Title: Faril Nin [My Huntress]

Author: Codi Lyn { iluvobiwan91

Genre: Romance, Angst, Hurt/Comfort

Rating: PG-13 – R (for descriptive battle scene/wounds)

Pairing: Orophin/OFC [Gwaeron]

Timeline: Begins before the Fellowship enters Lorien in Third Age 3018… concludes during Fourth Age 250

Chapter: 9/13

Chapter Summary:"Rúmil desires that I absolve myself of guilt for our losses in Rohan… but I cannot. A warden's duty is to protect his captain—"

"And what of a captain's duty to protect his wardens, Orophin?"

Author's Note: Follows movie-verse, but I make a few references to things that happened in the books. J.R.R. Tolkien and Peter Jackson have rights to the important stuff, this story is written purely for pleasure.

Chapter Nine

Orophin's rest was easy once his daughter lay under a protective arm and his beloved rested her own head close beside him. They lay thus until half the next day had passed by in peace and Gwaeron awoke to the baby's soft jabbering, finding her playing with little fingers and smaller lips. With a smile, she loosed her lover's hold of the child and scooped her up easily, casting her eyes on the elf below once more. No frown tainted his brow but nor did he look to be completely without pain in slumber, giving cause again for the ranger to murmur a prayer for healing. Gwaeron bowed over him and hovered so that their cheeks brushed lightly as she breathed her words and kissed his jaw. "Sleep, Orophin, I will return soon." The lady ranger made no din leaving the room and was soon away to fetch what their elfling needed, leaving only the sound of a baby's laugh in a quiet hall.

Though his heart would surely have obeyed, Orophin's body roused some little time after the woman's departure, leaving him awake and hurting sorely. That hurt was soon surpassed when his body tensed and the pain of finding himself alone seared through him like a terror. Lifting his head brought agony and a fruitless search of the room for his betrothed and daughter. Had he imagined them coming to him? Was Gwaeron not his intended? Did she know he yet lived, and for her, alone? This line of thinking seemed to pull all blood from his limbs to bear down on his worst wound, where knife had struck shoulder and poison had festered.

Falling back to the mattress, Orophin flexed and clenched his hands in the bedding, releasing when pricks of numbness struck his muscles like needles. He tried to breathe and calm himself again, but could not as long as the surety of Gwaeron and Véredhiel was yet unproven to his memory. The poison still marred his veins and flared darkly into flesh at these thoughts of doubt and feelings that left the warrior bereft. The doors opened at the end of the room and he turned painfully toward it, hopes crushed when a healer entered instead of his beloved. Orophin's pulse thrummed hotly, creating spasms in his neck and tightening his jaw. "Where is she?" The hoarse voice now held a frantic tone that betrayed his vulnerability.

The elf quickly came inside with his burden, a steaming kettle, and set a bowl of mixed herbs beside Orophin, pouring his water among the ingredients. "Who do you need, the Lady?" Calmly, the healer tried to help him and settle the upset patient who would have none of his coddling, gauchely shoving him away.

"Gwaeron! Gwaeron, Gwaeron…" The galadhrim panted her name, effectively taking in the fresh scent of healing vapors prepared to aid in expelling his toxins. Orophin constantly looked toward the door and desperately willed his huntress to come through the carved frame at every moment.

The elf at his side patiently took his limbs in careful hands and massaged feeling back into what muscles that were not so badly damaged, easing the intensity of his pains. "The lady ranger will come. She has been waiting for you."

Orophin jerked as the poultice was removed from his shoulder wound and clean air touched infection, anger lending him energy enough to grip the edhel by his tunic. "Was she here? Did any of it happen? Where is Gwaeron!"

"I'm here." Each elf turned to the door where the woman stood and Orophin collapsed back with a cry of release, reaching out for her as she took his hand and drew near. "I'm here, Orophin. Calm, my love, it's all right." Gwaeron soothed him and pressed kisses to his face, drying the tears he had loosed in his suffering.

"I thought… Gwaeron, tell me it was real. Tell me you'll marry me." His free hand shook as he lifted it to touch her face, begging for assurance that she was swift to grant.

