Title: LOTR The Beginning

Chapter 2: Healing

Pairing: Gandalf/Galadriel

Genre: Ship/Romance/AU

Rating: Pg-13

Warning: Language, Threat of death (no character death)

Spoiler Alert: LOTR and the Hobbit (books, maps and movies)

Summary: Gandalf saves Galadriel's life after she fled Eregion by way of Moria to get to Lorien in the Second Age after the Rings of Power were created. Now that they have met, she is taking him to her home to tend his wounds.

A/N: This is not a Canon-Fanfiction. You were warned that this is Alternate Universe.

Gandalf was glad that the Great Eagles were allowing them to ride on their backs instead of being carried by their claws. He quickly inspected the path they were taking. He knew they were not going to the Lorien he knew. He contemplated the idea that maybe there was a second.

He pressed his hand to his chin when the eagle flattened out. He applied pressure holding the skin together knowing that he might be in trouble if he lost more blood.

He heard Galadriel's voice trying to send him a whisper using her mind, and he allowed it. "The Lorien I spoke of is Lothlórien. It is where my visions show I will dwell until I leave Middle Earth."

Gandalf thought of her connection with another elf knowing it was rumored by the gods that they were joined in name only. He sent her mental thought in reply. "If you would permit my Lady, you live there with Lord Celeborn. Will he look kindly on my presence there when he is not?"

Galadriel grinned over her shoulder at him letting the golden silk of her hair flow all around her before she answered him. "He will not. I believe you know our arrangement already. But if you are unsure, I have my garden for my entertainment as long as the one I choose is discrete. He has another area he frequents. It is not our people's way and unheard of. In this way it will continue to be unknown."

"I understand. All is not as it appears." Gandalf attempted a smile, but it pulled on the wound causing him to grimace instead.

Her eyes spoke a question concerning his pain even as her eagle lifted her higher.

"I'm alright. Tell me more of your dwelling." He kept the consistency of his thoughts strong to hide any discomfort being revealed.

Galadriel shifted to watch where her flying companion was taking her. "I find it very lovely, and I hope you like it. I have made some changes to it since the Nandoris elves. I add in some flourishes and a garden all of my own that extends southeast from the main dwelling. You can see it as we pass, but there are areas with runes that cannot be seen from outside of it."

He sent his thoughts back to her. "I'm thinking that my Lady also added a little more light."

"Have you used some type of power to see it already?" Galadriel's eagle tipped its wings and soared over a mountain peak.

Gandalf's eagle took the same path but did not dip as far knowing he was only holding on with one hand. "It was only a guess."

"Then you guess correctly. How long have you been traveling here?" Galadriel looked out over the expanse seeing that they had cleared the mountains and were now following the path of river Celebrant. She knew it was not that much farther till they would glide over her forest.

When he didn't respond, she looked back over her shoulder. His face was down. "Gandalf?"

No response. She pushed louder with her words asking if he needed help. "Lle anta amin tu?"

Still no response.

Galadriel lost her breath when Gandalf's hand released all together, and he slumped forward.

The eagle flipped in a breathtaking display of strong fluttering wings and grabbed him in midair with its talons.

She knew it was not needed, but she said it anyway. "We must hurry."

The eagles screeched out consent for her assistance, which they had used before.

Galadriel chanted out a few words using the magic of her white ring to gust wind over them. The eagles that were already very swift were flung forward to even greater speeds over the river.

When they were close to the dwelling, she spoke words of power again pushing the wind in the opposite direction that slowed the eagles.

Gandalf's eagle banked over an extended terrace making sure not to smack the overhanging branches and deposited him and his staff. When her eagle was near, she rolled off its shoulder down the tips of his wings. The eagle caught her with one claw then she dropped a few feet next to Gandalf.

Galadriel scooped him up in her arms and called out to the eagles that circled. "Vanya sulie." (Fair winds)

She entered her chambers and carried him to a room designed for amplifying spells and runes. The words for healing, Tanka harwar, was etched into a wooden plank fastened by growing vines to the archway leading into the area.

Galadriel felt a tingling in the air as even the room felt his need of attention.

She laid him down on a bed of Ninuaine that was transplanted from the banks of lake Nisinen in the far west. The lush thick leaves grow near to the ground and absorb poison while their exotic sweet scent slows bleeding and promotes healing.

She felt a presence at the door of her rooms and sent a mental message. "All is well with me, but I do not wish to be troubled unless there is danger." She felt an acknowledgement as she unfastened her hooded cloak tossing it to the side. She went to the terrace and retrieved his staff placing it in his hand in case it could aid him by contact.

Galadriel spent the next two hours using several different being's spells on top of her own till they practically permeated his body. She even used her father's echo Fieneun bird that mimics spells to combine with her own voice to cause a synergistic effect of sound.

When she first started the healing process, she knew the air would be the only thing that would let her know that he was healed because she could not see or feel where he was hurt. So her heart started beating with gladness as if a warm tangible blanket wrapped around it when the tingling in the air dissipated. After a few moments, she spoke the words that stopped the bird from singing because it was no longer needed.

Galadriel mentally sent for a plate of food that a human would want as nourishment and some Lembas bread. She had it left at her doors not even wanting anyone to enter because there was a risk that his secret might be known if he was in a weakened state and the spelled rune on his arm did not hold up. She did not fully understand it, so she was taking extra precautions.

When she set the tray of nourishment next to him on the flooring, she sat next to him and waited for an hour before she saw the flicker of his eyes. "Are you waking?"

