Chapter 3: Lord Glorfindel speaks to Lord Elrond (Though Unwillingly)(Do you Blame Him?!)

On the morrow, Glorfindel, accompanied by Lord Elrond of Rivendell, was entering the borders of Lothlorien. The famed skills of the Border Guard were not exaggerated - for within seconds Glorfindel's company was being escorted courteously to Caras Galadhon.

Lord Elrond rode beside Lord Glorfindel - the reborn balrog-slayer. Glorfindel could sense his friend watching him - attempting to detect some emotion behind his impeccable mask that Glorfindel had worn whenever Lord Elrond had mentioned or implied about his mysterious betrothal and betrothed.

'You know, my friend, you have been quite surprisingly quiet about this betrothal of yours…' Elrond stopped as he watched Glorfindel's mind come back from wherever in Arda it had been wandering, and give a wry grin to, what seemed, the world in general. Unfazed, Elrond continued.

'Indeed, I only learnt of it days before we left on this journey - and what is more, I happened not to learn it from you, like I would have expected…' gauging Glorfindel's slightly sheepish expression, he continued.

'No indeed, I learnt it from Erestor! Of course, I was exceedingly surprised, and would have been inclined to disbelieve it, if anyone but our trustworthy Erestor had informed me…'

Before he could continue with his monologue which held an accusatory and slightly hurt undertone, Glorfindel interrupted with a swiftly uplifted hand.

'Elrond, Elrond, please forebear!' with a laugh, he continued, 'I am deeply sorry that I did not inform you of this betrothal of mine, myself. Indeed…' here he stopped, with a frown indented in his forehead,' I believe I have something to say to my dear Erestor when I return to Imladris…'

'Perhaps, Glorfindel, but if you would limit it to spoken words and not a whole siege of ridiculous pranks, I will be satisfied!'

'Only words?! My dear Elrond…' he cast a mischievous glance at the Lord of Imladris. 'However, to return to the point,'

'Amazing…' murmured Elrond, but was deliberately ignored by his friend.

Elrond was quite relieved. Indeed, during the months preceding the journey, Glorfindel had been strangely, and rather disturbingly, quiet and subdued. It was reassuring to see that the mischievous element of the elf had not disappeared…

All too often Elrond had despaired of Glorfindel's ever truly growing up…Maybe it had something to do with being reborn, Elrond mused, remembering that truly outlandish tricks Glorfindel had taught to the twins when they were younger…(Not that they had totally dispensed with Glorfindel's superior experience and knowledge of tricks, even now!)

'There are very few who know of my betrothal, and…it's details are somewhat…complicated, and therefore it has been a secret to all, except the Lady Galadriel, and the elleth's brothers - Erestor unwittingly came across the secret, through my own carelessness…and…' with an almost shy glance at Elrond, 'I did not feel I could speak to you about this. I have not ever been able to speak about it. I refused to tell Erestor more than the basics…'

Far from being censorious, Elrond felt slightly worried. Indeed, he thought, it must have been a deep-lying problem for Glorfindel to not tell him.

'Glorfindel…I believe now would be a good time to tell me about this mysterious betrothal of yours…I have a feeling that this is more complicated than I thought…'

With a sly smile, and a speculative glance, Glorfindel replied.

'Well, Elrond, my old friend… we all know about these 'feelings' of yours!'

The inevitable eyebrow went up alarmingly - alarmingly for most that is, but not for Glorfindel. In his opinion, Elrond had learnt that action from him…or so he maintained. Elrond knew that the likelihood of their having met before the Fall of Gondolin was very small…impossible, actually.

'Glorfindel…!' his voice had a warning in it, which Glorfindel ignored. With his two lives, he was a considerable amount older than the Lord of Rivendell…a thought that scared him, when comparing his age to a certain other….

'Do try to be serious, my friend!'

'My apologies, Elrond. I shall attempt to tell you everything…Who knows? It may be a relief!'

'Indeed, it may. How about, my friend, we start from the very beginning. How did you meet this maiden? Also, firstly, what is her name?'