"All is real, the blood and the beauty of it. Véredhiel is your daughter, and I've promised to be your wife. I love you and that is real." His beloved's voice was soft and fervent against his skin, and her lips steadied him from his distress.

Orophin's eyes shut in relief and with quivering effort he brought his free hand to touch her face. "Faril nin… I was burning because of your absence. I thought that you had been a dream in my fever and death, and I despaired." The curls at her neck spilled over to brush his fingers as he spoke in raw whispers and he gathered them reverently in his hand, pressing the length of them to his cheek and curtaining the lovers from view.

"I did not mean to leave you in pain, forgive me. I am here, now, and will give you no cause to despair again." Gwaeron kissed him again and stayed near until he had visibly calmed, allowing her to pull away a little and acknowledge the other elf who quietly brought in more supplies. "Thank you, for helping him."

The healer nodded in response and brought the fresh poultice to give her. "Place this on the greatest wound, it will help continue to draw out the poison." She heeded his instructions and watched him go before attending to her betrothed.

"Where is Véredhiel?" With voice nearly gone, Orophin asked after their daughter more with a touch of his hand than the words.

"I left to give her a bath and bring back some things to have while we were with you. On my way here I met lord Celeborn and his lady-wife, and they wished to take care of Véredhiel for the afternoon." Gwaeron explained and fastened his bandages at the same time, her hands loving as they touched battle-scars and tender flesh.

"So that we might be together?" A faint smile pulled his mouth and his huntress grinned to see it.

"Yes." She punctuated with a kiss. "You have a worthy Lord and Lady."

Orophin laughed and then grunted with discomfort from the movement. "Worthy, indeed." They sat sharing a smile in peace for a moment, their fingers laced and held in her lap. E'er long, however, a shadow passed over the warrior's face and his tired eyes clouded. "Have you spoken at all with Rúmil? How does he do?"

"Only last night and long enough for him to tell me of your state. He was weary, but uninjured… Why do you ask in that way?"

Orophin hesitated and would not look at her, taking a breath and idling with their fingers. "He did not tell you of Haldir, or the others, then?"

"Orophin…" Gwaeron's tone was wary, and she thought to dissuade him of recounting any of the battle for a while longer, but he would not have it and met her eye at last.

"They are gone." His voice broke and his beloved closed her eyes, feeling them burn with tears. "My galadhrim and my brother are dead, gone to Mandos' halls… and I watched them go." Orophin felt his own eyes fill to the brim with grief and did not care that the evidence of it streamed down his temples. "Haldir was just out of reach, and I held him in my arms as his fëa left him. He gave us his blessing, and our last words together were not a quarrel, Valar be thanked. There were too many uruk-hai, my elves were lost in the onslaught of them." Gwaeron pressed his hand and listened as he told what he was able of the wretched fighting at Helm's Deep.

Orophin's following month of recovery was made easier to bear with the support of his intended, who remained faithfully by him and sought to brighten his countenance however she could. The warden was happy with Gwaeron and when the beginning family could be together, his daughter and bride-to-be, but the lingering grief of battle would not remove itself so lightly. Gwaeron sought only once more to speak of Haldir and found it to be a matter of talk better had between warrior and kin.

A morning after her beloved's dreams had been dark, Gwaeron asked the younger brother to come and sit with him, certain that Rúmil would at least have the empathy to speak equally with Orophin of their loss. With the lady ranger gone to visit Anauriel with the baby, Rúmil talked with his brother until midday about sorrow and guilt. The conversation continued to veer toward fault, and as it did so, Rúmil could do little more than watch as Orophin's temper steeped in self-blame. "But Haldir knew the risk and price of battle, we all did—"

"They should not have paid it." Orophin's voice was low, his words almost to himself, and he shook his head in frustration.

"Should I have paid it, then?" The elf rose to match the frustration of his elder brother.

"No. Valar, no, not you."

Rúmil leaned toward Orophin and took his arm at the elbow, forcing him to meet his eye. "So you would have fallen for all our sakes, and at what cost? Your wife and daughter would have paid dearly, I tell you now." Purposefully harsh in his reproof, Rúmil saw its effect when his brother's eyes kindled, having aimed his arrow true.

