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Old people at weddings always poke me and say "you're next". So, I started doing the same thing at funerals.
Sorry! My sense of humor is twisted today... Here's another one.
Communist until you get rich;
Feminist until you get married;
Atheist until the airplane starts falling – Hypocrite Diaries
Okay I know, I did it again. How about this one:
When you fall, I will be there to catch you.
- With love, the floor.
:)
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"Galadriel…" he whispered without realizing.
Legolas grimaced. Visions, images and things he'd never seen before, they confused him and broke into splits and flashes. They were tearing his chest open. Every cell in his body screamed. They whipped past his eyes and he saw years of passing streets, laughter and things like a shutting door, sheets and the same eyes. He knew those eyes.
They were Kristy's. Quiet and…and happy. A child slept in his arms and Legolas almost lost his breath. So tiny, so very tiny, and human. The babe was human! He felt such a swell of inexplicable love for the little creature.
Then there was a white burning ceiling above him. Kristy was on her knees. Why? Why did she weep? As if the world ended and there was no hope. She cried like her life had ended.
Legolas clutched his head and shouted out, willing them away. Nothing helped. He couldn't stop it. He wasn't strong enough. Until the same voice echoed in his ears…
"Child."
Legolas hissed through his teeth and peered up. He couldn't see. It was hazy and dark. It hurt. But then the colors shifted and white appeared. The white, it was…it was light. As if a piece of heaven materialized before his eyes and made the pain go away.
"Why…" he managed to gasp. "are you doing this?"
"Hush, child." She said softly, "I am here to help you."
Legolas took short bursts of air until his head cleared and he flicked his eyes furtively around. He could feel the vicious wind of the storm on his face, somewhere in the back of his mind. But he couldn't see or hear it here. They were somewhere else in his head. All he saw was this…field. It was midnight blue and the reeds whispered in the wind, brushing his face.
Galadriel knelt before him, glowing azure and crystal in the starlight, looking at him with the deep eyes he remembered from Lorien. Her fingers brushed his face.
"You have suffered much, child," she whispered, searching his face as if she could read every thought, every memory, all the heartache and hurt he'd felt. Then her face softened. "So long have you been from home. Where have you lost yourself to, prince of Mirkwood?" she murmured softer yet. "You have changed."
Her fingers stroked his cheek, gently. Legolas peered at her through the rain in his lashes, straining to see through a fog streaked window.
"A child of the trees, free and green no longer. You have grown. Many things have you seen."
Legolas stared at her unblinking, unflinching.
She was so still, so quiet, and there was a light that sparkled in her eyes.
"How are you here? How can I see you?" Legolas managed instead of asking about the bizarre words. They didn't make sense. He was still the same elf he always was. Even trapped in this damn mortal body.
Galadriel blinked, just a flicker. And the look was gone. She dropped her hand from his face and looked at him more sternly. "There is a link between our worlds, prince of Mirkwood, at this very moment. And you must listen to me now, else you and your friends may be lost to us forever. And the fate of Arda will fall to dark hands."
"What did I just see? What did you show me?"
"The gift of foresight is mine." She explained, "I showed you your future, or what it might be."
"The future, what could be the future? Does that mean you can change what I saw?" Legolas shuddered. The empty, cold feeling of loss still clung to him like ice and he couldn't shake it.
"To touch the mind of another takes but a wish." She grew still and more quiet. Her eyes darkened. "But 'twill take more than that to see you home, young one."
"What do I have to do?"
"You must return the way you came. The ring of power I here have will keep the link open long enough."
"How could you do this?"
"The strength of Lothlorien is not what it was. But this I can do. Have no doubt." She assured him. "Tell your friends. Estel will lead you. He will…give you the strength you need to complete this task."
"Strength." Legolas shook his head.
"Do not underestimate the difficulty you will find, when the time comes." The lady of light warned, as if scolding him.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean the love you have found, Prince of Mirkwood! But you must be strong. For your people. For Arda."
"I know my duty. I would never let what I feel for Kristy hold me back." He spoke harsher than he meant. His spine straightened and Legolas felt a surge of anger at the expression on her ancient, white face. She mistrusted him! "I have not failed before. I will not now. How do you doubt me so?"
She stared.
