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Huge, whopping thanks to! Ms. Unknown, LJP (Thanks cute! Just what I thought of too!) Artemis1860, I missed the last boat (interesting name..heh), Arami, Stacey, Laer4572, Saeleth Tinuviel, Dazzler420, Varda101, Julia, Jaffee Leeds, Blue fur and puffin, huntress73, kitza, Norie Ape1, moonlight and starlight, sixtysix, jibade7, Kathy-SFF, DMH1973, Peredhel-Padfoot!

Woo! We passed two-hundred! Does a little dance

I Loved everyone's comments on that chapter! I really wish I could reply to each of them, but finals are tomorrow...In fact, as you're reading this chapter, you may want to make a little wish I don't kill myself to spare the misery of finals. Lol!

As always, love all of you! (Btw, I personally can't wait to put up chapter seventeen... Just a little dribble for thought - heh!)

Chapter Fifteen: A Little Fun

Three Months Later

Ashk

"No! Back, Ashk!"

"You were leading forward!"

"I was not!"

"Were too!"

"Follow my hand, not my feet," Rumil chastised.

I grumbled out a sigh.

"Splitting hairs there, Rumil," I said, glaring down at his feet as we whirled around the common room. Nearby, both Moriana and Onduras were watching in glee.

"You dance like such a human," Rumil grumbled back, twirling me out with a featherlike grace. I paused enough to glare at him before he spun me back into his arms.

"What is that supposed to mean?" I demanded, sighing as he dipped me back and unwound our arms one last time before pulling me close.

"Men and women fight for the lead with humans," he told me. "With us Elves, the male always leads."

I rolled my eyes as we nearly bumped into the sofa we had pushed aside. Moriana and Onduras giggled as we passed before our steps clashed and Rumil trod over my foot.

"Urgh!" I cried, stopping and stomping my uninjured foot. "This is ridiculous! I'm through!"

"Through?" Rumil laughed at me as I collapsed on the sofa. My daughter made a face as if to cry and I sighed before Onduras pushed her down.

"Bully," I scolded, leaning over the sofa to reach for my fumbling daughter. However, her uncle got to me first and pulled me off the sofa with one clean jerk.

I stumbled momentarily before he had me perfectly fit in his arms and twirling around the common room floor. The children immediately perked with interest again

"Rumil, the ball is only a few days away. I don't think I'm ready for t–this!" I stuttered as he dipped me back abruptly before spinning me away from him. We clashed together again.

"Of course you'll be ready," he soothed, slowing our pace. "And I will be glad, too. I don't think my feet can handle any more of this!" he said with a laugh.

I scoffed. "Your feet! For an Elf, you certainly are clumsy, you know!" I whirled around him as he bowed, opening for one of the five dances he'd taught me in the past three months. I glanced at my children who were busily pulling on each other's clothing before I curtsied as he circled me. I felt his chest meet my back.

"Clumsy? Me? Never," Rumil dismissed. I, however, barely heard him as I was instead concentrating on not stepping on his toes while the only guidance I had to where we were going was the pressure of his hands on mine.

"Oh, right," I replied, relieved as we left that stage and I turned to face him. Our unison clap surprised both the children before they giggled in glee. "I can just see you as Little Rumil at his first ball. I suppose you tromped on half the crowd." We traded positions with a delicate swirl. Clapping again I laughed as the children perked once more.

"I will have you know," Rumil told me as I took his offered hand and strode with him in one direction before turning to the next. "I am rumored to be the best dancer in Caras Galadhon!"

I burst into laughter even while he brought our combined hands over my head and caused me to spiral out and into his previous position. "Oh, I can imagine."

He pulled me back to him and we made a few rounds about the floor.

Finally, his hands withdrew and he bowed low. I curtsied in return before swearing in Gypsinese. I'd picked up the habit from Ryn and Ana.

At the thought of them, I frowned. They'd be leaving within a week...With them and my nephew gone, the house would be so much emptier. I enjoyed the loud discussions of family; the every evening meal and the affection Ana and Ryn both had for their niece and nephew and their own child.

