A/N: N: Hey guys, sorry it's been a few days since I last posted a new chapter. Been rather busy with uni. Finally finished this chapter and I really hope you like it.
Please don't forget to review!
E:Hey guys just wanna say thanks to you who are following our story, those who have favourited us, to Foofie01 for reveiwing and just everyone who's took the time to read it. you're all awesome. This is were the story kicks of towards our big finale so please keep reading and review please. hope you enjoy.
I do not own any of Tolkien's work or characters, only my own.
Haldir was making his way to Lillieth's talan, he had to say goodbye to her before he left for duty on the border. He thought that this patrol would not be straight forward. He stood before the door and knocked upon it, waiting eagerly for Lillieth to answer. She opened the door and he picked her up holding her tightly against him.
"I have to go to the borders, Meleth nîn [my love]" he said with sadness in his voice. She looked into his eyes, the sadness he felt was mirrored in her eyes. Neither of them wanted to be parted.
"I know, please come back to me" she said in a hushed voiced wrapping her arms around him tightly.
"You could have at least shut the door" came Nienna's voice from inside the talan.
"Lady Nienna" he said whilst putting Lillieth down and bowing to Nienna slightly. "I thought you would be with Eärendur" he enquired.
"We've already said our goodbyes. He's gone to prepare with the rest of the soldiers who are awaiting the arrival of their leader" she replied.
"Nienna came around to keep me company. She knew I would be sad about you leaving" Lillieth said shyly.
"It is good to know you have someone to keep you company and look after you while I am away" he said to her smiling in Nienna's direction. "I must leave now, as Nienna mentioned my troops are waiting for me. Novaer, Meleth nîn [goodbye, my love]" he said while kissing her passionately on the lips. A tear rolled down Lillieth's face as he left for duty. Nienna came up behind her to give her a reassuring hug.
"He will be fine. There is a reason why he is Lórien's March Warden" she said easing Lillieth's pain.
Eärendur and the other troops stood at the gate of Caras Galadhon awaiting the arrival of Haldir. Eärendur knew where he was, saying farewell to Lillieth. He knew that he loved her, and wished he hadn't given Haldir such a hard time. He vowed to protect Haldir and make it up to them one day. Haldir arrived looking at all the elves stood before him. They wore a grey tunic with a wraparound cloak, which would help hide them in the trees, and the other terrain of Lórien they all knew well. They all had a similar blade strapped to their side as he had. They also had a quiver of arrows strapped to their back and their bows in hand. The only one who stood was Eärendur who adorned his green travelling cloak that he had arrived in Lórien in and his distinct bow which was different to the others. Haldir turned to his brothers who were stood in front of him.
"Rumil you will take your company along the Northern border, Orophin you will patrol the eastern border. Me and my company will take the southern border. If there are orcs coming from Mirkwood they will have to cross the Anduin, so focus on the areas closest to the river. Take your men and leave now" Haldir ordered. His persona of March Warden had taken full effect again.
"Nice to have you back, brother" Orophin said as he patted Haldir on the back, before he left with his group. Eärendur approached the March Warden.
"Am I in your company?" Eärendur asked him.
"Yes, you are new to the woods of Lórien. I would have you near me so you can learn" Haldir replied. "Plus you would not want to face Nienna if anything happened to me" Eärendur joked. Haldir smiled as he thought back to the elliths who were awaiting their return in Caras Galadhon.
"True, but I doubt you would want to face Lillieth if anything happened to me. So we should agree to look out for one another, to spare ourselves the wrath of our elliths." Haldir joked in reply.
"Shall we go?" asked Eärendur. Haldir nodded and signalled for the rest of the company to move out. There were 50 of them in total. They started their way through the forest towards the southern border.
It was now dark and they had been travelling all day and had found no sign of any Orc activity or activity of any kind. They had stopped for the night to make up camp so they could rest and start up again in a few hours. Most were sitting talking amongst their selves; others were eating Lembas bread or sipping water. Sitting on his own looking back towards Lórien was Haldir. Eärendur noticed and decided to take a seat next to him.
"Thinking about her already" Eärendur asked him.
"I haven't stopped since the moment I left her" Haldir said with a sigh.
"She will be ok with Nienna. You need to keep your wits about you out here. I know you wish to return to her" he replied.