Legolas dropped his chin a little. The sky quivered and shook on the horizon. Where they stood it was still, like the eye of a storm. "I can leave her."
"Can you?"
"I will!"
"I have seen otherwise."
Legolas looked up.
"I have seen your futures," she said in accented Sindarin, "You choose Kristine, Legolas."
"Is that what you showed me?" he snapped. He remembered the passing years, Kristy, the child in his arms.
"It is. But what you do not know is that you will die, young prince. You are an elf, even in this world choked of living magic. You will not survive it."
"So will she." Legolas said, "I am not afraid to die. That is not the reason I go."
"And it is not the reason you will stay!" she said soft and harsh.
Her voice was no louder and no higher, but he felt the power in her voice. And he couldn't fight.
"You will stay for love, but you will also die for it! Four seasons is what you have with her, prince of Mirkwood. Four seasons and she will be alone. Without you. I have seen the choice you make, and you must not make it. When the time comes, you fail, Legolas. You fail. Your friends return home. They go without you. They fight for Arda. Now, knowing this…will you follow them now? Or will you hear what I have told you?"
"I-I would always fill my duty." He heard his voice crack. "I do love her, but…"
"The portal opens in two days' time." Galadriel said softly. "I will keep the link as safe for you as I might. Pray you make the right choice, young prince."
Legolas didn't know what to say. The visions he'd seen…they played and flickered in his head once more. He saw lightning and the brilliant light of an open portal. He saw Kristy's eyes peering up at him…asking him to stay, feeling her palm on his chest, heart beating in her hand.
"I choose her?" he asked almost without thinking. He took a lungful of air, but there wasn't quite enough to fill his chest. It felt like he was suffocating. "I stay?"
"I have taken it into my own hands to change that." She said ever softly, "Legolas…you are a creature of magic. You suffocate in a world like this. A part of you dies every day that you stay! I have awoken that part, in order to visit you as I have."
Legolas tensed. "What do you mean?"
"You are dying, Legolas." She shook her head slowly. "More quickly now than ever. Your friends are not very much better. You must leave, and you must leave now."
"Kristy…what happens to her?" he whispered. "Will she be alright?"
Galadriel turned crystal blue eyes away. "I…cannot see her fate. Too tangled, too twined in emotions, in destinies not her own, possible choices. They are endless."
"But will she survive? Will she…be happy?" He swiped his face, but the water somewhere in the back of his mind still streamed in his eyes. He saw her clearly still, but he blinked and flinched in the wind.
"I cannot say. All I can give you is this, young prince." She said, "I have seen the choice you make, and what I give you has taken magic complicated and powerful."
Legolas shifted, "What do you mean?"
"We are elves. There is a bond between us. We use the touch of another's fea as humans use words. It is our way."
Legolas tilted his head.
"I have sewn a thread between you, Legolas, in much the same way, so you will never lose her. Not completely. You are bound to her, and her to you. Remember this when you make your choice! You will know her fate, even through distant space and the reaches of time. Through this bond you will feel her, Legolas. Let this be your comfort. In a sense, you may…watch over her. Always."
"How is it possible?" Legolas breathed.
"It is beyond your understanding. That the magic has worked in this way is a wonder even to me. I have tried before and failed. It is a gift, perhaps for what you have suffered in this world."
"Have you done this for her as well? Will she know too that somewhere I live?"
"Kristine has no knowledge of what I have made between you. She is a child of man. She," Galadriel paused. "has no ability to touch your fea in this way. Take comfort in what you have now."
"How is this comfort?" he spat bitterly.
Gone was every ounce of determination, every bit of defensiveness. He let his feelings spill into his words and they felt raw, like an open wound. "That I may feel and not touch? Know that she lives, and know she lives without me? Forever? This is comfort?"
"Make your choice, prince of Mirkwood." She said in answer, "Time is short. Things are never as simple as they seem. You have many choices…choose wisely. The magic at work here has done more for you than you know. And this should be comfort to you, young prince."
Legolas stared at her in utter disbelief. Even as he felt the vision shaking and shattering, he held onto the last vestiges of night and prairie grass as long as he could, trying to make sense of her words.
But no matter how hard he tried, he could only drown in an overpowering sense of loss.
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A/N: So sorry that this is so short!