"That's enough for today," I breathed, plopping onto the sofa again. Rumil agreed and quickly dove for the day bed with the children. The two immediately turned their attention to him and I shifted so I could look down at the three with a smile. Moriana so adored her uncle I sometimes wondered if she favored him more-so than her own parents.

Of course, he spoiled her rotten.

I sighed. They were nearly five months old now and somewhere within me, I knew they were aging faster than normal, human, children.

"Rumil," I said quietly. The Elf's eyes moved from his niece and nephew to me. He raised a brow in silent answer. I shifted uncomfortably. "Are you sure I should go to the ball?"

He smiled at me. "Yes, Ashk. I'm positive, to be more precise."

Oh, he was getting that Elves-know-all voice. They all had it when they wanted it. Most annoying of all, of course, was the ever arrogant Warden…The same Elf I found myself missing so much when he was gone.

"You will have a grand time, I promise," Rumil assured me. I sighed and watched my son tug his own sock off. I shook my head. Silly boy. He did that all the time. He promptly put it in his mouth and I chuckled, reaching down and pulling it away from him.

"I really don't think Haldir wants me to go," I said, rolling off the sofa's arm and landing softly next to my son. He looked at me with a distraught face and I provided his sock once more. Happy again, he chomped on it.

Rumil sighed. "He is just worried how others will react to you."

"Why?" I asked mindlessly.

Rumil made a face similar to what his brother often made. The one that said he knew but he didn't know how to put it to words...or that he didn't want to.

However, when Rumil looked at me again, he sighed as his niece crashed her head onto his chest. I frowned at her even as she giggled.

"First of all, many don't speak common…Westron," he told me. "In fact, Orophin and I did not know its tongue until little under fifty years ago. Haldir was one of the few who did know it off hand. Not many wish to venture outside of Lothlorien's borders."

I wanted to ask why, but I held it in as Rumil continued.

"Secondly, arrogance is a vile creature that seems to be finding its way around my kind quite quickly. Long have I wished for someone to teach those few a lesson, and it will come in time. However, Haldir nor I want it to brunt on you."

I frowned and shook my head. "Prejudice," I grumbled.

Rumil nodded in silence as if ashamed of this and I raised a brow. "Were you ever prejudice, Rumil?" I asked. He looked at me a long moment before shrugging as best he could.

"Not in particular. I didn't deal with humans for much of my life. It was only when a son of Rivendell was rumored to be on the plains of Rohan, lost in grief due to his mother's passing, did I venture outside my forest. Haldir had held me at bay long enough and I saw what the human realm was like."

"Really like?"

"Different. Dark, some say. Dirty. Yet, I can't help but sometimes feel a bit envious. Every night, Plain Walkers can see the sun set and the moon rise. I see it through trees that hold secrets even I cannot unlock still."

I looked at Rumil in a new light. He was the youngest of his family and often acted it. It was an adorable thing, really. Yet, the tale he spoke now was the voice of an elder being; wise and ancient as I knew he was...somewhere deep inside. That reality slammed into me and I suddenly felt so very different from him.

As different as I was from Lady Galadriel and Lord Celeborn.

As different as I was to Haldir.

However, Rumil looked at me then with a quick grin that beamed bright as his smiles always did. "No worries, my little sun ray, all will be well. You have no need to worry at the ball - You will shock them with your dancing abilities."

I laughed. "Oh yes," I replied. "Nothing makes a first impression like treading over someone's foot."

Rumil laughed and agreed whole-heartedly.

Perhaps I wasn't so different from him or his kind. He had a heart, had humor, had a soul...Ancient as it was.

He had everything Haldir did...yet Haldir still held something more for me, and I hated that.

Ana

Black snorted and pushed dangerously on the corral gate. Ryn gave him a look and snapped at him in his native tongue. The horse bobbed his head and snorted again. I smiled as my husband stalked away, grumbling under his breath.

"Papa, do not get mad at him," said our son, rushing to catch up with his father. "Horses should not get the best of you."