'Her name is Idril. ' Glorfindel replied with a sigh, 'How did we meet…?' His eyes seemed to be looking a long-way off - back into the past, mayhap…

Flashback

Glorfindel was wandering aimlessly under the mallorn trees of Lothlorien, outside of the gates of Caras Galadhon. Elrond had practically thrown him on Asfaloth to accompany Elladan and Elrohir to visit their grandmother and sister. He had not wished to come - he felt worried about leaving Elrond and Celebrian at Rivendell alone - or, at any rate, without his presence - only with Erestor to help them…And that fact worried him enough…he shook his head over the thought of his dear, yet melancholy friend Erestor. He and Glorfindel were practically opposites in personality…so of course they were incredibly close, irritating each other so completely that it occurred at least once a day that both of them declared they didn't know how they put up with the other…

Glorfindel, reclining himself against a willing tree, forced his mind from Erestor (he felt worried about that feeling that he actually missed the serious librarian…Disturbing…) He cared very much for Elrond's children, and also desired to see the little Evenstar once again - though she had come of age quite some time before. Arwen had always been very close to Glorfindel - he had been almost a second adar to her, though somewhat different to her real adar…Teaching her a lot of clever mischief to protect herself from the elder twins, and also delving her out of trouble that most often followed! But still…with the three young elves spending a great deal of time with their grandparents, Glorfindel was frankly bored. His acquaintance was limited among the Lothlorien elves, and those whom he knew best all happened to be on the Border Guard at the present moment, and was yet to be changed - otherwise he would have bribed himself a place on the guard himself, like old times…He smiled, thinking of the banter that had occurred so often between himself and the March warden of Lothlorien - Haldir. Though the two had never been exceedingly close - Haldir was a lot more grave and serious about duty and work than Glorfindel had ever pretended to be - they had always taken some small enjoyment out of teasing the other. This had started by Glorfindel's beating Haldir in a bet …the bet had been that Glorfindel could get past the Border Guard without their noticing, and Haldir had frankly declared it impossible. It had been a sore hurt to his pride when he was beaten, but Haldir, though seemingly arrogant, was not unreasonably stubborn, and gave credit where credit was due. Ever since, a lively rivalry had been ongoing, especially when Glorfindel spent time on the border guard. He took delight in being insubordinate (as he was ranked higher than Haldir, the latter had no authority over him. Although on patrols Glorfindel should have been bound to behave like all the other elves under Haldir's command, he simply did not, which almost gave Haldir the will to see Lady Galadriel about the problem, until he realised that Glorfindel would follow his rule at all the right moments, such as in a crisis, and the rest of the time, would spend it trying to deliberating irritate him. Knowing this, Haldir soon accepted the inevitable and gave as good as he got!

All of a sudden, Glorfindel's thoughts and reminiscences were halted by a faint impression of light, running feet in his direction. Glorfindel frowned slightly, and his hand went involuntarily to the hilt of his sword - for the elves of Lorien were experts of silence in movement.

The elf - he presumed it to be an elf, for the steps were too light to be of a human or orc - was either inexperienced, disturbed in spirit, being chased, or maybe totally unaware of his close proximity. He lightly propelled himself from his semi-reclining position, just as a small slim figure dashed around the large tree straight into the mildly surprised Glorfindel.

As he was steadying the young she-elfling, Glorfindel took note of her. Her dark Noldo hair must have set her apart from the majority of her Lothlorien kindred - it was a deep brown, almost black, hanging in very loose ringlets down her back. She very young, not in the least close to her majority - perhaps seven or eight in human years - but her face was expressive and still held a look of delight and mischief. That is, until she caught a glimpse of the walking tree she had run into. Before looking up, as he held her arms as she found her balance, Glorfindel heard her stifle a few embarrassed giggles, and he smile at her antics. Then, however, she looked up. Her small, defined face took on a new expression of shock, her lips parted, her eyes widened and suddenly Glorfindel was reminded of a startled deer. With a gasp and a whimper, she darted backwards from him, and turned to flee when she met yet another tunic, though not as hard as before. Glorfindel had not noticed the elf's approach, his attention being monopolised by the elleth, but now he noticed Haldir as the elfling ran into him. Haldir expressed slight surprise when seeing Glorfindel, but turned his attention to the elfling, who appeared to know him. She was weeping into his tunic, mumbling frantically.

'Rilla, child, why are you weeping? Why are you upset?' His words held no expression of suspicion towards Glorfindel's presence there. Elves completed trusted elflings with other elves - even strangers.

It was a while before either of the ellyn could understand what the elfling was murmuring distractedly about to Haldir's long-suffering tunic…

'I'm-sorry-I'm-sorry-I'm-sorry-I promise to be good! P-please don't let Mandos take me away!' she ended in almost a lament.

Mandos?

'Mandos?' Haldir was incredibly surprised,, and looked at Glorfindel, whose expression practically mirrored his own.

'Y-yes, M-mandos…I-I…ran into him when I was running away from you.' This was spoken quietly, intermitted by random sobs and sniffs. Then her words became once again desperate -

'P-please don't let him take me away! I p-promise to be good!'