"I have been meaning to ask you something" Haldir said looking towards Eärendur.
"What is that? You don't need to ask for my permission to marry her, it is gladly given" he said.
"That is good to know, but is not my question. Why do you always wear that old cloak? I don't think I have seen you parted from it since you arrived here" Haldir asked.
"I think it was my fathers, but I can't be sure" Eärendur replied.
"I'm sorry if you would rather not speak of this subject, I was just curious" he said placing a hand on Eärendur's shoulder.
"No, it is fine. When they found my village, Lillieth's father found me wrapped in this hiding under one of the beds. I vaguely remember an ellon telling me to stay quiet and placing the cloak around me. If you don't mind, could I ask you a question?" He described.
"Anything you wish to know, I will answer" Haldir told him.
"Where did you get your wound?" he asked in response.
"The battle of Helms Deep. I led the elves that helped the men of Rohan to hold Helms Deep. I think there was around 600 of us in total as well as the now king Aragorn, Legolas prince of Mirkwood and Gimli son of Gloin. We face 10,000 Uruk Hai. The elves and myself as well as king Aragorn and his companions held the Deeping wall. While falling back to the keep I was struck in the arm, as I killed the Uruk Hai that struck me, another struck me in the back. Teren, he's the blacksmith now but he was a soldier in my company, a very good one. He retired after the battle, saying he was sick of war. He came to my aid and carried me into the Hornburg where the healers saved my life. One of them being the lady Nienna who came with us." Haldir explained to him.
When Haldir had finished telling his story the scout he had sent previously returned. He quickly came up to Haldir and saluted him.
"March Warden, I came across a trail, it looks like Orcs." The scout reported.
"Get the elves up and we will follow this trail" Haldir ordered as the scout saluted him again.
They quickly found the trail that the scout had found and Haldir ordered them to follow it until they reached what looked like a village. Eärendur approached Haldir curious that the village did not look to be elven.
"What is this place?" he asked the March warden.
"This village was set up by the men of Gondor. It is a trading post which was used for trade between that of our kind and the men of Gondor. Lady Galadriel gave permission for it to be set up within our borders as a show of good will to men. We should investigate" he explained as they approached the large village. The watch towers on the edge of the village appeared to have been set on fire. The dead were laying everywhere, soldiers and civilians alike. Even women and children. The sight turned Eärendur's stomach. As they were glancing around Eärendur realised something, if the Orcs had crossed the Anduin, why had the tracks led to the village from within their territory. He was about to tell Haldir when an arrow came out of one of the houses. It struck the elf next to Haldir in the throat. Realisation hit Haldir as he drew his sword.
"Ambush" He shouted as Orcs piled out of the buildings in every direction.
Eärendur quickly notched an arrow and fired at the nearest Orc. It struck him in the eye and he notched another arrow firing off again, hitting an Orc that was coming behind him. He noticed Haldir had gone straight to his sword and was taking on many foes at a time. So were many of the elves, there was not enough space for them to effectively use there bows. Eärendur discarded his bow and drew his sword and dagger killing any Orc he passed whilst making his way to Haldir's side. An Orc had made his way behind Haldir, he was too preoccupied by the three he had in front of him to notice the fourth coming behind. He'd dispatched his last enemy when he heard an angry growl from behind him. As he turned he noticed the Orc blade coming down on him. Seemingly out of nowhere a dagger was thrown and sunk deep into the side of the orcs skull, it fell sideways to the ground, dead. Eärendur retrieved his dagger from the orcs skull and looked at Haldir.
"You really need to be more aware of your surroundings, March Warden" Eärendur said with a small smile on his lips.
"Thank you Eärendur, it seems I do" he said returning the smile and looking around at the battle field seeing all the Orcs were dead. He called over to one of his soldiers.
"I want you to do a count of how many are wounded, how many are dead and organise burials for the people of this village. Burn the orcs corpses and tell the others to search every building for survivors" He ordered. The soldier saluted and followed Haldir's orders organising the other soldiers into groups.
Eärendur was part of the search party, looking for any survivors. He found what looked like a store, various foods and other tradable goods were inside. His elf ears soon picked up a sound, it seemed to be a quiet sobbing coming from behind one of the shelves. He moved it out of the way to find a door which he opened to find a young girl sat in the corner of the room crying softly. She looked no older than five and she was of the race of men. Her hair was dark and cut into a bob. He approached her not wanting to startle her.
