Chapter 26

"What?" Elladan felt as though all his breath had been knocked out of him. "But, Dara..."

Daralis put her hand up to stop him. "Elladan. I can't marry you. I… I want to stay here with my father, and you are sailing with your family very soon. I can't ask you to stray from your family, but I won't leave mine either. I feel like I've only just found the missing part of me, and I've been searching for him for twenty years!"

Elladan's face took on a desperate edge.

"I cannot live without you, Daralis."

"Yes, you can! You lived without me for centuries before I came, and when you leave, you'll be happy, in a place where you can see all of your loved ones again."

"But not you. I love you more than anyone else." Daralis' face took on a wistful quality.

"Don't say that. It's disrespectful."

"Daralis, I will not sail if you must stay."

"Don't you realize that your father would kill me if I even thought about keeping you here with me? He can't take another of his children staying behind to die, or watch the world die, in any case. And I couldn't live with myself if I were the cause of your death."

"Daralis. Listen to me. An eternity in paradise means nothing to me if I can't share it with you. You are the eternity I want. And even if I must experience my forever with you in the realm of death, I will take that over anything waiting for me across the sea." His words were intense, but they were true.

"Stop it, Elladan. I want you to leave." She was panicking; he could see it in her eyes. One more attempt before he lost her forever…

"But, Dara-" She broke free from his enclosing arms.

"Please leave me, Elladan."

He went.

Legolas heard a hurried knock on his door. He opened it to see his daughter's tear-stained, flushed face. He moved quickly to embrace her.

"Daralis? What has happened, penneth?"

"Elladan…" Daralis began, only to be interrupted by her father.

Legolas immediately held her out at arm's length.

"WHAT did he DO?!"

"Atar, stop it. He didn't do anything to me. He proposed." Daralis was sniffing, trying to get herself in control.

"Why then, do I see tears?"

"Because I can't marry him. I love him, I do, it's just that there would be so many people hurt." Legolas was deeply saddened by his daughter's words.

"Dara, nobody wants anything more but to see the two of you happy," he sighed.

"I can't be happy if I'm holding him back from his family. I can't sail to the Undying Lands. I want to stay here with you."

"Daralis. If what you want is to marry Elladan, then please do not let me hold you back. I would suffer the same guilt that you are describing to me."

Daralis became frustrated. He didn't understand.
"I've waited a lifetime to meet you. That could mean less or more to you than it does to me, but now that I've found you, I can't just leave and wait hundreds more to see you again, if ever. I wouldn't be complete. I can't do that… it's not what Mom would have wanted anyway."

Legolas folded Daralis in his arms before her tears could spill over her eyes.

"She has raised you well indeed."

She smiled through her tears.

Elrohir heard the crashing through the walls after he was awakened from his rest by an ear-splitting headache. He slid from underneath Reidwen and arose, pulling on a robe as he went to his brother's room.

When he opened the door, Elladan's body turned to meet his, and when their eyes met, Elrohir could literally taste the disappointment. It was bitter and salty, almost as if he had tasted Elladan's tears. Elladan sunk to the floor, his brother kneeling to cradle him to his chest.

"Sweet Elbereth, Elladan! Mankoi lle uma tanya?" (Why did you do that?)

"She-she is leaving me, Elrohir."

"Ya?"(Who?)

"Daralis, ungauer. Who else would it be?" (hollow one)

"Amin elea…" (I see…)

"Amin nowe re n'kelaya… " ( I thought she would never leave…)

"Elladan, amin hiraetha." ( Elladan, I'm sorry.)

"Amin uuma maila." ( I don't care.) Elladan pushed himself away from Elrohir, snatching a vase from the nearby table and flinging it against the wall. For a second he was satisfied with the shards of glass on his floor and the spray of water that hit his face. But then the emptiness set in again.

"Lle tela?" (Are you finished?) Elrohir's sardonic voice summoned his attention.

"No." He was being just as sardonic. He wasn't letting his brother come out on top while he was like this.

Elrohir stood.

"Well I suggest you do so soon. Then perhaps you can figure out how to win her back, instead of behaving like, like, like a nadorhuan." (cowardly dog)

Elladan stepped up to his brother's face, looking down and seeing his own tears drying quickly on the fabric of his robe.

"Amin lava. Amin autien rath. " ( I yield. I'm going to bed)

"You will not sleep, Elladan. You shall be up all night thinking about her, and the next night and the next. You need to resolve your problem. What happened?"

"I proposed marriage to her…"

"And she said no?"

"She does not want to sail. She said that she does not want to separate me from my family, and she cannot be separated from her father."

"So?"

"So we are sailing, and I-"

"Whoever said that we would sail?"

"Of course we will. We shall get to see mother again in the Undying Lands."

"Yes, but Reidwen is not sailing. She cannot leave her mother."

"Why does her mother stay?"

"She wants to give Reidwen a chance to be something great."

"Well then marry her, she'll be a lady of the court, and you can sail together."

"Do you not want for us to stay?"

"Of course I do. But I want your happiness, as well as father's."

"Oh, stop trying to be noble. Stay with Daralis if that will bring you happiness… None of us want to handle you in Valinor if you are sulking and throwing things."

Elladan playfully pushed his brother.

"Dina." (Shut up.)

HOLY CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOW LONG HAS IT BEEN?!?! This is craaaazy. Okay, I got a new computer, blah blah blah, I have absolutely no excuse for being away so long. I will say this- I had three to four chapters already written on my old computer, and I was working on the final chapter, but now that I've switched, it's not there anymore so I have to start from scratch…. And so the updates will be MORE frequent than they have been obviously, but LESS frequent than they COULD have been if I had the other comp. Okay.

Please review, and forgive the lengthy absence!