Tinioniel awoke on her bed, feeling the linens cover her in an unwanted warmth. 'How did I get here?' Memories came back to her in flickers, and a magenta light stood out in her mind. 'Something happened in the courtyard, but what?'
"You are awake I see. Are you alright?" Legolas' eyes peered down at her, occupied with concern.
"Yes, I am fine." Tinioniel tried to get up, but she could not move. Legolas saw her body tense at her almost invisible attempt, but still he saw.
"Let me try this again." He paused and looked directly into her emerald green eyes. "Are you alright?"
"And let me try it again. Yes. Y-E-S. Yes."
"Get up." He commanded.
"What? Why?"
"Do not question it. I want you to get up." His voice was firm and she dared not to disobey. Tinioniel tried again to get out of the bed, but the efforts were futile. In an effort to shield her weaken state, she warped her face into a mildly discomforting look.
"I feel a little dizzy. I would rather not."
"You are stubborn! Get over yourself and get up!" Legolas ordered with a piercing shout.
"You get up if you want it so much!" Tinioniel screamed back. "You are the stubborn one!"
"You can't get up can you?" Legolas asked. Tinioniel lay on the bed with a discouraged look resting on her face.
"No. I can't. Will you leave me alone now?" Legolas' voice softened at her confession, and he guided some stray hair from her eyes.
"That is all I wanted to know. Is anything else the matter?"
"No. And stop treating me like a child." She answered all too quickly, shoving his helping hand away from her face. Legolas' face turned into a scowl, as Tinioniel tried to avoid the subject.
"Tinioniel."
"Yes?" Tinioniel tried to put off answering him, but knew that it could not last for long.
"Answer me."
"Hummm, how about not."
"Stubborn girl!" Legolas yelled out frustrated, throwing his hands up in the air.
"Persistent pretty boy!" She did not seem to be in too much pain, but Legolas knew that she was hiding something from him.
"What happened?" Tinioniel asked, turning the atmosphere of the room slightly colder.
"I am not sure. Gandalf is trying to figure that out right as we speak."
"Is Gimli ok?" Legolas laughed amused.
"Tinioniel, it takes a lot more then that to put him out. He is as sturdy and as stubborn as you are! From my view point it was entertaining to watch a dwarf fall into the mud." Tinioniel laughed at remembering the look on the dwarf's face during the mud fight.
"What about Eomer?" She paused. "Where is he?" Legolas' smile faded.
"He is speaking with Gandalf." Tinioniel's sparkle that was usually found in her eyes left as did her hope. "Do not worry. Everything will work out."
"He could not even come near me. I know you saw what happened, Legolas. He could not even take steps to help me. He could not get near me." Her heart began to ache, but her stomach also fluttered with the thought of him. "I don't know why, Legolas, but I get this feeling every time I am around him. Every time I think about him, I smile uncontrollably. I think that I am in love, but that is an absurd thought!"
"Why?" Legolas disrupted her.
"What?" she asked, turning her gaze towards him.
"Why is it absurd? Can you not accept the fact that love has found you? Why must you tell yourself it is absurd?"
"There is no way that he loves me. Why would he. You said it yourself, I am opinionated above other things. He deserves a woman that is calm and one that would make a good wife. A woman of nobility and one of courtesy; I am none of those. If it were not for these beautiful outfits lent to me, I would be out there with the rest of Rohan. I would just be another face in the crowd."
"Then why did he say those things to you?"
"I don't know. Lack of selection? He can not feel the same way about me though. It just doesn't make sense. I thought," she paused. "when I hugged him, and when I was in his arms, it felt so… right. I felt like everything was coming into place, but, I was fooling myself. Sure he likes me, but, I am also sure that I am nothing more then a friend to him. That is all." Legolas laughed, holding onto his stomach. "Hey! Why are you laughing at me!"
"Because you are blind!"
- ~ * ~ -
Legolas kept her in good company and they talked for long hours about their homes, although Tinioniel could not remember much about her own, she found Legolas' history fascinating.
"Legolas, I am sorry to interrupt you, but, how old are you? You have so much history and look so young!"
"I am around 3000 years old." Legolas responded calmly. Tinioniel laughed at his response.
"No really, how old are you?"
'You don't know anything do you?" Legolas asked as Tinioniel blushed. He sighed before continuing. "Elves are immortal an….you did know that didn't you?" Tinioniel looked around bashfully. Legolas let out another exasperated sigh before he continued. "Elves are immortal, which means they don't die."
"Duh."
