A/N: Comments plz?

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Part 2: Of Blue and Light

Chapter 25: Your Path Leads You to Me

Grief.

So overwhelming that it made Rae drop the flower pot she was holding, clutching at her heart. The sharp sound startled her twin brothers, causing them to drop their pots as well.

"Ahhhh!"Rumil yelled, as his pot shattered upon impact with the ground.

"Ouch! Ahhhh!"Oropher shrieked, his brother's pot bouncing off his feet, prompting him to throw his own pot in a reflex.

"Neitha i guith nîn!"(Damn my luck) Rumil screamed as Oropher's pot hit him square in the chest. Stumbling backward, he crashed into a line of flower pots on the balcony's edge. Like rainfall, the entire collection toppled over, plummeting from their talan.

"Man le arda... AHHHHH!" (What in the world!?) Below, Haldir spluttered, followed by a string of curses.

Then came the stomping of feet up the staircase: "Oropher and Rumil, I swear to stamp you on the archery field and use you two as practice targets!"

As Haldir the grump stormed inside, the twins could no longer contain their laughter. The murderous expression on their brother's face was ruined by the half-wet mud and shards of clay embedded in his golden hair. "For crying out loud, what is this madness?"Haldir shouted, trying to pick out the few petals that had flattened on his sleeves.

"Oh crap, I just watered these,"Oropher muttered, smirking at the hilarious sight of Haldir's tunic smeared with wet mud like a second skin.

But all amusement faded when he saw Rae's hand on her heart, standing in the corner.

"What happened? Do you need a healer?"Haldir asked worriedly, kneeling beside his sister.

Rae reached for one of the broken flower pots with her neural queue and closed her eyes. In her vision, the grief was still strong, mingled with a tide of exhaustion. The viewer stood upon a hill, gazing beyond at an ocean of golden leaves. She snapped open her golden irises.

"Quick, summon all wardens to the west of the border. The Fellowship is about to arrive."

"I thought you said it's a break today!"Lizard protested as Rae mounted her Ikran with increased difficulty. She was now the same height as Haldir, her skin only a faint trace of blue, and her tail had vanished.

"You still have your neural queue,"Lizard soothed, reading her thoughts.

Rae grunted, attaching two packages of arrows under its wings as they weren't heading to battle, and strapped on the daggers borrowed from Haldir, her previous ones now sword-sized for an elf.

"Prepare for takeoff and proceed west," she ordered.

It wasn't long before an entire ward of Lothlorien warriors waited quietly in the trees. Elves, even more patient than the Na'vi, remained motionless in their perches while Lizard rolled onto its back, napping beneath the cozy afternoon breeze.

"Ya know, I'd love that speaking device humans use. What's it called again? A phone,"the Ikran slurred, still half-asleep.

"A phone? Where did you hear about that?"Rae's eyes widened.

"Let's say I found the air-conditioning in the abandoned human station amazing and spent the entire summer in there. By the way, are they here yet? I want to get dinner."Lizard yawned.

Rae connected her neural queue. "They're near."Willing the trees to move, the branches bent down and tapped Haldir on the shoulder to get his attention as Rae mouthed the words.

Her brother drew an arrow, and the rest of the ward followed suit.

Soon, voices reached their ears.

"There lie the woods of Lothlórien," the annoying elf's voice sounded musically, "That is the fairest of all the dwellings of my people. There are no trees like the trees of that land. For in the autumn their leaves fall not, but turn to gold. Not till the spring comes and the new green opens do they fall, and then the boughs are laden with yellow flowers. The floor of the wood is golden, the roof golden, and its pillars of silver, for the bark of the trees is smooth and grey. So still our songs in Mirkwood say. My heart would be glad if I were beneath the eaves of that wood, and it was springtime."

Rae rolled her eyes. Foolishly poetic lunatic.

The Fellowship was an ensemble of wearied souls, dragging their exhaustion with every heavy step. Aragorn, resolute yet weary, led the way, his gaze fixed yet clouded with unspoken sorrow. Boromir and the lunatic elf followed. The hobbits—Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin—brought up the rear, their small frames almost swallowed by the grandeur of the ancient trees. Their clothes were torn, smeared with fresh blood and the dark stains of orcs.

Where is Gandalf? Could the wizard be the one the Fellowship is grieving?

"My heart will be glad, even in the winter," said Aragorn. Rae made a mental note to send a letter to Rivendell to tell Arwen that all was well with her love.

"That's not what I have heard," Gimli glowered, his axe alert in his hand. "They say that a great sorceress lives in these woods, an Elf-witch of terrible power. All who look upon her fall under her spell and are never seen again."

All the elves beside her gritted their teeth at the accusation against their Lady of Light, tightening their grip on their bows.

The dwarf continued: "Well, there is one dwarf she won't ensnare so easily. I have the eye of a hawk and the ears of a fox!"

Like a cat, Haldir leaped down from his branch, pointing his arrow at the nose of Gimli as the rest quickly circled the Fellowship. "The dwarf breathes so loud we could have shot him in the dark," her brother spat.

Gimli glanced back uneasily at Aragorn. "These woods are perilous. We'd better turn back."

That only fueled the elves' anger. Though knowing Haldir, he would still keep a stern face: "You have entered the realm of the Lady of the Wood. You cannot go back," her brother told them, refusing to lower his bow.