He was throwing around a lesson Ryn had given the boy only last summer. The man I loved more than anything laughed and picked Lynile up, plopping him on his shoulders. The boy giggled in joy even as the cold winter winds swirled.

"Come here, you two," I called from inside the barn. I had a warm kettle of tea with me and I was surprised they hadn't smelled it from a mile away.

"My Lords in the Skies," breathed Ryn. "Aren't we blessed?" He put Lynile on the ground again and his cold lips quickly brushed over mine.

"You had better believe it," I replied, snagging a hand in his curly hair before our son nearly knocked the kettle over.

With the tea poured a few moments later, Lynile was ready for the snow again and I could only nod hopelessly as he begged to play in it yet again. He scampered off and literally took a dive into the nearest bank of snow.

Ryn neared me and kissed my cheek. "Treat all your lads this way?" he asked with a grin. I elbowed him in the stomach and he grunted making me smile.

"Mama!" Lynile cried, his head popping up from behind a snow bank.

"Yes, my little pumpkin?" He made a face at the name I gave him before rolling around in the snow.

"When we see Grandma again, can we use her sleds on the hills?" he asked. I smiled.

"Anything you want, pumpkin," I called back. He laughed and the soft melody trickled over my heart.

Parenthood was something few could describe in words and I had yet to meet someone who could. And, as my husband's hand slid into mine, love was something similar.

I sighed at the thought.

"I wish Ashk would come with us," I said softly. This was not the first time I'd confided my hopes into Ryn. He had continually told me I needed to let Ashk make her own decision - and she had. She would stay with Haldir here in Celebruim.

Stay here by herself was more like it, I thought bitterly.

Three months had passed since I'd first asked her. I had not stopped since. However, this last week I did not pressure her. Her final say on the subject shook me to the core and I loathed the fact that she said it - much less felt it.

"She will be all right here, Ana," Ryn told me quietly. "She knows what she's doing."

I shook my head. "Does she?...I'm not so sure."

Ryn's hand squeezed mine. "She does. All things happen for a reason, Ana. You know that." Oh, Ryn was ever the Gypsy. Fate was something that caused and became everything to them. I couldn't say whether I believed it or not.

"I only hope she does not end up broken hearted here," I muttered.

"Broken hearted over him," Ryn corrected, reading my thoughts. I sighed and nodded in silence.

Yes, because of him.

I knew my baby sister. And I knew what a disaster this was whether she saw it yet or not.

Aluna

I was nearly at Haldir's side when he stopped abruptly. A small Elfling had run across his path and crashed right into him, knocking the child to the ground. I raised a brow as the Elfling looked up at him and fear rippled in his eyes.

That was one thing that drew me to Haldir. He intimidated people and he was cursed good at it.

"Are you all right?"

The words shocked me as Haldir reached for the Elfling and pulled him to a stand. He inspected him as the child did not know what to say. Instead, he stammered and Haldir nearly, just nearly, smiled at him. Not a blinding grin, but just a quirk of his mouth as if to do so.

"I–I..I am well, March Warden. I-I am sorry," the child stammered. Haldir patted his shoulder and the Elfling flinched in shock.

"No harm done. Do not hurry yourself so," he said, stooping to pick up the small wooden sword the child had been running with. "No Galadhrim lives without a calm patience."

The child looked at him with an agape expression, nearly similar to my own before the Warden dismissed him with a kind farewell.

I staggered a moment, unable to move and follow, however as the child and I shared a common look, I rushed after Haldir.

"What is this?" I asked, my voice slicking into a calm purr that I knew he once enjoyed. "Since when does the Captain of the Lady's Guard not berate a clumsy child?"

Haldir glanced over his shoulder at me and continued to walk on. I found this distressing and most annoying. However, I followed until I was at his side. He did not look at me as he said, "He is only a child, Aluna. Games and play are his own duty."

I laughed. "Oh, Haldir. Have you become soft hearted in the years that have passed?" He did not reply and my temper flicked. "Or perhaps it has just been these past months?"

