Title: A Rose Not Yet Withered

Pairing: None

Rating: PG13

Genre: Angst / Mystery

WARNING: Violence

Beta: None

Cast: Haldir, Orophin, Rúmil, Celeborn, Galadriel, OCs

Disclaimer: I own no-one from The Lord Of The Rings. All the characters and place names displayed belong to JRR Tolkien except Daealia and Glorendil who are from my own imagination and are the only ones I lay claim to. I do not intend to, nor am I making any financial gain from the writing of this story.

Feedback: Yes please! We "aspiring" authors thrive on the stuff.

Timeline: A.U. Not following movie-verse.

Summary: When news of a massacre reaches Lorien, time begins to run against the Galadhrim. Soon, even their trust for their own kin, is lost in a tangled web of lies, deceit and murder….

Spoilers: None

Chapter 2

The Pool of Tears

Rúmil's breath caught in his throat as Orophin hung his head sadly.

'Dead?' he choked 'But how? When?'

'Alas, I do not know, Rúmil' replied Orophin 'The only person that truly knows what happened is Haldir himself, and I am afraid to speak of the situation at this moment to him, when it is clear that he needs to be alone.'

'But how do you know that she is dead?' questioned Rúmil 'For all we know she could very well still be alive, I mean, that letter could have said anything, anything at all.'

'I wish I could be so sure of that but I know I cannot be' Orophin explained. 'They do say that the eyes are the window to the soul, so that is where I look and that is where I find the most truth in what I am seeking.'

Rúmil nodded, showing that he understood, and then he sank down onto the branch behind him, put his hands to his face and wept. Orophin moved and sat down beside Rúmil, placing his arms around his brother's shoulders in an attempt to comfort him.

'Come now, my brother. Do not weep so.'

'I just wish I knew why' sobbed Rúmil

'Why what?' asked Orophin

'Why such tragedies happen to such innocent people.' He replied through thick sobs.

'Come on, come on' urged Orophin as he helped his brother to his feet 'Let us go inside, you'll feel better in the warmth.' Orophin ushered his brother back inside his room and closed the door.

Haldir lay in his bed, wide awake, listening to the sounds of his world through the open window. He tossed and turned and tried several attempts to slip into slumber, but no avail. The shimmering moonlight through the window came to rest on a table at the far side of the room. The beams of light caught onto something shiny, lying flat and partially open upon its top. Flinging his bed sheets off himself, Haldir got out of bed, crossed the room and picked up the object that was the cause of his distraction.

In his hands, the object lay. It was an envelope. An envelope containing a newly read letter that seemed to have been hastily stuffed back inside. A small silver ribbon hung limply at the end and that too, seemed to have been partly removed in a hurry. Haldir pulled open a small drawer under his table and hid the envelope and its contents from view under a silken handkerchief. He was about to close the door, when he stopped. He opened the drawer, slowly and pulled out the silken material. He stared at it for a few seconds, running it absent-mindedly through his fingers when he spotted what caused fresh tears to well up in his eyes and soon, to spill over and flow steadily down his pale cheeks.

In the bottom right corner was tiny embroidery of a leaf. Emerald and silver threads combined to form a perfect replica upon the pale material. Trailing a finger lightly over the needlework was all that Haldir needed to succumb to his grief. Clutching the handkerchief tightly in one palm, he made for the closed door, putting his outer tunic on as he went but stopped short hen he heard voices. He pressed his sensitive ear to the wood and listened intently to their conversation.

'You do know that in the past months, our brother has been often going into the forest at night and not returning till the early hours?'

'Yes, I do Orophin, but that's beside the point. What has Haldir going for a night-time stroll got to do with anything?'

Haldir sighed deeply. Why did his brothers always have to know everything that went on in the woods? Why could they not leave him in peace?

Suddenly, all went quiet. The air lay still and silent except for the faint rustling of the leaves outside.

Haldir breathed easy again. They were gone. Slipping slowly out of his room, he gazed around his surroundings for a few seconds as though making sure that no one could see him. Finding this affirmative, he began his descent down the oak steps to the forest floor below.

The night air was pleasantly cool and light and a gentle breeze tickled tantalisingly at the leaves, making them quiver and tremble with excitement at its presence. Haldir made his way along the cooling ground that had been so warm during the day. Haldir finally gave in to temptation. The pull of the beauty of his surroundings was too strong and so he moved his eyes slowly upwards to stare around him at the wondrous city that he felt so proud to protect.