Aiming at the sky, Haldir released his arrow, signaling the finding to all Lothlorien wards.

"Let's get moving," Rae nudged Lizard awake.

Below, Haldir led the Fellowship onto one of the rest platforms for patrol teams, which the hobbits climbed with difficulty.

The marchwarden gazed at the lunatic elf. "Mae govannen, Legolas Thranduilion." (Welcome, Legolas, son of Thranduil.)

"Aiya." Oropher and Rumil caught up with the exchange and patted the lunatic on the back with their trademark cheeky grins. Goodness, why hadn't they ever mentioned that unworthy scrap of an elf being their friend?

"Govannas vin gwennen le, Haldir o Lorien." (Our Fellowship stands in your debt, Haldir of Lorien.) Legolas answered, still talking in a tone as if the world owed him and his planet-sized ego a million dollars.

Haldir glanced at Aragorn. "A, Aragorn in Dunedain istannen le ammen." (Oh, Aragorn of the Dunedain, you are known to us.)

"Haldir." Aragorn gave him a light bow. No surprise there, since the three brothers spoke highly of the man, especially his crazy days as a teenager that almost drove Rivendell and Lothlorien into one huge search party.

Her brother turned his attention to Frodo. It took all her willpower not to leap down and hug the four hobbits: "You bring great evil with you. You can go no further."

Rae debated whether to smack Haldir with a branch or not. After much argument between Aragorn and her brother, he announced, much to her relief: "You will follow me."

The party of eight soon reached the same staircase she had reached last time, ascending the curving stair around the largest tree of all, wonder etched on their faces. Both the lady and the lord awaited them.

Celeborn spoke, "The Enemy knows you have entered here. What hope you had in secrecy is now gone. Eight there are here; nine there were, set out from Rivendell. Tell me, where is Gandalf? For I much desire to speak with him. I can no longer see him from afar."

"Gandalf the Grey did not pass the borders of this land. He has fallen into shadow," Galadriel said.

The lunatic elf remarked, "He was taken by both Shadow and Flame: a Balrog of Morgoth. For we went needlessly into the net of Moria." If he held his nose any higher, Rae was sure it would be poking at the sky.

"What now becomes of this Fellowship? Without Gandalf, hope is lost," said the Lord of the Golden Wood.

"The quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little, and it will fail to the ruin of all. Yet, hope remains while the company is true," the lady responded. "Do not let your heart trouble you. Tonight, you will rest in peace." With a wave of her hand, several ellyth smiled at the party and began to lead them away.

Only after the Fellowship was out of sight did Lady Galadriel turn to Haldir: "I trust your sister and brothers are waiting for you. You shall seein timethat you made the right decision, marchwarden."

Rae was seriously regretting informing Haldir that orcs would soon swarm their beautiful forest. He had ordered all wards to patrol day and night, leaving no time for her to spend with the hobbits or write a letter to Arwen.

Not until the seventh day of Haldir's devious plan to patrol did Lord Celeborn ride out and stop the Marchwarden from further movement to the borders: "Haldir, you need rest, and so does your ward. And a weary heart does no good to the body in combat. Now, please order your ward to retreat."

The next day, their talan slept until noon and then slowly roused only because the living areas were a huge mess.

"Rae, you okay to get five bottles of wine from the market with us?" Rumil asked casually, combing his hair as he leaned on the bathroom door.

"Five? I thought Hal forbid us to drink more than two cups," Rae asked, picking up a dirty sock in the corner of the room and throwing it to the laundry basket in Oropher's arms.

"Ahhhhh!"

The bathroom door slammed open.

Rumil, who had been leaning on it, flew across the room and face-planted into the bookshelf.

"Oropher! Rumil! Look what you've done!"

Everyone exploded into laughter. Haldir's head was now half bald.

"Yes?" came Rumil's sheepish grin as he pulled his head from the stack of books.

Oropher danced to his brother's side: "Well, well. Isn't that Haldir the brump."

"Brump? Bald plus grump?" Rae snickered.

"What have you put in my shampoo? You'd better fix it right now! We have a guest tonight!" Haldir yelled.

Rumil pulled himself up: "Since you let us sleep until noon today, I present my second-best solution to that handsome head of yours." And he fished out a shaver from his pocket with a huge grin.

Haldir growled: "What's your best solution then?"

"A can of hair-growth tonic!" Oropher threw open the lid and dumped half of the content on Haldir's head.

Rae grabbed the can and read the captions: "Oro, it says only use three drops on the area, or else-"

"Ahhhhhh!"

Haldir's hair exploded in all directions, swallowing his head as the golden streaks puffed.

"Looks like shavers are useful after all," Rumil muttered.

Arms full of groceries, the three dumped all in the kitchen. Haldir was writing a report about the increase of wardens. Rae sent Oropher to the river to do his laundry, and Rumil to bury the bottle of wine in the cool water for a while because they all enjoyed the taste of cool liquor. She busied herself cutting the vegetables and cheese.

Someone knocked on the front door of the talan. She rolled her eyes. It must be another prank by the two; they knew fully well the door wasn't locked.

Ignoring another series of knocks, she heard the front door open on its own.

Finally, some moment of peace, she thought, poking her head out of the kitchen and shouting: "Place your boots by the wall, Oro. Don't you dare get mud over-"

She froze.

Because it was not her brother at all.

Legolas was standing in the doorway.