I felt his curiosity churn as well as his stomach. So, he was still hiding the presence of his lovingly disgusting, mortal wife. She had to have had those Half Breed children by now.

I shuddered at the thought.

"Where do you go, Captain, in those days you are missing from this city?...From my bed?" I questioned, my hand moving to his arm as if to pull him to a stop, but he jerked away from my touch as if it stung. I smiled slightly.

"Who do you stay with in the nights, Haldir?"

He stopped then, his chin high and proud before he tilted his gaze to look at me. I was surprised to see his cold eyes all but barren of anything but aggravation. Even as I probed towards his thoughts, I found nothing but a thick stone wall. His secrets were behind that wall...what else did it hide besides that human wife?

"Stay away from me and mine, Aluna," he warned. "It has been nearly nine months since you have arrived and I have spent my patience with you. Do not try to tempt me again and stay away from my family."

"Family," I repeated. "Your brothers," I corrected. "You have no family, Haldir. You never could unless it was with someone like me. Distant, never too clinging. You always hated that. You wanted freedom. You wanted control sometimes, and other times you would submit."

"Do not look for me to submit to you," he hissed at me.

I smirked. "Oh, Haldir. Open your eyes. There is no Elleth in all the kingdoms who knows you like I do," I replied. "And I can know you even better if only you let me."

"I would rather befriend a dwarf than you, Aluna," he snarled at me. "You open your legs for anyone...You're a whore."

I raised a slender brow. "My, my Haldir…I believe I remember hearing such curses on me before. They don't hurt me, my darling."

I touched his face before he turned away from me. "Pity I never mothered your children, Haldir…We would have had a perfect set."

He stopped but didn't bother to turn and look at me. I smiled.

Suddenly, he turned and stalked toward me. The glare in his eyes almost made me back away. "Don't you dare start, Aluna," he snarled, pointing at me.

"What? Afraid I know something, Haldir? Something about children…wives…Your human whore?"

Rage filled his eyes but I didn't move. I just smiled at him.

"That's why you hide her, isn't it? You're ashamed of her…You were never ashamed of me."

"I hated to be seen with you," he hissed at me.

"Then the little wench and I have something in common. Perhaps I should tell her…"

"If you go near her, I swear-"

"What? What will you do Haldir if I tell her what you really think of her? Will it break her pathetic heart? …What do you care?"

He stared at me, and his searing thoughts would have burned if I'd let them. He had half the mind to strike me, but he was too noble and he and I both knew it.

But, there was something else there…

"Unless, of course, you do care." I stared at him in awe before I laughed. "Oh, Haldir, tell me it isn't so! Tell me you don't care for that woman!"

"Who I care for and why is none of your affair," he told me before spinning away.

I let him go with a smirk on my face.

Night

Haldir

My temper was high and hot, my nerves were shot, and my patience was gone. For being in Caras Galadhon for ten days, it seemed more like I'd been there a several centuries without border call.

I had been trying to find ways to check in on the twins and Ashk as often as possible. Rumil and Orophin acted as my runners yet I couldn't help but feel something...thick and tart churn in my soul. I didn't know what to call it. When they were with my family and I…it just wasn't right.

I would have to deal with that. Years would pass and it would not be without separation nor having my brothers' help to watch over the three people outside of Lorien.

Yet, there were times I couldn't help but see that Ashk looked happier when Orophin or Rumil around rather than me.

I grumbled to myself. What should I care?

Coming to the edge of Lorien, Kali snorted and shook her mane.

I patted her neck in affection, easing her with a few words before breaching the fields.

However, I pulled her to a stop almost immediately.

What in the Valar's name was Ashk doing? It was too cold for a human to be outside at night!

I meant to call out to her, to scold her for foolishness, but I didn't. Instead, I remained in silence.

The moon was waxing and coming larger every night. This night, as it laid a silver blanket over the steaming creek and across the barren snowlands, it was near full.

It shown so perfectly on the woman below it that I couldn't look away.

She wore dark clothes as she often did. A scarf was around her neck and a long and heavy coat went near her shins. She had it pulled close as she stood there near the creek, her face turned upward towards the moon and the stars. Her eyes were closed.

