A/N - Many thanks to The Last Temptation of Homer for the kind review! This one's for you.
Btw, the story will definitely improve as it goes along.

Chapter 5 - Torn In Two

Tinuial trudged wearily through the shrouded woods, paying little heed to her surroundings. The hours passed silently, and still she had seen no sign of any other living creature.

'Tinuial!' A horrifyingly sudden exclamation close at hand startled her out of her thoughts, and she jumped violently as a hand was laid upon her arm. She turned, and found herself staring into the face of her brother. She was speechless, and gaped at him blankly. He was clearly relieved to see her, yet his wrath, always bubbling beneath the surface, appeared to get the better of him for an instant.

'Tinuial! What madness has possessed you?' He raged furiously, 'You must not leave! Did you not think of the grief you would cause?' At that moment, Annariel and Arreion came rushing breathlessly up to them. Annariel cried with joy, and flung her arms about her sister. Tinuial was stunned, and knew not what to say. But at this moment a thought occurred to her, like a sudden gleam of hope - her brother and sister were far from their home, and if she could only persuade them to flee with her then they may escape the evils which approached their land, of which the stranger had spoken.

'Have you nothing to say?' Her brother cried. 'No word of thanks, even? For we have pursued you for days!'

'I did not wish it.' Tinuial said quietly. 'I thank you for your concern, and I beg your pardon indeed for the trouble I have caused.'

'It matters not, my sister!' Annariel exclaimed, 'I am thankful merely to find you alive and whole! Come, we return home at once.' Tinuial's face fell. She realised that making them understand her actions would be no simple task, and persuading them to allow her to depart, let alone accompany her, may prove near impossible.

'I cannot!.' Tinuial exclaimed desperately. She then told in a shaking voice all that she could explain of her fears and her reasons for leaving. She left silent the matter of the mysterious stranger, and mentioned nothing of her battle with the Orc. As she spoke, she was constantly distracted by the disturbing gaze of Arreion as he stared intently at her face. Thaliondil was now silent, for in his heart he too wished to leave, and had no desire to return home now that it lay at last so far behind. He did not perhaps share in Tinuial's wild longing for the taste of freedom, or her reckless hope of peace, happiness, or whatever it was she wished to attain in the wide lands of Middle-Earth - it was merely that his past was now steeped in a bitterness no amount of time could iradicate. He had not the heart to turn back. To return once again to their empty shell of a home would have entirely crushed the last flimsy bastion of endurance in his soul. Annariel, however, stood aghast throughout Tinuial's grim tirade. Arreion eyed Tinuial dubiously, and she glared back at him with growing dislike. There was a heavy silence.

'You are strange to me, Tinuial.' Said Annariel at length. 'Thaliondil! Is this not madness?' She turned to her brother. His face was drawn and ashen, and he could not meet her pleading gaze.

'Were I never to see the lights of home again, I would not grieve,' he replied sullenly. 'I have no desire to remain in Nargothrond, were it to stand or fall. All that concerns me is the promise I made to my father ere he left. I swore to guard my sisters from harm. Since Tinuial will not remain here save by force, if I am to protect her I must follow her. Annariel, however, would not be willing to leave. Is that not so, my sister?'

'I cannot leave,' she half-whispered. 'You need not concern yourself about me, for while Arreion remains by my side I shall need no protection.' Annariel looked into her lover's eyes, and he smiled in return.

'Then I leave my sister in your care,' Thaliondil spoke to Arreion more kindly than ever before, though still with a hint of his old reserve. 'I deem you to be trustworthy.' Annariel's face split unto a shimmering smile, for never had her brother spoken to Arreion in such a way.

'Then in token of friendship, I will guide you to the borders of our Realm. Though it is not custom.' Arreion replied. Thaliondil smiled, stiffly, as though his face was unused to it, and nodded his approval. Annariel sighed sadly, gazing at Thaliondil and Tinuial, and she took the hand of Arreion. Tinuial could not take her eyes from Arreion, and found herself caught between distrust and fascination. He seemed quite willing to guide them, in order to prove his good will, yet it seemed to Tinuial that he was eager only to see them leave. She caught the gleam in his eye as he looked at her, and wondered if she had done something to anger him.

