Disclaimer: I do not own Haldir or anything else that you recognize from lotr.
Chapter 7: Lighter mood
After hours of riding through miles of open fields, small woods and over flowing rivers, I felt exhausted. To my delight Haldir decided that we should find shelter for the night in the middle of some old trees overhanging a small poll of water. Even though the trip back 'home' was not too long, but it would take at least a couple of hours. I was tired and so was Morion. My horse was worn out from our wild runaway from earlier and I don't blame him. I felt a sting of guilt because I had been pushing him too hard throughout the day. There was nothing wrong with Morion's stamina, but everyone has their limits.
While I was taking care of the horses, Haldir went out to find some dry wood so we could make a fire. He was gone for awhile so I sat down against one of the trees and closed my eyes, almost falling asleep when he came back with some branches in his arms. The sky had darkened considerably because of the grey clouds that had covered up the starlit sky. Some streams of moonlight crept through the thick blanket and hit Haldir's face as he entered the camp area. My eyes rested on his strong chin before they moved up to his perfect grey eyes.
*Oh no, no, no, no, NO! Get yourself together, Melian. You did not just think about him in that way. You just….. no.* I was having an argument with myself, how nice.
"How come you cannot seem to stop staring at me? Is there something wrong with my face?" Haldir's voice snapped me out of my current train of thoughts. This was getting embarrassing.
"Eh……" I couldn't seem to find the right words and I stopped myself from speaking before thinking it through. But of course I had a problem anyway, since my mouth never really had been connected to my brain properly. It was inevitable that I would further embarrass myself.
"I'm very sorry! I'm a little tired and…..and I was not really staring at you…..or maybe I was…..I….." I stopped my rambling when I realized how stupid I sounded, and I bowed my head in shame. If only one could disappear under these circumstances.
A soft laugh sounded in my human ears and I looked up at him with an ice cold glare. I felt totally humiliated and had the urge to tell him to go play in the Deadmarshes.
"Ha, ha, ha, very funny, Haldir." My voice dripped with sarcasm.
"Oh, but I think it was. You should have seen your face when I caught you off guard." Haldir kneeled down to make us a fire for the cold night, still snickering to himself. Haldir had humor, great.
The next day, after some well deserved sleep, I was still curled up and fast asleep. Somewhere in my wonderful dreamland a voice called my name. Since I was having the dream of my life, the voice started to get very annoying and decided to make it go away.
"Go away, father! I don't want to get up yet." I never opened my eyes, but instead I managed to get a hold of a cone, and threw it at the source of the noise. A loud yelp sounded in the air as Haldir began to rub his sore forehead.
This time he started to shake me violently until I woke up. I was not in a happy mood and neither was he. We saddled our horses and rode off in complete silence.
Hours went by without as much as a quick glance at each other. The silence was pressuring. I knew me and Haldir hadn't exactly gotten off on the right foot, but there was something about him that made me want to know him better. Every time I tried to talk to him, though, it seemed that I only made it worse between us. Maybe it was the fact that he was an elf that intrigued me, or maybe it was the person Haldir. He seemed so strong, so proud and yet so vulnerable. I let my thoughts run freely as we trudged through the dry, yellow grass in one of the many fields we had to lie behind.
It took some time before I worked up the nerve to speak up. We hadn't exchanged a word since we left and I couldn't take it anymore. I decided it was time fore one of us to swallow the pride and say something. I was the one that threw the cone anyway…..
"I am sorry, Haldir." I could barely get the words out. Haldir's stern look did not help in any way.
"Sorry for what, milady?" He cocked his head, awaiting my reply.
"Because of the cone I threw at you. I did not think that I would actually hit something, not in my sleep anyway." The thought of the cone hitting Haldir in the head made me smirk, and I desperately tried to hide it by covering my mouth with my hand. It was of no use since Haldir had already seen my big smile.
"So you think it was funny, do you?" His serious expression only made me smile more and I ended up bursting out in laughter.
"Yes, actually I do think it funny." I managed squeeze out the words between the giggles. "I also think that we are even now. You got a good laugh yesterday and I got a good laugh now." My laughter slowly died down only to burst out again when I saw Haldir putting on a fake sore face. A thought struck me. Maybe we could get along after all?
Haldir smirked at me and I swear I saw a twinkle in his eye.
"Maybe we're even, Melian, maybe." He turned around and we continued our journey in silence once more.
Well, I know it's a little bit short I guess, but it's not easy to write with a writer's block you know. I hope you're all still with me and that you don't hate me too much =) I've been sick too and when I finally thought I was getting better, I caught a bad cold just to top the iceberg. So I'll get back to my writing and to my new best friend; the toilet paper……Thanks for all the reviews!!!!!! You guys are the best! =)
Silverdracowolf: Thank you! I hope that writer's block will go away too!
Naomie: Hi there! Thank you for the support! It's not easy to write when you have writer's block and you're sick. I don't think so anyway. Almost everyone where I live is sick because of some influenza virus going around. I only hope it will stop torturing me and go away.
Coolio02: Melian means 'Dear gift' and its Sindarin. There you go. I'll try to update sooner this time =)
Freaky-girl04: Well, thank you for reviewing my story! Hope you will continue to read despite of the delay!