She had a gentle face angled as only ideal women had… Soft lips, as soft as rose petals and just as sweet, high cheeks, and wide, innocent eyes. Doe colored eyes. Forest eyes.

She reminded me of home with something much more. Warmth, something I'd lacked for years - decades. Who was this woman who stared at me with a gentle fire in her eyes?

Why did she soothe my mind and heart when even the Lady of Light's words could not?

"...Warden?"

Her voice echoed over the night and I snapped out of my thoughts. She was peering at me through the distance and I cleared my throat, my hand lifting over my head to wave. She did the same and glanced around her as I nudged Kali to near her.

The horse below me was silent...Ashk walked toward me. Her boots crunched the snow under her and left the path she walked.

She looked up at me and her eyes shimmered in the night sky.

"What are you doing out here?" she asked, her words misting in the cold.

"I was on my way back," I replied. "What are you doing? Where are the twins?"

"Ana and Ryn are watching them," she replied, her voice with an edge. "They're my world, not my entire life, Warden. Don't expect me to stay at home always waiting for you to meander your way back here."

I raised a brow at her as she glared at me. Suddenly, just as fast as the temper came, it was gone and she sighed. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you." I continued to peer at her. "Long day."

"Have you been sleeping well?" I asked. In the nights I couldn't sleep, I sometimes wondered if the twins kept her awake.

Ashk's tired look gave me my answer, but she was smiling by then. "Moriana has a current issue with eating what is given to her before she flings it everywhere. This morning I found peas splattered on the common room wall...Mischief is Little Ana's second name."

I smiled at this. "She takes after her uncle then," I replied.

Ashk laughed. It was a light tinkering sound I'd come to favor. "Which one?"

I thought on it a moment then frowned. "Both."

She laughed again and shook her head.

"Oh, Warden, come now. It must run in the family. Does she not take after you instead?" she asked, pulling her coat closer to herself. I shook my head in certainty, but she only grinned. "Oh, deny it all you like...I won't believe it."

"You best," I replied, shifting Kali as she snorted again.

Ashk rolled her eyes and nodded towards the house. "Your children are waiting on your return. I am going to stay out here for a time."

I glanced toward the moon that peaked in and out of the velvet clouds that passed from the west.

I nodded and brushed a heel against Kali's flank. She flinched with surprise before trotting onward.

I wasn't but a few yards away when I thought to say something that would have Ashk come with me and out of the chilly night. But, I never had the chance as something cold and wet pelted the back of my shoulder.

Ashk immediately burst into giggles.

I turned and brushed the snow off my shoulder. She tried to suffocate her laughter even as I dismounted.

"What was that?"

She peeped an amused chuckle. "Nothing…? A little fun."

"Fun? Hitting the Captain of the Galadhrim Guard with a snow ball is something you consider fun?" I asked, my voice stern and icy.

She raised a brow and smirked, not thrown by my tone as I was hoping.

"When you put it like that, no. In fact, that sounds a bit suicidal. However, slamming an icy snow ball into the back of my childrens' father is quite amusing." She smiled at me, the moon glittering in her eyes. "And don't act like you're angry…You're not."

I shifted my weight and crossed my arms. "Act? I will have you know I am quite disheveled right now and growing more annoyed with you by the second."

She rolled her eyes, stooping to take another handful of snow. I watched her passively.

"I can tell when you're not really upset, Warden. I know you better than you think," she warned. "When you're faking something, your lips twitch."

I frowned, caught off guard by this. "They do not."

Only a handful of people knew me well enough to say something like that. This human was not one of them.

…Was she?

In my moment of thought, Ashk's hand flew back and propelled forward, releasing another snowball at me. This time, it landed square on my face.

Again, she burst into laughter. This time being much more hysterical than the first.

Fueled by this, I sighed. "Very well," I managed as I wiped the snow from my face. "If you wish to play dirty, we can play dirty."