The piercing glare of dawn spread through the heavens like flame. The air was mild, and no frost or Winter's chill dared mar its gentle ambience. And yet a faint, musty hint of the approaching Autumn drifted upon the breeze, though the world still clung tightly to the ailing ghost of Summer. The sun appeared now as a blinding disk of sharp red, wreathed in molten cloud. A long time it seemed to Tinuial since the four companions had begun to journey North towards the Guarded Plain of Nargothrond. They had left the slumbering grey forests long behind, and the ground became gradually higher and more mountainous as the bones of the earth were hauled upwards and joined with the sky. Tinuial thought now less of her strange meeting with the mortal in the shadowy forest, and she buried all thoughts and feelings deep in her heart. She did not care to recall the past, and she dared not consider the future. Her eyes beheld only the sun as it rose and fell, and the path set immediately before her feet. Thaliondil seemed more at ease than he had been in a long time, as though a burden had been lifted from his shoulders, and his grey eyes were no longer as cold and sorrowful as they had become of late. Neither he nor Tinuial had any clear idea where they went, save that each were of a mind to leave their Realm within a few days, and pass into the East. Annariel had resolved to travel alongside them as long as they lingered within the borders of their land, and Arreion led them now North-East in the direction of the Falls of Sirion. As the day drew on, they seemed to travel more directly to the East, and all began to realise that they must soon bid farewell to one another, and that Thaliondil and Tinuial went into an exile that was likely to last their entire lives. When the sun was high in the sky the companions rested together, though their conversation was brief and stilted, for an inescapable sadness seemed to seep through their hearts. Shortly they trudged on once more, as the bright day was reduced to a solemn evening. Tinuial felt somehow uneasy, and she gazed about her at the lengthening shadows, trying to discern what disturbed her.

'It is well that we rest now,' sighed Arreion. 'When the sun ascends, we must away.' The last hazy glimmer of the sun glanced upon his grey eyes ere it faded, and he stood long in silence as still as the darkness. None answered him, though all understood that the time to part drew close.

'Let us rest then.' Thaliondil said in barely more than a whisper, as though he feared to disturb the silence.

As her companions lay silently in a sheltered dell, Tinuial rose and followed a stony path into the hills. She could not sleep, and was troubled, for the hushed peace of the night seemed unnatural, and felt disturbingly like the unearthly stillness which would proceed a wrathful tempest. The path rose steeply, and Tinuial climbed tirelessly upwards, like a shade drifting into the glowering heavens. She stood at last upon a high slope among the hills, regarding the night. Darkness flowed through all the ways of the world, and all was cloaked in shadow, broken only by the faint light of a few scant stars. Her pale hair ensnared the misted starlight and shimmered softly, yet her face was concealed in the gloom, and her darkling eyes were at one with the shadow. She shivered, for the air was chill, and deciding to return as she had come, she turned. She gasped loudly for directly behind her stood a figure blacker than the darkness. She took a hesitant step backwards, but there came a voice from the shadow.

'Why do you stray? You must rest.' It was Arreion.

'I was unable to sleep.' Tinuial replied shakily. 'I am uneasy, though I know not why.'

'As am I.' He said. 'Yet there is no danger near at hand. Come, you need sleep.'

'I wish the new day would never come,' she looked at him sadly. 'I long to be gone, and yet I long to remain. From tomorrow I shall see neither you nor Annariel for as long as I live.' Though she had at first distrusted Arreion, over the days she had grown increasingly fond of him, though he was strange to her. Her eyes glinted with unshed tears.

'Do not despair.' He whispered, though it seemed to Tinuial that he too wept. She thought this odd, for seldom indeed did Arreion reveal his feelings. He placed his hands upon her shoulders, and drew closer until Tinuial could discern the outline of his fair face.

'I am torn in two.' Tinuial wept.

'Fate is brutal,' Arreion uttered bitterly into the darkness. 'For every path might lead astray, and there can be no turning back.. A choice once made cannot be unmade, that you shall learn.' Tinuial frowned.

'Your words are wise, and doubtless there is much truth in them.' She replied hesitantly. 'Yet I deem that more lies behind your speech than you would have me know. Will you not share your thoughts?'

'I meant what I said. Nothing more.' He sounded uncertain, and Tinuial doubted him.

'Tell me what troubles you!' She insisted, raising her voice slightly. 'All is not well, I think, and I vow to keep your secret locked within my heart as long as I live. At sunrise we shall part - and never again will I see you -'

'I cannot say!' He interrupted her sharply. They stood in silence for some time, swathed in the darkness. Tinuial sighed in resignation.

'The secret is yours to keep.' She breathed, 'I meant no offence.' Arreion looked into her deep eyes.

'I curse the dawn that steals you from me.' He leaned forward gently, and kissed her. Time seemed to halt in its tracks, as softly their lips met. Hours they might have stood there, locked in that kiss. Yet still it ended, and Tinuial stood aghast, gazing into the eyes of Arreion. Tinuial tore herself from his grasp. She turned and ran from him, giving him no chance to speak. She sped into the night, and swiftly descended the path in the hills. Arreion did not follow, but stood motionless and numb and watched as the glimmer of her streaming hair faded into the shadow.