"Just making sure. As the elven race ages, we become more beautiful, wiser, and more graceful. The fairest one of us all would be the Lady of the Wood; Lady Galadriel, Queen of the Galadrim; who made the elven city of Lothlorien. Second would be Arwen Undomiel, granddaughter to Galadriel, and also the last elven born. She is the Evenstar of her people, even at such a young age; I beat her by only a couple hundred years. Arwen also ensnared the heart of Aragorn; future King of Gondor." Tinioniel seemed modestly shocked at hearing that Aragorn was in love with Arwen and not Eowyn.
"What about Eowyn?"
"What about her? Do you wish to know her lineage as well?" Tinioniel let his ignorance set in, as she thought about what Eowyn said earlier that day. 'So Eowyn loves Aragorn, and no one else knows?' Tinioniel smiled, but then was disheartened. She had always detested unrequited love, especially now that it had happened to Eowyn. "Is there something wrong? Did I say something?"
"Hum? Oh no. Please go on." Tinioniel urged him, still intrigued in hearing the stories of the Elven people. Legolas talked about battles, which bored her to some extent, but then he mentioned a name she had heard once before.
"Then Isildur, son of Elendil, cut Sauron's hand, releasing the ring from his metallic fingers."
"Wait! Isildur? What of him? Do you know much of him?" Legolas was slightly confused by her sudden outburst, but indulged in her question.
"Some." He answered. "Is there something you wish to know?" "Yes, actually. What do you know of Lomadrien?" Legolas opened his mouth to speak but was cut short when a light thump came across their door. Legolas, in his swift fluid movements, stood up and answered the door. Gandalf waited there. He wearily smiled amidst his colorless surroundings. Even his skin was pasty, hinting that he needed a well deserved rest. Legolas moved out of the way to let the Istar in.
"How do you fare Tinioniel?" Tinioniel wanted to sit up, but was afraid to try.
"Fair to decent. I can not say the same for you Gandalf. You look appalling! Why don't you go and sleep?"
"I do not need to sleep, I am not tired." Tinioniel grunted disapprovingly.
"Sure."
"When did you wake?"
"A few hours ago I think. But Legolas has told me the most wonderful stories! Did you know he is immortal?" Gandalf laughed and so did Legolas.
"Yes. I am immortal as well my dear."
"Well am I the only one that is not?"
"It seems that Legolas needs to talk to you some more when I leave, I am sure he can explain it quite well." Legolas smile grew as Gandalf's face darkened. "I think I have figured out what occurred yesterday."
"Yesterday!" Tinioniel yelled in shock. "Yesterday? How come no one woke me up?"
"No one could." Gandalf paused and his eyebrows creased as he looked down at Tinioniel's form. "Is there something I should know about?"
"No."
"You are lying."
"Gandalf! Why do you accuse me so easily?"
"You are lying." Tinioniel grumbled again.
"You all have gotten far too good at that."
"Legolas, what is wrong with her?" Gandalf turned to Legolas leaning in a darkened corner.
"Nothing!" Tinioniel screamed desperately. "I just have a headache and I get a little dizzy when I get up."
"Well you would not know about what you feel like when you get up now would you?" Legolas retorted. Tinioniel would have hid under the blankets, curled up in a little ball, and covered her face if she could have, but that certainly was not an option, so she let out an exasperated groan.
"You can not move?" Gandalf asked, slightly surprised.
"For the time being. But I will be ok in a little while. I just need some time."
"You've had three already."
"Would you shut up?" Tinioniel asked the elf frustratingly, her voice rising with each word. Legolas smiled back teasingly. She rolled her eyes as Gandalf pulled up a chair.
"Why did you not tell me?" Gandalf asked. "And did you tell him so easily?"
"He refused to stop bugging me, and I finally gave in. What can I say, he is annoying." Legolas made a face at her. Gandalf looked at Legolas whose face dropped into a serious one. Tinioniel, with Gandalf's back turned, stuck out her tongue and crossed her eyes. Gandalf returned his attention back to Tinioniel, giving her very little time to put a normal face back on.
"Don't think for an instant I did not see that." Legolas laughed silently in the corner. "You too, elf." Legolas' face dropped into one that was like a criminal getting caught and the air turned somber. "I think I know what is wrong." Tinioniel surprisingly moved her head slightly so she could face Gandalf. "Sauruman is a wizard who, not too long ago, succumbed to an evil temptation. He, I think, is the cause of your suffering. If you get near Eomer, the light will come back, and if the light comes back again, then I fear it will kill you. You must tell me, did you hear or see anything? Not just in the light, but as long ago as when we first met?" Tinioniel remembered the voice that convinced her that she was to blame for people's deaths; eventually pushing her to an undesired suicide endeavor.
