walked up behind him. "I am sorry for your loss, my Lord."

He stopped and turned to face me. I pulled the hood closer. "Hannon le," he said sadly. Then, as if realizing a mistake, he translated. "Thank you."

"You do not need to translate, Legolas."

He looked confused for a moment and then asked, "How do you know…?"

I pulled back my hood and looked at him. "I could not stay away!" I whispered as tears threatened.

"Rae!" He took me in his arms and I collapsed against him. "What are you doing here? Oh Meldanya, it is dangerous! You should not have come!" He tightened his arms around me as though the enemy was already battering the gates. Yet his tone of voice indicated that he was not at all sorry I was there.

We finally broke apart and gazed into each other's eyes. "I am sorry to put myself in danger," I murmured, a slight smile tugging at my lips.

Legolas did smile. "You know that I would not trade you being here for anything." Tears began to gather in my eyes. "Meldanya, why do you cry?"

"I'm so happy to be with you again!" I whispered. I had no idea why my emotions were so intense, but as a human, I had never dealt with living purely off of emotions.

A tear glistened in Legolas' eye as he spoke. "And I am happy that you arrived here safely."

It suddenly hit me. I felt more than selfish. Aragorn! "He…he was brave, Legolas," I said softly.

"Yes."

The crowed around the gate had thinned by now. Legolas and I found a quiet place to sit, away from many of the human refugees. He slowly withdrew a silver chain from his tunic. I gasped when he opened his hand. From the chain hung the Jewel of the Evenstar.

"I mean to return this to the Lady Arwen after this is over," Legolas told me sadly. "I think she'd want it."

I nodded as my emotions ran away again. "I think you are right."

He returned the jewel to its hiding place and clasped his hands over mine. There we sat, just holding each other, afraid to let go.

* Hiro le hîdh ab'weneth = May you find peace after death (Sindarin)