"Hello" he said in a soft tone, trying not to scare her. She turned to look at him, noticing his presence for the first time. She immediately tried to scurry away from him.
"It is ok, I am not going to hurt you" he whispered softly to her. "My name is Eärendur, I am an elf. All the nasty Orcs are dead, you are safe. What is your name?". Her head turned to look at Eärendur while taking in his appearance. He noticed her eyes were the deepest brown. Her cheeks were full and round, she was in general a very cute, little girl.
"Laessiel. Are you one of the wood fairies?" she asked the elf before her. Eärendur laughed at this before replying, "I am a wood elf, yes. I live deep in the forest in Caras Galadhon". He noticed that she was shivering so he took of his cloak and wrapped her in it. She seemed excited by this "Is this a magic cloak? My daddy told me that the wood fairies were magic" she asked him.
"Yes it will keep you safe from the monsters" he said to her picking her up and carrying her towards the door. "Can you tell me what happened her, Laessiel?" he asked the girl. She looked down again, sadness in her face.
"My daddy woke me up, I could hear screaming and the monsters outside. He put me in the secret room and told me not to be scared" she said… "After he hid me I heard the monsters break into our store. I couldn't hear my daddy after that". Eärendur walked through the door to outside where the rest of the elves were, finishing up. He thanked the Valar that the Orcs were burning and the bodies buried. Eärendur looked down at her to see her face lit up with happiness. "Lots of fairies" she shouted. Haldir noticed the green bundle in Eärendur's arms. He walked up to them and noticed the little girl in Eärendur's arms staring at him. The little bundle took her hand and grasped some of his hair in her hand and tugged a bit.
"Your hair is really soft, fairy man" the little girl spoke. Haldir was shocked and Eärendur seemed on the brink of laughter.
"Well, well. What have we got here then" Haldir questioned Eärendur.
"I am Laessiel. I lived her with my daddy. Are you the king of the fairies?" she asked Haldir. Eärendur could not contain himself any longer and burst out laughing.
"Something like that" he replied with a smile of his own. "We should make our way back to Lórien and report back to Lady Galadriel and Lord Celeborn. I assume Laessiel here is the only survivor" Haldir suggested. Eärendur nodded.
"Is my daddy dead?" Laessiel asked Eärendur. He bowed his head and replied.
"I am sorry Penig [little one] I think he is. But don't worry I will look after you." He said to her. Tears streamed from her eyes as she hugged Eärendur.
"What does Penig mean?" she enquired.
"Little one" he replied as he comforted her. They followed the other elves behind Haldir back in the direction of Caras Galadhon. It would take them a day to get back so they soon would set up camp to rest. Especially now they had a human child with them, she would require more rest than they did.
It was dark outside Lillieth's talan and her and Nienna were sat talking about Haldir and Eärendur over supper. They laughed remembering what it was like before and Lillieth told her she had some news to tell her.
"Me and Haldir are now betrothed" she said with a beaming smile on her face.
"Oh, that is wonderful news! I can't wait to make your gown" replied Nienna. At that moment they heard a knock on the door, Lillieth looked at her friend smiling. She couldn't wait to be in Haldir's arms again. She ran towards the door to open it and when she did it wasn't Haldir stood there. Her heart sank and fear coursed through her body. An ellon stood there who's hair was grey and shoulder length. His stare was icy cold and face seemed aged, unlike an elf. There seemed like there was no warmth in his entire being. Nienna sensed there was something wrong about him.
"Galdrith!" Lillieth shouted in horror "Am man oduleg hi? [What are you doing here?]" She snarled.
"I have come to collect what is mine" the ellon replied, taking a step forward. Nienna appeared and put herself between the ellon and Lillieth.
"I think you better leave" she ordered him.
"You try and order me, you should know your place" he growled as he slapped her full force with the back of his hand sending her into a nearby table knocking her out.
"Nienna" Lillieth cried out. Galdrith grabbed Lillieth by the throat.
"You're coming with me now" he barked, she bit his arm and he punched her in the face, making her bleed. Knocking her unconscious as well.