Haldir was laughing and Tamuril couldn't take her eyes off him. He was truly an angel on middle-earth and she felt like the luckiest elf in the world. Galadriel was on a trip to Rivendell for a meeting with Elrond and Haldir had come along as part of the protection of the lady on the journey. He didn't always leave the guard of the woods but since Tamuril had met him, he had started coming along on these trips, something that she had taken a lot of joy in. It always made her smile to see him and his company had become one of her favourite things. He was funny, funnier than she had imagined him to be on their first meeting. He had seemed so serious and quiet but once she had gotten past the surface, Tamuril had discovered a whole colourful personality in there. He was funny and kind and thoughtful and Tamuril grew to crave his attention on her visits to Lothlorien. Whenever she would go and he was in the woods for a long time, protecting the borders and unable to see her, she found that she was sad.

They had officially been courting for only a few months at this point. It had taken Haldir a long time to ask her even though he had wanted to for a long time, worried that she would say no. He needn't have worried considering Tamuril had been thinking of nothing else practically since she had met him.

While Elrond and Galadriel took care of business, Tamuril and Haldir had taken a walk through the gardens, just talking and laughing. It was perfect, a wonderful sunny day, and by the time the meeting was over and it was time for dinner, Tamuril's cheeks were starting to hurt from smiling so much.

Later that night, after dinner, Haldir had taken her for another walk around Rivendell. The stars were out by this time, twinkling down on the two lovers, and Haldir had taken her hand and stopped. Tamuril turned to him, a question burning in her gaze, but he had just smiled, bowed low, and twirled her around before leading her into a slow, intimate dance beneath the stars…

With a jolt, Tamuril opened her eyes.

A dream. She had been dreaming.

She had gone back to her room, glad to find Arwen gone, to wait for Nessa to go and ask if she too could go to the Woodland Realm. Truthfully, Tamuril was dreading it because surely by now Thranduil would know she had lied to Elrond about him inviting her to the forest, and she was waiting for him to unleash his wrath on her for her disrespect. The more time that passed only further caused her to feel more stressed. She was certain that at any moment she was going to be made a complete fool of… and she had already done enough of that herself by this point.

Though now her mind was stuck on the dream she'd just been pulled out of. It had been more of a memory, really. She remembered that night fondly. Dancing with Haldir beneath the stars. She was pretty sure that was the moment she had realised that she was completely, utterly in love with him.

Tears started to blur her vision but the knock on the door pulled her back from her grief before it completely consumed her again. Tamuril stood, smoothing down the skirt of her dress, as she moved to open the door. Nessa and Lindir stood on the other side of the door smiling at her. She forced a smile back, moving aside to allow her friends entry.

"He said it was fine!" Nessa announced with a smile.

Tamuril noticed Lindir glance at his shoes but she was far more concerned about the fact that Thranduil had agreed that Nessa was to go with her to Mirkwood… which meant he had accepted that she herself was going.

He was allowing it?

She wondered what his conversation with Erond had entailed, if he had told Elrond that he hadn't offered her a place in the realm at all, but she was too stunned to really dwell on it for long. If he had, she was sure Elrond would have confronted her again by now. She was surprised and unsure how he had simply seemed to allow this. For now, she would not question it. It was a blessing because it meant she would not have to sneak off in the night for an unknown location.

"That's great." Tamuril said, doing her best to hide her absolute shock

Nessa barely noticed anyway, nodding with a bright smile. "And I am all packed and ready to go!"

Tamuril, again, did not miss Lindir's expression fall just slightly though, like her, he seemed to be doing his best to hide it. She felt a little bad for him since she'd known for a while that he was clearly harbouring feelings for her absolutely oblivious best friend.

"Lindir, why don't you join Nessa and I in the garden?" She wondered, ignoring Nessa's confused look. "I do not feel like joining everybody else in the dining area." She didn't want to see anyone because she still felt so incredibly awkward and full of shame and… so many things she could not even name. "I thought we could have a picnic. See out our last night in style." Lindir agreed with a small smile before he took his leave to go and attend to some work, promising to meet them later in the gardens.

