Still don't own any of Tolkien's works. I'll be posting the last three chapters of this tomorrow, which is everything from Glorfindel's perspective. Yay!

She was delighted with her new companion. She was being taught about healing two leggers, and a little about fighting like a two legger.

She supposed that she should call them elves, since he seemed to get a bit upset whenever she refereed to him as a 'two legger'.

Speaking of, when he realized all he was wearing was bandages, he'd been rather...vocal about her not leaving him any 'dignity'. This led to a discussion on what he thought the problem was, and when he realized she really didn't understand the problem...he had turned pink raised his eyes to the ceiling and muttered several things she didn't understand.

Then he had proceeded to tell her the difference between boy elves and girl elves, and that he was a boy and she was a girl. He kept getting redder through the whole thing for some reason. Which led to a discussion on embarrassment and what is and isn't generally accepted by society.

She found the whole thing fascinating. As the weeks passed and he recovered, he became more active. He started teaching her archery, and his kind of hunting. In the evenings, he'd teach her elvish history and culture.

He'd been surprised and pleased that she could read and write, though she didn't show him the golden books. (Her mother had made her promise never to show anyone their treasure.)

He spoke of his home often, trying to convince her what a wonderful place it was and how much she'd like it there. She thought about it, but she had never disobeyed her mother before and she wasn't going to start without telling her first.

She wasn't expecting her back for at least another year, and he couldn't stay that long. She took the news that he would have to leave in the next few months poorly, to say the least. She didn't want him to go, and at first she didn't understand why he'd have to, or why the thought of him leaving upset her so much.

After that discussion, as he slept in what had become his room, she slipped out and took flight. As the wind caressed her scales, she realized that the thought of him leaving was more than just upsetting. It was causing her heart to hurt. This was a startling and almost horrifying discovery.

She knew, somehow, that her mother would never approve of her feelings. As for her father...she remembered all his comments to her mother about her name and knew he would violently hate it. For her elf's safety, she decided she could never tell either of them about him.

As she internalized the reality that she had fallen in love, and that if she wanted to be with him she would have to leave her mother and everything she had ever known, she felt tears fall from her eyes. She briefly thought about just letting him go and having everything go back to the way it was, but the agony that thought caused her changed her mind.

As she returned and came in to land, she faced another reality: she could never tell him she wasn't an elf. The history lesson the night before had covered the 'good' races, and the 'evil' races.

As she learned that Dragons were followers of Morgoth and about the atrocities they committed for him, she had remembered the smells of fire and death that clung to her mother's scales when she returned. She knew she wanted no knowledge of what her parents did in the service of Morgoth, and she wanted no part of entering that service herself, as her father had alluded she might be almost ready to do.

She refused to do it. She wouldn't be that kind of Dragon, but realized that if she didn't want her elf to hate her, she would have to hide it from him. At least until she could be sure he trusted her completely. Which is why, the next day, she found it so hard when he proposed marriage to her.

They had covered the elvish marriage practices recently. Probably just for this moment, so that she would know what he meant. As she stared into his earnest, loving eyes, she made her decision.

"Yes, I will! On two conditions."

He was ecstatic.

"Yes, yes! Anything, my love."

As she internally cursed herself for her selfishness, she took a deep breathe to steady her nerves.

"You will go do the things you need to, and leave me here while you do. Before you leave, we will complete the marriage rites."

As he stared at her in astonishment, she went on.

"Those are my conditions. I love you, but I will not leave until my mother has returned. Also, I remember how we met. I do not want to wait to marry, in case this is our only chance. If you wish, we can repeat them when we get to your home."

She looked him in the eye, scared that he wouldn't accept. As he looked back at her, his eyes softened in understanding. He didn't like it, but he would allow her this. It would be over a year before he could return, but he could admit the thought that it would be his wife waiting for him was a rather intoxicating one.

They gathered everything they needed, and completed every vow and rite. It was very simple, and sweet. They smiled the smiles of those in love as they did, and that night they shared a marriage bed. He didn't want her to go through pregnancy alone while he was gone, so he left the very next morning with promises to travel as swiftly as he could.

She saw him off with teary eyes, not understanding that it would be the last time she saw him in this life.

As the days passed into months, and she finished transcribing all he'd taught her into her Books, she came to realize that the unexpected had happened.

Neither of them had thought she'd get pregnant after just one night. After all, it usually took an elvish couple years to conceive. However, she found herself unable to shift one night after a flight. A few nights later, as she went over the draconic information she had copied from her mother, she realized that she must be carrying an egg, for that was the only time a dragon could not shift.

With fear and trepidation, she also read that a baby dragon could not shift or speak for several years after it hatched. There was no way she was going to be able to hide this information from her spouse. He would learn what she was. Would he accept his child? Would he hate her? She didn't know. Her heart said he loved her, but her mind said that there was no way he could ignore this.

When the egg was born, she placed it in her furs, and wrapped around it to keep it warm. Occasionally she shifted to elf, and inscribed her fears and worries, and how much she loved her child and her spouse in one of the golden books. She kept them with her and the egg.

One day shortly before she was expecting her mother, she heard a Dragon land on the gravel at the entrance. She quickly shifted to her natural form and went to head off her mother so she could explain things before her mother saw the egg. It would also give her a safer area to fight in if her mother proved...aggressive about the technically half breed status of her child.

As she exited the cave, she felt her heart sink. She was fairly certain a fight with this particular Dragon would be her death. Perhaps if she could just keep him out of the cave...it shouldn't be that hard, actually. He rarely entered when he visited. It was too small, and her mother didn't like him near her hoard.

"Hello Father."

"Abomination."

She felt quite shocked by this. How had he known about her spouse and child? In her distracted state she didn't even see him move. As she registered the horrific pain in her throat and the fact that she was pouring blood, she threw herself at the entrance to the caves.

She felt her tail grabbed, and twisted around, clawing and biting. She landed a few feeble hits before she felt her eyes start to dim. As she shoved her body to block the entrance, her last thoughts were of her spouse and unborn child.

"Please let them be safe..."