Staircases, adorned with shimmering lights of pale blue and silver, entwined themselves around the trees as though they had grown through time together and seemed to stretch towards the heavens and beyond. Often, you would see an elf or two ascending or descending the stairs and they seemed to almost float above the steps, hardly touching the ground as they walked. Beyond the city the sky was slightly visible through the cluster of leaves at the treetops. Tonight the sky was a deep navy blue and tiny stars winked down at him from the heavens surrounded by a misty aura and pale silver glow.

Returning his eyes to the path he was treading, Haldir carried on his walk through the trees. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw something that caught his attention. He turned away from the main path and started down a much narrower and smaller path that led away into the forest.

"Strange" Haldir mused "I can't ever remember this being here before."

The path seemed to stretch on forever and Haldir was just pondering when it would end or split into another path when he emerged in a clearing. A circle of foliage and vegetation surrounded the clearing, blocking it from view and as Haldir looked up, he saw that he had in fact walked straight through a small tunnel made of entwined branches and leaves that entered into the clearing. The sheer height of the trees was immense. They rose so high above Haldir's head that he felt himself getting slightly dizzy as he attempted to see where they ended.

But what most surprised him was not the majestic zenith of the trees, it was the contents of the clearing itself. A large pool of water was set out in front of him. It covered most of the ground space of the clearing except for an outer rim of grass round the edges. The water in the pool was utterly still. No ripples broke the surface of the water and the water itself was a light pearly colour. The surface was as smooth as glass and slightly opaque due to the cream coloured waves that floated upon the veneer.

Curiosity caught onto Haldir like a bee to a rose and he found himself yearning to know what this pool felt like to be in and especially why he had never come across it before. Placing the handkerchief in his tunic pocket, he slid smoothly out of his outer garments and nightclothes and lowered himself into the pool.

The sensation was incredible. Warmth enveloped around his naked form, comforting Haldir with a sense that he did not understand, nor wish to. For at that moment, he felt at great peace. He leant back against the wall of the pool and shut his eyes. Water was swirling slowly around his body, caressing it with feather light touches, yet still the surface remained still. For the moment, all thoughts of grief and despair had flitted out of Haldir's mind. He did not even think on them. All that mattered to him now, was remaining for as long as he could within this pool, for if he left, he would have to face up to his grief again and live another day without Daealia.

Suddenly, as quickly as it had come, all feeling of peace and contentment was lost and were replaced with visions of the most horrific things that Haldir had ever witnessed in his life. Elves and men, battling against the armies of Sauron, blood and fire and the heat and pain of death, the screams filled Haldir's head until it reached such a pitch that Haldir felt his head might split open with the pressure. He tried to force his eyes open but they would not budge. He tried to move from the pool floor but his feet stayed firm on the bottom and refused to stir.

Swords were being driven through the fair bodies of his kin, impaling them upon the blades like raw meat on a skewer. Arrows were firing everywhere, the screams the pain the clash of metal and. . . silence. Complete blackness. Yet still as he tried to open his eyes, he couldn't. Then another image floated across his mind. A young elleth lay on a bed, her complexion was ghostly pale and she was sweating and shaking.

Humans and a few of her own kin surrounded her. Those who knew her, even briefly, were weeping and clinging to each other in anguish. To have a sick elf, a fatally sick elf, in the same room, was distressing for those of the same kin. But for mortals, even if they did not know the elf, they felt their pain and it could drive them to the brink of their sanity.

An elderly woman crossed the room, weeping also and stroked the young woman on the cheek.

"Be still, my child, be still. May the Valar protect you."

The elleth's eyes filled with terror as she registered the elderly woman's words. Her weak hands found there way to the old woman's wrist and she spoke in a hoarse and feeble voice.

"No, I cannot leave him. This cannot be, it cannot..." she fell silent and he eyes grew unfocused, unseeing and blank. Her grip fell limp on the old woman's wrist and she slipped back onto the bed.

Anguished cries of distress filled the room form all its occupants. Women were crying helplessly and unrelentingly as the men held them in their arms, tears also coursing down their cheeks.

"NO!" A strangled yell sounded from the other side of the room. A young elven male dashed forward and seized his lover in his arms. Her limp form was helpless beneath his hold and he wept openly into her neck, kissing her cheek and lips and he sobbed his heart out.