Almost immediately her giggles ceased and she looked at me with wide eyes. She took a step back and a hand pointed at me.

"Now, Warden...I was just having a bit of fun...No use in going to extremes."

"Extremes?" I echoed, squatting and gathering a large handful of snow in my grasp. I stood, patting it into a perfect sphere. "I don't have any idea what you are talking about, Ashk."

She stared at me in disbelief before suddenly turning and running away. She only made three steps before the snowball I'd formed pelted into the center of her back.

She let out a surprised shriek and turned around to see me, still wheeling herself backwards.

"I didn't hit you that hard!" she laughed.

"Oh, no? That mind wracking ice sphere to the face must have confused me," I said, bending to retrieve more snow. She shrieked again, racing off in the other direction. I ran after her.

I pelted her again before she whipped around and dove for the ground. Snow burst up around her and littered into her hair and plastered onto her face. I couldn't help myself but to laugh as her face and hair was suddenly caked with snow even as she managed to hit me with two unpacked showers of snow.

She had no chance to run as I swooped down on her, plucking her from the snow and dumping her over my shoulder. She was laughing hysterically even as I tossed her into a snow bank near the creek.

Yet, as I dropped her into that mound of snow, she had a grip on my hair and didn't let go.

I cursed in Sindarian as I was dragged down with her, snow immediately filling the back of my cloak and clothing.

"Ah-ha!" Ashk exclaimed, leaping to a stand. "I am victorious!" She threw one last chunk of snow at me for good measure. "Do you yield?" she questioned, her boot kicking against mine.

I gave her a fiery look and she cringed, about to run off again. She hadn't a chance, of course. I had her over my shoulder again before she could even take her first step.

Flipping her around so fast her hair fluffed into her face, I dangled her over the creek. She screeched, her hands clinging to my tunic and cloak.

"Yield?"

"No!" She yanked on me and I slipped forward on the icy creekbed. She screeched as we crashed forward into the water. Bubbles blinded me for a moment before I surfaced.

Water seeped down my face as I turned to find Ashk in the freezing water.

She was nowhere to be found.

"Ashk!"

"Clumsy!" she shouted, her voice gargled by the water as she surfaced. She gagged and spit the water out of her mouth as I sloshed to her.

"If you hadn't of yanked on me, we wouldn't have fallen in!" I told her, grabbing her arm and pulling her to me in the frigid water.

She laughed, spraying a slap of water in my face. "Don't blame me!" She splashed me again and I grabbed her close, sloshing in the creek.

She struggled with me a minute, laughing as I easily kept her pinned against me.

Finally, she gave up. She was trembling fiercely against me and her face was pale with cold.

The smile I didn't realize I had faded and I picked her up, out of the water.

"Does that mean that I won?" she asked, her teeth chattering together.

"Absolutely not."

"You're a dirty little cheat." She shivered as I walked out of the creek. "I had you…so-so you dropped me in a creek. Very mat-mature, March Warden."

My stride toward Kali quickened. She was for jokes and laughs, but her tremors did nothing less than frighten me. I was a fool to put her anywhere near that freezing creek…Better yet, I let her sit in it for a minute.

She was freezing now and if she got sick, I'd have no one to blame but myself.

She was saying something to me, but I wasn't paying attention.

"What?"

She gave me a look. "I said slow d-down. We're no-not in a race."

A vicious tremor shook her.

I shifted her in my arms, clutching her closer. "You'll catch you damn death out here." My voice had grown gruff and she looked at me in silence.

Suddenly feeling awkward, I cleared my throat. "Well," I said, her eyes drawing back to mine. "You'd hate for to catch an sick with only three days until the Winter Ball, wouldn't you?" I put her on Kali's back with ease.

She made a face. "Oh, I'm s-sure that's w-what you were thinking."

She trembled atop my horse and she looked as frosted as a snow blossom…But, Vala, she looked beautiful smiling at me then.

I turned away from her, taking the Kali's reins and leading towards the house...My heart still hammering in my ears even as I could hear hers doing the same.

- - -

Hope you enjoyed!

Next Update: December 20th