"Are you excited?" Nessa asked, moving to glance out of Tamuril's giant window before turning back to her dark-haired friend.

"I'm not sure that's the word I would use, Ness." She admitted, huffing a forced chuckle.

Nessa was quiet for a moment, watching Tamuril closely as she tried to read something, anything, in her expression. She was so curious about this sudden departure from Rivendell and, though she didn't want to push too hard, she couldn't shake it. "Are you ever going to tell me what happened?" She wondered.

Tamuril sighed. She knew that she could trust Nessa and she did desperately want to discuss it with someone she trusted, but she also wanted to forget the entire thing and have nobody else ever find out about it. "Not right now." She said quietly, looking down at her hands. "I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay." Nessa nodded, holding back a sigh of her own. "But you know I am always here when you need me."

Tamuril did know that and she appreciated it more than she would ever be able to convey. She offered Nessa a genuine smile before her friend left, telling her she would see her later in the garden with Lindir.

Lindir had told Elrond that Tamuril was planning to be absent at dinner. Elrond was quite crestfallen by the news, having thought that he would at least get to see her and try and engage her in conversation before she left. He hadn't expected it to go incredibly well but he had wanted to see her, especially after what Arwen had said to him. He would regret it, he knew that, but it seemed to have gone too far to pull it back.

Elrond knew how to live with regret.

He had told Lindir to take whatever he wanted from the kitchens to the dinner in the gardens with the girls and sent him on his way, deciding not to put up a fight over it, and focused on his work and his guests.

Thranduil, too, found himself quite disappointed when he saw that Tamuril was not present at dinner. He was still curious about the way she had pushed herself into his realm without speaking to him about it before or since. It was intriguing that she wasn't present. In all his last trips to Rivendell, Tamuril was always at dinner with Elrond and Arwen, sometimes Elrond's sons too. Though he knew it had been a long time since he had set foot in this valley. Haldir had been very much alive and well.

He stood, excusing himself from dinner early, bidding Elrond and everyone else goodnight. He acted as though he were after an early night, keen to return to his realm, but just as he reached the corridor to his rooms, he changed his mind and veered off down another hallway.

Dinner with Nessa and Lindir had been lovely and Tamuril felt in slightly higher spirits as she walked back in the direction of her chambers, leaving Lindir and Nessa alone still in the gardens. She moved quickly, eager to continue avoiding Elrond, even though she knew that if he wanted to find her he would easily be able to. Somehow, the fact that he hadn't come to her since she told him she was leaving, only confirmed in her mind that he was more than happy for her to go away.

Tamuril pushed the door open and stepped into the room. This would be the last time she would ever see her rooms and it caused a sadness to well up inside her. She would miss it, she realised. She would miss everything - and everyone.

The knock at the door caused her to jump, hand flying to her heart as she sucked in a steadying breath. It was late. Not so late that it couldn't have been someone like Arwen or Elrond and Tamuril's heart was immediately in her throat, tension settling itself over her shoulders. She stood for a long moment, staring at the door, willing whoever it was to go away. Just when she thought they had and had turned to walk across to the window, another knock sounded, causing her to jump again. Gods, when would her startle response calm down? It had been seriously on the fritz since the news of Haldir's death had reached her. Elrond had told her it was natural and would dissipate with time but Tamuril wasn't holding out much hope.

She turned back to the door and took one step before she stopped again, deciding she didn't want to see anybody. There was only a small list of those she thought could be on the other side of this door and she didn't wish to have another uncomfortable encounter with any of them. The voice that followed the knocking, however, had Tamuril feeling like she was about to faint.

"If you do not wish to speak with me, at least have the good grace to say so, my lady."

"My Lord Thranduil?!"