"You can't be gone!" he cried "Narewien, come back, come back! You can't be gone, please, don't leave me, p-please..." He laid his head on her breast and his hands settled on the silken nightdress that entombed her body, as though determined to find some life left somewhere within her. He shook as he wept and finally a hand came to rest upon his shoulder. He did not move, not even when the owner of the hand spoke.

"Finwyn. She has gone. There is nothing you can do. I am sorry."

Finwyn looked up at the speakers words and found himself face to face with the old woman. Rage coursed through his body and he let rip anger and frustration like he'd never felt before.

"Sorry?" he murmered softly. Then his voice rose to a pitch and a tone that was painful to hear. "SORRY?! How in Elbereth's blessed name can you stand there and just say you are sorry? Do you think I don't know she has gone? Do you? You're right, there's nothing I can do now, but maybe if I had taken her to my own people for aid she may have been alive now. But instead you tell her she's doomed. What good is that to anybody? I knew I was wrong to trust you humans, never will your kin be welcome in my homeland again, for you have willing given up someone so pure and made her suffer at your filthy hands. Rest in peace in the knowledge, humans-"

Finwyn paused for a second to regain his breath and continued in the vein he was on. "-that you have murdered an elleth, and not just any elleth have you slain, you have slain my elleth, my love, my Narewien and for that I despise you and all your kind." Breathing heavily, Fiwyn picked up the lifeless body of his lover and ran from the room, sobbing as he went.

Blackness again and then, Haldir felt something inside him begin to ache. Then a sudden spurt of white hot pain, surged through his body. It was as though someone had started a fire inside him. The pain was spreading rapidly around his limbs, into his head and into his heart. Haldir's face contorted into pure terror and distress and again he tried to force his eyes open and again he couldn't make them move. Teeth clenched as the pain pulsated around his body, Haldir saw the blackness subside as a bright white gleam replaced it. The pain still agonized him as he was forced to stare into the glowing white. A blurred image floated across it.

Trying to ignore the pain as best he could, Haldir tried with all his might to make the image clear. As he concentrated, the edges became sharper, the colours deepened until he had a full view of the vision. An elleth was sitting by a stream at the bottom of a slope, washing her clothes in the water. Suddenly she fell still, her ears twitched and she leapt to her feet and tore back up the hill. Haldir tried to see her face but he couldn't. All that he could see was her back, clad in a pale blue dress with fine chestnut hair fanning out behind her. Abruptly, she turned around a corner and what his eyes met, made Haldir's heart stop dead. The elleth had steered herself right into the middle of a massacre.

Fires were strewn across the dry ground and a flaming pile of rubble and carcasses was burning right in the middle. In between the rubble Haldir spotted an arm, sticking out from under a log. It was only visible for a few seconds before new flames engulfed it into their depths.

The woman whipped herself behind a large boulder gasping and struggling for breath. "Oh Valar" she sobbed quietly "Why are my people always the hunted?" Suddenly a hideous head appeared over the top of the boulder and the woman let out a shrill scream.

"C'm'ere you" the Uruk growled. The elleth dodged the blow aimed at her by the axe and leapt to her feet. As quick as lightning, she dove inside her cloak and pulled out a long-bladed dagger. Because of all the quick motion, the Uruk barely had time to react when the blade was shoved roughly into his black throat and pulled swiftly out again.

He fell backwards, gagging and then keeled over, twitching on the ground. The elleth ran for the forest that was on the other side of the hill. Arrows came from all sides and yet she still dodged all but one which stuck in her left arm above the elbow, eyes watering from the pain, she dashed forward into the shade of the trees, where she collapsed on the ground by a large oak. She pulled the arrow out of her arm. It didn't seem too deep and it would heal over time.

"Gotcha!" a raspy voice sounded from the side of her. The woman swung round and Haldir saw her face for the first time. It was Daealia. Haldir's heart gave a fresh surge of pain and he flung a hand to his chest, sweating heavily as he was compelled to watch the grisly scene before him.

He watched as an axe sliced through her chest, as blood spread steadily over her clothes and he watched as she fell to her knees, shock and fear, clearly visible on her face. The she fell sideways and lay still. The Uruk grunted and retreated out of the forest towards the battlefield and again all went black.

Haldir's eyes shot open and he clambered out of the pool, sweating and shaking. So that was what happened? That was how Daealia had died? So horrifically and brutally murdered? Fresh tears spilled down his cheeks as he gathered up his clothes quickly into a heap and ran as fast as he could out of the clearing, looking back over his shoulder at the shimmering pool which twinkled innocently at him in the moonlight.