"Yes." Tinioniel whispered. That was the first time she had confessed to a question about her well being. "It was deep and booming. Yet, I felt like I could trust it, and it made since to what it was saying." Tinioniel lost herself in her thoughts, and Gandalf had to pull her out of them.
"Tinioniel! I know you heard me. That was the third time I called your name. What were you thinking about?"
"Nothing. It was nothing. Please continue."
"Tell me, what did he say to you?"
"Gandalf, you tell me what you know. That is the most important thing right now." Gandalf debated with himself silently, and finally obliged.
"Ever time Eomer gets near you, the light will return, each time more powerful then the last. And you will suffer each time. The light will come if he approaches you; the light will kill you; so in turn, you must stay away from Eomer." Tinioniel's eyes were shed to the floor, as the fading sun cast its fiery shadow across the room, bathing it in its crimson rays. The sky was blue, traced with purples and pinks as bustling voices were heard down below. The sunset, the voices, the very people in her room, started to fade from her, and into darkness she was swept; away from thought and reason.
"Tinioniel?" Legolas spoke up after being silent for some time. She did not answer. Gandalf abruptly stood, throwing the chair away from him as Tinioniel's labored breathing slowed, and then stopped all together. She closed her eyes, which was unusual with the given situation, and opened briskly with her pupils a memorable scarlet.
- ~ * ~ -
Tinioniel felt the hurt in her, feeling the repulsiveness swarm within her. This time, however, the setting was completely different from darkness. There were three moons fastened in the obsidian heavens. There was a slender path, on which her feet were held; separating two unique and diverse sides. To her left lie a frosty scene; the ground laddened with snow and the trees' barren limbs outstretched to one of the moon situated directly over its middle. To the right of her, another scene was set. Trees grew in an endless meadow of lush grass as blossoms and vines decorated its surface. One of the other moons was also hanging in that half of the world. The last moon, suspended above her, shone with more potency then the rest. There were no stars, no clouds, just the moons and their surrounding darkness. The path of which Tinioniel stood was both the spring and fall; bringing life and death to the beings around her, the trees, the plants, and anything else that strayed across the emaciated margin. She was afraid to move, afraid to breathe in fear of upsetting the delicate balance before her. Then, a leaf from the summer's expanse brushed against Tinioniel's face. She felt its silkiness turn coarse, and land dead against the snow, slowly detegrating until only a petite amount was left; a brown skeleton against the ashen, pure snow. A harsh wind came upon her, trying to pull and push her; this way and that. Tinioniel held on for as long as she could, before she was pushed into the frigid snowfall. She screamed with fear, not knowing what to expect in such an ethereal place. Tinioniel closed her eyes, bracing herself for the fall; except it took an exceptionally long time. Tinioniel opened her eyes, and saw that she was falling in a leisurely motion. Time was plentiful, and yet Tinioniel was powerless to stop what was happening.
- ~ * ~ -
Gandalf's eyes were sealed as an apprehensive Legolas looked on. When Gandalf's eyes opened, Legolas jumped at the chance to speak with him.
"She has not breathed once. What is wrong?" A deadly silence filled the room.
"Her mind is too clouded. I can not find her."
- ~ * ~ -
Legolas stumbled in the hallways, trying to make his way to Eomer bearing bad news. He stood there and watched her last breath fall, never to rise again. Tinioniel was dead.
"What do you mean?" Gandalf tried to explain the best he could, struggling to not let tears fall.
"She is dead. It has happened. Our last hope has faded, and Middle Earth shall perish."
"How can you?" Legolas asked angrily. "How can you talk about her as if she were some object? She was a person! A real person!"
"I did not mean…" Gandalf was cut short by Legolas, who was filled with resentment.
"I do not care what you meant to do. She was a real! She was breathing just a little while ago; laughing and making faces at me! She is not dead!" Legolas tried to get closer to Tinioniel, but Gandalf held him back.
"It is over! We can not save her. There is nothing more that can be done." Gandalf spoke, guilt and poignancy hanging in his voice. Legolas touched her cheek, stroking her soft hair. He had never really imagined her as this lifeless form, and it seemed as if she would wake up and laugh any second. But that second never came. Legolas sighed, as he continued to gaze at Tinioniel's still open eyes and let the despondency set in his heart.
"I will tell Eomer."