Haldir, now understanding the distress of the child, now seemed amused, and sent Glorfindel a look which clearly boded teasing for Glorfindel's likeness to the common belief of what the Vala looked like afterwards.

Haldir prised the distressed elleth from him, holding her shaking shoulders, as a new thought occurred to him.

'Why do you believe, aier, that Mandos is going to take you away because you were naughty?' There was an underlying sense present in Haldir's words - something along the lines of 'why do I feel I know exactly what you're about to say'

'B-because Rumil,' A muscle in Haldir's cheek twitched. He knew it. 'Said that if I was bad too often Mandos would come and carry me away to his realm and, and,' Her voice was gradually strengthening during her telling the story, 'And…I-I don't want to goooo!' She ended in a plaintive wail.

Glorfindel and Haldir exchanged amused glances, before Haldir set about comforting the elfling.

'But mellamin, Mandos is not here - and Mandos does not truly do that to naughty elflings. Rumil, was teasing you.' Rumil, if he had heard the way in which Haldir said those words, would have made himself scarce over the next few days.

The elfling however, was shocked out of her state of misery, facing Haldir directly.

'But I just ran into him!!!' she declared confidentially.

'No, no you did not, little one. You ran into Lord Glorfindel - he is come from Rivendell with Lord Elrond.' With a slightly cheeky glance at Glorfindel, Haldir continued with a grin apparent on his handsome face, 'You know all about Lord Glorfindel, do you not, darling? He is the famous one out of all those history books about Gondolin! He killed a balrog!'

Glorfindel shifted uneasily, tacitly declaring revenge on Haldir with a glance, as the elfling, taking in this information, turned around to peep at him shyly through her wet eyelashes.

'You're….You're not Mandos?' he voice was small, but incredulous.

With a laugh Glorfindel approached and knelt on one knee before her, bringing himself to her eye level.

'No, little one, I am not Mandos! I am he who Haldir informs you I am. ' This latter comment was said with a foreboding ring to it, as he glanced meaningfully at Haldir, who took it with a smirk.

'You killed a balrog?' an occasional hiccup interrupted her awed words.

'Yes - yes I did.' A thoughtful, grave expression was now present on his face, and Haldir had misgivings about bringing the subject up with the elfling. Though Haldir seemed sometimes cold and aloof, he did not ever intentionally cause pain to his friends.

'And…you died, didn't you?' her voice was almost a whisper now.

'Yes. I did. ' replied Glorfindel simply.

The elfling pulled herself away from the loose hold Haldir had of her, and gently put her arms around Glorfindel's neck, her next words seeming to show her wish to 'comfort' the ancient elf.

'But you were sent back to us by the Valar! Do not be sad!'

The elfling looked at him with such compassion, Glorfindel was surprised to find his eyes become slightly damp. He smiled at the charm and sympathy of the elleth, and raised his head to determine whether Haldir was surprised or not - whether the elfling's show of sympathy was something common.

Having determined this was so, he smiled at her warmly, and lifted a hand to her cheek.

'Do not worry, compassionate one. I am not sad. For how could I be, after receiving the sympathy of such a beautiful maiden!'

The elfling gave a delighted giggle, and brought her hands together, clasping them demurely in front of her.

'But, my lord, we have not been introduced!'

With a laugh, Glorfindel replied.

'Indeed, that is so!' He stood up, and looked at Haldir.

'My dear Marchwarden, would you be so kind as to introduce me to this charming young elleth?'

Haldir, with an appreciative grin, played along.

'My Lord Glorfindel, I would be honoured! Lord Glorfindel, may I introduced the Lady Idril, my sister!'

Idril curtsied gracefully, as Glorfindel bowed elaborately over her hand which she had held out of him to take, and more according to human customs than elvish, he kissed it.

Surprised, Idril giggled and whispered loudly that, 'he was doing it wrong!' and that all he had to do was to bow over it!

The two ellons laughed at this, and Haldir took Idril's hand.

'Now I am returning you to your longsuffering tutor, Rilla! Would you be so good as to bid Lord Glorfindel a good day!'

With a swift look upwards, and a swifter smile, Idril gave a quaint little curtsey - as much her own, as the previous had been one studious taught to her - and with what Glorfindel would have termed a mischievous glance through her long lashes, she allowed herself to be led off.

End of Flashback

'And I know what you are wondering, Elrond, and the answer is an emphatic no! I did not fall in love with an elfling who was not even close to her majority! I did not see her again for years - indeed, it was on the day of her majority when I met her next…'