Roughly, Orophin threw him off and growled in pain and affront. "Get away from me!" The warrior sat up on one arm and glared with clenched jaw as Rúmil obeyed and departed with a straight back and hard eye.

With the shutting of the door Orophin fell stiffly back on the bed and breathed heavily, tensing with withheld muscles and aggravated wounds. A heavy hand moved to hold the bandages at his left shoulder and pressed there mercilessly, fueling a shout of rage as it burned and stabbed him again. He lay with eyes closed a long time, trying with half a heart to calm down but instead merely stewing in his upheaval and sorrow. Rúmil's words were true and part of Orophin wanted to accept that and let it rest, but the other part of him combated it righteously and accused the warden of every failing. Had he only been faster, stronger, Haldir could have been saved.

When a feminine hand stroked through his hair he released some of his tension and sighed, knowing the touch of his intended. Her other hand took his away from his shoulder wound and the elf opened his eyes to see a concerned young woman. "You're hot, do you want something to drink?" Gwaeron asked softly, but her words carried a discerning tone.

"No, I do not. Do you have Véredhiel with you?"

"She's here, asleep. Anauriel and I were trying to get her to crawl all morning, and she gave it a good go, so she's tired out." Speaking of Véredhiel would have calmed her beloved in any other circumstance, but Gwaeron felt his disturbance and so did not expound or get excited on the subject. Orophin's frown remained, and he did not turn to look at his daughter behind Gwaeron even when she gestured toward the child.

The battle-hardened hand that lay on her knee gripped and released her restlessly, though Orophin's attention was drawn inward and he could not see how the tempest within him was not so easily hid. "Rúmil desires that I absolve myself of guilt for our losses in Rohan… but I cannot. A warden's duty is to protect his captain—"

"And what of a captain's duty to protect his wardens, Orophin? Haldir fulfilled his to the end, as Eru willed it. I could have lost you…" Suddenly she stood and moved away, trying to conceal how raw her emotions still remained after the fact. "I saw you die a hundred times in my thoughts. Cut down by a uruk, dragged into the mire with blood weighing upon you… With my name on your lips, you collapsed in defeat and let them kill you." With a voice broken through tears, Gwaeron spoke of her visions and the terrors her nights had been filled with. After a moment the ranger heard him slowly rise from the bed and come close behind her. "Orophin, you do not know how I prayed for you to realize the value of your life. How valuable it is to me, if it is not to you."

His hand covered her shoulder and neck warmly; turning her round so she could lean into his embrace and her arms found what was coming to be their natural place around his torso. The anger in him now redirected so that he felt a cur for upsetting his beloved. "Gwaeron." Orophin stroked the curls that were let down to please him and held her tenderly against him, murmuring his apology. "Forgive me, faril nin, I did not know…"

"I did not tell you. I did not want to remember those dreams, not when I feared for so long that they would come to pass exactly so." She took a deep breath at last and settled against him. "I don't know what I would have done if I had to be alone again, if Véredhiel would never have known a father." Orophin's face burned to think of all that could have been lost, and all that was. His betrothed could sense him digesting her words, her feelings, and with a brush of lips to his jaw Gwaeron pulled away to look in his eyes. "The fault does not lie with you, but with the evil of this war, with the dark lord. Do not hold on to your guilt, meleth nin." Her voice was soft though her words held power, and at her utterance Gwaeron saw understanding fall into place in his mind. Instead of distress and grief, his eyes now held peace.

Slowly Orophin gave a careful smile, looking upon her with an admiration no creature could earn from him but this woman. "Meleth nin…" He repeated her endearment in a daze, overwhelmed to hear her declare him her love at last. With his eyes glancing to her lips, Orophin lowered gradually until she reached her lips to brush with his, rejuvenating him in its affection.

"Yes, I love you. There's nothing now that can keep me from loving you."

Large hands came up to hold her lovely face, and Orophin smirked at this treasure that would belong to him. "Nor that can keep me."