Hearing her voice, he was disoriented. "From a dream into another one?"

"This is no dream though you may have been in one." She smiled at him thankful that her rescuer was finally awake.

His light blue eyes flickered open then focused on her face as he rolled over on his side facing her. "Yes, another dream. One of haunting light and captivating beauty."

"Men often flatter and exaggerate when brought back from shadow." Her warm smile turned on him growing as she locked hers on his eyes seeing understanding. "You need to eat and rest."

"The best of flattery my dear Lady is an offence in that it would never do true justice to your divinity." He lowered his head as best he could and cast his eyes down.

"Do not play false with me as you know where I have peered and once lived." She raised a mirthful eyebrow at him reminding him that she saw into his mind earlier and knew he came from the splendor of the heavens where the true gods dwelt.

Gandalf leaned back into the softness of the dark green leaves and etched delicate marks into his memory of the perfection of her form, the luminescence of her face and the gentle yet knowing kindness in her dazzling eyes. "Truly, if all the gods descended into your sanctuary and beheld the splendor of your presence as it is now, they would slay themselves having been eaten up with jealously and in seeing how they pale next to the Lady of Light."

She watched him expecting playful mirth, but instead she witnessed the finality of his words. He meant what he was saying. For the first time in over a thousand years, she found her skin flushing with heated pink upon her cheeks.

Galadriel touched the side of her face feeling the warmth. "I would fear that the poison still dwells within your veins but for the calmness of the air, and even now you are finding your strength."

"I'm feeling exceedingly better. Thank you." Gandalf smiled not believing or trusting his mortal vision as his eyes drank in the color change of her skin that was accompanied with a wave of happiness that flowed from her into the room. He knew that neither the words of the most ardent human poets nor even the finely scripted elfish tongue could ever hope to contain the enchantment that is Galadriel Lady of Light. "Will you join me?"

She tipped her head down scrutinizing his face. Her hair fell forward, and she noticed she had removed her traveling cowl, but she had not fastened her hair back in her circlet. She felt oddly self conscious in front of him; it delighted her. She caught herself questioning contemplating his ambiguous question. She knew for a woman who was thousands of years old, she should be able to understand and answer such a simple questions. "Trust."

Gandalf contemplated her response a few moments. "It is not a matter of trust." He slowly reached forward holding his fingers mere inches from her hair. He knew she was talking about the fact he had not lowered the spelled rune letting himself be his true form.

"I beg to differ." She blinked once slowly giving consent. "This is who I am."

His hand moved forward gently grasping the strands of her hair that fell over her face. The texture was the smoothest of silken water. He held the strand up and back closer to her ear then released following the movements with his eyes. "But this is not who I am. Yes, I see."

Galadriel nodded.

"Then maybe, if my Lady allows, we should take a stroll around your garden that has a shield from prying eyes."

"I may permit after you have eaten." She concluded.

"Yes, and once again will you join me?" He took a piece of fruit from the tray and sampled it wondering how far its fall would be in comparison to the sweetness of her lips and the honeyed fragrance of her breath.

A flicker of eyelashes. An explosion of laughter. Gandalf watched transfixed in his own personal heaven. "What is it?"

She could barely contain herself, but managed. "You were asking me to eat something with you." Her laughter continued, but this time it was light and airy like the breeze of morning over a sun bathed field.

Gandalf's eyebrows scrunched together. "What did you…Ohhh. That you would even consider such a thought was posed to you in question is true flattery. Yes, I was asking you to join me in eating not in the leaves."

Her laughter started up again. "Very well. A snack and then a walk since you are not dwelling with the shadows today."

They ate the food together talking over the healing capabilities of different items in the room and the exact combination that brought him back so quickly.

Galadriel was relaxed knowing she did not have to meet some expectation with him other than be herself. And, he amused her as little else had in thousands of years. She wondered if part of it was that they were both originally from Valinor. Her exile weighed heavily on her at times and talking to someone new who was from that same location dwindled some of that loneliness.

She noticed they had both gone quiet. "I know that others are around me as I serve my purpose, but there are times when it is not enough. In those moments, I feel alone. No one hears all of my inner thoughts and no one seems to care too."

Gandalf stood to his feet and flexed feeling that everything was back to the way it should. "There are a great many evils ahead that both of us will struggle to overcome. We are both working toward the same goals." He paused then looked at his hands then back to her. "Here in this existence I am almost nothing more than an old wizard who cannot use his full power. They have even wiped things from my mind that they deem might tip the scales too quickly causing a loss of balance. But as lowly as I am currently in this existence here…I am with you. You are not alone in this."

Galadriel took the hand that was extended to her as she rose to her feet. "That knowledge is most welcome. I have seen in the future that I will have a temptation, and I wonder if you will have the same one."

He walked toward her main doors knowing she was right next to him. "Does this temptation have anything to do with…" He used the word from earlier that she misunderstood. "Joining one another?"

The concern on her radiant face melted away. "Not that type of temptation. I mean in the distant future there will be a choice of taking power or resisting it."

"Oh good. I see. Then let us go to the garden where there can be trust and temptation." He knew the trust they were talking about was him trusting her to be in his true form and her trust toward him in that he would not speak to anyone of their intimacy…emotional, mental or otherwise.

A/N: I would like to thank everyone who has left reviews and sent messages. Your encouragement and thoughts help me write. If you don't like to leave reviews, you can leave me a smiley face or send a message. :)

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